A/N: Here we go~! Cersei's chapter, and the decision. May it live up to your every expectations and more! Looking forward to your feedback!
Can anyone see this chapter? Do let me know, I'm still wary after all those site crashes and glitches. Many thanks to newboy (a reviewer) for offering a great many ideas regarding the Iron Islands! As always, I wanted this chapter to feel like a proper Game of Thrones episode!
Hopefully I succeeded~!
Alright, I've kept you waiting long enough, methinks. Enough of this old man's rambling; you're here for a story. Hope you're prepared for the chaos to come. Once more, I own no references, quotes, memes or themes. Not a wit or a one. Nope. They're simply tributes to legends far greater than I. Lastly, a reminder to one and all. Naruto's Westerosi name remains Nathaniel. Joanna -and now Rhaella!- prefer to call him Naruto, yet they're the only ones who truly do.
Timeline is obviously a little skewed here, but hey, that makes things...fun.
References and verbatim from Game of Thrones below. Hope you enjoy all this hard work.
Away we go~!
"Congratulations. You've managed to anger the one person whose rage you should fear the most.
For what its worth, you have my sympathy.
I doubt your death will be painless..."
~Tywin.
All Must Choose
"You're not my brother?"
Of course that was the part she'd focus on.
"In body, yes." he hazarded with a sigh, "But not my soul."
Naruto exhaled heavily, closed his eyes, and pinched the bridge of his nose in an attempt to rally his thoughts. All around them, the dream flowed onward once more, the forest thriving with vibrant life as the last lingering bits of memory faded away like so much morning mist.
Cersei seemed a bit flummoxed by his response; he didn't blame her for her silence. After all, he hadn't simply told her his life's story, he'dher shown it. Every year, month, day, hour, minute and second he could remember, each leading up to this moment. He's not simply shown her his past, but linked her to it, her and his mind alike. She'd practically lived out his first life alongside him, then most of his second life besides. If it sounded like overkill, it was. But he had no choice; it was the only way to make the stubborn lioness truly understand where he was coming from, and in understanding, see.
Unlike Rhaella, who was willing to believe him solely based on what he showed her, Cersei was far more suspicious, naturally inclined toward paranoia.
So he'd shown her everything.
Yes, everything.
Meaning she now knew about Rhaella.
Cersei pouted, hands folded in her lap where she sat.
"At least you haven't somehow slept with the Dragon Queen before me...
Naruto blinked, briefly befuddled. How had she...? Right, she was still in his head, wasn't she?
Best remedy that.
With a quick pulse of chakra, he cut the link between them-noticing her wince-but allowed the dream to persist unabated.
Cersei pouted just a little at that. "Why did you stop? I rather liked being able to hear your thoughts.
"You know why," he chided her sternly. "I'm only used to having one person in my head."
"The fox, yes." Her smile was brilliant. "Will I be able to understand Kurama, now?"
He shrugged, not quite certain. What he'd done was unprecedented. He'd never really let anyone inside his head before. Not willingly, at least. It might allow her to comprehend what the biju dragons were saying, rather than their excited -and often angry- squawks and chirpy noises.
But that was a matter for another time. They still needed to address-
"The Hyuuga girl." Cersei said suddenly apropos of nothing, waving a hand, unable to recall her name, still swimming in the memories he'd given her. "She loved you, I think."
Hyuuga...?
Oh, right. There had been someone always staring at him, hadn't there?
Many of his memories were worn down, some of them even half-forgotten due to his second life -the human mind could only remember so much-but he vaguely recalled a girl with pale eyes who barely talked to him.
He scoffed, quietly incredulous. "Who, Hinata? Nah, no way. She was afraid of me, always getting red and fainting whenever I was around. Always looking away from me, too...
"Is that what you believe?"
"Naturally." He second guessed himself even as he said it. "What makes you think I'm wrong?"
Cersei smiled sadly. "A lady always knows, and I know the look of unrequited love."
Alright, maybe she had a point there, but Hinata? With him? No way.
He shook his head. "I would've noticed if she had feelings for me."
Her brow furrowed. "You cannot be this dense. You've slept with three women. How did you not realize this?"
"Hey, hey, now." he held up a hand to ward off her rant, "I like to think I've gotten a little smarter since my first life, ya know."
"Clearly not enough, if you didn't realize you were breaking the a lovesick girl's heart."
Love?
Had Hinata ever said something like that? No way. He would've remembered. He pressed a finger to his forehead, trying to recall something. Anything. Eventually, a murky memory surfaced, worn and faded by time and years gone by.
"I love you."
She'd said those words to him.
Right before Pain drove an iron stake through her heart.
He'd gone berserk shortly afterward, given into Kurama, nearly gone insane.
How could he have forgotten something like that...?
Hadn't he held her hand after Neji died, too?
How did I forget...?
Stop.
It was the past.
Focusing on it would only bring him pain, hells, it was causing him pain now!
"Enough." He slashed a hand through the air. "I'm being honest with you, the least you can do is spare me your games."
"Games?" He expected scornful laughter, what he often got from her when they were children; instead, she shook her head and sighed. "Nathaniel, I'm telling you this, dear brother, because I had to practically beat you about the head to get my feelings across. Clearly that girl missed out. I have no such intentions."
Right, then. Moment of truth. "And those intentions are?"
She blinked and scooted a little closer to him. "I had thought that rather obvious."
He didn't budge, even when she laid her head against his shoulder. "If Mother and Father find out, they'll be livid."
Cersei looked up at him, blinking through her long lashes. "Not if you become king."
He rolled his eyes. "So everyone seems to be telling me as of late."
"Think about it." she took a hold of his hand, fingers stroking his. "When you depose Aerys and hold the crown, your word will be truth and law. You have dragons. All of Westeros will bow to you. You'll be able to do as you please, when you please, with whom you please...
Glancing down at their intertwined hands, he struggled to decipher the tangled knot of emotions in his chest.
"But I don't have a crown right now."
"You will." she nuzzled his shoulder, breath hitching a little. "Maybe not today, or tomorrow, but soon. You were meant for this."
It was his decision, then. She was placing the onus of choice upon him.
As if that made things any easier...
"Do you love me?"
The question seemed to puzzle Cersei. She pursed her lips and said as much. "What kind of question is that? Of course I do."
"No," he took her by the shoulders and her at arm's length, "Do you love me? Not as a brother, but as a young man?"
Cersei went very still. When she finally spoke, her voice was terribly quiet. "Are you rejecting me?"
She looked so small. So hurt. So sad.
He stood his ground.
"I'm not doing anything; and I won't until you give me your answer." She stared sullenly into her lap and exasperated, he changed tact. "How about this, then? Is it love or lust that you feel for me?"
That got a better reaction out of her. "I want to be with you."
"But why?" he pressed.
"Why?!" She smacked his arm, indignant. "Why shouldn't I?! Must I spell it out for you? Because you're everything I want to be. Because you have power. Because you make the world bend to your will and to the hells with the consequences. Because I've come to adore you and regret my mistakes. Because I want to be with you and have your...!
Her throat closed, choking her words off in a sob, but he could guess the rest.
Cersei wanted children. His children. With him.
That complicated things.
It wasn't just mindless lust, then. She had moon tea for that. But the idea of bringing a life into this world...or raising a little one...
...well, that didn't stem from lust at all.
Why was love so complicated?
"I...I think this is love." Cersei palmed her face, demanding his attention as she muttered to herself. "Is this what that Hyuuga girl felt? Poor thing. If only she'd been bolder." she peeked out between her fingers, giving him a sheepish little smile. "Then again, if she had, you likely wouldn't be here. Her loss, I suppose...
The thought alarmed him. He liked this life. Had grown quite fond of it, really. He had friends here. Family. He was building towards something grand, an achievement to which his old life couldn't possibly compare. Hokage of a village, you say? Pah! What was that compared to the king of a continent? Because that would be his fate if things continued down this path; loathe though he was to admit it. Sooner or later, Aerys would trip up, do something stupid, and start a war against them.
Once they had righteous cause...
"Do you love me?"
Clever girl, distracting him and turning his own question against him.
He considered his not-sister for a long moment. "You're not as annoying as you once were."
"Nathaniel!"
"Sorry." It really was fun to tease her. "In all honestly, I find you frustrating, demanding, and a bit of a bossy bitch at times...
Her shoulders slumped and her head with them. It looked like she might burst into tears.
"...but...
Cersei whipped around so fast that, were this the waking world, she surely would've given herself whiplash, perhaps even broken her neck outright.
...I think I want you, after all." he admitted, watching her eyes widen ever so slightly. "The current you. The honest you. I find myself thinking about you, even when I know I shouldn't. Even now there's a part of me that wants to pin you to a bed and ruin you; because you look so damn delectable...
Ooops. Been a while since he was that crass. Cersei shivered a little, and judging by the red in her face, it wasn't at all in a bad way.
...Ii the future, you don't have to plot and scheme and backstab to get my attention." reaching out, he took her free hand in his. "Just talk to me, alright? We're family. I'll listen to you. If you have complaints, voice them. Don't go blowing a gasket because you think I'm ignoring you. I'm not."
She blinked. "Gasket?"
"Term from my world. You wouldn't get it."
She pressed her forehead to his, sniffling but a little. "Fool of a brother...you ran away from me before. Whose to say you won't again?"
"I promise I won't, not without talking to you. Here."
He waved a hand and made the dream twist, banishing the lively forest and replacing it with something altogether far more familiar.
His bedroom.
Cersei saw the bed at once and stiffened, eyes flicking to his, then to the bed, back to him, now.
"We'll start slow." he reassured her. "That's why we're having this conversation here, where we can't cause any trouble. Consider this a test run."
She blinked, baffled by the terminology. "What does that mean? You're using all these strange terms."
"Consider it practice."
"Oh." Her eyes widened and her face went red as the full meaning of his words sank into her like a ship's anchor. "Oh! Then that means...?"
"There will be rules!" he warned her quickly. "Not guidelines, actual rules. Do you understand?"
Her head bobbed.
"We'll need to act normal in public," he continued. "We can't give anything away."
"Lyanna and the ladies already know how I feel."
"And I trust them to silence. Not the rest of Casterly Rock. Am I clear?"
Another nod, quicker than the last.
"I may be able to manage a temporary disguise for us if you're that determined to go out in public...
"How so?"
He casually used a transformation jutsu before her, assuming the likeness of an old friend before changing back.
Cersei made a curious noise trapped somewhere between a giddy giggle and a triumphant cry. "I'd like that. I can be patient. I'll be good."
Naruto sighed.
The things we do for the ones we love...
"I know I'm asking a lot of you, yet this is the price. If we're caught right now, we'll risk destabilizing everything. Not just the alliance we've built, but our cause. In the future things will be different. People can wag their tongues and gossip all they like once we're in power, until then-
She was smiling now, almost girlishly. "We?"
He huffed. "Don't read into it."
"You said we~!
Naruto stood, and drew his sassy sister up with him, unwilling to give her any more rope to hang him with.
Here at last, Cersei looked toward the bed and hesitated. "It hurts the first time, doesn't it?"
"This is a dream. It won't if you don't let it. Nothing that happens here alters reality."
Not unless he allowed, it of course, but he'd not say that.
"You're not that powerful then?"
"Oi, sister of mine...
Still, she dithered.
Patiently, he took Cersei by the hand and led her back to the bed. She allowed it, looking very much like an anxious lioness as she sat beside him, ready to maul him if he spooked her. This was the real her, none of that brilliant bravado or false confidence she put on in public. Alone, with no fear of prying eyes or discovery. Not poisoned by paranoia or fear or simply too much wine. Just the two of them, she could be herself.
He liked it.
"Cersei."
Her head snapped up, but she didn't speak; she absolutely didn't dare if only for fear of saying something untowards and upsetting him or worse, turning him against her. Not that she could. He touched one hand to her cheek, laid the other against her face and gently -carefully- steered her lips to his.
Their kiss was different than last time.
Here in the dream, he was the one to initiate it; willingly letting his lips linger over hers, drawing a little noise from her, only to draw away. She whined unhappily, but he didn't give her the chance to protest and instead began lavishing kisses upon her face, then her chin, followed by her neck. Soon enough, that whine became a gasp, a groan, a moan now as he delved lower still, exciting her further.
He'd only just reached her breasts when she came alive in his arms; she all but launched herself into his lap, practically tackling him in her haste to get at him. She one leg around his waist as her fingers bit into his back and suddenly it was his turn to gasp in surprise.
Alright, maybe he'd teased her a little too much...!
Using her own body as leverage, she dragged his face back to hers, kissing him hungrily, which he reciprocated with equal desire. It felt good to cut loose. To stop holding back. To hear her gasping his name, begging him to touch her. To get her out of this dress already before she tore it clean off...!
His fingers found the lacing of her dress first and undid it nimbly, leaving it to pool down her waist, baring her breasts to him.
Immodesty didn't stop her; she hiked up her skirts with one hand and fumbled for his trousers with the other.
Somewhere between the ripping of fabric, she wound up atop him, all but sitting into his lap.
For all her fervor, she was inexperienced in this. He wasn't. Not anymore.
The outcome was never in question.
They both went mad.
Carnal bliss.
(.0.0.0.)
Cersei awoke come the dawn, untouched, feeling more rest than she had in years.
Also somewhat sore.
Mildly concerning, that. It was as if he had been here, and her very bad, ravaging her. Yet he was nowhere to be seen. She could still feel his lingering touches, his kisses, driving her mad, yet physically, she was quite untouched. Mentally, however...
It was bliss.
Every touch, every caress, every...everything really.
Cersei reveled in it, glad to be awake for perhaps the first time in her life.
She had been hesitant at first, anxiety getting the better of her over desire. But in time fear had given way to delight, and pain had become pleasure. So many positions, so much time. While their bodies slept their minds were as one, their very spirits intertwined. They had explored every inch of another in their dream, leaving the waking world none the wiser. Even now she recalled the sheer carnal depravity of it all...
Sitting in his lap, straddling him, crying out in bliss as he took from behind...!
It was, perhaps, a pale imitation to doing the deed in the waking world, but she could see the necessity of it. This would slake her thirst for the time being. After all, if they were discovered before he became king, there would be a scandal. Even when he did take the Iron Throne -she'd make certain he did!- tongues would wag at the idea of him betting your sister. To say nothing of his other paramours.
Perhaps this was selfish of her. Perhaps she should let him go. Perhaps she was the one in the wrong here.
But she had already given up so much!
She had given him one last chance to walk away, and he had refused.
She couldn't deny herself here anymore.
Jaime was lucky. He got to swear his oath of chastity. Forget all about any desires. She was not so fortunate.
While he was off riding about, being a knight, she preferred far more carnal pleasures.
She enjoyed Nathaniel's company, but was that lust? Or was it love?
In the end, she didn't have an answer.
Time would tell.
She smiled despite herself; already longing for the next dream.
A slow, sleepy smile tugged at her full lips.
She absolutely lounged in bed all day.
And time marched every onward.
(.0.0.0.)
The Greyjoy raiders never stood a chance.
From Cornwall to Crakehall, they were set upon, one and all.
Within the span of a few months, they were driven from the West and cast back into the sea.
And once they were...
Ships sailed toward the Iron Islands.
It would be a massacre.
But for whom?
A/N: In the words of an infamous man...LET THE SLAUGHTER BEGIN.
I'll also reiterate that, yes, Jaime is still getting his pairing. Ought to be obvious with whom.
Hope you enjoyed!
Looking forward to your feedback!
So...in the immortal words of Atlas...
...Review...Would Ya Kindly? And of course, Enjoy the previews. Potential ones...
Previews are -mostly!- the same this time. Didn't want to spoil the upcoming chapters.
WARNING! WARNING! WARNING!
READ AT YOUR OWN RISK!
SPOILERS LAY AHEAD!
YE BE WARNED~!
(PREVIEWS)
"Archers! Take your positions!"
x
"Satisfied, are we?
x
Rhaegar kept riding.
His destination was in sight.
Silently, he prayed that this would go well...
x
Euron laughed. "And now it begins...
x
...no survivors."
x
Something stirred in the depths.
Old and ancient.
It awoke.
EDIT: Hey, you made it! I do hope this chapter lived up to your expectations. By all means, feel free to let me know what you think!
Looking forward to your feedback/chatting with you when I get back from work!
Hope you have a great day filled with lots of luck,
~Nz.
R ~! =D