A/N: This is my first time writing for the GoT fandom. Don't know what to say about this little piece. I'm sad that this ship had to end this way. Brienne deserved better. And so did Jaime.
Spoilers: for everything up to and including 8x4 The Last of the Starks.
Disclaimer: Pain comes in all shapes and sizes. Not owning the rights to Game of Thrones only pains me a little.
She'd known a lot of pain in her life. Broken more bones than she could count. She'd been on the verge of death a few times. Scars practically littered her body. Battle and fighting came naturally to her. But this, this was something else. Something else entirely.
For the first time in her life she knew what it felt like to be completely broken.
For most of her life she hadn't thought herself capable of love, of loving and of being loved in return. But then after all these years, she'd thought she'd finally found it. Was she mistaken?
She'd opened herself up, showed him her gentler side. The side no one else got to see. When she was with him, she hadn't been upholding her tough exterior, she'd let her walls fall. And for what?
For this? For heartbreak!
Being left. Standing in the cold. Literally.
He'd shown her love. And then he'd turned 360 degrees on her.
She thought he'd changed.
But instead of staying with her, he chose to return to his sister, to his old life. To the man that he used to be.
She'd loved him fiercely, but she had not been enough and her love had not been enough.
He'd opened up her world. Shown her the possibilities of what could be.
They'd grown together. Or so she thought.
The last thing he'd taught her was what it felt like to be heartbroken.
This deep searing pain, that wouldn't stop with her heart, but spread through her whole body, until every nerve ending in her body was aching from the loss.
She watched him go. Both of them knowing that what he was heading towards were certain dead. Still there was no way she could stop him; all she could do was watch him go.
With all her defenses down, she wept like a baby. It was going to take all of her strength to build up those walls again that she'd thorn down him.
She felt crippled like never before. Like someone had ripped her to pieces limb for limb and then assembled her again afterwards, but incorrectly. It was like she didn't quite fit in her own body anymore.
She was an experienced soldier.
A knight even.
She'd seen more fighting, more battles than most of her peers.
But this.
This was the worst kind of pain that she'd ever experienced.
A/N: Well nothing more to say, I guess. The end is nigh. Happy finale everybody!