It was Arya's first day at The Academy where she would spend the next 6 months training and preparing herself, physically and mentally, for the variety of missions she would go on. She had known since she was a little girl that this is what she had wanted to do, now 22, she was finally getting a chance at the career she had dreamt about. She had been recruited to join the secret intelligence agency of Westeros.

Arya woke up that morning after getting settled in the bunks last night, ready for her training. Her schedule said today was going to be an introductory day where she would meet her new classmates and trainers. As well as getting tours of the facility and how things would run while they were at The Academy.

She'd already run into a few of her colleagues but she was looking forward to seeing everyone in the classes today. She had met her roommates, Margery, Ygritte, and Meera, the day before when they were getting settled. They seemed alright so far but she usually kept to herself and she hoped they would too. She wasn't expecting to make any friends, after all, it had never been her strong suit, she had always been laser focused on honing her skills through classes of martial arts, dance, and fencing.

After getting ready, she walked to the conference room for the first meeting of the day. She got there early, and there were only two other people in the room, probably as eager as she was. She assessed them quickly, both male, one was of average build, blond hair, he sat in one of the chairs lined inside the room, one in the front row. She could definitely take him in a fight.

The second was bigger, more muscled, he had sharp blue eyes that roamed the room from where he sat in the far corner of the last row. An advantageous position, he could see everyone that entered the room. She could probably take him in a fight, where he was strong, she was fast, it would be tough but she reckoned she could win against him.

She decided to sit in the last row on the opposite corner to the bigger guy. Slowly people filed in and the room became busier, her roommate Ygritte, came and sat by her. When 7:00 rolled around it seemed everyone was ready, there were around 24 recruits in the room.

An older man strolled in and introduced himself as Yoren. He started explaining what their classes would be like and what they were supposed to get out of their training. "In a minute we will be announcing your pairs, almost all assignments and exercises at the Academy are done in pairs. You will have to rely on your partners and they need to be able to rely on you. A success of one will constitute a success for the other, this is to encourage you to help each other succeed. So, you should get to know them at least a little. It's vital that you are able to work with your partners, this will be a good simulation for when you will work with others in the field," Yoren told the group.

Arya was instantly worried, she didn't work well with others. It took her ages to be even slightly comfortable around new people. Hell, she was barely comfortable around some of her siblings let alone strangers. She hadn't known that they would have to have partners for their training other than for sparring. Before she could fully take in this news they were starting announce partners, but she was hardly listening.

"…Arya Stark and Gendry Waters…" Yoren said while pointing at her and then to someone on the other corner of the room. She turned to look and saw the big guy from earlier also looking at her.

He smiled at her and gave her a small wave.

She gave him a quick tight-lipped smile. While giving herself a mental pep talk, okay Arya, it's okay, he seemed smart before, plus he's big so that would give you a chance to fight a big opponent which would be good practice considering your size. And he smiled, a nice smile even, he can't be that bad. You can do this, you have to do this.

After Yoren was done listing the pairs he said "Okay, we're going to give you all half an hour to get to know your partners and each other. After that we go for a tour of the facility." He went out of the room after that.

People started getting up, presumable to go meet their partners. She stayed where she was and saw Gendry Waters walking towards her. "Hello, I'm Gendry, though you probably already know that. It's nice to meet you." He said while sticking his hand out to shake hers.

She stood up and tentatively stuck out her hand and placed it in his. "My name's Arya." Now in front of her and standing, he seemed even bigger, almost two heads taller than her and a lot more muscled. He had messy black hair, and his blue eyes more piercing up close, attractive-no Arya, you're here to train doesn't matter what he looks like so long as you get through training. It surprised her that they would pick them as partners because sparring with him was going to be interesting. She was sure she was faster than him but he had brute strength that would definitely come in handy.

"So, this should be fun, being partners" he said.

She wasn't quite sure about that but since she was going to have to be around him for the next few months she wasn't going to piss him off. At least not yet. "Sure" but that didn't sound convincing even to her. She sighed and looked up into his eyes, they made her want to tell him the truth, so she did "listen, I just want to apologise in advance, I'm not great at working with others. But it's very important to me to get through training. So, if I do anything that bothers you, just let me know straight up. Okay"

He met her grey eyes with his blue, he seemed stunned by her announcement "Alright, let me know if I can do anything to help, and if I do anything to bother you just let me know. Only thing I'm worried about is how our fighting practice is going to go, you're so small how are you going to beat me?" he said, a smile playing on corner of his mouth.

Arya shoved him playfully, "Don't be stupid, I can take you down. Easy."

"You really shouldn't insult people who are bigger than you" he said, smiling now.

"Then I wouldn't get to insult anybody" she replied.

Gendry laughed, "I think we're going to be great friends, you and I" he said sagely.