Ned sat down next to Oberyn the morning after the next full moon. His entire body hurt, and he could feel Brandon's eyes on him. His older brother made no move to join him however, and Ned couldn't help but be glad.

He loved Brandon, but Brandon had the unfortunate habit of making stupid comments in other's earshot.

Oberyn's gaze darted up to him once before returning to his book. Something in Ned's face must have stuck with him however, because Oberyn soon looked up at him again, searching Ned's face for something. Ned was pretty sure all it was a few cuts and exhaustion, but Oberyn saw something.

"You look terrible," he finally said, and Ned resisted the urge to roll his eyes. That was obvious. "Why?" Oberyn asked.

Ned shrugged, trying desperately hard not to let on his nervousness. "Sometimes I sleepwalk. That makes me tired, and I often find myself running into things."

"There are potions to prevent that," Oberyn said smoothly, his tone clear that he knew Ned was hiding something. "Why are you not taking them?"

"I can't fall asleep with them," Ned lied smoothly, years of practice helping him. "Eventually I decided I would rather be a little tired and have a few cuts than lie awake at night and think about all the mistakes I made."

He did enough of that already.

The image of Lyanna screaming filled his mind, and Ned shuddered at the memory. Oberyn caught it, as he seemed to catch everything.

Ned found it odd to be around Oberyn. He seemed to know everybody, but nobody seemed to know him. Ned had tried asking around, but no one seemed to want to talk about Oberyn, or if they did, it was asking what Oberyn had done and how they were so very sorry for whatever it was.

That was Doran and Elia Martell however, and they had both been pleasantly surprised when Ned assured that Oberyn hadn't done anything, Ned was just curious and that Oberyn had been perfectly nice to him the only time they had interacted.

Ned had been pretty sure that they didn't believe him.

"I don't believe you," Oberyn said plainly, and Ned suppressed a sigh.

"I'm sorry that you don't believe me and that you think I'm lying, but it's the truth," Ned replied, surprisingly feeling only slightly guilty for his lie.

Oberyn choose to completely ignore him. "I don't think you're lying. Not telling the truth definitely, but not lying."

Despite himself, Ned couldn't resist. He knew he shouldn't engage Oberyn, everything would be so much easier if he didn't engage Oberyn, but he couldn't stop the words coming out of his mouth, "What exactly do you mean by that?"

"Well," Oberyn said, stretching out the word annoyingly. "There's a different from lying and not telling the truth. When you lie, you do for personal gain. At the very least, when you tell a lie, you don't have to tell a lie. It would be better, though probably not easier, to tell the truth. When you don't tell the truth on the other hand, even if you give a false reason for whatever it is you're not telling, you're doing it to protect. Yourself or someone else, I don't know. Don't really care beyond simple curiosity. Whatever the reason, you're doing it because you know that telling the truth would be worse in this case." Oberyn leaned back and looked at Ned with such a look of self-satisfaction that Ned kind of wanted to slap it off him, which surprised him because Ned was never one to think violent thoughts some would find it funnily enough.

Perhaps he would once he got over the sheer coldness of terror that had gripped his body and the lump of his throat that warned him that he was not far from crying. Something in his face must have warned Brandon because the next thing he knows, his brother is there standing behind Oberyn practically growling. "What the hell are you doing, Martell?"

Oberyn looks at Ned and his eyes grow soft. For the first time in the conversation, it's like he realized that Ned was more than just a puzzle. "My apologies, Ned. I won't bother you about this again."

With that, he got up and walked away.

Brandon sat down in Oberyn's old seat. "What did he say to you?"

Ned shook his head. "He didn't say anything, he just had a few questions that got a little too personal."

Brandon frowned. "I don't like him."

Ned patted Brandon's shoulder. "I know you don't. I actually kind of do. He's not the nicest, but he's pretty smart and can be nice when he wants to be. He helped me with Potions homework a couple weeks ago."

"Whatever," Brandon said, but his smile betrayed him. "Just let me know if he bothers you again. I didn't exactly believe him."

Ned nodded his consent, and Brandon got up and walked back to the Hufflepuff table. He looked down at the table. He wasn't sure what he believed about Oberyn Martell.

Forgive me for taking so long. If you wish to follow me on tumblr, I'm at salazarastark . tumblr