i request- thing of joanna and a tiny toddler cersei casually just walking up to queen rhaella and asking her to picked up PLEASE
ALWAYS ACCEPTING COOL PROMPTS& always accepting the children
(I didnât know if you wanted a starter so I made a drabble but like? Turn this into a starter if you want?)
   She did not like being there; did not like city, misliked its ruler even more. Had it not been necessary, would never leave her den to anywhere near the dragons; but protocol demanded presenting her children to court, even more so when they happened to be fathered by the Kingâs Hand. Was situation different, she wouldâve taken pride in it; tried to, but Aerys made sure to shame lioness once more.
    Yet, there were things she missed about the place. Kingâs Landing had staged several moments of joy, too. Days of youth and summer and girlish mirth became fond memories; she missed her dornish friend, and missed friendship with the queen â relationship with Rhaella had been strained for years, and how could it be otherwise? Even that Aerys had tainted. Exchanges with the queen had been courteous, but no more; they lacked warmth, lacked the enthusiasm of meeting between old friends.Â
    When last they parted, Rhaella had dismissed Joanna of her service (and all relief to return home and all understanding of queenâs reasoning could not prevent wound in lionessâ pride â wound still not healed, not fully, not even now). Her return had been met with same sort of behavior that led her to be sent away; âtwas not within her power to stop it, though. Actions were not her own, and as unwanted for her as they certainly were for Rhaella. It humiliated them both; yet consequences were left to them, while he was free to do as he pleased. How could there be warmth, when there was so much room for resentment?
    Visit was still a couple days away of being over, though. And as the lady wife of the lord Hand, it was befitting that she would spend time in company of the queen (that either of them did not wish for it mattered little; but Joanna was well versed in her courtesies, and so was Rhaella, and if they did not want for it, neither of them gave fuel to gossipers to say so).Â
    Lack of safety felt for herself was extended to her children, and cubs were kept by her side most of the time; she worried about them here in ways she did not have to in Casterly Rock. Absence of their weight carried with her arms or little hands grasping hers or familiar tug upon her skirts, leads her to frown; it is but a second, but Joanna worries â and then eyes of green see her little lioness taking little steps towards the queen.
     Mouth opens with a scolding call of Cersei, and hand reaches to pull her back, but Rhaellaâs gesture is to allow child to continue, and so Joanna obeys (but gaze does not leave Cersei for a moment, and she worries â not about safety as much as about what daughter means to do, now). Queen would not harm her, regardless of their differences; Rhaella was gentle, gentler than Joanna herself.Â
     And there is amusement as she watches daughter so casually request the queen to pick her up, so unaware of shock it may cause, so innocent. Yet Joanna does intervene, then; to apologize for daughterâs bold manners and lack of understanding, to teach daughter about proper courtesies as well.
     Does not pick Cersei up, though; instead eyes display her surprise as the Targaryen chooses to indulge lion cub.Â
     In that moment, there is warmth and meeting a friend long gone. But it is a moment, nothing more, and Joanna is not foolish to hope this to change anything. With such thoughts, there is sorrow; mourning of joys they were denied, of friendship that could have been.Â
     In an ideal world, she wouldâve been glad to visit her friend, and Rhaella would have received her joyously. There would be no such concern about protocol, and Cersei wouldâve been entertained by the queen without tension â received with laughter and welcoming arms and no hesitance or uncertainty. World was hardly ideal a thing, though.
      For a moment, they had all that; Joanna simply wished it did not have to be just one.