Gold Dust Woman ➵ Jon Snow

n i n e

PART NINE
❦

"YOU LOOK TIRED," HER BROTHER said as he inspected her, focusing on the dark, purple bags beneath her eyes.

She was in fact, tired. She hadn't slept at all the past two nights, not since she had last saw Jon— underneath the stars, in the cold northern air. He hadn't spoken to her since, he hadn't even glanced her way as Sansa and her watched the boy's practice their fighting in the dull courtyard, unusual and unsettling. She missed his wandering glances, she missed his tiny, barely there smiles that were only for her.

She was intelligent enough to know he was avoiding her. Malaena assumed he was embarrassed after being caught wandering the grounds with a lady, in the dead of the night. His father must have scolded him and now he was too nervous to approach her. The Greyjoy girl, the bad sheep.

She knew all this and yet she still felt dejected that he no longer expressed any interest in her. She spent the last two nights waiting for a note or a sign and got nothing — nothing but a loss of sleep, caused by her neurotic mind and plenty of tossing and turning. She was bound to look a mess if Theon could see a difference in her appearance, as he was as visually observant as a blind man.

"I haven't been sleeping," she shrugged, following her older brother through the spiralling halls. Oddly, he had come to escort her to breakfast. Unfamiliar to her, as he usually didn't put in any effort, or at least he hadn't since she arrived. "I don't really. Not for awhile."

"I can see that," Theon gestured to her entire appearance. "You look like absolute shit—"

"Good morning, Malaena, Theon," Catelyn Stark stood in front of the pair of siblings, raising a stern brow Theon's way, clearly hearing his language. "Heading to breakfast, are we?"

"Yes, my lady," Malaena replied politely, glaring at her older brother through the corner of her eye. "Just making our way there now? Has everyone finished?"

The woman shook her head. "No, no, just me. Everyone else is still in the dining hall."

She side-stepped them. "Enjoy. And Theon, watch your language."

Malaena stifled a laugh, elbowing a frowning Theon in the ribs.

"You could have warned me she was there!"

"I didn't know!"

The two siblings stumbled into the dining hall in fits of laughter. Heads turned to view them right away, some of them smiling themselves and some shaking their heads. Robb and Arya watched them warmly, Sansa rolled her eyes but smirked their way, and Jon sat beside his brother with his head hanging low.

"What's brought you two into this fit?" Robb question with a slightly lifted brow. "You hardly even get along."

Robb's words made Malaena frown because of their truth.