Arya

"My Grace?" Coralline asked as Arya hung back. She ignored the maid as she pulled on the long navy cloak Coralline had brought in case Arya "wasn't brave enough" to just wear the dress, and she did feel a little defeated, she picked up Needle, she'd put her under the table in case things got rowdy.

"I'll take it off when I get in, I'm just wearing it because it's cold"

"I shall escort you, and take it from you once in the hall. I shall carry your sword too My Grace and place it under your chair… It would not do for you to enter armed." The maid reached out her hands, there was no room for argument and Arya saw it.

Sansa had claimed the grounds would be a little clearer but she'd been wrong, there were still throngs of people in the cold waiting to see their princess walk to dinner, Arya shook her head as they chanted her name and wished her blessings. Coralline and the two guards were absolutely unnecessary with a playfully snarling Nymeria circling her tightly as she walked, they were so in sync they never touched. The cheering crowd parted easily and the wind picked up her cloak revealing a little of her dress sending another cheer through the crowd.

"Welcome home Princess" A woman shouted from her left, she turned and smiled kindly reaching out a hand to pat the old woman's arm. She shouldn't have done that, they'd all reached to grab her, they weren't trying to hurt her. They just wanted to say hello and she realised that but Nymeria was already in strike position "Nymeria heal." Arya said through gritted teeth as she wrenched her hand back "I'm sorry but I must attend my sister's feast." She said as kindly as she could to the ten people who'd just fought over her arm. The guards were jostling them back now as she continued the last few feet to the noisy Winter Hall. When they entered Coralline ran ahead, found her mistresses seat and placed her sword under it. Arya had stopped in the entrance, afraid to step into the massive heave of humanity stuffed within the four walls. She worried for a moment that the walls would burst open like the crabs in Braavos when they became too big for their shells. She marvelled at Corallines ability to snake through the crowd so rapidly, she was back in mere minutes her hand outstretched "Cloak." She demanded and Arya hesitantly obliged, shrugging the cloth from her bare shoulders.

"have fun" Coralline said with a grin as she exited the roaring hall back into the roaring crowd.

Arya scanned the room and found the raised table of her kin at the far end, Sansa was already staring at her, she waved at her from her high seat and the look on her face brought Arya no comfort. She looked like she'd just bested her, she looked like a very happy queen indeed. A figure was moving through the crowd; she could see the bulk heading towards her. That paired with Sansa's face and she knew her fate, she was not stupid. She breathed, schooling her face into one of polite recognition and straightened her back 'I'm a fucking princess' the voice of The Hound said from somewhere deep in her psyche, it was unsettling.

Gendry crested the sea of people and finally she laid eyes on him, and he was a man… when she remembered him she had thought she remembered a man, but looking at him now she realised that the Gendry she'd known six years ago had been nothing more than an adolescent. This… mountain of a human before her. He was A man.

"Arya… Your Grace." He attempted to bend the knee but there was no room, the crowd surrounding them were being held off by Gendry's massive shoulders and the snarling bitch of a Direwolf which was circling her and despising the smell of all those humans.

"Gendry." She'd meant to be calm, cool but sweet, she'd meant to say something like 'My Lord I do recall we travelled briefly as children' something to make him think she hadn't been thinking about him. But that was all out of the window when he grinned that idiotic grin at her, deep dimples made even deeper, his smiling eyes crinkling at the corners "I've missed you" She said suddenly before clearing her throat and attempting a playful punch, her adrenaline actually resulted in a pummel punch on his elbow.

In quick succession he winced, his funny bone now radiating a strange sickly sensation through his body and she shouted "fuck" and clutched her knuckles which throbbed with the white hot pain a person gains after piston punching something as hard as Gendry's elbow.

The surrounding men saw their precocious princess and sword mistress clutching her hand while a massive knight loomed over her, they rallied drawing their own blades.

"I'm fine, as you were men." She shouted sullenly "I hurt my hand… waving. Gendry was just at the wrong end of it." She added lamely, the bearded men who would normally have guffawed at the scruffy princess remained silent, they were staring at her.

"My grace, a princess as lovely as you shouldn't walk to her table unaccompanied." A young lord who'd joined Sansa's guard recently said breathily, attempting to step forward but finding Nymeria in his path.

"Lord Stade if a lovely princess was in such dire need of an escort she'd hope for someone better than a man she's bested repeatedly with a sword." The men surrounding her laughed jovially, a young keep guard who had hunted with her made to slap her back as he would have done any other day, only to realise her back was bare. He withdrew his hand instantly.

"you look lovely my Grace" said a banner-man, someone from the house Mormont she thought, he was complimenting her like an uncle would. She appreciated it.

"Thank you my Lord, my lovely Sister the Queen did demand that I dress appropriately or be clapped in irons." Arya smiled, playing the part as best she could, the men obliged with chuckles "Gendry, escort me to the table please." She said quickly before any more of the men surrounding her could offer a compliment. She'd only practiced the one witty response and her brain wasn't functioning, she was still processing the boy she'd once knowns current state of… manliness.

"I'm sorry I punched you." She said quietly as he took her arm and led her through the crowd, most people parted without asking, bowing as she passed and throwing compliments at her.

"It is fine My Grace." He said calmly.

"I'm Arya." She hated her titles.

"You've gone all stiff are you alright?" he asked, her arm rigid in his.

"I think I chose the wrong dress." She finally said, her partially bare back making her suddenly self-conscious

"I think you chose well my Grace." He responded simply but it made her heart flutter all the more, and she felt sick at her own reaction.

They had finally arrived at the table and he pulled her chair out for her, needle clunked against the leg but he made no note. Arya sat, finally glad to have something between her back and their eyes. Her sister, the queen was seated in the centre to her left. Podrick was on her sister's other side, staring at Sansa intently. She looked down the table to find where Gendry would be seated and was shocked to realise he had taken the seat right beside her. In amongst her family, Bran to his right and then Meera. Jon, Rickon, Tyrion and Samwell sat on the other side of the royal couple. She looked down to the tables in front and saw her uncle, Lord Edmure on one of the closest benches to them with the most beloved of the Queens Lords and Kin, his face was livid as he stared open mouthed at the bastard smith sitting two places from the Queen.

"Have you told my uncle your fortuitous news?" She asked without looking round at him, she could sense he was leaning close enough to hear her, it made her skin prickle and she cursed her own flesh.

"Not yet your Grace." He answered with only the slightest of chuckles.

"I think you may have to, quite soon." Arya responded quickly as Edmure strode up the steps to the raised table and made a beeline straight for Gendry.

"What is the meaning of this?" he hissed "Have you any notion the humiliation? The queen invites my smithy to sit with her but snubs her own blood."

"Lord Gendry is a friend of mine." Arya stated plainly, she didn't like Edmure he was too much a Tully.

"Lord? He's barely a Ser, he was knighted by some old priest." Edmure spat leaning closer to Arya, the guards on duty started to ready themselves to move forward.

"He's a Lord and quite soon he may be your Lord. You were warned uncle… you were warned." Sansa ended it with a flat tone as she leaned across her sister. "Now go back to your table."

Sansa sighed sadly with a shake of her head "he's such a…" she searched for the words.

"cunt?" Arya asked under her breath, Sansa gasped, as a lady should but smiled a nod in response.

"Best get this over with." The queen stood and the hall fell silent, Lord Edmure had barely returned to his seat when the hall stood with the queen, he groaned as he found his feet again.

"My Lords, family, banner-men and honoured guests. I am humbled that you found your way through the snow to sup with my king and I on this most special day. May the old gods have our thanks" Sansa cared not for the new ones "They have returned my sister princess Arya" a cheer shot up around the hall, "they have delivered me a true and honourable husband, a husband my father would be proud to call son." An even bigger cheer went up "and they have brought us Kin we had long suspected gone. Since the days of the children the Stark house and the house of Baratheon have been brothers, intertwined through bonds and oaths, old and new… When king Robert fell and his children revealed as untrue we believed the Baratheon line to have ended, we were wrong. It is with a great honour as your queen and your friend to present Lord Gendry Baratheon, son of Robert." Sansa pointed to Gendry who looked out at the crowd with a pale and confused face. The men and women in the crowd were roaring.

"You have to stand" Arya whispered to the bastard boy beside her "stand up you big lummox" she shot a little louder when he remained still and staring. Arya groaned, reached a hand to his and held it firmly, she found her own feet and with considerable strain managed to force Gendry to his, she raised his arm into the air and the roar became a cheer. She remained standing hand in hand with him, she knew it wasn't the 'done' thing but she worried if she let go he'd topple over from sheer fright.

"Lord Baratheon will join court here at Winterfell and will remain in the North, the spiritual home, if not the physical of the Baratheon house." Sansa finished "Now drink, eat and for the sake of the gods please be merry. You all deserve it." The crowd chanted for Queen Sansa, the crowds beyond the hall and roaming the grounds of Winterfell took up the call and the North rang with praise for the queen and her family.

"Sit down now." Arya said quietly to Gendry, the queen had taken her seat again and so were the crowds. He obliged but his hand remained tightly wound around her much smaller one.