Day 5: Looking for Answers
Cersei
Cersei checked her elegant watch for what seemed to be the hundredth time that morning yet time seemed to stand still.
She was sitting on one of the uncomfortable benches in The Great Sept of Baelor while the sunlight poured in through the stained glass windows.
The bright light made her head hurt but her father would never allow her to wear sunglasses inside of the sept.
She couldn't believe how he had humiliated her last night in front of her little brother.
She would never forget that evil grin on his little monkey face.
There was honestly no one in the world she hated more than that little creature.
He had killed her beloved mother but he still dared to call himself a Lannister.
She would kill herself if father would ever allow him to work at LannisCorp (but the imp first of course) even if he was just hired to scrub the bathrooms.
Tyrion had even managed to worm his way in between her and her father right now.
She had wanted to sit next to him so he could see what a good daughter she was, so he could see that she knew all the hymns and all the prayers by heart, so he could see that she was actually a worthy Lannister of Casterly Rock.
She checked her watch one more time and repressed the urge to sigh loudly.
Suddenly Jaime bumped into her with his cast.
She clicked her tongue loudly and shot him an annoyed look.
"Sorry" he muttered but she pretended she didn't hear him.
Cersei thought that the cast was already starting to look dirty and she had even refused to write her name on it.
She still couldn't believe that he had gotten hurt.
Jaime was her rock.
The one thing in her life that she always knew she could count on and to see him so weak was just too much to bear.
He couldn't dress himself, he couldn't cut his own meat, he couldn't even defend himself or her if something happened.
He had become depended on others and if he had been a real lion they would have left him somewhere to die.
He bumped into her again and she let out a loud sigh.
"Watch it, cripple" she told him and Jaime turned red.
He wasn't even going to defend himself with words.
If she had said something like that a few weeks ago he would have reacted with the rage of a true lion and put her in her place but he was a shade of that man now.
He bumped into her one more time with the heavy, awkward cast.
"Get away from me, you fucking moron" she told him and she shoved him.
"Cersei" her father said and he shot her an angry look.
She blushed and looked at her hands which she had folded in her lap.
"Thanks" she said to Jaime "now you've gotten me into even more trouble"
"Sorry" Jaime said and she wished he would just stop apologizing.
Usually Cersei and Jaime would spend their time in the sept by making fun of the High Septon and the ridiculous crown he wore.
"I've honestly never seen such a fat man" Jaime whispered to her and a faint smile appeared on her face.
"You're forgetting Robert Baratheon" Cersei whispered back to him and he smiled at her and for a minute he looked like the old Jaime again.
"Be careful what you say, sweet sister, father might still want to marry you off to him" he said with a cheeky smile.
Cersei pulled a disgusted face and Jaime laughed softly.
Her father had once mentioned that that would be the perfect merge between LannisCorp and Baratheon Industries but Cersei thanked the Gods that they didn't live in a time anymore where women could just be married off to someone.
"I'm not going to leave you alone" she told Jaime and he leaned a little closer to her but instead of the warm skin she was expecting his cast bumped into her one more time.
"Disgusting" she said and she moved away from him as far as she could without touching Tyrion.
She shivered and checked her watch one more time.
When would this nightmare end?
Arya
Arya was strolling through the city with her hood pulled over her head.
She had snuck out of the house again after having a huge fight with her mother.
Her mother had never hit her before but Arya guessed she had never pushed her that far either.
Apparently her mother had been up all night looking for Arya and calling the whole neighborhood to find out if someone had seen her.
Cat had been sitting on the couch with red eyes and tears on her face when Arya had entered the house.
Her mother had gotten up from the couch, slapped Arya and immediately sent her to her room.
Robb had seen everything but even he didn't stand up for her.
Arya felt like she was suffocating in Winterfell.
She missed her father and the way things used to be when he still came home to have dinner with them, when he would drive them to school in the morning and when he came to her bedroom to check on her before she went to sleep.
Her mother didn't understand her like her father had.
Her mother still bought her lace dresses and sheet music for her violin which she hadn't played in years.
Her father had let her quiet playing violin a long time ago and even bought her a guitar.
Ned had paid for her capoeira lessons, a Brazilian martial art that also uses dance moves.
Arya let out a loud sigh and searched her pockets for cigarettes.
"Damn" she muttered when she couldn't find any.
Jon had probably thrown all of her cigarettes away.
Strangely enough she wasn't mad at him for that.
She was just happy that someone still cared about her.
The Outlaws used to do that until Jeyne came along.
They had been practicing a lot lately and Arya had noticed Gendry looking at Jeyne more and more often.
She didn't blame Jeyne though.
She blamed Gendry that stupid bull and she blamed herself for thinking that he could like her.
He even called her a boy's name for Gods' sake!.
She saw a post office and looked through the shop window.
The lights were still off so she guessed she had to wait until she could buy her cigarettes.
"That post office closed months ago" a rough voice said.
Arya turned around and looked into the disfigured face of Sandor Clegane.
Their student councilor, Petyr Baelish, had told her the story behind Sandor's scars once when he had come over to have dinner with her family.
There was something about Little Finger that made her question his motives and it was probably the fact that he still had a crush on her mother and did little to hide it.
She did believe the story however.
Sandor's brother was a maniac and she could easily see him shove his little brother in the fireplace.
"Here" Sandor said and he handed her a cigarette from his pocket.
"Thanks" she muttered while she lit it and looked at him again.
He was wearing a hoodie just like she was and he was using it to hide his scar.
Unfortunately it wasn't working as well as he probably had intended it on working.
"Where are you going?" he asked her with that same rough voice.
"None of your business" she answered quickly.
"Whatever" Sandor said shrugging and he walked on.
Arya let out a sigh and couldn't believe what she was about to do.
Was she really that lonely and desperate?
Apparently..
"Wait up" she said and she quickly caught up with him.
For a second she thought he had smiled because of that but if he had, he did a very good job to hide it.
Sandor always pretended he didn't mind being lonely but she never bought it.
"Where's Joffrey?" she asked him and he made a sound that could have been a growl.
Most people called Sandor Joffrey's dog and maybe he was.
No one understood the friendship between those two maybe it was because Joffrey needed a bodyguard because of all the people he managed to piss off or maybe it was because Sandor hoped no one would have the guts to bully him if he was friends with the biggest asshole in their school.
"I don't care where Joffrey is" Sandor answered her question "I'm not his friend"
Arya laughed at that and he gave her a strange look.
"Are you really his dog then?" she asked.
She couldn't believe he was pretending that he didn't have anything to do with Joffrey.
Arya knew what they had done to Mycah and she wasn't going to let it go easily.
Sandor had beaten the boy bloody for something he hadn't even done only because Joffrey had told him too.
"Careful now, little girl" Sandor said.
"I know what you did to Mycah" she said "so don't pretend you have nothing to do with Joffrey"
Sandor lit his cigarette and started smoking without reacting to what she had said.
"I never said that I have nothing to do with him" he said eventually and for the first time he made eye contact with her "but I'm about as much his friend as you are"
Arya hadn't been paying attention to where they were going and they ended up at an old building that looked like it hadn't been used in years.
"You live here?" she asked him surprised.
Some roof tiles where missing and they had boarded up the windows.
The paint on the door was peeling off and in front of the house was a pile of refuge bags.
"We can't all live in Winterfell" he said and he used his key to open the old, creaking front door.
Arya was sure that the Cleganes didn't live in something that looked like a squatting house and if Sandor hadn't locked the door immediately after entering she would have followed him.
She promised herself that she was going to come back though to find out what really was going on in that house and what was really going on between Joffrey and Sandor.
Robb
Robb was wandering through the streets and looking for his little sister Arya.
She had disappeared at the crack of dawn to avoid a confrontation with their mother.
Robb knew the song and it wasn't the first or last time that Cat had told him to go look for Arya.
He would have used his car to look for his sister if it wasn't for the gigantic dent in the front of it.
He still couldn't believe Theon had taken it for a joyride or well.. actually it wasn't that hard to believe.
Theon somehow always felt the need to show the world how much of a bad guy he really was even though deep down... really deep down... like REALLY deep down he was one of the kindest people Robb knew.
Robb was unbelievably angry at Theon and he hadn't talked to him since he had come home to the crashed car but he also knew he was going to forgive him.
He was his first and best friend after all.
They had met in kindergarten when they were both five years old.
Robb had never found it difficult to make friends but Theon had always been quiet and he kept his distance from the other children.
One day Robb had told his father about the odd quiet boy in his class and about how much the others made fun of him.
Ned had told Robb to give Theon a chance.
"That kid has been through a lot already, more than most could take"his father had said.
It wasn't until years later that Robb learned his father had been talking about the death of Theon's brother and his mother's mental state.
Robb had walked up to him nevertheless during recess when Theon was playing in the sandbox by himself.
"What are you doing?" he had asked him.
"What does it look like? Building a sand castle of course" Theon had answered.
Robb remembered how crooked the castle had looked as if it was going to tumble down any minute.
"Let me help you" Robb had said.
"Why do you wanna help me? It's my castle!"
Robb had laughed at that like only a five year old could have done.
"Because it's fun to build castles, isn't it?"
Apparently Theon couldn't argue with that logic and they had started to build a new castle when it was finished it looked like a proper castle with sturdy walls and a large courtyard.
"So what do we know?" Robb had asked while they admired their work.
"Now comes the fun part!" Theon had answered with a smile that would get him his first girlfriend at the age of six and deflowered at the age of thirteen "we destroy it!"
"What?" Robb had asked surprised.
"And then we build it again.. if you still want to play with me then.. you don't have to if you don't want to of course" Theon had said with a blush on his cheeks "I'm fine on my own"
Robb had shaken his head with a smile.
"No, I like playing with you" He had said and so they had knocked down the sturdy walls with their little shovels while they had laughed loudly.
Theon had come over to Winterfell to play a lot of times but he had only been at Theon's house once.
It was a nice house near the beach but cold somehow.
That day Robb had learned about Theon's family and why he didn't like to show friends his house.
Balon Greyjoy had been in his study when Theon and Robb were playing a video game in the living room.
Theon had been winning and they were both shouting and laughing when Balon stormed out of his study.
"Get. Out. Now!" he had shouted at them.
Theon and Robb had rushed out of the house and there had been tears in Theon's eyes if there was anything Robb had learned about Theon after all those years they had known each other it's that he's terrified of disappointing his family.
Robb always thought that had to do with the fact that he felt like he needed to live up to Maron and Rodrik's reputation or more likely Balon's idolized version of that.
Theon's older sister had followed them outside.
Asha had been twelve at that time and she had looked nothing like she did today.
Her face was full of zits and she wore braces which was something Theon loved to point out to her when he had reached a less adorable age.
Asha had wrapped her arm around her little brother's shoulder and let out a sigh.
"Come on, boys, I'm buying you ice cream" she had said and they had bought ice cream and played on the beach for the rest of the day but Theon had never asked him to come visit his house again and Robb hadn't asked to either.
Robb passed the closed post office and checked his watch.
"Arya, where are you?" he muttered.
He wasn't feeling like looking for his sister all day and besides it had been almost five days since he had spoken to Talisa.
He had tried to call her again but she never picked up her phone.
He was starting to get the feeling that she had just grown tired of him and blocked his number.
Robb dialed her number one more time and promised himself that if she still didn't pick up he was going to stop trying.
"Hello?"
It felt like his heart had just skipped a beat.
"Talisa! I didn't think you would actually pick up your phone" he said genuinely surprised.
"I know, I'm sorry for how I treated you... I just didn't know how to tell you and I needed to know for sure first"
"Whatever you want to tell me I promise it will be all right" he said with a smile.
He was just so glad to hear her voice again and he couldn't imagine she could say anything to change that.
"Don't make promises you can't keep" she said and he could almost hear her sad smile.
"Just tell me, Talisa, I'm there for you"
"I'm uh... I'm late"
He didn't understand what she was talking about.
He frowned as he ran a hand through his hair.
"Late for what?" he asked feeling a little bit stupid.
"You know... late... so I took a test and..."
Now it felt like his heart had stopped beating all together.
"And?"
"and you're going to be a father"
Daenerys
Dany was standing in a secondhand bookshop and she was searching the bookcases for a few specific titles.
They had been given to her by an old friend but she had to leave them behind when she returned to Westeros.
She didn't know what made her go look for them in the old bookshop but maybe it was better that she didn't find them.
They would only remind her of her old life even more.
She left the shop again and she spotted Jon across the street.
She hadn't had the chance to talk to him again after they had first met.
"Hey, Jon!" she said and she waved at him.
Jon and the enormous dog he was walking both turned around.
He waved at her and crossed the street.
"Good to see you again, Dany, how have you been?" he asked with a kind smile.
Dany shrugged and smiled at him.
She had been really lonely to be honest.
She felt like she didn't belong in Westeros anymore but she wasn't going to bug him with her problems.
"Who's this?" she asked instead and she petted the white dog.
"His name is Ghost, he's my direwolf" Jon answered proudly.
The dog stayed incredible quiet as she petted him and he seemed to be looking at Jon as if he was asking if they could trust Dany.
"I didn't know that there were still direwolves" she said while Ghost inspected her with his red eyes.
"There are a few left" Jon said.
Ghost seemed to finally have accepted her and he licked her hand while she petted him.
"He likes you" Jon said with a smile.
And do you?
She wanted to ask but she stayed quiet instead.
Daenerys didn't know if she was ready to start dating again but she couldn't deny that Jon was incredibly handsome.
"We're going to the park, would you like to come?" He asked her.
She didn't want to go to her empty home again so she gladly accepted his offer.
"Sure" she said and they went to a small park just outside the city center.
Ghost stayed quiet while he ran around the park chasing squirrels and Dany and Jon sat down on the grass.
"So what do you think of Westeros so far?" Jon asked her while Ghost accidently knocked over a small child.
She shrugged again.
"It's very different from when I was last here" she said with a sad smile.
The last time she had been in Westeros her family had still been together.
"What do you mean?" he asked and he seemed to genuinely not know about her past.
Most people seemed to have forgotten about her family's history and that wasn't a bad thing but if she was going to tell someone about it it might as well be Jon.
"My family owned The Royal Targaryen Enterprise once but my father made some wrong decisions and some wrong friends"
She hadn't thought that she would find it this hard to talk about.
The Royal Targaryen Enterprise had been the biggest oil company in all of Westeros but his father had been in debt to almost every other company including the mafia.
It had driven Aerys crazy and he had started to hide more and more oil drums inside of their house.
They had been in the basement, the attic and some people said they had even been inside of the walls.
Burn them all she thought with tears in her eyes.
"And those decisions and friends came to haunt him until he couldn't take it anymore"
No one knew if it had been Aerys who had burned down his own house or if it had been the mafia and some people even said it had been people hired by Baratheon Industries or LannisCorp.
Everything they knew for sure was that Aerys, his wife, her brother and his family had all been inside of the building during the fire.
Viserys and Dany had been at school when it all happened.
"My father died and so did most of my family, only my brother Viserys and I survived so we fled the country"
Jon and she stayed quiet for awhile while she wiped away her tears with the back of her hand.
"I'm so sorry, Dany" he said and he took hold of her hand.
"It's okay" she said shrugging but it really wasn't.
Dany had never had a childhood while she and Viserys moved from one school to another and from one foster family to another.
Her brother had always managed to get into trouble and drag Dany along.
"I know how important family can be" he said "and I know what it feels like when you feel like you don't belong anywhere"
"How do you know I feel like that?" she asked him surprised.
He shrugged and smiled at her.
"A lot has changed since you left and it is never easy to be the new kid at school"
She laughed and tossed her long silver hair.
"Am I that transparent?" she asked smiling.
"Not really" he answered "but I felt like I didn't belong anywhere either and I still do some times... you see my last name is Snow for a reason"
Dany nodded to show him that she understood what he was trying to tell her.
"Well at least we've got each other, right?" she laughed.
He smiled back at her and when she looked into his dark eyes she decided to just go for it.
Dany kissed him.
Quick but sweet and before he could even say anything about it to her she had already gotten up on her feet again.
"See you around, Jon Snow" she said with a wink and she left the speechless boy behind while she went back to her house.
Theon
It was well past noon but Theon was still in bed.
The sun tried to peer through the window but was stopped by the thick grey curtains.
Theon was planning on rolling over one more time when he suddenly felt a heavy weight on top of him.
"What the.." he gasped.
"Surprise, little brother, it's your very favoritest sister" Asha said while sitting on top of him and she wrapped her arms around his head in something which could either be an uncomfortable hug or a pro wrestling move
"Goddamned, Asha, get off me" Theon said and he tried to push her away.
Asha pretended to be offended and finally got off him.
"That's no way to welcome your sister" she said with her hands on her hips "Aren't you glad to see me?"
"Whatever, Asha" Theon said and he buried his face in his pillow again.
Asha grabbed his arm and with one firm tug pulled him out of his bed.
"I did not come home from college to see my little brother moping in bed all day" Asha said with her arms crossed in front of her chest.
"Fine, I'll go take a shower" Theon said when he got up from the floor and walked to the bathroom which was the only room Asha wouldn't follow him into.
After taking a shower and taking care of some other stuff every teenage boy went through he went downstairs.
"Where's dad?" Theon asked Asha when he saw her waiting for him in the hallway.
"At work" she answered shrugging "like usual"
Balon had been spending more and more time at their family company which was called KRAKEN and Theon thought he only went to work because he didn't want to stay home now Asha had gone to college.
His brothers had worked at KRAKEN too when it had been the biggest transport company in the world.
They had transported all kinds of things but mostly oil until one of the ships of the Starks's company (before it had merged with Baratheon Industries) had crashed into Maron and Rodrik's ship.
His brothers had drowned and his father had held a grudge against the Starks ever since.
Balon believed that the Starks had done it on purpose because KRAKEN was more profitable than their company.
Ned Stark however had told him that Maron and Rodrik were sailing on the Stark's trade route and there was nothing the Starks could have done to avoid the crash.
The only thing KRAKEN still transported was fish and they had lost most of their former glory.
"Come on, I made you breakfast" Asha said and Theon followed her into the kitchen where a bowl of cereal was waiting for him.
"Oh My Drowned God, Asha, you can cook?!" he said in the most sarcastic way he could reproduce.
"Haha, very funny" Asha deadpanned while she swatted him on the back of his head.
She said down across from him while he ate his cereal and her expression changed to a more serious one.
"I've visited mom" she said looking at her nails and cleaning them with a butter knife.
Alannys Greyjoy became terribly depressed after the death of his brothers.
Every night she would get up from her bed and search the house while shouting their names.
Eventually they decided to move her to a mental institution not far from his uncle's home.
"She asked for you again" Asha said.
"No, she asked for baby Theon" he said while chewing his cereal "she doesn't recognize me"
Asha shot him an accusing look but she didn't talk about their mother again.
"Hey, you wanna do something fun?!" she suddenly asked after he had finished his breakfast.
He shrugged but Asha was already dancing around him and punching him as many times as she could.
"Theon, Theon, Theon, Theon, Theon, Come on fight, Theon, Theon, Theon" she said repeating his name every time she punched him.
"Fine" he sighed "what do you want to do?"
"Oh Theon, Theon, let's shoots some arrows like we used to, come on, Theon, Theon, Theon" she said while she kept punching him and dancing around him.
She was incredibly fast and within a few seconds he would start to bruise.
Theon was used to his sister wanting to playfight with him and when he was younger he would have even engaged but he wasn't feeling like it.
He was still thinking about Robb and about the car.
Robb would probably never trust him again and Theon couldn't blame him.
He had just wanted to show Kyra and the Lannisters and maybe he had even wanted to show himself that he wasn't a Stark.
He wanted to show them that he didn't care and he ended up screwing up big time.
"I don't want to shoot arrows, Asha" he sighed but she only started to punch him harder.
He tried to stop her a few times but she was just too fast for him and she never stayed in the same spot for long.
"Goddamned FINE!" he shouted and she finally stopped hitting him.
"Thank God, I was almost starting to break a sweat... almost"
He followed her to the large balcony where Asha had set up some practice targets for them.
Archery was the only thing he had ever been able to beat Asha at.
"So I've heard you broke up with your girlfriend" Asha said while she drew her bow and loosed an arrow which only missed the target by an inch.
"Kyra?" he asked her while he picked up his bow and slung his quiver over his shoulder.
"So you're calling her girlfriend now? No, I was talking about the one with the beard" Asha said while she watched him draw his bow and easily hit his target.
"I stole his car and wrecked it so I guess you could say that we broke up" he said when it was her time to shoot.
This time she did hit her target.
"Why the fuck would you do that?" Asha asked him laughing "Oh wait, was it that time of the month again when you have to proof that you're a big, bad boy?"
"Shut up, Asha" he said while he quickly shot three arrows into the board.
He loaded his bow again and realized it had not been a bad idea of Asha to shoot some arrows.
It was actually calming him down and it helped him clear his head.
"I'm just sick of people calling me the Stark's servant or when they treat me like they can walk all over me" Theon said "I'm Ironborn and not a Stark"
He noticed that Asha had stopped shooting arrows and was looking at him.
"I know you've never felt like you're a part of this family especially not after what happened to Rodrik and Maron but you really are Theon" she said with a kind smile "you don't have to proof yourself"
Theon loosed the last arrow in his quiver and put his bow back down again.
"I have to proof myself to dad" he said.
Asha let out a sigh and put her bow down too.
"You might not be as Ironborn as I am but you're still a Greyjoy so get that grim Stark look off your face and loosen up" she said smiling.
"Thanks, Asha" he said.
She gave him a bright smile he knew and recognized.
"You need a hug" she said.
Theon swallowed thickly and started backing up.
"No, I don't" he said.
"Yes, you need a hug" she said laughing and she ran towards him.
Asha jumped on top of him and hugged him so tightly he thought he was going to suffocate.
"Asha, you're killing me" he said gasping for air.
"Love you too, bro, love you too"