"There are times I near forget you are a man now, when it seems so short a time since you were running about my skirts. And then there are moments when I feel as if I am looking at Ned, and I am reminded how grown you are."
Robb had never thought that any of this could happen. In his mind - a child's mind - he had expected that everything would stay as it was. That his father would be Lord of Winterfell for years and years to come, that Robb would get to grow and learn from him, learn everything he could. He would marry and have children of his own that his father and mother would hold on their knees.
In his mind, there had been years and years of the mostly peaceful life he had known before, eventually, they would die the way they were supposed to, old and happy and at peace, and he would be ready to be Lord of Winterfell and lead the North.
He had never expected this. Had never wanted this.
And as much as he needed to play at being grown up, at being a king, sometimes when it was only the two of them, Robb needed to put down the mask.
"Mother..."
Please, can we not just go back home?
But he couldn't, they couldn't, and all he could do was to hug his mother close to him and hope for just a smidgen of the comfort she had unfailingly given him as a child.










