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Arya awoke suddenly to the sound of the window snapping shut.
'Crap!' She heard her sister exclaim in a hushed voice.
'Sansa?'
It was summer break, and the Stark sisters were sharing Arya's room in the attic due to the fact that Robb had bought his new girlfriend home to meet the family for the first time. She had been placed Sansa's room (Arya's room had been too messy, in their mother's opinion). While Arya was pretty certain that Robb and Jeyne were practically living together at uni, Catelyn had insisted that Jeyne stay in one of the girls rooms, while Robb slept in his old room with Rickon (who had claimed it as soon as Robb and Jon had moved away for uni, having shared with Bran all his life). Their cousin/ adopted brother Jon had also come, and he was bunking in Bran's room. Robb had not been to happy with the sleeping arrangements, but Jeyne had smiled politely and insisted that it was fine (Arya was pretty sure the girl was about ready to piss herself under Catelyn's politely intense stare).
'Arya. Go back to sleep.' Sansa sounded breathless.
'Why are you climbing through the window? It's two in the morning.' Arya reached over and turned the lamp beside her bed on.
When the light hit her sisters face, Arya felt her stomach drop.
'What happened to you?'
Sansa quickly covered her face with her hands, but Arya had already seen enough.
Sansa's upper lip was split and bleeding, and her left check was sporting a dark red welt.
'Nothing.I-I tripped over getting out of the car.' Sansa said quickly, crouching down to sit on her make-shift bed on the floor. She looked down at the ground. Like all the Starks did when they lied.
Arya rose from her bed, quickly moving to her sister's side, sitting beside her on the bed.
'Sansa.' Arya put her hand under Sansa's chin, and gently pushed her face up to face her own. When she did she was met with sky blue, tear filled eyes. And the next thing Arya knew, Sansa's head had crashed into her neck, and she could feel her sister sobbing.
Arya put an arm around Sansa, pulling her close. They sat like this for sometime, and Arya did what she could to comfort her sister. She had never been overly good at 'emotions'. Bran and Sansa were the good at them, and Jon sometimes. Robb, Arya and Rickon were the 'tough nuts' of the family, like their father.
Eventually, Arya felt Sansa slowly regaining composure.
'Sansa, please tell me what happened.'
Sansa lifted her head from Arya's shoulder. Her eyes were red and puffy, and the welt of her check was starting to darken to purple.
'We were at the Landing, having drinks to celebrate the end of exams. Joff had to much to drink, and he saw me dancing with Margaery's brother, Loras-'
'The gay one?'
'Yes. Anyway... Joff overreacted and he shoved Loras to the ground. They kicked him out and I went out to make sure he got a taxi okay and....'
'He hit you?'
Sansa didn't say anything, but she didn't have to.
Arya felt something in the pit of her stomach. It was the same thing she had felt when she found out some drunk guy had hit Bran with his car. It was a white hot rage that she could feel flowing though her veins.
'Is he home now?' Arya said, standing up suddenly and moving to the cupboard on the other side of the room.
'I don't know, I think so- Arya, what are you doing?'
Arya had pulled out from her cupboard the sword Jon had got her for her eighteenth birthday. It had been meant as a symbolic gift, as Arya would't ever be allowed to use it in fencing, but she kept it sharp all the same.
'I'm going to go and kill him.' Arya said, moving back towards the window and throwing it open.
'Arya please- you'll wake up Mum and Dad-' Arya stuck one leg out the window. 'Arya!'
Arya spun back around.
'What, Sansa?' She said. 'He did that to you. He did that to you with his own hands. You trusted him, we trusted him, and he did that.' She turned back around, hoisting herself up when she heard Sansa whisper.
'Please don't leave me alone.'
And then, almost as suddenly as it had appeared, the rage Arya had felt all but vanished. In it's place was something she had never really felt before. An overwhelming desire to protect her big sister, who still cried while watching Disney movies, whose favourite thing in the world was Lemon cakes, who had been the glue holding the family together at the worst of times.
Arya crossed the room and crouched down in front of Sansa, placing her hands atop of her sisters.
'Never.'