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"Bran, aren't we getting a little old for this?" Jojen Reed asked his best friend as he watched the limber boy climbing up the side of the Stark's house. Bran simply looked back at him, and stuck his tongue out before continuing up the wall. Jojen sighed slightly and prayed to which ever higher being existed that Bran didn't fall and break his back the day before they started high school.
Jojen and Bran had been best friends their entire lives, grown up next door to each other and been running around getting in trouble together since they were in diapers. Although both boys would tell you it was always Bran's fault that they got in trouble. The dark haired boy had a skill for getting in trouble that could only be bested by his sister Arya.
"Bran, get down." Jojen sighed, running a hand through his messy blond curls. He'd tried for many years to get them under control but he basically admitted around seventh grade that it would never happen.
Bran tucked his knees around the barely holding on gutter, and sent Jojen a smirk that sent panic through his body. Most of the time, Bran Stark could enjoy an afternoon of sitting around either boys house and watching Netflix but when he gets in the mood to goof around, there was a little that could be done to stop him except an injury. The last time Jojen had seen Bran like this, the boy had fallen out of a window and broken both his legs. To this day, he still walked with a slight limp.
Oh, Catelyn had freaked when she'd gotten to the hospital that day. Jojen had been pretty sure she'd be right on the edge of starting a war with the staff there. In the end, Ned had managed to calm her down but Bran had been severely punished. And by punished, it might that Jojen hadn't been allowed to come over the entire time that Bran had been bed ridden. Of course, the two boys had gotten around that (what with their bed rooms having connected windows, and Jojen figuring out the year before that his legs were finally long enough to jump from one window to the other) but it was still been a struggle for months.
Which had given Jojen an eye idea. "You better get down, Bran. Remember what Catelyn said."
Bran's face paled slightly but he still seemed confident in himself. "And are you going to tell her? Please, that would be just as much as punishment for you as it would be me."
Jojen shook his head. "No, I could live without you. But you, Bran, would crash and burn if you didn't have me in your life."
Bran shot Jojen a wounded look and shook his hair so that his long brown hair danced underneath him. "You think so? I don't. You need me more than I need you."
Jojen shrugged and turned to walk away. Bran's cries after him causing the blond boy to stop for only a moment, smirking at him sincerely. "Oh, but you don't need me?"
"I don't, but I'd prefer to have you around." Bran said, his voice sounding small in the most innocent way. It made Jojen's heart jump in his chest and took he took steps towards Bran almost unconsciously.
Bran looked nervously at Jojen as he lowed himself to the ground, Jojen smiling at him just as nervously.
"I'd prefer to have you around, too, Bran." Jojen said, his voice coming out low and surprising him. Bran took a step closer and smiled at him.
"So stay around." He said, merely to fill up the moment, to push away what was coming. What had been coming for a long time now.
"I plan to." That's when Jojen lean in and pressed their lips together.
The first kiss was light, innocent between two boys inexperienced in feeling anything romantic. Even from a young age Bran had hoped his first kiss would be with Jojen, although he hadn't really thought about anything past that. Bran's crush on his best friend had been low key, always low key, nothing to be concerned about. It was there but it wasn't pressuring. He could live with it and often ignore it.
This summer though? It started to sting, started to force itself to surface and urge Bran to acknowledge it. It had been Meera who'd planted the seed that the feelings were mutual and so Bran had tried his turn at flirting- all summer- but it had appeared that Jojen hadn't gotten the hint at all.
Until he started kissing Bran that is.
"And maybe I need you a little bit." Jojen muttered before sealing their lips together again, this time the kiss anything but innocent.