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ladycatofwinterfell · 9 months ago

Text

Red roses

Summary: Catelyn receives roses from a secret admirer, prompting Ned to take up the challenge. The issue being that no one knows they’re dating yet

For the fourth year in a row I write Valentines fic <3 This is short and kinda silly, but I hope you’ll like it all the same!!

“Ned.”

He looked up from the coffeemaker to see that Catelyn had poked her head out from her office.

“Can I have a word?” she asked.

She was smiling, though something in her voice told him it was urgent. Still it could not be that urgent, they didn’t work in a particularly urgent field.

“I’ll be with you in a minute” Ned told her.

It looked like she wanted to argue, but in the end she just nodded and disappeared into her room without closing the door.

While Ned stood there and watched the coffeemaker as it painstakingly slowly filled the pot he wondered what it was she wanted. They had never spoken a lot at work when they weren’t sitting in the same meeting, and it grew even more rare after they began seeing each other outside of the office.

After what had been far longer than the promised minute he had joined her in her room with a mug of coffee in one hand.

“That might just be the slowest coffeemaker in the world, why can’t Robert just get a new one?” he said, more to himself than to her, as he pushed the door closed behind him. “What was it you wanted to talk about?”

“First of all I wanted to say thank you for the flowers, that’s very sweet” she began. “But then I also wanted to remind you we agreed on… discretion.”

Only then did he notice the vase with a bouquet of red roses that stood on the desk behind her. A beautiful bouquet, to be sure, but not his doing. If she had not bought them for themselves someone else was behind it.

“I didn’t give you the flowers.”

Catelyn smiled.

“You don’t have to pretend just because we said no affection at work.”

“I’m not, it really wasn’t me.”

Who was giving her flowers anonymously?

Catelyn’s smile faltered just a little.

“But there was a card” she said.

Everything grew more confusing with every words she said. Was the person behind the flowers also claiming to be him? Whatever was the reason for that?

“With my name on it?” he asked.

“No, but considering what it said I just assumed it was you.”

She turned around and took a small, pink card out from the bouquet, reading it again. When he reached to take it from her so he could read what it said himself she held it to her chest.

“Better not” she told him.

Then she crumpled up the delicate little card and threw it in the trash can sitting by the side of the desk.

What did it say? How bad could it be? And who was writing to her?

“I suppose I should throw away the roses too” she then said, turning back to him.

Ned couldn’t claim to be entirely happy about someone else sending her roses, but then who was he to make her throw them away? They hadn’t even put a label on it. And whoever had given her the flowers didn’t know about him.

“Keep them” he said. “Beautiful roses for a beautiful woman.”

The slight blush that crept up her cheeks was lovely. Ned had to suppress the urge to reach out and cup her face.

“I unfortunately can’t stand around in here all day, but I’ll see you tomorrow if not before then” he said instead.

“Great.”

Barely did he have time to open the door before she was speaking again.

“And also can you please start properly formatting your documents? Reading them is headache inducing.”

Ned didn’t answer to that. She had had the same complaint since they started working together, but no one else seemed to have an issue with it. Never before had he been so heavily criticised by a colleague, it was as if she wished to oppose him every chance she got. Not that he held back when he disagreed with her either.

“I might consider it if you ask nicely” he responded.

Not that she ever would.

On his way back to his own office he passed someone that was going in the other direction.

“Stark” Littlefinger said with a nod.

“Baelish.”

He didn’t nod in return, merely kept walking. Petyr Baelish’s presence in itself was hugely annoying, he wanted away from there as soon as possible.

Though after a few meters he stopped and looked over his shoulder. Littlefinger had indeed stopped by Catelyn’s office, he was leaning against the doorway in a very obnoxious way.

Of course it was him, they should have known immediately. It was no secret the bastard was interested in Catelyn, it had been obvious for a long time. But that he was not alone in, and Ned would rather die than be bested by Petyr Baelish.

~*~

Catelyn sighed when she entered her office and saw the heart shaped box that sat next to the vase of roses. She had figured out who the secret admirer was the moment Ned had left her, and decided to accept it. Petyr’s thing for her was childish, in a way. It would never happen. He was almost like a little brother.

She had wished for it to be Ned the moment she saw the roses. Even as they had agreed to keep it secret until the relationship was more… defined she had wanted Ned to be the one to give her roses. Instead Petyr had given her roses. And chocolate, it seemed. He had to know how she saw him, though he was a persistent one.

Petyr must have been encouraged by that she had kept the flowers. Perhaps it had been the wrong decision even as they were beautiful and Ned had encouraged her to keep them.

With a sigh she leaned against the desk and picked up the box. It was as red as the roses she had received the day before. And glittery at that. Flashy, one might say. She would have liked to throw it away just because, but she was weak for chocolate.

So against herself she opened the box and found a small card that was similarly shaped. When she picked up the card she expected to find writing similar to the previous day’s, but it was different. The handwriting was not the same, and the card was signed.

It only seems fair I also get a turn

Ned

He had also realised whom her secret admirer was, even as they had not talked about it. It was a secret admirer he did not like, at that. He never had and Catelyn could not understand why. There was nothing wrong with Petyr.

It was ridiculous of her to smile, still she did it. Before she truly knew him Ned had never struck her as the romantic type, though he was. She didn’t believe him to be consciously romantic, he just did certain things without thinking of it.

The chocolate was conscious, though. He was competing against Petyr. A stupid competition, he was well aware of that he had already won. He had to be. She liked his note better than the other one even as it had lacked a poem about how beautiful she was.

“More gifts from your secret admirer?”

Catelyn put aside the box before meeting Cersei’s eyes.

“So it would seem” she said, tearing the note in half.

She kept tearing the note until it would have been impossible to piece together what it had said. The pieces, just like Petyr’s card, went into the trash can. Though for an entirely different reason.

“Now would you look at the files I emailed you?”

Catelyn sighed. There was always an urgency with Cersei, she wasn’t awfully patient.

“I got here two minutes ago and my day doesn’t start for another eight” she told her. “I’m getting a cup of coffee.”

“You’re so fucking slow, how did you even get this job?”

She would look at the files once it was working hours. Before that she had a whole eight free minutes.

“You’re one to talk, this is the first time you’re on time in what? Two weeks? More?”

When she received no answer she just walked past Cersei.

No one had put on a pot yet, no one ever wanted to be the one to do it. They wanted coffee, but no one wanted to make the effort to brew the damn thing. She was almost always the one to do it in the morning.

While she was waiting for the highly volatile coffeemaker to start gurgling the few people who were there on time stuck their noses out from their rooms. The sound of the coffeemaker usually had that effect.

“You put on a full pot, right?” Jaime called.

How was both he and Cersei on time? That had never happened.

“Of course I did.”

What kind of question even was that?

Though a full pot meant it would take forever to be done. They all hated the coffeemaker, sometimes she believed that was the only thing that united them. Maybe that was why Robert downright refused to replace it.

Catelyn went back into the office to fetch her chocolates. She hadn’t had breakfast, the chocolate would have to do. It was something, at least.

While she was standing there with her gift and staring at everything but the suspicious stains on the grey carpet that covered the floor she was joined by Petyr. It was hard not to notice the way he eyed the box she was holding.

”Good morning” she said.

”Good morning” he replied.

He was good at pretending, apart from the initial looks at the box one might have not known how it bothered him. It felt almost mean.

”Did you get those on the way here?” he asked. “Strange breakfast, I mean.”

There was a choice there. She could say that yes, she had indeed treated herself to a box of chocolate on her way to work. She could also tell him that the person who had given her the flowers must have also given her the chocolate.

”It was on my desk when I came here. Do you want one?”

She held out the box towards him and after a moment’s hesitation he took one.

”Thank you.”

The gurgling from the coffeemaker died down and not a second passed before the others came to get their coffee. Ned was one of them.

~*~

Catelyn, ever the one to make coffee in the morning, had done it that morning too. And as so often before Littlefinger had been waiting for the pot to fill up with her. Ned couldn’t understand how the man wasn’t embarrassed with himself.

Before he could stop himself he walked over to them, stopping briefly to put a hand on Catelyn’s hip and kiss her cheek.

“Dinner plans still on?” he asked as he took a mug from the shelf.

He hadn’t heard of there being any reason for why they wouldn’t be one, but it was better to be certain, wasn’t it? He wouldn’t want any confusion regarding that.

“I’m looking forward to it” Catelyn said.

When he glanced at her while filling his mug he saw that her cheeks was a shade redder than usually and there was a smile playing on her lips.

“Lovely.”

He was aware of that she followed after him when he returned to his office, but didn’t stop until they were both in the room.

“Does this mean we’re official?”

His heart must have done a flip in his chest. At least it felt like that. He hadn’t considered the implications of what he had done, he had acted in the moment. He had seen Littlefinger and Catelyn and he had felt a strong need to do something about it.

Ned took a sip from his mug before he turned to look at her.

“If you want us to be” he heard himself say.

Time passed very slowly before she had given her answer.

“Then we are.”

It wasn’t harder than that. He had believed it would be, but it was easy. So very easy. He wondered how long it would have taken if Littlefinger had not given her those roses.

Catelyn was shining. Beautiful, really.

“Great.”

Immediately he regretted that. Who responded that way? Who said ‘great’ after making a relationship official? He, apparently.

“Thank you for the chocolate, by the way” Catelyn smiled. “I liked it.”

“I took a chance.”

And it seems he had hit some sort of jackpot.

#do not ask me why there’s so much focus on the coffeemaker. i do not know what happened there #catelyn stark #catelyn tully #ned stark #ned x cat #my fic

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