STRANGER ━ Jon Snow

TWENTY ONE

Jon paused. His mind boggled with answers he would never get. "Maia."

The blonde didn't say anything, nor look at him.

"Maia."

"Why do you love me?" She spat, almost diverting from the topic at hand. Her eyes began to focus on the candle on his bedside table. "You know that I'm keeping more secrets than I should from you. We both realize that we barely know shit about each other. All I create is chaos, Jon – fucking chaos. And yet, we're both so oddly infatuated with each other that it seems almost unhealthy."

Jon quirked a brow. "You're stalling."

Maia groaned, running her hands over her face. "I don't know how to say all of this," she responded while rubbing at her forehead. "I guess ... sometimes I feel like I'm ... not from this world."

He stared at her for a long moment, contemplating her words, before beginning to laugh. He thought her practical confession was funny.

"Why are you laughing?" She scoffed.

Jon shrugged. "I don't know. You sounded comedic. I could use that around here."

Maia shook her head, standing from his lap and dropping her rag into the pail next to his bed. She couldn't possibly continue now – he thought her to be joke. "Forget I said anything."

"Wait, Maia –"

She held up a hand, using the other to open the door to his room. "I'll see you tomorrow morning."

Jon looked away just as she shut the door in his face.

•••

Maia closed her eyes, hoping for a better night's sleep for the day ahead. She was terribly wrong to assume that.

"I need you to pay attention to me."

She stood in front of their shared flat screen TV, glaring at Derek as her arms out-stretched around the edges. Derek groaned loudly, pausing his favorite show, while a very important scene was about to play out. He looked at his soon-to-be wife with disappointed eyes.

"Maia," he sighed, "it's Sunday. You know the TV gets my attention on Sundays."

She rolled her eyes. "Do you not love me anymore?"

"Don't play the fucking guilt card on me." He scoffed, pointing the remote in her direction.

Maia placed her hands on her hips as she inched closer to her fiancé, a frown spread on her face. "I don't know if you've realized this, Derek, but we are on very busy schedules. The weekends are the most time we have together, and we haven't had sex in a month."

"What? Is sex the basis of our relationship now?"

Her mouth dropped. "I cannot believe those words just fell out of a guy's mouth."

Derek leaned close to the blonde, kissing her delightfully on the lips to hold her for the time being. His episode was almost done anyways, so he just hoped she'd be in the mood afterwards. "Now," he said, tossing her light body to the side and grabbing the remote, "Game of Thrones is almost over and things aren't looking so good for Jon Snow. If you love me, you'll let me finish."

"You're a bore." Maia seethed as she stood from the couch to walk over to their small kitchen. She looked over her shoulder, noticing Derek continue to watch his show while the familiar curly-haired bastard appeared on screen. "Maybe Jon Snow would want to fuck me more than you."

"Doubt it. He's into red-heads."

She narrowed her eyes in his direction, though he couldn't see it. She pulled out her favorite tub of coffee ice cream from the freezer and a spoon, beginning to stuff her face as the mood for sex wore off. Maybe all she needed was ice cream. Who needed a fiancé?

"NO!"

Maia swung her head to Derek, who was screaming the repeated word at their TV. She walked towards the couch and continued pushing spoonfuls of ice cream in her mouth. Jon Snow cowered to the ground on their television, suffering from multiple stab wounds. She watched as several members of his "brotherhood" (or whatever) shoved their knives into his own gut, even a little boy who she guessed was someone he trusted. They all muttered an identical phrase: "For the Watch."

"What the fuck is going –?"

Maia hit the back of Derek's head as she suddenly became interested. "Shut up!"

Jon Snow had fallen to the ground, a pool of blood surrounding him as the members dispersed. All his friends had turned on him, for an act Maia had no clue of. She knew she felt bad though, because from the bits and pieces Derek had told her about this Jon Snow character, he seemed like a good guy.

But there was one important saying that she remembered leaving Derek's mouth, and that was in the game of thrones, you either win or you die.

•••

Maia woke up gasping for breath. She clutched her chest with small hands, looking around at the cricketing wood of her room in Castle Black. It's real. It was all real, but Maia still waited for someone to come out of a door and say that it was all a prank. Though here she was, sitting on her bed in Castle Black, remembering a life she would've had before her destiny changed forever.

Maybe she was meant to have fallen into his world. It wasn't all essentially real, but there had to be reason for her to be here. And after that haunting realization of where she was at in the game of thrones, she finally realized her purpose.

She had to save Jon Snow.