"Well there you are." Tyrion snorted. "I thought maybe you'd left town."
"I hear your marriage has been consummated." Jamie said with distracted interest.
"Not quite yet." Tyrion sighed wistfully. "I'm afraid there hasn't been the time."
"Well I have no idea who you are or what you've done with Tyrion Lannister, but my little brother always made time for that." Jamie raised his eyebrows and the younger man gave him a deadly look over his cup before pouring him one of his own.
"How's your Lady Knight?"
"She's better." Jamie took a long drink, before tapping on the table.
"Out with it." Tyrion sighed.
"With what?" Jamie pushed the cup back and rubbed his hand against his thigh.
"Whatever you need from me." He waved his arm at him. "You wouldn't be here during your precious rest period if it wasn't important."
"You're my brother, maybe I just want to check in with you? Congratulate you on the resurrection of your marriage, confirm that the Dragon Queen hasn't found out your treason and fried you?"
"None of that would get you away from your Lady Love." Tyrion pointed at him.
"About that." He took a breath.
"Yes? I'm waiting?"
"I need to send a Raven." He whispered softly. "I don't know how one goes about doing that at Winterfell."
"Why?" Tyrion's voice was low and almost murderous.
"And I can't very well walk around asking people." He japped, gesturing at his brother. "Because they will all look at me like that. Assuming the worst."
"You'll have to forgive them. They've heard of you."
"Which is why I came to you, I was fairly certain you wouldn't put your little dragonglass dagger in my eye in the first mention of it." He sighed. "I need to send a Raven, to Tarth."
"Tarth." Tyrion slowly lowered the cup of Ale to the table and looked at his older brother. "As in Brienne of?"
"As in Lord Selwyn of." He swallowed before taking a quick breath. "I'm asking for his daughers hand."
"I don't think it will fit your stump." His brother didn't miss a beat.
"Can you be helpful?" Jamie winced, rubbing his face.
"You're not serious?" Tyrion's shoulders dropped back against the chair. Jamie stared at him."You're serious?"
"You are the one who has been not so subtly rousing me about my apparent feelings for her and now that I've decided to act on-."
"You've acted on them?!" Tyrion yelled. Jamie covered his face with his hands, before his younger brother leaned in quietly whispered. "You've slept with someone other than our sister?"
"No." Jamie scoffed. "She's the maiden of a noble house. The only surviving child of the Lord of Evenfall Hall. Of course I have not slept with her. That is why I need to send the raven."
He punctuated each word of his last sentence with slow steccato, until Tyrion's eye brows rose again into his hairline.
"Ah." He nodded.
"Yes. Ah." He countered.
"And if Cersei were to intercept it?" Tyrion blinked at him.
"I've thought of that." He sighed. "I'm sure she's got a dozen sellswords after my head by now anyway."
"Good thing your bride is well versed with a sword." The imp snorted. Jamie glared at him, which only caused him to snort louder before busting into a fit of laughter. His brother followed soon after, despite himself.
"You'll help me?"
"I'll more than help you. I'll send word to our friends in Essos. They can have someone in Tarth in a few days time." He sighed heavily. "You know it's rumored fallen to the Golden."
"She's heard, she feels that her father would yield without incident. He served Robert and he's served Cersei he has no reason to make an enemy of her now." He whispered gravely.
"And marrying his only daughter off to her banished lover? That would help him in his standing?"
"He's raised her to be strong and independent. To make her own choices."
"And she's chosen you?" His brother's voice was high and teasing. Jamie looked down at the table with a self conscious grin. "I'll send someone we trust."
…
"I don't know why you are so nervous. You know I'll marry you, no matter what his answer is." Brienne said softly, knotting her hands in his tunic as the maester kneaded the scarring tissue around the gash in her side. "This is just a show of respect."
He put his hand on her head and rubbed his thumb over her temple as she winced against the other man's touch.
"Still.." Jamie sighed. He lifted his right arm, only to set it down again when he saw his stupid gold rock at the end of it. If the Maester wasn't here, he wouldn't have the damn thing on and he could have run his stump along the bottom edge of the scar and felt the skin there. He didn't like the way it puckered slightly around the curve of her hip. He worried it would keep her from being able to lunge as deep as she had before. "What about there?" He nodded his head and the Maester pressed his thumb into the spot, testing it's elasticity. The woman on the bed hissed, her other hand locking around his wrist. "Shhh…" He soothed. "Take slow breaths."
"You take slow breaths." She growled at him through clenched teeth. "Shit that hurts."
"You'll thank me later when you still have full range of motion." He raised an eyebrow at her. She made a face, but slowed her breathing just the same.
"I think you're capable of some light work." The Maester said. "No heavy lifting, but some walking, mild activity.." The old man looked from Jamie to Brienne and back again. "Relations.."
Jamie's head snapped up in surprise, the old man raised an eyebrow at him. "Nothing too strenuous yet. Keep an eye on her, make sure she's not overdoing it."
"I-." Jamie's mouth hung open.
"Slow deliberate stretching is the best treatment." The man pulled her bed clothes down and the blanket up before nodding to them both. He looked down at her face, her wide sapphire blue eyes bore into his, the flush had crept from her chest to her cheeks now.
She swallowed at the chuckle that escaped his throat. He dropped into the chair beside the bed with a thump.
"I'm pretty sure he meant the scar tissue." Jamie assured her, leaning in and pressing his mouth to hers.
"I'm pretty sure he didn't." She scoffed. "Is it ugly?"
"What?" He blinked at her, trying to decide on what she was asking.
"The scar. You always look so concerned when you look at it."
"It's.. long." He exhaled. "You need to be able to twist and still extend your arm. It's just a thick line in most places." She nodded at him, her eyes fluttering past him and looking at the wall. "Since when are you concerned about things like that?"
"Since someones looking." She countered. "I don't like the way you wince when you look at it."
Jamie understood that. He remembered the way Cersei had looked at him when he'd returned. The way she'd sneered at his handless arm.
How he'd wanted her to touch it tenderly, to mourn the loss with him. He glanced at the woman in front of him his lips twitching into a sad smile. The way Brienne did.
Tyrion had called her a worthy sparring partner for him, and he could see more meaning now in those words. She was the right amount of tough love and quiet devotion. She was the carrot and the stick. He ran his hand across her face again before carefully pulling the blanket down and her dressing gown up. Jamie spread his fingers wide and ran his hand carefully up her side.
"It's like a crack in perfect marble." He told her softly.
"Perfect marble." She scoffed.
"You really are quite exquisite." He raised an eyebrow towards her but never removed his gaze from her skin. "So pale and soft. How can you be so strong and still so impossibly soft?"
"Jamie." She whispered his name painfully and he slipped his eyes back to her.
"You don't believe me." He swallowed. "It's alright." He lowered his lips to her ribs and pressed a kiss there. "I intend to spend the rest of my life showing you." She curled her arm back down to him, encircling it cautiously around his shoulders, holding him there against her chest.
"Then perhaps we shouldn't wait for a raven." She told him tentatively, her tongue darting out and wetting her bottom lip. "Seeing as I may need a lot of convincing and Cersei probably has a bounty on your head."
He sniffed a laugh, carefully pressing his lips to the underside of her breast before lifting his head up to look at her. She kept her wide eyes on his.
"You're serious?" She didn't recognize his tone.
"I hear it's the best treatment." She raised an eyebrow, gliding her hand over his face.
"I want to marry you." He breathed. "You're not some conquest I take lightly. I know I've made crude jokes before but-."
"Jamie." She silenced him, pressing her thumb to his lips. "We're at war. We are warriors. If we live to see another turn of the seasons it will be a miracle."
"The fact that we're alive right now is a miracle. We fought the army of the dead." He sighed.
"Cersei seems the far greater threat to you." Brienne pressed her lips together.
"She won't bend the knee." He pushed his torso up from the mattress before rising from the chair. She watched as he untied his arm before working his way out of his shirt. Brienne pulled back the blankets, holding them up until he'd settled beside her. She folded her arm over his limb, securing it to her body as he stroked her hair. "She'll die first."
"The baby." She breathed. "We have to at least try for the sake of the baby." He looked at her like he might cry, moving the slightest bit closer to her, his face drawn up in silent question. "It's your child, you've already lost more than is fair. If I'm going to be your wife I'll have to contend with any bastards now won't I?"
"This will be the only one. I swear to you." He slid his finger across her eyebrow. "I swear it."
"Don't swear things like that." She swallowed. "It's unnecessary."
"I'll make it a vow to you and I'll honor it." He raised an eyebrow. "If you don't believe me now, you will someday." He pressed his forehead against hers.
"If you make it to someday." She teased, her fingers molding themselves around the ball of his shoulder. "I hear the Lannisters can afford the best sellswords."
"Good thing my betrothed is the best swordswoman in the seven kingdoms." He nuzzled her nose with his own and she blushed.
"Who says I'll protect you?" She mumbled, he could feel her breath on his lips.
"You always have." He smiled.
"I guess I have." She swallowed hard before pressing a kiss to his mouth.
"You're making it very hard to be honorable." He sighed, knowing she could feel against her hip just how hard. He could feel her hand moving towards his groin and he lifted his right arm up just a little. "Let me do this one thing right." He swallowed his eyes pressing into hers. "I need to prove to you that I mean this. That I'll honor you, as my wife."
"Let's get married." She said softly. "Here. Tomorrow."
"Brienne-."
"And then if we live." She swallowed. "We can do it again. On the Sapphire Island, in front of the old gods and the new. I'll let my father take me down the aisle and I will look like the Mountain in some horrid dress of lace and silk and I will pledge myself to you in front of anyone who is still alive."
"You'll look like a goddess." He swallowed. "A we'll have blonde goddess warrior children that ironically would have made my terrible father incredibly happy. You'll teach them how to fight and I'll teach them how to survive. And they'll have dwarfed cousins from the North that will come up to their knees; that will ride South in the summer and they'll swim in the sapphire colored water and fall asleep under the stars. They'll be honorable. The Lannisters will have finally repaid all their debts."
"Well we have to live now." She whispered, burrowing her face into the crook of his neck. "That sounds too nice not to live it."
"It does." His voice was soft and dreamy and it made her smile.
"That settles it then. We'll marry tomorrow."
"You're serious? You're sure?" He tried to pull back to look at her but she pressed further into his body, her lips pressing against his collarbone.
"I am."
….