✓ | 𝑾𝒐𝒍𝒇'𝒔 𝑩𝒂𝒏𝒆 (R.STARK 1/3)

Chapter Six::Company

It was a shocking thought to consider, that most of the man at the King's side had been beaten by a young girl multiple times within the course of a couple days. Of course they were clueless to the fact that Raina was a girl, as far as they knew she was a 17 year old boy by the name of Ray, son of a simple stonemason supporting King Tommen. That was what Raina found so humorous.

She had noticed the king himself watching her train sometimes, and she had liked the thought of him keeping an eye on her, but whenever she dared look at him, his attention would be elsewhere or so would he. She hadn't spoken two words to him since the evening he had found her, which was not how she had hoped this would all pan out. She wasn't entirely sure how she wanted this to work, she just knew that after laying eyes upon her once best friend, she had wanted to at least speak to the man again, rather than skirt around each other as if they were children once more. It wasn't just the king, however, that she had spotted lurking nearby; to her utmost distaste, she had spotted the young Greyjoy hovering at the king's side, his smug face ripe for the punching in her opinion, yet all she could do about her hatred towards him was imagine the same smug face on whatever poor practice dummy had to withstand her training.

It was a dull morning, possibly several days since Raina's reencounter with the king, she couldn't be sure; all the days had merged together from the lack of sleep or altering of her routine. It had become a familiar cycle now, she would wake up at dawn like every other soldier, practice her sword fighting alone, eat briefly, practice her archery -which didn't require much practicing in her opinion- and then finish the day with a competition the men had been going at for months apparently, and had allowed young Ray to join in since she would be sticking around. And this morning was no different. Only the weather seemed to change, sometimes remaining grey clouds and other times becoming showers of raindrops splatting onto armour like dead flies. This morning happened to be good weather, according to a soldier Raina had passed on the way to an empty practice area. She seemed to like the privacy she was given at the King's camp, if she were not in the king's company she would prefer to be in no one else's. And this didn't change. At least not until the day.

Approaching the fenced off area where she was so accustomed to training, Raina found herself completely stunned to find herself having company. Leaning against one of the fences with his head hung low and sword in hand, stood an ever so familiar man whom Raina had not seen for some nights. "Your Grace," She stammered out, barely balancing as she forced herself into a bow. "I hope i did not startle you," His voice brought ease to the slightly panicked girl, relieving her that he was not on any sort of important business that of which she could interfere with. "No, of course not...did you wish to be alone?" She replied quickly, staring directly at him only to be disappointed by the knowledge that he only saw her as a simple boy, not his once closest friend. She even outranked the Greyjoy boy at one point in their lives, he was so jealous of her, he would torment her at any given opportunity. Once Robb caught him, and what a beating Theon got after that. And now, standing in front of her once beloved friend, Raina found it severely hard to believe that they were anything more than acquaintances long ago. "No, no actually i was looking for you. I've heard you've made quite the impression on my men..." He said with a smirk, pushing his body off of the fence and beginning on his approach. Blushing slightly, Raina looked down at her hands, feeling the cold in her fingers begin whilst she stood still. "I might have gotten slightly carried away when practicing..." Raina mumbled, a small smile playing on her lips once more. "No, it's good. I am glad to see you are such a capable fighter. That is why i'm here, i've seen you practicing alone and was wondering if you'd like some company?" His smile grew whilst he spoke, knowing full well that Raina would not refuse.

Sighing in defeat, Raina nodded. By the time she had glanced up the king already stood with two practice blades in hand, one extended out to her. Raina couldn't stop the sense of familiarity in this scene, remembering the days back when Robb would convince her to drop the books given to her by her mother and fight with him instead. They both knew she'd get in trouble if she got dirty, or if she missed her reading, but neither cared. They would fight for hours on end, day after day, laughing as they went and ignoring all those that tried to separate them. If only it were still like that today. Accepting the King's sword, Raina prepared her stance, ignoring Robb Stark's intense gaze that remained fixed on her. Lurching forward with her sword poised in his direction, Raina attempted at a first blow, which the king swiftly avoided with a devilish smirk playing on his lips. Swinging again, Raina was met with the same outcome, to which the King was thoroughly amused by. This time, however, Raina waited for the King to make a move. When he did, Raina dodged it as easily as he had done moments ago, gaining a soft chuckle from the Stark as he moved again. This time Raina was unable to evade his sword and found herself lying flat on her back and not entirely show how she had ended up there. The King stood over her, the same proud smile present on his face as he offered her his hand, which she took hesitantly. Raina had always been aggravated by Robb's cockiness, and she always found a swift way of ruining it.

After a continuous cycle of dodges and swings from Raina, and a couple of blows from the King, she had become tired of losing. Once the King had pounced forward for the 100th time, Raina kicked his knee, reaching for the handle of his sword at the same time and sending him crashing to the floor. Holding both swords at his neck, she couldn't help but feel proud when his smirk had vanished. Laughing at his futile cries for mercy, Raina stepped away from him, offering him her hand as he had done for her repeatedly through their training session; only this time Robb did not graciously accept it. With his smirk returning, he reached for Raina's hand and tugger her down to the floor to join him, laughing as he did it. Once he'd successfully brought Raina down, he reached for one of the swords, crawling on top of Raina and holding the blade to her throat afterwards. Holding her hands up in defeat Raina sighed, staring up at the King who now hovered above her. "You win!" She laughed, hitting his arm with the little strength she had left. Laughing with her, the King moved away the blade but did not move from his position, finding himself locked in place with his eyes attached to hers. They stayed like this for a moment, gazing at one another as if the whole world had stopped around them and neither knew why.

A/N: So sorry it took so long and i know this is kinda cliche but i promise the next chapter will be better XD