Eddard Stark, ward of Lord Jon Arryn, woke up to a sharp knocking at the door to his chambers. 

He was rather confused, seeing as it was the middle of the night, and rather concerned by the insistent knocking. He hastened to open the door, rubbing sleep from his eyes, only for a cloaked figure to shoulder her way into the room without so much as a greeting.

"Gods' sake. What are you doing here?" He grumbled, pulling on a shirt and wishing he was back in bed. Winter was nearly here, and even for a Stark, the Eyrie was cold. The embers of the fire burning in the hearth couldn't hold a candle to Winterfell, where the walls themselves radiated heat. "We're supposed to be up before dawn to - " He broke off. 

The girl had taken off her cloak, revealing that she was crying.

"S-sorry, Ned," Robarra Baratheon sniffed, tears running down her beautiful face. "Didn't mean to come to you in such a state. Pathetic I know. But I had to tell someone, I didn't know who else I could - "

"It doesn't matter," He said immediately, all traces of annoyance and sleep gone. "What happened?"

Ned, as a rule, was not good with crying girls - his solemn face and serious manner did not tend to be particularly comforting - but this wasn't just some girl. Robarra was his best friend, and had been since he was eight and she was nine. Now he was fifteen, and she was sixteen, a woman grown and due to be married in a couple of years. Things were supposed to be different between them now, but neither of them seemed to want that. 

She certainly shouldn't be sneaking into his rooms in the middle of the night. Not that anything untoward would happen - Robarra would no doubt laugh at the thought, as girls like her did not do untoward things with plain-faced, second sons whom they had known since childhood - but if anyone saw...

But she never cried. Not when she had arrived at the Eyrie, away from her parents for the first time. Not when she had dropped her favourite doll out of the moon door by mistake. Not when she had fallen down the stairs during a stupid game and broken her arm. Not when that awful Corbray girl called her ugly; she had laughed at that.

She was dauntless, a force of nature, the centre of any room she was in. She had a talent for making friends, despite her hot temper, which flared up fast and fierce but was forgotten just as quickly. She laughed loudly and often, making bawdy jests with the men without flinching, giving just as good as she got.

So why was she crying?

"I've been a fool," His friend sat down on his bed, tucking her leg underneath her and shrugging off her cloak, seemingly uncaring that she only wore a thin (but mercifully long) nightdress. "I - " She broke off with a sob, a hand flying up to cover her mouth. She hates to seem weak.

Ned might not be a natural at comforting women, but knew his friend, and silently sat beside her, putting his arm around her shoulder. Robarra began to cry in earnest then, leaning into him, making his nightshirt wet with tears. Ned was growing more concerned by the minute.

"Did someone hurt you?" He asked, knowing that if anyone had, he would seek them out and make them pay for it without a second thought, despite not being particularly violent.

"N-no," She said. "I just made a stupid mistake and gods, everyone's going to be so angry. It seemed like a good idea at the time. Just a bit of fun," She turned her tear-stained face to look at him. "Remember that handsome man at the tavern, when we went riding two months ago?"

"Man?" Ned raised an amused eyebrow. "He was my age at most. The blacksmith's 'prentice boy who you were sat in the lap of half the night?"

His friend was a notorious flirt, and good at it too. Every visiting knight or lord looked twice at her, at least, and the handsome ones she paid extra attention. She had a very... womanly figure, with thick black hair that fell to her waist, deep blue eyes, and a beautiful face. Like most Baratheons, she was tall for a women, standing at the same height Ned did. At least they were the same now; she had had her growth spurt before he had, and there had been a year or two when she was a head taller.

It didn't stop with lords and knights, though. Whenever she and Ned went out into the Vale - Lord Arryn trusted him to be her escort, although he should've known that Ned would not and could not stop her doing whatever she liked - she danced in taverns with hedge knights and farm boys, charming them with her beauty, bold manner and wicked sense of humour. And that was before they knew she was the daughter of a great house, so highborn it was almost incomprehensible, yet for all she acted it was like she was one of them. Generally she didn't let on that she was the only daughter of Lord Baratheon, just let them think she was some knight's daughter and left it at that.

She often encouraged him to try with the tavern girls too, and he would admit they were much easier to talk to than highborn ladies with their more relaxed manner, and clearly interested in him, sometimes even before they knew who he was. Not that it would go any further than conversation. Ned had no desire to be one of the lordlings who used lowborn women then left them with little more than a bastard and a bad reputation. 

"Was he a blacksmith?" Robarra groaned at his words. "Gods, I'd hoped he was at least a knight,"

"Blacksmith's apprentice. And a knight? I'd be surprised if he was even of age," Ned corrected, smiling as she glared. "He was far from the worst you've encouraged, if that's something. That one you kept buying drinks for in the tavern near Bronzegate was almost certainly a mountain clansman,"

"He made me feel small - that's rare enough in a man. And I liked his smile,"

"He only had half his teeth!'

Robarra let out a rather choked laugh.

"Suppose it could've been worse, then," She mumbled, then sighed. "I lay with that stupid blacksmith boy, Ned. And now it seems I'm having his child,"

Ned could've said many things to that. He could chastise her for losing her maidenhead before marriage... though he figured that if he'd lain with a girl Robarra would only have laughed and congratulated him, so he could hardly judge her for that. Admittedly, though, he couldn't get with child.

"Didn't you think to use moon tea?" He'd judge her for that stupidity instead.

"No," She winced. "I didn't want to ask the maester - he'd have told Jon for sure,"

"I could've got it for you,"

"Jon would be more surprised if you asked," She laughed. He elbowed her in the ribs for that, and she just laughed, though sobered quickly. "Ned, what am I going to do? I've been betrothed to the prince since I was six - Rhaegar's hardly going to take me if I've got a bastard, from a blacksmith no less,"

King Aerys had wanted a bride with Valyrian ancestry for his son, but with no daughters to marry to Rhaegar, Robarra was the next best thing. Her grandmother had been a Targaryen princess, the king's aunt.

"I thought you said Rhaegar was deathly dull and devoid of a sense of humour?"

"He is," She said. "Head in the clouds too. But he's handsome, and the future king. And less than twenty years older than me. I'd take him over one of my father's crusty old bannermen, which is who I'll be passed off onto if I'm disgraced like this,"

Ned was silent for a moment.

"No one has to know," He said eventually. At her skeptical face, he continued. "Well, Jon will have to find out. And maybe a few of the servants. But it doesn't look like you're with child, and probably won't for a while. Then you can contract a mysterious illness and be bedridden for a few months, have the child, recover before you marry the prince and no one will be any the wiser,"

"Won't it get out?" She asked doubtfully, but with a hint of hope. "Servants talk, Ned, and a baby can hardly be hidden. I don't want it sent away," She added quickly, a hint of defensiveness creeping into her tone. "I won't let it be raised a blacksmith's brat,"

He hesitated. But ultimately, there wasn't much that Ned Stark wouldn't do for his closest friend.

"I could say it's mine," He said. "Not by you," He pulled a face as she grinned. "If anyone gets curious as to why there's a baby at the Eyrie, I could say it's my bastard with a servant, something like that. The child could be raised at the Eyrie, become a household knight if it's a boy, or a handmaid if it's a girl. You could even generously offer to foster your old friend's child at the Red Keep, when you're married - "

He broke off as he was caught in a suffocating hug. Robarra was stronger than she looked. Gasping slightly for breath, he hugged her back, glad she was no longer crying.

"Thank you, Ned," His friend said, face buried in his neck, not letting go. "I don't deserve a friend like you,"

"You don't," He agreed, and she laughed, hitting him.

When they told their foster father the next day, Jon had been very displeased with Robarra's predicament and given her some stern words. She had accepted it all as fair enough, merely grateful that he cared too much about her to ruin her future. The baby would remain their secret, along with a few of the Eyrie's most trusted servants. 

"And do you know what Jon said?" She looked amused as she recounted to Ned what had happened, clearly over her fears of the previous night. "He said - why couldn't it really have been Ned's?" 

"Better a second son than a blacksmith, I suppose," He let out a breath of laughter, shaking his head. "Blacksmith's apprentice, sorry,"

"Oh shut up," She glared at him, a hint of the Baratheon temper he had experienced in full plenty of times, although only a couple of occasions directed at him. 

It was agreed that Ned would claim the child as his bastard he had gotten on one of the young serving maids - who went along with the ruse with good humour, and would take care of the babe as though it were her own - to give Robarra a good reason for paying it attention.

As far as everyone else was concerned, as soon as she started to show, Lady Robarra had contracted a serious and contagious illness and must be kept in isolation from everyone for a few months. It helped that a few weeks after she went into confinement, most of the household descended from the Eyrie to the Gates of the Moon for the oncoming winter and she had a bit more freedom to walk around the castle.

Ned stayed with her, of course; she had threatened that she'd jump from the moon door out of sheer boredom if he left.

It was eerie up here, with most of the servants and guards gone. The wind and snow howled around the Eyrie like a wild thing, reminding him of winter storms at Winterfell. This high up, it was almost as cold as it would be in the North. 

Soon, however, the wind was drowned out as Robarra screamed and swore in her birthing bed.

Ned had intended to wait outside the room but Robarra had yelled for him to come to her side. Despite the disapproval of the elderly midwife - who, with her glower, doubtless thought it was him that got the child on her - he allowed his friend to squeeze the life out of his hand, as he tried not to focus on how bloody the whole business of birthing was. Never had he thought women went through something this painful; it was worse than the few men he had seen die in skirmishes with the mountain clansmen.

But the baby was born healthy and squalling, with bright red skin, huge blue eyes and a thick head of black hair, like her mother. Roberta named her Mya Stone, though grumbled that she should rightly be called Baratheon and no one should question otherwise. If only.

His friend was allowed a scant day with her baby, before the child was bundled up and handed to the serving maid, Jula, to hold as they all went down the mountain.

"I'll take good care of her, milady," The girl bobbed a curtsey. "And never let her forget who her mother is when you're off and married to the prince,"

"Thank you," She looked to be swallowing a lump in her throat. "I'll see her tonight, though. When we get to the bottom of the damned mountain,"

"Of course," Jula nodded, though they all knew that that may be unlikely. 

Robarra likely wouldn't see much of her daughter at all, after they left the Eyrie. 

*

I don't know what it is about ASOIAF genderbend that I love so much. At this point I'm just doing it for myself; I'm not sure who needs or wants this haha, but it was fun to write. Anyway, thanks for reading (if there are any readers) and please let me know any suggestions, criticisms or comments that you have!