The geography in this fic is a bit confusing. I decided to put together the fictional world of Ice and Fire with the real world, so basically, I imagine that the planet is bigger and the continents of Essos and Westeros are just somewhere between the oceans or something like that.

He was tired of waiting. He had been there for hours, sitting on that goddamn uncomfortable chair, doing nothing, just waiting. Each day that passed, he hated his boss even more for making him do this stupid jobs.

They had been back at King's Landing for a few days already. Sandor had hated every minute spent at Lannisport, and he did not wish to go back there in many years, at least. He had thought that he could take a little break from work once he was in King's Landing, he knew that Joffrey did not have anything to do in those weeks, so he should be needing his bodyguard's services...

Of course, Sandor wasn't so lucky. For the third time already, Joffrey ordered him to go with the Stark girl. Sandor had not even bothered to protest, he knew it was of no use. He out his working suit on and drove to the direction that Joffrey had provided him.

Sansa had already left the Red Keep hours ago when Sandor was told to go and get her. She didn't need protection where she was, but Sandor had the feeling that Joffrey just wanted there to be someone to control his fiancée.

Little jealous shit, he thought when Joffrey told him to keep his eyes on Sansa the whole time. He still remembered when the golden prick had asked him if Sansa had seen any men. Does he think that she is like him?

Maybe she is, a voice murmured in the back of his head. You have thought about it many times, even she knows that you think that she is a capricious gold digger.

So Sandor had drove to the Recording Studios where Sansa was currently working on her new album. It took him a long time to get there. He parked his car in a place that he wouldn't forget later, and then he walked into the studios. He showed his identification to the guard at the front desk and then he was shown to a little room where he could wait for Sansa to finish her recording session. That was where he had been waiting for the last three hours.

He checked with watch, feeling impatient. Seven fucking hells, how many hours a day did that girl spend singing non-stop?!

He caught himself wishing that he could hear her voice singing. He had just heard it once, and though he hated music, he had been enchanted by her voice. It provoked a peaceful feeling in him that he could not put into words. Unfortunately, he could not even hear a few muffled notes from her songs from where he was. He didn't even know where the girl was, she as probably too far away to be able to hear her anyways. So Sandor had no option but to wait in silence.

He saw a magazine lying abandoned on a chair across the room. He had never read a magazine in his life, but he did a double take on it when he realized who was on the cover of it. Sansa. Her bright auburn hair was impossible to miss.

Practically against his own will, he stood up from the chair and crossed to the other side of the room, and took the magazine from the chair on which it was lying. He looked at the big picture in the cover of the magazine, and allowed his grey, angry eyes to admire the girl's beauty. She was perfect, there wasn't a single flaw at view, and he knew first-hand that it was not because of the magic of photoshop. He looked at her wavy long auburn hair, her deep sky-blue eyes, her perfect smile with pearly white teeth, her blushed cheeks and high cheekbones...

Then he read the name of the article about her, and his mood was immediately fouled.

SANSA STARK, THE POP PRINCESS. ALL ABOUT HER NEW MOVIE AND HER UPCOMING WEDDING TO GOVERNOR JOFFREY BARATHEON.

He narrowed his eyes, any his grip on the magazine became so tight that the paper almost tore apart. He hadn't had any interest in reading the magazine, and now he wanted to read it even less than before. But curiosity got the better of him.

He sat down the chair, which was jut as uncomfortable as the other one and even colder, and he opened the magazine. He angrily skipped over stupid articles for women and adds of perfume, clothes and beauty products, and finally found the article about the Stark girl. There were even more pictures of her inside, and in each one she was even more beautiful than in the last one, posing in different way, smiling and giving deep looks to he camera. Sandor though that whoever he taken those pictures was fucking lucky.

There was an interview. Not sure if he wanted to do it, he proceeded to read it.

MC: Sansa, your movie, Gunslinger, was one of the biggest hits in Hollywood this year! Did you expect to be nominated for an Oscar at the very start of your acting career?

SS: I did not! It was a huge surprise, I was totally not expecting that. Well, the whole cast was excellent, and so was the script and the director and everyone involved in the production, so I did think that the movie was going to do well, but being nominated for the Oscars?! That was a shocker! (Laughs)

MC: And not only in one category! You are nominated for two Oscars! You are nominated for Best Actress and Best Original Song. Did you compose that song all by yourself? Is it true that you wrote it before you started working in the movie?

SS: I did, yes. And yes, it's true.

MC: What inspired you? What made you write that song? It is a very beautiful and emotional song, I believe it has a deep meaning to it.

SS: Well, I'm not sure what inspired me... I wrote it when I was still living with my family at our home, back in Winterfell, and... I just felt the need to stop doing all that I was doing and start singing, you know? And I did, and I created that song. It is a very special song for me, and I love to sing it.

MC: And you do it so well! Your voice is so beautiful! Your ability to make people cry and then put them to dance to a completely different rhythm is incredibly.

SS: Thank you!

MC: You have a brilliant music career since you were a teenager. Is there any tour coming up?

SS: No, I finished my last tour a while ago. Then I had to leave the country again, to film the movie.

MC: Yes, I heard it wasn't filmed in Westeros or the USA. What shooting locations did you go to?

SS: Well ,the movie was filmed in many places. My costar Anthony had to film a lot in Essos, Arabia and Morocco, but I was filming mostly in England.

MC: Which I've heard that is a lot like the North, the State of Westeros where you grew up in. (I'm from the Reach, I have never been farther away than the Riverlands.)

SS: Yes, exactly! It felt very nice to be in a place that reminded me of home. I had a great time filming the movie, and all my costars were brilliant and so funny and friendly, all the crew was fantastic and I loved the experience. And I'm so happy that people are actually liking the movie so much!

MC: I've heard that one of your costars, Shae, is actually your aunt-in-law?

SS: My future aunt in law, yes. She's amazing, and a great actress.

MC: Now, Sansa, I would like to talk about your personal life for a little bit. A lot has happened to you this year, hasn't it? You lost your father.

SS: Yes, I did.

MC: I'm so sorry. It must have been really hard for you. The whole country loved him, he was a great man and a great Vice President.

SS: Thank you. It was very hard for me, I was not expecting him to leave us so suddenly... I was away during the months previous to his death, between the tour and the movie... And when I came back, a few weeks later he just... (Voice breaks.)

MC: Oh, you poor child... I think I speak in behalf of everyone when we say that all our prayers are with you, and that you are not alone.

SS: Thank you.

MC: But now let's talk about happier things! You are getting married!

SS: (Smiling a bit) I am!

MC: To Governor Joffrey Baratheon, no less! How did you two meet?

SS: When we were younger, at my family's house in Winterfell. Our fathers were friends, and they worked together (his father was the President, as you know), so his family paid us a visit, and...

MC: Love happened?

SS: Love happened. (Giggles. She is a glowing young woman in love.)

By that point in the interview, Sandor got really pissed off at the interviewer's side notes. Young woman in love?! Woman in love?! In love?! Sansa Stark and Joffrey Baratheon were as much in love as a lion was in love with a zebra. Nothing! Sandor had no idea what kind f game those two young stupid kids were playing, but it was definitely not love. He had personally never been in love, he didn't believe in that kind of bullshit, but he did know when two people at least cared for each other. Joffrey didn't care for Sansa, not really. He treated her awfully, despite all his fake gentle gestures with her at some moments. And if the girl cared about him... well, then she was just as stupid as she looked sometimes.

Despite his growing anger, he continued reading that piece of shit written in the magazine.

MC: When is the wedding actually happening, can we know? You have been engaged for quite some time now.

SS: Well, he's very busy with the political campaign and preparing the elections and everything, and I was busy on tour, and then there was the movie, and then there was... my father's death... (voice breaks again, but she recomposes herself), so it was very difficult to start planning the actual wedding, but it is happening soon.

MC: How soon?

SS: Very soon.

MC: And how do you get along with your future mother-in-law, Cersei Lannister?

SS: I get along with her very well! She is an amazing woman, and I've learned a lot from her!

Sandor laughed when he read that.

Yeah, he thought. You've probably learned how to be a manipulative lying bitch from her, probably. That's the only thing that she has to teach.

MC: Well, I hope that you are very happy in your marriage, and that you keep having a brilliant future and career and form a great family! Do you have any other projects coming up?

SS: Thank you so much, you are so sweet! No, I don't have any projects coming up. I'm focusing only on my personal life right now, and on the wedding. The Oscars is the only event that I have pending, and after that I'll just take a big long break from everything. I'll be spending a lot of time with my fiancée until then, and a lot of time with my husband after that!

Sandor closed the magazine angrily and threw it to the side. He should not have lost his time reading it, it was all just a big piece of stinking horseshit! So much fake happiness and stupid babblings... Why didn't the Stark girl tell the truth? That her fiancé slapped her around when he got mad for any reason? He had just seen Joffrey slapping her once, but he had realized that he had done it multiple times when he spoke to Sansa, even if the young woman didn't day anything directly to him. She had just implied it, and Sandor had connected the dots. He felt furious at that, for some reason. He had been at war, he had seen abuse everywhere, he had a dangerous job that included blood and violence more often than not. And still, after all that he had seen and experienced, he could not see his boss' beautiful wife being slapped around. It just made his blood boil.

He hated that she was still with him, and could still not figure out why she didn't dump Joffrey's sorry ass. Yeah, he had figured that it was about the money, and the power... She was just an ambitious bitch like Cersei, that had to be it!

Maybe there's something else, the voice in the back of his head whispered.

Whatever it was, he just... didn't care at that moment. He wanted to get out of that place. He needed to stop thinking about all that, it was just making him angrier with every minute that passed. He stood up from that stupid, small, and uncomfortable chair and got out of the waiting room and into the hallway. He could hear voices and footsteps approaching, and he recognized once of the person as Sansa. She was laughing, and her high heels echoed in the bare walls of the studio's hallway. A man was speaking to her, and Sandor saw them appear in the corner.

"You have done a great job today,' the man that was with her was saying with a big smile on his face. Sandor thought that he recognized him from the night of the concert.

Petyr Baelish, her agent, Sandor realized then. He had done some... research... on the man, and he now knew that he was one of the most important businessmen in the whole country. And for some reason, Sandor didn't like him. Maybe it was the way in which he stared at Sansa, and the way that she happily laughed when she was talking with him.

"Thanks! This was a good day indeed!" She froze when she saw Sandor standing there in the hallway. She had clearly not been expecting him, and for a second she looked startled, maybe even alarmed. But as that second passed, she was just surprised. Baelish recognized him from the night of the concert and raised his eyebrows in a questioning way, but Sandor paid him no attention.

"Sandor!" Sansa exclaimed. "What are you doing her?!"

"Joffrey told me to come and wait for you till you were done. He wanted me to pick you up." And keep an eye on her at all moments, which was basically spying on her, but Sandor didn't mention that.

"Oh," was all that Sansa said. She turned to look at Baelish, who seemed bummed with the presence of the bodyguard there. Sandor guessed that he thought he was going to be lucky and spend a few minutes in the company of the auburn-haired beauty.

Well, you are not going to be so lucky today, you fucker, Sandor muttered in his mind, glaring at the girl's agent.

"I'll see you the next soon!" Sansa said goodbye to the man, and left with Sandor without protesting. The bodyguard had to admit that she was quite obedient. He had never seen her protest about anything that her fiancé told her to do... and he didn't know if he should find it alarming.

They walked out of the building and went to the black Mercedes in which Sandor had drove there. He opened the door for Sansa, who whispered a soft thanks before going in. Then Sandor went to the driver's seat and entered the car, started the engine, and left the parking lot. He had just started t drive when he heard the girl's stomach growling with hunger.

"Oops!" Sansa said, a bit embarrassed. Sandor actually found it amusing, and he felt his mood lightening a bit.

"You are starving, girl," he stated the obvious. He figured that she had been in that place for hours without anything to eat. He knew that what he was about to say wasn't part of his job, but he did it anyways. "I know a few places nearby, some decent restaurants."

"I'm ok," Sansa said quickly, and he looked at her through the rear mirror. He knew he was lying.

"No, you are not. You are starving," he repeated. "You look like you are about to faint, you need something to eat. I won't have you fainting around while you are under my protection, I don't want no trouble, is that clear?"

"I don't want to eat something."

Gods, she's stubborn.

"You'll like the food. And don't worry about the fucking calories, if that is what you are thinking of. You are on your bones, you are not going to get fat for eating in a normal restaurant one day."

"I don't want to go to any restaurants with you!" she suddenly blurted out.

He hadn't expected it to feel like if someone had thrown a right hook at him, but it did. A heavy and uncomfortable silence fell over them, and he clenched his jaw, feeling the rage built up inside him again. He cursed mentally, at himself for being so stupid, and at her for being such a... a... a what, really? A famous rich girl, the fiancée of her boss, who always lived like a princess? could he curse at her for being fucking honest?

"Oh, my God, I'm so sorry..." she said then, sounding completely embarrassed and shocked. Sandor scoffed bitterly.

"Don't bother saying that you are sorry, Miss, we both know that you are not."

"No, I didn't mean it that way, really! What I meant was that-!"

"What? What did you mean? Huh? What you really wanted to say is that you don't want to go to a restaurant with the likes of me, isn't that right? Of course, the little Pop Princes would never even think of being seen in public with someone of the likes of me! Who would want to eat next to a face like mine? I'm sure you would feel like throwing up while looking at my burns!" he almost yelled. He had seriously no fucking idea why he was loosing control like that, but he was making Sansa Stark very nervous, trying to find the right words to speak.

"No! What I mean is that... I can't be seen with a man in public!"

The surprise that that statement provoked him made his anger fade away yet once again, and he stared at her through the rear mirror one more time. She looked really troubled.

"What?"

"The paparazzi are around everywhere!" she explained. "If they saw me with you, they would start taking a lots of pictures and start all this horrible rumors. They are dying to get a chance like that with me! They just want some scandal. And it that were to happen, Joffrey would be so mad!" she cried. "He would... He would... You know."

He would slap her. He would beat her because some fucking stupid halfwit paparazzi invented a stupid story about her with another man. Sandor cursed under his breath, and damned Joffrey and himself. He should have thought about that, and he felt kind of bad about having talked to her in that tone earlier. However, he was not going to apologize. He wouldn't do that.

He looked at her, frowning.

"Don't worry about that. I'm Joffrey's bodyguard... I'm your bodyguard right now, it would be normal that they see you with me," he said. Every celebrity walked around with their bodyguards! Even if the paparazzi invented a stupid ridiculous story, Joffrey wouldn't believe it!

He said that out loud, but Sansa shook her head.

"It doesn't matter, he would believe it. You know how he is. And even if he did not, he would be angry because I embarrassed him. He always does that, look at what happened with my brother and the elections."

That was true, Joffrey had the bad habit of going raging mad whenever something upset him. Sandor didn't want the same thing happening to Sansa again. He thought that Joffrey would indeed get very mad if the paparazzi invented some weird story about them Sansa. But from being upset to actually believe it...

Because of that thought, Sandor found himself laughing a low, dark, bitter laugh while he drive through the streets of King's Landing. Sansa looked at him without understanding what was making him laugh.

"What's so funny?"

"It's ridiculous," Sandor rasped. He wasn't boiling up with anger anymore, but he was upset. "Joffrey is definitely a fucking damn idiot if he could believe even for one second that there could be something... between you and me."

He felt embarassed saying those last words, and he felt like he could punch himself in the face. Damn stupid dog! He shouldn't have say that, he had sounded pathetic. It was pathetic! He started cursing at himself in his mind, until Sansa's voice brought him back to reality.

"Why?" she asked, and it was genuine curiosity, not some mock-question like Sandor had expected. "It's not impossible. Is it?"

His foot slammed on the brakes, and the black Mercedes made a harsh stop. Startled by the sudden action, Sansa let out a small cry. Several cars that had been driving behind them honked angrily, and then they passed the black Mercedes by.

Sandor was breathing heavily, Staring at the wheel in too much shock to actually give a fuck about what the people in the other cars were doing. In the back seat, Sansa was furious.

"What is wrong with you?!" she yelled, mad. The harsh stop had made her move forward and the seatbelt had hurt her.

But Sandor wasn't listening to her. Once he found his own voice again, he barked:

"What the hell was that?!"

"That's what I'm asking you!" Sansa yelled right back at him. She made a whimpering sound when she moved her right shoulder, but she was alright a few seconds later. She sat back on the seat again, still glaring at Sandor.

"What you just said," he rasped. "What the fuck was that?"

"It was just a question!" the woman exclaimed, apparently even more upset than before. "You said it was ridiculous, I asked why?! Like, would it be so impossible for you and me to have... something, if we were not who we are, maybe?"

"Are you implying something?" he asked, his voice sounding ice-cold. He had no idea where that was going.

"No, oh my God! I'm just asking a question, can't I do that?!"

"Well, your answer is yes. It would be impossible."

"Why? If you were not Joffrey's bodyguard, and I wasn't his fiancée, why would it be impossible?"

"Have you taken a good look at me?" he rasped, feelig infuriated again. He turned his head around and made sure that Sansa could see the scarred side of his face very well. "Look at my face. Would the Pop Princess like to be associated with somethig as monstruous as this?!"

His voice sounded deadly, threatening. He was meaning to scare her, make her cry, even. He remebered the first time that Sanda set eyes on him, and that horrified look in her eyes and her face. He wanted to see that again, probably to reach the bottom of his missery.

He failed. Sansa just looked at his face, all of it, and she shrugged after he made her that question.

"Joffrey has very good looks, and he's an asshole," he muttered, so lowly that it was barely audible. But Sandor dis hear her, and his face relaxed a little bit, losing much of it's frightening expression. Sansa looked at him in the eyes. "He is the monster."

There wasn't a single time since the night that he had met her that he had seen the truth shining so brightly in her tear-filled eyes. It was in that moment when he realized that that young woman was in pain, real pain. She was breaking inside, like a delicate china doll, and at the same time she was building brick walls on her facade to hide the truth from the world. At that moment, there was a small opening in those brick walls and Sandor was allowed a glimpse of what was inside.

What has happened to her? he asked himself. What are they doing to this little bird?

He realized that there were probably a lot of things going on inthe Red Keep that he did not know about, things he wasn't aware of. It wasn't just the slaps, it was much more. But he couldn't figure it out.

He sighed and turned his was around again, breaking eye contact with the young beauty. He started driving again, and none of them said anything. Sansa was seating silently, looking outside the window. Sandor could see her through the rear mirror, and he saw that the pain had left her eyes, and melancholy had settled in her features. She didn't move an inch of her body until Sandor stopped the car in the drivethrough of Mcdonalds. Sandor saw her questioning look, but neither said anything. He stopped in front of the first window and placed an order. Cheeseburger, large fries and a large coke. Then he drove to the second window and waited until they gave him his order.

He turned around and gave the paper bag with the cheeseburger, fries and coke to Sansa, and she stared hesitantly at him.

"It's not a restaurant," he said. "Paparazzis can't say shit about it."

And for the first time, Sansa trully smiled. She took the paper bag.

"Thank you, Sandor."

"You are welcome, little bird."