What was long lost

Jon

It had been three days since the Queen's arrival and she was to leave today. The Queensguard gathered in the Great Hall along with Danearys.

"The dragon is outside, your Grace," Ser Barristan said to her.

Drogon had flown to Winterfell a night ago and had stayed since. Although dragons were not used to cold, somehow he stayed. When Rickon told Daenerys that the people were scared of the beast, she only replied that the dragon was probably missing his mother.

Jon was sitting with Daenerys, Rickon and Sansa.

"You could still come to King's Landing, you know," Danearys said to Jon.

"I would try to visit, Your Grace."

Daenerys sighed and rose from her seat.

"I must go then." The others also stood and all of them made their way to the gates.

"I had a good time, Lord Rickon," the Queen said, "I hope Winterfell will always remain loyal to the Crown."

"It will, Your Grace."

Suddenly, a loud roar was heard and all of the Queensguard instinctively surrounded the Queen.

"Drogon!" Daenerys shouted and ran past them, Jon, Rickon, Sansa and the Queensguard behind her.

The great beast was in the Godswood. It was screaming and occasionally breathing fire. Daenerys was shouting for the guards to stay away. Jon looked on as one of the guards was burned alive and almost immediately every other one backed away. Just then, a hooded figure appeared from behind the weirwood tree.

"Who is that?" Sansa said, her voice already shaken from watching the dragon.

"Doesn't look like one of us," Ser Barristan said. He turned to the Queen and said again, "I'll see who it is, Your Grace."

"No, wait," she said looking in front of her, "look."

The hooded figure had came and stood in front of the dragon. Drogon stopped screaming and stayed still. Suddenly a rustle came from the woods and Ghost came out.

"Ghost?" Jon walked towards his direwolf but Rickon stopped him.

"I do not think that is a wise idea, Jon," he said putting a hand on Jon's arm.

The direwolf slowly made his way towards the figure. It let out it's hand and Ghost licked it. Jon couldn't stand in his place any longer. He wanted to know who this was. Ghost never licks any person other than me, he thought.

He walked towards the three, ignoring Rickon and Sansa's voices telling him to come back. He approached the figure and it turned. Jon suddenly felt his chest tighten for no reason. He took a gulp.

He called to the wolf, "Ghost!"

The direwolf came to him and nuzzled himself on his leg. Suddenly Drogon, who had stood there all this time, flapped his wings and soared into the air.

Jon heard the commotion of the guards but didn't turn. His eyes were fixed on the person before him, who had not even taken one step back when the dragon flew. Most people would've ran away or at least got afraid, but there was no trace of fear in the way he stood.

Jon's voice broke the silence.

"Who are you?"

The person turned to him again and slowly took off it's hood. A girl, Jon thought.

The girl had dark hair, like his own and her skin was fair. She wasn't too tall, and came almost to his shoulders. But what made Jon's eyes widen were her own, grey eyes, also like his. His eyes went to the small sword at her hip which he hadn't noticed till now.

It cannot be, he thought.

"Jon." The girl said slowly, her voice breaking with the same amount of emotion he was feeling.

Jon crashed her to his chest hard. The girl responded with the same energy, clutching onto him tightly. He took her off her feet, swirled her around and buried his face into her neck, crying.

"Arya, Arya, Arya," he murmured into her neck. Arya hugged him tighter, if possible and cried loudly.

"The Gods have listened, Arya," he said, "You don't know how much I've prayed!"

"Oh, Jon!"

They stayed in each other's arms, crying and murmuring.

They finally broke apart and Jon looked at his sister properly. Her cheeks were red and eyes puffed.

She was still skinny and little and so much like him in so many ways. Jon thanked the Gods again and again. His heart felt so full of happiness he thought it would burst.

Jon heard Sansa's voice and turned to see Rickon, Sansa coming towards them with strange looks on their faces. Arya's hand tightened just a little on his, and he gave her a smile.

Turning to to the others he said,

"She is back."

While Rickon was looking puzzled at them, Sansa suddenly registered who she was looking at, and took her little sister in her arms.

"Oh Arya, Arya," she cried.

"Arya?" Rickon's voice was one of surprise and astonishment.

Arya looked at both of them and replied smiling, "Sansa, Rickon. I missed you."

"And we missed you," Rickon said hugging her. Though four years younger, he was almost of the same height as hers, only with more build.

After talking to both of her siblings she turned to Jon,

"Where's Bran?" she asked.

Jon's face fell. "We don't know. He's still missing."

Arya didn't say anything, just looked at the three of them for a while. Sansa suddenly said,

"I'll go back, to make preparations. There must be a feast tonight," she smiled, "Our wolf is back."

And she walked away. Rickon and Jon and Arya stood there in silence, when Rickon said,

"I must go back as well. The Queen has left and then there's the body to be taken care of." Turning to Arya he said, "It's good to have you back, sister."

"You've grown," she observed.

"I had to," he said, his eyes a bit melancholy.

As he left too, only Jon and Arya remained in the Godswood. Ghost had ran off as soon as Sansa and Rickon had come. They stood in comfortable silence for a while, just loving the feeling of being near each other after so many years. Arya went and sat below the Weirwood tree, Jon slowly following and then taking his place beside her. His hand instinctively went to her hair and ruffled it, and Arya smiled and leaned onto him. He put his arm around her and pulled her close.

"What happened to Bran?" Arya asked softly.

"I don't know. No one does. He never came back."

"I thought he died, and Rickon. I had heard about them being dead. But on my way here, they told me Rickon was the lord here now. I thought Bran survived too," she said.

"They escaped separately," Jon explained, "Rickon went with a woman and Bran and the Reed children went the other way. No one's heard of them since," he finished.

"No one," she whispered.

Jon felt her shift.

"I'm glad you are back, Arya. And I see you still have Needle," he pointed to the sword still at her hip. Arya removed it from it's scabbard and took in her hands.

"It reminded me of home," she said, "of you. Though I had to put it away for some time, I couldn't lose it."

Jon sensed her fragile frame grow stiff when she said that. To make things a bit less tense, he said,

"I got myself a sword too, you know," he said, bringing out Longclaw from it's scabbard.

Arya looked at the sword and her eyes shone when Jon placed it in her hands.

"Its big," she said, her hands tracing the outline of the blade, "doesn't mean it's better than my Needle though."

She smirked at him and Jon grinned back,

"Why don't we see? Want a match?"

Arya's eyes shone with excitement and was on her feet in an instant.

"You'll lose," she teased.

"We'll see."

Both of them took their positions and charged at each other. While Jon was more at an advantage because of his height and his sword, Arya fluently moved and dodged all of his attacks. Not a scratch was inflicted on any one though. Jon tried to make her tire out, but he saw that the way she was fighting, it was not happening any time soon. It was an altogether different sort of sword fighting than he had seen. Arya moved with grace and agility. Jon was slowly getting tired. Suddenly his sword met skin and scratched Arya's shoulder, at which she winced slightly. Jon feared about hurting her and let down his guard, at which Arya attacked him and fell on top of him, pushing both of them to the ground.

"Yield?" she asked, panting.

Jon tried to get up but she had straddled him with her legs.

"That was not fair, little sister," he said, humor in his voice.

"You got distracted," she said, "I hardly had anything to do with it."

"Well, it was you who distracted me, doesn't that make you the culprit?" he said.

She laughed and rolled her eyes, and Jon took this moment to swap their positions. He pinned her hands down with one of his own, and with the other took Needle from her hand. He smirked at the angry expression on Arya's face, making her even more furious.

"Who's not being fair now?" she barked out.

He chuckled and her eyes softened a bit. Suddenly she felt cold metal at her throat.

"Yield, Arya," he said smiling.

"No!"

The blade pressed deeper into her throat but didn't cut the skin. Arya took a deep breath and closed her eyes, tilted her head up and ran her tongue on her lower lip. Suddenly the humor vanished from Jon's eyes and he stared at Arya. Her head tilted back, eyes closed. His hand on the sword tightened as well as on her wrists.

Suddenly a voice brought Jon back to reality and he got up from the ground, giving Arya a hand up. A boy was shouting their names and requesting them to come to the halls.

Jon sheathed Longclaw as Arya sheathed Needle. He looked at her and smiled again.

"I won," he said.

"No, you cheated."

"A draw then," he said grinning at her, at which Arya rolled her eyes again. He ruffled her hair again and both of them followed the boy toward the Great Hall.