WARS TO COME, game of thrones

𝐕𝐈𝐈𝐈. ice

𝟐𝟕𝟗 𝐀𝐂

"You're really not a Northman, Anrir, damn it," Brandon Stark laughed and pushed a bowl of soup towards the shivering Anrir, "It actually is really warm today!" "Of course," Anrir just grumbled into the bowl, grateful for the warmth inside him. "How many winters has it been here?" "My second," Anrir frowned questioningly. "Then you really are still a proper maiden!" Brandon grinned and Lyanna, who was sitting at the table in the Winterfell dining hall with Ned, Brandon and Anrir, laughed out loud. Twelve-year-old Benjen just giggled shyly at the older boy's jokes. Anrir blushed and drank hastily from the bowl to hide his face. Ned sat diagonally opposite him, between Lyanna and Ben, smirking only slightly.

"Let him be, he's just a frostbite, Bran," Lyanna laughed, still mischievous, and Anrir understood a little why Robert was so infatuated with her. She was a bit boyish, but intelligent and cheeky, despite her cold home, there was a fire burning inside her. "I don't come here to be teased by a pack of wild wolves," Anrir complained and Brandon and Lyanna only laughed harder, only falling silent - or at least laughing more quietly - when their father gave them a reproving look from the head of the table where he sat with his wife.

It was winter, and once again Anrir had been allowed to spend it with Ned in Winterfell, rather than in seclusion with the rest of his father's household in the Moongates. And he loved it here. Robert was now in Storm's End more often than in the vale and so Ned and he had grown closer... much closer. Sometimes he didn't understand how it still worked between them. Anrir still didn't believe he was really... that way. And Ned was so often hurt by the forced distance between them and the way Anrir often pushed him away. He didn't want to hurt him, but he was also so incredibly torn... Sometimes he wondered why Eddard had not yet cast him out of his life for good.

He sipped his soup and looked over at Ned. They had both been 16 for a few months and Ned had made a real leap in the last few months; his facial features had lost the last remnants of childishness, unlike Anrir he was already growing stubble and he was now really taller than Anrir, who was always waiting for his body to finally leave childhood behind. And Ned had become muscular. Anrir bit his lower lip and swallowed hard, his eyes still on Ned, who wore his auburn hair loose, except for a few braided strands. Ned was a true Northman.

After the meal, Anrir was called to Ned's parents and the Stark siblings naturally followed him curiously, Brandon and Lyanna whispering quietly to each other. Only Benjen had run off to play somewhere else. Ned's father was calm and cool-headed like his second-born, Anrir liked being around him and listening to his lessons, accompanying him, Ned and Brandon on hunts. "Lord Arryn sent you here for the whole winter months, Anrir?" "Yes, Lord Stark... I must thank you, it's very friendly of you to let me be here," he said politely, just as his father had drilled into him. "That's all right, son. It's a pleasure to have Jon's son here." Anrir smiled flattered at that, he liked the fact that almost no one here ever referred to him as his father's foster son or ward. He was Anrir Riverfall of House Arryn here and somehow he liked that, even if it meant leaving his true parental home behind. "Thank you, Lord Stark," he bowed his head slightly.

Ned's father smiled benevolently at him and so Anrir hurriedly followed the Stark siblings, who had already walked into the courtyard. Ned was waiting for him in the hallway, took his hand and pulled him towards him so they could walk the last bit together. "My father likes you, the others do too... Don't let them tell you, that you don't fit in here," Ned said to him, stroking the back of Anrir's hand with his thumbs. Both their hands were calloused and rough from the sword fight, but the touch was still gentle. "Well," Anrir grinned and laughed, "I'll probably lose a few more toes to the cold by the end of winter." "Don't be like that," Ned teased him now and they laughed, but broke away from each other as soon as they stepped into Winterfell's largest courtyard.