A/N: I do not own Game of Thrones or ASOIAF. All of these characters (with the exception of Addie who is an OC) belong to George R.R. Martin. Read and review please, I love hearing from you! Kisses, Lyllian.
When Arya walked into her creative writing class next week, she cautiously glanced over to where Gendry sat at his desk behind the professor's. His head was down, reading over something on his laptop screen, urgently pounding away on the keyboard. Arya looked away when Addie reached for her hand. The morning after Valar Morghulis, Arya had gathered her friends together and told them what had happened with Joffrey, when Gendry brought her home, that she was okay and didn't want to talk about it anymore. She made a point of calling her sister and asking her to get coffee over the weekend so she could tell Sansa herself. Sansa, as was to be expected, was not pleased whatsoever with the unfolding of events, but seemed comforted when Arya told her about Gendry stepping in and taking over.
"I still don't know how he knew where we were," Arya had mused to her sister over coffee. Sansa had simply shrugged and hid her small knowing smile behind her coffee mug.
Arya followed Addie up to where they had sat last week and pulled out her laptop, opening it and pretending to do things that could be considered productive, but really just opening up her blog and an old story she had dug out of the archives to work on. She logged on to the school's website as well, opening her main page and staring at it as she waited with the rest of the class for the professor to show up.
"Arya," Addie hissed. Arya looked at her friend, who gestured with her head towards Gendry, who was staring at Arya intently. Arya waved at him with her fingers and smiled shyly and he smiled back at her. Gendry gestured to his computer as the professor walked in, imitating typing on the keyboard.
"All right students, as this is your first real class, you're going to really work today. Today is a free write and I want you to turn whatever it is you've written in to me via email by the end of the class. I don't care how long it is or what have you, just write me something. Your prompt is the word on the board," the professor announced as he walked in. The class watched as he went to the board and wrote in big chalk letters.
"Family," he announced, turning back to the class. "I want a free written piece about memory in my inbox at the end of the day. I'm going to walk out now. I don't care if you follow me or if you stay here. Do what you want, but do your work while you do it." And with that, he walked right back out the door. Arya sat there, slightly baffled that the professor would do this, but then a small ding from her computer pulled her attention away from the absent professor. There, on her school profile page, was an unread message from Gendry. She looked over her screen at him and he just smiled at her.
GENDRY: Want to go get coffee with me?
Arya looked at him and then looked at Addie, who immediately read over her shoulder.
"Do it," Addie whispered.
"Why?" Arya asked.
"Do you really need a reason why? He's gorgeous, he asked you and you've been obsessing over the guy for years. You already kissed him twice and he saved you from Joffrey. Just go get coffee with him. It won't kill you, that's for sure. Just don't forget to do your work," Addie sighed.
"Do you really think our TA is going to let me forget to do my work despite the fact that we're on a semi-date?" Arya asked.
"A semi-date? Why isn't it a real date?"
"Cause if I call it a real date then I'm going to panic about it. So it's a semi-date. Besides, it's only coffee," Arya explained.
GENDRY: Want to go get coffee with me?
GENDRY: Well?
GENDRY: When you're done conspiring against me, an answer would be lovely.
Arya tried not to show any signs of just how amused she was as she typed her response.
ARYA: I would very much like to get coffee with you.
GENDRY: Perfect, let's get on then.
"I'll catch you later Addie," Arya said. Addie smiled at the brown-haired girl as she shut down her computer and put it into her bag.
"Have fun you crazy kids," Addie replied with a wink. She looked down at Gendry as the handsome older boy packed his things up and waited for Arya to descend the steps.
"Have her home by ten now, you hear me boy?" She called half-jokingly. Gendry saluted and smiled in response and turned to leave with Arya, who stuck her tongue out at her best friend as the pair left the classroom trailing behind some other students.
"So coffee huh?" Arya asked as they left the room. Gendry looked down at her and smiled.
"Yeah, is that all right?" He asked. Arya nodded, suddenly self-conscious of the two small pigtails she had pulled her short hair into at the base of her skull. She noticed how scuffed up her boots were, wondered if her t-shirt was okay, if her pants fit right. She had never really paid a lot of attention to her image before—she had never particularly cared. But now she was incredibly aware of what she looked like.
"I think your pigtails are cute," Gendry piped up, as though he could read her mind. More like he could read her facial expressions, her thoughts were bound to be written there.
"Thanks," Arya managed.
"So stop pulling at them," Gendry added with a teasing smile as he opened the door to the little coffee shop on campus.
"I'll pull on them if I want to, thank you," Arya replied stubbornly. Gendry shook his head and pulled a chair out for her at a table in the corner. She set her stuff down and joined him in line.
"So what do you want?" He asked.
"Hot chocolate with marshmallows?" She asked timidly.
"Enough to cover the top?" He replied and she grinned at him.
"Of course."
When they reached the front of the line and placed their order, Gendry ordering a café au lait and her hot chocolate. Arya went to reach for her wallet in her pocket but Gendry stopped her.
"I got this," he said. "My treat."
"But," Arya objected.
"No fuss, no buts, no coconuts, missy. Our first date, I'm paying for it," he insisted and so Arya relented and let him pay for the drinks.
"So is this a date?" Arya asked. Gendry blushed and Arya saw him struggle not to appear too flustered.
"Is it okay to call it that? I'd like it to be a date. Just a coffee and hot chocolate date, that is. Nothing too special," he said as he ruffled his own hair. Arya watched his fingers comb through it and wondered what it would feel like to do that while being in control of her own inhibitions.
"You know, when you didn't say anything for the rest of the weekend I was worried you were just never going to speak to me again. Not that you wouldn't have cause to do so," Gendry continued to talk as they got their drinks and made their way back to the table. Arya sipped at her hot chocolate, welcoming the sweet burning of the drink on her throat so she didn't have to say anything. Suddenly her words weren't working anymore.
"I am really sorry about not talking to you. I should have done that. I should have done a lot. You were never far from my mind though. I kept an eye on you. Not that anyone couldn't keep their eye on you, the way you made a name for yourself on campus. You Starks certainly know how to do that, now don't you?" Gendry remarked.
"That entire sentence made no sense," Arya replied as she swallowed a clump of small marshmallows. "But yeah, I guess we did do a good job of making names huh," she thought about her siblings.
"Your brother Robb is a cool guy. I've had a couple classes with him. Smart, that one."
"Yeah."
"And what about Jon, where does he fit in?"
"He's my half-brother, on my dad's side of the family. He's been traveling."
"Do you have any other siblings?" Gendry asked. Arya nodded.
"Two other brothers. They're younger. There's Bran and Rickon," Arya pulled her phone out and showed him pictures from last Christmas, the one where Jon had finally been able to come home for a bit to celebrate with them.
"They're still in high school though. But Bran is a senior, so he'll be graduating this year," Arya explained. Gendry smiled at the family photo on the phone's screen. "What about you, do you have any siblings?"
"No, it's just me. But my extended family was around so much I might as well had had brothers. This is Lommy and that's Hot Pie. They're a year older than you or so, they're my cousin's kids, so I think that makes them my second-cousins," Gendry said, pointing out a fat kid and a twiggy little blonde boy standing next to Gendry in a picture in his wallet. Arya smiled at the picture.
"Your writing has gotten better since freshman year," Gendry commented.
"Thanks," Arya managed, trying to figure out what it was about the boy that rendered her brain completely and utterly useless. She was not one of those girls who got all tight-lipped around boys. She was Arya Stark, not some senseless blubbering puddle. She sighed, dejected and out of words and sipped at her hot chocolate.
"What's going on in that head of yours? You're awfully quiet," Gendry remarked.
"I'm nervous," Arya confessed.
"Why are you nervous? It's just coffee. And hot chocolate," Gendry replied.
"I don't know," Arya sighed, all of her frustration coming out in a single huff. "Maybe it's because I'm still worried you're just going to vanish on me again," she muttered. Gendry set his mug down and reached across the table, taking Arya's hand in his own.
"Arya, I promise you that I won't be doing anything stupid like that again. I swear to you, on my honor, that I am going to properly court you this time," Gendry's blue eyes were solemn. Arya could stare into them for hours, she decided, wanting to dive into them and not surface until she knew everything about him that could ever matter.
"Okay," she said with a cautious smile, squeezing his hand.
"Now, what are you going to write your paper on?" Gendry asked. Sansa chewed on her lower lip and stared off at a corner of the café, trying to gather her thoughts into coherent sentences.
"I could write about my brother Jon's travels," she tossed the idea out.
"Make it more personal. He likes them real and true to you, not something that you read about and retold. What's something that you can tell?" Gendry prompted.
"I could write about last Christmas," Arya mused. Gendry looked at her, curiosity written plainly on his face.
"What happened last Christmas?" Gendry asked. Arya smirked.
"I guess you'll have to read about it," Arya replied coyly, dodging the question. She sipped at the last of her hot chocolate and her thoughts wandered to her sister, wondering if Sansa would consent to Arya's paper idea. Her agreement was key for the paper. Not to mention her entire family would have her head if she wrote it without anyone agreeing to it.
The rest of the date went smoothly after that, Arya's nerves soothed by Gendry's words. She found it easier to relax and be herself, her words coming back to her all at once. She was in the middle of recounting the how-I-met-my-roommates story when her phone went off.
"Hold on, it's Addie," Arya said, picking up the interrupting device. "Hey girl what's going on?"
"Movie night. Now." Was the only response she got from the other end.
"Why now?"
"Because your brother, in all the goodness that he is, has not seen the Trifecta and must be educated and you have to be here for it," Addie informed her, notes of horror coming across the line. Arya's jaw dropped slightly and she collected herself as she glanced at Gendry, who was staring rather intently at her.
"That is vastly unfortunate and you are completely right, that does need to be remedied this instant," Arya paused, her thoughts catching up with her. "Does this have anything to do with Dany by any chance?"
"I have absolutely no idea what you could possibly be hinting at you sly wench," Addie commented, forced innocence filling her voice. Arya could practically picture the halo over her friend's head. She knew Addie's matchmaking schemes when she heard one.
"Well I'll be over as soon as I can. Mind if I bring a friend?" Arya glanced at Gendry, who was now rather confused as to the half of the conversation he was hearing.
"You mean Bull Boy? Bring him," Addie confirmed.
"Which Trifecta?" The girls had many 'Trifectas' as they referred to them. Years of living together had taught them that the best way to watch movies was in threes.
"Pink and old time teen romances," Addie said.
"Six of them? Now? Really?" Arya asked, incredulously.
"Yes ma'am. Tell your friend to stop by the store and pick up his favorite snacks, cause if he walks in the door he's not walking out of here until we are done."
"Sounds like a plan," Arya said.
"Great, see you crazy kids soon. Kisses!"
"Kisses," Arya replied and with a click from the other line, Addie was gone.
"Movie marathon, my place. Six movies, no stopping. You walk in the door and Addie won't let you leave until we're done. Are you down?" Arya asked Gendry.
"I'm in," Gendry said without hestitation.
"Great. We have to stop at the store first and get snacks, is that good with you?"
"As long as I can make my special popcorn," the older boy replied with a smile.
"You're on," Arya grinned, and they were off.