Chapter Text
ONE
“Sansa!”, a beautiful brunette came running at her direction the moment that she set foot on the elegantly decorated hotel that serves as the venue of the reunion party of their high school class.
“Margaery!”, excitedly she called back. It’s been years since she saw her. About five years to be exact and that was before Marge decided to go to Europe to have a change of surrounding.
“Oh Sansa my dear how are you? It’s been a long time since we neither talk nor saw each other.” Marge gushed.
“Yeah, it’s been a long time since I heard from you.”, she can’t help but feel happy despite the earlier sense of anxiety that she felt before arriving. She almost considered backing out of the plan to attend the reunion because of a particular person that she would rather not see again for the rest of her life if not for the insistence of Marge. She coaxed her with a promise of a whole night of juicy stories about her escapades in London & other European countries that she so love to see but do not have the time & energy to explore.
“Let’s go inside and have something to eat then we shall talk! I’m so excited to see you & most of our friends. I saw some of them already.” Margaery all but dragged her inside the venue in her haste to make up for the time that they were not with each other.
Since they were kids they were inseparable having grown in the same neighbourhood. They attended the same primary & high schools only parting ways when they reached college since Margaery wanted to pursue a degree in Europe while she attended the prestigious King’s Landing University.
Most of the people inside took notice of their arrival & greeted them that reminded her of their status as two of the most popular students in school back in their high school days. Not only that they are very pretty but they were also very intelligent & very artistic. So it was not really a surprise that they were hailed as “campus royalties” not only by their batch mates but also by the whole school in general.
Soon they got engrossed with talking about some of the most important things that happened with their lives prior the years they spent not seeing each other & some of the things that they could recall that happened during their high school years & the people that they knew & mattered to them.
One particular person crossed Sansa’s mind…a lanky & quite boy who did something that most other people would not do especially for someone who is not even a friend.
“Please Joffrey you’re hurting me!”, Sansa pleaded as her boyfriend lay a cruel hand on her after displeasing him. She didn't want to deepen their intimate relationship because she felt she is not yet ready for that but obviously Joffrey has other ideas.
“Are you just stringing me around then?”, Joffrey hisses, not a bit happy about her unwillingness to engaged in a more “interesting” activity as he put it.
“Why aren’t you as cool as the other jock’s girlfriends? You’re so prude! Why am I even sticking up with the likes of you?”, he sneered at her face and gripped her arm painfully making her wince & cry out in pain.
“Joff please…”, she whimpered, but the bastard just looked like he was enjoying her pain.
“Why I even bother asking for your permission if it looks like forcing you is more fun?,” he regarded her so maliciously that she felt every hair on her body stand on end. He then proceeded on kissing her roughly while pinning her to the seat of his car, his hands roam every inch of her body.
She knew beyond this point that asking for mercy will not do her any good so she decided against hope to fight her way out of Joffrey’s car & run but he caught her ankle as she slithered out of the car and yanked hard. In a matter of seconds he had his hands around her neck - choking her.
“He’s going to kill me! No he’s going to rape me if I passed out or worse kill me then rape me after I’m dead! Gods! Why did I ever fool myself into loving this monster?”, Sansa inwardly screamed. She was beyond terrified of what will become of her at the hands of her so called “loving” & “charming” boyfriend.
She fought hard but she knew that she was losing the battle; Joffrey was too strong for her to fight. She felt she was about to lose consciousness when suddenly Joffrey’s hands were ripped from her neck. Vicious shouting can be heard from Joffrey & that someone who ripped him off of her. Then the sound of punches & kicks being thrown grunts & cries of pain filled the air. She struggled to see who came into her rescue & saw someone she didn’t really expect to see. Towering & literally fuming over a beaten Joffrey is Sandor Clegane the class loner who never interacts nor talks to anyone in their class most especially to her – she came to think that he despises her, either merely tolerating her presence or outright ignoring her. He’s always like that since he transferred in to their school when they are in the 8th grade. At first she tried to be friendly with him even though his scars were pretty horrific to look at since they covered most of the right side of his face extending from his cheek to his hair line but her friendly advances was met by outright rebuff until she stopped altogether – hurt by the way he ignore her or looked at her so coldly.
“Lay a hand on her again and I’ll fucking beat you to death!”, Sandor snarls, so savagely that she could swear that she could hear Joffrey whimper.
“Do you hear me cunt!”, Sandor yelled raining brutal kicks at Joffrey’s side.
“Yes! Yes! I promise I won’t do that again! Please!”, sobbed Joffrey who was beyond himself with the pain from his injuries brought by the beating he suffered. Blood was pouring from his nose & mouth. The skin in his face & body that received bludgeoning is painful to look at.
“Enough with your stupid whimpering & get out of my sight you pathetic son of a bitch!”, fury could be seen at Sandor’s eyes when he kicked Joffrey one last time before the later struggled to run away from him. It was really a miracle that the bastard still has the energy to run away like that after receiving a thorough beating.
He just stood there fuming for at least a minute, visibly fighting hard to compose himself & put on the cold mask of indifference he always wore but Sansa could swear that she glimpsed a foreign emotion peeked out from behind his cold & stormy grey eyes when he looked at her as she cower behind Joffrey’s car. Was that pity, sympathy, compassion? But it was gone as soon as she saw it; in less than 5 seconds all that is left in those grey orbs is a fury so intense that she literally flinched away from him. She immediately tore her eyes away from those angry eyes of his & nervously opened her mouth to thank him.
“T – thank you….! Y - You’re so brave…..”
“Brave!”, He snarled.
“I don’t have to be brave to beat the living shit out of that brat! That’s what you pretty, posh girls get when you ignore the psychopathic urges of your “perfect” boyfriends!” “Get out of here before that bastard decided to hunt you down to have his revenge on you. Go on now, run to your friends little bird.”
She has nothing to say to that so she limped away from that place & struggled to find Margaery.