Everything belongs to George R. R. Martin.
The idea came to me when I was in the yoga studio where I practice every week and for some reason, I couldn't help writing this even though it is rather different from the stories I usually write. It's not very serious, it's light-hearted and I hope you'll enjoy it.
First posted on AO3. The first chapters of this fic is not beta-read, so if you notice some mistake, please send me a kind message and I'll fix it.
Escape mechanism. That's what her sister Arya would have called it if she was there. Head down as she put her hair in a bun, Sansa sighed. Of course Arya would have reacted differently if she was dating someone like Joffrey who watched her comings and goings and basically prevented her from seeing her friends. Arya would have taken off quickly. Or maybe she would have stayed and tested her boxing skills on Joff. Imagining her sister punching him then pumping her fist in the air while Joff was bent over in agony, Sansa snorted a laugh, then slowly shook her head. She was nothing like her younger sister and when she was alone, she didn't try to punch an invisible enemy in the guts. She practiced yoga because it was her way to cope with the situation and to forget, just for a moment, how lonely she felt, inside her golden cage.
Once she wore a pair of yoga tights and her favorite crop T-shirt to hide her sports bra, her last fight with Joffrey - and there had been lots of these, lately - was but a distant memory. What followed was like a ritual: like every day she got out of her bedroom carrying her yoga mat and her laptop and sashayed to the solarium. With its solid oak floor and its picture windows, the room was perfect to practice yoga, although it was close to Cersei's room. Once she pushed the door closed, she exhaled deeply and placed her laptop on a table. YouTube. Yoga Routines.
There were videos she enjoyed so much she knew them almost by heart and anticipated every move. If she closed her eyes and only focused on the soothing voice of the yoga teacher, she could almost forget Joffrey made a scene whenever she went out and she could imagine herself in a regular yoga studio, amongst other people who couldn't start their day without a sun salutation.
She rolled out her yoga mat, started the video and quickly came back on the center of her mat. The blond lady whose online yoga classes Sansa enjoyed so much was already standing with her hands joined in prayer.
"Welcome, everyone. Today we're going to focus on your spine with different yoga poses that help remove the tension…"
God knew Sansa needed to get rid of the tension. Without even noticing it, she nodded. The yoga routine started with the teacher bending over to stretch her back then coming back up, several times. Sansa followed suit, carefully glancing at the screen from time to time more out of habit than anything because she knew exactly what was next.
"... and step back into a downward-facing dog pose…"
Anticipating the teacher's instructions, she breathed deeply, trying to root her heels in the yoga mat. The muscles behind her legs hurt slightly. That's what happens when you wear high heels, she admonished herself. The Achilles tendon shortens and you have to stretch your legs twice more to rectify it.
"Take another deep breath, stay there… Then on the inbreath, rock into plank pose and exhale very slowly."
All this seemed incredibly familiar now yet the first time she had been to a yoga studio, Sansa had told herself how strange it looked like - she remembered having difficulties to keep a straight face when the teacher had listed the yoga poses with their exotic names and the ten minutes of relaxation had been anything but relaxing as she had a hard time not to laugh. For someone who didn't know anything about it, yoga sounded and looked crazy; for people who practiced it everyday, yoga was as natural and necessary as fresh air. In Sansa's case, it offered a derisory, yet essential protection against everything that went wrong in her daily life. Yoga allowed her to let go of all the things she couldn't control. After practicing, she often felt like the whirlwind of thoughts and emotions inside her had disappeared.
After the plank pose, she lied flat on the stomach, breathed in the plastic smell of the yoga mat then, transferring her weight on her arms and wrists, she rose, arching her spine and looking to the ceiling.
"... Open your chest for the upward-facing dog… Breathe deeply."
Sansa mentally pictured what was next: plank pose, down dog… Until the door opened and closed behind an intruder. If it's Joffrey, I'm not sure I can take it… She squeezed her eyes tight, wishing she could buy time before facing her boyfriend; when she opened them again, the Hound, the Lannisters' head of security was standing in front of her, smirking, behind the black curtain of his hair.
"What are you doing here?" she asked. Her tone hesitated between annoyance and carefulness - because the Hound was not somebody you wanted to cross. Solidly built and taller than anyone she had met - apart from the Hound's own brother who, thanks God, seldom visited the Lannisters - the Hound looked like he could break someone in half. Maybe he already broke someone in half, she mused.
"I heard someone calling a dog," he rasped. "Am I not supposed to come in, when I hear my name?"
Sansa sighed. That same old song. "Dog is not your name."
A mirthless laugh was the only answer he saw fit to give Sansa. Poised as ever, the blond lady performed a plow pose and kept giving instructions even if there was no one to listen to her now. Sansa stood up, then walked to her laptop to pause the video. Once the blond teacher had frozen, her legs up in the air, Sansa turned to the intruder and folded her arms. This way the Hound couldn't miss he had ruined her yoga routine, right?
"What do you want?" she asked, irritation making her talk a bit too fast this time.
Deep down, she had an idea of what he might want. More than once, she had caught him staring at her - when she wore this backless dress for Joffrey's birthday party or by the swimming pool. It should have made her skin crawl. Except it didn't. The older men gravitating toward the Lannisters and looking a bit too intently at her - like Meryn Trant or Petyr Baelish - often disgusted her but the Hound defied all logic; his stare burnt, made her feel strange and sometimes scared her but never did it make her feel uncomfortable.
Unreadable, he gazed at her before growling: "Told you I heard my name. What is it you were doing?"
The answer was so obvious Sansa made a huge effort not to roll her eyes. "I was practicing yoga… No need to pretend," she added, sighing. "Joffrey told you to keep an eye on me. I don't even know why I asked you what you wanted-"
"I'm not working today," he cut her off.
Interesting. She cleared her throat, wondering what he wanted her to do with this information. How could someone stay in this house although they were off-duty? It was a mystery for her. To sum up the situation, the Hound doesn't work today but instead of spending his day off in some creepy bar with creepy customers he'd easily scare away with his glare, he chooses to stay here and to pay me a visit when I'm doing yoga. Great.
Sansa must have involuntarily made a face, because he chuckled. "So…" he trailed off, "why watch these videos and contort yourself on a plastic mat? Does this bullshit do you good?"
"It does," she answered, cut to the quick. "It really helps feeling better and calm tensions. You should give a try."
The Hound's gray eyes opened widely and he burst out laughing.