Summary:

Sansa and Jon have a much-needed conversation, finally.

Author's Note:

Who knew that when I asked everyone to be patient after Part 5 that the requested patience would be stretched over almost an entire year?

Really, is there any other word that works here other than... yikes? I think not.

I would apologize, but that seems a little too late. I am relieved to finally get this chapter up, though, because some sort of draft has been sitting in my possession since about September of last year. At first, I put off finishing this up because I couldn't get back into the headspace of this world. Then, when I finally did manage to capture a similar tone and convey what I wanted to with the story, I put off posting it simply because it had been so long since my last update. Really, I don't even make sense to myself sometimes.

After running up the apartment complex stairs, Sansa stood at the top for a moment to slow down her racing heart. Then she walked over to the familiar door, took a deep breath, and knocked.

There was some scuffling inside as a response, and it took a full thirty seconds before Jon flung open the door.

Sansa could tell from his expression, quickly morphing from surprise into one of confusion, that he hadn't looked out the peephole before answering.

"Hi," she said, her voice almost a squeak.

Jon ran a hand through his dark hair, still looking utterly bewildered by her presence. "Hi."

"Um... could I, uh..." she stuttered, fidgeting with the buttons on the front of her coat.

Suddenly remembering his manners, Jon's eyes widened. "Oh, right..." He took a step back and gestured a hand into his apartment. "Yes, come in."

She gave him a tight smile and walked inside. "Thanks."

As Jon was shutting the door behind them, Sansa noticed that practically all of the lights were off, and Jon's wallet was perched on the back of the couch. She glanced down to find his right shoe half-laced.

"Oh! I'm sorry! I've interrupted you just as you were getting ready to leave."

Jon glanced down at his shoes in surprise as if he had entirely forgotten what he was doing before she'd arrived. "It's not a big deal-"

Sansa cut him off, moving closer to the door. "-really, I shouldn't have barged in like this-"

Jon's eyebrows rose. "I'd hardly call knocking on my door and me letting you in barging."

That brought Sansa up short, and Jon grinned as if he were so pleased to one-up her.

"Still, I'm intruding." Sansa took another step back towards the door, and Jon matched her taking a step forward.

"Sansa," he said, voice suddenly low.

Like a bird ready to take flight, she glanced quickly at the door knob and then at Jon gain. "I'll come back later. Actually, that's for the best because I have someplace to be right now."

"Really?" Jon asked, sounding slightly skeptical.

"Of course!" She wondered if he could hear the lie in her voice.

Whether he heard it or not, though, Jon just appeared amused. "At nine on a Saturday morning, you have someplace to be?"

With him saying it out loud, realized how ridiculous her excuse sounded. "Well, I... what about you?"

Jon frowned. "What about me?"

Feeling emboldened by finally getting a handle on the situation, she jutted her chin to his wallet and the couch and the shoe he still hadn't finished tying. "Where are you going? Why can you have someplace to be and not me?" she argued.

"I'm going to breakfast with Rob."

Sansa felt her momentary control slip from her hand. "Oh, I see." She fiddled with a button, pulling on a thread that was coming loose. "He invited Arya and me, too."

"I know," Jon replied, smug.

Clearing her throat, Sansa found herself unable to meet his gaze so instead she looked at a point right above his shoulder. "Right."

"And I know that Arya said you weren't hungry, so no, you don't have any place else you should be."

Still desperate to keep face, Sansa shouted, "You don't know that!"

"Yes I do," he replied, that annoying smirk of his reappearing.

"Well, I..." Sansa felt behind her for the doorknob and quickly yanked it open. Fumbling around for a response, she realized she had nothing. "Sorry to interrupt!" she shot out, walking quickly to the stairs and racing down them.

Hearing Jon call her name caused Sansa to speed up even more, feet flying from one step to another.

When she finally got to the bottom floor and pushed open the door to outside, the cool air was a welcome relief. Sansa leaned back against the brick wall of the building and took a long, deep breath.

She definitely should not have come. Really, she had no idea what she had been thinking.

They were friends. Jon was nice to her. Nothing more.

Last night had clearly shaken her more than she'd realized. She still wasn't in her right mind.

"Confused, that's all," she muttered to herself.

She barely noticed the sound of the front door opening and closing again.

"What in the world was that?" a voice, Jon's voice, shouted behind her. He didn't seem to be nearly out of breath as she was.

Sansa spun to face him. "You followed me?" she asked, feeling off kilter by his sudden presence again. Then, to answer his question, said, "Nothing! Go to breakfast with Rob." Then she turned and walked away.

A moment later, Jon fell into step beside her. "You ran away from me," he said in disbelief. "You literally ran."

Sansa pretended she didn't hear him and just started walking faster. "You're going to be late meeting Rob."

"No, I'm not. We're headed in the right direction."

Sansa looked at the passing signs. Dang it. And so they were.

They walked in silence for a minute, during which Sansa pondered if it was possible for her to make an escape without making an even bigger fool of herself.

Jon broke the silence first. "You know, Arya texted me before you came over."

Sansa almost tripped, then turned to Jon, eyes wide. "She did what?"

Jon nodded, looking out at the mostly empty street. "Just said 'Don't let her leave.'" He shook his head, laughing. "Honestly, I had no idea what she was talking about at the time. Thought she'd texted me by mistake." His voice got suddenly quieter as he leaned in and smiled. "Then everything made sense when you 'barged' in."

Sansa swatted at him and the stupid quotation marks he made around the word "barged."

"Why did you come over, Sansa?" Blunt and to the point.

His abruptness startled her. "I just... just wanted to thank you."

"Thank me?" Jon asked, raising an eyebrow, still smiling.

Sansa nodded vigorously. "Yes. So thank you... For everything."

"Everything," Jon repeated as he tilted his head to the side, of course latching onto that last word. "You make it sound like you're going away."

Lacking a proper response, she shrugged. "Well... I probably won't be seeing you very often anymore. No more dating the bad guys. Turning over a new leaf and all that." She let out a short bark of laughter. "So I won't be bothering you at your apartment."

Jon dropped the smile in an instant. "You were never a bother."

Sansa was thrown by his sudden seriousness and didn't know how to respond. "Oh, okay. Well, still..."

"And I think you should keep coming to my apartment."

"What?" was her knee-jerk reaction to his statement. Then, realizing how that sounded, she tried again. "I mean, what are you-"

Jon cut her off. "I mean that I think you should keep coming over." He spoke slowly so there was no misunderstanding.

Sansa opened her mouth to speak, then thought better and closed it again.

"In case you're still confused," he continued, "I like spending time with you, Sansa. I just plain like you." Then, without warning, he pulled her towards him and pressed his lips against hers.

It was over in a second, but it still left Sansa breathless. Jon had his hands gently cupping her face and she was sure that every inch of her skin was on fire. She finally managed to say "Okay."

He brushed his thumbs back and forth across her cheeks. "Okay, what?"

"Okay. I'll keep coming over. But only if you insist."

"Oh, I definitely insist," Jon whispered. He opened his mouth to say something else when a voice interrupted them.

"What in the world is going on here?" Sansa froze, recognizing instantly the voice of Robb.

Jon just groaned and dropped his head onto Sansa's shoulder dramatically. Any and all courage he'd had before seemingly evaporated into thin air. "Perfect timing," he muttered.

It took Sansa a moment to take in her surroundings and was amused to realize that they'd reached their destination without her realization. Robb was standing in the open door of the restaurant, looking on the verge of shouting again, so she gently pushed Jon off her shoulder and walked over to her brother. "Let's go inside and have a little chat."

When he started to protest, she looped her arm through his and started to lead him inside. As they were crossing the door's threshold, she quickly looked back at a panicked Jon and mouthed "call Arya." They were going to need someone else on their side for the conversation that was about to go down.

There were a billion ways this could go and Sansa had no intention of losing what she had with Jon when it had only just begun.

If any of you have read my other stories and are awaiting updates, I promise I haven't abandoned all of them entirely, but I have no idea when there will be an update. No promises. It's really hard to come home from work and get the motivation to write (or really, to do anything other than eat, watch reruns of various shows, and sleep). I don't know how the rest of you do it and I am constantly amazed by your ability. emSeriously./em

Now, after that long note, I want to thank everyone who has read this story! Please let me know what you think. Way back in 2016 when I thought I was going to be wrapping this up shortly, I had plans for a follow-up focusing on a storyline for another character (maybe Robb and a romantic interest for him), but that's really nothing more than a stray idea right now...