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His hands clenched around the back of the chair until they turned white while his Tully blue eyes staring at the bronze and iron crown on the table in front of him. How had it all gone wrong? Where did ROBB start and the KING end? When he called the banners, he just wanted to get his father and his sisters back to Winterfell. Robb fought back in the tears stung his eyes and tried to ignore the tightening in his chest. Why did anyone want to be king? He had executed one of his most trusted Lords for a revenge that should have been given a long time ago… Now half his men were gone and the other half were tired, angry, and ready to go home.
Frustrated, Robb’s hand swept the crown off the table and sent it flying across the room with several papers underneath. All he wanted was to go home… but where was home? Theon had betrayed him, slaughtering his brothers and stringing them up on the walls of Winterfell. Now his home was even burned to the ground. There was no home to speak of and no peace where he could lay his head. Even his own wife was something that caused his men to desert him and question him. His breath caught in his throat, holding back a scream that he wished he could let rip through his chest.
Where did it all get so confused? As much as he hated hearing the word ‘boy’… that’s all he wanted to be again. A boy with his siblings back at home. Where his sisters were safe under his watch, fighting each other as always, and his brother was whole again. He could almost close his eyes and picture being back home. Jon was with him in the yard… Theon too. It was painful to open his eyes again, standing alone in the bloody war room with his crown on the floor. Swallowing all emotion, he picked it up, feeling the weight in his hands. His father’s words rang in his head. Killing shouldn’t be easy. By the old gods and the new, it wasn’t. He learned that and he was paying for it.
“Robb.” A small voice came from behind him, causing him to turn quickly. Talisa stood hesitantly at the door. How long she’d been there, he couldn’t recall. Without a word, he he held out a calloused hand until hers rested in his palm. It wasn’t as soft as a normal lady’s from working in the field behind him, healing the wounded and comforting the dying. A sigh left him, feeling the tension release just a little bit as he looked into her dark brown eyes. They were always so concerned about him… There was peace for him, it rested in her eyes…in her arms. There he would rest his head, into the crook of her neck. Her arms wrapped around him as he clung to her as if he was drowning and she would keep him afloat.