The Stag and The Frog - (GendryxMeera GOT fanfic) Part 1: Alone

30: Crossroads

"I support Lord Baratheon," Robin said instead. "Because my father supported his father. But he still needs to prove he can keep his kingdom."

"I'm sure he will prove you all wrong," Meera replied, probably still sounding a bit too angry and upset.

She was starting to ponder where she had put her spear and if anyone would mind if she used it on Robin. Just a little bit to scare him.

Luckily her father and Lord Royce returned to the table at that moment. Before Meera had managed to locate her spear.

"I gave away your cat," she said to her father as he sat down and started petting the fluffy thing that was now comfortably sleeping on its chair.

"It's not my cat," Howland replied. "But I do want to give it a good home. Who did you give it to?"

"The barmaid, her name is Annie."

Meera pointed over to where the blonde girl was standing, enveloped in conversation with a sturdy-looking young man who seemed to be covered in flour. Probably her soon-to-be-husband, the baker.

"She and her husband will take care of it. He's a baker and needs someone to catch mice around his bakery."

"Sounds like the cat will be well-taken care of," her father said, but he looked a bit sad. Howland seemed to have gotten very fond of the cat already.

"I'm sure you can come around and visit them when you like," Meera said and patted her father on the shoulder.

"Well, I do need to come back here soon to drop off food for the refugees," her father replied. "That's what we agreed on with the owner, all us lords will drop off our food, and then the tavern will dispense it to the people."

As Howland said that a scream was heard from the other side of the table. Meera looked over and to her surprise she saw Robin lunging at Tyrek, trying to wrestle him to the ground.

"What in the seven kingdoms are you doing boy?" Lord Royce called out from where he was standing at the end of the table. Since he always insisted on wearing his full suit of armor he couldn't sit down comfortably.

"Tyrek says he's gonna marry Desmera Redwyne as soon as his marriage is invalidated," Robin screamed. "But I was going to marry her! I mean I didn't know if I wanted to but... he shouldn't get to! Lord Redwyne asked me first!"

"Robin said he didn't want her!" Tyrek retorted. "And I'm not going to let a cute girl like that be passed by!"

Meera could just roll her eyes as the boys kept fighting on the other side of the table. Robin was throwing punches while Tyrek was parrying. Lord Royce was trying to tear them apart but was not very graceful in his full suit of armor. Howland held on to the cat, now named Ser Pie, to make sure it didn't get injured in the squabble.

"KLANK!" was heard as Lord Royce fell over in his attempt to separate the boys. Howland handed the cat to Meera so he could go over and assist the clumsy lord in getting on his feet again.

Robin and Tyrek were rolling on the floor trying to get the upper hand on each other. The other tavern guests were giving them confused looks. Hopefully, none of the guests realized that the two squabbling boys were Lord Paramounts of the Westerlands and the Eyrie respectively.

Meera took the cat and went out and sat on the stairs of the tavern while the situation calmed down. She didn't want to be associated with those two stupid boys. To think that they had called Gendry rash and emotional... when they were currently engaged in a fistfight for a girl neither of them knew.

This made her think of Gendry. And she tried not to think of him. She missed him too much when she did. His blue eyes looking at her like she mattered most in the world. His arms around her. His lips against hers. No... she was not going to think of him. But yet she did.

As Meera sat there, petting the cat and not thinking of Gendry, Annie came up and sat next to her. She was a very cute girl up close, Meera could see now why the boys had been looking at her. Her blonde braids were so long they flowed down to the end of her back. She was voluptuous and round in all the right places. She had tons of freckles all over her face, cleavage, and arms. And her smile was infectious.

"I'm sorry about my travel companions," Meera said. "I hope they're not making too much of a mess in there."

"I've seen worse," Annie said, seemingly unbothered by the commotion going on inside. "Is either of those lords in there your husband?"

"Definitely not!" Meera said with emphasis, feeling a bit embarrassed that Annie would even think that. "I'm not married. But the man right now trying to pull Lord Arryn off Lord Lannister by his feet is my father."

Meera looked in as she said that and saw that her father had managed to get Lord Royce off the floor and was now actively trying to stop the wrestling match himself instead. Howland Reed wasn't one to suffer disorderly behavior for long. Meera trusted him to sort the boys out in no time. And probably make men of them both in the process.

Annie started petting the cat sitting in Meera's lap. The cat was purring and once again pawing at her long braids. Meera sensed that Annie and the cat would get along well.

"You just had that look to you," Annie said. "The look of someone in love. I can tell. I see so many people pass by here all the time and I know the look."

"I might be..." Meera said. "But certainly not with one of those stupid boys. With someone kind, honest, and handsome. With someone I can't have. "

Meera wasn't one to usually spill her inner thoughts to strangers, but for some reason she trusted Annie. She felt like she knew her. And she needed to talk to someone.

"Why not?" Annie asked.

"Because he's the heir to his lands, and so am I. That means we can't marry, because one of us would have to give up their title. And I can't do that, and neither can he. I wouldn't let him, and he wouldn't let me."

Annie surprised Meera by giving her a warm hug. She put her arm around her and squeezed tightly. The cat seemed a bit spooked by this but stayed in Meera's lap.

"It all sounds so complicated when you're a lord or a lady," Annie said as she let go of Meera. "People always seem to wish they were nobility, but I don't. I want to be able to choose my own life. And your life seems so regulated by rules and traditions."

"It is... it's all about duty. To your house and your family. But I would never want to be anyone else. Because my house and my family is all I am."

She and Annie remained on those stairs for a while longer. Petting the cat. Talking about life and love. Annie started braiding Meera's hair into some kind of fancy hairstyle she would never be able to recreate.

Inside the tavern, Howland Reed seemed to have sorted out the situation. Of course, he had. The boys were now neatly seated trying to beat each other in a board game instead. Still squabbling a bit but not violently. It was unclear which one of them would get to marry Desmera Redwyne. Lord Royce seemed to have recuperated from his fall and was now propped up against a bench drinking ale. Howland himself was lively engaged in a storytelling session and seemed to have the majority of the tavern's denizens around him listening. He was probably telling them some tall tales about his participation in Robert's rebellion.

Little did they all know that these were the last moments before their already broken world shattered. Before everything fell apart. Before there was no more time for childish squabbles. Before the kingdom would depend on all of them to put it back together.

Author's Note: Yep I went full slapstick again... it's not my fault that Lord Arryn and Lord Lannister are teenage boys who can't behave properly :)