ARYA
Coming and going, never setting permanently.
Arya Stark had been away from Winterfell town for so long during her youth.
First two boring public schools for high born girls she was expelled from, then the nurse school she attended in the East, then the service in the army during the first months of the war: the idea to stay after the North won had become unnatural.
The kingdom and Winterfell Hall were safe with Sansa and Tyrion, her mother had moved to her ancestral castle with her younger sibling - a better climate for Rickon's asthma - the country was in peace, the Queen was wise and Arya trusted the North army commander.
Arya was an independent young woman of one and twenty, eager to discover the world, so she decided to travel and return home and take leave again.
An intoxicating sensation of freedom on her skin, tickling like the frozen rain of her homeland, before it became snow.
Arya was away for her third travel, the first to last more than a few weeks, when the telegram found her in Kings Landing, observing the reconstruction of the city destroyed by fire and bombs.
The awful news, once again the shattered hope to hold in her arms her first niece or nephew; Tyrion was asking Arya to be back to support Sansa.
Arya took her time to return, ruled by a strange impulse to delay, to prolong the travel, to stay away for as much as possible.
Every evening she felt sorry for her sister, every morning she had the impulse to miss the train or boat.
Home was calling her like a magnet, attracting and repulsing her at the same time.
Home were memories sad and happy, father and Robb gone, the war and her scars, laughs and family gatherings and the pure white snow covering the landscape.
Nymeria felt her three days in advance, the wolf left the Hall gardens and run into the woods, as Arya could speak to her, hear Sansa's cries, taste her salty tears, listen to Tyrion's silence and feel hands caressing the large furry head.
Nymeria getting close to a former enemy was a novelty, Tyrion was scared of wolves and kept himself always at safe distance. The wolf loved to put her large muzzle under people's arms and offered her paw, she appeared tamer than usual.
Nymeria was closer to ten than to five, less wild than in her youth, Arya had forgotten how young she herself was when she held her puppy for the first time.
Getting closer to the North, her return was delayed also by transport issues, the country was rebuilding itself slowly, few trains and buses reached the capital, shortage of fuel, of electricity, the roads had many holes, food was rationed.
She missed her old open jeep, the one she drove careless on the fields around Winterfell town, all worn out seats and rusty scars Tyrion had promised her to fix. Her brother in law was such a good man, he didn't deserve to be born a dwarf and be deprived of a family.
TYRION
Tyrion spent a week in his study, reading books, writing letters to the best hospitals, asking Doctor Tarly's advice, completed with Sam's own search: Tyrion had to know, to find an answer to their failure.
The letters returned, the opinions were different and contradictory.
Cold weather, as if the snow was not a good reason to stay in bed all day with his dear wife, making love.
Too strong pressures to have an heir. But they were able to conceive, it was impossible to carry to term.
The food they ate to add strength to his seed and her womb – fresh seafood and oysters were recommended and he laughed loudly, Winterfell town was far from the sea and the goods would arrive frozen if he ordered them.
Too frequent or too few couplings – a doctor suggested abstinence to have a stronger seed for just an attempt a month, another …
In a fit of rage Tyrion throw all the letters into the fire.
Defeat. He had to admit it.
Lannister's seed was good, his mother had two easy pregnancies, the delay between his and his sibling's birth due to their father often away abroad; she died shortly after his birth due to the flu epidemic that killed hundreds of people across all the kingdoms. His sister and his brother – damnation to their love – conceived three healthy children, there was a myriad of Lannister cousins.
The true reason of Sansa's miscarriages would remain unknown.
Five years of marriage, three children lost, always in the first trimester; Sansa was getting more and more distraught and the mere thought of her falling into depression was frightening for Tyrion.
She wanted to be a mother, she loved children, she fostered some after the end of the war, then found families for all of them, except for a skinny little girl with dark hair; later when a single mother drowned into the cold lake after a flood Sansa took care of her little boy.
But they weren't true heirs for Winterfell, heirs needed to secure peace after so many years of war. The siege during the first months of war had been an example, things could change in the space of a heartbeat.
Tyrion was aware peace was still fragile and Bran's health important to preserve, his brother in law was in a wheelchair and couldn't travel easily to settle disputes and threats.
Sansa was a great Queen, respected and loved, Tyrion knew the decision to stay with her in the North was the wisest of his whole life; all the people he loved were there, his new family and the remains of the old