A/N: Okay well, I think I should be able to keep this pace up, since I'm doing this through Mock exams season. Enjoy, even if it is a little bit of a linking chapter. (little bit? It is a linking chapter)

Much to the pleasure of most at Harrenhal, Lord Baelish left in the early hours of the next morning. He had not spoken to Tywin as he left - other than to say his goodbyes and promptly leave the area with a gleeful smile. A smile that had unnerved Arya and Gendry as they stood in the yard. Gendry holding his heated sword as he allowed it cool slightly before preparing to work it - Arya stood eating an apple by his side.

Baelish just smiled and left.

Once he was far from the castle gates Arya was called up to see Tywin once again - he needed his cupbearer to bear cups, or at least keep up appearances. When she arrived she went about her work. Like she always did.

Silent.

Listening. Watching. Responding.

It stayed like this, in a cycle of constant repetition for the following weeks She would fill Tywin's goblet to full with wine or water, talk with him about Winterfell and her home. Talk with him about family, about his own. He admitted things to her about his children who he hated and loved, they talked about Joffery and the sayings of her youth - but never did it ever give anything away to each other. He knew she still hated him, she knew she couldn't trust him.

It was a day like any of the others when it all changed. She had gone down to the barrel of water to refill the metal flagon when she found a Lannister helm sat proudly and out of place on the lid of the barrel. She stuttered at the sight of the lorathi criminal turning the corner. "A girl owes a man two names,"

"A girl will give a man the names when the time comes," Arya said, placing the flagon down on the ground and turning to face the man behind her. Her eyes meeting the man's with a confused glare as she mimicked what he had said to her.

"A girl is too close to the Lannister Lord," Jaqen said to Arya, observing the girl's reaction carefully, watching her freeze at what he said and lowered to pick up the flagon again, watching the man with anger as she went to lift the lid on the barrel.

"I am doing this to survive." Arya snapped at the man before her, dipping the flagon into the water and feeling it cool around her skin. She lifted it out, growling lightly as the man's gaze turned sympathetic.

"A girl should leave this place." He said bluntly, watching as she placed the lid back on the barrel and the flagon on top of it. She looked him in eye, surprised slightly by his words with no reason behind them.

"I cannot. They'll find me no matter what now." She said sadly yet obviously, she knew she was right, and so did he. At least, she hoped he knew she was right - because she was. She glanced around the stone walls knowing that even the melted stone of the castle knew that she was right. Even the land where those rocks had once stood knew.

"Then a girl was reckless." Whatever sympathy Jaqen had once felt for Arya had dissipated within the seconds following her voice speaking. She felt bitter in the change of tone. " A girl should go, a girl's master is waiting for his drink."

"He is not my master." She growled, picking up the flagon of water and feeling it slosh over the sides, some dripping onto her hands she stood and kept eye contact with the man. He seemed unfazed by the young wolf's reaction. He was not surprised by it, nor did it scare her. She was young, she could not hurt him half as much as he could hurt her. He had nothing to loose, and she had everything.

"Then you should hurry." As she turned to leave he thought over he collective of ideas, knowing that he could easily hurt the girl but wouldn't. Because why would it benefit him to hurt the girl, why would it benefit the god of death or any of the others be benefited by her being hurt.

The girl was much stronger hurt than she was in that moment, the man reminded himself as he walked away from the scene, helmet in hand.

"Stannis Baratheon is planning to charge on King's Landing, My Lord." The war room smelt of the wine that they had all drank, the food smelt off and Lord Tywin had grown weary of the girl not returning as soon as he had expected. He listened briefly to the conversation, ignoring the cooling smells lingering in the air around them - like the mist lingering in the air around the castle towers.

"That was something we expected," Another of his men spoke, gesturing over the table at the other who had spoken. Arya then entered the room, carrying the flagon and then promptly set to work filling the goblets in the room. The man continued speaking. "but not so soon."

"This is war." Tywin stood, walking away from the table to stare out of the area of Harrenhal - his eyes scanning the area he knew they had to leave. His voice was bitter like the cold air that bit at the members of his council and his men. "Nothing is ever what we expect."

"What do we do?"

"We defend the capital at all costs - we are not Robb Stark, we defend our home base." Tywin glanced towards Arya as he spoke, watching as the girl flinched and froze. She looked as if she was about to bite back at him, but she didn't. She didn't say anything. She just turned back to face him with a glare and continued with her work.

"What about all the ground we have gained?"

"Gained? We are loosing this war right now." Tywin laughed humourlessly - his eyes still watching Arya as a smile danced over her lips at the fact that they were admitting they were loosing. Perhaps she hoped that if they lost enough her mother and brother would save her. "We defend Casterly Rock, King's Landing and the remaining South with all costs." He continued, looking at each member of his council in the eye before taking a sip of his water. "Even if we lose land, we can win it back."

"When do we leave?" His brother asked, standing and causing the others to stand also. All of them fixed on the Lannister lord's every word on their locations.

"By mid-day light. Take our men, leave Clegane and his - we bring the girl and blacksmith as well." Tywin rolled off his orders quickly ignoring how Arya froze again, how she turned wide-eyed to face him, how she almost dropped the flagon of water. She stayed in the same place as the men left the room, leaving Tywin alone with the girl as they left to prepare to move out.

Tywin then turned to her, motioning for her to place the water on the desk - which she promptly did. "Girl, collect the boy and your things." He said, not saying her name because the men still did not know her name. She looked like a doe caught - fearful for her life. Fight or flight instigating from the simple fact that she would be returning to King's Landing. "Meet the convoy at the gates, we leave at mid-day light."

"What if we don't show?" She snarled slightly - perhaps not intentionally, but it was still heard by the Lannister Lord. He narrowed his eyes slightly at her, causing her to raise onto the balls of her feet. Her comment so innocent that he knew that she was actually debating not showing, he'd spent enough time with his own children to know that.

"Then you will be left here with Clegane and I shall inform him of who you are." He said blatantly, not a single shred of anger or annoyance raising to his voice. She shuddered, flinched and glanced towards the window. Her hands grasping at her side, as if going for a sword that was once there. "Good, that scares you - go and tell the boy."

She fled the room, the plates still there. Clegane could clear the table. There were few short hours between then and time they would have to leave.

—

"What do you mean you're leaving?" Hot Pie exclaimed as he watched his friends pack clothing they had being given into a bag. Their bags seeming empty to them without the steel that used to accompany it all - the helmet and the needle.

"Tywin wants Gendry and I to go to King's Landing with him." Arya said matter-of-factly as she scruffily folded a tunic into her sack. Their room was emptying rather quickly of any personal items that belonged to them once.

"Doesn't he have enough blacksmiths in King's Landing." Hot Pie asked sulkily, he frowned - looking as if there were tears bidding for escape at his eyes. He seemed disappointed that his friends were so compliant to what was going on, especially since Arya had often referred to Tywin as the 'enemy'.

"That's not why we are going Hot Pie." Gendry sighed, wishing he could stay in Harrenhal also. Especially since he did not look forward to being the self-adopted 'ward' of Tywin Lannister. Forced into the court of Kings without a word. "We don't have a choice."

"Why not?" Hot Pie asked another question, hurt by how the answers did not seem to get any better for him or any more positive. Hurt that his questions did not seem to comfort his friends but only annoy them further.

"Because he knows who we are Hot Pie." Arya said, refolding a tunic so that she could fit more in her sack, glancing over the material towards the boy who seemed even more saddened that the words did not get any more comforting. "And to them we're very important."

"We can't stay Hot Pie." Gendry looked up at his friend, placing his hand on the boy's shoulder and smiling sympathetically. He didn't want to leave him behind, but Tywin had only told him and Arya to go, and neither of them were in a place to argue or ask things of the Lannister lord. "As much as we might like to, we can't."

"I'm sorry Hot Pie" Arya moved around

"Where am I meant to go now? I don't have any friends left." Large tears rolled down the boys cheeks, dampening them as they fell. "They took Lommy and now they're taking you." His words stuttered and stumbled on the tears that ran his face.

"You'll find someone, Hot Pie, you'll find someone…" Gendry smiled sadly towards the boy, he had hoped that the three of them could have made it away from this dreadful place and live out in the forrest - go north for Arya and survive. Live, they were surviving - but to him he wanted to live. He never wanted to be Robert Baratheon's bastard son. He never wanted to be Arya Stark's betrothed. He wanted to be a blacksmith and work at that all of his life, not be a lord-to-be and a pawn in a war.

"I'll miss you, Hot Pie!" Arya hugged the boy, tears welling in her own eyes. She couldn't take this, it was hard enough going back to King's Landing, now she was leaving behind her friend.

"Lord Tywin, are we ready to leave." One of the red cloaked men yelled towards the Lannister Lord, who was too busy paying attention to the gate to quite realise that the man was speaking. He stared at the empty frame of the gate - his men may be ready to leave, but until the girl and boy were in the convoy would he leave. The flurry of red and gold surrounded the convoy, the men growing restless and hoping to leave to defend their capital sooner. It was then that the scruffily clad boy and girl turned the corner and ran towards him.

"Girl, Boy, get in the cart. There's no time to saddle you a horse." Tywin's jaw was set with anger, his words bitter as the two approached his horse with a quick bow. Arya was the first to look up and respond to his words, jumping into the cart beside his horse and curling up quickly - adverse to the cooling air around her.

Gendry was a little slower. "I'm sorry milord we were just-" he stuttered out, raising his eyes slightly to look at the Lannister Lord as he spoke to him. His gaze wearily travelling to address the Lord eye to eye, weary that some man of the Lord's guard finding him disrespectful and punishing him.

"Get in the cart boy." Tywin didn't care for the boy's excuse then, which annoyed the boy heavily since he wanted to explain himself. Gendry reluctantly climbed into the cart with Arya, sitting beside her to comfort her. Tywin turned his horse so that he was level beside the duo. "We'll talk later." He said to them, regarding them alone - although some of his men seemed aggravated by this - as if they believed that they should have some more gratitude then others already gave them.

"Move out." He yelled to his generals, trotting his horse beside the cart before galloping ahead of it. Gendry glanced at Arya when this happened, confused as he had expected Tywin to berate them for not arriving when they were told to. Or at least stay by them. He feared slightly for the looks the men sent them, looks of confusion and anger. He saw how some glanced over Arya and how Arya was shivering. He assumed it wasn't from the cold, she was of the north and would be more used to it than any of these men were.

She had curled up beside him, staring back at the fortress and the swirling smokes around the towers. Watching as a the sight of the boy they had called friend disappeared quickly into the distance and they were soon on the road to a place she regarded as a hell.

A place she hated.

She wasn't paying attention when Gendry laid one of the blankets from the cart over her, she shuddered at the sudden contact and glanced up at his face. He was looking pensively back at the fortress himself.

They both hated to admit it, but they would miss that place. They would miss that final feeling that all freedoms were obtainable to them.

King's Landing was glazed in orange lights, greens and golds reflected in the peach coloured waters of the many courtyards in the sandstone buildings. A brown horse of Essos fled through the glazed town, disrupting the amber caught city as he charged towards the Red Keep - his rider working the horse until it reached the gate. The gate opened for the horse and it's rider, the rider easily recognised by the gatesmen. He didn't say anything before taking a drink of water that he was offered as he dismounted his horse.

"I have to speak with the Queen, boy." The man said to a nearby serf, who took the water from the man's hand, replacing it with wine. The boy looked hesitantly at the man - his mockingbird pin glittering in the refection of the wine the man held - he knew who this man was and what he had done.

"She's in a meeting with the council, discussing the matter of the pending battle." The boy responded, watching as the man then took his leave quickly through the nearest archway that lead to the council room. He broke into a run as the boy watched before disappearing from the boy's view. He did not like the man very much, but he did not have any room - at all - to express his views. So the boy disappeared silently through another arch.

The man, however, moved quickly through the halls to the council room. He knew the halls well, having made the journey many a time in the reign of King Robert. He did not run the entire way, he had to retain some dignity when he finally entered the council chamber. A gleeful smile as he burst into the room. "Joyous news!"

"Nice for you to join us, Lord Baelish." The imp at the edge of the table said, his eyes looking towards the man who had just entered. Baelish quickly sat, taking the wine goblet and sipping. Well it has to be better than this horse-piss."

"I have found Arya Stark." Baelish announced triumphantly, leaning back into his chair with a smile.

"Now this is joyous news. Where is she?" Tyrion knew he sounded quite condescending and disdainful in how underwhelmed he sounded when regarding Baelish, but he didn't particularly care. He cared more for the location of the girl, hoping she was not also in the brothel - like how he had hidden Catelyn Stark there when Lord Eddard still walked among the living.

"With your father, Lord Tywin." Baelish saw how the sudden interest was lost by Varys when he said this fact. Tyrion frowned at the fact the girl was with his father, he knew this wasn't a good thing. This fact told him that the girl had gotten so close to the fighting lines - so close to her own family. Although he may not have liked the Starks, for the girl to be returned to King's Landing so soon after getting so close may break her spirits.

"You didn't find her then, did you?" Tyrion's older sister spoke up, her eyes narrowed towards Baelish but her speak articulate as always. It was something more disdainful than Tyrion, it was more subtle, more perfected - like her ability to rip important papers and hiding truths. "My father did."

"But she is indeed, found." Baelish pointed out, moving his hand in a gesture he often used when attempting to make a valid point. Varys had seen Baelish attempt to win favour with Lord Stark, Arryn and the others in the room - it had often worked. But towards Varys it made him feel sick to the stomach.

"This is not selling me to the idea of this, Lord Baelish. Lord Tywin has the Stark girl?" Varys asked, his thoughts worried for the girl. He thought back to her the girl had travelled with originally, assuming it was the Night's Watch like he had hoped - then the bastard boy he had liberated from the city was also in that group. He knew that the men had returned saying that the boy Gendry was dead and this Varys sincerely hoped. Because if Tywin Lannister had the boy, he was not sure what the fate for the boy would be.

"Yes, Lord Varys." Baelish's voice broke the thoughts of the eunuch's, his simple acknowledgement allowed Varys to exhibit some of his confusion

"And he did not send you with her?" Varys asked the brothel owner, his hands following a similar gesture to what Baelish's own had earlier. For two could very easily play at that game. There were enough people playing games, why not include himself in this.

"I assume he has his own plans for the girl." Baelish stated, taking a sip of his wine afterwards. He knew that every set of eyes in that chamber hall were on their conversation, every set of ears wanting to hear what had happened.

"And what are these plans for her?" Varys asked, taking a sip of his own wine before continuing - not allowing Baelish the chance to cause more cryptic answers that did not answer his question. It was something both men were very clever at doing, but it was not helping Varys reach the conclusion he hoped to reach. "That is, I assume you ma have some idea about them to say that you assume he has his own plans for her."

"It's probably something to do with the boy she was travelling with." Baelish stated, waiting for Varys to respond with another question. By this point Cersei and Pycelle were too interested and invested in the conversation to notice Tyrion's attempts to change the conversation back to one of the upcoming battle.

"As much as this is exciting news, it is hardly worth pig-shit in the interest of this upcoming battle…" Tyrion stated, his voice trailing off before he could figure out where he was going to go with that sentence as he found himself lingering on his own words. He turned to Bronn who had somehow managed to stay silent throughout the conversation. "Excuse me Lords, Sister, I think I may have a way for us to win this battle." The imp stood, nodding at Bronn as his repeated the words 'pig-shit' to him. Yes, he knew how they would win the upcoming battle.

But he doubted that when he returned the subject matter would have changed much from 'the finding of Arya Stark'. An apparently incredibly important subject.