In the end, the first council doesn't last.
Bronn is the first one to go. He manages to do fairly good for the first couple of years, providing for food and money, but as soon as he starts to fall into his all habits, Bran asks Tyrion to find a replacement. The Hand of the King already have a list of ten people waiting, because you didn't have to have magic in your veins to see that one coming.
Sir Davos is a harder loss. All of his remaining family had being taken by Lord Baratheon to the castle of Stormlands. For what Tyrion knew in conversation, Davos's wife had basically adopted the lad and while he always smiled and laugh when he told this kind of stories, Tyrion could see the longing and gods, he understood it well. A year after Bronn's departure, Brann let him free to go for his family.
Tyrion is the third to go and that was something most people were expecting.
Is innocent, at first. The Queen in the North, Sansa Stark, starts to send letters as soon as she is crowned and is Tyrion who answers them. They know each other, trust each other to be honest, so it's easy to talk with her about what is going on in King's Landing. If he imagines her writing her with that little smile of hers, the one that only lifts corner of her mouth, who can blame him?
With time, the letters have other details too. Little harmful gossip, like how Jon Snow has decided to go beyond the wall, again, and how Arya Stark is currently giving Sir Davos a perpetual headache after appearing in the Stormlands and deciding that she rules the place now. Their young lord, apparently, has no interest in correcting. They are little pieces of information about her family that make Tyrion think that maybe, just maybe, they have formed a real friendship this time. Or maybe she just doesn't have anyone to talk about these things in the North and he is just delusional as always.
The first time he sees her again after the war, The North is slightly less cold and Bran sends him to put together an alliance for trading of food and protection. Sansa is all regal when she waits for him at the gates, but there is that little smile and Tyrion has a hard time not stumbling on his own feet. They are all business very fast and by the time the first night has arrived, they are still discussing with a small council. She sends then all to rest and eat, but the Queen makes no move to go from the room, so Tyrion stays put. His eyes follow her when she takes out a bottle of wine and sits down again, asking him to join her and well, maybe his yes comes to quickly but again, no one can blame him.
The sight of Sansa Stark free and content is something Tyrion is pretty sure he doesn't deserve. Or that any living man deserves, for what matters.
He had only caught glimpse of it that night of celebration after the battle against the death, life times ago. That time, he had keep his distance after what happened in the crypts, knowing it was probably something she wanted to forget all together. But now? Now he doesn't have anywhere else to look and even if he did, Tyrion would kill the man that tried to make him. Or at least try, really hard.
She starts talking about everything that happens in the North, of common friends and without notice it, the night passes between them. He hadn't feel this relaxed in so long, too haunted by dragons and their mothers, and his has the feeling that she feels the same way. It's confirmed when they are about to go to their rooms, already the next day, and she takes his hand on her own.
"I didn't have a friend to talk for a long while now. Thank you, Lord Tyrion"
He wants to kiss her so bad his stomach hurt, but he just kisses her hand and nods. There is something in her eyes that he can't quite understand, but it's gone as soon as it appeared, so he blames it to his stupid imagination and maybe the wine. Always the wine.
The visit was supposed to last a few days at most, but there is a raven from the king asking her sister to use his hand as much as she can, for council and advice, and it feels like a secret joke that literally no one else is understanding. Still, everyone knows that Bran is always right so they do as he says.
Sansa starts giving him little tasks. There are reconstructions plans to be followed, budgets to be adjusted and demands to be heard, so Tyrion spends most of his mornings following the Queen around. The people of the North are wary of him at first, still remember him beside another queen, but they end up adjusting to the view of him beside their leader, specially when she starts to smile a little bit more.
The nights, on the other part, are just for them. They eat together, sometimes in his chambers, sometimes in a little room that serves for important meetings, and most often than not have something to drink while they speak of whatever they feel like it. There are subjects they don't touch, like the night in the cribs, but there are few. These are the times where Tryion thinks that he sees something, a certain way that he used to know well, but he ends up convincing him that is a lie. Beautiful, perfect, Queen Sansa could never want someone like him, not even for a second.
Thing is, she does. And patience seems to not be one of her many talents, at least when it comes to personal matters.
This is a companion series to 'when everything is made to be broken' and some sort of sequel to 'say you will remember me', that will follow tyrion and sansa in the north
Comments are always appreciated!