"Are we there yet?"

"For the hundredth time, no."

Gendry couldn't see her, but he knew there was a hint of annoyance in her voice, and he was sure she had just rolled her eyes at his impatience.

"Where the hell are you taking me?"

"I won't tell you! I told you it's a surprise! Just shut up and follow me!"

Gendry had been nearly running for the past ten minutes. Arya had blindfolded him and was walking fast ahead of him, guiding him by the hand. She was so excited to show him whatever it was that she simply forgot to tell him that their path included stairs, and he had almost fallen several times. He had no idea where they were going, but he was having fun anyway. Things were always fun when Arya was around.

They had been betrothed for a month now. They had decided to pretend to have accepted the betrothal, but not without acting like they hadn't for a few days, so that their parents wouldn't be suspicious of their sudden change. The idea was to pretend they were perfectly fine with the betrothal so that anyone suspected their real intentions. But they would have a lot of time to think how they would execute their plan.

Arya stopped suddenly, which made him collide against her, bringing both to the ground.

"Ouch! Watch your step!"

"Oi? How am I supposed to watch my step? You blindfolded me, remember?"

"Shut up and get up!" she said, after getting to her feet. "We're here."

"Where?"

He felt when she reached out to the back of his head and loosened the blindfold. They were somewhere quite dark, but since it was darker for him with the blindfold, his eyes adjusted pretty quickly. And what he saw in front of him made his jaw drop, and his heart nearly jumped from his chest.

He had always heard stories that there were dragon skulls somewhere in King's Landing, but he never thought he would ever see them with his own eyes.

"Gods be good," he gasped, greatly impressed.

"He's quite scary, isn't he?"

"I can't even imagine how scary he looked when he was alive… It's incredible!" Gendry said, studying the giant dragon skull with utter disbelief.

"I knew you would like to see it," Arya smiled, content with herself.

"How did you find this place? Where are we?"

"We're under the Red Keep. How is it that I know your own home better than you, Prince Gendry?" she asked with a teasing tone.

"Last time I checked you've been living here longer than I am, m'lady," he teased back.

"I've already told you, do not call me m'lady!"

"As m'lady commands," he said, and she shoved him with both hands, forcing him backwards.

"You know, you shouldn't strike people that are bigger than you, especially when they're your betrothed," he kept teasing her.

Arya shoved him again, this time with full strength, knocking him to the ground, but he managed to grab her wrists, yanking her down with him. His back hit the ground with a loud thud and Arya fell over him, but in a blink of an eye he managed to flip their positions, and then he was on top of her, holding both her hands with one of his while the other started tickling her sides.

Arya started squirming beneath him while trying to get free. Gendry laughed aloud, and she started kicking him, trying to hit between his legs. He managed to avoid most of her hits and kept tickling her. She kept squirming and trying to get free for a few seconds, but suddenly she stopped.

She stared up at him, breathing hard, her eyes wide, yet unreadable.

When Gendry finally realized what he was doing, he wished he could die right there. His face was mere inches from hers, and his hand was right over a soft mound that happened to be her left breast.

He panicked and nearly jumped back and away from her, getting on his feet immediately. He was glad the place was dark, because his face was burning with embarrassment. What he was thinking? She was so small that she looked much younger, and he often forgot she was already three-and-ten. She was not a fully grown woman, but she was definitely not a little child either – the feeling of her small breast against his palm made him realize that.

"I'm sorry, I shouldn't have done that," he said quickly, waiting for some sort of reaction from her, but it never came.

An awkward silence fell between them, until he spoke again.

"Arya, I'm sorry. I shouldn't be playing with you like this. I never meant to-"

"Shut up," she said, standing up suddenly.

"But-"

"Come on, I still have eighteen dragon skulls to show you," she said, walking away, completely ignoring what had just happened.

Gendry just stared at her wordlessly, until she stopped and turned around.

"Are you going to stand there all day?"

He sighed and followed her, wishing he could guess what was going on inside her head.


It had been a long day, but Gendry still found some energy to practice his handwriting before going to sleep. He was sitting at the table that stood in the corner of his bedchamber, trying to make his handwriting as tidy as Renly's, but failing miserably.

It didn't take long for him to give up, and he started writing random words in his own messy style. First he tried to write the names of the Targaryen dragons. He wasn't sure about the right spelling, but he was going to ask Renly or Arya about it later.

Arya had taught him a lot about the Targaryen dragons, as well as Aegon the Conqueror and his sisters. She didn't hide her fascination for Rhaenys and Visenya, and, despite the darkness, he could see her eyes shining when she told him how they had ridden Meraxes and Vhagar side by side with Aegon and Balerion during the War of Conquest.

Gendry had been impressed with all the knowledge Arya possessed, and tried to learn from her as much as he could. She knew so many different things – things he couldn't even start to imagine – that he found himself wanting to learn everything too. At some point he had even felt ashamed for being so uneducated, but he managed to shove this feeling away quickly. He was having a nice time with her and he didn't want to spoil it.

Arya's knowledge had impressed him, but what really kept him guessing was her reaction towards the awkward incident that had happened between them. He was sure that any other lady would have blushed madly and ran away scandalized, or even slapped him. But Arya never acted like a normal lady, and her reaction had been quite unique.

She had ignored the incident completely, pretending that nothing had happened the whole time. Maybe he had given too much thought to the incident, but he wished he had apologized again when they were back at the Tower of the Hand. But he hadn't. She probably had her reasons to act that way, and he thought better not to bring the subject again.

Then he remembered that he would have to start planning their escape at some point. They had talked about it a couple times in the last weeks, but he hadn't come up with anything yet. At least Arya hadn't either, so he hadn't felt so bad about it.

He had suggested waiting a few months before starting to plan everything properly, so that he would have more time to learn how things worked around there, because right now he had no clue of what their real chances were. If he was being given the chance to learn everything he needed to know to be a king someday, he could very well take advantage of that knowledge. Arya decided it wouldn't be a problem; they could wait until he felt he was ready.

It was odd to think that he wanted to escape from their betrothal when the only moments he felt truly happy and carefree were the moments he shared with her. He had grown very fond of her over the last month, but not exactly in the way he was supposed to. Arya was like the little sister he never had. He was sure King Robert and Lord Stark wouldn't be pleased…

Gendry yawned and dropped the quill on the table, feeling tired. He spared a last look at the paper he had been absentmindedly writing on for the last fifteen minutes, and what he saw brought a smile to his face.

He didn't even know when he had stopped writing random words and started writing Arya's name.


Hey, lovelies! I'm so sorry I couldn't reply to the reviews this time, but I loved each one of them! They always make my day, thank you so much! :D

I hope you all enjoyed this chapter! I swear I tried to be less cheesy in the end, but I failed. Oh well... :P