Chapter Text
The marble flooring clicks underneath the thin heel, her shades blocking in the light that streamed through the clear glass windows, coming from the floor to the ceiling and filling the building with light. Sansa’s head stayed high - full of pride and boldness even though in her hangover slash still half intoxicated state, she may have not felt it. Her head buzzed and her eyes were red and drooping from lack of sleep, but still she held her head high.
“Good morning, Miss Stark.” Greeted one of the girls from reception as Sansa clicked past to the elevators. A muttering of a ‘morning’ back came from Sansa as she pressed the arrow, lighting up bright as the elevator descended down from one of the higher floors, the doors opening and her stepping in without a word to anyone.
As she finally made it into her office, shutting the glass door behind her and pulling her privacy shades down so no one could see inside, she releases a breath and takes of her shades, placing them into her purse as she makes her way across the room to her desk, sitting down behind it in the plush leather chair.
Eyes closing, Sansa brings her hands up while sighing deeply, her fingertips pressing into her temples as she tries to release some of the stress that was already there for it only being past 10 in the morning. The ringing of her phone breaks her from her meditation, her eyes rolling as she reaches for it, bringing it to her ear.
“Sansa Stark.”
She frowns at the voice on the other side of the phone, leaning back in her leather plush chair as she brings a pen towards her mouth, biting down on the end of it. Scoffing outwards, she shakes her head almost as if the man could see her doing it.
“No. No. NO. I told YOU that the meeting would be at 11AM. Not 8AM... “ She spins in her chair and stands, heels clicking on the white tiles of the flooring as she paces back and forth in front of the windows facing out and over the rest of the buildings in Winterfell. “Why the fuck would I want to be at work before 8 in the morning to see you?” Sansa purses her lips and puts her hand on her hip. “My assistant told you that it was at 8? Well you know what, I don’t have an assistant anymore. Harry was fired last week for being a dumbass, do you want to follow in his footsteps, Mr Lannister?”
Tyrion Lannister was someone she worked with - unfortunately. He was big headed, thought he was the best thing since sliced bread, and had a face she wanted to smack. If he wasn’t so good at dealing with all of her companies money, she would have fired him long ago. Even before useless Harry Hardyng.
Tyrion uttered apologises down the phone to her, commenting on arranging another meeting to get the numbers across to her. “Yes we will have another meeting. 8AM tomorrow morning, no ifs or buts. You better be on time, Lannister. Do not make me regret this.” She makes it back to her desk before the end of the call, slamming it down before Tyrion was able to mutter another word to her. “Dumbass.” She calls out to no one. As she sits back into her chair once more, a buzz came from the reception, causing a groan from her. She clicks the speaker, her face cold and stone.
“Yes?”
“Miss Stark, Mr Stark is here to see you.” The quiet voice of one of the reception girls came through, causing a little softening from Sansa as she sighs, frowning her eyebrows a little.
“Which one?”
“Robb, Miss Stark.”
Robb. Her oldest brother. The oldest of the siblings. He only came to visit when he needed some sort of favour from her, she had worked this out well years ago. Robb had been… preoccupied recently with her friend, Margaery. The two had started dating a few months back, and were still in that disgusting “honeymoon phase” of their relationship. The pair were always always all over one another - to the point that Sansa had to comment on how she was going to be sick the last time they had all went out for drinks, and she had gotten stuck across the booth from the two making out, tongues and teeth right in front of her eyes.
It is not a position she needs to see her older brother in. Especially not with her friend since college.
“Let him up.”
She takes her finger off the speaker, pushing her long blonde hair back from her face with a sigh. She reached her mini bar across the office by the time the knock came on her door and Robb entered, closing it behind him. His face was spread with a bright smile, the one she loved so much, until he noticed her filling a glass with whiskey.
“Sansa, it’s not even noon and you’re already drinking?” The tone of voice was the same tone of voice her father used to have when one of them had done something to displease him. The tone of voice had been used on her and Robb more than it had been used on Arya and Jon - who in her father’s eyes could never do any wrong. But that was long ago, before the accident. Before her father and mother had went out on a date night and never returned because a drunk driver had smashed head first into them after speeding down the wrong side of the road.
She takes a gulp of her whiskey, her throat clenching at the harsh taste and the burn as the liquid made its way down her throat and towards her stomach. Her jaw clenches slightly, blinking back the tears that wanted to form in her eyes.
“Who says I ever stopped drinking in the first place?” It was supposed to be a joke. It was supposed to make Robb loosen up a little on her and make him laugh, maybe even roll his eyes a little at her witty ways. Instead, he frowned and shook his head, that sigh of disappointment coming from his lips. He opened his mouth to comment further, but Sansa swallowed back the rest of her whiskey before placing the glass down, her heels clicking as she walked to her desk, and leaned back against it.
“What did you come here for, Robb? Was it to lecture me for the thirteenth time this week about my drinking habit? Or was it for a favour like it normally is every time you’re actually able to break yourself away from Margaery for that long?” With a raised eyebrow and pursed lips, she finally got a crack of a smile and a chuckle from Robb who had thrown himself down into the white leather chairs in front of her desk.
“Why do you automatically assume that every time I come to pay my loving sister a visit, it’s always for a favour? Maybe I just wanted to come and have a chat.”
He had that smug look across his face, that one that was trying to convince her that what he was saying was true - but she wasn’t dumb. She wasn’t going to believe he came all the way across the city to come to her office building, just to have a chat . The last time Robb had came to her office just to have a chat, had been before their parent’s deaths, when he had wanted Margaery’s number to be able to ask her out. Again: it was a favour, not just for a chat.
From the look on Sansa’s face, Robb could tell she wasn’t going to fall for it, releasing a dramatic sigh with a little bob of his head. “So I need a favour…”
Sansa rolls her eyes, her arms coming to cross over in front of her chest as she raised her perfectly shaped eyebrow at Robb once more, towering over him from where she stood and he sat on the chair. “What can I do for you?”
“It’s not for me, it’s for Theon.”
She froze, almost on the spot as her eyes widened just a little - not enough for Robb to take notice but enough. She released the breath she didn’t know she had been holding as she moves around her desk, her hand wrapping around the glass again as she fills it with another lot of whiskey. She swallows it back in one go, teeth clenching as she let out a hiss and slowly turns to Robb once more. “What about Theon?”
“Well… I heard that you fired Harry.”
Her eyes closed, her fingers coming up and pinching at the bridge of her nose. She knew what he was hinting at - allowing his stoner friend from third grade all the way up till college to come and be her new assistant. Sansa and Theon had… A complicated relationship over the years of knowing one another. They had never been close - in between strangers and acquaintances even though he was the best friend of her brother and never was out of their home. She had been a girl full of songs, wanting some sort of love story to come and sweep her from her feet like all of the songs and poems had said, and Theon had been that boy, covered in leather, always smelling of cigarettes and weed, never was able to keep a relationship longer than a week. And she had wanted him, badly. During their years at high school, she was in the couple of grades below him. She watched him and dreamed of him, wore pretty dresses to try and impress him, and he had never once took notice of her.
Until once, when they had kissed at a party, both of them drunk and alone and angry about the death of Eddard and Catelyn Stark. It was stupid - a need for the affection and the touch of another person. Everyone else was moving on around them and was able to cope with the loss - apart from them. So they had used each other.
And then Theon was gone. He only ever spoke to Robb, but never her. She had gotten used to having another person there to hold her, to tell her it was going to be alright, and then he was gone. Just like the rest of them.
“You’re asking me… to hire Theon… to be my assistant?” Her voice was slow, trying to process it all. Would she be able to see Theon five days a week without wanting to cave his head in for what he had done to her?
“He needs the money, Sans… and you know he’s a really good employee. He works hard. Please… for me?” The puppy dog eyes were brought out, causing a groan from her as she gave a nod of her head. Placing the glass down on her desk, she places her hands on her hips.
“Tell him to come and see me tomorrow at 11 and I’ll give him a… interview. If he does good, I’ll try him out.”
Robb jumped from the chair and almost threw himself at her, picking her up in his muscular arms in a bear hug, gripping her to his chest to the point she almost couldn’t breathe. She returned the hug, a little laugh coming from between her lips. “Thank you so much, Sansa! I’ll go and tell him the good news!” And with a kiss to her cheek, he was off and out of her office, leaving her alone with her thoughts once more.
She sighed, flopping back against her desk chair as she leaned her head back, looking up at the freshly white painted ceiling. She could already hear the nagging voice in her mind telling her it was a bad idea to see Theon again - to be alone in her office with him again. Would she scream at him or would she kiss him like they used to do years ago? Back when she was a fresh graduate from high school and he was in college, working at being a marine biologist? She remembered how patient he had been with animals - sea creatures in particular. She used to think it was the softest thing about the usually over egoistic and ‘I hate everyone’ personality that Theon tried to put on.
For everyone but her.
She knew deep down that it was a bad idea to have Theon as her assistant, whether it be because she forced herself to hate him or because she was still in love with the boy who had broken her heart all those years ago - but she knew it was bad. Nothing good could come out of Theon being her assistant.