Chapter Text
"Hello, Jon."
"Oh, hello, Sansa."
Jon blushes and looks to the ground. Sansa isn't angry with him for not looking at her. He's probably just not used to others addressing him. Anyway, he always sits there alone at break time and eats his lunch. Sometimes he has a book with him. The other boys tease him about it, especially Theon, sometimes Robb too. Sansa is sure that Robb doesn't mean any harm. Nevertheless, she will scold him the next time he does it. With Theon, on the other hand, she is sure that he really means it badly and he is so mean that scolding him makes no sense at all. Sansa thinks Robb should rather make friends with Jon. Anyway, she has decided to befriend Jon because he is sweet. She knows this because she found a little bird that had fallen out of its nest. Sansa didn't know what to do, so Jon came and picked it up straight away and took it to their teacher Mr Luwin. Sadly, the little bird had already died and Sansa cried and Jon cried too and then he dug a little hole under the tree and they buried the little bird. Sansa put a flower on the grave and Jon held her hand and since then she knows that he is very sweet and her best friend. Well, she doesn't know that last bit so much as she's decided it. But it's going to work out alright. She just has to tell Jon.
"Do you want to swap your lunch with me?" asks Sansa, sitting down with Jon.
"Oh. I don't know. I mean, I only have brown bread with cheese on it."
"My mum says brown bread is healthy."
"Yeah, mine says that too. But it tastes like cheese feet."
Sansa giggles.
"Cheese feet with cheese."
Jon smiles. It looks kind of funny, like he doesn't know exactly how to do it. But Sansa is determined to make him smile many more times.
"Oh!" Jon says suddenly. "I have an apple too."
He rummages in his backpack and unearths the fruit.
"Nice." says Sansa. "But we already have to trade similar things for each other."
"What do you mean?"
"You have to trade fruit for fruit." says Sansa, putting her own bread away to pull another box out of her bag.
"My mum made lemon cakes!" she says, beaming.
Jon hesitates.
"And you really want to share those with me?"
"Of course, silly," says Sansa.
Jon smiles again and grabs one of the little cakes.
"I'm sure they're not healthy at all." he says.
"But delicious."
Sansa takes a little cake too and they bite into them at the same time.
"You're my best friend." says Sansa with her mouth full.
"Really?" asks Jon, blushing again.
"Of course, silly." says Sansa again.
Jon swallows the cake.
"You're my best friend too."
"Hey!" someone shouts across the schoolyard at that moment and Sansa immediately recognises Theon's voice. "Look at Jon the crybaby. He's hanging out with girls now. Probably because he's one himself."
"Well wait, I'll show him!" says Sansa, jumping up.
"Wait!" says Jon, "It doesn't work like that. Boys need to protect girls, not the other way around."
"Who says?"
"Well, everyone."
"You really are a dummy. Best friends protect each other."
"But..."
"Ah!" Sansa interrupts him, raising her index finger. She looks very stern and very grown up and Jon has to laugh.
"You're right. I'm a dummy."
"I'm glad we agree."
"Jon, the girl! Jon, the girl!" shouts Theon across the schoolyard.
"But you're my best dummy. I mean my best friend." says Sansa. "And that's why I'm going to show Theon now."
"What are you going to do?"
"Theon thinks it's embarrassing to be a girl. How embarrassing will it be when a girl beats him up."
"No, don't do that. What if he hurts you?"
"He can't hit me. I'm a girl after all."
While Jon is still trying to understand this logic, Sansa has already started running. Theon faces her with a grin. And Sansa just runs into him. Theon is so taken aback that he just falls over.
"Ow! Are you crazy?"
He jumps back up. And grabs Sansa's hair.
"Ow! Let go of me! That hurts!" cries Sansa.
It doesn't hurt for long, though, because the next moment Theon lets go again because he has to defend himself against two attackers at once, Robb defending his little sister and Jon looking after his best friend. It takes Mr Luwin and Ms Mordane a full ten minutes to separate the little brawlers.
***
Catelyn looks up from her work as her children enter the kitchen.
"Robb. Sansa. Why on earth are you so late?"
"We had detention," Sansa says proudly.
Robb grins widely, showing off a brand new gap in his teeth.
"Sansa beat up Theon."
Catelyn can't for the life of her think of how to respond to that.
*************************
"Ned, what are Robb and Theon doing in the garage for so long?"
"Theon? Oh, no, I don't think it's Theon."
"What?"
"It's another fellow. He's a bit shorter and has dark hair."
"Ned, that's that Snow lout!"
Ned frowns.
"Huh? Oh, yes, you may be right."
"But this is the boy Sansa got detention for."
"Sansa got detention?" asks Ned in surprise, and Catelyn is close to despair.
"How could you leave Robb alone with that fiend?"
"He actually seemed decent to me. A little serious maybe but otherwise..."
Catelyn storms out of the house without waiting for Ned's sentence to end. She has no idea what kind of devilry this Jon is trying to rope Robb into, but she's going to put a stop to it. As she approaches the garage, she hears their voices.
"And you're sure your mum won't mind?" asks Jon.
Catelyn pauses.
"Well, sure. If she needs new ones, she can just buy some," Robb says.
"But maybe we should buy our own instead."
Catelyn frowns. What are they both talking about?
"We don't have enough pocket money for that. That's why we're doing this in the first place."
"Then we should at least help her with the dishes or something. In return."
Catelyn still has no idea what the boys are actually talking about, but she wavers. This doesn't sound like the spoiled little brat she imagined.
"All right." sighs Robb, and the next moment the hammering starts.
Catelyn flinches in shock. And then she takes a cautious step forward to peer into the garage. A smile steals onto her lips at the picture that presents itself. Jon has a brush in his hand and is painting large block letters with black paint. In his concentration, he unconsciously sticks out the tip of his tongue a little and looks like a real little artist. Robb, meanwhile, is busy nailing boards together. Catelyn takes a step back without being noticed by Robb and Jon. And then she makes her way back to the house to get the lemons the boys need for their lemonade stand.
**************
Catelyn unpacks the picnic basket and sets everything out on the table. The school is organising the picnic as a whole, but Catelyn has taken it upon herself to provide proper catering.
"Why is Jon so sad?" little Arya suddenly asks her mother.
"What makes you think Jon is sad?" asks Catelyn back.
Arya just shrugs her shoulders. Catelyn looks around searchingly until she finds little Jon. And she immediately sees that Arya is right. Jon is standing indecisively near the stand where fathers and sons can sign up for the competition in sack races, egg races and other such nonsense. Catelyn is almost in tears at the sight.
"Ned, can I talk to you for a moment?"
***
Jon is standing in line at the table where there is lemonade. He looks to the side as he is plucked by the arm. It is Sansa's and Robb's little sister.
"Are you my big brother?" she asks.
Jon is confused for a moment. And then he shakes his head sadly.
"No, Robb is your big brother."
The girl frowns. She looks like she's thinking very hard.
"But Mum said..."
Suddenly she looks startled and interrupts herself.
"What did she say?" asks Jon.
Arya shakes her head.
"It's a secret." she whispers.
"Don't you like to tell me? Secrets are so much more fun when you share them with someone."
Arya's eyes light up.
"Mummy said Daddy should do some of those games with you."
She points her little finger at the utensils ready for the father-son competition. Jon smiles, grabs Arya's hand and steps up to the table.
"May we borrow this?" asks Jon, pointing to half a lemon.
The woman pouring the lemonade smiles and hands Jon the fruit. Jon looks around searchingly and then pulls Arya with him to another table where some children are sitting and painting. She moves her little legs as fast as she can to keep up. Jon lifts her up and sits her on the bench. Then he sits down next to her, grabs a piece of paper and does something with the lemon. Arya watches him intently.
"Here." says Jon and hands Arya the paper. "Hold it tight and hold it in the sun so it gets warm. Promise?"
"Yes." says Arya happily, even though she has no idea why.
***
"Mum! Mum! Look!"
Arya excitedly holds out a piece of paper to her mother. On it, in a slightly brownish colour, is a laughing face.
"What have you got there, sweetheart?"
"Jon gave me the sheet and it was all blank but then the face came, all by itself!" exclaims Arya.
Catelyn smiles. "And do you know what it says at the bottom?"
Arya looks at her sheet again, intently examining the letters drawn on it in the same secret ink as the face. A secret for the best little sister in the world.
******************
Jon paces nervously up and down the veranda, muttering to himself.
"...we've known each other a long time..."
Sansa peers out the door.
"...really like you a lot...
Apparently Jon is unaware that she is there, that she can see and hear him.
"...actually wanted to ask your father first, but..."
Jon stops abruptly.
"Argh!"
He smacks his forehead.
"Moron! Why would she want an idiot like you already."
Sansa's eyes widen in surprise. Jon, meanwhile, drops onto the bench and stares at the moon. Sansa steps out of the door and cautiously approaches Jon.
"Jon." she says softly.
Nevertheless, Jon starts up in surprise.
"Sansa!"
"Don't you think our wedding cake should have a lemon icing?" asks Sansa, winking at Jon.
Now Jon's eyes widen in surprise. He looks at Sansa in disbelief for a moment, before laughing out loud. And then he rushes towards her, wraps her in his arms and twirls her around. After a while he puts Sansa back on her feet and kisses her on the nose.
"Then you're really saying yes?" he asks incredulously.
Sansa smiles. "Of course, silly."