So...this is Tyrion and Sansa aaaaall the way through. Hope you like it anyway. I have to say that I do.
Any thoughts? Feel free to tell me!
o~o~o~o~o~o~o~o~o
Sansa stood on the balustrade surrounding the courtyard and watched as the Lannister brothers hugged in greeting. Who would have thought that both of them would be guests in Winterfell again, and on friendly terms, that was.
She was too far away to hear their conversation, but as she saw Lady Brienne blush despite her already rosy cheeks from the cold, Sansa couldn't help but ask herself what the younger Lannister might have said. Tyrion.
She had spent a considerable amount of time believing him to be the worst of the whole family, but she had been a foolish little girl then. Sansa still scolded herself for those early years she had lived in the capital. From afar, safe behind the walls of Winterfell, it had looked like the most beautiful and exciting place a young girl like her could ever have imagined. How enthusiastic had she been when her father told her she was going to accompany him to this place of sun, light and laughter?
But not long had she been there that she had discovered the truth behind the pretty surface. Surrounded by lies, vileness, betrayal, fraud - and all those who were taken up by playing along with the game of falsity.
The worst day was the day she was married to Tyrion Lannister. Or maybe the day she'd been told that she was to marry him. She had cried, day and night, had cried herself to sleep - stupid. And useless. Sansa had lived through far worse by now. Far far worse.
Tyrion was good at playing the game as well. But he was different from the rest, she had discovered after a while. Maybe that was why he was even better at playing than most. He enjoyed it, but not because he liked the cruelty and falsehood. He liked seeing through the facades. He liked to be the superior one, in secret, because no one would have expected him to be. That was what made him even more dangerous. Being underestimated while his intellect allowed him to know the rules and to use them.
Sansa watched how the man in question made his way up the stairs to the balustrade she was standing on. She waited for him, but her eyes kept gliding over the grounds of Winterfell in the distance while she listened to his tiny, irregular steps nearing her until they came to a halt.
"Mylady", Tyrion nodded in her direction and she thought to even notice a little bow from the corner of her eye.
"Please", Sansa said, not taking her eyes off the snow that glistened in the sun when she spoke. "We're behind all this business with titles, don't you think?"
"You're still the Lady of Winterfell."
"And you're the Lord of Casterly Rock now, if my information is correct", she replied, finally looking at his face - still ugly, misshapen, but oddly familiar.
"It is", he confirmed with a little nod. "Queen Daenerys named me Warden of the West", he added as if he were expecting her to react to this information in a specific way, but Sansa wasn't sure what he wanted to achieve, so she went with the appropriate.
"Congratulations."
"Thank you." He joined her in staring into the distance for a few moments, perhaps he was trying to figure out how to go on, but then, Tyrion Lannister was never lost for words, was he?
"Sansa", he continued more firmly, his dissimilar eyes returning to her profile, "I...I didn't only come to see my brother, you know. Now that you are the Queen in the North and I'm the Lord of Casterly Rock-" He trailed off, but she finished the sentence for him.
"-you wanted to clarify our positions."
"In a way", he granted her. "I wanted to make sure that we are...allies", he said meaningfully and saw the corner of her mouth curling slightly.
"The North is independent, Tyrion", she replied quietly, the little smile still on her lips.
"I know", he said, picking his words carefully. "But that doesn't mean you might not be in need of...friends from time to time." Sansa turned to face him fully for the first time at those words, eyebrows raised.
"Friends, now?" There was surprise and maybe a little amusement ringing in her voice, but she didn't seem to be averse to the thought, so Tyrion was encouraged to go on.
"Yes", he confirmed. "That's what I hope for. What I'm trying to say is...", he went on, his firm look matching the seriousness of his intended words, "if you should ever require assistance, in any way, Castery Rock will be at your service, Sansa."
The Lady of Winterfell had had enough time and practice in hiding her emotions, but so had Tyrion in reading those of others. Her features stayed motionless, not a twitch of one muscle, but he saw the spark of surprise shining from her eyes, accompanied by a hint of something else. He scrutinized her to make out what it was, suspicion, he decided just as she turned back to wind and snow.
"That's...a very big declaration", she said slowly, without facing him. "I'm far from refusing", she went on to Tyrion's relief, "but I can't help wondering..."
She trailed off, looking down at her hand on the banister, thinking, before she looked at Tyrion once again with an expression he couldn't quite estimate.
"I hope that's not your way of trying to make up for..our history, Tyrion", Sansa said then, taking him by surprise, "because if it is-"
"It's not", he interrupted her immediately, maybe a little more vigorously than intended. "I can assure you", he continued calmer, "it's not. Believe me, I know that I couldn't make up for anything that has been done to you anyway." He let his gaze lose itself in the distance while pictures filled his head, pictures of her, younger and obviously scared, standing in his room in the Red Keep - guilt and anger filling his body like they had so many times over the years when those memories uninvitedly found their way back into his mind.
"Most people can only imagine what horrors you must have lived through", he said to the snowy grounds. "Losing your family, one after one. And as if that hadn't been enough, my father sold you to me, of all people - and...I'm sorry", he went on, not caring that she was surely able to hear the guilt in his voice, clearly indicating his words to be true. "But I know there's no way for me to right this cruelty."
He kept staring out at nothing in particular, unable to face her - if to avoid looking at her or rather her looking at him, he didn't know, maybe a combination of both. He heard what she felt when she spoke, though, and the words weren't at all what he had been expecting.
"And neither is there any need."
Her voice was soft, calm. He would have called it compassionate, affectionate even, if he hadn't known better. However, it caused him to look back at her, the urge impossible not to follow.
"I have seen cruelty", Sansa confirmed, looking back straight into his eyes - something she had always avoided in the time they had spent in King's Landing, he remembered. "I've seen it several times, in different forms, but from all the paths my life has taken, my marriage to you has been one of the best."
He was captured by her words, amazed, but there was still no way to stop the disbelieving snort from escaping at the sound of this.
"I admit that I didn't see it that way back then", she said, almost apologetically. "But you were always kind to me, Tyrion. And I'm grateful for that." She watched him, obviously expecting him to say something and he had to gather his thoughts for a moment.
"I can't deny that I'm..surprised to hear that", Tyrion replied after clearing his throat. "I wouldn't have blamed you if you could only look back on our short time together with disgust."
"You could as well", she countered. "It can't have been easy for you..to be, you know.." She threw a meaningful glance at him. "Abstinent." He laughed and Sansa couldn't suppress an amused smile either, but her features soon returned to the seriousness it was used to wear by now.
"I have to apologize too", she continued. "I didn't make it easy for you. No, no...", she quickly stopped him when he opened his mouth, foreseeing what he would say, "really, I was cold and unkind towards you. Could only see the outside-"
"-the dwarf and the Lannister", he finished for her and Sansa nodded.
"Precisely. I hated your family", she admitted frankly and it did neither surprise nor bother Tyrion. It was rather something they had in common, actually.
"You had every right to."
"I had no right to hate you", Sansa contradicted him and he just wanted to interrupt her again, telling her that there was absolutely no need for apologies on her side, but what she said next kept him silent.
"I should have admired you. I do it now", she told him, smiling at his doubtful face. "Honestly, I do", she assured. "Could I have seen through the facades earlier, it would have spared me a lot of grief. Despising you and worshipping Joffrey, I've been so blind for such a long time, blinded by appearances..."
"You were a child, Sansa", Tyrion gave her to consider. "And well-sheltered. I think it was only natural." She nodded gratefully, but sighed.
"You're kind."
"I'm not. I'm realistic", he replied. "What girl of fourteen would prefer me to a prince with a beautiful face and golden hair?"
"One that isn't foolish enough to believe in fairytales of true love?", she asked back looking down in the courtyard, causing Tyrion to follow her gaze.
"Some seem to come true, after all", he pointed out, watching his brother strolling around, his arm wrapped around Lady Brienne as they laughed about whatever either of them had said. He instantly smiled at the picture before him. This was what he had always wanted for Jaime, although he had started to seriously doubt that he would ever find the courage and strength to free himself from their sister, Tyrion had to confess...but here he was. Once, Tyrion had been foolish enough to hope that he would find this sort of happiness as well, but he had long accepted that those things lay beyond his reach.
"They're happy, aren't they?" Sansa's voice brought him back to the present.
"Yes. They are", he agreed without a single doubt. He let his gaze wander from the happy couple to Sansa, watching her as she watched them, a mixture of joy and sadness shining from her eyes that made her look more vulnerable than he had seen her since she had become the Lady of Winterfell. This face belonged to Sansa Stark, not to the Queen in the North.
"Are you?" The words were out before he could stop them, something that happened more often than he liked to admit.
She looked back at him as Jaime and Brienne disappeared inside the castle, obviously puzzled.
"Me?"
"Yes."
"I'm the Queen in the North", she stated, but Tyrion shook his head.
"That wasn't my question. Are you happy, Sansa?"
He waited for her to say something, but her hesitation was already part of an answer for him.
"I am", she said though, more determinedly than he would have expected. "Maybe not completely, but...I am. Or at least I think I will be."
"Good." Probably the best he could have hoped for, he considered.
"That must suffice for the moment."
Silence spread after this declaration, only disturbed by the howling of the wind around the walls of the castle and the sound of muffled voices from somewhere inside.
"You know I always wanted you to be happy, don't you?", Tyrion suddenly heard himself say without having intended to, but even though she didn't look at him, he was relieved to notice her nodding slightly.
"I think I did."
"Good." Silence again. Wind.
"Why did you care?", she said then, looking down at her hands on the banister.
"I don't know", he muttered, taken a bit off guard, but she saw a smirk appearing on his face from the corner of her eye. "Maybe I'm just a caring character?"
He said it jokingly, but perhaps that wasn't even far from the truth, Sansa thought to herself.
"Oh, I don't know. Maybe it was the marriage", he then went on, shaking his head. "As ridiculous as the whole matter was, you were my wife, I was responsible for you. We're still married, actually", it suddenly became clear to him. "At least on paper."
Yes, Sansa discovered, raising her head. She had been married to Ramsay in the assumption that Tyrion had died, either during the trial or on the run.
"I suppose we are", she agreed, furrowing her brow.
"Do you want to have it annulled?", he asked, unsure how to estimate the expression, but she shook her head.
"No need. For allies...friends", she corrected, "it can't hurt to be bound by more than a verbal agreement."
"We're going to be friends, then?", Tyrion said, not trying to hide the delighted smile forming on his lips.
"I would like that", Sansa confirmed, even giving him a slight smile in return.
"Very good." Tyrion nodded. "I'm glad to hear it."
They stood at the banister side by side, looking at the wide surface of white - grounds that were only the beginning of a kingdom about to enter a new time of peace, independence and government.
"You're a very strong woman, Sansa", Tyrion said firmly as he looked at the North in all its cold beauty, "and I think you're going to serve your people well. You should be proud of yourself."
He hesitated, unsure if to say what lay on his tongue. "I...I don't know what it's worth, but I am very proud of you."
"Thank you, Tyrion", she said, and the warmth in her voice was like a balm against the cold of winter. "That is worth a great deal more than you might think."