i.
She doesn't ask him to wait, and he doesn't.
The last time he sees her, Arya is saying goodbye to her siblings, to Jon Snow who is meant to live in the wall. His eyes never leave her from afar and it's only when he is already moving that Gendry realizes he is following her, to wherever she goes. It's not exactly surprising and she must think the same because when the Stark girl turns around to look at him, there is not a hint of surprise in her eyes. There is only sorrow and he is really stupid, but even he can't understand the longing. Arya loves him, he is sure of it, but she can not stay.
His body is faster than her and sooner than expected, his arms are full of Arya Stark and his lips get a last taste of her. They kiss and kiss, and it's urgent and sad and so full of love that he doesn't know how he will ever think of anything else that is not this. He is pretty sure he never will.
"Let me go with you" It's stupid even before the idea leaves his lips, but his heart is set and ready for another rejection. Even when nothing happens, at least no one can't say that Lord Baratheon didn't try his very best. That he gave everything on him to make her stay. Again, she has that look of sadness mixed with fondness and after another quick peck on the lips, she is far way from him once more.
"You will be a good lord. Now they are your family" Gendry doesn't say that no one could ever be his family, not the way she is, but he only has it on him to nod at her. He wants to be a good ruler, to feed and take care of his people and just as she would if she stayed, the regret would eat him alive if he at least didn't try to do what's best for them.
They looked at each other for a moment more, before Arya walks away. He doesn't follow her this time and it breaks the last functioning part of his heart.
ii.
Ser Davos doesn't join him at Storm's Ends at the beginning. He has new responsibilities beside King Bran and Gendry can't shake the feeling that without one of the few men he trusts to know what to do, he will fuck it all up. Still, he owns him too much so with a couple of his people and all his new power, he sends word to his family that they are all welcome to join him at the castle. After a couple of moons when he gains his people trust and love, the whole Seaworth family arrives, wary and slightly scared.
Lady Marya Seaworth looks him up and down for a moment, all motherly protection in front of her children and after a quick explanation, he gets them all to sit and eat.
"He is the closest thing I had to a father" It wasn't much, or a long time they spent together, but it was so much more than Gendry ever had and he lets her know. Being a Lord hasn't stop him from being honest and it never will.
The whole family soon fill the empty castle and he is incredibly grateful for the lack of silence. He takes to play with the younger children and in his reading lessons, he takes with him the ones that want to learn. At the end of the first year, they all call him big brother and Lady Seaworth commands him to take a bath every time he comes back after running to the forge. When Davos joins them, there is a feast and laughter, and Gendry thinks this is how a family feels like.
There is always an empty spot beside him at the table, and Davos, good and kind Ser Davos, tells him that Arya Stark has send word to know that she is okay and safe out there in the sea.
He dreams of her, with the wind moving her hair.
iii.
At the beginning, he wants to cry every time he thinks of her.
He had fought in many words, but his heart was still kind and gentle when it had gotten broken over and over again. His mind still remembers the happy stolen moment and each of them are stakes for his soul, reminding him that even for a second, he had it all before it was taken away from him.
After he has healed, at least a little, sadness gives space for resentment.
Did Arya really love him? Wouldn't love be enough if she did? What was so important on the sea that she couldn't stay with him? She knew how scared he was of this all and she still left him without a single doubt. Arya left him, rejected him, and what did she expect? That he waited for her?
Those days, the forge, and the entire place, hears him punch iron with more force than needed. No one dares to ask because everyone remembers Robert Baratheon's fury for losing the woman he loves and that is a door no one wants to open. Except for Davos, when he arrives, who sits there until he decides his burden is too much to bear it alone.
Usually, resentment gave space for understanding.
He asked too much of her, Gendry knows. She is a free wolf and that's why he fell in love with her; caging her would be their downfall. If she wanted this and him, Arya would have to come on her own devices and choose him, since he had chosen her long ago.
He wasn't going to wait for her, but it was just matter of luck that when she is finally in front of him, Gendry is even more in love with her than the day she left.
This is a companion series to 'these hands had to let it go free' and some sort of sequel to 'say you will remember me', that will follow gendry and arya in the storm's lands.
aka
#prayfortheseaword2019
