Robb wasn't sure when it was the last time he was awake. He actually wasn't sure he even was awake at all ever since he had been shot down during the battle at Oxcross. He was alive, though. At least, he thought so. He had heard voices a few times. A maester, at one point, he supposed, some of his soldiers, but neither of the ones he had wanted to hear. He hadn't heard his Mother yet. Or Dahlia. He hadn't heard them yet and he wasn't sure if it was a good thing or not. Were they still at Renly's camp? They had agreed on spending four days away at most. Did it mean it hadn't been four days yet? Or... Or had they encountered problems along the way? No... He couldn't think like that. They were alright. They had to be. They had gone to Renly's camp with soldiers to protect them, so they had to be alive.
But maybe... Maybe he wasn't. Robb wasn't sure. He had heard voices a few times when he had regained consciousness, but maybe he had heard the gods? Maybe he had died a long time ago and he just wasn't ready to wake up, yet. He didn't know. He wanted to know. He wanted to wake up already. Dead or alive, he wanted to wake up. So he tried. Gods, he tried. But it seemed like his body wouldn't let him.
That was, until he felt something in his arm. It was the left arm, he thought. A warm feeling in his arm, almost a caress. It almost immediately made him relax. He knew that touch, he was sure. He couldn't say from where, but he knew that touch. And he knew the voice talking around him too. That tone, he knew that tone. He couldn't quite make out the words, but he could tell the words were rushed, stumbling one over the other. She was nervous, he could tell. She was... That voice... Dahlia. Dahlia was there, she was back. And if she was there, than so was his mother. His mother... That was the touch. His mother was there. And so was Dahlia. He could feel them. He could hear them. They were there. They were safe. They were alive. He was alive. He needed to be alive.
Robb wasn't sure where the strength to wake up had come from, but, soon enough, he had jolted up right with a gasp and, not a second had gone by, without all three heads around him to turn in his direction.
"Robb..." Dahlia sighed, her chest heaving in relief as she rushed away from the Maester she had been talking to to kneel down beside his bed instead.
"Oh, my boy..." Catelyn cried out, her free hand moving to thread through his hair while her other continued to rub over his arm. "Oh, my son..."
"Robb, please, love... Just lay down again." Dahlia instructed, her hands pressing ever so lightly against his chest - always mindful of his wounds, of course - to get him to lay against his pillows again. "Rest, my love, please..."
And Robb didn't have the strength to argue with her. So, instead, he laid down once more, his eyes still wide open as he looked around for a moment, trying to understand what was going on.
"W-What... Where..."
"Robb." Catelyn called, her tone gentle, but her words firm. Her son turned his head to the woman on his left side and he saw the relief wash over her when his Tully blue eyes met his mother's matching ones. "You were hurt during the last battle, dear. An arrow to your chest. They say it missed your heart for some miracle."
"The maester says you've been sleeping for two whole days, my love." Dahlia said, her own voice sounding weak, weaker than Robb had ever heard it before. And he didn't like it at all. "He says... He says he didn't know if you were even going to wake up, he says..."
Dahlia let out a strangled sob, then, and Robb's whole expression softened as soon as his eyes fell on her. Raising a weak hand up, he caressed her cheek gently, smiling just a little when Dahlia nuzzled her face against his palm.
"I'm awake now, love." Robb said, sounding hoarse and broken, but he needed to assure his wife. She needed him now, just as much as he needed her. "I'm awake now."
Catelyn watched as Dahlia practically melted into Robb's touch and she smiled when her son did so as well and, knowing Dahlia was in need of some comfort ever since leaving Renly's camp, she decided it was time for her to take her leave.
"I am most glad to see you well, my son." Catelyn said, her hand running over Robb's arm one last time before she stood. "But I suppose I should leave you alone for a while."
"No, Catelyn, you... You can stay if you want." Dahlia assured, wiping some stray tears away from her face. "You can..."
"No, sweetling, no need to fret." Catelyn assured, placing a hand on Dahlia's shoulder to stop the girl from standing up. "He's been mine for eighteen years, dear. Now he's yours."
"Catelyn..."
"Besides, I'm sure you will do a fine job of informing our King of everything he needs to know, won't you?" She smiled, watching as Dahlia nodded in spite of her still unsure look and Robb smiled at her from his place in his bed. "I'll leave you to it, then."
"Thank you, Mother." Robb called as Catelyn walked out of the tent.
"Take it easy for now, dear, please."
And without another word, Catelyn was out. Robb waited for a second, but when Dahlia didn't move, he tugged her toward him a bit.
"Come here, love." He called gently, softening as soon as Dahlia climbed into the bed with his as she curled beside his good side and cried into his good shoulder. Taking her crown off her head and placing it beside them on the table nearby, Robb used one of his hands to run it over her hair. "Shh, my love... Shh, I'm here. We're together now. It's alright."
For a few moments, Robb allowed her to cry into his chest, clutching at any part of Robb's body she could reach. If he was being honest, having her weight there kind of hurt, but he could tell she had been holding those tears for quite some time now, so he let her cry. He wasn't sure how long it had been since she had started, but, soon enough, she stopped, her breathing slowing down finally, until she pushed herself up enough so she was sitting up while still facing him. Robb kept a soft smile on his lips as he watched her, but placed a hand on her leg as he allowed her a moment to recompose herself as she wiped her last tears away.
"Are you alright, my love?" He asked her gently, smiling a bit when Dahlia chuckled.
"I should be the one asking you this." She said. "You just woke up."
"Well, I feel fine." Robb shrugged - or, as much as he could shrug with his wound on the left side of his chest. "It hurts a little, but nothing I can't handle."
"I'm sure." Dahlia smirked, gigging when Robb poked her in the stomach with a pout. "I am meant to change your bandages."
"Well, that can wait." Robb said, struggling a bit to sit up a little against his pillows. He laughed when Dahlia fuzzed over him, but managed to rest his back against the pillows all the same. "Would you tell me what happened, my love? What got you so upset?"
Dahlia sighed then. Without a word, she stood up from the bed and before Robb could even start to protest, she hushed him gently, going over to the chest the maester had left at the tent to pull out all of the things she would need to change Robb's bandages. Walking back over to her husband, Dahlia sat down on his left side now - where Catelyn had been, not too long ago - and reached for the scissors so she could cut open the bloodied bandage around Robb's chest and shoulder. Robb watched his wife in silence as she worked and, as soon as the bandage was off, they both gasped in surprise.
"Robb..." Dahlia whispered, almost in shock, looking over the ugly wound in Robb's chest, just above his heart.
"Well, the gods clearly didn't want me with them yet." The man said.
"Maybe my gods listened to me, this time." Dahlia mumbled. "At least, this time."
"Did you pray for me, love?"
"I always pray for you, darling." Dahlia lifted her eyes to meet Robb's with a gentle smile on her lips as she resumed her work. "But it might have been your Lady Mother's protection wheel."
"Maybe." Robb smiled a bit, wincing just a little when Dahlia started to clean his wound with an oil.
"I thought you said you could handle this." She said, her tone teasing, but her eyes never leaving Robb's chest as she worked.
"I can."
"I can see that."
Robb chuckled then, happy to see Dahlia joking and playing around with him, but he could see she was still rather upset and he needed to figure out why that was. So, as soon as she was finished cleaning his wound - because, yes, it had hurt more than Robb cared to admit -, he decided to bring the subject up again, to see if he could get something out of her now.
"Love... Talk to me?" He asked and, in spite of the fact that Dahlia was still keeping her eyes on his chest as she bandaged him again, Robb could tell she was gathering strength to speak.
"The alliance we wanted didn't work." She said, finally.
"Oh..." Robb said. Well, that put a damp in things, but that surely couldn't be the reason Dahlia had been a sobbing mess in Robb's arms just moments before. "Well, that..."
"Actually, it did work." Dahlia corrected herself, still refusing to meet Robb's eyes. "Renly accepted working with us. But... But before we could do much else, he... I mean he... He was killed."
"Killed?" Robb frowned, surprised. "By whom?"
"Hum, I... I know it will sound crazy and you probably won't believe me, but..."
"I will never doubt you, my love." Robb assured and he felt his heart soaring at the small smile that appeared in Dahlia's lips.
"A shadow." She said, her eyes finally meeting Robb's as the man tried his best not to show his true reaction to those words. "I swear it, Robb. By the old gods and the new, I swear it. A shadow killed Renly."
Well, that was not what Robb had been expecting and he wasn't sure how much of this he actually believed in, but he had promised his wife. Besides, she looked so anxious, he knew she couldn't be lying. So he just nodded.
"Well, what killed him doesn't matter, really. What matters is that... We don't have an alliance." He said, watching as Dahlia nodded, finishing with his bandages. "And Lady Margaery? An alliance with the Tyrells would be as beneficial as the one we would have formed with Renly."
"I couldn't reach her after Renly's death." Dahlia admitted, her voice low as she stood up with the remains of the bandages to put them all back on the maester's chest. "He was killed when your mother and I were in the tent with him. Lady Brienne too. Surely enough his guards thought we were to blame so they attacked, of course. My guards... They, hum... They protect us. Perwyn... I... Lady Brienne helped us escape and she rode with us back to camp."
And just by the way her words sound broken, the way she refused to elaborate on her brother, the way she kept her back turned to Robb as she talked... He didn't need much more to know what had happened and, suddenly, all the tears from before started to make much more sense.
"Love..."
"Well, never mind them." Dahlia said, interrupting the speech she knew would be coming from Robb as she turned around and made her way to Robb's bed again, as she sat down. "Margaery would have never joined us. Not with me already married to you. She wanted to be a Queen and here, she knew she wouldn't get it. I suppose she might be heading to King's Landing with the Tyrell forces. Might force her way into a marriage with Joffrey now."
"Joffrey is promised to my sister."
"Your sister is a girl. A beautiful one, no doubt, but a girl. She's what? Fourteen you said?" Dahlia said. "Margaery is a woman grown now. Older than me, she is. I'm sure she would spark much more interest in Joffrey. Besides, if she manages it, then at least it means your sister doesn't have to marry the wretched King, right?"
"I suppose." Robb nodded. "But it would also mean the Lannisters would have the Tyrells."
"Yes. At King's Landing." Dahlia said. "And when we march there to take the Red Keep from the lions, I assure you, the rest of the Lannisters will be already buried six feet under."
"You think so?" Robb smiled at his wife's encouraging words and more so when she nodded.
"I know so."
"How?"
"Because you are the one leading the charge, my King." She smirked and, just like that, Robb understood everything he needed to know.
She knew what she was doing, so when he pulled Dahlia's head toward his so he could press their lips together in a searing kiss, he knew she was half-expecting it anyway.
"I have missed you so much." Robb mumbled, almost in a trance for the woman - because, yes, she was a woman now, a Queen, his Queen - in front of him as she hummed sweetly against his neck - the side of it that wasn't covered in bandages. "So much. Don't leave me."
"You were the one who sent me away, your Grace." Dahlia smirked down at him as she locked her eyes with his - full blown with love and desire, much like on their wedding night. And, at the sight in front of him, Robb knew he was a goner.
Reaching for her face, Robb held both of Dahlia's cheeks in his palms as he kept his eyes on hers.
"I shall never do it again."
And, without another word, he pulled her into him again. They kissed and kissed and kissed until Robb started to shuffle down on the bed so his head was laying against the pillows again as he tugged Dahlia impossibly close to him.
"We shouldn't." She said, but she looked the opposite of what her words said. Messy hair, red lips, wide eyes, breathless voice... "Not with you hurt like that."
"I'm sure we can find a way." Robb smirked just slightly, but it soon faltered when Dahlia returned the gesture and started to undo the corset of her dress.
"I just did your bandages, your Grace." She whispered, but Robb just groaned, pulling her over him so she was straddling his lap now.
"You can redo them just as fine, my Queen." He said and smiled, pleased with himself when Dahlia let out a small whimper.
"Very well." She decided, throwing her corset aside as she looked down at her husband with her deep brown eyes. "Let me do it, though."
And at that request, Robb couldn't help but grin.
"Your wish is my command, my Queen."
***
"Do you want to have Olyvar in your Guard now, love?" Robb asked, his voice gentle as if talking to a scared animal. And, really, the situation wasn't too far off, considering Dahlia had just told him what had happened to Perwyn back at Renly's camp as she laid beside her husband, her sweaty skin touching his in a way that brought him more comfort than anything Robb had ever experienced in his life. "I could realise him from his duties as my squire if you so wish."
"No." Dahlia shook her head then, a small smile playing on her lips as she drew slow patterns on Robb's exposed skin under the furs. "He enjoys being your squire and he wants to be a Knight someday. I'd never ask him to abandon his dream for me."
"Well, we still have to figure out a new Queen's Guard for you." Robb said, after nodding his head at his wife's words. "You'll be naming Willaman as your commander now?"
"I... I don't know." Dahlia admitted After all, yes, that was the obvious choice, but Perwyn had been the commander of her Queen's Guard when he died so what happened if she named Willaman commander only to have him killed as well? She couldn't have it. She couldn't lose another brother. "I... I haven't really thought of that yet, I..."
"Of course." Robb interrupted her as soon as he noticed how tense Dahlia had grown in his arms. Turning his head a little, he placed a little kiss to the top of her head. "Of course, my love. I'm sorry. And I am terribly sorry for your brother."
"Thank you." Dahlia smiled a little, lifting her head, so she could meet Robb's eye midway. "He had grown to truly respect you, you know? Not just as a King, but as a man."
"Your brother was a brave man." Robb said, the memories of fighting with him at Whispering Woods replaying in his head. "And a very skilled fighter. I didn't know him personally, but I wish I could."
"You would've been good friends, I know it." Dahlia said, a bittersweet smile playing on her lips as Robb just hummed down at her. "You have the same dorky sense of humour."
"Dorky, you say?" Robb teased, his lips tugging up at the ends as Dahlia just giggled.
"Yes, dorky." She nodded, squealing when Robb tickled her sides. "Robb! Robb, no! Stop!"
Robb just laughed, continuing to tickle her mercilessly until he had rolled over her and they were back at a rather familiar position now, with Dahlia laying against his pillows as Robb hovered over her, their skin touching one another's as much as possible and their eyes burning deep into each other. Robb stopped for a moment then, watching as Dahlia's chest rose and fell rapidly as she tried to even her breathing after his tickling. He watched as her smile took over her face and as her eyes sparkled with joy. She looked so pretty like this and Robb counted himself lucky for being the only one to ever see her like that. So vulnerable, so delicate, so beautiful.
He leaned down then meaning to catch her lips in his again for another kiss, but, before he could, Dahlia was placing her hands in his chest and pushing him off of her, gently.
"You shouldn't be straining so much, love." She said, clearly trying to get him to lay down again. "You're still hurt."
"I feel fine." Robb protested, only causing Dahlia to roll her eyes with a smile and push him off enough so he fell back against the pillows again.
"You're still hurt." She repeated. "And you need to rest."
"Come here, then." Robb called, pulling Dahlia back into him to tuck her into his side again as he laid against the pillows once more. "Give me a kiss."
Smirking a little, Dahlia lifted her head to meet Robb's.
"At once, your Grace."
And Robb almost groaned at the title, but stopped himself, before he could so he would, instead, enjoy what was about to happen. Unfortunately, however, the kiss didn't come. Instead, a voice called from outside the tent and Dahlia sighed quietly, dropping her head back into Robb's chest.
"Your Grace?" Someone called and Dahlia was fairly certain it was the voice of Roose Bolton.
"One moment." Robb called back, making move to get up, only to have Dahlia click her tongue at him as she shook her head.
"No way." She said. "You stay there. I'll see to Lord Bolton."
"But..."
"No." Dahlia interrupted him, before he could even start protesting. She stood up from the bed then, quickly finding her underdress on the floor near the bed and grabbing one of Robb's heavy cloaks to throw it over it all. Throwing a dress shirt to Robb, she sent him a smile as well. "You can put this one, if it makes it any better, but you stay put."
Reaching for her crown, Dahlia tried, as quickly as possible, to make her hair look presentable, but after the mess they had made of it earlier, Robb was proud to say she hadn't truly managed it. Still, she put on her crown and as she made her way away from their bed and toward the entrance of the tent, Robb couldn't help but admire just how regal she looked.
"Your Grace." Lord Bolton cutisied as soon as Dahlia pulled open the flap of their tent.
"My Lord." She responded with a slight tilt of her own head.
"I apologize for the intromission, but a raven came." Lord Bolton said, and, just like that, Robb's attention peaked. But nothing in this world would be able to prepare him for the next words that came from Roose Bolton is his usual deep, dark, monotonous tone. "Word from Winterfell."