Gendry

Arya Stark was, and always would be, Arya Stark.

Her defiance was part of her very essence, and maybe that was what he found so endearing about her. Or maybe it was the way that her eyes lit up when she talked about something she was excited about or she was happy about something or was just smiling. Or the fact that she so fondly called him "stupid" at nearly every opportunity.

There was no denying the fact that he liked Arya Stark. Quite a bit, actually.

But there were certain things that Gendry had…well…not quite promised her, but wanted to make sure of. And the major of those things was not to lose her. That was the last thing he wanted. And he figured that if he made anything more complicated, it would end up in losing her for good.

So he kept his feelings to himself and tried his hardest not to make it obvious that he liked her. Even though it seemed that everyone else knew except for her. Not that he cared. As long as she didn't know, everything was fine.

Tapping his hands on the steering wheel, he waited for the girl to come down from her house so they could get to the school. "Arya, where the hell are you?" he muttered under his breath. He didn't know how many times she had told him to "Fuck off, Stupid," when he told her she was going to the damn game whether she liked it or not.

He was just beginning to unbuckle his seat belt to go get her himself to drag her to his car if he had to when the front door opened and she appeared. She glared at him before dragging her feet along with her down the steps and through the lawn to the passenger side of his silver Toyota Corolla.

"Remind me why I'm doing this, again?" she asked him when she got into the passenger side. He waited for her to buckle her seat belt before he turned his eyes on the road and drove off from her house.

"Because you love me and you know that the only way we're going to get to hang out this week is if we go to this game," he told her bluntly. He held back the sigh at the fact that this was the only day both of them were free. They had been friends for years and years, but lately things had gotten…complicated.

Arya had started dating some guy in the theatre troupe a few months ago and since then, their friendship had been failing. Not that Gendry wasn't guilty himself. He had also started dating a girl, mostly to keep his mind off of the fact that he couldn't date Arya and he needed to keep his jealousy under control whenever he saw him and her boyfriend together…

The thought of Arya's boyfriend sent a cold chill down his spine and he had to fight off a grimace

"Yeah…" Arya said wistfully, turning her head to look out the car window. His blue eyes flicked over to her briefly before returning to the road. She seemed like there was something troubling her, but he wasn't sure what it was.

"How are things with you and Jaqen, by the way?" he asked after a moment's silence. Gendry figured that if he didn't ask, something would seem off.

"Huh? Oh, it's good. Good…" she said, a distracted tone to her voice. She smiled at him and then shifted her attentions away from the window and on to him. "What about you and Jeyne?"

Again, Gendry had to bite back a huff of air, looking over his shoulder to check his blind spot to give him some time. "We're good. We went and saw that new movie last weekend. It was pretty good." Actually, things with Jeyne weren't nearly as good as he would have liked. The girl was nice, and good looking, but he was not nearly as into her as he should have been. He just could not get his head into the damn relationship, no matter how hard he tried.

"Ah, that's cool. Sounds like fun!"

They lapsed back into silence again as he drove her to the school. When did things get so damned awkward between them!? He sighed as he pulled into the parking lot, his fingers clenching the steering wheel as he thought about all that he had been trying to prevent when he urged Arya to start dating Jaqen to begin with.

Things had not gone the way that he had planned.

They got out of the car and walked side-by-side through the parking lot up to the school. Most of their conversation was simply small talk. As comfortable as Gendry felt around Arya, something just didn't feel right. He kept looking over at her and furrowing her brows, trying to figure out what was going on.

By the time they got some seats in the stadium to watch the football game, they had covered pretty much every small-talk topic they could. Thankfully, the football game became enough of a distraction that they were able to talk about it and actually have a conversation about it.

A few hours later, they were piling back into his car. The Dire Wolves had pummeled the Lions once again to the satisfaction of the entire school. "That was a really good game, huh?" he asked as he turned the key in the ignition, starting up as his best friend buckled in. She nodded, a grin on her face. "Hell yeah it was!" Finally, she had reverted to same old Arya. He watched her for a moment, biting on the inside of his cheek as an idea popped up in his head.

"Let's get ice cream," he told her, leaning back into his seat and pulling out of the parking spot carefully.

Arya looked at him warily. She looked she wasn't sure if he was being serious or not. It had been forever since they'd actually spent any time together. And then she grinned and nodded her head eagerly. "Of course I want to get ice cream, Gendry!"

He smiled at the way that his name sounded coming out of her mouth. And with that thought, he began thinking of other things that made him feel awkward and unsure of himself all over again. Fuck.

He drove them to the closest ice cream shop and pulled up. He heard Arya's ringtone coming out of her pocket and watched in silence as she dug it out. She sighed, biting her bottom lip before smiling apologetically at Gendry. She answered and lifted her phone to her ear, answering the call.

"Hey, babe," she told him. Gendry sighed inwardly, giving Arya a smile before he climbed out of the car so she could talk to Jaqen in private. Damn it. He couldn't have any time alone with his best friend without someone ruining it for him, could he? Fuck it.

He leaned against his car as he waited for his best friend to finish, messing around with his own phone as he tried to distract himself and try his hardest not to listen in.

"Gendry," Arya finally called behind him. She looked upset and the expression on her face told Gendry that ice cream had not been one of his better ideas. "Can you please take me home? I'm really, really sorry…" she said, frowning at him. He sighed, rolling his eyes and nodding.

"Yeah, no problem. Everything okay?" he asked as they both climbed back into his car.

"Yeah, everything's fine. He's just worried about me and stuff…"

"Right."

Something in his tone must have told Arya that he didn't want to talk about her stupid, slightly controlling boyfriend. She sighed and muttered an apology before falling silent. He missed the wild, energetic girl that he had grown to love.

Again, the question of what the hell happened to make them like this popped into his head. Fuck.

After he had dropped her off, he drove back home and sat in the driveway for a few moments. His hands were still clenched on his steering wheel. Fuck fuck fuck. Why. Why did things have to be that way between them? Why did Jaqen have to steal his best friend from him? He sighed and groaned, grinding his teeth together.

He smacked his hands against the steering wheel before he finally climbed out, slamming his car door shut. Why did Jaqen have to ruin everything?

He sighed, running his hands through his hair and tugging at the ends of it before he stalked off into his house and upstairs into the attic without so much as a word to his single mother. She watched after him, concerned for her son, before deciding to leave him be.

Gendry threw himself on his bed, throwing a pillow over his face as he grumbled and complained about how much he hated not being able to hang out with Arya anymore.

Arya

Arya had been enjoying herself being able to spend time with Gendry again. For once. She had finally convinced Jaqen to let her hang out with her best friend from child hood and then he had decided to be impulsive for once and take her to go get ice cream after the game. She should have just ignored the damn call from her boyfriend so that she could spend more time with Gendry.

She liked spending time with Gendry. What was so wrong with that!? It wasn't like he had feelings for her or anything. She had resolved herself to just give up on him, since he had been the one to urge her to start dating Jaqen in the first place. Not that her boyfriend had given her much choice in the matter anyway. He had pursued her endlessly for days, begging and pleading with her. When she had finally brought it up with Gendry, he had said that she should do whatever she wants and if she wanted to start dating Jaqen then she should. And when she told him he wasn't sure, he had told her that it couldn't hurt.

Stupid, stupid Gendry…

There was definitely a reason why she called him Stupid all the damn time.

She kicked off her shoes by the door as soon as she got in, pulling off her jacket as she went along. Her brothers Bran and Rickon were sitting on the couch watch television while she could hear Sansa and her mother in the kitchen talking in hushed tones.

"Mom, I'm home," she called before padding up to the second story of their home, not waiting to get a response from her family. She peeked into her father's office to check if he was home yet on her way to her bedroom, only to be met with disappointment. Her father had been spending a lot of time at work lately and hadn't really been around for the past couple of weeks. Something huge going on that he couldn't miss or something like that… She didn't know and she didn't care…mostly…

Sighing, she shook her head and finished the trek to her bedroom, closing the door behind her and slipping out of her clothes as soon as she could. "Fucking clothes…" she muttered as she left them lying at her feet on the floor, not bothering with the empty laundry basket in the corner of her bedroom.

She tossed her phone over onto her bed as she padded over to her computer desk, sitting down and opening up her laptop. She logged on and began browsing the internet for something to occupy her frustrated mind.

Her phone buzzed and she ignored it, not wanting to deal with anyone right now. Her excitement over having kicked the crap out of the Lions at the game tonight had been shot when she wasn't allowed to go get ice cream with her best fucking friend.

Arya was feeling really, very frustrated with her stupid boyfriend.

An hour after she had gotten home, she was on Facebook when Gendry sent her a message.

Check your phone, stupid.

She smirked and rolled her eyes, getting out of her chair after typing up a short "fine" in response to him. She grabbed her phone and checked the text message he had sent her.

We need to do something this weekend. Seriously. Have any plans?

She shook her head, sighing and sitting down on her bed.

Not yet. We do need to hang out. I thought you and Jeyne were planning something?

While she waited for a response, she got back up and grabbed her shorts and a loose t-shirt she had stolen from Jon when he had visited home last. Throwing them on, she smirked as her phone buzzed again.

Not anymore. She canceled on me again. ]:

Arya frowned, furrowing her brow. What was with Gendry and his girlfriend? Not that she really wanted to know since she didn't really care that much about if Jeyne and Gendry were doing good… Her phone buzzed again before she could even start to type up a response to that.

Mom misses you and wants to see you again, lol.

A smirk fell on Arya's lips and she shook her head, sighing and typing up a response.

Lol, well then I have to come by, don't I? Pick me up tomorrow at three?

When she got a confirmation, she grinned and dropped her phone back onto her bed. If she was going to spend tomorrow afternoon with Gendry again, she should probably get some of her homework done. Arya groaned at the prospect and then decided to ignore her responsibilities. They could wait until Sunday.