Chapter Text
The motion activated lights illuminated the driveway below as a figure walked out into a waiting car. Dany pushed back the curtains from her bedroom window and watched as he strode over to the car parked across the street. Robb turned as if sensing her there by the window, and gave her a small wave before getting into the car with Margaery Tyrell. It was her last night at home before she left for Berkeley in the morning.
An emotion Dany once refused to acknowledge sunk to the pit of her stomach like a leaden weight. It was a wistfulness tinged with an ugliness that she loathed, that she despised, for feeling. If only she realised sooner. If only Robb’s eye hadn’t caught Margaery’s. If only, if only…
Dany closed the curtain and sat back down at her desk.
The confusion and, as much as she hated to admit, jealousy , no longer reared its ugly head as frequently as it did during her sophomore year. Those intense feelings she once harboured for the boy next door - for her brother’s best friend! - fizzled out like the summer sun as the trees that lined the streets around her gradually lost their leaves.
The whole one-way catastrophe started off harmlessly enough. Objectively – and platonically – Robb Stark was handsome enough to catch any girl’s eye with his strong jawline, which was only accentuated by his newly grown stubble, and with his neatly styled auburn curls and his twinkling blue eyes. Dany had always thought him good-looking enough – it was just a fact of life.
But this silly infatuation went beyond his good looks and charming presence. And that was when this self-contained trouble started.
She fiddled with a pen, tapping it against the desk. It was how he always tried to include her in some way whenever he and Viserys hung out. Robb never had to include his best friend’s little sister, but he did anyway. He would also constantly recommend her the latest book he had devoured, or some new records he found in his parent’s collection, or how he always saved her a seat at the bleachers where he, Viserys, Doreah and Margaery sat at lunch.
It was all those little things that grew into something that threatened to tear at her insides. Robb Stark was her brother’s best friend. He was dating Margaery Tyrell – someone that Dany was never close to until the older Tyrell girl took the shy freshman under her wings, sheltering her from the shit storm that was high school.
She looked at her jewellery box and gingerly unlocked it to slip in a fifth envelope. It was the latest addition to her most secret of possessions. Her love letters written to all the boys that she once harboured feelings for over the years. It was silly, she knew, but writing out her feelings helped her get over her little flights of fancy.
Dany got the idea when her mother told Viserys to write a letter to the boy who had been tormenting him at school instead of hitting him. She was only nine at the time and thought it the most genius of ideas. Unlike her brother who slept on the letter before discarding it, thus successfully getting over his desire to give into primal violence, she kept her letters surreptitiously locked inside her mother’s porcelain jewellery box.
She found writing down these feelings, these little fantasies, liberating as it allowed her to channel her emotions. It was, after all, easier to fantasise than to ground herself in the bleak reality that was her life.
There had only been four other occasions when she felt like this, and thus there were only four other non-recipients of her letters.
The first letter was addressed Daario Naharis from Model UN in the fifth grade. Then there was one for Drogo Dothraki from her sixth-grade summer camp. The third letter was for Jon Snow, who was her first kiss in seventh grade at Edd Tollett’s birthday party during spin the bottle. In freshman year, she added another letter for Loras Tyrell after he asked her to dance at Homecoming.
And now, Robb Stark was her latest non-recipient.
Satisfied that she had put this ordeal behind her, she sat back in her chair and admired the neat stack. There were five letters now for five non-recipients.
“Rhaenys!” Dany called from the bottom of the stairs, her eyes flicking over to the clock. Fifteen minutes to eight – they could be late if her eleven-year-old niece did not hurry.
“I’m coming!” Nessie came bounding down the stairs with her bag and a helmet in her hands. Her dark hair was still not tied up and there was a bit of cereal stuck to her t-shirt from breakfast. She jumped the last two steps and shoved on her shoes, “Sorry, I couldn’t find my helmet.”
“Is that necessary?” Dany eyed the helmet in her niece’s hands, wondering why she had to make this ordeal even more painful than necessary.
Nessie just looked at her, her indigo eyes serious. “I think survival is very necessary, Dany.”
She rolled her eyes and hurried the eleven-year-old out of the door before she locked up the house. Nessie climbed into the passenger seat, buckled herself in and Dany could have sworn she saw the girl cross herself.
The driveway was clear for her to back out of without Rhaegar’s SUV parking the old Honda in. He left for hospital early this morning as he had a patient booked in for a nine-A.M cesarean, and wished his girls both a good start to the new school year the night before. A small part of Dany wondered if he did this on purpose so she wouldn’t get nervous with him watching her backing out of the driveway.
As Dany fished for the keys to the Honda in her pocket, she spared a glance over to the Stark residence next door in hopes of seeing Robb waiting for them like he did every other morning. The driveway was empty as Robb had left earlier, likely because he had to also take his baby brothers to school.
She turned and opened the back seat to put her bag down. It was wishful thinking on her part, anyway. Robb sometimes offered her and Nessie a ride to school when Viserys took the car to pick up his girlfriend Doreah. Robb’s younger siblings, Bran and Sansa, attended the same middle school as Nessie and he didn’t mind dropping the three of them off. Dany knew the arrangements would have been different if Margaery Tyrell did not live on the other side of town.
“It’s not too late for me to drive, y’know,” Nessie said when Dany climbed into the driver seat. “We can swap if we’re pulled over. And I promise I won’t tell Dad.”
Dany rolled her eyes and started the car, panicking for just a moment when their old Honda spluttered a little before roaring to life, and proceeded to drive them to school.
The task of doing the morning drop offs fell to her with Viserys in England for college. Rhaegar told her that she’ll get more practice this way, and it’ll help her gain more confidence in her driving. This was a good idea in theory but Dany quietly wondered if she had to drown first before swimming.
“Ness, you can barely touch the gas pedals,” Dany told her when they stopped at a red light. The impish look on Nessie’s face told her that the eleven-year-old was still weighing up her options.
“You know,” Nessie drawled, “if you got a boyfriend then maybe he can drive us like Vis did with Doreah.”
Dany let out a snort. Nessie sure had an active imagination. “And that requires a boy liking me back. That’s flaw number one to your plan, Ness.”
Nessie rolled her eyes. “Well, you’re not going to get one with that attitude.”
“And what exactly do you know about boys?” Dany asked with raised brows.
Nessie gave her a furtive glance, “Probably more than you.”
She could only blink dumbly at her. Her niece was implying she knew more about boyfriends than Dany did. Was that really what the world was coming to?
After navigating through the early morning traffic, they finally pulled up to the middle school where she managed to park the car only slightly askew. Nessie spotted her friends walking ahead and hastily jumped out of the car with her bag, making sure to leave her helmet behind. “I’ll see you later, Dany!”
Dany didn’t get a chance to say goodbye before Nessie ran off. Taking a breath, she adjusted the radio until she found her favourite station, hoping the music would calm her nerves as she made her way back towards Winterfell High School.
Dany grabbed her bag from the back seat, locked the car, locked it once more for good measure and made her way towards the entrance of the school building.
She could do this. The prospect of a school year without Viserys or Margaery terrified her all summer as her relative comfort and safety was pulled away. Viserys sensed this, and the night before he left for the airport, he took her aside and sat her down.
“It’s time you branched out a little. Try new things, get your head out of the clouds a little and take a look around you. You will be absolutely fine, and probably forget about us by the time Homecoming comes ‘round.”
Dany bit her lip as she walked through the parking lot. She missed - misses - everyone that left, not just the ones who left for college.
“I’m only across the pond,” Viserys promised, “I’ll be back for Christmas. And Marge will be back for Thanksgiving, probably. Robb is still around, plus you’ve got Val. And don't forget Rhae – you gotta look after him and Nessie as well.”
Dany adjusted her bag strap, straightened her top and then pushed open the doors into the school hall.
I can do this.
It was time to branch out of her comfort zone. Not having Marge or Vis around was not the end of the world. If she managed to drive without incident to school this morning, then she can handle her first day back without them.
Dany took a few steps and felt sucked into the background as people bustled past her as if she were part of the walls. She hugged her books against her and squeezed down the crowded corridors towards her locker with her eyes scanning the crowds for the distinctive auburn curls or for her best friend’s honeyed blonde hair. Neither Robb or Val were at their lockers when she walked past, which is not out of the ordinary for Val, but she wondered where Robb was considering he left for school before she and Nessie did.
Weird.
In her preoccupation over his absence, she didn’t see the flash of wild red hair as she collided with someone.
“I’m so sorry-,”
“What the hell , Daenerys,” Dany looked up to see glaring brown eyes staring at her.
Oh great.
Ygritte Wilde.
Her once middle school best friend and now her, well, not best friend and adversary. Ygritte’s departure from her life left Dany eating her lunches alone towards the end of middle school, and she could only pin the departure down to Ygritte’s growing popularity and her lack thereof. It wasn’t hard to imagine why things were the way they were – Ygritte was tall, athletic and had stunning hair that was kissed by fire. Dany was pale, clumsy and she almost believed the albino rumours that Ygritte had spread back in freshman year if Rhaegar hadn’t dispelled it.
“Look where you’re going next time,” Ygritte’s voice was possibly even more shrill after the summer, and it grated her ears as well as her nerves. Her cutting gaze turned mocking as she eyed Dany’s outfit, “Oh, and cute boots. I didn’t know you were allowed to serve so young, Daenerys.”
Dany swallowed the apology that bubbled in her throat and went on the offensive. She could have ignored the jab and went about her day, but she was not letting Ygritte ruin her already terrible school year. “These were my mother’s, Ygritte.”
“And she looks stunning in them.”
From her peripheral Dany spotted the dark honey blonde hair, which was now streaked with purple, and cutting grey eyes. Her best friend’s arm pulled her around the shoulders into a familiar half-embrace and relief flooded through her as Val Wilde, her best friend, interjected herself into the situation.
“Hey cuz, don’t you have a bunch of birds to scare off the pumpkin patch?”
Dany pursed her lips, stifling the smile that would have aggravated the situation. She got a kick in seeing Ygritte narrowing her eyes at them, “That scarecrow joke of yours is as vintage as her boots.”
“I know.” Val cocked her head and smirked at the redhead, “And both are killing it,” her grey eyes dropped down to the Minnetonka Moccasins Ygritte was wearing before saying, “unlike you, cuz.”
Dany allowed herself that smile as Ygritte opened her mouth to retort back until she saw a figure cutting his way through the corridor towards them. Whatever insult and jabs the two cousins threw at one another were drowned out as background noise as Dany kept her eyes on him approaching Ygritte from behind. His dark eyes twinkled with a boyish mischievousness when they caught hers and he pressed a finger to his lips. Dany’s jaw clenched as Jon Snow wrapped his arms around Ygritte’s waist, surprising her by pulling her into a hug.
It wasn’t that Dany hated Jon Snow. No, around him Dany felt like she needed to be on high alert. He was one of those popular lacrosse jocks that got along with everyone well enough, but for reasons she would rather swallow glass than decipher, Jon made her nervous. And this isn’t also factoring in how his girlfriend was the school’s biggest bitch, or how he always knew how and when to push her buttons.
Dany and Val collectively rolled their eyes as Jon Snow planted a quick kiss on Ygritte’s crown and then flashed the two of them a smile, “Mornin’. What’s going on?”
Ygritte turned and gave him one of those wicked smiles that Dany associated with broomsticks. “I was just complimenting Daenerys on her government-issued boots.”
Val shot Dany a look, and Jon cleared his throat. “Hey babe, Edd’s back from Europe – let’s go say hi, shall we?”
Jon pulled his girlfriend away as Val tugged on Dany’s arm.
“They’re almost as slow as each other,” Val muttered as they headed to their first class. It was English Lit, and Dany had already finished the readings over the summer. “But at least Snow is useful on the lacrosse field. Ygritte can only scare the birds out of the way for him.”
“I didn’t see you at your locker this morning.”
A smile immediately formed on her lips as Robb Stark climbed the steps up to where she sat on the bleachers. Dany pulled out her earphones and dog eared the page she was on, “And I didn’t see you this morning.”
She moved her bag aside on the bleachers for Robb to get past. He did not take his usual spot and instead placed his bag next to hers before he opened up his Tupperware of leftovers. “I stopped by to say hi. Didn’t get a chance to this morning ‘cos Rickon started school.”
“He cried, didn’t he?” She asked with a teasing grin.
“You bet. Dad even caught it on his phone.”
Dany just shook her head and laughed. Little Rickon had insisted all summer long that he was definitely going to be a big boy and not cry. “Nessie cried on her first day too. I think we all did, actually.”
“There’s a picture on the wall somewhere of me and Jon on our first day of kindergarten bawling our eyes out,” Robb wiped his mouth with the back of his hand, but there was still a bit of pasta sauce on the side of his mouth, “Aunt Lyanna loves teasing the shit out of Jon for that. Arya too.”
“Speaking of that cousin of yours,” Dany began, putting her book away, “I left for class early with Val. He had to come by and reel his girlfriend away.”
Robb raised an eyebrow at this. “Huh. I thought they broke up over the summer.”
Well, that was something she definitely did not know.
“They were still together this morning,” she shrugged.
An amicable silence descended on the two friends, sitting at the top of the bleachers, eating lunch and watching the passing and going of those below. It was peaceful up here, away from the cafeteria and everyone else. Dany found herself content with this new norm.
“I’ve been meaning to tell you,” Robb started, his voice unsure and his hands clasped in front of him. He was facing her, but his eyes were not quite meeting her face. “Before she left for Berkley, Marge and I broke up.”
Dany felt a leaden weight in her stomach. A strange emotion bubbled there, and she was not quite sure how to name it. “I’m sorry.”
“Did she tell you? Did you know before?”
“No,” she said quietly. “She never told me anything.”
“I-,” Robb looked away, his face crestfallen, “I thought she might’ve with you two being friends and all.”
She shook her head. She and Margaery Tyrell were friends, but they were never as close as she and Robb were.
Nessie jumped into the back seat of the Honda with her helmet strapped on and buckled herself in. Dany took a cursory glance around the parking lot as she stored her bag into the boot. There were still a few stragglers around, likely those who finished lacrosse training or some other after school activity.
“Is that really necessary?” Dany shot Nessie a look as she checked her seatbelt. Her niece never made this big of a deal with Viserys’ driving.
Nessie only tightened the chin strap at this, “Duh. And statistics show that you’re safest in the back than in the front seat. That’s the seat of death if we have a collision. I looked it up today.”
She ignored the japes and started the ignition. Nessie could catch the bus tomorrow if she kept carrying on like a brat.
Dany took a breath and stared at the dashboard. The engine did not splutter when she turned the ignition like it did this morning, and she was comforted by its roar to life. So far, so good. Things were off to a good start. At least the car was not as frightened of her as she was of it.
Remember, clutch, brake, gear.
Or was it gear, clutch, brake?
Was it gear first for reversing? Or was it still clutch? Why didn’t she pay more attention when Rhaegar showed her the maneuvers?
The Honda seemed to move backward on its own accord at a crawling speed. She must have done something right. Dany gripped the steering wheel tightly with her hands at exactly ten and two.
Keep it straight, keep it straight–
“Hey- HEY!”
Dany felt a resounding thump from the back of her car as someone banged on the boot. She immediately stomped on the brakes and pulled up the handbrake.
Did she just hit someone?
She did. She had actually hit someone at a crawling speed.
“I told you the helmet was necessary.” From the rear view mirror she saw Nessie’s eyes narrow as she clutched the helmet. “Dany, are you trying to kill someone?”
“No, I-,” her first motor vehicle accident victim tapped on her window, which sent her heart leaping into her throat. Taking a breath, she rolled it and down and internally groaned seeing Jon Snow’s face appear through the window. He was leaning in with his arm resting against the car, his mouth set in that stupid shit-eating grin. His hair was pulled back from his face and she could smell the distinct mix of deodorant and sweat coming off him.
“Hey Daenerys?” He adjusted the rearview mirror and she moved to avoid his hand, “This here is a little marvellous safety invention. It’s called a mirror, and people usually check it before they reverse so they don’t kill others behind them.”
She nodded, staring straight ahead to avoid looking at him. Their proximity was too close for comfort. “I know, it’s just -,” she scrambled for an excuse and came up blank.
I’m just terrified of driving.
“I’m not- I’m not comfortable using my mirrors yet,” as the excuse fumbled out, Dany was suddenly conscious of how big her tongue felt in her mouth. Was that her best excuse?
“Uh huh.” Jon peered into the back where Nessie sat, “Right. You’re in charge now.”
“I did tell her I should be the one driving,” Nessie grinned and Jon smiled back at her.
Little traitor.
Dany allowed herself to look at him, checking to see if he was hurt. It should have been the first thing she did, but she was too mortified, “Are you alright?”
He stood back from the Honda, looking even more amused than before. This was all a joke to him.
“I’ll live, Targaryen. Are you okay to get out of the parking lot?”
All she could do was nod and stared ahead with her knuckles white against the fading leather of the steering wheel.
Don’t make eye contact. Don’t make eye contact.
“We’ll be fine,” she told him, “seriously, we’re okay. You can go.”
“If you say so,” Jon looked a bit unsure, but gave them a small wave and walked back to his car. Dany rolled up her windows and slumped forward in the seat and let out a guttural groan.
Nessie turned to see him go, “Who was that ?”
“That was Jon. Jon Snow.”
“As in Robb’s cousin Jon?” Nessie asked, and Dany squeezed her eyes shut. Her heartbeat was erratically fast and her bare arms erupted in goosebumps from a sudden chill.
Robb’s cousin Jon Snow. Out of everyone she could have hit, it just had to be him.
“Hey, Dany,” Nessie prodded her arm, “why aren’t we moving?”
Maybe everything will disappear, or a hole will magically swallow her up. “We’re waiting for everyone else to leave first, that’s why.”
It was a week after what Nessie now referred to as “The Incident” that Dany turned at the sound of her name being called and saw Jon Snow marching across the track field. Val slinked over from where she was stretching, her hackles raised at the sight of her cousin’s boyfriend. They were supposed to be doing laps around the track for P.E, but she and Val wandered off to the side to talk under the pretense of stretching out a cramp.
Val looked at her and then at Jon’s approaching figure, trying to piece things together. “What’s he doing here?”
“Haven’t got a clue,” Dany shrugged and hoped her feigned disinterest fooled Val. Her friend’s quirk eyebrow indicated otherwise and she averted her eyes away, pretending instead to be interested in her classmates running past them on the track.
Jon Snow and her never talked – not that she had much to say to the lacrosse jock and boyfriend of her tormentor. Which could only mean he’s down here to talk about the incident last week.
This is it.
It’s happening. Jon wanted to confront her properly about the fact she almost ran him over. Dany knew the small miracle of no one else finding out was too good to be true.
Jon stopped short a few feet away from the two of them, his eyes glancing around as if checking to see if there was anyone else nearby. Up close, Dany thought he looked off. His hair was in his eyes and his shoulders were hunched. “Hey Targaryen, mind if I talk to you for a moment?”
“Me?” She asked bewildered, pointing to herself as if needing to make sure he knew he was referring to her.
Jon looked over to Val and pushed some of his hair out of his face, “Yeah, preferably alone, actually.”
“Hey Snow – is it true that Ygritte left you for a college guy?” Val asked with a smirk, not moving from her position beside Dany. “Who’s gonna scare off the birds from the lacrosse field for you now?”
His eyes narrowed, but he ignored the question. “It’ll take a moment. Won’t keep her long from you.”
“Fine,” Val begrudged and tied up her honey blonde hair before she left to do her laps, “I have my eyes on you, Snow.”
Dany crossed her arms as she watched Jon clenched and unclenched his hand at his side. His uneasiness only fed her own, which made her anxious for him to get this over and done with.
Jon cleared his throat. He really looked like he wanted to be anywhere else but here and Dany almost felt bad for him. Almost. Until he spoke. “Look, Daenerys, I’m flattered. I really am. I appreciate the effort too, ‘cause I’m not a bleeding poet or anything – but, well, this is not going to happen. It’s nice that you think my eyes are deep and inky, but Ygritte and I, we’re-,” he stopped there, letting his words trail as if she knew exactly what he was talking about.
Dany stared blankly at him. Nothing he said remotely processed in her brain. Bleeding poet? Inky eyes?
“I don’t understand. What are you on about?” she asked, giving him a look like he had gone insane. Did he forget his helmet during lacrosse training?
This only made him look even more uncomfortable as he shifted on the balls of his feet. He held up an opened envelope with his name and address scrawled in a familiar cursive, “You tell me, Targaryen. I got this in the mail yesterday.”
Dany’s eyes widened with recognition as the air deflated from her lungs. Jon continued rattling on, but none of his words registered as Dany saw blackspots across her vision. The ground tilted as a deep chill raced down her spine.
“Daenerys, hey, what’s going on-,“
She fainted several times before when she was younger, yet this experience was no less frightening as she toppled onto the ground. A hazy blackness consumed her, robbing her awareness as to whether a second, a minute or a moment had passed.
When she opened her eyes, her vision was blurred and her breathing still short. Everything was still spinning, but not as bad as before. Someone was shaking her shoulders, pleading with her to wake up, and Dany could only register Jon’s face hovering over hers with concern.
She blinked at him, “What just happened?”
“You fainted,” he helped eased her to an upright position on the ground with a hand supporting her back and arm, “Are you okay? Let’s get you to the nurse's office, come on-,”
Dany held her hand up and declined his help. She tried to tell him that she would be fine, that she was used to bouts of dizziness and fainting, but Jon was having none of it. He made sure she was sitting upright properly before he fetched her some water.
Gingerly she stretched her legs to check if there were any scraps from the fall. When Jon came back with her bottle of water, she spotted a familiar figure approaching from behind the benches. Her foggy mind immediately registered Robb stalking over, and in his hand was an opened envelope.
Dany heard him call her name, saw his furrowed brow and her letter unfolded in his hands. Her stomach clenched up and her breaths were not coming in fast enough. Everything was spinning again as she realised that Jon was not the only boy to receive their unintended letter.
She needed a hole to swallow her up, now. She needed to disappear. This could not be happening. He and Margaery had just broken up. Jon and Ygritte had just broken up. And her secret letters were now in the public domain.
“Seven hells,” she moaned to herself.
Dany needed a diversion, and she needed it right now.
Jon hunched down beside her, his face downcast and apologetic, “If I’d known this is how you’d react I wouldn’t have,-”
Before the black spots littered her vision for the second time in minutes, Dany grabbed Jon by the t-shirt collar and pulled him down until her lips collided with his. He let out a yelp and fell onto her with his hands at her sides.
When he tried to pull away, Dany held on tighter and pressed her lips against his even more firmly. Keeping her eyes squeezed shut, she counted to five inside her head before she pushed him away. From behind Jon’s bewildered face, she saw Robb standing a few feet away, his face set in a perturbed bewilderment at the scene he had just witnessed.
“What – Daenerys, what the hells,-” Jon stared dumbly at her as she jumped up.
The adrenaline rushed in, keeping nausea and dizziness at bay, and kick-started her legs into choosing flight over fight. With a swish of her silvery blonde hair, Dany ran back towards the school and away from them. Robb tried to stop her, but she pushed past him before he could say anything.
She could not stay there on the track field and wait to see either of their reactions – she needed to put as much distance between herself and the two of them before her mind imploded from what she had just done. Dany pushed opened the empty girl’s bathroom and locked herself in a stall, taking great heaving breaths.
The letters were addressed to the five boys, but they were never stamped. More to the point, they resided in a locked jewellery box that was always hidden away in her room. Her privacy had been compromised, but exactly how she could not figure out. No one, at least not until a day or two ago, knew of the letters. Not Val, not Viserys and definitely not Margaery Tyrell.
Dany seized up when the bathroom door creaked open and a male voice asked, “Dany? Are you in there?”
It was Loras Tyrell, the fourth recipient of her no longer secret letters.
“No,” she squeaked and saw the scuff of his boots from under the stall she hid in. Loras slid an envelope with his name and address on the front and Dany picked it up with trembling fingers. She pocketed it, pleading with whatever higher power to make everything disappear.
“I thought you would want this back. It seemed rather personal,” he explained and took a step away.
With a sigh, Dany opened the stall. At least she did not faint on sight this time. “Loras, I wrote that years ago and it’s silly-,”
“I know,” he said with his brown amber eyes sympathetic as a gentle smile graced his features. “I had a great time at Homecoming too ‘cause you were a great dance partner. But,” he paused, eyes shifting away before he slowly asked, “you do know I’m dating Renly though, right?”
Dany felt like she walked into a brick wall at this small revelation. She did not, in fact, know this little detail.
“Y-yeah, I did,” she lied and Loras’ shoulder sagged with relief.
“Just don’t tell anyone, though. I mean, Marge and my grandmother know. My mother and brothers d too, and my father kind of knows. It’s just-,”
“It’s okay,” Dany stopped him there, knowing how it felt to be on the cruel end of her peers’ mockery. She understood all too well that the wolves that emblazoned their school’s emblems and sporting jerseys weren’t the only ones around these corridors. He did not have to explain why he was not out to their peers, “It’s just high school, right?”
“Yeah,” Loras laughed and leaned back against the wall, looking at ease. “Exactly. I just saw you running in here and thought I’d return your letter. Plus, I won’t tell Marge. Figured you’d want this contained as much as possible.”
“Thank you,” she told him and he came over to give her a gentle squeeze on her shoulder.
Dany had kept herself together throughout the rest of the day. She went through the motions for the rest of her classes, taking extra care to avoid Ygritte, and went straight home with Nessie before either Jon Snow or Robb could try to confront her again.
There was nothing else she could do. The letters were out in the open and her jewellery box was missing after she had turned her room upside down to locate it. The only saving grace so far was that both Drogo and Daario’s letters were returned to sender, as the addresses she had written were incorrect. Letters, humiliation and complicated friendships aside, Dany just hoped she could track down her mother’s missing jewellery box. It was one of the few things she had left asides the memories.
Resigned to the unwanted turn her life had taken, Dany was plotting a reclusive life until she spotted Robb walking across her driveway towards the front door. Panicked, she raced down and hurried out of the backdoor before Rhaegar could answer the door to let him in. She grabbed her bicycle before telling Nessie to make up some excuse why she wasn’t home.
Dany secured her bicycle to the bench outside and bee-lined to her favourite booth by the jukebox inside the Dragonstone diner. It was only a ten minute ride from home, or about five minutes if she had driven, but circumstances dictated she took the discreet way out.
She took large gulps of her cherry coke, still feeling flustered from her dash down to the diner. There were a few patrons littered across the place and the sole waitress on duty was playing sudoku by the counter. She could be left alone here for a little while until the coast was clear at home.
“Is this seat taken?”
Dany glanced up in surprise. Incredulously, Jon Snow was standing next to her by the booth. She quickly stared back down at her drink, hoping if she ignored him then he would take the hint.
But the fates seemed to have it out for her because Jon sat down across from her at the booth anyway, taking her sullen silence as a sign she wanted company. He leaned forward with his elbows on the table, his hands clasped together and his eyes taking in the decor of the place. “Not a bad hiding spot, isn’t it?”
“What do you want, Jon Snow?” She asked tiredly. After the day she’s had, she just wanted him to cut to the chase.
“I stopped by your place, and your niece told me you would be here,” Jon said simply, not quite answering her question.
She mentally kicked herself. She had told Nessie to make an excuse up for Robb, not for anyone else that might be coming by the house looking for her.
“Well, make yourself comfortable,” she mumbled as Jon flagged down the waitress at the counter.
“Anything for your friend here, Dany girl?”
“He’s not with,-”
“One large chocolate milkshake, please,” Jon gave the waitress a smile and gestured to Dany’s half empty glass, “did you want anything else?”
“I’ll be fine,” she told him.
When the waitress walked off, Jon set his eyes on her again. “Look, Daenerys, I appreciate it. I really do,-”
Dany felt her eye twitch. Her nerves and fuse were already short, and she could not stop the flow of words that came from her mouth. “Are you trying to reject me again? Look, Jon, I’m not into you. That letter was written years ago, and it shouldn’t have been sent in the first place.”
“Well, are you sure?” He asked, eyes narrowing a little, “I’m just making it clear. You say one thing and yet it was you who kissed me back the track.”
“That was a diversion.”
“From what, exactly?” He asked, still not believing her.
“From Robb Stark confronting me about his letter too,” she let out in a huff, having to spell it out for him, “Jon, don’t get too worked up about this. You weren’t the only one to get a letter.”
“Wow. Just when you think you’re special,” he murmured to himself and Dany rolled her eyes at this. “So I was a pawn then,” he figured, and this little revelation somehow amused him greatly. “You were using me against my own cousin. That’s quite a move, Targaryen.”
Not knowing how to respond to that, Dany took a sip of her drink when the waitress came back with Jon’s milkshake. If that was all he wanted to say, surely he could leave her alone right now.
“Is that all you came here to talk about, or is there something else?” She asked impatiently, voicing her thoughts.
“Just one more thing,” he said, and that shit-eating grin of his was back, which immediately had her hackles rising in defense, “Robb was dating Margaery Tyrell before she left for California. Aren’t you two friends?”
Dany clenched her jaw. Jon had more or less arrived at the crux of her dilemma, and this was something she could not shirk away from. “Well, that’s one awkward talk I’m going to have with Robb sooner or later. I’m not- I don’t have feelings for him, not anymore anyway. But I gotta tell him that, and hopefully Marge won’t-,”
“What if you don’t?” He rushed out, leaning even closer towards her with his dark eyes lit up, “What if you showed him you don’t have feelings for him instead? We can pretend to be together until this all blows away.”
Jon’s proposition was so ludicrous that she actually laughed. But his face showed he was serious and her laughter died off. Dany wondered just how hard had she hit her head when she fainted earlier. Nothing was making any sense. It was as if all logical thinking had been thrown out of the window. Because Jon Snow, one of the most popular guys in her school, offering to pretend to be her boyfriend so she wouldn’t have to confront Robb about the letter was definitely not logical.
She arched a brow and slowly asked, “And why exactly would you do this for me?”
“Well, you said so yourself. You used me to hide from Robb, and I need someone to help me get back at Ygritte,” Jon explained with a small shrug, “And she went nuts when she found out we kissed. This would drive her up the wall.”
Dany grabbed her bag and placed some bills on the table to pay for her drink. She had heard enough to know that this was something she could not do. Her first, albeit very fake, relationship could not be a stupid guise to get back at Ygritte. It was tempting, given how much Ygritte had tormented her over the years with the rumours and constant malicious digs about her looks or clothes, but she knew she had to walk away from this harebrained scheme.
“Wait, Daenerys,” Jon scrambled out of the booth to catch up to her, “At least consider it.”
“I’d rather not,” she said and strode towards the door, but Jon easily caught up to her. Curse her stupid, short legs.
“Let me give you a lift home, at least. I can even drive around the block a few times until Robb leaves.”
He was looking at her so earnestly that she relented, forgetting that Robb was still over at her place probably playing video games with Nessie or chatting to Rhaegar. Jon was quick to smile again as he loaded her bicycle into the back of his Jeep and opened the door for her.
“Look, all I’m saying is you used me first,” he said when he got into the driver’s seat, “It’s a symbiotic relationship. Benefits us both for the time being.”
“Aren’t there other girls you can date?” Dany asked incredulously, strapping herself in. How did she end up in this situation? “Your plan could still work perfectly fine without me.”
“They’re not you,” he told her simply, as if that cleared it all up. “And we would make more sense. Everyone saw that kiss today.”
Her mind tried to piece together a retort, but Jon was right. Technically speaking, it would make more sense than if Jon picked another girl as his cover. And it would not be too far of a stretch if she were to pretend to be his girlfriend. Right?
True to his word, Jon did a few loops around the surrounding streets before Dany deemed it safe to return. But as Jon pulled up in front of her house, Robb stepped out of her house with Nessie closing the door behind him. He looked at the pair of them inside Jon’s car and gave them a tense nod then quickly turned, not sparing a glance back at either of them as he walked the short distance home. Her eyes trailed after him, and her stomach did that uncomfortable thing where it knotted itself over and over again until Robb slammed his door shut.
“Hey Snow!”
It was her turn now to march across the field to talk to Jon the following day. At lunch, Dany had ventured into the cafeteria to find him absent from the centre table where he normally sat with Ygritte and their group of friends. He was nowhere to be found, and she did not know any of his friends well enough to ask where he was. And before Dany could search around the school for him, Val had pulled her away down below the bleachers with her contraband Subway sandwiches and sodas.
And so, she found herself waiting after school where she knew he would at lacrosse practice. Dany ignored the looks from the other lacrosse jocks as she stalked past them in their practice kits towards the net where Jon was. He tore off his helmet and wiped off sweat from his face as she approached.
Dany knew she looked like hell running on less than a couple of hours of sleep. Her hair was not in its usual braid and there were dark circles under her eyes. Nessie had asked her repeatedly this morning if she wanted to do a detour to the hospital to get Rhaegar to give her a check-up. The previous day’s events had cornered her, and Dany knew she had to force herself to act quickly before everything spiralled. After running through all the possible scenarios over and over in her head instead of sleeping, she’d found little alternatives left and had reached a conclusion.
“What can I do for you, Targaryen?” He set his lacrosse stick down, grey eyes expectant and the corner of his lips upturned in crooked smile.
She wet her lips and took a breath. There was no backing out now.
“Let’s do this,” she said quickly, her voice quiet as to not be overheard. There was no backing out now.
“You sure?” He asked softly with his gaze searching her face. He was giving her one last chance to change her mind.
Dany stood her ground and, trampling down that small voice that told her to flee, nodded resolutely. Jon peered around, eyes probably counting and weighing up the number of witnesses to what he was about to do next. He shucked off his gloves and closed the distance between them. The next moments moved so fast – from the way he cupped her face with his hands, to how he gave her that smirk she become so accustomed to lately, and how he leaned down to kiss her.
Dany instinctively closed her eyes and tried not to recoil away in shock. Pushing aside the errant thought that his lips were actually soft, she tried to mimic the movement of Jon’s lips against hers, so it could look more convincing to his probably gawking teammates behind them. But after a quick swipe of his tongue against her bottom lip, the whole thing was over quickly and left her dizzyingly breathless.
And just like that, with the deal literally sealed with a kiss, she was now in her first official, albeit fake, relationship with Jon Snow.