Meeting a lioness

[ 279 AC, Red Keep ]

[ 3rd pov ]

Inside the entrance of the Tower of the Hand, two children stood in front of each other. One was a 13 years old blonde girl who stood with her eyes narrowed, however curiosity was evident on her green eyes. The other one, a 3 years old boy, was in front of her, staring into her green eyes with a calm expression.

"I asked you a question." said the girl, her tone rather haughty but with a childish aspect to it.

"Hmph, why should I answer?" said the boy, staring at her defiantly. "It is you who is in my castle, so why don't you tell me who you are first?"

The girl's eyes widened as she realised his identity, before narrowing once again.

"Why would a prince be alone in this tower?" she asked. "This is were my father and I are staying after all."

The boy stared at her unamused, though his childish features simply made him look cute rather than menacing. "Because I want to." he replied. "I am the prince, so I can do whatever I want."

What followed was a stare down in which neither one budged to the other. Silence covered the room, before it was quickly replaced by hurried footsteps outside the tower.

The boy flinched at the sound of someone running and moved right next to the column he used as a hiding spot before.

The girls eyes widened slightly as she noticed the change on his attitude before a prideful smile appeared on her face.

"I knew you weren't the prince." she said. "If you were, you wouldn't be scared of some guards outside."

The boy narrowed her eyes in her direction while staring at her for a moment. "If I wasn't the prince, why would guards be trying to find me then huh?"

The girl remained silent for a moment as she thought of an answer and concluded he might be a thief or something, however before she could give an answer a knight entered the tower.

The boy grabbed her hand and pulled her behind the column while placing his lip on his finger, indicating her to remain silent.

"Prince Viserys!" screamed the knight, however he received no response.

The girl's eyes widened and she looked at the boy, realising he was indeed the prince.

Viserys simply stared at her with a smug smile as if he had won a competition, which in turn made her eyebrows twitch slightly.

The guard quickly left the tower, and the two children were able to breath calmly.

"So you are indeed prince Viserys..." muttered the girl. "It is a pleasure to meet you, I am Cersei Lannister, daughter of Tywin Lannister, hand of the king." she said, slightly bowing to show courtesy.

Viserys stared at Cersei for a moment, slightly surprised by how fast her attitude changed.

"Well, I am Viserys Targaryen." replied Viserys. "Anyway, thanks for not ratting me out. I need to return, so see ya later."

Cersei was slightly surprised by how quickly she was dismissed by the boy. Her father was the only person that dismissed her and, while the king and princes also had that power in theory, she didn't quite like having a baby disregard her like that, besides she was quite curious about why he was here.

"Wait." she said, stopping Viserys who was about to exit the tower. "Why are you here?"

"Hmm, I wanted to take a walk, but the guard was getting annoying and didn't want me to." replied Viserys before walking closer to her and looking her in the eyes. "You said you are a Lannister right?"

Cersei nodded at his words, slightly distracted by what she could only describe as daunting eyes of deep purple colour as she only now realised how intimidating they were. Unlike the eyes of prince Rhaegar, who she met 3 years ago, the eyes of Viserys weren't just beautiful, they also felt strangely... alive? They felt powerful.

She couldn't properly describe or understand, but she felt like it wasn't just the prince looking at her, but also the eyes themselves.

"Well, since you are an important person, you also must deal with annoying guards right?" asked the boy, his expression showing a bit of annoyance at the mention of guards.

Cersei recalled the guards that stood in front of her chambers and prevented Jaime from coming and sleeping with her, and she nodded in agreement. "Yes, I do." she replied, her expression matching Viserys' as annoyance became apparent.

Viserys in turn nodded as well before turning around to leave.

"So?" asked Cersei once she noticed he was once again about to leave. "Where are you going now?"

Viserys stopped and a thoughtful expression appeared on his face before he shrugged his shoulders.

"Well, I was planning on returning before things got out of hand, but honestly it is kind of too late by now." he said with a sigh. "Who knows, maybe with this Arthur will be forbidden from being my Kingsguard, which would be an absolute win because he is such a bore..."

The eyes of the young prince widened slightly as a smile grew on his face. His plan could go very wrong, especially if his father decided to kill Arthur instead of simply leaving him out of the rotation of Kingsguards for him, however if Arthur was no longer in charge of him then the only knight left that completely ignored him would be Jonothor, so he would have more time to train and receive some pointers for his swordsmanship from the other, more easy-going knights.

"Why are you smiling?" asked Cersei, confused by his sudden change of mood.

She looked at his smile and felt a strange sense of kinship from it. It was the same smile that appeared on her face whenever she planned something that would get others hurt but also be fun for her.

"Oh, I just had an idea is all." replied Viserys before getting closer to her. "Anyway, come and walk with me."

Cersei stared at him confusedly for a moment before sighing. Her curiosity was one of her greatest faults and in all honestly, the child in front of her was an enigma.

No one aside from the most trusted men of the king had ever seen the prince, and there were rumours that when he was born, the candles of the entire castle brightened and turned blue. Some said a new dragon was born to bring back the glory of the Targaryens while others said he was cursed, and the Red Keep would turn out just like Summerhall.

Her father of course didn't believe either, but still... it was rather appealing the idea of a dragon being born. She had previously wondered what it would be like to ride one with Rhaegar, she even drew a picture of it, so hanging around the kid who is said to be a dragon didn't sound too bad, especially since he looked so much like Rhaegar, but with a different look in his eyes that reminded her of herself.

"Very well." said Cersei as she walked next to him.