Day 21: Child's play

Sansa

Sansa rang the doorbell to her aunt's house and she couldn't deny that she felt a little bit uncomfortable.

The memory of her aunt's outburst was still fresh and she didn't plan on going to her house any time soon until Petyr had called her.

He had been so nice to her and he had saved her from her aunt so Sansa didn't think that it would be polite to refuse him anything.

The door opened for her and Petyr appeared in the doorway.

"Sansa, dear, I'm so glad that you could make it" Petyr said and she had to admit that he did look a little bit stressed.

"Of course" Sansa said smiling "so what was the problem you needed my help with?"

"Just follow me" Little Finger said and she followed him into the house.

Lysa Tully's house was large and luxurious with cream walls and large windows.

There was art everywhere and Sansa didn't doubt that it had once belonged to Lysa's late husband, Jon Arryn.

Sansa didn't remember much about Jon Arryn but she knew that he had been a good friend to her father.

Jon Arryn had already been old though when he married Lysa and it wasn't hard for people to see that Lysa wasn't happy at all about her marriage.

Sansa followed Petyr to the living room where Robin Arryn was sitting on the floor clutching his doll to his chest while tears streamed down his face.

"Can you, please, watch him for me, Sansa?" Petyr asked her "I'm very busy and I'm sure he will like you"

"I don't know" she said softly.

She wasn't looking forward to babysitting Lysa's spoiled child especially not since he looked like he was about to throw a tantrum.

"It would mean the world to me, Sansa" Petyr said looking deep into her blue eyes until she was starting to feel uncomfortable "I'm sure that it will make Lysa like you better too, don't you want to patch things up with your aunt?"

Sansa was starting to feel like saying no wasn't an option but she figured that saying no hadn't been an option since she agreed to come to Lysa's house.

"Okay, I guess I can watch him for a few hours" Sansa said still looking at the sobbing boy.

"Thank you so much, Sansa, you are too kind" Petyr said and he hugged her quickly.

Petyr then disappeared into his office and he left Sansa and Robin alone.

"Hello, Robin" Sansa said smiling and she sat down on the floor next to the boy "what are you doing?"

"I was playing" he said looking at her as if he was trying to find out if he could trust her "where is my mommy?"

"Lysa is working, love, but we can play together if you want to" Sansa said trying to win his trust.

Robin's eyes immediately welled up and he started to cry again.

"No, you're not my mommy!" Robin shouted "I want my mommy"

Sansa sighed and she tried to figure out what she should do.

She had babysit her younger siblings of course but they had almost never thrown a tantrum except maybe for Arya but that was very different.

"Don't cry, love" she said and she wiped away Robin's tears with a paper tissue from her purse "you're a big boy, right?"

"Yes" Robin said nodding while his lip still quivered.

"Then you don't need mommy for a few hours, right?" Sansa asked him "we can play too!"

Robin nodded again and he seemed to have calmed down for now.

"I'm Sansa, by the way" she said with a smile.

"I'm Robin Arryn" the little boy said with a hint of pride in his voice.

Sansa walked to the dollhouse which was standing in the middle of the living room and she picked up one of the dolls.

"Do you want to play with these?" she asked him.

Robin nodded again and he went up to her.

"So can I play with this doll?" she asked him.

Robin shook his head and she put it back where she had found it.

"What about this one?" she asked him while picking up another doll.

Robin shook his head again and Sansa was starting to get annoyed.

"Well, with which one would you like me to play?" Sansa asked him.

"None!" Robin suddenly shouted and he started to cry again "they're mine and mommy's!"

Suddenly Robin started to shake heavily.

Catelyn had told Sansa before that her cousin often had seizures like that but she had never seen it up close.

"Petyr!" she shouted while she took Robin's hand and she tried to comfort him.

Her touch only seemed to make him shake more.

"Petyr, come quickly!" Sansa shouted and she was starting to panic.

What if Robin accidently hurt himself?
His mother would never forgive her.

Suddenly she heard the front door being unlocked.

"Robin, mommy is home!" she heard someone say and Sansa felt somewhat relieved.

She didn't care how much Lysa was going to yell at her at least the woman would know what to do about her son's seizure.

Lysa entered the living room and she quickly ran to Robin when she noticed what was going on.

"Sweetheart, what has she done to you?" Lysa asked her son.

Petyr entered the room too while holding Robin's medicine.

Sansa figured that he had fetched the medicine as soon as he heard Sansa shout and understood that something was wrong with Robin.

"I want you to get out of my house!" Lysa yelled at Sansa "you've ruined my wedding and now you've hurt my son!"

"I didn't do anything!" Sansa shouted but she got back on her feet anyway.

"I'm sorry, Sansa, I didn't know that this would happen" Petyr said.

"Of course not" Sansa muttered under her breath but she didn't dare to say anything out loud.

Robin calmed down after Petyr gave him his medicine and the boy seemed to have gone to sleep.

Lysa was crying while she cradled the boy's head in her lap.

"This is your fault" Lysa said looking at Sansa with a disgusted look on her face.

"Sansa, is right" Petyr said "she didn't do anything wrong and I was the one who asked her to babysit him anyway"

"So you're taking her side again?!" Lysa shouted while she stroked Robin's hair.

Sansa thought Petyr was about ready to slap Lysa and he no longer tried to hide his true feelings.

"You need to stop being so jealous!" Petyr told her.

"How can I?" Lysa asked him "while she tries to take you away from me!"

"Lysa, I've only ever loved one woman" Petyr said.

Lysa's expression immediately softened.

"Really, Petyr?" she asked him and the tears rolling down her cheeks were of joy now and not of despair.

"Really" he said smiling and he hugged her.

Sansa guessed that that was a good time for her to leave them alone and she quietly left her aunt's home.

She didn't believe Petyr for a second when he told his aunt that he had only ever loved her but she wasn't looking forward to getting caught up in their troubles so decided to just go home instead.

Jon

The orphanage was large and old but clean.

There were pictures on the walls of people who had run the orphanage and the children who had been there.

Every year they seemed to have taken another picture.

Some were still in black and white and displayed Septas en children in uniform.

The Septas seemed to have disappeared over the years though just like the uniforms.

He saw a picture with a younger Ygritte on it and he immediately recognized her red hair and her pug nose.

Someone seemed to have forced her into wearing a dress and she didn't seem to be too happy about it.

Jon recognized more children in the modern pictures since he had seen them at Ygritte's house before.

"Hello, Jon" he heard a soft voice say.

He turned around and looked into the shy face of Gilly.

Her brown hair fell into her eyes while she kept looking at the baby in her arms instead of at Jon.

"How are you, Gilly?" he asked her carefully.

He didn't even know how he could start their conversation.

The thought of what Gilly's father had done to her was just too horrible.

"I'm fine" she said shrugging "we can go to my room if you want, we'll have more privacy there"

"Sounds good to me" Jon said and he suddenly noticed that a few children were looking at them through the window in the kitchen door.

Jon followed Gilly up the large, wooden staircase and to the first floor.

There was a large hallway and there were doors on each side of it.

Children were running from one door to another while they could hear loud music blast from some rooms and people shouting from others.

Gilly managed to manoeuvre past the running and shouting children and they went into the door at the far most right.

Gilly closed the door behind him and she shut out some of the noise.

The room was very small and Jon noticed that she had to share it with someone else.

The only pieces of furniture in the room were a bunk bed, a crib and an old wooden wardrobe.

Gilly sat down on the bottom bed of the bunk bed and Jon decided to stand since there wasn't really any other option left.

"I guess that Ygritte must have told you horrible things about me" Gilly said while cradling her baby.

"Not at all" Jon said.

Ygritte had told him horrible things about Gilly of course but not in the way Gilly meant.

"She did tell me about what happened to you" Jon said softly.

"And now you think my son is a monster" Gilly said and tears started to roll down her cheeks.

"No, Gilly, I don't" Jon said and he decided to sit down next to her on the bed anyway so he could look into her eyes "I think you're very brave for leaving your father"

The young girl looked at him with her big, brown doe eyes.

"You do?" she asked him.

Jon nodded.

"I do" he said "it must not have been easy"

Gilly smiled a little while she looked at her baby.

"I had to leave for him" she said "I'd do anything to keep him safe"

Jon smiled too while he looked at the little baby and he wondered what his own mother had been like.

Did she love him as much as Gilly loved her child?

When he was younger he always imagined that his mother didn't want him because he was a mistake and a bastard but maybe his mother had known that his life would be better if he grew up with his father's family.

"I know you will" Jon said "but there are some things you can't protect him from"

Tears started to well up in Gilly's eyes again.

"I don't want to give him up" she said softly "he is all I have"

He put an arm around her shoulder and surprisingly she didn't push him away.

"He can't live a normal life like this" Jon said "you won't be giving him up, but you will be giving him a chance"

"I know" Gilly said while she laid down her head on his shoulder and cried "but I don't want to, because then I'll be alone again"

Aemon looked at Gilly as if he wanted to ask her what was wrong and he feared that the baby would start to cry soon too.

Gilly noticed it too and once again she surprised him by showing him how strong a mother could be if it concerned her child.

She sat up straight again and wiped away her tears with the back of her hand.

"Don't worry, honey" she said and she even managed to smile a little at the baby "mommy is fine"

A smile immediately appeared again on the baby's face and Jon couldn't even imagine how hard it must be for Gilly to give up her baby.

"I met this family when I just moved her" she said softly "they were looking for a child to adopt"

"Did you like them?" Jon asked her.

Gilly nodded.

"They seemed kind" she said.

"Maybe we should call them" Jon said "it doesn't hurt to talk to them again, right?"

"I guess not" she said her voice still barely louder than a whisper.

She looked up at him again and she gave him a small smile.

"Thank you, Jon" she said.

Arya

Arya was sitting on top of one of the workbenches in the garage while she watched Gendry work on the pickup truck.

Well to be honest the only thing she could really see were his legs while he was underneath the truck on top of one of those skateboard things.

She thought she had heard him call it a creeper but Arya didn't really know anything about mechanic stuff and she didn't want to know it either.

Gendry's father was a mechanic and he had been teaching Gendry how to fix a car since he was just a kid.

Gendry didn't need his father's help anymore though so every once in a while his father would pass a costumer on to Gendry.

Arya knew that Gendry was saving the money he made by that to pay for college when he would graduate from High School.

"Can you give me that wrench over there?" Gendry asked her and Arya jumped off the table.

"Which one?" she asked him while looking at a set of wrenches which only varied in size.

Gendry rolled out from under the car on the creeper and pointed at the wrench he wanted.

"That one" he said and she tossed it at him.

Gendry easily caught the wrench with one hand, thanked her and slid back under the car so all she could see of him were once again his in grease covered jeans.

Arya walked around the garage and looked at a few tools before she spook to him.

"I think your dad knows that were sleeping together" Arya suddenly told him as casual as possible.

*BANG*

Arya quickly turned around and she saw Gendry sliding out from under the car while rubbing his forehead.

Apparently she had surprised him so much that he had accidently bumped his head against the car.

She tried not to laugh at that but his bewildered look was pretty funny.

"Relax, he's probably just happy for you" Arya said chuckling.

That seemed to have made Gendry feel a little bit better at least.

He got off the creeper and he wiped his hands clean on a rag which Arya didn't believe to be completely clean either but she didn't comment on it.

She liked seeing Gendry work.

"Since they know that we're dating, maybe you could introduce me to them or something" Arya said once again trying to sound casual.

"What do you mean?" Gendry asked her "my parents already know you"

Arya rolled her eyes at him before answering.

"They know your friend Arry" she said "They don't know your girlfriend Arya"

Gendry laughed and he wrapped his arms around her.

Arya could easily imagine her sister's reaction if a guy had pressed himself against her while he was still wearing his greasy work clothes but Arya didn't mind.

"Will you wear a dress when I introduce you?" he asked her teasing "And high heels? And a matching purse?"

"No, but feel free to wear it in my place" she said annoyed and she tried to push him off her.

"I'm just kidding" he said smiling and he pressed a kiss on her forehead "I just never imagined that you would be the first one to take things serious"

She managed to free herself from his hug at last and she gave him an annoyed look while she crossed her arms in front of her chest.

"I'm not!" she said and Gendry laughed again.

She could feel a blush spread across her face and she felt embarrassed somehow.

If Gendry told her that he wasn't ready yet to take things serious then that would break her heart but because she was as stubborn as she was she would never tell him.

"Yes, you are!" Gendry said "but it doesn't matter because I would love to introduce you to my family"

"Good" she said and she allowed him to hug her again "but I'm not wearing a dress!"

Gendry laughed while he held her.

"Will you wear a dress to Prom though, this Friday?" he asked her.

"I don't know, are we going to Prom?" she asked him in return.

"Of course, because you're my girlfriend and we're going to do everything together from now on because we're like super, totally serious" Gendry said teasing her again.

She once again freed herself from his hug and she walked to the door with an angry expression on her face and her hands clenched into fists.

"Arya, where are you going?" he asked her.

Arya turned around and shot him a mean look.

"You're making fun of me!" she said.

"Come on, you know I didn't mean it that way" Gendry said.

Arya shrugged and she flicked her fringe.

Suddenly a smile spread across her face as she remembered something.

"Oh well, you'll regret it when I'll introduce you to my family later this week" Arya said "I have four brothers remember?"

"Oh come on, Rickon is like five or something!" Gendry said but she could see that he was starting to worry already.

Arya shrugged.

"Well my father promised that he was going to come home soon" Arya said "maybe my uncle Benjen will pay us a visit too"

The smile on Gendry's face had disappeared completely now.

"You know I was just kidding, right?" Gendry asked her and this time it was her turn to laugh.

"Maybe I should tell them that we've slept together too" Arya continued "it's not really fair that your parents know and mine don't, don't you think?"

"Please, Arya, they'll kill me!" Gendry said and she chuckled again.

"Come on, you know that I didn't mean it that way!" she said repeating his words.

This time they both started laughing and she was really glad to have Gendry in her life.

She was a bit nervous about the whole Prom thing though.

Theon

Theon hadn't been to the institution where his mother lived in a long time and he felt both guilty and nervous.

The glass, automatic doors opened for Theon and Jeyne and they entered the light hallway.

There was a large, white desk and a middle-aged woman was sitting behind it.

The woman had been working at the institution for as long as Theon could remember and when he was younger she always gave him a lollypop on his way out.

"Hello, I'm here for Alannys Greyjoy" Theon told the woman.

"She's in her room, Theon, I'll tell the nurses that you're on your way over there" the woman said smiling.

He guessed that it was a good sign that the secretary hadn't forgotten his name yet in his absence.

Theon walked into the hallway which led to his mother's room.

He didn't have to check the signs because he knew the route by heart.

Asha had dragged him through the hallways countless of times after his father stopped taking them to visit their mother.

"If you're not comfortable with this then we don't have to go, you know" Theon said.

He wasn't ashamed of his mother but he didn't feel completely comfortable with showing her to Jeyne either.

Theon didn't know in what kind of state his mother would be.

"I'll be fine" Jeyne said and she smiled at him.

"She might not even recognize me" Theon said "maybe we should just go..."

Theon stopped walking and Jeyne looked at him with those big, brown eyes of her.

"If you really don't want to see her then we don't have to" Jeyne said "but you can't avoid her forever, she's your mother after all, and even though she might not recognize you I'm sure that she will appreciate the company"

Theon sighed and ran a hand through his dark hair.

"Okay, fine, let's go" he said shrugging and he pretended that he didn't really care anyway.

It was easier that way sometimes.

Jeyne sighed too but she didn't comment on his attitude.

The door to his mother's room was open and her nurse just left.

"Oh there you are" the red-haired woman said and she smiled at him.

Theon was surprised to see that his mother had been assigned a new nurse but maybe it wasn't so surprising at all considering the fact that he slept with her former, younger and prettier nurse in the supply closet.

He still hadn't figured out yet if he should be proud of that or not.

"Alannys, your son is here to see you" the nurse said.

"Rodrick?" he could hear his mother ask and if it wasn't for Jeyne that that would have been the moment he left again.

Jeyne entered the room however and since he was holding her hand he followed her.

Alannys Greyjoy was sitting in her chair near the window and she was looking outside of it.

Theon was glad to see that they had put her in normal clothes again because the hospital gown in combination with her long, white hair had made her look like a ghost.

There was a large bouquet of fresh flowers on the nightstand next to his mother's bed and Theon wondered if his father had visited her recently.

He never told Theon or Asha when he visited their mother but Theon knew he did regularly.

"Hey, mom, how are you doing?" Theon asked her but she just gave him a confused look while she tried to figure out if she knew him.

"Theon?" she asked him eventually and her voice sounded hoarse.

"Yes, it's me mom" Theon said.

She looked him up and down and started smiling.

"You have grown so much!" his mother said "Look how handsome you have become, my baby Theon!"

She was always surprised to see how much he had grown which wasn't strange if you considered the fact that he would always stay ten years old in her mind which was the age he had been when his brothers died.

He felt a bit embarrassed when she called him "baby Theon" but Jeyne didn't seem to have noticed or else she pretended she hadn't.

"Hello, Misses Greyjoy" Jeyne said with a smile while she sat down in a chair next to his mother's "I'm Jeyne"

"Is this your girlfriend, Theon?" his mother asked him while she took Jeyne's hands into hers.

Theon nodded and he couldn't help but smile.

"I've always wanted another daughter" Alannys said "I only ever had sons and Asha was just like a boy sometimes"

Theon knew that she would start to ask for Rodrick or Maron any time now but Jeyne seemed to be in control of the situation.

"My mother always wanted a son" Jeyne said "she had five daughters"

"Five daughters?" his mother asked laughing "I can't even imagine what that must be like"

Jeyne laughed too and Theon was glad to see that they got along.

"Well, it can be a bit much sometimes" Jeyne admitted.

"That I can imagine" Alannys said and Theon saw some of her old self return "my older sister Gwyness and I used to fight like crazy over the dumbest things"

Theon and Jeyne stayed at the institution for a while until the nurse asked them to leave so Alannys could get some rest.

He was really glad that he had introduced Jeyne to his mother even though he knew that Alannys wouldn't remember much of it.

Tyrion

The library of Castely Rock was completely dark and the only light that entered the room was the moonlight which shone through the windows.

Tyrion was sitting in the window seat and he rested his head against the cool glass of the window while he drank from his glass of wine every once in a while.

He had been looking for something to read and something to drink to take his mind off things which was the reason why the floor was covered in open books and empty bottles.

He had given up on the reading part because it didn't distract him from his sorrows as much as he had wanted it to.

The drinking seemed to help though or at least it had at first but now there was nothing he could do to keep his mind of Shae.

He missed her and he hated her which wasn't the best combination.

Tyrion heard someone knock on the library door and he didn't have to guess who it was.

Jaime had been trying to confront him for a while now but he had always succeeded in avoiding him.

The wine had made him tired so he didn't think he was going to succeed this time.

It didn't really matter anyway, he had always known that he would have to talk to his brother sooner or later.

"Come in" he said and he drank some more.

Maybe the wine would take him off to a dreamless sleep before Jaime had the chance to talk to him.

Tyrion smiled a little bit at the thought of his brother trying to apologize before he noticed that Tyrion wasn't even awake.

Jaime entered the library and he immediately flicked the light on.

Tyrion quickly closed his eyes but it was already too late and he could feel a headache coming up.

"What do you want?" he asked his brothers while he kept his eyes closed and he massaged his temples.

"I just want to talk to you" Jaime said "I didn't think you were going to give me the chance to"

Tyrion couldn't help but notice the bitterness in his brother's voice while he added the last part.

Tyrion let out a sigh.

"I'd be more than glad to listen to your apology but it's going to be hard if I can't see you, so would you be so kind as to turn the light back off?" Tyrion asked his brother.

He could hear Jaime sigh and the lights turned off after he heard a soft and familiar *click*.

Tyrion opened his eyes again and he shifted in his seat.

"Will you listen to me now?" Jaime asked him and he sounded annoyed again.

"Sure" Tyrion said "just don't expect me to forgive you easily"

Tyrion didn't like his brother's attitude one bit.

The only thing Tyrion might have in common with his sweet sister was the fact that they both were fairly unforgiving and the fact that his brother wasn't exactly begging for forgiveness didn't help this either.

"I know that it seems like a dick move, okay? But I just wanted you to feel confident for once and I thought that this would help you feel like that" Jaime said "I didn't know what kind of girl Shae was and if I had known that she would keep up the charades for so long then I would have never gone through with the plan"

Tyrion snorted and he took his mismatched eyes of his brother.

"I wish I had two heads" Tyrion said "so one could cry for your heartbreaking tale while the other laughed at you for your pathetic attempt at winning back my trust"

A blush spread across his brother's face and Tyrion smiled somehow.

He wanted his brother to feel as horrible as he had done when he just found out what happened.

"So you're telling me that you did it because you felt sorry for me?" Tyrion asked him "Do you often feel sorry for your ugly, little brother when you look into the mirror? because I don't want you to, I don't appreciate it and I don't need it"

Jaime was no longer blushing but he had gone as white as a sheet.

Tyrion was enjoying it somehow.

"I'll feel sorry for you though when I'm CEO of LannisCorp" Tyrion said while he got up from his seat and walked past his brother.

"Dad will never give LannisCorp to you before me" Jaime said.

Tyrion laughed at that.

"Some men might think that father is a God but he isn't, dear brother" Tyrion asked him "and all mortal men die sooner or later"

Jaime looked at him with a shocked look on his face.

Tyrion just realized that his words had sounded like a threat but he didn't take it back.

Tyrion preferred his brother thinking that he was a monster over his brother thinking he was someone who deserved pity.

Smiling he left the library while his brother's shocked look turned into one of disgust.