Til Death Do Us Part...

Life with Robb 20

The moment Robb opened the front door Ilva knew something was wrong. The usual smile on his face was absent. The usual glimmer in his eyes was missing. The millions of kisses and thousands of hugs he usually gave her to make up for all those days she had spent without him weren't given.

"Robb?" Ilva stood frozen in the doorway leading towards the living room. A shiver rolled down her spine even though the summer heat was warming up the entire house. "What's wrong?" She swallowed and cocked her head and instead of swinging her arms around his neck she folded them in front of her chest.

With slow steps Robb walked towards her. Each and every footstep sounded like a war drum and the slower he walked, the faster Ilva's heart started to beat in her chest. "I normally would not even dare to ask you this, but maybe we can better sit down before I answer that question." He pressed the palms of his hands to her cheeks and guided her to the living room where they sat down in the comfortable red seats.

"You were so happy the last few months..." Her voice trembled and she grabbed the armrests and held onto them firmly.

"I still am." Robb smiled, but the smile faded as soon as it appeared. "But I know for certain that you will not be."

Ilva held her breath and then she straightened her back and lifted her chin. She tensed all her muscles, but she locked her glance with Robb's and nodded at him. "Just tell me. I prefer the short pain over anything else."

Robb took a deep breath. He folded his hands in his lap and stared at his fingers, intertwined and slightly shaking. "My comrades and I are asked to go to Afghanistan."

Ilva's eyes widened, but before she could say something, Robb lifted his hand up and shook his head.

"We will not be going there to fight, but we will provide help to the local communities to rebuild themselves. They are poor and lack the right resources and knowledge, but we will help them to restore their country to its former glory."

"You already said yes." Ilva leaned back and let out a deep sigh. She didn't know much about war, apart from the stories she read in the newspapers and the plots that had later become books and blockbuster movies. But she did know that even though Robb was not going to fight, he was going to a war zone, to a dangerous place where people were shot, killed and murdered.

"I did." Robb nodded at her. "I have been spending the last few months training with these people and we have become quite close. I can not bear the thought of them going there and me staying at home because it would be the safer option."

The words of protest died on Ilva's lips. She would have wanted a say in the matter, but she knew that it wouldn't have made a difference anyway. She couldn't have changed his mind, not when his choice had already been made, surrounded by his comrades who were all going, probably because some of them had nothing to stay home for, probably because some of them didn't have an Ilva, a mother who had already lost a husband, siblings who had already grown up without a father.

"I should have discussed this with you and I am terribly sorry that I am simply telling you this without giving you a choice." Robb stood up and kneeled down in front of her. He reached for her hands and grabbed them, holding them firmly in his own. "I can assure you that this was not an easy choice for me either and I have thought about saying no and staying at home, with you."

"But that's not what your father would have done. It's not what he did." Ilva took a deep breath and then she forced a smile at him. "I know who I fell in love with, Robb Stark." She leaned forward and this time she pressed a soft kiss on his forehead. "I know what I've gotten myself into."

"We will receive a riant compensation while I am away, which you can use to pay the rent for the apartment and to pay your tuition fee." Robb moved a little closer towards her. "And when I return from Afghanistan there will be countless of opportunities for me to give you the life I have always wanted you to have."

Ilva bit her lip and swallowed her comment that she was happy with whatever they had. She didn't need a bigger house. She didn't need more expensive clothes. She didn't need diners at top restaurants or jewellery of pure gold. She simply wanted him sleeping next to her each and every night of the rest of her life. She simply wanted to tell him about her normal day while they shared the take away they had ordered. She simply wanted to spend her time in his presence even when it was in absolute silence when they were both reading a book.

But that was not Robb Stark. It had never been Robb Stark. Robb Stark had promised her a fairytale life and he would not break that promise.

It was that one flaw she hated more than anything else in the entire world.

"How long will you have to stay? When do you leave?" How long did she have to say goodbye to him and how many days would she have to count down before he would come back.

"The next few months we will receive some specialised training to prepare us for the tests waiting for us. In November we will fly to the American Base near Bagram and from there we will be sent to where we are needed." He paused for a moment. "We will return one year later." He bent his head. "I know it is quite a long time, especially since we don't even know each other for a year yet, but I know that our love is pure and real and will survive those days and I will Skype whenever we have the possibility to get a working connection and I will write you letters when we don't."

Ilva grabbed his chin and forced him to look up at her. "I'm glad you found your place, Robb." She pressed her lips on his and with her hands she revived the smile on his face by pulling the corners of his mouth up. "Can you now start smiling again? You're gonna do something great and something that makes you happy. And when you come back, I'll be there, waiting for you with dinner as if you have never left at all."