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In all honesty Catelyn Tully did not think she’d be overly bothered by Cersei moving out, they would keep in touch and she understood that Cersei needed to move in with her brother Jaime to cut costs after her youngest brother, Tyrion, had fallen in love with a woman and told her everything about Tywin Lannister and his absentee parenting, unaware she was a prostitute. Safe to say when said prostitute exposed the Lannister family to the media, they had taken a hit.
So Cersei was moving out and it didn’t seem at all real until the living room was half empty and Cat no longer had the comfortable armchair because Cersei claimed it was hers. Which really bothered her until now when she realised that there would be no more late-night chats while watching serial killer documentaries on Netflix. Instead, some random guy who she hadn’t even met had responded to her Craigslist ad and was due to move in later that night. Oh god, she hoped he wasn’t one of those guys who left the toilet seat up.
It’s not just Cersei and her good wine that Cat will miss, her brother Jaime will be missed too. He would often take the armchair during these late-night marathons and then sleep on the sofa (though Cat had never seen him actually sleep there, the blankets would be folded, and he would be in the kitchen when she got up in the morning). In all honesty, she wasn’t sure what she would do without the two of them, they helped her get through her university degree so far through a cycle of binge drinking and studying with a hangover, which probably was a bad thing as they often encouraged her to drink as she wasn’t a big drinker herself, but she’ll miss it all the same.
She greets Cersei with a tight-lipped smile when she comes out of her room as she knows her roommate isn’t big on emotions and feels a little better when Cersei gives her the same look. Cersei approaches her and not being able to stop the impulse, Catelyn wraps her in a large hug. The blonde seems startled for a moment, before gingerly returning the hug.
“You’ll keep in touch?” Cat asks, fighting back tears because she’ll never live it down if Cersei sees her cry just because they’re not living together anymore. “Of course.” Just for a second, she feels Cersei squeeze her a little tighter before letting her go completely. “Someone needs to remind you to drink and be a slut.”
She hears laughter coming from the doorway and sees Jaime, seemingly finished loading all the boxes into the van. “You know sis, Cat might be able to return to be a normal person now that we’re not convincing her to do things.”
Cat laughs at his joke a little louder than what it merits, but it makes him smile all the same. She pulls him into a hug while the two of them are laughing. “Oh please, you won’t leave me alone long enough for that to happen.”
She pulls back and gives Jaime a quick peck on the cheek and pulls them both into a giant hug before they leave, promising to FaceTime her once they’re both settled in their new place. She sits at the window and watches the van pull down the street and fade from view, finally letting a few tears fall because her best friend now lived five minutes away and she was now going to live with a boy and she really hoped her father would never find out because if he did she would be dead.
Later, when Cat’s cleaned the apartment (and herself) up a little, there’s a knock at the door. She opens it to reveal a tall young man with a mop of dark hair and grey eyes surrounded by boxes.
“Hi.” He greets, a charming smile broaching his face as he looks her up and down. “Catelyn Tully, I assume?”
“You assume correctly. Eddard was it? Eddard Stark?” She questions, liking the way he tilts his head and the sweet scent of his aftershave.
“Ned, everyone calls him Ned. I’m Brandon, his brother, he’s downstairs getting the last of it and I said I’d start moving this stuff in, do you mind?”
“No! Not at all, please.” She told him, stepping aside so he could start bringing the stuff in. She watched as he shrugged off his leather jacket and admired his arms as he lifted the boxes.
Cat’s standing in the doorway directing him where to put the boxes while ogling his ass as he bent down to lift the boxes when she heard some shuffling down the hall. She didn’t see a face though, as the boxes were piled so high she was surprised he even got up the stairs with them at all. She starts down the hallway until she’s almost in front of him and puts out her hand to steady the boxes.
“Here, let me give you a hand.” The only response she gets is a grunt and the two of them gently place down the stack of boxes he has on the floor without having anything fall or break. He steps out from behind the boxes to reveal a well-built man, though a little shorter than his brother, sporting a trimmed beard and an altogether plainer face than that of his sibling, though not unhandsome.
“Your brother said you liked to be called Ned? Well, in that case, call me Cat.” She tells him, sticking her hand out for him to shake. He takes a minute to respond, seemingly in some sort of trance (she assumes from all the heavy lifting) and shakes it. “Yes, nice to meet you Cat. Thanks for the hand there, not sure if I would have made it to the door on my own.”
Her hand feels warm and tingly when he pulls his hand away and she tries not to overthink it too much. The three of them get Ned mostly unpacked and Cat makes them dinner. She finds Brandon altogether more chatty and animated than Ned is, but he’s still nice and offers to clean up the dishes. When Brandon leaves, the two make awkward stilted chat for a while, as it seems that his brother had been the one to keep the three of them talking throughout packing and dinner. She retires to her room and pics up her load, propping it up on her bed and turning to face it.
When Cersei answers, she’s already got a glass of red wine in hand. Cat bites back a laugh, finding comfort in the fact that nothing’s really changed, its night, Cersei is drinking and the two of them are about to have girls chat. Even if it is on a screen instead of face-to-face, it’s still the same routine.
“Oh my god, you’ll never guess what my new roommate looks like, but better yet you should see his brother.”
“Hey, Jaime! You owe me twenty, it seems like Cat is being a little slut all own her own, she already wants to shag her roommate and his brother.”