【PINK SILK】

LORD BAELISH'S SON ROSE FROM HIS KNEE UPON RECEIVING HIS HONORS for the valiant effort he had shown during the Battle of the Blackwater. A pretty knighthood befitting of a liege lord's heir. He does not hold Riverrun, at least. Leo thought as his fingers twitched. Only the damned Harrenhal.

Even still, the lions did not need him anymore. Cunning Lord Baelish held the Riverlands in his palm──even if the people did not know him unlike his own family──he had rule over them.

The air in the gallery seemed to pull from him, leaving his throat for that of anothers or however it went. He gripped the gallery's railing alongside Sansa, knuckles bleeding to a blinding white.

This was not supposed to happen. He was supposed to be the leverage over his Tully family, holding them in line until the war came to a lull or what-have-you, but of course they did not relent. One of their own was endangered, and family came first in their hearts. If he did not become useful, the Lannister's would slay him in his sleep, not granting him the mercy of knowing when he might die, only the certainty that he would.

Lords came in a blur, welcoming their congratulations in the only way one of their nature could, with a flourish. Some made a show of praising the King or the Gods, others beamed. None could mask their greed.

"It will never be enough for them, will it?" A tall shadow whispered over Leowyn's shoulder. He tutted softly, joining Leo's side, Kiernyn had made his way up to the gallery, a cloak of black silk draping over one shoulder. "They won't be pleased even when they are dead."

"You are no different." His grasp eased on the railing, fingertips slipping against the smooth wood.

"No," Kiernyn's gaze briefly took to the stones beneath his feet, before rising once more, "but at least I am willing to concede rather than make a fool of myself." he patted Leo on the back with such force he tumbled, and again the railing was the only thing holding him up.

Sansa didn't even spare the ridiculous pair a glance. Leo assumed that were she younger, were things different, she would have glared. It seemed as certain as his encroaching demise.

It had not only been Leo who had been displaced that day, but her as well. The title of queen-to-be now belonged to Lady Margaery Tyrell, and there had never been a happier woman to wed such a brute.

Behind the veil of a rosy-cheeked maiden, he could see the thicket of thorns encircling her head, a crown better fit for a martyr than queen. Does she not know? He had wondered as she went on about 'learning to love him from afar' whatever that meant.

As Leo straightened his back, lifting himself from the railing once more, the knight beside him gave no heed to false apologies, but mused, "A little too harsh, wasn't I?" he looked elsewhere──Leo could only assume his occasional companion's gaze had fallen upon the escort of young ladies that stood like proud sunflowers behind their mistress, Joffrey's to-be queen.

The ladies wore gowns that transformed the room into a sea of vibrant color, as though they were fresh flowers plucked from their humble gardens to bask in the far brighter sun of the Red Keep's shimmering court. Some would wilt with time, as he and Sansa had, and the ones most unlucky might even die beneath the light──at least the Lannisters, with what scarce kindness they had left, would grant Leo a quick death, rather than leaving him to languish in the dimming sun as some of those ladies might well do.

"Many maidens, ripe for marriage." The newfound lordling remarked, proving Leo's assumption true. He then paused to adjust his cape, and while doing so the fabric swished and brushed Leo's shoulder. "I suspect my father already has a peach chosen for me." A soft chuckle came up his throat, dry as the Red Waste.

Quit your whining. Leo wanted to say, but did not for the sake of withholding the flimsy twig of a friendship he had with Kiernyn. "They are beautiful and come from fair houses." What is there to dislike?

"Dazzling stars blind their sight and delicate lace binds them to their family's whims." His eyes slipped from girl to girl, trailing along the colorful fields of silk and lace. Pausing on one, his breath caught.

A curious glint twinkled in his eye, he looked for a moment like a child transfixed by something they had discovered──something that had been known a thousand years, generations having walked with the knowledge common-known, but that to that child it was precious and new, almost holy.

His lips curled, a fragment of a grin. "That one," He pointed with two fingers towards the crowd. Leowyn's eyes did not follow until he said with a particular thoughtfulness, "she's the exception."

Leo first caught sight of a girl in pink silks, before he spotted her bug-eyed companion, who wore a garish honey-yellow. "How do you know?"

"She wears not her house colors but her own." His grin brightened.

Leo's brows furrowed. She holds no loyalties, you mean? How could Kiernyn know that from a single glance? How could he know even the frail concept of──the lady in pink was looking at him.

Was he being strangled? He could not tell. The feeling was there, but not the hands.

The lady in pink was looking at him.

She smiled at him. He had not known a smile like that in a terribly long time.

Then she turned away, back to her bug-eyed companion, her hand covering half of her face. 'You need not hide from me, lady lovely, some small part of him yearned to speak into the abyss for hope of being heard by her and her alone. That she might understand him in the way friend nor foe had not, but it was hopeless to even dream.

For what would an intriguing flower, so high up in her tower want to do with a floundering fish who could not even swim beneath the sunshine of her gaze?

【A/N】

FIRST CHAPTER, WOO!! This was meant to come out Sunday, but I'm moving in the next two weeks, and also I am incredibly impatient, so here it is!! I hope you enjoyed this little glimpse at Leo and Kiernyn's characters, it's relatively short but rest assured, there will probably be longer chapters once we get deeper into this fic, and the plot is at full speed.

Feel free to let me know your thoughts and theories, I always enjoy reading them, have a lovely, lovely day or night <33