@meryllfrey continued from here
She could have said his words came out of nowhere, but they hadn’t – not really. They’d been travelling together in months, and and most of that time, he’d been brooding in sullen silence, but in recent days, he had started to ease up .. just a little. She could have sworn she might have even seen something beginning to resemble a smile cross his face after a few ales.
The small room at the inn was spare but clean – nothing compared to the keeps they’d both grown up in, but still, it seemed almost indulgent compared to the ground they’d slept on all the nights prior. They’d fallen into bed, long past any reservations over sharing a bed after the many nights of huddling together by a fire for warmth.
It was impossible not to touch on the small straw-filled mattress, and she shouldn’t have thought anything of it, but after what had happened earlier, it couldn’t be helped. She’d been so stupid – kissing him. She’d only had a few ales, not enough to be completely out of control, only enough for a little courage. He’d been hurting for so long – she’d only wanted to give him something nice, something sweet and enjoyable – to let him forget all that had happened.
He had said so little to her in all the time they’d been travelling together, and now, this. She wasn’t a simpleton, she knew she didn’t mean anything to him – everything about her reminded him of the most terrible event in his life – but perhaps now he was thinking as she had been, wanting a moment’s reprieve from it all, a chance to feel good, to forget, if only for a short time.
She only a hesitated a moment before sitting up and pulling her mud-spattered dress over her head and letting it fall to the floor.
“It is not often that we get to have the things we want, so when an opportunity presents itself, I believe it’s important to seize the moment.”
He wasn’t sure why he’d said it, except that he was drunk and for the first time in a very long time, he was lying in bed, well fed and his mind just foggy enough to forget that every moment he was alive was a moment without those he loved the most. In the woods and on the road, there was nothing to think about but the past: Robb had no army to lead, no plans to make, no one who depended on his company. No one but her. Every night when he closed his eyes, he was sure it would either be the last time--that the Frey girl would kill him in his sleep, finish what her family had started--or else she’d be gone, finally tired of his gloom and simmering rage. He had told himself he did not care much either way, but he knew that the moment he was left alone, the madness would finally creep in and settle to stay.
But something had changed by the time they reached the inn. Perhaps it was the sounds of life downstairs--the laughter and singing of other happy people, the reminder that there was still some life in this dark and dangerous world, even if they were no longer a part of it. Perhaps it was the rare happiness that came when hunger and desperation were no longer a constant companion. Or maybe, just maybe, the storm clouds had begun to pass. For once, with the moonlight streaming in through the grimy window, her face illuminated a pale white, she did not look like her family; Robb did not see her uncles and brothers and grandfather reflected back in her eyes, did not see the blood of their sins on her clean hands.
And he had not stopped thinking about her kiss.
Robb was not sure what he expected, but as Meryl undressed, something heavy settled in his throat, making words quite impossible. Instead, he reached for her hips and lifted her into his lap, wrapping her thighs around his waist. He cupped her cheeks in calloused palms and finally--hours, perhaps, too late--returned her kiss.