1. Chapter 1 (1/2)
he knows that he is a fool to do it, but he does it anyway. as he picks up the crown of winter roses, he glances at his father, and understands why he chose lyanna stark on that day in harrenhal.
he remembers the day that the wolves came to the capital as clear as yesterday. he remembers lord eddard stark and his family kneeling before the iron throne. he remembers the angry eyes of the lords and ladies of dorne and the reach, who lost fathers,
others and sons to the starks of winterfell. the usurper's dogs were not welcome in court.
he remembers the icy stares of his sister rhaenys and the sad smiles of his half-
other jon at the tense welcome feast. there was laughter and fools, drinking and smiles, but it was only ever skin deep.
he remembers the practice fights between him and robb stark. he remembers their blunted swords crashing into one another again and again. he remembers the way arthur dayne's hand drifts to dawn when robb lands a blow on aegon.
he remembers the angry whispers when king rhaegar announced aegon's betrothal to lord stark's oldest heir. he remembers the arguments between his father and lord connington that lasted well into the night. he remembers his father telling him of the good their marriage will do for the realm.
he remembers the long walks he has with sansa stark. he remembers the way she blushed when he said kind words about her dress, the smiles she gives him when she watched him practice his sword play. he remembers her soft voice and dreamy eyes.
and he remembers that he does not love her. her songs are sweet to his ears and her face is beautiful, but she cannot see him. she can only see what she wants to see; the prince that they sing songs and write stories for. no matter how many times she calls him her prince, he can never believe her.
but he does remember who he can love.
he remembers the day he truly meets her. he had seen her in court and talking to jon, but he was only seeing lady stark.
he was not seeing arya underfoot.
he remembers her dirty clothes and her thin sword. he remembers sansa's horror at her younger sister. he remembered how arya told aegon to watch where he is going.
he remembers her forced apology the next day. he remembers sansa's disgust at her sister and jon's amusement.
he remembers finding her chasing cats in the clothes of a commoner, not the clothes of a lady. he remembers how she doesn't hesitate to push him over after he laughs at her not being able to catch rhaenys' cat balerion.
he remembers the times when she watched him train with ser barristan. he remembers the times when her
aavosi teacher scolded her for getting distracted.
he remembers how he started talking to her more and more. she was and still is wilder than her sister, but far more interesting. he remembers how she didn't hesitate to speak her mind to him, unlike any other person in the red keep.
he remembers the times when they sneak off to the dungeons together to get away from everyone, how they played in the skulls of balerion and meraxes. he remembers how her direwolf would alert them to approaching guards, and how the three of them would hide in the skulls of the dragons that his ancestors rode. he remembers the mock fights they had, and how her rapier would clash against his
oadsword.
he remembers the day he