The Whispering Passage
Summary: The actual first time they met was when Arya was roaming the streets of King's Landing, making her way back to the Tower of the Hand.
Just thought this up and had to write it down. Partially because I adore this couple. And Jaqen's voice, ugh.
The street was full of warm bodies and she nudged at them with her elbows to get through the thick crowds. Dirt, grime, and who-knew-what clinged to the underside of her nails as bits got stuck there when she pressed at the dirty clothes the poor wore. Arya kept to the side of the wall, letting out a breath when she emerged into a skinny alleyway. It was too thin for most people to use, even if they were starving the adults couldn't push through. The best part was that it gave her more room to breath than the crowds had, so she pressed forward, sucking in her stomach when she rounded a corner.
She did everything to make herself even smaller than she was. It was dark between the buildings, the slates ontop overlapping so it almost seemed as if night had fallen over King's Landing. Seeing a pinpoint of light she followed it, working her way along the passage until it got brighter and she could hear angry shouts ahead.
Always angry, always loud. That was the Capital of Westeros for you in a nutshell. She hated it, she preferred the quiet. She preferred this dark alley she was crammed into now, but those two people down in the dungeon had been talking about her father. Arya had to get to him and tell him about what she had heard, to warn him about what they said. The savage, the other Hand...
"Stop! Thief!"
The words bombarded her when she finally pushed her way from between the stone, pushed forward as someone squeezed past behind her. She stumbled forward into the slightly less crowded street. An arm wrapped around her before she could go sprawling to the ground when another person bumped into her, almost falling into a river of what smelled like shit. "A girl should be more careful." She turned, glancing up to see a man with red hair, except for a strip of white strands on his left. He wasn't looking at her though, he was looking back over his shoulder and she followed his gaze to the guards that were shouting to the crowd to move and get out of the way.
The arm on her back raised to press at her shoulders and her feet began moving beneath her. She noticed the way his head had lowered as they walked and with another glance at the guards she was sure he must be the theif they were shouting after. A moment more though and she couldn't see them as another wave of people passed by. She was surrounded by darkness again when she felt herself pushed into an open alley. The sound of armor clinking past was the guards as they continued shouting, not knowing they had just past the person they were looking for.
The same person that was leaning over her now, breathing heavily as if he had just gone through a gauntlet. "A girl is quiet. That is good." His breathing was starting to even and she glanced at him.
"They're looking for you. What did you steal?"
He blinked at her for a moment then grinned, "A life." She felt the air whoosh out of her. A murder. This man was a murder. "Those guards are more intelligent than most. Shouting, 'murderer', causes panic, makes it easier to slip away." The man paused, looking back to the crowded street. Not one person had looked at them. None of them caring, none of them having heard what he had said. They were all to involved in their own lives to care about the girl and man pressed into an alcove of a wall. "A girl will keep quiet about this, won't she?" His gaze was back on her and for a second she struggled to get breath back into her lungs.
"Yes," she had no intention to have her throat cut here. To become a body that would be unrecognizable by the time it was found in the maze of King's Landing either by her own father's guards or the Gold Cloaks.
The arm dropped from her shoulders and she pressed back into the wall as he passed infront of her. She watched him walk down the unpopulated alley, to see him glance back over his shoulder at her and raise a finger to his lips with a smile before turning away again. For hands to grab at a dark cloak and raise the hood before he disappeared around a corner. Silent as a ghost.
With her heart still hammering in her chest Arya pushed her way back into the crowds, no longer liking the alleys. She walked at a faster pace, eventually breaking into a run to reach the castle faster. All the while feeling like a pair of eyes was burning into her back.