This thing started getting a little too long so I had to rush through most of it once I realized... sorry y'all. But the time was running out! *Muse blarring in the background*
3. RAIN
"What time is it?"
"It's almost 5 am, you'd better hurry up!"
Sansa sounded frantic and excited, and through blurry vision Arya saw her walk over to the door and switch the light on. She groaned and rubbed her eyes with her fists (normally, she would've just buried her head into the pillow and covered it with blankets, but even grumpy, she was still too excited to miss the trip).
"I made breakfast!" Sansa chirped from the doors.
Arya slowly opened her eyes again, her vision slowly clearing out in the dim light of her room. Sansa had her head braided, prettily falling over one shoulder. Her eyes were round and sparkling with blue ice, and her cheeks red in excitement. Arya softly smiled, feeling the same emotion rise up in her chest. Sansa was wearing shorts and a sleeveless top, blue and white. She already had her new converse on, with them not being dirty at all and thus not dirtying the floor. "What are we havin'?"
"Lemoncakes!" Sansa quipped and clapped her hands, taking a deep breath. Arya sighed and let out a laugh. Her sister spoke again before disappearing from the door. "I'll be downstairs, Robb and Jon are in the kitchen already."
Arya sighed and slowly got up, sliding over to her worktable, where she had already put her clothes for the day. She dressed quickly and went to the bathroom, brushing her teeth and combing her hair, also pulling it back in a braid, all done in five minutes.
"'Morning, sis!" Robb said through a mouthful of lemoncakes when Arya skipped down the stairs and into the kitchen.
"'Morning!" she greeted her brothers happily, and Jon smiled at her through tired eyes. him and Arya were alike – both being awful just after waking up, but this was Arya first school trip in highschool, with her three older siblings and close friends, and she was impossibly excited.
"Sans, these are delicious! You're a goddess!" Arya hummed after biting into her cake. "You should seriously start your days like this more often!"
"Who said this is the start of my day?" Sansa laughed cunningly. "I couldn't sleep, I've been going over everything the whole night."
"Bloody hell." Arya said. Then she snorted and bit into her cake again. "Couldn't do it, sleep is much too important for this gal!"
"Likewise." Jon muttered.
"Oh, you're quite a grumpy gal now, aren't you?" Robb teased his brother and hit his shoulder.
"Jerk."
"Bitch!"
Arya laughed and Sansa rolled her eyes.
"So, who's driving?" Sansa asked. Both Robb and Jon were over 18, being in their final year. Sansa was 17, and Arya was almost 16, this being her first year in high school.
"Gendry is." Robb simply said, and Arya choked on her bite.
Jon clapped her on her back as she coughed, and she breathed out "I'm okay, I'm okay!"
Neither of her siblings connected her choking accident with what Robb had just said, but Arya still blushed and bowed her head in attempt to hide it.
"Why?" Sansa asked. This time, Jon answered.
"It's a half an hour drive, and it takes him 5 minutes to drive here, so why not? We're just gonna leave the car for dad and Catelyn to use for the day, so it's good for both sides."
Arya felt her heart thumping in her ears, and she saw her hands tremble slightly.
"I'm gonna go upstairs to check if I've packed everything." She said and pushed herself away from the table, quickly standing up to her feet.
"I've already checked everything!" Sansa called after her, but Arya ignored her.
She slammed the door to her room and leaned her back on it, closing her eyes and breathing heavily.
"Holy hell." She muttered.
Gendry was certainly a good guy, her brothers' best friend, but as much as she liked the guy, she liked him a bit too much.
He was tall and cool and dark and silent and snarky and he had a clever view on the world. He had a good eye when it came to teasing Arya or correcting her, which people rarely did. He was brave enough to confront her, and to her displeasure, he got out of their little conflicts victorious.
She knew that she was to spend the next five days in his presence, but she thought she could at least get to the bus without him inches from her. This way, their ride to the bus was certainly going to be interesting. And when Sansa goes to sit with Margery and Robb sits next to Theon and Jon sits next to Gendry… Arya would probably seem like the loner, but she could try to find someone like… Mycah to sit with her.
She bumped her head against the door and sighed. She hated being in love.
But that was the case ever since she saw him eight years ago, when she was still a child and it was only an unconscious, childish crush and Jon brought him home to do a school project together.
"I'm Arya." she told him determinedly.
He frowned. "I'm Gendry."
"You look like you're in pain when you think!" she narrowed her eyes at him and he rolled his.
"Oh, how clever of you, Arry."
"It's Arya!"
"I know, Arry."
And that was the story of how she got her nickname 'Arry'.
Arya quickly grabbed her big rucksack and swung it over her shoulders, letting out a huff when it landed heavily on her back.
But when she went down the stairs again, she felt grateful for the single bag when she saw Sansa's two huge travel bags.
"Gendry texted. He's behind the corner, we should go out." Jon told her as he walked into the hall. He stopped in his tracks and gave her a worried look. "Are you okay?"
"Yeah, I'm just… nervous."
"Is it because of the trip or because of the Bull?"
"Hey! Why in the hell would I ever be nervous because of him?!" she snapped at her brother. Gendry's nickname was Bull, ever since he tackled Jory when he was 12 and earned himself the tough guy title by winning a fight with a five years older boy.
"Arya, come on. No need to pretend, it's me." Jon walked closer to her and put one hand on her shoulder. His eyes held that affectionate, reassuring look that always made her feel safe and content, sort of like when you come home after a month of being away. "It's a crush, so what? Did you really think I wouldn't notice?"
Arya frowned. "You're not mad?"
Jon laughed and shook his head. "Oh, Arya!" he kept laughing and clapped her shoulder like she said the funniest thing in the world. "I used to have a crush on Mya, even though she's five years older! It's nothing bad, you'll get through it."
He gave out a soft chuckle once again and walked past her to get his stuff.
Arya stood frozen in spot and stared blankly ahead.
She suddenly wished Jon was mad. It would be better than seeing him certain of her invisible shot with Gendry.
She swallowed a lump and slowly went to the door, planning on getting out before any of them had a chance to come see her and her sullen face.
Unfortunately, although none of her siblings got a glimpse of that face, the person standing in front of the door when she opened them did.
"Hello, Arry. Everything alright?"
She stuttered and tried to keep her heartbeats silent enough for him not to hear them. "Y-yeah, I'm just, uh, still a little sleepy, y'know?" she bit her lip and then quickly added, "Wanna come in?"
"Nah, I just wanted to let you know I'm here." He frowned and leaned down a bit, gazing into her eyes.
Shitshitshit. Arya never had a good control of her behaviour when it came to looking into his divine eyes.
"You sure you're okay?" his voice was a mutter, a low, vibrating tone that sent shivers all the way down her spine.
She took a deep breath, which was a mistake, because now she had a good sense of what he smelt like. And that was good, too. So good.
"I am. I'm sure." With that she pushed through and walked away from him into the morning.
It was obvious, she thought, it was going to rain.
Behind her, she heard Sansa's cheer voice and Gendry's laughter echo into the empty street.
The ride to the bus was funny and the atmosphere helped Arya relax, although she was crammed between Sansa and Robb.
Jon took over the music, and Gendry gave him suggestions which he stubbornly refused, and that kept them all laughing when in the end they ended up listening to ABBA.
"Come on, mate!" Gendry said through the laughter. Jon waited out till the song finished and then switched to Bohemian Rhapsody, which was everyone's favourite (they always had a bit of a problem with adjusting to Sansa's taste. But they found a common ground with Bon Jovi, The Beatles and sometimes even Stones).
It started raining when they got into the bus, and to Arya's luck, the boys (Robb, Jon and Gendry – Theon had nothing to do with that, he was late) invited her to sit with them in the back of the bus, where there was a line of five seats. She got to sit by the window, and Jon sat next to her. Robb was in the middle, then Theon and Gendry. At first, Gendry was grumpy a bit, because the original plan was for him to sit next to window and Jon, but Arya won over saying Theon was an inappropriate company for her as a girl. He had to agree.
Arya leaned her forehead against the glass of the window as the engine came to life and the first droplets of rain started falling down.
She heard Robb's joke, Jon's laughter, Theon's snarky remark and Gendry's irritated groan and she knew that it was gonna be a long ride, and even longer five days.
Why wasn't she happy?
She glanced at Gendry, who directed his steely gaze out his window, and sighed.
On the third day, all students went to a dance club, as an unavoidable part of the school trip.
Arya wore a dress for the first time since she could remember being herself, and Sansa borrowed her a mascara. She walked into the hall with her sister holding her hand soothingly with the most awful sense of insecurity and despair.
But then she saw Gendry, in a black button-up, with his hair crazy as ever (he probably tried to comb it so it seemed even crazier) and felt something so much more than usual despair and misery.
She felt longing and want so hard she thought he would sense it and look at her – and maybe he did, but when his eyes locked on her, he didn't look at her like she was a lunatic.
He looked at her like it was the first time he ever saw her.
Sansa let go of her hand and when Arya turned to look at her, her sister winked. Did she also know?
But then she noticed Gendry had suddenly appeared beside her, and it took all the power she had of her body not to jump… or jump on him.
"Never thought I'd see you wear a dress." He told her, his face unsmiling.
"Never thought I'd wear one, either." She confessed with a nervous chuckle.
He frowned a bit, making that painful thinking face of his. She almost felt like laughing, but didn't want him to get annoyed. "You look nice." He said and her heart went up into her throat, blocking her words for a few moments.
Then her fears took over and she blurted out: "I look like an oak tree!"
Gendry laughed and she saw him visibly relax. "A nice oak tree."
She narrowed her eyes at him and then proceeded to walk beside him, shaking her head.
He caught her by her forearm. "Arya, wait!"
She turned around and frowned. "Since when do you call me 'Arya'?"
He reluctantly let go of her hand, and she realized they were standing a lot closer than before, and that his eyes had never been darker.
"Since when do you wear dresses, m'lady?" he said in a quiet, husky tone.
Arya blinked and opened her mouth to give him a reply, but she had none. Gendry smirked and she felt irritation bubble up instead of insecurity.
"I'll be on my way." She said and turned away before he had a chance to reply.
But Arya knew he was looking at her as she walked away, so she, for the first time in her life, added and extra wiggle of her hips as she walked. Just enough to know that he'd not forget about her for the night.
As soon as she was out of sight, though, she felt like the biggest jerk in the world.
She stood by the glass door and watched the dark outside and the rain fall as fast as her heart beat at the thought of him.
Stupid rain. Stupid Gendry.
Jon was the one to notice her in a corner at the club, where she stood motionless as there were no freaking chairs in the whole damn club.
Jon was the one that took her hand in a tight grip and brought her out of her hiding place to make her dance with them. He hugged her around her waist and swirled her up in the air, and she laughed into his ear as she held onto him around his neck. When he let her go and started jumping in place and singing without being heard from the almost unbearable music, Arya followed his example but took the chance to look around.
She didn't see Sansa, but she saw Theon dancing with a girl close by, and she saw Robb run around with his shirt unbuttoned, with his girlfriend running after him. By the looks of it, she was mad, but he was damn happy.
And she saw Gendry laugh at his half-sister Willow and swirl her around in a rhythm that had no similarity to the song that played inside the club.
Jon yelled something at her in that moment, but she couldn't hear him. She mouthed 'what', and he leaned down to yell into her ear:
"Jump up on my back!"
She first thought on questioning his motives, but then decided she didn't give a damn and jumped up, catching his shoulders when he turned his back to her. He put his hands under her knees to keep her up, and then started running.
Arya had to fight to keep herself up on his back, but she laughed as crazy and especially so when she saw Robb join them with Sansa on his back. She looked angry about her position, but when she noticed Jon and Arya she rolled her eyes and laughed.
Robb and Jon started running around through the thick crowd and Arya began to wonder how much they had drank already, because their energy was limitless.
But then Robb tripped, and Jon went over to help, but he tripped too, and the four of them ended up in a chaotic bundle of limbs.
The crowd cleared around them but then Arya looked up through her tears of laughter to see Gendry, with his arm extended for her to take.
And she did – she took his hand and he pulled her up, and didn't let go.
When he quickly picked her up and threw her over his shoulder, he ran away from Jon, Robb and Sansa and took her to the other part of the club.
There he put her down, ignored her shouting and protesting and suddenly took her hand again, this time spinning her around.
Arya gaped at him and glared at him but he was laughing and then she pushed him away, but he only caught her wrists and put her hands behind his neck, putting his in a firm grip around her waist.
She had no choice, and no will, to pull away, so she gently put her head on his chest and closed her eyes.
She had a feeling she could hear the rain falling around them.
When they got back to their room, in the middle of the night, Sansa took one look at Arya and smiled softly.
"What?" she asked.
Sansa shook her head. "Nothing." Then she looked at Arya again. "It's just that you seem really happy. More than ever. Your eyes are glowing."
Next morning, Sansa made her open the door to their room when someone knocked on it while they were still asleep. Arya grudgingly made her way to the door and swung it open, ready to tell whoever it was to fuck the hell off.
"Gendry?"
He stood there in khaki shorts and a black sleeveless tank top that really caught her eyes.
Damn those arms.
"What are you doing here?" she frowned, now fully awake. If there was anything that could reverse her mood in a second, it was Gendry Waters.
Arya leaned on the doorframe and crossed her arms to cover her chest. She slept in one of Jon's old T-shirts that went almost to her knees, but of course, she didn't wear a bra. So she tightly covered her chest and wished Gendry's eyes would stay on her face for the whole time – which they didn't really do.
In fact, Gendry looked quite baffled himself, with huge bags under his eyes and his hair looking like it had a rocket mission five minutes ago.
"I'm – I just wanted to apologized." He muttered in his deep, morning voice that Arya would really catch on and dream about later weren't it for the confusion following his statement.
She frowned and blinked. "What for?"
"For – for my behaviour last night." He cleared his throat. She noticed his eyes couldn't stay put on her own for long – he seemed to be avoiding her gaze.
"What?" she had a bad feeling about this.
Last night was almost perfect – until she, of course, took off, after they've 'danced' for a half an hour. She saw Jon and bolted. Not saying a word.
Did Gendry regret spending time with her last night? It wouldn't be a wonder…
"I'm sorry, Arya, I shouldn't have… I mean, I drank more than was needed and I – "
"What… are you talking about?" she almost growled.
Gendry finally looked up and met her eyes. He sighed and ran a hand through his hair.
"I'm sorry I took you away and made you… dance with me. I promise anything like that won't ever happen again."
That fourth day was spent inside their hotel, lounging in the common room between the hallways, with murmured chatter and lots of water passed around. Half of the students were hung-over – those who weren't were exhausted and didn't sleep long. Also, the rain was falling in heavy waves and there was no way anyone would go out.
Arya spent most of the time in the game room, playing billiard with Mycah and Flipper with Jon when he came around.
But as soon as Gendry came in, looking for Jon, Arya was out of there in a beat.
During the dinner she saw Gendry sit next to Jeyne who she despised for the girl's brain capacity, which was as proportionate to her belly fat. Worst of all, Gendry seemed to be quite satisfied with the way Jeyne kept putting her hand on his bicep.
Arya let her fork fall down to her untouched plate of scrambled eggs and walked out without a word.
Maybe she was making a huge deal out of nothing.
But why did it feel like the rain followed her wherever she went?
On the fifth day, after a quick tour around a nearby city that had tons of old architecture points, they all sat back in the bus and watched the grey sky with mistrusting eyes. It didn't rain yet, but it sure looked like it was going to.
Arya sat next to the window again, and in one moment she felt someone take off her earphones.
Pearl Jam was replaced with the sound of Jon's voice.
"Someone had an accident – we have to wait for a while before starting for home."
Arya frowned. "An accident? What happened?"
Jon shrugged. "Nothing too serious, otherwise we'd know more and someone would already be crying. Theon went out to check what happened."
Theon came back with a sour face. "Apparently some kid from your year got hit by a car." He nodded to Arya and she felt her mouth go dry. She saw Mycah get off the bus to get something he forgot from a bench nearby. "He broke his leg. The ambulance came and took him to the nearest hospital. Said he was gonna be back as soon as they make sure he's okay."
Arya stood up. "Was his name Mycah?"
Theon frowned. "Actually, it was. How did you know?"
But she ignored him and started for the front of the bus. She heard someone call her name as she jumped down on the ground and turned around to see Gendry following her.
"What the hell do you want?" she spat at him.
He looked taken aback by her reaction, and seems to refrain a little. "I wanted to see if you were all right – you just ran out of there – "
"Yeah, right." She rolled her eyes and started turning around. "Like you care."
"Hey!" he caught her arm and she felt a sense of déjà vu from two nights ago. She shook off his hand. "What the hell is your problem?"
"You are!" she screamed at him and stepped forward, tilting her head back to look him in the eye. "You and your fucking confusing moods and swaps and I just don't fucking know why you pretend to care at times and then –"
"Pretend? Pretend?!" he huffed, leaning down and getting into her face. "You're the one that's always silent! You're the one that won't ever speak her thoughts but expects everyone else to be aware of it and follow every desire of her heart! Which no one has a proof that it exists!"
"Well, it does!" she growled in a low tone. She felt her vision blur and saw Gendry's eyes burn with blue fire and rage. She had no clue how they got where they were – fighting in front of a school bus like they had a history – when they didn't.
She felt like they had a lifetime behind them, like each of his words ripped apart a happy thought, a joyful memory. But they had nothing. They didn't even have ashes – for those you needed something real to be burned by fire.
But she had fire – and so did he. They had so much of it they could burn each other down and everything around them.
But they obviously had nothing else, and it was starting to rain, and her fire was burning out.
"It does." She repeated in a broken voice, stepping away from him.
Gendry pulled back and his eyes were suddenly cold. No fire. No arguments. He just looked at her like he was seeing her for the first time. Like she was ice and he did not want close to her.
She pulled back for another step. It hurt. Gendry turned around and hopped back up onto the bus.
Arya slowly turned her back on the bus and looked around for adults that belong to their party. She saw two teachers nearby, but thankfully far enough not to have heard the fight.
"Excuse me, was it Mycah?" she said as she ran up to them.
They turned around. Both were women in their mid-forties. One had big, black glasses that made her eyes look way too big and ruddy brown hair that came down to her shoulders, and the other way too thin for her age, with pale skin, almost completely grey hair and startlingly vivid, green eyes.
The second one nodded apologetically. "He's going to be okay, but probably won't be able to walk without help for a couple of months."
Arya's head was buzzing and her chest felt like it weighed as much as a mountain. "But we had a fencing competition coming up next month."
Her voice was blank and hollow to her own ears.
One of the teachers said "I'm sorry." And Arya nodded before walking away.
She wasn't walking to the bus, and soon she found herself sitting on the bench she last sat on with Mycah.
"Arya?"
She looked up to see Sansa standing in front of her. Her sister frowned in worry when she saw her eyes, and quickly kneeled down in front of her.
"What's wrong?"
Arya shrugged and shook her head. "I don't… I think… everything."
"Oh, Arya. What did he tell you?"
She knew her sister meant 'Gendry'. She was grateful she at least didn't speak his name.
"He… I don't know. Nothing much." She sighed and shook her head again, looking at Sansa's wonderful, caring eyes and feeling her own fill with tears. Her voice sounded broken and strained when she spoke again. "Sansa, I'm just so sad! He doesn't – he doesn't think I'm a good person, he doesn't want me, he thinks everything he had to do with me was a mistake…"
Arya suddenly broke down.
Her thoughts were as grey as the sky above them. Her heart felt bigger than ever, and very sick and hurtful. Her eyes flashed with visions of Gendry's face the way she last saw him – almost repulsed, cold.
Tears came down in an uncontrollable flow, like everything she felt cracked the barricade and started spilling out of her in the form of two salty rivers on her cheeks.
Sansa sat down next to her and pulled her into a warm embrace. Arya's head ended up in the crook of her neck, and she was shaking and sobbing and feeling like with every sob she got rid of the part of that awful weight in her chest.
In the end, she was left with the sight of her sister's wet cardigan and a pair of blue, pearly eyes that looked warmer than sun.
"Your eyes aren't glowing anymore." Sansa said in a remorseful voice.
Arya went back when she was sure her hair covered her face completely, and she sat down next to Jon without a word. Jon, wordlessly also, gave her back her earphones and she put them on without turning the music on. The only sound she needed was the sound of the rain that finally started hitting the glass window she leaned on. The only face was the sky's grey, appropriate, expression.
TEN MONTHS LATER – THE END OF THE SCHOOL YEAR
There was a knock on her door before Jon's head peered in. His beard has grown, as well as his hair, but she supposed it looked okay considering the way his girlfriend couldn't keep her eyes (or her hands) off of him.
"Arya, Gendry wished to talk to you."
The mention of his name and the statement itself made her cringe. After all the time that's passed, he wanted to talk to her right after their last day of school?
"Is he here?" she asked in a worn out voice. There was a shadow where there used to be Arya Stark, and although many thought (her parents, her school colleagues, Robb, Theon and Rickon – Bran was too wise) that it started with her awful result at the fencing tournament almost 10 months ago, both Jon and Sansa spent a lot of time trying to cheer her up in more appropriate ways than buying her fencing equipment or encouraging her sport spirits.
"He's waiting in my room. I'll call him here if you wish to speak with him, too." Jon sounded like he would be 100% supportive of whatever decision she made. She was starting to get sick of that, too.
She needed a firm shake, not gentle hugs.
"I don't. But I will." She sighed and pushed herself out of her chair. She was finishing a drawing of Bran's favourite dragon from the Inheritance Cycle. "Please, tell him to come in."
She slowly walked to her window. As she gazed up at the stormy sky, she remember the weather all those months ago, when she last interacted with Gendry. Was it a coincidence that the same day he chose to speak with her, the sky looked like it was crying once again?
"Arry."
It was a simple word, a simple nickname, a simple voice, but a heavy tone.
Arya closed her eyes before turning around to look at him. The heavy tone of his voice was reflected in his eyes, sad, remorseful.
"Hi." She said in a tiny voice.
"Gods." Gendry gasped and walked a bit closer. He was now close enough that she could make out the dark bags under his eyes and how he had a scruff and how his hair was curling a bit, like it was warning him he needed a trim. She liked it.
She hated it.
"What?" she asked, thinking of his shocked gasp.
"Jon was right – you do look… different."
"You've seen me every day at school, Gendry."
He shook his head at her tired voice. "No. You made sure I only caught glimpses – never sticking around too long or too close when I came by."
"Didn't want to see the disgusted look on your face." She said coldly.
"Gods, Arya!" he said again, rubbing his hand over his chin. He looked troubled and almost desperate. "He said you almost looked like a zombie – said you changed even your behaviour."
"Didn't mention the fabulous haircut?" she snorted. Her hair was now as short as Gendry's – or it was, but it started growing out slowly. It still resembled a boy's haircut more than a girl's.
"No. I noticed that myself."
"Well, good for you, innit?"
"Arya, please…" he started, and she had a feeling he was going to come closer, so she crossed her hands on her chest defensively. She noticed a glimpse of his desperation – he stopped in his tracks, not stepping on inch closer. "I'm sorry."
"For what?" she shook her head. "Don't make me go through this again, Gendry. You once said you were sorry, and the only one feeling sorry after that was me. You seemed to enjoy yourself quite a lot afterwards."
"I didn't mean that!"
"What? That Jeyne had a great personality?"
Gendry closed his eyes. "You were jealous."
"No. I was not." She firmly stated. "I was… confused. Hurt after what you said that morning. But not jealous. There was never a reason for me to be jealous of that girl." Even if she had you.
But in some way, Arya knew Jeyne could never have Gendry. No one smart, or good, or worthy could ever have him.
"So you didn't like me?"
I still do.
"What if I did?" she rolled her eyes. "After everything you've said the last time we spoke, it really doesn't matter what I felt." She continued without mercy, knowing a good person like Gendry would feel enormous, endless guilt after her words. "After all, you crushed all of it."
She was right. But seeing the guilt and pain on his face didn't make her feel good. It made her feel worse.
Gods be just, she still loved him. How could she not? He was her Gendry, from the day she got her nickname, till the day he first said her real name. And ten months after that. He was hers, at least in her heart. She couldn't let him go.
"Would you please go, now?"
He left, lingering at the door before closing it with a whisper.
She felt a breath escape her throat, and put her hand to it.
"You wasted all your tears already." She muttered to herself and turned back to the window to watch the rain.
Jon found her sitting in front of her window after an hour. The rain was still falling.
"He left."
She only nodded.
"Did he tell you why he wanted to talk to you?"
She said nothing.
"I thought so."
She heard him sigh. "Arya, he's going to the Night's Watch military unit. I gave up for Ygritte – he decided to go."
Her heart dropped.
"When is he going?"
Arya slowly stood up from her chair and faced her dearest brother.
"In a month, I think. He doesn't really have money for a university, and he refused the scholarships he was offered because of stupid reason. I think he still has one on hold – a nice school at the Neck, but he's just taking time to get over it. He really wanted that one."
Arya looked down at her feet. Gendry was leaving.
"Why did he come to talk to me?"
"I'm not sure, but I think it's bad you didn't give him a chance to tell you himself."
"You must know, Jon." She told him firmly.
It took Jon a few moments to speak again. "I think he had – has feelings for you."
Arya felt something snap inside of her. "No. No, he doesn't. You indirectly said it yourself. He said it, directly."
"Ten months ago, right?" Jon sighed. "Robb saw you dance with him. I did, too. But I just didn't mind much."
"What?" her throat and mouth went dry and she came closer to Jon. "What happened?"
He looked at her with heavy heart, speaking softly once he found the words. He also found her hand and gripped her cold fingers with his warm hand.
"I saw you dance with him that night at the club. But I was too drunk to care or to see too much into it. It only came to me in the morning, but I remember what Robb did when he saw you. You must understand, Robb would never hurt you – in fact, he was doing it for what he thought was your own good, so you wouldn't be hurt.
"He went to Gendry just as you ran away, and he pulled him outside into the rain. Yelled at him, called him a pervert, told him that he had better stay away from you. Gendry yelled back after a while, that you were your own person, that you were good and smart. I stood back – one of them was my brother by blood. I couldn't take sides, and I couldn't think clearly, I wasn't sure what was best for you.
"Eventually, Robb got too far. He started throwing low punches, mentioning Gendry's poor status and his 'bright future' and how he had nothing to offer you in a serious relationship, and how he had no business with you if he meant anything but serious, and how, considering his nothingness, he had no business with you anyway.
"Gendry left. He accidentally woke me up in the morning as he was getting dressed. Told me he was going to make things right. I thought he was going to talk to Robb. Afterwards, him and Robb seemed all right, so I thought I was right.
"But then I saw your face at the gaming room. I knew. I'm sorry."
Somewhere during his story telling, tears stained Arya's cheeks, and when silence finally embraced them, Jon pulled his little sister into his strong, safe arms.
"I'm sorry." He repeated softly.
ONE MONTH LATER
"Hi."
Gendry looked up from his bags and when he saw who it was, he immediately straightened up.
"Uh – hi." He said, lowering his eyes to the floor before looking up again. "What – what are you doing here?"
"I was a chicken. Couldn't muster up the courage to come earlier. Sucks." She admitted with a nervous laugh.
"I thought… I thought you had nothing left to say." He slowly said, going around the boxes to stand next to her on the doorframe. The whole room was filled with boxes, and Gendry's black T-shirt was old and rumpled and she knew it was probably years old.
"All I said a month ago, Gendry, all of it was the worst I could think up of the truth."
Arya held his gaze, willing herself to keep the eye contact for as long as she could.
She was a chicken – all those days, a whole month… she was preparing for this. For this conversation. But she was also recovering from her state of coma she had fallen into for almost a whole year.
"What do you mean?"
"I was a bitch." She simply stated and shrugged.
"I don't think so – "
"I was, trust me." She shook her head. "I never wanted you to get hurt – until that day. I've been in constant pain, or something like it, for ten months. I had so much… negativity inside, all bottled up, and I took it out on you because I thought you were the cause, that you deserved it."
"Jon told you about Robb, didn't he?" Gendry muttered and looked down.
He still had a scruff, she noticed. She liked it. It made him look even older, but it made his jaw look magnificent, and his eyes even more wonderful.
"Yes. He did."
Gendry kept his eyes on his feet, frowning like they had somehow insulted him for life.
"Gendry." She softly said. "Please, look at me."
He did. He let his eyes wander over to her own, and he stared into her eyes for what felt like an eternity. She knew right then, that Jon was right, that as mad as it was, as unbelievable, as impossible, Gendry had feelings for her.
"When are you coming back?" she asked him, barely audible.
"In six months. In a year. I don't know."
Arya noticed he was closer than before, and she realized they were both leaning in.
"Would it be weird if I said…" she swallowed a lump, but Gendry's eager eyes made her continue. His arms were suddenly around her, pressing her into the wall behind her, and she leaned back, grabbing his collar to pull him with her. "If I said that I would wait for you?"
"I think Robb would find it extremely weird." Gendry teased and she snorted and hit him on the head. "I'm joking." He let a small smile graze his lips. "If that's weird, then I don't ever want to be normal."
And with that, his one hand slid behind her neck, holding her in place as his lips touched hers, kissing her softer and then slowly pushing further, letting her pull him down against her body completely, tilting her head sideways when she parted her lips for his tongue.
Gendry said: "I think I'm in love with you."
Arya responded: "Well, I'm certainly in love with you."
He kissed her in the rhythm of the rain that slowly started to thump on his windows.
Second chapter – yes or no?