Chapter Text
Robb woke up to Theon snoring beside him. Theon had given up on the sofa bed Ned had bought and built for him and instead just slept in bed with him every night. Nobody really talked about it, somehow it felt completely normal for them, especially when Theon couldn’t sleep, since Robb would stay up all night talking to him until he finally got so tired his eyes wouldn’t stay open.
Trying not to wake him up, he got up and grabbed the first pair of pants and a hoodie he found in his closet, heading to the bathroom to get dressed before going downstairs. His mother really hated them eating breakfast in their pajamas, and he was supposed to be the exemplar child out of the mess that the Starks were.
Giving one last look to Theon, he entered the bathroom and fixed his hair in no longer than thirty seconds — Sansa would constantly ask about his “haircare routine” and Robb would just mock her saying his hair was too good to need one of those. She’d absolutely hate it—.
His jeans, which had been a gift from his father, were decorated with a bunch of stars and smiley faces that Theon had drawn on them during a long and boring physics class. Robb was actually sure Theon was intelligent, he still remembered how he aced all of his tests when they were eleven, but he used to get bored quite fast, and, instead of minding his own business, he’d draw on other people’s pants. Well, only Robb’s (not that he cared though).
When he got out of the bathroom, the typical 8 am noise that filled the Stark’s home was starting to be heard, and Robb realized his efforts to not to wake Theon had been of no use. He sighed and decided not to wake him as he walked downstairs. He could do that by himself.
— — —
Meanwhile, Catelyn was laying the table for breakfast, having cooked them a whole spread of food, as she does every morning. She really did try to give them all the best childhood she could, even if they all insisted on throwing away their prospects in life. The first to come down for breakfast was of course Sansa, promptly at 8.05 as usual. Next would be Robb, she knew, then it was a toss up between Arya and Jon. Bran would come down after those two, and finally Theon would half-fall downstairs, still half asleep and wearing clothes that definitely belonged to Robb. On a good day, he’d sit down next to Robb and eat more food in 5 minutes than anyone else had in 25, but mostly he ended up just grabbing a handful of toast and sometimes a full box of cereal and running out of the door after the rest.
Right on cue, Robb ran into the dining room and gave his mum a hug, something he did every morning, even at 18 years old. “morning, mum!” he said, overly happy as always.
“Robb, do you know what’s happened to Jon’s skateboard?” Sansa asked, “he’s full on crashing out up there, convinced Theon stole it,”
Robb laughed “he didn’t, I promise, he was with me all last night I think, and it’s not in my room… Theon can’t hide anything properly so if he’d taken it it’d just be on my desk or something,”
Sansa sighed “well, I imagine we’ll find out soon enough” and right on cue there was a massive bang from above them, and a shout of
“JON I WAS SLEEPING FUCK OFF”
Robb grabbed some toast from a plate and spread butter on it as chaos raged upstairs.
“THEON WHAT THE FUCK ARE YOU DOING?”
“I’M GETTING READY FOR SCHOOL!!”
“STOP IT!! I’M STOOD RIGHT HERE!!”
“THEN GET THE BLOODY HELL OUT OF MY ROOM BITCH”
And then with a door slam, all was quiet.
Arya came down next, her bangs cut freshly (and slightly wonky, Robb wondered what was up with her last night to make her do this). She didn’t say a word to anyone, clearly absorbed in whatever loud music was playing through her airpods.
Robb felt his phone vibrate and pulled it out of his back pocket, to see a message from Theon
Dumbass Shithead Idiot: wjere tge fcuk do u kep ur hoodjes
he smiled at the atrocious spelling and replied,
Weirdass Virgin: in the wardrobe?
Theon typed for a minute then answered.
Dumbass Shithead Idiot: NO TJE ONE I LOKE. TGE GRAY ONE NRD GOT U
Weirdass Virgin: IDK WHY DONT YOU LOOK FOR IT?
Theon was typing again, then stopped, then sent the middle finger emoji. Robb was about to put his phone away when he felt it vibrate again,
Dumbass Shithead Idiot: i foinf it wqs in brd
texting Theon was hard, he always had his autocorrect off (for “creative freedom”), and never bothered to correct ANY of his spelling mistakes, but he was always funny, and was definitely Robb’s favourite person to text.
— — —
Robb wasn’t an idiot. He knew his family was fully dysfunctional, but that didn’t mean he didn’t love them still… well, he SOMETIMES loved them still. Today was not one of those days. They were all fucking late to school and his head already hurt so soon in the morning, and of course, nobody had a clue were Jon’s skateboard was. And he was decided to make it everyone’s problem as they waited for the bus to arrive.
Now, normally, it was not a problem for them to miss the bus (one of them - usually Theon - missed it at least once a week). But today was football tryouts at 10, and Robb wanted to be there on time to practice, and to see who else would be trying out. And if they missed the bus, he wouldn’t get there until atleast 9.45. Theon was stood next to him, eating cereal out of a big box. His mother HATED when he did this, but Theon still did it anyway, mainly to piss her off, Robb suspected. He sighed, and tried not to care there were crumbs all down his hoodie. Robb breathed a sigh of relief when the bus arrived, and Jon finally shut up about his damn skateboard. They all piled on, and Theon ran as far back on the bus as he could. With the back seats being taken, he chose the two in front of them and sat down in the window seat, staring vacantly out of the window as he ate more cereal. Robb pulled out his airpods and his phone and automatically offered one to Theon, who took it and put it in his ear, before turning back to look out the window. Robb played his liked songs, and the first to play was Arctic Monkey’s ‘Do I Wanna Know?’, one of his favourite songs, and from his home city too. Theon turned to look at him and started mouthing the words to the song, a semi-annoying habit he had, which Robb secretly loved.
5 minutes later, and Theon’s head was on Robb’s shoulder as he slept again. His mouth was open and his hair in his face, and Robb smiled, staring at him. Theon had nice hair, dirty blonde and always messy as fuck, falling into his eyes most of the time. Theon also had nice eyes, grey-green and deep, seemingly full of thought, even if he knew their owner barely had 3 intelligent thoughts a day. Theon’s lips were nice as well… and so Robb was lost in thought staring at his best friend.
“ROBB!” he heard a shout. It was Jon, of course. He turned his head to look at his brother, careful not to move too much for Theon.
“what is it?”
“Did we have history homework?”
“… yes?” Robb answered “I was talking about it last night at tea… I did mine and Theon’s, you can have a look at both but DON’T copy either completely, or they’ll know we wrote them together”
Jon rolled his eyes but thanked him and turned back to his own friends, “wait give me them at lunch I’ll copy then”
Robb nodded and turned round, opening up TikTok on his phone. The change in volume and noise woke Theon, since Robb had forgotten he’d had the other airpod.
“Tired much?” he teased.
Theon rubbed his eyes, stretched, and nodded.
“You really should sleep… you know, normally”
“NOPE… IT’S PART OF THE AESTHETIC!!”
“What aesthetic?” Robb looked Theon up and down, rolling his eyes. “you’re wearing MY hoodie, MY sweatpants, which I don’t think you’ve washed in over a week, and I don’t even remember if those shoes are mine, you’ve stolen them for that long. We don’t even have the same size feet, Theon, you’ll hurt yourself”
“THE SHOES ARE MINE!!”
Robb raised his eyebrows.
“Okay, they’re your dads…”
Robb laughed. “wow, Theon, stealing your clothes off my middle-aged father now? THAT’S an aesthetic…”
Theon hit him on the arm and turned stubbornly towards the window. He spent the rest of the ride to school ignoring Robb.
The bus pulled up to school, and Theon was still refusing to talk to Robb, until he offered to let him draw on his arm in maths. Robb liked it when Theon drew on him, just stupid little doodles, but it make him feel special and like he was Theon’s favourite person in the world, which he knew he was.
“Are you trying out for footy?” he asked Theon, secretly hoping he would do.
“No, unlike you, I don’t want to spend 2 lunchtimes, 3 evenings and every 3rd saturday kicking a ball around a field with a load of other angry guys”
“Theon… you sit there for every one of my practices anyway… and I don’t think you’ve missed a game since we were 13”
“YES BUT I DON’T WANT TO ACTUALLY KICK THE BALL”
Robb sighed “If you come to tryouts you can miss english and half of chemistry, I won’t be in those anyway”
Theon smiled and said “oh… I’ll be there then, but I’m not kicking anything, or running”
“You can sit on the side… but don’t draw attention to yourself or they’ll make you go back to class”
“YESSS!” Theon cheered and jumped as he ran into school. Robb laughed as he followed, and walked all the way to his first class of the day, Biology, where he sat down in the back with Theon.
Theon had chosen all the same subjects as Robb, because he knew Robb would do his work for him, and because he knew he could sit in the back of class with Robb, playing games on Robb’s laptop, drawing on him, listening to music under his hair, or talking to Robb. Sometimes Robb even put a movie on the laptop and they watched that together. But that only happened when he didn’t need to pay attention in class, because Robb made sure to take his studying and his grades VERY seriously, unlike his best friend, who say in biology next to him, playing minecraft on his laptop, and continuing to (not-so-discreetly) eat his box of cereal under the table.
— — —
It was lunchtime, and Robb was sat on a bench at the edge of the schoolyard with Theon, who was picking apart the sandwich Catelyn had made him, removing ALL the salad and throwing it on the floor with a disgusted look. Robb laughed.
“Are you seriously going to be such a child?”
Theon looked blankly at him and flicked another piece of lettuce on the floor. They were listening to music together again, sitting just the two of them, alone. They did have other friends, who they sat with about 3 days a week, but they were Robb’s friends more than Theon’s, footy mates. And they all thought Theon weird, calling him names behind his back. They were all also convinced Theon was in love with Robb. Which was stupid, Theon was in love with girls. Robb didn’t know which girls, but some girls, somewhere. And they would probably love him back… ‘who wouldn’t?’ Robb asked himself.
“Wanna watch a movie tonight?” he asked.
“Yeah, but I’m gonna go… home?… first… We can watch one at night”
“home?” Robb was 95% sure Theon was going to do something stupid. He made a mental note to check on his mate later, but dropped it for now. Theon nodded.