AN: I'm finally updating! Thanks to someone messaging me on A03 and asking if they could translate the fic for me, so if anyone is interested in reading or sharing it in Russian, here's link to the translated version on ficbook: /readfic/3298643

That's all for now, enjoy!

We Were Never Built To Last

Mostly it was just walking, boring old walking. And Arya was quickly growing tired of it. She still wouldn't speak to Gendry, and that kept her silent to the Brotherhood as well. Whenever they walked, she stayed either forwards or behind the group. When they sat to eat, she wandered the forest. When they practicing with their sword and arrows, she climbed the trees and observed them, learning their style and saving what she noticed away in her mind.

She knew they were watching her, and that they never let her go to far. After the first day, she learned how far she could go before the all grew on edge. After four days she knew each man's way of following her into the forest: Anguy would step in her footprints. Tom would play his woodharp, and listen for her steps, Beric would call out to her, hoping to entice her in, and Gendry would stomp around in his usual, ungraceful way. She learned immediately that almost none of them were hunters, not that it surprised her, these men were warriors, soldiers, fighters, without any allegiance. They were rogues, and rebels. And she would, and could, take them down if she had to.

Gendry had allowed Beric to take Needle, but after successfully stealing it back several times they all decided it was best that she just keep hold of it.

"Are we talking yet?" Gendry asked her one day.

Arya thought about it, she wasn't even sure she could form words anymore she'd been silent for so long. She shrugged by way of response and pulled ahead of him.

"Are you mad still? Are you mute?" He asked putting his hands on her shoulder and shaking her. "Look I can't stand this anymore, the silence, it's maddening, please just talk to me."

She stopped. "What do you want me to say?" She asked. "What do you have to say to me?"

The silence loomed between them for minutes before she decided to carry on.

Gendry shook his head, they had grown too silent and now too far apart.

Anguy was teaching her to shoot arrows one day, and though she kept to her quiet self, she even managed to crack a smile at some of his stupid jokes.

"Keep your elbow up." He advised, "Don't aim, just shoot." Arya rolled her eyes at the advice as he stood close and spoke his words into her ear. Gendry was watching, and she could tell he was probably bubbling over with anger, so she held the arrow just a little longer, before letting it fly into the trunk of a nearby tree.

"Good." Anguy said, appraising her work. "Now faster, imagine your opponent is comin' at ya, and they aren't swinging some tiny little sword either."

Arya rolled her eyes and as Anguy turned away she shot the arrow just over his head, letting it hit the tree in front of him. "Better?" She asked. He just laughed in response.

She continued practicing, with him watching nearby, and found herself reciting a few names as she went, "Joffrey, Cersei, Illyn Payne, the Hound..." She went on and on, shooting arrows and hunting them back down, until her arms hurt and night fell, and then she continued to say those names in her sleep.

"Where are we?" Gendry asked, as they travelled along one day.

"We are..." Lem began. "Definitely somewhere." Anguy finished for him.

"We're lost." Arya said, her voice startling Gendry. She was walking right behind him, and had been for who knows how long, and he hadn't even noticed. She was getting too good at that. "We're near Harrenhall." She proclaimed.

"How could you possibly know that?" Gendry heard Tom ask her.

"Because I was on the King's Road not even a full year ago, and it took us at least thing long travelling to get from Harrenhall to the the Capitol." She looked at Gendry, "Just common sense really." It was a mumble, and not really even one directed at him, still he nodded along in agreement. He himself had never been much further than this on the Kings Road, and though he'd travelled it several times he wasn't sure he could figure out his location at any give point on it. It was all just green and trees and green and trees.

"We'll set up camp for the night," Beric decided. "Get our bearings."

They set up camp, and started a fire. And eventually they all fell asleep.

Arya was awake, and sitting on a branch in a tree, they might expect to find their 'bearings' in their dreams but Arya knew better. She looked over the tops of the trees, and could see the sun starting to rise.

Down below she heard voices.

"Get these fuckers up these are the ones we've been looking for."

"You sure?"

"Of course I'm fucking sure, tie em up and we'll haul 'em in."

She waited until the man was just below, climbing down the tree without a sound, then she pounced, drawing her tiny sword as she landed on the man's back. She stuck it into the meaty muscle of his shoulder, seeing spurt of blood come out.

The man screamed as he crashed to the ground, and it woke up everyone in the camp. The fire was out and the the smoke combined with the dark of night to make sight impossible. The man was not dead, and his screams brought the brotherhood back to life. One by one she heard swords unsheathe as they jumped to attention, shouting of the invaders.

The fight broke out, and somewhere i noted distance, Arya heard a wolf howl. it spurred her onwards. She ventured into the camp and found Gendry lying on the ground, arms tied behind his back, and same with Thoros and Anguy, his bow lying next to him, snapped in half.

Next thing she knew, through the din of the smoke, she saw a sword swing, the force of it's swing making needle fly out of her hand before she could defend herself, then the handle of the sword crashed down on her head and the world went black.

A hood was pulled off her head, and she sat with the brotherhood in a pen, a few henchmen a stood in view on the other side of a fence. She looked to her left and found Gendry sitting in the same position, knees tucked up to his chest, arms tied tightly behind his back. Beric Dondarrion was being hauled to his feet by a tall man and taken to a pen with a fire nearby. The man holding him grimaced at the blood running from his arms, the product of various stabs from well sharpened swords. He looked at Arya, her face stony and unemotional, and he chuckled, "Welcome to Harrenhall," He said, blowing her a kiss through his cracked lips, displaying the rotting teeth within.

She looked at Gendry, who face conveyed even less than hers. "It'll be fine." he whispered, "We'll be fine." She rolled her eyes and scoffed in disgust, stupid prince.

End Part Two: Volume 1