Summary:
Arya calls Gendry for a ride and while she waits she has some realizations.
Author's Note:
Although Jon and Sansa do not appear in this part, it is a continuation of the story started in Part 1. Part 3 will return to Jon and Sansa with the addition of Robb.
In the past, if prodded, Arya Stark would have sworn left and right that she had never been jealous of her older sister. On the contrary, she would have told whoever was asking that Sansa was shallow, only concerned with superficial stuff like her appearance and social standing - things Arya didn't care about one bit.
But Sansa was also smart, beautiful, and practically everyone liked her. Arya, on the other hand, had trouble with numbers, was nicknamed "horse face," and generally made enemies rather than friends of most of those around her. It was only recently that Arya had been able to accept herself as she was, and finally admit that growing up she'd always kind of been envious of Sansa. In that simple-minded way that younger siblings tended to be, Arya had only been able to see her sister for her individual qualities and not for her person as a whole.
It never seemed like Sansa had to try at anything. Life just came easy to her and for a long time, Arya had begrudged her for it, thinking that Sansa got everything she wanted. But tonight made her realize she had been completely wrong. Sansa didn't have the one thing she truly wanted – a happily ever after.
When they were children, Sansa liked to fantasize about her future and would say that her one dream in life was to find a good man and fall in love. And yet, while Sansa had succeeded in practically every other aspect of her life, she had still not found her good man.
Mentally, Arya went through a list of Sansa's past boyfriends.
While for the majority of their relationship, Harry had seemed alright, in the end he had shown his true character by cheating on her and getting the other girl pregnant. Petyr had been a short-lived horror of a thing given that he was their father's age, and it only lasted a few weeks until Robb found out and promptly put an end to it. Then after Petyr there was Sandor, who had been the strangest of the lot just because he and Sansa could not have been more different; Arya was still surprised it had lasted as many months as it had, but she was not surprised when it ended with Sandor going to jail after getting into yet another bar fight.
Then came her most recent boyfriend – Joffrey. To say that Sansa's dating history was not the best before Joffrey was an understatement. So it was really saying something that far and away, Joffrey was the worst of Sansa's significant others.
In fact, Arya would have no qualms about declaring Joffrey to be the most vile person she had ever met.
Just after Arya graduated high school about a year ago, she'd moved into the second bedroom in Sansa's apartment. Aside from being worried about getting along with her sister, Arya's primary concern about moving in was that she'd have to be around Sansa's boyfriends 24/7. She had been rather uncomfortable at the thought of them being in the apartment all of the time because, well, they were all total creeps.
However, it turned out that her concern was for naught. Arya didn't know how she'd managed to luck out, but not once in the time that she'd lived there had any of Sansa's significant others been there when Arya was home.
The sound of a car door shutting snapped Arya from her thoughts. She hadn't even noticed the black car pulling up by the sidewalk.
Gendry appeared moments later, walking around the front of his car and taking a seat beside Arya on the bench that she had been occupying for the past half hour. "You look like you're doing some serious thinking there."
"Sansa's boyfriends are never around when I'm at the apartment!" The words tumbled out before she could stop them and Gendry raised his eyebrows at her random outburst. "It's just..." she said slowly, trying to think of how to say what she meant without having to go through a full explanation.
Gendry didn't seem to think her train of thought was all that strange, though. One of the many reasons Arya liked having him around – she rarely had to explain herself to him because he always seemed to understand where she was coming from. "I overheard Sansa telling Robb once that she never brought them to the apartment because she knew you didn't like them." The way Gendry's mouth was pressed into a thin line belied the fact that he didn't much like Sansa's choice in boyfriends either. He cleared his throat and added, "And she said she didn't want to make you feel uncomfortable in your own home."
Arya sat back in her seat, wondering how she had never realized it before - that Sansa was trying to protect her. She considered all of the times she'd thought Sansa was a horrible sister, longing for nothing more than to see someone come around and knock her off her pedestal.
And tonight someone finally had, and Arya couldn't feel any worse.
A wave of guilt washed over her thinking about it and, needing a distraction, Arya glanced over at Gendry who had been sitting beside her in silence, letting her mull over what he'd told her. There was a paper bag in one of his hands that she hadn't noticed before when he was walking over from his car. "What's that?"
Gendry smiled as he lifted the bag and Arya noticed the emblem on the front from her favorite restaurant. "You sounded upset on the phone, and I figured you could use some food."
Arya was more than a little touched by the gesture and patted Gendry affectionately on the shoulder. "You're the best. Seriously," she said, before ripping the bag from his hands, causing him to snort. She sighed in happiness upon seeing the burger inside and promptly dug it out. "I didn't get to finish my popcorn at the theater and I'm starving!"
After she had taken a couple of bites, Gendry swung an arm up to rest on the bench behind her. "Now… not that I minded you calling me… of course you can always do that. But are you ever going to tell me what's going on? When you were on the phone, well, I've never heard you sound like that before." His eyebrows were furrowed in concern. She had not been at her best when she'd called him, asking him to come pick her up half hysterical. Arya had calmed down a lot in the past thirty minutes.
She chewed thoughtfully for a moment. "On your way here, Robb called me and everything's fine now." She tilted her head to the side, considering. "I mean, everything's better now." At Gendry's expectant gaze, she knew he was not going to let her get away with that poor attempt at an explanation, and really, after driving all the way over here, he deserved the full story.
She set down her burger. "Wow, now I know this is serious," Gendry joked.
Arya rolled her eyes. "Yeah. Um... so you know how we were going to watch that new action flick?" Gendry nodded. "Well, we were still in the previews when Sansa got up to use the restroom. She didn't come back for a while and by then the movie had already started, so Robb sent me out to look for her. At the time I was so peeved, but now..." She trailed off, not wanting to think about what would have happened if she hadn't gone to check on her sister.
Arya started as Gendry slipped his arm around her shoulder, but she automatically leaned into him. "Is Sansa okay?"
At his question, Arya shrugged. "When I got to the lobby, Joffrey was there and he was... he was forcing himself on her."
At that, Gendry's arm around Arya tightened, pulling her in closer. She wondered if he even realized he was doing it.
"Sansa's tall, but Joffrey was just so much stronger. I ran over and yanked him off of her. Gave him a good punch in the stomach." She smiled at the image of seeing Joffrey fall to the ground in pain. "Sansa ran. I guess she was spooked." Arya would have been too if that had happened to her. "Robb and I split up to try and find her. I was calling you to ask if you'd help. Sorry, I guess I didn't exactly get the words out during our call."
More like Arya had been so furious she'd barely muttered a full sentence into the phone before Gendry asked where she was and promised to be there soon.
"Did Robb find her then?"
Arya shook her head, laughing, and Gendry looked at her expectantly to explain what was so funny. "Nope. Jon did. Or, well, I guess Jon didn't find Sansa, but Sansa found Jon?" She shook her head, not sure exactly of the details on that one, but she would definitely be getting the scoop later. "When Robb called about fifteen minutes ago to let me know he was going over to Jon's place, he asked if I wanted him to swing around and pick me up, but I told him you were coming." She looked at Gendry to make sure that that had been okay.
"I'm glad you called, even though Sansa turned out to be fine," Gendry said, and Arya was relieved to hear in his voice that he actually meant it. She had been worried about calling him so late and ruining his night, but she'd really needed him. "So what now?"
Arya mulled it over before answering. "On the phone, Robb made it sound like Sansa wasn't hurt, but still… I need to go to Jon's and see my sister for myself."
"As my lady commands," Gendry said, standing up and bowing with an exaggerated flourish of his hand.
"I really need to get my own car."
Gendry gave a mock look of outrage. "Yeah, but then how am I ever going to spend time with you if you're not calling me in the middle of the night to be your personal chauffeur?"
Arya punched him in the arm, grinning. "Jerk."
She followed him to his car, sliding into the passenger seat. As she went to buckle up, though, she had a sudden thought. "Actually, can we make another stop first? There's something else I need to do."
Gendry nodded, looking over his shoulder before pulling out onto the main street. "Where to?"
Thank you to everyone who left a review on the previous chapter! I really appreciate it. (Stevengem, casema, SN2797)
Let me know what you think about part 2! Feedback is always welcome.