𝐭𝐡𝐞 𝐬𝐮𝐦𝐦𝐞𝐫 𝐩𝐚𝐬𝐭; j. snow

-𝐜𝐡𝐚𝐩𝐭𝐞𝐫 𝐢𝐢

WINTERFELL, 298 AC

    The morning was cool, but something was off. Her and Jon had spent the night together, he tried to leave her to save her the shame the next morning, but she refused to let him leave. She woke up snug against his bare chest and his hair tickling her brow.

    He had woken up before her, but didn't want to disturb her. She was nestled close to him with his arm wrapped around her and it would be very hard to leave without waking her. She fluttered her eyes open, a little startled when his own were staring at her.

    "Did I scare you?" he asked, feeling her jolt as she opened her eyes.

    "A bit," she answered with a yawn. He kissed the top of her head as she stretched her arms out. "How did you sleep?" she asked.

    "Very good," he answered. "I assumed you slept well, also."

    She nodded her head, still exhausted. "My handmaiden will be here soon. I promise I'll see you later." She didn't want him to leave, but she knew he had to.

    He rose sleepily from the bed and walked carefully across the floor to her door. She planted a drowsy kiss on his lips and then he was gone and she was alone. She missed him already, but soon Alysha came into her room and she got dressed for the day. The days following were filled with time spent with Sansa and nights spent with her bastard brother.

    It had been a blissful few weeks. Jon visited her every night for their clandestine meetings in the quiet of her room. It was one intimate night in particular, they were laying next to each other, tired and sweaty, but he looked pained.

    "I have to tell you something," he confessed.

    She looked up at his face, twisted in worry and her own heart hung low in her chest. They were leaving for King's Landing tomorrow, he couldn't possibly bear worse news than their inevitable separation. "Anything," she replied, brushing the dark curls from his eyes.

    He looked at her, struggling to find the right words as his eyes filled with sadness. "I'm going to join the Night's Watch. It's an honorable place for a bastard," he said, his voice thick with emotion.

    She felt all the joy drain from her body as she stared at him. She knew they couldn't be together now, but she had planned on getting down on her knees and begging her father through tears to let them wed. She had never loved anyone this much, and she didn't think she ever would again.

    "Fuck your honor!" she cried as the tears pooled in her eyes. "And fuck mine, too! I know what this is about," she answered, quieting down.

    "Casy," he pleaded sadly as her emerald eyes glazed over. "It's the best place a person like me can go."

    "I don't care about my honor," she said, grabbing his hands. He used the nickname he had picked up a week ago and it hung from his lips like the Gardens of Babylon.

    "I care about your honor. You deserve better. It would never work, you know it wouldn't," he said, sitting up in her bed.

    "If I pleaded with my father enough, he would say yes. You may be a bastard, but you're still Ned Stark's son," she reasoned with him.

    "Your mother," he reminded her. Her mother would never approve, but as long as her father drank and whored and lived, she had no say.

    "She doesn't make the decisions, please, Jon. Don't leave me," she begged, the tears seeping from her eyes.

    "I ride for Castle Black tomorrow," he told her. Her eyes switched from sad to angry.

    "How long have you known?" she asked.