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The morning that his marriage was declared officially ended, Ned Stark was at home, his face between his now-ex-wife’s thighs. The irony didn’t strike him until later.
A Thursday evening two months previously, Ned had come home from the office to find his bags packed. Catelyn had had a hard time coping, Ned knew, since Ashara had burst back into his life with the son he had never met in tow, but Ned had never realized it had got so bad. Looking back, he could see that he had spent too much time with his former flame and love child, trying to make amends for the ten years he had not been there, and he recognized that Catelyn felt abandoned, left alone with their children while they all reeled from the news of this secret half-brother. Cat was scared, too, that Ashara would steal her husband away; Catelyn knew that Ashara was the only other woman Ned had ever been in love with, and to rub salt into the wound she looked fantastic after a decade and a son, while Catelyn felt frumpy and old, the weight left after Bran was born still stubbornly clinging to her.
And so she had packed Ned’s bags, hoping that he would fight for her, fight for them, but Ned had never liked confrontation and only wanted her to be happy, and so he left and went to stay with Ashara and Jon - which, of course, Catelyn saw as confirmation of an affair that had never happened. Obviously. Ned had loved Ashara once, a wild, all-encompassing love that had faded as quickly as it began; it was incomparable to his love for Catelyn, which had journeyed from the passions of youth to the strong, eternal bond they had now, but he wanted Jon in his life and that meant Ashara too. The only thing his life had no room for was Catelyn’s jealousy.
The Starks had never had a bad sex life. They had always been good together, almost from the beginning, which was rare, but after nearly-ten years of marriage they had mapped out each other’s bodies as well as they knew their own. After Bran, however, and with four children under the age of ten, their sex life diminished, almost to non-existence. Bran’s birth had been difficult, and Catelyn had been healing for several weeks afterward, and felt sore and battered for months after that. Additionally, with the kids and his work, they were both so tired come bedtime that it was frequently all they could do to make it into bed before they passed out. Ned had never thought the lack of sex was a problem, every marriage went through its dry spells; he had thought Cat didn’t think too much about it either, but enter Ashara and it was as if all of Catelyn’s confidence had vanished. Despite himself, Ned grew uncharacteristically angry with her, angry that she had thrown away their marriage and their family over a ridiculous fear that her husband couldn’t keep it in his pants the moment an attractive woman stepped into his vision. The lack of faith in him was astounding, and made him wonder if she knew him at all.
And so, he had gone back to his house after their first meeting with the lawyers and said all this to her – well, yelled it, really – and she had shouted back, just as angry, and somehow they wound up fucking in their front hall and to this day Ned had no idea how it happened.
He didn’t know if it was the anger or the adrenaline or the wait, but it was better than he remembered; her body was soft in contrast to her sharp nails and her rough kisses, and she left the imprint of her teeth on his neck when he entered her, her body suspended between him and the front door. The doorknob dug into her lower back, Ned saw the bruise the next time he undressed her, and he thought it must have hurt yet Catelyn said nothing. She said nothing when Ned lowered her back onto her feet, their bodies sweaty and trembling and aching sweetly, she said nothing as they redressed and she said nothing as he left; Ned thought she might never bring it up again, that it was a one-off, but then two days later she appeared at the hotel room Ned had moved into once it became apparent they were going through with the divorce and kissed him over the threshold. It had been slower, that time, closer to what Ned remembered but the red of her hair seemed to shine more brightly than before, her eyes bluer and he found himself memorizing anew the look on her face as she fell apart beneath him.
They met up regularly, usually at his hotel room, while the kids were at school and daycare. Ned wasn’t sure why they continued with the divorce as they continued to sleep together, but the problems in their marriage clearly transcended sex. Sometimes he wanted to tell her to call off the lawyers, call off the divorce, and that they would work through their problems, but then he would remember her lack of trust in him, the suspicious looks she gave Ashara and her cold attitude towards Jon and he thought that perhaps it was better this way. Perhaps they needed the time apart, and if they were meant to be, they would come back together.
Thus, the Stark marriage was dissolved as Ned brought his ex-wife off with his lips and tongue. Perhaps that’s what’s different, he mused as he pulled back. They had never spent so much time on foreplay like this; they had grown complacent during their marriage, Ned thought, and had forgotten each other. It was ironic they were learning not to take one another for granted as their union came to a legal end.
He wondered if the release of passion the divorce incurred in them both lent to the amazing sex; they both needed an outlet, after all, and as he gazed down at Catelyn, still gasping for air and her legs quivering where they wrapped around him, Ned thought this one in particular was most agreeable.
Afterwards, they dressed in silence, as they always did. It hit Ned then that perhaps this arrangement would die along with their marriage and he gave her a searing kiss as she left, fearful this was the end. Of course, it wasn’t. Whether they couldn’t stay away from each other or wouldn’t did not matter, as long as Ned got to hold her in these stolen moments, forgetting just for a second that she was no longer his wife.
Ned got his own place, conveniently located between Ashara and Catelyn’s homes, so he was near all of his children. All five of them spent the weekends with him; it made Ned glow with happiness to see Jon and Robb becoming as thick as thieves, to share tea parties with Sansa and to watch Arya holding Bran’s hand as he balanced precariously on his own two feet. Fortunately, the kids were still young enough to think nothing of it when Catelyn spent the night as well.
Three months following the divorce, Ashara propositioned Ned, and it made him think that Cat had seen some ulterior motive beneath Ashara’s pleasantries when they had first reunited, that Cat’s jealousy had been caused by something Ned was just blind to.
He didn’t tell her about the incident but when he finally got her alone the following weekend, he rolled onto his back, settling her atop him, and kissed her fiercely, his teeth catching her lower lip. His hands gripped her hips, guiding her movements, and he settled back on the pillows, face flushed with passion and his expression mirrored on Cat. Ned realized in the moment he reached his peak that he had never gone this long without telling Catelyn he loved her, and so he whispered the words into the whorls of her ear as she lay beside him. Sleepily, she murmured it back.