Friends in Love (Not with each Other) starter for @benjen-mormont
It had been some time since that Alarra had arrived in King's Landing. It has been much different compared to Winterfell, as she hadn't really been outside of her home. Though in the time being here, she had quite the someone... as she felt as if she had fallen in love. Love has always been complicated, though it wasn't... not now. But it was the feeling of butterflies in her your stomach... she felt it more often now that she was here... Though it was kept a secret, for now... well beside Benjen... Though even with the feeling always surrounding her, she felt overwhelmed with all the things happening in this castle. Though she was not one to sing as often, she felt that singing was the only way to calm her down. She was dressed in an elegant purple gown, her hair braided in the back, she knew that she was still at court no matter what. Though her rumors of her and Addam were quickly spreading. Alarra had her head high, and confident. That's what her mother always said. Alarra was heading over to see Benjen, a friend, a brother to her. He was close to her elder brother as well. The girl knew that her brother would get the news soon, as she bit her lip. She had to make sure it didn't get to her family yet... she wanted to make sure to be able to present Addam to them. She hurried over to Benjen's chambers, she knew this was an emergency... though it wasn't a real one. It was an emergency to her. Alarra knocked on his door, she was quite impatient. "Benjen let me in! This is important!" her foot tapped against the stone floor as she felt like her little sister Maise... "Benjen!"
Benjen loathed the Red Keep in winter.
The North had its chill, sharp and true, but the cold that clung to these stone walls was a creeping, damp thing that gnawed at bone and spirit alike. And here, surrounded by lords and ladies who bore him no love—be it for old wounds, debts unpaid, or past follies—the season’s harshness was all the more bitter.
The Red Keep was crowded with people who hated him for one reason or another; former lovers left scorned, men who claimed he owed them favors, and lords nursing grudges sharper than their swords. And then there was Margaery. His first love and supposed betrothed. The constant reminder that no matter how deep one buried the past, it always clawed its way back.
A sharp rap came at his door, impatient and urgent. Then another. And yet again.
“Benjen! Let me in! This is important!”
Alarra. Of course it was Alarra.
He didn’t bother getting up at first. The fire flickered low, casting shadows that danced with his restless thoughts. Finally, he dragged himself to the door, the weight of both winter and his life pressing down on him. He cracked it open just enough to show his face and said with dry finality, “No. I’m dead.”
But the door swung wide anyway, and Alarra slipped in like a storm he was too tired to fight.
Benjen closed the door behind her with a sigh so long it could have carried him back to Winterfell if he let it. He turned to face her. She looked radiant and stressed, always a dangerous combination. That purple gown meant she’d been at court. The way she bit her lip meant she was hiding something. The glow meant it was something ridiculous, and probably romantic.
May the Old Gods save him.
“What do you want, Alarra?” he said, voice flat but not unkind. “And before you start, if it’s another poetic metaphor about love, butterflies, or Addam Velaryon, I will jump out that window.”
He crossed his arms, giving her the look he used when she was twelve and tried to ride a wild horse just to prove a point. She hadn’t grown out of that phase. She’d just gotten better dresses.
“Speak fast, Lady Trouble. I’ve already accepted I’m dead today, but I can hold off the funeral if you insist.”
Though it was about Addam, that wasn't the important part. Nearly everyone knew about her courtship with Addam... but her father? He was blindsided. She walked passed him ands at down in the empty seat. There was something worrying her, even annoying her. She was on the edge of her seat, as she looked at Benjen. "I'm sorry, to barge in... even more I won't talk about Addam... well not yet..." She answered as she looked at him. "My father doesn't know about the courting. He's so oblivious to it... and he now wants me to be married to possibly someone..." She looked at Benjen, "And no you are not dead, because at this point we can be dead together." She gave a cheeky smile, though her face was full of sarcasm. Alarra looked at her hands... as she started to immediately switching the topic. "How is everything with Margaery?" There was nothing more than just asking a friend about their relationship, instead of continuing to talk about her own. She had met Margaery once, she was a sweet and kind soul. A quite the perfect match for this wild bear. The songbird looked at Benjen, she knew that he was in love, and she wasn't going to question him too much about it. But something was making her happy, seeing how happy and in love Benjen was. "I'm not here to kill you, or keep you dead... I just want to know how you are doing... how your life is... not my life... If we could just talk like adults... about the people we are in love with..." there was slight smirk appearing on her face. Though she was trying to be a brat about it... she wanted to be mature for once. Just have a mature conversation between the two of them... which was going to be a first...
Benjen leaned back in the armchair with the ease of a man who could make himself at home anywhere, a dangerous gift when you made a habit of slipping into other people’s messes. He let his gaze rest on her for a moment, taking in that restless, twitchy energy she always had when she was pretending not to care about something she very much did care about.
“Alright,” he said at last, a lazy grin curling at the corner of his mouth. “I’ll talk to your father.” Of course he would. Parents had always liked him, trusted him, even. He had that warm, dependable smile that made him look like the sort of man who’d keep their children safe, rather than lead them into trouble. Never mind that half the children in Winterfell had spent their youth trailing after him like ducklings—Lyarra, Edrick, Alarra among them—and never mind that he’d once been directly responsible for Alarra steering a sled into a snowbank so hard she came up looking like she’d been rolled in flour.
The irony wasn’t just rich, it was decadent. Since when was she an adult? He’d taught her how to climb up a tree yesterday. Yesterday! And now she wanted him to have serious, grown-up talks about love and marriage? Seven help him. What was next? Lyarra abandoning Winterfell to become a pirate queen? Edrick waking up one morning with both a sense of duty and a wife? The image almost made him snort aloud.
Still, he knew how this would go. He might laugh, might tease, but in the end he’d walk straight to her father, speak with quiet assurance, and leave the man nodding along as if the whole courting business were under control.
“I’m not having adult conversations with someone who fought me for a meat pie last week,” Benjen said, tying his hair back. “And we’re not discussing Marg—Lady Sunderland. Ever.”
She continue to look at him as she saw him think. She knew he thought for a while, that’s who Benjen was. And the words came out. He was going to do it for him.
Alarra didn’t know how to thank him anymore. She couldn’t even imagine how if she told her father would anything would go in this world. She got to her knees and thanked him. “Thank you. Thank you Thank you, Thank you,”
She got up and she sat back down in her chair. She had flatten her dress before doing so. As she started to relax. Her heartbeat was lowered as she took a deep breath.
Alarra knew that Benjen didn’t see her as a grown up. Not yet. She was still young and that made sense. But she was surely going to get married at some point. Leave Winterfell and leave all the childhood memories she had created with Benjen behind.
She almost felt a tear roll down her cheek, feeling life moving too fast. But she held her tear back as she smiled at Benjen. She saw him frown when she had mentioned Lady Margery. Not a frown but a change of tone of voice.
As Alarra sighed, “Just a little bit? She’s very pretty…” There was a hesitation in her voice wanting to be careful.
The Lady looked at Benjen, as she rolled his eyes, “I was hungry okay… I just wanted… never mind. I won’t argue with you over food again okay?” She was going try just a little bit to get something out of him.
“I just felt distant… we haven’t talked… about serious stuff in a little bit… So I was just wondering, we don’t have too… but I do miss how we use to be… just teasing and nothing serious…” she gave a soft sigh… as she looked at him softly.
She had matured.. she didn’t realize that herself, but she had. Everything was much different in the once young and youthful Alarra. Had grown up.. into a Lady.
