Adaira nearly ran into Robb as she rushed back into the castle. Instead of stopping when his hands moved to steady her, she pushed away from him and continued down the hall to her chambers. She wouldn't face him until he caught the door to her room and followed her inside. "What happened out there?"
"I don't want to talk now, Robb, please leave me alone," she answered, her back to him and her voice shaky.
He crossed the room, putting both hands on her shoulders, softly muttering, "We both know that's not going to happen."
"I know I shouldn't, but I can't help it. I just can't stand him," Adaira sighed, shaking his hands off her shoulders as she began to pace. "It makes me feel horrible to have that much anger in me, but I do."
"Adaira, stop," Robb instructed, but she just sighed, running a hand through her messy waves in frustration. As she went to speak again, he interrupted, "Just stop."
She paused in place, waiting for him to continue. Instead of speaking, though, Robb crossed the small space between them. They stood for a moment, both staring at each other as if trying to fight off the other's, and their own, intentions.
Without a word, Robb took Adaira's face in both hands and pressed his lips gently to hers. It was soft, sweet, simple – but it was what she needed in that moment. He pulled away all too quickly, leaving both of them blushing and speechless. After a couple seconds of breathless realization, a smile crept onto Adaira's face and she placed her hand on the side of Robb's jaw and stood on her tiptoes, connecting their lips again. She felt the smile on his lips as well as he slipped one arm around her waist, anchoring her close to him, the other hand laced into her hair. Neither pulled away until Adaira's door opened.
"Daira, I – Oh my goodness," Cassia gaped, standing stunned in the doorway, unsure what to do or say.
Adaira and Robb felt the same, red-faced and gawking from each other's embrace in uncomfortable silence. Cassia turned out the door, stepping into the hallway to try to remember her words. She had noticed a change in her sister's behavior towards Robb, but this was entirely unexpected. And, Cassia's obliviousness to her own sister's feelings made her feel increasingly guilty.
Inside, Robb and Adaira looked to each other.
"Maybe the shock will block this from her memory?" Robb suggested with a smug smile.
Adaira glanced up at him, begrudgingly returning his grin, "I doubt it."
Almost as soon as the words came out, Cassia returned with a calm expression. "This is rather inappropriate."
Pulling out of Robb's grasp, the younger Devenny's green eyes lit with a fire as she turned to speak about the inappropriateness of her sister's action, largely the disgusting nature of letting a Greyjoy touch you at all, let alone hold you for that long.
But, then she noticed the humor in Cassia's eyes. Robb began to laugh first, breaking the elder girl's straight face. Adaira breathed a small sigh of relief, but her initial reaction still loomed in the back of her mind.
"It is inappropriate," Cassia stated.
Robb raised an eyebrow, "You truly think you will not kiss a man before you are married?"
"We are not talking about me, Robb," she returned with a smirk, getting the same from the boy who felt like a brother.
"Perhaps we should be." It was Adaira's comment that broke through the easy smiles.
Robb glanced between the two sisters, "And perhaps, I should take my leave for this conversation."
He took Adaira's hand and kissed it, keeping eye contact with the blonde Devenny. Against her will, the girl smiled, watching Robb walk out the door. When he left, her eyes returned to her older sister.
"I don't understand," she stated.
Cassia's eyebrows furrowed. "What do you not understand?"
"How can you be so kind to Theon?"
"With the exception of yesterday, Theon has never done anything to antagonize me."
"Never?" Adaira scoffed. "Never? His family slaughtered ours!"
Cass took a breath, "His fami—"
"Do you remember the bodies in the Nautic Keep?" Daira cried. "Or have you been able to block that out? Because if you can somehow, Cass, please teach me how."
"Of course I remember!" Cassia shot back. "I counted 30 between our hiding spot and the well before I had to stop myself, and I remember every single one of their faces."
"Then, how can you look at him without remembering them taking everyone we knew?"
"He's my friend," Cassia returned weakly, not sure if it was that simple anymore.
Adaira shook her head, "Do you ever wonder what would have happened if Davian survived the trip to Winterfell? Do you think he could forgive Theon?"
That was the blow that broke onto Cassia. Her eyes began to sting, thinking of her oldest brother, her best friend. He had been days away from Winterfell, from her, after the rebellion and died on the road. She thought of Davian every day and honestly had no idea if he would be so forgiving.
"They took everything from us," Adaira repeated.
"It seems to me that you have a boy out there who's falling in love with you, so I guess they didn't take everything," Cassia returned, trying to build a new defense. "You may have never met Robb if—"
"—That is not fair!"
"No, none of this is," she agreed, starting to walk away as her sister fumed. Before she stepped out the door, though, Cass turned back around. "There's not a day that goes by when I don't wish we had our family back, but all the wishing in the world won't bring them to life, Daira. And I can't live with that much anger."
"I can't forgive him," Adaira swore, feeling tears boil over her green eyes.
"I understand."
With that, Cassia turned. Any more time in that room and she would begin crying too. She barely got down the hall when a familiar face emerged from the corner.
"She needs you," Cassia stated, wiping her tears as Robb came forward.
Robb nodded and placed a hand on her shoulder, "You could probably get Jon to train with you. I know that always helps you."
With a small smile, she thanked Robb, who gave her arm a friendly squeeze and turned down the hall towards Adaira. Despite her ability to escape her sister without crying, Cassia was torn apart by Adaira's words. Cass had always been able to compartmentalize, but if she really thought about Davian or her father, Torrett, Ryen, her mother, it made her physically ill and question everything she was feeling.
She wasn't angry enough to swordfight her emotions away, nor did she want to speak about them. Instead, she found herself wandering through the castle, ultimately sitting outside along one of the bridges. Slumping against the stone, she pulled her knees to her chest and stared up at the stars, letting the wind numb her.
"Cassia?" Theon called.
She glanced towards him as he walked to her. She nearly asked Theon to leave, feeling the weight of House Devenny staring down at her from the heavens, but when he sat with her, she didn't want to anymore. Despite the guilt tugging at her stomach, she didn't want him to go.
"Did your sister make you this upset?" he demanded, seeing the lines of dried tears on her face. "I will make her regret-"
"—That would make me more sad, Theon."
With his typically fiery response poorly received, he seemed unsure how next to respond and simply stared up at the sky along with this girl he desperately wanted to make smile.
"You could put an arm around me," she suggested.
"Cassia Devenny, teaching me social cues on how to handle women. Perfect."
Now, he got a small smirk from her. Not everything he wanted, but it was a start. Theon looked into her eyes, still somewhat hesitant.
"You aren't going to break me, you know," Cassia stated as he ultimately wrapped an arm around her.
"You're very different from what I'm used to."
"I am a lot stronger than I look."
He leaned in as if to test her. Cassia pulled back just an inch as Theon purposefully came up short. Their eyes met, green on hazel, as her heart began to pound in her chest.
"I'm going to try very hard not to test your theory," he added and kissed her, hard.
Her emotions swirled inside, a mix of excitement, guilt, and nerves, that were all pushed aside as Theon cupped her face and sucked on her lower lip, forcing her to only think about him.
Theon had been with other girls before, it was a well-known fact around Winterfell, but to him, none had ever tasted like Cassia. Maybe it was her lineage, maybe it was her birthplace, but when he kissed her, he could swear he tasted the ocean. She tasted like home.
She pulled away, winded and flushed, a huge smile crossing her face. "I didn't know it was possible to be kissed like that," Cassia said, her voice soft with wonder. "I didn't know it would feel like everything stopped when –"
Theon didn't let her finish her sentence before bringing his lips back to hers. She wrapped her arms around his neck and he pulled her onto his lap.
He both didn't want to and desperately wanted to lose control with her. As one hand traveled down to her waist and the other lost itself in her long curly tresses, Theon felt a need growing inside of him. This girl, of all in Winterfell, who knew him better than nearly anyone, who was so polite in public but never hesitated to tell him when he was wrong, who had shown him kindness from his first day taken prisoner in a strange town - was the girl whose mouth he was exploring, whose skin was warming under his touch.
Cassia Devenny had always been all courtesy and custom, but in that moment, with her sighing into his kiss, Theon decided that no matter how long it took, he would convince her to share his bed, and maybe, something more.
