A/N: Thank you again for all the reviews, favorites, follows for this story. This is probably a slow one and not my best work. But still, I hope you all enjoy this. :)
"Have you thought about what course you're taking up at University?" Ned asked his youngest daughter during their latest video chat.
Arya shrugged non-committally. "You know how bad I am at science subjects, Dad. And numbers, especially! You know how I have a love-hate relationship with math."
Ned chuckled. "I do know that, love. Which is why I want you to take up something of interest, so you know for sure that you would start and finish that course without having to shift every so often. It's going to be your life at stake. Not mine, not Mom's, and definitely not your siblings. Whatever it is, you know that Dad is behind you a hundred percent."
Arya's face lit up at her father's words of encouragement. Talking to her father was totally different from having conversations with her mother. Catelyn was usually firm and a wee bit pushy, despite still being loving and caring as is usual for mothers. Her father, on the other hand, is usually quiet and reserved but he carries an air of authority that makes people stop and listen. Although Arya loves her mother dearly, it is her father who is able to control her with a firm hand but without making her feel caged and strangled. Besides, it is her father who allows her to take up fencing, archery, football and allows her to go rock climbing with her brothers. Her mother drags her to cooking and baking lessons with Sansa, and once, she was forced to go ballroom dancing just for the fun of it. Fun?
"I know, Dad," she answered. "And thank you for letting me decide on my own. I know I'm behind the schedule for admissions, but I won't disappoint you on this. The guys are helping me with the admission schedules, too."
Ned frowned at the mention of guys.
"Is there anything you want to tell me, love?" Ned asked, his frown still in place. "Anything you'd like to tell just Dad?"
Arya bit her lower lip; something that she does out of habit. "Dad, I…I'm…"
"Is this about Gendry?" he asked without a moment's hesitation.
Arya was taken aback but at the same time grateful that this was her chance to talk to her father about it. "Are you disappointed in me, Dad?"
"Why would I be? Unless you're pregnant, which I pray that you are not, then what's there to be disappointed for?" Ned explained with a calm tone.
Arya shrugged again. "I don't know. Just that I came here to be with my brothers and to study, but now I've added finding a boyfriend in the list. And I'm not pregnant, Dad, unless it's an immaculate conception."
Ned and Arya laughed at the same time. He stared at his daughter's face on the screen and noticed that there seems to be a positive glow about her. Gendry must be partly to blame for his daughter's happiness.
"I have to go, Dad," Arya said softly but with a sadness laced underneath it. "I promised Cersei to go shopping with her. She has a wedding to go to this weekend," Arya groaned, much to Ned's amusement.
"I see that not only Gendry has changed my little wolf love," he said, still chuckling. "I've never known you to like shopping, especially with Sansa."
Arya rolled her eyes. "Sansa takes too long to shop because she makes sure to try on all the clothes in all the stores, which she'll end up not buying anyway. At least Cersei knows what she wants before she gets there. Problem is, she takes long too because she'd buy the whole store if no one's there to stop her. So yeah, that task was assigned to me."
Ned guffawed, making Arya grin from ear to ear. "Well," Ned said a while later. "That's Cersei for you!"
"Love you, Dad," Arya said when the laughter stopped. "Thank you…for understanding…you know…with Gendry?"
"I actually had a nice little chat with him before I left King's Landing," Ned said with a knowing smile. "Nice chat it was."
Arya's eyes widened in surprise. "Dad! Why didn't you or Gendry tell me! Please tell me now if you've embarrassed me or something!"
"Actually, I think it was Gendry who ended up feeling embarrassed."
"Dad!"
Ned laughed again. With a kiss to his fingertips, he pressed them to the screen, as if there was no hindrance to sending kisses to his daughter from miles away. "Love you. I'll call you again soon."
Arya closed her laptop disappointedly. Really, Dad? She would have preferred to end their conversation on a happy note, but now she's disappointed and bothered and curious that she might have to ask Gendry about it later. With that thought, she got up from the bed half-heartedly and went out to look for Cersei.
Jon opened the door to let Ramsay and his friends Ilyn, Sandor, Raff and Polli in. The guys gave him fist bumps and high-fives before he led them to the living room, where they casually took over the couch.
"Theon's in the shower but he said he'll be down in a few," Jon said, trying to keep a calm demeanor. Keeping a fucking secret from someone who owns the secret is so fucking hard! "Do you guys want anything?"
"You got beer?" joked Raff, although Jon thinks it wasn't really a joke.
"Are you serious, bro? It's broad daylight." Jon replied with an incredulous tone.
"Of course he's kidding!" Ramsay answered quickly. He walked towards the back of the couch to where Raff and Polli were sitting and smacked the back of Raff's head. "Mind your manners, my friends!"
Jon watched as Ramsay tried to hide a snicker while his friends were not so successful in doing so. To avoid being in their company for a while longer, he asked them to just wait till Theon comes down. "Where are you guys off to anyway?"
"If I tell you, you're going to have to come with us," Ramsay answered, crossing his arms over his chest. He looked menacing enough, almost daring Jon to say something that he would probably find disapproving. "You have a problem with that, Stark?"
Oh, this guy's asking for it, Jon thought.
"If I do, do you have a problem with that?" Jon answered with an equally menacing stare.
"What's up, Bolton! You guys off to more misadventures? Theon's on his way down," Robb said as he walked into the room. He stopped beside Jon, discreetly holding his brother's elbow to keep him from saying anything more. Jon threw him a sideways glare, to which Robb replied in a whisper, "Keep your cool, bro. Just pretend you know nothing."
Ramsay nodded to Robb in acknowledgement before signaling to his friends to wait with him by the pool area. He turned back to look at Jon, pointing his index and middle fingers from his eyes to him and back again, like a signal to say I'm watching you, Stark.
When the guys were out of sight, Robb patted his brother on the shoulder. "Careful, Jon. Ramsay's going to be hard to deal with. Best option is to not get in his bad side and to get Theon to realize that this bunch is not the good kind."
Jon still looked annoyed so Robb patted his back again, if only to calm him for a little. "Patience, bro. And remember…you know nothing."
"Jon Stark is getting on my nerves, bro! I'd like to punch that stupid scowl off his pretty boy face!" Polli said, his fists clenching and unclenching.
"You think he knows something?" Raff asked.
Ramsay was silent for a while. "Whatever. Just be careful around him – around them all. Those Stark brothers are not as gullible as their cousin. Watch out for them."
His friends went on to talk about the incoming school year and started planning on their start-of-year party and several mixers too. Ramsay paid them no mind. He was busy watching the pretty little thing that just walked inside the Baratheon's kitchen.
He watched her; watched her move across the kitchen with an air of confidence and a certain grace that has Ramsay ogling her with curious eyes. He stood near the glass window, in full view of the kitchen. He watched as she grabbed an apple from the fruit basket, pulling out a small paring knife from the rack along the way. She turned on the TV, surfing channels for a bit before leaving it on the sports channel where a surfing competition was being featured. She leaned one hip on the island, her elbow resting on the counter top. She was staring intently at the TV and was oblivious to the fact that someone was watching her as intently as she watched the television screen. He turned to look at the guys and saw that they were still joking around about how they'd get wasted and how they'd get laid during the start-of-school party, and so Ramsay took that opportunity to watch the girl for a while longer.
He turned back to watch the girl on the other side of the glass. She was slicing the apple as she ate it. He wondered if it was a habit of hers - slicing and eating the fruit instead of just biting on it. She looks comfortable with a knife in her hand. Maybe she fences or some sort of sword-fighting sport?, he thought. Or maybe she's just good with knives because she knows how to cook? Whatever the reason, Ramsay finds himself attracted to this little slip of a girl.
"Oi! What are you doing?" Sandor asked when he noticed his friend staring at something from inside the house.
Or someone.
He followed Ramsay's line of sight and saw that he was watching a pretty girl who seemed busy staring at the sports channel. There was no other girl in the Baratheon family aside from Cersei, so Sandor's guessing that this must be the Starks' younger sister. Ariel? Arry? Anya? Sandor doesn't remember the name Theon mentioned a few times before, but regardless, Ramsay looks interested enough to stare.
"Nothing, Hound," Ramsay said. Sandor hates that nickname but he keeps silent every single time they call him that. Ramsay put a hand up to signal them to wait, then took the back door and walked into the kitchen. Sandor shook his head and went back to Raff and Polli, who seemed unaware of Ramsay's latest target.
Arya watched the competition intently as she waited for Cersei to get ready. The apple she'd been eating was almost gone when Ramsay Bolton walked into the kitchen with a seriously arrogant swagger. Gendry had been telling her about the guy's recent activities and how they have been trying to tell her cousin about it. She doesn't know Ramsay personally, but she's already both wary and angry at him because Theon is a good guy and deserves better than getting dragged into a drug-related case waiting to happen.
"Hi," he said, giving Arya the impression of a prey and predator situation on the Discovery Channel.
"Um…hi," Arya responded with a with a nod of her head.
Ramsay proceeded to walk closer to her, a smirk plastered on his face, until he was standing just a few feet from where she was. Arya suddenly felt trapped. There was a certain demanding intensity to him that she couldn't put a finger into, but it was as if he was silently demanding something from her, or maybe it was just his imposing character that slightly scared Arya.
"I don't think we've met before? I'm Ramsay, by the way," jutting his hand out.
"Arya."
Ramsay face brightened with recognition. "Arya Stark?"
Arya nodded in the affirmative.
"Why haven't I seen you around before? If someone as pretty as you would be walking around within three feet from me, I would notice you straight away," he added with a laugh.
Arya resisted the temptation to slap him across his arrogant face and straightened up instead. "I, uh, have to go find Cersei. It was nice meeting you," she said as she quickly slipped out of the kitchen, not even waiting for his reply.
Ramsay watched as she rushed out of the room, hurrying off to find Cersei. He grinned his famous Bolton grin - the one he usually reserved for ladies he deems interesting and worthy enough for the likes of him.
"Later, Arya Stark."
"You're so annoying! This movie is going to suck!" Arya said to Gendry as they rushed inside the cinema. "I wanted to watch that fucking zombie movie and you have to go and us tickets to a stupid romantic comedy! I'm so annoyed at you right now!"
Gendry only laughed as he followed her down the aisle and onto the fourth row from the front. He knew she was not that annoyed, just disappointed that she will be sitting through two hours of what she thinks will be a sappy movie. He has heard mostly positive review for this; besides, his main goal was to get Arya to hold his hand and laugh with him, and not to scream and cuss at the walking dead.
"I swear, if this movie ends up like something Sansa would typically watch, you're not going to get so much as a kiss from me!"
Okay, STOP. Do we still have time to switch cinemas?
"You're going to love this, I promise," Gendry replied with a smirk.
Thirty minutes later. Arya was laughing her head off and nudging Gendry's side as they watched scene after scene of comedy delight between the movie's main characters. Gendry kept snatching glances at Arya as she looked up at the screen with a gleeful expression on her face. He couldn't resist leaning over to whisper in her ear, "Still think this movie is stupid?"
Arya turned to him in the darkened cinema, although Gendry could still see the grin spread from ear to ear, and he couldn't help but laugh with her. She did the most natural thing she thought to do - she grabbed him by the back of his neck and pulled him closer for a kiss.
And what a kiss it was.
Gendry thought it was just one of those innocent, sweet kisses they sometimes shared whenever her brothers and his brothers were lurking in every corner of the house. But he felt her bubblegum tongue - thank you, John Mayer - slip between his lips and into his mouth. And she knows that he gets out of control when she kisses him like this, because even through it all, he could feel the smile on her lips before she tilted her head the other way and went back to kissing him.
He must have groaned out loud because the couple in the next row started clearing their throats and fake-coughing to get their attention. Arya and Gendry jumped in their seats in surprise (and horror) and went back to staring at the big screen. He noticed Arya steal sideway glances to which he responded with the same, and he grabbed her hand and entwined them with his.
It was probably the longest two and a half hours of his life because he managed to sit through the remainder of the movie without getting to kiss Arya again. Slightly annoyed, slightly distracted, slightly happy, slightly horny Gendry; he couldn't wait until they got back into his car so he could kiss her like she should be kissed.
.
It seems like Arya had the same thing in mind too, because as soon as they stepped out of the cinema, they were practically running and stumbling and dragging each other towards the parking lot. Gendry feels like they weren't going as fast as they wanted to, until they literally ran into someone and spilled her shopping bags across the lot.
"Shit! Shit! Shit!" cried the girl as the contents flew out of her shopping bags. Gendry and Arya quickly got to their knees and started picking up everything they could reach and shoving them back inside the bags. Arya looked up to find Gendry looking at her too, and she noticed how his smile turned into a grimace. She must look as embarrassed as him because she felt as if steam was coming out her ears in utter humiliation.
"I'm sorry, miss…fuck me…" Gendry choked out as he stared at the girl they ran into. "Jeyne!"
Arya's head whipped as fast as she could say Shit!
Seven hells! This is Jeyne?!
Arya stared at the beautiful girl in front of her. Long blonde hair, startling blue eyes, perfect body, legs that stretch out from here to eternity. She sneaked a glance at Gendry, who looked as absolutely stunned as she is.
"Oh! Gen!" Jeyne said with a big smile - too fucking big, thought Arya - and noticed that her irritated manner suddenly changed into delighted.
When Jeyne's eyes lander on her, Arya felt her face heat up. Here she was, standing in front of someone who was probably part of her boyfriend's past, while she only had on the rattiest and most comfortable jeans and sweater ensemble she's ever had to wear just because she was too lazy to dress nicely. Jeyne was dressed in her cute denim shorts and a pretty white knitted top, and her pretty (and probably expensive) sandals and Arya immediately hated how put-together she looked because everything screamed Sansa.
Or was it because everything about her screamed I am Gendry's ex-girlfriend?
"Uh, sorry about that! I wasn't really paying attention to where I was going," Gendry said sheepishly, and Arya resisted the urge to roll her eyes and pretend to throw up.
"No! I wasn't watching where I was going too," she replied with a smile. Even her teeth are so fucking white, what the hell?
"Are you here on your own?" Gendry asked, without even looking at Arya.
Okay, I'm seriously pissed right now.
Jeyne nodded. "Yeah, had to do a bit of shopping today." Her eyes went from Gendry to Arya and back again, but unfortunately, Gendry didn't really get what she was silently asking.
She finally decided to take matters into her hands. She held out her right hand for a handshake and said, "Hi! I'm Jeyne!"
"Arya."
Jeyne looked at Gendry with a raised brow. "Girflriend?"
Gendry looked panicked and replied with what he guessed later on was the wrong answer. "Ahhh…Jeyne, meet my friend, Arya Stark."
Friend? I'm his mothereffing friend?!
"Oh! Stark? Are you Robb and Jon's little sister?"
Arya only nodded. She couldn't trust herself to talk just yet.
"Nice to meet you," she said, before turning back to Gendry. "So, I have this party on Saturday. I'd like you guys to be there, it'll be fun! I'll call Robb and Jon, could you please tell Joffrey for me?"
Gendry only nodded, which made Arya even more annoyed than she was earlier. So I'm just a friend and not even worthy to be invited to a party hosted by his ex-girlfriend? Are you fucking kidding me?
As if reading her thoughts, Jeyne turned to her and said, "You could come too, Arya. If you like."
And leave you and Gendry alone when I don't go? No fucking way!
"Can't wait till Saturday!" Arya replied with mock excitement.
"Great! I'll see you both by then!" she said one last time before heading to the opposite end of the lot. Arya finally looked over at Gendry and saw his pained reaction.
"Friend? Are you kidding me, Gendry?"
"I panicked, okay! I didn't mean it to be like that, I swear, Arya!"
"I didn't know we were just friends, Gen. Because the last I checked, friends don't just make friends come so hard their eyeballs practically rolled out of their sockets!"
Gendry did roll his eyes now, but not in the same way Arya just said. "I sort of panicked, okay! I was going to introduce you, but she just sort of went on about the party! Hey! Where are you going?"
Arya didn't even turn to look when she shouted back her response, "I'm going to take the bus home because friends don't need to drive their friends home!"
"Are you shitting me? Arya!"
But Arya was already in the bus before Gendry could catch up to her.