A/N: I'm late for the party, I'm new in the fandom (the first ever work for this verse) but here's my tiny contribution for AxG week 2016! Few warnings before you read: there was no beta reading of this, so be prepared for mistakes (sorry, I really tried my best), also, I've read ASoIaF a long while ago and not in English, so I'm afraid there might be some tiny details I mixed up with tv show, or some mistakes with names. I hope you'll still enjoy it!

1. King's Landing

Back when they were all in King's Landing that day didn't seem so significant. Hot Pie knew that his life would change starting from that moment, he knew the obvious: he was bound for The Wall. There would be food in his future. Sure, some swords and some snow too, but mostly he focused on the food. Back then he didn't focus on the things that turned out to be life changing for him. He didn't think much when he started nagging the tiny boy with a sword too shiny for an orphan from Flea Bottom. He didn't think much when he told his made-up stories about how he killed someone. When he got Arry's response his mind was just confused and trying to figure out how it changed from him trying to get a sword to him being on the very wrong end of that sword. And then his thoughts turned to a tall boy with sturdy look towering over him and asking whether he would sing.

Most parts of Hot Pie were thinking about how he got himself into that mess, and how to not repeat that mistake, how to stay away from Arry and the Bull.

There was also a tiny part of him, a shadow of a thought about how he never had anyone stand up for him. A part of him that added the fact that Arry had someone on his side so fast to the pile of things to not like about the tiny and fierce boy.

It was simply not fair - the way he just came in and got a comrade straight away, someone who helped him and got his back, without even batting an eye, while Hot Pie failed so miserably in his attempt to gain respect in this group.

2. Kingsroad

The best thing about the Wall, the thing that Hot Pie was repeating to himself during their long road and cold nights, was that there would be food. They would be fed on regular basics and with a decent meal on top of that! Maybe not something fancy like the things lords and ladies were eating, but at least the bowl would be full. Maybe even hot. Hot Pie missed the smell and tastes of the bakery, but while bread was great there was something in hot meat filling the belly that made every sane person content. Just the thought was enough to to push his feet along the Kingsroad, enough to make him try to keep the pace with other recruits. It was still a long way before them, but there was hope of something good at the end of it. The food on the road was bad and tasted like ash, but at least his stomach was not as empty as it could be.

And then, one day, Arry Lumpyface caught a rabbit. Hot Pie never saw a rabbit before, there were not common in the middle of the capital, but the meat got put into a pot and after some time they had a stew. A warm stew the smell of which made him drool.

This was a good day. Hot Pie went to sleep with his belly pleasantly warm and full, the taste still lingering on his tongue. There was only one tiny thing, a slight crack on his happiness, the mere thought of which made him ashamed of himself, but still wouldn't go away. Arry got a whole leg of a rabbit, that he could understand since without that boy there would be no stew. But Gendry didn't do anything and yet he got half of it. Just because he and Arry were friends. Hot Pie thought for a second that it must be a nice feeling - to have a friend who likes you enough to share food with you. A friend one could turn to for help without feeling weak.

3. The forest

The thing about large groups was that relationships in them were not as strong as when there's just a few people. When they were travelling with Yoren, there were people in their camp that Hot Pie barely spoke with. People whom he avoided, and people whose company he sought. Now there was only a few of them, and he knew each and every one of them. They were walking together, trying to find something edible together, sleeping on the ground together. Him, Arry, Gendry, Lommy and Weasel. Five kids lost in the forest. They had to do everything together, since they had nobody else.

Still, after some time Hot Pie noticed differences. He noticed how Gendry was the one making final decisions with his jaw firm with stubbornness, how Lommy was the one complaining and naively thinking that everything would be magically solved with the word "yield", how Arry was whispering in the night trying to fall asleep. He also noticed that there was a tiny group inside their already tiny group. He noticed how Gendry always asked Arry for advice before deciding. He saw how somehow they always ended sleeping next to each other, how they were conferring in low voices standing a few feet away from the rest. How they valued each other, supported each other and trusted each other.

nd yet again Hot Pie wished he was in this tiny team of two too.

4. Harrenhal

There was not much happiness in Harrenhal. Not much to feel jealous of. Everyone just tried to mind their own business and try to disappear before getting noticed by the wrong people. After they run away, Hot Pie was complaining about loosing the warm place in the kitchen, about the uncertain future on the road, about the saddle being uncomfortable, but he was glad that the horrors of the ruined castle were behind him.

Still, when they were resting for the night, when he was listening to the sound of leaves and wind and trying to fall asleep, when he finally had the time to do nothing else but lie and think, he realised that part of him kept wondering why Arya haven't told him before about being a girl. Why she told Gendry, why she came to him to share her plan of escape. Was it because he was strong and could steal the swords? If Hot Pie wasn't working in the kitchen, with food, would they bother to take him with them? Back in Harrenhal they didn't have many occasions to see each other, but he noticed that somehow Arya found her way to the forge more often than to the kitchen. Somehow Gendry never was as eager to listen about what happened lately in the kitchen as he was to check on what's happening with Arya.

Somehow being separated in the large castle just brought them closer. And now, on the road, he could still feel it, when they were riding in front of him and joking about wolves catching him. Somehow Hot Pie knew that there was a hierarchy in their group of three, and he wasn't on the top spot of it for neither Arya nor Gendry.

5. The Brotherhood Without Banners

It was a surprise, to realise that Arry the Orphan, who was no longer a boy but a girl, was a highborn lady on top of that. Even more surprising was the lack of surprise on Gendry's face when Harwin revealed Arya's true identity. Yet another surprise was that a part of Hot Pie instantly thought 'Of course. Of course he knew. Of course she'd told him'.

So, the next part of their travel begun, again in a large and loud group. Yet again, he couldn't help but notice the differences, wonder what his place was in this new setting. Brotherhood accepted the smith for his worth - even outlaws needed good steel and someone to fix their armour, and it didn't hurt two have two more hands which could wield a sword. Hot Pie didn't have Gendry's strength or determination, nor his devotion and instinct to support Arya just when she needed it. He didn't have Arya's courage and smart mind, or her noble status that made Brotherhood respect her, he didn't have a father others spoke stories about or a brother who was a King and could pay ransom. He didn't even have her trust in him, not like Gendry had.

Travelling with the Brotherhood made him really wonder what exactly he had and why he was still with them.

+1. The Inn of Kneeling Man

It wasn't an impulsive decision. Hot Pie didn't just snapped one day and decided to leave (or maybe it was not to leave but to stay?). It grew on him, tiny things piling and piling until he realised with clarity that it was not his place, not his life.

He looked at his comrades and saw them change, saw them grow closer in this subtle dance they didn't fully understood but were caught in anyway. He saw the looks lingering just a second too long, the smiles just a tad shy, heard the words that were slipping into deeper meanings. They looked like a song in the making: a princess in rags hiding among outlaws, and a loyal smith that was devoted and obviously smitten with her. There was no place for bakers in songs. Hot Pie could see how it would go: her dancing around her castle and trying to slip away from social norms not caring about a thing people said, and him trying to be her knight in shiny armour and her Sworn Sword, even if he had to make both an armour and a sword with his own two hands.

What Hot Pie's role would be in this story? Did they even had good flour in the north where the fields were cold and covered with snow? No. There was no place for a third wheel in a couple and he wouldn't tag along long enough for them to realise it. He won't wait to see how their story goes on either. He knew how it should end and that was enough for him. They didn't live in a world where live reached the same happy ending as songs did, and so he decided to leave now, when he still saw something in them that he could be jealous of, instead of something that would make him sad and angry about the unfairness of the universe.

He would leave, bake some bread in an inn, and spend the rest of his days hoping that one day he would have something nice too. Something that would make others throw secret looks at him, the ones with just a tiny hint of wonder and jealousy. And maybe, just maybe, if the world had any sense of what's right and wrong, one day he would meet them again and they would eat his cakes and laugh like innocent kids while Tom sings a song about them.

A/N: Thanks for reading! I wanted a happier ending, but well, canon is canon, we'll see how it all ends ;)