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Language:
English
Series:
Part 3 of Ours is the Angst
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Published:
2017-06-12
Words:
730
Chapters:
1/1
Comments:
8
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133
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12
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1,943

Succession

Summary:

When Storm's End is given to Renly, Stannis says some things he regrets.

Notes:

I own nothing and make no money from this. Everything belongs to George R.R. Martin.

Work Text:

After meeting with Robert in King's Landing, Stannis did something he had never done before. He went up to the rooms he had been given in the Red Keep and poured himself a glass of wine. The wineglass was a beautiful thing, made of cut Myrish glass, filled with an arbor red as dark as blood. Stannis held it in his hand and watched the way the light from the fire caught it. He began to understand why Robert turned so often to drink, even though it made him into a monster. Stannis would rather be a monster than overlooked, rather a ravening beast than a mouse. But he had not been given a choice, had sat helpless as Robert announced the next Lord of Storm’s End.

“The smallfolk love him,” was Robert’s only explanation.

“He is a child! Of course they love him. You need a man to run Storm’s End,” Stannis had said once the other lords had been dismissed.

Robert waved a hand dismissively. “Details. I will sort them out later.”

Stannis wanted to cry and to beg, to tell his brother that he had bled for Storm’s End, and the thought of being shipped across Blackwater Bay made his blood run cold.

“Storm’s End is mine by rights. You cannot do this,” he had said instead.

“I cannot? Because of your rights?” Robert’s stormy eyes grew wide with fury. “You are telling your king what he can and cannot do? I make you my heir, I give you Dragonstone, and you want more? What man had a more ungrateful brother?”

Stannis pulled back his arm and watched the wineglass smash against the far wall.

He felt no better.

“It’s mine,” he whispered, imagining Robert’s stupid, handsome face where the glass had shattered against the wall. “You cannot take what is rightfully mine.”

“Stannis?” came a quiet voice from the doorway. Stannis had not heard Renly open the door. His little brother was dressed for court, his small chest emblazoned with a golden stag. “Aren’t you going to congratulate me? Everybody else has.”

“Congratulate you?” Stannis’s throat felt dry. “You were an accident! Our parents never wanted a third son. You could have done House Baratheon some good as a daughter, but no! Robert’s forgotten everything, and wants to give you what’s rightfully mine!”

By the end, he was not looking at Renly, but at the spot on the wall where he imagined Robert’s face, where dark wine was still dripping down the stone. When he turned back to Renly, his little brother’s eyes threatened tears, like stormclouds heavy with rain.

“Mother and father didn’t want me?”

A rush of sobriety hit Stannis. “Of course they wanted you. They just didn’t plan to – please don’t cry.” Stannis knelt and put a hand on Renly’s shoulder.

Renly wiped his nose. His damp eyes grew puzzled. “How was I an accident?”

“Forget I said anything. I was wrong.”

“I mean how?” Renly asked.

Stannis could not refuse his brother an explanation – not when he was so upset. “Didn’t Maester Cressen tell you how children are made?” he asked.

Renly nodded. “Yes, and people can’t do that… that thing on accident.”

Stannis remembered saying nearly the same words to Robert when he heard about the birth of Mya Stone.

“Well some adults do that thing without wanting a child. Because they like it.”

“Gods, why!” Renly’s eyes were wide as platters.

“I said some, not all.” Stannis almost smiled at his little brother, until he remembered that this boy was the Lord of Storm’s End. “Some men grow up to be septons, some soldiers, and some enjoy the act that makes children.”

“So mother… and father...”

“Loved each other very much. And they loved you.”

Stannis rather suspected they loved their youngest son the most. The look on their mother’s face the day they handed her Renly was beatific. Stannis had never seen it before.

“People love you, Renly, you don’t need to worry about that. They might love you too much.”

“That makes you angry?” Renly’s blue eyes were so much like Robert’s that Stannis had to look away.

“Please forget I said anything.”

“Please don’t be angry with me,” Renly said. “I love you.”

Then give me Storm’s End. Stannis stood and ruffled his brother’s hair. “I’m not angry. Now run along. I’ll see you at the ceremony.”

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