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[swiftasadeer]

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[fondofapples]

I'm all right, thank you.
I'm going to the boardwalk to get some ice cream, and I thought you might like to join me. Would you?

[swiftasadeer]

Okay.

[ A beat. ]

What's ice cream?

[fondofapples]

[ Right. Roland hadn't known either. There's a pang in her chest at the memory of another precious little face. She drums up a smile for Arya; Roland is fine with his mother and father. ]

Flavored sweet cream served frozen. It's one of Henry's favorite treats.

[swiftasadeer]

[ Considering how much snow and ice the North has, it's surprising they haven't invented something similar. ]

That sounds good. I'd like to try it.

[fondofapples]

We'll choose a place where you can sample different flavors.

I'll come get you and we can talk about my friend on the way.

[swiftasadeer]

[ Part of Arya wants to protest that she can take care of herself and doesn't need to be picked up, but it's nice to have someone bother. ]

That would be nice.

[fondofapples]

I'll see you shortly.
* * *
Regina arrived to pick Arya up not long after she disconnected. Long enough that it made sense if the girl tried to follow it on a map, but not so long that they'd miss Neil and Charlie on the boardwalk. Although instead of coming to the door, she called up to let Arya know she was outside waiting.

[swiftasadeer]

Arya looks better than she did the day she arrived; her face is clean, at least. Her hair is...less tangled, but she's always had a problem getting her hair to behave. But her face and her clothes are clean. Needle is at her side, of course (Needle is always at her side, even when she's sleeping).

"Hello Regina," she called with a small smile as she approached.

[fondofapples]

"Hello, Arya," sweetheart. Regina greeted her with a warm smile and an extended hand, that was her concession to wanting to wrap her up in a hug.

And somehow there just happened to be a brush in her handbag, for if Arya would allow it, but that would wait a few minutes at least. Between Mother and Evie's birth mother, she knew better than to value details of appearance over well-being.

[swiftasadeer]

Arya accepted the offered hand, her left hand resting lightly on Needle's hilt, mostly out of habit; she didn't feel threatened at the moment, her posture more relaxed than tense.

"So...who's your friend?" she asked after a few moments of companionable silence.

[fondofapples]

Regina withdrew the brush from her handbag and showed it to Arya. "Would you mind if I brushed your hair for you?" she asked but kept walking, and also talking. "We haven't talked very much about what our worlds are like. Does yours have magic, for example? That's important, before I explain who Neil is."

[swiftasadeer]

Arya winced a little, but she nodded and paused for long enough to let Regina brush the tangles from her messy mop of hair. "Some people say that it's magic that holds up the Wall that the Night's Watch guards," she mused after a moment's thought. "I met a man who could change his face...and a red woman who said she was a witch and could see things in the fire. A long time ago, the Targaryens rode dragons, but they dragons are gone now. Only...there's rumors the last Targaryen princess hatched three, across the Narrow Sea."

[fondofapples]

Smiling not at the wince but in spite of it, Regina took the brush to Arya's hair, but she did it gently, carefully holding it just above the tangles so the strokes didn't pull. Her own had used to turn into a rat's nest after riding, which was why and when she'd learned to braid.

"I loved a dragon once. A shapeshifter who could become dragon," Regina replied quietly, picking up the thread of Arya's thoughts. "And Neil worked for a dragon king in his world. We're both magic users, he and I. Would you like to see?"

She wouldn't probably have brought it up, but subtle Neil wasn't. If she didn't, he would, and she would rather Arya learn of their magic from her than by dragon mage babble.

[swiftasadeer]

It wasn't too bad, thankfully--Arya had been trying to keep it tidy with her fingers. And thankfully, the talk of magic and dragons was a very good distraction. "Yes," she replied with immediate, eager interest. "Yes, I want to see!"

[fondofapples]

The brush disappeared into Regina's bag as quickly as it had appeared, though the snarls had only barely been banished. This was the most enthusiasm Regina had seen from Arya and she was eager to indulge it.

Because it was her go-to and didn't draw on any tainted spells, Regina bent her arm up and then unfolded first it and then her fingers, summoning well-tamed fire to her hand.

[swiftasadeer]

Instantly, Arya's eyes widened with awe and delight. "Wow," she breathed--her immediate, gleeful thought, how much the Hound would hate what Regina could do, and how, for probably the first time in her life, she wished he was here, right now.

[fondofapples]

Since Neil had reacted much the same way, Regina thought they'd probably get along very well, but for the moment, she just grinned, because she and Arya were making another connection. Closing her fingers, she doused the fire and then held her hand close to Arya's face and conjured a line of pretty snails to crawl along her index finger.

[swiftasadeer]

"Wow," Arya breathed again, carefully reaching out with a fingertip to see if she could touch the little snails. "Can you teach me to do that?"

[fondofapples]

"Not unless you have magic in your blood," Regina replied and sent her magic snails onto Arya's hand where they'd trail down her arm to her elbow and disappear. She knew there were people who'd learned magic who didn't have any innate magic but she didn't have the ability to teach them. "Mine comes from my mother. Neil's comes from dragon fire. That's how we met, because we both do fire magic."

[swiftasadeer]

"I don't think I have magic in my blood," Arya lamented with a quiet sigh (and having no idea how wrong she was), though she smiled and giggled softly as the snails moved down her arm before vanishing. "That was amazing. Is it hard to do?"

[fondofapples]

Her mother and Zelena would know how to test her for that, probably, but Regina would have to do some research. For now, best for Arya to know, "You don't need magic to be special. It's what's in here--" She tapped her own chest over her heart and her temple. "--that makes a person who she is."

Tipping her hand to gesture for them to continue walking, Regina supplied, "All magic has a price, but the cost of that magic is small and worth the effort to make you laugh."

[swiftasadeer]

Because she agreed, Arya smiled. "Though magic probably helps," she joked a little, quietly taking Regina's hand as they resumed walking. "What sort of price?" she asked, tipping her head up to look at Regina with concern. "It doesn't hurt you, does it?"

[fondofapples]

When Arya took her hand, Regina's heart contracted and fluttered with affection for this unusual child. "The price depends on the spell. Sometimes it's an unusual ingredient, a bit of blood, life energy. But for something so innocent, it's nothing to worry over. I promise, it hasn't hurt me."

[swiftasadeer]

"Okay." Arya nodded somberly, taking Regina at her word. She'd decided to trust her, so that was that. Maybe she had more of Eddard Stark in her than she realized. "Because I wouldn't want anyone to get hurt because of me."

[fondofapples]

"We may have to agree to disagree about that," Regina replied after a long moment. "If I get hurt looking after you or protecting you, and that keeps you safe, then I've done what I'm supposed to--" as a parent. "Neil feels the same. It's part of how we became friends. In fact, it's why I wanted to surprise him tonight."