Fic: Dance

[redcandle17]

Title: Dance
Rating: G
Characters: Catelyn, Brandon, Littlefinger, Lysa
Word Count: 1,169
Summary: At the Harrenhal Tourney Catelyn Tully's attempt to spend time with her betrothed Brandon Stark is interrupted by her childhood friend Petyr Baelish.
Note: Written for the Harrenhal Project at fanmoot. There are a bunch of ways I could improve this, but

Comments

[violaswamp]

Aww. I really like this--all of Cat's rational social calculations up against Petyr and his wants and his sense that he's entitled to impose those wants on her. And poor pathetic Lysa.

I think Cat/Brandon might have actually been better than Cat/Ned. In fact I think Cat and Ned both occasionally think so too--in one of the Cat chapters it's pretty clear he doesn't think he measures up to Brandon and she's aware of this.

[redcandle17]

Yeah, the scene where Ned says everything should have been Brandon's (her, the kids, Winterfell) is extremely interesting, and one of the few times I think we get to see beneath the surface to the real Ned and what he wanted for himself before he had to live his brother's life.

I think Cat/Brandon might have actually been better than Cat/Ned.

'Cause it would have been more like Catelyn/Jaime. It would have been more passionate and more fun, I think. Ned's personality doesn't really allow for those kinds of things.

[misstopia]

"I think Cat/Brandon might have actually been better than Cat/Ned

[misstopia]

Ahh I wish I could edit my posts (totally sorry for all the deletes). But anyway just wanted to add that I'd be willing to bet that she didn't think of Brandon all that much after a while. When she thinks of the duel while she's at the Eyrie in AGOT she hasn't thought about it in forever, as I recall. I'd think that if she had Brandon on her mind she'd probably have revisited that memory more often.

I think Brandon is all in Ned's head, and whether or not Ashara is all in Cat's head remains to be seen. I like the idea of Cat/Brandon but I also like that there was life after the teenage romance, I just don't know if a youthful infatuation can be the same as fifteen years of companionship.

PPS - I think when Ned brings up Brandon he may not even really have thought about her POV, if she'd prefer Brandon. The thought path may be more: "Brandon was born to rule" "I don't really like ruling" "Duty's kind of a bitch" and then on Cat's end, "Well, our marriage was duty ... heyWTF?!"