Archive of Our Own ^beta

Chapter Text

Winterfell, 2018

“It’s getting late,” Robb says, nudging Theon with his shoulder. The two of them have been holed up in Robb’s room the whole day, and while it really is getting late, Robb’s words are code for ‘ My mother is going to come up here any minute now and tell you to go home’. They’ve gone through this routine thousands of times by now.

“I know,” Theon acknowledges, but makes no move to get up from Robb’s bed. He’ll take all the minutes he can get before having to go home.

Theon lives just next door to the Starks, but the atmosphere there is so different it sometimes feels like a whole new planet. Catelyn and Eddard Stark have six children living under their roof, and that’s just asking for chaos— petty fights and arguments, stuff lying around everywhere, silence being a rare thing. But they all love each other more than anything else.

And there isn’t much love to be found at the Greyjoys these days.

Theon is certain his father never liked him, but at least he used to be good at pretending. But ever since Theon’s mother got sick, Balon Greyjoy has given his youngest child nothing except bruises and words that heal slower than the bruises. 

Robb is the only person Theon has told about it, but even he doesn’t know everything. Theon can’t tell him— it was already hard enough to convince Robb not to tell his parents about Balon slapping Theon around when he’s drunk. 

“Are you going to be okay?” Robb asks, like he always does, making Theon roll his eyes. Robb worries too much in his opinion.

“I always am,” Theon responds with a smirk, getting off the bed when he hears Catelyn coming up the stairs. She always stares at them a beat too long when she finds them lying in bed together. Robb says it’s because she cleans all the sheets in the house and Theon (allegedly) never takes his shoes off.

Robb snorts, shaking his head. “Not running out of jokes yet, I see.”

Theon’s spared from saying it’s not a joke— that would be a lie that neither one of them would ever buy— when Catelyn opens the door. She never knocks when Theon’s over. Theon thinks it might be because she doesn’t trust him and is trying to bust him for something. Though it is fair enough, considering Theon is pretty sure the vodka bottle he once had with him is still stored in the Starks’ freezer.

“Boys, it’s getting late,” she starts. She says almost the exact same thing every time. Theon has half a mind to finish it for her, but Catelyn looks so tired right now that Theon thinks her usual stern look could actually pass off as terrifying. “Bran and Rickon are already in bed, and it’s a school night. I think it’s time for Theon to go home. He can come back tomorrow.”

“Oh, I will,” Theon promises, a broad smile on his face. “What would you do without me, right?”

“Enjoy the peace and silence,” Catelyn says blankly. Then, she sighs. “We’ll see you tomorrow, Theon. Say hello to your mother for me. I hope she’s feeling better.”

Theon feels his smile drop at the mention of his mother. He loves her, he really does, but he doesn’t like talking about her. So, he nods, and then leaves without another word.

Theon stands in front of the closed door of his mother’s room, debating whether to go in or not. He should, he knows that. It would make her happy to see him. While his father has always preferred Theon’s older siblings, he has always been his mother’s baby. She can hardly get out of bed these days, but she’s always asking for Theon. 

Theon hates himself for it, but he usually does not open the door. Ever since she got sick, Theon has had trouble looking at her. It makes him feel vulnerable and weak. He doesn’t like being vulnerable or weak. And as long as his father is around, he can’t afford to be either. 

If Asha hadn’t left Winterfell, she would call Theon selfish and cowardly. Theon would call her a hypocrite and tell her that at least he didn’t leave her completely to travel around the world. Then Asha would probably punch him.

But she would be right. Their mother might never get better, Theon is aware of that, and still he can’t bring himself to go and talk to her.

Sighing, Theon steps away from the door and goes to his own room. 

He’s not at all surprised to see that Robb has found the time to send him multiple messages. Most of them are reminders to tell him if something goes wrong with his dad. Sometimes Theon hates having such a good person as his best friend. 

It’s technically not a lie when Theon texts Robb back, saying everything is fine. Robb only said to tell him if something happens with Theon’s dad, but he was already asleep when Theon came home.

Robb sends him back a thumbs up emoji, but neither one of them are complete idiots. Robb knows that Theon is a liar, even if he tries to find loopholes, just like Theon knows that Robb is too nice and caring to actually let it go.

Theon has no idea how he ended up with someone like Robb Stark as his best friend, but he wouldn’t trade him for the world. Not that he’d ever say anything like that out loud.

He has a feeling Robb knows, anyway.

Theon doesn’t know what kind of awful things he did in his past life to deserve this kind of torment, but it must have been bad. Because no good person gets seated next to Kyra and Jon for geography class.

Well, Kyra is fine. More than fine, actually. She’s pretty and she laughs at Theon’s stupid jokes. And if the way she lets her touch linger at times is any indication, she definitely wants to sleep with Theon.

So, yeah, just Kyra would be fine. But it’s when Jon, Robb’s rather annoying half-brother, gets thrown into the mix that things get complicated. If Theon thinks of Jon as annoying, then Jon thinks of Theon as a brash and self-centered jerk who doesn’t care about anyone’s feelings.

That on top of whatever savior complex Jon has going on isn’t exactly going to make it easy to keep the focus on Kyra. Jon would either laugh at whatever Theon would try to pass as flirting or tell Kyra she’s stupid for actually buying it.

So, for the first twenty minutes of the class, Theon is actually quiet. Well, quiet as in he doesn’t say anything. He’s tapping his fingers against the desk because Jon really is too easy to annoy. The constant noise makes him bristle, but not enough to actually do something about it, which is two wins for Theon.

But eventually, Theon has to admit that the way Kyra keeps smiling at him is so much more interesting than the constant sound of his fingers connecting with the desk. 

“Hey,” he says to her with a wide smile, turning sideways on his chair so his back is turned on Jon. “I really like your hair today,” he tells her, resisting the urge to roll his eyes at his own words. But they make Kyra blush and twirl the hair between her fingers. They also make Jon snort behind him, but Theon is determined to ignore him.

“Thanks,” she tells him. “I’m trying out a new conditioner.”

“Yeah?” Theon asks, faking interest. He really doesn't care about Kyra changing her hair products. It’s kind of sweet, though, if she honestly thinks he does. “It’s working really well for you.”

Sweet as she may be, Kyra is also the kind of girl that doesn’t like to beat around the bush for too long. And now that she’s leaning in closer, batting her eyelashes at him, Theon is very grateful for that. “Listen, Theon… I was wondering if you’d like to, I don’t know, hang around some time?”

“I’d love to,” Theon tells her. “Are you free tomorrow?”

Kyra nods excitedly. “Yeah. Would you pick me up from my place at… I don’t know, six?”

“That sounds perfect,” Jon’s voice comes from behind Theon before he can answer. It makes Kyra’s eyes widen in surprise and Theon closes his own in frustration. “He could take his motorcycle. Right, Theon?”

Theon could kill Jon right now.

“Really?” Kyra asks, sounding too amazed for Theon’s liking. “You have a motorcycle?”

No. Theon definitely does not have a motorcycle and Jon very well knows that. Theon turns to glare at him. He’s pretty sure he’s never seen Jon look so satisfied as he does right now— which shouldn’t be true because Jon actually has a girlfriend who is not only hot but has to tolerate him every day.

“Yes,” Theon says through clenched teeth as he turns back to Kyra. He might have to cancel the whole date in favor of ruining Jon’s life. “But how about we take my car, yeah? I’d hate to put you in any danger.”

By the time the geography class finally ends, Robb is already waiting for Theon in the hallway. It’s a good thing, too, because Theon has a few things to say to him.

“Your brother sucks,” Theon tells him, fully aware that Jon is moving in their direction, in hearing distance. And, okay, maybe it’s just that one thing he had to say.

Robb rolls his eyes, but there’s a slight smirk on his face. He’s been in the middle of this war more than once. “What’d he do now?”

“Nothing,” Jon answers for him, coming to stand with them. His usual bored tone and expressions are back in place. “She’s still going out with you. Stop complaining.”

Robb raises his eyebrows at that. He waves a quick bye to Jon when he turns around to leave, but otherwise keeps his eyes on Theon. “Who?”

“Dude,” Theon starts, lightening up, momentarily forgetting about Jon and his offenses. “Kyra. She’s been staring at me for a while, so I figured why not give it a chance.”

“Well, Kyra is–”

“Hot? Yeah, I know.”

“ Nice , Theon. She’s nice,” Robb sighs. “Will you at least try to be gentle when you break her heart?”

“I can try,” Theon promises, though he highly doubts he’ll leave Kyra with any lasting wounds. He’s really not the kind of guy to stay long enough to be really missed. “Enough about me. What about you?”

“What about me?” Robb asks. He’s either actually confused or just playing dumb because he doesn’t want to talk about it. Not that it matters, because they will talk about it.

“You and Jeyne,” Theon reminds him. “You still like her, right?”

Robb has had a crush on Jeyne Westerling for a while. Theon thinks it's pathetically clear that she likes him as well, but for some reason Robb still hasn’t made any move on her. Not that Theon minds that, really. It’s rather fun to see the way they fumble through their interactions. Theon might be an awful friend.

“Yeah.”

“Why don’t you ask her out, then?” Theon asks. He understands that Robb is more of a romantic than he is, but forgetting his own possible amusement from the situation, Theon thinks the whole dancing around Jeyne thing is just getting ridiculous at this point. “You know she would say yes.”

“Maybe,” Robb agrees. “But… I don’t know if it’s worth it. I mean, we’ll start our last year of high school soon, and then we’re going to college. I know Jeyne’s plans don’t fit mine, so if we got together now, we’d probably break up in a year or so. I do like her, but I just don’t think it’ll be worth the heartbreak,” he explains.

And Theon definitely has to be an awful friend, because Robb’s words actually make him kind of happy.

Chapter Text

Winterfell, 2018

“I’m thinking about asking Ros out,” Theon tells Robb. He meant it to be a casual comment, but Robb pauses the movie they were in the middle of watching.

Theon knows Robb isn’t really the right audience for this. If he’d told Patrek Mallister, he would have just laughed and told Theon to go for it. But Robb is Theon’s best friend. He tells him… almost everything. Even if Robb takes these things— love and feelings and whatnot— more seriously. Not as seriously as his sister, Sansa, thankfully. That would be too much to take.

“What about Kyra?” Robb asks. “You’re done with her already?”

He really must think that Kyra is nice, because while he never has necessarily liked it, Robb does know how Theon is with girls. This is the first time he sounds judgemental and accusing about it. 

“Well, yeah,” Theon says. There is nothing else to say. It makes him sound like an asshole, but it’s the truth. He is done with Kyra. He never was seeking a relationship with her. She wasn’t that special. “So?”

“So?” Robb repeats. “So, you led her on, took her out, and now that she slept with you, you’re just blowing her off.” 

Theon scoffs. He doesn’t like to argue with Robb, but he never led Kyra on. With his reputation, if she thought there was something more to it, that’s on her. “Is she paying you for this defense? What’s your problem, Stark?”

Robb sighs. “I just… I mean, is it always going to be like this with you? Is there no one you’d change for?”

Is there no one you’d change for?

Theon doesn’t like how the question actually leaves him speechless for once. Is there someone?

He looks at Robb. He looks like he regrets the conversation a little. It’s fine— Theon thinks they won’t come back to it. Which is partly why he answers so honestly. “I think there is.”

“Could it be Ros?” Robb asks him.

Ros is beautiful. She doesn’t take any shit from anyone. She’s smart, she’s funny. Ros is perfect in every way— definitely worth changing for.

“No.”

Jeyne came over before their classes to say hi to Robb. It happens pretty often and it usually turns into a dreadfully boring conversation about homework or upcoming exams— during which Theon gets ignored more often than not. 

Except now Jeyne keeps throwing subtle looks into Theon’s direction— and since she probably still hopes that Robb will ask her out, it’s got nothing to do with his eyes or how he styled his hair.

When she realizes that Theon has noticed her looking, she clears her throat a little before speaking. “There are some pretty colorful things written about you in the girls bathroom stalls, Theon,” she informs, her voice more awkward than when she was talking to Robb.

Theon is sure that Robb’s having some trouble choosing between laughing his ass off or telling Theon that he’s an asshole and should have listened to him when he told him to be gentle with Kyra. 

Theon, though, just rolls his eyes. There’s plenty of others with nothing good to say about him. After a while you stop caring and start playing into the role. “I didn’t think she’d be so sensitive.”

Jeyne raises her eyebrows. “I don’t know who she is,” she starts, surprising Theon a bit with how stern she sounds. She’s always been more shy and quiet than anything else. “But you should be more careful about how you talk, Theon. Girls aren’t your playthings.”

She must have surprised herself as well, because she leaves quickly after that, her cheeks stained a light pink.

He scoffs, trying to hide how Jeyne’s words impacted him. Theon hasn’t been called out like that— or at all, really, if he doesn’t count Robb— since Asha left. He doesn’t like the feeling of embarrassment it leaves with him. “She has no idea what she’s talking about,” he tells Robb. “You dodged a bullet, honestly, not asking her out.”

“Sure,” Robb says slowly. “You just lowered my chances of her saying yes, anyway.”

Theon smirks. “If anything I’m making you look better.”

Robb rolls his eyes, but there’s a small smile forming on his lips as he nudges Theon’s shoulder. “That’s not much when you could make a pig look like the perfect gentleman.”

“See, if the girls just realized that,” Theon says, though of course it’s better for him when they don’t. “Want to bet that Ros will say yes even if she sees what Kyra’s writing about me?”

Robb is the last one of his family to come home, and no one is surprised that Theon is with him. It really is an almost daily occurrence.

Catelyn, even though often annoyed by Theon’s presence, has made a habit of setting an extra seat at the table for him. Sometimes she smiles when Theon remembers not to curse in front of Bran or Rickon. Then there’s the sympathy she has for Theon’s mother, making her more gentle with him at times, though Theon never knows what to do with that.

Theon isn’t always sure where he stands with Eddard Stark. Over the years he has learnt that Ned isn’t as stern and cold as he seems at first. There seems to be nothing that he wouldn’t do for his kids, even if he can be strict and lecture them a lot. There have been times when he has reprimanded Theon for the stupid things he keeps doing, the same way he has done for his own kids. 

Robb has five siblings. They’re all annoying in their own ways— Jon is Jon, Sansa is a lovestruck teenage girl, Arya and Bran can hardly sit down for a second and Rickon yells and cries if he doesn’t get his way— but Theon likes going over to the Starks and seeing them. They act like real siblings in a real family.

“Robb!” Sansa calls out before Robb and Theon can escape upstairs. She’s standing in the middle of their living room with her mom. Theon guesses they’re in the middle of an argument— and based on Sansa’s face, it’s not going her way. “Won’t you tell mum that it’s not fair I can’t bring Joffrey over when you have friends here all the time?”

Theon knows Sansa won’t get any help from Robb. She made a mistake in mentioning Joffrey. Robb hates Joffrey. Well, everyone except Sansa does. Plus Robb doesn’t exactly have friends, plural, over. Just Theon. “Sorry, Sansa, but I couldn’t bring girls over when I was your age–”

“Still don’t,” Theon whispers, earning a light swat on his ribs. 

“So, actually it’s fair that you can’t bring… Joffrey,” Robb continues. That’s about the only way he could put it without cursing out Joffrey, which probably would result in Sansa writing mean things about him in her diary and not talking to him for a few weeks. “Why don’t you invite Jeyne or Beth?”

But Sansa just huffs and turns back to Catelyn, trying to convince her despite all the odds being against her.

“I can’t wait for this phase to be over,” Robb says as soon as they are in his room. “Arya says that Sansa’s writing about her wedding with Joffrey in her diary.”

“Maybe you guys really should have him over,” Theon suggests. “He’d run right off and never talk to her again.”

“That would be great,” Robb agrees. “Except then Sansa would never talk to us again.”

Theon shrugs. “Would that be so bad?”

He gets a pillow thrown at him for that one.

“Are you staying the night?” Robb asks a few hours later. Catelyn is pretty strict when it comes to school nights, but it’s Friday, and she usually lets Theon stay on weekends.

“Yeah,” Theon says without even having to think about it. His father won’t care, and his mother would not see him anyway— though that’s more his fault. “But I swear I’ll jump straight out of the window if you rope me into joining Rickon’s bedtime story again.”

Robb smirks. “Come on,” he says, teasingly swatting Theon on the shoulder. “Be glad I let you be the knight. With that attitude your next role is a princess.”

“As if anyone would buy that,” Theon scoffs, though in the back of his mind he can hear his father’s voice, saying something about using too much products on his hair or his hands being too soft. And his father is harder to ignore when he can’t physically walk away from him. “Stick Jon in a dress, though, and no one will be the wiser.”

Robb shakes his head, trying to act like he isn’t amused. It really is a mystery to everyone, Theon himself included, how Robb can laugh at his jokes so easily. “Just don’t let Jon hear you say that.”

Theon scoffs. He isn’t really worried about Jon of all people. Sure, in all honesty, Jon probably could deliver a good punch to Theon’s face. He definitely wants to. Actually, Theon is pretty sure he has heard Jon say the words ‘I want to punch you in the face,’ to him a time or two. But the day that Theon is actually worried, or gods forbid, scared of Jon, is the day he kills himself out of pure shame.

In the end of it, Theon and Robb are spared from entertaining Rickon before bed. They spend the rest of the evening playing video games, every now and then receiving a text message from Catelyn, telling them to be more quiet. She must be getting more lenient, though, because not once does she barge in through the door.

It’s a good day. Nothing special, but good.

Theon loiters around at the Starks’ for half the Saturday. He’d have no problem staying until Sunday, like he’s done often enough, but to his surprise he gets a message from his father, telling him to come home. It’s unusual. Usually Balon doesn’t know– or care–  if Theon’s around or not, unless he’s standing right in front of him.

But the surprise that comes with the text is nothing compared to the one Theon gets when he actually walks through the door to his home.

Because it’s full of cardboard boxes that his father is filling up with their stuff. 

“What’s going on?” Theon demands to know.

“We’re moving,” Balon says without even bothering to turn and look at Theon. He says it so simply , like it’s no big deal. To him it isn’t. He’s hated Winterfell for as long as Theon can remember.

“What?” Theon asks, somehow hoping that he misheard the words and the boxes are there for some other perfectly reasonable thing. But of course he knows that’s stupid. Why would things go his way, right? “Where?”

“Pyke.”

“Pyke?” Theon echoes. Pyke is where his father is from. All of Theon’s uncles live there. Asha also has an apartment there for when she isn’t traveling. Pyke is also really far away from Winterfell. Theon would ask why the hell didn’t he hear about this sooner, but something else comes to his mind. Something more important. “I don’t think it’s a good idea for mum to travel that far.”

Balon stills. For a second he actually looks regretful. But it’s gone so quickly Theon has to remind himself that regret is probably something his father is incapable of.  “She isn’t coming with us.” 

Theon swears the whole world stops for a moment as he tries to process what he just heard. “What do you mean she isn’t coming with us? You can’t just leave her here alone. She’s sick, she’ll–”

“Yet you never go and see her,” Balon interrupts him. He sure does know how to cut where it hurts. “She will have a nurse looking after her. Go pack up. If you aren’t done by the time the moving company gets here, the rest of it will stay here.”

And that’s that. Theon knows that no matter how much he’d beg, he isn’t getting anything more out of his father.

They’re moving. They’re leaving Winterfell.

Theon is leaving Robb.