GoT Fanfiction: A (K)night on the road
Once again the head canon makes stay up at night writing these ideas where Sansa and Pod bond, and sneak smiles at each other because why wouldn't they? they could have been adorable together:
“Wha- what in the hells are you doing here?”
“Trying to save you from yourself, apparently. Oh! and Podrick wanted to let you know you’re an idiot”
This was inspired by that conversation post on Tumblr where Pod decides he's going to bring Ser Dad back. You've seen it. I couldn't get it out of my head.
She’s glad when the insistent knock on her door wakes her up for nightmare of cold dark castles and dead men who want to hurt her. She’s surprised by the fact that the person behind the door is Podrick, looking disheveled and embarrassed about waking her up but determined anyway.
“Lady, Sansa I’m sorry to wake you but I think I need your help”
“What is it Pod?”
“It’s Ser Brienne, my Lady, Jaime just left. She… she’s inconsolable I don’t, I don’t know what to do and I don’t want to leave her alone. ”
Sansa was still a bit groggy from sleep but his unusual resolve made her wary “leave her alone… what, what do you mean Podrick?”
“Well, I’m going after him”
“You’re going after him?”
“Yes my lady, I have to bring him back, he’s being an idiot. What does he think he is doing Leaving for Kings Landing? He can’t save his sister, he’s only gonna get himself killed!” he almost yelled and then realized who he has speaking to. If the matter hadn’t been so urgent Sansa would have taken a second to be amused at his wide eyes and shock expression “I- I’m sorry my lady… I just - I think Ser Brienne can use your help”
“It’s alright Pod, and you might be right, come, tell me what happened, where is she?” she motioned for him to enter her chambers, which made Podrick blush even more than before but he nodded and came in anyway.
“I don’t really know what happened, I heard noise outside my quarters, when I came out she was just there, wailing. I’d never seen her like that my lady, she just kept repeating “he’s gone, he’s gone” and when I went to her she just rushed to her chamber and she wouldn’t let me in, she’s is not answering but I.. I could hear her crying... I didn’t know what to do”
“it’s good that you came here, Pod I- I’ll help. Now turn around”
“I-what?”
“Podrick, I have to get dressed, turn around.”
And with an even deeper blush he turned around doing as he was told. While she looked for something to wear, something that would work for riding in the middle of the night, Sansa briefly wondered if his blush matched the color of her hair.
She had been right about her outfit, riding trousers and a fur coat, something more to Arya’s liking and properly warm, she thought now that she found herself in the unlikely scenario of riding south with Podrick trying to choose the best path to catch up with Jaime Lannister or intercept him as soon as possible.
Brienne didn’t want to talk or be comforted at all; as they found when she did open her door for Sansa looking defeated and closed off. She told them not to worry, that she should have known what trusting a Lannister would mean and to please let her have some time to herself.
And well, that did it, instead of walking back to her room Sansa told Podrick she was going with him.
“You didn’t have to come with me, my lady” said Pod not long after Winterfell was out of sight; they had slowed down a bit because the terrain was rockier and more dangerous the further from the castle they went.
“After everything Brienne has done for me, this is the least I can do.”
“But you don’t like Ser Jaime.”
“No but she loves him. And we love her, so here we are”
“aye, my lady, here we are”
“so Pod, once we find him, what are we going to say to make him come back? Do you have a plan?”
“Honestly, I hadn’t thought further that finding him and telling him that he is an idiot”
This made Sansa laugh out loud. Honestly, after being worried for months about the impending fight against the dead and now dreading what the Dragon Queen might do once she ends Cersei and takes King’s Landing, she hadn’t had much time for laughter and it felt freeing.
“Well we better figure something out before we find him. Otherwise you’ll probably have to fight him”.
“Do you think it was because of what I said? About me not getting the chance of seeing Cersei executed?” Sansa wondered out loud after a long stretch of silence.
“You said that to him?” he asked apprehensively.
“Yes, we had just gotten word about the dragon, Cersei always seems to win somehow, I was mad.”
“With good reason, my lady.”
“Yeah, but I know I can be brash, too brash sometimes. I just, maybe if I hadn’t said it…”
“I don’t think it was your words. And I don’t think you’re too brash. Actually-” he started but thought better of it and stopped talking.
“What?... what were you going to say Podrick?”
“I-, I actually think you are quite impressive when you’re putting people down” he smirked “they somehow never see it coming even when they’re obviously being.. erm… foolish”
This time around it was Sansa who blushed “hmmm, thank you?”
“Well, truthfully it makes me fear for you when you say things like that to someone with a dragon” he said in a teasing tone trying to put her at ease.
She chuckled for a bit and remarked upon what he said “you fear for me?”
“Of course I do, my lady, but then, I’m not as brave as you” He answered earnestly.
She almost retorted that she wasn’t but what came out was “I think you’re brave, Pod” and as she said it she realized that she did admire the young squire, she just hadn’t thought about it and suddenly it felt imperative that she told him that.
“You fought the wights and survived, you went on a crazy quest to find me and Arya not knowing what or who could come up against you, you just decided to go on a ride in the middle of a winter’s night to find one of the most hated men in the realm. You shouldn’t sell yourself short.”
“I, thank you for that, Lady Sansa, but I was just doing what I had to do, you know?”
She was about to say more, ask him more abut himself but he stopped his horse suddenly and pointed ahead. “Lady Sansa, look there, do you think that could be him?”
She looked, nodded and the proceeded to make a run for the figure that was certainly a man in a horse.
“Ser Jaime” Pod called loudly “Stop”
“Oh, for fucks sake!” they were able to hear through the short distance that kept them from reaching Jaime. But he did stop.
“Ser Jaime, just stop. Alright? stop” begged Podrick as he reached the older man.
“Podrick, please just let me- ”
“you can’t just leave her, she vouched for you, she keeps fighting for you, you can’t just up and leave like that”
“I need to go to King’s Landing, you should go back to Winterfell you and-“ he did a double take, he had been more focused on Podrick to notice his companion “Lady Sansa?”
“Ser Jaime” she greets coolly.
“Wha- what in the hells are you doing here?”
“Trying to save you from yourself, apparently. Oh! and Podrick wanted to let you know you’re an idiot”
“Well thank you Lady Sansa I’m sure-”but whatever sarcastic retort was cut off by the squire.
“Are you really going back to Cersei, Ser Jaime?” asked Podrick, every word dripping with disappointment.
“I have to go South, what do you have me do, Podrick, stay north with you?”
“Ser Brienne needs you”
“She doesn’t. What she needs is to be free of me. ”
“I’m no better than my sister, I’m a traitor and a killer and she should be glad to be rid of me”
“Look, I’m not, I’m not sorry for what I said but for what is worth, you’re better than Cersei”
“I am not; I’ve done things for her, in order to be with her that…”
And realization hits “that you can’t live with.”
“That’s it, isn’t it? This is you punishing yourself for being happy. With Brienne. You think you should die”
“I- no, you, you don’t understand. You were right, alright? Cersei is going to die, I know I can’t stop it but I can’t not be there.”
“Yes you can, and you will, you’re coming back with us”
“Why are you doing this Sansa?”
“Because I get it, alright? I was there with Cersei for years, she practically raised me.”
She took a deep breath and there was shame in her words. “yes I want her gone, she tortured and poisoned me with words, but I also admired her, in her own twisted way she protected me from your son. She was everything that was wrong but she was also familiar, a mentor.” Her voice cracked a little, she could feel Pod’s shocked eyes on her and Jaime had gone completely still.
“I know what it feels to be near her and hope that this time she would do the right thing, again and again. But she never does, does she? She just gets meaner” Jaime shook his head, looking at the ground, obviously lost in memories.
Sansa continued “I was only there for a couple of years, I can only imagine what it must be you. I mean you loved her. You truly did.” And for once Jaime did not hear disgust but compassion when someone talked about him and Cersei in the same sentence.
“I still do.” He let out weakly, pleading with Sansa to believe him.
“No, I’ve seen you with Brienne, everyone has. You don’t love her. No more than you love Tyrion. That’s why you’re running to her; you’re scared of what you could be without her.”
Jaime let out a mirthless laugh “you got me, but I still have to go”
“Why?” this time it was Podrick who broke the silence.
“Because she’s pregnant. I have to do something.”
Something finally made sense to Sansa then,“is that why Tyrion thought she was going to send her armies to fight the night king?”
Jaime nodded.
“And you believed her.”
“It’s true.”
“Maybe. But why would she keep gambling with your child?”
“What do you mean?”
“She had to bet on us winning against the dead. I don’t think she had any faith in us, but she still did nothing. Now she’s betting against the Dragon Queen”
“And she got one of her dragons”
“Yes, but Daenerys Targaryen doesn’t strike me as someone who makes the same mistake twice. You know that if Cersei harms Missandei, Daenerys will end her and anyone who’s foolish enough to stand by her.”
“I know”
“The Cersei I know would never put her children a risk. Why do you think she’s doing it now?”
“You don’t think she’s pregnant” and for the first time in months Jaime’s certainty shattered. He had his doubts about the babe but just as Sansa said earlier, Cersei had a knack for making you believe that maybe this time she would do the right thing.
“What I think is that you keep saying that you and her are the same. Maybe she’s got a death wish too. Maybe that’s all she has.”
Jaime set clenched his jaw “I don’t have a death wish” he stated before he hit his horse and sprinted in the direction of Winterfell.
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The ride back was certainly grim, Podrick thought. And silent. Very silent. It’s not as if he was uncomfortable in the silence, Ser Brienne and him had spent more silent nights on the road than he could count but this was different. Didn’t quite feel like a victory.
Ser Jaime was ahead of them by more than a few paces and Sansa- Lady Sansa was tense, far from the spirited girl who rode on an adventure with him earlier in the morning.
He wished they could keep talking like they had been before. The part of him that still felt brave decided to risk it.
“I’m really glad you came along Lady Sansa” she turned to look at him and he added “I fear that if it wasn’t for your words I’d be walking back to Winterfell all alone or worse, on my way to Kings Landing to help him do whatever it is he thought he would be doing.”
“I don’t know Podrick, I think, you calling him an idiot enough times would have worked too. He did stop after realizing it was you” then she thought about the rest of what he had said
She knew “why walking?”
“huh?”
“Why would you be walking back to Winterfell”
“oh!, because he would have had to knock me off my horse and steal it before I let him leave her” that actually made her laugh, good thing Jaime was too far to hear.
“oh my, you really are the most loyal squire that ever lived, aren’t you?”
“I try, m’lady”.