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It all kind of happened by accident, but Sansa can't bring herself to regret sitting in the school security office as the management try to figure out what to do with the crowd of undergraduates piled in their waiting room. Even if she can't tell if the butterflies in her stomach are from the cute, kind boy who kissed her or for how disappointed her parents are going to be.
Summer at King's Landing College is hot and humid, Sansa's sweat-soaked auburn hair clinging to the back of her neck as her ice cream cone melts onto the shimmering pavement. It's the first time she has spent summer away from her parents and while Sansa misses them and her siblings, she has loved every minute of it. The first four weeks flew by, filled with her part-time job in the campus mail office and internship with the King's Landing Gazette.
She spends her evenings and weekends hanging out with her friends. Shy, gossipy Jeyne is her roommate at their off-campus apartment and sweet, dreamy Beth Cassel is on campus as a summer Resident Assistant, but they explore the city in a way Sansa never got to during the school year. Beth drags them on adventures as she looks for photo shoot locations for her latest portfolio shot for her summer class and Jeyne keeps up-to-date with celebrity sightings on twitter. And Sansa scopes out the neighborhood around the campus, trying to find the cafe with the best mocha latte and the shops with the most eclectic accessories. There's free film showings on the campus quad every Wednesday and the musical shows in the Student Center basement. There's so much to do and so much to explore, but somehow she still manages to run into Jon Snow at every corner.
Jon Snow, her father's best friend's son. Jon Snow, her parent's neighbor. Jon Snow, who she's known since before she was born.
Jon Snow, her brother's best friend.
Jon is everywhere Sansa seems to go, but the more she sees him the more embarrassed she is.
"He must think I'm stalking him!" Sansa complains to Jeyne and Beth one night as they watch romantic comedies with cartons of Chinese food scattered around the floor of the apartment. "How do I explain seeing him so much if he asks?"
"Tell the truth?" Beth suggests. "It's not your fault he works at Jonquil's."
"But it is my fault I go there every morning!" After many tries, Sansa has determined that the coffee shop where Jon works serves the best mocha latte in the city. So what if she thinks it's better when he makes it than when one of his coworkers does? Gilly Wild is nice enough, but she goes to light on the mocha and too heavy on the whipped cream.
"Maybe he thinks you loooove him! Maybe you can marrrrry Jon Snow!" Jeyne sing-songs then bursts into a fit of giggles, ducking the pillow Sansa throws at her.
But it wasn't just the coffee shop where Jon's smoky grey eyes meet Sansa's blue pools across the mug. She sees him on the quad, walking to his night class, at the post office, at music nights when his band is frequently the opener.
Jon has been around Sansa's entire life, but she never knows what to say to him now that they're at school. Lyanna Snow, his single mom, was best friends with Ned Stark growing up he was always around as a young kid, and even more when he and Robb started spending all their free time together. She chose King's Landing College on a whim, because all the journalism faculty write for the Gazette and she wanted to go to school in a big city. Only after she put down her deposit did her mother say how exciting it was that she already knew Jon to carpool home with on breaks.
Those rides were long and the conversation quiet, but Catelyn Stark was right: it was good to have someone on campus. They didn't talk much or hang out ever, but what conversation they had made solemn Jon Snow Sansa's true hero. He told her where to find the quietest study places and loudest parties, what professors to avoid for her general education requirements and how to get an easy A in Sociology 101.
When Harry Hardyng broke her heart first semester, it was Jon she called and Jon who brought over lemon cakes from a local bakery. When she didn't know how to find a book in the library, Jon volunteered to show her how the system worked. And when Joffrey Lannister made a nonconsensual move on her at one of those loud parties, it was Jon who gave him a broken nose and walked her home.
But even with all of his help and comfort, summer is special and so summer is different.
Then Fourth of July comes around, heat rising from the pavement and a clear blue sky bursting overheard. All her friends had the holiday off and so did she, so they planned a grill out before heading downtown to see the fireworks. She prepares a healthy salad to go with the brats and hotdogs, the coleslaw and mashed potatoes and apple pie. Everyone wears red, white, and blue with their goofiest sunglasses. They light sparklers and spin while catchy pop music blares from Beth's speakers. Jeyne pulls out s'mores to make on the grill, crammed with other sugary treats like snickers and strawberry slices.
Before Sansa knows it dusk is rapidly approaching and there isn't any time to find transportation to the park on Aegon's Hill where they would have a clear few of the fireworks. They're rushing to make a decision, cleaning up their park site, when Sansa literally runs into Jon.
She headed back up to the apartment to put away some tupperware before the food went bad, her contributions to the clean up effort.
"Jon?" She asks, bending over to pick up a dropped carton of leftover hotdog slices. Jon's hands run into hers as he tries to help right the pile of containers around them. Sansa prays her eyes aren't red-streaked. She only drank one glass of wine at the party, but she still prefers to be careful around solemn Jon Snow. Lord knows what he'll tell Robb or Catelyn if he thinks she's been drinking.
He tilts his head, catching Sansa's blue eyes with his soft grey ones. She stares back, studying the shade so like a cloudy sky. Sansa saves them both from their addled state with a, "Happy Fourth!"
"Oh yeah, you too!" Jon's voice lilts up more than it should have. Jon, who just finished his junior year, has been on campus every summer since coming to the university. She's surprised he's not at any of those loud parties. Yes, he has always been one of the most awkward people she had ever met, in a cute why-is-he-blushing sort of way, but he has friends on campus that drag him to things, Pip and Sam and the rest. "Happy Independence Day. I would've expected you to go downtown for the fireworks."
"I'm surprised you're not at a party." She quips back. "We only realized how late it was a quarter hour ago." Her face falls. She loved the bright lights and loud bangs of the fireworks. Normally the Starks spent the weekend of the Fourth at their beach house and took the boat out on the water to see the fireworks display off Bear Island. It would be sad to not see any of fireworks this year, but she still is having a great time with her friends.
Jon hesitates, then made an offer she can't refuse. "What if I could get you on top of Targaryen Tower?"
"Really?" At sixteen stories, Targaryen Tower is the tallest dorm, and building, on campus, and the flat roof was said to have one of the best views of downtown King’s Landing and Blackwater Bay. It was also expressly forbidden to students. "How?"
Jon runs a hand over his waves of hair, the preening accidentally showing off his biceps. Sansa blushes at her thoughts, knowing she shouldn't notice these things about him. "I'm doing some work for campus maintenance over the summer, on top of the cafe job. I've got access to every building. If you get your friends and you all promise to be quiet, we can go up. I was gonna go there anyway."
"Alone?" A wave of sadness washes over Sansa that he would be alone on a holiday like this one. Normally, the Snows went with the Starks to Bear Island. She should have invited him, she thinks, though they haven't talked since the last party with Joffrey and his mess.
“Normally I’d go out with my friends, but Sam and Gilly went to meet his mom and sisters, and my girlfriend dumped me when she graduated and moved back in December.” He shrugs sheepishly. Sansa vaguely remembers the girlfriend, a Canadian exchange student named Val. She hasn't seen Val around, but assumed it was just the timing. The idea of Jon getting broken up with should make her sad, but Sansa doesn't feel anything but a weird kind of relief. “I’ve been so busy with work and the lab that I kind of forgot the holiday was a thing until it was too late to make plans."
“Well thank you for inviting us.” Sansa smiles cheerfully. “Did you get dinner? I’m about to go drop off these leftovers but you’re welcome to try some if you want. I even have lemon cakes!”
“You sure you want to share those?” Jon asks with a chuckle, but accepts the offered box. She tries to ignore his fingers brushing hers as he accepts it. It's a long running joke among her family and friends that lemon cakes have to be hidden from Sansa if anyone else was ever going to get any. But Jon seems sad and she doesn't want that, so she makes sure to open the box and hand him one.
"No, you look like you need one. I'll be back in a few minutes and we can meet with everyone once I've put this away?" She asks, already running up the flight of stairs to her second-floor apartment. Sansa stashes the food in the fridge, voice texting Jeyne as she locks the door and runs down to join Jon. He grabs her hand and pulls her after him, racing to get to the lobby of Targaryen Tower. As the eight o’clock start of the fireworks show approaches, they meet her friends and run up the stairs to the top floor of the building, Jon guiding them all to the maintenance stairwell to access the roof. Jeyne shoots Sansa an eyeful as she glands at their joined hands and Sansa wishes she had another pillow to throw.
She feels weightless, entirely free as the stars dance above them and are joined by the bright lights. The others crawl up onto the roof of the elevator shaft, sitting and laughing together, but Sansa follows Jon to an isolated corner of the roof. King's Landing stretches in the direction of anyway she looks, the city sprawled out and crowded before them and the three hills rising up like spines on a dragons back. And beyond that towers and the Sept and ancient Red Keep, Blackwater Bay in one direction and the rolling hills dotting with trees in the other. Everywhere, people celebrate the holiday with lights and fire and shouting and joy. They don't just have a view of the fireworks show downtown, but also of the explosions of brilliance people set off in their own driveways and along the crooked side streets of Flea Bottom.
Every color under the sun appeared in the sky and dissolving in a hail of sparkles. Greens, blues, even some bright purples, everything that can be done, is. There are stars and waterfalls of brightness, each one more exhilarating than the last. Sansa could and did stare at every color as long as it was in the sky, running forward to lean against the railing.
"Look at that one!" She wants to reach out a hand and touch the colors, but even just pointing gives her shivers for the long way down. There's a pressure at her back, a gentle arm settling on her hip and anchoring her against a warm body. Sansa doesn't have to look to know it's Jon because she hears his deep chuckle behind her. She tugs his other hand to point to the next one, excitement bubbling in her like champagne. Sansa sighs dreamily as a rainbow of pinks and greens evaporate over the skyline. "Isn't it beautiful?"
"Yes, you are." She's so enamored she doesn't notice that she is the only thing Jon is paying any attention to, but she does catch that. A dark blush blooms along Sansa's cheeks. She thinks back to her thoughts earlier, twisting a red strand of hair around her finger in contemplation as she watches the fireworks.
"Why weren't you at any of the campus parties? Was nobody you know doing anything, besides Sam?"
Jon moves to lean besides her, though his hand doesn't leave her hip. "Parties were more Val's vibe than mine."
"But I feel like I always see you at them."
"I went when I knew you were going out. Not much more than that, though."
"How did you know?"
"Robb asked me to keep an eye on you. He normally let me know when he knew, although it was easy to guess your favorite places off campus after first semester."
"Oh." Sansa didn't realize that she was that predictable. Or, more accurately, she didn't realize Jon knew her well enough to predict her movements. She might have thought it a little creepy, from anyone else. But not a single soul tried to help her when Joffrey hit her in front of everyone and dumped his drink down her shirt. No soul but Jon.
"Thank you." She says, voice no louder than a whisper. The last fireworks are exploding in the distance in a triumphant blaze of glory.
"It's nothing. I've always said you just need to ask me for anything you might need."
"Not just for this." Sansa says, voice emphatic. She needs him to understand. "For all your help this year. For the rides home and the study tips, and for making a really good mocha latte. For helping me when Joffrey . . . for helping me. And for tonight."
She gives him a soft smile. Maybe it's just the way the lights reflected off his face, but he looks different, calmer, less frazzled and brooding about whatever problems in his life. Struck by the moment, Sansa cradles his face with one hand presses a gentle kiss against the stubble on his cheek. "It's a lot Jon. Thank you, really."
"Of course, Sansa." Jon whispers, his lips barely hanging open and her hand still on his cheek. Her gaze stays steady on those lips, plump and red, and suddenly closer as Jon leans in and kisses her on the forehead. He asks, voice soft, "Can I kiss you? For real?"
She answers with her lips. Jon tastes sweet, like summer wine and lemon cakes, and everything about the way he kisses her is gentle. The caress of his hand on her hip, the trace of his fingers in her loose hair. Eventually they pull away with swollen lips and blushing cheeks, a bit messier but much happier. Sansa shifts to lean her head against Jon's shoulder, staying like that as the rest of the temporary stars fizzle out, brilliant lights dazzling the night sky.
It's only when they crawl downstairs that the trouble begins, when a security officer caught them sneaking out of the stairwell where none of them should have been in the first place. But Sansa didn't mind the harried officer's glares. She leans her head on Jon's shoulder and smiled when he wraps his arm around her in the lobby of the security office. The plastic chairs are hard and cold, but his hand is hers to hold.
Any infraction she dealt with would be worth it, and well worth whatever brave new things come after.