A/N: I hate myself wholly for always tearing up during Robb and Talisa's wedding, but alas, it is not to be helped. This is inspired by that because when else will we get it for Arya and Gendry, especially after the finale.
Summary: "Father. Smith. Warrior. Mother. Maiden. Crone. Stranger. From this day until the end of my days."
Disclaimer: Nothing belongs to me. All source material belongs to GRRM and HBO. No beta.
I. Father
"Can I be lord of a holdfast?"
"You will marry a high lord and rule his castle. And your sons shall be knights and princes and lords."
"No. That's not me."
Even as a child, she had known. She never was a proper lady. Never could be. She hadn't seen him, but somehow, her father had seen it too. Many things he had not seen.
But when he watched her bash her wooden sword against Syrio's, he had seen it. He had heard the clash of real steel and seen his daughter. He saw the person she was meant to be.
II. Smith
"Which one are you?"
"Armorer's apprentice."
A discarded bastard blacksmith. That's all he would amount to and now he was being sent to the Wall with all the rest of them.
They walked side by side. Not on the cart and not on horses. He had shielded her. After that, they never left each other's side. The rest were savages.
Only Gendry was different. That was what destroyed her. The lone wolf dies but the pack survives. She doesn't think that he understood that until The Hound got his hands on her.
Maybe he was too stupid.
"Gendry's an armorer's apprentice."
It's the one time he remembers her smiling. They share a look. He asks if she thinks he's as stupid as the rest of them. She replies stupider. He should have been fiercely protective of her then, instead of being the stubborn bull who just pushed her away until she was gone. Despite what he truly wanted
III. Warrior
"Ser Gendry, bested by a girl."
Something he would be branded with as an insult, he was sure. Or he would be. But he couldn't feel it. All he saw were grey eyes that were supposed to be closed forever. He saw the fury in them and the wild wolf-girl he had dreamed of.
He stared up at her from the ground, her sword to his throat. She may have been a girl, but she was still Arya Stark. No proper lady. Something else.
Something else he had missed.
IV. Mother
Lady Catelyn isn't Lady Catelyn any longer. She ceased being the day her eldest son's head was cut off and replaced with his direwolf's. Lady Catelyn is gone. Only Lady Stoneheart remains.
Gendry finds Arya in the woods, hacking desperately at a tree with her sword. He knows he should leave her be, but can't find it in himself to move.
"Go away." Her voice is as desperate as her sword. She sheds no tears and for the first time, he cannot do as his lady commands.
She beats at his chest with her fists and he lets her. In the darkness as she falls asleep against him in their fallen position, he finally answers.
"I'm sorry."
She hears him. She doesn't answer. She just closes her eyes to sleep.
V. Maiden
"As m'lady commands."
When Arya pushes him to the ground, he lets her. She's still quick and he's still strong. He doesn't realize this until he's rolled on top of her, attempting to pin her struggling body down. Her chest heaves and he realizes he's been staring.
He can't remember exactly what started it, but she's always one to instigate it. When they were younger, she could never resist pushing him to the ground. But wrestling has taken on a whole new meaning.
He stares at her now. A warrior she is, but a girl no longer.
You can be my forest love and me your forest lass.
VI. Crone
When he says lady his voice is soft. Everything about him is gruff and strong. But he looks at her with realization as though she is still a child and they both know that she isn't.
He says it with awe and she thinks of how horror stricken her sister would be. A lady of Winterfell traveling with a bastard blacksmith. She should be married to a lord as Gendry always reminds her. But she had never been a proper lady and never would be.
She would grow old and withered without a husband and that was just fine with her. All she wanted was a sword in her hand. But suddenly she had found a pack. He holds a sword too. Nothing about them is proper.
She thinks all he saw her as was a little girl. She knows he doesn't anymore. He breathes harder, gazes longer. He pulls away but Arya has known enough men in her life that didn't give a damn about her station. Only Gendry is different. Gendry cares.
He calls her lady like no other lord ever could. She isn't a child anymore. There was never a time where a lady traveled alone with her blacksmith. Arya never cared for propriety anyway. She isn't a lady even though he sees her as one.
VII. Stranger
"In the sight of the Seven, I hereby seal these two souls, binding them as one for eternity. Look upon one another and say the words."
There is only one god. And that god is Death. But still, the septon wraps their hands together gently. He was born in raised in the south. It's quiet in the Godswood where no one can find them. It's safer this way.
Arya had vowed to never belong to a man but somehow this is safer.
And it isn't a compromise. She knows that. He won't be her lord protector or jailer or commander. He's her friend. She protected him the way he defended her.
It seems right that way. She seems to be honoring her dead brother in her own way with a secret marriage to a bastard knight. She honors Robb and she honors herself.
She isn't marrying a lord of a holdfast. She isn't the mother or wife of someone. She's herself. Arya Stark.
It's the only way either of them can be free.
"Father. Smith. Warrior. Mother. Maiden. Crone. Stranger."
"I am his."
"She is mine."
"From this day."
"Until the end of my days."