@gotwomennoonewants continued from here [x]
“Forgive me. I didn’t mean to make you cry. If you’d rather--” Before Robb could change the topic, however, the girl had moved on, elaborated on her homeland, and he fell silent. He listened quietly, looking away only when they were brought two plates of food, and he slipped a coin into the hand of the aproned young girl. He’d also “bought” Tethar for the next two hours, though he did not like that phrase (and had refused to use it while making the “transaction”--all of it seeming so very impersonal) and he had insisted she would be keeping her clothes on while they were together. He was not sure why he had come back, but since he’d stumbled into the establishment the day before--and when his army was still stuck in this shit hole of a city--he could not stop thinking about her, about how young she’d been, how nice her smile was. She should not have had to stay in a place like this.
“You’re an Ironborn?” He raised an eyebrow. He had heard much about the Iron Islands, having grown up by Theon’s side, but he’d tried not think about that place--or that man--since his betrayal. “Everyone here wants something, and they want it for themselves,” he agreed. “There are no friends in King’s Landing. Yes, well, that did not stop your prince from trying to return--no matter the cost.” He bit down the sharp tone at once; it was not her doing, and not her fault. “It’s alright. You’re free to speak as you like. But I’m afraid I don’t understand. I never have. How can the Iron Islands be a community, as you call it, if it does not know acceptance? Forgiveness? When my father and my sisters were sent away to the capital, no one in the North would have thought to call them traitors, to call them changed--when they’d come back, they would have been welcomed in like family. If you’re truly part of a world, does it not live inside you, no matter where you are?”