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The First Meeting - Age 10
Robb Stark was ten the first time that his family decided to spend the Christmas holiday visiting Aunt Lyanna and Jon in Dorne, instead of having them come up to a white Christmas in Winterfell instead. At Robb thinks he’ll be disappointed, not being able to throw snowballs at his siblings and cousins, not being able to sled or ski or tube.
Robb’s a happy kid, though, one who adapts easily, and it only takes him about five minutes of being in Dorne to decide that a holiday in the sand won’t be so bad.
He ran down the sand towards the ocean, his family calling after him to slow down. In all his enthusiasm, Robb just ran back towards them, huffed impatiently, and turned to start racing towards the shoreline again.
“If you’re going to run ahead, at least try and save us the best chairs, son,” Ned Stark chuckled, giving Robb as much permission to start running again as he needed, and then he was off, the sand between his toes and the sun beating down on his bare skin as he finished his trek.
Robb came skidding to a halt beside the lines of chairs on the beach, scanning for several that were available together. It was a difficult task, finding spots for all seven of the Starks plus the three Targaryens they were here to visit, yet Robb finally spotted some chairs in the distance, and without skipping a beat, he was off and running again.
This time, though, Robb wasn’t running alone. He heard footsteps pounding against the sand next to him, and he looked over to see a girl about his age, brunette curls fanning out behind her as she raced towards the same chairs as him.
Any other time, he’d have stopped to think that she was pretty, but not right now. Right now, Robb Stark has a mission he needed to accomplish.
She was fast, but Robb was faster. He flew as fast as his little legs could take him, and then he was reaching the chairs before she was — only six of them, but with the way he and his siblings played, it would be plenty for them. The girl pulled up just behind him, attempting to throw her towel onto the same chairs that Robb was leaping onto, bellyflopping across to save for his family.
Robb rolled over, balling the girl’s towel up and preparing to toss it back to her — and then he finally got true look at her. Her eyes were pretty and large with surprise, as if she hadn’t expected to be thwarted by this boy she’d never met before. Her full lips jutted out in a pout, and she wrang her hands together.
“My family’s not going to like that we don’t have somewhere to sit. My mother has lots of magazines she planned to read today,” the girl announced, and Robb grinned at her sheepishly.
“My dad’s not going to like it if he can’t sit and read his books about the Long Night all day!” Robb replied, but he was already starting to cave, seeing the disappointed look in the girl’s eyes. He looked between the chairs and his family in the distance, then finally landed on the girl in front of him. There was another family looking their way, too, one that must belong to this girl, and Robb crawled so he was only on three of the chairs instead of six.
“We can share, though! I don’t need one, I’m just going to build sandcastles and find shark’s teeth all day,” Robb decided as the girl’s face split into a beaming smile. Her towel quickly covered the three chairs that she’d gained for her family.
“I was just going to build sandcastles all day, too! We should build them together, since both our families are going to be watching us from here,” the girl said warmly, and Robb’s cheeks turned pink. He was supposed to be playing with Jon and Arya, but… Sansa would like having this girl around, right? And if he was being honest, he would too.
“Okay!” he agreed readily, and they were chatting happily about the grand castles they planned to build by the time both their families reached them and settled onto their chairs.
“Who’s your new friend, Margaery?” the girl’s mother asked, as Robb turned the newly revealed name over in his head. Margaery . That was a nice name. Kind of long, but pretty. He could get used to it.
“This is…” she faltered. “The nice boy who shared his chairs with us.”
“Robb,” he told her quickly, smiling from ear to ear that his gesture had been appreciated. His family had always taught him to be kind to people, and all the knights in his old storybooks had treated ladies with respect. Today, Robb felt like he’d done both.
“Well, thank you again, Robb,” Margaery said, and with all of their parents eyes on them, she leaned over and kissed him on the cheek to show her thanks.
No one had ever done that to him but his mom and Sansa before, but their moms and dads and even Aunt Lyanna cooed about how cute they are, and Robb had a feeling Margaery had done it more to put on a show than anything.
He didn’t care, though. As they rushed off to finally start their sandcastles with their siblings in tow, Robb’s cheek was still tingling from the feel of her lips against it.
The Mistletoe - Age 11
The next year, when Aunt Lyanna invited them back to Dorne for another Christmas holiday, Robb was the first of the Stark children to readily agree to the plan. His mother and father gave each other a knowing look when he reminded them that the Tyrells liked to go there every Christmas, too, but they didn’t say anything to Robb, and for that he was grateful.
Robb Stark was the kind of person who could make friends with anyone, but after two weeks on the beach with Margaery Tyrell, she’d become a friend he would never forget. Especially not when she was the friend who had given him his first non-family kiss, cheek-kiss though it had been.
The whole journey down to Dorne, Robb was bouncing with excitement, wondering if the Tyrells would already be there when they arrived, wondering if Margaery had learned any new sandcastle tactics over the year, and then wondering if he should have brought her a Christmas present, or if maybe he could just find her a pretty shell on the beach and call it a gift.
Traffic made them arrive later than anticipated, but Robb still rushed out of the car, even knowing that the Tyrells had probably long gone back to their rooms for the night. He wouldn’t be disappointed; he knew he’d see them tomorrow, and that would be more than enough after a year of thinking of all the fun they’d had last Christmas.
Still, as Robb barreled through the double doors ahead of his family, he looked around hopefully, and his hopes were rewarded by the sight of familiar brown curls turned towards the lobby’s large, majestic Christmas tree.
“Margaery!” Robb called before he could think better of it, his voice echoing across the large space. She whirled around, a giggle escaping her lips at the sight of him rushing toward her. He was disheveled from travel and winded from running into the hotel ahead of the other Starks, but that didn’t put a damper on her spirits any more than it put a damper on his.
Eventually, they met in the middle, their words a blur as they gushed about how glad they were to see each other again and uttered early Merry Christmas’s. They’d babbled on for so long that Robb hardly noticed the rest of his family arriving, until Sansa was tugging on his arm urgently, and Robb was huffing in annoyance at her for interrupting.
“What, Sansa?” he asked her, a bit more impatient with his sister than he’d normally be. It was hard to stay irritated when he saw the giddy look on her face, though, as she pointed upwards.
“You two are under mistletoe , isn’t it romantic?” his younger sister said dreamily, and that familiar blush he’d gotten last year around Margaery was creeping back onto his cheeks.
“Oh?” Margaery asked, her eyebrows raised in amusement. “I hadn’t noticed,” she said, even as she licked her lips. Robb’s heartbeat sped up in his chest as he wondered if she was going to kiss him on the cheek again — sometimes, if he thought about it long and hard, he could still feel that first thank you kiss from last year all over again. It was one of his favorite memories, and maybe , just maybe, he was about to get another one.
Margaery hesitated for the briefest of seconds, though, and Robb deflated. “Oh. You don’t have to, um, if you don’t want to,” he stammered. Maybe it was better if she didn’t anyway; his family still teased him about last year, and they were all here watching again .
“I want to!” Margaery quickly assured him, leaning in to press a kiss not to his cheek this time, but on his lips.
It was over just after it had begun, but there was a dazed look on his face as she pulled away, looking awfully pleased with herself as Robb’s little sister Arya made gagging noises and Robb’s aunt Lyanna whooped in approval.
Whoever had said kissing was gross was so wrong. He’d just had his first lip kiss with Margaery Tyrell, and it had been awesome .
Their trip had only just begun, but Robb had a feeling it was going to be another amazing Christmas.
The Dare - Age 13
By the fourth Christmas, Robb is a certified teenager, and the way he thinks about seeing Margaery changes slightly. Robb doesn’t just think about building sandcastles with his family and competing in the hotel’s holiday-themed team games; he thinks about the moments where they wander down the beach alone together, playing truth or dare and exploring new parts of the shoreline together.
They’ve wandered off together every day since they got here, and Robb feels like he’s an open book with her. Margaery always chooses dare, liking to be full of surprises, liking to catch Robb off guard and see the look in his eyes when she impresses him.
Robb, on the other hand, is Ned Stark’s son through and through, and he’s nothing if not honest. He picks truth and lets Margaery ask him the wildest questions she can think of, telling her everything about him that she could possibly want to know.
And then, on the last day, he mixes it up, and picks dare. Just to see the way her eyes widen in delight, like he’s the one that’s surprised her this time instead.
They’re sitting on a cliff’s edge, their legs dangling off, and Margaery’s eyes are practically sparkling as she leans towards him. Robb doesn’t know what’s in store for him now, but if it makes her happy, he’ll do it. He’ll do anything to have her in his space like this, to see that secret smile that she seems to only wear around him.
Except the dare finally comes, and it’s not the worst thing that she could think of. It turns out that it’s the best; it’s something that Robb has been thinking about wanting to do again all break long, but hasn’t found the reason to do of his own accord.
“I dare you to kiss me,” Margaery declares, and Robb only skips a beat so that he doesn’t seem too eager.
“I’ve done that before!” he protests, and Margaery tutts in disapproval.
“ I’ve kissed you before, Mr. Stark. Now it’s your turn,” she says boldly, and so he does, closing the gap between them and putting his lips to hers.
It’s a little bit familiar, like returning to one of your favorite things after some time away, but mostly wildly different than it’s been before. This time, there’s no one watching to comment and make Robb’s cheeks heat with embarrassment. There’s no immediate pulling away, either; Robb kisses her for what could have been a few seconds or what could have been hours before she pulls back with a mischievous smile.
Robb’s so caught in the moment that he can hardly think straight, but Margaery’s always been the more composed one of the two of them, and she quickly gets their game back on track.
“All right then, my turn. I choose dare,” Margaery tells him, and their game continues on as if their kiss never happened at all.
The New Year’s Eve Apology - Age 16
The summer before what would have been their fifth Christmas in Dorne is the summer when Bran falls climbing towards a fourth story window, and everything changes. Between medical bills and Bran’s mental and physical health adjusting to his new circumstances, the Starks find it’s best to just stay home.
They stay home the year after that, too.
By the time that Robb sees Margaery Tyrell again, he’s been thinking about their kiss for three years, but by the way she treats him when he arrives at the resort, he can only assume that she hasn’t done the same.
The rest of the Tyrells seem thrilled that the Stark family is back after a two year hiatus, but Margaery is standoffish, cold when before she’d been nothing but warm. Robb’s heart sinks a little as he tries to reach out, day after day. Ask her if she wants to build a castle for old times sake, go for a walk, decorate cookies — she even refuses their old games of truth or dare.
He hadn’t just thought about the kiss for three years, though it had been amazing , and he’d definitely wanted to do it again. He’d just thought about Margaery in general, how much fun he always had with her — how seeing her had been his favorite time of year, more so than the holiday and the presents and all the rest of it.
It’s not until New Year’s eve when her brother Willas pulls him aside that he realizes just why she’d been so standoffish.
“You disappeared, and you didn’t even tell her why,” Willas tells him. “I know what happened with your brother was hard; it was hard for my family when it happened to me.” Willas pointed to his own leg with a wry smile. “But you can’t push people away just because things are hard, Robb Stark. Sometimes when you push them away, you can’t get them back.”
And shit . Margaery had reached out to him — texts and calls and emails, but it had all been so much, and then by the time life had felt close to normal again, he’d thought it had been too late. He’d been assuming this break, things would just go back to normal, but he realizes now that an apology is long overdue.
Except Margaery’s not on the beach, or in the lobby, or in her room. She’s not in any of her usual spots, and Robb has to wait until the teen New Year’s Eve party in one of the hotel’s ballrooms that night to finally track her down.
“Margaery,” he says, out of breath from having to literally push through the crowd to get to her. He wonders if she’d done that on purpose; surrounding herself with human barriers to keep Robb from pestering her even more than he already has. He doesn’t care, though; he’d have pushed through a thousand people if it meant that he could get to her and finally give her the apology that she’s deserved this whole break long.
“I’ll never do it again,” he says, skipping several steps in his apology, and she narrows her eyes at him shrewdly.
“Never do what? Interrupt the lovely conversation I was having with your sister?” she asks, looking bewildered when she sees that Sansa and the other gaggle of girls that had surrounded her had slunk back the second Robb had approached. He makes a mental note to thank his sister later.
“Never leave you in the dark. Not talk to you for three years, make you wonder where we are… any of it. You’re my favorite part of the year,” Robb tells her earnestly, and he prays that it’s enough. It has to be, because he doesn’t know what else he can do right now to make it up to her, and if she asks him to walk away, the new year’s going to start on the sourest note possible.
She doesn’t, though. Margaery pretends to still be cross with him, but he sees the crinkle at the corner of her eyes that mean she’s really quite happy that he’s come to his senses.
“It’s going to take quite some time to prove that, you know. You can say that all you want, but until you show up again next Christmas, you’re still on thin ice,” she informs him, but he can hear the warmth creeping into her voice again. He knows it so well from Christmases past.
“Or at least I’ll tell you, if any more siblings fall out of windows and make me have to stay home,” he jokes lightly. It’s probably in poor taste, but he’s too relieved to be back in Margaery’s good graces to care all that much right now.
“Or you’ll at least tell me,” she agrees, and then she reaches out and squeezes his hand. “And there’s one more thing you can do right now to make it up to me.”
“Anything,” Robb replies instantly, as she laces her fingers through his.
“Stay with me and be my midnight kiss? I’m afraid if you leave my side, that dreadful Joffrey Baratheon is going to try and come take your place, and we can’t have that, now can we?”
He would have done anything she had asked of him, no matter how horrible, but asking for this is the farthest thing from horrible. It takes all of Robb’s willpower to wait until midnight, instead of just kissing her right then and there in relief.
As he wraps his arms around Margaery’s waist and kisses her soundly amid cries of Happy New Year! , Robb thanks the gods that a Christmas break that had started off so poorly had ended up with him here , entwined with his favorite person, in the end.
The First Real Kiss - Age 18
Robb keeps his promise never to leave Margaery in the dark with gusto. In fact, after that awkward vacation where he was worried he’d lost her forever, he makes a point to keep in touch with her regularly instead of just waiting for Christmastime.
They text, he sends her postcards and she sends back long letters, and every once in a while, they even talk on the phone. Robb already felt like he knew her, but now he really knows her. He knows her hopes and dreams, he knows her plans for the future… and maybe, secretly, he’s been trying to line his plans up with hers, just a little.
The more they talk, the harder it is to go nearly a year without seeing her. Robb likes her. He really, really likes her, and not just as the awesome friend he sees every year on vacation, or as a pretty girl that he likes kissing, when the situation allows him the chance.
He wants to kiss her all the time. Not just at Christmas vacations, but all year long, and maybe for the whole rest of his life. He wants her to want those things too, because he’s never happier than when he hears from her, and no other girl he meets back in Winterfell ever makes his stomach swoop or his heart speed up irrationally.
His mother had even sat him down to have a talk , after last Christmas. She said she saw the way that he trailed after Margaery like he was a lost direwolf pup, and that she thought the two of them had something really special.
Catelyn Stark had buoyed Robb up only to cut him immediately back down by warning him that distance made things hard . That he was still young, and no matter how much he liked Margaery, that trying to start anything between them when they lived on opposite sides of the country was hardly a good idea. She even made Robb want to cover his ears and stop her from talking as she talks about the year her father spent away when they were first married, and how hard it was for them to make things work even as adults.
Robb knows she’s right, though. It’s naive to think that Margaery would be as willing to sit around and wait for him as he would be to sit around and wait for her , but this year is different.
This year, Robb applied to King’s Landing University, Margaery’s dream school, and as soon as they get their early acceptances, he’s going to tell her how he feels.
This Christmas vacation is so much like so many others. Robb and Margaery wandering down the beach alone, talking late into the night, finding any excuse they can to work together on ornaments, games, and the like. The main difference is that Robb always sits a little closer, finds excuses to hold onto her hand or lean his head on his shoulder, and Margaery does the same.
She feels it, too. She has to, because he’s never felt so sure of anything as he feels about the fact that the two of them are right for each other, and that college together is going to be a fresh new start for them.
Acceptances to King’s Landing University were supposed to come just a couple of days after they’ve arrived in Dorne, and Robb’s glued to his phone, nearly jumping out of his seat at every ding or vibration. Finally, he and Margaery are sitting on their cliff, the same one where she’d dared him to kiss her five years ago, when the email finally comes in, and he swallows hard, suddenly filled with nerves.
“Did you just get an email from KLU?” he asks her as they both stare at their phones, absorbed in their screens instead of each other for a rare occasion. Margaery is speechless for a moment, but it’s not because of whatever’s in her email. It’s because of Robb’s surprise; he’d let her think that he was applying lots of places, that he was waiting for an April decision instead of choosing one place early, and she’s so quiet that Robb decides to fill the silence himself.
“I wanted to be with you,” he tells her honestly, like it should be the most obvious thing in the world, and he doesn’t even have time to check what’s inside of his email before Margaery is kissing him, her phone forgotten as her hands cup his cheeks and keep him cradled close.
“We were supposed to do that after we found out if I got in, too,” Robb chuckles, but his heart is beyond full as they pull back. Her eyes are filled with such adoration that he’d do this for her , that he’d plan a future with her as such a prominent part of it, and if Robb’s body weren’t so busy buzzing from her kiss, he’d be flooded with relief at being right about this thing between them.
“Well then hurry up and find out!” Margaery urges him, looping her arm through his and resting her chin on his shoulder so she can read his phone too. He’s just read, Dear Mr. Stark when Margaery gasps excitedly, reading the words, “Congratulations on your early acceptance” out loud to him.
“I got in,” Robb says, putting his phone aside as he reached to clasp her hand in his.
“ We got in,” Margaery agrees giddily, peppering his face with kisses until she finally finds his lips again.
“You get to see me everyday starting in the fall. You’re going to be so sick of me by next Christmas,” Robb teases as he pulls her closer, Margaery shaking her head and nuzzling her nose against his as she does.
“I’m never going to get sick of you, Robb Stark,” she declares instead, and they stay like that most of the afternoon, wrapped in each other, looking forward to their next four years together (and many more than that, if Robb has anything to say about it).
Two weeks later, they don’t huge and say goodbye the way they usually do. They kiss so long that Arya screams at him to give it a rest already, then say
see you soon
instead, and Robb’s future has never felt brighter.