Beasts of Lore ♕ GOT

Warm Embrace

"No- absolutely not happening."

"You don't have a choice."

"I am not letting a bunch of men rip your dress from you like a common whore!"

Andriella smirks, not looking up from the delicate stitching she is doing, "Oh, I'm a common whore now?"

Robb groans, falling onto the cot beside the vanity that Andriella is working at. "You know that's not what I mean. I don't soldiers and lords clamoring at the chance to strip the Queen in the North to her bareness." 

"Robb, listen to me carefully." She sets the garment down and holds Robb's face in the palm of her hands. Blue meets brown like a clear blue sky over the hills of Painted Mountains in the Dothraki Sea. "Our union is now a royal wedding and despite my acclaims I am a foreign bride. Any child I sire for you will be put in a place of scrutiny if no one is able to confirm the consummation of our wedding. With the rumors of the Baratheon-Lannister children, it is even more imperative that the bedding ceremony takes place."  

Nuzzling in her warm palm, the new King pouts, "Do they have to be in the tent though? Can't they just wait outside? I'm sure they'll be able to hear us just fine." 

Andriella pinches his cheek, "You already know how many people will be fighting to be gathered around our tent. Royal weddings are different, Robb. Especially since I am from Essos and in such a high place of power already. Several lords have already requested that our bed sheets be put on display-"

"For your maidenhood?" 

"Yes, but as we've already had our wedding night," Robb nips at the tips of Andriella's fingers as she continues, "The only way Catelyn and I could negotiate around it was allowing witness to confirm that you finish your husbandly duties."

Robb groans, falling back from Andriella's warm hands. He drapes an arm over his face. "Husbandly duties" He quotes in a deep voice. "I bet I can name the lords who requested that." 

"I'm sure you could. At least this will only happen this once. We had our first wedding to ourselves, this one is for the North, and the last one for our new allies. All of our new allies will have to be satisfied with waiting outside." 

"Do you not feel uncomfortable?" Robb had to admit that he had always thought that he could get around the bedding when he were to get married. He knew how possessive the whole event would make him. He would likely exchange a few punches with anyone who was overly aggressive while disrobing his wife after the wedding. 

He knew Andriella was right. The amount of scrutiny their union was already under was entirely foreign for him. If he were simply the Lord of Winterfell things would be different. Now, crowned as the King in the North, he has responsibilities he never prepared himself for. 

Never even wanted.

Having children was a given. He would need to provide heirs for Winterfell. However, providing heirs for a kingdom was a much larger responsibility. Proving those heirs were sired by him was an even larger task. One that would probably haunt him for his entire reign. Especially since Cersei Lannister screwed the whole thing up. 

"Robb," Andriella hesitates, thinking of what the best way would be to explain this to him, "I have always known what would be expected of me as a female heir. Customs are not all that different in Agaliga. My mother and father underwent the same treatment. It's not something I want-- but it's something that is required of me." 

Sweeping the tan girl into his arms, Robb pulls Andriella on top of him on the cot. He presses a gentle kiss to her forehead, pulling back to peer into her endlessly brown eyes, before claiming her lips. Andriella responds in kind, her fingers threading through is hair and pulling him impossibly closer.