The Dragon and the Hawke 30
"So there I am, patting my pockets and thinking 'Oh Fuck!' when there is this thwip! from behind me. I turn around, and there's this kid stuck to a wall by a crossbow bolt," Marian sips her drink as she tells her story, "Then from a dozen yards off there he comes, a dwarf with a clean face, an open jacket, and the swagger of a man who knew that all was right in the world. He steps up to the kid, tells him 'You don't have the skills to work in hightown. Try again some other time.' He holds out his hand, and the thief drops my gold into it. Then he pulls the arrow out of the kid's shoulder, knocks him out with a punch, and walks over to me and my brother like literally nothing had happened!"
"And this was how you met your best friend, as you call him?" Tyrion asks, fascinated
"Yep, Varric Tethras, second son of House Tethras," Marian nods, "Best dwarf I ever knew."
"Well hopefully I can take that place," Tyrion notes, a smirk playing on his lips as he sips his wine.
Marian shrugs, "Don't know if anyone can match Varric. Guy was the best storyteller you'll ever meet, one of the best rogues I know, and a cool hand at cards, too."
"Oh, you want stories?" Tyrion challenges
Marian smirks, "I do indeed!"
"Well then, let me tell you about the time I was put on trial for attempted murder!"
Marian raises an eyebrow, but extends her glass as Tyrion fills his own and then offers to do the same for her. The dwarf proceeds to wow her, and break her mind just a little bit.
Looking at the pair from a distance, Dany and Missandei sit at the other end of the Queen's chamber. The Queen sips slowly at her wine as she thinks on the nature of shifting loyalties, while Missandei simply revels in the fact that her wife is having a good evening.
Staring at the pair grows boring after a while though, and so Dany turns to her favorite assistant and asks, "How do you find married life?"
"Your grace?" Missandei blinks and turns her eyes to the queen, not having expected the question.
Dany smiles brittlely, thinking of Drogo, and repeats, "How do you find married life? It took me a long time to become accustomed to it myself, but I can only guess that it is pleasant for you."
"You are correct, your grace," Missandei nods, a look of worry running across her features at Dany's expression. She gently reaches out and runs a hand along the queen's arm in quiet commiseration.
Dany's smile shifts to a more pleasant one, and she rolls her eyes. Her head turns to Missandei and she tells her, "I am going to need a little more than that."
"I have only been married for an evening, your grace," Missandei reminds her
"I know," Dany nods, "It only took an evening for me to realize that my life would never be the same."
Missandei lowers her head and takes a sip of her wine, "Then if you wish for details; I was gifted with extraordinary dreams last night."
"Oh?"
"Yes, I recall it vividly," Missandei closes her eyes, "I was in a land of boundless fields, with a sky as green as grass and grass as blue as the sea. In the distance, there was a golden palace, possibly even a city, larger than any I had seen before. And closer than that, was Marian. She smiled at me, and told me that she had never been able to bring company before. We…"
Missandei stops, and a furious blush paints red across her face. Dany smiles, "So you simply continued your nightly activities into your dreams?"
The summer islander nods, an embarrassed smile showing how much she enjoyed her experience, "Marian has always said that the Fade was the realm of dreams, and now she is sharing it with me."
Both women turn their eyes to the mage and the dwarf again, as the mage burst into a fit of laughter.
"Really? In the stew?" Marian asks after gaining her breath
"Oh yes," Tyrion smirks, "And you didn't let me get to the best part."
"Oh?"
"I was going to continue, after you regained your breath, to say that I confessed to flogging the one eyed snake, skinned my sausage, and made the bald man cry into the stew, which I do believe my sister ate!'
They both start laughing this time, with Tyrion managing to get out between chuckles, "At least I hope she did."
Marian shakes her head, "Man, you have a fucked up family."
"You have no idea," Tyrion tells her, mirth drifting away at the mention of his family, "it seems, of all their number, only my surviving niece and nephew bear any of my good will. If either of them are alive when the queen decides to reclaim Westeros, they are the only ones I will ask be spared her vengeance against my family."
"Dany likes kids, so she'd probably go for it," Marian nods
Tyrion takes another sip from his wine and raises an eyebrow at her, "You treat her grace with far more familiarity than anyone else would ever dare. How is it you were never flogged for insolence, back wherever you are from?"
Marian smirks, "Well, that probably has something to do with the fact that i'm very good at melting faces. And as for why I treat Dany like I treat you and Barristan, it's cause I feel like everyone should have a friend who sees them as a person, rather than a walking title."
Tyrion tilts his head, "I thought all saw the queen as a person? I certainly do, it is just that I am capable of showing proper respect, even when it is not truly deserved."
"I'm sensing a story in there," Marian notes
"Quite right!" Tyrion clasps his hands together and sighs. Leaning back he unlinks them and waves one in the air, "You've no doubt heard of my nephew Joffrey, now dead and former king?"
"I have," Marian nods,. "Rumor from across the sea is that he was a mean little bugger."
"He was worse than a mean little bugger," Tyrion corrects, poking a finger in her direction, "The former king was a vicious little shit. Joffrey enjoyed cutting open animals, torturing women, and starving the small folk for his own amusement."
"Wow, how did he not die in like a riot or something?"
"Have you ever heard of royalty dying in a riot?"
"Well, no, but that's because most riots… never… reach. Oh."
"Exactly," Tyrion nods. He smiles and then takes a sip of wine, "It wasn't for lack of trying mind you. I can remember the goldcloaks coming to me when I was hand of the king with no less than three plots to assassinate the king courtesy of the peasantry, a month."
"Wow, really?"
"Really. He was a terrible excuse for a human being and an even worse king. I don't know who finally managed to poison him, but if ever I do find out, I am likely to kiss them before I hit them."
"Why would you hit them?"
"I was the one accused of killing him," Tyrion tells her
Marian nods in understanding, "Right, a kiss and a hit."