Chapter Text
Jon Snow didn’t spend much time around Catelyn Tully Stark when she was with child. He may have been young but he was as sharp as a blade’s edge, Maester Luwin said so himself, and he noticed how often Lady Catelyn turned her face away when he entered a room like it pained her to look at him and while she had never paid him much mind, swollen with child and with Lord Stark absent, she was unforgiving and short of temper.
It was just best if he didn’t bother her.
Still, Jon was excited. He loved his family, his lord father and his brother the most, and now he was getting someone new to love. He desperately hoped that it would be a boy, a brother who he could teach to run and fight and hold a sword or bow and arrow.
A day before the baby was born, his father returned with his men and a boy of ten in tow but the moment he got off his horse, Maester Luwin rushed him to Lady Catelyn’s room murmuring about complications, his chains clinking as they made haste.
He didn’t see his father or siblings for a two days and a night after and while he heard whispers that the babe was a girl, he didn’t know for sure. Harwin kept saying that the babe wailed as much as his cousin did so it must be a boy.
Jon knew that Robb would have told him if they had a new brother or a new sister, but after the birth, Lady Catelyn was confined to her chambers and she kept both her husband and her children close to her as much as she could. The maester said their presence would help her heal faster.
The septa took charge of him while Lady Catelyn was bedridden, but with his lord father and siblings always in the room with Lady Catelyn and the septa turning up her nose whenever she saw him, Jon felt rather lonely. He only saw Robb when they broke fast together and as well as at supper but with Septa Mordane’s strict eye on them, they didn’t have the opportunity to talk to each other much.
He was told the truth a few days later. It wasn’t a boy in the end. It was a girl. He had another little sister named for their great grandmother, and he found that he was a little less happy to hear it. He loved Sansa true; Father had always said that sisters were precious things, but truth be told, Sansa wasn’t much fun to be around. Even at two she didn’t like getting dirty or listening to Old Nan’s scarier stories. He wanted another sibling who was brave, and strong, and exciting to play with, like Robb.
When his lord father told him that he had a new sister he thought he knew what to expect. He expected another sister like Sansa; another Tully coloured girl who knew how to perform her courtesies before she could talk. He foresaw a sweet, mild-mannered, rosy-cheeked babe who would take after her mother like Robb did in looks and like Sansa did in looks and deed.
He was never more surprised to have been wrong. Arya Stark was nothing like anyone expected her to be.
To begin with her face was long not round, her hair was dark not auburn, and her eyes were colourless not blue. Father remarked that her eyes would turn into a cool grey the older she grew. Grey like his. Grey like their father’s. The Stark grey. And she was loud. Exceedingly loud. For three moons his father and Lady Catelyn tried to quiet her in her crib but to no avail. He overheard Maester Luwin telling them to let her wail until she could wail no longer. It didn’t sound like a good plan to him, but the maester had to know what he was talking about.
It was one night when Arya screamed and screamed and everyone left her there that Jon decided to go see her. He had not spent much time around his little sister; her mother fretted about her constantly and always kept her near and Jon tried to avoid Lady Catelyn more and more these days. Instead when he wasn’t at lessons he spent his time with Robb and Theon Greyjoy, his father’s new ward. Robb liked Theon well enough but Jon didn’t like him and he was sure Theon felt the same, but it was better than being around Lady Catelyn while she was nursing.
The noise still persisted after six moon’s turns and it soon became unbearable.
He’d never held Arya before. Father had said he was too young and Snow he may be, Ned Stark was his father and Jon listened to his word like it was law. He felt wicked as he crept into her room. She was crying and no one else was doing anything about it. I shall only look at her, he told himself.
And he did at first. Arya twitched in her cradle, wrapped in grey furs and her chubby arms flailed about. Her cries were even more piercing up close. Maybe she is scared, he thought. I get scared sometimes too and even I’m not that little. She stretched her hands towards him and he moved before he could even think of it, feeling inexplicably drawn to her. He stood on his tip-toes to lift her out of her crib and hold her, but the moment he did, he felt like the greatest fool. He almost put her back instantly. What if I dropped her? Catelyn Stark wouldn’t want to set eyes on him again and even Father would be wroth, but an astounding thing happened. She quieted. She gazed up at him with watery eyes, that were grey in truth, like his, and her hands grabbed at his face.
“You’re safe little sister,” he whispered. “See, nothing can hurt you.”
Arya giggled and started patting his cheeks. He held her tighter, scared still that he might drop her and she took the opportunity to start pressing her mouth at the side of his face.
Saliva dripped from her mouth and smeared on his cheek as she gave him what he supposed were her version of kisses. It was slobbery and messy and it made him laugh. She stopped eventually, her mouth widening into a yawn.
He held her close until her eyes closed and she slept. He rested her back into her crib as gently as he could.
When he got back to his chambers, Robb was still asleep. Her crawled under the furs, careful not to wake his brother, and smiled as he closed his eyes. He thought he knew what love was; Robb certainly loved him, his lord father was attentive, Sansa was as courteous as she could be to her bastard half-brother, but never before had he felt so adored.
She was precious, this little sister of his – Arya, more precious than any boy could ever have been and before he drifted off into sleep, he vowed he would do anything to protect her and make her happy.