Huge apologies for the major delay

Covid eh?!

I hope you are all well

I expected the journey to Dragonstone to take some time, but not that long!!

Will try and post several more chapters over the next two weeks!

Can't believe I've been writing this for a year!

A friend read this just after the last update and it halted my stride so to speak but hopefully back to normal now!

Dragonstone

Gendry hated being back there. Again. They had been there a fortnight and the coronation was two days away. He had spent the morning sat around the table the Dragon Queen had once used to plan her battles, and Stannis before her.

That morning had been spent using it to discuss grain rates and recovery of the various towns and cities that had been most affected by the War of the Five Kings, two mad Queens and the almost destruction of man. The saviour of Westeros has been made to sit in on that meeting by the as yet uncrowned King of the Six Kingdoms, much to her obvious boredom. He had struggled to remain awake himself. Partly through boredom and partly through his lack of sleep the night before. After they had lain together and she had fallen asleep in his arms, he listened to the crashing of the water on the rocks and realised it would be a sound he would have to get used to before he went to live the rest of his life in Storms End. Not for the first time he wished he hadn't been so foolhardy and asked her to be his wife. He longed to be away from the castle, perhaps in a little cottage somewhere, with his own forge attached. He would work all day and eat a stew with real meat in that Arry had managed to cobble together from some of their own vegetables. They would lie together in their own cot, with a thin hay roll in front of the fire and fall asleep together. None of this fancy crap. The beds were too high up. The mattresses too stuffed, pillows too soft.

She had started to twist and turn then, as she did each night he had lain with her since the Long Night. He woke her when she began to gasp for breath, shaking her. "Arya. Arya wake up now. It's just a bad dream. It's not real. Arya!"

Her hand shot out towards him and as her eyes opened suddenly, went around his throat, nails digging into his skin. He pulled back from her and pulled her hand off his throat.

"Arya, it's me. It's ok. It's over." He saw the fear in her eyes, highlighted by the flames still dancing in the fire.

"I saw..."

"I know who you saw. He's gone now. He won't come back. None of them can. And all thanks to you. Bringer of Dawn and still a pain in my arse." He smiles softly at her.

"Maybe you should take some of that poppy milk the Queen got for you?"

"Makes me sick. As does herring you call Sansa Queen. Come on, let's go exploring again. We can be back just before the sun rises and you can go back to your rooms."

Gendry stifled a yawn as someone continued to man about barley and taxes yet again. Gods, was this his life now? He wanted to do something useful. He could have made good progress on any number of things in the forge had he been allowed. He kept trying to catch Arya's eye but she refused to look everywhere except at him.

"What does Lord Baratheon think?" Some Lord asked pointedly, bringing his focus back to the conversation.

Gendry pulled himself up in his seat and stole a quick glance at Arya but she was playing with one of the wooden stags that had been used by the previous inhabitants.

"I think we've spent so much time going backwards and forwards we could have harvested an acre of field a piece instead of just talking about it!"

"Oh well really!" The Lord replied.

"Well in the grand scheme of it all, everywhere is just a little bit fucked the way I see it and us talking about how we should tax grain rates per kingdom is not putting food into anyone's belly. It's not rebuilding any homes that were destroyed. It's just wasting time." He was tired and fed up, he had been stuck on this room for days with people he hardly knew, listening to them try to score cheap points instead of thinking what was best for the people.

"Well Sir, I do not appear to be rude, but when you have learned what it is to be a Lord then I bet you will beg to differ! Still I expect nothing better from someone who spent his time as a bastard blacksmith before being given a title of somewhere you probably can't even point on a map, let alone spell!"

"Ser Harys, you are here despite your previous alliance, to inform those present of how we can try to initiate trading not raises taxes." Tyrion called

"I don't need to be sat here to be insulted by this upstart! Lord of Storms End indeed! I hear he takes after his father and lay with the Targeryan chit and that's why she chose to rise him high, to keep him as her pet!" Ser Harys spat.

This was news to Gendry and apparently to several others who looked to Gendry. But not Arya who sat staring out the window, toying with the stag in her hand.

"Ser Harys, we are grateful for your experience. Whoever told you of this, if they did, was mistaken. Lots Baratheon was legitimised for the same reason I mean to make him as Lord Paramount of the Stormlands in two days time."

"Poppycock!" Ser Harys cried out.

"Lord Baratheon should be rewarded for his selfless bravery and courage. It is he who spilled his own blood to forge the dragon glass that was used during the Long Night. The blood of a King. It is he who protected a group of boys on their way to the wall with no thought to his own life. It is he who volunteered to go North of the Wall to obtain a White Walker and it is he alone who ran miles and miles to alert Eastwatch of the imminent danger his comrades faced. Without him, we would all be dead. Without him, my sister would not have been able to kill the Night King and you would be dead, as would we all. This is why I wish to name him Lord Paramount of the Stormlands and Warden of the South. If you have any difficulties with this then we may discuss it now in private whilst Ser Brienne takes me to the hall, I believe the soup is ready now. We could all do with the warmth."

Bran nodded to Brienne who began to push him out of the room. Gendry looked over at Arya who appeared to be daydreaming, only returning to the present when chairs were pushed back and a low undertone of murmuring began.

Upon failing to catch her eye again, Gendry pushed back his own chair and stalked out of the room.