Walk Before You Run (Torin)

[Lena Arryn]

Days had passed since the day they'd arrived at Kingslanding and things had been tense between the newly married couple ever since.

Once their chambers had been returned to a state of oder and the furniture had been replaced Lena was moved to their chambers and told to rest for a few days. She'd felt horribly sick and had violent shaking spells all through out the night. Pycelle had visited her regularly and kept her comfortable with milk of the poppy and other herbal remedies.

Now Lena was up and moving about their chambers, it was much warmer in Kingslanding than it had been in the Vale and Lena was able to wear a long loose fitting dress with a shawl draped around her shoulders.
Her hair was worn down and curled and she was sitting in the Hand's Private Garden taking in the warmth on her skin, glad to not feel as if she was slowly torn apart by cramping in her lower back and stomach.
Pycelle said she was healing nicely, but in her mind Lena didn't feel like it.

[Torin Lannister]

It had taken a few days and words with his elder brother and sister but Torin managed to continue, his loss was kept distant from him by keeping himself busy. During the day he tended to the duties as Hand of the King but in the quiet of night he found the wound to be too grievous to ignore.

He arrived back in the Chambers of the Hand of the King adorned in his usual armour, minus the helmet was as ever the case when he was not actually expecting combat. People had a very different manner at approaching the Iron Throne and asking for help when the person sitting on was wearing armour. It was frightfully uncomfortable however, it was almost enough for him to wear a more relaxed garb.

[Lena Arryn]

When Lena heard movement in the room she stood quickly and felt a small wave of dizziness at her sudden movement.
She was sure it was really from the milk of the poppy she'd been given late in the night which had caused her to spend most of her day sleeping, she'd only woken early in the afternoon and spent most of the day groggy and out of focus.

Once her head was collected Lena walked slowly into the main greeting chamber where she saw Torin standing in his armor, the afternoon sun through the window made him look like a beacon burning in their chambers.
"How has court been?" She asked mildly, more to let him know she was in the room with him than anything else.

Torin had been very good the past few days being scarce when Lena broke down, making sure Pycelle was able to get to her at any time to check on her healing. The bruises to her stomach and side were now a disgusting red and purple- the Maester had told her this was natural and all apart of the healing process, her lower regions were returning to normal a bit faster.
Still Lena felt bad that Torin was so put out of a home that could have been his alone if he'd left her in the Vale.

[Torin Lannister]

"Incessant." It was a one word reply, but the fatigue in his voice gave perhaps greater clarity to how it had been. He would sit upon that the Iron Throne and hear out everyone from peasant to minor Lord as they put a plea to him and he would walk a fine line in giving a response that would not show weakness while not seem uncaring. But it was required of him at this time. It was required of him.

He approached his armour stand and started to remove the gold and red that protected him in battle. Each piece that came off and took position on the wooden prop that held his armour in the shape of a man seemed to weight double what it normally did, but mayhap that was just the what armour did to one when they simply wore it without any other function.

[Lena Arryn]

Lena watched as he removed the armor piece by piece.
She felt useless for a moment and a mite bitter, she longed to be on the high seat at the Vale doing just was he was here. Instead some distant cousin was there giving his two sense about what her opinion would be on the matters of court. She sighed through her nose pushing the idea back from her mind.

To make her self feel of some use Lena made her way over to the table where state papers were scattered about, on the table was a crystal of wine and several small goblets. She poured him one and walked back over to him pressing it into his hand.
"I'm not sure if this is a good time but the carpenter was here this morning... he wanted to know the measurements for the bed. I know you felt it was to small for you, and you'll need to be comfortable to not burn out to quickly."

[Torin Lannister]

Ser Torin accepted the wine and brought it to mouth. He had clearly been thirsty, the fact that being Queen Regent had yet to turn Cersei into an alcoholic was a testament to her strength of character. "I shall have someone else handle it. I'm sure the carpenter can come up with something suitable. If he serves the Castle he must be of renown." King Robert had been good to gather as many craftsmen artists to celebrate his ego. He'd provided them with experts at the very least.

"Have you been well today?" he asked for a moment and turned his head to regard, his eyes occasionally flicking down to her stomach. Sometimes it was just hard looking at her, for she would forever be a reminder of what had been growing within her but would never know the world.

[Lena Arryn]

Lena nodded when he seemed less than interested in the carpenter. She truly wanted him to be comfortable, but certainly there were other men of his size and girth in the kingdom to base a frame off of.
In the mean time he was concerned for her well being.
"I've been well." She said turning almost bodily away from him.
It made her uncomfortable to have him watching her some times, he was so mournful about the child it made the guilt so hard to deal with.

"Maester Pycelle said it will be very soon before the bleeding stops entirely... that will be good news for the chamber maid. She must grow weary of changing the bed clothes every night."
It was uncomfortable to talk about this with him. Despite them being married for two months now they'd not really experienced each other in any normal situtation.
They'd only really ever met more than just in passing three months before.

[Torin Lannister]

"Good. Maester Pycelle has been good to us. I shall send him something when this is all over." Some little token of his gratitude. A trinket that might have value to him or some rare book or herb, something a Maester might enjoy. The sooner Lena stopped her bleeds the sooner they could try for child again. A good mounting would aid Torin in relaxing much more then some wine, not that it didn't stop him from emptying the goblet quickly and stepping to get more.

Her discomfort of his presence at times could almost be tasted in the air. It was a very different disinterest to what she had previously. Perhaps she felt he brought up in her what she brought up in him. Time would heal the wound, he know. But it could not happen quickly enough. He could not have this distraction, not now. The Lannister's had too much happening.

[Lena Arryn]

"While the bleeding has stopped," Lena went on. "It won't mean I've fully healed... it may take a few more weeks he said before you can try again."
SHe didn't want to use the word 'we' it wasn't like she was actually doing much. Usually she just lay there waiting for it to end. Torin was no master lover, and rarely did he actually hit any spots that made her knees weak.

"Have you seen much of Jaime since we arrived?" Of all of Torin's siblings Lena preferred Jaime, he at least pretended to have manners, so much more than Tyrion who made comments that made Lena's skin crawl, and Cersei whose open disdain for everything not of the Lannisters made Lena feel sick to her stomach.
Jaime at least had the courtesy to be civil with others in public.

[Torin Lannister]

"Before 'I' can try again. Just as we are accepting each other's company you see fit to remind me of how unhappy you are that you made this arrangement. Hmm?" Lady Lena Arryn had a very selfish view of the world, her wickedness was much more subtle then that of a man's. She came to Torin in Casterly Rock and told of how she marveled at the Lannisters, lying through her teeth. She wanted an army to steal a throne she had no claim to and offered her hand in marriage in return but had no interest in performing as a wife with any degree of enthusiasm. She expected everything to go her way, her needs and interests first and Ser Torin was such a brute for expecting differently. She hid behind her father's renown but lacked any of his integrity or duty. Say what you would about the Lannister's but Tyrion would never orchestrate Torin's being sent to The Wall to make himself Lord of Casterly Rock.

But Lena would live with her head in the clouds, the Eyrie was built that high up for a reason. To accomadate it. He sipped at his wine and stepped away, peeling off the shirt was stuck to his chest with sweat before dropping into a chair.

[Lena Arryn]

Lena took a deep breath and dropped her lighter frame in to the chair across from him. "I don't see any point in lying you to you Torin, I allow you to use me as a wife but I have never enjoyed my wifely duty. I would think as friends we could accept that and move past it."
Lena looked up at him for the first time since the day in the garden and didn't hate him. "If you would be my friend?"

In much of her time to her self Lena had contemplated having to spend the rest of her life hating Torin and doing things to spite him.
The thought of it tired her more so than the doses of milk of the poppy siphoned into her day and night by Pycelle. Lena had thought about that more so than any other aspect of their arraigned marriage and had come to a conclusion that felt more believable to her own mind than falling in love with her husband.
She could be friends with Torin Lannister, it would have to do on her end. She'd never felt her stomach all tied up in expectant knots around any man and she doubted she ever would, so she'd live as a friend to her husband and that might make life bearable.

[Torin Lannister]

"I never made any effort to be anything less. It was you that made things difficult." Ever since the garden. What did she expect? She was naive and a fool is she thought she would walk up to the heir to Casterly Rock, make her arrangement and the whole thing would be agreed upon with perfect trust. He had married her and that preserved her honour, but of course it was not good enough. Lena Arryn wanted everything on her terms.

He sipped at his wine and his gaze fell upon her. He could always send a Raven to the Eyrie and have his men inside burn it to the ground and then tell Joffrey to name his marriage forfeit. Let them go back to what they had before hand. But she was turning around it would seem. It had only cost them a dead child. He would not pay the price again.

[Lena Arryn]

"It was I?" Lena looked shocked. "While I admit I haven't sought your friendship before now, you have never sought mine. Consolation is not friendship, it's pity."
Her pride was wounded, and her face showed it perfectly.
She had no strength to play the dignified woman in his presence any more, she was just to tired to put up with it any more.
He'd best be careful or she might not put up with him once she was well. She didn't think Torin Lannister the type to rape a woman and he might just learn how stubborn she could be when closing her knees to him.

"Besides. You got what you wanted from me, a maiden head and the warden hood of the east, your the most powerful man in all of westeros now Torin Lannister, Warden of the East, and West, and now you're the hand of the king."
She looked away from him and leaned her head back to rest on her chair and sighed.

[Torin Lannister]

"My father is Warden of the West and Hand of the King. I am acting on his behalf in his absence." he wasn't going to say any more, he could have but he did not want too. He wanted them to move on, he wanted her to smile for a time and he wanted the guards protecting the Tower to blush when she walked by as they would pretend they had not heard her screaming his name in passion induced madness. "But let us put it all behind us."

He rose up from his chair and removed the rest of the clothes he had been wearing under his armour in exchange for something fresh. Silks of yellow and red. Just a change of clothes gave him renewed vigor. When he was finished he made his way over to her and held up his cup. "To new beginnings."

[Lena Arryn]

When he changed Lena looked away, not out of embarrassment but she didn't want him to get the wrong idea. She cared little for his body and she cared even less for his attitude. She wanted to go home, she'd wanted that ever since the day of their wedding but the journey there had been long and the stay had been short.

When he returned to the table in fresh clothing she noted him raising his glass to toast.
She looked away at first, a bit put off by his earlier rejection of her proposal to friendship but then decided better of prolonging their argument.
She took her glass and clinked it against his. "To a fresh start." She repeated. "In everything we do." she added, hopping that he might show her a little sympathy if she showed him some as well.
That was the way a marriage worked he would give and she would take, and some days she would give and he would take. Not this constant grasping for what ever they could they'd been going through before.