Exhausted – and as graceless as ever – Brienne Tarth slid down into one of the seats at the back of the bus. Even though it wasn't quite 5 PM yet, the sun was already half gone. It would take them about five hours to get back to King's Landing University and she wanted to use that time and catch up with some sleep.

Her teacher for Medieval Literature, Professor Catelyn Stark, had offered a trip to Harrenhal, one of the best museums in all of Westeros, for everyone in her class. Usually it was quite expensive to get there, so as Professor Stark said, they only had to pay half of the price, Brienne – being a student and therefor constantly short on money – didn't hesitate one moment to sign up for it. It was no secret that she was a huge history-nerd, especially for the medieval times, and she wanted to visit the exhibition and grounds of Harrenhal for a long time.

The only downside was the bus ride. Harrenhal was quite a while away from King's Landing. At 6 AM they had to leave and arrived just a shortly before lunch. Not even Professor Stark could pretend to be awake and happy that early in the morning. They rushed through the rather large exhibition, walked around the grounds quite fast – nobody expected their teacher to be able to walk that fast – and barely had any time for breaks. Nevertheless Brienne loved every second of it.

Just as she was about to plug in her headphones and let herself be lulled to the world of her dreams, a body slumped right next to her. Brienne jumped a little, looked to her left and saw the familiar, golden locks, that never fail to remind her of a lion. She wasn't even half as surprised as she should be, that no other than Jaime Lannister tried to keep her from sleeping.

"W-what are you doing?" she finally stuttered, still not sure, why he did choose to sit next to her. He hadn't done that in the morning. Instead, Jaime had picked an empty seat somewhere in front of her, popped up his legs on the seat next to him and slept for the whole time.

He flashed her one of his beautiful smiles that turned her legs to jelly and made her cheeks burn. His emerald eyes sparkled with a hint of mischief – just like always. "Why, I'm sitting here, wench."

Wench.

He kept calling her that since they met for the first time. It had been Brienne's first day at the university and it was just her luck, that she ran straight into Jaime Lannister, son of Tywin Lannister and therefor heir of Casterly Rock, the biggest and most successful gold-mining company in Westeros. He was so rich, he could bath in all of his money. They had met in Medieval Literature and he just wouldn't stop making fun of her.

It wasn't something that was new to Brienne. Nobody would call her pretty – they called her quite the opposite: ugly. And Brienne knew it was true. Her straw-like, blonde hair was thin and barely touched her shoulders, not even the best conditioner could save it – and Margaery had tried it –, she had a crocked nose, horse-like teeth, a mouth that was too wide, her barely existing breasts and her massive and unfeminine body was pale and covered with freckles.

No, she was no beauty. Strangely enough, everyone seemed to think that Brienne could forget her lack of beauty, and they took over the task to remind her of her unfortunate looks everyday. As if her reflexion wouldn't do that every time she passed a mirror, window or anything else, that was able to work as a mirror. Jaime, probably the most handsome man Brienne ever met, was no exception. Most of the time she just ignored all his jokes and taunts, but instead of getting tired, Jaime saw it as a challenge and just kept going.

That was before he saw her play.

Brienne was as much as a soccer-lover as she was a history-nerd and her father swore that she kicked a ball before she could even walk – Brienne obviously never believed it for the sole reason, that it was quite impossible to do that, but she did play as long as she could remember. The only reason why she could attend King's Landing University, one of the best and most expensive universities, was because she had a sport scholarship. When she played, she felt safe, even looked more graceful and was happy. A lot of boys teased her for it, but as soon as they saw her play, they would shut up. Especially after she beat them.

Jaime was a soccer player himself – one of the best, like he always liked to share with everyone who did and didn't want to hear it. Even Brienne had to admit that he was really good. There had been rumors that he was a substitute for the Casterly Lions, the team from Lannisport and one of the best in Westeros, but Brienne never believed that.

One day a few months ago, Brienne was training by herself. It was already quite late and she thought she was alone, the perfect chance to work on her footwork without having all the glances of the other guys on her. She wasn't in the team yet, but she planned on getting in it. Her enthusiasm and good mood disappeared rather quickly, as she saw Jaime, captain of the team, stroll onto the field like he owned it. For all Brienne knew, his father donated so much money, that he actually could own the field.

"Look who is out here," he said with a loop-sided grin plastered on his face. At once Brienne's cheeks turned red and she looked down at her feet. "What do you think you're doing out here?"

"I am training," she answered quietly without looking up.

"Don't tell me you are playing."

"I am."

He started to laugh so hard, that he doubled over and tears started to come into his eyes. "You? You clumsy and graceless wench? Can you even manage to not trip over your own feet? How do you want to kick a ball in front of you?"

Brienne clenched her fists and looked down at the grass. She was used to that reaction. She could deal with it. All she had to do, was to remain silent and let them make their jokes.

"I could beat you."

The words had left her mouth before she could stop them. For a moment she believed – hoped – that he hadn't heard her; but then his laughter stopped so abruptly that she finally looked into his eyes. He was tall, but still shorter than her by an inch or two. Amusement glittered in his eyes, but there was a spark of something else. Brienne couldn't quite but her finger on it, but it did something funny to her stomach.

"Oh, do you really believe that?" he purred, sounding very much like the lion, that was the sigil of the Lannisters.

"No, I don't believe that" she said, still looking in his eyes and having no clue, where her courage came from. "I know that I am better than you."

"Why don't we find out?"

And they did.

In the end, none of them could tell, how long the were on the field. When they finally stopped, it had started to rain and was pitch black. Brienne won; 3-2. At first she thought Jaime would be too embarrassed to even talk to her ever again – he looked rather angry when he left the field – or make up some excuses like everyone else did, but she had been wrong. He asked her to practice together, saying he needed a good partner to practice, and nobody was as good as her. That time, she was just able to stare at him, her mouth slightly open and, finally, nodded. So they started to train together, they did their work-out in the gym together, discussed different players and tactics, and even did some of the essays for Professor Stark together. Of course he still teased her, but it became more friendly.

They came a long way from enemies to somewhat-friends and it hadn't been an easy way. There was the time when a player had broken Jaime's right hand by accident, even though everyone knew it hadn't been an accident. It had been really bad and he still had to wear the cast, even after almost two months. In the same second as his hand broke, all of Jaime's soccer planes and dreams shattered as well. It had been Brienne who had visit him in the hospital and helped him out of the pool of self-pity, that he had thrown himself into. She told him that he was more than just a soccer player, as often as he needed to hear it – which had been quite often. As he had asked her, if she could stay, she stayed with him for hours and days, until he had been discharged. He never mentioned why his family hadn't come to visit him and Brienne was sensible enough not to ask about it.

Then, of course, there had been the absolutely horrible party at Oberyn Martell's house. To be honest, it had been a rather good party, but because both Jaime and Brienne had a rather bad night – Jaime had another argument with his father and Brienne just found her crush Renly Baratheon making out with her best friend's brother Loras Tyrell – they got totally drunk and ended up sitting in the garden and baring their souls to each other.

Jaime told her about his unusual relationship with his twin Cersei, who was now the girlfriend of Robert Baratheon, one of the most powerful man in King's Landing, and that she slept with other men while he remained faithful to her. He told her about his argument with his father; that he didn't want to be the heir of Casterly Rock and because Tywin Lannister did not allow any disrespect, he had disowned him and kicked him out. He told her the story about Aerys Targaryen, the former captain of the team, who had been obsessed with fire and explosions. Jaime was responsible for Aerys being in jail and afterwards he was just known as the Kingslayer. He confessed that he had dyslexia, that he liked knights and sword-plays, that he did not know what to do if he can't play soccer, and – the most surprising thing for Brienne – that her eyes were beautiful.

Brienne told him about Hyle Hunt and the bet he and some other boys from her High School had about her virginity. She told him about her crush on Renly, the only person that had ever been nice to her. She told him about her dead brother and her dead mother. About her fear to disappoint her father, because she knew that he wished for her to have a boyfriend or more friends, even though he never said anything. At some point she even told him, that she wished she was as beautiful as Sansa or Margaery, that she wasn't that tongue-tight, wasn't as big, manly and freakish. She didn't tell him that he was handsome – he already knew that.

Brienne remained silent as Jaime spoke, letting him speak, just nodding then and there, and watched him closely. Jaime, on the other hand, didn't had such courtesies. At any point of any story, he would drop a comment, snort, or made any other kind of remark. As she told him about the bet, Jaime seemed honestly angry which surprised her even more than his comment about her eyes. They ended up talking for hours, before Oberyn finally found them, told them everyone else went home an hour ago and kicked them out.

At first Brienne had hope that both of them had drunken too much and wouldn't remember a single word they changed; but the fate was never gentle on her. When she woke up around afternoon the next day, she had a major headache, but she did not had a loss of memory. Jaime was just the same. He complained to her about feeling sick and then asked her if she had punched Hyle after she found out about the bet. She just gave him a short nod and he laughed before he started wincing and complained about his headache again.

It had surprised her that he actually turned up for the field trip. His mood had been fairly bad due to the earliness, but as soon as they had entered the armory, his eyes started to sparkle and they had a long discussion which sword looked the best. But of course Jaime had to get into trouble – he always does. Brienne didn't exactly know, what happened. She went to the bathroom while they had a short break and as she came back, Ronnet Connington had a bloody nose and Professor Stark scolded Jaime, who was holding his right hand. Later Brienne asked him what happened, but Jaime just shrugged and said that he was just a fucking idiot and deserved it. It wasn't like Brienne felt sorry for Ronnet – she was actually quite happy about it. They had some bad history together and Brienne sometimes just wanted to punch him herself.

"Don't look so surprised." Jaime's words brought her back to reality. She realized that her mouth was still open and closed it. "After all that's what you do with a seat."

"You could take one of the other seats. You would have more space."

"This one looks more comfortable. You don't mind, do you?" Without any further explanation, he popped his head on her shoulder, crossed his arms and stretched out his legs as far as he could. A second later his eyes were already closed.

Brienne just sat there, frozen and unsure what to do. Her eyes darted around the bus. Nobody was watching them and there was nobody behind them. Her heartbeat was racing and she feared that Jaime could hear it. She didn't even need to check her reflection; she already knew she looked like a tomato.

"J-Jaime!" She spit out his name in a low voice and as quite as possible, while she tried to express all of her unease at the same time.

"Brienne!" He mimicked her without opening one eye or moving in the slightest.

"What are you doing?"

"You repeat yourself. I'm trying to sleep, but it's quite difficult if a particular wench won't stop to move or shut up."

"Just pick another seat." She wiggled her shoulder, trying to get his head off of it, but there wasn't enough space for her to move, so his head only slid down a few inches.

"I quite like it here," he said and lazily opened his eyes to look at her. He flashed her another smile. "Your shoulders are far more comfortable than the seat."

Brienne opened her mouth, ready to spit back an answer, but her wit was gone – as always. So she sat there, her mouth open, her head and neck bright red and her blue eyes wider than ever. For a moment Jaime just watched her, waiting for a never-coming answer. As she remained silent, he just sighed and closed his eyes again.

"Just relax, wench," he said. "It's not like we never touched before."

Of course they had touched; as in having-physical-contact-in-a-totally-platonic-way. They did their warm-ups together and Brienne helped him countless times when he had troubles with his cast. They had touched each other in an innocent way.

But by the way he said it, a very different meaning of touching popped in Briennes head. She remembered the day as he had been discharged from the hospital and couldn't dress on his own. The day they had won a particular difficult game – before his hand had been crushed – as he had taken off his shirt and gave her a bear-like hug, all sweat and not noticing how he pressed himself against her, because he was too drunken on his euphoria.

Brienne's face burned and she quickly turned her head to look out of the window – anything to not look at him. The last thing she heard was a soft chuckle, then she plugged in her headphones and turned on one of her slower play-lists to fall asleep.

With a gasp Brienne woke up – a faster, slightly aggressive and especially louder song boomed into her ears. One of those she listened to when she trained and definitively not one in the play-list she had chosen. Something under her head moved and she realized that her head was not leaning against the window – where it had been as she had fallen asleep – but against Jaime's head. Startled she jumped in her seat, almost hitting her head against the window.

"Easy there, wench," Jaime laughed. "We don't want to end this trip in the hospital, do we?"

"Jaime, you - what - I-" Still confused she looked out of the window to clear up her thoughts – because his grin did not help to calm her down – and she realized something entirely else. "We're back." They almost entered the driveway to the grounds. She could make out the massive, old building of the university and the streetlights were little dots in the darkness.

"Yep," he said, popping the p. "Ah, finally a good one." The song changed again and this time it was one of Jaime's favorite songs. Immediately Brienne's attention went back to Jaime. She recognized a fairly familiar phone in his good hand.

"My phone," she gasped and snatched it out of his hand. He had one of her plugs in his ear, which fell out as she pulled at the phone.

"You have some really bad songs on there," he said, not sounding regretful in the slightest. "And there I was thinking you have at least a bit taste …" He shook his head and Brienne could hear low tsk, tsk, tsk.

"Why did you take my phone?" She stopped and thought for a second. "How could you even unlock it?"

"Mine died earlier and I was bored." He shrugged. "And, c'mon, your birthday isn't that original. Take mine instead. Nobody would think of that."

Brienne didn't know what surprised her more; that he suggested his own birthday for her lock or that he even knew her birthday. Not finding the right words, she looked down on her phone, where the title of the song scrolled over the screen. Her phone with all her texts. The texts from Margaery. Especially the ones in which she had asked Brienne about her thoughts on Jaime. And she had been very persistent, until Brienne finally confessed that he was hot. Her face began to burn again. She would never hear the end of it, if he read it.

"Did you-," she began, stopped, cleared her throat and started again. "Did you read any … I mean -"

"Any texts?" he asked, arching a perfect, golden eyebrow. Brienne nodded shyly. Oh gods, please say no, please say no. A lion-like grin spread across his face. Was it possible for a heart to sink and beat faster at the same time? Because Brienne's certainly did. "What do you think?"

"I swear to the gods, if you read any text, I will break your legs the next time we train, Lannister," she growled in a low voice. Of course she wouldn't do it – at least that was what she told herself. One part of her brain disagreed rather fiercely.

Jaime laughed, giving Brienne goosebumps all over her body. It's just because it was an exhausting day, she told herself. Jaime Lannister does not have such an effect on me. Normally.

"Now I really wish I read them. They must be pretty interesting if you're willing to turn so aggressive for them." He looked at her, joy glittering in his eyes. Brienne just frowned back. "That means no, I didn't read them."

"Oh," was all she managed to say.

Jaime chuckled one last time and stood up. Brienne hadn't even noticed that the bus had stopped."Get up, wench, or do you want to spend the rest of the night in here?" He stretched his arms high above his head and yawned, not noticing that he exposed some skin over his waistband. Brienne looked anywhere but at his golden skin, his muscles that flexed with every move, the tiny patch of golden hair, that disappeared in his pants. Her face turned even redder as she desperately tried not to think about his pants and everything in or under it.

Out of the corner of her eyes she saw him leaving, so she grabbed her backpack and hurried out of the bus. The cold air helped to calm her down and cooled down her face. Professor Stark told them about the trip to Storm's End in a fortnight, reminded them of their essay that was due to Monday and wished them all a good night. Brienne saw Jaime waving to someone and followed his gaze. She spotted his little brother Tyrion and his best friend – Tyrion's, not Jamie's – Bronn leaning against an expensive, black car. As Tyrion saw her, he nodded politely and Brienne returned the gesture.

Before Jaime went to greet his brother, he turned to her.

"Sure you don't want a ride?" Brienne rolled her eyes. He asked her every time and her answer was always the same.

"I'm sure. The dorms aren't that far away. But thanks anyway."

"It's pretty late already. And there are some weirdos out here." She wasn't entirely sure if she imagined it, but Jaime's gaze flicked to Ronnet Connington and darkened before he looked back at her. Brienne crossed her arms over her chest.

"I'm perfectly capable of defending myself. I'm fine on my own."

"Geez, you stubborn wench, always blocking my attempts to be a gentleman." He shook his head, but Brienne knew he wasn't angry – his grin was too large for that. "Just text me when you're in your room. And call me if there is anything strange."

"If you insist." She rolled her eyes, annoyed of his unusual protectiveness. He perfectly knew that she was able to handle any problem herself.

"I do." Jaime sounded more serious than she expected and she glanced at him. For a second he met her gaze, still looking very serious, then he smiled again. "See you on Monday then. And don't forget to change the combination for your lock." He winked at her, turned around and strolled over to Tyrion and Bronn.

For a moment Brienne just stood there and watched him greet them. Tyrion asked something, pointing at Brienne, but Jaime shook his head. He looked over his shoulder to her, smiled and waved one last time. She waved as well before she turned around and went to her dorm.

She didn't had to walk for a long time. Her dorm was barely a five minute walk from the university. As she stood in front of her door, searching for her keys in her back, her phones buzzed in her pocket. Brienne sighed as she opened the door. She didn't even had to take a look to know who sent the text. The room was empty. Margaery must be out with Sansa. Her phones buzzed again as she throw her back on her bed. Finally she took it out of her pocket, unlocked it and open the two unread message which were no doubt from Jaime.

SexiestManIKnow: U ur room yet?

SexiestManIKnow: ANSWER ME WENCH!

For a moment Brienne just starred at the screen. It must have been longer than she realized because her phone started to buzz again.

SexiestManIKnow:Srsly, answer me or ill come over

Brienne decided to answer before he would turn up on her door mat.

Me:Yes, I'm at my room, turn down your blood pressure. Why the Seven did you change your name?

His answer came fast. Strangely Brienne was a bit proud of him. He got so much better at using his left hand in the past two months.

SexiestManIKnow:Told u 2 txt me asap. Just changed it 2 the truth ;)

Me:As if.

For the hundredth time since she met Jaime Lannister, she was glad that he could not see how red she was when she sent a text. She closed the conversation before she could read his answer, which he had already sent. She was about to put it away, as something else caught her eyes. Jaime didn't just changed his name. He had changed her background as well.

He must have taken the picture because she couldn't remember taking it. They were at the bus, his head on her shoulder, one plug in his ear and a big, beautiful smile spread across his face. Her head leaned against his, the other plug in her ear as well, but she was deep asleep. Luckily her mouth wasn't open and she did look quite relaxed. It was a nice picture, she had to admit it.

Her phone buzzed again; another text from Jaime.

SexiestManIKnow:Bet u dont change it ;)

SexiestManIKnow: Like ur new background?

Another buzz before she could even think of an answer.

SexiestManIKnow:U going 2 the storms end trip?

Brienne did want to go to Storm's End. It had been way to long until she had been there the last time. The money on the other hand …

Me:I won't even comment on the first two. I'll go if I can scrape the money together. Do you want to go?

SexiestManIKnow:Ill just go if u go. Wont be any fun w/o u

Her stomach did that funny thing again and her cheeks burned as she read his text. Someone had to forbid him to send texts like that. Someone – but certainly not Brienne.

Another buzz.

SexiestManIKnow: Besides i need my personal pillow for the bus ride.

Brienne couldn't help but smile at it. She could almost hear him say it, with a big smile and a wink.

Me:Good night, Jaime.

SexiestManIKnow:Good night, Brienne. Hope u sleep as good as u did on my shoulder :)

She did not say that he had been the one to sleep on her shoulder – if she did she wouldn't get some sleep for another couple of hours. As she closed the conversation, she looked at the background again. If anyone would see it, especially Margaery or Sansa, she would never hear the end of it. Yes, it would definitely be better if she changed it back to something normal.

Smiling she put her phone aside.

She would change it tomorrow. Or some other day.

A/N: All characters belong to GRRM! So this is my first ASoIaF-fic and my first J/B-fic. Hope you like it and please, please, please comment!