Hey everyone, I realized that I updated this on AO3 awhile ago but not here, my bad. Anyways, here's chapter 3 of the Wager, and again we own nothing it all belongs to GRRM and the GOT writers, but if we did there would definitely be more scenes with Ghost and characters actually smiling.
Chapter 3: Up the Ante
Sitting down on Jon's other side, Sansa tilted her head to look at her older brother, waiting for him to answer her question. A light flush crept up Jon's neck as he coughed and took another drink of ale. Bran snickered, and decided to answer for him.
"We were betting on how long it takes for Arya to act on her feelings for Gendry," Bran stated, taking far too much glee at meddling in his sister's love life than Jon that was necessary.
"Oh, well in that case 30 gold dragons says she'll do something impulsive, like say kiss him, in the next week, and then ignore his existence and her feelings for the next three months," Sansa paused as she thought about her past relationship with her sister, "Another ten gold if Gendry proposes to her right after Queen Daenerys legitimizes him and makes him Lord Baratheon of Storm's End."
"Oh I'll take that bet," Tyrion chuckled as he walked up to stand in front of the head table, his eyes twinkling with mischief, "Five gold says she punches him, she has little room for decorum, I remember her calling me Imp within minutes of meeting me."
Sansa flushed at the memory of her sister's impertinence, before inclining her head to acknowledge her former husband's bet, "You're right, though she'd be more likely to stab him, or sheep shift him depending on her immediate mood."
Chuckling Jon agreed with his half-sister, raising a mock toast to her as she sat down next to Bran.
"Is anyone keeping track of these bets, I think they'd make a marvelous distraction from our impending deaths," Tyrion smirked as he helped himself to a glass of Arbor Gold, the last of Catelyn Stark's private stash unearthed weeks before.
"No, but if you want to, I'm sure you'd make a pretty penny on keeping track of it for everyone," Jon replied before coughing as he choked on a swallow of ale as Dany walked into the hall, her silver hair gleaming in the torchlight.
"Ten gold says he proposes to her by next week," Tyrion said as they watched Jon jerk to his feet to pull out the chair next to him for Dany, and then stand there waiting as she meandered through the hall talking to Missandei next to her.
"Nah, it'll be a bit longer than that, he's got an honorable heart, but he's also stuck on being a bastard who can't offer her anything," Davos said as he appeared from behind.
"Well…" Bran started to talk but was quickly shushed by Sam who had walked up to pay his respects to Jon with Gilly before heading to sit at one of the lower tables.
"If we're betting on Jon acting on his feelings, I'd say he already has proposed out of fear of creating a child out of marriage, he loathes being a bastard, he'd hate to do that to any child of his," Sam said.
"Perhaps," Sansa started to talk before pausing to think, "But Jon is also incredibly, uptight about things such as love and emotions, I don't think he'd be the first to initiate marriage. He would start a relationship, but his own lack of self-worth would never let him commit, I agree with Ser Davos, Queen Daenerys would make the first move."
Pulling parchment, a quill, and ink out of seemingly nowhere Tyrion began to jot down the bets and place them into categories. Scratching down Sansa's last comment, he looked over at Jon who was still staring soppily at Dany, "Do you think we should open the betting to everyone? We could probably raise enough money to finance the campaign in the south after we deal with the Others...if we survive that is."
Davos rolled his eyes and muttered "Children, I work with children," as Sansa and Bran eagerly agree with Tyrion, before gesturing for Lyanna Mormont and Grey Worm to come over and talk with them. The unlikely duo walked over, their conversation on the merits of spears over maces halting as Sansa explains the two relationships on the table and Tyrion sets up his hastily made parameters for the bets.
"King Jon would definitely propose if he thought the Dragon Queen was pregnant," Lyanna said, her normally stern mein breaking out into a wide grin as she added, "Ten gold on Arya punching the Bastard Baratheon if he proposes though, I know I would."
"Queen Daenerys would act first I think," Grey Worm stated, his lips twitching into a light smile, "She is most impulsive when it comes to matters of the heart. Missandei would be a good help to this new plan, she has much knowledge of organizing such things."
"What things would Missandei be good at?" Dany asked as she finally made her way to her seat next to Jon whose ecstatic grin made everyone on his other side burst into laughter.
"We're organizing a pleasant diversion from the oncoming war with the Others by creating a rich pool of sophisticated inquiries in the relationships of our fellows, starting with the younger Lady Stark," Tyrion replied, rolling up the preliminary chart and downing a goblet of wine.
"Ah, so we're betting," Dany stated.
"Well if you must put it so inelegantly, yes." Jon chuckled as he broke into a meat pie a servant set in front of him, Tyrion's disgruntled response to Dany's bluntness was always amusing, and seeing it day in and day out on the trip to White Harbor had thoroughly entertained him.
Missandei looked intrigued as she took the papers from Tyrion and scanned them, her eyes roving over the bets and who put money down on them.
"I think it could work, especially if we reach out and include other nobles and perhaps even the Dothraki and Unsullied. Including everyone could draw them tighter together in this alliance and create an enjoyable pastime for them to take part in. We could even broaden this and introduce stories that we observe about the couples they weigh in on, it was something I noticed the Meereenese did at times with the Great Masters." Missandei paused as she looked up and saw Tyrion, Sansa, and Davos starting at her in shock.
"If we did that, which is a brilliant idea Missandei, why stop at spreading it amongst us in the North, if we started to disseminate in the South among the small folk, we could curry favor for the campaign after the Long Night," Sansa replied, "We make Jon and Dany, Arya and Gendry the new Jonquil and Florian, we spread stories of them and songs of their deeds, we make them the lovable heroes coming to free Westeros from Cersei's tyranny."
Tyrion stared at Sansa, she had blossomed from the shy girl he'd known in the Red Keep, no longer was she Cersei's little dove, she was the Cunning Wolf, and he'd never been more proud. Sam nodded his head fervently at Sansa and Missandei's plan, it was something he would expect from the Maester's in Oldtown with their extensive training and vicious politics.
Jon and Dany were oblivious to the conversations next to them, having tuned everything out after Tyrion replied to Dany's original statement. Quietly giggling and discussing the welcome warmth of the Great Hall compared to the cold of the long march from White Harbor to Winterfell, the royal couple took turns sneaking bites of food from each others plates while trying to maintain their aloof and regal dispositions to whoever walked up to talk with them.
Rolling his eyes at their inability to be subtle, Bran announced that he needed to talk with Jon again in front of the newly crowned Betting Commission. Jon distractedly agreed, before declaring that Dany and her advisors should be there as well, as anything said to him could be said before her seeing as she was now their Queen since he'd bent the knee in King's Landing.
Scoffing, Bran agreed even as Sansa hissed "We haven't shared that with the lords yet Jon, do try to keep your submission quiet until we can."
Nodding his head in response to Sansa's comment, Jon tried to look chagrined, and failed as Dany smiled sweetly at his declarations of trust. Conversation flowed as everyone settled into their seats and dove into the meal, the bets and parchment tabled for then. Across the hall, Arya felt a tingle go down her spine and the thought that something significant had taken place occurred to her, but she quickly ignored it in favor of grilling Gendry for details of what happened after the Red Woman took him. Gendry blushed and stammered his way through his account of what happened with Stannis Baratheon on Dragonstone, carefully avoiding the Red Woman's more carnal actions for fear of Arya's explosive temper.
"So The Onion Knight helped you escape and you went straight back to King's Landing, the one place you were trying to avoid after you ran two years before?" Arya looked over at Gendry in shock at his sheer idiocy, how had he stayed alive after leaving her.
"Well when you put it like that," Gendry tugged on his ear and took a long drink from his mug, "Honestly I didn't know where else to go, I didn't know where you were and I didn't want to return to the Brotherhood, and being a smith was what I knew, so it made sense at the time to go back to it."
"Yeah okay, I still think you're an idiot," she replied, shrugging at him as she stabbed a piece of venison on her plate.
"Well where'd you go after I left?"
"The Hound took me to the Twins to give me to my brother, but then the bloody Frey's betrayed him, so we went to the Eyrie to my aunt, but that failed too. Brienne, the Lady Knight that serves Sansa, found us and nearly killed the Hound, and so I ran, and went to Braavos."
Silence followed her words as she kept stabbing at the venison, memories of the House of White and Black and the Waif consuming her. "What happened in Braavos?" Gendry's question sent a jolt of something she couldn't quite discern up her spine. Dropping the knife, she fidgeted in her seat and looked up at him, debating on what she should tell him.
"I lived in Braavos for awhile where I learned to be a better water dancer and to be no one. I learned a lot there. But eventually I couldn't be no one, I am Arya Stark of Winterfell." Arya had been bunching and flattening the edge of her tunic while she talked, avoiding his piercing blue eyes. How would he react if she told him what really happened, that she trained to be no one, that she took faces as naturally as he forged steel. Her fidgeting stopped as Gendry bumped her shoulder, a small grin on his face.
"Sounds like you had quite the journey, milady," his boon let her exhale softly, before she reached out and punched him muttering, "I'm not a lady."
Watching the interaction from the high table, Sansa squealed internally, her inner child delighted at seeing a love story enacted right in front of her, even more so in the form of her obstinate younger sister. With the Long Night coming, any chance of happiness that any of them could seize would be worth it. Taking a sip from her goblet he smirked as her late husband plotted out the betting arrangements, Ser Davos's expression quickly souring as Tyrion became more and more animated. It was good to see him alive, and happy, she felt guilt churn in the pit of her stomach as she remembered their last moments together at Joffrey's wedding. She wished she could go back, and keep her younger self from running off on him and leaving him to Cersei's manipulations, it was wrong of her to do so, especially after he'd been so kind. He'd been in many ways the perfect husband, kind and considerate of her wishes, and protective when others threatened her. She scoffed at her younger self's fears that he would force himself on her, Tyrion was nothing like Ramsay, he was a true monster.
"Deep thoughts little sister?" Jon echoed her earlier statement, his eyes crinkling with a grin as he was well deep into his cups.
"Just thinking of the past, and how stupid I was," Sansa brushed off his comment, her cheeks flushing as Tyrion looked over at her, his brow furrowed in concern.
Dany caught the looks between the former couple and gasped, what if they married again? It would tie House Stark even closer to her reign, as she'd already planned on marrying Jon after the Long Night was finished, and it would make her Hand happy. Long nights in Mereen after the Harpies were dealt with saw them drinking together over plans to return to Westeros, and he would often speak wistfully of his former wife, a firebrand hidden in the guise of a wilting flower.
She wasn't the only one who caught the lingering gazes between the Lord of Lannister and Lady Stark however, as Brienne seated next to Missandei and Lady Mormont in a lower table kept a watchful eye on her lady. Seeing the tension between the two, she pondered over the potential relationship, Pod spoke often of how kind and just a Lord Tyrion was to him, and Sansa deserved happiness after what happened with the Bolton Bastard.
"Ah you see it too, the Lord Tyrion and the Lady Stark," Missandei let a small smirk cross her face as she thought of the implications the pairing could have, and the rewards, "I think they would be a fine match."
"Perhaps," Brienne paused, her doubt over Sansa's desires rising, would she ever want to marry again after what happened with her former husband, "But I think it would be a long road to marriage, if it ever came to that."
"I do not know, Lord Tyrion seems to be a rather impulsive sort when it comes to the matters of the heart," Missandei replied, thinking of his responses to her queen's relationship with the King in the North.
"If anything, it'll be the Lady Stark who acts first," little Lady Lyanna interrupted, her mouth quirking into a small smile, "The Starks may be stoic but their passions run deep, look at the King and his obvious desires for the Dragon Queen, I say it'll be a toss up of who marries first, the King or his sister."
"Really?" Missandei turned to look at Lyanna, "Care to make a wager on that and add it to the chart Lord Tyrion is setting up? I believe more relationships to support would greatly boost morale, and the coffers."
Lyanna let out a deep raucous laugh, her whole body shaking as her chuckles boomed across the hall. A shiver went down Jorah's spine as he heard the laugh, so eerily reminiscent of his aunt Maege.
A whisper went up the hall as a massive white form walked through the middle of the tables. Ghost, done hunting for the day decided to join his human. Padding softly along the stone floors he walked towards the high table, his red eyes fixated on Jon and the shining silver woman next to him.