He never imagined he would have someone like you by his side least of all in war. You were no lady of court, no soft-spoken noble trained in the art of pleasantries. You had come out of nowhere, bearing the sigil of Sunspear and a face kissed by the southern sun, brown hair tied back loosely, long and wild, like something the wind itself could not tame. They said you were a gift, a token of peace offered by House Martell one of their finest, sent to strengthen ties and avoid the breaking of oaths and bones alike.

He expected arrogance. Defiance. A Dornish temper unfit for command.

Instead, he found restraint. Precision. Quiet obedience without fear. You wore your armor with the ease of breath, heavier than it looked, your hands calloused but graceful, your posture always alert. You took orders like SerCole, but not out of loyalty to crown or creed only something deeper, something unspoken. Pride, perhaps. Purpose. A past he never asked about.

He kept you close.

You were a weapon. That was what he told himself. Not a woman, not a temptation. Just a sword, a tool, a shadow that obeyed. But then came the silences too charged. The glances too long. You never bowed, never begged, never asked. Yet you lingered. And still, he could not stop watching.

And tonight, you were here.

The chamber was dim, lit only by the flickering fire. Your armor fell piece by piece, placed carefully beside the bed. For once, not because the day was done. But because you had made a choice.

You did not come to him as a swordswoman. Not as a gift of peace or an envoy of distant lords. But as yourself. A woman unclaimed, unbound by vows, ready to give what you had guarded so fiercely.

When he looked up, he did not speak at first.

He watched you as if you were made of myth, as if reaching for you might make you disappear. His eye traced every movement the slow release of your chestplate, the quiet clatter of greaves, the soft exhale as you finally stood before him with nothing left between you but breath and flame.

"You shed your armor for me, and yet I wonder if the steel still guards your heart."