Arya watched Jaime go out of the great hall and found she was unsure where to go herself. Obviously, he needed some space. She left the great hall in the opposite direction, going back up to her room rather than outside in the yard. Kalla was in her room making the bed.

"Where do you sleep, Kalla?" Arya asked her. She had barely spoken to the maid before now. It wasn't because she was a handmaid either. Arya had never cared much about class distinctions. It was because this handmaid was so soft spoken and courteous like Sansa had always been that she just assumed they had nothing in common.

"I have a bed in the servants quarters m'lady."

"So if I asked you to sleep in here tonight you don't have a sister or a lover who would miss you?"

Kalla blushed at that. "No m'lady. I don't have anyone."

"I'm sorry…. I just need someone to wake me up if I start to have nightmares. As soon as I start moving around, wake me up. Can you do that?"

"I can do that m'lady." Kalla said with a small smile. "I used to do it for my little sister afore she died."

"I shared a bed with my sister sometimes back in Winterfell. I don't know where she is anymore. No one does." Arya said sadly. "And I wasn't very nice to her when I last saw her."

"I wasn't always nice to my little sister either. I think perhaps that's just the way it is with sisters. It doesn't mean you don't miss them when they're gone." Kalla said.

"Maybe you're right...will you stay with me for now if I take a nap? Just in case I have nightmares, I wouldn't want Lord Tywin to know of it…"

"Of course m'lady."

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Jaime went for the stables and took a horse. Not the same horse that he had ridden on with Arya the night before. Any horse but that one. He chose a black mare rather than the dappled stallion from the previous night and he rode in the out of the courtyard at a full gallop.

He didn't really want to ride. He wanted a sword in his right hand and someone to kill with it. He wanted to fuck a woman without having to worry if he might hurt her. Not Cersei, he didn't want her anymore, not after the things she had done. And he wanted his father to leave and never return. Maybe it would have been better if Tywin had died when Tyrion escaped. He would have been saddened by it but things would have been much easier. Except that he would have likely never met Arya and Jaime had to admit that he did like her.

Jaime kicked the mare to speed her up. He didn't have any reason to be in a hurry. It was his anger making him go so fast and he knew it. He found it hard to care about tiring out the horse or about riding at such reckless speeds.

Eventually he found himself back at that same beach where he had brought Arya. He dismounted his horse and gave her a chance to rest. He sat down in the sand where there was still an indentation from where he and Arya had lay before. He sat there watching the waves for a long long while.

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Arya slept for the better part of the morning. She awoke and found Kalla still in her room. She thanked her and dismissed her then. Arya was bored for much of the day after that and worried. Jaime still hadn't returned and he hadn't told anyone where he was going. She supposed that Lord Tywin had probably had him followed. Someone knew where Jaime was even if she didn't. Not that she expected anything bad would happen to him while he was away. This was the Westerlands and he was the Warden of the West. He was in no real danger here. The only danger was of him not coming back on purpose. Though, Lord Tywin would never let Jaime run away even if that was what he was trying to do. It was then that she understood what he had meant about not having any choice in all this. He didn't have any more choice in it than she did. He could try to run away, just as she could, but even if either of them managed to escape the castle (and she wasn't nearly so confident of her ability to escape on her own as she had made Jaime believe) there would always be people hunting for them, seeking to bring them back and force them to do their duty.

When evening came Jaime still had not returned. Ayra had slept too long that morning and was too anxious to sleep anyway so she sent Kalla away and took out her book again. It was late in the evening when she heard footsteps approaching her room.

"Arya?" Jaime knocked on her bedchamber door.

She rushed to the door and pulled it open. She wanted to hug him but she didn't want to make a fool of herself if he was somehow angry with her for not taking the sleeping dram so she just stood there, wide eyed, not knowing what to say.

"I came to guard your door." He said. No explanation was given for where he had been all day. She realized though, that she didn't need one.

"You did?" She knew he could simply reinstate her guards. The fact that he came to do this himself meant something. It meant he cared.

He nodded. "I'll try to wake you if you have nightmares but if I fail to do that before you scream, I still won't allow my father to come in here or force a sleeping dram on you if you don't want one."

"Thank you...you'll be awake all night out here?" She asked him.

He nodded. "I've done this many times, staying awake outside the door guarding the king. It's the least I can do."

She wanted to say something. She wanted to tell him that she didn't need any stupid knight to guard her from Tywin Lannister and his stupid sleeping draught. She wanted to tell him he could just come in and sleep next to her. She wanted to take a step closer and kiss him. Instead she couldn't move. She was frozen from all the emotions flooding inside her and though some part of her hated that, another part of her loved it.

Then Jaime stepped a little closer and gave her a single kiss that was all too brief. "Good night Arya." He said and he stepped away, tugging the door shut behind him.