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tinytendril · 4 years

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Prompt: ‘Are we on a date right now?’ Pairing: Theonsa Words: 1319 Rating: T, for some offensive language AO3 Link

AN: Catch the Gossip Girl reference? Also, here’s another high school AU for Theonsa Challenge - August - Get Schooled.

‘Don’t,’ Sansa says through gritted teeth.

‘I didn’t say anything,’ Theon scoffs, raising his hands up.

‘I can hear you judging me. It’s annoying.’

She looks like she’s unravelling. It’s a strange sight. Not just because Sansa epitomizes the typical upper-crust of high school society with her bon mot tossing, label whoring, vapid, girly habits, but also because she’s seldom caught being anything less than this. So, as Theon watches her nervously chew at her pink-lacquered, bottom lip and compulsively flit her eyes around her surroundings, he realizes that something must be wrong.

‘I—I don’t want to leave yet.’ She seems determined, not budging from her seat of the ice cream parlour’s booth table.

When he takes a seat across from her, she gives him a sideways glance. ‘At least, you’re here and not Robb.’

‘Ah,’ he snickers, vaguely connecting the dots to what could be upsetting her. ‘So, there is a reason why you called me instead of Robb.’

She heaves a sigh, ‘Yes. Now, will you leave it?’

He rolls his eyes. ‘Leave it? I don’t even know what I’m doing here. How can I even start to tease you?’

He could tease her though. It’s what he’s used to. At least, that’s what he’s done for the better half of his childhood. He could only count one year of his decade-long friendship with Robb, some time during his sixth year and her fifth at school, when he was more hesitant to do so.

He still remembers the way she had dragged him to the center of their school’s PE hall. There was some languid song she was droning on and on about, her ‘absolute favourite’. And he still remembers the way his jumper smelled of her that night… right where she had placed her head as they swayed in time to the music.

He hadn’t danced with her since then (since Robb had given him a hard time about giving in to his little sister’s demands), but he always knew this side of her. She was always prone to a bit of romance or the idea of it anyway. So, wondering if what was troubling her had anything to do with this side her, he starts tentatively, ‘Sans... I have a question…’

‘Forget it, Theo—’

‘Banana Split or Cookie Dough Ice Cream Sandwich?’ He picks up the menu from the table and brandishes the options in front of her.

‘I—’ She looks as though she’s about to reject this offer, but then she relents, ‘Go on then. Order us the Banana Split.’

‘We’re getting two. I’m not sharing with someone with your appetite,’ he says as he flags down a nearby waitress.

‘No, you really shouldn’t,’ she tries to stop him as he makes their order.

‘Make sure this one gets extra cherries or she’ll hound you for them later,’ he calls after the waitress leaves, winking when she looks back. He feels rather than sees Sansa’s glaring.

By the time Theon leaves and comes back to their booth, with napkins and an extra spoon that was forgotten with their order, her mood is still palpably tense. And it’s not helped by the pair of vaguely familiar girls giggling at the back of the ice cream parlour. Nothing about their laughter seems innocent in the least, and the return of Sansa’s nervous tick of biting at her bottom lip is very telling of that.

‘Aren’t those your—’

‘I’m not friends with those cows,’ she seethes as the girls promptly stop giggling and turn their backs to them. ‘I might as well tell you that Joffrey stood me up today, just when I thought he’d ask me to... forget it.’

The prick. The prick with the entitlement of some sort of—a right royal prick. He only knew of Joffrey from Robb’s run-ins with him at school, making Robb’s absence here a legitimately good idea. But he didn’t know Joffrey had anything to do with Sansa until now.

He mentally takes a breath, reminding himself that he’s taken her brother’s place for a reason. Finally, he tells her, ‘It’s forgotten.’

She’s mildly surprised by this, wondering, ‘Really?’

‘Really,’ he assures her while he starts scooping up a good portion of banana and ice cream from his dish. Then, ‘But it depends.’

‘On?’ She impatiently taps a fingernail against her own dish, watching him mouth a spoonful of his vanilla ice cream.

‘If you forget about dating him, everything will be as good as forgotten,’ he says this as if it settles the matter.

It does. For now. Even if she looks ready to protest, she doesn’t bring up any faults to this deal. Instead, humorously, she starts on his hair as if she were burning to tell him all along, calling it shaggy and unkempt. He tells her it’s rakish and extremely appealing according to the girls in her year. Her disgruntled silence settles this matter too.

At some point, he makes note of the fact that the girls who were causing her so much distress before have gone and she hasn’t even noticed this. She even changes subjects multiple times, probing him about his chances of interning with Robb and Jon at her father’s firm once he graduates in a few months or his prospects for university. It makes him wonder if this means he’s done a good job of cheering her up. He thinks to boast about this but, instead, he asks, ‘You want to get out of here? I assume you wanted me to take you home… I mean, I’d understand if you want to be with your family or ring up Jeyne or—’

She pulls a face then. ‘I am not leaving with you if you’ve got—you’ve got—’

‘What?’ He watches her gesture at the side of her mouth, and he eventually understands what she means for him to do.

‘No, no not there.’

He takes the napkin by his dish and starts to make a big show of wiping down every inch of his face but the spot she had pointed out.

To his delight, she laughs at him, ‘You are the worst.’

‘Here? Over here? Here?’ He persists with his antics, doubling his efforts to re-wipe the same spots, hoping to hear more of her laughter.

‘Stop,’ she says, lunging for his hand, grasping at the napkin as it lands by the very stop she intended for him to find. She has him in her grip and he doesn’t move an inch. Then, with the utmost care, she gently swipes the napkin by his mouth, cleaning the ice cream off of him.

The delicate way she handles him surprises him, so much so that he doesn’t think before he quips, ‘Are we on a date right now?’

‘Stop,’ she says, blushing and taking her hand back.

He doesn’t get her to laugh again but it seems like he’s effectively squashed any of her lingering thoughts about Joffrey and shifted her thinking into this...

He’d be a liar if he didn’t admit thinking about this. This happens to be about the quiet moments they share from time to time, accepting how awkward it is to touch each other. They let the moment happen but never speak about it. If it were Arya, he’d sooner invite a glare or a punch in the face to diffuse the tension. Somehow, it’s harder to tell what he’d expect from Sansa.

This was also the fact that sometimes, when he forgets that she’d be the death of him by either Robb’s hands or by the weight of how many differences there are between them, he thinks about the night they shared a dance. Sometimes, he thinks their differences are what makes him smile and laugh as much as he does whenever they’re together. Does she think about this too?

‘Are you coming?’ She calls him out of a daydream he didn’t realize he was dwelling on, paying for them at the counter.

When he reaches her, they’re at the door and he has to stop as she loops an arm around his. She’s huddled close, close enough so he can smell something faintly floral in her hair. ‘Are you having a laugh? Now, we really do look like we’re on a—’

‘Those vile girls haven’t left, they’re loitering outside like vultures vying for my social death. If you’re taking me home, I might as well leave here with some dignity. Maybe you can pretend…’

Without great difficulty, he tugs her close as they exit the parlour, making a comment about how lovely she looks today. And with even less effort, he gives the tittering girls a few offensive hand gestures to shut them up when Sansa isn’t looking. It takes every ounce of his self-control to not give himself away.

#theonsa #theon x sansa #theon greyjoy #sansa stark #theonsachallenge

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