Note: Still not mine, in case you were wondering.
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Catelyn Stark was packing far too much in her youngest daughter's car.
"Now, make sure you give this box to Robb when you see him. And then this one goes to Sansa. Do you want me to label them? I'll get a marker." Arya's mother hurried off to the house to get a marker, leaving her daughter tapping her foot impatiently as she stood next to the open car door.
A moment later, she bustled back out, holding not one but two permanent markers. Biting her lower lip, she carefully wrote the appropriate names (color-coded, of course) on the boxes meant for her two oldest children.
"You have the directions, Arya?" Arya raised the pages in her hand in answer.
"I also have the emergency road kit, the detailed map you bought for me when I got my car, snacks for the road, a list of emergency numbers, the page with Robb's and Sansa's addresses, forty dollars in cash, clothes for the week, my sleeping bag, all the other stuff you bought for Sansa and Robb, a book, my school bag, and a partridge in a pear tree."
"What about the phone card? I want you to call me as soon as you get there."
Her mother apparently did not understand exactly how crazy she was.
"Yes, Mom, I have it right here with my driver's license and the insurance card."
"Are you sure you're alright with getting there and back?" Catelyn fretted, pulling her braid over her shoulder. "I can arrange to-"
"I'm fine. I can make it two hours to the school, stay for a few days with Sansa, then come back with Sansa. It's not rocket science."
Pursing her lips together as if to keep from speaking something else or crying, Catelyn threw her arms about her daughter.
"Be safe," she whispered into her hair, then, after one final squeeze, she let her daughter go.
"I'll see you in a few days, Mom," Arya smiled and got into the car. "I'll be just fine."
With a wave, she backed out of the driveway before her mother remembered "just one more thing" she should bring. She also made a mental note to ask Robb if their mother had been that protective when he first went off to college.
Turning on the radio, she pulled onto the freeway and grinned. Even though she wasn't eagerly anticipating two hours in the car with Sansa on the way back home, she was happy to be able to see her sister again. Sansa never had an interest in driving, preferring to be chauffeured around. This was fine, as she and Robb ended up at the same school after graduation, so she could just ride along with him.
This year, Robb had to work at his internship over the holiday, so he wasn't coming home the same time as Sansa. Catelyn fretted about this, because she had to work, and she wasn't sure how her daughter was getting home. Arya volunteered (and begged, coerced, and pleaded) for the job, and, with many doubts, she was finally allowed to go.
XXXXXXXXXX
Two and a half hours later, Arya was regretfully glad her mother had insisted on getting detailed map for her car. It had come in handy when road construction had put her on a maze of a detour on a road that somehow – according to the signs – went north, west, and south at the same time. Half an hour late, she reached her destination and pulled into the parking lot of a run-down movie theater that was across the street from campus.
Within seconds, a familiar red-haired figure was tapping on her window.
"Where have you been? I've been reading the posters for these movies over and over, and trying to avoid being stared at by the creepy guys buying beer at eleven in the morning." Sansa expressed her grievances as she opened Arya's door for her.
"I'm sorry, they moved the road I was supposed to take, so I had to backtrack to get here."
Sansa softened and smiled, stepping back to allow her sister to get out and stretch her legs. "I'm glad you're here...let's find you a phone."
"Thanks," Arya said gratefully, pulling the phone card out of her pocket.
Ten minutes later, Arya was draped over the pay phone, looking haggard. "Yes, Mom. I know. I did. Ye-...yes. Mmm-hmm. Right. I'll call you if anything happens. Yes, I'll give Sansa the box. Robb will get his later today. Oh, wow, Sansa just said the place we're going is on the other side of town, we have to get started now or we'll be late. OK. Yes...yes...bye."
Sansa smirked. "She was even worse when I first moved in. Come on, let's go back to my dorm so you can unload your stuff." As an afterthought, she quickly hugged her sister as they made their way back to the car.
She she got into the passenger seat, she turned around to look at the jam-packed backseat, and groaned when she saw the large moving box with her name on it.
"What did she send this time?"
"I'm not sure," the younger sister replied. "Just get me there, and we can investigate."
After several minutes , they had lugged everything Catelyn had sent along for her girls up to Sansa's room on the fourth floor, and promptly dropped everything in a pile on the ground.
"You get to sleep on the futon – it's really comfy," Sansa said over her shoulder as she dragged the large box to the middle of the room and grabbed a pair of scissors from her desk drawer. "And Margaery's almost never here, so you don't' have to worry about her."
With relish Sansa cut open the packing tape on her box and revealed the contents.
"Economy box of tampons...ew, they're generic brand. Didn't she learn from last time? Socks...a sewing kit...two boxes of crackers...ooh – gift card for groceries...three packs of pens...why did she give me a pillowcase?"
Stepping over the miscellaneous items her sister had begun to throw around the room, Arya sank down on the futon under her sister's loft. It was surprisingly comfortable, much better than she had expected.
"What in the world..." Sansa pondered out loud, holding up a thin plastic utensil with a small hoop, and a small triangular protrusion on the other side.
"I think it's for oranges," Arya replied. "She just discovered it, so she's been making various orange desserts for the past month. Oh, yeah, there's also a bag of oranges in the trunk for you. We should take them out before they roast and make my car smell like overripe citrus."
"We can grab it on our way to meet Robb," the redhead mused, tossing the strange device for oranges behind her.
"Do you want to be the weirdo carrying the bag of oranges into a restaurant?"
"No, I want to give them to Robb...I hate oranges."
Arya snorted and continued to watch in amusement as Sansa continued to remove items from the enormous box. Maybe by the time Rickon went to college, she would figure out what her children actually needed.
Suddenly, the door burst open and girl with long brown hair entered the room.
"Hi, roomie!" She called, tossing a book onto her desk.
"Hi Margarey," Sansa said a little too brightly.
Without invitation or asking who the short-haired girl was that was sitting on their futon, the interloper began to chatter on about her day as she threw various pieces of clothing into a duffel bag. It took all of Arya's self-control to not burst out laughing at the tight expression on her sister's face.
As the bubbly girl grabbed a pair of shoes, she tripped over the box of tampons her roommate had tossed to the side. "Remember in the beginning of the year, that big box of these that popped up in the bathroom? I didn't know you used these, I thought you used-"
"They're from my mom," Sansa said, shoving the offending box under the futon and averting her eyes.
After a few more minutes idle chatter, Margarey grabbed a few bags and left just as suddenly as she had appeared, calling "see you next week, roomie!" over her shoulder.
Once the other girls' footsteps had disappeared down the hallway, Sansa looked up at her sister. "I hate her so much.
All Arya could do was collapse onto the futon in a fit of laughter at the expression on her face. Soon enough, she joined her sister's insane laughter, narrowly avoiding crushing the box of Kleenex her mother had also sent.
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"Thank you, big brother!" Sansa said sweetly, grinning up at Robb and clutching his arm.
"I'm not made out of money, sister of mine, so don't go looking for any more handouts," he chuckled, playfully shoving his sister away. "It's your turn next time."
Sansa pouted, then asked, "are you sure you can't come tonight?"
"Afraid not, Sansa. I have to be up early tomorrow, and I need to put in some work on that chemistry project before then. You girls will just have to hang out without me."
"Maybe I could drop by tomorrow," Arya asked, trying to wheedle her older brother into spending more time with her. "I still haven't seen your new place yet!"
Robb was inordinately proud of the house he was renting with some of his friends. Moving out of the dorms, he said, was the greatest feeling ever. And, better yet, he didn't have to eat in the dining hall anymore, a fact that he taunted Sansa with regularly, if their argument over lunch was any indication.
"Aah...no. You're not ready to spend any time in a college house with six guys."
"What's so bad about it?"
"Let's just say...mom would kill me if I let you in there right now."
"Robb...come on! Between you and Gendry, I'm pretty sure I can handle it." Though not nearly as practiced as her sister, Arya tried to charm her brother into agreeing.
"Actually," Robb responded, trying to change the subject, "Gendry doesn't live with me...he got his own place over the summer."
"Really? Why? Where? When? I haven't heard from him in a while..."
"He just did...haven't seen him around lately. Anyhow, Sansa, you said Mom sent along something for me?"
"It's an entire care package...giant moving box and all. But about Gendry-"
"Oh boy..." Robb interrupted quickly, "I wonder how many toothbrushes she gave me this time." He then started walking towards Arya's car, talking to his sisters about the other weird things their mother had thought he would need while away from home.
"And Mom sent some oranges for you too," Sansa added, grinning at her sister.
"She literally had some shipped to me last week – does she think I'm on an orange juice diet or something?"
"I guess so," Sansa said, triumphantly pushing the bag into his arms.
Arya puzzled on her brother's strange behavior, and decided to figure out why in one way or another.
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Later that night, after they had turned out the lights for the night, Sansa jumped out of bed, turned on her desk light, and pulled out her syllabus for her Astronomy class.
"Oh no."
"What?" Arya rolled over to look at her sister.
"My test tomorrow."
"I know, you told me, you'll be gone for an hour, and then we'll go see a movie."
"Um," Sansa bit her lip and looked nervously at her sister. "So, I kind of mixed up my dates..."
Hoping for the best but preparing for the worst, she sat up and turned fully to her sister.
"It turns out that the major test with the practical lab is tomorrow, and not next month."
"Please define how different this is from the test you were expecting."
"Well..." Sansa chewed on a lock of her hair, avoiding Arya's gaze. "There's the written portion...then we have to do a three hour lab on the telescope...and then we have to use the information we learned in a 'practical exam' in the observatory."
"And how long is this going to be?"
"I go in at four...and I should be out by nine?"
"If I would have known this, I wouldn't have planned to come up so early."
"I know," Sansa sighed, laying down the paper she was holding. "But it's not my fault!"
"The information is literally in the packet you have had since the first class, and have had available to you since then."
"Arya," her sister began, a pleading tone in her voice.
"I'm going to bed. I'll figure out something to do tomorrow."
She signed as Sansa turned off the light. Tomorrow night was going to be a long day.
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After Sansa "treated" Arya to lunch in the dining center, she promised to make the evening up to her. Arya was doubtful that she would remember this later on, but decided to let it go. She should have really expected this of her sister. This was just how she was.
The two girls took a walk around campus and paused to watch a group of people playing Frisbee golf. While discussing the finer points of not understanding the sport, Sansa's roommate, Margarey bounced up behind them.
"Hi roomie!" she declared, waving to the both of them, then turned to Arya directly. "Since Sansa has her test tonight, I thought I'd hang out with you tonight. Omigosh, we can paint our nails, and I can show you my photo collages from my trip to Arabia, and I'll invite some of the girls over so we can play truth or dare, and then tell scary stories! My father also bought me this-"
Arya held up her hand as if to stave off the volcano of words spewing forth. "Sorry, I've got plans."
"Ooooh, that's so sad!" she pouted prettily. "Well, the next time you come to visit, I'll make sure I can be around again. It'll be so much fun!" Waving cheerfully, she skipped off again, calling to another friend she saw across the street.
"But I thought you were just going to hang out in the room?"
"I was, until Miss Popular-Pants volunteered to spend the night with me..I think I understand why you can't stand her."
"So...what're you going to do? If you want, I can lend you my student id so you can go hang out somewhere tonight." Sansa winced, knowing it was a feeble offer in light of the situation.
"Yeah, that'd be nice," she replied, to her sister's surprise. "Kind of get the college experience."
Pleased that she had given a viable option to her sister for the evening, she pulled her sister along to the dorm. "Now, let me tell you a few places you can go..."
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She had been perplexed by Robb's cagey behavior about Gendry over lunch, and concerned that she had heard nothing from him in months, so decided to use her free time this evening to investigate.
Since their "date" two years prior, Arya and Gendry hadn't seen each other much, though they had kept in touch. He had left her a note when he went back to school with his phone number, letting her know that if she had any other problems, she could talk to him. Since the note was bereft of the word "pipsqueak" she decided it was a serious offer.
For months, she had had romantic daydreams that she denied having afterwords of the conversations they could have. But she couldn't think of any topics that didn't sound stupid, and that was the last thing she wanted.
So, she set the note aside, folded in a small box she kept at the back of her desk drawer, and put it out of her mind. Well she tried to, at least. The fantasy daydreams she had were driving her crazy, and had to stop. Arya threw herself into her schoolwork – all that did was make her head of the class, but she still kept busy enough to think. She thought of joining basketball, but dismissed it just as quickly.
Then, she had tried dating. Quickly she figured out that a date wasn't simply two people hanging out because they enjoyed each others' company – that was something he had made up to get her feeling better about the whole situation with Len. Dating was more like she originally imagined – awkward conversation, attempts at googly-eyes, and an unpleasant amount of time trying to stop the guy from grabbing her boob. It wasn't her ideal way to spend an evening, but it did keep her sufficiently on her toes to start to forget.
And then, one day after a particularly rough day, she came home and, without realizing it, dialed the number she had memorized long ago. There was only one person she wanted to talk to, and she didn't care how awkward it may be, because he was the only one that could cheer her up.
An unfamiliar voice answered, and Arya was paralyzed with uncertainly for a moment, but pressed on and asked for Gendry. Luckily the voice on the other end of the line was just his roommate, who said "some chick's calling for you" and dropped the phone on the desk.
The first word she heard him say in months was a husky "hey."
"Hey yourself," she had replied, pointedly ignoring the butterflies in her stomach.
"...Arya?" He asked, in his normal voice.
'Oh...there's a girl he was expecting to call...not me.'
She steeled herself. 'It's not going to happen. Just get over it. Now, you called him for a reason, just go with that.'
"Yeah, it's me. You said that if I had a problem, I could come to you..."
"I'm all ears."
As she heard the distant sound of a video game booting up in the background, she unleashed her woes, which somehow didn't seem as bad now. Soon, he had her smiling again, and they continued to talk about school, their plans for the future, and what was the best movie that had come out that year.
Their calls had continued with semi-regularity, with Gendry phoning in to her just as much as she did to him. Their conversations kept to a friendly tone, but Arya couldn't help herself from hoping that something would happen, his voice would drop and sound like it had when she had called for the first time...but it never happened, and she didn't know the best way to broach the topic.
And so it had gone, until the start of this year of school. The voice that answered the phone this time was not the now-familiar roommate, but another male voice, saying that he was a freshman, so didn't know who had lived there before. She had tried her brothers, but Robb had yielded no information , and Jon wasn't that close with Gendry, so she had no way of finding him. But now that she was in the same town, she was going to find out why.
Arya sat in her car contemplating. None of the options she could think of would lead her to Gendry, and right now her best option was to walk the streets calling his name. Other than being just a generally weird thing to do, she thought it sent the wrong message. Finally, she realized there was only one option – Robb. She was, for once, grateful for her mothers' insane preparation, and pulled out the sheet with her brother's address.
As she pulled into the driveway a few minutes later, she began to wonder why Robb had said she couldn't come over. The rented house actually looked pretty good – the yard was mowed, and there were some decently-trimmed shrubs in front. She knocked on the door, and was almost driven back by the music pounding from inside. There didn't seem to be anything that would cause him to essentially forbid her to come over.
"Hey there...what can I do you?" The guy that answered the door as she knocked was shirtless, had a bottle of beer in hand, and was dangling a cigarette from his lip.
"I'm looking for Robb Stark," Arya said confidently, pointedly looking at his eyes instead of his bare chest.
This stranger, however, did not appear to share the same social norms that she had grown up with, and lowered his gaze to her chest. She also noted that there was a beer pong game in play in the back room, and what appeared to be a framed poster of two girls making out...
"What'do you want with him?" he asked, leaning in towards her, grinning. "I'm sure I could show you a better time."
Before Arya could begin to speak, one of the guys in the back room turned to see what was going on at the front door.
"Arya?"
"Hi, Robb."
"Ed, back off, that's my little sister!" her brother said, striding forward. "Arya, come with me."
Ignoring shouts of protest from the game he left behind, he guided her up a set of dim stairs to what had to be his room.
"What are you doing here? I thought I told you not to come."
"So, is this why you told me I shouldn't come?" she mused, looking around, "because I'm pretty sure Mom wouldn't like to hear about all of this..."
Robb paled at this, even though he knew his mother technically couldn't do anything to him, since he was of age. She still supported a good deal of his college education, and if she didn't approve of his living conditions...things could considerably more difficult for him.
"What do you want, in return for not telling Mom?"
"I want to see Gendry," she said simply, folding her arms.
A moment of slightly panicky indecision crossed Robb's face. It appeared that fear of his mother trumped whatever he had been trying to avoid telling her about Gendry, and he scribbled something down on the back of a receipt that was on his dresser.
"Here's the address. Just go back to the main road, turn at the gas station, then go for three blocks. The apartment is on the right side, third floor."
"Thank you, big brother!" Arya said, imitating Sansa's tone the previous day. "I'll consider us even for now. Just make sure you roommate doesn't hit on me again when I leave."
Knowing she had him in a vulnerable position, Robb nodded silently and led her to the front door, keeping the shirtless roommate away with a glare.
Grinning at him from the stoop, Arya got in one last comment. "Oh, one last thing – Mom wants to come up and visit you and see you first place for herself. She said to give her a call next week to work it out."
Mission accomplished, she happily walked back to her car with the crumpled receipt in her hand. This was turning out easier than she thought.
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Climbing the stairs of the run-down apartment, she considered what to say when Gendry opened the door. Her options ran from accusations to jumping into his arms. Either of the two extremes, she felt would not be a good starting option. Before she knew it, she was on the third floor, and found the door marked 'Q.' She couldn't tell what color it was, but she could tell the the paint was peeling from the hallway's walls in the dim overhead lighting.
She knocked on the door. A deep sigh emitted from within, then some shuffling steps as the occupant came to the door. After some fumbling with what sounded like a deadbolt the door opened.
And there he was. After all this time, he was just behind this door with the tarnished 'Q.' His face, initially bleary-eyed, changed quickly to surprise, the briefest instant of anger and back to surprise. He was wearing wrinkled pajama pants and a form-fitting white t-shirt and...that was ok with her. In what may have been the least subtle manner possible, he pulled the door close to his body, blocking off the view of the inside.
"Arya" he said wonderingly, as if she was a mirage.
None of the hellos she had imagined was quite like this. He seemed more closed off than she had ever seen him before, and didn't know how to go from here.
Trying to diffuse the situation, she quickly decided, was the best way to proceed.
"Is that how you're going to treat your favorite person in the world, by leaving her out in the hallway?"
She had also decided to leave no room for her not gaining entrance to the apartment.
"Ah..." he said under his breath, raking his hand through his hair.
Arya's knees started to feel traitorously weak.
"Gimme just a minute." He pulled the door almost all the way shut, and heard frantic rustling from within, and the clinking of plates and glasses being pushed into a sink.
At the time when she was growing almost too impatient to wait outside the door cracked open again.
"Um...you can come in. If you want," he said quietly, pulling open the door again. He had quickly changed into jeans and a different t-shirt, apparently trying to give himself some more dignity. She could see where he had tossed his previous outfit, as the articles of clothing were sticking out from under the futon, but chose to ignore that, since he had so obviously tried to hide it.
"What can I do for you?" he asked politely, shoving his hands into his pockets.
"I want you," she replied, folding her arms, "to tell me why you dropped off the face of the planet, why my brother won't talk about you, and why you won't look me in the eye!"
"Something to drink?" He said feebly, avoiding the subject."
"No, Gendry, I do not want anything to drink. I do not want a snack. I want to talk to you and find out why you've been ignoring me."
He looked at her directly for the first time, and gray eyes met blue. "I wasn't trying to."
"Come on, sit down with me." Arya grabbed his arm and headed towards the futon.
Slowly he followed, and sat awkwardly next to her.
After a few moments of silence passed, she knew she had to take charge of the situation.
"You know...you can tell me anything. God knows I've done that to you. Just tell me what's going on."
He signed and glanced at her, and seemed to realize she wasn't going to give up.
"I dropped out of school."
"OK, and?"
"And?" Gendry turned to her, confused. "Isn't it 'Gendry, what are you doing with your life?' 'Gendry, why did you do something so stupid?' 'Gendry, what were you thinking?'"
"Well, I know you wouldn't have made this big of a decision without thinking about it and deciding it was for the best. And I know you wouldn't ignore me over one event, so there has to be more," she finished matter-of-factly.
"Oh, you mean how my parents cut me off when I told them about school, so I'm working at a gas station for rent money? Or how I don't talk to anyone anymore because I'm not in college, so we don't have anything in common? Is that what you're looking for?"
"Gendry," Arya began, choosing to ignore the anger in his voice and focusing on how to solve the problem. "Were you enjoying your classes before you dropped out?"
"Well...no."
"And have you talked to your parents since you told them the news?"
"No."
"Did you give them any way to contact you in your new apartment?"
"...No..."
"Have you tried to hang out with Robb at all?"
"No, but when he and the other guys were planning on-"
"Did you talk to anyone at all?"
"Well...no."
"I think that's your problem, then," Arya continued. "I'm sure your parents are concerned, since they don't know what happened to you – for all they know, you could be lying in a ditch somewhere. If you explain to them the reasons why you dropped out, I'm sure they'd understand."
"I don't think tha-"
She narrowed her eyes at him. "Don't be stupid. Where's your phone?"
"I don't have one..."
"Good thing I have a phone card and there's a phone in the lobby." Arya pulled the card out of her pocket, grateful once more for her mother's planning. "Go down there right now and let them know you're ok."
She could see him making a face like he was going to protest. "Now. Before I bring you down myself."
Apparently this was enough of a threat to get him moving. As he took the proffered card and started off to the door.
"And don't just stand down there and come back up. If I suspect that's what you did, I will go down there with you and dial the phone for you."
Sighing, he walked out. Once his footsteps had faded down the stairs, Arya took her first good look at her surroundings. Gendry's residence was a small studio apartment with slanted ceilings and creaky floorboards. Other than what she termed as "guy mess" – clothes scattered on the floor, empty soda cans on top of any available flat surface, and a lack of any decoration – the room was sparsely furnished. There was the futon, a rickety-looking table holding a tv, and a couple of boxes stacked in the corner.
After a few minutes of poking around, she decided that, though not ideal, this was not the worst place in the world to live. It could use more furniture, and a proper bed...and a good vacuuming. With a little work, it would be a good haven from the world. She would just prefer something with a little more space, thank you very much.
Her train of thought was interrupted by the sound of footsteps pounding up the stairs, and the door being flung open. Wordlessly, Gendry grabbed her and spun her around.
"Thank you," he mumbled into her hair.
She didn't even have to ask to know things had gone well. She also felt like this wasn't the time to tell him not to be so stupid again. However, there was one thing that she needed to do.
"Gendry," she said quietly, tilting her head up.
"Arya," he replied, looking down.
"Go take a shower. You stink."
Laughing, he let her go and headed towards the door to the bathroom, and heard the shower go on.
Keeping herself busy, she began to tidy up a bit. Threw dirty clothes that were hastily tossed under the futon into a pile, filled a bag with random debris, and tried in vain to open a window. More quickly than she had anticipated, the shower stopped and the door opened. She glanced up, and felt herself turning red for two reasons. Once, she realized that the last piece of clothing she found was a pair of Gendry's boxers. Two, Gendry was standing in front of her, surrounded by dissipating steam. Wearing a towel.
With wider eyes and an annoyingly squeaky voice, she tossed the offending piece of clothing onto the pile and said "I was trying to open the window!"
Grinning, he said that it was painted shut, she would never get it open, Then, abruptly, he remembered that he was in a situation where he was not wearing clothes, and stammered that he would be right back, and ducked through a second door. Arya, followed his progression across the room, thinking to herself that if she gave the slightest hint of googly-cow eyes, she would just have to die. In a few moments, he emerged with a wet towel in hand, but with much more clothing on his body.
Tossing it now into the increasingly-growing pile of dirty laundry, he turned on the radio quietly and sat on the futon next to where Arya somehow found herself sitting.
He decided to ignore what had just transpired.
"What am I going to do, Arya?" He sat, slightly hunched over, looking at his hands.
"About what?"
"My life. My parents are going to want to know I have some sort of plan, and I have none."
"What do you enjoy doing?" she asked. 'Besides walking around half-naked and making me go all googly-eyed,' she added to herself.
"Um...I don't suppose I could make a living hanging out with you?"
"Then you would be a gigolo."
"So...you're saying that's not an option?"
"Let's add it to the 'not' list."
"Fine." Gendry sat back, keeping his arms to his side instead of laying one on the back of the futon, as he normally would have done. "Then what?"
Arya said something, but couldn't quite tell if it was a serious option or a joking one. She had just realized that their hands were an inch apart. Casually, she scooted her hand closer...then a little closer...said something else and moved it just a bit more...there!
Trying to keep the subterfuge up, she pointedly did not look down at where their fingers were just barely touching. Gendry did not look either, but asked if she wanted to go out somewhere. She said no, she just wanted to stay here and talk.
And not move.
Until he did. Almost imperceptibly, in time to the music, his pinky finger was gently moving against hers.
She swallowed.
Growing bolder, she moved her hand closer, until it was completely underneath his.
Neither of them were talking by this point.
Arya looked down and saw his thumb slowly moving over her hand.
'Fuck it,' she thought, and took a chance. Before she could lose her nerve, she half-rolled over and kissed him.
Lips pressed together, both froze, not moving.
"Arya," he breathed, but did not move.
Without a second thought she pressed her lips towards his again.
"Arya," he said again, with more force, and moved his hands to her upper arms. "No."
"You told be before that I got to be in control, that I got to choose how far it goes. And I chose."
Gendry signed and gently maneuvered her back to a sitting position. "It's not that simple."
She looked back at him with cold eyes. "Why not? It all seems very simple to me."
"You're too young."
"I'm four years younger than you. My mom was ten years younger than my dad when they got married. Was she too young? What about Mr. and Mrs. Bae, at school? She's eight years older! There are bigger age gaps that work out just fine. Dammit, Gendry, four years is nothing!"
"You're too young right now," he attempted to clarify.
"What," she replied snidely, "and I magically going to be "old enough" in a month? A year? Five years?"
"Two," he said quietly, trying to keep Arya as calm as possible.
"Oh, so what brought you to this arbitrary decision? Is graduating high school a new maturity level? Will that make things all better for you?"
"Well...legally...yes."
The pieces began to fall into place. Two years...she would be eighteen. An adult. Taking shallow breaths, she stared at his concerned blue eyes.
"Alright...fine," she said, sitting up straight. "I hope things go well for you next week."
Then, to escape the situation she had put herself in, before Gendry could grasp what was happening, she walked out the door.
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Gendry stared at the closed door. He could have caught her, brought her back..but anything he could think of doing involved far too many mixed signals.
He had not anticipated this happening tonight, even when Arya had shown up on his doorstep like it had been only days since they had seen each other last instead of months. He knew it would happen sometime...and knew he had been encouraging it. Why had he done the whole thing with walking around in a towel?
He got up and started to pace.
He had known it would turn to this when they sat on his futon, listening to the radio, but did he use any common sense? No. Did he consider the consequences when he started rubbing her hand? Of course not.
Angrily he kicked the leg of his futon, regretting it an instant later when he remembered he wasn't wearing any shoes.
Heaving another angry sigh, he collapsed on his futon again, wincing at the creak of the old frame. It would do him no good to go after her now, if he could even find her. He didn't know what to say, because he had never found it in himself to articulate.
Time, he knew, would be necessary to solve this. He would actually think about where things were going with Arya...and find out how to tell her. After his parents' visit, he would get his act together and visit her, and try to repair his stupidity. He just hoped he hadn't destroyed everything.
His mind cleared, though, at the exact wrong time for the song that came on the radio. "Gypsies, Tramp and Thieves" was in the middle of playing.
Picked up a boy just south of Mobile
Gave him a ride, filled him with a hot meal
I was sixteen, he was twenty-one
Rode with us to Memphis
And papa woulda shot him if he knew what he'd done.
"Fuck you, Cher, Gendry said out loud, and turned off the radio. That was just a bad sign.
Author's Note: There are so many tidbits of back story that don't quite fit in...Sansa's woes from the first time Catelyn gave her tampons for college is making me giggle right now. My original for Gendry's apartment would have set a much different tone for the end of the chapter.
Also, this was going to be so much shorter, but Robb and Sansa really wanted to hang out with Arya. Like a lot.
Thank you, as always to everyone who has read, reviewed, and followed/favorited this. I am flabbergasted at the response I've gotten, and I'm so glad all of you are enjoying it!
I'm glad Gendry is finally going to start thinking about what he's doing and planning and get it straight. He's been rather stupid lately, but lucky he has Arya to get him on the right track. :)
Hope this tides you over until phase five – beauty.