All ready for bed (Lena)

[Torin Lannister]

Ser Torin Lannister was in the private chambers of the new Lady of the Vale. He had abandoned his armour and it now rested upon a stand, leaving him in just leather breaches and a red silk tunic. His beloved wife had dismissed him. Dismissed him. Like he was some sort of squire or adviser. She may have thought he would cool down but Torin Lannister had just been stewing in his annoyance. That wife seemed to be forgetting how much she owed him.

He was gazing out the window, the light breeze was refreshing. One hand was supporting a half empty goblet, it was his fourth. A strong red, he was a large man but even he felt his face warm with it. But he was plenty sober, sober enough to remind his wife who she was and who he was. He was a Lannister, one of the greatest Knights in the Seven Kingdoms, future Lord of Casterly Rock, Warden of the West and the East. He'd be more powerful then Joffrey. Lena would learn her place.

[Lena Arryn]

After assuring the Maester and the Scepta that she was alright, unharmed and not being forced into her power play by the Lannisters Lena Arryn had been allowed to retire for the night. Long after her husband in fact.

Lena knew Torin would not be happy about how she had dismissed him earlier when he'd offered her the armor, and again when she was squaring away the details with the others. It would not bode well for her that she'd left him to his drinking and his wounded pride.
None the less, she didn't have to cater to him any more. She'd given him what he wanted, he was Warden of the East, he had married her, she now had her seat as the Lord of the Vale.

After a bath Lena had changed into a long thin dress intended for sleep. Her hair was wet, and braided her body ached all over and she felt sickly, the type of of queasiness in the pit of her stomach. She wasn't sure if it was real and true sickness of if it was a mild bout of nervousness at facing Torin alone.

[Torin Lannister]

When Lady Lena Arryn arrived, Torin's head whipped around and his eyes sought her out instantly. She looked utterly delectable in the little dress, her hair wet hair glittering under the light of both candle and moon. But Torin had no interest in the dress or how it accentuated her firm breasts or child bearing hips. The goblet came up to his mouth and with several large gulps he emptied it before placing it down roughly.

"Who am I?" he asked from across the room, his face was livid, like he was barely able to restrain himself and just may explode at the slightest thing. It was with heavy steps that he crossed the room and brought himself to tower over the Lady. Even without his armour he was an enormous man, smaller then Gregor Clegane surely, but very few others. It was no secret, in fact it was proudly boasted, that he had once broken a man's spine over his knee and strangled another to death. Causing grievous bodily harmed to a woman, even one as talented as Lena, would have been easily caused by fist swung in a moment of blind anger.

[Lena Arryn]

When Torin walked towards her Lena felt her stomach tighten, though it was not shown on her face, set firm like stone.
He was drunk she could see, but not so drunk as to pass out and leave her be, so drunk as to shake her about and prove how dominate he wanted to be.

"You are my husband, and Warden of the east." Lena said firmly. "Positions I put you in, unless you are to drunk to remember." Lena knew spiting him wasn't the best choice at the moment but she could hardly see playing his little game.

She walked passed him haughtily and dared not turn around to face him until she could control her facial expressions. She was shocked by his tone and by his body language. No one had to tell Lena Arryn how large or powerful Torin Lannister was, he'd proven it to her every night since they'd been married. He'd held her to their marriage bed and roughed her up as many times as he pleased.

"How much have you had to drink? Enough to feel threatened by a little woman who wields a little power?" When she reached the table where wine and goblets sat she poured her self a cup and then turned to face him. " She turned around to face him now. "If I'd known this was the sort of man you were Torin Lannister I'd not have married you."

[Torin Lannister]

It would seem that now that Lena Arryn had placed her bottom on a throne she had significantly more backbone. Her defiance however was directed at the wrong person, or so Torin believed. "Warden of the East, your husband and heir to Casterly Rock and the person who gave put you on your nice new throne." he practically spat it out.

Lena walked passed him, practically dismissing him again. She poured herself some wine while deriding him about how much he drunk. When she turned around he was already upon her. "A little power? Is that what being Lady of the Vale is? A little power? Is that what you whored yourself for? Ungrateful wench." A man had once grazed Torin's stomach with a crossbow at close range and earned a similar look of rage from the eyes of the Lion, the man had wet himself at the sight before Torin sent him to The Stranger.

"If you ever, ever disrespect me in such a manner in front people like that again, I will remind you why you came to me to put you on that seat and you will never sit on it again." It was true that if Lena Arryn closed the Bloody Gate there was not much in the world that could penetrate the defenses of the Vale, except for sufficient siege engines to tear it and the Eyrie down, or a fleet to sail around to Gulltown and come up on the Eyrie from behind. The Lannister's had sufficient resources to go both routes at once. Torin put her on the throne and he could take her off.

[Lena Arryn]

When he claimed she'd whored her self out for this honor she felt her eyes harden against his, her shoulders squared and her shoulders and pulled her hand carrying hold the wine back and throwing the entire goblet on her husband.
"How dare you--" She shouted. "You who has the audacity to rape me in your garden dare calls me a whore?!"
Her face was now red with anger, her shoulders shaking.

She could hardly believe what he was saying. What posessed him to be so cruel when she'd brought him such an offer? Even after he'd taken over her stage this afternoon. She couldn't even believe how this was going to start this argument with her now.

[Torin Lannister]

"Rape? Is that what you tell yourself? Make no mistake dear wife of mine, you had every chance to refuse it. You accepted what happened. It gave you an army, it gave you a throne. You might not have liked it..." his hand came up now to take the side of his face, his hand against the smooth skin of her jaw and cheek. "But if you did not want it to happen, it would not have happened and your brother, the rightful heir to your father, would still be on his throne."

On that note his hand moved to the back of her head and roughly took a handful of her hair, tugging it down to force her face upwards, facing his. "And if a whore is your only value to me, I will treat you as such. It is your choice." His hand came away from her hair and the Lannister stepped away, towards the other room that contained the privy. "Make that choice now wife. When I return you can greet me as a respectful wife and you will treat me as such in here and in public, or you can greet me as a whore. Act as defiently as you please out there, but when we retire to our chambers I will put you on your knees and I will put you on your back and make you realize I will always be more powerful then you, in every capacity." His words were cold now and absolutely layered with threat. But then he was gone, in the privy to, something that would last only a few moments.

But it was in that few moments that something else transpired. Armoured feet came upon the door to the private chambers of Lena Arryn and with no warning they were thrown open. It was an attacker, no question about it. He may have been adorned in the armour and tabard of a Eyrie guard but his face was on display, one of Lena's supposedly most loyal of supporters. In one hand he held a cruel spiked mace. "Usurper!" he growled before rushing towards the unarmed and unarmoured Lady Lena.

Just as he was about to swing the weapon down and cave in her skull he was yanked backwards by the hair, he was no small man but to Lena's defense came her husband and he was a huge man. The once proud and loyal Arryn noble Lord gave out a yell of pain as hair was nigh torn from his head and he lost his balance, a powerful fist crashing into the side of his head. He stumbled and found his weapon torn from his hand and wrist cracked. Torin was upon him now, clad in no armour but wielding the cruel mace.

With one great kick and an even greater roar the Lion of the Westerlands sent the Lord onto his back, rocking like a turtle that could not right himself. Before he had a chance to get up Torin took the mace in both hands and drove it down, turning the Lord's head into nothing but gore and pulp.

Everything was silent for a moment before Ser Torin wrenched the weapon from the mess and tossed it aside. With a quick turn of his head he turned to Lena and then rushed to her, hands coming up to take her by the head, but this time in a manner of a worry over rage. "Are you harmed my wife?" there was something to his voice, deeper the the worry or the concern. It was something of genuine fright that harm may have befallen her. In his own way, it might have even been a seed of love.

[Lena Arryn]

Lena's jaw tightened when Torin spoke to her, her body was shaking with rage as she watched Torin leave their chambers.
She looked to the mess of wine on the floor, and she let out a breath she hadn't realized she'd been holding. She turned to pour another glass of wine when suddenly the door flew open and man in armor with a mace came baring in.

Lena didn't scream, she would have had to have found her voice for that, and besides it wasn't the first time she'd had some one run at her with a weapon. She'd trained not to flinch at this for as long as she could remember.
"Userper!" The lord- a man she'd known for years shouted as he continued his path towards her.
Instinctively Lena dropped her wine, her hand went to her hip for a sword that wasn't there.

Before she could even call out Torin was upon the man and it was over before it could really even begin.
The man lay with only a splatter mark and a crack in the stone floor where his head had been. Gore and pulp littered the area about the mace.
Then Torin was upon her and Lena did in fact flinch at that she jerked away from him still fuming from what he had just said to her.
"I'm fine." She said, her shoulders shaking as he spoke.

[Torin Lannister]

"He almost killed you....I know that face! He rode with us today...at your side?" He was one of her bannermen. A trained warrior Lena may be but assassination in ones own bedroom was a different matter. A Lady was supposed to be safe in her Castle. He then stepped away, quick steps towards the door, calling for guards as he did. When they arrived he ordered for the mess to be cleaned. They took no hesitancy in pulling away the body, they were lucky Torin did not put them on the spot and question them about how an assassin got so close to his wife. Cleaning girls came to remove the blood.

While the cleaning was going on, Ser Torin returned to his wife. She was shaking, but he could not tell if it was fright or shock or lasting rage or all. There was a moment of silence while he poured them more wine. The strong red one. It would be needed to cool the nerves. One goblet was handed to her, the other he held for himself. It was occurring to Torin the thought of her being killed rather bothered him in a manner that was less then typical. "Lena...I...am..." the word almost stuck in his throat. Almost. "I am sorry for what I said. Those words were unfair and not meant. It was not Knightly of me to speak to my wife in such a manner. You are strong willed and proud. Defiant of what the Realm expects of you. You forge your own future." The Knight drank deep from his goblet. "I would not have taken you as a wife if you were anything less." If all it took was a pretty face and warm thighs to make Torin Lannister marry a girl he'd have married a Riverland nobleman's daughter a decade ago. "It is unreasonable to expect your nature to recede simply because it does not suit me at all times." His voice was sincere at the very least.

[Lena Arryn]

Taking the goblet Lena drank deep.
She was still processing what had just happened when she was shocked even more so- Torin apologized to her.
She looked up at him mouth agape and looked up at him.

"Thank you." She said simply, watching as the serving girls finished mopping up the blood.
They'd left almost as soon as they'd come and Lena was left alone in uncomfortable silence with her husband.
She nearly wanted to cry, she nearly wanted to hit him and she partially wanted to kiss him.
She hated such torn emotions and feelings, but since her fateful trip to Casterly Rock just over a month ago they seem to be all she felt.

[Torin Lannister]

Torin wasn't sure how he expected Lena to respond to what he said....but he had certainly expected a little bit more. Not that he was going to complain, they had...for now at least...a mutual if fragile understanding. He leaned into her to place a kiss on her forehead before pulling away slowly. With heavy and perhaps tired steps he walked away and around their bed. When he reached his side the Lannister sat down almost gingerly, drinking deep from the goblet of wine.

He didn't say anything, he wasn't sure what else there was to say. He had just killed man when he had thought there was no need for such a thing this day, he had fought with his wife and somewhat made up and he was on his fifth goblet of a very strong wine and lacked a satisfactory meal to prepare him for it.

[Lena Arryn]

When Torin stood Lena stood also. She almost went to her own side of the bed but instead went over to her husband and knelt down in front of him placing her head on his knee.
"Thank you for saving me..." She felt her throat release it's tight grip and her eyes burned in hot tears onto his knee. "Thank you."

Lena being a tall and strong woman rarely let her self feel small and weak, but before this giant of a man she'd married she suddenly felt very small and frail.
Holding tightly to Torin's knee Lena wept for a long time until she looked up at him eyes red rimmed and her face looking very frail.

[Torin Lannister]

"Of course I saved, you are my wife." it was all he responded with at first, but soon she started to grip his leg and cry. He stroked her hair as she did, gentle and caring like his mother did to him when he was a babe, not that he could remember. It was a sad truth that he had forgotten almost everything about her.

When she finally stopped and looked up to him he reached down to cup her face, his eyes staring deep into hers. "For whatever reasons we married, we are married now. You are my wife and I will always protect you." He was still a Knight and even if between his brother he would confess he had shit for honour he did pay some of the ideals an ounce of respect.

[Lena Arryn]

Lena stood up and stepped away from him.
"You do have my gratitude." She said looking a little unsure of what next.

Torin and Lena hadn't had very much of a civil relationship. Much of which was spent with Lena silently hating her husband as he took her each night, and much of the Torin treating his wife as if she were in greater debt to him than actually was.
Now things seemed oddly even, with little spite between them.

Drying her eyes Lena made her way to her side of the bed and sat down starring at the wall. Wondering what should happen next between them.

[Torin Lannister]

Lena left her little perch at his feet and returned to the bed. What would happen now? It seemed wrong for him to mount her as he had every other night since they had wed, when she would grit her teeth and accept what was happening because it was expected of her as a wife and she needed him to provide an army. Ser Torin was under no illusions about their physical relationship until this point. Yet at the same time he seemed wrong that this night when they finally started to accept each other as perhaps something akin to equals would end without them being intimate. But he would not take her in his tireless attempts to put a child in her. Perhaps he would let her rest tonight, if that's what she desired. If she wanted to embrace him as a wife would, she knew him well enough by now to initiate.

Instead Torin just emptied the goblet of wine before removing his clothes and lastly sliding into bed. He was facing her, she was still sitting there. His eyes rested on the back of her head, still slightly wet. Still glittering under candle and moonlight.