"I just wish you'd be more patient with yourself." Tyrion's voice was soft and Sansa closed her eyes.
"I think you're being patient enough for both of us." She sighed, lacing her fingers with his again.
"I told you from the very beginning that I wouldn't touch you until you wanted me to." He brought their hands to his lips and kissed hers softly. "And I meant it."
"I do want you to." She whispered, clenching her eyes shut tighter. "I just.."
"Sansa." He called her calmly. "Do you trust me?"
"You know I do." She sniffed.
"Open your eyes." He pleaded, and she managed to calm herself enough to oblige. "I know I'm not much to look at but it might help if you do." Her lips twitched at him and she nearly smiled. He smiled back at her before taking his hand and carefully from hers and moving it down her body. He felt the muscles of her abdomen clench and he stopped there, slowly stroking his thumb across her nightclothes in sloppy circles until she relaxed. "It's just me." He unbuttoned a button and slid a thick finger between the two sides. "So Jamie came to see me today." He looked back up at her. "He wants me to send a Raven. To Tarth." Sansa's eyebrow rose and fell as she looked at her once again husband. "I know."
"He's finally ready to admit he's in love with her?"
"Well, he's ready to admit he can't live without her." Tyrion let his fingertips slide above and below the waistband of her panties with little emphasis, as if he was just fiddling with it. "Love is a complicated thing for my brother. The version of love he's been sold his whole life is a type of poison."
"You're too kind to him. He's had choices." Sansa sighed, her eyes blinking heavily. "We've all had choices."
Tyrion paused his stroking until her hand reached out and slid against his cheek, fingers scratching lightly at his beard.
"Don't stop." She breathed. He nodded, resuming his caress.
"Whatever you want." He pressed his lips to the spot his fingers had been and kissed her softly there.
"I'm glad you're here." She sighed, her hand moving from his cheek past his ear and into his hair before she settled it on his upper arm.
She'd taken to saying that lately. Tyrion thought that was as good as a declaration of love as he could hope for.
She'd said it in the crypt, when they'd thought they were going to die and then the next thing he'd known they'd been standing at the entrance to the Godswood, her arms wrapped tightly around her sister before the Lady of Winterfell was once again all business.
She'd knelt before the body Theon Greyjoy after Ayra had freed him from the spear. She rose slowly, her eyes blurred and her voice hoarse with tears.
"Take my brother's body to the crypt." She'd told the small group that had staggered back in to help. "Lay him with Rickon." As they'd begun to oblige, she'd muttered sickly. "Where ever he's wandered off to."
Arya let out a sound somewhere between a guffaw and a sob before Sansa turned on her heels and headed back towards the ruined castle. He wasn't sure why he followed her, but he found himself next to her when she pressed her back against the wall and starred helplessly out at her home.
"It will never be the same." She fought the tears in her voice. "We'll never repair all this damage."
"It will be stronger." He'd rasped out. "Just like you." She'd reached for his hand again then.
"I'm glad you're here." She'd said through her choppy tears. He'd kissed her knuckles again.
…
"Good Morning." Tyrion Lannister had not expected his brother outside of his bridal sweet the next morning, but that's who he saw.
"Good Morning." He made a face at him.
"Please at least take someone with you." Sansa huffed, breezing into the room. "Oh! Ser Jamie, I didn't see you there."
"M'Lady." Jamie gave a bit of a bow before looking back at his brother. "Oh.. and I hear congratulations are in order."
Sansa's face went sheet white for a moment before her lips pressed together tightly to keep from laughing. Tyrion snorted back a chuckle.
"On your…" He looked from his brother to her wife. "Reconciliation."
"Thank you, Ser Jamie." Sansa's lips twitched in an attempt to hold herself together.
"Is this about the raven?" Tyrion asked bluntly. "I know you're… eager, but it does take some-."
"It's not about the raven." He shook his head. "I actually came to speak to my dear sister." He looked at Sansa.
"I'm not sure I like the sound of that." Tyrion scoffed. "You don't have the best track record with sisters."
"You'll be late for your meeting, My Lord." Sansa reminded him, the left side of her face rising in a smirk. "You shouldn't keep your queen waiting."
"You've been summoned to the queen?" Jamie looked as concerned as Sansa.
"I am her hand." He rolled his eyes slightly.
"Your wife is right, take someone. Just in case."
"Fine." Tyrion sighed heavily. "I will take someone, you two mother hens."
Sansa dropped towards the floor and met his eyes.
"Thank you, Husband." She told him, her eyebrows arching into v's above her beautiful eyes. He couldn't help but smile at her, and she pressed her lips to his before straightening up again.
He only looked momentarily stunned before giving his brother a quick nod.
"You wanted to speak with me, Dear Brother?" She quirked her mouth up with the title and he had the good sense to look bashful.
"It's about Ser Brienne, Dear Sister."
"Tyrion tells me you plan to wed?" Sansa gestured for him to follow her into the setting room of her chambers.
"I'm sure you were surprised." He folded his hands neatly behind his back.
"Not really." Sansa smiled. "I was in King's Landing when you returned. I may have still been a child, but I knew what love looked like."
"Then you knew before I." He had the good sense to look embarrassed.
"Tyrion seemed to think that love is a complicated thing for you." She gestured for him to sit before seating herself at the table.
"That's one way of putting it, My Lady." Jamie swallowed.
"He says the love you received was the poisonous kind." She blinked. "From your father, your sister." Jamie looked down at his feet. He didn't want to think of Cersei's kind of love.
"A possessive kind of cruel love that only serves the person in control of it." She looked at Jamie for a second, something vulnerable breaking through her toughness. "I know that kind of love." She swallowed. "I knew it from your son. Among others."
"I am sorry for what happened to you." Jamie breathed. "All of the things that happened to you."
"As am I." She breathed softly. "Do you know you love her now?"
"I think so." He smiled sadly. "I know how that must sound to you, my uncertainty."
"It sounds honest." She answered back. "My mother used to say love was built slowly, over years, stone by stone." She swallowed hard, her eyes moving to the door Tyrion had just exited. "I find myself understanding that more and more."
"I can tell you I know I need her. That thinking of living my life without her fills me with a fear unlike anything I've ever know before." He sniffed. "The fact that I can even say that is because of her."
"Sounds like love to me." Sansa told him.
"I came to ask you if it would be possible for us to use your sept, to marry. Today." He nodded at her widening eyes.
'You aren't going to wait?" Her wide eyes blinked at him.
"My bride reminds me that we're warriors in a war, and we can't put things off or we risk never getting to them."
"Your bride is a wise woman." Sansa grinned as well. "I will be happy to call her my sister."
"I know that will mean a lot to her."
"I'll have a team clean my mother's sept as soon as possible. It was the first thing I had repaired when we reclaimed Winterfell. As soon as we'd unfurled the banners, in honor of my mother. I don't think I've gotten it quite right, but Arya disagrees. The windows are beautiful at sunset. Can you wait until then, Ser Jamie?" She blinked at him and he couldn't help the grin that stretched across his face.
"I'll do my best, Sister."
"The irony of it." She smiled. "My dear brother, Jamie Lannister marrying in my mother's sept." She swallowed. "And my being pleased beyond measure."
"It humbles me, My Lady." He lowered his head. "I want you to know that."
"We've each come a long way, My Lord."
….