Cletus breathed a huge sigh of relief.
"A lot of things." Cletus nodded at her. "Do you want me to carry this somewhere?"
"Oh, that would be splendid!" she reacted with that wicked smile of hers.
The things we do for girls…
...
Alla quickly led him out of the room and towards another maze of hallways.
"Is Lady Margaery doing fine?" Cletus asked, trying to make conversation on the way.
"Oh, lovely!" Alla replied. "She spent some time with prince Quentyn yesterday."
"They get along?" Cletus asked.
"Very well!" Alla energetically replied. "They are such a cute couple! I mean…they look like it, anyways. They look so good together. It's a shame Lady Margaery will wed Joffrey instead; the prince looks a lot cuter and a lot nicer!"
"I fear the prince is also taken." Cletus coughed.
"Yes, yes." Alla sighed. "I know better than anyone. He and his cousin really love each other."
"Oh, you've seen it?" he asked.
"Well, not seen rather than heard." Alla laughed. "My rooms are directly adjacent to theirs and they can get loud."
"I can ask them to tone it down. A girl like you doesn't need to hear such things."
"No need." Alla waved him off. "My slumber is heavy. Although if someone invited me to their rooms, I wouldn't say no…"
"If they disturb you too much, you can always come to mine." Cletus replied while Alla held another door open for him, pointing at a large table in the middle of it. "Arch snores sometimes, but we have another bed that no one uses, and Arch often guards the prince's rooms at night anyways."
Alla smiled as she took the cloths and put them on the table.
"That would be nice!" the Tyrell girl smiled widely. "I know where they are, are they open all the time?"
"Uh…" Cletus trailed uncomfortably. How did she know? "Yes…"
"Great!" she put the last cloth down on the table. "Thank you for everything!"
"It was my pleasure, Alla." Cletus nodded and made to leave.
"Oh, I almost forgot!" Alla quickly stopped him before he had stepped out of the room.
"What?" Cletus asked.
She closed the distance, coming within close quarters, and stood on her toes, placing a small kiss on his cheek.
"Your reward." She winked.
"Thank you." Cletus did his best not to blush. "Have a lovely afternoon."
"I'll see you later, Yronwood!" she cried out as he finally stepped out of the room.
Finally, Cletus could breathe. Damn, that girl was on fire all the time! He'd never seen a ball of energy like her. And to say her cousins told him Alla was shy and reserved, it seems around him she was nothing but nervous and bursting with energy.
And it was hard to see where she was getting at. Cletus wondered ... she was really pretty, had such a sweet voice, had flowered, showed attraction to him ... but she was a bit young, and a Tyrell too. He had to be careful with these ones.
Looking at the sky, which was now obscured by a bunch of grey clouds, Cletus made his way towards Quentyn's rooms. He would pass on the eunuch's message, then hopefully take a bath. He'd been running through the Keep's halls all day.
Luckily, as he arrived, the prince's doors had guards around them, meaning they were most certainly back from whatever errand they had run in the city.
Nodding to the guards, Cletus quickly entered the room…and screeched to a halt when a dagger whiffed past his nose and went to rest on the wall to his right.
"Seven hells, Cletus, ever heard of knocking?" Quentyn cried out.
"Em ... eh ... door ... not ... locked ... " Cletus was trembling like a leaf, not even looking away from the dagger that had passed a step away from him.
"Thankfully the target was far." Quentyn's cousin ran past him, taking the dagger out of a makeshift target planted on the wall.
"And you're getting better," Quentyn replied slyly.
"I always just was this good." Nymeria shrugged. "Now I'm perfect."
Cletus slowly closed the door behind him, trying to register what the fuck just happened.
"What in the seven hells are you two doing?" he asked, his heart thumping inside of his chest.
"Preparing Avalanche." Quentyn cryptically replied.
"Which is?" Cletus asked.
"Something which you don't need to be aware of." The snake frowned. "What are you doing here, Yronwood?"
"Coming to warn Quentyn of a danger on his life, Sand," Cletus growled.
"What else is new?" Quentyn sighed. "It's been like this every single day in this wretched city. Not a single moment in the day where I have to look behind me, wondering how they'll try. I can't wait for father to stop acting like an idiot and recall me home, the sooner the better!"
"You're cute when you're angry." The snake almost giggled.
"I'm not angry!" Quentyn fired back. "I'm just...well...alright, fine, I'm angry!"
"But this is different! Apparently they are supposed to act today." Cletus shrugged, eyeing a flagon of wine, quickly pouring himself a drink.
He hummed as he observed the glass. Arbor Red. Not as good as a Dornish Red, but it would do.
Quentyn's eyes widened, and he rushed towards Cletus, slapping the glass out of his hand, its contents spilling on the floor.
"What was that for?" Cletus exclaimed.
"Did you ask for this to be brought up?" he asked the snake.
The Sand Snake narrowed her eyes, and then slowly realized where Quentyn was going with it.
"No…" she shook her head. "Haven't drank anything. All their wine is from the Reach and it's fucking piss if you ask me."
"Well, I haven't either." Quentyn frowned. "Which means…"
"Who the fuck put this here…" the snake trailed, approaching Cletus' now empty glass, pouring herself some more.
She then observed the puddle at Cletus' feet. To his horror, the puddle had turned a quite nasty gray. The snake just frowned and hummed the mixture.
"Do you know what's in there?" Quentyn asked while Cletus' color was slowly draining from his face.
"Not exactly." She replied. "It seems to be quite a mixture. One thing is for sure, it's a deadly one."
She then smirked right at Cletus, who had gone completely white.
"I would hold off on drinking this piss, Yronwood." She emptied the glass out of the window but kept the flagon. "Unless you want to go meet your ancestors early, of course."
"That's not…funny…" Cletus was visibly shaking.
"Well, poison certainly fits the Lannisters." Quentyn sighed.
"It's not them!" Cletus tried to straighten up, although he still was visibly shocked.
"What?" the snake asked.
"It's not them." Cletus shook his head. "It's the Reachers! They think you are too close with Lady Margaery and think you want to seduce her."
"Wouldn't that be a sight?" Quentyn scoffed.
"She'd be too tender for our bed." The snake laughed.
"Alla said you two looked cute together, some people might draw the wrong conclusions!" Cletus defended himself.
"I thought we've been over this." Quentyn sighed. "Stop taking the Tyrells at their word."
"Eh." The snake shrugged. "It's obvious that one really likes your friend, so that might actually just be the truth."
"Well, he has to be careful lest he finds himself flung headfirst into the stables, that's what Margaery told me." Quentyn's eyes narrowed.
"And who is taking the Tyrells at their word now?" Cletus scoffed.
"Alright, enough." Quentyn's eye twitched. "Who in the seven hells told you the Reachers were after me?"
"The Spider."
Quentyn sighed heavily.
"Of course, it's fucking Varys. It's always Varys." He pinched his upper nose.
"Isn't he part of one of your plans?" the snake asked.
"Torch. Varys is Torch." Quentyn replied. "Him and his little friend."
"You should really drop the silly names." His cousin shook her head.
"I like them!" Quentyn replied. "Besides, it sounds better than the-super-secret-plan-no-one-can-talk-about-number-twenty-five."
"Fine." She shrugged. "Should we put your little plan into motion earlier?"
"No." Quentyn said in a low voice. "People would start to understand. We have to act when the moment is right."
"I exist." Cletus coughed.
"Shut up, Cletus!" the two voiced in unison.
Cletus just held up both his arms in surrender.
"I'm sorry, I was just trying to be a good friend and warn you of the attempt on your fucking life."
"It is appreciated." Quentyn nodded.
"That's it?" Cletus asked.
"Listen, Cletus." Quentyn sighed. "I'm under a lot of pressure, and someone just tried to fucking kill me."
"I know! I nearly died too." Cletus cried out, dumbfounded.
"I know…" Quentyn nodded. "But…I need to figure this out quickly and silently. And I need to be alone. Can you please…leave us. We'll talk later."
Cletus stood there, clearly in shock. But when it became clear that Quentyn was not joking, he reluctantly stepped out of the room.
Clearly angry and bitter, Cletus paced back to his rooms, had a bath and ate dinner without a word, Quentyn keeping to both his uncle, his lover…and Arch of all people!
Since he wasn't important enough to be included in this, he was going to go back to his rooms early and lock Arch out. He could play guard dog if he wanted to.
When he returned, the sight of a thinly-clad Tyrell girl on his bed startled him. By all accounts, according to Quentyn, he should have not indulged in anything.
"Cletus." Alla teased. "Care to talk to me like you did to that Caswell girl?"
Cletus tried to resist, but the sight of a pretty maiden in his bed was just too much to bear.
However, after today's events, Cletus needed to feel alive. And Alla Tyrell was more than enough for him to feel just that.
He quickly kissed her deeply, running his hands through her brown curls, while she shed her dress, showing all of her form to him.
"You're my first." Alla confessed, looking him in the eyes with her own sweet, brown eyes. "But I hear the Dornish are good teachers. Make love to me, please."
Cletus could not resist such a sweet voice, and gave in to her wishes. After a few hours, he could feel their hearts pacing rapidly while she collapsed on top of him, rapidly falling asleep, her heart beating over his chest, her head tugged into the crook of his neck.
Running a hand through her brown hair, he could not help but think that he had found a rose without thorns.
For once, Cletus went to sleep with a wide smile on his face.
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