Jon
Jon sat by the window at his father's old room. No, not father, he reminded himself, uncle. Uncle Ned. Or so they told him. He was still a bastard, but now he was a royal bastard. Half Stark half Targeryen. Ice and fire.
Howland Reed swore it true; Lyanna Stark gave birth to Jon at the Tower of Joy and then swore Ned to raise him as his own. The people he thought that were his brothers and sisters were now his cousins, he had a new brother and the queen was his aunt, and she insisted that he would rule beside them as the third dragon. Jon's head hurt.
"This city stinks", he said, rubbing his temple.
"Yes, it does. You get used to it", said Barristan Selmy, the hand of the queen. He looked tired and old. He reminded Jon of the old bear Mormont, Mormont would have yell at him to get himself back to the wall, where he is truly needed.
"We should not linger here any longer. The white walkers are nearing the wall as we speak. We should send the dragons and reinforcement at once. We cannot let them get even near the wall." Since the War of Winter ended, with the retreat of the white walkers back to the far north, there were several attacks on the wall. The wall was reinforced with thousands of trained soldiers, but Jon knew it wouldn't be enough once the White walkers reassemble their army. We might have won the battle, but the war is far from an end. Melisandra and her red priests told him he must unite with the queen and her cousin in order to defeat the Other once and for all, and that was the only reason that Jon Snow, the 998th commander of the Night's Watch, was here at this city that smelled like an auroch's ass. Or so Jon has told himself.
"The queen throws a great feast in the honor of her lost sibling, surly you wouldn't disappoint her?" the hand said as he wrote his letters.
"That can wait for after we deal with this" Jon said, annoyed. Dragons are the ultimate weapon against the white walkers; maybe they should send one to be there at all times.
"Your little cousin is on her way; wouldn't you wait to see her, at least?"
Arya. His little sister was so close, he hasn't seen her for more than five years, and he could actually feel her close to him. Jon petted Ghost's head, our sisters are near. Aegon couldn't stop talking about her since he got back to Kings Landing, and it made Jon miss her even more. He wondered how she looked and what her voice sounded like. He wondered if she still got Needle and if she still calls everything and everyone stupid. Jon smiled weakly at that thought. His little sister is now a woman grown, she probably doesn't even use that word anymore.
Barristan was eying him with amusement, "you'll stay another week then, the Wall will hold."
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Jon was sitting in the great hall, bored by the talk around him. Dany and the master of coin were talking about the arrangement for the feast and Barristan, Aegon and the Dornish men were engaged in a conversation about horses and melees. Arianne of Dorne looked as bored as he was, she was picking at a loose strand in her dress, trying to decide whether to rip it or tuck it back in. her engagement with Aegon was formally cancelled by the request of both sides and she couldn't wait to get back to Dorne. She was flirting with Jon from the minute he met her, and he found that he rather liked her. With her free spirit and cheeky attitude, she reminded him of Yigritte. Jon sighed, he was a man of the Night's Watch, and women are off limits.
As Jon was about to retire, Ghost suddenly pricked his ears and wagged his tale. The door slammed open, and Jon Connington walked in the room, followed by five very haggard men. As Connington stepped forward and bowed to the Queen Jon stood up and searched for his sister.
There she was, tall and lean. Her dark brown hair set on her shoulder in a long braid, Nymeria at her side, a woman grown indeed. She looked so different, yet he would still recognize her anywhere. Ghost ran to Nymeria and Arya turned her eyes to look at Jon. The minute their eyes met it seemed like they were the only ones in the room. Grey met grey and Jon took a step towards her, his arms spread in front of him, inviting. His little sister gave him a huge smile, which must have been reflected on his own face, and ran to him, jumping into his arms. He picked her up, like when she was little, and span around with her, squeezing her hard in his arms, he wanted to never let go of her again.
Finally, he put her down and she looked up at him, smiling.
"You got old" they said together, and then burst out laughing. She hugged him again and he could feel her tears on his shoulder. When she let go she was thrown to the floor by Ghost, the silent direwolf licked her face enthusiastically as he was a mere puppy and not a fierce scary giant beast. She giggled and wiggled and laughed hard. Nymeria came to him and he hugged her head fiercely. He didn't care who his parents were, Arya was his little sister. Now and forever.
Jon looked around the room and realized that everyone was staring at them.
Dany and ser Barristan were very amused, and Arianne and the Dornish men just gaped at the sight of a giant direwolf practically eating the young woman's face on the floor. The men who entered with Arya earlier were laughing out loudly, and a tall black haired young man was actually on the verge of tears. Jon Connington was twisting his mouth in distaste and Aegon looked at Arya in admiration. Jon liked that, Aegon was plainly infatuated with Arya, and Jon certainly liked his new found brother. Arya deserved such a fine man.
"Ghost, to me" Jon said smiling, and helped Arya up. He escorted her to where they all sat and she bowed to the queen and took the place beside him, a huge smile still all over her face.
As they engaged back in conversation the black haired man came to sit beside Arya. He looked very familiar.
"Oh, Jon I want you to meet Gendry Baratheon" Arya said happily. Gendry gave him a friendly smile and shook his hand strongly. So this was Robert's bastard. Poor guy, all of this trouble and he wouldn't get to be the lord of Storm's End after all. The people of the Storm lands found another Baratheon bastard named Edric who was familiar with the land and was taught from childhood how to be a lord, they wanted him as a ruler, and Dany was allowing it, the boy was on his way to King's Landing to swear his allegiance. Aegon was furious and now he couldn't even look at Gendry. Now that Jon saw how fond his sister was to that man, he knew she would be furious too. Jon returned the smile and listened to Arya's stories about their journey here.
His little sister sure has changed a lot. Her face was calmer, not showing a hint of emotion as she spoke, she seemed to constantly examine her surroundings while talking. When Arianne joined their conversation she took immediate liking to her, and the two women shared a long conversation about sand steeds, the only time he saw Arya truly smiling was when Arianne promised her that she should send her one.
Gendry Baratheon came to sit next to Jon. "I was really looking forward to meet you", he said to Jon, his face was serious and a bit angry, he was very muscular and strict, so unlike the fat jolly late king Robert. "Arya always talked about how you were her favorite brother, and how she missed you. Look how happy you made her", Gendry had a little smile on his face when he looked at Arya. Jon didn't really know what to say to that, so he just gave Gendry a warm smile. Nymeria came to Gendry's side and started rubbing her head on his hand, forcing him to lift it and pet her head, Gendry complied. Jon looked in amazement; Ghost never let anyone touch him but Sam. "You know", Gendry continued, looking thoughtfully at Nymeria, "I think I need to thank you, I guess that the only reason she ever liked me was because I was a bastard like you". Jon laughed heartily, that's great, the royal bastard brotherhood for protecting Arya Stark. He patted Gendry's shoulder fondly "yeah, Arya is something special".
Gendry turned his attention back to Nymeria and Jon rose to leave. He caught Arya's eye and signaled her to follow him, he wanted some quality time with his beloved little sister, which seemed to have men swooping all around her, when in the seven hells did Arya become Sansa? Finally Arya stood up and excused herself from the conversation. When they turned to leave Deanerys called for him, he turned slowly toward her, annoyed. What now?
"Jon, we are assembling tomorrow morning at the clearing in the Kingswood. There is a new garment in your room; you are expected to wear it". Jon bowed his head to her. "And Arya, you are to be there too." Arya nodded and they both left the hall.
The King's Justice's room was small and plain, one would have never guessed that it was a woman's room. Jon sat on a small wooden chair by the bed. Arya put needle in his hands, smiling. "She had seen her share of blood, I threw away all my other belonging, but I couldn't part with her." Jon looked at the little sword, too long to be a dirk, too short to be a sword. His little sister had outgrown his little gift, but she still kept it anyway, as a reminder of her favorite brother. And now he has to tell her that they are not actually brother and sister.
"It looks different", it looked sharper and stronger, like Arya.
"Yeah, well Gendry mended it a little."
Jon smiled, "you like him".
Arya looked at him puzzled, "of course I like him, he reminds me of you, stupid."
Jon got up and hugged his sister tightly. She squirmed in his grip, laughing.
"pffff, the tough commander of the Night's Watch. Bet the giants are terrified of your hugs"
For that he just squeezed her tighter, "Well, you're no giant, little sister. You seem more like a mouthy wildling to me". She reached her hand behind his neck and pushed on a spot there that made his arms loose and he dropped her, stunned. "How did you do that?" she smiled a wicked smile at him, "mouthy wildlings magic".
He sat on the bed, and she jumped in to join him. She fell to her back sighing and pulled him next to her. "So, what's going on tomorrow?"
Here we go. "I'm getting legitimized", he said wearily, dreading her next words. She sat up, a huge smile on her face. "You're becoming a Stark! Finally!" she was so happy, it nearly broke his heart to shake his head and say "no".
There was silence; she waited for him to explain. He took a big breath and sat up; he turned to face her and took her little hand in his. Grey eyes met grey eyes, "I'm becoming a Targaryen. It seems that I am Rhegar's lost son. Rhegar and Lyanna's son". Arya's stare was blank, and for the first time ever he didn't know what his little sister think.
"you're Aegon's little brother", she finally said. Then she burst out laughing. Jon was confused, he expected her to scream in anger, to punch him and walk away angrily, to cry… he would have never guessed that she will react this way.
"I don't see why this is so funny", he said, affronted. She punched his arm and he laughed too. "This doesn't change anything, you know. You're still my little sister". He wanted her to know that he wasn't leaving her, after all that she had lost. She gave him a look full of emotion and this time she was the one that was squeezing him tight. He ruffled her hair and hugged her back. "You didn't think you'll get rid of me that easily, did you?"
She pulled back and looked at him. "How did you get that?" she pointed to the scars on his face. She didn't want to talk about this, and he was fine with that. He touched it lightly with his right hand. "A man inside an eagle nearly got my eye out" she nodded, as if she understood. She is a warg too, Jon reminded himself, looking at Nymeria. "And your hand?", Jon looked at his burned hand, the faded scars reminded him of the old bear Mormont. "Throwing an oil lamp at a wight". Arya looked puzzled, she touched his scars lightly, "I thought a fire cannot hurt a dragon".
"That was before", if Arya look under his shirt, she would see scars from the knife stabs as well, a reminders of his black brothers assault. After that incident Melisandre healed him and he had changed, he could walk through the fire and it would freeze him, he could take a burning coal with his bare hands and smash it in an Other's face. Arya looked confused again, but how can he explain this to her? "Fighting against the Others changed me", she looked as she was going to ask difficult questions, and he wanted to change the subject to avoid that, "I can ride a dragon now", he smiled at the surprised look on her face. "That's what I'm going to do tomorrow at the king's woods".
"The three heads of the Dragon", they said together, and smiled to each other.