''Baby lion'' has been his nickname since he can remember. Seunghoon doesn't exactly know why - it couldn't have been simply because he was a Lannister? He runs a hand through his unruly hair shimmering gold in the afternoon summer sun. Maybe it was the hair. Either way, this lion does not belong in King's Landing, he thinks, as he walks through the city market.

Truth be told, he has no idea what he's doing in King's Landing anymore. The city is a mess, with Queen Cersei back out of her cell and the disgusting spectacle those religious freaks had put on for the entire population a few days prior. Cersei was never his favorite cousin, but it was painful to watch all the same, so he didn't. Whatever the woman had done in her bed-chambers was her bloody damn business. 

He hates King's Landing more and more every day that goes by, he realizes. It's the stink, most of all. Lannisport is a port as well, but it never stank of fish the way King's Landing did. It never had as many , thieves and swindlers either. Lannisport doesn't have religious fanatics. It doesn't have angry smallfolk either, ready to form a mob and overthrow whoever's next to piss them off. Everyone's in love with Tyrells these days too, and much less so with the Lannisters. But not in Lannisport.

He should be in Casterly Rock instead, at least. That's late Lord Tywin's seat and Lord Tywin is the reason he's here. Because Lord Tywin had helped his family so much, and a Lannister always pays his debts. To return the favor, he came here to serve. But now Lord Tywin's dead, and by the Imp's hand no less, and so is cousin Kevan, and the Imp has fled, and his Kingslayer cousin is nothing but a pawn of his sister blundering about, and so is young King Tommen. King's Landing is a mess, and he has no idea what in the world he's still doing here. 

Well, they're still his blood. It's family name before all, as it's always been. Right now the name is muddied, but that too can be mended.

''My lord! I've been looking for you.''

He turns to face the lad to whom the voice belongs. The boy before him is wearing commoner clothes now, but Seunghoon could have sworn he had seen him in dirty rags and barefoot some time before. Varys's little bird, he knew.

''You seem to do an awful deal of looking these days,'' Seunghoon replies, ''And listening. And slithering around.''

The lad has decency enough to look ashamed at least, if only for a moment. ''Queen Cersei,'' he stutters, ''She summons you, my lord.''

''Queen Cersei?'' What could she want of him? It's no small task if she means to speak to him in private.

''Y-yes. She calls for you at once, my lord. It is urgent.''

''Urgent? Well, I better get going then. With the state of her mind as of late I wouldn't be surprised if she chopped off my head out of impatience only. And I happen to like my head quite a lot, truth be told. I wouldn't want to part with it any time soon,'' Seunghoon smiles, and throws a copper to the boy. The lad catches it in a blink of an eye. ''Next one's a silver if you don't go running to the eunuch.''

The lad nods his head enthusiastically and scurries off the moment he's dismissed.

What could Cersei want of him now? With no one to restrain that woman and make her see reason, Seunghoon fears the kind of chaos she could yet bring upon them. But he isn't in the position to question, his role is to obey. He wishes he was in Casterly Rock instead.

''This is my final task for you, cousin,'' Queen Cersei tells him later that day, ''This one final task and the debt is paid. Do this well, and I promise you lordship and lands of your own. You shall lack no power and benefits in your service to me.''

That sounds inviting enough. He would be lying to himself if he claimed otherwise. All his life he's been a survivor, like his father before him, and his father before. They were never as rich as their Lord Paramount's line, or powerful. He would like to stop being a surviver and thriver, and start being a winner instead. Yes, he would like that well enough.

''But you must leave the baby lion behind, and bring forth the lion of Lannister. Now is the time to show what you're made of,'' the Queen says, and the words ring through Seunghoon, vibrate through his veins, set his nerves on fire. 

Yes, he would do it, whatever it is. Yes, he is a lion, not a cub anymore. It is time to finally feed his ambitions. He has been surviving too long. It is time to be a winner now, to win something of his own.

It is time for the world to hear him roar.