End Game// Tormund Giantsbane (3)

13. Say My Name

"You'd bring wildlings here through our gates?"

"Men, women, and children will die by the thousands if we do nothing." Jon corrected.

"Let them die. We got our own to worry about."

"Less enemies for us."

"Yeah, thats the spirit. which is why y'all are here. At the wall forever." Caro agreed. "Because you dont have hearts!" She declared and their was an uproar. "Oh bite me, you know I'm right." Caro hissed. This wasn't going well. The wildlings were not their friends.

"Let em die!"

"They are not our problem! Neither are you bitch!" 

"Hey lets calm down." Jon demanded. 

"You havent seen me in bitch mode." Caro scoffed as she moved past them. Tormund smiled back at her as she got closer to him. 

"So..." caro whispered leaning against the back wall. "This is going great."

"Your boy doesnt strike fear in them like im sure you do." Tormund remarked

"Do I scare you?" Caro mused.

"You could say this is what we are doing and they would listen. Jons trying not to hurt anyones feelings." Tormund remarked

"He was always my good boy." Caro agreed. "The people pleaser. I was the loud mouth little sister to Ned and I ruled the fucking world... protected them as long as I could."

"You left to be with your husband," Tormund offered.

"He was my whole world. I used to wonder all the time what would have happened if Ned just said no. No to the union between sansa and Joffrey. No to being hand and we all just stayed in winterfell."

"Saved you a lot of pain." Tormund offered. "But my people would still be in this situation." Caro nodded slowly. "And i never would have met you and what a travesty that would be." She smiled leaning into him just slightly.

"Fewer enemies." Jon offered. 

"What?"

"Nothing." Jon murmured.

"Look, well, there is good farmland in the Gift." Sam remarked.

"Land that no one uses now."

"A dozen abandoned villages. And why do you think the farmers abandoned those villages?" A crow countered

"Because the wildlings raided them for years."

"Cut them down!"

"Like you idiots are any better." Caro countered and all eyes turned to her. "You lot are mainly criminals rape murder thieves crooks. Few are good like my jon wanting to do more than just be labeled as his last name. So dont act all high and mighty. We all do what we need to. To survive." And they all thought on that for a fraction of a moment before they started yelling again.

"That was nice, sexy, you almost got them." Tormund offered. 

"Yeah right." Caro agreed sarcastically. 

"You are a good leader." Tormund assured her. 

"I was good at bossing around my brothers." Caro agreed as she leaned into him. She felt his hand drifting to her back and a small smile crossed her face. 

"Just like they did this boy's people.'' a Crow went on and Jon looked to Ollie, Ollie was no fan of the wildlings.

"Aye!" The crows agreed.

"We've been fighting them for thousands of years." Thorne declared. This was how he could get back the power, away from the bastard, away from the Starks.

"You tried." Tormund offered.

"Im not done," caro assured.

"They've slaughtered villages. They've slaughtered our brothers." Thorne went on.

"And we've slaughtered theirs." Jon rasped back.

"I will follow you anywhere, you know that. But they killed Grenn."

"AYE!"

"And they killed Pyp."

"Aye."

"They killed 50 of our brothers. I can't forget that. I can't forgive it."

"Can you forgive and forget Tormund?" Caro offered.

"I like it when you say my name." Tormund replied and caro couldnt hide her blush. "Oh I like that even more." Tormund rasped in her ear.

"You were at the Fist of the First Men." Jon remarked  "If we abandon them, you know what they become. We can learn to live with the wildlings or we can add them to the army of the dead. Whatever they are now, they're better than that." Jon begged.

+

"Thank you." Jon remarked as Ollie handed him a scroll. "Ollie... If you have something you want to say to me, say it." Jon requested as Ollie stared back at him. "It's all right."

"You don't mean it, do you?" Ollie countered. "Telling the wildlings you want to make peace. You're just doing it to trick them."

"It's not a trick." Jon corrected gently.

"They burned my village." Ollie reminded him. "They put an arrow through my father's head right in front of me. They butchered my mother, everyone I ever knew."

"I know what it's like to lose the people you love. I know this is hard for you. But winter is coming." Jon reminded him. "We know what's coming with it. We can't face it alone."

"Will there be anything else you need, Lord Commander?" Ollie asked stubbornly

"No." Jon answered softly.

+

Caro was so lost in a fantasy that she almost jumped when Tormund's breath tickled against her neck. She closed her eyes, questioning if she was imagining it all—if she was making more out of it than it was. Maybe he wasn't as close as she thought. Maybe he just breathed really hard. But then her hair shifted, and his heat pressed against her back even though he wasn't touching her. It emanated from him and she wasn't surprised that his heat reached for her.

She swayed back but still didn't press to him. She just wanted to be closer. A small hum crept from her panting lips when his beard gently scraped against the tender skin of her neck. And then a whimper when she heard him suck in a deep breath.

"Vanilla," he whispered, his deep voice like gravel. "You still smell like the sweetest things after being stuck here."

She was about to give in, press herself fully against him, dig her fingers in his hair and pull him down so she could turn and kiss him. Only a breath away from snapping.

She stepped away, and a rush of cool air raced to replace his heat, causing chills to spread down her body. She took a moment to collect herself before turning and seeing the expression on Jon's face. If he saw anything, he didn't seem to care at their closeness.

The idea of Jon knowing she was like this... with his friend... When Sansa found out about her and Tywin even though it wasn't Caros idea, Sansa lost her mind with anger. When Caro started falling for him... Gods she didn't want to fuck anything up for Jon and it sent a shudder down her spine.

She didn't want to see how he'd look at her knowing that. But when she looked over at Jon, he was walking from around the corner, eyes glued to Caro though.

She only briefly let her eyes flick to Tormund's, expecting him to be looking away but was instead staring right at her. Her glance was too fast to assess what hid in the dark depths, but now wasn't the time to stare no matter how much she wanted to.