Red Leaves and Polaroids

Outside the window of the one-room apartment Sansa shared with three of her friends, her half-brother and her sister, the early autumn wind seemed to scream as if it wanted in. The apartment was literally a single room, with something off to the side that served as a fairly decent excuse for a bathroom. The living room served as a bedroom, with three mattresses and a couch. Sansa slept on one with her sister Arya and her friend Daenerys Targaryen, whom everyone just referred to as Dany, on another was Jon, her half-brother and Theon Greyjoy. Theon's sister Asha slept on the couch. The room was dark and cold, lit only by the light of the city of Toronto outside.

Sansa was the only one awake.

She could never get her brain to shut up in these situations. She had tried complaining about it to Dany, who rebuked her and once again used her acute schizophrenia as an excuse to make her the only one allowed to complain.

Arya was 13. Sansa had tried sending her away to relatives around the city but Arya wanted to stay with her. After their parents and brother had both been killed and their younger brothers Rickon and Bran sent to live with family in the suburbs, taking the five family dogs with them. Probably best for the dogs. Jon's dog lived in the apartment and ate human food, it was an albino husky and possibly the most horrifyingly creepy thing Sansa had ever seen.

Arya moved closer to Dany under the Ikea sheets. Luckily, the five of them made good money and Arya had been hired at the library, she'd lied about her age. Sansa was almost thankful the bunch of them could pass as hipsters and not be perceived as five depressed college dropouts and an 8th grader.

Sansa must have fallen asleep, because she opened her eyes to sunlight streaming in the window and an empty mattress. Dany and Asha were standing at the kitchen counter, Theon and Jon were gone, at work, and from what Sansa could hear, Arya was in the shower performing an off-key rendition of 'Applause'.

Dany was already in her work uniform, Asha was looking pissed and caffeinated as usual. Sansa got up,

"You need to hurry up, Irri called and she was steaming like hot puke on a plate of ice." Asha snapped, "God, why the fuck would you want to be a hair stylist? That woman is a Grade A Bitch."

"Because I need to make money and I don't any degrees." Sansa countered, ganking a leftover croissant out of the fridge, "Besides, Dany got me the job."

Arya tramped out of the bathroom, soaking wet and wrapped in a cow print towel,

"Can I come to work today? Pleeeease." she begged, "I don't wanna stay here all day and all my friends are away for Thanksgiving."

Dany rolled her eyes, "You'd hate it there, Arya, it's all girly, you know what I do, right? You know what my job is?"

"You're a cosmetologist. BUT I'M REALLY BORED, COME ON!"

"Irri's already mad at me." Sansa interject, "I can't provoke her."

"Ah, fine." Dany whined, "Irri loves me."

"Didn't you fuck her once?"

"Yes." said Dany nonchalantly, "And she started crying halfway through and called her boyfriend."

...

Queens Park was all orange and red, it was only the 12th of October yet everything seemed ready for November. Arya started snapping pictures of trees with the camera their mother had bought her two years earlier, Arya considered herself a professional photographer for some reason. Sansa grabbed her wrist and wrenched her along, Dany, who was walking ahead, paused in front of a wooden park bench, when they caught up with her they saw what she was reading.

In memory
Drogo Khatchadourian 1985-2013
and Rhaego Khatchadourian April-July 2013
our world was so dark after your sunset

"Dany?" Sansa whispered.

"I know she's out there somewhere." Dany murmured dangerously, her fingernails gouging crescent moons into the palms of her hands, "When I find her, she'll die screaming..." Dany stalked off faster than she had been going before, Arya ran after her.

Khaleesi Beauty was located a few blocks away from the park, as Sansa approached the light pink brick building she noticed with a feeling of foreboding that a light blue convertible and a Beetle Bug were parked outside. She didn't want to put up with Jhiqui and Shae today.

Shae was nice enough, but her accent was enough to make Sansa want to rip out her hair. Irri and Jhiqui were sisters, friends of Dany and the Khatchadourian family, but Sansa despised them and they despised her. If it wasn't for Dany, she would been fired a long time ago for attempted murder. The owner of the salon, Doreah, was a former prostitute, model and one of Dany's ex-lovers, tall, tan and blonde and always the envy of every girl and woman who came into the salon. Then there was Missandei the receptionist who always seemed to kind of materialize quietly whenever you least expected it, one of the mousiest bitches Sansa had ever encountered.

Arya cringed as they walked up the pastel-coloured stairs and in the pastel-coloured door, Irri was waiting inside, her thick black hair was tied in a knot on top of her head, she shot Sansa an icy glare that seemed to chill the whole building.

"You were supposed to open up today." she shouted in her heavily accented voice, "I had to phone Doreah and tell her you hadn't shown up! And Shae called in sick!" her dark brown eyes flickered down to look lividly at Arya, "You can't bring your sister."

"Sorry, Irri." said Dany, "It was my idea."

Irri sighed defeatedly and retreated back to the hair she was cutting. Missandei glanced up at them from behind the horn-rimmed glasses she always wore,

"I hate her too, Sansa." Missandei passed a list over the desk, "You have a bunch of appointments today, oh, and there's some girls coming in at around four, and they seemed pretty excited. Y'all have your hands full." Missandei took a smug sip of her pumpkin spice latte and went back to typing.

"Alright, Arya, sit your ass down." said Sansa, pointing to a couch as Dany arranged a bunch of makeup at her desk. Sansa dipped a pair of scissors in barbicide and Arya swished her camera around, warranting a glare from Jhiqui.

"Can I go outside and make a leaf pile?" Arya smirked, shining the lens of her camera with the sleeve of her sweater,

"Why in the fuck are you so obsessed with leaves? You're behaving like Zooey Deschanel and you know how much I hate her." Sansa bitched,

"Go on, Arya Underfoot." said Doreah, popping out from a corner in a short black lace dress and red heels, "Don't get hit by any cars, oh, Dany, that guy came by earlier."

"Hizdahr?" Dany looked up,

"No, Daario. He's a seedy bastard." Doreah started snipping hair, "I don't like him."

"There's nothing going on, we had sex once." Dany lined up a few brushes, she'd been having one night stands with whoever she could since July. It was someone different every night, and it only ever lasted about half an hour and then they left her crying in the kitchen. Sansa heard it every time.

Everyone in the apartment hated Daario Naharis.

He was the stereotypical douche, even Dany acknowledged that, he had blue-dyed hair which had achieved a douchey shape from the rims of multiple snapbacks. There was a tattoo of a diamond on his finger and Sansa wanted more than anything to just punch out that fucking gold tooth that he thought was getting him so much in his relationship with Dany.

"Daario's not that horrible." said Dany,

"One time he came into the apartment so blazed that Theon got high off of the leftover second-hand smoke."

"He can't help that every day is 420."

"Didn't he get that tattooed on his ass or something?" Irri smirked, "I could hook you up with Qotho, yeah sure, he's a dick sometimes but he's not always like that and he doesn't yell 'Yolo' during sex."

Dany's eyes glazed over at the mention of Drogo's brother. She'd been removed from the Khatchadourian family after the funeral and they'd been trying to contact her, Sansa always made an excuse whenever Drogo's mother called.

The bell on the door rang as two girls came into the salon, one was tall and blonde and the other looked kind of like Irri. Armenian?

"Hi." said the blonde to Missandei, "We had an appointment at four."

"It's 11 am." Missandei deadpanned, flipping through a magazine and adjusting her glasses, "Can you not tell time or are you just that damn stupid?"

"MISSANDEI!" Doreah screamed, "I'm sorry about her, girls, what did you ladies need?"

"We just came to get our hair and makeup done!" said the one who looked like Irri, "Hey, Jhiqui!"

"Eroeh, you shifty bitch, what're you doing here?"

"Kyra and I have dates for the first time in a calendar year, gotta look hot." she sat down in front of Dany, "Sorry if my face is at the point of no return, try your best, honey."

"If I could just get like something like this." said Kyra, holding up a picture of Lady Gaga at the 2013 VMAS. "You know, those sexual-ass curls."

Sansa went to work brushing out Kyra's hair, "Yeah, we can do that, Dany, you have to do something about Daario."

Dany popped a Clozaril. "You'll learn to like him."

"Didn't he try and get you to make a sex tape with him?"

"Yeah, so?"

"He said you need a nose job, he's an asshole." Sansa accidentally pulled harshly on Kyra's hair, "Sorry."

"You have really nice eyebrows." said Dany to Eroeh, shooting Sansa an annoyed look.