When Jaime and Brienne returned to the bed after their tussle on the floor the barest light of day was just seeping in through the tiny cell window along with a few well-aimed snowflakes and a draft that seemed cold enough to freeze a dragon's fiery breath. When they had been on encamped near Queenscrown this was about the time they would be stumbling into their furs to go to sleep after a long night of warding off the incursions of the Others, but here in the Red Keep they had the temporary luxury of sleeping in. They intended to take full advantage of the respite.
The battle happening in the north was far from Jaime's thoughts as he lay next to Brienne in the narrow bed. He had tried to convince her to take the outer side of the bed after he had fallen on the floor, but she, typically, had refused. Her condition for staying with him in Traitor's Walk had been her getting to sleep next to the wall and she would not waver. This was fine by Jaime for it gave him an excuse to hold her all the closer to keep himself from falling off again. The dim light coming through the window found them facing each other, Brienne's head tucked under Jaime's chin and her left leg hooked between both of his. It was an arduous position to be in, Jaime thought drowsily as Brienne snuggled closer, moving her muscular thigh against the ridge of his arousal in her sleep. Were he more honorable he might turn over or do sums in his head, were he less honorable he might move against her himself, just a little. Caught at the crossroads of caution and desire he kissed the top of Brienne's head and gave in to imagining a time when he could caress her awake and they could take their time learning each other even better than they already did. Jaime ached with the need to make Brienne his, but it was a sweet ache, and his resolve to court Brienne now, when they were not on a quest nor in fear of their lives had taken on the aspect of a solemn oath to himself and to her. Jaime's sleepy thoughts drifted to earlier in the night when he had wrestled Brienne off the bed for laughing at him and they had landed on the floor with him holding Brienne down, nearly nose to nose with her. Jaime had been in very real danger of lowering his mouth to hers then, the few inches between their lips seeming no barrier at all to finally kissing her when neither of them was drunk enough to deny that it had meant anything later. Jaime could have sworn he had seen the same bright spark of want reflected in Brienne's eyes, just before she had used surprise and strength to throw him off and they had ended up laughing like little kids as they lay on the floor next to each other.
Now as they lay entwined so nearly like lovers Jaime indulged in imagining what might have happened if he had kissed the wench; how the kiss would have felt as her body melted against him and his tongue sought hers, his arms and hand free to roam down her back to her waist, her hips, her ass, to feel the power there in every inch of her and to feel her start to loosen at his touch. To have Brienne surrender her restraint and run her hands through his hair, over his shoulders and down his back. He wanted to feel her pulse race as he kissed her neck...
There between waking and sleep Jaime's imagination carried him on currents of longing, and when Brienne shifted her leg against him again in her sleep he realized just how painfully hard he was, and before he could count himself back down to a calmer state Brienne mumbled a little in her sleep, her breath quickening. Jaime was afraid that she might be having a nightmare, as both of them often did. Then she sighed his name in her sleep and the way she breathed it out was not a sound born of nightmare but from some passionate dream she must be having. Brienne arched her neck on the pillow and softly called out his name again, "Oh, Jaime. Jaime…" and Jaime knew he had to leave right then. He scrambled from the bed and headed for the door. Brienne was awakened by the sudden cold and cracked her eyes open.
"Jaime? Where are you going?"
"Need to take a piss," he told her gruffly and left for the cramped privacy of the privy closet. A while later when he quietly returned to the room Brienne was sleeping soundly on her back, taking up the whole bed. Jaime crawled in, shuffled Brienne over to one side unceremoniously and laid down with his back to her. He tried to pull his share of the scratchy blanket over him, but her grip was quite strong for someone who was asleep.
"You rotten, blanket-thieving wench," he muttered, and whipped the pillow, which she had also appropriated, out from under her head. Be bunched it up and put it under his own head. Lying there in only his trousers with a lumpy pillow and the edge of a thin blanket was still better than sleeping alone he thought as he shivered a little from the breeze coming from the window.
Then Brienne turned in toward him, yanked the blanket back over both of them and growled "Give me the pillow or you'll be back on the floor, Lannister," and swiftly snatched it out from under his head, replaced in with her arm and went back to sleep. All in all a good night, her thought, but he was looking forward to both of them sleeping in her bed in the Maidenvault that night.
They awoke a couple of hours later. It was rare that they didn't both have something they needed to get up and do right away, and cuddling under the covers when it wasn't time to sleep was not something they had ever done. Given the cramped bed it wasn't the time to start, either. Brienne was the first out of bed, crawling over Jaime to get out and head for the privy closet. While she was there Jaime strolled out and pissed out a window overlooking an unused side yard. There were an awful lot of advantages to being a man, he thought, as Brienne walked back into the room, scowling like thunder. "You said it was cramped in there, but you didn't tell me it was built for a child!" she grumped, rubbing her knee, "I find it hard to believe anyone taller than Tyrion could comfortable sit in there and do anything!"
"Tell me about it," Jaime commiserated, thinking of his visit there in the night and having a difficult time keeping his smile from giving away that his business there had not been of the usual sort. How many highborn prisoners had been driven from their beds in the night because their bed partner was a little too appealing? Not many, he guessed. Brienne narrowed her eyes at him as he tried to look innocent, but Jaime was biting his lower lip and Brienne knew when he did that he was trying to keep something from her, something he was feeling especially mischievous or pleased about.
"Okay, what?" she asked in exasperation, "is there somewhere else I might have gone and not smashed my knees against the door? Or did you pull some dirty trick like putting spider eggs that were about to hatch in there? No, wait; you're the one who is afraid of spiders, so that wouldn't be it."
"I am not afraid of spiders, at least not the small kind that are not made of ice."
"You are so! You are far more frightened of regular spiders than you are of ice spiders! I've seen that little dance you do when you've found a spider crawling on you, or when you've walked right into a web." Brienne teased, "You are such a baby sometimes." Brienne picked up her boots and sat down on the bed to pull them on. "I should get back to the vault and change my clothes. I need to sit in with Tyrion and the other unit commanders today, and I had hoped to get a little sparring in before my skills get too rusty." She looked up at Jaime, who had his tunic and was trying to throw it up in the air one-handed and catch the opening on his stump. "Oh, here," Brienne fussed, catching the tunic in midair and pulling it over his head in one swift motion.
Brienne sat back down on the bed abruptly and put her head in her hands. "Oh gods, the woman who guards the door to the Maidenvault is such a gossip! How am I going to get past her without the entire Keep hearing I spent the night somewhere else?"
Jaime laughed at her discomfort, "Wench, is there anyone who doesn't already know that we sleep together?"
Brienne was shaking her head. "No, no, no, no. Jaime, the woman is a shrew! Do you know what she said to me the other day?"
"Do tell," Jaime said, thoroughly enjoying Brienne's skittishness about the old woman.
"When I came back to change before dinner last night she told me that a tall, rakish, very handsome man had been there asking after me."
"Well, 'tall' lets out Tyrion anyway. So who was this man? Could it have been Loras? Men have been known to change, you know."
"Jaime! You know very well she meant you!" Brienne said.
"You think so?" Jaime said, pretending to look surprised and flattered. Brienne was starting to look miserably embarrassed. There was something more to the story, Jaime thought. "Was that all, or did she say something else that has you blushing such a lovely shade of red?"
"Don't ask me to repeat it Jaime. I'll never hear the end of it from you if I do."
"Oh, this does sound good! Did she suggest that maybe you shouldn't be hanging out with such a scoundrel?"
"Oh, I hear that all the time." Brienne scoffed.
Jaime thought a moment, finger raised to his lips as he considered. "Did she ask if your chastity belt were locked up good and tight?" Jaime asked, and was delighted to see Brienne get even redder and more bashful. "Okay, I give up. What did she say? I promise I won't ever repeat it."
"She asked me if you fucked as good as you looked." Brienne whispered before putting her hands back over her face.
Jaime's laugh rang out loud and delighted, "Who would have thought the old crone had it in her? Gods, you don't think she's planning to seduce me, do you?"
"Jaime!" Brienne laughed, scandalized but finding Jaime's mirth infectious.
"Just think how she'll react when I spend the night with you there tonight," Jaime told her.
"Oh, gods!" Brienne huffed out and let herself fall back on the bed. "She would be listening at the door all night…"
"With Cersei at her side, no doubt," Jaime said drily. Brienne peaked though her fingers at him to see if he was serious.
"Too soon?" he asked with a crooked grin. Jaime was finding Brienne's discomfort endearing. He very much wanted to tease her about what the old woman had said and see how many ways she could talk around, but not get near, the subject of the two of them doing more than just sleeping together. "So, I have to know," Jaime said and lowered his voice, "what did you tell her?"
Brienne sat back up and looked at him somberly for a couple of minutes before telling him, "I told her that you fuck even better than you look, and that she better keep her wrinkled old hands off of you 'cause I have a sword and I'm not afraid to use it." And then she fell back on the bed laughing at Jaime's expression that she had called his bluff.
In the end Jaime convince Brienne to send a servant to go to the Maidenvault for her clothes so that she wouldn't have to face the crone yet.
"That solves the problem for right now," Jaime told her, "but we have to get past her later tonight, and I may have an idea."
A while later, after they had discussed and agreed on Jaime's plan for getting him into the Maidenvault, Brienne's clothes were brought and she made him wait outside the room while she dressed. "What is it you think I haven't seen, Wench?" He called out "Probably for the best, though, you know. If I had to be in there watching you get dressed we might not leave again for hours! You're sure I can't help?" He was safe enough to say these things from the other side of a door. Brienne would take them for a joke and he could have the fleeting pleasure of knowing that he was a very long way from joking. He was also loud enough for his guards to hear, which would help with his plans for sneaking into the Maidenvault. Having the Dothrakis believe it was a lover's tryst would only help their cause.
Not only did most people in the Keep and all of their fellow fighters in the north already know that Jaime and Brienne always slept together, but nearly everyone also assumed they were on far more intimate terms. So much left unspoken between us while others have already decided we are lovers, Jaime thought, everyone sees it but us. Brienne was the best friend Jaime had ever had or ever could have, but he wanted so much more. There had been so many times when he thought he could read the wish for more in her eyes as well, before she could hide how she felt. And then there were the other, less subtle clues like drunken kisses that one or the other of them would steal, and the even less subtle little teases Brienne had come to indulge in when they lay next to each other, the sensuous shifting of her hips sending his blood racing. For a long time he had believed it to be accidental, something that his naïve, innocent Brienne would never do on purpose, but now he was almost sure that, last night at least, was completely on purpose. And then there was her dream, and how she had said his name…best not start thinking about that again.
Although, now that he did think of it (and how could he not?), he still owed her for tormenting him on purpose (probably) before they first went to sleep. It might mortify her to have others suggest they were having sex, but it clearly was on her mind. Maybe it was more embarrassing to her because it was on her mind?
When Brienne finally allowed him back into the cell Jaime asked "So how did you sleep last night?" He watched her settle her on sword belt on her hips, schooling his face to show only friendly concern, "Any interesting dreams?"
Brienne glanced up from buckling on Oathkeeper, looking caught out for a beat before hiding it under cover of fussing with the dark blue belt at her waist and tugging her black wool tunic into place. Much of the awkwardness in her own skin that had marked Brienne when Jaime had first met her had gradually melted into more confidence and ease, at least when she was clothed in something suited to her. Jaime thought she had never been awkward in armor, though she still acted as though any sort of dress was designed to make her look foolish, and she still managed to look like an ox trying to tiptoe through poppies when she was forced to wear one.
She hadn't answered his question about having any dreams. "I thought you might have been having a nightmare this morning," Jaime persisted, "you were breathing hard and I almost woke you up, but then you said my name…" by now he was smirking.
"Did I?" she said blandly.
"Twice."
"Huh, that does sound nightmarish," she remarked, her off-hand tone at odds with the blush creeping down her neck.
"I think the phrase you used was 'oh, Jaime,'" he said, driven to provoke more of a reaction, though he kept himself from mimicking the way she had said it in her sleep.
Brienne walked past him out the door, patting him on the shoulder as she went. "In your dreams." She said and headed for the stairs knowing that he would follow.
At the bottom of the stairs they parted. Brienne to go meet with the various commanders of the new Silver army, Jaime to go into King's Landing to meet with the blacksmith about something new he was having made for his stump.
Jamie watched Brienne stride out into the courtyard and thought about another errand he might do while he was in town. He and his Dothrakis walked together to the stables, the three of them looking more like companions than a prisoner and his guards.
