First of all let me apologize for the long wait (if there was anyone waiting) and second of all let me apologize because this is not beta read!

Needle

Sansa wakes up excited, it is Christmas morning. Cuddled with her is Arya; she had come back to the dorms at the middle of the night. Sansa had expected to see her with a smug smile, the one she always have when she gets away with her mischiefs, but instead she had found a sad looking Arya. Sansa had taken her sister's hand and pulled her to her room, and stayed there until she felt asleep. When they were younger, before anything important—parties, travels, and specially Christmas—they had stayed together until very late, awake for the excitement, talking and goofing around until sleep beat them and they fell asleep together, cuddling. Sansa had thought this time they could sleep like that too.

Smiling she shakes her younger sister, who doesn't wake up but makes a sound, similar to a growl.

"Arya, wake up" Sansa urges, shaking her sister harder, "It's Christmas!" Sansa waits patiently, but still her sister doesn't wake up. "Presents!" Sansa says, or more accurately, cries, and hopes out the bed, leaving Arya behind.

In the common room a lush Christmas tree stands, filled with silver trinkets and in the floor piles of presents, for the different students that had stayed in Hogwarts for the holydays. Kneeling in front of the tree, Sansa starts looking for her presents; she knows she is getting more than one. First she finds her father's, a big box, silver and white, with a darker silver bow. Inside she finds a coat, and just looking at it she knows her mother had chosen it for her. The next box was from Robb, it was wrapped in red and green Christmas paper, inside she found a bottle of perfume, that she immediately tries; 'too sweet' she thought, but smile none less. She opens other presents, chocolates from her aunt Lysa, a card with money from Uncle Benjen, a picture frame from Uncle Edmure, a book from her grandfather.

Finally she finds the present from her mother. Every Christmas her mother gave each child the best gift, chosen by her; even Jon got a present each year chosen by her, but the card always said it was from their father. Sansa took the small blue and red box, adorned with a silver bow and shook it softly; whatever it was, it made no sound. Sansa then puts it on her knees and unties the bow carefully, and without breaking the paper, unwraps it; it was a jewelry box and Sansa has to try very hard not to squeal. She opens the box, but just before seeing her present she closes her eyes, excited. Opening one eye, Sansa spies the content of the jewelry box, and surprised, she blinks. A silver figurine lays there; taking it out of the box, Sansa notices is a brooch for her hair.

"Mom's present?" she hears Arya ask as she walks down the stairs, wearing a robe over her muggle style pajamas with patterns of something Arya calls 'rockets' and 'ovnis'

"Mh-hm" Sansa mumbles.

"What? You don't like it?" Arya asks surprised, no one ever dislikes mom's presents.

Not even Jon.

"No! I do like it! I love it!" Sansa quickly explains, "Is just weird…"

"Weird?"

"It's a bird, neither a wolf like dad's sigil, nor a trout like mom's, not ever a snake for Slytherin, but a bird…"

"I think it suits you" Arya then pulls a present from her robe's pocket; a messy thing wrapped in brown paper with a twine bow tying it, "for you."

Sansa can't help it; she squeals and pulls her sister close, hugging her.

"Shh! You are going to wake the whole castle up!" Arya whispers, but Sansa can see her smile.

-.-.-.-.-.-

Arya opens her door kicking it, since her arms where full with presents; some books written by muggles her father had chosen for her, a pair of fluffy slippers from her brother Robb, a similar picture frame to the one Uncle Edmure had sent to Sansa. Her mother had gotten her a hairband with silver leaves, which Arya had to admit, looked beautiful. There was only one present she hadn't opened. Jon had sent her a black velvet purse; it had a tag attached to it that read: "To my little sister From Jon, don't let curios eyes find this one". Arya puts all her presents on one side of the bed while sitting on the unoccupied space. Pulling the string she opens the purse, and she reaches inside the purse and gasps when her hand finds something, pulling it out, she notices the purse had a spell, making it bigger on the inside, carefully she took out a beautiful sword, thin and small, perfect for her, it's blade was wrapped with brown paper and there was a letter attached to it. Putting the sword carefully on her bed, she takes the letter.

Little Sister:

First of all, Happy Christmas! I hope you have spent your vacations out of trouble, but I know you better.

You always said you hated when your mother and sister tried to get you to practice your needlework, but I think you will like this needle. It's special for water dancing, and I hope you like it.

Stick 'em with the pointy end,

Jon

PD: the bag I sent can only be used once, so I hope you can hide your present in your trunk.

PD: Nymeria misses you.

PD: Ygritte says hi and Happy Christmas.

Arya looks back at her sword, a smile stretching on her face. Admiring it she remembers what Jon had told her once about Ice, the long sword that had stayed in her family for generations: "Every sword has its own name" Arya smile grew bigger, taking her sword by the hilt and putting it against the light, seeing it's reflection.

"Sansa can have her needlework, now I have my own Needle."

-.-.-.-.-

"I assure you, Miss Stark will be sanctioned by her misbehaving, Miss Tarth" says Melissandre, with her rich voice filling the office. Then, smiling in that enigmatic way of hers, she asks "are you sure you don't want some tea?"

"No I don't, really," Brienne answers, not unpolitely, "I worry that it won't let me sleep now."

"Oh, yes, you must be really tired. You said Mr Lannister woke you up at the middle of the night."

"Yes," Brienne shifts on her seat uncomfortably. She is not exactly sure if Melissandre is implying what she thinks she is implying, but she hopes she is not blushing. "Is just, I still…" Melissandre raises an eyebrow, waiting for Brienne to finish her sentence, "I…"

"Is there anything bothering you, Brienne?"

"I just don't understand how Jaime knew they were there, the kids"

Melissandre pursed her lips thinking, "it could have been the gift, or even green seeing, but…" Melissandre gave a small sigh, "I checked Mr Lannister's expedient and the notes from the former Divination professor, from when he was a student, he barely got the necessary grade on his OWLs and NEWTs to enter to Auror training" Melissandre muses, "maybe he found his "Inner eye" later in life."

"Or maybe it was just luck" Melissandre chuckled.

"There is not such thing as luck," Melissandre tells Brienne, with a tone that makes Brienne feel like a student.

"Oh really?" Brienne asks, "So, how do you explain last night? It was luck." In normal circumstances, Brienne would never antagonize with anyone in the most minimum way, but she had barely had four hours of sleep, reason why she is not in the mood for Melissandre's enigmatic way with words.

"There is always one explanation, my dear. It was the plan of the Lord of Light."

-.-.-.-.

Sansa sits in front of Sandor, who is eating his breakfast.

"Happy Christmas!" Sansa exclaims, presenting Sandor a box.

"I don't exchange gifts."

Sansa blinks, still smiling, in a way that's almost caricaturesque.

"Oh, I don't mind," Sansa smiles, still with her arms stretched with the box, "it's still for you."

"I don't have anything for you." Sandor says in that tone of his that sounded similar to a dog's growl.

"I don't mind," Sansa repeated, Sandor looks at her with one eyebrow raised, "really, I mean it." Sighing, Sandor takes the small box and opens it.

"A cake?"

"It's a lemon cake!"

"I… not everyone likes lemon cake as much as you, Little Bird."

"But this one is the BEST lemon cake!" Sansa explains, smiling.

"Why?" Sandor asks, suspicious.

Sansa had noticed that Sandor hadn't got anything for Christmas, and even if he didn't admit it, Sansa knew he likes sweets. But that was not the reason she had decided to give him the cake.

"We are friends." She tells him as if it as nothing of the other world.

"Where did you get it?" Sandor asks, closing the box, and putting it besides his plate.

"I may or may not have a secret stack of lemon cakes" Sansa jokes, and for her satisfaction, saw Sandor's lip twitch, holding a laugh.

"I do believe that" he smiles, before getting back to his food.

-.-.-.-.

Arya sat alone in the table, playing with her food nervously; Gendry and Hot Pie hadn't come out of their dorms, and Arya was starting to worry they were still mad at her.

'Of course they are mad at you, they are probably in a ton of trouble because of you' a little voice in her head keeps telling her.

Arya shakes her head, trying to ignore it, and takes a big bite of the waffles in front of her, but she can't help but check the Great Hall's door constantly.

When Hot Pie and Gendry finally come in, Arya almost chocks with her waffles, action that would be generally received with a laugh and some teasing, but Gendry and Hot Pie just stand in front of her, silent.

"Uhm, happy Christmas" Arya says, slightly nervous, but trying to not show it.

The boys don't say anything and Arya feels her stomach drop, and a sting in her eyes but tries to calm down, taking a deep breath. "I am sorry," she says, before biting her lip and play with her fingers nervously. Arya has always hated apologizing, always. As a kid if she ever fought with any of her siblings—who let's be honest, it was almost always Sansa—she would be forced to apologize, and even when she knew it was her fault, the words seemed to get trapped in her throat. But this time she knew she had to apologize. "I didn't want you to get in trouble," Arya says, and bites her lip again.

"Arya," starts Gendry but Arya can't help herself and interrupts him.

"And I know you tried to stop me and I know I should have listened and I know I am stupid, but I really didn't mean for you two to get in any trouble."

"Arry" Gendry starts again, but he is interrupted again.

"And before you stop talking me for the rest of your lives, here," she grabs to presents she had under the table, handing them to the boys, "these are for you."

"Ar-" Gendry starts and before Arya can interrupt again he says, "we are no mad."

"You are not?" Arya asks, clearly surprised.

"We are not?" Hot Pie asks, even more surprised.

"No, we are not," Gendry states, looking at Hot Pie with annoyed eyes, "but we do appreciate you apologized."

Arya can't help herself and throws herself at her friends, hugging them.

"Aww, who knew you had feelings?" Gendry jokes as he ruffles Arya's hair.

"Shut up, stupid" Arya steps back and hand the presents again, smiling.

"Hey, this is nice" said Hot Pie, taking a beanie out of the package and putting it on.

"I made those, I am not the best knitter in my family, but… I'm decent"

"You used magic, right?" Gendry asked laughing, as he put on the scarf Arya gave him.

"Obviously." Arya laughs.

Hot Pie raised his arm, showing the boxes he was holding, 'did he had them the whole time?' Arya asks herself.

"I got you my dad's famous cherry pie." He gave one box each and Arya couldn't help to jump a little form the excitement, she had heard wonders of said pie.

"I… uh…" Gendry reached for his pocket, "I didn't knew what to get you… and… uh…. I already gave Hot Pie his present," Gendry pulled out a small box with a bow on it, and Arya took it, open it quickly.

"Is this a…?" Arya asked, holding the plastic object, which was slightly bigger than a pocket watch.

"A radio, a normal one… A muggle radio, you can hear muggle music with it, you just…" he takes it for one second, showing Arya how it works. "You need batteries, and signal, because in some places you can't listen to anything but white noise, but it has a pretty long antenna" he says stretching it and giving it back to Arya, who was looking at him like if he had just grown a second head, and then that second head had transformed into an unicorn head.

"…Are you some kind of genius?" Arya asks. She doesn't understand half the things he said.

"I repair this kind of things, in my job, but since most people nowadays have iPods my boss let me keep this one."

"You have a job?" Arya asks curiously, Gendry rarely speaks about himself and even if she tries to avoid it, she had heard some rumors about him…

"Yeah, it's only during my summers, though."

Arya didn't said anything, waiting for Gendry to continue.

"There is tis shop, in front of the foster house I stay in the summers…" he started telling, as he, Arya, and Hot Pie sat to eat breakfast.

-.-.-.-.-.-.-

Brienne knocks insistently, waiting for Jaime Lannister to open the damned door. She raises her hand to knock again but stops when she hears movement in the other side of the door.

"What?" Jaime asks as he opened the door; for someone who sounded so asleep, and who had probably slept for less than five hours, he looked unfairly good.

'He looks better waking up mildly hung over than me when I actually try to look good'

"Oh, hi" Jaime greets with a flirty smile, "couldn't you wait to see me until after I've had my beauty sleep?"

"Stop it, I have no time for your games" Brienne tries to ignore how Jaime's smile dies and instead, she asks, "Can I ask you something?" Jaime looked at her and smiles again, but instead he has that petulant smile of his, and for a second Brienne wants to punch him in the face, ' is because I haven't slept, is because I haven't slept, and not because I actually want to punch him in the face and see all his perfect teeth fall'

"Of course, you can ask me anything, professor Tarth."

"How did you know? That the kids were there, how did you knew?"

Jaime laughed, "Oh well, someone is curious."

"I'm being serious!"

"You seriously sacrificed sleeping to come to the other side of the castle and ask me this?"

"No," Brienne states, "I also went to Melissandre's office"

"Mh-hm, and what did you talked about?" he asks before yawning, "Did you asked her to see in her fires how did I know the kids were in the dungeons?"

"No!" Brienne answers quickly, a little too quickly, "Well, not exactly"

"Ha!"

"So!" Brienne almost screams, she is sure she is blushing now, "Are you going to tell me or…"

"Hell no!"

"What?!"

"You asked, but I decided not to answer" he explains as he walks to the door and turns to Brienne, "Later, professor."

And he chuckles.


If I tried a little I could make this fic more similar to the book series than the show, WHAT THE MONKEY WITH EVERYTHING?! (I was not planning to add Grenn and Pyp but now (I don't know how) I'm gonna add them and it's going to be glorious! AND ARIANNE IS GOING TO BE EVEN MORE GLORIOS THAN I ALREADY HAD PLANNED)

Now; random notes from the chapter…

My mom gives the best presents, I wanna believe every family has an aunt/someone that gives the best presents, and I fell Catelyn will be that kind of person. And of course Edmure is the opposite.

I'M ACTUALLY NOT SURE ABOUT WHAT ARYA GOT FOR SANSA (nor viseversa) SO IF ANYONE WANTS TO GIVE ME IDEAS IT WOULD BE AWSOME!

Also, I really get annoyed when everybody draws Arya like this she is super confident girl who doesn't care in anyone's opinion and everything. Yes she is super brave, and has nerve and she dosen't let herself be bullied, but she is also kind of insecure (What kind of person would believe her mother is not going her back just because she is dirty and had short hair?) sooo… I added a little bit of insecure Arya and her fear of endig up alone.

And last but not least, I know I haven't add a lot of Bran but… he is so difficult to write for me…

PD. Originally Gendry was going to give Arya a Swiss knife, but I decided to change it to a butterfly knife… and wait a couple of Christmases.