Summary:

Jon and Sansa eat a lot of cake while explaining things to Robb.

Robb looked on as Sansa took yet another lemon cake from the tray on the coffee table and carefully tore off a piece. Jon was a little less delicate in his eating, just biting the thing in half, crumbs falling onto his lap. In a different situation, the stark contrast between the two would have made Robb laugh, but he was still on edge from the night's events.

"I don't know how you two can eat right now." Although he had calmed down considerably from when he'd first arrived at Jon's apartment, Robb's stomach was still unsettled and even at just the thought of eating he felt queasy.

Jon looked nonplussed at the comment, though, and just shrugged. Swallowing, he waved his half-eaten lemon cake in Sansa's direction, spilling more crumbs on his clothes. "San is always hungry after a fight."

There were still over a dozen pastries left on the tray in front of them, and there had been twice as many when Robb arrived. Sansa finished the cake in her hand and nodded in agreement. Robb looked back and forth between the two in confusion, wondering what he'd missed.

He found himself glancing into the kitchen where he could still see the cake ingredients and mixing bowl out on the counter, then turning back to his sister and best friend sitting across from him, finally taking in the full meaning of the latter's statement.

"What do you mean by always?" he asked, eyes narrowing. Jon happened to conveniently have a mouth full of food at that exact moment and could not respond, so Robb looked to Sansa instead.

His sister hesitated to answer him, taking her time to clean her fingers with a napkin. "I come here sometimes when I'm... upset," she eventually said, choosing her words carefully.

Robb's mind jumped back to the wording Jon had used a minute ago. 'San is always hungry after a fight.' San? he thought, but aloud he asked, "Fight?" He tried and failed at keeping his voice from sounding tense, imagining a repeat of what Joffrey had done to Sansa at the movie theater.

"Verbal. Verbal fights," Jon clarified, and although that served to ease the tension in Robb's shoulders slightly, it wasn't much of a comfort to find out that Sansa had been having problems that he didn't know about. As if reading his mind Jon added, "I would have told you if it was more than that…" Jon squared his shoulders and made a point of holding Robb's gaze as he said the next part. "Whatever else you may think, it's important to me that you at least believe that if I thought Sansa was in trouble, I would have never kept it from you."

"Okay," Robb said, the word coming out harsher than he'd intended, making both Jon and Sansa flinch. He couldn't let his anger get the best of him. Deep down, Robb believed Jon, but on the surface, he was still buzzing with anger at Joffrey, and hearing that his best friend had been keeping a secret from him only added fuel to the existing fire. Taking a deep breath, he looked to Sansa, trying again. "Okay... So when you got into arguments with Joffrey you'd… what? Come to Jon's and make lemon cakes?"

While the question sounded sort of ridiculous out loud, Sansa just shrugged, mirroring exactly what Jon had done earlier. "Basically. The first time, I actually went to your place initially and when you weren't there…" She paused, noticing the instant the look of guilt formed on her brother's face. "Stop that! This isn't your fault." Robb worked hard to relax his frown, and Sansa stared at him until she was convinced that he'd let it go. "Like I said, you weren't home, and Jon was the next closest person I could think of, so I went to his apartment."

Robb furrowed his eyebrows. "But Jon doesn't live anywhere near me anymore. Theon would have been much closer of a walk..." He trailed off, thinking about the brief month where Jon had lived on the same block as him before moving to a cheaper place across town. "This has been going on for over a year?"

Hearing the outrage in his voice, Sansa cringed and Jon tilted his head to look up at the ceiling, dragging a hand through his messy head of curls.

"I can't believe you kept this from-" Robb started, but Sansa quickly cut him off.

"Don't act like this is some big betrayal," she said defensively. "We didn't do anything wrong, but if you want to blame someone, blame me! I was the one who kept coming back."

Neither Robb nor Jon had anything to say to that.

Sansa sighed. "Look, I think we can all recognize that I haven't had the best track record when it comes to men, what with Petyr and Sandor and..."

There was a snort and it took Robb a second to realize it had come from Jon, but by then Sansa had already leaned over and swatted at him. "Shut it."

When she straightened back in her seat, she returned to where she'd left off. "Like I was saying, I may not have the best track record, but that doesn't mean I need to be reminded of it every five seconds. I swear I was planning on telling you after the first time, but I really didn't want to deal with all of your questions."

Sansa held up a hand before Robb could defend himself. "I get it - it's what you're supposed to do. You're my big brother. But that doesn't mean that I have to like it." She motioned to Jon to make the distinction clear. "He's not my brother. He doesn't have the same obligations as you. Still, he has been there for me when I needed someone who wasn't going to be judgmental…" Noticing the irony, Sansa gave Jon a pointed look, but it was obvious she was fighting back a smile.

"And he made you lemon cakes," Robb added, knowing how fond his sister was of the things. He wasn't surprised that Jon knew that too, but he was surprised that Jon had taken part in baking them. Robb didn't know Jon even knew how to bake.

"Yeah, and that, too," Sansa admitted, the smile winning out and taking over her whole face.

Something loosened in Robb's chest at the sight of it. It was the first smile he'd seen from her all night. Robb wasn't always the most observant, but he hadn't missed the fact that Sansa's eyes were still slightly puffy from crying and that she kept her fingers curled into themselves as if keeping the evidence from being seen would make everyone forget about it.

He found himself smiling back at her on instinct, but that didn't make it any less genuine. Then he redirected his smile to Jon, trying to convey in one look everything that he was thinking. There would be more time to talk later when it was just the two of them, but right at that moment, he needed to show Jon that he understood. And even more, that he appreciated everything he'd done for Sansa.

Thankfully Jon seemed to sense what Robb was trying to do, because, after a while of searching his expression, he grinned. Then he reached out for yet another piece of cake, and all three dissolved into laughter.

Thank you to everyone who has read this so far, and a special thanks to those who have commented! We're half way through... let me know what you think.