Chapter 13: Arya

"Do you think that we'll need more crackers than this?" Ned dumped three boxes of crackers into the shopping cart.

Arya consulted the list. "Dacey says we should have five boxes."

Ned rolled his eyes. "Is the Lannisport Fencing Team so fucking huge that they eat like motherfuckers?"

Arya snorted. She liked Ned Dayne better when he swore. It was better than him trying to be chivalrous. She had told him so last weekend, when they had been on a long bus ride out to Sunspear. She had finally snapped and told him that she found him fucking annoying sometimes and he had laughed and said that he knew, and that if she weren't such a bitch all the time he would probably have asked her out already. She had stared at him blankly and he had shrugged. "I figured that you weren't interested though," he had said.

"Nope."

"Good. Now I can stop wasting our fucking time." His tone had been surprisingly cheerful. It was the first time that she had heard him swear and she had told him so. "That," he had said leaning back against the window of the bus, "is because my Aunt told me that girls like it better when men are polite. I suppose that she would be wrong in your case."

"Your aunt sounds like a ninny."

Ned had proceeded to make her feel properly ashamed of herself for insulting someone she didn't know—a point she had conceded—and by the end of the bus ride, Ned had been cussing like a motherfucker and she found herself enjoying his company for the first time since Highgarden.

"Go and get more crackers. I'm going to look for salsa," she told him. He returned whence he came and Arya turned the shopping cart into another aisle and consulted Dacey's shopping list again.

Ned had dragged her into this, and she had to admit she was enjoying herself. Usually, she went shopping with Sansa, who took control of the process and spent however long they were in the grocery store sending Arya back and forth, fetching various "health food" items. She finally understood why Sansa liked it so much. It was fun to send peons out to do her bidding.

She supposed that that was why Dacey had sent Ned to the grocery store. He was the social chair of the Fencing Team, which usually meant that he was responsible for buying enough alcohol to get everyone completely blitzed at a party. But when they hosted teams from other schools, in this case Lannisport, Dacey Mormont—the assistant coach for épée—sent him out for food as well as libations. Ned had asked Arya's help several times, and she had usually begged off.

Ned found her again, dumping the rest of the crackers into the cart, as well as several bags of cheese puffs that looked as though they would probably coat their throats with synthetic orange cheese material for the next three weeks.

"My TA's here," he grinned, "It's always funny to see TA's out of class, don't you think?"

Arya shrugged. "It's never happened to me before." She couldn't really see the draw. She supposed it had to do with the fact that none of her TAs interested her, or perhaps the fact that she spent a good deal of her time with Jon and his graduate student friends.

"He's buying dog food. Must have a dog."

"That's nice."

"I know you don't care, but Myranda and I have a bet going to see if he's gay or not. I think he is, she thinks he's not."

"Why would you care if he's gay. You're not gay."

"I don't really. It's mostly just to peeve Myranda. But now I'm invested in it. So I keep an eye out for him to see."

"So you stalk him."

"Stalk is a strong word—one that implies binoculars and obsession." He did not notice when Arya found herself suddenly very interested in reorganizing the cart. "We just hypothesize while we wait for him to get to section. He usually looks remarkably disheveled."

"Why don't you go and grab some cheap wine. That's over by the dog food and you can spy on him some more."

"Cheers." Ned really was very pretty when he smiled, his blonde hair falling into his eyes. Arya found herself thinking that he was the kind of boy that Sansa would go mad for—before remembering that that was because he had enough similarities to Joffrey.

She rounded the corner and saw Gendry putting several cans of soup into his shopping cart. She pulled back into the other aisle and hurried back along it. At the far end of the aisle, she saw Gendry strolling past, glancing down. She bent behind her cart to tie her shoe.

She had no idea why she was being such an idiot. It was just Gendry. She wasn't the kind of girl who went crazy because she had thought for one wild moment that a boy was going to kiss her. But when she had straightened, he was gone and Ned was strolling down the aisle towards her, carrying several bottles of wine.

"Any luck?" she asked.

"He'd moved on by the time I got to that aisle again. You should probably come with me for the beer," he suggested. She nodded.

Gendry was standing in front of the shelf, head cocked, comparing beers.

"Hello," said Ned tentatively. Gendry glanced around and his eyebrows shot up.

"Hi Ned. What are you up to?" His eyes flickered between Ned and Arya.

"Buying beer for Fencing. We're hosting this weekend."

"Ah. Well…I'd normally say moderation is good for life, but my mum owns a bar, so I guess that might be hypocritical of me…" He chanced a small smile.

"Little bit, yeah." Ned began pulling a thirty-pack off the bottom shelf and lugging it onto the cart.

"I thought you don't drink," accused Arya.

Gendry shrugged. "I'm just getting stuff for the house. We're out of food for Ghost and Aurane and Daemon and Jon annihilated our alcohol stores last night. Since I'm here, I'm replacing the beer."

"Last night was a Wednesday." Arya tried and failed to keep the judgement out of her voice.

"Jon had it off work and decided he needed to relax some. Apparently relaxing means finishing off two handles of whiskey and all our beer."

"Between the three of them? Seven hells."

"I think they had help. I was working and heard other voices."

"D'you two know each other?" asked Ned, perplexedly looking between them.

"Gendry's my brother's housemate," she explained. Ned nodded slowly.

"Anyway," Gendry pulled a twelve-pack into his cart, "I'll see you both later."

"Bye," Ned said lamely. When Gendry was out of sight, he rounded on Arya. "Is he gay then?"

"Gendry? He's your TA?"

"Yeah. For Chivalry and the Hook-Up Culture. Is he?"

"I don't think so?" Arya certainly hoped not.

Ned nodded slowly, then sighed. "I guess I owe Myranda a beer, then. Why doesn't he drink?"

"He mentioned almost getting run over twice in one night when blacked out in undergrad. Ended up in the hospital. Decided it was probably best to stop after that."

"Hot damn."

Arya chuckled and consulted the list again. "I think that's everything, shall we check out?"

"Let's go."

Gendry was paying when they reached the line. Ned began loading their cart at another cashier, and Arya watched Gendry. When he glanced up at her, he looked surly.

She smiled at him.

He smiled back, took a deep breath, and turned away.

"Are you going back to Winterfell for break?" asked Ned once he had paid.

"My mum bought round-trip tickets for me and Sansa a while ago. Why?"

"I was going to ask if you wanted to come to Starfall for a bit."

"Ned, I thought you weren't trying to date me."

"I'm not! Seriously." He turned to look at her, and there was something brightly genuine in his eyes. "I just thought you and Sansa might like Starfall. She'd be welcome to come too if she likes. It's rugged and has a beautiful view of the sea."

"I want to get back to the cold."

"It's freezing here, Arya."

"No. There was one freakishly early snowstorm and the snow from that just hasn't really melted yet. It's not really cold here. I'm only wearing a fleece right now."

"Wierdo."

"Why would you want us there? Don't you want to spend time with your family? Don't you have siblings?" she asked. She lived easily without Rickon and Bran, but when she remembered them it hurt like hell not to have them there.

"Nope. Not really. My parents died a while back, and it's just me and my aunt. She's only a few years older than me and…yeah." His voice sounded heavy. Arya wanted to ask him if he was ok, but couldn't put the words in her mouth.

He took a deep breath. He seemed to be about to tell her without her prompting him anyway.

It came in a rush, like he had had to tell it too many times. "My aunt Allyria is only a few years older than me. She's excellent, and was my best friend growing up. I guess she'd be about the same difference in age as you and your brother Jon. She met this guy from Blackhaven when she was getting her degree, and they got engaged. He died in a car accident up by the Green Fork a year ago, and she just hasn't been the same ever since. It's…hard. It's hard that she's not the same." He was blinking more than necessary and his voice was constricted.

Arya suddenly hoped that he wouldn't cry. She didn't know how to deal with Sansa when she cried, how in seven hells was she supposed to know what to do with Ned.

"Anyway. I like to bring people back home. It helps pull Allyria out of her depression some.

"She's lucky to have you to take care of her." Arya's voice sounded quiet, even to her own ears.

"Except I'm not home to do it, and I don't honestly think I help that much," mumbled Ned.

"You're good at taking care of people."

Somewhere in the back of her mind, she remembered arguing with Sansa when she was about ten until her voice hurt, she felt Sansa pulling at her hair when they fought, she saw Sansa's blank eyes but perfect smile, she heard Sansa's sobbing, and suddenly she felt like crying too. She looked away from Ned, biting her lip until the sensation had passed.

"Well, now that I have thoroughly put a damper on this conversation, shall we drive this over to Dacey?" There was a forced cheeriness to Ned's voice.

"I should go," mumbled Arya, "I told Sansa I'd help her do laundry tonight and this took longer than I thought."

"Oh. Ok."

"Bye!" Without looking at him, Arya raised her hand in farewell and walked away through the darkened parking lot.