For reasons no one was able to explain, the Kauji attacks suddenly stopped. Each day, the co-pilots on duty would wait in the control room, anxious about the next hit. Satin had taken up knitting, while Jon stared intently at the monitor of the Breach. Bran and Rickon had invented a game involving two tennis balls, an empty coffee mug and their shoes. They had tried to explain the complicated rules to others, but the game only seemed to make sense to the two of them. Alys and Val had taken to sleeping while on duty, stretching out on the benches that lined the control room, confident someone would wake them if they were needed.
Arya and Gendry usually sat side by side in silence. They had only exchanged necessary words since their trip to the Breach. Arya had tried to corner him, to tell him just how stupid King Robert had been, but she couldn't seem to find the right words.
Because, the more Arya thought on it, the less she understood about the King's intention. Yes, she knew that they were born in different social standings, but she couldn't understand why that meant they couldn't Drift together or at the very least have sex. It had just been sex; completely safe, consensual sex, nothing more. But Arya also knew it was more than just the King's talk that had caused Gendry to back off. His insistence of keeping her out of memories where they had been intimate was more than just Gendry distancing himself from Lady Stark. She suspected time in the Drift would sort it out, but they hadn't been back in their Jaeger since.
After a week of no attacks, Alys and Val with Rickon and Bran in tow, showed up at Arya and Gendry's room.
"Get dressed," Alys said, when Gendry opened the door. They had just been getting ready to go to sleep. "We're going out."
"Where?" Gendry replied, wearily.
"Dancing, drinking, anywhere, just out of this place," Val said.
Arya didn't hesitate to agree. Any chance to get out of the Shatterdome, in something other than a Jaeger was too great to pass up.
"Who is on duty?" Arya asked as they walked through the streets of White Harbor, feeling her spirits lift at the fresh salt air.
"Jaime and Brienne," Val responded. "And of course Jon and Satin are unofficially on duty. We tried to get them to come but in usual Jon fashion he said something about his duty and told us to have some fun."
"Do you think they're fucking?" Rickon spoke up, from behind Arya, making her wonder when Rickon had started swearing.
"Jon and Satin?" Alys asked, laughing. "No, although I can't understand why. They are both fine human specimens. But apparently neither of them swing that way, even thought Val and I had been trying to convince them we could have a lot of fun as a foursome."
Val let out a hum of agreement, "It would be fantastic. But I guess we will have to settle for Jon."
Both women laughed at that, while Arya rolled her eyes. She didn't really want details about Jon's sex life.
"No," Rickon said, exasperated. "Jaime and Brienne, are they a thing?"
"I don't kn-" began Alys, but Gendry cut her off.
"Yes."
"How do you know?" Asked Val, they had all stopped, to look at Gendry. In the dim street lights, his blush was almost concealed. He shrugged his shoulders, looking at Arya.
"Because their room is next to ours," Arya answered for him. They had meticulously avoided talking about the noises from the other room since Jaime and Brienne had taken up residence.
The group laughed at this and continued to walk down the street until they got to a bar frequented by people who worked at the Shatterdome.
"I wouldn't mind having my way with Jaime Lannister," Alys declared, once they had found a table and ordered drinks.
Val nodded, wordlessly lifting her glass toward Alys in agreement.
"Is it really," Rickon began, before taking a drink of courage before going on. "Drift sex, is it really that great?"
"Why should it matter, you're never going to experience it," Bran said.
"I was thinking about convincing Sam to let me use the simulator after hours," Rickon said, smiling a cheeky grin. "You know, if I can ever convince Lyanna Mormont she wants to fuck me."
Arya groaned, shaking her head at him. "I don't want to know." Rickon only laughed, shrugging his shoulders in a false apology.
"It's better than you can ever imagine," Alys said, giggling a little, leaning forward. "Think of the best sex you've had-
"Which shouldn't be hard, since he's a virgin" Bran interjected, causing Rickon to punch him in the arm.
"...and multiply it by ten," Alys continued, Val was nodding silently next to her. "I always feel bad for related co-pilots. They really miss out on all the fun."
"You know, the simulator isn't such a bad idea," Val said, slowly clearly lost in thought. "I wonder what it would take to convince Sam to let us use it. Didn't he have it set up for three people when they were testing the Frey triplets?"
Her and Alys exchanged cheshire cat grins, giggling. Rickon groaned.
"It can't be that great." Bran said.
"Denial isn't going to change that we're right," Alys said, grinning. "Tell them Arya and Gendry."
Arya could feel herself blushing, the Ghost Drift telling her Gendry felt the same embarrassment. The table had turned as a collective to look a them. They both shifted uncomfortably in their seats.
"You mean?" Val asked interpreting their silence, sounding scandalized.
"I thought the break up with Willow-" Alys began, trailing off.
"Enough," Bran said, standing up. "I don't want to know about the sex lives of any of my siblings. Come dance with me Val."
Val happily agreed, effectively ending the conversation to Arya and Gendry's relief. Alys declared dancing was a great idea, pulling Gendry up to follow them. Soon they were all dancing, Tormund Giantsbane, himself, pulling Arya in to a bear hug before dragging her out to the dance floor. She laughed as he spun her around, surprised with how graceful he actually way.
The group danced until they were out of breath, then laughed until their stomachs hurt from Tormund's stories about his legendary cock. They drank with out much thought to responsibility or the impending apocalypse. Arya couldn't remember the last time she had been so content.
Late into the evening, Arya found herself alone at the table with Alys, the pleasant buzz of the alcohol flowing through her system. She watched Bran talking with Jojen in the corner, watched Rickon taking shots with Tormund at the bar, saw Val and Gendry laughing as she tried to show him a complicated dance routine.
"What's the deal with you and him?" Alys asked from beside her. Arya turned to see her gesturing toward Gendry.
"I wish I knew," Arya said, shaking her head, the alcohol allowing her to be honest.
"Am I wrong or were you two sleeping together before?" Alys asked, not bothering to say before what; before the King's Landing disaster was the obvious conclusion.
"Oh yeah, we were," Arya said nodding, some very pleasant memories of the two of them rolling through her brain. She didn't attempt to hide her longing stare toward Gendry. He must have felt something of her thoughts, because he met her eye, the smile falling from his lips.
"What's the deal then? Was he bad in bed or something?" Alys asked, clearly not understanding where the hold up was.
"Oh no, it was amazing," Arya said, watching Gendry whisper something in Val's ear before walking out the back door.
"Oh," Alys said, understanding dawning in the tone of her voice. Arya turned to look at her then, hoping someone would finally explain what she had been missing. Alys shook her head, looking suddenly uncomfortable,
"I didn't know," Alys whispered, staring at the door Gendry had left through.
"Didn't know what?" Arya asked, placing a hand on Alys' shoulder forcing her to look at her. Alys looked around the room, searching for an exit from the conversation.
"I don't think it's my place-" Alys tried to shrug her off.
"Alys," Arya begged.
"Arya," Alys said, sadly, her voice more serious than Arya had ever heard it. "Until you're willing to completely trust and open yourself up to your co-pilot, you will never fully understand the beauty of true Drift compatibility. It goes way beyond being able to fight well together, it's a whole other world of harmony."
Alys stood then making her way over to Tormund and Rickon, leaving Arya to her thoughts. Arya wasn't even aware she was standing, walking toward the door Gendry had left through, until she was outside in a back ally, the gentle rain bringing her back to the present.
Gendry wasn't there, but she knew where she could find him. Fifteen minutes later, she climbed the last rung of the latter, stepping up onto the scaffolding that had been placed eye level with Matador Fury. Gendry sat, looking at their Jaeger, his feet dangling over the edge, lost in thought.
"Alys thinks I don't trust you enough in the Drift," Arya said as she sat down next to him. "But how can that be? We Drift perfectly together."
"Do we?" He asked quietly, almost like he was wondering aloud at the validity of the statement.
"Of course," Arya said, indignant. "I trust you with my life."
"But you don't trust me with your feelings."
He still hadn't turned to look at her, continuing to stare morosely at the Jaeger.
"I don't do well with feelings," Arya confessed. After all the deaths she had seen, she took solace in her ability to shut down emotions that might cause her more pain later. Her suspicions about this causing problems during Drifting with Sansa had been haunting her. Sansa had been all feelings; she loved, she laughed, she liked what she liked unashamedly. Arya had rejected it the minute the neural bridge had been established and Sansa had ended up dead. She thought back to the first time Arya and Gendry had Drifted, how he had somehow thrown her in to re-living her Drift with Sansa; how much she had hated that he had seen it.
"I know," he said, finally turning to look at her.
"But you don't," Arya paused, trying to form the thoughts, thinking back through their time in the Drift. She spoke as the realization hit her. "You don't show me your feelings either. You lock me out when I get too close."
He continued to gaze at her for a couple more seconds before turning to stare at Matador Fury again. It was clear he wasn't going to respond to her realization. She hated when he got like this, silently shutting her out. It was annoying enough in the Drift, let alone in real life.
"Arya," he said finally, having sensed her anger. "It doesn't really matter. Does it? As long as we keep killing Kaiju, our Drifting isn't an issue."
She agreed, nodding. But once they were back in their room, Gendry's breathe having evened out into sleep, she still couldn't shake the uneasy feeling that his logic wasn't sound.
