PART ONE-CHAPTER SIX

"If it makes you happy it doesn't have to make sense to others."

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He was looking for the spear that his father had asked for, but then Theon told him that he had already found it and given it to him. He then went to break his fast and on the way to the Dining Hall, he met Sansa and Bran, who was going to eat too. Rickon came by following them right after and started running ahead to the hall, reminding Robb of his direwolf, Grey Wind.

Robb had actually noticed how all the direwolves that they had brought from the forest the other day surprisingly shared the characteristics of their masters. It should have surprised him, but what Jon said when they found the wolves made him feel all the more superstitious about it.

"There are five pups, one for each of the Stark children, and the direwolf is the sigil of your house. They were meant to have them."

Somehow, Jon's words from that day justified the reasons for the direwolves attachments to their masters- that they were simply meant to have them.

They kept walking toward the hall, and Arya joined them too. They went inside, right on time too meet Jon taking his plate outside. He wanted to ask Jon to sit with them, but then he realised his mother would treat him worse if he did. So he just settled to wishing him a good morning and taking his seat.

They ate their bacon in silence until Prince Joffrey and Princess Rhea walked in, and Robb couldn't help but resist his urge to smile. She caught his eyes with hers and she smiled back at him and nodded. Robb couldn't help but notice that her hair was down, and it looked good that way.

Their conversation from last night was definitely full of surprises and Robb enjoyed it more than he thought he would.

But his little moment of nostalgia was interrupted when Joffrey took Sansa's hand and kissed it. Sansa looked like the girl who got the rose at a tourney; that happy, she was. Joffrey, being the prick that he is, didn't spare her another glance as he walked to the edge of the table.

"Will you be accompanying the hunting party, my Lord?" Joffrey asked, and looked at him with a smug face, and Rhea raised an eyebrow still looking at her food. She then looked at him and offered an assertive glance.

It was as if she knew his irritation and did her best to calm him down. Among the many things they spoke about last night, Joffrey was one of them, and Robb told her he would do his best to get along with him. However, that proved to be very difficult at the moment.

Robb's common sense had won the battle between it and his urge to punch the Crown Prince's face. He still couldn't believe that Joffrey and his siblings are actually siblings, considering how different they are from each other. From what he had seen of the little Princess and Prince, Myrcella and Tommen were happy little children and Rhea was..well, Rhea.

"Of course Your Highness. I am yes. Hoping to shoot a boar or two straight in the eye. But I suppose Theon would do better at that. He's always been good with the bow. I prefer the sword better." he said, and swallowed his food. Rhea gave him a small smile, and Robb knew he did well.

"Of course, your hostage. Or ward, as you call it. He's good with a bow, eh?" He said.

He's my friend and brother you idiot. But what would you know of such bonds?

Rhea then took it upon herself to steer the conversation and looked to his sisters.

"Sansa, Arya I was wondering if you two would join me for a walk later on. How does that sound?" she said, and Robb realised that this was her part in accepting his family. He felt Happy about the fact that she was able to go along with them.

Sansa accepted with a happy smile on her face, and Arya just nodded, her eyes never flicking from the plate.

Sooner, as all the Stark children, the Princess and the Prince were done with their food, Joffrey decided to be an arse again. He turned to Rhea.

"Your betrothed isn't sure if he can shoot a boar, sweet sister. But I know I will. If I get lucky, I might be able to get one for you and my beloved Sansa." And then he walked away.

And I'll shoot your head and put you on my bedside table. Straight in the eye. Prick.

Sansa had excused herself and Rhea entertained herself with watching Bran and Rickon fight until they ran off too, Arya in tow. And then, it was just Robb and her.

"About Joffrey, and what he said.." she started, but Robb didn't want to be pitied. Most of all by his betrothed, whom he would prefer looks at him as her hero.

Aye, a great way to go for that.

He kept looking at his plate, and he never came out of his little anger fest until he felt her hand on his. It was small and warm, and warm wasn't something Robb was used to.

But he was willing to be.

"Remember, actions speak louder than words. That's all you need to know." She then smiled, and Robb couldn't help it.

He smiled back, and held the back of her hand to his lips, and let her hand go, when she said, "I'm sure your poor sister expects a Princess to be on time for a walk that the Princess herself suggested. So I will have to leave. We have a lot of time to hold hands." She laughed, and Robb realised that his irritation had died in seconds.

And then, the pressure dawned on him.

He had to shoot a boar. Or a rabbit. Something.

Just the girl that you would marry expecting you to shoot an animal. No pressure Robb. Just your future wife that you're trying to impress so badly. No pressure.

***

"What do you do when you're at your leisure, Sansa?" She asked, and looked at the girl who was excited beyond her wits. The other girl, on the other hand, Arya Stark, just looked like she would jump off a cliff before she would be seen as a part of a conversation as such.

"I mostly am engaged in needlework, but otherwise I suppose there's nothing more. What about you, Your Highness?" She asked, and she looked at the girl that would be her sister soon enough.

"First of all, please just call me Rhea. I am to be your sister. I don't think you call Arya my lady, now do you?"

"Well, that's because I'm not a perfect lady like you two are." Arya mumbled, and Rhea wanted to laugh so badly at that child's statement.

"To answer your question, I'm mostly in the library reading some book or the other." She said, and then turned to look at Arya and said, "If not, you'd find me stuffing my face with ginger cakes or in the training yard shooting arrows and throwing daggers. Though I'm not so good with the bow, I'll warn you beforehand."

Sansa looked positively surprised, and couldn't have looked any more out of place when Arya and Rhea discussed archery. But then, Arya ran off and Rhea had asked Sansa to show her to her workshop, where she makes her beautiful dresses.

Sansa and Rhea reached the chamber and they went in, the smell of newly cut fabric hitting like a stone wall the second she went in. Her mother and Lady Catelyn were seated there already, and she went into a deep curtsey for her mother-to-be.

"Oh please dear, no need for that. I am to be your good mother now." Catelyn said and smiled, though it didn't reach her eyes.

For some reason, Catelyn didn't have that wholehearted acceptance that her sons or her daughters had in their eyes. If the Gods are good, she would be able to change it soon enough.

"Mother" she curtly said and nodded with a smile. "Come little dove, I was just admiring your handiwork." She said, calling out to Sansa. Sansa went forward giddily.

Of course mother, I'm still right here.

"We were looking at the dresses and I realised that you have really good fingerwork. You would do well at court child, you will. Such talent would be admired by everyone."

You never told me that, did you mother? Any encouragement would have been nice.

She felt envious of Sansa that one second though. She had gotten into her mother's good graces in just two days, and then there's Rhea herself. Sixteen years and fights an internal battle trying to accept the fact that her mother would never smile at her the way she does at her siblings. And she'd never know why.

"Princess, would you allow me the pleasure of a walk now, if you can?" Lady Catelyn asked, and Rhea said yes. Why wouldn't she?

They walked through the castle to get to the gardens. She noticed a blue rose patch and bent down to take a close look.

"Blue Roses? This is the first time in my entire life that I've seen something like these. They're beautiful." She says, and Lady Catelyn smiles.

"They're called Winter Roses. There's even a song about them, did you know that?" Rhea smiled and said, "I am aware of one about sunflowers, but winter roses I haven't heard."

"I didn't either until I came here to Winterfell." She says, and Rhea felt a sinking feeling at the pit of her stomach. This was to be her home, but she knew close to nothing about it. Gods know how long it would take for her to actually be a woman of the north.

Almost as if she had sensed her nervousness, Lady Catelyn put a hand on her shoulders. And suddenly that expression of unacceptance was gone from her face, replaced with one of concern.

"Dear little girl, I know how scared you would feel about coming here to this place that looks nothing like home. Trust me, I've been there. When I came to Winterfell, Ned helped me in every way possible. Robb would too. You don't have to worry about it."

She couldn't form coherent words to speak, so she smiled. Rhea had never had someone to fret over her with genuine concern other than her own family, especially her father. And when she realised that she'd have to leave them to come to stay in a cold place where she knew no one and was a stranger to everyone, she'd wanted to break.

But now, it just felt right.

In just a few days, Rhea had been able to meet and get to know the Starks, and the love they had for each other was the kind that Rhea wished she received from her mother too, and not just her father. She wished to really be a part of this family, and now that the most reluctant member has accepted her, Rhea knew no bound where her happiness was concerned, and she finally asked, "I would like to see the Godswood if that is possible."

They walked there, and there stood the beautiful tree with the red leaves as bright as day, filled with life. "I've lived here so long, yet I would feel a stranger, here alone. I don't know why. Its because we weren't born northern, I suppose. Do you feel it?"

Rhea felt like she didn't belong here when she saw the tree and stepped near the nearly visible root. Then, Lady Catelyn and she sat there, sharing moments from their lives and just talking, getting to know each other like a mother would her daughter.

Mother and daughter.

In just a short span of time, Catelyn Stark was able to be a mother to her more than her own ever was.

"Can I call you mother?" She asked.

She just smiled back and pulled her close and placed a motherly kiss to her forehead, and symbolically just answered that as a yes.

They then walked out of the Godswood and realised that eve had fallen, though the dark hadn't come yet. They kept walking inside and Rhea felt the most at ease right now. Her father would be glad of the progress she had made.

Only days ago, she argued about not wanting to marry Robb Stark. Now, she can't imagine herself as anything other than a Stark, as a part of their family.

Rhea Stark.

She liked the sound of that. And that's when she realised she liked Robb Stark.

She sat at the little tea table, and sipped at the tea and ate her hearts fill with her evening's snack, and when she walked, hoping to get to the library, she found Myrcella and Tommen running toward her.

"What is it with you two? Running around a little too much, aren't we?" She asked, with a bit of mischief. But the looks on their faces was something Rhea didn't like to see.

"What's wrong, the both of you? Spill. Now." She said, and Myrcella opened her mouth.

"Bran...Bran fell."

***