VII

Departure

Try as she might, Joanna couldn't keep herself from shivering. Flurries of raindrops and snowflakes fell over the bustling courtyard, though the Northerners were nonplussed. She stood resolute, clenching her jaw to keep her teeth from chattering. If she couldn't find it in her to whether the cold, then it was going to be a rough few weeks ahead of her. Desmera pulled Joanna's cloak tighter around her shoulders, making sure her neck was covered by cloth and fur.

"I'm fine," said Joanna, gently pushing her friend away. Desmera pursed her lips. Since she had come to court with her brothers three years prior, the two girls had hardly been separated. All night and all morning, Desmera had fussed over Joanna.

"Just making sure you'll be warm," she said in a small voice. "I wouldn't want you catching cold before you return."

"Don't worry about me," Joanna insisted. "I'll be back in King's Landing before you can miss me."

Desmera let out a huff of breath, but instead of responding, pulled Joanna into a tight embrace. Joanna happily buried her face in her friend's neck, reveling in her warmth and in the soft fur at the collar of her cloak. She hadn't considered, before then, what it would mean to be away from her friend for a month. She had gotten so used to the luxury of being able to call Desmera to her bed if she had trouble sleeping, or if she didn't feel like being alone. Having Tyrion for company would be nice, but not the same.

"Thank you, Mera," said Joanna softly. As excited as she was to get on the road, she was reluctant to let go, and not just because of the warmth she found in her friend's arms. A familiar clearing of the throat behind them was what separated them at last. With a nearly inaudible sigh, Desmera pulled away. She gave Joanna a kiss on the cheek and squeezed her hands once before retreating. Joanna turned to face her Mother.

"Ser Arys will be accompanying you to the Wall," said Cersei, hiding behind her mask. She motioned briefly to the tall knight at her side, a member of the Kingsguard that Joanna had known since her youth. "He will keep you safe. The Wall is no place for a pretty girl like you. There are rapers and all manner of criminals."

It was a nice try on Cersei's part to try and scare Joanna into changing her mind, but a fairly transparent one. Joanna was not to be swayed. She knew the dangers of going North to the Wall, but surely the men of the Night's Watch knew the dangers of molesting a princess. Ser Arys or any of her Uncle Tyrion's guards would have no qualms in teaching them the consequences. Even in the rough and wild North, she was swaddled comfortably in a cocoon of armed knights.

"Would you thank Father for me again, Mother?" she asked sweetly. Cersei's eye gave the smallest flinch. "He knows how much I wanted to go; It means so much that he let me."

"Of course, sweetling," said Cersei, mouth set in a line. She pulled Joanna close by the shoulders, fingers gripping almost painfully tight as she pressed a tender kiss to her forehead. She lingered a moment, loathing to release her. Once she let go, Joanna would be out of her grasp again until she returned to King's Landing. Softening her grip on her shoulders, she closed her eyes briefly to revel in the contact before pulling away. Joanna was regarding her with a confused look when she pulled away. Cersei hesitated a moment, then placed her hand briefly upon the soft skin of Joanna's cheek before letting it fall back at her side. "Be safe," she bade quietly. Joanna hadn't even had the chance to reply before her mother walked away, crossing the courtyard to the wheelhouse where her siblings had gathered.

Joanna shifted on her feet, eyes trailing after her mother. Her gaze quickly shifted to her siblings gathered by the wheelhouse. Joffrey stood, petulant, angry about something or the other, as always. Beside him were Myrcella and Tommen, meek in their elder brother's presence. Joanna wished she could go over to hug them goodbye, but it wasn't worth starting a confrontation with Joffrey. Sighing to herself, she turned to the knight beside her.

"Have you ever seen the Wall, Ser Arys?" she asked. He stepped back as a stable hand presented her horse to her, saddled and prepared for her to ride.

"I have not, my Lady," he replied, helping to boost her to mount the horse. She settled herself in the saddle, arranging her skirts around her legs.

"Then this shall be an adventure for us both, won't it?" she grinned.

"I suppose it will, my Lady."

Once he was sure that Joanna was steady in her seat, Ser Arys called to have his horse prepared and brought to him. Joanna swept her eyes over the courtyard idly, until her attention was caught on two brothers embracing across the way. When they pulled apart, they shared one last look before turning away. She was torn on who to watch, before deciding on the brother that was retreating. Robb Stark was even handsome from behind. Her eyes followed him as he sidled up beside his father, patting the snout of the horse as they said their farewells.

After several moments, Robb seemed to become aware of her gaze on him. He turned, eyes sweeping over the courtyard before finally making contact with hers. She wasn't ashamed at being caught staring, instead raising her lips in a small smile. To her delight, her smile was returned. He stepped forward as though he were about to start walking towards her, but her attention was broken away from him when Ser Arys sidled up beside her.

"We should join the party bound for the Wall, my Lady, so they'll know we're ready to ride."

"Of course," she replied, turning her head briefly to find Robb in the crowd again. She only had time to send him another quick smile before leading her horse towards her uncle and his guards near the gate.

"Are you ready?" Tyrion asked, already helped onto his own horse. She nodded excitedly.

"How long will it take to get there?"

"At the most, two weeks," he replied. "Are you up for that much riding?"

Joanna fixed him with a suspicious look, raising an eyebrow. "Did my mother tell you to say that?"

"Of course not," Tyrion chuckled. "But I would hate for my riding partner to change her mind half way through our trip."

"Well," laughed Joanna, "any time it seems I might've changed my mind, tell me what you told Tommen about wintery abodes and – what was it? – intrepid men, and my excitement will be renewed."

"Ah," said Tyrion with a nod and a smile. "How could I forget? What my niece wouldn't do to be surrounded by bold men."

She snorted. With anyone else, she would have been scolded, but Tyrion hardly cared. He knew her well – perhaps too well, given his comment.

They left from Winterfell's gates shortly thereafter, keeping with the court until they reached the end of Winterfell's road. There, the two parties split: The King and the court turned southward towards King's Landing; Joanna and Tyrion with their guards, accompanied by Benjen Stark, took the road North, bound for the Wall.

She couldn't help but look over her shoulder and watch as the long line of the court trailed away. As she swept her eyes across the scene behind her, she caught sight of Lord Stark and Jon Snow together at the end of the road to Winterfell. Two men bound in different directions, but both leaving home indefinitely. She hadn't realized how much of a comfort it was to always know that, before too long, she would be returning to King's Landing. She couldn't imagine leaving her home and not knowing when – or even if – she'd be back again. She had no idea why anyone, Jon Snow especially, would want to leave their home and their family to go to somewhere like the Wall.

But she had two weeks to worm it out of him.

They rode all day, not even stopping to each lunch. Joanna had refrained from complaining about it, aware that she was surrounded by hardened men who were used to going without food in order to make good time getting to their destination. If her Uncle Tyrion was fine with it, surely she could be as well. By the time they'd stopped to make camp for the night, her stomach was growling and aching with hunger.

It was late by the time they stopped, the last traces of light already leaving the sky. They made camp in the forest near a lazily flowing river, huddled around the fire for warmth. When dinner was finished, Tyrion reclined with a book. Joanna stood, stretching her legs after the long ride. She took a small walk around the perimeter of the camp to get the blood flowing, before spotting Ghost lying a few paces from the fire. She settled herself down within arm's reach of the wolf, offering a hand for him to sniff. She wasn't entirely sure the wolf trusted her, but he sniffed her fingers once before resting his head back on his paws and allowing her to bury her hand in his fur.

"Sit," came Benjen's voice off to the left. "You'll be fed."

He motioned for two men to sit between the two fires that had been started. They had joined the small party halfway through their ride, prisoners being escorted to the Wall by a recruiter. The recruited untied their hands. Joanna was just close enough to the fire to hear Tyrion comment on them.

"Ah, rapers," he said. "They were given a choice, no doubt: Castration or the Wall. Most choose the knife."

She fixed the recruits with an uneasy look, turning to ensure that Ser Arys was nearby enough to her. He was standing by the second fire with the Lannister guards, sipping from a wineskin and glancing periodically at his young charge. Joanna usually found the presence of all of the guards suffocating in King's Landing, but here in the wild in the company of criminals, they were a comfort. Still, knowing that she would be keeping quarters with rapers on their journey to the Wall gave her an edge of unease.

"Not impressed by your new brothers?" Tyrion continued. Jon looked down and away, but didn't say anything. "Lovely thing about the Watch – you discard your old family and get a whole new one."

Joanna couldn't imagine why Jon would want a new family. His sisters were lovely, and his brothers were kind. Nobody in his family tormented others for fun – at least, not to her knowledge. She wondered briefly to herself if every family had their own Joffrey. Surely not, she figured, as she couldn't imagine who among her mother's siblings would be so horrific – though she knew that Desmera's brothers were infamous enough in the court to be known as Horror and Slobber.

"Why do you read so much?" Jon asked, sounding defensive. Tyrion raised his eyebrows briefly, but didn't look up from his book. Joanna didn't think that he could possibly be reading while speaking at the same time, but then again, she never fancied herself as smart as her uncle.

"Look at me and tell me what you see," Tyrion replied. Jon fixed him with a hard stare.

"Is this a trick?"

"What you see is a dwarf," he answered, finally looking up from the unread pages of his book. "If I had been born a peasant, they might have left me out in the woods to die. Alas, I was born a Lannister of Casterly Rock. Things are expected of me. My father was the Hand of the King for twenty years."

"Until your brother killed that king," Jon put in quietly. He had managed to silence Tyrion, if only for a moment. There were several beats of silence between them.

"Yes," he said. "Until my brother killed him. Life is full of these little ironies. My sister married the new king, and my repulsive nephew will be king after him. I must do my part for the honor of my house, wouldn't you agree? But how? Well, my brother has a sword and I have my mind, and a mind needs books like a sword needs a whetstone. That's why I read so much, Jon Snow." He flicked his eyes between Jon's face and the pages. "And you? What's your story, bastard?"

Jon sucked in a deep breath. Joanna hoped she was about to hear the answer to the question that had been plaguing her all day.

"Ask me nicely and maybe I'll tell you, dwarf," he answered. Tyrion chuckled.

"A bastard boy with nothing to inherit," he said, "off to join the ancient order of the Night's Watch, alongside his valiant brothers-in-arms."

"The Night's Watch protects the realm from -"

"Ah, yes! Against grumpkins and snarks and all the other monsters your wet nurse warned you about. You're a smart boy, you don't believe that nonsense." Jon's silence made Joanna think that perhaps he actually did believe it. She wondered if Tyrion had come to the same conclusion. He picked up his wineskin from beside him and tossed it over the fire to Jon. "Everything is better with wine in the belly."

They sat in silence for a while, Tyrion finally able to delve into his book without interruption. Joanna wanted to speak with Jon, but she knew that he wouldn't give her the honest answers she wanted with Tyrion present. She resolved to wait until Tyrion went to sleep, hoping that Jon wouldn't go to sleep before she had the opportunity to talk to him.

"He likes you," said Jon. Joanna looked up at him with raised eyebrows, then down at the lounging wolf.

"I would certainly hope so," she replied with a small smile. "I'd fear for my fingers otherwise."

It was quiet, but Joanna managed to catch Jon's quiet chuckle. He was sending her a hint of a smile, eyes trailing down from her to Ghost. Just as she opened her mouth to say something, her eyes flickered over to the other side of the fire where Tyrion was watching their quiet exchange. When they met eyes, she clamped her mouth shut. But Tyrion wasn't an idiot.

"Have to piss," he said suddenly, closing his book and setting it to the side before standing. He made a point to take his time, stretching his muscles at length and sighing loudly before finally wandering away. Joanna's eyes followed him for a moment, before she turned her attention back to Ghost. She slipped off her gloves, immediately transferring her hands from the warmth of her gloves to the warmth of the wolf's fur.

"Why are you going to the Wall?" she asked at last. Jon met her eyes briefly before looking down.

"I don't belong in Winterfell," he answered. She didn't reply, expecting him to continue. After a moment, it was clear that that was all he'd had to say.

"And…you belong at the Wall?"

"I have a chance to belong there," he said. "There was nothing in Winterfell for me."

He was immediately defensive; it was clear to Joanna that others who'd asked him about this had not been so understanding. She shifted, tucking one hand beneath her to keep it warm, the other still curled in Ghost's fur.

"Your family is there," she said after a moment. "Why would you leave them?"

"Why would you go to the Wall when the rest of your family is going home?" he shot back. She rose her eyebrows in surprise, but he didn't allow her a chance to respond. "I can still see my family sometimes. It's better this way."

He pulled his cloak tighter around him and turned away from her slightly. She swallowed, guilt rising in her stomach. He hadn't wanted to talk about it and she'd pushed anyway. Slowly, she pulled her gloves back on and held them together tightly in her lap.

"It's better that I didn't go to King's Landing with my family," she said softly. "I think I'm often a thorn in their side. They'll be happier to have a break from me. And besides, I've never seen the Wall before."

Jon shifted. He turned back towards her, if only slightly.

"It'll be my first time, too," he said. She offered him a gentle smile, if only as a wordless apology. And, to her relief, it was returned.

A/N: Hello again everyone! Sorry for the wait, and also for the slightly rushed chapter. I've been moving, so I didn't have the opportunity to really sit down and chill with my writing until this week.

Hopefully this chapter is decent. I'm staying up a little bit late to finish and post this, so there isn't a lot of time to edit or look it over. If there's something really distracting that I missed, please let me know in the reviews and I'll edit it after class. (The joys of being a fic writer in college, right?)

Huge massive thanks to Cloudcity'sBookkworm, themoonlitknnight, amrawo, Emmachibi, RHatch89, Wombat8, Amy, darkwolf76, Lt-Spork89, laura-firewalker, recey2010, RoyalsWeekend, and Ruby Meadowes for the reviews! Shout out as well to everyone who's added this story to their faves and follows. Your support is so appreciated, it really keeps me going. The reaction I've been getting from all of you makes me want to smash these out, I'm so pumped.

We've got some Jon interaction this chapter, and more to come when they get to the Wall. I hope you're all excited as I am!

Hope you guys enjoyed this chapter. I'll hopefully be back soon with the next one.

Until next time!

Rex