A.N. This and the following chapter were originally going to be one, but this ended up getting longer than I had planned… You'll have Cassana's morning after as soon as I'm done with it!
P.S. Sorry to anyone who wanted a bedding scene, but I wanted to keep the T rating.

Chapter 10A: The Morning After - Robb

"Are you sure you wouldn't like to stay and breakfast here?"

Robb gestured to the table laid with all kinds of food and drink, far more than enough for two people, but Cassana still shook her head. They had only been up for a short time, yet his wife was already dressed in one of her Southern style dresses. One of her maids had joined them in the room briefly to help Cassana dress behind a screen that had not been in his room until a week ago, and brush out her bed-tangled hair. In the space of time it had taken them to do that, Robb had not progressed beyond pulling on a pair of breeches and his boots.

"I promised my mother to breakfast with her." She explained, trying vainly to get the catch of her necklace done beneath her hair. "She and my family will leave in a few days, and I am unsure when I will see them again."

"May I?" he inquired, stepping closer to her and holding out his hands to take the necklace from her.

Cassana hesitated for a brief moment, before relinquishing the gold chain into Robb hands. She turned her back and lifted her hair away from her neck. Robb wanted to run his own hands through that long fall of golden hair, the way he had done last night…

Considering the amount of fumbling it had taken Cassana, he had hoped to have another moment to reminisce on other things he had done last night, but all too quickly he had managed to do up the small golden clasp. He felt the sudden urge to bend down and place a kiss upon the bare curve of her shoulder, but as soon as she felt him let the necklace rest against her skin Cassana released her hair, allowing it to fall softly over Robb's hands.

"Thank you." She murmured, pulling herself out from beneath his touch as she turned to face him once more.

So this was how it was going to be. After last night Robb had hoped it might pull down a little of Cassana's rigid formality. Apparently not. That cool collectedness was bad around her like a protective cloak, or perhaps a suit of armour. It was all Robb could do not to growl in frustration. He settled for scrubbing a hand through his still short hair, he couldn't wait for it to grow out again.

"May I at least escort you to your mother?" He asked, falling in step with her as she made her way to the door.

"Thank you, but I believe I can find my way, and I wouldn't want to pull you away from your own breakfast." Her eyes darted quickly to the table, then back to him. A smile flickered in and out of existence on her face for a few moments before staying softly in place. "But thank you for even thinking to prepare something like this, it was very thoughtful of you."

Robb flashed a grin as he opened the door for her, that was something at least. He knew that women always liked it if their men were thoughtful. The chief complaint he had heard his mother and sisters talking about was that men were never thoughtful enough for their tastes. This always drew protestations out of the male members of the Stark family, but it certainly had taught him to think carefully about what he could do to dissuade that particular opinion of his gender.

He placed his hand behind her head and leaned to press a kiss to her temple. He did not draw back, or move in any way, but the small smile had faded by the time he pulled back. The look in her eyes spoke of no disapproval or dissatisfaction with what he had just done, but the smile was still gone.

"Well, I hope to be able to catch you for some time alone later then, my lady wife. I know we did not get much time before our marriage to get to know one another, but I hope to rectify that now. I should like to know you, Cassana, and I should like you to know me. If we can share a bed, than surely we can share parts of ourselves."

Her expression to begin with turned tight lipped, something that made his hopes plummet a little, but then twin spots of colour infused her cheeks when he mentioned bed. That made him smile midway through talking. By the time he had finished her mouth had lost its tight setting and her eyes were tinted with surprise.

It was the surprise that threw him a little. Was it good surprise, or bad surprise? Cassana gave no indication either way.

"I," she paused a moment to lick her lips, "I think that would be…good."

Good? And a pause before she had decided upon that word? Did that bode well or ill for his plans to get to know her? Did she mean good in conjunction with 'nice' and 'looked forward to'? Or good as in something merely functional that they must now do in order to make this relationship work?

"Until later, Robb." She inclined her head to him, before turning away and walking at a stately pace down the corridor.

Thoughts continued to tumble through his head as he watched her slender figure move further from him. He kept his eyes on her until she turned a corner, only then did he blink and massage his eyes with one hand. She had inclined her head towards him. That seemed an awfully dissent way to part with one's husband. His parents seldom left each other's company without a quick kiss to cheek or hand, was it wrong of him to hope the same for himself and Cassana?

He supposed that they really had only just gotten married, perhaps his parents had not built up that kind of behaviour until later in their marriage. He constantly compared his expectations to what he saw his parents display, but was that wrong of him? It was hard to remember that they had once been in the same positions as he and Cassana were. He did not know what those early days had been like for them, but he quickly reasoned that it was unlikely they had immediately fallen into the closeness they had now.

Robb suddenly felt a fool. Here he was fretting because he and his wife did not seem to have the ease of his parents marriage, when his parents had been married 19 years to his one day. No wonder Cassana was a little held back, Robb himself was being too forward. Or was he? Surely it was normal to help them become comfortable that they start gaining a sense of closeness with one another? But then how were they to do that without first having time?

Gods help him. Only married for one day and already his wife had his head spinning like a top.

He stepped back into his room and began closing the door, when a shout stopped him.

"Robb!"

He poked his head out again to be met with the sight of Jon and Theon walking towards him, Jon being heeled by one white direwolf pup and one grey.

He very nearly kept on with closing his door, but the grey pup streaked away from Jon's side quick as his name, yipping excitedly as he raced towards Robb. The struggle he went through trying to hold his balance as Grey Wind alternated between weaving in and out of his legs and jumping up on him kept him busy long enough that Jon and Theon managed to reach his door before he could shut them out.

"We saw Cassana walking off somewhere and assumed you'd now be alone." Theon threw himself into one of the rooms chairs, lounging with leg looped over the chair's arm.

"What were you doing, waiting to pounce?" Robb asked, shaking his head as he finally closed his door.

"Maybe." Theon's rakish grin turned that 'maybe' to an 'of course'.

"I'm just surprised the Princess left so early, I expected her to take longer, or for the two of you to leave together." Jon took another seat in a more dignified manner than Theon, his face baring the same solemn expression he had been sporting for the past few days.

Ghost remained sitting to attention right by Jon's leg. Grey Wind felt no such proximity was necessary now that he had finished with his initial greeting of Robb, he promptly leaped up onto the bed he had been barred from last night, curling into a little ball right in the centre.

"You don't have to call her that anymore, Jon. Not now that she's married to our Robb here." Theon helped himself to a piece of bread and chuckled while biting into it.

"Perhaps not, but you should still show her respect." Robb swiped the break out of Theon's hand and took his own bite out of it. "She is going to be Lady of Winterfell one day."

"And here we have our future Lord talking with his mouth stuffed." Theon commented dryly. "Tell me, Jon, does that inspire respect in you?"

Jon didn't look up from gazing into the dancing flames of Robb's dying fire. If his sombre expression had changed over the course of Theon's antics it was only to deepen.

"Jon!" Theon threw a piece of fruit to accompany his cry.

Robb snagged it out of the air before it could hit his brother in the head. The amount of force Theon had put behind that would have knocked his Jon into a right bad mood.

"What is it?" His head swung in their direction, a small frown creasing his brow.

"What's the matter with you?" Robb asked. "You've been staring into nothing since you got here."

"Oh…" Jon's eyes flicked to the floor before flicking back to meet Robb's. "Never mind about that, there's just something on my mind, but I'll sort it out."

Jon might not carry the Stark name, but he carried its bloodline written all over his features. That heavy grey stare was so similar to their father's, that Robb for a moment forgot that Jon was his younger by months.

"If you say so." He said carefully, hoping that his brother would perhaps come back to him later, when Theon was not there to pull apart whatever problem it was Jon was having.

As it was, Theon didn't seem to care that much for whatever was on Jon's mind, he had other quarry to pursue that morning. He was snooping inside the various pitchers on the table, before snatching on up with a happy grin and pouring himself a cup.

"Bit early for wine, isn't it Robb? Didn't you have enough last night? And what's all this food doing in here anyway, you never breakfast in your rooms, were you expecting us?"

His questions were very deliberately baiting, he knew full well that Robb wouldn't have laid out a breakfast for his mangy friend and his brother.

"You feed yourself well enough without me having to do it for you." He quipped back. "I ordered it for Cassana, I was hoping she would stay and breakfast with me so we could talk."

"I suppose there wasn't really much time for talking last night, was there?" Theon cast a sly glance in the direction of the bed.

Cassana's maid had already tidied it before she left, stripping away the blooded sheets and promising to return with clean ones, but they knew what had happened there last night.

"If you want sordid details, you won't get them out of me." There were no chairs left for Robb to sit in, and not wanting to provoke Theon, he refused to sit on the bed. In the end, he settled for remaining where he was, leaning against one of the bedposts.

"Was she good?" Theon persisted, taking a draw from his cup.

Both Robb and Jon immediately flicked glares onto their older friend, who immediately went on the defensive.

"What? I can't ask one little question? That's not sordid details, it's yes or no!"

"She's my wife, and a former Princess." Robb stressed. "You can't ask a question that makes it sound like I just had a tumble with some girl from Winter Town."

"Forgive me, Robb, I shall phrase more delicately." Theon's tone oozed false contriteness. "Was your first night a pleasant experience?"

Robb couldn't keep his doubts inside anymore. He felt that if he tried, they might simply burst out of him at an inopportune moment.

"It was." He admitted, slumping down onto the bed, no longer caring if Theon commented. Grey Wind uncurled himself and came over to begin butting his head against Robb's hand, wanting to be stroked. He ran his fingers through Grey Wind's fur absently. "Very pleasant."

"Ho ho! So the Ice Princess can melt!" Theon crowed.

"I might not go that far." Robb said quickly.

"Why?" Jon at last put himself into the conversation, his eyes now filled with curiosity.

"Last night was amazing. It was a little… well, a little awkward at first, but then-" He shot a look at Theon. "Skipping over the sordid details, it seemed as if she was a different person."

He trailed off a bit, his mind drifting back to last night. Cassana truly had been different. He supposed it was difficult to remain held back when you were as physically close to someone as they had been, and he was glad of that.

Then a piece of cake caught him right in the ear.

"And then?" Theon prompted. Robb's icy glare not erasing his grin a whit.

"And then this morning." Robb sighed heavily, flopping backwards and allowing Grey Wind to rest his head on his chest. "I order this meal, wanting to spend some time with her how that we are married, but she left to go and breakfast with her mother."

"I suppose her family is leaving soon." Jon said slowly, clearly trying to voice the best explanation for a newlywed wife to walk out on a meal with her husband.

Theon snorted. "Clearly your charm isn't working as well as you'd hoped. Or maybe she's just impossible."

"I don't think so, she already seems to be trying a bit more since her first day." Robb defended. "But I don't know if I'm overthinking things, if I'm trying to push too hard, or if she really is standing off still."

"I think she's standing off." Theon stated bluntly. "I mean, isn't this the sort of thing women are supposed to go crazy for? The caring and extra effort and all that?"

"I would more say it could be both." Jon put in. "From what I've seen of her, she does hold herself back, I might go as far as to say she's a bit cold."

Robb opened his mouth to butt in, but a level look from Jon stopped him. He wasn't sure what he would have butted in with anyway…

"But on the other side, she's only been here for a few days. It must be strange for her, and then to have you doing all of this, it might be a bit much."

"What do I do then? How can I get to know her if she keeps putting this distance between us?" Robb asked.

"You two are beginning to sound like girls." Theon grumbled. "Since you won't give me any sordid details, I'll be off to find my own sordid activities."

Jon thought carefully about his reply, and gave it a few moments after Theon left the room.

"Maybe just give her time to adjust to being here? Maybe once she is settled, she will be more receptive to things like this?"

Robb mulled the idea over in his mind, before grudgingly admitting that it did hold merit. All he wanted was to know her now, but he supposed that that wasn't a realistic expectation. Jon was right, a few more days to get used to Winterfell and perhaps she would be more open.

"When did you get so wise for our age?" He teased Jon.

"I'm not." His brother replied, a cheeky grin forming. "You just stopped getting wise a few years back while I kept on going. You're simply behind."

Robb couldn't stop the roar of laughter at Jon's quip, and gods did it feel good to laugh after his worries this morning. It did feel a weight off his shoulders to have talked about it now. But he sobered abruptly, remembering that his own troubles had been resolved for now, he went back to thinking about Jon's earlier thoughtfulness.

"Jon, now that Theon is gone, will you tell me what was troubling you this morning?"

Jon took a deep breath, expelling it as a heavy sigh, while he fiddled nervously with Ghost's ears. The look in his eyes told Robb that he wasn't going to like whatever it was Jon was about to say, but it was too late to call his question back now.

"I've decided to join the Night's Watch." He stated simply. "I'll leave with Uncle Benjen when the royal party goes."