A/N- This is unedited, I'm sorry. I need someone to edit the chapters 1-7 and 8. But the reviews i get i really don't deserve you guys are the best I always feel bad about how I neglected this story or doubted it when you guys always offered such positive responses. I just finished it today and it is EXTREMELY UNREFINED but I wanted to post this so you know I hear you and appreciate the tie to take to review and msg me. If there's any betas out there, help a brother out! ;)
CHAPTER 7
Arya had slept in Sansa's bed that night,though not very well.
As soon as the door of the bedroom shut behind her, Sansa let her composure fall off.
"Well if you try to dispute your engagement to Lord Targaryen, I as well as two of those horsemen have crimson proof of the opposite." Sansa hissed, her voice raised a bit as she spoke and Arya had to fight the urge to either laugh or flinch at the sound.
"Arya. Really, your behavior is far to… unpredictable. If anyone else had seen you…" Arya could see all the horrible possibilities pass over her sister face, though herself, finding it all too ridiculous. She turned on her sister and started undressing.
"Would it not strengthen the marriage if they had seen us like that. Certainly it could be seen as more than just a political alliance then."
Arya stepped out of the dress and began unfastening her hairpins.
"Have you no care for your own reputation? For the reputation of our House?"
She wheeled on her then.
"My reputation? Sister is that a cruel joke!? My reputation is one as a true wolf! I may not be mannered and holy like you but I every bit as much a Stark as you though I have chosen to keep my fangs and claws."
Sansa had not expected to be confronted by her younger sister, though she recovered quickly enough.
"Yes, Arya you are so much more the wolf than I. You have always been a little beast and so no one would expect any less as you like to remind them just how little you think of Westeros customs of civility and how little you think of the noble of Westeros and it grieves me to remind you that you are one of them no matter how hard you howl and bite."
"What they did to our family-"
"They have already forgotten or at least try to. We mustn't let them see our hurt because we are wolves, the strength of the North. We have to play our part as apathetic nobles so that they know that nothing they do can hurt us."
Arya had to stand there with her mouth open. How had she overlooked her sister by so much. Behind her pretty smiles and lovely dresses was a strong political mind one that could balance her strong tactical mind.
"Will I ever be as perfect as you?"
Sansa smiled at this.
"I'm far from perfect, Arya. I'm just your big sister, I have to set an example for you to follow. Now get into bed."
"Sansa, I can-"
"I am not letting stay in your room alone after tonight's display."
Arya rolled her eyes before slipping under the covers of the bed with Sansa.
"You know I think the last time you let me into your bed was when I was four."
"That's when you turned into a little animal. Now go to sleep."
Arya closed her eyes and tried to sleep, shuffling to get comfortable.
She felt restless, as her mind replayed the day back to her and lingered on the most annoying parts. Her lips were still burning and her mind kept reminding her just who was making them burn. That prick.
She squirmed in the bed throughout most of the night and woke up exhausted and cranky.
She considered laying there for the rest of the day but the sun in her eyes was making the task far to difficult. Grudgingly, she got up and felt the aches from a horrible sleep in her arms, neck and back.
"Ughh."
Sansa or more likely one of her maids had left out a green dress that was thankfully simple looking and so replacing her nightclothes with it wasn't too bothersome.
Sansa was at the window seat of the room with her head in a book the very image of a lady with her one ankle tucked daintily behind the other. Mya gurgled on a blanket on the floor. Sansa looked up from her book coolly before putting a small dried flower in the book to hold the page.
"Good morning sister." Arya yawned, setting on the floor and smiled as she watched Mya blow air at her in her own rather unorthodox manner of hello.
"There is some breakfast prepared for you, if you would like, Arya." Arya looked up to her sister half expecting to see Catelyn. Sansa had taken on the role of the perfect noblewoman while maintaining a nurturing aspect that had once been displayed in their mother.
Sure enough Arya walked to the dining table where one of Sansa's maids had laid out a platter of fresh fruit and bread. Arya plucked a few grapes on her plate and ripped a hearty slice of bread before returning to her spot on the floor.
The maids were flitting about the room cleaning and polishing almost every possible surface.
"Is there something going on today?"
Sansa looked up from her book and around the room as if she were just realizing the presence of the maids.
"I will be having some of the noblewomen and their daughters over for needlework and tea. Will you be joining."
"I'm not skilled with that sort of needlework, dear sister. "
"Yes, you have a point there." Sansa sighed, putting here books down and sharing a smile with Arya.
"Much as I would like to have a point at that betrothed of mine."
"You should not speak so boldly."
Arya looked at her sister, her eyebrow raised skeptically. After last night's events she was sure that Sansa had been won to her side, but looking at her now with their mother's gentle blue eyes now steeled and unmoving as their father's, Arya could tell arguing with her was a losing battle.
Quickly finishing up her breakfast, Arya kissed her niece on the forehead and made her way to the entrance of the Tyrell quarters.
"Good Bye Sansa."
"Wait! Where are you going? You're not-"
She ran out the door before she could hear the rest of her nagging worries. It was nice to see that she could still get under her sister's skins, it was a normality, a continuation of a memory she wouldn't have to put in the past. Arya would have continued with this thought, though then she would have crashed into the bulking man before her.
"Morning Lady Star- ow!" Gendry cried as Arya put her fist to his arm. When he started rubbing the spot she had just hit, she smiled and folder her arms triumphantly across her chest.
"You should know better, Sir Gendry."
"That I should." He mumbled.
" And what brings you to my sister's quarters?" Arya raised her brow and Gendry looked directly at her with a look similar to a disbelieving patriarch.
"As it would happen I was going to ask Lady Tyrell if I could relieve of her bratty sister." He replied. Arya should have hit him again but she was happy to have the black haired man back in her life. With age, his brow was less furrowed then she remembered but that was perhaps the same with everyone and the tense overhanging of strife and famine was dissipating slowly. The slowness of this progress was dull but hopefully a sign it would be permenant, it was the quick action that were often regretted, the quick actions that were quickly replaced.
"I think Lady Sansa would be content with her impressionable younger sister venturing with so noble a knight as Ser Gendry." Arya watched the smile spread over Gendry's features and felt warmed.
Together they walked to the stables, aligned unconsciously the way only two people that understood each so well could. They had rarely spoke of serious matters in their youth but they held similar desires in their hearts and fears that could remain comfortably unspoken.
Gendry helped her onto her horse, ignoring her complaints before hoisting himself onto a study black steed.
"So how did you find yourself in the services of Lord Targareon?" She watched him shift uncomfortably but ignored it. Gendry kept his eyes straight as he spoke.
"It were four years ago. I was with the Brotherhood but mostly a guard for a group of orphans. After their house was taken, they would come with us, there wasn't much we could do about it. Aegon had seen us and offered the children board at Griff Roost. I didn't trust him for a while but after a bit I did."
The horses kept a slow, leisurely pace. There was an unreal feel to having life go so quiet for a moment in the horse trails of the forest. The predictability and dullness of the activity was also reassuring. She had gone through these trails as a child countless times and coming back to it.
Gendry was a companion who said little and rarely expected others to fill the silence. He was company but he let her enjoy the trails, feeling the mud cling to the hooves of her mare, the sweet smell of moss and cedar, and the sun, dancing between the leaves to reach her face.
"Arya. Why did you come back?"
Her mare whinnied as Arya shifted on the saddle. She still didn't like questions. She knew they would come but after being a no one, a face that could so easily blend into a crowd having questions directed at her still caught her off guard. Worse was that she knew the answer would frighten her friends and family.
No. You are Dark Heart.
Though they were said so long ago the harshness still clung to it as if the little troll of a woman was whispering it to her ear. She could almost smell the sour breath and old skin. At the time she had not known what she had been accused of but now-
"Arya?"
She looked to Gendry and was back. Her mind, automatically, making her another part lie, part truth.
"My family needed me."
Gendry nodded.
She could tell that was all the answer he wanted. It was a good answer. Still she felt uneasy. She kicked her heels into the mare lightly, for show, shifting into an all out run.
"Come on now Ser Gendry. Are you not to be supervising you lord's betrothed?"
He looked at her dumbfounded for a moment and she reveled in it. It didn't take long for him to follow suit and pursue her.
"I did tell milord you were flighty."
"Did you now?" She huffed. The mare was slowing from exhaustion or more likely laziness as Arya knew she could run faster. She ran until both her and the horse were heaving before a small stream. Gendry, shortly behind them.
"Glad to see you haven't changed much." He remarked, slightly out of breath and flushed. She smiled at him like she never had when they were little. It felt nice to finally be able to smile. Arya got off the mare and walked her to the stream where they could both drink. Arya had not seen much reason to bring water with her when she knew the stream was here.
She took a handful of water and splashed it on her face and neck. She looked at Gendry, looking at her.
"I missed you." She confessed, straightening herself as she turned to look at the boy who turned man while she was gone. There was still a trace of that unsure blacksmith boy there but it was hidden under more muscle and a young man's cofidence. He was nothing like Jon or Robb but he reminded her of an older brother, he treated her with a tenderness that she didn't need but had come to appreciate.
Gendry gave a lopsided smile, not sure what to make of Arya's unusually sentimental honesty.
"I never thought I'd get to see you again, Arya." He wasn't too good with sentimentality either.
She wasn't one for complimenting others or professing the meaning they had in her life. With Arya there was always an ice wall- it was like that with most northerners, She knew Jon was like that too as well as Rickon. Gods, when Rickon got here.
" Did you hear anything about Rickon?" She blurted
"Can't say that I've heard much." Gendry said, scratching his head. Arya considered this.
"He should be arriving any day."
The boy was a menace, he looked so much like Robb and he knew and played to it though her was much more reckless then their late brother. Rickon was just as wild as his wolf, Shaggy Dog who could no longer be mistaken for a dog anymore and Rickon really could be mistaken for a boy anymore. Arya grimaced as she imagined how the southern girls would react to him.
"Will he be giving you off?"
She had forgotten that was the main reason he was coming to Kings Landing. He was meant to represent the head of the family and give her to Aegon.
She nodded and bit her lip. A cool breeze swept by her and shook the young yellow-green leaves in the trees. A weaker leaf was pulled from one of the trees, slowly falling to the ground. People were already calling it summer though none of the crops had come into fruition just yet. They said the heat of the dragons had melted the frost of winter. Or perhaps the lord of light had brought heat back to Westeros through the fervor of His new believers. Arya called it what it was – and early spring.
There was still a chance for the snow to return as it had not left the North yet. Putting one's absolute trust in something so unsure as the weather seemed strange to her. It was not contained by time as night and day were.
"I can't believe they found a man brave enough to marry you." Gendry finally snorted even as a stone narrowly missed his head.
"Watch it, ser Gendy." She teased. Gendry but his hands up in surrender and then closed the distance between them with five steps so that there was less than a foot between them.
"It's stranger still that he wants to meet with you tonight." He remarked before turning around and walking back to his horse. By the time he had found himself back on his saddle, Arya registered his words.
"What?"
Gendry smiled at her before, sending his horse back through the path they had used to get here. Arya cursed the blacksmith turned knight before getting on her own mare and launching herself through the trees after him.
By the time she made it to her quarters, she was still panting. The fabric of her dress stuck to her body and she felt a nauseous restlessness in her stomach. It was the most sanguine feeling; traveling through out her entire body and attacking her mind. She knew the cause and it only made that feeling stronger. Frustrated, she sighed, running a shaking hand through her hair. It was much too tense to be relaxing and the feel of her thick and tangled hair did not assist.
Gendry had told her to meet Aegon by the shipping docks in Flea Bottom after midnight, after Sansa had gone to sleep.
She paced a bit, thinking of how to attempt this and then she wondered why she was even humoring this. Because she wanted to bother him, get him back for his previous behavior. He was so infuriating and logically, she should have been avoiding him until they absolutely had to be in the same room together. She shouldn't got out to meet him, he'd only insult her some more. She looked at the face in her mirror. It was a harsh face, dark hair, dark eyes and pale skin; all pale but her mouth with looked rosier, almost swollen. She put her fingers to her lips and felt them. They didn't feel particularly soft or rough. If anything they were thin. She had never considered if this was a disadvantage or not before.
A knock to the door from her maid reminded her that she was supposed to be refreshing herself before meeting with Sansa for supper. She splashed some water in her face and began removing her clothing. Her maid had laid out a dreadfully close to pink gown on her bed. She considered ignoring it but thinking about she was going to blatantly disregard her sister's orders, she could withstand a few hours in a pink frilly dress.
