Mischief
By Myriddin

The last thing Sansa expected when she returned home was for her brother's best friend to come barreling into the front hall wearing Robb's old football pads and a tin foil hat. They stared at each other for a moment before Sansa found herself blurting out. "What on earth are you wearing?"

Jon smiled sheepishly and opened his mouth to speak, but was cut off before he could. A loud "Rawr," announced the arrival of her young son. Eddrick was wearing his favorite dinosaur footie pajamas and a handmade mask of what she thought may be a dragon. Given the quality of the art, she guessed it hadn't been Eddrick's handiwork.

Curling his fingers into makeshift claws, the child lunged at Jon with a roar. The boys play-tussled for a few moments, Eddrick knocking from Jon's hand what looked to be a paper towel roll wrapped in aluminum (a sword?). Jon fell back against the wall with a dramatic groan as her son wrapped himself around his leg, refusing to be moved. "I got you! Now you's going to be eated. Rawr!"

"I'm going to be eaten?" Jon questioned with a exaggerated gasp of shock. Sansa appreciated how he subtly corrected Eddrick's verbs without calling attention to it. "Please, Great Dragon, I don't want to be eaten!"

Sansa was unable to hold back a chuckle at their dramatics and Eddrick finally noticed her presence. With a grin of delight, he abandoned his draconic mischief and launched himself at his mother. Sansa caught him easily, more than used to his gymnastics.

"Momma, momma, look! I's a dwagon!"

"You are a dragon! And you managed to beat a big mean knight all by yourself." She smirked at Jon and he grinned in reply, his earlier embarrassment gone. Eddrick's cheer was infectious that way.

It was amazing to see Eddrick interacting so easily with a male adult. Besides being a cheating bastard, her soon-to-be ex-husband had been a neglectful father at best. After she had caught Harry in bed with his secretary, she gave in to her first instinct- running to big brother. Robb hadn't hesitated to take them in, supported by his best friend and roommate. He and Jon rented a comfortable little house they immediately welcomed Sansa and her son into, installing a daybed for Eddrick in the third bedroom they used as an office and setting Sansa up in Jon's room despite her protests.

Sansa studied the man who willingly gave up his bed for a lumpy couch, who played imaginative games with a lonely three-year-old, even taking the time and effort to make creative props, and her smile softened.

"Robb's been grilling on the deck. I hope hamburgers are okay? Dinner should be just about done."

"Sounds good. We should get some food in this monster's stomach before he decides to eat you again." Eddrick squealed with delight as she tickled him before pressing a kiss to his blonde curls and setting him down. She and Jon watched as he raced off toward the backyard. Jon looked adorably perplexed.

"Where does he get all that energy?"

"Hollow legs," Sansa quipped, "Kids store extra energy there. Rickon was proof enough of that."

"Isn't that the truth." Jon gave her another smile before moving to follow after Eddrick. Sansa caught a whiff of his aftershave as he passed- cedar and sandalwood. It was a clean, woodsy scent, surprisingly enticing and fitting, considering he worked outdoors. It certainly agreed with him, she decided, watching the play of tight back muscles as he slipped out of the pads and set them aside. Her eyes dropped again of their own accord, mentally praising whoever had invented skin-tight jeans.

All that time she'd spent searching for her Prince Charming...maybe she should have been looking closer to home.