DISCLAIMER: I own nothing, be it the ASOIAF characters and settings or the little thrown-in quotes/lines from Lady & the Tramp. The former belong to GRRM and him alone; the latter to Disney.

"He'll be here very soon, dear," Dany promised, clasping Sansa's hands in hers. Sansa forced a smile for the Queen's sake, wondering - not for the first time - if she truly wanted to know who this mystery knight was. Something about him was so familiar, familiar in a way that made her heart ache. She knew that it was because he somehow reminded her of a man she'd once known, a man who had been harsh and angry yet who had tried to save her all the same. A man of whom she'd never stopped dreaming.

A man who'd been dead for nearly half a dozen years.

Yet Jon had arranged for Brienne to bring the mystery knight to them, and by the time she'd thought to protest the warrior maid had already left to collect him. There was no going back now.

She stood at the window of the small receiving chamber, gazing out over the Red Keep and trying to keep her nerves at bay. When she heard the door open, Sansa had to take several deep breaths to calm herself before turning to face her champion, the man who had crowned her the Queen of Love and Beauty - but nothing could have prepared her for the ghost who lifted his face and regarded her with those stormy gray eyes that she remembered all too well.

"No," she gasped. "No."

"I told you this wasn't a good idea," Sandor snarled to Brienne, but before he could say another word Sansa rushed at him and began pounding her small, weak fists against his chest.

"You're supposed to be dead," she cried. "They told me you were dead, I...I mourned for you..." Tears were streaming down her face, unbidden, but she did not bother trying to wipe them away - and then he wrapped his large, calloused, familiar hands about her wrists and drew her toward him, bending his head to hers, so close that she could feel his breath warm on her face, though it smelled different and she realized that he didn't reek of wine as he had in the past.

"No, little bird. Not dead. Never dead."

"Leave us," Sansa ordered, and when her cousin and her Queen and her guard hesitated, she said it again, louder this time. "Leave us." They obeyed, though Jon leveled his gaze on Sandor and warned, "We'll be just outside," before following his wife and Brienne out of the room.

Once they were gone, Sandor released her wrists, the burnt corner of his mouth twitching madly. "You don't seem happy to see me, little bird," he rasped.

"You dare to tease me?" Sansa hissed in response, rubbing her wrists. He hadn't hurt her, but the warmth of his touch lingered like an all-too pleasant burn. "All these years...where have you been?" Why didn't you come to me, she wanted to ask, why didn't you at least send a raven to let me know that you were still alive...

"That's quite the long story, and not one I have time to tell. I was ordered to reveal myself to you here, and to attend the feast tonight, but tomorrow I return to Clegane Keep. My brother left quite a mess behind for me to pick up, you see."

"Clegane...Clegane Keep? You...you were allowed..." This made little and less sense. If Sandor had been allowed to retain his family seat, that must mean -

"Allowed? Aye, I suppose you could say that. A year past, maybe more, I was brought to King's Landing by a friend, sent before your Dragon Queen and offered a full pardon. For the crimes I didn't commit, and the ones I did. Your dear King Consort never told you? Your sister Arya, either?"

"Arya?" she whispered, more confused than ever.

"Yes, Arya, Arya, your little wolf-bitch sister. She happened to be here as well, even spoke on my behalf...in her own way. So none of them told you I lived, told you I'd been sent to rebuild the home my brother left me? Seven hells, they even summoned me here to this tourney in your honor, little bird. They've been keeping quite a bit from you, haven't they?"

Sansa spun away from him and stalked back to the window, blinking back the tears that threatened to spill over again. The silence stretched between them, but even as she let it, she knew what she wanted.

"You will stay," Sansa stated.

"What's that, little bird?" She could tell by the tone of his voice that he'd heard her, and Sansa turned to face him again, her resolve only strengthening when he stepped closer, towering over her, making her wonder what it would be like to feel his hands on her again...

"Until I get to the bottom of this...until I hear your story, until I learn why they kept these secrets...you will stay. Here. In King's Landing. In the Red Keep, in fact." As an afterthought, she added, "Please."

Sandor Clegane laughed then, and for a moment she was unsure what meaning there was behind his mirth. Until he replied, "Still the little bird, chirping her empty courtesies. But I suppose, since you asked so politely...I'll stay."