Chapter Text
2014
The north was a strange place, Theon thought. Then again, any place so far away from the sea would feel odd to any ironborn.
He tried not to think about the circumstances that had brought him and Asha to the north. Their father beat up their mother so badly she had been in a coma for weeks now, and he broke three of Theon’s ribs and Asha’s nose while they had tried to defend their mother. None of their uncles in the islands were fit to take in the two teens, so they’d gone up north with their uncle Rodrick who worked as a geography teacher at Winterfell University.
Asha had been working as a prep cook in the islands and found a job quickly. Theon had a year left of college, and his uncle had insisted he finished and then he could decide what to do. He convinced Rodrick to let him get at least a part time job and that’s how he found himself as assistant to the Sports & Health manager of Winterfell Club.
Rodrik Cassel was a no-nonsense man. He’d told Theon he looked like he thought of himself as a troublemaker and he would not deal with all of that. He also told Theon he admired that he was trying to make the best out of a bad situation and he was sure he was a resilient young man. In the end, Rodrik hired him because he was the only one who hadn’t lied about being good at sports.
Rodrick told him about how the Starks had owned the club for over a hundred years and all of them were frequent users of the club and he would see the older children and their cousin Jon around a lot of the time. Apparently they were pretty familiar with the oldest members of the staff and were usually friendly with the newer faces. Robb and Jon were seventeen like him, Sansa was fourteen and Arya twelve. Bran wasn’t around so much since a hit and run had left him in a wheelchair, but he came with the rest of the family during the weekends with five year old Rickon in tow.
He wasn’t happy with having to deal with so many rich people at once, but he liked working with Rodrik and the Starks were just as he had described them. Ned Stark had a very commanding presence but he was polite to everyone he interacted with. Robb had taken a liking to him almost immediately despite Jon’s complaints and Arya was a witty little shit. The only one he hadn’t met was Sansa since her training hours clashed with his schedule and she had left the following week to a tournament in Maidenpool.
It was a bit ironic he hadn’t met the girl despite having seen about a dozen pictures of her from her competitions, her collection of trophies on display for everyone to see and the many comments from staff members that varied between how proud they were of her and how much they cared for her.
Theon wouldn’t actually meet Sansa Stark until a month later.
He’d seen her after she’d returned with another trophy to brag about. He first saw her training with Jory Cassel, Rodrik’s nephew and Tennis manager of the club. He had no excuse to interrupt the session, so he settled for finally seeing her in her element. The second time he saw Sansa she had been running to reach the clubhouse. She’d come straight from school and was frantically trying to reach her location and just muttered an “Excuse me!” before she passed him and all he could see was her fiery red hair. He was curious so he went by the clubhouse and discovered that she had High Valyrian lessons every Monday and Wednesday before training. The third time he saw Sansa she was with the rest of her family at the club’s restaurant. He saw her suddenly stand up and throw her napkin at the table and storm out, leaving an angry Catelyn Stark yelling at her to return.
He walked into Jory’s office later that day and found her on the couch he had there reading a book. She looked up from whatever she was reading and asked with a sullen voice, “Are my parents looking for me?”
Theon couldn’t hide his surprise, “Um, no. I- I was looking for Jory.”
“Oh, he hasn’t come inside since I’ve been here.”
“Got it. Can you tell him Theon is looking for him if you see him?”
She nodded and returned to her book and he let himself out.
He would properly meet Sansa two days later. He'd been playing some one-on-one basketball games with Robb when he saw her walk towards the court.
“Robb!” They stopped the game and he turned to look at his sister, “Could you give me a ride home?”
Robb groaned, “Why don’t you get a ride with Jeyne like always?”
“Jeyne is sick, she didn’t even come to class in the morning.”
“Ugh, Sansa, can’t you see I’m busy?,” he looked between Theon and Sansa and something seemed to click, “Have you met Theon, by the way?”
She gave him a small handwave as she replied, “Hi.”
“Come on, Sans. We’re in the middle of a game!”
“I saw, and he’s kicking your ass.” Robb gasped at the betrayal and Theon muffled a snort. “Pleaseeeee. I have math tutoring and I have to be home before six. Rooooobb!” She shook her leg petulantly but Robb seemed unmoved.
“Why don’t you walk?”
“It’s like a thirty-minute walk! I just finished training and like I just said, I have to be home by six or else mom will get mad at me. Please!”
“It’s not that long!”
She breathed hard and glared at her brother. “Fine, I’ll walk. I guess mom won’t care if I fail math after I’ve been raped and kidnapped!” and with that she stormed out of the court leaving a guilty looking Robb.
“Do you really think something can happen to her?”
“Those woods can get pretty lonely, man.”
Robb groaned again as he muttered a “Fuck!” and walked to his bag to grab a towel and dry his sweat. “Do you want a ride home?”
“Sure.” He’d finished for the day so he didn’t have to make a run to his locker and started walking besides Robb.
“Fuck, why is the parking lot on the other side of this place.”
They reached Robb’s car, an old Range Rover his father had passed onto him, and they looked around for Sansa, in case she hadn’t left yet. A security guard told them she’d exited the club around 10 minutes ago and so, Robb started driving down the route his sister was taking.
It took them some extra five minutes before they spotted her, walking to the side of the road and Robb decided to honk the horn to alert her. She jumped a little and turned around to see the car that had made a sound and visibly relaxed when she saw it was Robb. He closed the distance and she got inside the car and groaned but said a quick thank you.
After five minutes she answered a call, “Yes mom, I’m almost there… No, Robb is giving me a ride… I don’t know, hold on.” “Robb, are you having dinner at home?” “Yeah.” “Yes, but he’s giving a ride to someone first… Yes, I’ll be there in like 5 minutes oh my God mom… Okay bye.”
“Mr. Luwin chose today of all days to get there earlier.”
“Geez, sorry sis.”
The car ride was silent after that. Sansa practically jumped out of the car and ran inside the house after Robb parked, waving at Theon as she opened the door.
“Don’t mind her. Her math grades have been slipping and our mom’s not being very understanding.”
Sansa was distracted, which was a big problem for her during her math lessons. Luwin looked at her with a mixture of fondness and pity every time she messed up an exercise, which was pretty often. They went over and over each exercise but it was futile because her mind kept going back to Theon playing basketball. She’d thought he was cute after he’d barged into Jory’s office and looked like a deer in headlights when he noticed her but that was probably not an usual expression found in him. No, the easygoing smirk she saw him make as he played with Robb was more of the norm and it didn’t hurt that it made him look sexy as hell.
She didn’t know if it was the novelty of having a new boy her age around and not the same faces she had seen hundreds of times while growing up, but she was excited about where this would lead.
She saw much more of Theon after that first time. She didn’t know if it was coincidence or she was simply paying more attention, but every time she saw him he grinned at her in a way that made her curse her easily blushing cheeks, but other than that her routine stayed the same.
Apart from her trying to remember part of Theon’s schedule to make sure she got a glimpse of him. One harmless crush couldn’t hurt, could it?
She noticed Theon was trying to make more conversation around her and not just when she was with Robb or Arya, but she tried to not put much thought into it since he was pretty friendly with everyone and flirted away with every girl he saw.
Beth Cassel’s 16th birthday was coming up and Sansa knew from previous parties, she usually invited some of the staff members. Sansa didn’t want to be too obvious and ask Beth to invite Theon and she knew if she asked Robb if he was coming then her brother would realize she had a crush on his friend.
She needn’t have worried. The first thing she saw when she arrived at the Cassel’s with Robb and Jon was Theon holding a beer while talking to a group of people. She decided to look for Beth and Jeyne first, who were sitting on the patio with drinks of their own. They went to the kitchen to grab something for Sansa and she bumped into Theon, who was grabbing another drink.
“Hey! You’re here!”
“Yes, of course, I’ve been friends with Beth for years.”
“Duh! What are you having?”
“I’ll have a rum and coke. With more coke than rum, please, I’m a bit of a lightweight.”
“Coming right up.” He looked for the ingredients and mixed her drink with ease, adding just a splash of rum and a lemon wedge on the border of the cup. She took it and thanked him but he quickly went back to the party. She tried to not let it sting and returned to her own group.
The girls found an easy conversation and mingled with the other guests. Some Sansa knew from all her years interacting with the same people, but Beth’s other friends from her school and her theater group were pretty easygoing and she didn’t dwell on thoughts of Theon.
After some time, someone suggested they played truth or dare, so they all sat in a circle outside. She was glad she’d chosen to wear jeans with her flowery tank top and not a skirt, otherwise sitting in the grass would’ve been a problem.
Beth was the birthday girl, so she was the first one to spin the bottle. It landed on Sansa.
“Sansa, truth or dare?”
“Truth”
“Okay, I’ll go easy. What was the last lie you told?”
She grimaced a little, “I told Domeric Bolton I couldn’t go on a date with him because I was on my period.” Only Beth and Jeyne here knew who she was talking about so she didn’t feel that bad about injuring Domeric’s pride.
Several rounds went by before it was her turn again. She picked dare.
“You’ll have to take a shot while doing a handstand!”
Someone ran to the kitchen and came back with a shot of vodka. She moved towards one of the spots without plants and tucked her shirt inside her pants. She warmed up a little but didn’t wait any longer and just did the handstand. Years of gymnastics in primary school made it easy, but she wasn’t sure how taking a shot like this would be. Jeyne approached her quickly and poured the liquor in her mouth with as much delicacy as she could. She could feel her mouth and throat burning and tried to swallow as much as she could before going back to normal. She started coughing as soon as she was standing again and felt her chest burning now too, but could hear the cheers from the group after having succeeded in her dare. The same guy who’d picked the dare handed her a glass of water and she glared at him a bit before taking it and went back to her place in the circle.
More rounds went by before it was Sansa’s turn again.
“Go and find whoever you think is hottest here and give them a kiss.”
She gaped at the group and knew right away her entire face was blushing. She looked at Jeyne and Beth who were giggling like crazy and gasped at their betrayal.
“Wait! Someone has to follow her and see that she actually kisses someone.”
Fuck .
She stood up and made her way inside the house, with the girl who had picked the dare behind her. She looked around and saw Jon and Robb, but no sign of Theon. She felt her heartbeat in her ears and started panting when she found him. He was sitting on the floor next to an electricity outlet where his phone was charging. He was lazily texting and hadn’t noticed Sansa standing in the corridor until she carefully approached him and sat next to him.
“Last time I saw you you were upside down.”
“You saw that?”
“Just me. Robb and Jon didn’t see you doing shots.”
“It was just one.” She giggled a little but felt the familiar heat in her cheeks once more, “We’re playing truth or dare,” she saw him nodding and took a deep breath before continuing, “my dare this time is to kiss someone.” She left out the part about having to kiss whoever she thought was hottest because she couldn’t bear to make this moment even more embarrassing for her.
“And you picked me?”
“I– just do me this favor, please. I have someone checking if whether I did it or not”
He looked behind her and saw a girl standing a few meters away from them to give them some sort of privacy but nodded encouragingly when she noticed he was looking at her.
She pouted a bit and looked at him shyly. He didn’t reply so she just closed the distance between them and closed her eyes. She really didn’t want to see if Theon was rejecting her or not. She leaned forward and felt Theon’s face right in front of her. She gave him a quick peck and backed away. She opened her eyes and, almost immediately, Theon slid his hands under her head to bring her closer to him again. This time she felt the pressure of Theon’s lips on hers and followed his lead, mimicking what he was doing. His stubble was brushing against her chin a little, but she decided she liked it. She moved one of her hands to his cheek and felt one of his hands sliding down to her waist to push her even closer. She gasped a little, and Theon took this chance to slide his tongue inside her mouth. The sensation was odd at first, but she found herself enjoying it as the kiss went on.
She wondered if Theon could feel her heart drumming inside her chest.
They eventually broke the kiss to catch their breaths. Theon had his usual smug grin on his face but it was accompanied by a lovely flush on his cheeks and remnants of her lipstick on his lips, which all made Sansa feel as smug as he looked.
She heard someone clearing her throat and she turned to see the dare girl with a very amused look on her face. She gave Theon a small smile and whispered a “Thank you.”
“Anytime, Stark.”
They returned to the group and Beth immediately jumped and asked, “Did she do it?”
The girl nodded and laughed as she replied, “Oh yes. I think they’d still be there making out if I hadn’t been there! It was a guy with a leather jacket and a striped sweater.”
Beth and Jeyne gasped and yelled at the same time, “Theon???”
She bit her lip and couldn’t contain her smile as she nodded.
“Oh my God, Sansa! Listen, my father came earlier to tell me we were cutting the cake in a bit and I need to make the rounds, but you will tell us everything later!”
Beth went back inside and left Sansa with Jeyne, who had an expression she couldn’t really interpret. “I didn’t realize you liked Theon.”
That wasn’t really what Sansa was expecting her to say. “I haven’t really told anybody. You know how much Robb would tease me, and he can’t keep a secret.”
Jeyne nodded but didn’t say anything else. There was some tension in the air for some reason, so Sansa just blurted she needed to fix her lipstick and ran to the bathroom.
She decided to mingle with other guests and not long after Beth’s parents showed up with a cake and everyone gathered to sing happy birthday. She found Jeyne and the two of them moved to stand behind Beth and hugged her after they were all done singing. She ate her cake with Robb and Jon and saw Theon winking at her as they left.
She stayed up an extra hour after they got home detailing everything in her diary.
The next two weeks would be a return to routine. She went to school, had her extra lessons and trained and was far too preoccupied with her upcoming tournament in Pentos. It would be her first time traveling across the Narrow Sea and she couldn’t wait to explore the exotic country.
It had been the topic of conversation for the past few days, with her siblings and her cousin expressing how much they wished they could travel with her and her father retelling stories about the few times he had visited the country. Unfortunately her mother didn’t share the excitement and instead bemoaned about the number of school days she would miss and how much her “hobby” was preventing her from focusing on her priorities.
“You’re only fourteen, Sansa. Everyone at fourteen thinks they have everything figured out and I won’t let you spoil other opportunities you might get because you’re too stubborn to listen to advice.”
Sansa stayed quiet for the rest of the dinner and none of her siblings said anything either knowing it was easy their mother redirected her anger towards them.
Theon was about to close for the night when he heard a sound coming from the offices. He could see Rodrik and Jory’s doors where he was and decided to stay there and see if anyone had broken in before doing anything. To his surprise, he saw Sansa leaving Jory’s office with a racket in hand. He was curious to learn why she was here and how she’d gotten in, but decided to follow her first to see what she was planning to do.
He wasn’t shocked when she made her way to the tennis courts. He saw her grab one of the tennis ball machines from the deposit and a basket of tennis balls and stretched a little before setting the machine up and and started hitting balls.
He waited for about ten minutes before making his presence known. “I could denounce you for breaking and entering.”
She gasped dramatically before realizing it was Theon who was talking to her. “It’s not breaking and entering if security lets me in and I have keys, is it?” she replied and continued training.
“It’s close to midnight, Sansa. What are you doing here?”
She didn’t reply for a while, and he could see she was upset from the way she looked. She walked towards the machine and turned it off and Theon made his way to her.
“I had a fight with mom. She’s angry I’m not picking up other extracurriculars that would look on university applications because I’m wasting too much time with tennis,” she scoffed, “as if I couldn’t get into Casterly Rock and King’s Landing University with a sports scholarship.”
She seemed to realize it was odd he was there too, “Wait what are YOU doing here?”
“Eh, Rodrik wasn’t feeling too well and asked me to supervise things until it was time to close. I’m waiting for my sister to give me a ride.”
She nodded, but seemed distracted, “Can you help me pick up these balls?
“Sure.”
She hadn’t gone through all the balls in the basket so it was a quick job between the two of them.
They made their way to Jory’s office, where Sansa produced a key to get inside the space.
“How did you get that?”
“This? Oh Jory gave me a copy some years ago. I keep some things here so he figured it was easier if I could get in and out myself.”
She dropped her racket inside and locked the office again and Theon picked up his bag from where he dropped it before following Sansa. They started wandering around without a destination in mind.
“And how exactly did you get in?”
“I told you, security let me in. They’ve known me for years, so it’s really no trouble at all.”
“Wait, but how did you get here?”
She gave him a semi-guilty look, “I took Robb’s car. Dad taught me how to drive last year in it so I’ve stolen it a few times. There’s barely any traffic at this hour, though! And no policemen! I haven’t gotten caught yet.”
Theon laughed heartily, pleasantly surprised that Sansa Stark had a rebel streak in her.
“Don’t worry, I’ll keep your secret.”
They were near the courts again and the outside lighting was giving the place a dreamy aura he quite liked. He stopped and searched for his camera in his bag and quickly set it up. Sansa hadn’t noticed he’d stopped and kept walking, so he called her name and snapped a picture as she turned around.
“Theon! I wasn’t ready for that!”
“That’s the idea, I wanted this to look natural.”
She came closer again and asked if she could see the camera.
“Oh wow, this is a Leica! I didn’t know you liked photography,” she said with wonder.
“It’s my mom’s old camera,” Sansa’s eyes softened when he mentioned his mother, “The islands can be dreadful when you’re a bored child, locked up because it’s storming outside. She thought that taking pictures and developing them would help me pass the time.”
Sansa smiled as she handed him back the camera. “That’s lovely. Is she also a photographer?”
“Yes. She takes portraits and stuff, but she also does events like weddings and everything.”
“I hope one day you show me some of her work, yours too!”
He was smiling again, but it wasn’t one of his usual smug smirks, it was more modest and self-deprecating, but he nodded as he stared back at her.
“Now you must take at least one good picture of me, I’m sure I look awful in that other one.”
“That’s impossible.”
She felt the familiar heat in her cheeks and started looking around for a place to pose to escape the intensity of Theon’s gaze.
She decided on the front of the clubhouse, since the castle façade looked particularly pretty to her there, with the ivy on the walls and the tower behind it. Theon took just two pictures, claiming he couldn’t spend the entire roll on her, but he grabbed her hand and guided her as he sneaked her inside through the employees door.
“We can’t be in here!”
“It’ll be quick.”
He walked to one of the big mirrors of the main area and beckoned her with his hand. She caught up quickly with what he was planning to do and decided to wrap her arms around his middle as she looked at their reflections. He snapped two more pictures and wiggled his eyebrows as he looked at her through the mirror.
Sansa was pretty familiar with the different areas of the club and she recognized they were near the kitchens, close to the parking lot. It had been over an hour since she had sneaked out and she wasn’t sure her luck would run for much longer but there was something in the back of her mind that would not let her rest until she confirmed.
“Hey Theon,” he looked up from his cellphone and focused his attention back on her, “There was something I wanted to talk about. I– I– I wanted to ask about the other day.”
He frowned at first, trying to figure out what she was talking about, but once he did his eyebrows lifted up and his usual grin was back in place. “What about the other day?”
Theon wasn’t going to make this easier for her. Dammit . “You know, when we–”
“Kissed?”
She was blushing but made herself maintain eye contact with Theon for the rest of the conversation. “Yes. I– I wanted to know how it was.”
It seemed he wasn’t expecting that question but regained his footing quickly, “Pretty damn great, as anything Sansa Stark does.”
“Theon I’m serious!”
“I am! What, you haven’t gotten good feedback before?”
Her eyes widened and almost immediately looked down to the floor. Direct eye contact didn’t seem like such a good idea now.
Theon saw this and realized that he only had one chance to not screw things up. He lifted her chin and tried to soften his gaze. He didn’t want Sansa to think he was mocking her. “Was that your first kiss?” She nodded softly, but still looked everywhere but him. “Hey, it was good. Your lips were perfectly soft, you didn’t use too much tongue, you didn’t bite anything. You fooled me.”
He saw her cheeks flush as she smiled at him, “Really?”
“I would not lie to you.” The gears in his brain started turning and before he realized what he was saying he kept talking, “However if you don’t believe me I’d be willing to give you some lessons.”
Sansa didn’t jump with offense like he expected, instead there was a mischievous glint in her eyes now as she looked at him. “Like kissing lessons?”
He was going to own up to what he’d just proposed so he nodded, “Yes. You understand that practice makes perfect.”
She bit her lip and looked the way she did when she sneaked into the kitchens and stole a lemon cake from the tray. “And when would these lessons start?”
“Anytime you want.”
She looked around and confirmed they were alone. He was leaning on a wall and she came closer to him with a flirty look in her eyes and he let her set the pace for whatever it was they were about to do.
She placed a hand on his chest first and pressed herself against him. She bit her lip and looked at him from under her eyelashes before taking one big breath and kissing him. He felt her other hand move to his neck and he circled his arms around her waist.
Sansa couldn’t believe what was happening. She’d expected him to put her down gently and having to avoid him altogether, she never expected him admitting to liking her kiss and proposing a sneaky way to make out with her more. She was curious if his hair was as soft as it looked, so her hands made their way to his head and was happy to confirm his wavy hair felt lovely under her hands.
They broke the kiss for a moment to catch their breaths and he moved his hands to cup her cheeks. He was staring into her eyes and this time when he kissed her it felt even more purposeful. She felt herself smiling into the kiss and Theon made a pleased noise as he deepened their kiss.
The moment was broken when Sansa felt her phone vibrating in her back pocket. She groaned as she detached herself from Theon’s lips and answered the call when she saw it was Robb calling her.
“What!”
“What do you mean ‘what’? You’ve been gone for like two hours! Mom is going to lock you up if she notices you’re out!”
“Fuck. Okay I’ll be there in 15, don’t let anyone go near the garage.”
“Of course I know what to do. Hurry up!”
She looked back at Theon, who looked pretty amused by the conversation.
“I have to run before anyone else notices I’m out.” She felt the urge to kiss him again, so she jumped into his arms and gave him a bunch of playful pecks. She felt him trying to deepen the kiss again and she had to put some distance between the two of them, otherwise she’d lose track of time again.
She tried to school her features back to calm before she spoke again but it was useless because Theon’s goofy smile was making her feel weak in the knees. She took a different approach. “Well this first lesson was enjoyable. Am I to expect more of them?”
He played along with her, “Yes. I shall contact you for our upcoming lessons. After all, we both agreed that practice was important.”
She nodded seriously before dissolving into a fit of giggles. “Okay, I really have to go, bye!” and she started running to her car. Asha called him five minutes later and he had to fight the urge to brag about this. He sat in his sister’s dingy car with a satisfied look on his face and thought he’d have to thank Rodrik for making him stay until late at the club.