Chapter Seven
Part two of the wedding! It's all going downhill from here...
Disclaimer: I own none of these characters.
At the end of the song, Arya held onto him for longer than was strictly necessary. She could smell his aftershave, and feel the tense muscles of his chest through his shirt (he had taken his jacket off earlier), and his nuclear warmth was comforting to her.
She looked up at him, close enough to see the stubble on his chin, and smiled. She breathed in and opened her mouth to say something, but the next song was starting and it was 'Baby I Love You' by The Ramones and suddenly Sansa was seizing Arya by the waist and dragging her away, and Arya was jumping and dancing and laughing away from him. They formed a large circle, clearly something the family had all done before, and linked hands to dance- or rather, scream along with the words and move almost in time.
Gendry found himself between Catelyn Stark and a family friend he didn't know, a handsome young man with a far better singing voice than Gendry, who only just knew the words well enough to sing along.
Afterwards, the man looked at him as if just noticing that he existed.
'Sorry, can I help you?' Gendry asked, trying to keep his cool.
'No, sorry,' said the older guy, shaking himself and smiling good-naturedly, 'It's just... You could be my brother.'
'Hey, Gendry!' Arya was calling him, grabbing his arm, but she stilled when she saw the other man, and awkwardly muttered, 'Oh, hi, Renly.'
'Oh, Arya, is this your boyfriend?' asked Renly, smiling slyly.
'No!' she practically shouted, at the same time as Gendry. They leapt away from each other and both blabbered denials, whilst Renly raised an eyebrow disbelievingly.
'Anyway, I was just saying to your friend,' said Renly, smirking, 'That we could practically be brothers, don't you think?'
Renly moved to stand beside Gendry, and lifted a hand to point at the similarities.
And they really were very similar. They had the same strong nose and broad chin, and identical piercing blue eyes. It was strange, actually, that she'd never noticed it before, as she had known Renly Baratheon all her life, and she had spent far too much time staring at Gendry's face in the last few months.
'That is... Uncanny!' gasped someone else, a gruff man's voice. Arya turned around to see her father with his best friend, Robert Baratheon. Robert was the one who had exclaimed, and Ned was frowning.
'Congratulations on your parenthood, Renly,' said Robert, laughing.
'I think that's somewhat unlikely,' retorted Renly, 'My partners aren't usually capable of childbirth.'
'Who are your parents, son?' asked Robert, patronisingly. Arya stepped closer to Gendry defensively. She knew this was a sensitive issue to Gendry, who'd lost his mum a few years before but didn't like to talk about it.
'My mum was Sally Waters,' he said tensely, 'Didn't know my dad.'
'Sally Waters?' repeated Robert pensively, 'Blonde bird, pub singer?'
'My mum was not a bird,' Gendry spat through tight lips. Arya laid a hand on his arm, looking at him whilst everyone in the little crowd around them looked at Robert Baratheon, the wealthy CEO of a car manufacturing company upsetting some young lad.
'Oh, Sally Waters,' he sighed happily, as if he hadn't heard Gendry, 'She was a good girl, didn't realise she had a son. When were you born, boy?'
Gendry told him the year, and Robert laughed. By now, Ned was glaring at his friend too, annoyed at him for upsetting Arya's friend and making a scene.
'You could well be mine, boy,' he laughed, 'Don't tell Cersei, she wants all my inheritance for her little pussy of a son.'
Gendry stayed silent, and Arya silently cursed Robert. He couldn't even manage to be nice to his wife and kids. To be fair, Arya wasn't very nice to Joffrey either, but that wasn't the point.
'How is Sally these days?' asked Robert, grinning.
'She's dead,' said Gendry, 'And I don't need or want a father. I don't want to listen to your bullshit and I don't want to talk to you about my mother.'
'You might welcome a bit of my advice, Gendry,' Robert said after the shortest of pauses, 'Because you've not even managed to shag Little Miss Stark yet, have you?'
Ned frowned, but Arya sprang into action first, and pounced at Robert with her fists bared. She got him on the cheekbone before Gendry and Ned could drag her away.
Ned looked over his daughter's head at Gendry.
'Take her home,' he said, so solemnly that Gendry knew that wasn't an invitation for anything more.
Gendry hauled the still-struggling Arya over his shoulder in a fireman's lift, and didn't put her down until they were outside, waiting for a taxi.
'You're nothing like him,' she said, passion in her voice and her eyes, too, when they met his, 'He's a bastard, and you... you're one of the greatest men I've ever known.'
Gendry smiled sheepishly.
'Who your father is doesn't define you, Gendry,' she finished with a shrug.
She dozed off against the window in the taxi.
A/N: What's a wedding without a fight, eh? I also had to slip Renly in because he's my precious baby and he's fabulous and I love him.
