I am back, I am buried in work lately but I am glad I could finish the chapter today

My motivation is a little bit down, reviews would help

Revisited 09.05.2013

I own nothing

'Should I really go in?' Tyrion asked himself when he stood in front of the large oak door. Behind it was the fear of all married men, his mother-in-law.

The young Wolf had left with his uncle and Bannermen two days ago, after he had taken Littlefinger's head. It had been a great spectacle, the boy had executed the man, responsible for the war and everybody could watch. Tyrion had let one of the large yards prepared especially for this occasion, there should be a strong signal. It had been quick, maybe too quick for Tyrion's taste but this was the old way of the Northerner and who was he to question that? He however had requested the head of the man, he wanted it above the main gate in a glass case as a warning for all who would try to plot against his family. Not as good as a song but a start.

The boy had left with all off his men and Tyrion couldn't say he wasn't relieved Robb Stark was gone, the boy might have treated him better after their conversation and his 'meeting' with Baelish but still, his glances had been full of mistrust and Tyrion didn't like that, there were enough who looked at him like that. But it hadn't been that relieving for Sansa, Robb had been the only member of her wolf family who hadn't treated her like a stupid child fooled by the vile magical Imp who had lured her into his cave and had tricked her to love him. She was depressed, although her friend Jeyne and, to his relief, Dorna tried to distract her, but unfortunately only with moderate success. Sansa was disappointed and devastated by the situation, Tyrion could understand that, she had thought her mother would welcome her with open arms and it would be all right again, but it wasn't that easy.

Lady Catelyn and Arya might stayed, albeit grudgingly, at the Rock, 'enjoying' the hospitality of the Westerlands, but they cut her. Roslin Frey, no, Tully stayed too, but she was housed in a different part of the Castle. Lord Edmure hadn't wanted to undo the marriage, maybe he liked the fragile girl too much or it was because of her swelling belly. Tyrion didn't know and his curiosity was only limited on this matter, he just made sure she stayed away from her sister-in-law who despised her as much as she hated him until she could leave for Riverrun.

Arya Stark was a different matter in his opinion, she remembered him more at the description of a Wildling women than at a Lady. Actually he thought they could be friends, she was as abnormal as he was, with her fascination for fighting and other un-ladylike occupations. She spent much time with this Brienne, maybe two of the same way.

But all this didn't help him now, he had decided that he didn't want to see Sansa so devastated any more. She deserved as much happiness as the world provided and he couldn't stand the sight of mother and daughter separated any longer. Not for Lady Catelyn, only for Sansa. He had decided it was time to do something, a long shot. Maybe he wouldn't accomplish anything but at least he had to try, for her.

He knocked at the door and waited for a response, it took a while but then Lady Catelyn's voice came from behind the door and he stepped in. The mother of the Lady of Casterly Rock was traditionally housed in one of the finest chambers of the Castle, with a large window and a view over Lannisport, something the most guests would appreciate, Catelyn Stark whatsoever didn't. For her it was a prison cell, Tyrion thought she could be lucky to have such a fancy one, he had only gotten a Skycell, a great view, but the heating had been terrible, the Eyrie was an inn he wouldn't want visit a second time.

When Tyrion stepped in the room the occupant rose from her seat and glared at him with a pinched mouth and with more hate and disgust than he had thought a person could develop, even more he had had for his father, and he at least had had a reason. He was used that people looked down on him with disgust, even if they tried not to since he was the powerful Lord he was, he never forgot what he was, but Lady Catelyn's resemblance with her daughter made him tremble, for a brief moment in his mind it was Sansa who frowned at him and his stomach dropped. He needed a few moments to compose himself, he needed a cup of wine, soon. But not now, he bowed his head and used all his strength to be polite.

"My Lady, I hope my visit is not inconvenient?" He stayed at his bowed position until he heard her.

"Your visits are always inconvenient, Dwarf, but I am your prisoner so I don't have much choice. What do you want?" She sneered at him with all hate she most likely had. 'What a well start!'

"My Lady, you are certainly not a prisoner, if you want to leave, do it." He told her and gestured at the door behind him. "But I am not here to tell you that you are our guest, I am here because of my wife." His tone was polite and certain to be in the right, but despite of that he felt even tinier under her gaze than he actually was, only his father had managed that as well as she did, they would have been a good couple, united in hate against him.

"You dare to speak about her, you who, who..." She accused him, not finding the right words in her fury. Tyrion took a step back and hoped if he showed her his hand she wouldn't attack him in her rage.

"My Lady." He started in a calm tone. "I never forced her to anything, I am sure she told you about the circumstances of our marriage." She wanted to interrupt him, he could see that but he didn't bother to stop and added. "And I am sure she told you that I would have let her go if she would have wanted, but she stayed." Something he would thank the gods for until his last day on earth.

Lady Catelyn apparently was not as thankful as he was, she pointed at him and her voice trembled in wrath.

"You lulled her in with your false kindness and goodness, your gold and titles, your castle and presents, you abuse her fondness for stories and valiant knights to trick her. You are revolting." Tyrion didn't know if he would look like a fish with an open mouth in disbelief or roll on the floor, laughing to death. He, a knight out of stories, lulling her in with gold and false promises? She definitely didn't know how much her daughter had changed or what he was. He decided for a distressed expression.

"You obviously don't know what become out of the girl which left Winterfell so long ago." He told her, he walked over to the wall and stayed there. "I never lulled her in, or tricked her, I would never..."

"Never, you are a vile and arrogant..." She screamed at him searching for the right words to accuse him, so Tyrion helped her.

"Dwarf? Lannister? Imp? Monster?"

"Man." Lady Catelyn ended her sentence clearly unimpressed by his tirade.

"You hate me, right?" He asked her without restraint. "You hated me since this plotter Littlefinger told you I would have tried to kill your son. And even now after you learned the truth you hate me, why? Sansa told you I didn't force her, but still. Do you think so because I am a dwarf?" She froze, her lips pressed together to a thin line, he had her, now they came to the bottom of all this. "So it is because I am a dwarf, is that all?" He asked her, trying to sound nonchalant. He knew she was trained to have this moral values, dwarfs are vile and evil creatures, bastards are bad too, but not all she had learned to believe should be used or is right.

"It is in your blood, you are a Lannister, arrogant, greedy, your kind destroys everything you get your hands on, your father's son, the son of the man who ordered the death of innocent children. … And now you have mine in your claws." She slowly lost her composure and Tyrion asked himself if he would succeed or fail. "And she doesn't even notice that you play with her like a cat with a mouse." The oh so stern and hard Lady Stark sounded suddenly very vulnerable, and Tyrion felt, even though her accusations were wrong, like the last piece of shit.

He kept his mouth shut for a few minutes before he started to speak again, his voice calm:

"I am not my father, I love Sansa, more than anything else in the world, didn't I proof that I am better than you call me?" He asked her with open arms.

"Proof, you proved nothing, you are unjust, vile an..." Tyrion interrupted her before she could fall back in her old demeanour.

"Actually I could accuse you of being unjust." On her shocked and questioning gaze he continued. "My little trip to the Vale?" He asked sarcastically. She understood but only looked at him defiantly.

"I had all right..."

"You had no right." Tyrion interrupted her angrily, he had enough of this. "You believed the real offender and abducted me, triggered this war and wanted me death, because you wanted to believe the dwarf must be guilty of this crimes, even after he saved your life." He accused her with a pointed finger. "And now we have the same situation."

He sighed and gazed at her emphatically. "Can't we let all of this behind us, can't you put some trust in me, just once, not for me, for her. Sansa is miserable and I can't stand to see her like this. Or are you afraid she isn't wrong and that she really loved me and that I love her?"

Not a single word left Lady Catelyn's mouth and Tyrion feared he had screwed up big time, but then her expressions soften, at least he thought so, it was so meagre he would have needed a loupe to know for sure. He smiled and said. "Please, join us for dinner, not for me, but for Sansa, maybe you eve like it."

-##-

Tyrion left the rooms without an answer or an outcome, maybe he had succeeded or failed, he couldn't figure it out. He hoped he had made a difference, if not … he didn't know what else to do. 'Why are there no books about that?'

Suddenly he noticed a movement at the curtains of one of the windows in the hall. It was Sansa's sister, Arya. The girl sat in the bay and gazed at him. She wore no gown, he knew the servants gave her enough gowns for the rest of her life but she wore a jacked and trousers out of brown leather and wool. Her gaze was strange, like a cat, intent but absent together. Maybe like a cat hunting its prey.

"Do you want to stab me in the back from behind the curtains?" Tyrion asked her grinning and not very serious. The girl jumped from her seat and walked over to him, stopping three feet in front of him.

"I can't, your men took my sword in the Riverlands, they did horrible things there." She told him in a challenging tone. Tyrion knew what she meant, Sansa had told her everything. He was ashamed for his father's men; they had brought shame upon all Lannister.

"They weren't my men." he said to her, now without a grin on his face.

"Strange, they wore Lannister red and aren't you the Lord Lannister?" she asked him serious. Tyrion thought she might sneer at him, but no, her tone was stern, too stern for a girl her age.

"They were the men of my father back then." He explained to her. "Now they are mine and they don't commit such crimes with my knowledge and live a happy life afterwards."

She didn't look persuaded, maybe she had no reason to be. Arya had no real resemblance to Sansa, not like their mother, except for her eyes, her grey eyes, Sansa's might be blue but she had the same steel in them.

"Maybe I get your sword back." he offered. "If you don't try to stick me with it." He smirked at her and was rewarded with a brief glow of her eyes.

"I will try not to." She answered him with a wolfish grin. Tyrion had to laugh at this sight, it was brilliant.

"You are a little wolfsblood aren't you?" He asked her laughing, even if he already knew the answer. She was different, but the only thing that Tyrion really interested was that she was Sansa's sister, a sister who didn't talk to her and caused her sorrow, if not the mother, and then maybe he could repair the relationship to the sister.

He observed how she went back to the window and sat on the bay. Tyrion followed her, laid his hand at the bay and gazed at her, asking permission, she nod and he climbed on it and seated himself opposite to her. Arya looked out of the window, watching the trouble of Lannisport. Tyrion followed her lead, sitting there for a while and watched with her until he started.

"Do you hate your sister?" The girl gazed at him in a surprised manner, she hadn't expected this question. She lowered her head and spoke.

"No it is just..."

"You don't get along with her?" He interrupted helpfully and received a nod.

"How do you know?" She asked him suspicious. Tyrion leaned back and tried something else.

"I know exactly what you mean, I never got along with my sister, she doesn't like me and I don't like her. I always thought, and still think, she is arrogant, consequential, only thinking about her beauty and other 'stupid' stuff I never cared for, laughing at me with her stupid friends." He told her, letting out some ugly stuff and she listened with widen eyes. "But it got worse, lately she tried to kill me." He continued and traced his scar with his finger. Arya had a shocked expression, he had her, he had broken the ice and found something they had in common, now he had a lever.

"As a child I always wanted a dragon, I though he maybe could eat her, let the other not look down on me. I always liked dragons." Arya Stark had a smile on her face by his word, she looked really lovely with a smile.

"I like them too, I like the dragons off Aegon's wives', Visenya's Vhagar and Rhaenys Meraxes, they were warriors like their brother, not sitting at home and sewing." She related to him with an admiring expression on her face.

"Not to mention his sisters, if we remember the gross part of the story." He added with a grin and got her to laugh. "We have a statue of them with their dragons in the stone gardens, one of my ancestors built it to kiss some Targaryen asses, it is well hidden so nobody bothered to remove it. I can show you where it is." He offered her and together they left for the Stonegardens.

-##-

The Stonegardens, carved in the heights of the Rock, stepped terraces connected through staircases with all kinds of plants, some terraces were placed in clefts other hang on the side of the Rock. Trees were carved in the sites of the terraces and pained brown and green they had wooden planks to fake the sight of a forest.

Tyrion guided his sister-in-law to the hidden fountain with the statues of Visenya and Rhaenys tangled with their dragons. A wonderful work out of marble, out of the dragons' mouth bubbled water over the ivy-covered basin. The girl stood before it and marvelled it with her eyes, and an open mound.

"We have some books about them in the library, if you want?" She absently nodded but her eyes didn't left the statue. Tyrion found it fascinating.

"Back to our topic." He started. "After I told you of my sister, do you still think yours is so bad, or would you try to get along with her?" He asked the girl, she suddenly averted her gaze to her feet and smiled.

"Before she tries to kill me, I maybe will."

-##-

The little trip to the stone gardens gave Tyrion the opportunity to check on Sansa's gift, he let Arya by the fountain, after making sure she knew how to get back and walked over to a hidden stairway up to a hidden terrace on the top of the Rock. It was a well hidden way to an abandoned terrace in a cleft, he had discovered the garden when he was a child, sometimes he had hid himself there from Cersei and the rest of the world and had read a book.

The terrace was encircled by rock on three sides and the opening aligned to the Sunset Sea, it wasn't as quiet as during his childhood any more, he had had the idea for this gift back in King's Landing and had sent a raven. Now the workers were busy with it, adding a direct gate to the castle and building the frame. Tyrion traced with his finger over the glass panels lying ready for the last phase. It wasn't Winterfell, but maybe she would like it.

The work was progressing well and Tyrion was satisfied with it. The plants had been hard to get but it was worth it. He went to the cliff and gazed out on the Sunset Sea, musing about his wife, she got along with his kind and Tyrion was happy about it, he had feared there would be problems, but there were none. Especially Genna and Dorna helped her to settle in and to manage all her new duties. Genna most likely did it because she wanted influence on her, she was to long the matriarch of the family to just back up and sew in her chambers. Maybe Tyrion should warn Sansa, but on the other hand she most likely figured it out herself and Genna wasn't Cersei, she didn't do it for her own greed, she did it for the family, she was like his father in this matter, family reputation first and she wanted a strong Lady of the Casterly Rock. Tyrion doubted she would betray Sansa's trust, she saw Sansa as a potential ally if something happened. Dorna on the other side was an outsider like Sansa was, not born a Lannister and she most likely sympathised with her. Kevan always said she was a gentle soul only happy around her kind and friends, and Tyrion suspected she wanted to keep it that way, wanted to make Sansa her friend. Thankfully for Sansa. The rest of them were either too unimportant or too daft to have second thoughts.

Tyrion was sure Sansa would manage it very well.

-##-

At noon Tyrion walked to their chambers to fetch Sansa for dinner. He found her in the large armchair at the window, with a book in her hands.

"How are you Sansa?" He asked when he approached her and leaned against the armrest.

"I am fine, a very uneventful day but Jeyne was with me until an hour ago." She told him cheerful, but Tyrion suspected she wasn't as happy as she pretended to be, the situation with her mother gnawed at her and it pained him to see her so.

He took her hand and dragged her to the diner hall. She wasn't very eager, she offered him to eat in private but he refused, the hope Lady Catelyn might appear, let him push the thought of a homely diner beside, no matter how much he would prefer it.

Arrived at the hall he saw with relief that Lady Catelyn and Arya had already arrived and sat on the chairs beside Sansa's, but to his chagrin they were accompanied by Brienne of Tarth, maybe as some sort of bodyguard. Tyrion found the woman suspect, she could 'accidentally' step on him and it would be over with him. Sansa's grip tighten around his arm when she saw them, Tyrion gazed up to her and saw how her face light up. She looked down on him with raised eyebrows.

"Did you know?" She asked suspicious.

"If I had known I had told you, or?" He answered her, hiding a grin.

The dinner went well, somehow Lady Catelyn managed to put her emotions beside and interacted with her surroundings, mostly with Dorna, but this wasn't so surprising, wasn't she one of the not Lannister women at the table. Sansa's mood increased every moment of the dinner, especially when Lady Stark decided to talk to him, in a civilized tone. 'Maybe I should call a Maester, she must be sick' Was Tyrion's only thought at the moment, when Lady Catelyn asked him about his health. Even Sansa's sister got along with his family, she tended to Joy and Tyrion thought it could be worse.

The women excused themselves after dinner to go to the Dome Hall for the afternoon. Sansa pressed a light kiss at his cheek and whispered in his ear.

"I'm not sure what you did, but if you offered our first-born to a dark entity to achieve this, you will regret it."

-##-

After dinner Tyrion went to his solar, he had urgent business with Bronn and Myatt to discuss. The invasion of the Iron Islands had to be planed and to be performed. Tyrion wasn't sure who he should send. Bronn was his best man, without a doubt but what if he needed him, and his cousin Daven would be insulted if he wouldn't lead the army, he also had Myatt, the man had proved himself worthy and Tyrion had to consider that, and had to reward him.

Arrived in his solar he saw that Bronn and Myatt were already there, fighting as usual.

"You think you are better than I am, Sellsword?" Myatt spat at Bronn, who leaned against the wall with a casual facial expression and answered impertinent as always.

"What is wrong with you boy, feel threaten by a commoner?"

"Not by likes of you."

"Don't bother to stop because I am arrived." Tyrion interrupted them nonchalant and walked to his seat. After he sat down he gazed first at Bronn, then at Myatt. "The invasion of the Iron Island is imminent." He started, folding his hands in front of him. "I intend to make one of you 'Admiral of the Sunset Sea' the leader of the Lannister fleet, the duties of the Admiral will be to transport my troops and to secure the coast after the invasion is over. This won't be a temporary post, even after the Ironborn, who apparently invade the Shield Islands at the moment are defeated the coast must be secured and protected from renegades for years. Whoever gets the post will have it for a long time." Tyrion ended with his explanation about the post he just made up, he thought it would be a great idea. He leaned back and waited for the spectacle to start.

"And this post, will it be paid with more than honour?" Bronn asked curiously.

"Sellswords only care for money, you are a Lord now, some honour and sense of duty would be suitable." Myatt spat at Bronn who just smirked back.

"You can't live on honour, at least I can't." 'Maybe I should let them fight to the death.' Tyrion thought to himself, but rejected this idea immediately.

The argument continued for a while until Tyrion had enough, it wasn't funny anymore. He hit on the table top with his hand and both stopped fighting.

"I am bored." He explained them. "I decided that Myatt get the post, Bronn, you will stay if I need you here." Maybe the Sellsword was happy or not, Tyrion couldn't say but he decided it was regardless.

-##-

Eight months later

Ser Lucion Lannister

He stamped through the halls to the staircase, he was angry, insulted. He was Ser Lucion Lannister not a damn page. He had been by the Maester when the raven had arrived and the man, this servant, had asked him to bring this 'urgent' letter to Lord Tyrion. He couldn't refuse, but he hated it, he hated it to be stuck at the Rock, he could be at the Iron Islands, fighting at Davon's side against the Ironborn or on a ship of the fleet by the Shield Islands, where the Ironborn held back Lord Myatt's attacks since more than seven month, they had refused to surrender, they were trapped between the Redwyn fleet in the south and the Lannister fleet in the north but they fought and fought. Maybe he could have joined the auxiliary forces Lord Tyrion had sent to the North four months ago. The Boltons still held large parts of the land, the Dreadfort was under siege for more than four month and the young Wolf had to fight against the traitors and the Ironborn. This would have been a fight, he remembered the day the raven had arrived, Bolton had turned against Lord Stark the day they had arrived at Winterfell and the part the Boltons played by the fall of the castle had been uncovered. Now the troops of Robb Stark, the Northerner, the Tyrell men under Tarly and the Lannister auxiliary under his father fought against Bolton's in the East, Ironborn in the Wet and Stannis in the North, the stag had allied with Wildlings and hid at the Wall.

But his father had insisted that he stayed at the Rock, no matter what, maybe because of the winter, the snow already covered the Rock, only thin but soon it would be more and the war in the north would become hell. He had asked his cousin, Tyrion, if he could join Ser Jaime by the siege of Dragonstone, but again no. It seemed he was damned to stay without glory. But on the other hand, because of the Redwyn fleet at the Shield Islands Jaime was stuck at Dragonstone, and because of a pirate, who plundered the Blackwater Bay this wouldn't change soon, Queen Cersei had refused to send her new fleet and Jaime had to wait for the Redwyn fleet to complete the mission at the Shield Islands.

He reached the staircase to the 'Glass Garden', it actually was nothing more than a terrace of the Stonegardens but surrounded with glass and somehow heated, a present his cousin had made his wife, now they could play their Cyvasse game in the garden, even in the winter surrounded by plants from the north, even blue roses. He stopped and looked at the letter; it had the sigil of House Swyft.

He climbed up and found Lord and Lady Lannister where he had expected them, at the Cyvasse table. They were a strange couple, maybe the Queen was right Lion and Wolf shouldn't mingle. She had written this in a letter to aunt Genna, his mother had told him. But he had to admit she was beautiful, he had to concentrate not to stare at her, he was sure his cousin tended to jealousy and he didn't want to be a victim of this. He had never talked much to Lady Sansa, she was always courteous but in exception of a few official occasions he had never met her. His mother was different, she had told him that she liked her, quite different from her mother, Lady Catelyn, at the daily rounds of the women of the Rock it seemed Lady Catelyn didn't make much friends, except of Dorna Swyft, they said she would be arrogant and and and, but Aunt Genna seemed to accept her and so his mother had to accept her too. Lanna had told him her younger daughter Arya would be stranger than any other girl she had met in her life, fooling around with the bastard Joy, but Lanna liked the new Lady and her friend Jeyne or Jeynes since Robb Stark's wife had arrived with her mother as guests at the Rock. Yes Jeyne, he would like to spend some time with her.

"Why do you stand there like a column, cousin?" Tyrion startled him out of his thoughts, it appeared he had noticed him.

"I have a letter for you my Lord, it has the sigil of House Swyft." He told him. Tyrion gestured with his hand.

"What writes he?"

"I don't know my Lord." He answered perplex.

"If you can read cousin then do it and tell me what he wrote." Tyrion told him impatient.

"Don't be so rude." Lady Sansa's soft voice made itself hear when she laid her hand on Tyrion's arm.

Lucion opened the letter and started to read, shocked by the content.

"My Lord, it seemed the Queens are imprisoned." He stuttered.

"What?" He could see the shocked face of his cousin and the paled of his Lady wife. "What do you mean?"

"It appears that Lady Margaery is imprisoned by the Faith for adultery and the Queens-Regent for the murder of King Robert, the former High Septon and incest, my Lord."

"Are you joking? I don't find this funny." Tyrion told him in a dangerous tone.

"No my Lord, the letter is from Lord Swyft and the Lords Oberyn Martel and Garlan Tyrell, they asked my Lord if you could come back, it seemed the Faith Militia controlled the city under the claim the Queens-Regent gave them all their old rights back. The armies of House Tyrell are too far away and the Kingdom is leaderless. The Small Council appointed you King's Regent as long as the Queens-Regent is imprisoned, further more does it look like that Aurane Waters stole the King's fleet and left." Lord Tyrion didn't look happy, not at all.

"Call for Lord Bronn." He ordered him. "I need all men he can gather in two days, only cavalry, we travel to King's Landing. We must deal with these religious fanatics before worse happen." So the Lord left, luckily Ser Kevan had arrived six months ago, he could be castellan during his absence. Tyrion wanted to rise when his wife spoke.

"I come with you." She sounded serious, but Lucion had no idea why she wanted to go with him

"No, it is too dangerous." Tyrion objected.

"Margaery is my friend and you forget we don't march to war."

"But we have to ride, no carriage this time."

"What do you fear that I lose my maidenhead?" She told him with a smile and the Lord exhaled in defeat. Lucion couldn't believe what he just saw. But on the other hand, he was a cavalry, this meant glory for him.

Never liked Cat, she is somehow to impulsive and her prejudices are not helpful, but never doubt she loves her children and would do everything for them, even sit with the Lannister

The Arya dragon scene is stolen from TV series, I found it suitable and it was good that they have common ground. Until Thursday I never realized that Tyrion's and Arya's image of their sisters could be somehow similar in a few parts

Cersei's plot took longer this time, but I wanted the time to let them have some peaceful time together, and travel took time, there happened not much at the Rock so, you maybe get a summary next chapter, but all in all you didn't miss much