A/N: I'M SO SORRY. There's no other way to open this chapter but to say sorry for how long I've disappeared from the internet. Also, I've lost my writing muse and (please don't kill me) my Gendry muse. Two seasons without him has been hell, and I found it hard to get it back. But I think I'm getting back in the groove of things, although I had to read my own story from chapter 1 because I've forgotten how the entire story went haha. I noticed some grammatical errors, spelling errors (JAQEN, NOT JAQN, Jesus forgive me), and a few inconsistencies. Plus cheese that made me cringe. But whatever haha. Anyway, I promised the final chapter for this, but I think I might write a few more before I get the the ending. I need to get my muse fully to be able to make a good final chapter to make up for two years of not updating. I'm sorry if this will turn out disappointing, but I'm still working on getting back into writing. So now that my rambling's done, here's another chapter for you all. :)

Type, type, type, type.

Delete, delete, delete, delete.

Sigh.

Type, type, type, type.

Delete, delete, delete, delete.

Arya unlocked her phone to check her messages. It was 1 in the morning, but she was far from being sleepy. She had been typing this resume for hours, but staring at the text at the bottom of the screen that said "page 1 of 1", meant she's out of luck tonight. Her brain feels numb, and she could feel a migraine coming.

She pushed her laptop away and stretched out on the bed. She had been doing a lot of this lately. Lying in bed for hours, staring at the white ceiling of her room in Winterfell. How long have the Starks been back here from Storm's End? A month? But all she ever did was lie there and stare at the four walls of her bedroom, ceiling included. With a soft groan, she reached for her phone again and was about to send Sansa a text when she decided to go through her camera roll again. Pictures of him, probably in the hundreds, and everything came rushing back. She missed him. Missed him so much it hurt every part of her body. Missed him so much she tried to stop thinking about him. How long has it been? A year?

One year ago…

"Good to know you still remember me."

Arya sighed, cradling her phone between her ear and shoulder. "I'm sorry, Gen. I've been so busy in school since I'm graduating. And I've been helping Dad with some business stuff. He thinks I should help him and my brothers with running it." She sighed again while pulling out clothes from her closet.

"What are you doing tonight?" Gendry asked, somewhat annoyed now.

"Um…we're going out for dinner and then we're off to see Rickon's school play," she replied as she ran to her bedside table to retrieve her headset. She resisted the urge to slap herself for not thinking about this sooner. She stuck the earphones in, making it a little easier for her to talk and find something to wear at the same time.

"Ohhhhkay…" Gendry said, evidently annoyed now. "I was hoping we could talk longer tonight, since you've been going out every night for the entire week."

Arya unbuttoned her blouse and dropped it to the floor, before putting a new one on and taking it off again. She had to take the earphones out so she could wear a light sweater, before she stuck the buds in her ear again. She heard Gendry on the other end, calling her name out continuously because she wasn't replying.

"Sorry, baby. I was changing."

"Maybe I should just call tomorrow."

"No! Wait, I'm here! I was just getting dressed, don't be insensitive."

Gendry scoffed. "You're calling me insensitive? Me?"

Arya sighed for the umpteenth time that night. "Gendry…"

"No, listen. I've been diligently calling you for months now, but how many times have we had Skype dates? Hour-long phone calls? How many times do you send me text messages now? I'm lucky if you remember to send me one, even. And now you're calling me insensitive?"

"Gendry, I'm sorry. Wrong choice of words, okay?" Arya said, trying to pacify him. "I didn't mean it that way. I just meant…"

Gendry wasn't speaking.

"You know what? Never mind. I need to go get dressed anyway. We'll talk tomorrow."

"No, we talk now or we won't talk at all."

Arya gave a soft gasp.

"Or ever again."

If at first she was surprised, now she felt annoyed. She could hear her mom calling out for her to hurry, and so she thought she didn't have time for this right now. "I gotta go. We'll talk tomorrow."

And Arya hung up.

She waited the next day for a call that never came. She was too hurt to initiate the call or text, and maybe her pride told her that if he was done with her, really done with her, then whatever. It's not like he's the only guy she could ever date. But the days turned to weeks, then months, then a year, and she never heard back from him. And so Arya Stark, little fierce wolf girl, cried everyday for the rest of the year.

Arya stared at his picture…the one she took of him while he was laughing as he ate. It was the last picture she took of him, at the lake house, and it was the best one out of hundreds. She remembered telling him something funny, and he laughed for minutes. When he was finally over it, he shook his head, looked out at the lake with a big grin on his face. Arya took the picture in secret, and loved how candid it was. The grin reached his eyes, his cheeks flushed pink from laughing too hard. She never showed it to him after that, but it was her favorite among all his other candid pictures. She zoomed the photo, noticing how handsome he was here, and suddenly, her heart did little thumps. It was an ache, this feeling, as if she's dreading something but she doesn't know exactly what it was. She promised herself that after a year of crying, she wouldn't anymore. She had already shed all the tears inside her; she didn't think she could cry anymore.

A single tear started crawling down her cheek.

And another one came.

And another one.

Seven Hells, she missed him. She buried her face onto her pillow and cried her heart out. If she hadn't been too insensitive of his feelings, if only she made more effort to make a long distance relationship work, she would still be happily goofing with him on Skype, or sending silly texts in the middle of the night whenever she felt like it. She let the best thing to ever happen to her slip between her fingers, like fine sand, when all she had to do was cup her hands to keep them from slipping. She was stupid, and now she's suffering from it.

"Hey."

Arya quickly looked up and was about to snap at the intruder, but she saw it was Jon. He walked carefully towards her, and when she didn't protest, he sat on the edge of the bed and reached out to caress the top of her head.

"I thought you were done crying?"

Arya sniffled. "I thought so too."

Jon chuckled softly, seeing the phone in Arya's hand and Gendry's face on the screen. "He misses you too, I'm sure."

"No, he doesn't."

"How can you be so sure?"

"Because," Arya said, sniffling as she sat up. "If he did, he would have called me already."

"And have you made the same effort?"

Arya shook her head.

Jon shrugged. "I rest my case."

Arya scooted closer to her brother and nudged his side with her elbow. "What do I do, Jon? You seem to know a lot."

Jon laughed. "People think I know nothing, but whatever. Point is, you two are being idiots and neither one of you is making an effort to fix things."

"Should I just…?" Arya asked, her eyes looking up at him in question.

Jon grabbed her phone and went through her pictures with Gendry. Happy, goofy, silly, serious, and sweet pictures of them together. When he came upon a picture of Gendry and Nymeria, his arms wrapped around the pet, and Arya sitting beside them and feeling neglected, he chuckled. He handed the phone back to her and got up from the bed.

"Dad once told me that if you miss someone, let them know. Don't wait for the time when that someone is no longer around and you're still sitting there, wondering why you didn't just go ahead and do it."

He paused at the doorway and cast her a sad smile. "You know what you need to do, sister. Do it."

Robert handed his son another bottle of beer. They were enjoying the silence in the house, now that Cersei and the boys were on vacation in Casterly Rock. He came home from work to an empty house, almost empty, since Gendry was physically there but mentally somewhere else.

"How much have you had to drink?" he asked, as he twisted the cap off his bottle and took a few large gulps.

Gendry was sitting on the lounge chair, looking at the pool water. The night sky cast a reflection on the water, making it seem like sparkly diamonds floating on the surface. "Just two. This one's the third," he said, holding the bottle up that his father handed to him earlier.

They sat in silence for another five minutes before Robert spoke, his usually booming voice toned down. "How's work going? Tobho treating you well?"

Gendry nodded, taking a few drinks of the bitter liquid before replying. "Tobho's teaching me a lot about the business. Although he still gets pissed when I try to fix the cars myself."

"I bought the business for you, seeing how much you love working on cars. You don't need to get your hands dirty with work."

"But I want to."

Robert chuckled. "I knew you would say that."

"Tobho's leaving for Dorne anyway," Gendry said with a shrug. "No one's going to stop me from working on cars when I want to. Besides, I'm the new auto shop owner anyway. I'll do whatever I want if it makes me happy."

"Are you happy?"

Gendry was taken aback by the question. It was a simple question…merely three words. But somehow, he found it very difficult to utter a reply.

"Son…" Robert said, turning to face him fully now. "You've been unhappy since Arya left for the Stormlands. And you've been even more unhappy when she went back to Winterfell. What have you done to make yourself turn things around and be happy again?"

"I tried, Dad. Trust me, I tried so hard. Arya's the one at fault."

"Love doesn't point fingers at anyone. It doesn't tell you who in the fucking world is at fault. If your mom and I don't compromise, I don't think we'd still be here, living in the same house. Compromise, son. If you really want it, do something about it. Fight for it. Not even distance should keep you from doing it. If you want it that bad, you will find a way. If you don't, you'll always have an excuse."

Gendry threw his head back and exhaled loudly, letting his father's words sink in. He was right, though. No matter how most of the blame is on Arya, his father was still right. And he let a year go by without doing anything about the Arya issue.

"Thanks, Dad," he said, raising his bottle. "I think I know what to do."

Robert raised his own, the glass clinking in cheers before they both drank the last of their beers. "Wise boy, you are. Like father, like son."

Their laughter broke the silence for the rest of the night.

SnowPrincess: Guess what?

No_one: Don't tell me you and Sandor are engaged now.

SnowPrincess: No! But this is better.

Branflakes: Just say it already! You've been bugging me about it since last week!

SnowPrincess: I have not!

Rock_on: Have! You've bugging the hell out of me too, Sansa.

SnowPrincess: Is it gang up on Sansa day?!

Arya let them chat for a while as she tried to finish painting her toes.

SnowPrincess: ARYA STARK

Rock_on: She's spacing out again.

Branflakes: I know whyyyy

Arya rolled her eyes and typed a reply.

No_one: I was painting my nails, shut up.

SnowPrincess: Not black again, please.

Arya took a photo of her toes and sent it to her siblings.

Rock_on: What's new?

SnowPrincess: Ugh. Anyway, back to the news.

Branflakes: Just say it already!

Arya was going to type the same thing when Sansa beat her to it.

SnowPrincess: We're flying to King's Landing for Robert's birthday!

Arya's fingers froze.

Her brothers were excitedly bombarding Sansa with questions and freaking out on emojis, but Arya just sat there staring at the screen. The messages were coming in too fast, until it felt like they were trying to squeeze their way into her brain, through her eyes.

Branflakes: ARYA STARK!

SnowPrincess: Did you even see what I just said?

Arya swallowed nervously, suddenly feeling cold sweat and tremors.

No_one: I did.

SnowPrincess: And?

No_one: I gotta go. I have to pick up dad from work since his car's in the shop for another week. Ttyl!

She left the chat before they could even react. She felt short of breath; the room was spinning around her and she tried to close her eyes to fight the nausea. Her thoughts came rushing to her all at the same time; and everything was an excuse for not going to King's Landing with her family.

Shit! Shit!

I can't do this.

Fuuuuuck huhuhu.

Whatever. I'll just go.

No, you're not.

Fine. I'll just go. Who cares anyway?

I do.

Arya groaned as she collapsed on the bed, her mind still reeling with the news and her million thoughts. She needed to deal with this, apparently. But she can't. Not right now.

After fifteen more minutes of lying there, she finally slid off the bed, grabbed her keys and got ready to pick her dad up from work. If she couldn't give herself some sound advice, maybe Ned Stark can.