He doesn't want to wake up, he never does in this day – always afraid something bad would happen, someone would abandon him again. Twenty years ago, his mother died. Two years ago, his wife was declared MIA… missing in action.
But he still knows he needs to wake up, that he can't just stay in bed, especially when his son starts banging on the door.
"DAD, I'm hungry!"
"I'm going, Ned."
Their son has all of her energy, his face is all Gendry – she used to call him mini-Gendry – but his little expressions and mannerisms are all Arya's.
Gendry remembers how they fought when she decided she wanted to go back – it's only nine months, she said – he couldn't believe she was leaving him and their three year old son to go back there. But he could never convince her of anything – never – so he gave in like he always did… and how he regrets it more than anything.
He leaves his room, finding their son watching TV and swinging his legs. They had called him Ned after her father – they had met just after he died, she was trying to get home and get away from this city where she had been living with her father, who had been murdered, and her older sister, who had been kidnapped; but before she could get home – to her family, they were murdered too. She had felt so alone then, but he had thought that maybe Ned and he would be enough for her to stay, but she would always go – fighting for others.
His thoughts are interrupted when his son asks if they were going to visit his family today, he nods to his son, kissing the top of his head and getting their pancakes ready.
After they both eat, bathe (and in Ned's case play a little bit on the bathtub) and get dressed, they walk out of the door, Ned tightly holds his father's hand while they walk through the streets of this small neighbourhood until they reach a beautiful and old gate, in a nearby florist they buy seven bouquets of blue roses and one of daisies.
He always takes their son first to her side of the family, when she finally recuperated their bodies (or what rested of them) she decided to bury them here in the same place his mother rested instead of her family estate that had been burned down. Their bodies came one after another – and each time a part of her heart gave up – the first one was Sansa Stark, her older sister, who had killed herself after years in captivity by an old friend of their mother (for weeks in a row, Arya woke up screaming I abandoned her, I left her to die…); next was her younger brother, little Rickon, found half eaten by a group of cannibals (again, she woke up for weeks screaming I abandoned him – it turned out he hadn't died when they thought, only later, alone); next was Bran Stark, another younger brother who didn't die in the fire like they thought, only later – of hunger – and again she woke up screaming I abandoned him; her dad came next, first his body and then his head; two days after burying him, she received her mother's body; the last one was Robb, her older brother (but his head never came, they send his wolf's head instead).
Gendry takes Ned through all the graves, and tries to tell him the few stories he remembers (and he knows his son never met them, but Ned still misses them), then he reaches the last one, the one he knows more stories about, Jon – she was so excited when she found out he was alive, that's when she left in her first tour, to fight besides him, when she left the last time, she promised she would come back in nine months with Jon and Ygritte (her brother's girlfriend and fellow soldier), but Arya disappeared in the field, Ygritte was shot on the field, so Jon decided to stay – and last year Gendry received the letter, and just like thatanother Stark was dead – so he buried him next to the others, that's what they would want.
"Why, doesn't mom have one?" Ned asks, he had never asked that before and for a few minutes Gendry is not sure what to answer. Because she wouldn't leave us yet, she wouldn't abandon us.
"Because she's just missing, kid." He says ruffling his son's hair.
Gendry takes his son's right hand again; his left hand carries the bouquet of daisies and guides him to Gendry's mother's grave. When they reach it, he can see someone – a woman – next to the grave, tracing the words and then he hears her voice, she knows it, it's a voice he has only heard in his dreams for the last two years.
"You moved… I couldn't find you… I hoped you'd come here…"
She's here… He squeezes Ned's hand. I was right… She's here… I knew… She wouldn't abandon us…
I don't know if I'll do more prompts for Arya x Gendry week, but I hope you liked this one.
I'm not a native English speaker, so all mistakes are mine and apologize for them.