Jon

"Well this was fun," Jon said as he walked Sansa up to the front porch of her house.

"It was," she agreed. "I'm really glad you got up the courage to ask me out," pausing for a beat before adding, "Finally." A sweet playful smile appearing on her lips.

Jon gave a nervous laugh and ran his hand through his hair before letting it come to rest on the back of his neck. "Yeah well, sadly at the end of the day, I suppose that was more Theon than me." They both laughed at the memory.

"It doesn't matter how it happened, I'm just glad it did." She kept smiling at him and then pulled her bottom lip into her mouth as she stood there waiting.

Jon's insides twisted, his nerves suddenly overwhelming him. God she was beautiful, god she was polished and perfect. She still even smelled good despite having spent all day with him at the county fair in the hot summer sun. He could say none of that though. He opened his mouth and closed it a couple of times. All of his conversational abilities seemed to have abandoned him. He saw her expression fall a bit. He could feel the moment passing.

"Well…." Sansa said with a soft sigh. "It's getting late I suppose. So unless -"

Jon couldn't help but glance at his watch, it was just a little after midnight. How was it that he had just spent nearly twelve hours with her? He could have sworn he had just picked her up for this date. "Wow, it's much later than I thought," he said, not letting her finish. "I hope you don't have an early morning."

"I don't."

Jon felt his insides twist even tighter. She was waiting on him to say something more. He had nothing. "Well….. um, have a goodnight, sweet dreams. I'll see you around." He saw something flicker across her face. 'Around?' he heard the word echo in his ears. 'You're a complete idiot,' he heard Theon's voice in his head. "I meant soon. I'll see you soon," he tried to amend.

"Yeah, sure, of course, soon," Sansa said, a brittle smile now pasted on her face. The moment was so ruined that Jon didn't know what to do. So he did the only thing that seemed logical at the moment, he quickly shook her hand, said goodnight again and fled back down the walk to his truck that was parked on the curb. As he was climbing in he could see Sansa sigh, her shoulders fall a bit, and then she turned and let herself in the front door.

"You moron. Around? Soon? What is wrong with me?" he moaned as he started the truck. He leaned forward and put his head on the steering wheel. After a few moment he turned his head and looked towards Sansa's porch. The light was still on, maybe he could fix this. "You can do this. Just go up there, knock on the door and kiss her. Don't think, just do it."

He sat back with determination. He did not need to give Theon yet another reason to laugh at him over Sansa. But more importantly, Sansa needed to know how he really felt about her. He was going to do this, no more being a wuss. It was time to be a man of action. He took a deep breath and turned off the truck. He opened his door, stepped out on to the street and made his way around the front of the truck. "You got this. Just knock and kiss her," he told himself as his feet hit the sidewalk.

He looked up at the house and realized the porch light had just flicked off. He stopped at the end of her walkway, looked to the heavens and sighed. 'Is that a sign?'

"No! You are doing this! Tonight!" he told himself. Before he could lose his nerve or change his mind, he pushed open her front gate, ran back across the yard and up the stairs of the porch. He took one more deep breath and raised his hand to knock.

xxxxx

Sansa

She watched him flee down the walk towards his truck. 'You scared him,' she chastised herself. She signed, feeling defeat fill her body as she fished her keys out of her purse and let herself inside.

She closed the door and leaned against it. She couldn't believe he hadn't kissed her. Margaery and Gilly had both been telling her for the last several months that they had it on good authority that Jon was hopelessly in love with her. They had said he was just to shy to do anything about it. They had been telling her to ask him out for ages, but she had always been too nervous. What if they were wrong? They had been friends through her brother for ages, they ran in the same circles. There was no way she could bear having to see him at this gathering or that party if he were to turn her down. So she had refused to act, instead waited patiently for him to make the first move.

She had started to become convinced that was never going to happen, that her friends had been terribly wrong. And then by some blessed miracle a week ago, Theon had decided he was going to help them along, stealing Jon's phone when they were all out for drinks for Arya's birthday. He had sent Sansa a text pretending to be Jon, telling her she looked really pretty tonight and that he thought it was finally time they went out, just the two of them, on a date. She hadn't even seen the text until after Jon had left for the night. But brave on liquid courage, she had immediately texted back that she loved the idea and suggested they go to the fair the following weekend. She had thought it would be more fun than the traditional dinner and a movie. She had then stayed up half the night waiting on a response.

He hadn't texted back his agreement until the next morning. And when they had finally spoke to finalize the details, he had admitted Theon was the one that had actually sent the original text. She should've known then that this was a bad idea. He probably didn't like her as much as she thought. Maybe he hadn't wanted this date at all. Maybe he had just agreed to spare her the embarrassment. 'Stop it. He was smiling and touching you all day,' she reminded herself as she thought of the way he had stood behind her to help her fix her grip for the shooting game. She almost smiled at the memory of how sweet and gentle he had been with the baby animals, blushing furiously when he'd made an awkward comment about how she'd look good holding a real baby some day. His expressions and actions from most of the day would lead her to believe he had had a good time.

"Well then, what went wrong?" she said out loud as she looked out the window to where his truck was parked. 'Maybe you shouldn't have tried to invite him in,' a little voice in her head said. 'It was too forward, too desperate.'

Her phone chirped. She glanced at it. The text was from Margaery. "Hope the date is going well. I hope its going so well you can't respond to this till the morning XOXO."

She looked out the window again and realized Jon's truck was still sitting at the curb. She wanted to open the door and run down to him. 'Don't be a desperate fool,' she told herself, while at the same time she whispered, "Don't go," in Jon's direction.

She waited another moment and then sighed as she shoved her phone back in her purse and turned off the porch light. But as she went to move deeper into the house something caught her eye. The lights on the truck had gone out.

She stopped and watched, her heart beginning to race. She could see Jon, outlined by the nearby street lamp, standing at the end of her walkway. She wanted to toss the door open and call to him, but he seemed to be hesitating, so she forced herself to wait instead. And then by some miracle he was running up the walk, taking her porch stairs two at a time.

She couldn't wait any longer. When he raised his hand to knock, she threw open the door.

xxxxx

"Sansa?" he said, blinking a bit in startled confusion.

"Yeah," she breathed. He just stood there looking at her. His eyes were tender, but he was a bit breathless as well. "Did you need something?" she asked after a couple beats.

"Yeah. I – I – I," he began stumbling over his words. 'Get on with it!' his mind shouted at him.

He reached up then and bracketed her face between his hands. She inhaled sharply, her lips parted as she took in his stormy eyes. He leaned in then and kissed her. It was gentle at first, but as soon as her lips responded to him, the kiss deepened. He ran his hands into her hair and then moved his arms to draw her against him. She let herself be pulled forward, melding her body to his. Her arms twined around his neck, one hand playing with the curls at the base of his neck. He tasted of summer, and a hint of the cotton candy and kettle corn they had shared earlier.

After several moments they broke the kiss, their foreheads now tipped together. "You, I needed you," he whispered, answering her earlier question.

They drew apart so they could more fully regard each other. They were both smiling. Sansa had a pretty flush on her cheeks, her lips a bit swollen. Jon felt a bit breathless. He reached out and took one of her hands. She smiled a little wider before biting in her lower lip to stop herself from looking too much like a love-struck idiot.

"Sorry I made you wait," he apologized. "I really should've just kissed you earlier….. actually I should've kissed you long before tonight."

"And here I thought maybe you didn't actually like me," she teased softly as her cheeks flushed a little deeper.

"Nothing could be further from the truth…. I can't believe I was so scared I almost let this moment pass me by."

Her eyes lit up at his words. She stepped forward and wrapped her arms around his neck. "Are you still scared now?" she asked as he felt his pulse quicken again.

He looked down at her and smiled at the question. "More than ever," he admitted. "But in the most wonderful way," he finished and then caught her lips in another kiss.