✓ | 𝑬𝒗𝒆𝒓𝒚𝒃𝒐𝒅𝒚 𝑾𝒂𝒏𝒕𝒔 𝑻𝒐 𝑹𝒖𝒍𝒆 𝑻𝒉𝒆 𝑾𝒐𝒓𝒍𝒅 (R.STARK 2/3)

Chapter Twenty One::Home Sick

A/N: Because I'm in the mood to update, and this is a short chapter, have this chapter too :D

Whatever befit her the night before, Raina returned to bed comforted more now than she had been previously, and for the first time in several days, she slept well in a bed that was not her own, thinking back to fond memories once spent with the owner of the bed in which she lay. The next morning, when she awoke, it was long since dawn, and sun poured into her room like wildfire through a forest, illuminating every inch it could reach. The room filled with an effervescent glow that brought Raina from her sleep, in a way that was not so much forced as gentle. She almost didn't want to leave the serenity of her room, with it's golden shades cascading unto the walls, and the comforting warmth she discovered beneath Robb's covers, it was hard to believe she was still plunged into the rotting hole in which the Bolton's lived, and had now submerged Winterfell into along with them. She hated what lurked beyond the confines of her chamber, what now seeped through the halls she once loved, and would have willingly called home one day. She hated who now owned the home of her departed love, and wished for nothing more than the direwolves to come and dismount their heads from their shoulders, every last one of them. The only peace in the entire situation being found in the room Raina believed she would have hated to begin with. A room that should've brought despair, but now filled her with undeniable content.

Emerging from the old oak door, Raina found familiar company lurking in the corridors outside, a surprisingly welcome expression plastered upon the woman's masculine features. "Good morning, Brienne," Raina smiled, closing the door behind her and trying to appear less distraught than she really was. Distraught at having to continue this hideous life, and not being able to go home.

"Good morning, m'lady. I was told to come and escort you to the great hall once you rose, you have visitors." Brienne announced with a suggestion of a smile, gesturing to the end of the hall where the stairwell lay. Visitors? Raina was confused, she hadn't anticipated any guests this soon to her arrival at Winterfell, and was shocked as to who would know her whereabouts beyond the members of her family. Nevertheless, she nodded to her tall companion, and followed her lead down towards the great hall where her so called guests awaited her arrival. This buzzing with the night's events, and the news of visitors, Raina paid little attention to anything on the way downstairs, she failed to even recollect times once spent in the very same hallways she walked today, simply numb with it all by now. "M'lady," Brienne's voice was stiff, by comforting none the same, as she opened the door to the great hall, in order to allow Raina passage into the cold room.

Sat at the table, an annoyingly chipper smile pushing up his lips, was Raina's betrothed, and his traitorous father whom looked just as smug as ever with himself. However, Raina tried hard to look past them as quickly as possible, and was relieved that she had when she caught sight of the guests waiting for her. "Finn! Delvin!" She all but screamed, charging into her two brothers whom had already began striding to meet her half way. They 3 embraced lovingly, laughing happily in each other's embrace for quite a while, for a moment forgetting all that had happened to keep them apart. Raina had missed them beyond description, she had been at a loss without them at her side all this time, even when it had been mere days since they last met, she still yearned for her brothers company, and was thrilled to be back with them. "I have missed you, brothers. But why ever have you come here so soon?" Raina beamed, still entangled in the men's arms, and hardly able to look up to meet their gaze from where she was kept close in the hug that dragged on.

"We missed you too, sister. We came upon invitation, from Lord Bolton, word of your wedding, so he says." Finn replied, happy enough though Raina could sense the grit in his teeth as he spoke, and that he tried hard not to attack the man to have murdered his king; the man whom still sat with a chilling smile stretching his contorted face. Despite the tension, and obvious rage still seething within the blond Glover boy, he still grinned at his little sister, and kept her close to him and Delvin as their mother spoke up.

"You look well, Raina. It is good to see you." The woman spoke thinly, a drying smile etched onto her leather skin as she tried to be civil towards a child that so obviously despised her every being.

"I wish I could say the same, mother." Raina quipped, not sparing a second glance to the frail woman, and turning back to the brother's whom still gladly kept by her side. It was only when Delvin stepped to the side that Raina could see the other group of 4 crowding the opposite side of the room, the company Raina had not first seen upon entering. "Uncle!" Raina departed from her brothers to run towards a man she had not seen in so many years, pleased to have an adult whom had not treated her poorly in all the years she had been acquainted with him.

"My dear, how you have grown." Robett cheered, opening his arms to the young girl as she barrelled willingly into him, hugging him tightly as if he were going to disappear again any second. He chuckled as she embraced him lovingly, wrapping his thick arms around her small frame, and combing her hair slightly as he had always done, in an affectionate manner. "I bring with me my wife, and children. You are yet to meet them, I am to understand; perhaps this will be an adequate time for you all to become acquainted." Robett gestured to an equally frail woman, with slick brown hair that looked unkempt, and a walnut face, that contorted into what first came across as a grimace, or at least it did to Raina, but soon it was made evident her leather like skin prevented much room for a welcoming smile to break onto it, like she believed was the intention behind the weirdly constructed expression. Sybelle Locke. Stood beside the tall woman was 2 children, a boy and a girl, who were so plainly Glover's Raina was surprised it even needed an introduction. The girl was younger, fair in hair and complexion, and only marginally taller than Raina herself. Her hair was much lighter than Raina's, and Finn's, but it resembled the same typical blond that Esme would have matched had she been stood with them. Erena Glover. Stood with her was her older brother, Gawen, who was a lot similar to Delvin in his mannerisms and characteristics, dark hair, olive skin, well built; he was the spitting image of what Raina believed her father and his would have looked like at that age.

"A pleasure," Sybelle curtsied, clearly appalled at Raina's attired - which was back to it's usual format of breeches and a tunic.

"Likewise," Raina tried a bitter smile, but failed miserably as she realised how much Esme had prattled on about this woman, and how distasteful she was in general. And with that, Raina turned to her cousins, in hope they might be more delightful than their mother. Erena curtsied also, mimicking her mother with a slight sense of fear as she glanced to the older woman, but then her expression brightened upon locking gazes with the girl stood before her.

"You're Raina? I have heard so much about you, and your adventures, do tell me what it was like during the--"

"Enough, sister. You do but fluster the girl. I do apologise for her, she gets quite excitable at times. I am Gawen, and this is my sister Erena. I believe we are yet to be introduced, cousin." Gawen bowed slightly, his voice deeper than Raina had anticipated, but in no way was he much different to her eldest brother.

"It is fine, honestly. I am pleased to finally meet you both, as you say, there has yet to be an occasion on which we meet." Raina bowed her head in respect, extending her hand to shake with her cousin - to which he took it in his own and kissed it gently, like a gentleman.

"We will have to spend more time together through the duration of your visit. I do wish to get to know you, as you are after all family. Perhaps you will spend the afternoon with me and my siblings, so that we all may be better acquainted?" To this suggestion, both children nodded eagerly, and departed from the parents' sides to follow Raina back to her brothers, where she intended to stay in the company for as long as she could. She felt safer the further away from Ramsay she could get.

"I am so pleased to see you welcome your family with such eagerness, I was of two minds not to invite them so soon, but it seems you are more than happy to have them close. They are here now as we have arranged for the wedding to be held in a fortnight, I thought it best you have them with you while we make all the necessary preparations." Roose Bolton stood from the creaking chair on which he had previously been settled, the same sickening expression stretching along his stubbled face as he locked eyes with the Glover girl, it was almost as though he could sense her discomfort, and writhed eagerly in it. He was truly an evil man, one Raina looked forward to watching get stabbed in the back soon enough.