Arya (earlier that day)

'What the fuck is your problem?' she demanded, the moment she laid eyes on the mechanic. He'd left Ice standing in the doorway of the workshop, keys on the tank, clearly expecting it would be picked up without a conversation.

He looked around at her, face defensive. 'I have nothing to say to you.'

Arya snorted, 'well that's too bad, because I have quite a few things to say to you.' She stepped closer to him, glaring up into his face.

'You had no right to say that shit to Jon. We are nothing like those Debt Collector scum,' she said, lip curling. 'I get it that things are bad here but that's not how it is everywhere. My family has honour. My father kept the peace. He made sure that what came into our territory made money that went back into the region. We kept the Northern gangs under control, we kept things balanced. We dealt justice when people stepped out of line. My brother Robb is doing the same.'

Gendry looked at her, disbelief written all over his face. 'Oh, so you only deal good drugs and bring in good weapons, not those bad ones that destroy people's lives.' Sarcasm was written all over him.

'It's more complicated than that,' Arya huffed angrily. 'This shit happens. It always has. It always will. In the North we make it happen in a way that does the least harm to the people.'

Gendry laughed, 'keep telling yourself that. I live in a town that constantly sees the harm that your people cause to everyone else who's just trying to live their life.'

'THAT'S WHAT I'M TRYING TO TELL YOU, YOU IDIOT! THEY'RE NOT OUR PEOPLE!' she yelled angrily. 'You can't judge someone based on the actions of someone else. The Debt Collectors are so far out of line they can't see it from where they are. They deal in people, for fucks sake, women and children,' she shuddered and looked Gendry in the eye. 'Up North that sort of shit would have you tried and executed. We keep the peace Gendry, we do what's best for everybody. We're even - '

Then she broke off, not willing to go into details about the next week with someone who clearly didn't trust her.

He looked at her, hearing what she was saying but still unconvinced and she sighed, some of her anger draining away. She wracked her brain for a way to get through to him. She had to try, for Jon's sake.

'Jon said your dad was in a gang?' she asked, surprising him. 'Do you know anything about him?'

Gendry looked at her for a moment, as if deciding whether he wanted to cut and run from the conversation. Then he spoke.

'He was some arsehole everyone called 'the King' if you can believe that,' he said with a sneer.

Arya' eyes widened in surprise at the name, surely not. 'Did your mum ever tell you what he looked like?'

Gendry looked down at her, suspicious.

'Big guy, black hair, liked to have fun. Had some stupid sigil on his leathers, like he was mocking the group he rode with.'

'A golden lion's head with the horns of a stag?' Arya asked quietly.

Gendry's look sharpened, 'that's it. You know him?'

'Knew. He's dead. His wife killed him a bit over ten years ago. His name was Robert Baratheon and he was my dad's best friend.'

Gendry looked a little shell shocked at this information - that his father had a name at last, and that he was dead many years past.

Arya continued, 'he was the leader of the Debt Collectors, before they went bad, before they became what they are now.'

Gendry just stared at her, as the information sunk in. His emotions battled across his face.

'You're basically biker royalty,' she snorted at him. 'That's ironic. Anyway, aren't you in the wrong line of work if you hate bikers so much?' Arya said, gesturing around the workshop to the many motorbikes littering the room.

Gendry looked like he had been slammed with too much information too quickly but he shrugged. 'This shop is too small for anyone from a big gang to worry about. They all have their shops in the Landing and the bigger towns. You oughta know. Those places where you get the special deals and the under the table trades.'

Arya glared at him, but she didn't say anything.

Gendry continued as if that proved his point. 'People who come in here love bikes and love riding, just like me. Some of them are local, some of them are passing through. You don't have to be a criminal to ride a motorbike.'

The last comment lacked the same sting of his earlier words, as if she was wearing down his resolve, battering against the years of prejudice he'd built up.

Arya smiled to herself, 'Do you have any idea how hard it was for Jon to open up to you?' she asked, changing tack. 'Do you know how many other people he's been with?' There was a pause as Gendry watched her, face unreadable.

'One, Gendry. He's been with one other person apart from you. And he fell hard for her. He almost gave up everything for her. But in the end she broke his heart and she dumped him because he wasn't wild enough for her.'

She decided that was enough. If he wasn't willing to change his mind, she never would.

'If you don't want to be with him, fine. But you can't end it like this. You can't leave him thinking he wasn't enough again, that he didn't deserve to be loved ... it will destroy him,' she finished.

Gendry looked at her, his resolve weakening. He balanced what he knew of Jon, what he had come to know of him over the past week, against everything he knew of his kind.

His struggle was written across his face and then he sighed, 'I can't - I can't be a part of that life,' he said, turning away. 'It's better for both of us this way.'

'You're a coward,' Arya said, disappointment in her face. 'If you change your mind we'll be in the Landing until mid next week, staying down near the docks in a place called Flea Bottom.' She looked him directly in the eye, 'If you turn up it better be to let him down gently. If you hurt my brother again, you won't make it back home,' she said, her eyes cold and hard. She turned and walked away from him, starting up the bike with a quick kick.

Gendry watched her go with troubled eyes, and it was a long time before he turned back to his work.