The frustration and sorrow rising up within Arya was so strong she felt as if she would drown. It was stronger than hate, stronger than fear, stronger even than the thirst for revenge. The feeling stung at her in an utterly new way, like the touch of fingers of dancing flames making her innards raw. Tears blurred her sight as she turned away from him, but she bit her lip, willing herself to stop. "The wolf never cries" she told herself.

Then she heard Gendry speak again. "I've never had a family", he murmured sadly. The flames burned ivory hot inside her and Arya whipped around. "I can be your family!" she heard herself saying. Then Gendry smiled and all Arya could see was the gently mocking gleam in his eyes. But still she stared him down. "You wouldn't be my family, you would be m'lady."

For a minute Arya couldn't move or say anything. The pressure in her chest was constricting and the tears in her eyes uncontrollable. She swallowed them back harshly. "Still as stone, calm as still water" she remembered. "I'm not your lady. I've never cared about that." But, the words sounded meaningless to her and suddenly all she wanted to do was to get out.

Trying not to look at Gendry's face Arya pushed past him ready to flee into the starless night. But, when she knocked into him he grabbed her wrist as quick as a snake and held her in his strong grip so hard that no matter how fiercely she tried to wriggle free she couldn't escape.

Then she saw only blue; His azure eyes staring into her stormy ones. "If you're not m'lady then what are you?" He could see she was crying and Arya couldn't bear the shame. She scowled up at him as if he were the Hound, or Joffrey or any of the people she had sworn she would kill. Yet Gendry was looking at her with his old affection as well as something she couldn't quite place, yet that burned at her core. Then, so swiftly that Arya could not react he reached down and kissed her full on the mouth. Surprise brought stars as bright as fire before her eyes. "Smooth as summer silk, yet fierce as a wolverine "Arya thought, and began to hesitantly at first kiss him back.

In that exact moment Gendry pushed her abruptly away, swearing, his face bewildered and his jet hair wild. "I'm sorry; I shouldn't have kissed you like that, I must have lost my mind." "No! You don't understand, you…" Arya tried to shout over him. Then he caught her trembling gaze intensely. "Yes I do", he said and his voice was cold and final. "You are m'lady Arya Stark, my friend and little sister of my heart." "And nothing more". Gendry turned and disappeared into the dark leaving Arya shaking with cold sweat and bitterly, bitterly alone. "You should be with me" she finished, but no one heard her.