WINTER IS COMING. part ii: i’d trade all my tomorrows (for just one yesterday)
(a WS!Robb mix in two parts for this series.
LISTEN HERE. || LISTEN TO PART ONE.)
Jon doesn’t think this is what Arya had in mind, when she named the Soldier a ghost. But that’s what he is, or was—Robb Stark’s ghost, in fact, but twisted and broken to serve someone else’s own ends, and it makes him feel sick to his stomach, that his brother had died and was denied even that much, had everything taken from him and was turned into a weapon. It makes him feel guilty, too, because this is Robb, this is his brother.
His brother who tried to kill him, shot Arya twice, and is responsible for about a dozen murders in the past five or so years, if not more. His brother who can’t remember Rodrik Cassel’s name, barely remembers their own lord father, yet knows at least eight different ways to kill someone and make it look like an accident. His brother who has an arm made out of Valyrian steel and whatever else makes it move as smooth as an organic limb.
His brother who sometimes can’t look him or their siblings or Theon in the eyes, like now. It used to be that he’d go nearly unresponsive when he remembered something the Winter Soldier had done, but those days are few and far between now, reserved for some of the bloodier memories. Now Robb just avoids their gazes and tries to talk about something else entirely, if he can’t avoid them outright.
"Robb," Jon says loudly, when Robb hurries past him into the crowded corridor for the fourth time in a day. His brother freezes, then turns to him, eyes flicking upward briefly before darting back down. "Meet me in my study, I have a few plans I want you to look over for me."
He hears someone mutter, just a little too loudly behind him, “As well as stick his head into a lion’s jaws and trust it not to bite it off.” He makes a note to himself—Suggs might like Eastwatch, considering it’s as far away from them as he can get.
Robb hesitates a moment.
"Please?" Jon asks, and feels a little guilty for it, so he adds, "If you don’t want to—"
"I want to," Robb finally says, looking up to meet his gaze. There’s a bitter twist to the upwards twitch of his mouth, as he continues, "Though I can’t promise I’ll be of much help."
"You’ll never know if you don’t try," Jon tells him, giving him a smile and hoping that he doesn’t sound too desperate, or angry—not at Robb, never at Robb when he’s like this, but at Suggs and at the people who took his brother and shattered him, put him back together in the form of a sword to wield. He can’t help but wonder, though—if the Winter Soldier was Robb Stark’s ghost, what does that make Robb now?
Robb smiles, then. Really smiles, not just lets his mouth twitch upwards a little. “I’ll be there,” he says, and Jon thinks that he has his answer now: a ghost, learning how to live again.