"I don't understand why she got so angry so quickly." Jon shook his head. He finally stopped his pacing and sat down in the unusually large armchair in the corner. It had been a present from Lord Manderly. "It's not like I said she had to marry him tomorrow. Or even that she had to marry him at all."

"Don't ask me. I'll never understand how her mind works." Sansa continued adding stitches to the large heart tree inspired tapestry she intended for the great hall.

"You understand me though right? Obviously I'm in no hurry to see Arya leave us again. No more than I want to see you married off. I wouldn't have said anything -"

"If he hadn't insisted they were old friends. I know, Jon, I know." Sansa finished his sentence without looking up.

"It's not as if Starfall is so important that I'd send her away to be married against her will." He said. Mostly to himself, as Sansa didn't seem eager to respond again.

They both turned at the sound of a soft knock on the door.

"Come in." Jon said hurriedly. A timid handmaid walked slowly into the room accompanied by Jory Hastor, the guard meant to be at Arya's door for the night. Immediately Jon knew why they had arrived.

"She's gone again." Jon felt his anger flare at his own statement.

"Aye m'lord. I'm sorry. I wouldn't even 'ave known she was gone if it weren't for-"

"Enough. Do I need to station you inside of her rooms from now on, Jory?" Jon snapped.

"No, m'lord. I'm sorry m'lord."

Jon sighed, knowing it wasn't Jory he was angry with. "Just go and find her. And tell me immediately when she's found."

"Aye m'lord."

- - o - -

This was not the night for a walk. It seemed to get even colder the closer they got to the heart tree in the center of the Godswood. Gendry watched the white cold mist of their breaths mingle in the air as they walked. Finally when they reached the weirwood Arya took a seat on one of its largest roots and Gendry followed suit. Choosing to sit next to her rather than across from her. She looked cold.

They sat in an amicable silence for a while taking in the sleeping Godswood as a soft snow started to fall.

Finally Gendry spoke first. "I hope you appreciate this. I'm going to be exhausted tomorrow." He smiled over at her. Hoping it showed how much he didn't really mind at all.

She gave him a sideways glance and smiled herself, "I envy you being able to sleep. So as punishment for you being a total arse the other day I thought I'd like to keep you awake tonight."

"I wasn't being an arse. I was just in shock is all. I had a ghost in my house." But she wasn't a ghost at all. He'd seen a ghosts. Come back from the dead to haunt those that had wronged them. Arya was real and alive and shivering. He wanted to hold her. He wanted to run his hands over her arms and legs until she was warm again. She was a woman grown, but she somehow looked more fragile now then she had when she was a child. She was still shorter than him by a head and thin as a whip. He noticed then in the faint moonlight the dark circles under her eyes. "Why can't you sleep?"

She shrugged, "You know how when you have a nightmare, it's usually about someone you know?" He looked confused for a moment. She tried to explain. "I think when most people have nightmares it's about someone they know. Maybe someone you hate that's trying to hurt you or someone you love is being tortured. That sort of thing." Gendry frowned, but she continued. "I dream about people I don't know. Strangers with faces I've never seen before. I'll dream about a stranger being kind to me and then, SNAP!" She snapped her fingers for emphasis, "They turn and they hate me. They want to kill me or follow me and murder my family. Swallow me whole and steal my face." She shuddered and Gendry resisted the urge to put an arm around her.

He swallowed hard, "You're safe now, you know. Whatever happened to you before. You're safe now." He did touch her arm then, an allowable contact. "Jon would never let anything happen to you." 'I would never let anything happen to you.' He thought.

She shook her head slowly, but didn't verbally argue with him. Just looked down at her feet while she gently pushed snow around with the toe of her boot. Suddenly she looked up at him. "Tell me something only you and I would know. Tell me..." She paused, thinking for a moment. "Back when you and I met, how did you find out I was a girl?"

'You were too pretty to be a boy. I liked you a bit too much.' He thought. "Do I really need to pass a test? Can't you just look at my face?" He said.

"Gendry just answer. Please."

He sighed and broke eye contact with her. Feeling uncomfortable. "You wouldn't..." He paused feeling his face heat up. "...Make water in front of us. The boys."

She smiled. "Right." Then, "Okay, what was the nickname Lommy green hands gave me?"

"Uhh.." He couldn't quite remember, "Lumpy face."

She laughed. "Close enough. Okay last one, what was my name in Harrenhal?"

He knew this one. "Weasel. And then Nan. I had a pretty hard time keeping them straight if anyone brought you up."

She cocked her head to the side, "Who brought me up?"

"No one." He responded. And laughed as she shoved at his arm in annoyance. Dislodging only herself from their seat on the weirwood root.

"I tried not to spend a lot of time thinking of things that happened in Westeros while I was away, but occasionally I did wonder..." She looked over at him. Her face serious. "That night, when the Hound took me. Did you guys even try to find me?"

Gendry's mouth dropped open in surprise. "Of course we did!" He stood up then, frustrated. "The second I realized you were gone I ran after you like a fool. Shouting your name for what seemed like hours." He held his hands straight out, the cadence of his speech growing quicker as he spoke. "I was soaked clean through and frozen to the bone when Lem and Anguy finally caught up to me. I wouldn't even have stopped looking had they not dragged me back to the inn. We all left as soon as the rain stopped to try and follow the Hound. The trail was hard to follow, but Anguy and I made it all the way to the crossroads. We found out we'd missed you by days when we arrived. Heard the story of what had happened with Gregor Clegane's men. We heard that you'd left with the Hound while he was in a bad way." He dropped his hands, stepping forward so he stood right in front of her. "I stayed at the Inn at the Crossroads years. I'm not sure when I gave up hope that maybe you'd come back there at some point. Even after I heard stories that you'd been married off to Roose Bolton's son I wondered if you'd someday make it back. Then we heard t'wasn't really you and I- OOMF."

His sentence was cut short and the wind knocked out of him when Arya flung herself at him. At first he thought it was an attack until she latched her arms around his neck and her legs around his middle. He stumbled for a second, fearing he might fall in the snow, but righted himself quickly and took a seat back down on another of the weirwood's roots with her still wrapped around him.

"Thank you." She whispered. When he sat down fully, she adjusted her seat in his lap, pulling her legs from around his waist and letting her knees rest on either side of his hips. But kept her arms firmly around his neck and her face against his shoulder.

The whole scenario was so unlike Arya that for a full minute he sat still in shock. The warmth of her body seeped into his very bones and his heart beat so violently against his chest; against her chest; that he thought it impossible that it wouldn't bruise.

She peeked up at him then with surprisingly tear filled eyes. "Haven't you ever hugged anyone before?" She choked out a laugh. Her voice thick with emotion.

With her question he realized he hadn't put his arms around her. And after taking a moment to glance around at the soft falling snow in search of prying eyes that (thankfully) weren't there. He allowed himself to bring his arms around her and pull her even closer. One arm wrapped around her waist, his fingers splaying dangerously across her left hip. The other ran across the length of her back with his hand pressing her shoulder tightly to his chest. He buried his face into the side of her neck, his eyes screwed tight while he breathed her in.

'She's real. She's alive. This is Arya.' He thought, the realization seemingly hitting him for the first time. This was Arry. This was the girl he'd been searching for and wondering about for years. One of the biggest regrets of his life was being instantly rectified by having her here, alive, in his arms. It hit him like a ton of bricks. 'She's right here. With me.' He opened his eyes then. She looked cold in the early spring night, but she felt warm against him. She looked skin and bones when she stood in front of him, but in his arms she felt nothing but soft.

He felt her move her head to wipe her eyes on the sleeve of her shirt, his shirt. Then she turned her head to bury her own face in his neck. And he closed his eyes again as he felt the tickle of her breath just under his ear and against his jaw. His blood quickened in his veins and he leaned his cheek against the side of her head. Fighting the demons within his chest that screamed "Mine. Mine. Mine." She wasn't his. She could never be. But in this moment it was hard to believe she wasn't when he felt her thighs pressed against his sides and her hands clutching the shirt on his back.

"Gendry?"

They stumbled apart at the sudden voice in the darkness. Arya kept her head down and didn't turn around, but stood frozen in front of Gendry as he scanned the darkness for a face. The cold rush of air that invaded the space between them was more sobering than a splash of water to the face. Finally after a moment he saw Jory Hastor, one of the guards, emerge from the dark. It was obvious Jory hadn't realized yet who had been in his lap.

"Well what do we 'ave 'ere?" Jory smiled, "I'd ask you what you were doing, Gendry, but obviously you're hidin' from Sarah, eh? Who's this?" He stepped closer.

'You nosey arse.' Gendry thought, but before he could come up with a good lie, Arya turned to face Jory.

"Jory." She spoke loudly. Her chin raising in defiance. Jory's face fell in realization and surprise, "Go tell Jon I'm not a prisoner and if he insists on sending a guard after me to drag me back to the dungeons each time he finds I'm not there then I won't be making the mistake of letting his search party find me in the future."

"M'lady." Jory knelt then, looking between Arya and Gendry twice. "I.." He stood again quickly, "I'll tell the Lord, but I'm sure he'll be wroth if -"

"I will go find him soon." Arya cut him off.

"Aye, M'lady." Jory turned and left.

Once he was sure Jory had gone, Gendry groaned aloud. Looking up to the night sky and running his hands through his hair twice in frustration.

"I guess this is goodnight then." Arya shrugged. "Will you walk back with me?"

Gendry continued to look up at the sky. "We should run and catch up with Jory. See if he won't keep his mouth shut about this."

Arya looked at him strangely, "Telling someone to keep it a secret implies we were doing something wrong. And we weren't." She shrugged again, "There's nothing to hide. You're not the first man I've hugged and I'm sure you won't be the last. Jon can do nothing about that."

He thought he heard the demons grumble in protest at her statement and spent a second reminding himself it didn't matter. She wasn't his. Couldn't be. To think otherwise was foolish.

A hug.

He felt like it had been more than a hug. But now that the spell was broken, perhaps it hadn't been. Maybe he had only wished it was. Either way Jon wouldn't like it if he heard about it. That much was certain.

They walked back to the great keep in silence, but before they were near enough to be overheard Gendry spoke again. "I missed you Arya. I'm happy you're..." He shook his head and looked down at his feet.

"Alive?" She finished for him.

He nodded, still looking down at his feet. "Yes. At the same time though. You know Jon would string me up if he thought something was going on between us. And I'd be surprised if he sees a hug between m'lady and one of his smithies as appropriate."

"Jon wouldn't string you up ever." She rolled her eyes. "And I'm not m'lady" She tacked on for good measure.

He looked up at her then, "Maybe he wouldn't. But maybe he would just send me away. Maybe he'd ask me to leave the life that I've built here just to distance me from his sister. Then what?"

"Then I'll leave too." She answered defiantly.

He swallowed the knot in his throat. "Stop being ridiculous Arya." He wasn't sure which issue to tackle first. The fact that she wouldn't leave with him or that she'd hate him for leaving or that he doesn't have any desire to leave. Was spending time with her worth losing all that he's gained here? The answer was no. But she wouldn't like hearing that, so he kept it to himself. They wouldn't be welcome anywhere if they left. There was no place for a highborn lady and a lowborn bastard to settle down, even if that was her intention.

"I'm not being ridiculous. I won't be told what I can and cannot do by anyone."

"I have no choice though Arya. I do what I'm told, when I'm told."

"And if Jon tells you not to speak to me anymore? What then?"

He didn't answer, just stared at her, willing her to understand.

"I didn't realize you were such a bloody craven." She spat on the ground then and started stomping towards the keep. He started to follow, but she turned on him. "I don't need your help. Go home!"

Gendry felt the muscle in his jaw twitch as he pressed his teeth together. "As m'lady commands." He gave a mocking bow and turned to stomp back to his house.

She roared in annoyance and shouted, "Wait!" He stopped in his tracks but didn't look back until he felt something hit him in the back of the head before falling into the snow at his feet. He looked up to see her stomping towards the great keep before he scooped his shirt up off the ground and slung it over his shoulder. Only to rip it off his shoulder and wad it in his fist in annoyance when he caught the scent of her on it.

- - o - -

Sarah found him early the next morning. He was exhausted, as he knew he would be. After all the events from last night he had nearly forgotten Arya's dismissal of Sarah and knew she would have something to say about it today.

"So, rubbing elbows with the ladies of the house all a sudden? Or mayhaps something more than elbows?" She asked as she walked into the forge.

Gendry sighed, "She was just bored I think. I don't think she's made too many friends here yet is all." He accepted the bit of buttered bread she offered. That's what he liked about Sarah, even the few times she was wroth she still brought him food.

"Bored. Aye. Are you keeping her entertained m'lord?" She smiled at him.

"She was a little girl when I knew her last. She doesn't understand propriety with the help."

"No. Now she's a woman grown who's wantin' some affection I'll take it. You just let me know if she's aiming to get it from you. Because I won't be your extra bedwarmer, blacksmith."

Howell guffawed at Sarah and Hammer looked up from his work. "You already got yourself a woman Gendry. Leave m'lady for me." He gave Gendry a wink and Gendry nearly crushed the bread in his hand with the urge to put his fist to Hammer's teeth.

Sarah frowned then when she saw his anger. She reached up and pulled his face down to look at her. "Is that the way of it then, Gendry?"

Gendry pulled back and shook his head. He stuffed the bread into his mouth and walked straight out of the forge. Putting distance between him and the three of them. As he walked away, he heard Howell shout from the door, "Don't you be gone too long boy. There's still work to be done. Girl or no."

He ran his hand over his face. It was going to be a long day.

- - o - -

Authors Note:

Next chapter will be up within the week and its an Arya POV! Let me know how you like the story so far!