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Storm's End 271 AC

Steffon

Cassana's screams echoed from beyond the closed door. She has been at it for almost two hours now. And for the life of him Steffon couldn't do a thing . he'd fought across the narrow sea in the nine penny kings on both the step stones and Essos. He was stranded, surrounded and even gravely injured in the war but never has felt more helpless than when he stood in front of his wife's birthing champers. The fact that it wasn't the first time this happened didn't help much either.

His lady wife has already gifted him with two strong sons . Robert, his eldest and first joy in life was very strong and, when needed very charismatic. He showed high aptitude to be a very good future lord paramount of the Stormlands as a child. 'strength and charisma are good traits to have in leader' mused Steffon. Add that to the happiness of being new parents, Steffon can freely admit that he and his wife very much spoiled Robert in his early years. It wasn't till Robert began his lessons with maester Cressen that Steffon realized that he was spoiling the lad .his son was not the scholarly type and while this wasn't really a big issue what actually caught his attention was Robert's reaction to lessons. He noticed that his son took every possible way to escape from his lessons and would not even put the effort in them no matter how little that effort may be. Instead he much preferred to spend his time on the practice yard. It was then that Steffon and Cassana started to apply a firmer hand on their son's upbringing .

Perhaps that's why when Stannis was born they focused more in how to avoid the small mistakes they made with Robert rather than spoiling him rotten like his elder brother. And thus Stannis was more receptive to the idea of carrying out his lessons even when he wasn't that better in them than Robert. His second son had natural inner discipline that was uncommon in a child his age that he and his wife encouraged . although he was a little rigid and his people skills needed polishing .

'well, nobody is perfect I suppose' despite their minor flaws both his sons have made him extremely proud . both of them showed great promise as warriors from a young age and both of them are able in their own ways. They are the light of his and his wife's life and he wouldn't wish for better sons. 'now if only they would get along'

Another scream got him out of his thoughts . earlier this year his wife fell with child again. All the words in the world couldn't express the happiness he felts when he found out . what caused everyone to panic is that she wasn't supposed to go into labor till at least two more weeks. Her pregnancy with Stannis has left her body weaker than it used to. And while that wouldn't normally affect her current pregnancy, it coupled with early labor aren't good signs. He was worried and the frantic running of serving girls in and out of the champers didn't help him any.

Thankfully it didn't last long. After a half an hour the screams changed to a baby's wails . Steffon entered and was greeted by the image of his wife . sweaty and her hair messy but her look was for some reason one of the most beautiful he has ever seen. To her chest there was a small bundle she was carrying with care.

He looked upon it only to see a small babe with a soft patch of black hair resting between his wife's hands. "congratulations my lord, you've another son" she said to him showing that beautiful smiling face of hers. "you've done beau fully my love" He kissed her softly whispering to her as if he was scared to wake his new son. "what should we name him I wonder" he asked glancing lovingly again at the sleeping babe. " how about .. Renly" she said. he gave it some thought " Renly Baratheon….a good name".

They stopped conversing as they noticed the flutter of his eye lids. They opened to reveal a pair of blue sapphire Baratheon eyes that while unfocused did not conceal the intelligence behind them. "hello there little Renly. It's your mother" she cooed at his youngest .the babe gazed at her with unfocused eyes for a minute before he started to wail . Cassana panicked and tried to calm him till he fell asleep again. the maester looked the infant up to check for anything out of normal. After telling them that every ting is normal both parents looked at their child again but relaxed when they saw how peaceful he was as slept. Steffon then took Renly and put him in a cradle next to his mother . he kept her company till she herself fell asleep to recover from her ordeal. He then gazed at his sleeping son one more time and a gentle smile found its way to his lips .

'life is good right now' he thought to himself.