Title: Survivors
Author: partyinthenorth
Fandom: ASOIAF
Pairings: Jon Snow/Robb Stark; Theon Greyjoy/Robb Stark; Jon Snow/Theon Greyjoy
Rating: T
Word Count: 744
Summary: Jon Snow has returned to Winterfell and finds Theon Greyjoy where his brother once stood. All Jon wants is revenge, but are the two men really any different?
Author's Note: I have a lot of Throbb feelings and also a lot of Jon x Robb feelings. So here is the overlap. Beware: here be angstin'. And it feels horrible and rushed but I enjoyed it anyway. I might eventually do a sequel to this but not right now.
...
Jon stood opposite Theon Greyjoy and looked him up and down. The reedy boy had grown into a crooked, undernourished man, but Jon couldn't think of him as a man. He wanted to throttle Theon Greyjoy, push every last drop of air out of his lungs and watch his face turn blue and his eyes still. He killed Jon's brothers, flayed and hung out Bran and Rickon's tiny, ravaged bodies, betraying his adopted brothers. A coward.
And he left Robb. Maybe if Theon had been there, fighting by Robb's side, he wouldn't have died.
Maybe if Theon had stayed, Robb wouldn't have fallen in love with the Westerling girl. Jon knew. He knew they'd always been close, closer than any friends. He knew the adoring look in Theon's eyes when he saw Robb fight or laugh or pull his shirt over his head. Jon often felt the same way.
'You bastard,' he hissed at Theon, 'You killed my brothers!'
Jon caught his hands around Theon's skinny throat, pushing his hands together with all his might. Theon's face went red and he coughed and sucked, grasping for air. He was close to death- just a second longer, and Jon would have his vengeance.
But then Sansa burst in. She was between them in a heartbeat, surprisingly strong as she shoved Jon away and pinned him to the wall. She made him meet her eyes.
'Look at me, Jon,' she said, fiercely. Sansa was not the same fluttery girl he had left behind all those years before. She was a steely woman now, strong and shrewdly intelligent. 'You'll kill him!' she said, her Tully blue eyes furious.
'It serves him right for-' his voice broke- 'islaughteringi our brothers.'
'He didn't kill them,' Sansa said, throaty and serious.
'What?'
'I didn't kill Bran and Rickon,' Theon spoke up, his voice rasping from Jon's chokehold, 'They escaped alive from Winterfell.'
'But... The bodies?' Jon murmured, not sure whether to laugh or cry. His brothers were alive!
'I killed some farmer's boys,' Theon explained, meeting Jon's eyes, 'I'm not proud of it.'
Jon gently pushed Sansa away and stepped closer to Theon.
'They're alive?'
'Last I saw them,' Theon replied, setting his jaw.
Jon almost smiled, filled with hope all of a sudden. Maybe they were all alive! Maybe the Starks could be reunited, harder and stronger than ever before. Except Robb. He would never see his siblings again, never dance with Sansa, never muss Arya's hair, never carry Rickon squealing on his shoulders. Never make Jon's heart pound out of his chest when his sky-blue eyes met Jon's.
'You could have saved Robb,' Jon said, in a broken voice, 'You could have been a good man, Greyjoy.'
Theon shook his head. 'I was never good enough. It was always Robb. He was the only good thing about me.'
Jon studied Theon for a minute. There were dark circles under his eyes and a deep, inconsolable sorrow in his eyes.
'I was always so jealous of you,' Jon said slowly, 'You were always Robb's best friend. He always looked up to you, and he always spent more time with you than me. I wanted Robb to look at me like he looked at you.'
'Do- you don't know?' said Theon, incredulous, 'I was always jealous of you.'
'You loved him a lot, didn't you?' Jon said, gently. He didn't need to say who he meant, and Sansa's blush told him she knew too, but Theon didn't shy away.
'Yes,' Theon whispered.
Jon stepped up to him and Sansa twitched, but he only wanted to embrace Theon. Their arms locked around each other tightly, hands gripping each other's waists the way they had both dreamt of Robb doing. Jon's tears fell onto Theon's shoulders and one of the older boy's hands came up to Jon's tangled black hair, fingers twisting into his scalp as he drew Jon's face down to his collarbone. They stayed like that for longer than Jon could calculate, and then Jon stepped back, rubbing his eyes.
Sansa had slipped out at some point, and the two men were alone.
'I miss him,' Theon confessed.
'Me too,' said Jon, and took Theon's bony hand in his, 'But we're the survivors, Theon. He would have wanted us to be happy.'
'Robb was good like that,' Theon murmured as he lightly kissed Jon's cheek.
And then they stepped away from each other and went back to the Great Hall.