~o0o~
Jorah took a glance at his watch and tried to blink away the blurriness in his eyes – but it was the whiskey causing it, not the late hour. He was far from sober now - four drinks in to Sansa's two, and it was more than Jorah had drunk on a weeknight in some time. He usually stopped himself at a few pints when going out with the boys, but he was nervous. And his nerves kept causing his glass to find his lips to give him something to do as Sansa looked at him from across the table. Her gaze was unrelenting, and he felt as if she could see right through him.
He should have been back hours ago, but every time he started to leave, her hand was on his arm and she sweetly asked him for a little more time.
And that time flew by. He enjoyed Sansa's company and there was never a lack of conversation. But now, as Sansa slipped something across the small cocktail table towards him, he felt the full force of his nerves turning his whiskey-filled stomach when he realized it was her hotel room key.
"I'm staying here for a few nights so I can be close to all the best fashion week shows. We can have a few more drinks in my room?" Sansa stated it so calmly, as if it was nothing out of the ordinary. But the look in her eyes told him this had nothing to do with continuing their drinking.
Jorah looked down into his glass so she wouldn't see the panic flash over his face.
"What about Robb?"
"What about him?" Sansa shrugged. He was staying at the same hotel and Jorah could only imagine running into him taking the Princess back to his room. But surely, Daenerys knew better than that? She wouldn't, would she? He should know better, he inwardly reprimanded himself.
"I can't," he pushed the little black key card back towards her, "I really should be getting back…"
"One more drink won't hurt."
He wanted to curse the coy smile on her face and his lack of self-control as he nodded, and she took his hand. The ride up the lift was the first real silence between them, and it continued as she opened the door to her suite and they both slipped inside.
"I'll be just a minute, pour me another," Jorah said as Sansa went for the decanter of whiskey sitting at the table by the window with a view of the picturesque houses in Bloomsbury square. He stepped into the bathroom and closed the door behind him, quickly splashing some water on his face and rolling up his shirtsleeves. He barely recognized the man staring back at him in the mirror.
He never knew himself to act like this – he was always responsible. Always level-headed. A few weeks ago, he would have never shirked off his duty as one of the head members of the royal family's team in order to have drinks with a pretty girl. He should be back at Kensington, planning for the Princesses' fully book schedule. Or sleeping. Not acting like some twenty-year-old.
But then again, his entire life had turned upside down the day that Rhaegar died. Maybe he wasn't the same Jorah anymore.
As Sansa waited with two more whiskeys poured for them, she typed out one more text before turning her mobile off.
He's in my room.
~o0o~
"That was romantic, wasn't it?" Robb asked as he buckled himself in to the back seat of the town car and his driver quickly pulled onto the busy late-night London streets.
"Yes, but a little morbid…" Daenerys offered about the opera. Robb reached for her hand and she let him take it. The story of Orpheus and Eurydice itself wasn't really the problem. It was that they had spent nearly three hours not talking to one another and she had found herself rather bored. The whole point of a first date was to get to know one another. So far she had only ascertained that Robb liked steak and tilted his head to the right when he was thinking hard about something, which seemed to be the entirety of the opera.
"The love Orpheus has for his wife – that is what I aspire to. I'd bend heaven and earth to be by the woman I love's side," Robb commented. She noticed it was genuine – he wasn't trying to make some kind of thinly veiled overture. For a moment, it endeared him to her. He was a nice guy – and she wanted him to have that kind of powerful love. She wanted that for herself too. But would it be that way for them? Would a love be able to grow between them?
Daenerys knew that her parents weren't in love from the start. It was that way with so many royal couplings. But a strong bond grew between them, fortified by her and her brothers. Maybe she was in for the same fate.
Her mother had told her stories growing up about Princesses and their knights in shining armor. And how the fell in love and lived happily ever after. She told her these stories before Daenerys understood what a Princess really was, and that she was one. They were only fantasies and stories, but the notion of true, pure love had stuck with her for all of these years – one of the memories she held on to of her mother.
They fell into silence as they drove back to Kensington Palace, with Robb's warm hand resting gently on top of hers. When they arrived, her got out of the car and opened her door for her, offering her his hand. It struck Daenerys that he looked every inch the part of a modern day 'knight in shining armor' in his perfectly tailored suit.
"I had a wonderful time with you tonight, Princess. Will you do me the honor of letting me take you out again?"
Robb held her close as he asked her. He was doing everything right – being a gentleman, not moving too fast. Daenerys didn't know if she even had a choice but to say yes.
"That would be nice, Robb." She kept her voice measured, not wanting to sound as excited as he was, because she wasn't. She needed to give him another try. She didn't care to find out how her father would react if she didn't.
He kissed her, softly, chastely. His soft lips barely whispered against hers and then he enveloped her in a hug before saying a final 'goodnight'.
~o0o~
"Is she back yet? She hasn't texted me…" Missy's voice sounded concerned on the phone as Grey paced back and forth in the foyer. It was past one in the morning and he expected she would be back long ago. Robb's security detail had promised he would be in touch but hadn't and Grey was considering going out to make sure everything was okay.
"No, and neither is Jorah," Grey sighed. He had been talking with Missy for over an hour and the conversation had started light, but quickly fell back into what they had texted about earlier. He had planned on speaking to the Princess about himself and her best friend after her date, but it was too late to broach that subject now.
So far, the only thing their conversation had served to do was make Grey fall even more for her.
"Why aren't either of you with her?" Missy asked.
"Robb took his own security detail and that left me an evening to talk to you." Grey explained, citing the one thing he was thankful for. At that moment, he saw headlights shine through the front windows – someone was back.
Grey tried to keep an inconspicuous profile while keeping an eye on the black town car that had pulled up out front. He saw Robb get out and walk around the car to open the door for Daenerys. "The Princess just got home. I'll text you tomorrow…"
"'Night, Grey."
Grey hung up his cell and watched as the pair stood close to one another, lit up by the headlights of the running car. Robb slid an arm around the Princesses' waist and leaned in to kiss her. It didn't last long, but they parted with smiles and exchanged a few more words before he saw Daenerys heading to the door.
He opened it for her, "Welcome back, Princess. Did you have a nice time?"
Daenerys' face was slightly flushed as she looked up at him, clearly not expecting him to be standing right there. "It was lovely, thank you. Is Captain Mormont about?"
Grey froze and after a moment, cleared his throat and answered her, "He went to bed a few hours ago. Gilly is still up if you need something or I am happy to help." He didn't know exactly why he lied about it, but Jorah had covered for him when he failed at his security duty by losing her with Daario. He felt it was only right to repay the favor somehow.
"No, I'm fine, thank you." She assured him. Throughout the entire evening with Robb she had found herself looking forward to having a cuppa and some biscuits with her royal secretary. He was usually always up late and she knew she could always count on him to share a late-night snack with.
"Goodnight." Grey smiled and left her for his own room, intent on talking to her in the morning about Missy and Daenerys sighed as she walked the opposite way to her bedroom, only bothered to take off her shoes, and flopped onto her bed.
Robb had been nothing but a gentleman all night. He had led her swiftly and surely through the gathered paparazzi outside of the Royal Albert Hall before the show and had said all the right things. And he hadn't pushed her for anything more than a simple kiss.
Daenerys, for all of the male attention she got, hadn't kissed anyone seriously since Drogo, so she didn't have much to go on by way of comparison. It had been so long since Drogo that those memories had faded considerably. Robb's kiss was nice. It gave her a few little butterflies that were still flitting around in her stomach, but it lacked the fire and need of her kisses with Drogo. Maybe everyone was just different? Maybe she had grown up and they didn't need to act like two hormone-fueled teenagers? But still – it seemed so anti-climactic.
She hugged one of her pillows close to her as she tried to drift off into sleep, but it just wouldn't take her. Her mind was filled with so many things – her obligations for the next day, the certainty that a picture of her and Robb would be plastered on the front of the Daily Mail the next morning, and feeling guilty that while she should be thinking about her perfectly fine date with Britain's most eligible bachelor, she was thinking about a man who would never have any interest in her.
~o0o~
"I love you too, Sam," Gilly blushed as she lazily walked around her bedroom in the Kensington apartments. It was half-past two and way later than she usually stayed up, but anytime she could talk to her boyfriend, she jumped at the opportunity.
"Sam…I really need to get to bed," she giggled and shook her head. He had spent the better part of the last hour excitedly telling her all about the research he was doing for his second PhD. He was a professor at Oxford, the youngest they had had in a century, and Gilly sometimes wondered how he could be interested in a fairly simple girl like herself. She hadn't gone to uni and barely made it through lower secondary school before dropping out. She had been able to work in the palace because of her attention curiosity, kindness, and hard-work, but sometimes she found it frustrating that she barely understood all of the concepts Sam talked about. Regardless, she loved to hear him talk all the same.
As he went on about the book he had just finished reading, Gilly was distracted by car lights shining through her window, which faced into the private driveway enclave. She pushed back the curtain and saw a black cab come to a stop by the fountain in the middle of the square.
"Sam, I really do need to get to bed, I'll text you tomorrow?" she cut him off, too distracted and wanting to turn off her light so whoever was out there wouldn't know she was still up. She had heard the Princess come back a little earlier that night, so she was unsure who would be out so late. Lyanna, who lived across the courtyard, rarely went anywhere and she knew Grey had stayed put all evening.
She was surprised when Captain Mormont stepped out of the cab. Gilly had known him peripherally for a few years, and now she worked with him every day as he planned out Daenerys' schedule, which dictated Gilly's work. He had always been like a reliable clock – on time, meticulous. He was kind to her and good-natured. Everyone liked him when he had worked with Prince Rhaegar, and now she knew first-hand why.
So seeing him practically stumble into the apartments at half-past two in the morning, looking disheveled seemed completely out of place. Scared of him seeing her, she quickly closed her curtain and went to bed. She never gossiped with the other staff, but she still wondered where he had been and if the Princess knew about it.