Hi! This was written for the Alternate Songs 2017 exchange, and it was written for Dialux on AO3! I really hope you like this! :D Have fun!
I really liked the idea of a Arya and Sansa fic, so I decided to write this one too! And I had an immediate idea with the military AU, so I went with that. But I have no idea what the war is about, but probably White Walkers (and some version of them - supernatural characters - in Essos)
Also I hope you don't mind, I included Sandor - it's not shippy in any way - but since I saw you ship Jon/Sansa, I don't know how you stand on Sandor as a character. I just felt he was the perfect character for that role in the fanfic. I just don't want to write anything in that you won't like
Sorry for any mistakes and typos - English is not my first language! And of course, I do not own A Song of Ice and Fire :)
Arya had been fifteen when the war started, and she couldn't do anything. And Arya despised Sansa for being eighteen and doing nothing. Her father, older brother and cousin went off to war, Dad and Jon to the North, but for some unknown reason Robb was sent south. Her mother helped in the hospital, like she had done years ago in another war, when she had nursed Dad's companions for a bit.
Unknown to Arya, Sansa wanted to help. She couldn't fight, she never could – she had learned to fight with her voice in the last few years, but that wouldn't be useful in the battlefield. After that Sansa tried the hospital – she was so much like her mother, that she believed this was something she could do; she couldn't, Sansa felt queasy at the sight of blood, but it was also in the hospital she found something she could do.
Sansa started cooking and baking, and taking that food to the soldiers at the hospital and later at the camps and shelters. She also took clothes and blankets for them. And she sat with the soldiers and just talked with them, they told her about their children and they listened about Sansa's annoying teachers.
It took Arya years to realize the importance of Sansa's role in the war. She had felt disappointed with Sansa for doing nothing, and the moment she was old enough, Arya enlisted, and sadly she wasn't stationed in the North with her father, or even in South with Robb, she was sent across the Narrow Sea, to Braavos.
War wasn't just saving people and the world, and destroying the bad creatures coming for them. It was harder than that, the pain of seeing people around you dying, of innocents dying – the pain of the war was real.
It was almost one year of service before Arya found the Faceless Men shelter, a charity that helped soldiers, with different programs, from dealing with PTSD to physical therapy, and it was aimed to both veterans and serving military. And it was when Arya sat down, was given a slice of cake and just sat with a young mother of a 4-year-old football star that Arya realized what Sansa was doing.
That night, she called Sansa, and thanked her and apologized for the way they had handled things. Arya finally understood her sister's part in the war, and Sansa had appreciated her sister realizing this now – Sansa had also always doubted if she was doing everything she could do.
Two years later, when Arya was on leave, Arya didn't directly go North, and decided to go visit Sansa in King's Landing first. Her older sister met her in the airport, and Arya hugged her like they hadn't for a long time, but were doing all the time as they met at home now.
"I've missed you so much, Sansa," Arya whispered, holding her sister.
"Arya, I'm just glad you're here with me," Sansa told her, helping her with her bags, even after Arya told her it wasn't needed. "And you're okay, right?"
"A few cuts and bruises, but nothing too bad, Sans."
"I worry about you so much."
"Because I am a girl?" Arya asked mad.
"Because you're my younger sibling," Sansa told her, "and of course, I worry about Dad, Robb and Jon too; I'm glad Dad is working in the office now."
Arya wouldn't admit it out loud, but she was glad of that too. She really just wanted everyone at home now.
"Come on, the car is over there," Sansa told her, pulling her around. The moment Arya stepped outside of the airport, Arya realized that King's Landing was still pretty awful, it smelled badly, it was full of people, and there was so much noise… even more that in the Braavos market. Sansa tried to stop Arya from complaining, but Arya just ignored her older sister.
"How can you live here?"
"It's a great city. So how's Braavos?"
"Hot. But I like the city. I've been learning languages, helping people, and working with others."
"Isn't that dangerous?"
"Don't worry, Sansa," Arya told her. "How's work?"
"I like the firm. My boss is nice, and I like the work."
"Are you sure?" Arya asked – Sansa had been fucked over way too many times.
"Yes, Arya, I'm okay. I'll tell you if anything happens; I'll tell someone. I won't be through that again. I'll stand my ground."
"Anything from me, Sansa," Arya promised her, squeezing her sister's leg as she drove to her apartment. Sansa parked in the garage, and then helped Arya get her duffle bag and backpack from the trunk of the car, and they walked up to her apartment.
"Do you want the bed or the couch?"
"I can take the couch."
"But you should rest well on your leave… take the bed," Sansa said.
"You know, you're worst than mom about this thing of asking when you already have an answer."
"I'm in no way as bad as mom," Sansa said, probably remembering the million times she had told their mother that she didn't want more food, as her mother dropped more on her plate.
"Believe that," Arya said with a laugh. "Compromise now. How big is your beg?"
"Couple's bed, Arya, I'm not a kid."
"So can I share? It's better than either of us taking the couch."
"Yeah! Sleepover!" Sansa said, looking like her pre-teen self once again. "We've never had a proper sleepover before…" she realized.
"No, the closest we got was when I stole Myrcella from your sleepover."
"Mya also ended up hanging out with you a lot too."
"We just played videogames for a bit, and then she joined you again," Arya said as she threw herself on the couch, and turned on the television.
"She did. But really Mya was more like you than me, really. She's in the air force now. We talked the last time she was back in the Vale."
"Were you seriously watching a Disney movie?" Arya asked as she turned on the TV, and found the familiar characters came in to the screen.
"Shut up, Arya. You like Tangled."
"I actually do. Put it from the beginning, it's your house after all. But only animation, no-"
"I know, Arya," Sansa said, as she put the movie from the beginning. They fell into the couch, and Arye ended up laying her head on Sansa's shoulder. After Tangled ended, they moved on to Brave and The Incredibles – that one always ended up with them comparing themselves to the Incredibles family, Mom and Dad had always seemed like Mr. Incredible and Elastigirl.
They only stopped the movies to order some food from the Iron Islander restaurant a few blocks from Sansa's apartment. It wasn't as good as Theon's cooking, who was surprisingly a good cook, but only at Iron Islander food and eggs – he prepared amazing eggs.
After the third movie, they stopped, so they could call they mother and videochat for a bit – she was happy to have her youngest daughter in the country.
"You two are coming home by the end of the week, right?"
"Yes, Mom, of course, we are."
"Call Robb, see if you can pick him up."
"Wait, Robb is coming home?!" Arya asked excitedly. Sansa had seen her brother a few times, but the rest of the family hadn't seen him a long time ago.
"He said he would try. Your father and Jon are coming home for a week, as well as your Uncle Benjen."
"We will call Robb, Mom," Sansa promised, "And we will be home soon."
After answering a few more questions from their mother and saying their goodbyes, the girls went back to watching TV, this time finding an old comedy to watch well into the night, before finally retiring to Sansa's room.
The next morning, Arya woke up alone on her sister's bed, and as she turned to look at the clock on the bedside table, she noticed that it was already past 10 am. Arya rarely slept late, Sansa had always been the one to sleep late (her and Robb), so she supposed she was still jetlagged from the trip. Arya got up from the bed, sleepy and hungry, and not knowing the place well enough, crashed into three walls, and walked through one wrong door, before finding the kitchen, immediately noticing a particular scent.
"What's that? Breakfast?"
"No, but I have omelettes – so eat up," Sansa answered her. "I'm going to the shelter for a bit. I stop by every weekend, and I told them I couldn't stay the entire afternoon, but I need to at least drop some food off."
"It smells good," Arya said, as she got the omelette ready for her.
"It's a couple of pies – savoury and sweet. And the omelette is mushrooms – your favorite," she said, "You can rest around here, and watch TV, or whatever... We can go out when I'm back."
"Can I go with you?"
"Sure, of course. Get ready. I don't want to be late."
"So bossy," Arya complained. "I'll get dressed after I eat." Arya was hungry, so she didn't take long to push the food into her mouth, with Sansa making comments from the sideline.
After showering, Arya got into some jeans and then stole a shirt from Sansa, who complained immediately, but didn't ask her to take it off. And with the tupperwares in hand, they left for the car and Sansa drove to the shelter.
They parked down the street, and Arya immediately noticed that the shelter looked nothing like the place in Braavos – it was much bigger, and the moment Sansa entered, people greeted her by name and Arya couldn't tell to how many people she had been introduced to.
"Sansa, I thought you weren't stopping by today," a large man said as he came closer, and Arya immediately noticed that half of his face was burned.
"I said I was bringing food, Sandor, and my sister wanted to come with me. Arya, Sandor. He runs the shelter here."
"Run?! I just need to open the door for these fuckers to get in."
"You do so much more than that, Sandor."
"Shut the fuck up. No need for you to talk me up." Arya was surprised that Sansa actually spend time with someone that probably swore more in five minutes than Sansa had in all her life.
"I brought a few pies for you. I'll put them in the kitchen, and then walk around for a bit, since we're not in a hurry, I'll check in with the people that like me more than you."
"Everyone likes you more than me, it's not that hard – you feed them," the man told Sansa. "I'll show your sister around." Sansa looked at Arya for some kind of confirmation, and she only shrugged her shoulders, and walked off with this Sandor.
"You're the one in Braavos, right?"
"Yeah."
"I thought so. There are so many of you... your parents probably fucked like rabbits."
"Fuck, don't talk like that about my parents."
"So you swear. Your sister never does. Also you're the asshole she fought with all the time."
"Probably me. She told you that?" Arya was surprised; she really couldn't see Sansa ever sharing stuff with this man.
"Yeah. Right after you apologized for being a bitch."
"Language, for fucks sake. Just call me asshole, and I was one. She does a lot here, then?"
"Yeah. The Elder Brother, the man who ran the place before, put her with me when I came here, after Blackwater Bay Battle." Arya wondered if that was where the man had burned his face – Arya had seen photos of the green fires in the bay, it had been awful. "She put up with me."
Sandor told her this and then a few more things about Sansa's work as they walked around the shelter and she was introduced to people – they always treated her very nicely when they found out she was Sansa's sister. And by the time Sandor had been called out to handle something else, Arya was left with a young man with black hair and blue eyes, named Gendry.
Arya stayed with him and two other of his companions, Lommy and Lem, playing cards and sharing stories, both battle ones and others completely random, until Sansa arrived, and after another round of cards, the Stark sisters had to leave, but Arya promised that it wouldn't be the last time that she would see them.