Jaime

'Have you cast your vote for the elections yet?'

Jaime sighed, and laid his magazine down. Cersei was standing in front of him, arms crossed and an expression of deep consternation on her face. He smiled.

'No, sweet sister. I have not.'

The same flicker of annoyance crossed over her features, as it always did when he called her his sister.

'I told you you don't have to call me that in here.'

'But you insisted. Hey, insisted. Get it?'

Cersei emitted a snarling huff and walked away. Jaime picked up his magazine again.

'Have you -'

'No,' he said loudly. 'And I won't be voting for you anyway.'

'What?'

He looked up again. This time it wasn't his sister, or Stannis, or Beric, or any of the candidates for the next school principal. It was Brienne. She formed a neat contrast to Cersei, and a welcome change for Jaime. She was tall, nearly taller than he was, with short blonde hair and deep blue eyes. Unlike Cersei, she wore no fancy clothes, no make-up; as the female coach she had no use for such things. A tracksuit was her default uniform. Jaime's grin stretched practically from ear to ear.

'I'm sorry, my beautiful colleague,' he slapped his magazine on the table and bounced up. 'I assumed you were my sweet sister, asking if I had voted.' He put a hand out and grasped her shoulder lightly. 'What was your query?'

Brienne looked down at his hand as though it were a sudden growth on her skin. Her eyes then swung up to meet his own and he was struck, though not for the first time, at how wonderfully rich their colour was. Jaime let go of her shoulder. His grin faded a little, to be replaced by something slightly more genuine. He could see a faint blush appear on her cheeks. She lowered her eyes.

'Do you have the equipment room key?' she muttered.

'Yes, and I need the ball bag for next class. I'll come with you.'

As they walked to the door together, the bell rang. Jaime could feel Cersei watching them from her corner of the room. She was being talked at by Stannis, who was presumably trying to lecture her on her teaching methods. This was all part of his masterplan to gain the principalship.

'So who are you going to vote for?' asked Brienne.

'You know, I don't know,' Jaime said. 'I'm in two minds whether to vote for Cersei or not. Who are you leaning towards?' They entered the hallway and were surrounded by a sudden tide of students. Instinctively, they drew closer together, so close their elbows were touching.

'Apart from me.' he added.

'That's not – It's the students, I can't help - ' she stammered.

'I know Brie, I know.' he said. 'It was a joke. You'd think being my co-worker for so long would acclimatise you to me and my many hilarious quips.'

'It's difficult to acclimatise to you.'

Her last words were barely above a whisper, and Jaime pretended not to have heard it. He was aware that Brienne found him annoying, and while he would hope calling her on her remark would put a bit of backbone into the woman, it would more likely push her further into her shell.

'So who are you voting for?'

'I'm not sure. Probably Stannis.' she shrugged.

'Not my dear sister?' he smiled.

She shook her head.

'Fair enough.'

'Why don't you run for it?' she said. 'You're popular, and most people like you.'

'Ugh, and have to put up with all that paperwork?' he shuddered. 'I do P.E. because my hand is no longer fit for doing copious amounts of writing. Or even typing, at this stage. Any reports I, or at least my TA, have to fill in are minimal. I can catch a ball, and I can kick one. That's all I need.'

'Your hand,' she said. 'What happened to it?'

'Broke it, then damaged it even more trying to move it when it wasn't ready to be moved. Just means it gets tired quicker than the other, is all. It's all good, though – I've learned to masturbate with my left.'

He wanted to kick himself the second the words left his mouth. Brienne blushed a deeper shade of pink – Dear God, was a deeper shade possible? – and fixed her eyes firmly on the ground.

'There's no need to be so vulgar,' she chided. Jaime almost didn't hear her.

'I apologise deeply, Sister Brienne.' he said.

'Or sarcastic.' she added. 'There's no reason to be so snippy with me. I'm not your sister.'

Neither's the lioness stalking around the staff room, Jaime thought. He was amazed at the sudden response from Brienne. Usually when he came out with stuff like this, her primary tactic was to ignore his bullshit.

They reached the supply room, and he dug the set of keys out of his trouser pocket. He unlocked the door and turned to her.

'You're right,' he said. 'I don't treat you as well as I should and for that, I apologise.'

Brienne looked at him intently for a few seconds, before deciding that he was genuine.

'Thanks, Jaime.' she said.

She slid past him and opened the door. After exhaling a snort of disgust at the messiness of the cupboard she tiptoed inside and began to rifle through the shelves.

'Can you pass me the ball bag, Brie?' Jaime asked. 'It's under the shelf on your left.'

She bent and grabbed the net bag that was filled with the school's footballs. With a smooth, fluid motion she tossed the bag to Jaime.

May God forgive me, Jaime smiled to himself.

'Treat my balls gently Brienne, please!' he yelled, before grabbing the bag and escaping down the hallway. There were very few students in the hallway at this time, but the few stragglers that were at their lockers turned and giggled at his outburst.

Jaime would even swear he heard Brienne chuckling.