Jason I

Jason Tully hated the royal party. They were intruders, coming into his home and disturbing everything. His mother had not had the time to even speak to him in the last two weeks, busy as she was with arranging everything and father never spoke anything worth hearing. The Tullys rule the Riverlands, then why should be bow and scraper to a king who rules from another city? Mother's family rules the Westerlands, and both houses do this by themselves. If the king never aids us, why should we aid him? His father had told him that he would explain it when he got older but he hadn't, and Jason was already nine namedays' old! His mother was the only person who would be wise enough to explain it, so he went to ask her. But she had been too busy with Joanna, and had told him to visit his royal cousins before King Robert leaves for his hunt. He didn't understand why mother would take care of Joanna—all she did was cry when he picked her up—but he did as mother told him and set off towards Prince Edwin's chambers.

"How does the day find you, Kaeron?" The Crown Prince's voice made him pause and inch closer towards the wall. He was talking to his father's ward just outside their rooms and Jason stopped just short of the corner to hear easily. He was used to being still for hours at a time to catch insects in the godswood, and the heir to Riverrun was no stranger to eavesdropping. They were talking in his home, so Jason saw no reason why he shouldn't hear what they said. Mother let him do it, as long as he told only her about what he heard.

"Well, my prince," was the boy's reply.

"Will you be joining the hunt today?"

"If it please Your Grace and my prince, I will," he answered.

There was an awkward silence and the prince sought to fill it with another question. "What kind of animals do you think are present in the forests nearby?"

"I'm afraid I do not know, my prince." Jason inched closer towards the ground and risked a peek. No one ever saw him if he did it while almost lying on the floor, while they would if he had peeked while standing. The Targaryen boy's face betrayed nothing, and he looked respectfully at the wall behind the prince. Prince Edwin seemed to be thinking of something to say that would make the Targaryen continue the conversation.

"Have you read anything about Riverrun recently? Maester Tristan has written some tomes on it, I believe." Jason had once gone fishing with his father and he now felt like the prince was dangling any sort of topic desperately like a fishing hook in the hope that a fish could snatch it. That had been before Joanna was born though, neither of his parents had spent time with him when they could spend it with his sister. Why am I not as good as Joanna? Jason pinched himself to stop the feelings of bitterness and insecurity that had grown alongside his sister. They festered, though he brought his attention to the conversation again.

"I have not," the Targaryen boy said, rebuffing yet another attempt. "I can bring the book to you if you need it."

"No no, I wanted to—that is, I meant to talk to you. About that book," he added, somewhat lamely to Jason's ears. It was just as lame to Kaeron, judging from the way he looked past him to see if there was any possibility of escape. Jason ducked behind the wall before he could be seen and let out a breath of relief when the conversation—if it could be called a conversation, since the words of one of them could be called dutiful and nothing else—continued without any interruption.

"If my prince would excuse me," the Targaryen boy said, apparently wishing to leave as much as the Baratheon wished for him to stay.

"Seven-Dammit, Kaeron!" The words seemed to burst out of Edwin's mouth and Jason risked another peek. "I have been trying since we left King's Landing to talk to you and you can't even be bothered to answer!" The prince had gripped Kaeron's arm, whether to stop him from leaving or to fight him, Jason didn't know.

"I have answered all your questions, my prince," the boy spoke emotionlessly.

"You have answered but you have not talked! You answer like a servant. What will it take for you to talk to me as friend, as an equal?"

Kaeron looked straight at the prince then, and Edwin drove his hand back, though Jason could not see the former's expression. "We can never speak as equals, my prince," Kaeron almost hissed but when Jason looked at his face, his expression was as respectful as before. "You would be wise to not try making me do so."

Edwin shook his head and walked away, his eyes filled with rage and something else that Jason could not decipher. The Targaryen walked to the window at the end of the corridor, where he could see Jason if he turned around, and stood there with his hands behind his back. Just as Jason was about to leave, Kaeron's cold voice sounded again.

"You may leave now, Jason Tully. If you speak a word of what you heard here today to anyone, I shall inform Lord Edmure of the creatures in the godswood. Your mother will skin you alive for spying on the Crown Prince and your father will likely disown you for your perversions. The gods know they prefer your sister over you even now."

Jason stood there for a moment without breathing or blinking. Then Jason ran. He kept running while he passed the knights of his father's household, his father who would hate him if he knew. He ran until he reached the godswood, and went to sit at his customary place. Reaching into the pocket of his doublet, he brought out an apple cake from last night's feast and sprinkled it on the ground around him. And he waited. The sun climbed higher in the skies and Jason heard the sounds of the royal party leaving on the hunt. Good, he thought. They can hunt all the animals in the Riverlands as long as they take that boy with them. The boy with a respectful face, a cold voice and a colder heart who holds my life like he's holding a doll. Jason did not know what would happen if he told father. He would be disowned for certain, and mother would never want to see him. He felt tears well up in his eyes at the thought and brought out a handkerchief to clean his face. He would be thrown out from Riverrun, maybe sent to Night's Watch in punishment. Maybe that's what he wants, Jason thought bitterly. He must be bitter over being sent to the Wall and he wants me to suffer too. Anger surged in his veins, faster than blood.

There was a ladybug who had come, attracted by the sweet scent of the cake. Jason shifted slightly so as to not startle it and waited for the correct moment to grasp it. It came soon, and Jason had the insect in his hands. He got up, leaving the rest of the apple cake where it was and walked to the base of a tree. It was only fair that he gave something to the forest in return for taking the bug. The bushes around protected him from being seen by anyone and it was the reason why he had been able to keep his secret from everyone. At least everyone except the Targaryen boy.

He took off one wing of the bug and watched as it squirmed. He could have stomped on a pile of ants instead, but that would bring no satisfaction. He wanted one bug he could spend some time on, and watch what happened as each leg came off. He did just that, his amusement growing as the insect struggled with its remaining legs and wing, trying to crawl with both sides of his body disbalanced. He wanted it to know that it was being hurt by him, by a purposeful mind, and not by some change in the weather.

The rustling of leaves underfoot made him look up, long enough for the ladybug to escape. Jason cursed the interloper—it could only be an interloper, the godswood was his place. Jason risked a peak to know the identity of the person and found two golden heads leaning close. They belonged to the Queen and her twin but that was not what gave him pause. They were kissing. Soon the man had taken off her gown and his trousers and then he brought his hand between her legs. Jason saw it all and did not speak a word, willing his mind not to form words to describe what he saw. He was failing desperately as the image of them wrestling naked kept playing in his mind. After some time that could have been minutes or days, they were done and they collapsed together, sitting with their back to a log of wood.

"I should leave, Robert will be back from his hunt any time now," The queen was saying, but she did not move.

"No, you won't," Ser Jaime's face was buried in his sister's hair and his words sounded muffled. "I've missed you."

"If only you didn't come with that wife of yours," Queen Cersei snarled. "We could have used your room instead of a forest."

"I wouldn't have come to my wedding itself if I could afford not to. And we both know my rooms would invite gossip."

Queen Cersei sat up and started dressing herself, though Ser Jaime remained on the floor.

"Stop," the Lannister said, reaching forward to grab the Queen's dress. "We are hardly ever able to see each other and now you want to run off because you're jealous?"

"I am not jealous," she hissed. "I am being cautious. What if someone sees us?"

"Then I will kill them," he replied calmly, "and fuck you beside their corpse." Jason shivered, cursing the Targaryen he had fled from, and cursing his need for insects that led him here.

Ser Jaime sat up and started kissing her again, and the Queen gave up on her feeble protests, almost tearing her clothes in her hurry to get them off again.

Jason slowly twisted his body, willing to risk discovery for the chance of escapw. He inched right, keeping his back to the tree as he turned around. Once he was behind the oak, its sturdy and thick stem covering him, he knelt on the ground. There, inch by inch, he continued to sneak away. The irony of him crawling like an insect was not lost on him but he was too scared to care. Once the heir to Riverrun was far enough away that he was unlikely to be seen, he thought of getting up and running. Ser Jaime is faster though; he'll catch me if he sees me. Jason kept himself close to the ground until he was certain he wouldn't be caught and then he ran, this time out of the godswood.

He ran until he reached his mother in the nursery, sitting by Joanna's crib. "Mother, I need to talk to you," he gasped out between huge gulps of air.

"Jason, take deep breaths," she instructed him before leading the way to her rooms so they could talk without waking up his sister. She examined him for a moment before sighing. "What's wrong?"

Jason told her everything he saw. All except what he had heard between Edwin and Kaeron. His cold voice with those terrible words still haunted Jason and somehow, he knew that the Targaryen would find out if he told anyone.

If you speak a word of what you heard here today to anyone, I shall inform Lord Edmure of the creatures in the godswood.

Your mother will skin you alive for spying on the Crown Prince and your father will likely disown you for your perversions.

The gods know they prefer your sister over you even now.

The words would not stop ringing in his head and he wished to run into his mother's arms and never come out. When he looked up, his mother's face was bone-white and her eyes had widened so much that Jason laughed. That brought his mother out of shock and she brought him close before making him promise to never reveal to anyone what he saw. Jason did and she called a servant to tell father that they would be supping in her rooms tonight because Jason wasn't well. At the last words, she gave him a wink that made him giggle. "That'll be our secret too."

It seemed to Jason that he was keeping a lot of secrets today. Only the one that he hadn't told to his mother gave him nightmares though.