Sansa stood and stared out the window, watching the cloudy sky shower Winterfell in snow. This view of snowfall always gave her strong feelings of nostalgia. She was pulled back to her childhood in the castle, and of sitting inside preparing to be a lady.
She reminisced about learning domestic duties with Septa Mordane, the history of Westeros with Maester Aemon and the duties of a noblewoman as well as a wife from mother. She would look outside to see the boys learning sword fighting or archery with Sir Rodrik. Father and mother standing on the balcony watching proudly. And Arya, of course, running about as she pleased. All the people she looked up to were gone now. Murdered by enemies or traitors.
It had seemed such a nice idea. To go to King's Landing, she thought. To marry Joffrey and be queen, the moment the words appeared in her mind she felt a bit sick. Almost everyone in the Capitol had turned out to be selfish and cruel.
Her guilt about writing that letter to mother and Rob resurfaced, and she had to take a deep breath to keep down the lump that had begun to grow at the base of her throat.
But she had had a few friends too. Shae was always kind and protective. Even when Sansa was rude and took out her frustrations on the woman. She had understood. Like an older sister who had been where Sansa was and wanted to help. And Sansa regretted not thanking her for her efforts.
The Tyrells had been a ray of hope in her otherwise dreary days. Margaery was always a shoulder to cry on and offered advice and friendship whenever they were together. She was everything Sansa had always wanted to be. Beautiful and smart, she had kindness without naivete and was so strong in the face of hardships in a way Sansa hadn't been at the time. Her family even offered her refuge from the torture of King's Landing and the Lannisters. That is until Tywin had forced marriage between herself and the imp.
Tyrion, despite being part of House Lannister, had been unexpectedly kind to her. Especially after all the rumors she had heard about him previously. He treated her gently, and never touched her. He seemed to care. Here was another person she had not appreciated as she should have done.
Sansa sighed shakily and closed her eyes, breathing in the cold dry air. There's nothing to be done about it now, she thought. What happened is in the past. Now we must focus on other things. Jon had gone south to negotiate with the Dragon Queen. Whatever the outcome of that, she knew there would be fallout, and she needed to prepare for as many eventualities as possible.
"I see you're deep in thought again," said a mildly concerned voice from behind her.
Sansa opened her eyes and turned to Margaery, who must've just walked in, as she was still standing in the doorway.
"Come down with me to the Great Hall. Dania has made honeyed chicken tonight."
Sansa walked over to Margaery, wrapping her arms around her, and setting her head on Margary's brown hair. Which was currently braided in a large bun, low around the nape of her neck.
"I'm so glad you're here" Sansa whispered with a small smile.
"So am I my love" she replied with a bit of a laugh. Margaery pulled back a bit and looked up at Sansa's face, whose eyes were reddened from tearing up as well as a recent lack of sleep. She then raised herself a bit and pressed her lips to Sansa's. Sansa responded in kind.
"Well then," Margaery said after a moment. "We don't want the chicken to be all gone before we get there"
Sansa nodded and began to head out of the room.
"However, we must continue this conversation later" Margaery continued, smirking not-so-subtly.