𝐁𝐄𝐀𝐔𝐓𝐈𝐅𝐔𝐋 𝐂𝐑𝐈𝐌𝐄 ━━ robb stark

𝐱𝐱𝐯𝐢. ned and catelyn

❛ let's worry about fixing the problem instead of the blame. ❜

              ━━━━ 𝐑𝐎𝐁𝐁 𝐒𝐀𝐓 𝐖𝐈𝐓𝐇 𝐇𝐈𝐒 𝐌𝐎𝐓𝐇𝐄𝐑 in her tent, candles painting the room in an orange glow, reminding him of the flames that took over Talisa's body. They seemed calm, very unlike the flames that ravaged the screaming woman's flailing body, and it reminded Robb of Vhaehrys' power. She could burn an entire city down with one word. Vhaehrys could either warm his home or burn it down, depending on what you gave. It reminded him that he should be giving a lot back to her, as she had been giving her everything to him when he gave her little. He gave her his seed, she bore him children. He gave her a castle, she gave a safe place to call home. He brought her infidelity, she brought him death. 

"Walder Frey is a dangerous man to cross," Catelyn told him, telling him that he needed to convince Vhaehrys to allow him to marry the Frey until the war was over. Then he could annul their marriage and continue being the once faithful husband he was. 

"I know that."

"And you mean to do it anyway?" Robb, in turn, had been trying to convince his mother to talk to her brother for him to marry the Frey girl instead, the older man still looking for a wife, and there was an opening for him to take. 

"I love her," he was talking about Vhaehrys, of course, and was still trying to make up for his wrongdoings, and, after a fortnight, it was getting tiring for him. Vhaehrys seemed like she wasn't liking the things he brought her, the fine jewelry from the North that he had someone send him through a raven.

"I know that seems important to you. . ."

"It is important to me."

"Your father didn't love me when we married," Robb found it funny how, despite his mother knowing of Talisa's burning, she kept trying to get him to marry Roslin. Funny how she kept trying to do so as she didn't like it when his own father had bedded another woman. His mother was a hypocrite. "He hardly knew me or I him. Love didn't just happen to us. We built it slowly over the years, stone by stone, for you, for your brothers and sisters, for all of us. It's not as exciting as secret passion in the woods, but it is stronger. It lasts longer."

"And that is what would be in store for me with one of Walder Frey's daughters, what you and father had?"

"Why not?" Catelyn questioned him. "Because she's not beautiful?" Nobody could compare to the beauty his wife held, he could see that now. "Because she's not exotic and exciting?" Nobody would be as exotic and exciting as his wife, seeing that she was now a very rare person to find in the world, someone with power coursing through their veins. 

"Now you're arguing just to argue because you arranged it," Robb shot back, glaring down at his mother with his similar Tully eyes. 

"And you agreed to it. You gave him your word. Treat your oaths recklessly, and your people will do the same. If your father lived his life for one thing. . ."

"My father is dead," Robb says. " And the only parent I have left has no right to call anyone reckless. I don't want to break my marriage further than it already has." He leaves, leaving his mother to sit in silence, breathing heavily as she heaves dry sobs, head falling into her lap.

***

"YOU REMEMBER THE DAY WE MARRIED?" Vhaehrys questions Robb as she stares down at the map on the table. 

"How could I forget?" He asks her. "It was the happiest day of my life."

Vhaehrys scoffs lightly, so lightly that even her husband couldn't hear it. "I was scared to bed you, and you stopped everybody from forcing me to consummate our marriage. You were willing to wait however long it would take for me to open up to you, however long it would take for me to allow you to take my maidenhood. You waited for a year, and within that year, we learned a lot about each other. I learned what your favorite food was, your favorite place to hide as a child whenever your mother was getting you ready for a bath. We were so in love. We almost did everything together, almost attached at the hip. I sometimes long for that. I long to go back when our love was still fresh and all fairy-tale like. I long for things to go back the way things were before the war. Before Talisa. 

"But I am afraid. Afraid that some other woman would come along and steal your heart away from me. Afraid that my heart would break once more. Afraid that our children would be raised in a broken home. I don't want to live in fear anymore, Robb," Robb could hear his wife's sniffles, and walks up to her, wrapping his arms around her middle, dropping his head onto her shoulder, and burying his nose into her hair, smelling her lavender and lemon oils. 

"You won't have to fear that," he pressed a kiss to the side of her head. "Talisa just seemed so exciting then, but now, compared to you, she's nothing. She's just a mere bug in the dirt. You, however, are the most beautiful woman I've ever laid my eyes on. Your hair reminds me of silver ingots, your eyes of the most beautiful lavender flower in a garden of roses. Your skin is like the brightest star in the night sky, your smile comes straight from the Heavens, and your body was perfectly made for me. You were made to be my match. And I apologize for everything I've done to wrong you. I will crawl through the Seven Hells and back if it means that I win your heart again."

Vhaehrys turns around in his arms, placing a hand down on his bearded cheek, smiling softly at him. "And I want that. I want you back at my side. But it's going to take time, and I am willing to take however long it will until our marriage is fixed. Do you know how much I hated saying those words a fortnight ago? I hated saying that our marriage will always remain broken, but that I was willing to pretend. I don't want to pretend, Robb. I don't like living on lies." She pressed a kiss to his lips, her other hand coming around to tug at his curls. Robb pulled her into him, feeling all of the curves he longed to touch again. 

He was willing to take as much time as it needed until their marriage became whole again. He was ready for it.