Another chapter since I slacked off so much last month!
SortofGuest: Damn that was exactly what I was hoping to avoid! I don't like all the stories were Arya is portrayed as passive in any sense either. My intention was to make it seem like she had bigger problems than Gendry's "whoring around." and he needs to get his own sit together,but she'll always support her just goes to show I'm assuming to much. Appreciate the comment though, helps me grow as a writer!
Wright: Always love your comments! I like Ned too! He's just the vanilla good guy, but that's not a crime. Always hopes he settled down with someone as nice as him LOL!
Happy Reading!
They stood there, fighting over Ned's unconscious body that lay between them.
"Well if he didn't force it and you didn't want to why did you bloody well let him." Gendry shouted, not noticing the bruise already forming on his knuckles.
He looked intimidating, standing at him full height, muscles bulging, hands still formed in fists. Never had anyone made Arya feel so small.
"I just thought I should get it over with." Arya shouted back. "If I'm gonna be married off to some random lord, might as well get used to it."
"So you thought let me just kiss Ned Dayne! Ned of all people!" Gendry roared back her.
"Sorry I didn't run it by you first! Let me get sit down and have a meal with every whore you decide to bed! When I deem one appropriate I'll make sure to let you know!" Arya snarled.
Great, the bull and the wolf fighting once more.
Gendry's shoulders fell and he groaned out loud. Partially in frustrated, the other part from knowing she was right.
As much as he wanted to tell her she was wrong he couldn't. It sickened him to think about the old lord who she would be betrothed to. How he would never love Arya for who she is, he would take her sword and breeches only to push her into gowns and needlework. The thought of some faceless man's hands on her, kissing her soft lips, eyes on her naked body was enough to make him sick. He was a hypocrite and a bastard. Couldn't he just be one, he thought angrily.
His anger was overshadowed by sorrow when he looked up at her. She looked so helpless. Her fists were still clenched at her side, but tears threatened to fall from her eyes at any moment. He had always protected her, but now what could he do.
Gendry recalled the first time he realized that he realized that his feelings for her went far beyond, just wanting to protect her.
" Are you stupid?" Hot Pie had laughed. " Fucking and raping ain't the same thing"
"I know!" Shouted Arya " I just said the all men probably act the same once the get a woman naked. That's why I'll never take a lover"
Arya crosses her arms over her growing chest.
Gendry winced at her last comment. Pity was not something one would usually associate with Arya Stark but at this moment he felt nothing but. This girl had been on the run for so much of her life and had seen things no child, no person should ever have. He knew because he had been there. He was there everytime a man had reached out to touch her forcefully, he was there when the other boys had shouted the things they would do to her if they got her alone and he had been there covering her ears every night in Harrenhal when the guards would choose a woman to rape each night. It was no wonder she was disgusted with men.
" It's not at all like that" Gendry spoke up. " Both men and women enjoy fucking. Sometimes it's even quiet tender."
"Tender?! Gods Gendry sometimes I think your the woman. Anyway how would you know" Hot Pie laughed.
Gendry ignored the boy still focusing on Arya.
" One day you'll meet a man who will show you ..."
" Well there's no man I trust enough to ever get close enough to try" said Arya angrily " We'll besides you and Hot Pie"
" Yeah Arya maybe we could get in some practice together" said Hot Pie with a wide grin.
He howled when he received a simultaneous kick in the shins from Arya and slap on the head from Gendry.
"I was just joking" Hot Pie mumbled stroking the spot where Gendry had hit him.
" Well" said Arya standing up " I guess I'll just have to take learning into my own hands."
And with that she walked off leaving the two boys as her words sunk in.
Gendry can remember how her words had echoed in his head all day and the mental images that followed. She had not been a child for quiet some time, but for her to talk so plainly he had finally realized it. He had fantasized the truth to her words may times in his dreams, but even now he wondered how true they were.
She was nine and ten and he knew that women had the same needs as men, but that wasn't the reason she chose to kiss Ned, was it?
If he hadn't knocked him out, Arya would have stopped it from going further, right?
The thought alone built up anger that could be directed no where else, but the still unconcious Ned.
"For fucks sake, help me will you!" said Arya as she removed her tunic, plunging it in the lake.
"What...Wait was are you? Gendry garbled out, as Arya remained in just her small clothes from the waist up.
Arya shot him a glare as the placed the cold damp shirt on Ned's forehead.
"He's fine" Gendry grunted. " I only punched him once."
"I'm not about to boost you're ego , by letting you know how much damage your fists can do" said Arya as she tried to keep a smirk from forming.
"Good!" Gendry thought. " At least she wouldn't slit his throat when the slept."
Arya continued to presse the damp shirt on his head before she chortled.
"I have no idea what I'm doing" she laughed. " Never found the need to help someone after a fight."
"Here let me" said Gendry smiling as he kneeled down next to her. " He'll come to any minute"
Silence fell between them.
" I didn't hear about the marriage" Gendry blurted our. " I mean I didn't hear all of what Lea was saying, I would have come after you sooner"
" And what? Been on the receiving end of my attempt at controlling my life instead of Ned" Arya grumbled.
"Well yeah." Gendry blushed. " I mean not like that, but you know we could talked."
"And what advice could you have offered" Arya questioned.
Gendry felt his throat go dry.
Ned began to groan a bit, as his eyes opened.
"Thank the Gods" Arya muttered.
"Arya?...Gendry.?.." Ned said as his eyes glazed over the pair. " What happend?"
"A stupid bull knocked you out" said Arya.
Ned's eyes shone as the memory of the feel of Arya's lips came flooding back to him.
"Look I'm sorry Ned , Arya explained everything" Gentry said hurriedly. " I just reacted."
" It's alright I would have done the same thing" said Ned wearily.
"No you wouldn't have " said Arya and Gendry simultaneously. He laughed and she shot him another glare
Ned tried to sit up, but found himself immediately pushed back by the duo.
"It's better if you lay for a while" Gendry said in a concerned voice.
He could hear Arya huff along side him as she continued to press the still damp shirt along his neck.
"Arya...your shirt.." Ned said as e gazed up at her.
Gendry immediately tugged off his own tunic. Handing it over to her.
"Don't even bother arguing with me" Gendry said gruffly. "Just put it on" he was not in the mood for arguing.
As if for the hundredth time that night she shot him a death glare as she out on his shirt that greatly overwhelmed her small figure.
He could think of no better picture than her standing there in his shirt.
It was never really fair. The fact that he could release his own self hate through sex, but she could not not. Hell's she couldn't eve kiss another man without him going to her defense. He had always thought in defense of her claim that ladies had as much rights as men, but there he was once again a walking deserved to have all the pleasures in the world and how he wished be could be the one to give her the greatest pleasure,but knew that could never happen. Was it fair then that he wish to deny her it from any other man.
They both still hovered over Ned, but instead her grey eyes focused on his blue one. The boy that lay between them seemed to disapear as it was just a girl and a boy once more
"I told you, that I wish there were no secrets between us. said Arya solemnly. " No matter what the rumors may be I wish to go home.
Gendry couldn't break his gaze from her own.
"As you wish M'lady." he said grimly " I will remain at your side as always"
"You know you don't have to Gendry" she said simultaneously as Ned let out another groan in pain.
"I will follow you to the ends of the earth." Gendry said never breaking her gaze.