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Jon was not sure how it had come to this. The only thing he was sure of was that Theon started it.
It began with a party for Robb, who'd gotten into the Master's program he wanted. It was just a nice, wholesome, Stark family barbecue with a bunch of family friends and some of Robb's college friends. Then, Ned and Mrs. Stark had gone to bed, and Theon had somehow convinced them all to revert back to middle school.
They were competing to see who was able to tie a cherry stem using only their mouth.
A huge group of people, ranging in age from twelve—why was Rickon even still awake?—to thirty—Asha Greyjoy was a law unto herself—were taking part in the “competition.” They were lounging in the basement of the Stark house, mouths working furiously as each of them tried to tie a cherry stem. Theon—to no one's surprise—finished first, spitting his cherry stem into his hand with a smirk.
Jon finished his thought and caught the joke in it. Finished first. He snickered without thinking and immediately started choking on his cherry stem. His hacking coughs eventually got loud enough to catch the attention of the rest of the group, and they stopped to stare at him. Sansa, bless her, was the only one who actually did something about it. She smacked his back surprisingly hard several times until he finally spat up the stem. She rubbed his back while he panted, trying to get his breath back.
“I didn't think you could do it, but that was just sad, Snow,” Theon commented.
“What?” Jon rasped. Understandably, he was more focused on getting his breath back, so he didn't quite get Theon's meaning.
“I knew you couldn't tie a cherry stem in a knot.” The way Theon said it made it sound like a fact, even common knowledge. “I just didn't think you were so bad at it that you'd choke yourself trying.”
Jon narrowed his eyes at Theon. “I can do it.”
“It's not like it's that big a deal, Snow.” Theon shrugged, seemingly nonchalant. “You've dated, what? Three people in your entire life? And one of them's Sansa.”
At Jon's side, Sansa made a noise, indignant and questioning.
Anyone who'd gone back to working on their cherry stem paused again, looking back and forth between Theon and Jon and Sansa.
Theon ignored them. “She'll make you put a ring on it before she lets you do anything.”
Sansa growled, and Jon glanced at her out of the corner of his eye. She was also staring at Theon with narrowed eyes. However, the cherry stem in her mouth forced her lips into a pout, which muted the effect of her glare. Jon turned his attention back to Theon.
“I can do it,” he insisted. “I'll show you.” He reached for the bag of cherries on the coffee table.
“Ah-ah!” Theon exclaimed, making Jon start. “Everyone only gets one try.”
“Since when is that a rule?!”
“Since now. If you got a second chance, then everyone would want one, and we'd be here all night waiting for the losers and the virgins to give up.”
Asha chose that moment to spit her knotted cherry stem into her hand. “Fuck's sake, what are you, sixteen? You gonna talk about what Coach'll do if you skip practice next?”
“What?” Theon asked, brow furrowed in confusion.
Rickon spat his knotted cherry stem out next. He tossed a wink at a bewildered Shireen Baratheon and then turned to Theon. “She means you sound like the bully in a high school movie. Anyway, you dumped on Jon and talked shit about his girlfriend. Jon should get a second chance.”
Next to Rickon, Arya's mouth worked furiously for a moment before she too spat out a knotted cherry stem. She slapped Rickon on the back of the head. “Language,” she reprimanded. She looked back at Theon. “Anyway, Jon should get another chance, 'cause you're being a dick.”
Rickon whined at Arya's blatant hypocrisy, and Jon stifled a laugh.
“Fine,” Theon groaned. “Snow gets another chance. But the rest of you assholes only get one shot, got it?”
Asha rolled her eyes. “Whatever.”
Sansa reached into the bag of cherries before Jon could and handed one to him. He could read the look in her eyes loud and clear.
Destroy him.
He smirked slightly and gave her a single nod. With that, he plucked off the stem and popped it into his mouth, restarting the competition. The rest of the group followed suit. Dany Targaryen completed the challenge next, spitting out a loosely knotted cherry stem, Podrick Payne after her. A minute or so later, Dany's boyfriend, Drogo, let out a frustrated roar and spat out a very soggy, but still untied, cherry stem. Dany gave him a consolation kiss that rapidly turned into a makeout session.
Margaery Tyrell was the next one to spit out a knotted cherry stem, followed almost immediately by Mya Stone. Brienne Tarth simply gave up, blushing as she spat out a bent and mangled, but mostly straight, stem. A couple of minutes later, Loras Tyrell and Renly Baratheon spat out knotted cherry stems in quick succession before following Dany and Drogo's example. Grenn made an aggravated noise and spat out two pieces of a cherry stem. Shireen Baratheon came next, spitting out a loosely tied stem. She noticed Rickon watching her lasciviously, and her eyes widened in obvious confusion.
Arya smacked him again. “Quit trying to flirt with Shireen. She's an adult, and your balls haven't even dropped yet.”
Rickon made an affronted noise while Asha barked out a laugh. Just then, a vexed Robb spat out an untied stem and glared vehemently at it. Theon stood up and then plopped himself in Robb's lap.
“You just need more practice, Stark.” He lowered his mouth to Robb's.
Jon didn't know if he should be pissed that Theon gave him and not Robb so much shit or be thankful that Theon didn't want to help him “practice.”
Robb and Theon exchanged a couple of deep kisses before Asha grabbed her brother by the hair and pulled him away.
“What the fuck, Asha?” he snapped.
“You tried to make the rules for this thing, you get to be a judge.”
“Seconded,” added everyone whose mouths weren't occupied.
Grumbling, Theon crawled out of Robb's lap and dropped back into the recliner he'd vacated. Arya reached across the coffee table to offer Asha a high five. She returned it, and Robb glared back and forth between them.
Sansa was the next one to finish the challenge, spitting out a knotted cherry stem. However, Jon was pretty sure he was the only one who noticed that it was double knotted. She gave him a sly wink, and Jon's lips curled into a smile around the stem in his mouth.
The rest of the group was pretty evenly split between successes and failures. Myranda Royce, Pyp, Satin Flowers, and surprisingly, Arya's friend Hot Pie successfully tied their cherry stems. Gendry, Lommy, Missandei, Gilly, and Sam weren't able to do it, though Sam almost choked himself trying, and Gendry stubbornly carried on for several minutes after nearly everyone else was finished.
Once Gendry gave up, Jon was the only one left. A minute passed, then another, then a couple more. Jon could see that several of the people in the room had either stopped what they were doing to look at him, wondering what the holdup was, or beginning to fidget impatiently. Theon was one of the latter.
“For fuck's sake, Snow. It's over. Just give up already.”
Jon gave an annoyed grunt in response and continued to work on his cherry stem. He could do this. He knew he could. He was almost there...
Sam started in next, obviously meaning to be kind. “You know, Jon, there's really no shame in not being able to—”
Jon grunted louder and held up one finger, asking for another minute. He was so close.
Theon groaned in annoyance. “Fine! One more minute. I'm fucking timing you.” He made a show of taking out his phone and tapping the screen a few times. Jon would have rolled his eyes at Theon's drama if he weren't so focused on the stem in his mouth. Almost there...little more...yes!
He spat the stem into his hand.
“Fucking finally!” Theon exclaimed. “About time you gave up.”
“Who said I gave up?” Jon challenged. Out of the corner of his eye, he saw Sansa take a drink to hide her smirk.
“Oh boy!” Theon drawled. “It took you...” He checked his phone. “...almost fifteen minutes to tie a cherry stem into a measly knot.”
“I've gotten faster then.” Jon held his cherry stem between his thumb and forefinger, not even bothering to hide his smirk anymore.
Almost everyone in the room gaped at him.
Sansa was the only exception. She made a show of snuggling up to his side, not bothering to hide her grin. Her movement seemed to break almost everyone out of their stupor.
“That should not be possible,” Sam said decisively.
Asha wailed and threw her head back in laughter. Drogo looked impressed and gave him a thumbs up. Several of the women and a couple of the men in the room looked intrigued. Arya and Rickon looked somewhere in between impressed and disgusted. Robb looked back and forth between Jon, Sansa, and the cherry stem.
“Jon, I don't know whether to high-five you or punch you in the face.”
Theon was the only one still gaping.
Jon raised a brow at him. “You alright there, Greyjoy?”
Sansa kissed the curve of Jon's jaw and whispered, “I think you broke him.”
That seemed to snap Theon out of it enough to screech, “How the fuck did you make a seven-pointed star?!”