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Sansa had never really left London apart from a few visits to other Institutes in Britain with her mother and there wasn't really much to excite her in Cornwall, Edinburgh or York – Cardiff was more exciting but that was only because that was where her friend Jeyne lived. She didn't blame her parents, there was always so much work to do at the Institute that they didn't exactly have time to go on holidays. And she did love London, she had been brought up there after all and it was so easy to blend in with the crowd even when wearing fighting gear. That didn't mean she wasn't jealous of Jon though, who seemed to have visited most places around the world since Aunt Lyanna liked to move every few years, even if he did moan about it sometimes when he came to visit.
But there was still something in her that made her want to see somewhere else, visit some place new. Which is probably why she asked if she could visit another Institute upon the completion of her training, she didn't care where as long as it wasn't too close to home or New York where Robb, Jon and Theon were now (as much as she missed her brother she wanted something new). She wasn't sure how the Rome Institute was decided upon considering she had never met the Tyrell family who ran it before but the idea of visiting somewhere hot was more appealing than she thought (especially when she'd been so sure her father would have arranged for her to go to the Moscow Institute which was run by his friend Robert Baratheon).
The first thing Sansa noticed when she stepped through the portal was the heat, she'd worn her prettiest floatiest dress in preparation but even so she was boiling. And standing in front of her were the most attractive siblings she'd ever seen. She knew the girl had to be Margaery, the younger boy Loras and the man with the cane had to be Willas – and all three had curly brown hair, tanned skin and matching wide smiles. And she knew she was blushing.
“Greeting Sansa,” Margaery said as she stepped forward. “Our parents spend most of their time in Idris with the Council but they asked me to pass on their sincerest welcomes.” And before Sansa had time to process that she was being hugged and pulled towards the Institute. “Loras will do your bags before you melt in the sun.”
Luckily the inside was much cooler otherwise Sansa wasn't sure whether she'd have been able to survive the tour Margaery gave her, which seemed to take up most of the afternoon (even if an hour was spent in the weapons room). It wasn't as large as the London Institute but it was close, but then she knew that in theory already. By the time they reached dinner she was exhausted and apparently she still had to meet the rest of the inhabitants.
Willas wasn't there, apparently he tended to prefer to eat in his room so he could work at the same time. But she met Renly (Loras' boyfriend and the much younger brother to her dad's friend Robert), Alla, Desmera (both cousins there for training) and Elinor (Margaery's parabatai and yet another cousin). And even if the hall was large it seemed small with the teasing and laughter that filled the room and Sansa suddenly felt desperately lonely. She didn't tell her parents that as she phoned them though, she just told them the positive because she was eighteen now and she had wanted this.
Days settled into a pattern easily enough at the Institute. During the day she would help train Alla and Desmera or help deal with the paperwork after a raid which Margaery and Loras clearly hated. And then in the evenings they would go out demon hunting (heavily glamoured because of all the tourists). Occasionally they would go out sightseeing, slipping into places ahead of the queues, but normally if they went out it would be to downworlder haunts where Margaery seemed to know almost everybody and where they would occasionally meet up with her current girlfriend.
None of them really ever saw Willas that often, normally he'd spend all day in his office dealing with official business of the Institute or downworlder problems. Sansa asked about it once and Margaery explained that part of it was to do with the injury he'd got to his leg when he was nineteen that had never really healed due to demon blood and that he felt soiled or something silly like that because of it. She looked so sad as she said it that Sansa never asked about him again, however much she wanted to know more.
Which was why she was so surprised when she saw him in the library one day. He just simply smiled at her before going straight back to reading his book. Sansa didn't disturb him but after that she found herself spending a lot more time in there instead of taking the book straight back to where the others were. It reminded her of home a bit because a shadowhunter's library was much the same everywhere, even if this one had information about the history of nephilim in Italy where she was used to the history of nephilim in Britain.
And somehow before she knew it she'd been in Rome for six months and it was almost Christmas and almost the end of the time she was meant to be spending there. And Sansa knew that she wasn't ready to leave quite yet, she wasn't sure whether she wanted to formally be part of the Rome Enclave yet but she wanted a chance to figure that out.
So that was how she found herself at Willas' office door one evening and asking him formally if she could return to the Institute after she visited her family over the festive period. Of course she knew that he wasn't officially the head of the Institute but really he was in practice since she was still yet to meet Mace Tyrell. And she could see from the smile on his face that he was glad she wanted to stay.
The others were far more obviously delighted and Sansa was glad that she seemed to have found her way into their little group, that she wasn't quite an outsider any more.
London no longer quite felt like home despite the fact that she was glad to return to her family once again. Her little brothers had grown so much and Arya and Robb were exactly the same and she had missed them terribly. But she missed Rome and the Tyrells too and she missed the heat. And she realised why Robb hadn't returned after his visit either, it was hard to go back once you experienced something new.
Sansa found herself spending more time with Willas when she returned, helping him with the everyday running of the institute. Of course she still helped train Alla and Desmera and helped patrol with the others but she helped Willas too. She was used to helping her mother with little bits of it before after all and there was something strangely enjoyable about solving problems of the nephilim or downworlders.
Margaery and Elinor liked to laugh and tease Sansa that she wasn't very good at flirting or remind her that she didn't have to date one of them to stay in Rome. But however much she reminded them that she didn't have any interest in that way in Willas at all they chose to ignore her. She didn't mind though, not when she knew there was no truth in their teasing.
Sometimes she would eat with Willas instead though, keep him company as he insisted on working, and try and distract him with smiles and small jokes. Sometimes it worked and sometimes he would barely look at her. It didn't matter though, she knew he was listening even when he ignored her.
Sansa wasn't quite sure when she was officially made part of the Rome Enclave but by the time she finally met Mace Tyrell in the spring he seemed to think she was and he would be the person to know as the head of it.
It was a little odd to suddenly adjust to having proper adults in the institute (for all that Sansa knew that Willas was in his mid twenties he didn't feel like a proper adult) and Sansa kept on finding herself heading towards the office only to remind herself that Willas wouldn't be there. Instead he'd relocated himself to the library, because after all he was almost as unlikely to be disturbed there by his family as in the office. Even if it seemed as if people still came to him for all the same things as before so Sansa wasn't quite sure what Mace was doing (although she'd never ask).
But they brought plenty of other changes though; from Alerie insisting on Willas eating with them at meal times, to the fact that Garlan and Leonette finally came to visit for longer than a day. Sansa had met both of them before when they'd come down from the Florence Institute for the day a few times but this was the first time truly that she'd met them. Training of the girls was abandoned for shopping trips and going out, and Sansa didn't really mind but she did feel a little like she was intruding on their family time however much Margaery insisted otherwise.
Sometimes Sansa would excuse herself but often Willas would be busy with his father or brother so she would just sit in the library and read. She still had so much more to learn about the italian downworlders' customs after all.
The visit didn't last long though. After a month Garlan and Leonette returned to Florence and another month after that Mace and Alerie returned to Idris and things returned to normal.
“I was thinking of finding a place of my own,” Sansa told Willas one day as she was searching through some records for him. “I can't stay at the Institute forever when I'm not officially helping to run it.”
Willas paused before responding, “but Margaery would miss you so.”
“It's not as if I'd go far and I'd still visit all the time.” Sansa wasn't sure whether Margaery really would miss her either but that was a secret worry Willas didn't need to hear.
“Then why waste your money on it when you have a room here?”
“Independence? So next time your whole family comes to stay I'm less in the way?” she tried to laugh at that even if she knew it wasn't much of a joke.
“You weren't in the way. My mother told me expressly that she liked you a lot.” She could hear him take a deep breath then and it was only then that she looked up at him. “And anyway I'd miss you.”
She felt herself smiling then, “Truly, you're not just saying that?”
“Truly.”
Sansa smiled as she stood up, pulled the book towards him and kissed him lightly on the cheek before pointing to a specific line. “Okay you can see here that in 1894 there was a vampire nest...”
Things felt a little different after that. Sansa felt herself blushing at Margaery and Elinor's jokes or avoiding looking straight at Willas or suddenly feeling hyper conscious of exactly where he was in relation to her at all times. It was weird but weird in a good way. So she tried to continue exactly the way they had before and just let the weirdness play out.
It was meant to be a normal demon hunt. There'd been reports of a small nest up in the north of the city (thankfully far away from any tourist haunts) and they'd thought they could handle it. There were five of them after all; Sansa, Margaery, Elinor, Loras and Renly. Of course the nest ended up being large rather than small and the five of them were horribly horribly outnumbered, no matter how many runes they were wearing.
Sansa couldn't remember much of the fight but when she woke up in her own bed, a Silent Brother above her, she couldn't help but feel glad she was alive. It took her a few moments more to realise Willas was there too, holding tight to her hand and not saying anything.
“Is everyone else okay?” she managed to whisper, her throat feeling like sandpaper.
“Renly is badly hurt,” he told her, “but the other three are fine. Margaery ordered the retreat when you two went down.”
Sansa attempted to ask something else but Willas raised a finger to his lips and she forced herself to remain silent. She could wait until the Silent Brother was finished.
She fell asleep again before she could though.
The next time she woke it was night time and it was just Willas. And he smiled at her and just told her how glad he was that she was going to be okay.
The third time she found she had enough strength to sit up and kiss him. And Willas kissed her back.
Of course Margaery had to walk in at that moment and announce very loudly, “you idiot Willas she's meant to be resting, not kissing you.”