Jaime
Seven hells he was tired.
He leans back against the stone outside Alys's room and shut his eyes for a few moments, relishing in the quiet that filled the halls of the Maiden Vault. No sound but his own breathing filling his ears as he waits for his relief for the evening. Sleep would be a blessing.
He had known something would go wrong. How could it not? With a mad king anything could be considered a slight, wine spilled nearby can be seen as a botched poisoning attempt.
He'd gone away inside as usual, thinking of Casterly Rock while the poor serving boy was thrown to the ground and Rossart came forward with that horrid green liquid. He was thinking of what his sister might be up to when Aleah had crept up to him, the poor boy was screaming then as the liquid fell upon him. She'd whispered to him that he must take Alys back to her room, told him that if when the boys screaming ended the king still had an itch to burn more it would be best if Alys weren't in his frame of view.
He'd moved his eyes over to Alys then. Looking at her he'd felt an odd pang of guilt. But he shoved that away before nodding to Aleah and moving forward slowly as the room went up in green light and the boys screams got louder in a way one wouldn't think possible.
He'd gotten her out of there as quick as he could while going unnoticed. Quietly dragging her along the outside edge of the hall, only quickening his pace upon exiting the hall and taking the shortest route he knows to the Maiden Vault.
When they'd made it to her room he'd shut the door behind him as she moved further into the room. He'd looked to her, guilt surging inside him when she turned to meet his eyes. Leant against a post of the bed her eyes were wide and fearful pools of melting ice. She had tried to speak, ask something, but her lip had only quivered and the only sound to truly escape was choked. He'd already started moving towards her when she sank down against the bed, her head shaking as tears begin to fall.
He doesn't think he would have been able to stop himself from kneeling down by her small shaking form. Taking her in his arms while sobs racked her body, he hadn't given it a thought at all in all honesty. He only focused upon rubbing small circles on her back and letting her cry out all that was in her.
Once he'd left the room and was left alone in the hall he cursed Aleah.
That damned handmaid who'd been the one to tell him that not to ignore her, told him that shouldn't make her situation worse by leaving her with no companions in her solitude.
He also cursed Alys herself, for being easy to talk to the way that Tyrion was easy to talk to. He'd actually been enjoying himself most of the day, he had enjoyed the conversations the two had had between jousts and the way that they easily moved about each other.
He cursed Aleah once more for being right, Alys Stark was easy to like.
Finally, he cursed himself. The ass who rarely, if ever, thinks things through.
Cersei had always told him that he rushed headlong into things and that that was what made him the stupidest Lannister of Casterly Rock. She'd always told him that if she wasn't there to plan things out for them he'd get himself into far more trouble than even father could get him out of. And here he is, cursing himself for not thinking enough about the tourney. The only thought he'd had being that he didn't want to miss out on it. He curses himself for persuading Alys into going, for making the damned deal that would make it impossible to ignore her like before.
Fuck.
He wanted to drink away his evening, perhaps fall asleep to thoughts of Cersei. He wanted to forget today had happened, forget the tourney, forget the king, forget Alys Stark. Forget it all if he can.
But he's brought out from his momentary self-loathing by the softest creak of the door behind him opening. He opens his eyes and tilts his head to look at her stood delicately in the crack of the door, grey eyes on him.
"Yes?" he asks, harsher than he'd meant but in truth he was feeling quite exasperated with the day.
"I know… I know that you are likely off duty soon and that a gold cloak will be coming to replace you at my door for the evening. But, do you think… could you stay with me until then. Just talking, I know you don't want to but I can't…" She speaks quickly, barely taking a breath before she stops and closes her eyes. Taking a slow breath before saying slower, "every time I've closed my eyes to try and sleep I just see that…" her voice starts to crack and Jaime notes that the ice of her eyes is melting again.
He interrupts, "alright." His voice gentler, speaking in the way the stable master at Casterly Rock would to the new horses when he first started to train them. "But we'll wait till the guard has gotten here, I don't exactly wish to spend much more time in this armor. Believe it or not this isn't the most comfortable thing a man could wear."
"Really?" She says, her voice small and shaking but a small smile pulled at her mouth, "here I was thinking it was as comfortable as it was fashionable." He returns her smile before nodding for her to return to her room.
He only has to wait a few more moments before the gold cloak arrives to take over the door duty for the evening. Jaime makes his way to his own room in the White Sword Tower quickly, changing from his armor into simple clothes and heading back towards the Maiden Vault.
He considers for a moment whether he should simply walk past the gold cloak or not. He thinks for a moment what that might look like to the man on guard, the Kingsguard he'd replaced returning to the woman he was guarding to spend time in her room, alone, late in the night.
He thinks fleetingly of what Cersei would say and knows she'd tell him it was an idiotic thing to do. Both because of the implications that could be made about the poor Stark girls' honor, something she likely doesn't need on top of all the rest, and because of possible repercussions towards him for spending time with a hostage of the crown.
So, best to not be seen. He stops to think momentarily; he knows there are secret halls throughout the keep. Made by Maegor the Cruel for escape and no maps ever made for the passages. He knew that it would incredibly easy to get lost within them. But he decides to give it a try, if he fails he'll go find Aleah and send her along to keep Alys company.
As he runs a hand along the hallway to find a door hidden amongst the stone he thinks perhaps he should just send Aleah, save him the trouble and the energy. But before he can commit to that he feels a small push to the stone and with both hands sliding along he finds a grip that lets him pull open the small door.
He has to duck to enter through it, the door only coming up to his abdomen. But once he's through he's able to stand up straight. The passage is dark, he gives his eyes time to adjust to it before continuing forward while keeping in his mind where he was in the keep when he entered this tunnel and where in relation to that is Alys Starks room. He keeps a hand on the wall in that direction, following along and turning where he thinks makes sense.
The first exit he finds goes to a stairwell further down into the bowels of the keep. Continuing past onto the second exit he finds himself behind the hearth of a room that isn't Alys's but is also thankfully empty. It's on the third exit he finds that he makes it. Pushing slowly against it, just in case it was not Alys's room, he opens the exit by the hearth and spots through it Alys sat on the edge of her bed.
As he moves through the exit she looks quickly towards him, startled she jumps up before recognizing it as him and shutting her eyes as she slows her breathing with a hand pressed to her chest.
"Gods," she exclaims, "what… Jaime you scared me."
"Apologies," he remarks, shutting the door slowly behind him, "but I figured it would be better to not come through the main door. As I didn't have an excuse for why I would be coming here after my shift had ended."
"Oh," she looks over at him, her voice softer than before, freshly aware of the guard outside currently. "That was smart." She sits back down upon the bed and he moves towards her. "I... I didn't think you'd actually come back."
"So you were sitting on the edge of your bed waiting for no one?"
"I told you I couldn't sleep," She reminds him, "I've been switching between lying down and sitting up. And I think I've paced the room near a dozen times as well."
"Understandable considering the events of the evening," he sits beside her on the bed, reaching over to the table beside it and grabbing the book sat there. "Had you tried reading? I find that always puts me to sleep."
"I like reading, and it doesn't put me to sleep."
"Really? But they're all so boring." He flips through the book, not looking at any of the words as he did.
"Really." She confirms, taking the book from his hand and setting it back upon the table.
They sit in silence for a little, Jaime surveying the room while Alys chews silently upon her lip. Finally, after near ten minutes of silence surrounding them she asks in the smallest voice, "how do you do it?"
"Hmm?" Jaime looks away from the very interesting tapestry hung above the hearth and back at Alys. "Do what?"
She doesn't look up at him as she speaks, instead focusing upon her hands resting lightly upon her lap. "How do you get through it, the death and the madness?"
Jaime sighs, leaning back onto his hands he looks forward at the stone across them. "I go away inside."
"Go away inside?"
"Think of something else, preferably good things, but inane things work just as well." He studies the small cracks running through the walls. "Sometimes I'll wonder what my shift will be the next day, or what my siblings are doing at Casterly Rock, or what the kitchen's soup will be that night."
"You just ignore it?" he can feel her eyes upon him but he stays staring at the cracks on the wall. "I don't understand how…" She says it quietly before sighing, "but I suppose I do now. Better than before at least."
"How so?" He inquires.
"I've been... angry? Or frustrated I suppose is better. Frustrated at everyone here, not just for ignoring me but for the fact that no one does anything to stop the madness that the King does. They all just smile, nod along, and ignore the atrocities he commits." He looks at her now, her jaw is clenched and her hands fists upon her lap. "I never understood how the day my father and brother died there were so many people in that room, a majority of which had to know that what was happening was wrong, but no one said a thing against it. No one spoke up."
"People here learned a while ago it's best to not say anything." He watches her cautiously, studying her face as she looks over towards him and nods with a delicate breath.
"I know," she concedes gently, "but after it had happened, when I was alone in my room for gods know how many days one of the things I kept thinking back to was how many knights had to be in that room. How many people sworn to uphold justice and protect the people of Westeros simply stood by as the King committed injustice." She chews her lip a moment before shaking her head at her thoughts, "yet tonight… tonight I was one of those bystanders. I watched that… that poor boy who did nothing wrong get pulled down in front of everyone. I heard his screams and watched him burn but I was powerless to do anything. I couldn't even move until you pulled me away, and I wanted to run, that was what I wanted to do when it started. Not help him, not scream for it to stop. I wanted to run away because I was afraid I would be next."
"That's understandable."
"It is… and it isn't." She says with quiet certainty before the two fall into a period of silence.
Eventually she crawls further upon the bed, lying down on her back. Apparently deciding that staring at the ceiling was better than the wall. Jaime scoots over towards the end of the bed, leaning back against one of the posts of the bed and studying the room once more.
After some more silence has passed over them he starts to wonder if she'd fallen asleep, he glances over at her. Her eyes are shut, her breathing steady, but as though she can feel his gaze she asks quiet as a ghost "does it get easier?"
If you ignore it, he thinks. If you disconnect yourself enough and focus on something, anything else.
But was that really easier? Or was it simply shoving the harshness away.
Finally, deciding that there was no good answer he says "it does… and it doesn't." He shifts slightly upon the bed as her eyes open and her head lifts so they meet his own. "Just focus on surviving, ignore all the rest if you can."
"I don't know that I can do that." She whispers letting her head fall back upon the pillow.
"That is a problem you'll have to deal with yourself." He mutters, though she shakes her head at him.
"Thank you." She says after another moment, "for being kind today."
"Yeah, well I wouldn't get too used to it."
"I've got at least a month left of it," she smiles, "I might as well make the most out of that."
He lets out a curt laugh, "alright well I would like to get some sleep myself tonight. So at least try to sleep or I'm leaving you alone to those nightmares."
She hums at that, but does settle further into the bed. "Can you talk? Just about anything, I don't really care."
A sigh escapes him but he nods, though she doesn't see him do it.
After a moment of contemplation, he starts to tell her a story Tyrion had read to him once. It had been a while ago told by a Tyrion who'd just found his intense love for books and wanted to read constantly. So while Jaime swung his sword at a straw man Tyrion would read loudly at him in order to be heard over the shrill clash of steel. He had to make up some of the parts that escaped his memory, but Alys didn't seem to mind, he even found the faintest smile on her lips as he went along. Then the smile drifted away with sleep and though Jaime knew he could leave the story there and make his way out of the room he finishes it. Soft words drifting through the dark room towards Alys's sleeping form, the only light a near extinguished candle flickering orange lights against her pale skin.
As he puts out the last flickering bit of the candle so he can leave he curses himself one final time for looking forward to his next shift as Alys Starks guard.