1.
Gendry's life begun with a dusk and continued with a seventeen-years long night.
Loneliness was quite a constant in his life and actually he didn't complain much. Child of two unknown parents, he grew up in an orphanage, with the only company of a few nasty careless caretakers and a couple of younger friends who eventually ended up adopted. He was too old for that and, in spite of his goodlooking appearance, his character was too distant and diffident to attract any possible parents that from time to time came to the orphanage. Reject still hurt a bit, but probably not as much as it should have. But after all, he didn't know exactly what was losing. He couldn't possibly know the meaning of a family. So, he settled into loneliness and tried to get the best he could get, studying hard in school and learning to be a quite good blacksmith. That was one of the little choices of laboratories they were given and he found he liked it. He thought that that could be the ticket for the world outside, a ticket that would have allowed him a job and suppress the chance of becoming a bum once the doors of the orphanage would have been closed to him. So he worked and studied and worked, never letting his throughts about a different life be more than just a fantasy.
That was at least until it was somehow discovered that he was the illegitimate son of Robert Baratheon, the murdered Governor of California.
And two weeks later a woman dressed in red showed up at the orphanage, asking to see him.
2.
"Hi, I'm Melisandre and I am here to let you out of this place"
Gendry stared at the woman in red for a while. He was obviously diffident, knowing well enough that nobody ever give you nothing for nothing. Also, there was something in her smile that made him feel uncomfortable. Sitting in front of him, she was trying to be gentle and sweet but more than that she appeared almost sensual and seductive. Maybe, she was the kind of woman that achieved everything she wanted thanks to her natural charm, or maybe it was a show just for him, a calculated combination of two of Gendry's weakness – the lack of tenderness and the lack of a more sensual kind of love. After all, he never had a mother and never had a lover. In spite of his need of freedom, he could already see clearly that following that woman would have given him nothing but trouble. He didn't trust her – her and everything she stood for.
But still it was no matter of trust and no matter of choice.
"Alright" he just replied in the end, pretending that he had a voice in the matter.
And then he started packing his few things, ready to leave the place that had been his house for all his life. Wihout looking back.
3.
It soon turned out that Melisandre was just an intermediary for Stannis Baratheon who offcially intended to adopt him after descovering their blood connection. Unofficially, it was just a strange move to improve his image as he ran for the California's Governor position. The plan was simple: show Gendry off and play the part of the loving uncle, strengthening the bond with his dead brother as well. He needed that return of image, especially after the scandal of his wife's suicide. Stannis and Melisandre were the two persons he saw the most, or at least the ones he was supposed to.
He was cold and openly disliked him, while she was just deceiving.
She was not a bad woman, but had a past that didn't speak in her favor. Ex stripper, ex drug addicted and ex member of a quite dangerous sect. She was not the one to tell him all of that of course, it was Davos Seaworth, Stannis's first man. Along with little Shireen, Davos was the only person in that big palace that Gendry could see as a friend and spending time with both of them was the first taste of home he was ever getting.
He remembered perfectly well the day he had to take part in an important interview with his uncle, but Davos woke him up in the middle of theprevious night and basically hid him and Shireen on his boat. He hated Stannis's idea to use his relatives as things to display and he was ready to do anything in his power to sabotage that kind of policy.
"My father will be furious" Shireen proclaimed, raising her eyes from her book just to cast a glance at the two men who were busy in the bow.
"Imagine Melisandre, then" Gendry replied, turning to her.
They both burstled into a laughter, and in that very moment Gendry wished that he could spend his life forever like this - with the smell of salty water in the air, the sun caressing his face, a man to call father and a girl to call sister.
"Hey, boy, focus!" Davos playfully reproached him, hinting at the helm he was currently teaching him to use.
Still smiling, Gendry nodded and put his hands back on the helm. At least it was a motorboat and he didn't have to learn to row.
4.
Stannis was furious indeed, and so was Melisandre even if their kind of fury was an icy one. After the return to the Baratheon's mansion, Gendry and Shireen got away with just a silent and reproachful look and were sent to their rooms. Davos instead was summoned and the discussion that followed shortly reached the point of his dismissal.
"Stannis, don't be a fool! You should stop using Gendry and Shireen and focus on the important things that could actually make you win!" he protested, then picked up his phone and started to search something on it. "Have you read today's news? You should at least listen to this speech of Jon Snow… A war is about to come near the border of Mexico… We don't want a war, we want a peace and peace is what you should focus on! You need me for that, and you know it"
Stannis considered his first advisor's words for a moment, but then shook his head looking irremovable in his decision. However, surprisingly, it was Melisandre to save the day.
"He's right. There are conflicts to come and I sense that he has a part in that"
Both Stannis and Davos looked at her in disbelief. But if Davos remained silent, Stannis started to laugh loudly.
"Who would have known? Well, I guess you two will become allies one of these days".
5.
Perhaps it was Gendry's wish on that day by the ocean or perhaps it was Stannis's prediction about Davos and Melisandre finding an understanding, but everything suddenly changed when two shots hit the candidate in the head during a manifestation. Like John and Bob Kennedy years before, the Baratheons were closing their political story in two tragedies.
After two months spending with Stannis, Gendry could see his life changing once again. He was not sad about the loss, actually at first he saw it as a liberation… At least until he understood that Stannis's death made him again a potential orphan. He was seventeen and just for one single year he was not allowed to live in the world all by himself. Returning to the orphanage was not a chance he particularly liked now.
Davos immediately proved his love for him, demanding to adopt him. But, due to some bureaucratic issue, he could not adopt both him and Shireen and it was only natural that Shireen was the chosen one. Gendry was fine with that, knowing very well that her relationship with Davos was stronger than his and that she had experienced illness from nature and rejection form her birth family too. As for himself, he was used to loneliness and was strong enough to survive it.
But once again faith seemed to have something else in store for him.
And once again it was the woman in red to be the carrier of that change.
"I could take him in foster care" Melisandre proposed, stepping in the delicate moment when Davos was trying to explain the situation to Gendry.
The boy and the man exchanged a look. Disbelief and hope were equally mixed in both of them. Not suspicion though, in the days following Stannis's death, she had showed remorse and tried to show some awkward support to the children. She seemed willing to take the road of redemption after a life full of bad choices and the look of sincere sorrow in her eyes confirmed that. Or at least it was enough to allow her the benefit of doubt.
"What do you think about that, Gendry?" Davos asked and Gendry could see that the man was silently suggesting him to accept.
Once again she was leaving him no other choice. As the day she showed up at the orphanage, he could do now nothing but follow her. It was the best opportunity, Davos must have considered it the same way; after all, he could still live in the same area of Davos and Shireen, keep going to the same school and have someone that in her own strange way could look after him.
"Alright, we can do this"
N/A: If you are reading this, thanks for reading all the chapter! I hope you like this idea of mine... Next chapter is gendrya all the way.