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I.
Ned isn’t really proud that he finds it in himself to talk to Ashara Dayne in the first place to apologize for his brother.
It’s probably pathetic that after crushing on someone for an entire year and secretly wishing that you could find it in yourself to at least ask her out for drinks you actually approach her because your brother was quicker, asked her out for drinks first and was a complete jerk to her, but -
Ned might feel completely awed when he’s around her, and why wouldn’t he - she’s the first of their class, she’ll be great when she graduates and then specializes in pediatrics as she’s said since the first day they met in med school, she’s breathtakingly beautiful with her dark hair and violet eyes and charming smile, he never really knew what to do with himself whenever they were in the same space.
Then Brandon noticed her once when he picked Ned up after a final and he had no problems introducing himself and asking her out, of course -
And then he dumped her a month later. God, Ned already hates the way Brandon seems to think his girlfriends are disposable, but the fact that he did that with the one girl Ned has been wanting to ask out for this long and who’d deserve so much better - yeah, no.
So he clears his throat and sits next to her before their next class begins.
“I’m sorry,” he says, without preambles.
“What?” Ashara doesn’t sound angry, more surprised than anything else.
“Uh, my brother. You didn’t deserve that, and I thought he was more serious than his usual. And I feel guilty because you’d have never wasted a month of your life with him if he hadn’t come to pick me up, so. I just wanted to tell you that.”
He expects her to shrug and tell him to get lost. Instead - instead she smiles. A tiny bit, but she does. “Well, that’s sweet of you to say.”
“Sorry?”
“Ned, your brother is a complete ass, I’m not going to argue over it, and he definitely deserved the slap he got when he told me -”
“Oh, he didn’t report that.”
“’Course he wouldn’t. I left him in the middle of the coffee shop with the bill to pay, that was the least. But he’s not the kind of guy I lose sleep on. He doesn’t deserve it. Still, it was nice of you to say that.”
“It was the least,” Ned says, praying that he doesn’t start stumbling over his words. God, he’s not twelve anymore, he shouldn’t be feeling like an awkward teenager at twenty-three, fuck’s sake. “And - I’m just, it’s true that I’m sorry he had to go and be an asshole. You deserve better than that crap.”
“Hm,” Asha mutters, staring at him. “Can I ask you something?”
“Uh, sure. I mean. Whatever you want.”
“Do people in general deserve better than him, or do I specifically deserve better, according to you?”
Ned can feel his face go on fire. Christ, he hadn’t thought he was this obvious -
“Right,” she says before he can answer. “Because you know, I think that maybe I might have made a small judgment error here.”
“You wouldn’t -”
“Oh, I would. I think that if I had to try and date someone named Stark, I might have picked the wrong one.”
Ned kind of remains completely speechless at that, and then Ashara winks at him, and then he manages to ask her if maybe she wants to go out for coffee tomorrow.
She says yes.
Ned shows up with new clothes he hadn’t brushed off in ages because he never has a chance to dress up, buys her flowers and makes sure that his gas tank is full in case she wants to go somewhere later.
“But look at it,” she says, taking the small bouquet of violets that he bought her (they’re the same shade of her eyes), “you’re officially the first guy I ever had coffee with who ever bothered to get me flowers.”
“Uh, I hope - some people think it’s old-fashioned, I wasn’t sure?”
“Ned?” Ashara interrupts him. “I think I can definitely deal with old fashioned.”
When he brings her home a long time later (they watched a movie and had dinner together and after an hour he had stopped feeling like he had to walk on eggs around her), she kisses him before getting out of the car.
Ned can’t believe his luck. He’s also not going to be an idiot and do what his brother did.
II.
It’s not that he hasn’t been thinking about asking the question.
He has.
They moved together back when they started specializing and took separate ways - she took pediatrics as she always said she would, he went for oncology. They finished more or less at the same time. They even lucked out and did all their internships in the same hospital, and they stayed there, so they can see each other even if their hours don’t coincide all the time.
They started dating at twenty-three, they’re in the other half of their twenties now, and they’ve been earning decently enough, and so Ned had been thinking about buying a ring and just asking her. It’s been years. He’s fairly sure that he’s head over heels for her the same as he was the day he brought her flowers first. Ashara definitely reciprocates, and by now he’s not awed by it anymore.
When he gets his first pay rise, he goes out and buys the rings, but he still doesn’t tell her - they’re both busy and it never seems like it’s the right time.
Then one evening he comes home to find her sitting on the sofa and looking - well, not worried, but not happy either.
“Ashara?” He asks as he takes off his coat. “Is - is there something wrong?”
“It depends,” she sighs. “What would you say if I told you that the pill doesn’t always work all of the time?”
Ned doesn’t get the implication until he’s sitting down next to her. Then he does.
“Wait. You mean that -”
“I mean that my period was late and I took a test. And - it was positive,” she breathes out.
For a moment Ned can’t process it, but then -
Well, he knows his answer, he thinks. The problem isn’t him.
“And what do you say to that?” He asks.
“It all depends on your opinion,” she says, still looking impassible. He reaches down and takes one of her hands in his.
“I’d say that I can’t imagine any better prospect than having a baby with you, but if you don’t want it or if it’s too soon, I wouldn’t -”
“Ned?” She’s smiling now.
“Yes?”
“Kindly shut up,” she says, her hand going to the back of his head. “Good thing that I can’t imagine a better prospect either.” Then she kisses him as she moves forward and her legs go around his own.
Ned proposes a month later. He books a nice restaurant and tells the waited to hide the ring in the lemon sorbet she’ll most definitely order, because Ashara always has lemon sorbet. She tells him that only he could have done it so old-fashioned, and says yes.
III.
“Look at that,” Ashara says nine months later, smiling down at the bundle in her arms, “he’s all you. Can’t complain about it, though.”
Ned is still wiping tears off his face - she told him that he cried more than she did during the birth, which was ridiculous in itself, good thing she likes him also because he’s ridiculous. Then again, it had been a difficult pregnancy and Ashara’s colleague had pretty much flat-out told them that trying for another would be a bad idea, so blame him if he was worried.
The baby does have his eyes and hair, though, and Ned had maybe hoped he’d have her eyes, but it’s no matter really. As Ashara hands him over (they’re naming him Jon after Ned’s godfather), Ned thinks that he can’t imagine being happier than he is right now, and patience if other children aren’t in the plans.
III.5
He’s wrong.
IV.
They meet Catelyn Tully at Brandon’s thirtieth birthday party. She’s his last girlfriend, one who has lasted two years actually, which is a record when Brandon is concerned, but they never met because given how busy they are and the fact that they have a one-year old kid to raise they barely even see anyone who doesn’t come to their place first. And Brandon rarely does.
Ned is actually sure that his brother doesn’t really approve of the two of them showing up with Jon to a party where they’re supposed to drink and that wasn’t imagined to be baby-friendly, but they make it work. Catelyn - please call me Cat, she tells the both of them when she introduces herself - looks like a perfectly nice and lovely person. She’s exceedingly polite, does not glance badly at them for having brought Jon with, she makes sure that they have a place to put their stuff and checks on them fairly often, asking if they need anything, and tells Brandon off when he tries to convince the both of them to drink more than one glass of wine. Never mind that Ned should drive back. She also congratulates them on their kid being that well-behaved - Ashara smirks and says that he’s all his father. Cat laughs and says that they do look alike, don’t they, and when Ned asks her how it is between her and Brandon, she beams and says that everything is fine, they’ve been living together for a while, she thinks he might propose soon.
Ned can’t conceive his brother settling down, but maybe he just needed to find the right woman.
Ashara says the same thing as he drives home later.
“Well, good thing that it seems like he found her,” Ned agrees.
“Indeed. If they ever get married I’ll congratulate her - that’s way more than I could have handled.”
“Come on, you could have handled him just fine. You handled him indeed, as far as I recall.”
“You’re less high maintenance, I think I’ll stick with you.”
Ned snorts and thinks, not for the last time, that he’s glad she’s of that opinion.
V.
Then they meet her again.
Ned hadn’t thought it’d be at a funeral.
Especially, Brandon’s.
Ned can sadly believe that his brother ended up in a car crash because he drank more than one glass of wine before going behind the wheel - and given that their parents have been dead for a while and Brandon had friends but not the kind who stick around, by the time the funeral’s done and the wake and reception are over, it’s just him, Ashara, Benjen, Lyanna and Cat in Brandon’s house.
And Cat looks utterly devastated, but something tells Ned that Brandon dying isn’t the entirety of the matter. He tells Ashara. Ashara takes a look at Cat, who’s sitting on the sofa with her hands against her eyes.
“Yes,” she confirms, “there’s definitely something going on. Go ask her.”
“Maybe you could come with?”
“I don’t think she needs to be crowded and your sister needs help in the kitchen. Go, in case this takes long I’ll tell Arthur to keep Jon overnight.”
Ned heads for the sofa and grabs a pack of tissues on the way.
“Hey,” he tells her, handing them over. “I just - I mean, I know it has to be a bad blow, but you look - is there something wrong? Other than the obvious.”
Cat takes the tissues and wipes at her eyes. “Thank you. Well, actually, there is, but you really don’t need -”
“Please, if we can help somehow -”
“That’d be complicated. But - right. I didn’t tell you why he was drinking when he drove out.”
“Was there a reason?”
She breathes in. “I’m pregnant.”
“What -”
“We were out of condoms, he said that we might as well do it anyway, what were the odds? And - well. The odds weren’t that low. He didn’t take it too well.”
Ned can believe that, given how not big Brandon had been on children in general.
“He drank some and said he needed to clear his head and think about it.” She breathes in, blows into a new tissue. “And there’s also the part where I absolutely can’t afford the rent on my own in this place, and - never mind.”
“No, really, say it.”
She breaks out crying again. “See, I - I always wanted children,” she sobs. “I figured maybe he’d come around. Or if he didn’t, well, I could have handled it. I kind of raised my siblings anyway, I could, and I want it, but how do I even support it if I’m on my own and my contribution to house expenses was mostly buying the groceries and covering the electricity and water bills?”
Right. She’s an elementary school teacher and she has had a permanent place just recently, she definitely couldn’t afford the kind of expensive apartment Brandon rented, and adding a baby on top of it… also, her family lives in Ireland entirely and she had said, at the party, that she really didn’t want to go back to her small town - she liked London’s job perspectives a lot better.
Ned wants to tell her that Ashara could be her doctor for free at least, but maybe he should talk to her first. For now he says nothing and puts an arm around Cat’s shoulder - she doesn’t fight it when her head ends up on his shoulder.
He tells Ashara later, when Cat has gone upstairs - she says she needs to start looking at the paperwork.
“I thought that if she wants to keep it maybe you could, you know, check on her without extra payments, but I didn’t want to presume -”
“You could have told her,” Ashara cuts him. “But - hm.”
She looks pensive, and she ponders whatever it is for a long minute before looking back up at Ned.
“Right. Listen, this is entirely up in the air, and if you don’t agree let’s just pretend I never asked, but - we have space.”
Indeed they do - when they decided to keep the baby they had left their old two-rooms apartment and headed for a cheaper area where they found a nice house with two floors and enough space for at least four people, figuring that they should think ahead if they decided to have other children. Now it’s not happening, though, but they still kept the house since they bought it out and it was convenient.
“We do.”
Ashara shrugs. “And well, we did want Jon to have siblings, didn’t we? I mean, if she needs a place to stay for a while even after the baby’s born we could just see if she wants to move in and contribute to the expenses. it’d be helping family out anyway and - she shouldn’t give it up just because she has no means to support herself. But just if you agree.”
Ned doesn’t need to think about it for long.
“Actually,” he says, “actually, I think it’d be a great idea. If she wants to.” And it would be. Cat is a lovely person as far as he has seen, she really didn’t deserve any of this and if she’s pregnant, well, that’s still his nephew, damn it.
They ask her. Cat first tells them that they shouldn’t feel obligated or anything and she’s not accepting if she isn’t contributing, but Ashara takes her aside and tells her something and she eventually accepts.
VI.
Cat’s pregnancy is not a difficult one, which in turn certainly doesn’t turn Ashara’s mood sour. Ned has to admit that having someone around the house who doesn’t have their insane hours and can and will look after Jon if there’s the need makes their life a lot easier. If sometimes he catches himself thinking that Cat’s hair is really a lovely shade of red, no one has to know.
Her baby is also a boy. She names him Robb, and asks them if they’re really serious about letting her stay longer. Ashara tells her that the upstairs room is all hers and really, if she needs help and they’re around she should just ask.
If Jon was all Ned, Robb is all Cat. Bright red hair and blue eyes. Nothing like Brandon, Ned thinks, but given that Brandon most probably wouldn’t have wanted a kid anyway, maybe it’s for the best.
VII.
“Hey,” Ashara tells him one day on their coffee break, “can I ask you a thing?”
“Since when you can’t?”
“Touché. Anyway, let’s just be clear here - do you happen to like Cat?”
Ned almost spits his coffee.
“What?”
“You heard me.”
“Ashara, if I didn’t like her she wouldn’t be living with us?”
“Ned, you know I meant it another way. And not in the ‘well, we’re three people kind of raising two kids all together and have been for six months’ way. I mean in the, you know, she has lovely hair sense. Or, her eyes are beautiful sense. Or, I might not care much for Sunday mass and I don’t get why she goes every week but I’m happy that she looks happier for it when she comes back. Or -”
“Ashara, I think I got it, but -”
“Because if you mean it that way, it’s two of us in our house. And I don’t mean the fascination that our kid has with her hair. Or Robb, for that matter.”
At that, Ned stops dead in his tracks. “Two of us?”
Ashara shrugs. “Well, I never told you because there really was no reason to and I’m with you, I don’t look around on principle, but I’ve been known to like women as well, at times.”
“And you like her?”
“Don’t you?” She sounds absolutely nonplussed, and - well, he always was the one out of the two of them overthinking things, maybe.
And fact is - she’s right. He does like Cat that way, he’s had for a while, but it’s not as if he ever considered acting on it. But if Ashara also thinks the same -
“You think we should, uh, ask her? Officially?”
“At worse she says no. Don’t worry, I did snoop around a bit before actually coming clean with you. She might go to church regularly but she doesn’t think that anything I’m proposing would land any of us downstairs.”
Good to know. Ned thinks about it, and - on one side it looks daunting, but on the other -
On the other -
Maybe she’d stop feeling like a glorified guest, and he knows she does - that’d be just the first thing that would improve. And if it actually turned serious -
Ned can see worse prospects in life than rising two children in a three-people unit.
“When do we ask her?” He says, after drinking his coffee.
Ashara’s response grin is blinding.
VIII.
At first, Cat admittedly thinks they’re joking.
Fact is, Ned was never much of a person who could joke about things that much, especially if they’re this serious, and Ashara can be convincing.
Then, it turns out that it was mutual.
Good thing that they decided to tell her on a day when Ashara’s brother had volunteered to keep both kids over at his place - Ned will send Arthur a lot of fruit baskets for Christmas in the next years.
IX.
Three years later, Cat clears her throat as she gets into bed - it was her turn to check on Jon and Robb this evening, which is why she’s joining them forty minutes later than when they went to sleep first.
“Let’s say that I have news for all of us,” she says.
“As in?” Ashara asks, scooting forward so that she’s in the middle and Cat on her right.
“Do we remember how that condom broke last month?”
“Wait, do you mean -”
“The test is positive,” Cat replies.
For a moment, no one says a thing - that wasn’t planned. And then Ned feels Ashara’s fingers grabbing at his.
“Well,” she says, sounding ecstatic, “can we hope it’s a girl this time before we get outnumbered for good?”
Turns out: it’s a girl.
Then there’s another girl.
Ned complains for a bit about their group being outnumbered because it’s four against three for a bit.
He doesn’t know that in a few years his group will win that specific battle.
X.
Lyanna still says that she doesn’t understand how in the name of everything the three of them can find appealing the idea of rising six children, she couldn’t even handle one, but then again she’s barely the age he and Ashara were when they started dating and no one needs to want kids in their life.
Especially when they can spoil six nephews anyway.
The neighbors talk a lot and Cat had to change church some four times before finding one where the priest can’t give two fucks about having children out of wedlock or living with a married couple.
Neither of them can care less, for that matter, and they have too much to do on their hands to worry about such petty things as, is it a bad thing if I think I love them both equally.
What he knows, Ned decides whenever he ponders the situation and feels thankful that Jon and Robb are better at looking after their sisters than their parents are half of the time, is that he was wrong, maybe now he can’t imagine being happier than this.
He’s not, eventually, wrong.
End.