(Untitled)

[_kinginthenorth]

To Robb's mind, the rain makes sense. His father is gone, an event which would be worthy of a blizzard, of winter in all its cold glory, but the rain--dismal, gloomy, and everpresent as the ache in his gut--makes more sense

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[red_ponytail]

Bill wasn't about to attempt to remain cooped up inside whilst it was raining; he would have got too sodding bored with it. So he'd cajoled some rain gear out of the clothes box - a gray mac, a pair of bright yellow wellies, and a dark gray hat someone'd told him was called a fedora - and headed outside.

They'd both been teaching Weaponry for three terms now, since the school's beginning, and Bill still was impressed with how well Robb handled a sword. He called out as he approached, though he knew that if Robb hadn't heard him coming, Grey Wind definitely had. "Oi, Robb!"

[_kinginthenorth]

Both man's approach and wolf's acknowledgement of it fail to draw Robb from his thoughts, but the call of greeting does it, and he lowers the sword and drags an arm across his forhead--an exercise in futility; there's just as much rain there as was a moment ago. "Bill--can't stand being trapped inside either, I take it?"

[red_ponytail]

"Never could, not for long," he replied with a grin, but the usual cheer in his voice was not all there. "I'd offer to spar, but I think you know you'd have me beat in about three bloody seconds."

[_kinginthenorth]

"Maybe not with this," Robb says with a tired grin. "It's heavier than I'm used to, I'd not thought it would be so soon I'd wield it."

[red_ponytail]

Bill sobered slightly at that. "Your father's?" he asked, nodding at the sword.

[_kinginthenorth]

Robb nods, letting the sword's tip fall to the ground, the hilt loose in his hand. "You have heard he is gone."

[red_ponytail]

"Yeah," Bill confirmed, with a nod. Disappearances were hard no matter what, but he knew how much harder it was when that person was family. "I'm sorry, mate."

[_kinginthenorth]

"Thank you." Robb smiles grimly. "It never really gets any easier, does it? We think it will, because we're getting used to it. But then it turns out we're wrong."

[red_ponytail]

Bill shook his head, his hands going into the pockets of his mac. "You'd think so, wouldn't you? And then every time it happens you're surprised by how bloody hard it still is. I've seen friends, siblings come and go from here, and you're right, it never really gets any easier."

[_kinginthenorth]

"My niece," Robb says, looking troubled, "has been calling for her grandfather ever since. She's too young to understand it. I can't say that I blame her for it. I'd like to scream a bit over it myself."

[red_ponytail]

"That must be tough on your sister," Bill said sympathetically. "Did you know Eostre? I think Mike's having the same problem with their girls."

[_kinginthenorth]

"I know the faces," Robb says, "but I don't know them well. It's hard, though, no matter who you are. And there've been a lot, lately, I think."

[red_ponytail]

"It seems to come and go a bit, doesn't it?" he commented. He'd tried to figure out a pattern at one point, but there didn't seem to be one. "We won't have all that many for a while and then bam, a whole sodding lot of people gone all around the same time."

[_kinginthenorth]

Robb has never found a pattern. "I think sometimes it waits till we're not expecting it," he says, sinking wearily onto a mud-covered log and resting his chin in his hands, elbows on knees. "Or maybe that's completely wrong and it doesn't think at all, it just...does what it does."