Rhaegar & Bellatrix

"Bellatrix," Alyssa called as she approached with Viserys cradled in her arms, fidgeting in his covers. "You're here? And the queen?"

Flustered and still shaken by Rhaegar's news, Bellatrix acknowledged Alyssa with a solemn response. "The prince is with her."

"Oh. Well, I will need to interrupt them. This little boy needs a feeding." Alyssa said enthusiastically as she shifted him in her arms. The chamber doors swung open then revealing Rhaegar, mildly surprised to see Alyssa there.

"My prince, the little one needs feeding." Alyssa said to him with a light bow. Rhaegar, without speaking, nodded and stepped aside for her to enter. Bellatrix looked at him and he at her with cold eyes as he beckoned for her to enter as well. She obeyed and followed after Alyssa.

Viserys was crying now and Rhaella stood to take him from Alyssa. Bellatrix moved to assist her, but Rhaella raised a hand.

"I will be fine, Bella. Alyssa will assist me. Kindly see to it my dress robes are ready for the Prince's wedding party."

Rhaella gave Rhaegar a gentle pat on the arm before exiting with Alyssa close behind.

They were alone again, and Bellarix quickly moved to keep herself busy. Rhaegar remained silent.

"I am to be married." Rhaegar announced.

"I heard, my lord. I wish you good fortune in your future marriage." Bellatrix responded abruptly, but also bitterly. She began unhousing the queen's fine dresses and one by one set them on the bed.

"I had hoped we could talk. I've spoken to my mother about your dismissal, and she concurs."

"What?" Bellatrix spun around to look at him. "What did you tell her? She's letting me go?"

"She understands that you can't stay."

"That's… how did you convince her that? The reasons must be far fetched and ludicrous." Bellatrix stammered, "she can't- what will she think- how do I-?"

"She understands that I can't be near someone that has taken me." Rhaegar said simply. Bellatrix stopped and stared at him, speechless.

Taken you where exactly? She thought.

He stepped forward and the look in his eyes were now more meaningful, but Bellatrix gaped back at him in wonder.

"I'm sorry, could you- could you-" She stammered.

"My affections for you have gone further than I had believed," Rhaegar admitted soberly, "Yes. That would be right."

"Affections?" Bellatrix repeated slowly, as if just discovering the word, "for me?"

Rhaegar looked her as if seeing her for the first time.

"But why?" Bellatrix asked, confused and confounded.

"It confuses me just as it confuses you. I find myself in a position I can not pull myself out of until you disagree with me. Then I can be done with it. Then I can walk away, albeit painfully. It should be enough to know that it does not fare the same with you."

Bellatrix blinked, unable to speak.

"Why? Why do you have to know?" She almost whispered when she finally could speak. "Just weeks ago you thought me a traitor. What's changed?"

"To be confronted with the supposition that the one that holds your heart may be deceiving you… you can not imagine the misery." The hurt in his voice matched the look in his eyes.

"Bell-"

"Stop." Bellatrix snapped, turned around with her hands on her head, unwilling to hear it. "Just please stop."

The feelings these words were building inside her were too foreign. She could not comprehend how something so good could hurt at the same time.

"You don't… You don't know what you're talking about. You're eighteen." Bellatrix scoffed, as if the retort would change his mind, but Rhaegar only smiled, annoying her further.

"Do you mean ten and eight? As are you, yes?"

"Not in a month." Bellatrix muttered, "but the point is you can't- you couldn't know what you feel." She was panicking now and in the tightness of her dress began to hyperventilate. She felt her chest for nothing in particular, only as if to hold on to something—anything.

"You don't even know who I am." She said bitterly, mostly to herself. What I am. What she really meant to say.

Rhaegar watched her as she silently argued with herself, with the Bellatrix that she knew and the Bellatrix she was becoming.

"You're self-willed, and tempestuous. A breathtaking beauty of a woman who doesn't see it," Rhaegar said, "You flaunt yourself a vainglorious woman and you do so effortlessly, but really you're just as vulnerable…as I am. We're not different."

In truth, Bellatrix did not see that in herself at all. She was Bellatrix Black. The disliked, fearless pariah of the Black sisters. Who was this Bellatrix that he was seeing?

She searched him with eyes of fear. "But you're kind, you're selfless, benevolent, brave. And that's not me."

"Then who is she that I see with my mother? The woman the queen deems as her own daughter."

Rhaegar moved towards her cautiously. He knew the effect he had on her. He noticed how she shunned him, how she avoided him just so she can deny her emotions any vulnerability.

This time Bellatrix did not move away. She watched him close the gap between them, watched him gently lift his hand daring to touch her face. In the softness of his touch against her cheeks, Bellatrix shut her eyes willing herself to just feel what this was… unfamiliar, but so inviting. Dangerous, but tranquil.

"Your grace," Bellatrix said, trembling.

"Rhaegar." He corrected while gently lifting her chin to see him.

"You can not— I can not." She said.

"I know I should not, but as it happens, I do." Rhaegar exhaled, surprised by his own admission. "If I may."

Bellatrix eyes glistened with tears that she tried to fight back, but Merlin's she couldn't.

"It makes you unhappy."

"You're the prince, Rhaegar, and you can't have these feelings for me. No one can. No one does." She said it more as a reminder that she, Bellatrix Black, did not deserve…any affection.

"Then I am no one."

Bellatrix sank back onto the chaise and buried her face in her hands. She felt Rhaegar kneel before her, taking her hands.

"What you are and who you are does not matter. This is much too selfish, but it is just as new to me as I believe it is to you. Would you permit me to feel this, to be a man in risk before you. I know not if I will be again. But should it happen, I swear by the seven I have you to thank for granting me this conviction."

"And if I don't?"

"It matters not. It would be too selfish to ask it of you."

"We will never be, Rhaegar." Bellatrix breathed. "You and I, we can never be. We both know that."

Rhaegar pulled her into his arms where Bellatrix sank in, defeated by the pain in her chest that bore greater than any physical curse she had ever felt.

"Then just like this." Rhaegar whispered into her hair, drinking her in all he could. Bellatrix pushed away to see his eyes. So purple, so perfect even in their despair. He did not even give her a moment to speak as he drew his lips to hers, sealing them together ever so gently, ever so tenderly.