Rickon Stark had started his first day of high school and was, thus, in his mother's eyes, old enough to be home, under the care of his older brother, without her for the weekend.
Arya was simultaneously happy for the distraction her mother was providing and counting the minutes until she would finally leave.
Currently, her mother was frowning at the kitchen cabinet she was stocking with various canned and boxed goods. "They certainly didn't clean this out before they left," she muttered as she dragged her finger over the shelf and inspected the crumbs that had come with it. "Where did I put that spray..."
Firmly pushing the items she was planning on putting inside, she picked up a spray bottle and a new rag and began to clean.
Arya sighed and turned back to the entertainment center she was currently trying to assemble.
"Where in the hell did I put part Q?" she wondered out loud, searching for the elusive side panel. Assembling furniture was not her forte, but she felt she was far more equipped for this task than risk putting something in her new kitchen in the wrong place.
"Make sure you vacuum before you put it together!" her mother called over her shoulder as she began wiping down the next shelf. "Always start with a clean surface, it will make it so much easier to keep up with as time goes by."
Rolling her eyes, but realizing that her mother did have a point, she stepped through the maze of screws, boards, and piles of hardware until she reached the closet and opened it. Sure enough, her mother's first task upon entering her daughter's apartment was to place the vacuum she had purchased in its place in the hall closet. If her mother did drive her crazy by the end of the day, she would at least have a well-organized apartment to come back to after she was released from the sanatorium.
As she stepped back to the corner where the finished unit would eventually sit, she narrowly avoided stepping on a long, thin board, and kicked it out of the way. Pushing the button to turn on the vacuum, she saw the sticker reading 'Q' attached to the back of the board. 'At least I know where that is,' she thought to herself.
After she finished, Arya set back to her task, attaching board Q to base section C with screw size #5. Absentmindedly, she lowered her hand to her stomach and breathed for a moment, then consulted her instruction booklet for what parts she would need next.
"There!" proclaimed her mother proudly, standing back from the cupboard that had been designated for cups to admire her work. "I think that will work quite nicely."
Arya leaned back to look at the kitchen, as her mother so clearly wanted her to. "It's great, Mom. Thanks for helping out with all of this, but you really don't have to do all of this, I'm sure that I-"
"Oh, don't be silly, Arya!" she exclaimed, carefully shutting the cupboard door. "I want to be sure this is all taken care of so you can focus on school, instead of where to find a plate when you need one. Now, come over here, and I'll show you where I put everything."
Wearily, her daughter rose to her feet again and trudged back into the kitchen, dutifully nodding and agreeing with the placement of various kitchen implements, mentally planning where they would be put once her mother left.
"Now, once I get this dirt swept up, I'll come in and help you put that together," Catelyn said, gesturing to the piles of material that should, hopefully, turn into an entertainment center. Silently, Arya nodded and went back to deciphering the directions.
"I don't know why you bought such a big one, or why you even got one in the first place. You said you weren't bringing a television, and you have such a small stereo..."
As casually as she could, Arya answered her mother's query as she lined up two other boards. "Well, Gendry has a fairly big television and an entire sound system, and he has it set up on some TV tables right now. I figured this would would the best fit for everything."
"Why would it matter what Gendry has? This is your apartment."
"Mom...Gendry is going to be living here with me." Pointedly, she continued to work on her project, sounding as much as she could like the adult she was. "We've been talking about it for a while, and decided this was the best option."
"Oh..." her mother replied, at a loss for what to do for the first time that day.
As she maneuvered a large board to fit onto the pegs she had just stuck in the base, she continued. "Gendry has been speaking with the school here to have his credits transferred, so we can both study here and finish up our classes. There's a hospital and a clinic nearby where he can apply for an internship as soon as he reaches that point, and this is a good central location for both of us.
"So you got a two-bedroom apartment because-"
"Because we wanted to have a designated study room. We'll put our desks in there, and have a bookshelf for our classwork and materials. I'm going to put my big lamp in there and shop around for some other table lamps so we have plenty of light to work by."
Arya said this with no room for argument in her voice. She hoped that by telling her mother this as a statement of fact instead of asking some sort of permission, it would make the news go over more smoothly.
Without saying another word, her mother pulled an electric tea kettle out of the cabinet over the stove, filled it with water, and pulled out the necessary ingredients for two cups of tea. Unsure of how to proceed from this turn of events, she carefully attached the glass doors to her project. Surely it must be not a terrible indication that her mother was making tea for the two of them?
Keeping busy with her tea preparations, Catelyn stayed silent in the kitchen as her daughter watched her warily. Finally, she walked into the living room with a steaming mug of tea in each hand, and settled herself onto the armchair, then looked pointedly at her daughter, then at the second mug of tea.
Putting down her screwdriver, Arya once again walked through the maze of parts. It was easier this time, since she had put a fair amount of it together. She took the proffered drink and settled herself cross-legged on the floor, as there was no other furniture in the room.
"When you your planning on telling me?" the woman in the chair asked, blowing softly on the surface of her drink to cool it.
"We were going to tell you together, at dinner tonight," Arya replied, dunking her tea bag up and down.
"How long have you been planning this?"
"Honesty, we only found out for sure a few weeks ago, when we found this place. We had planned to move in together after we both finished school and could find a location that was good for both of us. Then Gendry heard that they were opening up his program here, so we talked it over, and decided the time was right for us."
Catelyn took a dainty sip. "Are you sure this isn't going to...distract you from your studies?"
"If anything," Arya said carefully, still fidgeting with the tea bag, "we hope it will make things easier. Since we'll be living together, we won't be making trips during the weekend to visit, or trying to talk on the phone every night. It'll take so much pressure off of us trying to spend time together, and let us focus on school."
"Mmm..." was the only reply she received. The two sat in silence for a few minutes, sipping their tea and surveying what else needed to be done. Gendry would be coming tonight with a van filled with his belongings and some of the furniture they would furnish the apartment with. She was hoping that Robb would come through with the couch he had been saying he would give her soon, so that their living room wouldn't be dominated by the now-rickety futon Gendry still owned.
Breaking the silence first was Catelyn, who mentioned that she should be getting back to the silverware drawer and stepped back into the kitchen, half-drunk tea still in hand. Since it seemed question time was over, Arya went, once again, back to the project at hand. The two women worked in silence in adjacent rooms until they heard a fumbling of keys at the door. In a flash, Arya abandoned her screwdriver once again and opened the door.
Standing just outside the doorway was Gendry, face flushed from carrying a large box up the stairs. Hardly allowing him a moment to set his parcel down inside the door, she ran to him and clung. Even though she had grown taller in the past few years, she still only reached him mid-chest.
"I missed you," she murmured into his chest, pulling him tighter.
"I missed you, too," he whispered back. After a moment of holding her, he gently released his grasp as he noticed that Arya's mother was standing inside and watching their reunion.
"Mrs. Stark," he said to the third person in the apartment, extending his hand to shake hers. "It's good to see you again."
After a moment's pause, she smiled at him and, ignoring his hand, gave him a quick, motherly hug.
"I'm glad you could make it over here and help Arya out with everything today," he said, smiling warmly at her. "It would have been a big project on her own."
"I'm her mother, I couldn't very well let her do this all alone," she said, glancing at Arya. "It's a big step she's taking right now, and I want to make sure she has the help she needs. If you two would excuse me?" With that, she placed her now-empty cup in the sink and closed herself in the bathroom.
"What's going on?" Gendry asked, dropping his keys on the counter.
"I told her," Arya said quietly, stepping closer.
"What?" he responded, alarmed.
"She stared asking questions, and I wasn't feeling up to making up lies until tonight. So I told her."
"And?"
"She told you to call her by her first name, and she gave you a hug. I'm not sure she's totally ok with it, but she doesn't appear to want to disown me, so I think that's a good sign. We can talk more after dinner."
He nodded and pushed the box he had carried up further inside.
"Did you just get your keys?" Arya asked in a normal tone of voice.
"Yeah...I stopped by the office on my way up," he said. "I'm going to run down and grab some more stuff...unless you need help?"
"No," she shook her head, "I've got it under control."
Propping the door open with a shoe had had tossed in the box he brought up, Gendry headed down for his next load.
Once he had left again, Catelyn emerged from the restroom. "Oh dear, I forgot to get you a toothbrush holder – I'll pick one up tonight for you and bring it over tomorrow."
Arya smiled, knowing it was futile to try to resist. "You mentioned before you would help me put this thing together?"
"Of course!" They went to work together and, surprisingly, were able to complete the project without too much trouble. Every few minutes, her boyfriend would make a brief appearance and drop off something else.
"I'll let Gendry hook everything up," Arya decided as they pushed the piece of furniture into the corner, "since it's his stuff anyway."
As if he knew his name was being spoken, Gendry entered the room once again and set down another box. "Mrs. Stark, could I bother you for a bit of help? I've got something to bring upstairs that's kind of unwieldy."
Arya tried to volunteer her help, but Gendry asked her to please put some of his things in the living room from the box he had just brought upstairs. Confused, she agreed, and her mother pulled her shoes on to go outside.
After a few minutes of pulling out and untangling various cords – she was sure Gendry had never heard of a twist-tie – she realized that her mother and her boyfriend had been gone for rather a long time, and looked out of the window to see if she could get any information. All she could see was her mother struggling to push the futon mattress out from the back of Gendry's car, while Gendry pulled from the other side. Deciding he was just a poor packer, she went back to unloading things from the box.
Eventually, she heard the sound of two people maneuvering something up the stairs, and abandoned the boring task of figuring out what cords went to which electronic device.
Catelyn beamed at Arya as she and Gendry plopped the futon mattress on the floor and wiped her eyes.
"Mom...are you alright? It looks like you've been crying."
"I'm fine, I'm fine!" her mother insisted, wiping her eyes again. "Just a touch of allergies."
Gendry also smiled at her and glanced at her work in the living room. "That looks great, I can take care of the rest later."
"I think," her mother added, adjusting her shoe, "that if we all head down, we should be able to get everything up in two more loads, then I say we take a break and get something to eat."
"That would be great, Mrs. Stark," Gendry said, grinning at her.
"Please, call me Catelyn," she responded warmly, looking slightly misty-eyed.
Still suspicious of the situation, but eager for sustenance, Arya also pulled on her shoes, and they managed to unload everything else from the vehicle, then all hopped in and went downtown to find a restaurant they all could agree on.
XXXXX-XXXXX
A few hours later, after they had re-assembled the futon and put boxes in appropriate rooms to be unpacked, Catelyn bid them both goodnight and went to her hotel to rest up, promising she would be back tomorrow with breakfast and to help out with whatever else was needed.
When Arya made motions as if to continue unpacking, Gendry shook his head and took her hand, leading her to the futon, and stretched out on his side, pulling her down with him, arm around her. They lay in silence for some time, enjoying being alone together for the first time in weeks, as he traced circles down her arm.
As she snuggled in closer, he kissed the back of her neck and caught a whiff of her familiar cedar scent and made she made that moaning noise that made him lose all sense of reason…
Some time later, the slight girl rolled over to lay next to him, and sighed contentedly in his neck. "This is so much better now that we don't have to worry about my roommate coming in for 'just one more thing' that she forgot."
After a moment of contemplation, she paused and announced, "Ugh…I'm all sweaty and sticky now from moving all day. I'm taking a shower." She scampered off to the bathroom and closed the door, the sound of the shower soon following.
"I don't think moving is all to blame for your present state!" he called through the door.
Gendry only heard some giggling in response.
Feeling slightly awkward sitting around in the living room without any clothes on, he located his boxers (flung across the room so that they were lying on top of the entertainment center) and put them back on and wandered over to a sheaf of papers he had left lying on the counter. Lease…rental agreement…his transcript…the letter.
Pulling it out, he again read the letter he had received in the mail that morning. Initially, he had been excited to open it, but that feeling had quickly changed once he read the words 'we regret to inform you…'
As he heard the bathroom door open, he quickly shoved the letter back in with the papers. He should tell her tonight…but his resolve was slipping after current events…
"Your turn," Arya grinned at him, clad in a towel, hair dripping around her face.
As he tried to give her a kiss, she shoved him towards the now-open door. "Get clean first. You're still all gross."
Obligingly, he sauntered over to a bag he left next to the front door and pulled out his own towel. "I'll be right back."
In a few minutes, he came out, clean as well, and stopped in his tracks with what he saw. Arya had taken a shirt from his bag to pair with her pajama pants, and was sitting on the futon with a familiar-looking letter in her hands.
"What's this?" she asked, all of her good humor from before gone.
"It's not what you're thinking…well, it sort of is, but not really…" he trailed off, searching for his own sleepwear and toweling of his hair. "It seems as though I can't transfer straight to the school here. They're taking into account my grades from everything post-high school, not just the classes I've taken since I started PT training. So, they're a little skittish about letting me in and are requiring I have a couple more credits to my name before they transfer anything."
Arya's voice was flat. "How many credits? How long?"
"I talked to my adviser before I drove over here today. He says that there's a half-semester class that would give me the credits I need, and it was something I needed to take at some point. I can probably finish in a month and a half…"
Seeing the devastated look in her eyes, he sat next to her and tried to put his arm around her, but she shied away.
"I won't be able to move in quite yet…I'll have to spend the weekdays in practical, and study during the weekend, so…I also won't be able to come visit. But once it's over, I'll be here right away, and everything will be back on plan."
"Nothing is working out right," she whispered to herself, retreating further into the corner of the futon.
"I know it's not what we were planning, but it's only a month and a half…and I'll make sure to call every night. We've made it this long, and after this it's all smooth sailing."
Paling slightly, Arya began to fiddle with the zipper on the throw pillow her mother had given her.
"Is there something else bothering you?" Gendry asked, turning towards her.
"I threw up this morning," she finally announced.
"Are you getting sick?" he asked, automatically putting his hand out to her forehead. "Do you want me to get you some medicine from the store?"
"It's not like that…"she trailed off, still not looking at him. "It's happened every morning this week."
"You're…pregnant? But we've always been careful…"
"I'm not sure," she whispered at her knees, "but nothing like this has ever happened to be before."
"Arya," he said quietly, tilting up her head. "We're going to get through this. I can take a break from school for a year and move up right now, if it is true. I'm not going to let you go through this alone."
"No, she said miserably, staring straight forward. "You had so much trouble going back before, you're not going to stop again. Who knows if they'd let you back after that."
Gendry took a breath. "We'll get you a test tomorrow, and we can make a decision from there."
"No! You are not going to make the same stupid decision again!" For the first time in several minutes she looked back up at him. "I'm an adult, and I can take care of myself for a few weeks." She giggled slightly hysterically, then continued. 'I'm taking vitamins and everything, that's very adult!"
Unintentionally, he snorted. "I'm sorry, I'm sorry, but the way you said that…it's like saying 'I can tie my shoes – that's a really great reason to hire me!'"
"My mom literally spent fifteen minutes last week lecturing me on the importance of vitamins and that I need to take them every day, so I stay healthy. She said it was the 'adult' thing to do, and 'responsible.' There were a lot of important words being thrown about during that time."
"Wait a second…you just started taking those vitamins last week?" Gendry asked, looking at her suspiciously.
"Don't turn into my mom, that's just not fair. If you're going to act like that, I'm not sure if I want to live with you."
"Do you have them here?"
"Yes…" she replied slowly.
"Bring them here."
He watched as she rummaged around on a shelf in the bathroom, and came back with a bottle of one-a-day vitamins, which she handed to him. He turned it around and read the label, then looked at her.
"Did you know," Gendry said conversationally, tossing the bottle from hand to hand, "that multivitamins contain high amounts of iron and zinc?"
"Well, if you take them once a day, that makes sense, doesn't it?"
"Did you also know that high amounts of these can cause nausea?"
For the first time since she had found the letter, Arya began to smile. "So if you take them every morning…"
"…They may make you sick to your stomach." He tossed the bottle in the direction of the garbage can. "Don't take these tomorrow…if this is all it is, you're going to feel fine tomorrow, and we can chalk this up as a learning experience."
Giddily, she threw herself at him, knocking him down on his back. "So, a month and a half, and you'll be living here?"
"As long as you'll have me."
"Good," she said, leaning in close to him and lowering her voice. "Then we better make the best of the few days we have until then, if you're not going to be here for so long…"
"I guess there goes my plan of a calm, quiet weekend with you."
"You haven't even seen me riled up yet, mister," she breathed into his ear.
XXXXX-XXXXX
Later that night, as they lay in their new bedroom on the futon mattress they had pulled in – Robb would be coming with her bed the next day, so they had to make do – Gendry gently stroked Arya's hair as she drifted off to sleep, and contemplated what he would do after these few golden days were over. He had brought up most of this things, leaving only the bare essentials he would need for the next month and a half he would be spending in his parents' house.
Tomorrow he would set up the electronics in the entertainment center – Arya had said she did not want to do so, and it was his job to put it together, since she wanted to set up her desk in the study room. Then he would help organize and get things set until he had to leave Monday afternoon.
After that…he had one more errand to run before he arrived back at his parents'. He had purposely engineered a trip downstairs alone with Catelyn, feeling she would appreciate knowing his plans, especially since she had just had the bomb dropped on her that he and Arya would be living together.
Nervously, he had said he was planning on asking Arya to marry him soon, and she had given her wholehearted support when he told her his plan. With that confirmed, he would put down his second-to-last deposit on the ring he had chosen, with the final payment coming as he would be heading back to live here full-time.
Squeezing her gently one last time as he drifted off to sleep, a smile appeared on Gendry's face. Life wasn't quite perfect, but he had every confidence it would be.
Author's Notes: Whew, this whole "moving in together" thing is turning out to be quite the ride! Things never seem to go smoothly for these two…which I know, at least in this case, is totally my fault. However, what fun is there without problems?
Once again, and huge thank you to everyone that has favorited, followed, and reviewed! It's such a great confidence boost to have all these notifications that people are enjoying what I'm writing!
There's only one prompt left for this fic – drugs, which is going to be…interesting, methinks. After that, I'm thinking of a few other things to write, probably one-shots to start out with, and see where things go from there.
Have a lovely weekend!