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With parents that despised each other, it was only natural that the Baratheon children looked to their uncles as role models. As much as Myrcella's Septas and ladies-in-waiting insisted otherwise, they could not hide the fact from Myrcella that her Father only tolerated his Queen, and that her Mother loathed to even be in the same room as the Stag King.
As much as she loved them both, Myrcella knew theirs was not a happy union, even when she was young, seeing through Robert's forced drunken smiles on the few occasions she saw him, and Cersei's icy expressions whenever her husband was mentioned.
Apart from their parents, the only family the Baratheon children had in the capital were their uncles, who alone in that city of shrills and sycophants could be trusted not to treat them differently to gain favour with the princes and princess.
Joffrey favoured uncle Jaime. He wanted to be strong. He wanted to be like their Father. But Joff was not like their father at all, from his hair to his build; where Father had thick bushes black hairs Joff had silkly golden curls like their mother. Where Robert Baratheon was a hulking mass of a man, Joffrey seemed to be growing to be more like uncle Jaime, slighter though tall.
Her big brother respected strength. Jaime Lannister the Kingslayer was one of the finest swordsmen alive, so Joff preferred his company over their other uncles' when their mother wasn't doting on him. She didn't mind uncle Jaime, but he rarely spoke to them, always the silent sentinel on guard duty.
Tommen loved both uncle Renly and uncle Tyrion, close to if not completely equally. Renly's laughs and generally charming nature endeared him to her little brother as did Tyrion's kind words and japes that irritated their mother. Her brother was young and simple, and her mother had not sunk her claws into him as she did her older brother where he was no longer a child allergic to their jokes. Myrcella liked them too, she was still a child after all, and their jests provided no small amount of amusement.
Myrcella's favourite, however, was uncle Stannis. Her dour, dutiful uncle Stannis who wore a stern expression so easily she once wondered when she was younger if his face was iron and his expression was hammered in by a blacksmith's hand.
He never smiled around her father either, but unlike her mother, she knew he loved him, as a brother did, just like she loved Joff even if he was being a terror to Tommen.
To her, uncle Stannis was everything a lord or lady should be; dutiful to the bitter end.
She had heard about how he held Storm's End for a year until he was just skin and bones from the kind onion knight of his. That only made Myrcella admire him more.
Mother didn't want her spending time with uncle Stannis for some reason, but she did so all the same when she was too busy fretting about Joff. She often found him in his solar as Master of Ships, where she would pester him to allow her to sit by him to read whatever his duties required of him that day after she escaped from the clutches of the Septas who tried to make her practice embroidery more than necessary.
Myrcella made it her personal task to make uncle Stannis laugh, or smile at the very least. Nothing she did at first succeeded; no childish jokes, antics, or laughter could break Stannis Baratheon’s stony countenance. Tommen asked her why she persisted when he begged her to play with him. She just felt like it, she supposed.
Then one day she asked him to explain what the documents on his table were for. An expression of surprise flashed across his face before he asked her why she wanted to know. She shrugged, it seemed interesting to her.
Uncle Stannis paused for a second, silent, before assenting, pointing out to her the various supplies that had to be purchased for the men of the Royal Fleet that moon; ale and fruits and salted beef. He told her at sea, it was his duty as Master of Ships to ensure every man under him was fed well, so they may fight well. As he explained, Myrcella noticed his eyes grow just a little softer before she bade him farewell for the night.
She continued going there, despite her mother's thundering expression whenever she mentioned her uncle. In that regard, the two seemed like they could be twins instead of mother and uncle Jaime.
It was one afternoon as the sun shone through the open window of his tower that she asked if her calculation of the amount of Gold Dragons needed to pay the wages of the Fury's Crew was correct. Myrcella saw the corners of her uncle's mouth curl just the smallest of amounts before replying that yes, she was correct. She couldn't stop smiling that day, having finally achieved her goal.
After that, his smiles grew more common, though still rare, as he began showing her the more complex documents his solar bore; from charters to permits to building orders. She enjoyed it, and she enjoyed spending time with her uncle.
For some reason, her uncle suddenly became more occupied by business with her father's Hand, walking around the city. When she asked to come, he insisted the places they went were unsuitable for a little girl. It made her sad, but she understood. It was his duty. She rarely saw him after that, even during dinner when he became more of a ghost, flitting in and out of the banquet hall quickly and silently. Then he stopped coming at all. Mother said he went to his seat on Dragonstone to brood. Myrcella didn't believe her.
After they went North to fetch Lord Stark to replace old Lord Arryn and her father died and Joff was proclaimed King, her uncle sent a letter to court. Her uncle stated she was no niece of his, nor Joffrey his nephew, and that he was the rightful heir to her father. When it was read out, Myrcella felt like she was punched in the gut; "Abominations", he called them, and even mother's screeching for the reader to be sent away was drowned out.
She was father's daughter, and Joff their father's son, different as they were. So why did her uncle deny that he was their uncle? Now as she sailed to Dorne, she wondered what uncle Stannis would've done in her place. Stay strong, and do your duty, his answer would likely be, so she decides to put on a brave face, if only for Tommen whose fat tears were enough for them both.
As he had been there for father, she would be there for Tommen.
She last heard that uncle Stannis prepared to meet uncle Renly in battle. Myrcella hoped they wouldn't fight. She hoped this was all just a twisted dream, and that father was still alive and well, so she could go back to sitting by her uncle in his solar.