Hey there! It's been years since the first story I published, I'm sorry for that by the way, but I've had too little time and too little motivation to write. Anyway, I've been practicing my crappy writing skills in English and somehow I ended up doing this little story of my ASOIAF's OTP and since there's not much of them here I go!
Okay, so the story is an AU but there's an spoiler concerning Lyanna Stark (In the TV series at least) so there you go, you've been warned!
Sorry for the mistakes! It's not their fault, I'm the guilty one!
Disclaimer: I don't own A Song of Ice and Fire or any of it's characters, it all belongs to George R. R. Martin.
The first time Jon asked about his father he was four years old.
He was playing in the dirt with Robb, making mud castles and molesting the earthworms that sometimes were unburied to make bigger mud constructions. Robb barely talked back then but he could babble some words, Jon was specially proud of teaching him his name even if Robb called him'Yawn'.
While he was recreating Winterfell in mud, Robb prickled his finger with a particular ponty stone and he cried loudly while shouting repeatedly 'papa' in an annoying high pitch. Uncle Eddard came almost flying to check Robb for any injury finding none since the stone wasn't sharp enough to make his cousin bleed, but the sole fact that Robb was in his father's arms calmed him swiftly and the small smile on his Uncle's lips made him wonder if his father was happy too when he held him.
That moment made him think something he never had. He was fatherless. The thought got stuck in his head for the rest of the day and, when he left his Uncles' house walking calmly holding his mother's hand, he dared to ask her the question.
"Mum, do I have a dad?"
His mother looked at him surprised but fondly, she caressed his dark long curls and simply said:
"Ask me again when you are older."
The second time he asked about his father he was six years old.
He had always been a quiet, introverted shy kid. It was a really difficult task for him to comunicate with other children, his teachers said it was because he was a mature child for his age but Jon always thought it was because he didn't have a father. He loved his mother with all his heart but he always felt something was missing and a buried thought in the bottom of his brain told him he was going to be incomplete all his life without a father to learn from.
Of course, it didn't help that the other children made fun of him for having only a mother. The first day it made him cry, producing more laughs and more crude words from his classmates, but then he just got used to it. Then the kids called him 'Jon Snow' since some boy's father had told him it was a last name given to the children of unmarried parents.
And the first time they called him 'Jon Snow' he cried for hours in his mother's lap. He wanted to be strong and not let the mean words hurt him but it was impossible and he blamed his mother.
"I'm Jon Snow because of you."
His mother slapped the back of his head harder than she ever had. When Jon raised his face from her lap he regretted his words almost instantly, he had never seen his mother with such a sad and disappointed face.
"Never say that again. You're not some unwanted bastard boy, you are Jon Stark, Lyanna Stark's son, Rickard Stark's grandchild, descendant of kings and queens. You have a great family name, never forget that."
He knew he had a loving family, he knew the Stark name was prestigious and it was amazing being named that. But still there was something missing.
"Is my father from a great family too?"
"You are too young still."
"Do I even have a father?"
"Ask me again when you are older."
The third time he asked about his father he was eleven years old.
He keeped his curiosity bottled since the day he snapped at his mother, he felt guilty for having mentioned it so he made himself promise he would never ask again. He was bullied everyday by the kids because he lacked a father but he thought being picked at school was much more bearable that the pain it caused him to see the wounded expression of his mother five years ago. Robb wanted to help him so he asked Uncle Eddard about Jon's father. His cousin told him he samcked him in the head and told him it was not his business. Jon thanked him for his good intentions but made Robb promise he would never do it again.
One day, the Common Language teacher gave them letters kids from the Reach had written for a penpal project. Jon's letter was written by some boy named Samwell Tarly, who quickly became one of Jon's best friends. It wasn't really hard to manage a spot there since his only friends were Robb, Sansa and Arya, his cousins. But Jon developed a great friendship with Samwell, he poured all his curiosities, fears and interests in the letters and never found a mock, an inmature response or any sign Samwell wasn't taking him seriuosly. So, when one day Jon told him about what had happened when he talked about his father, Sam's answer was that maybe his father had died and his mother loved him so dearly she was hurt everytime she was reminded of him. Jon thought that was very much possible, so he decided to ask his mother if that was the case.
"I know why you don't talk about dad." Lyanna chocked with the piece of meat she was chewing, she certainly did not expect Jon to be so blunt with that subject. When she was able to breath she waited patienly for Jon to elaborate what he meant. "He's dead, right?"
She smiled sweetly at him and shaked her head softly.
"It's not the case, Jon."
"Then why don't you tell me who is he?"
"Ask me again when you are older."
The fourth time he asked he was thirteen years old.
A new girl arrived in school, she was a bit tiny and her short red hair was a tangled mess. She looked bored when the teacher was introducing her and Jon thought she looked like trouble.
And he wasn't wrong. Ygritte Rayder was a troublemaker like no other, in a matter of days she managed to piss off all their teachers, including the Maths teacher that had more patience than snow had Winterfell and, of course, she made Jon the target of all her hurtful remarks. It wasn't new for him since he had spent pretty much all his life dismissing his classmates' abuse but something triggered in him whenever she messed around so he decided to give Ygritte a bit of her own medicine.
Turns out they both got detention. Jon for calling her 'a ginger bitch' too loud and Ygritte for punching him. The teacher made them sit together and have a civilized conversation. It started with Ygritte being sarcastic until Jon mentioned that her parents were probably rude idiots since she was so ill-mannered. He saw her hurt before she snapped and told him her parents were dead.
"I'm sorry." And he really meant it.
"Whatever. You know nothing, Jon Snow."
"I'm Jon Stark! I'm not an unwanted bastard boy!"
Surprisingly they became friends because of that conversation. Jon told Ygritte about all the theories he had about what could have happened with his father and Ygritte helped him add another interesting hypothesis, something that filled Jon's mind so much he dropped it to his mother almost without thinking.
"Am I adpoted?"
Lyanna stopped cutting potatoes abruptly and turned her head almost comically to look at her son with a frown.
"What?"
"My friend Ygritte is adopted, her parents died four years ago but she said there's kids who don't know they are adopted until they are old enough. Is it that for me? You adopted me and kept the secret to spare my feelings?"
Lyanna cleaned her hands on the apron and took Jon to the bathroom's mirror.
"Look at us, you have the same hair I do, the same long face I do, and the same grey eyes just a bit darker. You are as much a Stark as I. And I do recall giving birth to a pink ugly child with a head full of dark curls."
Jon smiled at her words. He was actually relieved to be his mother's son but then the mystery of his father was still that.
"If I'm not adopted then, who's my dad?"
Lyanna sighed tiredly and looked sadly at him through the mirror.
"It's a long and complicated story."
"I'm ready."
Jon's heart raced in his chest, he finaly was going to get the coveted answer of the haunting question. Lyanna took a deep breath but decided against it the last second.
"Not now, it's still too soon."
"But, Mu-"
"Please, Jon. Ask me again when you are older."
The fifth time he asked he was sixteen years old.
He respected his mother's decision that night but the sorrow she exuded was enough to haunt him from time to time. For years he had thought lots of things about his father, he had pictured him from many ways and he finally guessed he had to be a Northman since he was the personification of a pure blood Northener. That or his father's genes were no match for Stark genes. Ygritte once told him his father must had to have the same broody face he had all the time since his mother had a fierce but sympathetic face. He really liked the relationship his mother and Ygritte had, they were so much alike someone could think Ygritte was actually Lyanna's daughter if not for the untamed red mane and the freckles that covered her skin.
Apart from his father, Jon had found himself thinking a lot of time about Ygritte and not in a platonic way precisely. Lyanna used to tease him repeatedly about the lovesick looks he gives Ygritte almost every minute, when Jon told her she was completely wrong she dismissed him and told him 'mothers know her pups'. The references all the older Starks made about wolfs and winter got annoying quickly. But yes, his mother, as always, was right. He was in love with his friend and he was virtually sure Ygritte felt something for him, even if it was only a small attraction, but he was too chicken to tell her, although Lyanna tried to convince him thirty times a day.
"She feels the same way, I know it, I'm a woman too."
"I'm not going to tell her anything, stop pushing."
"Come on, Jon. She is a great match, fierce like a wolf, like a woman should be. Or do you want to wait too much, lose her and end up with a prissy princess like Sansa?"
"Mom! She's family!"
"You know what I mean. I love my niece to bits but she's too influenced by her mother. If she combined her looks with an attitude like Arya's she would be an unstoppable force for boys. Or girls, whatever she's into."
"Okay, can we stop talking about Sansa's sexual orientation?"
"Ask Ygritte out."
Jon sighed tiredly. Perhaps it was better to keep talking about Sansa.
"No."
"Okay, be like this, but don't come crying when she tells you she has someone else to keep her warm."
Apart from disgust something else entered Jon's mind when he heard her say that. He thought that maybe she was talking from the experience.
"Is that what happened with my father? He left you for another?"
Lyanna looked warily at him and Jon thought for a moment that she was going to tell him the same words he had been aswered with, that's it until Lyanna dropped on the couch and patted the spot next to her.
"I think now it's finally time. Clear your agenda, kid, we're going to be here for a long time."
Jon sat next to her and listened carefully the story he had always wanted to hear. It wasn't what he had imagined and he had pictured lots of scenarios. By the time Lyanna finished, they were both in tears and holding their hands tightly. Neither of them had dinner that night and Jon did something he hadn't done in thirteen years, in the middle of the night he snuck in Lyanna's bed to sleep in his mother's arms.
He was in such a bad mood none of his bullies dared to even look at him wrong. He told Ygritte the story two days after he learned it and she said they had to do something to make it better. When Jon asked her what she had in mind she just smirked and told him to let it all in her hands. A week later Jon was sat on the passenger sit of Ygritte's foster parents car going to King's Landing with Ygritte obviously exceeding the speed limit. She managed to gather his father's adress and money enough to fill the car's tank for the two-way trip. Jon couldn't believe he was going to see his father, he was so nervous he felt like throwing up every two minutes.
When he knocked the door of the house his insides were officialy a mess of knots, what kept him from running away was Ygritte's hand holding tightly his own. When the door opened and a tall blonde man looked at them like they were the most uninteresting thing he ever saw, Jon squeezed his right fist tightly.
"Rhaegar Targaryen?"
"Yes, who are you?"
"Karma, bitch."
Jon punched him so hard he broke two fingers of his right hand when his fist collided with the man's face and Rhaegar got a fractured jaw and a concussion when he collided hard with the frame of the door.
Jon and Ygritte ran from the house and when they felt they had gone far enough, they stopped in the middle of an alley and laughed loudly.
"That was fucking epic."
Jon's thoughts were exactly the same and, maybe it was the adrenaline, the satisfaction of the moment or the fact that Ygritte showed she cared enough to make a plan to avenge his mother's pride. Whatever it was it made him kiss Ygritte fiercely in the middle of a crowded alley like the teenagers they both were. He had the most sappy smile ever smiled when they broke the kiss.
"Took you time, Targaryen."
"I'm no Targaryen, I've always been and always will be a Stark." Jon kissed her again. "The Stark you are deeply in love with."
Ygritte rolled her eyes but the deep blush gave her away.
"Whatever. You know nothing, Jon Stark."
That's it! I hope you liked it! I decided to leave whatever Rhaegar did to Lyanna to your imagination since what I had in mind wasn't pretty, it's up to you wherever in the Jerk Scale Rhaegar is :) (If you're curious I'll tell you that in the original story he was a 10.)
See you, hopefully, in the next story soon!