"Arya, wait up!" She heard Gendry yell from somewhere behind her. She was nearly at the edge of the woods where they were going to go for their run, but she slowed so he could catch up.

Somehow, he knew she didn't want to talk about what just happened. He just followed her lead and started jogging into the woods alongside her.

Having run through these woods all her life Arya led Gendry to a place she liked to go sometimes when the weather was nice. She was still seething from the little spat with her mother but running made her feel better. It let out her anger, it seeped out of her with every step. She was glad for Gendry's silent company, but she hated that he saw her fight with her mum. She didn't want him to think of her as a spoilt brat or something.

20 minutes later they reached the edge of a small lake that the family came to swim in during the summer months. Arya paused at the edge of the water, catching her breath, Gendry did the same.

"Let's go for a swim" Arya said.

"What. We can't." Gendry replied immediately.

"Why not?"

"Well, for starters, we don't have swimwear with us."

"We'll just swim in underwear, it's basically like swimsuits anyways."

Gendry gave her a look that said you can't be serious "Arya, it's not appropriate, I'm your bodyguard."

"Come on Gendry, please. It will be fun. It'll get my mind of things…" she purposefully left it vague, but it was clear that she meant her mother and the party.

Gendry looked at her for a minute, she gave him the sweetest, most innocent look she could. He sighed, resigned "Fine."

"Yes!" she said triumphantly. She started taking off her shirt to reveal a sports bra underneath.

Gendry immediately went red as a tomato and turned around and looked skyward as though god could save him from her nakedness.

"Come on Gendry, I thought we established that bra's and underwear are basically swimwear. That means you don't have to look so scandalized," she chastised. But she was enjoying his reaction more than she would let on. Her anger already gone from this one little act.

"I know, but I'm trying to be gentleman here." He said "You're purposefully making this hard."

"Are you?" she teased, as she took off her shorts.

"Am I what?" he replied still turned around.

"Hard?" she said jokingly.

He whipped around so fast, his cheeks flaming, "ARYA!"

She couldn't help but burst out laughing, "hey, you walked right into that one. Besides, I'm only joking."

Gendry watched in shock as she jumped into the lake.

"Come on, the water's great!" She said.

Arya watched from the water as he took off his shirt to reveal his muscled body. Then as he took off his shorts to reveal his black boxers. He jumped into the water and swam towards Arya. He stopped and floated in front of her, "That was extremely inappropriate" he said.

She grinned, "it's called a joke, ever heard of them?"

He smiled, shaking his head, "Yes Arya, I've heard of jokes."

"Just admit it, it was funny!"

He paused in mock consideration, then laughed "Yes it was."

She splashed him with water, "that's what you get for being such a prude!"

He splashed her back, "that's for being inappropriate" he said laughing.

In a second it turned into a full out water war.

After half an hour of lounging in the lake they got out and sat on the edge drying their wet clothes, legs still in the water.

"Are you feeling better?" he asked.

"Yeah, sorry you had to see that back in the kitchen. I just never feel like I fit in when I go to those parties so I try to avoid them. Sometimes, I get out of going. Other times, I get guilted into going. I just hate the dressing up, the fake people, the environment in general. It's just not my scene." She said, it felt good to tell him, she didn't often tell people things like this.

"I get not fitting in places, it took me long time to figure out a place for myself. Some days, I still don't think I've found it." He said, thoughtfully.

She pondered this, she thought he was talking about his days in the military "did you like… being in the military?"

"At first, it was my only option after high school. But I ended up liking it, the comradery, the order, even the training. It was hard, but most days I felt like I had a purpose, so I stayed, but this last year I had some trouble with my Commanding Officer, so I decided to leave before it turned into a bigger problem. A friend told me about the post here, and here I am."

"And you're enjoying working here?" she wondered if she had been giving him a harder time than he deserved. She realized, she wanted him to like working here, to like working with her.

He gave her a smile "So far it's been good. There's just this problem with this one girl who lives here, her name is Arya, and she can be a real pain in my ass."

"Hey!" she said in mock indignation, shoving his shoulder playfully "I am not!"

They both dissolved into laughter.