#dpd-josh

Theon felt around to pull the blankets back up onto his shoulder and found the spot next to him empty. He turned, bearing the lights shining through the open window of Robb’s room. He rolled back over onto his side for a bit and tried to go back to sleep sleep, but the light refused to let him. Instead, he sat up and found the shirt he came in yesterday on the floor.

He wandered into the kitchen. Peering out the front window he noticed the driveway was empty with the exception of the kid’s bikes. He stole a pair of Robb’s shoes from the doorway and stepped outside for a cigarette. As he’s finished, Robb pulled into the driveway and walked up the walkway holding a bag.

“Good morning,” Robb called.

“Where is everyone?”

“What, no ‘good morning’ for me?” Robb joked as he opened the door and stepped inside. Theon crushed the last of his cigarette under the borrowed shoe and followed Robb, still a bit annoyed that he had woken up alone with no warning.

Robb put the bag on the island and threw his jacket on the chair in front of him. “Did you eat?”

“No, I just woke up.” Theon stretched and leaned back against the counter.

“Are you hungry? Do you want to go get something?” Robb opened the fridge and grabbed coffee creamer and set a mug under the Keurig.

“Nah, that’s okay.” Theon was hoping Robb would make some comment about a birthday breakfast, seeing as it was Theon’s birthday, but Robb only asked for a spoon. “What are you doing today? Do you have work later?” Theon asked.

“Not until tonight.” Robb sat down at the island.

After a pause, Theon’s eyes drifted to the opaque bag Robb set on the counter, hoping this might bring the mention of a birthday he was hoping for. “What’s in the bag?” He made a move to peek in and Robb shot up and took it away, moving it to the chair to his left and put a protective arm over it. “Later,” he told Theon.

“Later?”

“Yes, later.”

Theon made a face, as close as he could get to some sort of begging face and Robb gave in. He knew how much effort Robb put into gifts. He’d gotten Sansa this beautiful necklace for Christmas that she hadn’t actually told anyone she had wanted. He found a toy that both of the boys had loved, and a fake sword for Arya. Theon’s past birthday gifts from Robb had always been the most thoughtful he’d ever received, though, to be fair, the bar was set fairly low on that before he had met him. “Fine. I wanted to wrap it. I didn’t think you’d be up this early.”

“I didn’t either, but you left the blinds open.” Theon said, taking the bag and peeking in. He pulled out a blue teddy bear covered in little yellow stars and pink fish. “Is this a Build-a-Bear?”

“This was the closest they had to anything sea-related. I wanted to make something myself but you know I can’t craft for the life of me. And... uh, Build-a-Bear was the closest I could get. The paw has one of those speaking things too, if you want to press it.” Robb gave a hesitant smile.

“It’s a bit childish, don’t you think?” Theon put the bear back in the bag. This is not entirely what he’d had in mind.

“I mean, I guess... I just thought... I don’t know.”

No, you didn’t think about it. I was an afterthought, wasn’t I? Theon wanted to say, but held himself back. His ability to control his impulses was next to none, but he was grateful for what he could hold himself back from saying.

“Let’s just go for breakfast. I’ll go get dressed.” Theon left the bag on the island as he went upstairs to shower.

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Robb pulled into the driveway at 10:00 after working a short shift. He has taken a significant portion of the day off in hope of spending it with Theon for his birthday, but Robb had managed to fuck it up.

He still wasn’t entirely sure what he had done. He’d spent weeks thinking of something to get Theon and days trying to make it himself before scouring the internet instead. It took him several hours to track down a store that still had that bear once he’d found what he was looking for. He drove nearly an hour at 7am to get to a the Build-a-Bear and just over an hour on the way back. On a Tuesday morning.

Their breakfast had been awkward and filled with vague, passive-aggressive comments from Theon. He was used to this happening, but usually he could figure out why. Theon knew Robb always put his all into gifts, sometimes going to far as to plan them 6 months in advance, so why was he reacting like this?

He figured Theon would come around eventually. He always did.

Robb slid his shoes off at the door and stumbled in the dark up to his room, ready to go to bed. The Stark house tended to shut down relatively early, especially on school nights. More likely than not, everyone had been asleep for at least a half hour.

He used the flashlight on his phone to see his way through his room to put his pajamas on. He flashed the light at his bed, finding Theon asleep. With the bear in his arm. Robb quickly turned off the flashlight so as not to wake Theon but then, after a pause, swiped up to get the camera.

“What the fuck?” Theon said, still half asleep, after the flash.

“Nothing. Go back to bed.” Robb leaned down and kissed him before climbing over him onto his side of the bed, which more than half of Theon was on. He wrapped his arms over Theon, hoping that maybe this meant he’d come around. Or listened to the voice message, at least.

Theon rolled over a little and laid on the paw and Robb’s voice (and a lot of echo, because Robb recorded it in one of the bathrooms) filled the otherwise silent room.