How about a little catnis blurb in which Cat is crying/sad for some reason and Stannis has ZERO idea how to comfort her?🤗
This was so fun to write!! It mayyyy have run away with me a bit! (It's 1.6k words.) I don't think there's any warnings? Breastfeeding, I guess? Stannis thinks Catelyn has the only perfect pair of tits in the world? But here is angsty and fluffy Catnis + some Renly and Steffon!
“Stas?”
“Come in, Ren.” He crossed the room and waited quietly as I finished the paragraph I was writing before giving him my full attention. “What is it?”
“Catelyn is upset.”
“What is she upset about?”
Renly shrugged. “She didn’t say, but she was crying, and when she saw me she tried to hide it and told me to run along and find some mischief with Ed, then went into her chambers and closed the door.” He frowned. “She never skips our walk in the gardens. She didn’t even have Steff with her!”
I looked over to where Steffon was sitting, quietly playing with a pair of wooden deer, then glanced at the clock on the shelf behind him. It was well past when she usually came to collect him. With a sigh, I stood and crossed the room to Steffon, kneeling beside him.
“’Tis time for your walk around the gardens, fawn,” I told him, picking him up.
“Mama?” Steffon asked, looking around for her, then frowning at me when he found her absent. “We can’t go without Mama.”
“Mama isn’t feeling well right now, Steff. You shall have to take your walk with your uncles and Mariya.”
“But I don’t wannnaaaaa!” Steffon went dramatically limp in my arms. “Uncle Edmure is borrrrring! He wants to talk to girls all the time!” Beside me, Renly grimaced, his own distaste for girls clear.
“He is not boring, he is simply two and ten,” I told Steffon as we left the study. “When you are two and ten, you shall also be of no interest to lads of only three years, I would wager.”
“Stas?” I glanced down at Renly. “Will there be a lad of three here when Steff is two and ten?” I furrowed my brow, and he elaborated, “Will you and Cat have another son, nine years after Steff?”
“I cannot tell you if they shall be sons, but we shall have more children. Catelyn desires at least five. Why do you ask?”
“I like being a big brother,” Renly answered, giving me a genuine smile. “I’m glad I live with you and Cat, and not Robert and Cersei. I would not like having Cersei as my mother.”
I decided that that was not a battle I wished to fight, not when he looked so happy, and certainly not when I would likely need all my emotional strength to handle whatever was wrong with Catelyn. It was not small, I knew, for, as Renly said, she never missed her walk with him and Steffon. Every single afternoon since we had landed on this dreary island, she had taken them for a turn about the flowers and trees. The only time she had not gone was when she had been in labor with Cyrenna a moon ago.
Steffon left in the care of Ser Kermit and Catelyn’s favorite handmaid, Mariya, with Renly walking along quietly beside them and Edmure doing his best to flirt with Mariya (much to her amusement), I hurried back across the castle to Catelyn’s chambers. Ser Tristifer stood outside the door; he paused for a moment, seeming to calculate his lady’s orders against my own will, then opened the door for me with a dip of his head. I nodded shortly at him as I passed into the antechamber.
“Catelyn?”
“Just a moment, Stannis,” she called back after a beat. She appeared after another minute, Cyrenna in her arms. My chest tightened at the sight of my sweet wife holding my child—what could be more pleasant for a man to gaze upon? Then I noticed the redness around her eyes and the exhaustion in her posture, and my pride quickly gave way to concern.
“Cat, are you alright? Renly told me you were crying.”
“’Tis not anything you ought to worry over, husband,” she said quickly, shaking her head and moving to sit by the fire. “I am tired, as to be expected, with such a freshly whelped babe.” She smiled at me, but I could see the glisten of tears in her eyes.
“Catelyn.” I crossed the room and knelt beside her, placing a hand on her knee. “You are upset. Why?” She shook her head again, but I saw how she shifted Cyrenna closer. “Is something wrong with Cyrenna, my darling? Does she require Cressen’s attention?”
“No. Well, that is, I do not think this requires Cressen, but…she won’t latch on.” Something inside Catelyn broke, and suddenly she was sobbing. “Steff was always so easy to feed, and she, she…it is as if she hates me! I am doing exactly as I did with Steffon, but she is fussy about the entire process! And, and she stops part way through, and then I must struggle to get her back on, and she glares at me the entire time! Condemning me!”
“Oh.” This was not at all what I had expected. “Would you like me to hire a wet nurse for her?”
“So that I may watch her love some other woman? Oh yes, that would help immensely!” Catelyn scoffed, frowning at me. “I just do not understand! Steffon was never difficult!”
“Do you suppose it is your diet? Perhaps what you are eating is affecting the taste, making it less desirable.”
“You think the milk I produced on RATS was better?!” Catelyn was now glowering, her tears flowing steadily.
“I do not know, my darling,” I reached up to brush her tears away with my thumb, “I have not sampled your milk.”
“I am aware of that, Stannis!” She huffed, although she leaned into my palm as she did. “Do you know who could answer such a question for his wife? Ned.”
“That was not necessary information to impart,” I replied, the image of Catelyn’s cousin and her husband burning in my mind.
“I suppose you ought to write to Davos,” Catelyn continued, “and tell him to bring us some of the apparently magic onions that make my milk palatable! Since it seems my bitter heart truly has infected my breasts!”
“None of that is what I meant,” I replied as gently as I could.
“Your meaning matters not! Our daughter hates me and you do not have anything helpful to say!” Catelyn inhaled shakily, pulling away from my touch, then opened her mouth again, but before she could speak further, Cyrenna let out a soft cry. Immediately, Catelyn’s focus was entirely on her, her thumb softly rubbing her cheek, her body curling around her.
“Shh, shh, forgive me, my sweet.” Catelyn pressed a kiss to her forehead. “I am so sorry, little fawn, to have failed you so intimately and completely.” She looked back at me, heartbroken. “Hire the wet nurse, Stas. I shall simply have to endure it.”
“Is she hungry now?” I asked, ignoring her statement and placing a hand softly over the one she had cradling our daughter’s head.
“Yes, I believe so, but I have been attempting to feed her for the past hour! I do not know what else to do, besides having you milk me like a, a bloody cow into a goblet and pouring it down her throat!” If she had been standing, I was certain one of her delicate feet would have been stomped in anger. As it was, she pressed her lips together tightly and looked away from me again.
“What if I hold her while you nurse?” I suggested, standing and holding out my arms for Cyrenna, who was now making a series of rather sad sounds at Catelyn, threatening to cry outright.
“How would that help any?” Catelyn blinked up at me, perplexed.
I shrugged. “I do not know, but you have not tried it yet, and it would be better than having another woman nurse her, would it not?”
“I suppose,” Catelyn said cautiously, allowing me to take Cyrenna. She regarded me with confusion, although she quieted down once more. Catelyn sighed and stood, gesturing for me to follow her into her bedchamber.
Catelyn sat near the head of the bed, leaving a space behind her, then adjusted her gown, freeing herself partially of it, a sight I could not help but admire. I love you, Cyrenna, but you are a fool to not adore your mother’s breasts; the single perfect pair in the entire world. I handed Cyrenna back to her, then slipped in behind her, my legs bracketing her body. Catelyn leaned back, and I wrapped my arms around her, letting her set Cyrenna in them. Her own moved to rest against my thighs, her hands gently holding them, thumbs brushing across my breeches. Cyrenna wiggled a moment, let out a small sigh, then began to nurse.
“You ass,” Catelyn groused. “I cannot believe she wants you to hold her!”
“I do not think she was the one wanting it,” I replied, noticing how Catelyn had melted against me. “I do rather believe you have been needing me more than you have let on, my darling. And that, along with all your other stubbornness, has made you quite anxious. She can tell when you are unhappy and it makes her unhappy as well.” I kissed her temple. “I am very sorry I did not notice your need, dearest, loveliest wife of mine.”
“Oh shut it,” Catelyn grumbled. “I hope you know you shall now be required for all her feedings.”
“I do not mind. Now rest, my darling.”
Catelyn was asleep before Cyrenna finished. I shifted her so she was nestled against her mother’s chest, one hand covering her back, the other resting against Catelyn’s ribs, content to remain where I was as long as my wife required.