Arya rolled her eyes as Rickon darted ahead of her and into their sister's rooms, Shaggydog nipping at his heels. As she got close enough she could see where he'd plopped down before the fire with a grunt.
Shaggydog laid down behind him, knocking into his back. "Shaggy!" He twisted slightly so he could look into the eyes of his other self. "Really?"
"Don't let Shaggydog eat the chestnuts," Sansa warned from where she was walking over with the jar of butter.
Arya kicked the door shut behind her as she wheeled Bran the rest of the way in. "We need a better chair, it sucks to push this thing."
"I can have Fitz draw something up." Daisy offered from where Sansa was piling her with the supplies needed off the table like some kind of pack animal.
Rickon scratched at Shaggydog's snout, both their noses twitching. "What's that smell?"
"Clove and cinnamon," Sansa replied as she walked over. She gently brushed a lock out of his eyes. "We're going to have to have your hair cut soon. It's getting into your eyes."
Daisy was neatly beginning to set things down by the hearth. "I would like to point out my useful assistance is gonna run out in a second."
Arya huffed as she turned to face Bran. "How do you want to be on the rug?"
Bran's brow pinched ever so slightly. "On my stomach."
"I'll grab the pillows." Arya looked over to Daisy and her sister who were setting out the things for roasting the chestnuts. "If you two lovebirds could get him out of the chair?" She was not saying that it was a bit hard to get Bran in and out when he was bigger than her. Which, it was rude that her siblings were all giants.
Daisy just laughed, her hand on Sansa's shoulder briefly. "I've got it."
Sansa tossed one of the small sacks of nuts at Rickon. "Start scoring those, you know how?"
"Of course, I know how." Rickon huffed, slipping his knife out and beginning to put the large X's into the shell of the nuts.
Daisy easily got to Bran and lifted him up and out of the chair with ease. His hands automatically caught her shoulders. It was unfair, Daisy was shorter than Bran too. But no, stupid inhuman strength made it easy for her.
Arya rolled her eyes and grabbed the pillows off of Sansa's bed. Her lips twitched at the very new headboard on her sister's bed. A thing she was going to mention when their baby brother wasn't there. Stalking back to the fire she dropped and helped Daisy get Bran propped up on the pillows. "That enough?"
"I am…comfortable." Bran allowed, shifting himself ever so slightly. He looked at Daisy. "I could be seeing more."
Daisy rolled her eyes. "Yeah, you've seen enough for the night."
Arya watched with curious eyes. It was…Bran seemed most human near to their sister's lover. A sort of understanding there. She settled in beside Bran, drawing out a small knife and accepting a bag of nuts, and began to score.
"Did Robb stab himself doing this once? Cause I think I remember that." Rickon's face was scrunched up in thought.
Arya laughed. "Aye, he did."
"I remember that, I tied my handkerchief around his thumb." Sansa had a soft smile on her face as she settled against Daisy and prodded at the fire with the iron poker.
Bran stared at the fire. "We ate chestnuts raw when we fled Winterfell."
"I remember that!" Rickon perked up, excited about remembering something of their childhood. "Hodor crushed the shells open with his hands."
Sansa took the sack of now scored nuts from Rickon, dumping them into the cast iron pan sitting on the hearth. "So many stories…Do you remember the ghost stories of the Nightfort? We all slept in Robb's bed because we were too afraid to sleep in our own rooms."
"You kick in your sleep." Arya passed her sack of scored nuts to Sansa to be added to the pan.
Sansa huffed, dumping them in and then pouring water over the top. "I do not."
"Of course not." Daisy winked at Arya.
She couldn't help giggling at that.
Sansa turned, saw something on Daisy's face, and then huffed. "It's not that bad."
"Of course not." Daisy just smiled at Sansa.
Arya raised an eyebrow at that. Gods, they were disgusting. Also, 'oh I'll marry when she leaves' and then bringing her to their family evening. It was ridiculous.
"Robb snored," Bran said, his voice empty but there was…it wasn't a useful statement. So there was that.
Sansa shot a look at Bran. "If someone in our family is a kicker it was you. I had bruises on my shins the next day."
"It's the wolf dreams. We run in our dreams." Rickon brought his knees up to his chest as he watched with sharp focus as the nuts were steamed in the cast iron pan.
Arya raised a brow at that, but…well she saw through Nymeria's eyes when she slept. Which, closing her eyes she could feel that link there. With Nymeria so close she could feel her better. "Nymeria is coming."
"Then we just need Jon." Sansa looked sad for a moment.
Rickon rubbed at his nose. "What stories should we tell?"
"Well, we've all had adventures haven't we?" Arya offered, she knew at least to some small degree she had some few events that weren't unspeakable. Surely her siblings had such things as well.
Sansa smiled. "Better than ghost stories at least." Her gaze snapped to Daisy. "I do not wish to know if ghosts are real or not unless you believe it's an active threat to us."
"No ghosts, got it." Daisy snickered but brushed a faint kiss against Sansa's cheek.
Arya's nose wrinkled. It was pathetic how smitten they were. She shared a look with Rickon. "So, who goes first?"
She stuck her fingers in her mouth. "They're fuck'n hot." Arya glared at the nuts she'd been peeling the shell off of. Steam was still rising from them.
"Sansa told you to wait." Rickon poked at his nuts to unshell with the point of his dagger, clearly just barely keeping from trying to tear into the things.
Arya shot him a glare but kept her fingers in her mouth.
"And that would be why I said it," Sansa replied dryly from where she was scooping butter into the newly empty cast iron pan and adding the spices to the mixture.
Arya rolled her eyes, pulling her fingers out and going back to peeling the nuts. "You're the worst."
"You're going to burn yourself again if you keep doing that." Sansa looked at her pointedly.
She held her sister's eyes before looking towards Daisy who was happily shelling Sansa's and her portion of the nuts. "We don't all have lovers to do the painful bits for us."
Rickon snorted, as he started peeling, though being very careful about it.
"I believe it was your turn for a story, Arya." Sansa neatly skipped over the whole thing.
Arya frowned as she considered what story of hers wasn't too…well, soaked in blood. "I was in the Riverlands with some of the boys I'd escaped Harrenhall with when we heard someone coming."
"They were fighting for the people and they just sold you all off?" Daisy asked in actual outrage.
Sansa's jaw had tightened. "And poorly done, they had given you their protection."
"They were desperate." Arya shrugged. The names of the Brotherhood had never made their way onto her list. Only the Red Woman and their leader, not that she'd spare any of them from death if given the chance either.
Daisy dropped the pile of nut meat into the pan. Stupid god powers meaning she hadn't burned her fingers. Or maybe she had and it'd just healed too fast to show? Which, still stupid god powers.
Rickon grunted, his teeth showing as his lips pulled back. "They turned on you." His eyes narrowed. "And we thought they sounded like heros."
"We?" Sansa asked dryly, a single brow arched as she mixed the nut meat into the butter and spices.
Daisy reached out, bumping her fist against Rickon's.
"Of course." Sansa sighed and looked at Arya. "Your fond words of the Hound lead me to believe being sold to him did not harm you?"
Arya gave a rather wicked look at her sister. "He taught me where to stick a man with a sword. Took the worst shits though."
"Osha and Shaggydog taught me where to stab. Didn't have a sword though." Rickon pouted.
Arya passed her peeled nuts to Sansa before leaning into Rickon. "You have a sword now."
"True!" Rickon perked up.
Arya looked over at Bran. "Your story Bran, come on, you have to have some kind of story."
Bran's brow furrowed slightly. "I have too many stories."
"Why do you keep looking at the Targaryens? They're just a bunch of lizard people anyways." Rickon grumbled, he always got touchy about Bran. But then, well their two youngest brothers had stayed together longest out of all of them. It made sense Rickon took Bran's changes hardest.
Daisy answered. "Prophecy, he's looking to see if fate can stop the Others."
Sansa looked at Daisy like she was a miracle, and then placed the pan into the fire again, to gently heat the nuts in their buttery mix. "Why Targaryen prophecies?"
"Fire and Ice, the Great Other." Bran's gaze was lost in the fire. "Dragonflame burns all."
Arya groaned. "That's stupid, did they even have dragons the first time?"
"I am…unsure." Bran's gaze turned to her.
Rickon stilled. "Wait, why haven't you looked at the first Long Night?"
"I…had not thought of it." Bran actually blinked.
Sansa stared at them. "You never looked at the first Long Night." Her voice was just so done with all of them. It was kind of amazing. "Is it damaging to go back further in time?"
"No," Bran replied, and he actually looked fairly flummoxed.
Daisy reached past Sansa and yanked the pan out of the fire, clearly realizing Sansa was distracted.
"You've been able to see how the first Long Night ended this entire time, there was no danger to doing so, and you just haven't looked?" The sheer incredulity in her voice was hilarious.
But also…Arya stared at her brother. "Did the trees take your brain?"
"No." Bran seemed genuinely irritated. A hint of color on his cheeks.
Sansa reached out and turned Bran's chin to look at her. "No greenseeing tonight. You can look to the past in the morning."
He hesitated but gave a nod finally.
"In the meantime, nuts." Sansa gestured to the pan of delightful smelling chesnuts.
Arya snagged one and stuffed it in her mouth. It was too hot, and she had to chew with her mouth open as its soft flesh gave way to her teeth, but who cared? It tasted like childhood, better times, and home.
Arya yawned, her back against Shaggydog's rump. She was warm and content. Bran was snoring softly while drooling on the pillow he was on. A warm blanket was thrown over him. Rickon was curled into Shaggydog, the two of them would whine in their sleep together occasionally. Nymeria was sleeping under the table, her golden eyes watching over their pack when she stirred.
Her eyes turned to where Sansa was asleep, her head pillowed on Daisy's lap, Ghost half enfolding them. Arya's grey eyes met Daisy's brown ones. "She loves you, you know?" Her voice was soft, not meant to wake her siblings.
"I know." Daisy looked down at Sansa, her fingers trailing through her red hair. "I love her too."
Arya groaned, they were the worst. For fucks sake, Sansa had brought or just not uninvited Daisy from what was clearly one of Sansa's attempts at forcing them all to bond like family without violence. Which lame, but kinda really nice as well. Also, Daisy spent every night in Sansa's rooms when she was here. Every night. And they didn't even fuck every time. It was disgusting, she was happy for her sister but so gross. And Jon was wooing some dragon woman, just as gross. But at least she didn't have to see Jon make stupid lovey faces.
"Does it bother you?" Daisy asked slowly as she adjusted the blanket thrown over Sansa.
Arya raised a brow. "Not really, I just think you're both being idiots."
Daisy bit her lip to keep from laughing, the fondest most smitten fucking expression as she glanced at Sansa. "Fair."
"You're not going to argue against that? No 'the cost of this brief window of happiness is worth the pain of parting' crap?" Arya really hoped Jon could talk some sense into one of these two idiots when he got back. Her hopes weren't high. Because she could see that Daisy was pack, and the pack stuck together.
Daisy sighed. "Sounds like Sansa." She frowned. "I don't…plan for the future, not really. But your sister means…more than you can imagine."
"Gross." Arya groaned, they were the worst. "But fine, be all tragic and sad. You're both as bad as Bran."
Daisy let out a soft huff of laughter at that. "Can't really argue that."
"How's Jon, really?" Arya asked, she wouldn't get anywhere except depressing excuses for why duty was so much more important than anything else.
Her sister's lover grinned at that. "He's doing well. Making peace, getting dragonglass, it's made him…more settled. It's a tangible way to protect his family, the North, everyone. He needed that. And he was right, making peace with Dany is the right call."
Arya's voice was quiet so as not to wake the others, but she refused to make it soft. "What does he look like?" The…vulnerability of having to ask was distinctly uncomfortable, but it was better than asking Sansa.
"Hot." Daisy raised a brow.
And Arya couldn't help the huff she let out.
"Like all you Starks are stupidly attractive, it's distinctly unfair." There was a playful edge to Daisy's voice, which…Arya appreciated. "But he's got dark hair down to about his shoulders, and wears a half-man bun in the back. Which is just a hairstyle up here. Very respectable beard, long face, greyish purple eyes. Really, between the whole handsome face and solid shoulders and general manly vibes I get why the girls all sigh over him. It's also hilarious how uncomfortable it makes him."
Arya settled against Shaggydog, some tension draining. It was a point in her sister's lover's favor. She was answering while not pointing out the pain there. "Well, he always was pretty. Cut his eyelashes off with some scissors when we were kids cause Theon was being mean about it. Said he looked like a girl."
Daisy barely kept from laughing. "Sounds right." Her lips twitched up. "Anyways, all proper Northern Lord. He's got a scar on his face, here." She drew her finger down from her forehead to her cheek. "He's very serious, broods a lot. But when he smiles it lights up his face. Looks good on him."
"Southern girls must love that," Arya replied with a twitch to her lips.
"Oh, they definitely do." Daisy settled further back into Ghost's fur. "He's a good guy. I don't care about the whole honorable thing he clings to. I'm a spy for fucks sake." She shook her head slightly. "But he's good and cares deeply. The years weren't kind to him, but he hasn't let it make him something…dark. I know the Tyrells and everyone probably think he's an idiot, but it's not that he can't understand their games. It's that he finds them pointless and disgusting. Not to say he's not shockingly effective at it. He's so honest no one questions his word and he just bulldozes to the point and no one even gets mad at him for it."
Arya laughed quietly. "So he's being an idiot on purpose."
"Yup." If it hadn't been earlier, it was clear now that Daisy loved Jon. Probably in the same way she so clearly loved Rickon. "Although him refusing to learn politics out of sheer spite is hilarious."
Arya could remember the way Jon's face used to darken when he was going to dig his heels in on something. Or that one rather spectacular time he'd punched Theon in the face. She could just see him all broody and stubborn. "So he's just batting his eyes at the Dragon Queen then?"
"Well, he didn't step on her feet dancing. Did step on mine. Talks about the Dead way too much, but it's working for him so…" Daisy shrugged. There was a pause, the sound of the fire crackling, Bran's light snores. Daisy looked at her. "He loves you, and he could care less about what you have done as a faceless man. Or I guess he does care, but that's because he worries about you. Blames himself for not being able to protect you from it all."
"That's stupid. He couldn't have done anything." She looked at the being everyone labeled a god of destruction, thought of the lake of blood she'd left in Highgarden, the slaughter of the Boltons, a castle swallowed. And…well, she believed it.
Daisy made a soft sound. "He's your brother, being a bit of an overprotective lug is his job. So like, you'll probably want to stick any future suitor of yours in chainmail if you don't want them getting stabbed a bit."
"If a man can't keep himself unstabbed by someone who'll do it to their faces they deserve to be stabbed." Arya rolled her eyes.
"Next thing you'll say is you're planning on stealing a wildling to be done with it." Daisy teased gently.
She frowned. "No, I think not."
"Fair." Daisy looked at the fire. "I don't really understand your political marriages. Or I do but…I don't like it. It's not something we had really. People ought to be able to marry because they like each other and want to spend their lives together."
Arya couldn't really picture a world where people just married who they wanted. But then, well she'd been around common folk enough she kinda could. "Sounds weird. Probably better. I'll stab any noble prick who thinks he can make me his stupid wife."
"Good for you." Daisy paused. "Probably shouldn't mention I said that to Sansa."
Arya's teeth showed as she grinned. "Oh, keeping secrets from my sister? Encouraging un-princess like behavior?"
"I mean you're the least princessy princess ever, which is very awesome by the by. But I don't think anyone could get you to do something you didn't want to do." Daisy gave her a lazy raised thumb. "So again, good for you."
Arya tilted her head to the side. "You know hearing your followers talk about your mother, you kinda sound a bit like a princess yourself."
Daisy blinked a look of the faintest horror on her face. "Don't you dare suggest that's the case to anyone. I swear they rearrange how my titles go and it keeps getting grander. Like in the scale of things my name just means people want to kill me, capture me, or run screaming in terror."
"And by people, you mean the so-called gods." Arya sniggered. It was quite rewarding that the gods really were as useless as she'd thought they were around the time she'd known they didn't answer prayer or give a crap about any of them. None of them did.
Daisy nodded. "Gods suck. Haven't met one worth worshipping." Her head tilted to the side. "However, Thor's biceps, very drool-worthy, even if Asgardians are kinda dicks."
Arya picked up the wineskin that'd been laying to the side and popped the lid off, taking a swig. "Never had time for boys."
"They're not all the worst." Daisy was smiling faintly. "But surviving doesn't leave much time for them. Or girls." Her gaze got all sappy as it turned to Sansa again.
Arya rolled her eyes and took another long swig of wine. They really were disgusting, even if it was satisfying to see them together. "So thoughts on knives? They're more interesting."
Daisy didn't disagree. "Well-"
