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It’s a weird thing, family, Theon Greyjoy thought while sitting on the Stark’s couch. He and Robb shared no blood but yet he is more of a brother to him more than his own brothers ever were. Take Sansa and Arya for example, the two girls couldn't possibly be more different and they certainly called each other every name in the book but, it was Sansa who stopped talking to Jeyne Poole for a whole week after she called Arya Horseface, which apparently in girl world is like a small infinity.
And although Theon was grafted on the Stark family quilt with patches just a little different, more torn and battered, and Jon doesn’t seem to know a color other than black, and Rickon is every bit the wolf he keeps as pet, while Sansa spends a whole lot of time in the mirror, as opposed to Arya who wouldn’t know what her reflection would look like if she saw it, he would never in a million years complain.
He was six years old when his mom passed away, boating accident and eight when his first brother dies of an overdose and only eight and a half when it happens again. In three short years his family of six dwindles down to three, Theon never felt more alone.
By the time he turns ten his Dad had obviously gotten sick of his face because he sends him away from his home in the Iron Islands to the middle of Westeros to attend the Winterfell Primary Education Academy, there he meets a boy with fire in his hair and winter in his soul, his name is Robb Stark, the King who never saw his crown, the boy who never wanted it.
Theon turns eleven when for his birthday Mrs. Stark and he supposes Mr. Stark turn one of their many guest bedrooms into one just for Theon. Robb of course is elated his best friend gets to live with him, Sansa is indifferent, Arya continues to use him as a punching bag, Bran doesn’t quite understand the difference because honestly Robb he was here all the time anyway, Rickon of course is too little to understand what is going on, even though he tried.
Not much changes when Jon Stark, Robb’s cousin moves in with them, after his own Mom dies, but of cancer, they don’t get along right away. Being in a home with boys his age, hell boys in general that want to play instead of just shooting up whatever drug is popular at the time, is a better present than any other.
At fifteen, him Robb and Jon start high school and are thrown into the world of standardized tests, drugs, and girls. Theon does the last two really well, because when you are never whole any semblance of normal is welcomed and appreciated. So when he wakes up in a room that, holy hell, is way too bright to the sounds of people crying and to Arya praying he knows something terrible must have happened.
After all according to Arya there is only one God and his name is Death and you must tell this God, not today, but that wasn’t the pray he hears her mutter, no it’s the prey of her Father’s old God’s and her Mother’s new ones. But the really fucking hilarious thing about praying, is that you’re totally screwed if you’re praying to the wrong one.
He is also fifteen when he is released from the hospital, the Stark’s of course foot the bill because his Dad and sister couldn’t possibly be bothered to see the screw up that he became. And the months after the overdoes are some of the most awkward times of Theon’s life. Robb becomes distant and Theon tries, really tries, to convince himself it’s better this way because if Robb tried to fix him he would cut himself on Theon’s broken pieces.
Jon, never his favorite person just shakes his head but he understands because Jon knows what it is like to live in Robb Stark’s shadow and what hole it leaves when someone you love dies. “But that is what people do, Robb, they die and it doesn’t matter how much you loved them and at this point I’m sure that just makes it worse.” Theon’s says to Robb one night after coming home.
Sansa, whenever she sets eyes on Theon tears up and walks out of the room, Arya just punches him which makes him feel something and god Arya Stark does not do the sad look well. Bran just looks out the window whenever Theon comes into the room and little Rickon simply cries because despite everyone's protest to the opposite Rickon thought Theon wasn't coming home.
But what the worst reaction would have to have been Mrs. Stark, she simply grabbed him by the shoulders, tears in her eyes and told him in that voice of hers that threatens winter and summer at the same time, “that if Theon ever scared her like that again there would be hell to pay.” But spoiler alert, Theon died and never got the chance.
He’s better by sixteen and completely free by seventeen and somewhere along the way of nights where Theon cried himself to sleep and days when the pain got so bad he swore death would be more welcome than this and weeks when that inch under his skin wouldn’t go away, Theon and Robb found their way back to each other. And sometimes Theon even let Jon come along even if he always wore black.
Theon’s world crumbled for a second or third or maybe for the thousandth time when he meets Ramsay Snow because he’s a bastard plain and simple and Theon’s never been right in the head. He’s twenty two when Robb Stark barrels into Ramsay’s newest hide away and breaks Ramsay’s jaw, cuts him up nice and pretty to with his pretty and nice wedding ring. Robb pulls Theon out of whatever drugged up stupor Ramsay put him and the ride to the hospital is silent and the elder Stark was clearly pissed off.
“Her name is Jeyne Westerling and you should have fucking been there.” Theon bits his lip and turns his head away, which only makes him catch his reflection and that’s a thousand times worse, “She’s expecting a baby, she thinks it’s a boy and years ago you would have been there and damn this is your last chance Theon, the last one, shape up, clean up and maybe you’ll get to meet him.
And so Theon did, he cleaned up and straightened out and he was in fact there for little Ned Starks birth and although holding a baby was more than a little difficult with what fingers he had left Theon managed. But you see the story of Robb Stark and THeon Greyjoy was never meant to end in happily ever afters and everything in between was just the words stuffed inside once upon a time and the end because neither Theon Greyjoy or Robb Stark ever saw twenty three.