I know it's a couple days late! I know, and I've been kicking myself constantly while writing it for that. But Christmas is always fun, right?
Hopefully it's still a cute little thing in holiday spirit.
Shoutout to my lovely Kendall (sam2zeus2) for helping out so much with this! Love you hon!
Enjoy! xoxo
Gendry comes home with Arya after school on a regular basis. He's two grades ahead of her, and is the only one out of the two of them that has a driver's license. He always drives her home, and she somehow always manages to convince him to stay for a bit. Her family likes him well enough, and spending a few more hours with Arya, coupled with Catelyn's freshly baked sweets make him stay.
There's nothing romantic about their relationship. None at all. Him sighing 'no we're not dating' has become sort of a catchphrase for him. That doesn't mean, however, that he doesn't wish things were romantic between them.
So they sit in the den, feasting upon Cat's specialty banana bread, and help each other out with their math homework, like friends do. Despite being two grades younger than him, Arya's a lot better at math than he is, and often ends up doing most of his homework for him. He doesn't ever admit to any of his friends that a Hobbit-sized sophomore is better at math than him.
Catelyn comes around, a spring in her step, a wide grin on her face and a big silver bowl in her arms. "Afternoon, Mrs. Stark," Gendry says politely, offering a tiny smile. Arya merely grunts something in acknowledgement, loudly sucking on a candy cane she stole from Rickon's room.
"Are you doing anything for Christmas, Gendry?" Catelyn asks, setting the bowl down on the table. Gendry subtly peeks over the rim and sees folded up pieces of paper piled in.
He shrugs. "I was just gonna spend the day working on my car; I have a few repairs to do." He frowns a little. "I don't have much family in town."
"Would you like to come here for Christmas?" Cat beams. "We're having our usual holiday party, and I'm sure everyone would love to see you again." Arya makes a choking sound and shakes her head furiously.
Gendry smirks. "I'd love to, Mrs. Stark. Thank you." He's only coming to the party piss her off.
At least, that's what he tells himself.
"Fantastic," Mrs. Stark smiles. She pushes the bowl a bit closer to him. "Pick one; we always do Secret Santa. It's our little tradition." Gendry nods and digs around, furrowing his eyebrows in concentration.
"Just pick one, stupid," Arya grumbles, biting a large piece off the candy cane.
Gendry pulls a name out and unfolds it, careful not to show Arya or Catelyn.
On the paper, in Cat's neat scrawl, reads: Arya.
Well, shit.
Gendry pulls up to the Starks' large house at around noon. A couple of other cars are there, and he lets out a sigh of relief, figuring that there won't be that many people there. The Starks were just starting to like him, and honestly, he doesn't feel like impressing any other people.
He grabs Arya's present, as well as a bouquet of roses for Ned and Cat, a small 'thank you' for inviting him in the first place. He slams the car door shut with his ass, since his hands are full, his car keys held in between his teeth. He trudges up the steps to the door and rings the doorbell with a gentle press from his elbow.
He's thankful when it's Arya's cousin, Jon, who answers. Jon's a really chill guy- probably his favourite of Arya's family, besides Arya, of course. Jon only smiles at Gendry's current state and plucks the gifts from his arms, giving Gendry a chance to shove his keys in his back pocket and shrug out of his coat. He mumbles his gratitude and exchanges his coat for the presents. Jon hangs up his coat in the closet and leads Gendry to the den, claiming he's just in time for the gift exchange.
Gendry takes a seat in between Arya and her older sister, Sansa. Cat makes a fuss when he gives her the bouquet, telling him that it's too much and he shouldn't have. Ned only smiles sincerely and gives him a friendly pat on the back.
He gets introduced to Theon Greyjoy, the Starks' long time friend, and Jeyne Westerling, Robb's girlfriend. Other than them, he's the only one that's not part of the family. But he doesn't mind, really; he knows most of them pretty well, and they go out of their way to make him feel at home here.
Catelyn passes around the gifts to their respective owners, humming along to the Christmas music playing on the radio. Gendry feels a bit guilty when a large present lands in his lap. He's not even part of the family; he shouldn't be getting expensive presents from them.
"Alright, one at a time," Cat says, taking her seat in between her husband and Rickon. "Youngest goes first." She ruffles Rickon's hair, who mutters something under his breath about how he's really not that young anymore.
He practically tears the tissue paper out of the bag, his eyes wide with what could only be described as childish delight. He pulls out a large plushie of the Hulk, and the kid's face looks like it could split in two from all the grinning he's doing. He sees that it's from Sansa and bounds over to envelop her in a bear hug.
Bran opens his present next. Arya had gotten him all four seasons of Merlin, which is Bran's all time favourite show. He's about to give her a hug, but she scoots away, shuddering at the possibility of affection.
Arya grabs her present from under the tree with eager hands. Gendry feels something like anticipation bubbling up inside his belly, but a wave of nervousness quickly replaces it. What if she doesn't like it?
Arya tears the wrapping paper away, and frowns when she sees what's under it. "Twilight?" she gapes, turning the DVDs over in her hands. "All of them?" Robb, Jon and Theon try to hold in their laughter.
"I thought it would be funny," Gendry explains meekly. "You know, like that time we watched all of them and made fun of them?"
"What?"
"At Hot Pie's house!"
She eyes him weirdly. "I'm pretty sure I saw these with Sansa and Jeyne Poole."
"This March break...you don't remember?" She shakes her head and leaves the DVDs on the floor in front of her.
Gendry doesn't talk much for the rest of the present exchange. So much for the helpful advice, Mags... His friend, Margaery Tyrell, had said that a gift that was reminder of a past event between them was a good idea. Gendry blames the whole thing on Mags.
Sansa gets the soundtracks to Wicked and Les Misérables from Bran, which are the only Broadway CDs she doesn't own. He admits to raiding her collection and her iTunes library to make sure that she didn't have them.
Gendry opens his own gift, completely stunned when he sees that it's the car seat covers he wanted. He asks Robb how he knew what to get. Stark only grins mischievously and nods to Arya, who's too busy wrestling with Rickon to notice.
Jeyne cries when she opens her gift, claiming that it's the most beautiful thing she's ever seen. Cat had gotten a picture of Jeyne and Robb at prom laminated and put inside a fancy frame. Jeyne pulls Catelyn into a tight hug, her words lost amongst her tears.
Jon gets a plane ticket to Montreal from Ned to see his girlfriend, Ygritte; from what Gendry's heard, Jon and Ygritte have been doing the whole long distance thing for the past couple years, with Jon being in the army and whatnot. Jon chastises Ned for spending way too much, but Papa Stark tells him that he's earned it.
Robb opens his box, which is really just a shoebox that Jon had quickly covered with wrapping paper. Arya had told Gendry that her cousin only got here yesterday morning, and was in bed until suppertime because of the jetlag. Everyone knows it was a last minute gift, except for Robb, who's beaming and spinning the old beat-up Swiss Army knife around his fingers. "This is so sick!" he exclaims, marveling over all the different blades.
"It's, uh..." Jon clears his throat, "it's vintage." Theon barks out a laugh at that, earning him a glare from Jon.
"My turn!" Greyjoy singsongs, rubbing his hands together. He dumps the contents out of the bag, and the grin falls to the floor with them. "What? A necklace?"
"It's seashells!" Jeyne- who's calmed down by now- protests. "Robb told me you're into the whole ocean kinda thing."
"Frozen squid?" he yelps, dropping the bag of seafood to the floor. "Jeyne, what the fu-"
"Language!" Cat snaps.
"Robb also may have mentioned that you like krakens," Jeyne mumbles, her cheeks turning a bright red. "He said you called yourself 'The Kraken' back in high school."
"If anything, this is cannibalism!" Theon shouts, waving the bag around for emphasis. "And these must be thawed out by now, gross!"
Ned and Cat open their presents at the same time, since they have this running gag with the kids that their ages are top secret. Then again, what parent doesn't do that?
Ned receives a customized set of direwolf bookends from…Rickon. Gendry stares openly at the boy in shock, wondering how the hell he could afford such a thing. The rest of the family seems unfazed by it, and Eddard even starts laughing loudly.
"Rickon always rewraps the same thing from Dad's office," Sansa whispers in explanation. "Every. Single. Year."
Everyone blushes and looks away when Cat opens her gift- except for Rickon, who doesn't know what lube or a vibrator is, and Theon, who's rolling on the floor laughing. "I know older people don't really have sex, but maybe this'll rekindle that flame." Greyjoy waggles his eyebrows, looking from Ned to Cat.
"We're telling your father about this," Eddard warns.
"I think you and Cat should keep between yourselves. In the bedroom, preferably." Theon hugs the bag of frozen squid to his chest, wheezing with laughter. Robb's finger slips, and the Swiss Army knife flies straight across the circle and lodges itself in the pack of squid. "Oi, Stark, watch it! You could have killed me!" Greyjoy reaches into the now-open bag of seafood and digs out a couple, throwing them at the oldest Stark kid.
"That's enough of you two!" Cat declares, wrenching the bag of squid and the knife away from Theon.
"Dude, you hit me right in the eye!" Robb whines, rubbing his eye.
"Well you could have killed me!"Greyjoy shoots back.
"Rickon smash!" the youngest Stark shouts, jumping and landing on Theon's chest. He hits him repeatedly with one fist, while the Hulk- in his other hand- smacks Greyjoy every time Rickon makes a movement.
Gendry uses the sudden action as an excuse to get some air. He hears the door reopen after he steps onto the driveway, but doesn't look back. The door quietly clicks shut, and soft footsteps approach him. "Hey," Arya says cheekily, playfully punching his arm when she catches up to him.
"Hi," Gendry replies automatically, monotone. "Sorry for your shitty gift. I-I thought…" He sighs. "I thought you'd remember. Mags said-"
"I know what Margaery said." He looks up from the ground in shock and sees the Stark girl smirking at him. "I just wanted to say thanks in private. It really was a good gift."
He quirks up an eyebrow at her. "You think?"
"Yeah, it was really fun when we watched them. Sorry for being lame about it back there."
"It's cool."
"So…about my little 'token of gratitude'…"
"Yeah?"
She pulls a sprig of mistletoe out of her coat pocket, her smirk widening impossibly so. She holds it high above the two of them, a twinkle in her eye. "Merry Christmas, stupid."