Lawna

Lawna sighed, breathing in the salty air. It was so queer. She could actually taste the salt on her tongue, as though she was eating it. Even with her eyes closed, she could tell where she was. Beneath her, coarse sand squeezed between her toes while water rushed over her feet, trailing the sand with it. To her right and left the sand stretched out almost as far as the eye could see, and in the distance there were cliffs. Behind her, her brothers and little sister were screaming like heathens, probably still flinging seaweed at each other. But it was what was before Lawna that she liked best of all.

The sea.

It stretched for leagues and leagues and leagues. All beautiful, lapping water. It was so blue, even in the glowing light of the setting sun. The blue of her father's eyes, her eyes. This was where her father came from, she knew, from the sea and the sand and the South. He was a Waters, and she was a Snow.

Her mother hated the South, but she had come anyway, at Lawna's begging. Of course, Ned and Jon and Nymeria had all begged as well, and that had helped loads.

"They might not be Stark's in name," her uncle Jon had joked, "but they're just as determined as you lot ever were; maybe even more so. The wolf blood runs in them yet."

"Ours is the fury!" Nymeria had shouted gleefully.

"No," Lawna corrected her sister with a frown; she was always correcting Nymeria. "Those are Baratheon words. Stark words are 'winter is coming.'"

"Then why the blazes do you lot want to go South?" Her mother had grumbled. Her mother liked the North best of all.

"To see where father lived!" Ned had cried.

"It's a rotten place," their mother had warned them.

"How could the sea be rotten?" Lawna had demanded. "Father said it was beautiful, and you said it looked like his eyes."

Finally her mother had relented to a very short holiday of four days. However, had Lawna realized what traveling would be like, with her three younger siblings and the babe, well... She might not have begged so much to go.

But she was glad they went. Fearfully glad. It gave her time to think, or rather, to try not to think. She dreaded going back home.

It wouldn't have been so bad if she had expected it; but honestly, it had come out from no where! One minute, she and Ruben were teasing each other, insulting each other like they always did, and the next he was taking her hand.

She had been surprised to say the least.

"I don't want you to go," he had said, and for the first time Lawna realized that his hair wasn't dirty brown, it was cinnamon, like his sisters, but lighter, and his eyes had gold flecks in them.

"It's only for a few days, stupid," Lawna had sputtered, her mind spinning in confusion. "I'll be back soon, if my brothers don't kill me first."

Ruben looked bashful, and she blinked in surprise when she realized he was blushing.

"What if you meet some rich fish merchant or something?" He had said, not letting go of her hand and kicking the dirt.

"Don't be stupid," Lawna had laughed at that. "I'm not going to run off with some fish merchant and forget you."

She nearly screamed when she had said that. Her wording was all wrong. She hadn't meant it like-

But every thought was wiped clean from her mind, because he had leaned in and brushed his lips against hers. It was a small kiss, and when he pulled back she almost felt disappointed, like she wished there had been more.

That was the point where she had dropped his hand and bolted.

"Say goodbye to your sister for me!" She had called over her shoulder, leaving him standing there in the fields like an idiot, all alone, his eyes questioning. That wasn't fair, she shouldn't have done that. What should she have done?

Now, it was all she could think about.

What if he wanted to marry her? The thought terrified her. Or did it? Suddenly, she was remembering a lot of things about Ruben that she should have noticed. Like how he went from gawky and awkward to tall and lanky, the work in the fields finally having a positive affect on his build. And then there was his hair and his eyes to consider, and himself.

But they had always teased one another! Surely there was another girl she had seen him with! Oh yes, Anabelle, that cow eyed little insipid thing that had called her a bastard. But then Ruben had jumped to her defense, and she never saw Anabelle again. Could it be... Could it be possible that he had really liked her all along? Like a man liked a woman? And that she had been too blind to see it?

She was a girl of fifteen, a woman grown actually, come to think of it. She was a girl no more, but she was also a bastard, and though she was pretty, she hadn't had many, if any, suitors. Maybe Ruben just liked her because he pitied her. The thought made her strangely sad.

"What are you thinking about with such difficulty?"

Lawna turned to see her father coming to stand beside her, his towering build nearly dwarfing her in it's shadow. Her father might have looked imposing, but he was far from it. She loved him more than anything. Well... Maybe not more than anything. She loved her mother as well, and her siblings, though she'd never let her brothers know.

"Has Nymeria been bothering you again?" Her father asked, smiling.

"No," Lawna said grumpily.

"I thought I saw you stalk away when she threw seaweed on you," her father said, and he sounded like he was trying not to laugh, "or was that someone else?"

"She's such a baby," Lawna snapped. "She's seven, she should be acting more grown up!"

"You used to like playing around," her father said. "Not three months ago I saw you stuff your brother's furs with snow."

That had been fun.

"Well maybe I don't anymore," Lawna said haughtily. "I'm a woman grown, you know."

"So you are," her father said, as if just realizing it. "But even women grown have fun. Just look at your mother."

Lawna looked around to see her mother try to swat Ned with seaweed while still holding the baby in her arms.

"Lady Sansa would never play with seaweed, or put sand in people's beds," Lawna objected. Her father laughed at this.

"No, that she wouldn't," he agreed. "But that's not what's bothering you, is it? Even since we left Winterfell you've been troubled. Are you homesick?"

"No! It's RUBEN!"

Lawna whipped around to see her little brother, Ned, making kissing noises in the background.

"I don't know what you're talking about!" Lawna shrieked. Ned grinned.

"Yes you do! I saw you talking the other day!" He crooned. "He gave you a kiss! Right on the mouth!"

"He did what?" Her father roared.

"No he didn't!" Lawna cried, alarmed. "You're a liar!"

"You want to marry him!" Ned sang. "You want to make babies with him! Lots and lots of them!"

"No I don't!" Lawna was near tears now she was so embarrassed.

"Lawna loves a smelly farmer's boy, they kissed in the fields!" Ned sang. He was always coming up with songs. The little shit. "And he said, 'will you marry me?' and she said, 'oh yes I will'!"

"SHUT UP!" Lawna roared, racing from the water. Ned gave a squawk of fear and ran, but he kept singing. Her other siblings joined in as well, all giggling. Nymeria and Jon were twins, and did everything together. If Ned was teasing Lawna, Nymeria and Jon would join him. If Lawna was putting soup in Ned's boots, they were right there beside her. The two-faced little demons.

"Lawna loves a smelly farmer's boy, they kissed in the fields! He said, 'will you marry me?' and she said, 'oh yes I will'!"

"Stop it!" Lawna cried, tears stinging in her eyes. "Stop it all of you!"

"Lawna-"

"Now that's enough!" Her mother swatted Ned about the ear and he fell silent at once. "Go play now, you've tormented your sister quite enough for one day."

They all let out a sigh of protest, but did not cross her. When Lawna's mother said something, it was the law, and the gods protect anyone who tried to cross her. Everyone in Westeros knew how good she was with a blade.

"Come on Lawna," her mother said, taking her hand, "let's you, your father, and I have ourselves a talk."

Lawna suddenly felt frightened.

"I didn't kiss Ruben, honestly!" She lied at once. She didn't want him to get in trouble.

"Of course you did," her mother said, "and it's about time too. I was beginning to think the boy was soft."

"You knew?" Her father demanded, looking far less nonchalant than her mother.

"I suspected," her mother corrected him. "It was obvious."

"It was?" Lawna was shocked, as well as her father.

"Gendry," her mother said, turning to her father, "didn't they remind you of how we were as children?"

Her father frowned. He obviously hadn't thought of that.

"But she's far too young for marriage," he protested.

"I don't want to get married," Lawna cut in quickly. "I mean... I don't know if I want to. He hasn't asked me."

"Oh good," her father said, sounding relieved.

"She's a woman grown, Gendry," her mother pointed out, "and only a year or so younger than I was when we met as a man and a woman."

Lawna felt her cheeks turned bright hot. Sometimes she wished her parents had married. Most times, really. It would make a whole lot of things easier. But ladies couldn't marry bastards, or outlawed knights either. It didn't matter, not really. They were still a family.

Her father looked uncomfortable too.

"There's no mention of that!" Lawna said hastily, alarmed. "I'm not sure if I even like him yet."

"You aren't?" Her mother asked, raising an eyebrow.

Lawna swallowed hard. She wasn't sure. She wasn't sure about these new feelings, and they scared her.

"A farmer's boy?" Her father asked, sounding skeptical.

"He's a good person!" Lawna objected at once. "And he can read! I taught him!"

Her parents both looked at her, and she had a feeling she had just answered her mother's question.

"I suppose it's the best I could ask for," her father said with a resigned shrug. "She'll live so close."

"And he'll treat her well," her mother said.

"Aye, and if he doesn't-"

"I'll deal with him myself."

"He just kissed me," Lawna said weakly. "We're not getting married!"

"Your mother just shoved me once," her father said, a knowing look in his eye, "and we've had five children."

Lawna gulped. She'd shoved Ruben loads of times. She wondered how many children that equaled. Strangely, Lawna thought as she turned to look back out over the lapping waves, she didn't seem to mind.

The end =