Dear Inkdrops,

thank you for staying with me on that story! I am delighted that so many of you actually read it, I would have never imagined that response! This chapter brings some action as well as a bit more depth into the Starshield marriage that will come up from time to time. (I have a bit of a CaptainHill-ship-thing going on, who has read my story Sibirian Summer might have realized lol)
Please send any praise, critic or ideas my way!

Sam Hill: Guess what, there is a BIG Double-N (Nat/Ned) storyline coming up partly involving Catelyn. Tony will come up in later chapters as will Peter Parker though I haven't quite figured out what to do with him yet. Asgard is a little island (rather like Bear Island) and sworn to the North. They are no gods though.

Disclaimer: I still don't own anything

Steven

If anything, people were even louder and wilder on this day of the tournament than on the days before, Steve concluded. The action of the last days together with the alcohol had riled the crowd up, now they were like dry wood just waiting for the spark. He was on edge, how could he not, after all his wife would compete in the tourney in a very short time. What had he thought when agreeing to this? The things that could happen to her! She could get caught, or worse she could get hurt. Well, then those men wouldn't see the next morning sun, he would make sure of that! But standing here next to her, fitting her into an armour that suited a poor hedge knight, not Lady Starshield, he felt closer to her than he had felt during all the time they had been married.

They weren't the worst match that was out there, definitely not. If he was honest (and he was a very honest man), he had had more luck than he deserved. Bobbi always joked that Maryah should have been born a Lannister because of her wit and cunning nature, and to a point Steve did agree. His Maryah was smart enough to stay alive and usually get what she wanted. Had she been a man, he was sure she would have commanded armies. Had she been Tywin Lannister's trueborn daughter, she would have been the next queen. No doubt. But as chance would have it, she had been born Maryah Hill and then forced to marry him. Now she was his and Gods be damned if he let anything happen to her!

He was proud that his lady wanted to step up for a man who couldn't, especially someone who was actually not her concern, but he also had no illusions - she wanted to prove something to herself and maybe also to him. That she hadn't trained for nothing, that she was better than a man, that a bastard could beat those trueborns in a fair fight.

Next to the brown-haired woman, the petite red-head was just fixing buckles and straps expertedly. Steve found her, Natalia, intriguing, there was something about her he couldn't quite figure out. Bobbi and Maryah had dared him to ask her for a dance at the feast and in a whim, he had done it. The knight was aware that he was actually a really bad dancer, but somehow they had worked it out and it had even been fun. She had been marvellous though, graceful and light on her feet. But when he had met her brother, James 'Bucky' Barnes, he had told him that he had been training her and that she was a good rider and fighter as well. Funny, Steve had always thought that he was the only one who had done that, trained his sister (and his wife). Apparently, Lyanna Stark also knew a couple of things about weapons, he would have never thought so. - Of course Maryah had.

"My knight, you are ready," Natalia proclaimed, curtsying in front of Maryah who rolled her eyes good naturedly.

While she got the horse and held It, Steve helped the lady up into the saddle.

"Take care, be safe and come back in one piece," he told her seriously.

She nodded.

"Of course, you know me."

"That's exactly why I am scared," he tried to joke, smiling when she scrunched her nose.

"Alright."

She closed the helmet, covering her face before turning her horse and riding to the jousting area. Steve motioned the red-head to follow and she did, both waving through the mass of people. With a last look at each other, they separated, her moving in the direction of Lady Lyanna while the man started to search for his sister. The audience cheered when the strange knight rode in, luckily the helmet also changed her voice so nobody would make the connection.

The sport began and Bobbi grabbed his arm so tightly that he was sure he would see the imprints of her nails in his arm later. Maryah was good, even better than he had expected, and kicked the first one out of the saddle in no time.

The second one proved to be more difficult and managed a hit that would definitely leave a bruise on her chest, but she managed to keep herself on the horse. Whatever Ser Jaime had claimed, the mare Maryah was riding wasn't bad at all, on the contrary. It was the right size with an even gallop and quicker than her opponent's, giving her the possibility to aim and enough force to finally win against him. He hit the floor with a hollow 'clonk', for a whole minute unable to get up. Next to the sands, the squire they had organised for the woman seemed to be confused about her success but kept coming to her side just right, so it was fine. The crowd on the other hand seemed to love her, if the roaring was any indication, and Steve only hoped that it wouldn't sweep her away and lower her concentration.

Apparently his worry was in vain because when the third opponent came riding in, her composure straightened again. Her husband knew this movement, it was the one she would do before starting to argue with him. Or before telling some servant off, making them shrink under her ice-cold stare.

Some of the workers at their little castle they called home had whispered that she was heartless, but Steve knew it was far from the truth. She cared about each and everyone of them, she knew all of their stories - who had just had another baby, whose mother was ill, who needed more support. But she didn't do favourites and she didn't let mistakes slide easily. Even though her judgement was just and her punishments never overly cruel, it rubbed some people the wrong way that she seemed to notice everything. And he meant really everything. Whether the smith hadn't taken care of all of the horses or whether a kitchen made had burned the bread three times in a row - he could be sure Maryah would know. It was creepy sometimes. He himself wasn't an exception, by the Gods not! When she very early in their marriage had discovered that he wouldn't physically or mentally lash out at her or abuse her, she had started to drop the pretense of being the perfect humble wife that the Braxes and Lannisters had expected her to be, at least when it was only the two of them. They would fight, sometimes with words or sometimes on the training ground, beating the shit out of each other. Once she had carried away a bruise on her cheekbone from where he had accidently hit her with the pommel of his sword and he had been mortified. HE would get a reputation of a husband who hit his wife! Maryah had only shrugged and declared that most wouldn't find anything wrong with it.

This callousness had put him off at first, let him hold her at arm's length until he had leaned to appreciate her rational way of thinking. The two of them actually complimented each other very well - one to like and one to fear, like carrot and stick his wife argued matter of factly. She could also be quite funny, actually, when she was relaxed (or drunk) and she could be genuinely nice without wanting anything in return (not like his beautiful scary despicable cousin Cersei). All in all, Maryah was someone he could respect, someone he could like, someone who shared his burdens better than he had ever anticipated a wife would. He was a lucky bastard indeed, as his charming sister had so accurately proclaimed.

Bobbi had asked him once whether he loved his wife and Steve hadn't quite known what to respond. Did he? He admired her, surely, he considered her his friend, his confidante and he would be a blind man if he denied that he was physically attracted to her. Though even in their wedding bed, nothing had ever happened between them, he wasn't some brute who would force himself on a woman just because he could.

He wasn't even sure whether those feelings where mutual, it was hard to say with someone as guarded as Maryah.

Like in slow motion, he saw her press the spurs into the horse's sides and the mare sprung into action. Her opponent rode just as aggressively, leaning forward in his passion. Steve prayed to the Seven that she would use that, this disequilibrium, to hit him, but her arm seemed to have lost its straight, wavering. Then, suddenly it shot up in perfect precision, hitting the man with the force gathered because of the speed she was riding. The knight would have given good money to see the man's face as we swayed before slowly moving to the side like a boulder making its way into the valley, with fill force and unstoppable.

The Knight of the Laughing Tree was declared the winner but obviously didn't take off the helmet, instead leaving the arena under the cheers and whistles of the crowd. He disappeared as well to meet her at the designated spot, to his surprise Natalia was already waiting. How come that girl was so quick?

They peeled Maryah out off the metal plate with lots of efficiency, while he took off the heavy helmet she was already loosening the shoulder protection. With her hair sweaty and tousled, she didn't look much like a lady. But her eyes were shining so brightly at the moment that he felt she had never looked more beautiful.

"You did wonderful!" he told her, "the crowd loved you."

"They loved the show and the thought of a secret knight," she played it down, "but thank you anyway."

Despite her words she failed to cover up her delight completely.

"Lady Starshield, I have a dress for you to change into," Natalia offered in that moment, ushering her behind some bushes away from Steve.

When they emerged again a couple minutes later, his wife looked socially presentable again. The hair had been combed and braided in an easy but pretty style but there was still a healthy glow on her cheeks.

"My Lord, my lady," the girl said to the couple, "I will leave you to it then."

She didn't quite specify what "it" was but having met Bucky and their interaction, Steve had the suspicion Natalia's thoughts weren't that pure and innocent.

"I will get the horse back to where Ser Jaime got it from and confuse people a bit."

Without waiting for an answer, she had swung herself on the animal, motioning for someone to pass her the shield. When the knight did so, she gave the horse the spurs, disappearing into the forest.

"Well, that was fast," Maryah commented dryly.

He hummed in agreement, not quite able to stop his eyes from roaming over her again.

"What are you looking at?" she wanted to know.

"You," he answered truthfully, blushing embarrisingly quickly.

"Obviously Steve," his wife answered, totally missing the point. When he averted her eyes, struggling for words (again), she seemed to realize what he had meant.

"Oh.." apparently she wasn't prepared to deal with a situation like this either, them having separate bedrooms and all, so she tried to play it down.

"It's fine, I mean, I am you wife," Maryah declared brusquely. It sounded a bit like an accusation.

"So I take it you'd rather not?"

"I never said so. I mean, is there any point arguing about it? We are wed and that's it."

"You could have it annulled. You know I would hold no grudge against you, after all this was not your choice either."

He didn't tell her that it would hurt him more than he cared to admit and that he really really didn't want to loose her.

"Annull this marriage and risk the fury of the Lannister family and my family combined? Steve I am not stupid. Besides, I know I have been lucky."

The small smile she gave him warmed him up from the inside and gave him hope that there might be something 'more' possible for the two of them. Somewhere in the was difficult and always would be, but maybe he would find a way to thaw her up, now that spring had finally come.

They walked back, her arm in the crook of his elbow. People seemed to be especially restless now, it sounded like a giant beehive from further away. Up close, the words "king", "Knight of the Laughing Tree " and "Jaime Lannister" where the most shouted. Just when Steve wanted to inquire what had happened, someone spoke up closely next to him.

"Everyone wants to know who the mysterious knight was! The king seems to be furious, he thinks Ser Jaime defied his orders and came back to fight in secret. The next time the knight shows up, men are supposed to grab him and rip off his helmet to unveil his identity. Can you imagine that?!"

Natalia was still faking excitement and horror with such talent that Steve would have absolutely believed it, had he not known the knight in question was currently being pressed against his other side by the masses.

"It's all done," the girl murmured under her breath.

"Thank you," he could see Maryah mouth, "I owe you."

"No worries," the red-head chirped, "the North remembers."

Thank you so much for reading!

What do you think? Comments are very welcome!