#ohhitherekate

[darkwolf76]

A little something for my friend @ohhitherekatie . I hope you have a speedy recovery!

[ocappreciation]

I am thankful to ohhitherekate. She is an amazing author with awesome OCs and completely wonderful person. She puts such work and heart into her stories and characters, and the effort always shines through. She's served as an inspiration to me as an OC fanfic author, and her OC AJ has served as inspiration of the kind of fearless person we all should be!

@ohhitherekate

[darkwolf76]

The Wolves Will Come Again

A Christmas oneshot for one of my loveliest and best friends, @ohhitherekate

Pairing: Robb Stark/Hazelyn Bolton from my story "Defying Demons"

Prompt: "My home is here and so is my heart."

The moon had risen well over the horizon when Hazelyn finally left the hall where they were keeping the wounded, tired and aching. She was no maester or expert healer, but with as many men that needed tending, even with the basic skills she'd learned as a girl and from Luwin, she could make a difference. Also, it lifted the spirits of the soldiers to see her there. Hazelyn refused to be a queen that spent her days sewing samplers and sitting silently next to her husband. 

She opened the door to the bed chambers she shared with Robb and sighed when she saw it empty. Of course it was. And she hadn't seen him at supper either. After cleaning up and changing into a new dress, she went to the kitchens to get a plate of food and then made her way to Riverun's private audience chamber, where Robb had taken to holding his war councils. Sure enough, a guard was standing watch at the redwood door. "Is the King here?" She asked. 

"Yes my queen," the guard answered with a bow, a sympathetic look in his eye. 

She drew in a heaving sigh and thanked him as he opened the door for her. A cool breeze from off the river brushed her face as she stepped into the large chamber. Robb usually kept all the windows open to keep cool in the warmer climate of the Riverlands. Hazelyn was filled with a wistful longing for the brisk cold or the North. The Riverlands may be a part of their kingdom and their blood, but it wasn't home.

A high pitched yip echoed across the room as the massive form of Grey Wind trotted over to her, his yellow eyes glowing in the dim light of low burning candles and his bushy tail wagging. Hazelyn giggled as he brushed up against her legs and bent down to scratch him behind his ears. The songs described him as a beast of legend, and their enemies, as a monster that feasted on human flesh, but to her, he would always be just a giant pup, exactly the same as when she'd held him as newborn and tucked him in that weirwood cradle. If only everything else could be the same. 

Her brow furrowed when her gaze settled on Robb. He was leaning over the map table, still clad in his crown and armor. He hadn't even noticed her enter the room, his blue eyes focused on the map and his brow creased as he tried to conceive his next battle plan. Yet his face was drawn and his whole frame seemed to sagging under the weight of the iron and bronze circlet on his head.

A pain sprung up in Hazelyn's chest. She reached up and removed her own crown, staring at it in disdain. Bronze and iron, it was a delegate counterpart to his,  a thin circle covered with small imitations of weirwood leaves. She had never wanted it; it had only brought strife to her family. She looked back to her husband's. Neither of them had wanted this. They hadn't even reached their twentieth namedays, yet these crowns had almost crushed them.

She set the plate of food in her hand down on the map table with a clunk, then approached her husband. Reaching up, she plucked his crown from his auburn hair. He whipped around, eyes wide and hand automatically shifting to his sword pommel. Hazelyn frowned and raised her brow. "You didn't even take it off after the council was over?"

Robb relaxed, leaning back against the table as he rubbed his brow. "I-I didn't notice I still had it on."

Shaking her head, Hazelyn turned away from him, walking across the room to place their crowns down on a side table. But when she came back, he was scrunched over his map again, arranging the sigil figures as he visualized troop movements. Hazelyn gripped his arms. "Robb, enough of this."

He didn't even look at her as he replied, picking up a lion figure. "Hazel, not now. I have to-"

Feeling a surge of tired frustration, Hazelyn snatched the lion head from his head and threw it across the room. "No! Enough!"

Robb finally gave her his full attention, his eyes wide in surprise. Hazelyn bit her lip, trying to calm herself before she said, "I'm sorry, I didn't mean to be short." She looked up at him, a pleading frown on her face. "But Robb, you've been in here since this afternoon planning with your lords. It's late, and I know you've not eaten since this morning."

Robb crossed his arms defensively. "I've been busy. I have to come with a -"

Hazelyn reached up and laid her fingers over his lips. "Stop," she commanded gently. She then ran her fingers up his jaw and through his messy curls. "You stayed up late last night making war plans, rose before dawn, and have barely eaten. You won't be able to come up with anything without food or sleep."

Robb closed his eyes and exhaled, his face finally creasing with the exhaustion and frustration he'd kept hidden all day. "Hazel, I know, but I don't have time for that." 

Hazelyn furrowed her brow. "As queen, I say you do, and I took away your crown, so no more being king tonight."

Robb opened his eyes and looked down at her. The ghost of a smirk formed on his lips. "I don't see you wearing a crown, and last I checked, you were my queen. If I don't get to be king, you can't go giving out commands as a queen."

Hazelyn drew herself up to her fullest height, not that even that was intimidating, and put her hand on her hip. "You're right. I'm not a queen right now. I'm you're wife, and I'm saying you're going to eat, and then go to bed. I even went to the trouble of getting venison, your favorite food, from the kitchens." She gestured over towards the plate. 

Robb's face softened and he just stared at her a second, in that intense way that still made Hazelyn's stomach flutter. She squirmed, smoothing her skirts and staring at the floor. "Alright," she heard him say softly. She glanced up and watched as he picked up the plate, then sat down. He looked at her with a tired half smile. "Sit with me? I'd like to hear about your day." 

Hazelyn returned it as she nodded. "Of course." She walked around the table to him and began to pull out the chair next to his, but he then yanked her down by the elbow. She let out a little squeal as she fell into his lap. 

"Robb!" She scowled at him with narrowed eyes, but she couldn't admonish him when she heard his low chuckle and saw the twinkle in his eye. He barely laughed or even smiled anymore. He had laughed and smiled all the time in the early months of their marriage. Anything, even teasing at her expense, was worth seeing it again. She giggled, bringing her arms around his neck as his chest continued to shake with laughter. Grey Wind even joined the merriment, lifting his head and giving a few low barks from his resting place beside the hearth. 

"Alright you," she huffed, grabbing a roll off the plate and poffering it to him. 

"Eat."

He grinned, leaning forward to take a bite out of bread in her hand. Hazelyn rolled her eyes, but smiled. As he picked away at his food, she quietly recounted to him some of them men she'd helped treat, how strong and eager they were to recover so they could fight behind the Young Wolf once more. When she mentioned the title his men had given him, he frowned. 

Hazelyn bit her cheek and closed her eyes. Damn, he'd been so at ease.

"They shouldn't want to fight for me. I'm the one responsible for their injuries," he said quietly, staring into the distance, a troubled look in his eye. 

"Don't your dare." Hazelyn framed his face in her hands and made him look at her. "Those men aren't fighting for you. They're fighting beside you. That's why they follow you Robb. They're fighting for their families, their freedom, their home, just as you are."

A bitter frown crossed Robb's face, his previous mirth gone."You mean the home that I let the ironborn invade and burn to the ground? The family that's been slaughtered and is held captive by the Lannisters and Greyjoys?"

Hazelyn cursed the irobron, Theon, the Lannisters, all those that had torn apart his family, that had brought this upon them. "No." She had wanted to wait until the perfect moment to tell him, when he was happy, when she felt more ready, but she knew that moment wouldn't come. He needed to know now. She grabbed his hand from her hip and pressed it over her chest where her heart beat. "This home." She swallowed hard, trying to fight the apprehension and fear down as she guided his hand down to her stomach. "And this family."

Robb's brow furrowed as he looked at her belly in confusion. "What are you talking about?"

Hazelyn sighed and placed her free hand on his chest, taking comfort in the steady beating underneath. "My home is here, and so is my heart," she murmured. She pressed his palm more firmly to her stomach with her other hand. "And our new family is here." 

Robb snapped his head up, staring at her with wide blue eyes. "Wait, are you saying..."

Hazelyn's eyes filled with tears as she nodded, an overwhelming mixture of fear and joy filling her. "I'm with child. Our home isn't a place Robb. It's the people we love most in the world."

Robb let out a breathless laugh as his own eyes started shining. He leaned down, planting a fierce kiss on her lips. When he pulled back, he rested his forehead against hers. "I love you. Do you hear me?" 

Hazelyn gave a shaky laugh, her cheeks wet with tears. "I love you too." Across the room, Grey Wind stood up and threw his head back in a long, victorious howl that all of Riverrun could surely hear. The pack had been beaten, worn down, torn apart. They'd lost friends, family, and home, and still had a long dangerous road ahead, but they now had a new reason to fight. The wolves would come again.

[darkwolf76]

Defying Demons

Hazelyn Bolton just wants to escape the demons of her family's legacy. But on her journey to find freedom, a chance meeting with the heir to Winterfell puts her on a path she never could have imagined. Robb and the Starks might be the key to a happy future, but when deceit, war, and old demons threaten it, will love, courage, and family be enough to hold them together?

ff.net

AO3

Thank you to the marvelous @ohhitherekate for giving me these wonderful manips and the very talented @manipulatiff for making them!

[arrthurpendragon]

I'm so sorry for you loss! I have no questions to ask to distract you but I wanted to reach out and let you know that I'm thinking of you in this hard time and that you are so, so, so appreciated! You are such a huge part of why I joined the OC community and all the support you give/show really means a lot and I can't go on enough about how lucky I am to call you a friend! I'm here if you need to talk! You are an amazing person and I am sorry you are going through this. You are loved.

This message means the world to me.  I might have cried a little when I first read it.  It means a lot that you said such kind things to me.  Thank you!

[darkwolf76]

The AJ Frost Series

A MCU OC Series

A manip of @ohhitherekate 's AJ Frost having a heart to heart with her friend Tony Stark.

Read it here!

[arrthurpendragon]

HAPPY BIRTHDAY! 🎁🎈🎂 Hope your day is easy and fun! Enjoy yourself!

Thank you, friend!  I really appreciate you taking the time to send this. :)

[ocappreciation]

We would like to wish Katie @ohhitherekate a wonderful birthday! Please send them tons of birthday love! 🎂