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It’s all Sansa’s fault. Margaery had gone with her family to visit relatives for a month during summer break and Theon had gotten a flu a few days after she left causing Asha to quarantine him in his room for the better part of the month. He only recovered four days before she got back, meaning Robb and Sansa were both left with no significant others. It didn’t help that their friends were also all away. Loras obviously with his family, Renly was doing a summer internship in London, and Jon and Sam had gone on a road trip. So Sansa and Robb had spent a lot of time together.
Theon’s reunion with Robb went as anyone would expect it to. Robb immediately pulled him into a hug so tight he couldn’t breathe and Theon hugged back just as tight. They quickly hurried upstairs where they engaged in a heavy makeout session, trying to make up for lost time. Robb was on his back on the bed, shirt flung to the side, and Theon was straddling him, shirt also discarded. Robb’s hand had moved to Theon’s belt but he was having trouble concentrating with Theon’s mouth on his chest. Theon sat up to help Robb out when he noticed and stopped his actions.
“What? What’s wrong? Do you feel okay? Is this too much for you, do you still need to rest?” Robb immediately sat up and cupped Theon’s face, worried about his boyfriend. Theon pulled Robb’s hand away and held it in front of him along with the other and stared at them.
“What the fuck happened to your nails?”
“Oh,” Robb sighed in relief that there wasn’t really anything wrong, “Sansa painted them”
“Why? When? What?” Theon looked back up at Robb’s face.
“I was left with Sansa as my only real company for almost a month. I inevitably got dragged into a spa day and I painted hers and then she kept begging me to paint mine so I gave in. Then there was another spa day and we did it again. It’s actually really fun to do and I like how it looks. Maybe I can paint yours”
“Sansa!” Theon yelled as he climbed off Robb and walked to the door. He didn't even bother with a shirt and the problem in his pants had died down.
“Thee, wher-” Robb cut himself off when he realized it was no use and Theon was already out of the room. He flopped back and let whatever was gonna happen, happen.
“You broke my boyfriend” Theon accused in lieu of greeting as he entered Sansa’s room.
“What are you on about?” Sansa asked, not even bothering to look up, used to Theon’s ways by now.
“His nails are purple! He wants to paint mine! I’m away for a month and you’ve corrupted him” Sansa briefly looked up at him from her laptop with a smirk before looking back down.
“We were alone for a month, you can’t be entirely surprised. Besides, I don’t see the big deal” She said.
“Why purple?” Theon whined.
“He chose it. You missed when they were yellow. I will say he isn’t the best at choosing colors, I’ll fix that though. I’m afraid you’re stuck with the painted nails though. He really likes it. If it helps, you can definitely pull off painted nails, especially if you have at least one of your earrings in. Black and red would probably be the best colors for you, maybe grey”
“I hate you,” Theon said and left the room.
“You know, when you leave in the middle of a makeout session to talk to my sister it hurts my feelings. You should make it up to me” Robb smirked, from where he was laying on his bed, only in his boxers, and Theon is only so strong. In his defense, he’s been alone for almost a month.
“I believe you were in the middle of something” Theon said before practically pouncing on Robb.
The nail polish was forgotten for the time being, and afterward Theon didn’t have the energy to care.
-oOo-
It wasn’t until a week later when it came up again.
Theon walked into Robb’s room one morning, (Theon calls it morning cause he had only been up an hour, when in reality it was one-thirty), to find him sitting at his desk with a bottle of red nail polish and most of his fingers painted.
“So I have to just live with this now, don’t I?” He asked, flopping down in Robb’s other desk chair. Robb bought it when Theon kept sitting on his lap while he was trying to study.
“If you let me paint yours maybe you’ll realize it’s not so bad”
“I have nothing against guys with painted nails, you know that, but that stuff fucking reeks. I’ll be smelling it for hours now. At least you choose a somewhat decent color for yourself this time, the shade of purple you had was not good. And yellow? Really? I thought I trained your sense of style better than that” Theon gave him the look he used to give him when he would wear socks with flip flops.
“Sansa gave me a crash course on choosing colors this morning. I’ve been told to consult her or you, if I’m gonna be going out in public”
“Me?”
“Like you said, you know style”
“I can’t deny that, I have excellent fashion sense. And I do know what nail polish looks good with different looks and I know what colors look good on you. I guess since I’m gonna be the one out in public with you, I might as well make sure you look good” Theon gave in.
“Can I please paint your nails?”
“Fuck no” Theon deadpanned.
“Please Theon? For me?” Robb whined, giving his best puppy dog eyes, and damn him, he knows that always works on Theon.
“Fine. Fuck you, but fine. I can’t believe I’m agreeing to this. You better appreciate me after this” Theon gave in.
“I always appreciate you. But, I think I know some ways to compensate you for this kind gesture” Robb winked suggestively.
“Let’s get this over with so we can get to the fun stuff” Theon sighed.
“Go get a color from Sansa while I finish. Unless you want red” Robb said, going back to doing his nails.
“I’ll see what she has” Theon reluctantly got up and went to Sansa’s room, “Where’s your nail polish?”
“Wow, he broke you already? You really are whipped” Sansa laughed as she got up and grabbed a container.
“Oh and Margaery doesn’t have that one thing she does or says that will get you to do anything? Besides, all I have to do is smile and touch his hand and he does whatever I want so it’s not like he isn’t the same” Theon said as he looked through Sansa’s collection.
“I think you would like this one” Sansa pointed to a black one.
“Plain black? Really?”
“Oh just trust me”
“Fine” Theon grabbed the color.
“You’ll need this. Robb knows what to do” Sansa handed him some weird thing and he left the room.
-oOo-
“I’m doing some of my best work here and you’re staring at your nails” Robb whined as he pulled away from Theon’s neck. They were lying on Robb’s bed later that day and Robb had been in the process of covering Theon’s collar bone.
“I need to tell you something” Theon said and Robb recognised the tone. It was the ‘I’m about to talk about my asshole father’ tone.
“You can tell me anything” Robb stroked Theon’s cheek and Theon leaned into the touch.
“This isn’t the first time I’ve had my nails painted”
“I’ve never seen you with painted nails before”
“Cause I didn’t make it out of the house. It was last year. I saw this really nice dark turquoise that I thought would look fantastic with that one leather jacket I have so I bought it and painted my nails when I got home. It looked good and did go with the jacket. When I was leaving to come here and show you my father saw. He got angry. He grabbed me and screamed at me. He told me to take it off and I refused. Yara came home just in time to hear the moment my wrist broke and she went off on my father before getting me out of there. She took me to a clinic and I got a cast and then we bought nail polish remover and she took it off before driving me here. I didn’t want to talk about it and you didn’t make me. When I finally went back home three days later he’d used the nail polish to write across my mirror and then smashed the bottle” Theon was crying slightly by the end but Robb wiped the tears away and held him close. He knew he didn’t have to tell Robb what his father had written, his boyfriend would know.
“Put on your shoes, we’re going somewhere” Robb said, climbing off the bed and putting on his one shoes. Theon follows slowly, confused at Robb’s actions.
“Where are we going?”
“You’ll see” Robb left the room and Theon followed. They stopped in Arya’s room first, “Do you have spray paint?”
“Why do you need spray paint?” Arya and Theon asked at the same time.
“Do you have any or not?” Robb ignored the question.
“Yeah, here” Arya got up and grabbed a can from inside her closet.
“Thanks,” Robb said before leaving the room. Theon and Arya exchanged a look before Theon followed Robb.
The car ride was silent as Theon watched Robb. His boyfriend was clearly angry if his tense muscles and white knuckles were anything to go by. But Theon had no idea what his plan was. He grew even more confused when Robb pulled into a CVS parking lot and got out. Theon followed Robb inside and to the nail polish section. Robb grabbed all sorts of colors, not even paying attention to what he grabbed before paying and Theon was even more confuse.
“What the hell are you planning?” He asked when they got back to the car.
“Just wait”
Theon recognised the way to his house, well, his father’s house, quickly and turned to Robb.
“Robb, seriously, what are you doing?”
“Does your father still work at that scrap yard?”
“Yeah” Robb was already gone too far to bother trying to stop.
“Good” Robb parked the car in front of Theon’s father’s house and got out. As expected his father’s car wasn’t in the driveway, “Get out your key, we’re getting your stuff”
“What?”
“We’re getting the stuff you still have here and you’re officially moving in with my family” Theon didn’t even know what to say to that.
“You’ve gone insane”
“He broke your fucking wrist Theon. And it’s not the first time he’s hurt you, not to mention the constant verbal abuse. I’m not letting you stay here anymore. You already spend most of your time at my place anyway. I’m getting you away from him” It was then Theon noticed that Robb was holding back tears. He nodded and got out his house key.
Theon didn’t really have much left in his childhood home. Most of his clothes were already in Robb’s closet, same with his shoes. The clothes he does have left fit in a single suitcase. Hi vintage record collection is already in a crate. They put his books and photos in a duffle bag and loaded everything into the car. As he looked at his bare room he realized he didn’t feel anything but relief. And then anger. This was his childhood home. The home where his mother had read him bedtime stories and sang him lullabies. The home that he should be sad to leave. And his father ruined it. He didn’t even think before he pulled off one of his shoes and chucked it at the mirror, shattering it. Robb ran into the room and Theon grinned at him.
“I need the spray paint”
They went wild. Theon spray painted ‘homophobe’ vertically on the front door and Robb painted ‘asshole’ and ‘abuser’ on the front windows. Together they chucked the bottles of nail polish at the front of the house, shattering them and splattering the house with paint. Theon looked down at the last bottle and had a dark idea.
“If I ask you to do something kinda fucked up will you do it?” Theon turned to his boyfriend.
“Will it piss off your father?”’
“Definitely”
“Then yes” Robb said and Theon kissed him fervently before guiding him back into the house.
They drove off exhilarated, blasting Enough by Counterfeit. Theon had left the following message in turquoise nail polish on the wall above his father’s bed:
He fucked me here
-oOo-
“Mom, Dad, Theon lives here now. Just thought I’d let you know” Robb told his parents as he brought in Theon’s record player while Theon put the rest of his clothes away upstairs. He turned to go upstairs but his parents called him back.
“Robb wait, what do you mean Theon lives here now?” Ned asked.
“I mean we got the last of his stuff from his father’s house and brought it here where he lives”
“Honey, you should have talked to us first. What about Theon’s father?” His mother asked.
“I don’t care what Theon’s father thinks. Theon already practically lives here anyway”
“Robb,” His father started last year but Robb interrupted.
“Remember last year when Theon’s wrist was broken?” Is all Robb says before leaving. He knows his parents won’t make Theon go back to his father’s.
After he brings up the crate he goes back down and makes them both some tea. Theon accepts it gratefully and they sit on the bed watching tv. It’s ten minutes later that Theon notices.
“Holy shit” He whispers when he sees it.
“What?” Robb asks, turning to him and Theon holds out one of his hands to show his gold nails, “Again, what?”
“These were black” Theon says and Robb’s eyes widen.
“Holy shit”
“Sansa!” Theon yells as they both run out of the room.
“Did you figure it out?” Sansa asks when they get to her room.
“How did this happen?” Theon held up his hand.
“It changes to gold with warmer temps”
“That’s fucking incredible”
“I have some in other color combinations, if you’d be interested”
“If I’d be interested? Of course I’d be interested”
“And you complained” Robb shook his head fondly, “Come on”
That night when they’re lying in bed, Robb asleep on Theon’s chest, Theon thinks how thankful he is to Sansa for getting Robb obsessed with painting nails.