Robb Stark was nothing, if not proud of what he'd achieved in the mere 23 years of his life so far. Having said that though, he did regret quite a few things in his life. Things he unfortunately couldn't remedy with his current self; he knew he was far too stubborn and honourable, considering the world he'd so hastily delved into after his father's sudden departure.
As the new head what was now being more commonly named the 'Stark Empire', he now had more than just the working-lives of over thousands of people across the world; now, he also had the responsibility to uphold the Stark name, and ensure the well-being of his family, as the new head of the household. With the weight of one of the traditions of one of the oldest house in the world, with connections to royalty and some of the most revered people in history, as well as a multi-billion corporations on his shoulders, it seemed like Robb Stark was nothing if not a busy man. The responsibilities were constantly weighing on his shoulders, pressing down on him even harder especially when he wanted to get back up and move on.
So in order to stop himself from descending into madness, of which he sometimes felt he was hanging capriciously off the edge, Robb Stark drove to the middle of nowhere. To get away from the chaos-the firm resolution to be continuously productive- and the monotonous hustle and bustle of the crowded city; he drove to a quaint little park, the only place where he could completely relax-where no one would judge him- and where he could just be himself and do nothing, for once.
It was the tiny little quirks in his life that sometimes made him feel like an average 23 year old-a life where thousands of years of cultured bloodlines and millions of livelihood rested upon his seemingly frail shoulders simply did not exist. He would always wear a funky looking t-shirt underneath his primly pressed suit-and-Italian-leather-ensemble, usually marked with a wittily insulting line, complimented by the funny looking cartoons; it would be one of his college and university shirts- ratty and stained by suspicious looking coffee stains, reminding him of times where he was just another, carefree lad. It made him feel badass- like another teen rebelling against his mother's advice (Like he is now. Catelyn Stark, the sophisticate lady that she was, would have been thoroughly aghast at the discovery; she thought she'd burnt all those shirts); it was something that was just his own. Not the company's, not the Stark's- simply Robb's.
So he'd sit on a bench and just chill- with his auburn curls a mess from the numerous times in which he's run his fingers through it (Like he would be so painfully tempted to do during working hours), and feeling the cool autumn chill in his shirt, his Italian leather loafers kicked carelessly around him. He was a free man during those times; he was just Robb.
Until the day he heard a voice- soft and gentle, fluttering in the wind. And the curious person he was, he wanted to see the girl that produced such a calm within him, with a song alone. Robb forgot: curiosity killed the cat. Fortunately, Robb Stark was a wolf. And besides, satisfaction brought it back.
And so, on that seemingly innocent autumn evening, he met a girl. They learnt to laugh-to be free, not realising their lives were so delicately intertwined. It didn't matter that his father was forced to leave the country just because he'd angered the new head of the Baratheon Empire, or that one of his sisters was trapped in a precarious position with the Baratheon boy, while the other had gone missing while he stood helplessly, millions of miles away. It didn't matter that his one of his brothers was crippled, and one was too young to have lost his whole family in the blink of an eye, both now alone in what was their home, as he tried to get what remained of his family back to Winterfell, safe and sound. It didn't matter that he'd had to remove everything Stark from the Baratheon group of companies, and had to assume a role of power he obviously wasn't prepared for, just to get his family back. It didn't matter that he was now engaged to a girl he'd never even met before, just to form an alliance with Frey telecommunications, just to become that tiny bit closer to returning what was left of the Starks to Winterfell.
It didn't matter, because then and there, they'd learnt how to live and to love… innocently, in the middle of nowhere.
This was a spur of the moment thing, do I don't know whether is should continue it or not.
So, review to let me know if I should, or something...?
A cyber-hug (or another chapter, perhaps?) for your thought, darlings?