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[tooktheblack]

The door to Westeros was unassuming and like every other door in the hotel but Jon found that he always knew where it was and how to get it to open so it wasn't a broom closet and it was a way back home. He had been tempted a few times but had never ventured more than a few steps, just satisfying himself with the crunch of his boots against fresh-fallen snow. Today, though, he meant to go further.

Ghost was restless with having been cooped up in the hotel for weeks and while neither of them had liked the heat of the island, there had at least been the jungle to explore and hunt. The places the hotel led were stranger still and none of them that he had found so far had the kind of place he felt comfortable letting Ghost roam in, except one: Westeros. The North had always been his home and after Winterfell, the Wall and Castle Black had become as much a home as a bastard boy would ever have. It was dangerous to go back there considering his own men had tried to kill him but he thought he might journey to one of the other castles, one long abandoned due to simply not having enough men to garrison it.

Rimegate and Sable Hall were far enough away from the manned castles to be safe enough and would provide shelter should the snows grow too deep. Jon wasn't in fear of that. He was well-acquainted with how to survive in the North and knew how best to keep himself safe and warm should a storm come up. It was here that he felt more comfortable than anywhere else - be that the hotel, the island or somewhere in between. It was here that his purpose lay.

"Come, Ghost. Let's go home for a little while and see if anything has changed."

[Find Jon at the open door that leads back to Westeros, which is very snowy and cold at the moment.]

Comments

[shes_biochem]

Oh, it's freezing and it's cold and there are far too few layers on her body for Simmons to feel absolutely comfortable, but she makes her way to the door because she wants to sate her curiosity about what lies behind it. She really shouldn't spend all her time here, but every door has opened to a new and incredible place and she hates to stop when there's new discoveries.

She could really use a few more layers and maybe even a hat or something, but what happens if she loses the door? And the man next to it! He might have scores of information for her. "Home?" she interrupts, eyes bright with eagerness. "What sort of home would that be?"

[tooktheblack]

Jon had been so lost in his own thoughts that he didn't realize the young woman had come through with him and wondered, not for the first time, if he had gotten so soft during his sojourn on the island. Could he not track any longer? Not know that the footfalls beside him were that of a woman and not an animal? He shook his head a little to clear it.

"Westeros, specifically, the North. It's dangerous here. Are you aware of that? Of the danger?"

[shes_biochem]

Simmons perks up cheerfully when she's acknowledged, as if she's a girl on a school trip and has been picked by the teacher to explain the precise reason they're where they are. "Westeros, specifically the North," she makes a mental note, locking it away to make sure she doesn't forget it. "Is it? Dangerous?"

[tooktheblack]

"Very dangerous," Jon said sullenly. "I am willing to bring you through but you should recognize that danger." It was a liability, more than likely, but Jon did not intend to run across any other people while he hunted here. He thought if he skirted between Eastwatch and Castle Black, he would avoid any patrols; the Night's Watch has ever been shorthanded.

"Stick close to me, if you intend to follow."

[shes_biochem]

Simmons knows that she ought to flinch more at danger, especially after all the things that she's seen in the field, but that tiny adventurous voice that pipes up in the back of her head reminds her that there's so much to see and do and being scared won't help. "Stick close to..." Simmons perks up and grabs the nearest coat from a rack, even though it's not hers. "I won't step two feet out of sight," she swears.

[tooktheblack]

"Be careful that you don't. The snows can blow up quickly here and make it difficult to follow a path," Jon said, tone softening just a little. Perhaps he had been just a little too harsh in his assessment earlier.

"I would not want to lose someone out here."

[shes_biochem]

Simmons doesn't know how she's been so lucky to have found such an opportunity, but she can already hear Fitz in her brain telling her that it's impulsive and not very well planned at all. "I don't suppose there's a fur depot somewhere around where I can pick up something warmer?" she suggests apprehensively. "I didn't exactly dress for the weather."

[tooktheblack]

Jon always made a point to wear more furs than he needed if only because the unforeseen often happened while in the wilds. He shrugged off his heavy black cloak and offered it to her.

"This should keep you warmer than what you have right now. It isn't something I need right this moment. We can find more furs where we're going."

[shes_biochem]

Simmons blushed as she took the fur into her hands, unused to receiving such lovely things from men. Well, that wasn't true. She supposed that Fitz did give her nice things from time to time, but they're always science based and sometimes a girl just wants a fur. "Well, then, lead on!" she says, trying to bluster her way into some bravery. "Onwards to...the North," she says, pointing forward even though she has no real idea what she's doing.

[tooktheblack]

"It is a dangerous place," Jon warned her. "But beautiful, in a way. It is where I grew up and the place I will always consider my home."

The North's strange, white beauty was something he did not expect someone from the South to understand, just as he couldn't understand the beauty in a large city or a tropical clime. Beauty would always mean snow and ragged cliffs to Jon.

[shes_biochem]

Dangerous and beautiful sounded like something that they encountered every day with the job. 0-8-4s were often incredibly dangerous things, but so beautiful. Even the spark that had nearly taken her life had been so simple and perfect the first time she had seen it. "Okay," she said, nodding eagerly as she decided to dive headlong into the adventure.

"One favour? Can we not tell anyone named Leopold Fitz about this?" she floated the notion innocently.

[tooktheblack]

"Leopold Fitz? I do not know anyone called that," Jon said, trying to decide if it was a house he'd ever heard of in Westeros. It did not seem familiar but that was not all that uncommon, considering the hotel (and the island before it) were populated from people that hailed from numerous other worlds. Few of them had been from Westeros.

"What does he look like? I cannot avoid telling him if I do not know who to look out for."

[shes_biochem]

"Oh good!" Simmons says, brighter now. "How about we let him stay as a mysterious figure in the dark?" she continues, plucking and tugging at the fabric of the clothing on his torso. "We don't need to know who Fitz is," she insists, shaking her head. "Hardly for something like exploring!"

After all, she really would like to avoid getting in trouble.

[genetic_deadend]

The hotel had some advantages over the island--comfortable beds, just for a start, and actual goddamned beef and bacon that wasn't boar bacon--but Leah was starting to go friggin' stir crazy. She didn't realize how much she'd appreciated the open space until it was gone.

She'd been yanking open doors for a half-hour trying to find some place that looked like a nice wide open space she could run around on four legs for a while. So far she'd found a few cities, and a place that looked like it was covered up in fog and raining ash, to which she could only say a big 'no thanks.' Calling it a day was starting to seem like a good idea when she caught Ghost's scent in the air and followed it down the hallways.

"Hey!" she called as she jogged up to her favorite big white wolf and favorite Y-chromosome possessor. There was snow flicking through the doorway they were about to step through, which wasn't her favorite thing in the world, but it was definitely preferable to ashes and fog. "Where you going, and can I come with? I'm about to start climbing the walls here."

[tooktheblack]

"To the Wall," Jon said mildly, his mouth twisting up into a smirk of amusement. "So you may have another to climb, apparently. Westeros lays beyond this door and I mean to go be home for a little while, even if it is dangerous to do so. I thought I might make my way toward one of the abandoned castles."

His furs would provide enough shield from the wind and he brought food to sustain him; Ghost could hunt.

"It has been too long since Ghost could hunt."

[genetic_deadend]

"Oh, hardy-har-har, my sides are gonna split from laughing so hard," Leah scoffed, giving Jon a punch on the shoulder that was mostly playful. "I think can handle not climbing the like three-hundred mile-high sheet of ice so long as there's open space on the side of it I'm on. It's this damned ceiling that's starting to get to me."

She made a sympathetic noise and gave Ghost a quick pet. "Yeah, you know what it's like, don't ya, bud. Come on, let's go get some snow between our toes and bag you an elk, or whatever the Westeros equivalent is."

Leah was only wearing her usual ensemble of a tatty pair of shorts and a t-shirt, but she didn't seem concerned, as her temperature ran a nice toasty one-oh-seven and never seemed to drop. She'd never tested it personally, but Jacob had spent some time up in Canada while he was mooning over Bella, and he'd handled the cold just fine.

[tooktheblack]

"You could hunt with Ghost, if you wanted," Jon said cautiously. He did not know how Leah felt about shifting into a wolf in front of him but he knew it was something she had been unable to do back on the island. Now, in the hotel and in Westeros, there didn't seem to be a reason why she wouldn't be able to.

"I think he would appreciate having a partner for once. I get the sense that my feeble human eyes and nose are not nearly enough for him. He wants something more challenging in a partner."

[genetic_deadend]

Leah was quiet for a moment, frowning thoughtfully as she continued to ruffle Ghost's thick fur. "I kind of feel like, I need to," she finally admitted, blowing out a breath. "Like I need to run and hunt for a bit or I really will start tearing the walls down. I just don't want to gross you out. Cause it could."

[tooktheblack]

"Doubtful," Jon said with a quick smile. "There is little that can bother me at this point and I don't think my lady turning into a wolf is going to be much of an issue. I'm a warg too. Not as completely as you are, of course, but I have seen the world from a wolf's eyes before."

[genetic_deadend]

Leah wasn't sure it was the same thing but then again, Jon was probably the most honest person she'd ever met. "All right, well, I'm just saying, if this deprives me of my sex life I'm kicking your ass," she quipped, trying to make a joke out of it. "I guess I'm ready if you are...I mean, I'd rather not strip down in the hallway. The clothes don't shift with me and I'd rather not rip these shorts. They're comfortable."

[tooktheblack]

"After you, my lady," Jon murmured, motioning at the open door. "I will be happy to carry you clothes until such time as you may need them again."

It was a bit sarcastic, yes, but Leah always brought that out in him and he liked giving in to that biting edge of his wit; he spent too much time being serious by far.

[genetic_deadend]

"You're such an ass," Leah grinned, walking through the door and into the crunch of snow. "Oh, okay, cold," she hissed. The island had gotten her really used to the warmth, apparently. She glanced around quickly to make sure it was just the two of them--well, the three of them, counting Ghost--and started to hop out of her shorts and strip off her tank top so she could shift. "You really hung out in this all the time?"

[tooktheblack]

"It was my home," Jon said sincerely. "So, yes. I prefer the cold." He had missed the snow and ice of the Wall, even if the two years he spent on the island had been a nice respite from freezing his nose off.

"There are ways to keep warm in the North, Leah. Many ways."

[genetic_deadend]

"You hittin' me up for sex, Galahad?" Leah quipped, even as she tossed her shirt and shorts at him.

And, because she felt pretty stupid just standing naked in the snow, she was quick to shift. It was was an odd feeling, since she'd been on the island for over a year, but at the same time it felt annoyingly natural. Like coming home.

Leah snorted and shook out her fur, digging her paws into the snow to get a feel for the terrain before she padded over to Jon and whined softly, bumping against him with the top of her head.

[tooktheblack]

"Not right this moment," Jon said, laughing a little. The laugh died in his throat as he watched her shift from woman to wolf, dark hair and coppery skin changing into the soft gray fur of her wolf form.

"You're beautiful," he murmured, scratching his fingers just behind her ears the way Ghost often liked to be petted. "And I feel I am at a disadvantage with two born hunters by my side. I will sound impossibly loud in this forest with my clumsy human feet."