1Author note: I imagined a breakup scene and kind of wrote around it. I almost expanded it to be a longer story but I think it works better as a short fic. Also, this is a GoT world where Otis Redding exists and the more fics that use this song the better (fic title is a song title).
Short fic, 3 chapters, an exploration of reunited lovers who never got over each other.
Warning: brief mentions of past abuse
Chapter 1
Sansa sighed and reached for her tea. She took a sip then held the mug pensively between her two hands. Realizing that she was not projecting a calm image, she placed the mug back down on the table in front of her, smoothed out her skirt, glanced around the cabin of the private plane, and went back to looking out the window. It was a Stark plane, she should've been able to relax and not worry how she looked, but she found that she was better able to calm her thoughts when concentrating on her exterior image. Today was going to be life changing. She could feel it. And her nervousness was getting to her.
Arya walked over, took the seat opposite her, and opened up a bottle of water, gulping down half. She'd slept during the initial portion of their flight and didn't look quite ready for conversation. Sansa smirked in amusement.
"So are you sure you want to do this alone and not have a Stark contingent going in there with you?"
"It's a business meeting, Arya. Not a fight. And you learn a lot about people when they think you're at a disadvantage. If the first meeting is successful, I'll bring you in for the next one. I'll be fine."
"A business meeting with the Tyrells may as well be a battle, Sansa. Did you send over the final proposal?"
"Faxed it early this morning."
"Robb still disapproves. Thinks you're off your rocker wanting to do this. And I kind of agree. This wasn't what we'd planned for the Reach."
Sansa looked at Arya in an appraising gaze. She'd really come into her own since finishing law school. As the company lawyer, she was as cutthroat as any of the other lawyers and executives they've had to face down over the years.
"I know. But I have to do this, Arya. We owe a debt."
"She'll be there. Are you sure you're ready for that?"
She's the reason I'm doing this, Sansa almost said, eyes avoiding Arya's. She'd already gone over this with Robb and Arya. She was done rehashing her argument.
"Well, it's nearly noon. We'll be landing in Oldtown in about 20 min. Meeting's still scheduled for 3. Hotel first?"
"Yes. The Tyrells are all about appearances. I'll need some quiet time to freshen up and prepare."
*::::*
Margaery sat in her office, tapping her pencil against her desk. It was mid-morning and the meeting with the representatives from Stark Industries was hours away but she felt nervous. She'd done all the background, had gone over the figures, and she knew they were this close to being gobbled up by the relentless push by the Starks to conquer the Westerosi corporate world. Sansa has certainly helped turn that company around, she marveled to herself for the millionth time. The Lannisters and Baratheons never saw them coming. The Greyjoys fared better but the Freys and Boltons had their companies stripped down and sold off piece by piece. And now the Starks' sights were set on the Reach.
She spun in her chair slowly. It was partly their own damn fault. Tyrell Inc. had expanded into unfamiliar industries, tried to play the game in King's Landing, her marriage to Joffrey Baratheon a part of that effort, and found themselves outmaneuvered by the Lannisters. It was a miracle they stayed intact, even if they did have to downsize and essentially retreat back to their Oldtown headquarters. But Willas's efforts in research & development opened up a new area for Tyrell Inc. to invest in: biotechnology. Tyrell Inc. had snatched up several important contracts in the last year. The other side of their business was agriculture. The landed farmer in the Reach was a thing of the past and over the last year, Margaery and her family made efforts to unite as many of them as possible into one syndicate controlled by Highgarden Corp. It was slow, grinding work but growth was in the black and if they could only be left alone, Margaery was confident they would continue to grow.
Her nervousness wasn't just about the threat to her company, though. Sansa was coming and the thought of being in the same room with her after all this time brought a flutter to her chest that she couldn't quite shake.
Olenna Tyrell walked into Margaery's office without knocking. Her grandmother was a tough old lady, and while she didn't normally handle negotiations of this type anymore, the Starks had approached her first and Margaery knew that Olenna couldn't resist the temptation to show these Stark upstarts that Tyrell thorns were just as sharp as fangs.
"Have you seen the final proposal?" Olenna asked, tossing the folder onto Margaery's desk.
"No? I hadn't realized there were draft proposals, only that they wanted to talk with us. What have you been keeping from me?" Margaery asked, picking up the folder.
The subject line caught Margaery's attention. Project RWR. The letters stirred an old memory but she lost the edges of what it was when she continued reading through the proposal. Her eyes widened further. She looked up at her grandmother with a stunned expression.
"I don't understand," Margaery whispered.
"Don't you?" Olenna smiled ruefully. "You know, I never intruded on whatever your dealings with the Stark girl were all those years ago but perhaps that was a mistake. She didn't want you part of this meeting, you know."
"I… didn't know that. You were going to have me take lead."
"And if it had been a sincere request as I thought it had been, it would've thrown her off-balance to see you do it, too," Olenna chuckled. "But given this proposal, I think a different tactic is needed, don't you?"
Her grandmother left her office and Margaery glanced down again at the Starks' proposal. Sansa, what are you doing?
Margaery picked up the phone on her desk and connected with her assistant.
"Tell everyone who is scheduled to be in the Stark meeting that they're no longer needed. And change the location to the small conference room."
*::::* (mixed POV)
Sansa arrived alone at the Tyrell building. She strode confidently to the main reception desk and made her presence known. Almost immediately, a young man walked up to her.
"Miss Stark, we've been expecting you," he said, looking around behind her with a puzzled expression.
She coolly looked at him and said, "I'm alone, please lead the way."
"Of course, um, yes. Yes, this way, please," he replied, leading her to the elevators.
Sansa was escorted to the top floor and the young man led her through busy hallways and cubicles and into a seemingly empty conference room. The table could seat eight people at most and Sansa was confused. She was about to turn to the door and walk out until she saw the high-backed chair at the head of the table slowly spin around, revealing Margaery Tyrell.
Sansa didn't show surprise. She fully expected Margaery to be in the meeting, despite her requests to Olenna Tyrell not to include her. But she didn't expect Margaery to be alone. She almost smiled. If anyone could do the villain-reveal-in-a-swivel-chair without making it look cliché it was Margaery. It was sexy and controlled, with a healthy dash of charm, and it was everything Sansa had loved about her. But there was also a hardness in her expression that hadn't existed five years ago. Much had happened since they last spoke to each other after all. For a brief moment Sansa wondered if coming here had been a mistake.
They stared at one another for a long time before Sansa remembered where she was and why she was here. Sansa clenched her jaw and turned her gaze away from Margaery.
"So I take it Tyrell Inc. isn't interested. That's a shame considering the threat it's under from DT Corp.," Sansa said coldly, placing her briefcase on the table and walking over to the window, gazing out at the greenery. It is beautiful here. Exactly how Margaery described it.
"Tsk tsk, all business and no pleasure. Have I not taught you anything, sweet girl?"
Sansa turned sharply to Margaery but managed to keep her expression cold. Margaery was impressed. Years ago, she would've seen fire in those cheeks and she would've received an impulsive reply, something that would have betrayed Sansa's emotions. Margaery realized she needed to approach from a different angle if she wanted to reach the person underneath the business woman Sansa was projecting at the moment. And she was gorgeous, more gorgeous than she remembered. A tailored, charcoal grey pants suit over a navy blue button-down shirt, long hair loose but styled back out of her face. Margaery wondered if she still shivered when kissed behind the ears.
Margaery laughed lightly, "Come now, Sansa, it's been five years. You don't think you owe me at least a hello or a how are you? Did our friendship mean so little to you?"
Sansa's mouth opened but no words came out. Margaery smirked and stood up. She walked over to Sansa and held her hand out. Sansa looked down at it and realized she was handling this badly. She reached for Margaery's hand and gave it a soft shake in greeting.
Sansa smiled stiffly, "I'm sorry. I'm not used to dealing with people I know in meetings like this." She let go of Margaery's hand.
"Then I'll help you along. It's really good to see you. It's not the circumstances I would've liked but beggars can't be choosers."
"So now you're a beggar?" Sansa teased.
Margaery turned towards the window and said softly, "Only if you consider waiting four years for you to speak to me begging."
Sansa's throat suddenly became dry. She knew what Margaery was referring to and it was not a topic she had expected to be addressed in today's meeting.
"Why didn't you come see me in the hospital?" Margaery asked. She continued looking out the window because looking at Sansa would have weakened her courage. But she had to know. She almost died and she had to know why Sansa, the one person she most wanted to see, wasn't there for her.
Sansa blinked a few times then took a deep breath, the pang of long-buried guilt making its way into her chest.
"I did, I even brought flowers…"
"I know you brought the flowers, Sansa, I'm not talking about that. You didn't stay, you left before I woke up," Margaery snapped, thinking back to how it felt to see the vase of winter roses with no note or anything indicating it had been from Sansa. She also knew from interrogating the guards placed at the door of her room that they had been delivered by a redhead. "How did you even get into my room anyway? Security was tight after the accident."
"I… approached your grandmother as she entered the hospital to visit you and told her I was your friend."
"What?" Margaery asked, looking at Sansa in surprise. "And she just believed you?"
"I showed her a picture on my phone," Sansa whispered. "Of us."
Margaery just shook her head. "What picture?" She huffed in exasperation. She'd told Sansa many times they couldn't keep the pictures they'd taken of each other on their phones, that it wasn't safe.
Sansa got mad and went to her briefcase, bringing out her phone. She ignored the shocked look on Margaery's face. The accident had been four years ago, they'd broken up five years ago, and she still had the picture on her phone. Instead of showing her, she quickly sent it in a text.
Margaery's heart seized when the text tone of her phone played. Not putting it on vibrate before this meeting was a rookie mistake. She turned away from Sansa and slowly walked to the briefcase she'd left on the floor next to her chair. She lifted it up to the table, reaching for her phone, but she kept her back to Sansa.
Sansa couldn't breathe as soon as she heard the text tone, the familiar opening clangs of guitar strumming from the song they had danced to five years ago the last time they spoke to each other.
"Is that just for my number?" Sansa whispered.
She saw Margaery's shoulders stiffen and Sansa could tell her answer was yes. Sansa's heart began racing and she had to focus her concentration on maintaining an even breath.
There was a long silence before Margaery spoke. She had to calm herself, the picture Sansa had sent her bringing back so many wonderful memories of their time together.
"I can't believe you kept this picture," Margaery said at last.
It was the selfie Sansa took of them, her face leaning against Sansa's chin, her eyes closed in a look of sheer contentment, no mask or any of her usual artifice she'd had to employ to keep her feelings hidden from Sansa. Sansa's eyes were similarly closed and she was smiling, like she knew what Margaery was feeling in that moment. She remembered getting Sansa to text it to her back then and she'd broken her own rule over it, keeping it on her phone even after their breakup. Margaery just loved how happy they looked, like a real couple.
It was also the picture that helped lead to the car accident with Joffrey. The one that killed him and put Margaery in an induced coma. She'd deleted the picture about eleven months after the breakup but not soon enough.
Joffrey hadn't always been violent with her but it began soon after their wedding. It was one of the reasons why Margaery was afraid to leave, even when Sansa asked her to. One late night after a dinner party at the house of one of Joffrey's colleagues, they'd gotten in their car and he punched her in the face out of the blue. It had busted her lip. He'd never touched her face before and she knew the brutality that was brewing in his eyes was different. Joffrey said he'd seen the picture of her and Sansa on her phone about two weeks prior. Margaery had actually deleted it the previous week and had no idea Joffrey had gone through her phone. He would've had to look hard, she'd put it in an innocuous folder with a bunch of other pictures she knew he would have no interest in. Joffrey hadn't acted any differently during those two weeks and she still didn't know what had prompted him to confront her that night and not as soon as he saw the picture. He'd known she and Sansa had been friends, had even encouraged it because he liked keeping tabs on the Starks, but from that one picture he'd been able to tell the truth. Driving fast along the ill-lit winding country road, he'd screamed at her about what he was going to do to her when they got home, and he yelled threats against Sansa, too. Threats that Margaery had believed. She didn't even try to placate him; she let him scream himself silly while she waited for a particular bend in the road.
