13.
Sleeping together was already a habit and soon making love became a habit as well.
For two whole weeks, as the all castle stood still waiting for the next step in the game of thrones, their relationship became something impossible to deny. In daylight they both separate ways, attending their own tasks, but at night they always found each other. There were a lot of pillow talks between them, about past and future and everything in between - but they never actually spoke about how their feelings were changing. They never gave a name to what they were, even though they both knew they were definitely something.
After those two weeks, Jon Snow decided to meet the Dragon Queen in Dragonstone to seek some help and, of course, requested Davos to go with him. The mission could have lasted some weeks, maybe a couple of months, but there seemed to be no dangerous in it, so both Davos and Melisandre just received the news with the unspoken bitterness of being apart from a beloved one, but not with the fear of losing him or her.
This time, he had no promise to keep about a kiss to return.
This time she would have slept well, even without him.
They spent the last night together just like every other night, without any particular sharing of feelings. And in the morning, they parted in his room with a simple kiss, a smile and the words See you soon.
No despair.
No fear.
It felt just like the short break of a habit.
14.
After Jon and Davos left for the south, Melisandre almost never got out of her room. Or better, Davos's room that had unofficially became her own.
Sansa, who was the only one aware of the relationship between the two of them, at first respected that sort of seclusion, but after two whole weeks, she started to worry and even to get a bit annoyed. How could a woman so strong and terrifying suddenly act so depressed just to be apart from her lover? It would have been too sentimental for everyone, especially for the Red Woman.
Therefore, at first sent some servants to her and then decided to go herself. All her calls and her knocks went unnoticed and it took a whole other week before, finally, an answer came. And in the most unexpected way.
Melisandre was not depressed.
She was actually hiding herself.
One night, it was the Red Woman to knock on her door, loudly and almost desperately.
"Lady Melisandre, what is wrong?" she asked, incredulously, opening the door.
But the surprise was meant only to grow as the older woman silently stepped in the room and removed the mantle that covered her body. An unmistakably pregnant belly was beneath the cloth and a scared look was on her face.
"I'm about to give birth, Lady Sansa. You have to help me"
15.
How is that even possible? That was the question that was running through Sansa's mind. Of course she knew how those things happen, but therefore she also knew that time was an important factor and three weeks was definitely too little time.
However, she was not given the chance to process the first proof of magic she was seeing. The red woman had entered the room and was already lying on the ground, looking now practical and calm even in such a situation.
Inwardly though, she was probably the most scared she had ever been in her whole life. It was not the first time she was giving birth, but this time she knew it was different. Because this time, in spite of the short pregnancy, she was not having a shadow, but a baby, an actual human child.
"Is there something I can do?"
Melisandre glanced at the lady, between the hisses of pain.
"You do not have to phisically help me. You have to take care of my baby... And listen"
"Listen?"
Before she could ask for more, a yell of pure pain came from the red woman and that had the power to make Sansa finally awake from her thoughts and approach her.
"What can I do?" she repeated, now more scared but also more willing to help.
Melisandre did not answer, just kept screaming and moving following the contractions. That pain was not only physical, it was like something was breathing the life out of her and her soul was dying out.
Sadly, that was exactly what was happening.
"Salt... And smoke... Salt and smoke... Salt and... Smo-oke... I am the smoke"
What could sound as delusional words was actually the unexpected resolution of a lifelong riddle. Pain was strangely making the sorceress finally seeing everything clear, a last shocking vision that had no need of fire.
"I was wrong... Oh, I was wrong all along... I should have know... That he was the salt... I was wrong"
"About what?"
She averted her eyes to look at Sansa who was waiting for an answer. And so she did answer, hoping that her meaning would have been grasped, if not now, at least in time.
"When the red star... Bleeds... And the... Darkness gathers... Azor Ahai shall be born... Again... Amidst… Salt and-"
Melisandre suddenly fell silent, as a loud scream filled the room. A weak smile appeared on her lips, at the proof that the baby was born.
It was hard to tell if the happiness was because of the unexpected joy of becoming a mother or actually because she was ending her life fulfilling her mission.
In the meanwhile, Sansa had approached the screaming creature. As soon as she took that baby in her arms, the woman vanished in front of her eyes, not even leaving dust as a trace.
What was left of the Red Woman was the ruby necklace.
A cloud of smoke.
And a baby girl.
Made of salt and smoke.
This is how I had planned to end the story since the beginning (before season 8 even started): their child being Azor Ahai and Melisandre ending her mission by briging her to the world. I know it doesn't make much sense, but "salt and smoke" of the prophecy match so well Melisandre and Davos that I couldn't resist. Hope you liked the twist, comments are always very welcomed.
Also, I suggest to read my other long-fic about these two "Do not go gentle into that good night" set in S8.