come to decide that the things that I tried

[lucked]

It was the second year in a row that Claire found herself up to her knees in snow for the month of December, and Claire still wasn't sure how well she liked the change of environment. Snow had been a once every other year luxury back when she'd lived in Texas, the chill only obtainable when the family was willing to fly for a few hours until they

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[lonewolflives]

Arya did know how she felt about the change of environment: Dissatisfied. She'd been looking forward to the snow, to a slightly colder environment, something more her. Something she could actually think about in those terms.

But it had come wrapped in a city that reminded her, vaguely, of King's Landing, of her time in Flea Bottom. Nymeria didn't know how to take it, either. She appreciated the cold, Arya thought, but would have preferred it wild.

So the two of them slunk along the streets, Arya with her hands in the pockets of the breeches she'd managed to scavenge, until Nymeria tore off to circle around the smaller dog and Claire.

"Don't worry, she won't eat him," she said. "Probably."

[lucked]

"You say that, having never witnessed just how irritating he can get when provoked. I wouldn't blame her if she tried," Claire replied in turn, wrinkling her nose in distaste as Mr. Muggles tried to shake off all of the ashen slush, yapping away and hobbling around on shivering paws. Sighing, Claire bent down and patted her thigh for the dog, who eagerly leapt into the blonde's arms and grinned at the wolf from where he was nestled safely a few feet up. "But I am fond of the fuzzball, so I'd definitely prefer that she didn't. Just for the record."

Grinning, her gaze moved from Arya to the wolf, then back again. "You know, you've mentioned wolves before, but I didn't realize that she'd be so big," Claire marveled, shaking her head. "Have the two of you already scoured the city, top to bottom?"

[lonewolflives]

"She's a direwolf," Arya said, managing to inject some pride into the statement. She'd proved troubling, in recent times, in what she represented and what her actions had implied about Arya herself. But for all that, Nymeria was hers. She used to dream through her eyes. She could never turn her back on that.

"They're bigger. And we're working on it. It'll all be gone in a month, and I can't decide if that means I should work faster or not even bother."

She tried not to think about how that thought applied to so many other things in her life at the moment.

[lucked]

"Work faster, if you ask me," Claire replied with a quick shrug, glancing down the street, and then up at the roofs of the buildings that lined the block. Even if she didn't think the city nearly as pristine as London had always looked in photographics, Claire wasn't the type of person who generally liked leaving rocks unturned, and if there was anything that could encourage her to look at the city like an adventure, then all the better. "I mean, we think it'll be gone in a month... probably. But one, we don't have a guarantee of that, and two, if that's true, I feel like that just means we've got less time to get through everything. Maybe that's just me, though." She glanced back in Arya's direction, sheepish, offering a hesitant shrug.

"Not that I'm the biggest fan of this place or anything, but ignoring much of anything seems to get us in trouble a lot of the time, doesn't it?" Claire asked, tilting her head. "Even with seemingly harmless things like carnivals."