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[nineteenfortyfive]

Who: Claire Fraser (nineteenfortygive) & the children (Bree, Fergus, and... Theon)
What: Moving house.
When: Vague first week of November.
Where: Olympia
Warning(s): Added when needed.

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[reek]

[ He sighs deeply, because he knows she knows that isn't what this is about. ]

Do you truly believe I would still be here if it has been?

[nineteenfortyfive]

[No. He'd have left long ago. Claire frowns, looking down at Quiver. She knows what the problem is.]

They're in stasis. Sansa, Jon, Robb... I'll always leave room for them, but this place was theirs. The mansion is ours, Theon. It will be good for us both to get away from the ghosts.

[Sometimes, when she catches Bree's back in the hall with her red hair down, she has to register that it's her. Not Sansa. Sansa's been gone for a long time.]

[reek]

The mansion is yours. Leave this place to me and the ghosts.

[ He's grown fond of ghosts, perhaps because they haunt him everywhere he goes. They don't leave him like people do, and he doesn’t want to lose thee particular ghosts. What if they should never wake again? Their ghosts are all he has left. ]

I will pay you monthly.

[nineteenfortyfive]

Pay me?

[Oh, now he's done it. Her voice cracks on the words, and it hurts. She'd never make him pay her.]

Theon, please. I'm tired of always having to beg you to just... stay with me. Not the ghosts. I'm not a bloody Stark, and I can't forgive you for your mistakes, but I'm here.

[reek]

[ He finally glances up with red-rimmed eyes, clearly puzzled and a little upset by the crack in her voice. Why should she be upset by his offer? It’s what adults this world do, isn’t it? He begrudgingly payed half of the rent when he lived with Ramsay, and Maximus merely took it out of his paycheck.

But that isn’t what it’s about, and he knows it deep down. He just doesn’t want to leave. ]

Someone else will live in this place.

[ Dance around the subject like a pro. ]

[nineteenfortyfive]

[Hardly. Claire sees what he's doing. She knows his habits.]

Whether you live here or not, it doesn't change anything. They're gone. And I'm not. You know it yourself that you've been doing so much better with me. If I left here you, alone, with the dogs... I know it sounds appealing to you, but you're wise enough to know that being alone isn't good.

[reek]

[ Not yet, he thinks stubbornly. In his melancholy, it feels as though Claire will likely be the next to go. He doesn’t say as much. Of course he doesn’t. Why should he? He just strokes Alison and looks miserable. ]

You think I’m not capable of being alone.

[ Only because it’s true. ]

[nineteenfortyfive]

No.

[She promised she'd never lie to him.]

Not yet. It won't always be this way, Theon.