Northern lights

27. Letting go

Jon Snow - Beyond the wall

Jon soft snores fill the air as Ygritte slowly wakes, realizing they've fallen asleep, entwined. Smirking to herself as she noted while Jon may be asleep, some parts of him seem to have been awake for the time being. It felt almost too easy to tease him now when he's vulnerable, but then again, she didn't consider herself an honorable woman. 

"Did you pull a knife on me in the night?" She chuckled, waking Jon from his slumber and he's embarrassed beyond belief, rolling away quickly before standing.

"What's the matter? Can't be the first time you pressed your bone against a woman's arse." Ygritte presses, her smile too big for Jon's liking and while he certainly had seen desirable women before, he never went further and for her to exploit it now as a joke was irking him.

"Let's move." He pulls her up and checks her binding, focusing on the ropes being tighter for his safety. And hers. If she did try to run, he wasn't planning on letting her leave.

"It is the first time. How old are you, boy?" Her excitement over finding something useful to really poke some fun at him had certainly annoyed him. For a moment, Jon wondered if it may be best to kill her now and spare himself hours of having to hear her tasteless jokes. He surely wanted to retaliate for being called a boy. 

"I'm a man of the Night's Watch." Stating the obvious, Jon sighs, his mind wandering to the only girl he wanted in his bed.

"You're a boy who's never been with a girl. Don't your stones start to hurt if your bone never gets-", Ygritte pushed, finally getting what she wanted as Jon interjects:

"Don't call them that."

"What, stones? Or bone?" She cocked an eyebrow, a mischievous glint in her eyes.

"Neither." Jon's response is quick, followed by: "Both." Having checked her bindings, he picks up his sword and leads her off.

"Move!"

"I heard they get all swollen and bruised if you don't use them. Of course, maybe that's just what the lads say when they want me feeling sorry for them. As if I'd feel sorry for them. Are there no girl crows?" Ygritte feigns interest, aware Jon is a far cry from a man of the Night's watch. He's barely a man in her eyes. Men are harder to bend to her will, but boys are easy - all you need to do is be their friend.

"There are no women of the Night's Watch, no."

"So the lads just do it with each other?" She chuckles, enjoying the annoyance on his face.

"No."

"Never?" She gives him a pointed look, one that he interpreted as her assumption that he's a liar.

"Never. We swore an oath." Jon insists, trying to stay impassive and not respond too much to her never ending questions.

"You have sheep at the Wall? With your hands, then? No wonder you're all so miserable." 

JON pulls at her bound hands. "Would you please shut up?"

"Would you please shut up? You think you're better than me, crow. I'm a free woman." Ygritte exclaims proudly, earning a scoff.

"You're a free woman?" Jon challenges, noticing her defiantly lifting her chin.

"Yes."

"If you're my prisoner, you're not a free woman. That's what "prisoner" means." Raising an eyebrow, Jon smirks victoriously. He missed having someone to spar with, even if it's a woman from beyond the wall. 

"And you think you're free? You swore some stupid oath and now you can never touch a girl." Ygritte counters, stepping closer to him.

"It was my choice to say the words." Jon fixes his gaze on her, careful so she doesn't abuse the situation and attempts to escape.

"So you don't like girls?" She raises an eyebrow, baiting him.

"Of course I like girls."

"But you choose never to touch them?" Her wit is exhausting Jon, she noticed. It would be rather fun had he not tied her like cattle. Though she wasn't against bondage, Ygritte wanted her freedom more than any man.

"That's the price you pay if you want to be a man of the Night's Watch." Jon nods, averting his gaze to the side as Rosalie once again enters his mind. Will she ever leave his thoughts? He wasn't sure he wanted her to.

"So instead of getting naked with a girl, you'd prefer to invade our lands-", Ygritte's heated argument is cut short with Jon raising his voice.

"Invade your lands? Wildlings raid our lands all the time. Some of them tried to kill my little brother, a crippled boy!"

"They're not your lands! We've been here the whole time. You lot came along and just put up a big wall and said it was yours." Ygritte spat, nostrils flared as she took a few ragged breaths of the northern air.

"My father was Ned Stark. I have the blood of the First Men. My ancestors lived here, same as yours." Jon responds, shaking his head as he notices her calm down.

"So why are you fighting us?" And he doesn't want to answer her. Mostly because he can't. They taught him the wildlings are evil - without a soul or reason and he believed it. But how can it be when this woman seems to have soul, reason and a heart filled with emotions many southern women would never show. 

Ygritte turns and walks down the slope, unable to look at him. She couldn't understand this boy and she tried to. As an experiment of sorts. She was done experimenting for a while.