This is my first Arya/Gendry fic. I hope I have done them justice. Reviews are very, very welcome.


She hears the door of her chamber open, but not even a greeting. Before she can turn around to see it is indeed Sansa (a silent and observant Sansa, a person she sometimes has problems to reconcile with the idea of the older sister she grew up with, but Sansa anyway), she has put a key and a tiny bag on the desk in front of her. Arya looks up to her sister's impassive face and raises a questioning eyebrow.

"That is the key to your new chambers," she states, her face daring her to protest.

"New chambers? This is my chamber. It has always been mine. Should I remind you it is not you ruling Winterfell? It is Jon, and Jon…"

"Jon need not know of your evening escapades to the forge and the closer your chambers are to that part of the castle, the least likely he is to."

Arya feels the heat rising to her face and starts her counterattack.

"How dare you imply…?"

"I'm neither implying anything," Sansa interrupted, "nor asking you a question. Save the lies for Jon if he ever does find out. He will be very willing to believe there is still nothing but a girl who has only lived nine name days inside of you and who wants to never marry and remain in Winterfell forever, I am sure."

Her sister is almost at the door, leaving, when Arya stands up and calls her name.

"Sansa", she breathes. It's not until they are looking each other straight in the eye that she continues, "why?"

"I won't have my sister running away from Winterfell with a blacksmith. The absence of a war after all these years has people idle enough to spread that story beyond the borders of the Seven Kingdoms and back. No, I won't have that at all."

Arya plainly stares at her thinking how absurd it is that after all this time, after all she has gone through, Sansa is still worried about what people say about them. She is about to protest when her sister resumes speaking.

"And neither will I have my sister being miserable." There is a tiny pause where Arya is certain they can both hear a silent "like I am" ending the sentence.

Sansa clears her throat and quickly regains her composure. That is something that has not changed. She has always been good at that. So much like their mother that, together with what she has just said, makes Arya feel a rush of affection for her older sister. She is opening the door now but, before she leaves, she turns around one final time.

"That" she looks at the tiny bag recently placed on Arya's desk, "is moon tea. I hope you both have had the sense, but..."

Sansa shrugs and Arya interprets she doesn't regard sense as one of her best features. And with that, her older sister is gone.