Game of Thrones: Crossroads

Chapter 20 of my Game of Thrones story, enjoy.

Reviews

Boris Yeltsin: Thanks :)
Veridissima: Thanks, glad you enjoyed it, yeah, Alyssa's a good mother to her children, they knew that they can trust her with their problems.
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Marina Ka-Fai: Yeah well, that's what she was calling her father about :)

Now onto the story.

Disclaimer: Game of Thrones belongs to George R.R. Martin.

Chapter 20

Gendry sighed as he reflected on what had happened in the past couple of months. He was out at the club again; this time he was being careful, not drinking, trying to spare himself the heartache he always suffered the following morning. In the time that had passed he and Arya had gone through the routine of ending up alone together at the club, separate from their groups; arguing while drunk, anger turning to passion and having sex twice more. But always in the morning she claimed it meant nothing and left; the last time, he didn't even try to convince or talk to her and just let her go.

'Yet I can't stop thinking about it; why do I keep doing this, I've already realized that Arya's not going to change her mind because of it.' He thought sadly. 'I don't get it, I'm not normally a glutton for punishment; so why do I keep doing it…I know she's not a lost hope, I know there's a reason, I just wish she'd tell me. I wish, what happened between us…meant something.'

Yet here he was again, at the club, watching Arya with Sansa and her friends, he and his friends were still attempting to convince her to return to them with their new method.

As he gazed forlornly over at Arya he tensed, the muscles in his jaw twitched. He could see Arya, sitting with the group, but that wasn't what set his teeth on edge. It was seeing her sitting, smiling as she spoke to that guy, Aegon, Dany's nephew. The lights from the club seemed to have a strange effect on his silver hair and purple eyes, just like it did with Dany. He couldn't deny he was deeply disturbed by the way Arya smiled and spoke to him; even laughed.

Gendry could feel his grip on his glass tighten as his thoughts ran rampant. 'I don't believe it, she can't seriously be…Gods please no. He's sitting way too close to her for my liking, is he, is he trying to…asshole, he can't touch her like that.'

Gendry felt his anger climb as Aegon's hand again went to Arya's fishnet stocking clad thigh and he attempted to slid it up under her dress, but she pushed his hand away, yet he remained sitting way to close to her. Gendry snarled, wanting desperately to walk over and pull him away; to tell him to get lost; to stop harassing Arya; he couldn't believe she wasn't pushing him away herself.

"Gendry, are you okay?" Shireen asked suddenly; startling him.

He turned quickly. "Yeah, I'm fine; sorry; got a little distracted."

Shireen nodded and Gendry did his best to listen to what she and the others were saying. However he couldn't help but be distracted by the sudden realization he had come to. He couldn't keep punishing himself like this, it would break his heart because for him, he realized, it was never just sex. He truly did care about Arya; more than that; he was in love with her, the need to have her back was much more pertinent now, he needed to see if she felt the same, when she was free of the negative influence of that group.

Arya sighed as she tried to relax; no easy task. She was stuck at this stupid party, all to protect Sansa, when she would rather be at home; wrestling her problem with her thoughts regarding Gendry; not to mention the times they had sex. It was making things even harder for her, especially where Sansa was concerned and also in regards to her parents who were becoming more and more suspicious. She stayed at the party mainly since Sansa asked her too, even if she was up dancing with Joffrey instead of hanging out with her. The only thing keeping her distracted from her own melancholy was Aegon. She had spoken to him and gradually discovered that he shared a lot of similar likes to her and was easy to talk too.

'Although I could do without him constantly touching me.' She thought angrily.

Still, she put up with it; mainly as he was someone to talk too that she didn't want to strangle after five minutes. Still she put a bit of space between herself and Aegon, but he didn't get the message and closed the gap again. She sighed; she realized that he was attracted to her, she didn't feel the same way but still, she couldn't deny he was charming, intelligent and funny, she just hoped he wouldn't mistake her friendliness for something more.

She heard the laughter and looked over at Gendry and their, no, his friends, who were the ones laughing. She bit her lip, annoyed at the conflicting feelings stirring up inside her, especially when she spotted Gendry and recalled what had happened between them. She was broken from her musings by Aegon.

"Arya are you okay, you seem kinda distracted?" He asked.

She tore her eyes from Gendry and the group and did her best to smile. "Yeah, I'm fine, it's nothing. I'm just tired."

She cursed herself for using such a lame excuse, especially since she had used it before.

Aegon raised an eyebrow and laughed. "You seem to be tired a lot."

Arya shook her head; as she feared, Aegon was all too aware that it was simply an excuse.

"Okay, you got me; but seriously, I'm okay, don't worry about it."

He looked around curiously. "What were you looking at anyway?"

She knew she had to distract him; in case he noticed Gendry and the others, looking and began asking awkward questions. So, in order to distract him she grabbed his hand and pulled him up.

"Come on, you can buy me a drink." She offered quickly.

Aegon was taken aback by her abruptness but then smiled. "Okay then."

They headed up to the bar. Arya was suddenly glad for the distraction and to get away as far as possible from Gendry and the memories of what they had done together. She was trying not to think about him and the last few times they had met, what had happened between them, which thankfully still appeared to be a secret.

End of chapter, reached the halfway point of the story now, hope you enjoyed it, read and review please.