❛ THE THINGS WE LOVE DESTROY US EVERY TIME, LAD. REMEMBER THAT. ❜ JEOR MORMONT
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PLOT in which Jon Snow is reunited with his lover, but is now to consider her as a political resource
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SHE HAD BECOME LADY MORMONT now. Jon supposed she had always been Lady Mormont, but it was for the first time he was calling her that and that too in order to ask for her allegiance in fighting Ramsay Bolton.
She'd agreed, but it hadn't been Jon who had convinced her much to his irritation. He didn't realize he needed to exercise the bluntness that Davos had when asking for her allegiance. He'd expected he'd already had it considering their history and therefore regarded his asking her in front of her counsel a formality. But she had turned him down, leaving Davos to have to step in to eventually secure her support.
Later that day, when she requested to speak with him alone, as soon as Jon heard her enter the room, he began speaking. "If I recall correctly, you'd written a letter to Stannis Baratheon in response to his petitioning of men to march against the Boltons saying-"
"Bear Island knows no king but the King in the North who's name is Stark." She finished for him, her voice compelling him to look up at her. The anger that he felt dissipated at the sight of her affectionate face which she had masked in front of her counsel. Now that they were alone in the solar, she'd turned on the charms that Jon knew he'd eventually succumb to. He should have hated her for this. She did it every time. And yet, it was always the opposite feeling he felt towards her. "You're a Snow, Jon. And Sansa, a Bolton? A Lannister even-?"
"She did what she had to do in order to survive." Jon cut her off with a warning tone.
"I don't doubt that. But I can't sacrifice one more Mormont life for someone else's war which was what you were making it out to be." Jon fell silent as he watched her tinker with the candle set on the table besides her. "And then Ser Davos Seaworth told me about the Dead. Why didn't you want to tell me about them?" Her eyes lifted up to his.
"I didn't think you'd believe me."
"If there's one advantage you had in coming up here and asking for my allegiance it was my trust."
"I was relying on your empathy." He challenged, crossing his arms across his chest. He was acting like a child for getting riled up over the fact that it had taken another man to win her allegiance and even more for showing to her how much this got to him. He knew it was childish, but a part of him wanted to make her feel bad about her actions- considering their history, yet again.
"I'd expected that as Lord Commander of the Night's Watch, you'd understand that I can't ask my men to fight a war to save someone else's home or their brother . . . as much as I love little Rickon." She was right, and Jon showed that he acknowledged this by letting his eyes drop from hers in defeat. He wanted to look up when he felt her approach him, but he knew that it would be a fatal thing to do. "If I didn't have to think about Bear Island or its people, I would've have said yes in a heartbeat." She was nearer now so he had to look to the side instead of downwards to avoid staring at her chest. "For Winterfell, for Rickon, for you." As soon as he felt her hand come to his cheek, he swung his eyes to her brown ones. A deep sigh left him as he gave in, leaning into her touch and then letting his eyes fall close in the comfort and warmth she created. His own hand came up to the wrist of the hand she held to his face, his fingers danced up the smooth skin, and his thumb brushed over the ridges of her knuckles and eventually, he brought himself to curl his fingers around her palm and bring her hand back down.
