𝙒𝘼𝙍𝙍𝙄𝙊𝙍𝙎 (Game of Thrones)

𝙭𝙫.

They bound Ygritte's wrists and Jon led her along like a dog on a leash. Vickon took up the rear, just behind the wildling, his sword pressed to the center of her back. A warning to not act out. At the top of the mountain, Jon stopped. He and Vickon looked around, earning laughter from Ygritte. "Your brothers desert you?" she asked. "I can tell you which way to go."

Jon looked back at Vickon before he made his decision. "We'll stop here," he said. "Too dark to go any farther today."

"Here?" Ygritte asked. "There's no shelter here."

"She makes a point," Vickon said.

"There's no shelter anywhere," Jon argued, and Ygritte chuckled.

"There is if you know where to look. Listen to your friend, he knows better than you do," she said.

"He's not my friend," Jon answered. He began to wrap the rope around her, binding her tightly. "And I won't listen to him."

"The cold could kill all three of us," she said. "If you light a fire- -"

"No fire," Vickon stated.

"But a fire is- -"

"No fire," Jon said.

She let out a sharp breath. "Have it your way."

Jon rolled his eyes, forcing her into a sitting position. She laid down. 

Vickon sighed, sitting down on a cluster of rocks. Jon moved to lay between his two companions. Ygritte's voice stopped him. "We'll stay warmer if we stay close. Bet you both freeze to death before I do."

"I can take the cold," Vickon said, and he could. He'd spent time beyond the Wall. He knew what to expect.

But Jon was caving in. "Bet your life," Ygritte pressed.

She turned over on her side, pulling her legs up to the best of her ability. Vickon saw Jon crack. He watched the bastard move toward her, lying beside her.

Vickon rolled his eyes.

"Think they're out looking for you both?" Ygritte asked.

"Yes," Jon said after a moment.

"Think they'll find you?"

"Yes."

"You're brave. Stupid, but brave."

Jon swallowed hard. "We start again at first light. Get some sleep."

Vickon leaned back against the rocks. He had already decided that he wasn't going to sleep. That wasn't an option. But he did tune out the voices of the two figures lying in the snow. That would be enough to drive him absolutely mad.

Jon and Ygritte rose with the sun. Vickon had already begun to prepare himself for the day's travel. He fixed her furs, letting out a soft breath.

"Did you pull a dagger on me in the night?" Ygritte asked with a smirk.

Vickon very nearly laughed as Jon leaped to his feet, flashing a glare in his direction. "What's the matter?" Ygritte asked. "Can't be the first time you pressed your bone against a woman's arse."

Jon ignored the comment. "Let's move," he said, looking between Vickon and Ygritte before he pulled her to her feet and checked the ropes.

"It is the first time," Ygritte said, smiling still. "How old are you, boy?"

"I'm a man of the Night's Watch," Jon replied, voice firm.

"You're a boy who's never been with a girl. Don't your stones start to hurt if your bone never gets- -"

"Don't call them that."

"What?" Ygritte asked. "Stones? Or bone?"

"Neither," Jon said. "Both."

He finished checking her bindings, shoving her forward. "Move!" he urged.

They got to walking, Vickon trying his hardest to ignore the wildling's rambling words. "I heard they get all swollen and bruised if you don't use them," she was saying. "Of course, maybe that's just what the lads say when they want me feeling sorry for them. As if I'd feel sorry for them." She looked between Jon and Vickon. "Are there no girl crows?"

"There's no women in the Night's Watch, no," Vickon said.

"So the lads just do it with each other?"

Vickon tried to hide his anxiety with laughter, biting hard at his lip.

"No," Jon said harshly.

"Never?" Ygritte pressed.

"Never," Jon said. "We swore an oath."

She wasn't stopping. "You have sheep at the Wall?" No reply from the men. "With your hands, then?" Nothing. "No wonder you're all so miserable."

Jon pulled sharply at her bindings, making her wince as the rope dug into her skin. "Would you please shut up?" he said.

"'Would you please shut up?'" Ygritte mocked. "You think you're better than me, crow? I'm a free woman."

"You're a free woman?" Jon asked, looking at the bindings around her wrists.

She sighed. "I might be your prisoner, but I'm a free woman."

"If you're my prisoner, you're not a free woman. That's what 'prisoner' means."

"And you think you're free? You swore some stupid oath and now you can never touch a girl."

"It was my choice to say the words. All of make that choice." Vickon nodded his agreement, though, in all truth, he had no choice in the matter of his joining the Night's Watch.

Ygritte kept talking. Vickon thought she might never stop. "So neither of you like girls?"

"Of course we like girls," Jon replied.

"But you chose never to touch them," Ygritte said.

"That's the price you pay if you want to be a man of the Night's Watch."

"So instead of getting naked with a girl, you'd prefer to invade our lands- -"

"Invade your lands?" Jon demanded, voice rising. "Wildlings raid our lands all the time. Some of them tried to kill my little brother, a crippled boy!"

"They're not your lands!" Ygritte answered. "We've been here the whole time. You lot came along and just put up a big wall and said it was yours."

"My father was Ned Stark. I have the blood of the First Men. My ancestors lived here, same as yours."

Ygritte nodded stiffly. "So why are you fighting us?" she asked.