#lmoncake

had bran not remained so still in his wheelchair, arya might have sprinted all the way back to the crypt to find her sister and tell her what transpired. instead, she forced her own shaking hands to grab bran’s wheelchair in a vice grip and push him back home. a few remaining men stood numbly, watching her take off, and blinking as they tried to understand what had just happened. arya knew and didn’t want to dwell. the long night had come and gone and there were other things to be done. she could process later.

her brother said hardly a word as they made their way back to a twice-charred winterfell. the strong, frozen stones still held their positions with great stubbornness, though everything else was gone or on the verge of falling to pieces. danaerys’s dragons had truly made a wreck of the hardy northern castle. but now was not the time. arya pushed bran’s chair as far as she could inside and out of the way of anything that might tumble down onto him. and there -- she could see the women and children peeking their heads outside in wonder with a fiery auburn head in the lead. 

         “sansa!” her throat was dry and the name hardly carried, but she could see her sister’s head turn all the same. running and skidding to a stop just short of sansa, arya heaved a breath and looked her sister full in the face. “it’s over. it’s done.”

          “ i don’t know how else we could possibly lure the night king away. he wants me dead, and we need to stop him before he destroys us. ”     you can feel your sister’s eyes on you, plain as day, and you wish you could truly convince her that this is necessary. but the pack is together again, and now they may be parted once more, and perhaps that is terrifying for you...and for her.     “ i’ll be fine. ”

“Going back to Winterfell after all that has happened to both of us... it feels strange almost.” There was a hole in her heart as she thought about it, thought about the fact Father would not be waiting to greet them. When she thought about not having another chance to spar with Robb... Since her escape she often felt like she had failed not only Robb, but everyone else that day. Thought about how it should have been her who had perished and not her brother and king. She had survived the Red Wedding, being held captive first by the Freys and then by one of the Lannister’s other allies.

It was likely Tywin that had her moved to the Westerlands, seeing her as a chance if ever Sansa was lost to them. Once she had found her way to freedom she learned of Joffery’s demise and Sansa’s disappearance. The bastard had then started the long journey North, going to the Wall in hopes of finding Benjen and learning at least some news of Sansa. She hadn’t heard anything until word of her sister’s marriage to Ramsay, the bastard of Bolton, had reached the Wall.