Dance Away My Broken Heart / Podrick Payne (2.3)

25. Crowns

Eyes open / Ned Stark / Oberyn Martell out now!
&
Shameless / Sandor Clegane out now!

"You are my sister, but I am king now." Jon reminded Sansa.

"Will you start wearing a crown?" She sassed

"When you question my decisions in front of the other lords and ladies, you undermine me." Jon breathed back in agony.

"Do you have to step in?" Podrick questioned nodding to Sansa and Jon. 

"I mean I probably should..." RIeka admitted but she didnt move. 

"So I can't question your decisions anymore?"

" Of course you can, but--"

"Joffrey never let anyone question his authority. You think he was a good king?" Sansa hissed and Jon stopped walking. Sansa walked past him, then turned to face him. 

"Okay shes comparing Jon to Joffrey, yeah. I need to step in." Rieka agreed. 

"Hi." Rickon said. 

"Hello my lord." Podrick answered. 

"You are fucking my sister, I think we are close enough you can call me rickon." he corrected and Podrick paled. "Rieka didnt really like anyone before. I can tell these things. Also dont tell her I cussed." 

"I wont." Podrick agreed. 

"You think we might be brothers one day?" Rickon questioned. 

"I... well..." Podrick was quickly becoming flustered. 

"Do you think I'm Joffrey?" Jon rasped.

"You're as far from Joffrey as anyone I've ever met."

"Thank you." Jon whispered.

"Sansa can you be nice to Jon?" Rieka questioned. "You were always a shithead to him and I thought this was turning a new leaf." Sansa let out a deep sigh. 

"You're good at this, you know." Sansa remarked softly.

"At what?" Jon questioned. 

"Remember what I said, be nice please." Rieka added. Sansa rolled her eyes to Jon. 

"At ruling." she clarified. But Jon sighed, no he wasn't. He was a bastard he wasn't meant for this.

"No." he corrected.

"Better than most." Rieka agreed leaning into him. "I'm good at bossing people around. But not like how you do it with class." Jon chuckled shaking his head. 

"You are. You are. They respect you, they really do, but you have to--" Sansa began but he chuckled stopping her. "Why are you laughing?"

"What did father used to say? Everything before the word "but" is horse shit." Jon informed her.

"He never said that to me." Sansa corrected.

"He said it to me." Rieka agreed. "often in fact, when I was trying to get my way through compliments and contradictory statements." 

"No. No, he never cursed in front of his girls. Just Rieka apparently and the boys." Jon agreed. 

"I spun enough shit that he didnt care towards the end." Rieka agreed. 

"Because he was trying to protect us. He never wanted us to see how dirty the world really is, but Father couldn't protect me and neither can you. Stop trying." Sansa begged

"All right, I'll stop trying to protect you and you stop trying to undermine me." Jon agreed and Sansa scoffed.

"Does that undermining go for me too?" Rieka mused, she gave him a sheepish smile. "Im sorry about earlier if I said something, you know I am blunt to a fault." Jon shook his head as she kissed his temple.

"Are you going to marry my sister?" RIckon questioned. 

"Well I would really like that one day." Podrick admitted. 

"Its my brotherly duty you see to threaten you into treating her right but you are such a softie I know you would beat yourself up if you ever hurt her even if it was unintentional." Rickon decided. 

"I would never hurt her." Podrick assured. 

"And I believe you." Rickon agreed. 

"I'm not trying to undermine you." Sansa declared grabbing his arm and turning him to face her. "You have to be smarter than Father. You need to be smarter than Robb. I loved them, I miss them, but they made stupid mistakes, and they both lost their heads for it."

"Don't define their lives based off of those mistakes because they did a lot of good. They tried to do a lot of good sansa " Rieka declared.

"RIe-"

"They were smart. They were brave." Rieka rasped. "They werent just foolish, they were good. Don't diminish them."

"And how should I be smarter? By listening to you?" Jon spat back at sansa seeing the pain in RIeka's eyes. She was always closest to their father. 

"Would that be so terrible?" Sansa hissed.

"A raven from King's Landing, Your Grace." Maester wolken remarked. He handed a bound note to Jon, then bowed and left. Jon sighed as he unraveled the note.

"Cersei of House Lannister, First of Her Name, Queen of the Andals and the First Men, Protector of the Seven Kingdoms--" Jon read off.

"Queen." RIeka stepped forward reading over his shoulder. 

"What does she want?" Sansa countered

"Come to King's Landing. Bend the knee or suffer the fate of all traitors." Jon informed them. Rieka and Cersei were civil, after Tyrion's trial though, she fled, she was worried, she had been carrying Tyrion's child and Cersei was out for blood. But that baby was long since dead and being at the capital felt like a lifetime ago. 

" You've been so consumed with the enemy to the north, you've forgotten about the one to the south." Sansa informed him pompously.

"I'm consumed with the Night King because I've seen him. And believe me, you'd think of little else if you had, too."

" We still have a wall between us and the Night King. Theres nothing between us and Cersei." Sansa spat.

"There's a thousand miles between us and Cersei." Rieka corrected. "Winter is here. The Lannisters are a southern army."

"Plus They've never ranged this far north." Jon agreed.

"You're the military man, but I know her. If you're her enemy, she'll never stop until she's destroyed you. Everyone who's ever crossed her, she's found a way to murder." Sansa remarked confidently.

"As if I dont know her?" Rieka countered. "You fled and I was there. I know her too."

"You didnt suffer as I did." Sansa corrected. Rieka huffed a breath marching up to Sansa. 

"I have suffered too." Rieka countered.  "It wasnt sunshine and rainbows. I saw her at her lowest when she lost her child. I saw her broken and depressed and all alone. I was her friend... she was a monster and yet I befriended the beast." Rieka admitted. "Then I fled, fearing the beast couldnt be tamed and I lost a child. I was broken and depressed and I felt alone." Sansa stared back at her. "Yes joffrey was mean to you. He hurt you. We all hurt Sansa. You made your choice when it came to Petyr, when it came to the boltons and I made mine." Rieka walked past Sansa ramming her shoulder into her sister as she passed. Sansa still felt entitled. 

"Rickon, I think its past your bedtime." Rieka remarked nudging him along. 

"I'm not a little kid Rie, I dont think I need a bedtime anymore." Rickon countered. 

"Humor me." Rieka countered.