Arya did not sense a hand on her shoulder until her feet lost their balance and her body got dragged away. She looked up and saw her sister Sansa, her lips were moving quickly but Arya did not hear a word the redhead was saying.

She was flustered, Arya saw, talking in a speed of a hundred miles per hour. Arya couldn't work out what she was saying, especially since, for some reason, the sounds that were coming out of Sansa's mouth were so squeaky she sounded more like a chipmunk than a human. The observation made her laugh hysterically.

"For gods' sake, Arya!" her hearing came back when Sansa stopped, sounding human again. "Are you fudjing drunk?!"

Arya laughed more loudly, pointing both thumbs at herself. "Me? Drunk? Never."

"Gods!" Sansa went on, leading her sister to the backstage area in almost a cute fury. "Fudjing fudj! You're going to ruin everything again!"

Arya watched, wonderstruck, as a guy who was crowd surfing yelled and hundreds of cockroaches escaped his shirt. Suddenly the man himself turned into one giant cockroach and started attacking the innocent people. Arya squinted and rubbed her eyes, suddenly regretting taking those candy-like pills from that suspicious creepy boy earlier.

"Hey... you... you're starting to piss me off!" Arya yelled at her sister, who was beginning to struggle on her hold of her.

"Shut up! I will not let you screw this up!" Sansa was naggier than usual, and even more annoying. "We've been looking forward to meeting the band since ages! You're going to embarrass us in front of them!"

Arya giggled, noticing how Sansa was struggling to overpower her, with half of the booze and drugs of the party in her system, but struggling nonetheless. "They're a bunch of old guys, you sad thots!"

"Have you even been listening to what I said back home?!"

"Nope."

"Ugh!" they reached the backstage barrier and passed through the guards. Arya began to see familiar humans in what seemed like ages, "Listen, I told you about a local band that played at my prom three years ago, which I'm obsessing about ever since. Well, The Brotherhood gave them a chance to sing at the end of the concert and my soulmate has to be one of them, and don't convince me it's not fate. Don't. Screw. This. Up."

Fool, a desperate, delusional, pretty fool.

"Aye aye, captain!" Arya held both hands in the air. Then her jaw dropped when Robb walked toward her, cockroaches flooding from his mouth and nose, flowing on his shoulders. She started brushing at his jacket violently when he reached her, "Robb, stay still!" she glared at one smiling cockroach. "Oh, you messed with the wrong guy!"

The shocked Robb shook Arya from the shoulders, as if to wake her up from a coma, "Arya! What the fuck are you on?!"

Arya was following Theon's index finger with her eyes excitedly, as he waved it back on forth, which was sparkling in seven different colors. "Yup, confirmed. She's high as fuck."

"Theon," Arya suddenly found the straps of his shirt very interesting and admired them for a long time before she regained her train of thoughts. "I want a cat."

"This is not good." He sighed. "She only remembers her cat fetish when she's shitfaced."

"Do something!" Robb shouted.

"Why are you telling me?!"

"But he gave me candy! How could you say no to that?!"

"You ate the fucking candy?!" Robb almost yelled, his face turning red as his own hair.

"Yup, all four!"

"Seven hells." Bran exclaimed from the background.

Sansa was close to tears, "She has to! She fudjing has to! Every single time!"

"Arya," Theon put his hands on his hips. "What happened to never accepting candy from fucking strangers?!"

She spotted Hot Pie and Lommy in the background with the same state as her, who were being held by Margery and Myrcella. Her eyes shined as she walked toward them, her siblings on her heels and panicking.

She cupped Hot Pie's face and they started laughing like lunatics. The chubby boy said, "You too?!"

"Yuss! Gods, man! I fucking love you! You're like my only legit friend!"

"Hey!" Mycah yelled behind him, "I'm right here!"

"Fuck off." She waved the sober boy away.

"Dude," Lommy eyed her like she was an alien, "Did you see those squirrels too?"

"No, mine were cockroaches." All three of them nodded in fascination.

She was forced to turn around, and Robb's auburn hair and blue eyes were on her face. "Arya, snap out of it!"

She did the only thing that came to mind, she laughed, approvingly and joyfully for ruining their plans and making them taste some of the frustration they give her on almost daily bases, and it was almost too sweet.

Then reality hit her pretty hard across the face, not figuratively speaking, at that matter.

Her body froze and Arya opened her mouth as far as she can, a loud gasp escaping her lips. She breathed heavily after the water spilled on her shoulders and onto the floor, dripping and silencing everyone in that small backstage room.

"FUCK! FUCK! SEVEN GODDAMN HELLS!" she cursed loudly, hearing a clatter of a bucket and a handle, and turned around. Theon stared down at her with a smirk on his face, holding the bucket and what was left of the frozen water in it.

"Holy shit, Theon!" Robb broke the silence, as surprised as she was.

Theon ignored him, "So? You awake now, party girl?"

She nodded way too many times, then sat on the chair that Mycah pulled for her. She shook violently, the movement causing an irritating feeling in the bottom of her stomach.

Suddenly the feeling resurfaced.

Arya couldn't hold it in and just at the right moment, Theon handed her the bucket and she threw up all of that day's food in one go, making everyone around her exclaim in incoherent words.

Sansa came rushing in with water bottles and towels, immediately starting to wash Arya's face and dry her clothes and hair, yelling her thanks to the old gods and new that she used waterproof makeup on her sister.

Her brain was re-functioning and in less than ten seconds all her memories kicked in and life started making sense, she hugged the towel and tried to stop shivering, rinsing the terrible taste in her mouth with water and glaring at Theon so nastily she was sure he'll need a shower after it.

"I'm going to cut your dick off, sweet brother, sleep with one eye open for like the rest of your life."

Theon did not dare to meet her eye, and turned around, whistling innocently.

Robb was walking back and forth, glancing at Sansa and urging her to hurry, "Your song is in ten minutes, okay? Just please hold in for a little while, for father's sake, Arya."

She nodded, knowing all too well how journalists would dirty her father's image with the slightest mistake a Stark dares to make publicly, "Where's Jon?"

He was missing along with the friends that came over at the mansion, even Arya could note their absence.

"He left after half an hour ago. Mormont is in town and asked for a meeting, so Jon took one for the team. Literally." It took a long painful time for Arya to remember that Mormont was her favorite brother's football coach at the Riverland Pillars he was currently playing at. Too many names, too tired was her brain. "I heard it was an emergency, he took the rest with him."

Hot Pie stepped in and held some nachos in front of Arya, "Want some?"

She groaned, "Piss off, Pie."

He shrugged and ate the handful in one go.

Arya glanced up and saw a bulky figure behind her friend. Her vision was barely getting back in shape when she saw a familiar face, with ridiculous spiky hair, a piercing in his right eyebrow, and an eyepatch. "Who the fuck are you?" he asked, confused.

"I'm Hot Pie!" Hot Pie said at once.

"Aye, and good for you." He smiled, "It's not every day that I meet a lad with such a tasty name, and what would your friends be called, Mutton Chop and Squab?" he pointed at Arya and Mycah, probably recognizing Sansa from her famous face.

Sansa was about to speak and kiss the Brotherhood's lead singer's ass, but Arya cleared her throat.

"Mister Dondarrion, I'm Arya, Arya Stark."

Beric looked flabbergasted, "Pardon me, my lady, you just didn't struck me as a..." he struggled to find the right words and Robb saved him from the trouble.

"Sir, we are really sorry for the inconvenience. We ran into... uhm, some technical problems."

"Major technical problems," Theon added.

One look at Arya and Beric understood, he let out a light laugh, "It's fine lads, I here take that our young lady doesn't have the freedom most people have. Having some fun every now and then won't hurt anyone." - Oh only if you knew – "Go wash your face with some cold water, it helps."

Theon flashed a smug smile, "That's already been taken care of."

She glared at him and he looked away instantly.

Beric didn't lose another instant. He held his strong hand to her and smiled, "Shall we go and be done with this shit, my lady?"

Arya took his hand with a forced smile of her own, "Oh now you're speaking my language."

Sansa mouthed 'Be good' and Robb stared at her worriedly, fearing the consequences of her failing and bringing shame to the family. Theon held his thumps in encouragement and the rest went back to the buffet, lead by Hot Pie of course.

No one recognized her before she was introduced by Dondarrion, something that would never happen if Sansa or Robb were standing in her place.

The crowd cheered at the first mention of the name 'Stark' and sang insanely with the Rock band. Arya smiled and swayed side to side, laughing and giggling in such a perfectly believable way that surprised even herself. At the end of the birthday song, the crowd's screams almost deafened her all over again but she forced herself to hug each band member and shout 'I love you Brotherhood!' as loud and as steady she can on the microphone.

They all rushed to the backstage, with the men following her and introducing the rookie band who was going to be the closure of the party, the BB5.

Robb kissed her on her cheek and said his own birthday wishes. Theon patted her shoulder, and Sana looked absolutely miserable as she leaned on the wall, hands folded together and a lifeless look burned into her expensive heels.

When Arya looked around she understood exactly what happened. All the screams she was hearing backstage weren't for her, but for the BB5 band that had just arrived. Sana had realized once more that her attempts to find her soulmate had come to a yet another miserable failure when she tried to spark a conversation with them, and none of them repeated the words that were tattooed on the back of her neck.

Arya removed her fake expression and replaced it with her usual angry one immediately, flexing her jaw from too much smiling. The water was starting to lose its effect and Arya found the world spinning again around her.

She did not hear Beric telling her she did great. She did not respond to Mycah's congratulations. And she absolutely did not see the man that she bumped into right in front of her, whatever he was holding crashing on the floor but she paid it no mind. She didn't find it in her to turn around and apologize, hell, she was still drunk, bone tired, and she did what she had to do and that seemed too much of a bother.

Arya Stark had it with being a proper lady for almost four whole minutes on that stage. She was absolutely done. Arya saw another candy wrapper and her mouth began to water, her eyes focused on one mischievous purpose.

"Fucking M'lady doesn't even bother to look where she's going!"

The First Men invaded Westeros. Aegon the Conqueror burned Harrenhal to ashes. The Wildlings invaded the Wall. Blackwater Bay exploded in wildfire. All the while Arya stopped by her heels and took the longest breath she dared to take. His voice was gruff and angry and Arya gathered all the courage and foolishness she can muster to force her head to turn.

There he was, standing with an intense scowl on his face and murdering her with his deep blue eyes.

Arya took another long breath, her eyes almost popping out of their sockets. Legitimate color emerged before her for the first time, and all those hues striking at once was not easy to digest.

What stood in front of Arya in a big bulky frame was perfection, an angry perfection, but perfection nonetheless. His short messy black hair was blocking her from seeing the eyes entirely in which she was thankful for, it was shocking enough as it is.

He locked his arms across his broad chest, and she saw the most defined biceps ever made by the gods, old and new, and she thanked them all, one by one. One arm was more ink than flesh, painted with thick tattoos that began from under his leather sleeve and stopped at his wrist, while the other was just a better display of his tanned skin, providing a perfect contrast and visual flattery to his muscles.

"Take a fucking picture, it will last longer."

Arya blinked ten times per second, processing what he just said with his godly voice again. She bit her thumb to get her senses and sanity back to where they belong. It was only then that her brain responded and started sending demands from every electric nerve her body had.

Make an impact!

Make a fucking impact!

She forced her legs to walk where he was, and Arya picked up his electronic keyboard from the floor and checked if anything was broken, and sighed when she realized there wasn't. She looked up to him, her heart rattling against her ribcage, and saw his face up close.

She gulped.

Holy fucking Maggish hotness!

"I'm sorry." She said very fast, in almost a whisper, and practically pushed the keyboard on his rock-solid chest and took her leave. She didn't know where she went, but the little Stark started running as soon as she was positive she was out of the scene.

When did she start running, Arya could not recall.


Holy gods. Old, Seven, Many Faced, R'hllor, the Drowned one, even Mother Rhoyne, whoever she is! Arya found a rusty red door at the back of the hall, opened it without hesitation, and stepped into another world.

She realized that she was now in a back alley, the music becoming almost mute. Grateful for the quietness, Arya slid against the cold brick wall and sat on the floor, releasing a very long sigh and trying to stop her knees and hands from shaking.

And then it hit her, harder than Theon's frozen water.

Mag wasn't the only asshole. She realized, mortified, and covered her face with her hands. Arya made the worst impact possible. But he was an asshole all the same and whatever came out of his mouth was blunt and cruel, but she deserved it.

As she was told, Arya could not comprehend what she saw in words. It was more than true. This man was so out of this world it was absolute nonsense. She dug in her pocket and located her phone, desperate, and admitting defeat.

She reached Jon's voice mail and cursed loudly, remembering that he was on the road, but she did not care. She sent a text message all in caps: 'FUKING PICK UP. NAW. SOS. MAG IS FOUND. I REPEAT. MAG. IS. FOUND.'

Arya was relieved when she got a call back almost instantly.

Jon talked so quickly she could barely catch what he was saying. "Arya, I'm in the middle of the Kingsroad and you're not supposed to stop driving. I'll give you three minutes. Go."

Arya agreed to him but did not intend in any way to make it in three minutes. She huffed. "Jon, why didn't you warn me? That was a fucking nightmare."

"What?" Jon was saying, then she heard loud car horns on the line and her brother yelling 'Fuck you too!' then he went back to her. "Ar, are you crying?"

"No. But I want to?" her voice cracked, "He was so mesmerizing it scared the shit outta me."

Her brother stayed quiet for a while, analyzing what his sister was telling him, then spoke knowingly. "Don't tell me you stared at him like a retard too?"

She winced at the memory. "I did. I completely did."

He groaned, "Did he sound that rude or was he playing?"

"Nope. It was way harsher than you all expected. I felt like he wanted to squeeze his hands around my neck and strangle me."

"What did you do to trigger him?"

"I was a total bitch, that's what." she admitted, "His insults... they were on point, man."

"Okay, you have to calm down. He probably realized you're his soulmate too by now. It's time to regroup and figure the best sort of action."

For an instant, she thought her brother was talking foreign, then her brain stopped working again. "SHIT!"

"What?"

"Shit! Shit! Shit!"

"What? What? What?"

"Jon!" Arya grabbed the phone with both hands, panicking. "My first words were 'I'm sorry', like fuck me he must hear that ten times a day!"

Jon sighed in disappointment; even Arya herself expected that she'd say something else. Everyone dubbed Arya as the Stark who was the least likely to say formalities as her soulmate words, no question, so what had happened ten minutes ago was pretty hard to believe. Arya had dropped the ball in every way possible.

"Well, you stared at him strangely so he must've noticed one way or another?" her brother tried to do what he was best at; maintaining morale.

But Arya was not having it. "No man, you don't understand!" she was angry at this point, furious at herself. "He is a fucking walking vision. Girls must be gaping at him all the time, and with all kinds, ages, shapes, and sizes!"

"Well," Jon clicked his tongue, defeated. "Shit."

"Jon, you have to help me. I've never been this confused before. I mean I hate him even more now; he proved to be more of an asshole in person, but even imagining his face makes me dizzy."

"Go." Was what he said immediately, "Confront him. Go now before it's too late. I don't want you to feel lost and wandering aimlessly like me. It feels like-" something stopped him, "Okay, sis, I really gotta go now I think that's a – FUCK! – there's a police car behind me. Talk later. Jon out."

Arya heard the line cut in her ear and she buried her head in her thighs. That proved a really bad experiment for her already emotionally dysfunctional heart, so going back there was a huge challenge as it is. Her thoughts kept going back to the same dark angry figure and she couldn't help but get goosebumps.

She heard loud screams and the red door burst open beside her. A mass of familiar auburn hair appeared in her vision and Robb seemed like he was in a rush, Theon right by his heels. "SHIT!" her brother yelled, "I'll freaking murder you, Greyjoy!"

"It's not my fault!"

"Then whose fault was it?! The girl you were groping or her bulky angry boyfriend?!"

Bulky angry boyfriend? Arya did not like the thought of seeing a certain someone again.

"We're dead. We're fucking dead!" Robb announced sardonically.

Theon turned around, equally nervous, and saw Arya. His pale blue eyes instantly lit up. "Arya!" he opened his arms, "Thank the gods for small mercies! We might have a chance to survive! Self-defense skills and all!"

Arya didn't know and wasn't interested in knowing what was going on. "Piss off."

"Sister, you can't hold a grudge forever! It's in the past now!"

"It was half an hour ago, dipshit!"

"Hey, guys-" Robb was calling them quietly, and then the door opened for a second time.

Four men came emerged, a very dark aura surrounding each and every one of them. The man leading them was bigger than the rest and Arya was momentarily enchanted by what she was seeing. The first one to make an entrance had to be the biggest man Arya had ever seen. He was a good one foot taller than Theon, with an absolutely massive body, which was huge in every aspect she could see. He might've as well had the word 'dangerous' tattooed on his forehead, because his entire presence screamed so. Even his way of breathing was intimidating. He towered over Theon and her adopted brother forgot how to humanly function for a while there, she saw. The other three were equally buff but were obviously falling behind their Alpha.

Arya was concentrating on the man's face, for it was too familiar. He was a mix of the Free Cities and the Grass Sea, she guessed, a scar on one eyebrow and dark, monstrous eyes. She could swear she had seen him somewhere but she couldn't get her fingers on it yet, not with all the drugs and alcohol she had ingested that night.

"You. My Woman. Die." The alpha man said with a very heavy accent, more growls than actual words. His face made her weak in her knees, and it had nothing to do with the fact that he was good looking.

Arya rarely found herself feeling fear, given how her whole life had been about provoking the worst out of everyone who knew or had the misfortune of encountering her. But fearful of that man currently looming over them, she definitely was.

"Hey, hey, I don't know if there's been a misunderstanding here, but I'm not your woman-"

"Shut the fuck up!" Robb smacked Theon on the head. Arya stood up and walked toward them carefully. To them, it looked like she was being protective and aiding them, but they didn't need to know that she was trying to rally to increase her own chances of making it out of there unharmed. No one needed to know.

The man smiled, and everything about it radiated death. Theon just stepped back, in apparent fear (understandably so).

"Couldn't you pick a bigger man, Theon, by any chance?" she whispered to him, anger slowly creeping into her frame. She hated this night. She absolutely hated this night and everything about it.

"You funny."

Theon laughed very nervously, "I-I know right? I get that a lot."

"Want to see joke by I?"

Theon held his index figure. "Me."

"Shut up!" Robb and Arya yelled at once, both of them bristling.

The Alpha chuckled at that, "Yes, yes, me. My hands. Your neck. Very funny for me."

"Oh, gods." Her two brothers murmured.

Arya, however, couldn't help but stare, much longer than necessary. She stared with so much wonder and intensity that man eventually turned his head to her direction, finally giving her a clear view of his face. Arya sucked in a long, long breath as her brain went through a very rough start up again, finally recognizing who he was.

The man in front of was her was none other than the UFC Champion for four consecutive years, Khal Drogo. Arya didn't recognize him with the casual outfit he was wearing and with his hair loose like that, but Arya knew that scar slashing his eyebrow very well, knew that set of jaw, and practically memorized that crease of his eyebrow because of the many times she tried to replicate it in order to look more intimidating.

Because Arya was a huge fucking fan.

She couldn't believe that she had gotten so high she wasn't able to recognize one of her idols. This was literally her rock bottom. Her life can't get any worse than this.

The door squeaked open for the third time and Arya saw Sansa walking in with a girl that had a strange hair color that was almost similar to one of her brother's friends, Aegon.

The girl examined the scene in recognition and rushed to the Khal's side, hugging his arm which was thrice the size of one of hers. She told him something in a language that didn't ring any bell to Arya, but she knew from constant stalking that it must have been Dothraki.

The boys, Margery, and Myrcella soon followed. Nobody seemed to know Miranda's whereabouts, or even care for that matter. Arya spared a moment to appreciate how quickly Sansa managed to bring out the big guns and buy them time, and that's when she saw a perfect chance to escape. She turned to make a signal for Robb, but her heart skipped a beat upon noticing Theon winking at the silver-haired girl, and the Khal saw.

Gods have mercy.

"RUN!" she yelled as hard as she can when she saw the look in Khal Drogo's eyes. Arya absolutely worshipped the way the Dothraki fighter snapped and went ballistic on his opponents, but that was strictly in the ring, when someone else was taking the beating.

They did not need to be told twice, the whole confrontation turned into a wild chase pretty quickly. Three blocks ahead and she was considering the idea of throwing Theon at them to save the rest, but she forgot it once Bran declared that they successfully lost them. A part of her knew they let them go out of pity.

Theon gasped for air but he still had the decency to smile. "Completely worth it!"

Everyone glared at him, but Arya didn't. She went over to him very calmly and smiled, using her best most powerful kick to hit him under the belt. He cried in pain and fell on the floor, and Arya felt a very nice sense of satisfaction wash over her.

For once Sansa wasn't complaining, instead she was busy calling Jory, telling him to pick them up. She had her spirit wiped away and did not seem to like to have it back anytime soon.

Hot Pie was on the floor, passed out and rarely quiet. The girls were on the floor also, leaning on the wall with the same nonexistent spirit as her sister. Robb sighed and rubbed his face, realizing that yet another night out had gone into a disaster

He grabbed her shoulder and looked hopeful. Robb did not need to open his mouth so Arya would understand what he wanted.

She patted on his back in an equally sympathetic manner, "It's okay, big brother, you can have my old car." She produced her keychain from her pocket and dropped it in his palm. "I heard father got me a new Jeep for the nameday, so..."

"Shit," he cursed miserably, "Are you sure?"

She did not wait to answer. "Nope. Didn't find him. Mag is still MIA. "