DAY 1: EYE CONTACT
She's gone mental.
Gendry was early for supper that day, he stood near one of the tall walls in the Winterfell hall waiting for the rest to arrive. His fingers kept tugging his shirt down and the little sounds his boots made kept betraying he was fidgeting, despite having lunched and dinned with the Royals for weeks. He approached the table when Davos, Jon and Lady Sansa walked through the doors, and silently sat down beside the elder of the group when he took his place on the left side of Jon.
Jon asked about Gendry's day and joked about them going hunting the following morning. Lady Sansa smiled at that. They all knew he was rubbish at it, his feet hit the ground with too much force, and it had been decided he would stay on his horse for the duration of the hunt when he alone, had managed to scare two boars and a stag one morning. Gendry never minded the teasing, it made Jon smile, and Jon had seldom smiled in a long time.
Arya walked in late as she always did. Any other day she would have entered the hall with Gendry following suit, but not that day. 'Because you are stubborn and she has gone mad' Gendry told himself as he looked down and ate his stew. Halfway through the meal, however, Davos seemed to decide he had had enough.
"What are you doing?" he whispered.
"Eating." Gendry answered with the false confusion that Davos saw eight through.
"What did you do, then? To the little lady, what did you do?"
"Nothing."
"You did something."
"Why'd you say that?"
"Because the little lady is staring at you and grabbing the hilt of her sword, and we both know she is more than capable of murder."
" Arya would never murder me" Gendry snorted. "It's not my fault she's gone mad."
"So, you did something."
"I did nothing." He looked up to catch Arya looking straight at him, he smiled and got a grimace in return. "See," he told Davos "I did nothing."
"Then, why does she keep staring like that?"
"Because she's gone mental." Gendry said stabbing a carrot that was just a tad too raw with excessive force. To his utter embarrassment, the traitorous vegetable slipped from his plate and flew directly to the Lady Sansa's wine-filled cup, making the Dornish red spill on her face. Gendry froze, the apologies he was going to blabber died in his throat, Arya's hand instinctively gripped her brand new sword, and Jon … Jon started laughing. A roaring laughter none of them had heard in moons. The lady Sansa giggled and Arya took her hand from the sword he had given her earlier that day.
After supper, Jon walked with Gendry in the castle grounds as they had done every night since the war had ended. The silence that so complimented each other had become the paving stone in their friendship once Jon had forgiven him for lying about Arya, although the King had never been angry at the blacksmith.
"My sister is cross with you." He said.
"Yes."
"Why?"
"Because she knows you want to marry her to a Lord."
"Did you not tell her that you are the Lord I'd wish she'd choose to marry?" Jon said his confusion in his eyes.
"Yes, I did."
"Then?"
"I gave her a sword. Spent over a moon making it perfect, I even asked her on the Godswood." Gendry said frustrated.
"The one she had with her? I take it she said yes, then? Why is she angry then?"
"Said she wanted a ring" Gendry said after huffing.
"A ring? Arya?"
Gendry shrugged his shoulders and kept walking, she'd gone insane. He had thought about a ring at first when Jon had given him his blessing but decided she would have thrown it in his face. Yet, she had taken offense at not getting one.
"Let her be mate," Jon told him. "Sansa says she's been moody for some time. Laughing one minute, and crying the next. She screamed at the servants the other day because they couldn't give her raspberries after she had been vomiting all morning. Raspberries! This time of year, and this far North!"
'Yes, my poor future wife has gone mental' Gendry decided.
