litttledove-blog

[litttledove-blog]

a bird without a cage {serjaimeofthekingsguard}

—;  Robb had made the trade. He had agreed to trade the Kingslayer for Sansa. When she had heard the news, Sansa had smiled for the first time in so, so long, because she was going home. She’d dreamed of nothing but that for the whole time she had been in King’s Landing after her father’s death when she’d found out just how cruel Joffrey really was; her perfect prince hadn’t been so perfect after all, it had turned out. But that didn’t matter now because soon she would be back home in Winterfell with Bran and Rickon, and almost everything would be okay again.

They’d set off for Robb’s camp a few days after Sansa had been told the news – they must go there, she’d been told, so the ‘wolf who called himself king’ (the wolf who was king, Sansa had thought bitterly) could see that they’d upheld their end in the bargain – and Sansa had been so glad to leave. King’s Landing had been a prison, a cage, somewhere she couldn’t escape from. She was always being watched there, and she knew that back at Winterfell she wouldn’t be. Back at Winterfell, she would be free again, and oh how she longed for that.

After days of travelling (how many, Sansa didn’t know – she hadn’t been counting), the group taking her to Robb stopped and began muttering amongst each other, their eyes all narrowed as they discussed something too quietly for Sansa to hear. Sansa wasn’t bothered; they’d done this the whole journey, evidently not wanting her to listen in. It worked for both parties though, because Sansa hadn’t wanted to listen in to whatever those Lannister men were talking about. She just wanted to be home.

But this muttering slowly began to develop into the drawing of swords and louder voices, and that really caught Sansa’s attention; what was going on? And then she saw another group of men coming towards them, swords drawn too, shouting back at them, and was that – was that the Kingslayer with them? Was that Robb’s men? Sansa squinted from where she sat atop her horse, and it was – it was Robb’s men! She recognised one of them from when her father had held meetings with his bannermen, back when everything was okay and war was not anticipated. And then the groups started fighting one another, and Sansa’s instinct was to dismount the horse and run towards the men, but it was only after she’d dismounted that she remembered they were all fighting, and that dismounting might not be the best idea after all. 

[litttledove-blog]

—; Sansa positively glowed when Loras said he liked her idea about the use of natural elements; she had been unable to stop grinning anyway, so now her smile was blinding, and Sansa didn’t care that she probably looked like some sort of inane freak. And she didn’t care because she was doing a project with Loras Tyrell, and Loras Tyrell liked her ideas.

When he asked when she was free, despite having various commitments on certain days, she told him “I’m free any day,” because she would happily cancel what else she was doing to work on this and spend time with Loras. She nodded when he said about projects being due at the end of the month – she had checked on that, wanting to know everything she could about the club and how the projects worked before she asked Loras about whether he wanted to work with her, so she knew they would have enough time if he said yes.

She just hoped the project worked out well, but with Loras working on it she was sure it would.

baby, you belong with me {floweredknight}

Nodding, Loras’ smile grew both in size and warmth. It was nice to have input from her, as well as the intuition she seemed to show. It might not show, but he was always hesitant at accepting partnered projects, especially with people of her age. Not because he doubted their abilities—because he’d seen some truly wonderful work from people much younger than either he or Sansa—but because he doubted their commitment. Too many partnered projects had been spent with him doing all the work while his ‘partner’ fawned over him.

But Sansa’s idea was both welcome and a good one, so he nodded again. “Yes, that would work well,” he said. “And I also like your idea about using natural elements, fibers and the like.” It would give it an interesting feel to it, give depth and texture.

Sitting back in his chair, Loras smiled at her again as he brushed a few stray curls from his forehead, retrieving his phone from his pocket. “What days are you free to work on this?” he asked. “I think all the projects are due at the end of the month, so we do have time.”

[litttledove-blog]

—; Sansa almost full-on swooned when he smiled at her, but she managed to refrain from it and quickly smile back. How Jeyne wasn’t falling at his feet too, Sansa would never understand; she fancied Robb of all people – her brother. Jeyne was weird.

She positively glowed when Loras nodded his approval; his approval meant everything to Sansa, since she had been working on this for so long now, and because it was Loras. She nodded when he told her not to worry, and she felt a rush of adoration when he told her that he did that too – he was so lovely and sweet, and Sansa couldn’t get over how down-to-earth he was; most guys of that calibre weren’t. “Oh, that’s alright then!” She said, her grin wide.

Pushing her hair out of her eyes so she could see the page better, she nodded. “Yes, that would work,” she agreed; whatever he thought was best was probably best. After all, he was the one who was here because he liked art. Sansa was just here because she liked him. (And the art itself wasn’t bad, she supposed. Quite fun, actually, once you got into it.) “Perhaps the flowers could be the bright spots?” She suggested. Loras was like a flower, all pretty and noticeable... it would fit well.

baby, you belong with me {floweredknight}

Loras turned back to face the front of the classroom as she sat beside him, flashing her a quick smile. Half spinning in his chair, he faced her once more, nodding as she spoke. A half smile turned his lips as she described the project, his eyes going a bit out of focus as he began to imagine exactly what it was she was talking about and how they might go about doing it.

Leaning a bit closer, he tucked one leg beneath him to see better, nodding in approval as he saw her drawing. It was rough, but detailed enough for his mind to fill in the blanks. His smile grew once more, and he looked back up at her. “Oh, don’t worry,” he said, sitting back once more. “I do that all the time when I talk about art or other things that fascinate me, all of us do it, I think.” Renly certainly told him often enough that he spoke an awful lot, whether about what to have for dinner or what he was working on for class or on the side.

But Sansa’s ideas were good, and Loras enjoyed hearing them. “I agree,” He said, ducking his head for a moment to retrieve his pencil, adding a few quick but smooth lines to her drawing, tilting his head once more. “But whatever colors we use should be…dull, almost, except for a few bright spots every here and there. It should be that you almost don’t see the wolf, but once you do you can’t figure out how you ever missed it.”

[litttledove-blog]

—; When Loras agreed, saying that he was sure they could arrange something, her face lit up into a grin and she hugged her books closer to her chest. She didn’t think that her blush would be going away any time soon, but right now she didn’t care; she was doing an art project with Loras Tyrell, the most gorgeous guy ever!

“Excellent!” She continued to beam at him for a moment, before she slid into the seat next to him. She placed her books on the desk in front of her once she was sat down, and she combed her fingers through her hair quickly before she slid off her coat and hung it across the back of her chair; if they were working together, they may as well work it out now when Loras was sat alone and not surrounded by  friends.

She turned to look at him again once she’d sorted herself out, and she pulled her sketchbook across the desk towards her. “I had a few ideas in mind, but we don’t have to go with any of them, if you don’t want!” She flipped the book open to the first page. She wasn’t bad at art, but she wasn’t amazingly talented either. “It’s a wolf in a field of roses,” she explained, in case her drawing wasn’t good enough for him to realise that. “I thought if we did this one, then we could use all sorts of media; actual flower petals for the flowers, and even real blades of grass and segments of leaf, and I thought–” she cut herself off when she realised she’d been rambling, and she ducked her head to hide her face in embarrassment.

baby, you belong with me {floweredknight}

Loras walked into the mostly empty classroom nearly fifteen minutes early, as he often did. It was a habit of his, but not one he was quick to dispose of. He liked being prepared for class, as well as everything else. And, though he had done his homework days in advance he still liked the extra time to go over his work and make certain everything was in order.

He felt eyes on him as he slid into his seat, but that too was not uncommon. It was common knowledge—to both him and many others—that he was adored by half the school, a fact he never failed to remember or, on rare occasion, use to his advantage. If he was honest with himself he liked the attention, liked the constant looks cast his way.

Putting those things from his mind, he slid his textbook from his bag and set it on the table. He was flipping through it in search of the correct page when he heard footsteps beside him and looked up to see Sansa Stark, her cheeks flushed the color of her hair. Loras might not be all that interested in girls, but even he could not deny that Sansa was a lovely girl, with potential to be beautiful.

Giving her a warm smile, he turned to face her fully. “I’m sure we could arrange something,” he said, tipping his head back a little to meet her eyes, the same river blue as her mother and brothers. Tapping his fingers on the edge of the table, he tilted his head a little to the side.

[litttledove-blog]

baby, you belong with me {floweredknight}

—; Sansa sighed dreamily as Loras Tyrell walked into the room, and he propped her chin in her hand as she watched him. He was so gorgeous, and sweet, and she was a little bit in love with him, she thought. Her best friend, Jeyne Poole,  teased her mercilessly over it, but Sansa just couldn’t help but be enthralled by his charm, his wit, and his beautiful, soft-looking hair that Sansa wanted so terribly to run her fingers through.

It was a horrible shame that he was two years above her, that he probably didn’t even know she existed. Well, Sansa knew he was aware of her existence, but the only thing he knew about her (as far as she knew, anyway) was her name, and that she was in the art club with him.

Technically, Sansa was in the art club to be near him, but that was a detail that she thought he was best not knowing, in case he thought she was weird or stalker-y, like Jeyne did. But Jeyne was just jealous because Sansa was prettier and smarter than her – at least, that was what Robb had told her while she whined to him about how annoying Jeyne was being lately. She wasn’t sure whether he’d been telling the truth or not, though.

But the point was, that Loras Tyrell was making her stomach all gooey with the way he breathed, even, and Sansa really, really wanted to talk to him, so after gathering up all her bravery, she stood up and walked over to where he was sat. “Hi, I thought–well, I wondered if you might like to do partnered project for the club this week?” She asked him nervously, cheeks bright red.

[litttledove-blog]

a room in the forest {theuncrowneddoe}

—; Ever since she’d escaped King’s Landing three days ago, she’d been travelling in one direction: away from the wretched, Lannister-infested place. The Lannisters had killed her father, she’d learned, and while helping her to escape Arya had hurriedly explained that the Lannisters were lying about their father being a traitor. You know father, Sansa, he’s no traitor. Arya was right, of course: she didknow their father, and she knew that the only thing remotely traitorous he’d ever done was sleeping with another woman and fathering Jon Snow, which compared the sins of most other men, was nothing.

Arya had showed her the truth about the Lannisters before it was too late, and as she’d smuggled Sansa to the gates (how, the elder Stark still had no idea) she’d explained that Sansa must escape, because they wanted to keep her here and make her marry Joffrey, and they both knew that Sansa wouldn’t be able to marry such a monster. You wouldn’t be able to deal with him, Sansa – but I can. I’ve been having sword-training, not dancing lessons. I can protect myself, and you have to go. Find Nymeria, if you can, but just get as far away from here as possible. Sansa had wondered when her younger sister became so wise.

And so she’d done just that; she’d got as far away as she could. She didn’t know where she was heading, but she hoped that she’d find someplace where she’d be safe, soon. But for now, she was huddled under a tree as the night fell, with nothing to keep her warm. Just as she was starting to drift off, she thought she heard something. Her head jerked up and she looked around, eyes opening wide with fear. She stayed as silent as she could – it could be anyone, who was there – but she knew she’d be discovered anyway. She just hoped that it was someone kind.