█▓▒░ { ♚ } the winter air had a bite to it, a chill that had long since
been forgotten in the long wars. the south was always
hot, always burning through the layers of clothes and
armor that robb and his bannermen had. the sun had
become the only thing that they had known. even the
winter snows lasted but until midday, melting again
before they could rejoice. robb could hear the
rowdiness of his men behind them, joyful and giddy.
and why shouldn't they? robb had seen six
namedays with them, and had he been any younger,
had he not been the north's king, he would have been
cheering and smiling with them. the walls of winterfell,
glorious and looming, came over the horizon and if
his men could have gotten any more excited, they
would have. they knew they could only be as loud as
they wanted until they came close to their home.
the young wolf's heart thudded in his ears and the fear
that his sister had found herself lost, perhaps she had
run away from him and h a t e d being wed to him,
grew and seemed to take over every bit of him. to him,
the crown was a weight he could bare, the weight of
a kingdom resting upon his shoulders, of his choices
being the wrong or the right ones, the ones that would
push them into chaos if he chose wrong, it was all
something he could hold up. it was something real he
could grasp at, something real that he could keep
from slipping through his fingers. but love, especially,
the love that he had for her and she had for him, that
was a weight he feared he could not hold. oh how the
thought of losing his sister once more plagued his
every night, of his every waking moment. robbed him
of the happiness of winning the war and in its place,
pushed a fear that had taken root so early and had
bloomed, roots stretching from head to toe in him.
winterfell's gates came up, soon enough, too soon, it
didn't matter really and his men drifted into silence. all
knew that it would be the first time their king would see
his queen in years, the first time he would see his kin,
his sister. still the silence swallowed them whole, held
them under the freezing waters of fear. and robb so
desperately wished that someone would cough, or a
child would knock something over my mistake. any sort
of noise would free them from this undertow. but no
one did, and they finally came home.
she had grown in the time he had spent away from her.
from the small girl who he had thrown over his shoulder
to the teenager who he had m a r r i e d, to the woman
that she had become in his absence. but she was still
his little sister, the same little sister who had scrapped
her knees chasing after cats, the same little sister who
had climbed into his bed and curled up with him under
the furs when she had had nightmares. dismounting,
robb could see the eyes of his home, of those who had
stood beside him, beside his father. of those who had
learned of their wedding, had expressed dislike, had
whispered that even in the north, the foulness bred. but
in that moment, the king cared no longer and wrapped
his arms around his sister-wife and lifted her in the air.
his lips found hers, chaste and innocent, with all the
l o v e he had for her bursting, like every seam that
had held him constructed and strong for so long was
ripping, unraveling in the joy of being home. to her.
❝ and i am glad to be h o m e, a r y a.
you weren't supposed to grow, and
now i f e a r that i will not be able to
p i c k you up any longer. ❞
a grin upon robb's lips, a laugh in the tone of his voice.
when he had left, he had been young, a boy in every
e s s e n c e of the word, and it seemed as if war had
only aged him physically. still, within his heart, he was
that same boy that had once giggled with Theon at
council at the Leech Lord, the same boy that had been
made too early into a man and had grown up too soon.
❝ but your gowns fit you now. now about
your hair -- you simply had to leave it
w i l d, didn't you, l i t t l e sister.❞
