Shireen was back in Rickon's room. The towel was soaking wet and wrapped around her chest which she held tightly to her body. Rickon was rummaging through his clothes looking for something he could lend her.

She glance around the room while he searched. Pictures were strewn all over his bookshelves containing various Stark children and their direwolves. A few of Rickon with some Wildlings. One of his parents. She looked closer at one of the pictures and pointed to the girl standing next to him. It looked like the girl from earlier. The one who's knife was now safely tucked in Shireen's boot.

"Who's this?" She asked.

Rickon turned momentarily and squinted at it. "That's Arya." He said like it was obvious.

"That's Arya?" Shireen gaped. "She looks so different here."

"What do you mean?" Rickon asked, stopping his search and turning to face her. "You've seen her?"

"Yeah, she talked to me earlier."

"When?"

Shireen shrugged, "Tonight, before the party started. I was out on the front lawn and she just kind of appeared."

"Hmm." He said, staring at Shireen. "What did you two talk about?"

"Nothing, really. She just told me to be safe and careful. Is that weird? Does she not normally talk to people?"

"She's been gone for years," Rickon explained. "As far as I know you're the only person other than me that she has talked too."

"I guess that is a bit strange." Shireen mumbled. Then she reached down to her ankle and pulled out the pocket knife. "She gave me this." Rickon held his hands out and Shireen tossed it to him.

He chuckled, "She must've really liked you. She loves this thing."

"I'd heard she'd disappeared." Shireen mentioned quietly.

"Nah, she just took off for a while."

"And no one else knows she's back?" He shook his head. "Why not?" She asked.

Rickon thought it over for a minute and then continued searching for a shirt.

"She's afraid." He said over his shoulder.

The thought of it made Shireen laugh. "Arya Stark is afraid?" She said. She'd heard stories about Arya from Mya and especially from Gendry. It wasn't that unusual. She'd known a little something about all the Starks before she met them, everyone did. They had reputations that followed the mention of their names almost without fail.

Arya Stark was known for being strongly outspoken, and unlike Sansa, quite tomboyish. She was called the She-Wolf. She was fierce and independent and opinionated. And she wasn't someone who feared but someone to be feared, wolves were predators after all. The idea of someone like Arya being afraid of anything seemed ridiculous to timid little Shireen.

Or course, if Rickon had proved anything to her tonight, it was that reputations were not to be trusted. "I guess you can't believe everything you hear, huh?"

"Or see." He added, coming towards her with soft grey t-shirt that looked like it might fall off her shoulders. "For example, tonight you might look like a Stark but you are clearly a Baratheon."

Shireen beamed up at him, "The fury was most definitely mine tonight, huh?"

"Definitely." Rickon nodded. Both their hands remained gripped on the t-shirt, it tied them together for a moment. "What you did, it was seriously impressive. Although, I can't say your cousins will be too please with the impression I've made on you."

Shireen chuckled, "Nah, that was all me, I think."

"I agree." Rickon said. Shireen glanced down at the towel covering her and then at the shirt and Rickon nodded. "Now, thanks to Sansa, I'm a convincing gentlemen when I have to be, so I'm going to turn around while you change and then I'll take that down to the wash for you. However, I'm also a teenaged boy so I'll let you know I'm probably going to try and peek."

Shireen laughed, unsure of how to respond as they retreated to separate corners of room. She pulled her blouse over her head and discarded it to the floor. She glanced over her shoulder only to see Rickon swiftly turning away and her grin widened. She threw the shirt on over her head and walked back over to Rickon. She tapped him gently on the shoulder and he turned and looked her over.

The shirt was huge. The seams along the shoulder were halfway down her arms and the hem landed somewhere near her knees, making the edge of her skirt barely visible.

Rickon nodded "You look good in Stark colours." He said. Shireen felt a blush creep up over her cheeks. "Probably best you wait here, I'll go throw this in the wash." She nodded and let him pass.

He stopped at the door. "I'm sure if you wanted to, you could go into Sansa's room and borrow her make-up, I know she wouldn't mind. But you don't need too, you look just fine without it. Prettier, actually." He smiled at her and disappeared from the room, closing the door securely behind him.

Shireen collapsed on the bed and let out the breath she'd been holding.

"Oh boy, I'm in trouble." She said, staring up at the ceiling with a grin permanently etched on her face.

Arya sat on top of the washing machine. Her arms and legs were crossed. Gendry was leaning against the opposing wall of the messy, cramped room. Neither of them were speaking, the only sounds were the humming of the dryer as their clothes spun round and round madly in it and the repetitive beat from the music.

"So..." Gendry began. Arya, of course, interuppted him.

"Did you ever think of me, while I was gone?" She asked.

Gendry couldn't help but laugh, "I think by this point it's become perfectly, obviously, clear that I thought about you quite a lot while you were gone."

"I thought of you too." She said shyly, getting to her true point.

"You did?" Gendry nodded.

"Yeah, that's actually kinda how this whole thing started." She said.

"What whole thing?" He asked.

Then there was just the humming of the dryer as it rattled along. Arya was silent as she bit her lip and stared down at the ground.

"Gendry, there's something I need to tell you." She said.

"Okay," He said patiently. "Tell me."

She hesitated for a moment and when her bottom lip finally escaped from between her teeth, it quivered nervously.

"Arry, whatever it is, you can tell me." He said.

She swallowed slowly and nodded. "For the past few years I haven't quite been myself, but then things started happening that I couldn't ignore and I had to be Arya again. There's so much I know that I have to tell you about, I have a lot of secrets. I guess I don't know where to start." He couldn't remember the last time he'd Arya ramble on, he wasn't sure he ever had.

"Start wherever you want. We've got all night." She looked uncertain. "I'm not letting you get away again." He stated it firmly and it made her smile.

"Alright," She said. Her shoulder were hunched and tense as she clung to the edge of the washing machine. Her knuckles were white. "Wherever I want."

Gendry watched her closely and she tried to figure just where that was. She was fidgeting and she looked so uncomfortable.

They were each wearing a plain white t-shirt, which could belong to any one of her brothers, while they waited for their own clothes to dry. Arya practically swam inside hers while Gendry's fit just right. He marvelled at the fact that she was able to make herself look even smaller.

"Earlier, when I told you it was my dad that made me remember, that he was the one who brought me back, that was only kind of half true." She stopped. "No, no I don't want to start there. This is the first time I'm telling anyone any of this. The only person I've really talked to since I've got back is Rickon, but he's never one to pry."

Gendry waited for her to continue. "There really is a lot I have to tell you." She chewed on her lip some more.

"Alright, well, where do you want to begin?" He asked again, trying to drag the words from her mouth.

"Where do I want to begin?" She echoed, still uncertain. Then, a slow, very devilish smile crept over her face, and Gendry felt worried. "I know about what happened with you and Jeyne, last year." She said.

"What?" He stuttered. He really hadn't been expecting that. Though this whole night had been the opposite of his expectations so he figured it might be best to just give up.

"You two didn't really fizzle out like you said. You kind of exploded into a million pieces." She joked. He didn't laugh. "I know what you did, or what you said really, that made her hate you."

"Arya, whatever you think you know, whatever Rickon told you-"

"You said my name." She said. He stopped making excuses and just stared at her. "That's what happened, right? You and Jeyne were... and you said my name?"

Silence.

"It was right after we'd gotten your letter." He said. That was as far as he was willing to expand on that particular memory. "I'd spent the year trying deny the fact that you were dead. Then that stupid letter came. Can you really blame me for having you stuck on my brain?" He chuckled humourlessly.

She seemed lost for words, another first. "I... I, I guess- well, I never knew you felt-"

"Me either." He said.

He couldn't even make himself look at her. All he felt was embarassment, and a desperate urge to kick Rickon's ass. That fucking Wildling wolf had told her everything. Arya's eyes seemed to stay trained away from his too. Both were too afraid to see how the other would react to them.

The music picked up tempo again, and the wall Genry was leaning on began to vibrate with it's slow beat.

It was Arya who finally spoke.

"So you really thought of me while I was gone?" She chuckled and Gendry finally started to feel okay, despite still feeling completely ashamed. If Arya was laughing, everything seemed alright. They laughed long and hard, until Arya was clutching her stomach. When they quieted down Gendry just shrugged and didn't bother to respond.

"I thought of you too." She repeated, though with a new meaning to her words. He looked up at her and saw her legs stretched out towards the ground and a confident smirk on her lips. Her eyes were grey but they were no longer cold, instead them seemed to smile and dance at him and invite him in closer.

"A lot." She added, as she slipped off her perch. "Even when I was trying to forget everything."

"And how'd that work out for you?" He asked as he watched her feet pad their way towards him silently.

"Well I'm back, aren't I?" She said, her hand reached out towards him, resting inches above his skin without ever touching down.

"To be honest," He said. "I'm still not sure." He'd caught glimpses of so many parts of her. Little bits of the stubborn, young Arry he'd travelled with, and the cold, calculated Arya he didn't know at all. All he wanted to see was the girl he'd hoped she'd grow up to be, one who was happy, or would be with his help.

"Then I'll have to prove it to you." She said sweetly. Her smile wasn't seductive or foreign, and it wasn't an act put on by some former version of the girl he loved. It was simple and feisty and he was sure it was reserved just for him. There you are.

Her hand traced it's way up his arms as her smile grew but he wasn't waiting for her any longer. His lips crashed onto hers and he was then very aware of how real she was.

He could feel the breath push out of her, and a squeal of surprise as his lips touched hers, then after a moment he felt all her force trying to match his as she rose to the tips of her toes, desperately trying to gain some control.

He groaned and slid his hands down her sides, and grabbing hold of her legs and picking her up. She wrapped her legs around his torso as he placed her on top of the dryer.

His hands continued to roam her sides, stretching out the hem of her borrowed shirt as she detanlged her arms from around him so he could pull it over her head. It landed somewhere on the ground, neither care where.

Her legs were wrapped around him, her heels digging into his lower back and pulling him closer. Her arms were everywhere at once, pulling him closer, toying with the hem of his shirt, reaching underneath to run her ghostlike fingers along his stomach, up to his chest, then once his shirt was also a pule on the floor, through his hair.

She whimpered as he bit down on her lip, her tongue darting through his lips to nip at whatever it could touch. His hands ran up her legs and along the lean muscles of her torso as her's stayed glued around his neck. His lips travelled, down her jaw, her neck, pushed her hair out of the way and his tongue trailed along her collarbone, while his hand travelled up, massaging her breast through her bra she she moaned above him.

"We should move this somewhere else." She said, panting as his kisses moved lower and lower.

"Why?" He said. Her fingers scratched along his scalp, pulling him back up her lips.

She quieted when his lips were back on hers. They kissed hungrily, desperately, for a few more seconds before Arya pulled away, resting her forhead against his as she tried to catch her breath.

"Because," She said, pointing one hand at the door while the other reached up and grabbed a clean white shirt off the rack. "That."

There was a brief flicker of light under the door and then it cracked open. Rickon Stark stood there, in all his smirking glory.

"Sorry to interrupt." He said.

"Then why did you?" Arya said, glaring as she pulled a new shirt over hear head.

"Shireen's shirt." He said, holding up the beer stained evidence.

"Oh," Gendry nodded as Arya shrugged and pushed him out of the way so Rickon could put the shirt in to wash. "Wait, what? Why isn't Shireen wearing her shirt?" He shouted.

"Relax. Some assholes threw their drinks at her so I lent her one of my shirts while this one washes." He looked carefully at Arya, making sure she was paying attention. "She held her own. I'd like to see what's happening out on the back lawn. Those Lannisters are gonna pay."

"What?" Arya shouted. "There are Lannisters here? Who?"

Rickon shrugged and smiled. "A bunch of them, they came with Margaery Tyrell, cuz, you know, she brought Joffrey."

"WHAT!" Arya shouted. She pushed Rickon out of the way and grabbed her black hoodie out of the dryer. As she zipped it up she growled, "I told him never to come back here."

"You don't have to tell me." Rickon said, "Though I guess he could use a reminder." Then she threw open the door and stormed out of the room.

Gendry stood there for a moment, completely confused, while Rickon put some stain remover on the shirt.

"You know Jon's gonna kill you right?" He mentioned casually as he wiped away the stains of blue and green.

Gendry shook off his confusion for a moment and thought it over. He was probably right. Jon had told him to take his chance earlier tonight, but his elation would soon wear off, he was sure.

But now that he'd kissed Arya there was no way he was going back to not kissing her. It was as simple as that. And while he was sure Jon wouldn't be surprised once he heard what had happened, but he would be pissed. And Gendry definitely didn't want to trade one Stark for another.

"He finally get his baby sister back only to find out that his best friend is..." Rickon shuddered and threw the shirt into wash. "But don't worry about that right now." He continued, clapping a hand on Gendry's shoulder. "Instead worry about who Arya's about to kill on the lawn. We should really get outside."

"She told you me you were the only person she's talked to since she got back." He said as he and Rickon walked downstairs.

"You, me and Shireen. That's it." He confirmed.

"So then when did she tell him never to come back?" He asked.

Rickon answered with a question of his own. "When was the last time someone put Joffrey Lannister in his place?"

Then it finally dawned on him. She'd been back, to Winterfell. The Wildling friend at last year's party, the one who'd attacked Joffrey, the one who'd been there with everyone else to witness Gendry's fight with Jeyne.

"She's gonna rip him to shreds." Gendry said.

"Now you're getting it. Personally, I think we should just let her go for it. She knows something, I don't know what, but it scares the shit outta me. Get down there and make sure you can restrain her before she goes too far." Gendry shot him a look and Rickon shrugged, "Do the best you can. I'm going to find Shireen."

He disappeared before Gendry could protest.

And then the music quieted down, and people were running out to the balcony, and swarming down the stairs and Gendry ran along with them, pushing them out of his way as they all tried to get front row seats to the show.