Arya
Arya awoke to the sound of muffled voices outside her door. She threw off her blankets to investigate, and then gave a squawk of horror to find herself completely naked, causing her to throw the blankets back on again. After the last night's emotional turmoil and confusion, she had fallen asleep, exhausted, without changing back into a clean pair of pajamas. She recovered for a moment and then leapt from the bed, blankets wrapped firmly around her, and fished around for a t-shirt and shorts before hastily putting them on.
She went to the door and heard a voice that sounded like Margaery saying, "... next time you should just bring your mattress with you."
Arya blinked in surprise and wrenched the door open to see the back of Gendry, who was massaging his neck.
"Yeah I feel like I've taken a pounding," he said. "Oww."
Arya's door banged against the wall, and Margaery and Gendry both jumped violently. There was a tray in Margaery's hands, and it looked like it was going to fall, but before Arya could jump out and save it, Gendry's hand was already catching it, steadying it in Margaery's arms. 'What's going on here?'
"Whoa!" Margaery cried as Gendry's hand came up and took hold of her shaking arm. A very intimate gesture for two people who barely knew each other. What exactly was going on here? "Thank you! Look at him, saving the day. He's such a gentleman."
Arya raised a very incredulous eyebrow. Had they been... Had they had sex? The very thought sent a strange twisting and thorny sensation wrench through Arya's core like fire, and she was surprised at the sudden flare of anger that burst within her. But it made sense. Their sudden, almost shared looks, and the dialogue that she had heard between them. And when she looked at Gendry, he blushed guiltily and looked away.
"Isn't he?" Margaery was saying blithely.
Isn't he what? Oh, Margaery had just called him a gentleman. It was the sort of thing that someone would say after a one night stand, wouldn't it? But then... But then if they had... If they had... Well then it would have had to be right after he went to Arya's room, wouldn't it? 'He tried to make me think that he cared, but well, I know better now, don't I?' She curled her fingers into a fist.
"Not exactly," Arya said in a very deadpan voice. "I don't know if you can call a guy who shot someone with an arrow a 'gentleman.'"
"I don't know," Margaery said, "last night he-"
"Margaery's brought you breakfast!" Gendry said hurriedly, cutting across her.. "And I've got to go shower."
That was it. Guilty as charged. She might have been irritated, but now she was suddenly furious. But why? Maybe it was that stupid little half smile Gendry gave her that made her so angry. There was a flicker of fear that went across his face, and she couldn't help but be infinitely smug about it.
"I should take a shower," Gendry said hastily, as if sensing her accusatory glare. 'He knows I know, doesn't he?' She thought, glaring after him as he ran for cover down the hallway. She frowned. Why did she care so much anyway? It was almost logical, they were similar in age and Margaery was really pretty... But that, for some strange reason, just made it worse.
"What's up with him?" Arya asked grumpily, unable to stop herself, even though she was reciting in her head over and over that she didn't care. SHE DIDN'T!
"Oh something tells me he didn't sleep well last night," Margaery said, handing Arya her tray and looking as if she was having a private joke with herself. Arya sighed.
"Yeah thanks," she said, perhaps a bit too curtly, and then she retreated into her room, shutting the door behind her.
There was a pause, as Arya stared at her toast and eggs, and then she slammed her tray down on the desk, the twisting sensation fueling a fire within her, and a string of insults about Gendry that was probably miles long. 'Why do I care about him anyway?' She thought, taking an aggressive bite of toast, ripping the bread with her teeth. 'I don't. He can shag whoever he wants. It makes no difference to me.'
It didn't make a difference to her, she thought as she chomped her eggs to bits. She could care less. They could have a thousand attractive child for all she cared. Not that Gendry was attractive, because he wasn't. He wasn't attractive in the least. No. No he wasn't... He wasn't... Wasn't... Was. He was.
She groaned and flopped back on the bed, tossing her piece of toast dramatically and then regretting it and going to get it, brushing it off. She sat down with a loud huff instead and groaned again. What was wrong with her? She was being ridiculous. She decided she just needed to not think about it, or him, or any of it. Besides, this was all distraction. She needed to focus on her objective, and that was killing vampires. Just thinking about Joffrey and his smug little shit face made it easy to forget Gendry and focus her rage.
She was going to kill him. She was going to kill all of them. If killing them wasn't for revenge, then it would just be to stay alive. Kill or be killed, and she preferred the former. 'Those blond haired shits have another thing coming to them,' she decided, gulping down her tea and then going to shower.
Gendry had stolen all the hot water, and she had screamed at the sudden rush of ice that spewed from the shower head, leaping from the shower in a panic, her foot catching on the edge of the tub, sending her sprawling, her naked body smacking with the floor painfully. Damn that insufferable black-haired idiot. He had something coming to him as well.
Wincing and half covered in soap, Arya rinsed off, wincing some more at the cold water, and then trudged to her room, her chest stinging painfully. This, clearly, was not going down in the book of fabulous days. She didn't know why it bothered her so much, his whole thing with Margaery. She also didn't know why she couldn't stop thinking about it.
Pushing her wet hair out of her eyes, Arya went to go find herself some clothes. Margaery had tried to shrink some of her old jeans, but even so... Margaery was much curvier than Arya was, and her clothes didn't fit all that well.
"I'll just go shopping for you sometime," Margaery had said with a wave of her hand, and Arya had tried to keep her protesting down to a minimum. Something told her that she and Margaery had very different fashion taste. Maybe it was the fact that everything Margaery wore was floral.
Sighing, Arya slipped on a plainish dress covered in blue flowers (Margaery really did have a thing for flowers) that hung on her skinny frame like a mop, but it beat the jeans that looked like old elephant skin, so she supposed that was a step up. Maybe Margaery shopping for her really wasn't that bad.
Sighing again, she shook her hair with her hand, swiping her side bangs across her face.
"As usual," she muttered at the mirror, "this is as good as it's going to get."
She exited her room and walked down the hallway, still fiddling with her wispy and tangled hair, and then lightly bounced down the stairs. She had already eaten, but she figured there was probably a sticky bun or something good to snag from the dinning room, so she decided to go there.
"...You don't know, okay?" Hot Pie's voice floated from the open door as she walked towards it. "You know what? You're probably just jealous because I found it first."
As Arya reached the door, she saw what they were talking about. That stupid book that Hot pie had found.
"Oh trust me," Gendry said, taking a bite of toast, "I've got nothing to hide."
"Lovely."
She hadn't meant to say it out loud, but honestly. They were worst than her brothers, and, with her present annoyance, it was just so easy to let this slide onto her list against Gendry. 'It's just because he's so full of shit,' she decided, looking at him cringe. 'All his bullshit last night, about trying to comfort me when he really was just going to migrate to Margaery's room. He made me think he cared about my Dad...'
Hot Pie said something, and Gendry yelled at him, snapping Arya out of her reprieve. Suddenly, for no reason at all, she felt an unexpected rush of hurt flood through her, and her eyes stung. She didn't want to be in the room a moment longer because the stinging was very close to what tears felt like, and she was not about to cry in front of Gendry. And crying in front of Hot Pie was just not ever going to happen, even if someone clamped her down to a chair and made her listen to Joffrey's YouTube covers for Justin Bieber's 'Boyfriend.'
"Oh," Hot Pie said, as if just noticing Arya. His eyes widened in terror and he swallowed hard. "Err... Good morning?"
She scowled and then stomped off, blinking rapidly and cursing herself for being so stupid. She wasn't the crying type, that was Sansa's whole thing. She needed to hit something, she decided. It was always so much easier back home, when she had her fencing and her brothers to mess around with when she was feeling blue. They always made her feel better, and now she didn't even know where they were.
She stalked into the library and past Margaery, climbing up the spiraled staircases and then grabbing her book that she had been reading the day before. There was a nook where the roof slanted off, and a tiny little window where sunlight streamed in, and she liked it best of all in the whole of the library.
Sitting down, she propped the book against her knees and began to read. She got lost in the world of stakes and sunlight and crossbows. What she wouldn't give for a good crossbow. Cersei would be dust within seconds. The thought was immensely satisfying.
There was a sound, and she looked out of the corner of her eye to see Gendry standing awkwardly, looking down at her.
"What do you want?" She snapped, not looking up from her book.
"I don't think you're ugly," he blurted out. He probably meant it as a compliment, but it was a backhanded one whether he meant it or not. Had Hot Pie, or someone else for that matter, said something about her looks that made Gendry think she felt ugly? She sighed. He had a lot to learn about girls. "You're an idiot," she informed him, but for some reason she felt herself biting back a smile. She wanted to be angry. He was an idiot, but... It did make her feel better, what he said. It reminded her of how awkward Jon was when she was upset. He always managed to say the wrong thing while trying to say the right thing, but in the end, it always made her laugh. Maybe he did that on purpose, to make her laugh. If he did, it worked.
A flicker of irritation flashed across Gendry's face, and he opened his mouth to say something, but there was a sound downstairs and he went to go investigate. Setting her book down, Arya did the same.
"Grandma's here!" Margaery squealed with delight, and she raced out of the library.
"That's early," Willas said, checking his watch and then following after her. "But she's nothing if not punctual."
Gendry and Arya quickly descended the stairs and followed everyone out of the library and through the house to the front door, the door bell shrieking continuously. Margaery quickly opened it.
"Why didn't you answer the door sooner? Has someone died?" An elderly woman asked with a look of searing disapproval. She was elegantly dressed in a pearl colored blazer and pencil skirt with pearls looped around her neck. "I've been standing here for ages. I thought I might die on this doorstep."
"Grandma!" Margaery said happily. "It's so good to see you, come in! I'm so glad you came!"
"Of course I came," the woman said, walking inside. "Killing vampires? It's as if you all finally read my Christmas list."
"It's good to see you, Grandma," Renly said amiably, grinning at her.
"That's Olenna Redwyne to you," she said sharply. "Don't think just because you used to practically live here that you get to call me that. And Loras told me all about what you did."
"That was ten years ago," Renly said weakly while Loras looked extremely smug.
"Well are we going to stand here all day and chat?" Olenna wanted to know. "There's a horde of vampires that have crossed the line. I say we get down to business and kill them."
OooooOOOOOOOOOooooooooo
Twenty minutes later they had the plan mapped out on the table, and Olenna was thoroughly unimpressed.
"What is this?" She snapped, poking her fingers at the paper in disgust. "You haven't even thought of a way to kill him yet?"
"Him?" Arya asked. "Aren't we going to kill them all?"
"And make it look like some sort of vendetta?" Olenna said with a raised eyebrow. "I think not. The last thing this family needs is a horde of vengeful vampires out for blood. We'd be vanquished in seconds."
"So no...?" Hot Pie made up and down movements with his hands cupped in a circle. Arya knew what he meant but it looked like-
"What sort of vulgar gesture is that supposed to be?" Olenna gasped in horror. "Young man, are you trying to replicate masturbation?"
Gendry choked so hard he went into a coughing fit, and Arya turned beat red in the face as she tried desperately not to burst into hysterical laughter. Everyone else looked like they were doing the same. Everyone except Hot Pie, that was.
"Staking!" Hot Pie cried, looking like he was going to faint. "You know, you like hold a stake and stab them in the... In the chest..."
Olenna's look was enough to burn even Cersei Lannister to the ground.
"Who is this cretin?" She demanded. "I want him out of my dinning room, and his hands off my oak table."
She closed her eyes and shuddered.
"Err... He's my friend," Gendry said with a cough, looking like he wasn't sure if he really wanted Hot Pie to have the title of 'friend.'
"Hmmm," Olenna said, giving Gendry a dubious look. "Well, to answer your question, which was thoroughly stupid, no. No staking. If we're going to do this, we do it right and make sure it can't be traced back to us, at least not definitely."
"Then what do you propose? We make them garlic bread?" Arya asked. Gendry made another choking noise.
"No," Olenna said thoughtfully, "but that's not such a bad idea."
"Don't you think it would be a little obvious?" Margaery said. "I mean, they're not stupid."
"No, but I'd wager I'm more clever," Olenna said with a wicked smile. "I'd say we get the boy, and I'd say... Well, put it this way: I'd say we poison his drink."
"Holy water?" Margaery said as if reading her grandmother's mind, suddenly smiling too. "Yes exactly my dear," Olenna said looking proud for a fraction of a second before she caught herself. "A nice dinner party, an elaborate toast. No one would be the wiser, and you really can't trace that back. How were we to know that holy water would kill the boy? And an autopsy, should they have the idiocy to want one, would come up with nothing."
"Other than the fact that his insides will be burned from the inside out," Loras said with a shrug.
"But if they ran tests it would only show up as water," Margaery argued. "Besides, Cersei wouldn't dare. It'd be far too dangerous. It could risk their whole exposure."
"That's brilliant Grandma," Willas said, mulling it over. "And Margaery's plan is a perfect cover. All we need is someone on the inside to get Sansa out while Cersei's distracted."
"I want to," Arya said at once. "She won't trust anyone but me."
"I don't really think that's a good idea, dear," Olenna said with a frown. "Cersei will smell your wolf blood the minute you come within two miles."
"But Arya's right, Grandma," Margaery said frowning, "Sansa's probably frightened out of her mind. She might trust us... But only so much. She needs her sister."
"There are ways too, of disguising her scent," Willas offered. "And perception charms for hiding her face, no offense intended Arya."
Arya shrugged. It would seem that today would be the day that her beauty would be called into question. Or, perhaps more accurately, how she viewed her level of good-lookingness. Either way, it just wasn't shaping up to be the best of days.
"I think it's inadvisable," Olenna maintained.
"I'd go with her," Gendry spoke up unexpectedly. "So, if anything went wrong... I could help..."
"Yeah you'd be really good at that," Arya said, meaning to tease him, but he only looked angry. Well fine, if he couldn't take a joke than fine.
"Should we vote on it?" Margaery asked. "After this Grandma, I swear we can go from a democracy to a dictatorship."
Olenna Redwyne remained unamused as Margaery called the vote, and everyone raised their hand in Arya's favor. Renly looked like he was uncertain, and Hot Pie just sort of shot his hand in the air and then shot it back down, as if terrified that Olenna would somehow skewer him for disagreeing with her. As it was, she did not, but merely gave them all a cold look.
"Very well," she said in graceful defeat, "but I don't want any funny business. I hear a she-wolf can be quiet tempestuous when provoked, and I want none of it. You're to stick to the plan, understand?"
Arya nodded.
"Good," Olenna said, "now let's get down to business."
The plan was far from simple. First, Olenna and Margaery plotted how to prove Cersei innocent. That digressed into a lengthy political argument amongst the Tyrells that lasted a solid hour, and didn't look like it was going to let up, so while Margaery and Willas quibbled over victim's rights, Arya decided it would be a good time to go get herself a snack. After all, lunchtime had already passed and her stomach was grumbling louder than she could growl.
She slipped out of the room and made her way to the kitchen. There had to be something good to eat, maybe some leftover prime rib from the night before...
"Were you telling the truth?"
Arya nearly jumped a foot and whipped around to see that Gendry had followed her into the kitchen. Her heart pounding slightly, she frowned at him.
"What are you talking about?" She asked, opening up the fridge and looking around.
"When you agreed to Olenna about no funny business... You were telling the truth, right? This isn't just some plan to get into the mansion and then go on a revenge killing spree?"
Arya turned around and crossed her arms over her chest.
"No I wasn't lying," she spat. "It just so happens that I actually care about my sister, crazy as it sounds!"
"Arya I know you-"
"No you don't!" She cried, suddenly furious. "What? You think that just because you sat next to me on my bed last night and gave me all this bullshit about my Dad that suddenly you know everything about me? Well you're wrong! I'm not a child-"
"I know you're not a child," Gendry said quickly. "I just... I care about you..."
Arya bit her lip, feeling an unexpected stinging in her eyes.
"Don't lie to me," she said, her voice quivering. "All right?"
With that she brushed past him and stormed up the stairs, ignoring the looks all the Tyrells were giving her as she passed them. Slamming her door shut, Arya fell into bed and then turned on the TV, turning up the volume when Gendry came knocking at her door. She was just tired. She was tired of him and she didn't want to hear excuses.
'Maybe I'm acting childish,' she thought to herself, 'but I think I'm damned entitled to act a bit childish.'
An hour or so passed, and Margaery came by, knocking too, but she ignored her. At one point or another, someone came and said they had brought food, and when Arya was sure the coast was clear, she went and got her tray and ate in front of the television. It was nice, she decided, to be alone. She hadn't been alone just spending time with herself since her father had died, but this was a different kind of alone. A peaceful kind of alone. The kind of alone where she could detach her mind from her body completely and let herself drift.
The sun set and the light from the television splashed against the walls. Arya felt a subtle ache in her side, and even though it was early she felt herself nodding off again. She didn't want to sleep, and she tried to stay awake, gripping at the sheets, but her eyes kept slowly drifting closed, and before she could do anything...
Arya was walking down the hallway again, and there were muffled voices, and the door with the crack of light, and she could feel herself starting to sense the inevitable panic that always set in. She started walking faster, but then it was as if the door was running away from her, and every step forward was a step back, and she started to claw at the walls to stop them from slipping away, but all her fingers did was slip against the wallpaper, and then rip as they transformed in her panic, ripping into the wood. She tried to scream, but nothing came out, and she knew, she just knew something bad was going to-
Out of no where an arm reached out and grabbed her roughly. She spun around, her clawed hand reaching out to strike-
"Come on," Gendry said softly, his hand gently curved around her wrist. "You don't want to see this."
She gave a shuttering gasp for breath, her entire body shaking, and then her hand shrank back to a human hand. She felt her eyes pop open in shock. That had never happened before. When she was in the process of phasing, she could never just stop until she had fully transformed, and then phasing back was always extremely difficult. She looked up at him incredulously, and nearly toppled backwards at the look he was giving her.
"What's going on?" She heard herself demand, her face heating up at the intensity of his gaze. "This isn't supposed to be happening."
"There's nothing you could have done," he told her gently, and suddenly she realized they weren't in the hallway anymore, but back in her room. Things were getting stranger and stranger.
"Go away," she snapped. "This isn't supposed to be happening."
She tried to pull away, and her wrist slipped from his grip, but she felt his fingers close onto her elbow softly, and he looked at her eyes and straight at her, and she felt her heart jump into her throat and beat there, very fast and furious. Her brain whirled in confusion. This wasn't supposed to be happening... He wasn't supposed to be-
He leaned down and kissed her. Right on the mouth. Arya would have screamed, were it not for his mouth on hers... And were it not for the fact that it was nice. Kissing him, of all people, was nice, and against her will she felt her arms reach up and her weight shift to her tip toes. He drew her close to him, and that was when she pulled away.
"What are you doing?" She asked breathlessly, and the fact that his fingers were trailing patterns on her bare arms wasn't helping stop the thoughts running around in her head.
Instead of answering, he drew his fingers lightly against her arm and up to her chin, taking it between his fingers and running his hand along her jaw. 'Well this is different,' Arya thought, and then he leaned in and kissed her again, this time deeper and hungrier. She didn't know what to do, or rather she did, but her body didn't, because it was allowing her hands to thread through his hair, which was clearly very against the program her mind had laid out, which was the back away and yell at him.
She felt his weight pressing against her, and she toppled back against the bed, that had very conveniently appeared out of no where. Somehow, Arya didn't seem to mind. As she felt his tongue slide against her lips, she wondered how she was even letting this happen. Something in the back of her mind told her to throw him off, but it was all happening to fast, and he was everywhere and no where at the same time, in the only way someone could be in a dream.
His hands were stroking her face and her hair, and she could feel his heart beating again, pulsing under her fingers as they pressed against the fabric of his shirt. Her heart was beating very quickly too. Too quickly.
He reached down and she felt his hand hot against the skin of her stomach.
"No," she said quickly, her heart beating faster and faster and the heat of his hand spreading across her body like acid. "Don't-"
"Why?" He asked. "You know you want to."
He leaned down and kissed her neck, and she felt it, the rush before the change, and she tried to push him off her, because she was phasing, her hands stretching out, claws ripping through the skin...
"Stop," she tried to stay. "Please."
'I won't be able to stop myself,' she thought in a panic. 'He doesn't know. He doesn't know...' The beating of his heart sounded delicious, and without warning all her humanity left her and she sank her teeth into his chest and ripped his heart out.
Arya screamed, leaping up in bed, her entire body shaking, the taste of his blood still in her mouth and her hands shaking violently. Just a dream... Just a dream... But this was one nightmare where she wasn't running from monsters. She was one.
I know Arya's behavior is a bit annoying, but she has been through a lot. Think about it, if you had just witnessed your Dad's brutal murder and gotten shot with an arrow, you wouldn't be so happy either. Here's just a note to say that things get better.