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The first description of Sansa Stark Willas heard was from Daena. The moment he opened the door after her first day back at school his little six year daughter attacked him, “Daddy! Daddy! Daddy! My new teacher so amazing! She has really pretty hair and it’s all red and long and curly and she told me that maybe me and some of the other girls could play with it one day if we wanted to but it was so pretty I wasn’t sure if I could wait! But I did anyway because granny always says things were better if you waited. I’m not sure if it’s true but I’m going to do it. She’s so much nicer than Miss Oakheart.”
Willas tried to laugh as he picked her up and kissed her firmly on the cheek. “Well she sounds very nice.”
“She is, she is! You’d like her Daddy, cos I learnt things too. Like all about the letter a, it’s very important.”
=
The second description he heard was from Margaery, who as the person with the most flexible schedule was the person who tended to pick Daena up from school, grinning as she watched him devour his dinner.
“I’m taking Daena’s Miss Stark out this weekend, she’s new in town and she needs a friend. She’s very sweet, if a little shy.” She paused then to give him a pointed look, “you’d like her, maybe you should come too.”
Willas didn’t have a problem with Margaery making friends with Daena’s teacher but he’d been subject to enough of her attempts to make him go on dates over the past two months that he knew exactly what she was attempting. So he just gave her a look and told her, “weekends are me and Daena time, you know that.”
=
Willas supposed he shouldn’t be surprised when Leonette told him one evening that she thought that Miss Stark was the best teacher the school had hired for a while, and that she was rather cute too.
The women in his family always seemed to unite over a common goal, and for some reason this time they’d all fixed on setting him up with Daena’s teacher.
=
By the time he finally met Sansa Stark he was almost determined not to like her. Of course if he disliked her then that’d break Daena’s heart and he knew he couldn’t do that to her.
He’d picked the latest possible time on her schedule for parents evening and even then he was almost late. Of course parents evening always ran late he remembered as he stared absently at his hands.
“Mr Tyrell?”
The moment Willas looked up he realised his family certainly hadn’t been lying about how pretty Miss Stark was. “Yes, hello. It’s a pleasure to meet you Miss Stark.”
She was even prettier when she smiled it turned out.
=
The smug smile on Margaery’s face when he mentioned to her that he might leave work early to pick Daena up from school one day the next week was almost too much to handle.
He went anyway.
=
Willas hadn’t intended for it to be a habit but leaving work early on Fridays to pick Daena up from school and talk to Miss Stark for a few moments was just such a nice way to start the weekend that he couldn’t quite give it up once he started.
He told himself it was just because of the excitement on his daughter’s face as she threw herself into his arms, but really he knew that the smile on her teacher’s face was part of it too.
=
“I’ve invited Sansa to the family dinner next week by the way,” Margaery casually announced one evening. “She gets along with everyone after all and Mother thinks that she could probably do with someone cooking for her.”
“Oh,” was all Willas could trust himself to say.
=
Willas supposed he shouldn’t be surprised when he was seated next to Sansa at dinner, even if Daena complained bitterly that she should be the one to sit next to her Miss Stark and was only appeased by plenty of reassurance that she would get her after dinner.
On the surface dinner was exactly like normal, the same things were discussed just with added conversation with Sansa about her life and not just theirs but it felt so entirely different with the knowledge that she was sitting right next to him, their legs almost close enough to touch.
It was after dinner as he watched Sansa command the attention of Daena and Garlan and Leonette’s Theo so entirely that his mother came up to him. “I’m glad you’re opening your heart again,” she told him softly. “And Rhaenys would be glad too.”
“I don’t think I’m ready yet. Rhae has been gone such a short time and Sansa is so different I’m not sure how I feel about her.”
“We all loved her but she’s been gone almost two years now and Daena needs a mother. Give it a try and see where it goes.”
Willas didn’t reply.
=
He took Sansa out for dinner. It was meant to be just as friends but Willas knew he wasn’t even fooling himself.
They talked about Daena at first, and then their childhoods and families, and finally just as desert arrived they reached the topic he’d been avoiding and the topic they had to get past if this was going to work.
“I think you’re a really amazing person Sansa but there’s a lot of baggage that comes with me. And I don’t want to scare you but you need to know about Daena’s mother before you even consider seeing me again like this.” Willas was grateful for the fact that she just nodded. “I met Rhaenys at university and we were friends for a long time before we started dating, in fact it was after we graduated. But once we started dating things moved very quickly and she was pregnant within two year. We were really happy. We didn’t have very much money but it didn’t seem to matter and both sets of parents helped us out. Daena was two when Rhae was diagnosed with cancer. We were told that prospects were good, that it was treatable but unfortunately that didn’t happen.” He hated talking about this, talking about the worst months of his life but he had to do it. “Rhae died two years ago. For about three months I barely functioned and if it wasn’t for our families I’m not quite sure what would have happened, it was only my mother who pulled me out of it but forcibly reminding me that I had a four year old daughter to look after now. There will always be a large part of my heart locked away for her but you’ve made me want to try again even if I’m way too old and laden down with history for you.”
Sansa just smiled and took his hand. “Thank you for telling me. But I have something to tell you too. I have bad experiences in relationships, my ex hurt me and I don’t know how starting a new relationship will affect my recovery but I like you a lot and I’d like to try if you do too.”
Willas couldn’t imagine why anyone would want to hurt Sansa, why anyone could but that wasn’t going to stop him pursuing this unless she told him to. “I’d like to try.”
=
They take it slowly.
Occasional dinners or trips to the cinema or nights in at hers that make him feel as if he’s a teenager not quite sure what he’s doing again. But when they’re together it feels perfect and every time they meet he knows he’s one step closer to falling in love with her.
=
They agree not to tell Daena until the end of the academic year, until after Sansa is no longer her teacher and the months ahead stretch out in front of them like they’ll never end. Others know though, their families and friends know that something serious is happening between them. And Willas is thankful that he doesn’t have to worry about his daughter and girlfriend not getting along.
=
They’ve been dating for eight months by the time term ends and Sansa is no longer Daena’s Miss Stark. Willas suggests a trip to the local farm to Daena and asks her whether she would mind if a friend of his comes along too, she’s not happy he knows but she scrunches her nose up and agrees. He’s still sure that the moment she realises it’s Sansa she’ll be ecstatic but it’s hard not to be upset by how little she wants to share him with someone else.
He’s almost sick with nerves by the time they reach the farm, but the moment he spots Sansa looking almost as worried as him Daena lets go of his hand in favour of hers and the butterflies vanish instantly.
He still takes a deep breath though as he kneels down and pulls his daughter away from Sansa. “Daena remember we were meeting a friend of mine?” She nods hesitantly before he continues, “Well Miss Stark is the friend.”
“But… she’s my friend?” Daena’s face was the picture of confusion but Willas supposed he couldn’t have expected anything else.
“Can we share her maybe? You see I quite like her.”
Daena paused a moment before nodding, “Okay, but I get to hold her hand.”
Willas supposed he couldn’t have asked for anything more as his daughter firmly grasped both of their hands and demanded to go and see the piggies, and from the smile on Sansa’s face he guessed she felt exactly the same.
=
Sansa started to come to theirs after that, she never stayed the night but she would play silly games with Daena or watch movies with her or occasionally read her bedtime story. The first time Willas watched Sansa unconsciously kiss Daena goodnight he realised that he loved her.
They would spend weekends together too, the three of them going on adventures that were much more fun with three than two.
He only realised quite how much time they were spending together when Margaery asked how she was meant to see her niece when she was never asked to do babysitting duty anymore.
=
“Would you like it if Sansa came to live with us?” Willas asked Daena one day while Sansa was away north visiting her family.
“Like a mummy?”
He paused for a moment, he hadn’t been expecting that somehow. “A little.”
“Okay.” She paused for a moment, “would I call her mummy?”
“Do you want to?”
“Maybe. Everyone else has a mummy.”
It didn’t matter that she was on the other side of the room, Willas couldn’t help but leap up and wrap his arms around her, however she confused she might be. “You do have a mummy Dae, it’s just that your mummy can’t be here.”
Her voice was rather indignant then. “I know. I just want an alive mummy too.”
=
Willas took Sansa out for dinner for the first time in a long time when she got back, before Daena had a chance to ruin the surprise. It wasn’t a super fancy restaurant but it felt it after so long and with Sansa by his side.
“Do you want to move in with me?” he asked her as they looked at their menus. He’d meant to wait until after the meal truly but he couldn’t seem to make himself.
Sansa just looked at him and grinned, “yes.”
He laughed then and looked back at his menu before putting it down a second later, “no wait. Do you want to marry me?”
She just stared at him and laughed, “that’s how you’re asking?”
“Yes, I can get on bended knee and produce the ring I haven’t brought yet because I know we were taking things slow but I love you so much right now and it just felt right. And if you say no that’s okay, I still love you anyway.” Willas was now desperately wishing he’d done this the right way but it was too late now, he’d started and he had to finish and just pray that she said yes.
“Of course it’s a yes, of course it is.”
=
The wedding was beautiful and somehow everything came off without a hitch (but then again Margaery was the wedding planner). And Willas knew that Sansa had never been more beautiful than she had been as she walked towards him in her silver-white gown and Daena right in front of her. Somehow he’d got a second chance at love and it was perfect.