This will be a multi-chapter fic, probably four chapters for four of the prompts (while I have the next one written and it'll be publish it in time; I'm not finished with the other two, so I'm not sure if I'll be able to publish it on the day).

So this first chapter is the fill for the prompt of the second day of the Arya and Gendry Week 2014 – Forbidden.

Also as a warning, while this is a Gendrya fic, there will be more Gendry than Arya, especially for the first chapters. This is a fic about his journey to her.

English is not my first language, so I apologize for any mistakes. And I don't own ASOIAF, of course.

Enjoy!

Gendry was once again looking up to the ceiling, wondering about the fucked up world they lived in, when one of his roommates appeared and threw a package of chips at him.

"Thinking about it again," his friend said, and Gendry only nodded. "Come on, you can't be that way – it will drive you crazy."

"But don't you wonder about it?"

"Of course I do," he said, bringing his right ankle closer to him. "But I know it's meant to be, and it will happen someday."

"But what if something happens to her? How would I know?"

"I don't know, Gen, you just have to have faith that everything will work out."

Gendry rested back in the bed, with his hands behind his head, when they heard the bell rang, telling them it was time for dinner.

"Man, hide the chips under your mattress. Mine is already full with beer and tequila."

They walked downstairs to find the canteen already full with boys, with ages between two and twenty.

"Gendry was thinking about it again, Jon," Aegon said taking a seat next to their other roommate.

"Leave him alone, Aegon. We all know how obsessed you were when you got yours. Gendry just got his less than three weeks ago – he has the right to go a bit nuts," Jon said, bringing his hands to the table, where everyone could see his bandaged left wrist.

"Still maybe we should help him; we both have been through this. Don't make the same mistake as Jon, you shouldn't break up with Jeyne, she's a sweet girl and you like her," Aegon told him, both remembering how only a few months before Jon had broken up with his long term girlfriend, Ygritte. "You already did it, didn't you?" Aegon said, after looking at his face for awhile.

"Yes. She was really nice about it, she said she understood."

"Lucky you," Jon said, Ygritte had stabbed him in the leg (not deep enough to leave much damage, but still) and had burned him with the cigarette she had been smoking.

"It just didn't feel right to be with her… with it… after it happened," Sometimes Gendry wished it had been Jeyne's, everything would be simpler then – they could get married and built a life together.

"So, you two are just going to put your life on hold?"

"And you don't?" Jon asked him.

"Only last Monday, I and the girl from the coffee house hooked up," he told them firmly.

"Hooked up, that's what always is. When was the last time you went on a date or even just really talked to a girl? More than year, right?" Jon asked him, and Aegon couldn't deny it, and then Jon asked in a lower voice. "Do you even have sex without your socks on?"

"So okay, maybe I'm not moving on," he said, shrugging his shoulders. "But at least, I don't sit around and do nothing."

"I'm not doing nothing. I'm working at the Night's Watch bar."

"And I work at Tobho's auto shop. Tell me when was the last time you put your pretty body to work?"

"Shut up. I did that fishing gig like last month."

"Three months ago, Aegon."

"You too are fucking assholes," he said pushing his chair back and stood up.

"Hey! You know the rules, Aegon. No standing up before everyone has finished eating. You're washing plates tonight," said one of the oldest women, who had been working in the orphanage since before Gendry made it here.

Gendry and Jon laughed, seeing Aegon's mad face when he sat back down, and decided to turn to talk with other people at the table.

"Snow and Waters, you too. Don't dare say you weren't laughing," said now one of the men, one of the youngest.

And now the two were pouting as well, since it meant they would have to wash dishes for more than twenty kids and the adults who took care of them.

But as always, the three of them ended up having more fun than they should, while they worked quickly – Aegon washed, Jon dried and Gendry put the stuff away – and it was when Gendry was again distracted, thinking about it, that Aegon threw water at his face, with a bit of soap.

"Don't do that," Jon protested.

"Why?!"

"You'll ruin the kitchen," Jon said.

"Do you really think so, Snow?" Aegon told him, while threw soap and water into Jon's hair as well.

"Ohhh… don't do that. You can't ruin Jon's pretty hair," Gendry told Aegon, who laughed and fist bumped him.

"Good one."

"This is bullying in case you don't know," Jon protested, and both his friends just slapped him in the head.

"So how is it going? Almost done?" A woman asked, as she entered the kitchen.

"Yes, Mrs. D."

"We just put a movie on, if you want to join after you're done."

The boys did, after finishing in the kitchen. But Gendry wasn't paying any attention to the movie, wondering about other stuff, again. It was some animation movie, with a couple as protagonists, and Gendry wondered that she could be like that – like the princess, dancing, singing and wearing beautiful dresses. Aegon noticing he was distracted again, slapped him in over the head, and called for one of the youngest children to keep Gendry's company, so he would stop thinking about it.

It had been over a month since it first showed up, and Gendry couldn't stop thinking about it. So today, after Aegon came back from his four-day-long fishing gig, Gendry knew he needed to speak with them, they were changing for sleep, and while he changed his shirt, he was able to catch his reflection on the mirror – since it happened he stopped walking around without a shirt, something he used to do a lot before.

He traced it, before taking a deep breath and asked,

"What if we just go?"

"What?!" He wasn't sure which one of them asked.

"We are over eighteen. We can get out, we should be out – most orphanages kick the kids out when they turn 18, and you're almost 20, Aegon."

"And what would we do?" Aegon asked, sitting down in his bed.

"We go look for it. We find what it means."

"It's forbidden," Jon said. "It's against any Gods. The New, the Old, the Red God or the Drowned God – it's punishable."

"For fuck's sake, we have lived a fucked up life. They took my mom, when I was four – fucking four years old – the little I remember of her, it's her loosing her hair and throwing up in the toilet. Tell me what do the Gods can take for me now?" Gendry told them, he wanted to yell and punch something. "And you, Aegon, your parents were murdered. Jon, your mother died giving birth to you, and your father didn't give a fuck, neither did mine, okay. So tell me what can the Gods take from us?" Gendry asked them, and neither of them had an answer, because they only had each other. "There's someone out there who will love you. Don't you want to find her?"

"I do, I really do. But you've heard stories about the people who tried," Jon said sincerely.

"But I want to try. I can't stay here, knowing she's out there somewhere."

"She can even not be born yet, you know absolutely nothing about her. She could be happy," Aegon said.

"But she could be miserable, she could need someone," and then he looked down and continued. "I need someone," he said sitting on the floor against his bed.

"You have us," Jon said dropping his hand on his shoulder.

"Yes, Jon is right, you have us. So if you're fucking with the Gods, the only thing that they can take from you is Jon or me," Aegon said, and while Gendry had never thought about it that way, it was the true – they were his family.

But what happened after surprised him. Aegon took off his right sock, something he rarely did in front of other people, even in front of Jon or Gendry who knew what was there, and said,

"So it's only responsible of us to go with you. To make sure we're still alive."

"You, too?" Jon asked surprised. "Don't you understand it's against the law? Gods' law."

"Do you know it wasn't any of the Gods who wrote it? Men wrote it, and who are they to say what we can and can't do?!" Aegon said, before dropping his hand on Jon's wrist and mouthed take it. "And look at it, and tell me you don't want to go."

Jon unwrapped his wrist slowly, the bandage went around for many turns, before it was visible, Jon looked down and traced it, before whispering.

"It's a crazy idea... But I'm in."

So in the poorest part of King's Landing, in the room 7 of the Flea Bottom's Orphanage, three boys barely out of adolescence made a decision, to defy what the books said and follow their marks, because…

…Because in a beautiful but simple cursive writing, Jon had Joy marked in his left wrist. In cursive letter too, such as beautiful but more complicated, the name Myrcella made its way around Aegon's ankle. And Gendry could catch in the mirror the reflection of his mark, just in the top of his chest, the left side; it read Arya in manuscript writing that seemed more aggressive than any of the others – and he dreamed of meeting the girl behind it.