They had instantly brought the Queen clothes and shoes, but she passed on a bath and opted for smelling like smoke during the duration of their emergency meeting. They had sent everyone who saw back to bed, and there were guards around the tent that they were in to make sure that no one would be around to eavesdrop.
"There's only one woman who doesn't burn, and she's dead." Ser Davos said strongly, eyeing Andromeda strangely. "It's not that I don't trust you, Your Grace."
"No," she was looking off into the distance, worrying herself. "No, I understand, Ser Davos." Jon walked towards her, attempting to embrace her but he was sidestepped by his wife, who was still angry at him.
"Do you have any idea whatsoever on how you're alive?"
"You should be praising the Old Gods and the New that she's alive." Jon stated, adrenaline still rushing high in his veins. "Not questioning her."
"But he's right," Andromeda disagreed, not even caring a glance his way. "Any other time, fire would have burned me. Lightning doesn't, and I suppose that's what hit my tent, but," she shook her head. "I don't know. I just want to sleep, and throw up."
Jon was at her side again, and she stiffened. "I'll help you."
"Don't need it from you," She rolled her eyes, looking at Arya. "How long was the tent burning?"
"Only a few minutes. I couldn't really tell, considering that I was babysitting my brother, who was so adamant on chasing you in there to save you."
Andromeda finally looked at Jon, who was already staring at her with those dark, pitiful eyes. "That would have been stupid, Jon."
"I would have saved you."
"You would have died, and for nothing."
"For everything. I would do anything for you." He stepped closer, taking one of her hands in both of his. "I love you."
"You know I love you too, but this is a meeting. And I'm still mad, you should still be mad."
"I could never stay mad at you, not really."
Her heart fluttered, but she was still angry as she yanked her hand away semi playfully. "Oh, shut up." She was only half kidding when she said that to him, and he stepped back. Sansa choked on her own spit, eyes wide with a sudden realization.
The red haired queen stood, her hands shaking nervously. "Andromeda, may I speak to you in private?"
"Of course." They stepped outside of the tent and passed the guards, who didn't look at them twice. "What is it, sister?" They continued walking before Sansa finally spoke up and said anything, and when she did, it was with no emotion.
"Have you and Jon been...intimate?" She fiddled with her fingers and her eyes searched Andromeda's face in the starlight.
She didn't flinch like any other noble or royal would, she instead just pursed her lips. "Twice." She expected to be shamed for not being married, but then she remembered that she had married the fool. The fool that was her fool. "Why?"
"Andromeda," Sansa breathed out softly. "When's the last time you bled?" Her mouth dropped open.
Her brows came into each other and she tilted her head at the other Queen. It was a strange one, but she knew that it was important. "I... I don't know."
"You've been sick lately, almost every morning on the boat."
"I get seasick." Andromeda said, denying what she thought she already knew.
"But you haven't bled."
"The Sisters took my cycle away." She explained, not able to look at Sansa. "No."
"Have your breasts grown?" Sansa asked her, leaning in closer when she didn't answer. "If there's anyone you want to talk to about this, it's me."
"I'm not showing." She denied again, not being able to handle what was in front of her. She knew it was coming, but not that soon, not this soon.
"Andromeda, calm down. Breathe in, it's alright."
"Sansa," the younger Queen choked out. She shook her head fervently. "What does this have to do with tonight?"
"I think that you didn't burn tonight," Sansa placed her hand softly on Andromeda's more or less flat stomach. "Is because you have a Targaryen child inside of you."
§
The men and Arya sat awkwardly in the tent, awaiting for the two queens to come back and bless them with their presence. Gendry cleared his throat, looking at Arya from across the floor.
"So, Arya." Her eyes darted up to his, narrowing upon seeing who it was exactly. "How was sailing about the world?"
"It was fine." She answered after just staring at him for a moment. "I had to cut my exploring short, seeing that my home got captured."
"Yes, um." Gendry said. "Deepest apologies." She eyed him for a bit longer with those eyes that he had missed before swiftly standing, her eyes now on the opening of the tent.
"No, no no." They heard. "Please, you can't." It was definitely Andromeda's voice, and that alone made Jon's heartbeat race as he stood up.
"Brother," Arya said, shaking her head. "She's with Sansa, let her be with Sansa." They listened to the pleads for a few minutes more before the Stark Queen waltzed calmly into the tent, looking as unbothered as ever.
"Andromeda and I will be retiring for the night." She said simply before turning her eyes and body in Jon's direction. "You can find her in your tent, Jon."
§
Jon woke to the sounds of a woman retching, and immediately he knew that it was his woman vomiting. She was hovered over the side of the bed, heaving and making all sorts of noises that he never wanted to hear. He didn't think twice before pulling her hair away from her mouth, and she just kept throwing up. He frowned as he watched, unable to help more than that.
"Do you need a maester?"
She shook her head violently. "Sansa." She vomited again, the liquid landing right in the grass and dirt, the smell hitting the air hard. He was barely even bothered by it.
"Okay, I'll send someone to get Sansa." He walked just outside of his tent, as far as he was willing to go from her, and ordered one of the guards to get his red haired sister, who Andromeda really needed all of a sudden. Sansa arrived, and Jon immediately received the boot. "I can't leave her, Sansa."
"She needs me right now, not a man." Sansa said, a little worried that she had revealed too much. But Jon as a somewhat daft man when it came to things, and while he could write a book on how to train, command, and win over an army, he didn't know a damn thing about one on one conversations with women. "Go, I'll call you when she's well enough."
Sansa walked in alone, her eyes on the Queen of Ilta, who was finally able to sit up in the bed. "I feel horrible. And I'm not even on a boat."
"I told you days ago," Sansa said. "You're with child."
"I can't be." She was wild, she looked panicked. "I can't be, not yet. I can't even take care of myself. I can't even take care of my kingdom, I can't take care of my friends. My sisters, my brothers." She shook her head, tears coming to her eyes again. "I can't. What will I do when I must sail south and you stay here?"
"You will go on." Sansa said. "You are strong enough to do all of those things. You wouldn't be here if the gods didn't think you were strong enough to do so." She dug her boots into the mud and dirt as she stepped closer to Andromeda. "You can't fall apart now, not after so long. Not after we've finally reached the goal."
"What goal?"
"You have your homeland, and the Starks have theirs. The common enemy has been obliterated, and we have no more enemies. You could be happy, you will be happy. All you need to do now is raise your children in peace."
"I can't do it without him." She said, biting her lip. "And I told him that I wouldn't."
"What makes you so sure that he wouldn't come after you, stay with you?"
"He has duty here." Andromeda's voice was sad, and she was crying even harder now, tears still delicate. "Just as I have duty in Ilta. I've already been gone too long."
"Jon is a man who will find a way." Sansa said, finally sitting on the bed with her. "Where there is a will, there is a way. And he has so much will, so much. Especially when he learns that you are," she made the pregnant motion with her hand, curving it around her stomach and getting a laugh from the younger queen.
"I hope so," she said, sighing. "I really do."
"Things will work out. It's all written in the stars for you two, a luxury the most of us don't usually have." Sansa cupped her face in her hands, looking at her intently. "But for the sake of you and the child, please just make peace with it. You're pregnant."
"I..." She breathed out. She knew it, deep down. She knew it, she just didn't want to know it then. Ignorance was bliss, but she couldn't be ignorant with a baby. She nodded her head slowly, lifting her eyes up to meet Sansa's blue ones. "I am pregnant."
§
Jon and Andromeda looked at each other in the light of the tent. There wasn't much light at all, considering that it was night outside. "You leave tomorrow." Was all he said.
"We leave tomorrow." She corrected, but deep in her heart, she knew that wasn't the case.
He grimaced, a real grimace. Whatever he was going to tell her was going to hurt, and it was going to hurt both of them. "Yes, but I won't be sailing."
She took one step closer. "What do you mean?" He wouldn't be coming with her?
Jon sighed, looking away from her gaze that was slowly turning more and more sour. "Gendry rides to Storms End at his keep, and Ser Davos is expected to come back with me."
"And where," she breathed out, getting close to a breakdown. "Is that?"
He grimaced again, already for seeing the look she would give him. "The capitol."
Her breath whooshed out of her lungs, her whole upper body deflating and falling forward a bit. "Jon, what?"
"I..." He turned from her, not able to look at the way her face dropped so suddenly, like she already couldn't stand him leaving. It would just make it worlds harder for him. "I have to get back to my duties."
"We haven't been together long, not at all."
"But I have been from Westeros and Kings Landing for a time that was close to unacceptable."
"Many lords go off to war and leave for months," Andromeda said in a whisper-shout. "This is no different."
"Well, I'm not a lord." He answered lamely. "And they don't go off for months fighting a battle for a woman that they've never seen, never really heard of. You're not part of Westeros."
"Yeah, thanks to you." She said, shaking her head. "I don't know why you can't stay a little longer-"
"And what is here for me?" He interrupted. "Tents? I can't help my people here, not now."
"How do you think I feel?" She asked. "I'm off fighting a war in an entirely different country, for you. And your sisters, who seen to be more grateful to me than you are."
He turned just his torso in her direction. "I did the same for you, not too long ago." He turned away again, frustrating her to no end.
"But now you're leaving." She said, crossing her arms. "Why are you just now telling me?"
"Because, I knew how this would go." He finally turned his full body towards her, his eyes narrowed as he grew defensive. "I didn't want you to make this harder for me."
"You should have just told me to that I could prepare!" She shouted, and clanks from armor were heard from outside the weak barrier of the tent. "I wouldn't have to be upset now if you had just told me earlier."
"I didn't want to ruin the time we had."
"We were at war most of the time, Jon. A war that would have had much more casualties if I hadn't done what I had done." She spat. "Being shamed for that is not something I liked. Especially because Sansa said that you wanted to do the same with Ramsay Bolton."
"That's not nearly the same thing, Jenny."
"Oh, but it is." She scoffed. "I knew I could take him, you knew that Ramsay was an easy kill. Same thing, I'm just a woman."
Jon's entire body tensed up at what she was implying. "I never said anything about you being a woman. You know me to not be like that, I've never been like that."
"So then there is no," she stepped toe to toe with him. "Difference."
"Why have you been so fond of Sansa for these past few days? Is there something I don't know?"
She laughed, but it surely wasn't a joyful one. "Is it wrong for me to be with my good sister? You and I are married, after all. Did you forget that?"
"Seems like you forget it sometimes."
"I could never forget that, are you crazy?"
"You know that, I doubt that you could, seeing that you know the feeling of marriage so well now that you've done it twice."
She stepped back from him, stumbling back at the low blow. "What?"
Clearly the man was word vomiting, that or extremely drunk. "I'm guessing you want to annul this marriage as well."
"You..." If there was ever a time where she wanted to punch Jon's pretty teeth out, it would have been then. Her fists clenched with her jaw, thunder rumbled, and her eyes became shades darker. "You know nothing, Jon. Not a thing about anything." She gave him one last look and stormed away, searching for someone, anyone.
§
Andromeda was awake the next morning, and she woke unhappy. She threw up again, this time nothing but water as she watched people run around the tent and pack things. Things for her, things for Jon. It was a shame that Jon had already gotten up and went somewhere, somewhere where he could probably be alone and think. That was always what the man craved the most, time to be alone and think.
Andromeda was happy to go home. She was happy to see her people, to see the sea that surrounded her home, to see her castle, to see Odda. She wanted to see everything that she had been missing out on. But mostly, she just wanted to get on and off the damn boat. They were still a day's ride away from the harbor, but they would be parting ways before they got there. Sansa and Arya needed to stay in the North, in Winterfell for a while.
"Here's a horse for your travels, Your Grace." A young woman, a stable girl said, her Northern accent obvious as she handed her the reigns of the white horse. "A gift from Princess Arya." Arya stood in line next to her own horse and Sansa, smiling at Andromeda.
Andromeda closed the distance between the two of them, the sisters that she never thought she would have. "Arya, thanks for always sparring with me and not treating me like porcelain. You were a true friend to me, and I can't think of a better role model for me."
Arya Hughes her tightly, and she returned it. "I heard about you and Jon." Andromeda wasn't shocked at all by what Arya was whispering about. Arya and Jon were as thick as thieves, and it reminded her of her relationship with Elara. "He loves you, and he's doing this for your relationship. Trust me."
Andromeda wanted to pull away to speak, but she had no idea when she would see Arya again. "How can I trust him?"
"Because you know that he would never leave you for nothing." Arya said, pulling back to look in her eyes. "You know that."
"Move, Arya." Sansa said playfully, side eyeing her shorter sister. "I'm going to miss you."
"I'm going to miss you, too. More than you could ever imagine." She laughed softly. "Not just because you took on the role of a maester."
"Oh, I know." She laughed. "Thank you for saving the North. We are forever in Ilta's gratitude. Anytime you need our help, we will always be there. I swear that by the Old Gods and the New." Andromeda nodded and said a small and genuine thanks, taking Sansa's hands in both of hers. Sansa's face suddenly turned stoic, and the sound of horse hooves pounding the ground sounded, fast and loud. Sansa didn't look too pleased by whoever was coming towards them, and then Andromeda realized why. "My brother is here."
She couldn't help herself. She whipped around, seeing Jon ride in on a brown horse, coming to a stop near the three women. He sat up on his horse, just looking down at her and not saying a word. She craned her neck up to peer at him with newly crossed arms, tapping her foot. "I really haven't all day, get off of the horse."
He sighed and swung his leg around, slowly coming off of the horse before planting his feet on the ground. He looked at her with a blank expression, just staring. Nothing was really behind his eyes as there was usually, not adoration or love. Just nothing. "I came to see you off."
"I didn't think you were coming, how kind of you, husband." She gave him a look that reminded Sansa very much of the look Cersei would give most people It was the look she would give generously with a craned neck to the side, a look of distaste.
"I came," he said simply.
"Not your greatest accomplishment." She turned to his sisters again, ignoring him to the greatest of her abilities. She honestly would have rather been seeing Ser Davos, but he wasn't there.
"Jenny, I'm sorry." She held up her hand. "No, really. I shouldn't have said that. Our last night together for a while should have bee-"
"It didn't have to be our last night, though." She breathed out before turning to him, trying not to let her emotions cloud her mind. "You know what, I'm being selfish. You have a kingdom to take care of, go take care of it. Write me if you want to, but I doubt you will." She remembered the last time he was gone as she hugged Sansa and Arya once more, good hugs, before throwing herself onto her horse. She was ignored for months when she wrote to him.
"You're riding alone?"
"Yes." She said simply. "Run along, I know you have things to take care of."
He was at her horse in seconds, holding her hand from the ground. "I'm doing this for us, for you, please remember that."
"Doing what, Jon?" She shook her head with a small smile. "It's fine. I, of all people, know what duty is."
"The next time I see you in Ilta, we'll be able to start a family." His words caused a surge in her heart, making it pound faster than she ever thought it had before. Her eyes flickered to Sansa, who looked stoic in the face but her eyes told Andromeda something different. "We'll have our first child, and I'll be there to see it."
She looked at Sansa again before looking down at Jon with a grimace. "Jon," she sighed. This wasn't the way he was supposed to know, not at all. But then again, he wasn't supposed to be leaving then. "I'm already with child."
He stumbled back a few paces, letting go of her hand in shock. "What?"
"I'm with child." She said softly, looking into his eyes. "Sansa and I think I'm already two moons in."
"How," his eyes became angry as he looked towards Sansa and back to her. "How do you know? How does she know?"
"We just know." She said, lifting her head higher. "But by all means, go to Kings Landing. They'll need you more than I will."
"Are you not even going to hug me one last time?" His voice cracked on a few of the words, his deep and serene voice disappearing near the end. Andromeda looked down at the one who she was connected to at the soul, and she couldn't help but lose her look of indifference. He looked so sad, so lost. He didn't want to leave her as much as she didn't want to leave him, and that was when she finally got off of the horse.
"Of course." He yanked her into a warm hug, one that transferred the love from his heart to hers and from hers to his. She caressed his hair with her face in his neck, feeling his pulse on her cheek. She didn't even hear what he mumbled into her ear, probably a string of 'I love you's that were as endless and pure as their love itself. She was focused on keeping her eyes closed, closing them tight enough so that her tears wouldn't fall.
"Why don't you just come back with me?" Jon joked, knowing her answer. He had known the answer since the dawn of their time together, and he had known minutes after that the answer would never, ever, change.
She knew that he knew, too. "Because, I can't shift stars for you, I can for no one." She pulled away, seeing the sad, confused, and hurt look on his face. She never wanted to see that expression on him, but she couldn't lie to him either. "But just because I won't shift things for you doesn't mean that I haven't loved you since the stars were born and made into constellations. We were made for each other, fated. And I'll continue loving you until they leave our sight, and until they turn cold."
"Andromeda," he whispered, feeling her pull her whole body away slowly, as if she was cherishing every brush of her skin against his. He watched her with an aching heart as she sluggishly climbed back onto her lone horse, eyes on him the entire time.
She tipped an imaginary hat in Arya and Sansa's direction, looking at the girls who had helped her in both of their own ways. Sansa looked near tears, the stoic red headed woman, and Arya was as strong ever. She bent her waist in a small and courteous bow, and stood with a small, happy smirk. Her eyes came back to Jon, who was looking sad enough for the both of him. Then again, he almost always looked sad. "Until the snow turns to stars and back again, Targaryen."
****
i genuinely cannot tell if i'm tearing up because this is so bad or because of the song i played while i wrote this. when i wrote this, i had something like 631 reads so we'll see if this ho grows
so, we have two more chapters to go lovelies. this girl is closing for good soon, thanks for sticking with her.
if you want more of my writing, just take a stroll down my little profile lmao