the younger starklings about robb (robb the strong and brave big brother, the perfect heir, the fierce and unbeatable young wolf):
arya
bran
sansa
meanwhile, actual robb (robb the lord and then robb the kitn):
before arya ever promised to be strong by using robb as her benchmark, the definition of stark strength, ned had to remind robb to be strong as the ruling stark in winterfell. (strong for bran and rickon, the brothers he thought he failed by sending their would-be killer away, leading to his great moment of weakness in jeyne westerling's bed.) as his siblings' faith in his ultimate triumph held strong, even after the loss of the north, robb himself was struggling with despair.
as grenn once told sam, maybe everyone is just pretending to be brave, maybe that's how people become brave. robb was faking it to make it too, imitating his father's lordly attitude as bran later tried to imitate robb's. as his younger siblings remembered him as their shining example, robb was trying to live up to his father's example. not the ned who'd been in his circumstances, a teenager unexpectedly turned into a lord and fighting a war to save his family. no, ofc, he never knew that young ned. the ned he knew as his father, the standard to measure himself against, was an adult man in his mid-30s who'd ruled the north for ~15 years. but was that standard for a 15/16yo any more fair and valid an expectation than 8/9yo bran believing he was almost a man grown and holding himself to the standard of 15/16yo robb as robb's heir?
and the only person left close enough to see robb as the boy he still was died with him.
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Brother
Dabi x UaTraitor!gn!reader
Substitute big brother dabi, substitute little sibling reader
this is purely a platonic, brother-sibling relationship post (no i’m not using capitals i’m on my phone and too lazy :p)
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the bar roof. you spent a lot of time there, usually after you came back from that hellscape they call a school.
you’d come back to the bar, hair frizzy and eyes red, drop your bag near your usual stool, and head to your room to change. after that, nobody really knew where you went. maybe you spent the rest of your night in there. maybe you were studying or doing things to keep you from failing out of your classes.
but dabi knew better, as you’d soon find out.
today was…particularly difficult. a different kind of difficult. you were over bakugo’s stupid chastising. kaminari’s stupid pointedly backhanded flirting. kirishima’s never-ending annoyance, midoriya’s muttering and todoroki’s indifference. you were over these stupid people.
you’d had to purposefully strike out of your one-on-one battle today. you needed to stay inconspicuous. that part had already bothered you. but kaminari’s backhandedness afterwards? bakugo’s insults? that pushed you over.
kirishima said it was manly? what the hell was manly about throwing an easy fight to appear weak?
you kicked your legs a little, finding comfort in the feeling of nothingness below them. you sat on the back edge of the roof, right above your window. your legs dangled only a few feet above it.
you rubbed at your eyes. this hadn’t worked the last ten minutes, but you hoped maybe the crying would stop if you tried one more time.
“whatcha doin up here?”
you turned, sniffling. dabi. you turned back away.
“nothing, fuck off.”
dabi huffed, stalking over and taking a seat next to you. his legs dangled lower than yours, you noted. the ground was far. you wondered what would happen if you just pushed yourself a little. would he catch you? would he care? he and the rest of the league probably thought you weak now, anyways after seeing that fight. stupid.
“ok,” dabi wrapped his left arm around you, “what’s up kiddo?” he looked at you, but his gaze held only concern. not the usual quiet arrogance. “is this about the fight?”
you looked away again.
“ah. so it is.”
you were too ashamed to look at him any longer, so you took to staring into the dark space below your feet and your dim window. it was so far down. it seemed to never end.
“you threw the fight.” you looked back up at him. “we all know that. we thought it was bullshit, but shiggy insisted you needed to stay in the middle of the pack of somethin’ like that. we know you could have taken that guy, you know that, right?”
tonight you were still clad in that stupid uniform. you were too worked up to change out of it before sulking up to the roof. it was suffocating.
you looked away again.
“they probably gave you shit for it, right? those ua assholes? they’re not worth it, kid. they’re gonna go down just like the rest of this fucked society. that includes my dad,” he poked at your side, “and your brother.”
your brother. that one was a touchy subject. the scars on your back still ached some days and his mantra of “it’s for your own good” still rang in your ears. dabi knew a little about him, you knew a little about his dad. both heroes. both corrupted assholes.
“next time they fuck with you like that, just tell ‘em the truth.”
“and what would that be?” you cocked and eyebrow, tears finally drying.
“that you say one word to your real brother, and i’ll fuck em up good.”
you smiled, leaning against him. “thanks, d.”
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