Chapter Text
There was a wreath on the door of Baratheon and Tyrell’s apartment.
Jaime Lannister paused in place, head cocked to one side before the reason became clear with remembrance. The sigh that came from his throat was small and involuntary, the pang of something like regret left his stomach unsettled.
His attention was broken by the thump of a warm, furry body against his shins and Jaime reached down to give his dog a brisk scratch between the ears. “Come on, buddy,” he said quietly, tore his gaze away from the ring of black tinted roses and unlocked his own door to go inside.
Days and then weeks passed before the wreath was finally taken down, though Jaime never saw if it was one of Baratheon or Tyrell’s contingents who did so.
He did notice, however, when the door was left wide open, boxes piled in the entryway.
Jaime wrestled his dog back into the apartment, closing the door firmly behind him before looking around. The two other doors on the floor remained shut, strangers behind them that he’d only seen occasionally in passing, no one that he could pull aside to trade intel in regards to the new neighbor. He chanced a glance through what used to be Renly’s front door, surprised to find that it held the same furniture that he and Loras had filled the place with: sleek modern pieces, plush rugs and abstract art on the wall.
From somewhere below him came a meow.
He peered into the pet carrier just inside the door to find a pair of yellow-green eyes and orange fur pressing into the front panel and the cat let out another plaintive meow. Reaching a finger in to stroke at its soft head, Jaime said, “Can’t imagine you’re here by yourself.”
The cat didn’t answer. Obviously.
A quick glance at his watch told Jaime that any further delay would get him stuck in midtown traffic for sure, so he made his way to the elevators, the doors smoothly spreading as he approached. They revealed what had to be the newest tenant - and it was someone he had seen before.
“Hey,” he said, surprised.
It was the giantess, one of Renly’s friends he’d seen enter and exit the apartment at random intervals over the few years they’d shared a floor. Blonde, blue-eyed, tall, the first things that he’d thought when he caught sight of her, he thought them again in that moment.
She only gave him a curt nod, shifting the box in her arms and Jaime eased to one side so she could pass. He opened his mouth to say one thing or another, maybe welcome to the building or what’s the cat’s name, but his voice died in his throat when he saw the dark circles under her still brilliantly blue eyes, the pallor of her complexion that was such a contrast to when he’d last seen her.
(The dog pulled at the leash like the spaz he was and Jaime was trying his best not to get tangled in the mess when the elevators slid open. Renly came staggering out, the big blonde following after like a distinctly attentive septa.
“Jaime! Lannister!”
“Renly,” Jaime said back, looking between them, waiting for an introduction he’d never managed to get in the past. The leash snapped in his hands again and he hissed cool it! in a downward direction.
“It’s the best, Jaime, it’s the godsdamn best,” Renly nearly spun in place, the fumes of whatever he was hosed on nearly knocking Jaime back where he stood, “can you believe it?”
“I cannot.” He raised his eyebrows and attempted to trade an amused glance with the woman, but she hadn’t turned in his direction, her warm gaze was on Renly alone.
“We’re going to have a baby!” Renly shouted joyfully, eyes bright and smile wide. He stumbled over his feet and the giantess grabbed his elbows to keep him steady, eyes rolled heavenward in contrast to the fondness of her smile. “I’m going to be a dad!”
Renly kept grinning and shook his head as he struggled to pull his keys out of his pocket, crowing in delight when he found them.
“That’s, uh, that’s great,” Jaime replied as the tipsy Baratheon was wrangled by his friend, her muscles flexing interestingly as she struggled to keep him upright. “Does Loras know he’s been replaced by a new and improved model?”
At Jaime’s gesture toward his friend, Renly burst out laughing. “What, Brienne? No, it’s mine and Loras’. The best of mine and his. It’s going to be beauuuuuutiful.”
“I don’t know how much he’s had to drink, but I’d be worried that he’s lost his grasp on basic biology,” Jaime said in the woman - Brienne’s - direction.
“He’s fine,” Brienne said shortly, her face having gone a splotchy red in her exertion. It made her eyes look all the bluer, even if she frowned and lurched forward when Renly finally managed to unlock the door and face planted into the entryway. “For gods sake, Renly-”)
He’d learned her name and that she could pick up a grown man like a sack of flour to haul him inside his home, but that was the last Jaime had seen her. She’d looked a lot happier then. Renly and Loras had been a lot more alive.
“Brienne,” Jaime said abruptly.
She stopped at the doorway, turning slightly towards him, confusion etched on her pale face.
“Brienne, right?”
She nodded.
“I, uh,” Jaime scrambled for the words, suddenly feeling useless and wishing he’d said nothing at all, “I just… I’m sorry. About Renly. And Loras. Both of them.”
Her mouth pinched and her jaw clenched and Jaime wanted to erase every second of their interaction, to go back in time to approximately a minute before. He’d say hi to the cat and then say nothing as Brienne passed, pretend to take no notice of her or the grief that had settled around her in a gray, stormy cloud, her eyes stark with loss and sorrow. They could have met on a better day, months from now, when Jaime felt a hell of a lot more surefooted.
But then she finally said, “Thanks,” in a low, tired voice and went inside the apartment, leaving him alone on the landing once more.
Jaime jabbed the elevator button to call it back and silently contemplated to himself that maybe next time would go a little better.
It didn’t.
“What?” Jaime’s tone was impatient, harsh, in suitable reflection to the hard, insistent hammering that had called him to his front door. “What is your fucking prob-”
Brienne.
Jaime was startled into silence. The hand holding his dinner in a take out carton dropped enough that his dog took the opportunity to pounce on the presumed reward and Jaime shouted at the scrape of claws on his arm. “Aw, damn it!”
His dinner splattered on the floor and Jaime let out a frustrated breath before turning back to his new neighbor standing at his threshold. “Yeah, what?”
The disappointed, judging look on her face was wholly undeserved. Was she the one who had to go to the nearest Myrish cafe to get a replacement meal? No. No, she wasn’t.
“Your dog,” Brienne said with gritted teeth, “barks all day. The whole damned day.”
“Well, he’s a dog, they do that,” Jaime groused back and crouched down to to swipe up the box, its contents licked clean. He used it to swat lightly at the shorn canine flank as it scampered away and called out, “You dick!”
Brienne made a frustrated noise above him. Jaime studied the empty box, annoyed by them both and asked, “Is that all? It’s not like any of the other neighbors have complained.”
“It’s not the noise, it’s the constancy. And, yes, dogs bark, I’m not an idiot. They bark when they’re excited or they’re playing, but not continuously, without ceasing.” Brienne glowered down at him and Jaime bounced back up to minimize their difference in height to a measly inch or two instead of the great expanse of her legs and torso - no matter how modestly she dressed, that much about her was always on full display. “They only act like that when they’re not properly trained or exercised, when they don’t get enough attention.”
“I have someone who comes by everyday,” Jaime protested. “He gets plenty of exercise.”
Brienne raised her hands to her face, her long fingers forming a steeple over the bridge of her crooked nose. Her eyes were shut and when she spoke again, her voice was strangled into false calmness. “I’ve kept an eye out over the last few days, your walker comes by for ten minutes, at best. They take your dog out and come back and drop him off in less time it takes for me to make a sandwich. He barks before and he barks after and it is frankly offensive that you think that’s enough.”
“Now wait, that’s…” Jaime trailed off, his mind going blank with anger, “that little shit. He told me he’s been taking Tiger out for at least an hour or two.”
Whatever showed on his face, it was enough for Brienne to move from defcon one to maybe one point five. “Just… now you know. Do something about it, will you?”
“Fine, yeah,” Jaime replied, already pulling out his phone to call his nephew and stopped short. No, better to call Cersei and really get the message across. He was dialing when he looked back up to give a grudging thanks, only to see Brienne across the way, disappearing into her apartment.
If he had his way, their paths wouldn’t have crossed for weeks, months perhaps, whatever it took to reset them back to a friendlier baseline. The next morning, however, Jaime walked out to the landing and caught sight of Brienne exiting her apartment as well. But then she stopped, just as he did.
Her fury from the night before had somehow washed away and Brienne wouldn’t quite meet his eyes as she said, “About last night-”
“I fired the dogwalker. Or, at least as much as you can when they’re your sister’s kid,” Jaime told her. “She’s even making him pay me back-”
“-I’m sorry,” Brienne interrupted, “that was… I wasn’t feeling my best yesterday and-”
“-no, that’s fine-”
“-I just haven’t been myself lately.”
“-it’s probably best I know now, I can arrange something better.”
Their overlapping words fell to silence. Behind him, he could hear Tiger clawing at the door on the other side, still full of energy despite the near hour Jaime had committed to spending time with him before getting ready for work.
“So, um, Tiger, you said?” Brienne motioned to the clamoring.
“Yeah, my brother has the worst sense of humor,” Jaime answered. At Brienne’s puzzled look, he said, “Our family crest is a lion, he likes being contrary.”
“Oh.”
“Mmhmm.”
Brienne looked down at her feet and shuffled them before looking up and saying, “I really am sorry, I was out of line.”
“No, I get it.” Jaime wasn’t used to being gentle with, well, anyone, but it was difficult to hold a grudge against someone who was so clearly miserable. He searched for words to say, but the idea of bringing up Renly even now seemed like the worst choice to make and he could think of little else they had in common. Instead, he said, “Do you know of any good services around? I already tried a place before all this, but I got Tiger back with the stupidest grooming I’ve ever seen, ass hair shaved clean off. I won’t take him back there.”
“I’d wondered about that,” Brienne said, her face breaking into a faint, closed-mouth smile.
“I wasn’t even asked. Believe me, I wouldn’t make him look that stupid on purpose, even if it’s normal for the breed, I’m not that much of an asshole,” Jaime replied.
The smile got very slightly warmer. “What kind is he anyway?”
“A lowchen. Means little lion. Another one of Tyrion’s jokes,” Jaime finished lamely. Tyrion had cackled like a loon the day he’d handed over the wriggling, fluffy puppy. Jaime had been ready to hand it back when it snuggled into his neck and he’d been lost to Tiger’s thrall ever since, no matter how much destruction he left in his wake.
“Funny,” she said back, clearly out of politeness.
There really wasn’t much else he could think to say, so Jaime tipped his head towards the elevator and said, “Best be off. Going to try sending my assistant over later, but I’ll come myself if I have to. Hopefully things will improve.”
“Actually,” Brienne took a brief step forward and then rocked back on her heels, her face going pink, “I can help, if you’d like. It’s the least I could do, after behaving the way I did.”
“That?” Jaime laughed lightly. “That didn’t even rate on the Lannister scale of unreasonable behavior. You actually had the right of it, which we rarely do.”
“All the same, I’d like to make amends,” Brienne insisted. Her shoulders dropped slightly, her expression shuttered as she averted her eyes. “It’d be” - a slow breath in, out - “a good distraction.”
“Sure, of course.” Jaime twisted his keyring, freeing the correct one and moved forward to press it into Brienne’s warm palm. He pulled out his phone and handed it over, encouraging her to add her number into his contacts. “There’s an alarm, but text me when you need in or out, I can shut it off remotely.”
“Sounds good,” Brienne said quietly, handing his phone back. He glanced down at it. Brienne Tarth.
Well, people had certainly met under worse circumstances.
It was difficult for him to figure out if Brienne Tarth was a genuinely kind person or if she had the biggest guilt complex of anyone he’d ever met in his life.
Worse, Jaime was starting to suspect it was both.
They didn’t see each other much in person and the messages they traded were brief, Brienne alerting him when she needed to get Tiger out of his place or to return him home. His original key stayed in her possession and he had to dig out a spare for himself. Despite the time he mentioned that he’d found a possible dogwalker who came by the building for other tenants, Brienne’s return text had been a polite that’s all right, I really don’t mind. She’d said the same when he’d tried to recompense her for her time. On top of that, the times she took Tiger out were getting longer and longer, stretching past the original hour to the full morning or afternoon, and then all day.
i think tiger might be slowly being kidnapped, Jaime typed into his phone. dognapped?
Tyrion sent back ????
my new neighbors been taking him out for me but hes spending more time with her than i do
I didn’t give you that dog only for you to give him away, Jaime.
He sighed roughly. thats what i mean shes slowly luring him away one day he wont come back at all is this what gaslighting is
You of all people should know what gaslighting is. No, this is you being a neglectful pet owner. Get your shit together, man. That was the whole damn point of Tiger in the first place.
but she’s sad! i thought it might help it seemed like it would
Who is this woman anyway?
brienne tarth she was a friend of renlys and moved into his place since you know
The blonde giantess?
Jaime stared at his phone.
how did you know that
You’ve mentioned her before.
no i havent
You definitely have. Tall, blonde, crazy strong, according to you. Bluest eyes ever, if I recall correctly. Let me see. There was a long pause and then a screen capture popped up and Jaime opened it to read the timestamp from at least three months before and the words that matched what his brother had described. Tyrion wrote again before he could regain his bearings. I have a mind like a steel trap, dear brother, and proof to back it up. Finally got her name, did you? I’d be impressed, but I’ve managed to date at least three different women in the time since.
Jaime turned off his phone.
It wasn’t any better when his call with Oberyn Martell morphed from business to friendlier territory.
“Anyway, I don’t think I’ll make it down there for at least a few more months, so give my best to Ellaria,” Jaime told him.
“She’d rather you give her your best in person, but I’ll pass that along,” Oberyn said with a chuckle.
Jaime huffed out a laugh, thinking warmly of the last time he’d seen them. His mood was dashed just as quickly when he recalled the wreath on the door he’d seen after his last trip to Dorne. “Hey, uh, you heard what happened with Renly Baratheon and Loras Tyrell, right?”
“Of course, I sent my condolences to both families. Such a tragedy and so pointless. They shouldn’t have been flying in that weather, but those are the Stormlands for you, a tempest can form with little warning.”
“Yeah…” Jaime trailed off.
“Why do you mention it?”
“Oh, well, a friend of theirs moved into the apartment across the way, she’s been taking Tiger out for me the last couple weeks.”
Oberyn’s silence was telling and Jaime felt a gnawing sensation that he’d given too much away with only a few words. He was proven correct when Oberyn chuckled again, high and delighted. “The statuesque wonder with the blue eyes?”
“Fucking fuck, you too?” Jaime groaned. “I don’t even remember saying anything.”
“You rarely mention any women in your life, despite Ellaria’s attempts to draw something out when your guard is down” - after they’d both wrung him dry, more like, but Jaime didn’t bother splitting hairs - “so it’s memorable when you mention her.”
“I’ve done it more than once?”
“Enough that Ellaria is rather hopeful you’ll eventually make a move and maybe she can join in our special visits.”
It was suddenly too hot in his office and Jaime pulled at his collar as the vision flashed in his head, the twining of pale skin with tanned limbs, blonde hair and blue eyes clashing with brown. Just as quickly, Ellaria and Oberyn disappeared from the image and it was just Brienne, the red flush on her cheeks, her long body moving under his and -
Oberyn laughed again, even louder. “You’re thinking about it!”
“I am now, damn it Martell!”
“Ellaria is going to love this.”
“It’s not like - I can’t do anything now, she’s a wreck over Baratheon, it’s obvious they were close.”
“I’ve always found a vigorous round of lovemaking to be more than enough to dispel any dark moods,” Oberyn replied, but he sighed lightly. “You’re an honorable man, Jaime, a rare find in your family. Perhaps you can spend time with her in the meanwhile. It can’t be too much to try to get to know her.”
“Maybe,” Jaime muttered.
“Keep us apprised of any changes, you know Ellaria lives for these kinds of things.”
“Like you don’t,” Jaime retorted.
“There’s no shame in loving love, my friend.”
“Hanging up now.”
Oberyn was laughing again when he did.
The day he arrived home, habitually bracing himself for an onslaught that never came, was the day things changed.
Instead of jumping on him like every single day for the last several months, Tiger sat back on his haunches as Jaime walked in. He eyed the dog suspiciously as he shed his suit jacket, but Tiger remained sitting, only tilting his furry head until Jaime put out his hand to beckon him over; he finally came forward and pushed his head under Jaime’s palm, tongue hanging from a happy canine grin.
“Did she… trade you out?” Jaime asked with wonder. “Tiger?”
Tiger perked up.
“Nope, that’s you,” Jaime said slowly. On a hunch, he said sit and marveled when the dog plopped down on his backside. “Holy shit.”
He ran through a few different cues he could remember from movies or tv shows, chuckling when Tiger shook hands, rolled over and played dead on command. Jaime found himself grinning with each successful trick and started to take out his phone to send a text, but hesitated before doing so.
A minute later, he was knocking at Brienne’s door, rolling up his sleeves and unbuttoning the first two buttons of his shirt just before she came into view. “Hey, hi,” he said, wincing at the eagerness in those otherwise unremarkable words.
“Everything all right?” Brienne didn’t quite look unwelcoming, mostly just wary.
“Yeah, damndest thing though, I came home today and Tiger seemed to have a personality transplant. I was thinking I probably had you to thank for that.”
She flushed a deep red, looking pleased but embarrassed about it at the same time. Jaime found it more charming than was probably healthy. “Oh. Yes, I… I had free time and he’s a pretty smart dog…”
“He knows how to high five now!” Jaime said brightly.
“Yeah, I liked that one,” Brienne replied.
“Well, it’s early yet, but I’m starting to feel a little hopeful that I may never again arrive home to find he’s trashed the place,” Jaime smiled widely, “so you’ve got to let me thank you.”
“You’re welcome. It really wasn’t that much trouble.”
“No, seriously, you’ve been a life saver but this is above and beyond,” Jaime said in a rush, hoping to stop her before she shut the door again. “Have you eaten dinner? I can order something for us both. As a thank you.”
Brienne shifted awkwardly where she stood. “I have, actually.”
“Then how about - oh, who’s this then?” Jaime crouched down as the orange cat he’d last seen in the carrier edged out past Brienne’s legs, sniffing curiously in his direction. “Hey there.”
He watched out of the corner of his eye as Brienne came down, knees bending gracefully as she did. She curled a hand over the cat’s back and it arched against her fingers. “This is Salmon.”
Jaime laughed. “Are you serious? A cat named Salmon? That’s awesome.”
“Wasn’t trying to be contrary,” Brienne said, a muted smirk on her lips, “but the color fit, so.”
“Tiger and Salmon,” Jaime mused. “Are they friends? Can cats and dogs be friends?”
“They can and they are,” Brienne confirmed. She made a groaning noise and stood back up; Jaime staying hunched down to stroke Salmon’s soft fur a little more, trying to think of something to prolong their interaction.
The idea was so obvious when it came and he glanced up at her to say, “How about something to drink? My brother gave me a bottle of wine that’s remained unopened for far too long. I’d be happy to share.”
Brienne sounded vaguely regretful when she said, “Thank you, but I can’t.”
Jaime knew he was on the edge of pushing too far, but he was going to try one last game attempt when his brain suddenly stumbled to a halt at the sight of Brienne raising her shoulders in a stretch and then putting her hands on her hips, her back going in a cat-like arch that he’d last seen Cersei do when she was carrying Tommen. He blinked rapidly, as if it would clear the sight before him, but there was no mistaking it now.
“You’re pregnant,” he said, rather stupidly. So fucking stupid.
Very clearly pregnant, based on the outline of her abdomen as it stretched against her shirt, no two ways about it. Only one way. A pregnant way.
Jaime stood quickly before he could topple to the floor in shock. Salmon meowed in offense when he did and darted back behind Brienne, vanishing altogether.
“Yeah.” Brienne rubbed at her belly, her decidedly pregnant belly.
“Wow, I didn’t know. That’s, uh, that’s great, congratulations.” How had he missed it? What else had he missed? Was her husband somewhere behind the door, laughing his ass off at the idiot from across the hall that’d been futilely trying to make a pass at his wife? “How- how far along?”
“Just shy of five months,” was Brienne’s reserved reply. Somewhere in the pitiful wails of disappointment in his mind, Jaime’s attention caught on it and he looked at her more closely.
Her tone held nothing of Cersei’s smugness that had been so prominent during her pregnancies. Cersei had been all haughty delight, that she was the first of them to give their father grandchildren, not that Jaime or Tyrion had been racing against her to begin with. Granted, Brienne didn’t seem to be the kind of person who naturally trended to smugness, but neither did she look especially… happy. Quite the opposite.
Jaime tried not to show that a cold trickle of disquiet was running down the center of his spine. He kept his voice as even as possible to ask, “Brienne, is everything all right? Do you need anything?”
“I’m fine,” she said in the same nearly blank way as before.
He stepped slightly closer, chancing a look past her, trying to see inside the apartment, to hear if someone was out of sight. In a low voice, he said, “Look, if you’re not okay or not, I don’t know, safe-”
That got a reaction, one in which Brienne reared back in surprise. “What? What are you talking about?”
“You’re being kind of weird,” Jaime said in a harsher whisper than he intended, thrown once more by Brienne’s irregular responses.
“You’re being weird,” Brienne shot back.
Jaime spread his hands and gaped at her. “I’m just trying to help.”
“Help with what?” Brienne asked, exasperated. “And why do you keep looking behind me?”
“There’s no one there?” Jaime asked haltingly.
“Aside from Salmon, no,” Brienne replied firmly.
The relief that came over him had a strange complexity that he couldn’t even begin to untangle, never mind that Brienne was looking at him like maybe she‘d be better off with a solid door between them.
“Sorry, wait, sorry,” he said when Brienne eased backward, unmistakably guarded now. He ran their exchange through his head and felt all the more ridiculous for it. “You’re right, I was being weird. You seemed… not okay. Pregnant women I’ve known, well, it was just my sister and she’s not exactly the standard of normalcy, but even she was a lot more excited to tell people she was pregnant. You weren’t. It threw me off, made me think something might be wrong.”
Brienne crossed her arms and softly sighed at the end of his rambling, visibly contemplating something and then she finally kicked open the door with her heel and said, “Come on in.”
Jaime drank the glass of water she’d provided, taking long gulps until it was completely empty and he set it down on her - Renly’s - coffee table. Renly’s.
“It’s Renly’s?” He couldn’t keep the astonishment out of the words. “Renly Baratheon’s.”
“And Loras’,” Brienne added gently, her eyes soft with melancholy.
“That not how things work, do they? Did that change when I wasn’t paying attention?”
Brienne let out something that was barely a laugh. “No, it’s still - no. They had a donor, from a Tyrell. A female one.”
“Well, that’s something,” Jaime mumbled. “But you’re the one carrying it.”
“As you so astutely observed, yes.” Brienne looked down at her own stomach, patting it much as one would an unfamiliar dog. “They needed a surrogate and I offered to help.”
“But now they’re…” Jaime’s throat went dry with the idea of it and he regretted finishing his water so quickly.
“Gone.” Brienne wouldn’t meet his eyes anymore, her hands dropping to her sides. “Yes.”
Jaime muttered a slew of curses, stifling them by bringing his elbows to his knees and fist to his mouth. He took a deep breath and said, “I’m really sorry, Brienne. That’s, I can’t imagine what it must be like.”
Brienne pursed her lips together and nodded, the movement jerky.
“You don’t-” Jaime stuttered internally over it. “You don’t have to talk about it, if you don’t want to, but, what’s going to happen?”
“It’s unclear,” Brienne answered tightly. “Their families, they insisted that I move here in the meanwhile, get some rest” - she said it like it was a dirty word, any other time it would have made him laugh, but absolutely nothing about her slumped posture was funny - “but nobody is ready to really decide anything about it. So I’m just here until they figure it out.”
“But what do you want?” Jaime asked. The way she brought her startled gaze back to him left him with the unsettling inkling that perhaps he’d been the first one to pose that question.
There were several beats of silence as Brienne considered it, then she shook her head and sadly said, “I want Renly back. But I can’t have that, can I?”
