Arya was practicing her two-blade technique, she thought she'd mastered handling just one sword, especially her favoured Braavosi blade. She wanted to practice her dual blade technique in case she ever needed to use her other hand, she needed to be prepared for anything. The door to the training room swung open with a loud creek and Arya spun immediately expecting to see Jaqen standing there with his usual smirk like he'd promised, but instead it was the Waif snarling.
"How do you expect to improve if you don't spar with anyone?" she said in her mocking voice intoned with jealousy, then picking up a light Braavosi blade like Needle.
Arya shrugged not wanting to say anything that would antagonise the Waif, everything she said seemed to annoy the girl and she could almost see the hatred emanating from the other girl's body. Arya moved into a defensive stance, knowing the Waif was quick and liked to attack suddenly when you were least expecting it. However, today she seemed distracted, twisting the sword in her hand and glaring daggers at her.
"Have a nice time with your master?" she all but growled, "Did he give you those bruises?" Arya dropped her guard in shock, watching open mouthed as the Waif began circling her, "I bet you liked that. The little lady of some Westerosi lord who thinks she can just stroll in here with a coin she didn't earn and learn skills she doesn't deserve to know." she stopped her pacing and turned on Arya, a flash of anger in her eyes, "Did you enjoy it as he left marks on your body and fucked you? Did he cry out your name," her face turned sour and she practically spat the next word out, "Arya. You'll never be no one. Never one of us. You don't deserve to be faceless."
"You're jealous." Arya started, almost laughing, "You're jealous, because I'm better than you, I've only just got here and already, I'm better than you. You can't stand it because I get all the attention, Jaqen, the Kindly man they both prefer me over you. You might be right, I might never be no one, but at least I know that Jaqen likes me, and not you."
The waif turned sour and started attacking her with full force, blades aiming to maim and kill, but Arya expected this, blocking each hit with practiced ease.
"He's no one, why would I care for the opinion of nobody when I'm no one myself."
"Oh, I bet you've still thought about him, especially at night when you're alone in your cell." she continued egging her on, "I bet he's never kissed you," she brought her blade up to parry a thrust "I doubt he's even looked at you twice."
"I was the favourite," she screamed, "the only girl before you arrived." she strengthened her attack putting her whole body behind the blade, when the Waif realised that she was getting nowhere with her plan of attack and couldn't break Arya's guard, she spun out of the way of Arya's stronger swing. Missing both swords, the Waif kicked Arya hard in the ribs so she stumbled back dropping a sword and clutching her bruised side. A malicious grin spread across the Waif's face and she put her arms out in an intimidating way.
"You fucking bitch." Arya yelled finding her feet and swinging her sword, but the Waif easily parried the attack and hit Arya's wrist with the flat of her blade, making her drop her weapon, disarming her easily. Arya was weaponless but she had something that would harm the Waif, that could be just as bad as a sword, her tongue. The Waif couldn't hurt her, at least not whilst they were in the temple, Jaqen would stop her, or the Kindly man, maybe even a passing brother.
"You can't stand it, because I'm better than you. You hate that Jaqen found me, and recruited me. He thought I was special, he gave me that coin, amongst other things." she smirked raising an eyebrow, "What's he given you? Nothing, except a few pitiful glances. You're not even worth that."
The Waif pounced on her, tackling her to the ground, both grappling to get out on top, scratching and grabbing at hair. Through their clawing and screeching they heard a throat clearing. Arya froze. Looking up she found the Kindly man looking at them, his face an expressionless mask, emotions impassive.
"We were just sparring." the Waif says climbing to her feet and dusting herself off.
He hums in response, not believing her but dropping the subject, "Walk with me." he said indicating to Arya.
She clambered to her feet giving the Waif a mocking bow as a sign of respect for if they had been properly sparring, before following after the kindly man. She expected him to chastise her about her brawl with the Waif but he didn't. They walk in silence until they reach the main chamber, "There has been news, a man has heard many important stories, one including a tragic accident at an inn today. Apparently, a man choked to death on some bread." she hummed in response, learning to never explicitly state what you've done, the Kindly man continued, "I suspect it might be the strangler poison," Arya nodded as if she was contemplating his idea, "however a man does wonder how someone got hold of this poison, it is very expensive to buy and difficult to make."
"It's only difficult if you don't know how to make it properly." she retorted.
Admiration seemed to shine in his eyes and he smiled at her,
"a girl has duties that need attending to at the pool." he said indicating a body that was lying limp against the edge of the pool the cup of poisoned water lying forgotten in their hand. Just as he was leaving he turned around quickly, "Oh, and one more thing, I strongly suggest you don't seek your master out tonight, the pair of you need some time apart, especially after yesterday."
Arya nodded feeling a blush creeping up her cheeks. Did he know what had happened? Can he see the bruises? She had to fight the urge to pull at her shirt and hide the marks Jaqen had left on her, but she needed to play this off casually, as if what he said was perfectly normal and nothing transpired in the quiet of the night. Everything's fine, I can follow orders. But she wanted, no needed to speak to him. Would he think me clingy? This will be hard, I'll have to find a way to speak to him without anyone finding out.
I'm back! I'm so sorry this took so long but hey exams just finished today *whoop* so I had to get this out to you guys as soon as possible, sorry it's short and a bit rubbish but someone requested this chapter, so this is for you. Thank you to everyone who left comments and kudos, I didn't reply at the time but I saw them all and I love you, i reread this and it made me cringe so hard i considered giving up but you guys have kept me motivated and determined to finish. Hope you enjoyed it. I have pretty bad writers block at the moment because exams have turned my brain to mush but if you guys have anything you want to see while I look for my notebook with the story plot in it just message me. Here's my Tumblr: www. tumblr blog/ dodo-forever