Chapter Text
“Jellyfish,” Jaime shouted happily from the balcony. “Lionell says it’s going to snow tonight.”
“Tell Lionell he can’t detect snow any better than he can detect rain!” Brienne shouted from inside the apartment.
Jaime tapped the lion weather vane. It made a high clear sound as it spun lazily from its place, positioned on the corner of the balcony. That was when a fluffy, white puff of snow landed on his hand and Jaime grinned. “Lionell says it’s starting to snow right now!”
Brienne came up behind him and leaned against the door frame leading out to their balcony. “Does Lionell say it’s snowing or does Jaime say it’s snowing?”
Jaime continued to grin and turned around to face Brienne. “Definitely Lionell.”
Brienne rolled her eyes and smiled at him fondly. “Come inside, you’re going to freeze.”
Not wanting to put up a big fight, and because his toes were indeed starting to get very cold, Jaime popped back into the two-bedroom apartment. Inside, the scent of freshly baked bread and spicy Dornish stew assaulted his senses. “Did you peek into the slow cooker?”
Brienne’s blush was blotchy as she slid the glass door closed a little too carefully, a little too slowly, and definitely with too much control. “No…”
“Good to know some things never change.”
Brienne turned around and frowned. “What’s that supposed to mean?”
Jaime collapsed onto the couch and wrapped the old blanket Brienne had given him, now years ago, around his shoulders. “You’re still a horrible liar, Jellyfish.” He patted the seat right next to him, and although she gave him an unimpressed glare, she sat down and pulled her own very lush wool blanket over her lap. He had given it to her as a housewarming gift a couple months ago and it was well-loved.
After graduating from Riverrun, there had been a couple weeks of uncertainty where they had danced around each other and their future plans, before both of them had gotten job offers in the area. It hadn’t taken them long after that celebratory night to get on the same brain wave and decide to move out of the shared house together. It had taken another couple of weeks, but then they had found a beautiful sixth floor apartment in the suburbs of the Quiet Isle and had been living alone together since.
Jaime’s head found its way onto Brienne’s shoulder. “Hey…” his voice was quiet and a little croaky. “What are your plans for the Long Night this year?”
Brienne wrung her hands nervously and bit her bottom lip. “Um… well…”
“Cause I was thinking--”
“I was hoping to--”
“That we should spend it here--”
“Spend it here--”
“Together.”
“With you.”
Jaime lifted his head and Brienne turned hers. Their eyes met. “Tyrion’s going to kill me,” he said, his smile nearly splitting his face.
“Dad’s going to be really disappointed,” Brienne said, grinning.
“Should we delay telling them for as long as possible, then?” Jaime asked and nuzzled into her shoulder.
Brienne rolled her eyes. “You can. I’m going to call my dad right after dinner.”
“Which will now be ten minutes later because you peeked into the stew,” he teased.
Brienne shoved him. “Shut up!”
Although Brienne was trying her best to stay focused on her laptop, it was hard when Jaime wanted to get her attention. First, he stood just out of her peripheral vision, fidgeting obnoxiously. Then, he plopped down next to her on the couch with enough force that she bounced up and down. When even that did not deter her, he leaned in close to her cheek and puffed air in her ear, “Jellyfish.”
“Is it six yet?”
“It’s five fifty five,” he whined. Her continued concentration was all the reply she gave him. “Jellyfish,” he puffed again in her ear, the hair around her temple tickling the shell. “You’re off the clock. Stop working and pay attention to me.”
Although she had now finished composing her email, she knew she had to continue looking like she was ruminating over her vocabulary choices for four more minutes, or else Jaime would take it as a win and never leave her alone. Not that he ever really left her alone anyways.
“I know you’re done, I can see it in the shape of your lips. Your scowl of concentration has turned into a pout of stubbornness.”
Three minutes. She hit send and scrolled through her inbox to make sure she hadn’t missed any messages. She hadn’t.
“I can see you wasting time.”
Perhaps she could send her assistant another email, thanking him for the gifts he had gotten her for the holidays. But then perhaps that would imply that there was an expectation that he should be checking his emails after work.
“The mug of hot chocolate I made you is getting cold.”
Two minutes left? Fuck it. She set her laptop down on the coffee table. “Give me.” She looked over at him and reeled back in surprise. “What the fuck?”
Jaime smirked. “That was more dramatic of a reaction than I was expecting.”
“Take them off,” Brienne demanded.
Jaime frowned. “What? You don’t like them?”
Brienne covered her eyes. “Take them off your face,” she whined.
“Is it the tortoise shell pattern?” He sounded genuinely confused and a little bit hurt. He reached up to touch the frame.
“Jaime,” she snapped, peeking between her fingers and then hiding away again. “You wearing those should be a crime. Take. Them. Off.”
“Ohhhhhh,” Jaime grinned gleefully, dragging on the sound for far too long. He crawled up closer to her and hovered obnoxiously. His face was very close to her face. “So you like them. They look goooood on me.”
Brienne flushed and leaned back. “No, they look horrible. Take. Them. Off!”
“Then you’re trying to movie magic me?” Jaime pouted teasingly, pressing back closer, “That’s cruel, they’re a medical device, Jellyfish.”
“Shut up!” Brienne fumed and turned to shoving at him. Jaime tried to defend himself with flailing hands, but Brienne was still a bit hysterical at the sight. “You know you look great in them! You could walk around in a paper bag and suddenly it would be la mode chic--”
Jaime burst out laughing as Brienne practically pinned him onto the couch in her attempt to wrestle the glasses he was wearing off of his face. “What? Do you want me to go buy a big paper bag?”
“NO!”
Jaime laughed even harder. “Okay, okay. I’ll take them off.” He plucked the spectacles off and Brienne nodded in satisfaction. “Good to note there’s actually something out there that distracts you from hot chocolate.”
“Hot chocolate!” Brienne scrambled off of his lap and went for the mug, now not quite steamy hot, but still delicious all the same.
“Now that you’re paying attention to me,” Jaime said, waving the glasses around. Brienne followed them with her eyes, somewhat in fear that he would put them back on. “What did your dad say about our Long Night plans? Will he send out a brigade to carry you back to the Sapphire Isle?”
Her eyebrows furrowed, “He was… he was quite unsurprised? Well, no… that’s not quite true.”
“What happened?”
“Well, I told him that I wanted to spend the Long Night at our place this year. And he was like” -- Brienne lowered her voice and thickened her Stormlands accent -- “‘I had guessed that would be the case.’ Then I told him that he didn’t need to worry because you would be staying too and he just… how to describe the tone he used…” Brienne muttered.
“Scandalized? I mean, he does know we have lived together for like, three and a half years, right? Three days being alone together in the darkness isn’t going to suddenly turn us into feral lust filled beasts,” Jaime laughed. Brienne went bright red. He put his glasses back on. “Though it seems like these might.”
Brienne glared at him, though her cheeks were even more crimson than before, and plucked his glasses right off again. “Scandalized would be the opposite of what he sounded like. More like, ‘yes, stupid, I know’, but you know... in a nice fatherly way. My dad’s version of fatherly, not your father’s version of fatherly,” she attempted to explain. Jaime pawed at Brienne in an attempt to get his glasses back. “Watch the hot chocolate!”
Jaime continued to crawl on top of her, completely undeterred. He looked down at her once he was in her lap. “Maybe he just thought it was obvious we were going to spend the Long Night together, because we’re… well… you know… us?”
Brienne frowned as she held the glasses far out of his reach. “Maybe.” She took a sip of her hot chocolate.
“Don’t be angry with me,” Jaime said on his phone. Brienne sat on the couch, her arms crossed on the back and her chin cradled between them as she stared at him leaning against the kitchen bar. “But the reason I’m not there is because I’m going to be spending the Long Night in Riverrun this year.” Pause. “I don’t have a girlfriend.” Pause. “No? She’s sitting on the couch right now?” Jaime looked over at her with a mildly confused look. “Uh… yeah, sure, I’ll put you on speakerphone.”
“So let me get this straight. You two aren’t in a relationship?” Tyrion asked bluntly, his voice tinny from the speakers.
“Um… no?” Jaime replied.
“That doesn’t sound like a sure answer.”
Brienne was the one to clarify. “Well, it's more that we’re confused why you’d even think that.”
“Why I’d even-- Seven save me from these two idiots. You came to the Rock as Jaime’s girlfriend two years ago!”
“That was two years ago!” Brienne protested.
Jaime growled, “You knew father was trying to set me up with someone.”
“Truly a terrible fate, and I could have believed it had been a one off, but then last year you went to the Sapphire Isle!”
“So?” Jaime shouted.
“So, tell me you didn’t go as her boyfriend. Tell me and I will forgo alcohol for the next year. You know what, I will forgo alcohol and sex for the next decade.”
“How did you know that?” Brienne asked quietly.
“Jaime might have muted our father on WhiteBook, but I am no fool. And I didn’t think you were either, but here we are. If even one of the two of you had a single brain cell, you two would have known that father and Selwyn friended each other over a year ago, and according to both of them, your wedding is imminent. IM-MIN-ENT. And that’s just the PG stuff that they have been talking about.”
Both Jaime and Brienne went pale and Jaime stumbled over to the back of the couch with his phone. “There is no non-PG stuff to share!” Brienne shouted, rising to her knees on the cushions so she could be the same height as Jaime.
“Well, not according to them! And who am I going to trust? You two idiots or two scheming old men? Considering that neither of you knew that you’ve been giving the impression of two people dating for over two years, it’s apparently the old men!”
“Over two years?” Jaime exclaimed.
Tyrion’s voice was exasperated and they could practically hear the roll of his eyes, "Honestly Jaime, didn't you wonder, for even a moment, why no one was surprised when you showed up with Brienne that first year? Well, no one but maybe father, but even then I think he sort of guessed."
Jaime just gave Brienne a wide eyed stare. “Uh…”
“What about the past year, then?” Brienne protested.
“What about the past year? Do you know what you two did in the past year?” Before either of them could reply, Tyrion barreled on, “You two moved in together. Just you two. And have you seen your apartment? Like, actually seen it? From the pics, I couldn’t tell your rooms apart, or which shelf in the kitchen belonged to whom! It’s not the apartment of two roommates, not unless your relationships with Elia and Kyle--”
Brienne huffed in annoyance. “Hyle, dammit Jaime!”
He shrugged. “What can I say?”
“Not unless your relationships with Elia and Hyle were a lot more intimate than I thought they were and you’re just used to sharing everything.”
Jaime made a face of disgust. “No one in the house was intimate with Hyle.”
“Not the point, you asshole,” Tyrion shouted.
“Elia did her own thing,” Brienne murmured.
“Am I making my point clear to you two clouds-for-brains yet?”
Brienne asked quietly, “Is this… is this why my dad was so unsurprised when I told him I’d be spending the Long Night here this year?”
Tyrion snorted. “Do you want to know what Selwyn had to say about that? There are several posts. Your siblings seem to think they are hilarious.”
Brienne grimaced. “No.”
“Good choice,” Tyrion grumbled. “Honestly, love makes such smart people so dumb sometimes.”
“Love?” They both intoned at the same time.
Tyrion huffed in exasperation, "Well, what the hell did you think it was between the two of you, if it wasn't love?" The next thing Tyrion muttered was more to himself than to the others, “And to think that I was trying to emulate their relationship when they didn’t even think they were in one. Fucking Crone’s tits.”
Jaime looked over at Brienne and opened his mouth. No words came out. He closed it. He swallowed and his eyes flickered over every familiar feature of her.
The colour of her eyes was his favourite shade of blue; they were far more beautiful than the waters of the Sapphire Isle. The sheen of her hair, blonde, but near silver, and the way that it wasn’t ever quite soft between his fingers. The crook of her nose, the length of her limbs, the callouses on her hands, and the taper of her toes and fingers. The freckles. Gods, the freckles that were splashed on the canvas of her smooth, pale skin.
But it wasn’t just about how she looked. It was about how she made him feel. How he always went to her when he was stressed, or lonely, or cold - when he was happy, or excited, or had something new to share.
When he wanted someone, he really just wanted her.
Jaime opened his mouth and tried again, "I don't know... I just thought…" Jaime started to move his hands as though he was shaping something, trying to mold his feelings into a word. "I just thought it was--” he looked back up at her, “Brienne."
Brienne reached over and plucked his phone from his grip. “He’ll call you back later.”
“Uh-huh, I highly doubt that,” Tyrion said, and then Brienne ended the call.
She swallowed, dropped the phone on the cushions next to her, then repeated nervously, “I just thought it was Brienne?”
“I…” Jaime tried to explain and sat down on the couch beside her. He turned his body to face her and reached out for her hands to hold them his. “Is… is what I feel for you love? Love doesn’t feel like it’s quite enough to describe it.”
Brienne looked down at her lap and then took in a deep breath. “Whatever you are feeling… Is it... is it sweet and warm?” she asked softly, “When you see me, do you feel that maybe everything will be okay? Do you know that you can be yourself with me, whether it is when we’re bickering and moving at a fast pace, or when we’re silent and just lying side by side? Do you want to share everything with me? Your oranges in the morning, your time in the day, the thoughts in your head, the moments of your life?”
Jaime heart thumped in his chest and he reached out a hand to grasp one of hers. “Yes. Yes, yes, yes.”
She turned her hand in his grip and entwined their fingers. “Jaime… if… if this is love, then I think I might have been in love with you for a long time. If this is love, it’s big enough, I think.”
A large smile spread across Jaime’s face and he leaned forward to rest his forehead against hers. “Then I’ve been in love with you a long time too, Jellyfish.”
Brienne laughed. “I cannot believe you’re calling me Jellyfish now of all times.”
He cupped her face with her other hand. “Because that’s how long I’ve loved you.”
“I’m surprised no one else is on the roof,” Brienne said.
“There’s a family around that corner and another couple around that corner,” Jaime pointed out.
“I meant, I just thought that we would have to fight for space.”
“Well, I for one am very glad that you were wrong.”
Brienne rolled her eyes as Jaime first laid out a tarp and then a blanket on top of it against one of the walls and settled a couple cushions against the dry brick. Brienne added the rest of the blankets to their little nest. They would be needing them; the snow that Lionell had predicted a couple days ago was still on the ground and the cold was still in the air. Jaime slipped off his boots and dived into the blankets where he quickly pulled out a thermos full of hot chocolate. “Hurry up, I’m freezing,” he complained as he lifted the blanket for her. Brienne laughed and crawled in beside him after taking her own boots off.
As always, Jaime plastered himself to her side while he poured out the hot chocolate, still tasty even without the marshmallows, dark chocolate flakes, or cinnamon, and handed her the first cup. He then poured himself one and set the thermos aside. “This is my first time celebrating the Long Night… well, anything actually, with just one other person,” Brienne admitted shyly, staring down into her cup.
“Same,” Jaime said, turning towards her. “I’m glad it’s with you.”
A smile bloomed on Brienne’s face. “Me too,” she agreed and looked over at him.
She took in a sharp breath when she saw the way that he was looking at her.
“Hey,” he rasped.
“Hey…”
“Can I kiss you?”
“Um…” Brienne murmured, her cheeks flushing red for reasons other than the cold.
Jaime’s fingertips lightly pressed into her cheek and he leaned forward. “Gods, it’s just that smile.”
Brienne huffed in amusement and met his eyes. They were so close. Closer than they’d ever been before, and that was saying something. “You’ve never wanted to kiss it before.”
He snorted. “That’s categorically untrue.”
She felt his breath, warm on her lips. “Is it now? You didn’t even know you were in love with me until yesterday.”
He smirked. “So you’ve never thought about kissing me?”
“Well…” She’d thought about wiping that smirk off his face many times and in many, many different ways. “There was a time I did wonder if you still slobbered.”
“I really wish you would forget that.”
“Never.”
“Did you ever imagine I would be a good kisser?” Jaime swiftly got back to their original topic.
“No.”
Jaime clicked his tongue. “Remember, Jellyfish. You’re a horrible liar.”
Brienne closed the gap between them.
Jaime was a pretty good kisser.
But so was she.
They completely missed Sunset.
They crashed into their apartment door. “Ow, fuck, door knob! Door knob in the ass!” Jaime cursed.
“Get your keys,” Brienne said as she kissed a line down his jaw, one of her hands running down his chest.
Jaime clawed at his pockets fruitlessly. “You’re being awfully distracting!”
“Maybe three days of darkness will turn us into feral, lust-filled beasts after all,” Brienne teased, licking down the tendon of Jaime’s neck. He rattled at the door knob in desperation. “That’s not how locks work, Jaime.”
“Says the woman who broke my lock in second year.”
She laughed and nibbled at his collarbone. “Just hurry up!”
“Fuck, you open the door while I’m feeling you up, then,” Jaime growled and span them around so that Brienne’s front was pressed up against the door, his chest all along her back. He pressed kisses to the back of her neck and his hands crawled under her shirt and flattened against her toned stomach, pulling her hard against him. She felt him, pressed against her ass, and wiggled just to hear him groan.
At the long, drawn out sound in her ear, Brienne made a frustrated noise as she palmed Jaime’s pockets and found his keys. Quickly, she popped it into the lock and they spilled into their apartment. The blankets, cushions, and bags they had somehow been juggling tumbled to the floor as Jaime kicked the door shut and locked it.
They both tugged off their boots and then came back together. “Fuck, I always forget that you’re ridiculously capable under pressure,” he muttered as he wrapped his arms around her and pressed his lips back against hers.
Brienne moaned in response and wrapped her arms around his shoulders, tugging him in closer as her tongue swept across his. “Bedroom?” she asked, pulling away for just a moment.
“Mine or yours?”
Brienne grinned. “Has there ever been a difference? After all, it seems like we’re pretty intimate.” They had spent so much time sleeping in each other’s beds that there hadn’t really been a delineation since the beginning.
He chuckled. “You’ve been just as stupid as I have!”
“I’m not saying I haven’t,” Brienne said and tugged at his sweater. Jaime followed her direction and she took the opportunity to drag the garment over his head. Her fingers skittered over the planes of his chest as they moved away from the door and around the pile of things they had discarded.
He inhaled sharply at the sensation of her touch and nipped her earlobe as he rucked her sweater up the long expanse of her back. “Gods, we definitely should have started doing this earlier. Three, no, fuck it, four years earlier in fact.” He threw her sweater off as well.
“Not going to argue against that, but then we’d definitely would have had to have been in my room.” They crashed into the coffee table and Jaime yanked her around it and maneuvered them around the couch.
“I would not have given a shit if Hyle walked in on us.”
Brienne rolled her eyes. “What about poor Elia? Or, if we’re going with four years, your roommate Addam?”
“Let’s be honest, if our dads and Tyrion thought we were dating, and they didn’t even have to deal with us on a daily basis…” Jaime guided them into his bedroom.
“Seven…”
“No more talking about Hyle or our dads tonight,” Jaime declared as they both hit the foot of his bed and fell onto the mattress. “There are much better things to do in the darkness.”
Brienne suddenly went rigid beneath him and he stared at her in concern.
“Hey… you okay? We don’t have to do anything you aren’t comfortable with, you know?”
Brienne lifted her head and kissed him sweetly. “That’s not it at all. Do you have condoms?”
Jaime paused and then sat up on his knees. “I’ll run to the shops.”
“It’s the Long Night. The shops are all closed.”
“Tyrion’s been to visit, right?”
She looked at him in confusion. “Yes?”
Jaime scrambled off the bed and disappeared back into the living room. She heard him crash into a few things and curse loudly, but he was back a moment later with a ringing phone. Tyrion answered. “I didn’t actually think you would call me back today.”
“Where did you hide the condoms?” Jaime asked.
“What?” Brienne mouthed at him while sitting up. She reached over to turn on his bedside lamp.
He waved a hand at her. “The condoms you always try to sneak past me every time you visit.” At least now Jaime understood why Tyrion thought he had such a need for so many prophylactics.
“Wow, it’s taken you two this long?” Tyrion cackled. “Thought you two would have gone at it the moment Brienne hung up.”
“Just… stop stalling.”
“Tucked behind your textbooks. I told you, you’d never open them again.”
Jaime walked over to his book shelf. “Thanks.”
“Happy fucking.”
With that Jaime hung up his phone and began to dig through his text books. “Gods, I hope he didn’t get me the novelty ones this time,” he muttered, pulling out a box then staring at it. “Seven hells, fucking Tyrion.”
“What is it?” Brienne asked.
“Not the worst,” Jaime muttered, and tossed her the box. “But certainly not the best.”
“Drogons™. Scaled for your pleasure. Warming sensations…” she muttered. “Well… why not?” She ripped upon the cardboard packaging, grabbed a handful of condoms, and tossed them onto Jaime’s nightstand before discarding the box over the side of the bed.
Jaime quirked an eyebrow in amused fondness. “I think this is the messiest I’ve ever seen you.”
Brienne flushed. “Did you not want to do this?”
“That is not at all what I said.” He moved to stand in front of her and she looked up at him with her big, blue eyes. He brought his hand to her face and his thumb stroked across the apple of her cheek. Leaning down, he kissed her gently, moving his lips against hers just to feel the warm rush of happiness that she brought him. After a moment, a million, he pulled away, both of his hands now on her neck. “Gods, Brienne.”
“Brienne?” she questioned, her hands cupping his jaw, her eyes half closed, a smile on her face.
Jaime smiled. “Yes. Brienne. Lovely, willful Brienne.” Then, he dropped to his knees and his fingers found their way under the waistband of her thick, winter leggings. She laid back on his mattress and lifted her hips so that he could pull her leggings, her underwear, and her socks off all at once. “Gods, you really are freckled everywhere. It’ll take me forever to get to all of them individually.”
“Jaime!” Brienne berated him and lifted herself up on her elbows.
He cupped the underside of her knee and pressed his lips to the inside of her thigh, right close to where his fingers curled. “And that suits me just fine.” He kissed and nibbled his way up the long expanse of her leg, taking his time when he found spots that were particularly sensitive. Before long, Brienne couldn’t hold herself up anymore and flopped back on the bed, shivering. His other hand massaged the muscles of her other thigh, working itself up towards her faster than his mouth was, and so his fingers were the first to feel how wet she had become. “I want to make you scream,” he growled while looking up the length of her body.
“What about our neighbours?” Brienne asked in challenge.
“Soundproof walls,” Jaime reminded her.
She squirmed and bucked towards him. “Do it then.”
He grinned and met her halfway. He worked his fingers into her one at a time, slowly, until he had three inside of her, the tight walls of her cunt squeezing down around him like a vice. As he fingered her, curling the tips up until he found the spot that made her quietly cry out, his tongue lavished at her clit and folds, lapping up her arousal. He wanted to worship her, to take his time and bring her to her crest slowly, but it seemed that she had other ideas. Her hands found their way into his hair and tangled within the strands, pulling just short of painful as her wails got louder and louder. He used his teeth, and grazed the bundle of nerves gently. That made her buck and shout, and clamp her thighs around his ears. Never had he heard these kinds of sounds coming from her, and just like so many things about her, he would never get tired of hearing them again and again.
In the end, what got her past the final barrier was his other hand landing on her hip and his nails just lightly scratching over the bone. She arched so high that Jaime lost hold of her, a mistake that he would learn not to repeat the next time - he would have his mouth on her as she came - and she landed on the mattress with a satisfied thump, heaving great breaths of air.
“Did that meet your expectations?” Jaime asked, licking his lips and getting to his feet.
Brienne pushed herself back up onto her elbows, but looked much more ravished than the last time he had seen her at this angle. Her lips were red and swollen from her own teeth biting down on them; her face was flushed and glowing. “Take off your pants, you dork.”
“Very sexy.” Jaime took off his pants, boxer briefs, and socks anyways. Immediately, Brienne sat all the way up and grasped him. He was warm and hard and heavy in the palm of her hand. She slowly slid her hand up and down the length of him, her other hand cupping his balls and massaging them gently. Her eyes flickered over his face, taking in what he liked in her movements. He gasped as her thumb traced across the head of his cock, her callouses brushing against the silky skin. She smiled coyishly as her hands continued to play with him. Jaime placed his hand over hers. “You’re going to need to stop or else I’m going to be done very early in the night.”
“Already?” Brienne teased, her lips dangerously close to the tip, her eyes alluringly bright in the dark.
Jaime growled, “Let’s get that bra off you and I’ll show you ‘already’.”
Brienne shuffled back on the bed and Jaime crawled onto it. Her hands roamed the planes of his waist and hips as he wrapped his arms around her back. Their lips met again and she could taste hints of herself on his tongue. It gave her a shiver of delight. The fingers of one of his hands found the clasp of her bra and he flicked at the hooks.
They didn’t budge.
Brienne continued to kiss at the corner of his lips as Jaime’s eyebrow furrowed. He used both hands to try and undo the clasp. Again, the hooks wouldn’t give. “Having trouble there?” Brienne asked, her fingers brushing over his shoulders and biceps.
“No,” he replied resolutely and tugged at the clasp again. “What is wrong with this thing?”
“Do you need help?”
“I can do this. Just… just turn around.”
She stared at him deadpanned. “You’re not serious.”
He met her gaze. “Dead serious.”
“Seven,” Brienne sighed in exasperation, but turned around anyways. Jaime couldn’t help but run his fingertips down the length of her spine, just once, and feel her quiver from his touch, but then he returned to the task at hand.
After a moment of observation, “This isn’t a normal bra.”
“Yes, it is.”
Brienne felt him trying to maneuver the hooks in what felt like the right way. “Liar.”
She couldn’t help the small smile that tugged at her lips at his ridiculousness. “Am I, though?”
Jaime pouted. She wasn’t. He picked at the hooks. “I just haven’t undone one in a while, okay?”
“How long?”
There wasn’t a reply for a while, but then he said, “Since the first semester of first year. Since before we were… since before.”
“Oh…” Brienne murmured and tilted her head down. Her hand reached back and patted around until she found his knee. She grasped it and gave it a squeeze. “Me too.”
“Oh,” he repeated. Then continued to be utterly defeated by her bra.
“Jaime, you do know that sex doesn’t necessitate the removal of my bra, right?” Brienne said, resting her chin in her other hand and her elbow on her knee.
“Shush, Jellyfish. I have started something and I must now see it through.” Jaime continued fiddling and cursing under his breath.
Brienne huffed in amusement. “You’re horrendous. My libido is dying as the seconds tick on.”
“I’ll just get it back up again.”
“Confident you can?”
“Very.” He swore he undid something then yanked at the strap again, but still the bra refused to give. He cursed loudly.
Brienne snorted, “Do you need your glasses?”
“How did you know that was how I was going to turn you back on?” Jaime teased and grabbed at his spectacles lying on his nightstand. They did not help him solve the problem any better, and also didn’t do their job of turning her back on since she was still looking away.
Instead, she just laughed.
"Whenever you laugh it just makes me want to kiss you, and that’s very distracting, so you just need to stop laughing." Not unexpectedly, this only made Brienne laugh harder. His lips attacked the back of her neck. "Consequences, Jellyfish! We’ll never get to the sex if you continue on like this!"
“Jaime!” Brienne squeaked in delight. “If I continue on like this?” She tried to turn around as he showered more kisses on her.
“Oh, fuck it,” Jaime laughed and let Brienne turn and shower her own kisses all over his face. After, he gently nudged her to lay back down on the mattress and crawled on top of her. Her eyebrows shot up as Jaime just yanked down the thin, lacy cups. “By the way, this does not mean I admit defeat.”
“You know, I can just take it off.”
“No. I’ve simply decided this is much better. Frames the works of art.”
“Works of art. Honestly, Jaime...” His thumb lightly brushed over one of her nipples and Brienne squeaked in surprise.
“Do you really disagree?” he grinned. “I would love to prove you wrong.”
Brienne blushed, the rosy colour crawling from her cheeks, down her neck, and over her breasts. Jaime stared in fascination before he leaned down and took the other nipple into his mouth to run his tongue roughly over the tip. This time Brienne cried out and arched into him, her fingers tangling into his hair. She wasn’t going to protest.
He palmed her breasts, they fit in his hands quite nicely, and licked and sucked on her nipples, alternating, until they were stiff with want. With his teeth, he bit down gently, and the sound she made was music to his ears. In response to his ministrations, her legs wrapped around his waist. “Condoms,” Jaime choked out when he felt the warm heat of her cunt against his cock.
Her hands reached out to Jaime’s night stand and found one of the condoms. With a bit of brain fog - he was still pressed up against her and it was taking all of her willpower to not just reach down and guide him into her - she managed to rip the packet open and gesture for Jaime to sit up. When he sat back on his haunches, Brienne once again reached for his cock and slowly rolled the condom down its length.
Jaime grimaced. “It definitely feels very warm.”
Brienne looked up at him with a frown, “It also feels very bumpy.”
“Not quite scaled, then?”
“I’m kind of glad that it isn’t?”
“Do you still want to…?” Jaime asked hesitantly.
“We won’t know unless we try?”
“Let me test something,” Jaime said.
“Okay,” Brienne said implicitly.
He grasped the base of his cock and slid it against her like before. Where before the sensation was pleasant, this time it was not. At the expression on her face, he said, “Yeah no, we’re not gonna do this.”
“A hot, bumpy cock not romantic enough for you?” Brienne teased, then, “Seven, take that off before it gets any hotter.” She helped him roll the condom off and tossed it into his trash.
“This whole night has been on the ass end of romantic, hasn’t it?” Jaime muttered, collapsing beside her.
“I don’t mind,” Brienne murmured and rolled into her side, plopping her head on his shoulder. She brushed his hair out of his face. “But I’m not quite as big of a romantic as you.”
Jaime laughed. “I have some standards, and apparently Drogons™ do not meet them.”
Brienne giggled. “Well, back to plan A, then.”
“Plan A?” Jaime asked curiously, but before he even finished his question, Brienne had shuffled down his body and had his cock cradled back in her hand.
She looked up at him and grinned, “Plan A,” she repeated and wrapped her lips around the tip.
On the first morning of darkness, they woke up still nestled together, their naked bodies tangled under Jaime’s warm blanket. “I’ll make us breakfast?” Brienne whispered and kissed him on the forehead as she slid out of bed.
He hummed in happiness and took the opportunity to sleep in for an extra ten minutes. When he appeared in the kitchen, Brienne was just finishing plating the food, and so he poured two glasses of juice and watered the weirwood tree sitting by the window sill. Overnight, snow had fallen outside, coating the world in a thick layer of white. “Do you think that not having light for three days will affect it?” Jaime asked as he sat down by the table.
“I think it’ll be fine. If it looks worse for wear by the end of the Long Night, we’ll get it a sun lamp for next year.”
“We will, huh?”
Brienne rolled her eyes, “I haven’t managed to get rid of you for four years while we were “friends”. I highly doubt I’ll be getting rid of you now.”
Jaime grinned, “I quite like the sound of that.”
They ate their breakfast before addressing the elephant in the room.
“So… what are we going to do about the condom situation?” Brienne asked while playing with the fingers of Jaime’s hand. They had migrated to the couch and he was sprawled happily on top of her.
“I can go knocking on some of our neighbours’ doors?”
“I’d rather we not advertise to the world that we are now--”
“Lust filled beasts?”
“I was going to say fucking,” Brienne grinned.
“Scandalous,” Jaime teased.
Her hands grasped his, “I have an IUD and was tested before I got that inserted--”
“Three years ago,” Jaime finished. Brienne nodded. He had been there after and had taken care of her when she had cramped up for days afterwards. “I got tested while I was waiting for you at the clinic.”
“Oh,” Brienne murmured shyly. Her eyes flickered to the bedroom door. “Do you want to…?”
“How about we try again tonight?”
Brienne tilted her head in question, “Tonight? Why tonight?”
“Give me some time to come up with something romantic.”
Brienne grumbled in exasperation, “What are you planning?”
“Hey, I think it’s kind of nice we get two first times, and I would like the second one to not start with a doorknob in the ass.”
“It started with you asking to kiss me because you liked my smile.”
“Love your smile and ooft” -- he grinned -- “It sounds like you have yourself a winner there, Jellyfish.”
She just rolled her eyes again and tweaked him on the nose. “Remember the shops are still closed.”
“I’ll cobble something together.”
“Jaime, can I come out yet?” Brienne asked from her bedroom. She was hugging Barty, her chin propped on his head.
“Give me a minute!”
She resisted the urge to dramatically claw at her own door. That was something Jaime would do. “It’s not nice, being imprisoned in your own home.”
“It’s only a prison if you think it is.”
“That’s not how it works.”
“Out of all the traits you had to adopt from me, did it have to be my impatience and my smart-assery?”
“Annoying, isn’t it?”
“I’m going to pretend I didn’t just make a point against myself.” She heard more clattering outside, then Jaime finally called out to her, “I’m ready!”
Brienne opened her door slowly and saw that the lights in the apartment had been turned off. She turned off her bedroom light as well and saw the dim glow of firelight reflecting on the hallway walls from the living room. Slowly, she made her way there. As she went, soft music suddenly turned on, and when she arrived she saw that Jaime had managed to dig up all of the candles in the apartment and had placed them around the kitchen, dining, and living spaces. The couch and the coffee table had been pushed to the side and up against the wall, and instead, on the floor by the balcony door, was a cozy nest of blankets and pillows that was made out of the things they had discarded by the door the day before. Jaime stood by the kitchen counter holding a tray that had two mugs of steaming hot chocolate on it.
“It thought it would be a bit too wet and cold to sit outside,” Jaime said with a smile and tilted his head towards the pile of blankets. “It’s also not as dark as it is on the Sapphire Isle and we won’t be able to see as much of the sky, but…”
“Jaime, this is perfect,” Brienne said and walked over to him. Her hands rested on his shoulders and she kissed him on the cheek.
He turned his head to kiss her again on the mouth and they smiled at each other. “Your hot chocolate?”
She nodded and took her mug over to the nest. From where she sat she did have a splendid view of the stars. Jaime sat down behind her and wrapped himself around her, his chin on her shoulder.
“Are the constellations up here any different?” Jaime asked.
“They are shifted a bit, so there might be a couple different ones on the horizon,” Brienne explained. “If we were to go to Winterfell, they would be shifted a lot more, the Three-Eyed Raven would probably be at the zenith there during the Long Night.”
“I quite prefer the Moon Maid.”
Their second first time was everything their first first time was not. It was slow and almost graceful, less frantic with desperate energy. They took the time to explore each other’s bodies as they peeled each other’s clothes off piece by piece. To Jaime’s chagrin, he soon found out that Brienne hadn’t dared to put on a bra that morning.
After, this time, coming on his tongue - the stars as witnesses to his eager worship - Brienne flipped them and sat astride his hips. She wrapped her hands around his cock and felt the reverberations of his groans beneath the palm of her other hand. With slow deliberation, she sank down onto him, reveling in his every expression as she took him into herself. Her fingers found their way to his lips, and he kissed the pads and nipped at the skin. The soft feel of his lips, in contrast to the hard bite of his teeth, sent her reeling, surging up against him. Once their hips were flush, his hands found her waist, and her nails scratched lightly at his torso. “Fuck,” he murmured as he looked up into her eyes. “Fuck,” he said again, his thumbs stroking at her lowest ribs.
Brienne rocked her hips and felt his heart thrum beneath the palms of her hands. Her heart was beating at a mile a minute too; she could hear it in the way her blood was rushing through her ears. “Jaime,” she gasped desperately.
He grunted in pleasure as she rode him. They met each other stroke for stroke, their bodies moving against each other in ways that were so familiar and yet so utterly novel.
Soon, he couldn’t help but lever himself up so that he could hold her tight in his arms as she rose and fell above him. She grasped onto him desperately, and her legs wrapped themselves around his waist. Jaime buried his hand into her hair and his face pressed into the crook of her neck. He breathed her in and nuzzled in closer.
But she wanted more. She squeezed her legs around him further and dug her fingers into his shoulder blades. She pressed her lips to his neck and felt him deep within her. They moved against each other, frantic. Just when she felt that she could go no higher, his thumb found her clit. He brought her to completion again and the way she tightened around him - her cunt, her body - sent him careening off the edge into bliss.
After, when they were curled back up together in her bed, Jaime’s face tucked in the hollow of Brienne’s throat, he hummed contentedly, “I love you.”
She ran her hands through his hair. “I love you too.”
On the second and third day of darkness, they spent their time together as they had planned to do before Tyrion had made them confront the reality of their truth. It was just that now, some of those moments together were spent naked and were more lust filled than others before.
They went on walks in the local park, lit only by colourful lanterns; hung out by the river, where small gatherings of people were celebrating the Long Night around small fires; frolicked together in the snow, lobbing snowballs at each other with zero abandon. They held hands as they walked, a habit they had developed around the first Long Night they had spent together at the Rock, and created new habits, like stealing a kiss from the other when they were least expecting it.
Then they went home.
Inside, they played games together, cooked, and cleaned, but also just continued to sit beside each other in comfortable silence - well, as silent as Jaime could get - as they each did their own things. At one point, Jaime had called Tyrion back to not thank him for the condoms, but also to ask him how his Long Night was going. Tyrion had just shrugged and told him that as far as he was concerned, all was well. He had brought Tysha back to the Rock; no one had a clue what her name was either, but at least they had all acknowledged her as Tyrion’s girlfriend. Although Jaime hadn’t asked, he had explicitly told them that he hadn’t even mentioned how stupid they were to anyone in the family because he knew that he would be the one to be accused of being an idiot or a liar.
They unmuted their fathers on WhiteBook and then muted them again less than five minutes later. It was better to be ignorant than to know the kind of friendship that Tywin and Selwyn had struck up, and just how much they shared with each other, and the world, about their children’s personal lives. Thankfully, much of it was superfluous, but it was still much too confronting to see their dads be overly invested on social media.
“Hot chocolate for the Jellyfish,” Jaime said and passed her a mug.
“You’re absurd,” Brienne muttered, but took it anyways.
He wrapped a scarf around her neck while also pressing kisses to it. “And you're covered in hickeys,” he said quite smugly.
Brienne sipped her hot chocolate, “Whose fault is that?”
Jaime closed the balcony door behind him and then pressed up against her side. “I’m also covered in hickeys,” he said, somehow sounding even more smug.
She gave him a small, sly smile, “Something’s in the air, I suppose.”
Jaime laughed with a snort, then nuzzled her temple with his nose, “Are you sure you’re warm enough?”
“You’re the one who is always cold.”
“Which is why I’m wearing about three more layers than you are.”
“I’m surprised that you were able to muster up the energy to get up and get changed.”
“Hey,” Jaime murmured softly, and brushed a lock of hair out of her face. She met his eyes and saw that they were practically sparkling. “I plan to see every Sunrise with you.”
Light rose over the horizon, breaking the darkness.