'A close-knit community just a step away from the ocean, with direct transport links right on your doorstep!' – University of Oldtown Prospectus

Arya wrapped her scarf around her neck a third time and tried not to shiver. The bus was late again, and the bus shelter was already full of people. She wrinkled her nose at the rain, almost as though glaring at it would send it away. Another gush of wind from off the sea brought a sheet of rain her way, battering her small umbrella.
It was a Saturday morning and she was already ten minutes late to meet Jon. He'd suggested somewhere in town because, she thought, he thought she might want to explore a little bit of the city. She now saw that it was because he didn't want to have to come all the way out here to this wretched campus.
She looked up at the library building behind her, beige turned brown in the weather, towering and intimidating. It was the only thing stopping the wind reaching the bus stop, but Arya couldn't bring herself to like it. That was probably the best part of the cliff campus; not being blown over when you're being rained on waiting for the bus. And that Arya had heard tell of a doorway onto the roof where you could see out to sea. She liked the sea here, it was different to the North. That was part of the reason she had come to university so far away. To see what the rest of the world was like outside of Winterfell.

Apparently it was wet and windy.

Arya was distracted looking back at the university buildings so she didn't see the bus rolling around the corner, but she certainly felt the splash of the puddle. She gasped and squealed, but there was nothing to be done. She was even wetter now, and officially last in the queue. She sighed and shot another glare up at the university buildings.

'Go to university, you'll love it! I did!' – Robb Stark

"Yeah, I hated living there too. It's pretty awful. I'm only sort of liking it now that I'm back."

Jon shrugged, drinking deeply from his large mug of coffee.

Arya frowned again, for what felt like the hundredth time that day. She loved her brother, and was incredible grateful he had chosen to do his PhD here at Oldtown, but she definitely felt he deserved a big kick on the shin.

"But you said you loved uni. You and Robb, you both said it was incredible and I would have the 'time of my life'" she quoted, shuffling a bit closer to the fire. When she had arrived – forty minutes late – Jon had been settled on the sofa nearest the hearth. Arya had thrown her wet coat over a chair and sunk down in the cushions. She curled her feet up under her and leant her dripping head against Jon's shoulder, accidentally-on-purpose flicking her hair in his face.

He grinned and said, "Yeah, the overall experience is great, but your campus is shit."

She glared at him, "Stop smiling. You look far too smug. Just because you're at the real university."

"Arya, we go to the same university," he said, shaking his head at her.

"Yeah but you get to spend all your time in the Citadel and I'm on an industrial estate! Couldn't they have found space closer to town?"

"Probably, but why would you want to be here in the middle of the most beautiful city in Westeros, when you could be perched on a cliff a few miles away?"

Arya kicked him with still-wet feet but Jon just laughed.

'Living in halls was the best thing, you meet so many lovely people!' – Sansa Stark

For the fourth night that week Arya's neighbour was playing music.

She was not against music, on the whole, and had never considered herself intolerant to loud noises, but the boy next door insisted on only listening to EDM with boomingly terrible bass lines.

She took a deep breath and put her headphones back in. She could be patient. She was sure she wasn't always that quiet, after all.

"Will you shut the fuck up?"

Arya jumped and nearly fell off her chair. Clearly not everyone shared her views on the loud noise.

The music quietened, and a door opened.

"Whatcha want?" her neighbour sounded surly, but no angrier than he had been when Arya had dealt with him.

"I want to do some fucking work, and I can't because you've cranked your shitty music up so fucking loud."

"Sorry."

The door closed, but Arya didn't hear any footsteps. She crept to her peephole and looked out.

There was a guy standing there who she thought might be familiar, although in this building it was hard to know everyone. He had dark hair and light eyes and was standing there with his hand on the wall as though he was considering punching through it.

Arya opened her door. She wasn't sure why, but before she could think about it she was speaking.

"I know that seems like a rude response, but I honestly think that's as polite as he gets."

The guy turned his glare onto her.

"Does he do this often?"

Arya took a second to answer, and using the time to look a bit closer, "Yeah, most nights." He was taller than she thought, and somehow didn't look cold in just a t-shirt and jeans. He was barefoot too, for some reason. "Haven't you heard him?"

"No, I've only just moved into the room down the hall." He nodded his head at number thirty-six, the room at the exact opposite end of the corridor to Arya's.

"Ah, well then welcome to the best place in the world, I'm sure you found your luxury welcome pack on your bed?" Arya nodded solemnly at him, reaching out a hand to shake.

He took it with a snort, "You mean the warning leaflet about the potential dangers of asbestos? Oh yeah, real bedtime reading material that."

Arya laughed. "Yeah, but I'd rather they warn us, you know? What's your name by the way?"

"Gendry." He answered, finally smiling.

"Mine's Arya."

His smile widened, "Nice to meet you Arya."

It'll be intellectually stimulating, a real challenge – Ned Stark

"I bet you can't."

"I bet I fucking can. Give me the bag."

"There's no way." He held the bag up above her head. Arya pretended to be annoyed that he was making her reach, but she was enjoying the way his t-shirt lifted up when he stretched a little too much. She knew he was generally toned, but seeing it was a different matter.

"Just watch me." She bit out, folding her arms.

"Don't bet against Arya, Gendry, she's not been beaten yet." Hot-pie looked nervous, and Arya couldn't help but delight in that. Not three weeks in and she had already built up a decent level of fear and respect in her new friend.

"Yeah, but that's because she's been playing against the likes of you." Gendry scoffed in the general direction of Hot-pie and Lommy, but maintained eye-contact with Arya.

He blinked, and she cracked a grin.

"Ha! Now give me the bag because you're going down."

Gendry scoffed again, but put the bag down on the table between them and sat down. They had somehow nabbed the best space in the common room, soft chairs with a decent table. Arya liked these seats because they were facing each other, so it was easy to stare someone down in a competition. Well, usually anyway. She could barely stop herself bubbling over with laughter as she stared at Gendry. She blinked this time and he winked at her triumphantly.

"Okay," Hot-pie stood and held up his phone ready on the stopwatch app, "Lom, you alright to adjudicate?"

"Born ready." Lommy grinned toothily, and Arya could see Gendry trying not to roll his eyes. She smothered a laugh as Hot-pie looked between her and Gendry.

"Contestants ready?"

They both nodded seriously, the intense eye-contact returning. Arya bit her lip to stop herself from laughing. She could see Gendry's lips twitching.

"Threetwoonego!"

The marshmallows were dusty and Arya's hands were quick, "Chubby Bunny!", but somehow Gendry was there too.

"Chubby Bunny!" Gendry cried a second later, a second too slow, but three seconds faster than the others had been.

Hot-pie laughed, and Arya had to focus to keep all of her attention on the bag of marshmallows. She knew that if she caught Gendry's eye now she would burst out laughing and all would be lost.

She took a breath through her nose and shoved another sweet in her cheek, squishing it down. And then another on the other side, and then another and another.

Robb always used to tease her that whenever she played a sport she was unbeatable so long as she got into a rhythm, and that once she was in the zone it was like trying to stop a moving train. He would make train noises at her whenever they played tennis against each other. She hadn't known this particular talent applied to food-based sports until Hot-Pie had introduced them to his favourite childhood game.

She scrabbled for the bag "Chu-he hu-ging unny." She choked the words out and finally looked up at Gendry. He was looking at her with drool down his chin, a pile of half-chewed marshmallows on the table in front of him, and a look of regret on his face.

Arya smiled slowly, letting the soft sugar ooze out of her mouth until the marshmallows plopped down to join Gendry's on the table.

He gagged, and then burst into laughter, his face lighting up, his eyes wrinkling, and his head thrown back. Arya joined him, revelling in the noise.

This was totally worth missing a seminar for.

You'll have your own space, your privacy, you won't have to keep us up to date with every little detail, don't worry! – Catelyn Stark

"So you're seeing this guy then?"

"What? No! Sort of." Arya wasn't sure why she was hesitant to tell Jon. It had only been a few weeks since she had asked Gendry out, and they had barely been on three dates since then, but it did feel like a tangible thing now. It wasn't exactly time for him to meet the family, but surely it was time to tell Jon.

"Is 'sort of' code for 'yes, absolutely'?" Jon smirked, pulling one of Arya's pillows out from under her head and stuffing it between him and her wall.

She groaned and rolled over, burying her face in her remaining pillow.

She hadn't been expecting Jon today. Even though she had been complaining for weeks that she was the one making all the effort to meet up, and that he needed to come and see her once in a while, she still hadn't expected him to actually do it until forced. But at half past four on a miserable Thursday afternoon he had turned up at her door with pizza and popcorn. In her surprise she had blurted out something about cancelling her date later on and had somehow come to a point of explaining to Jon that, yes she had been serious, and no of course she hadn't told anyone back home about it.

"So how long have you been shagging your flatmate?" he asked the question casually, but Arya knew that there were an unfathomably number of layers beneath it. She groaned and forced herself to sit up so she could glower at her brother.

"We're not shagging, we're dating." She clarified. She put out a hand to stop Jon from saying whatever stupid thing he had been about to and continued, "He's lovely, I'm quite happy, it's new and a bit awkward, but I'm sure you'll like him, now could you please shut up about it?" She spoke as though she were reading a shopping list aloud, but the pleading in her eyes was far less casual.

He reached for the bag of popcorn from the foot of the bed, ignoring her look entirely. "Nope. My baby sister has a boyfriend, I'm not letting go of this yet. What does he study?" he tilted his head like Ghost did when he wanted a treat.

Arya sighed, and pursed her lips, "Anthropology."

Jan sat up excitedly, as she knew he would, "Does he?! Do you know what modules he's taking? I've got a few inter-departmental seminars this semester, he might be in one."

Arya groaned, "I don't know," she really hoped not, "he's in second year though."

"An older guy, eh?" Jon winked at her and she contemplated throwing herself back down on her pillow, "How come he didn't want to live out?"

She huffed an answer at him, "He transferred from Kings Landing, so he's new to Oldtown this year."

"Yeah, but still," Jon sniffed, looking around at Arya's room, "once you've done the halls experience, why would you choose to go back?"

"He just has, okay?" she muttered, before fixing him with a firm look, "Can you stop please?"

Jon's smirk slipped into a gentle smile, "Okay. I'll stop asking questions about him." Arya relaxed, letting out a gust of breath.

"Thanks." She said, pushing herself up into a better sitting position and scrabbling across the bed to sit with her head on Jon's shoulder.

When she was settled with her arms wrapped around his arm, her face pressed to his shoulder, he said in a voice full of cheek, "Guess I'll just ask him when I meet him."

"Jon!"

Jon was laughing again as Arya felt her cheeks go red.

"Of course I'll have to check with Robb and Dad if there any particular things I need to say, you know, as the family representative." He nodded mock-pensively.

"Don't you dare!" Her stomach dropped and not even the grin on Jon's face was enough to stop her from hitting him.

He took the blows to the stomach with an "Oof!" and then carried on regardless, "You know I might just call them now, just to be absolutely certain."

Arya reached forwards to grab him just as he stood up off the bed quickly putting some distance between them. His phone was dialling before Arya could get her next threat in.

"I'm going to kill you!"

"Ah, yes, Robb?" He barely got a sentence out before Arya had jumped on him, "You got a free moment? Great. I – argh – sorry, just – Arya! Terribly sorry, I just need to get Arya's – oof, fuck, ow! - tiny hands – ah, shit! - off my phone!"

Clinging to his back, with her hands trapped in one of his, she yelled into the phone still at his ear, "Don't listen to him, he's being a twat!"

She could hear laughter on the other end, and Robb mutter something that made Jon choke out a laugh.
"Insults won't make this any easier, Arya – stop kicking me and- argh!"

She had bitten his hand, he had dropped her and she kicked the back of his knees hard enough that he dropped to the ground.

It was at this point, with Arya's arms wrapped around Jon's neck, trying to step on his feet to stop him getting up, that there was a knock on the door.

They paused and Jon took the opportunity to push Arya off him.

"Come in!" he called jauntily before she could re-launch an attack.

The door opened and Gendry's head popped round the corner.

"Hey, what's going on? Are you okay?

"I'm fine, thanks for asking," Jon grinned, "but I think Arya's about to have an embolism." He turned to look at his sister, and quickly ducked as Arya threw a pillow at him.

Gendry looked up at Arya, waiting for a response.

"Gendry, this is my brother Jon. He is a penis of a human being. Do not make friends with him, he's horrible."

"Gendry? You're Gendry? Perfect. It's good to meet you, I have heard nothing about you." Jon held out his hand and Gendry – to Arya's horror – took it.

He nodded at Jon before looking back at Arya.

"Are you okay? You look kind of-" he paused and his eyes flicked to Jon, "upset."

"I'm fine, it's just – oh for fuck's sake!" Arya broke off from her dismissing lie at the sound of her phone ringing.

As she pulled it out of her pocket she saw Jon crack a grin at the sight of Robb's picture on the screen.

"Hello, how may I help you?"

"Arya, are you okay? It sounded like you and Jon were scrapping." Robb feigned care well, usually, but Arya could easily detect the amusement in his voice and it made her stomach churn.

"Yes old man, we were scrapping. Jon is a tit and deserves to be told so. Nothing more, no reason for you to call, actually nothing interesting has happened at all here, please never ring this number again."

"Oh come on Arya, we're all interested now!"

"All?"

"Yeah, all. Me, and Bran, and Rickon, and mum and dad. All. We're about to have dinner. Now fess up, what's going on?"

Arya groaned, and kicked the pillow she had thrown on the floor up towards Jon, who was now snuggling himself down on her bed. He caught it and settled it behind his head, leaning back against the headboard, his phone still in his hand, kicking his shoes to the floor. Gendry, who had moved out of the way of the sibling violence, was now sitting tentatively on the chair at Arya's desk.

"There is nothing that I wish to say to you, Jon has been unreasonable and attempted to break my confidence."

"It's okay you don't need to tell us," Arya sighed and shot a smug look at Jon, but Robb carried on talking, "Jon's just text me. So how did you meet this Gendry?"

"Oh for fuck's sake, Jon!"

"Language!"

"Arya!"

Both of her elder brothers berated her at the same time, in the same tone of voice, drawing the exact same reaction from their little sister. She groaned and hung up, throwing herself down on the bed.

Jon nudged her with his toe, but she batted him away. She heard Gendry step away from the door and further into the room. There was a minute of what Arya might have thought of as awkward silence were she not hiding from the world in her duvet.

"I'll – er – I'll go and make some more popcorn." She heard Jon say. She felt him get up off the bed, and then the door closed and it was quiet again.

Arya tentatively lifted her head up off the bed. Gendry was sitting in her chair watching her.

"Why don't you want to tell your family about me?"

She sat up.

In all the dramatics of fighting with Jon and swearing at Robb, she had all-but forgotten that Gendry had been there, seeing her wail at the idea of telling her family she had a boyfriend. She looked at him now, taking in the nervous tension in his shoulders, the line between his eyes.

She sighed, "I'm really sorry."

He didn't say anything and he didn't move an inch, but his eyes looked sad, she thought.

"Not-" she began sternly, "-because you are my boyfriend." She set her chin and sat up straight before carrying on, "I am definitely not sorry about that. But I am sorry that I made it look like I was. I just-" she paused and sighed again. "I just wanted to tell them in my own way. You know, introduce the concept of you with a funny story, and then build that up with random mentions of how nice you are, and how you could totally take all four of my brothers in a fight so they shouldn't even try." She flicked her eyebrows up at him and got a slight twitch of his lips in return.

She reached forwards and took his hand in hers. "I'm just not used to having to tell my family about these big personal things, and I was hoping I could get used to you and what this is before they ask me what it's like."

"And what is it like?"

"Confusing." She frowned at him. "Frustrating. A bit pathetic at times."

He frowned back, "How is it pathetic?"

She sighed loudly, "Well, take this morning for example. I was on the bus and thought I saw you and when I realised it wasn't you I almost cried." When he raised his eyebrows in disbelief she rolled her eyes, "Okay, maybe not actual tears, but the disappointment of having to wait until I got home to see you was a bit more than it should have been. Isn't that pathetic?"

Gendry smiled, finally, and nodded, "Yeah, it's not great. Sort of like sitting in your room in silence so you can hear the moment when the door down the end of the corridor finally opens in the morning."

Arya smiled up at him. "Isn't it brilliant?"

His response was firm and tasted like popcorn. Arya leaned into him, threading her hands through his hair and savouring the way his hands felt on her waist.

"Yes," he mumbled against her lips, "brilliant."