The light had woken her up.

Slowly, her lid peeled back, expecting to see the pink sky of dawn. Instead, she saw white, fat clouds filling up the sky. She shot up and turned to wake the man sleeping next to her. "Gendry," she said hurriedly. "

"Gendry," she said hurriedly. "

"Mmphf," he turned on his side. Sansa pulled him back towards her.

"Wake up," she said, shaking his side. Reluctantly, his cracked his eyes open.

"It's late," she said. "They have to be up by now," Gendry sat up quickly and looked at the sky, suddenly fully awake as she was. He pushed himself off the stone and reached his hand down to her to pull her up. She took it and quickly stood. "They'll be out looking for us by now," she said. Sansa turned her head and scanned the room.

Gendry sat up quickly and looked at the sky, suddenly fully awake as she was. He pushed himself off the stone and reached his hand down to her to pull her up. She took it and quickly stood. "They'll be out looking for us by now," she said. Sansa turned her head and scanned the room. In the light of day, she could see how dusty it really was. Due to the rain and snow, many of the books had dried out and filled with mildew a hundred times over. Sansa looked down at the clothes that had been their bed - they too carried generations worth of stains. Insects had eaten holes through some of the fabric. Without hesitation, she reached down and pulled a maroon jacket from the heap and shook it out before handing it to him.

"Put this on," she said quickly before walking over to an overturned trunk. Taking a deep breath, Sansa swung her leg up and brought the side of her ankle down on the brass corner. She left out a small cry before leaning down to brace herself against the upturned side.

"What the hell was that for?" Gendry cried. She turned her attention back to him, and swallowed a cry.

"Well I can't very well pretend to have had an immobilizing ankle injury without a bruise," she said pragmatically. She pushed herself up, gritting her teeth against the pain as she started to limp over to him. She reached a hand out and dropped it on his shoulder. Using him for balance.

"There's a Godswood down those stairs," she said. "No doubt they already checked it, but they probably didn't check behind the bushes. There's a pile of rocks that leads down a few good feet until stopping at the stone wall." She took in a deep breath, trying to will the pain to stop. "I'll say I left in the middle of the night to pray. Say when you heard I was missing, you looked for me yourself. Now," she sighed, looking around the room. "Find some boots."

After they had pulled an old pair from under a pile of clothes, they began to make their way back to the stair case. Gendry pulled Sansa up the meter high-walls, and once she was perched on the small railing that separated the stone stairs from the hidden passage, He placed his arms under Sansa's knees and hoisted her over.

"You think Petyr will believe this?" he asked as he began to walk down the stairs.

"Probably not," she sighed. "But he won't contradict me in front of anyone,"

Once they turned the corner, they came face to face with one of the guards.

"Found them!" the guard called back over his shoulder before hustling over to the pair. Before he could reprimand them for causing the castle so much panic, Gendry spoke up.

"Help," he said, trying to sound as convincing as possible. Sansa, for her part, had started to cry.

"Oh shit," the guard sighed. Behind him, three more men had run up. Petyr followed after, a noticeable mask of concern on his face. His features fell once he saw the scene before him, and his cool demeanor once again took over.

"What happened?" he demanded as he strolled up.

"Last night," Sansa breathed in a hitching breath. Damn, she's actually pretty good at this. Gendry thought. "I went to the Godswood to pray for Sweetrobin's health and...I tried to pluck one of the roses, but I lost my footing and..." she lifted her foot up daintily.

Petyr's face did not shift.

"Take her the infirmary," he said. Quickly, one of the men took Sansa from Gendry's arms and hurriedly marched down the rest of the stairs. Sansa blue eyes flicked up to Gendry as her head bobbed behind the guard's shoulder.

"See to it that the staff is informed that she has been found," Petyr said to the other two men. With a quick nod, they walked up the rest of the way.

Gendry and Petyr stood in silence. The wind picked up.

"Feeling religious this morning?" Petyr asked.

"I had wanted to help look for her," he said. "I woke up early and went to the smith, and before I had started working someone was yelling that the Lady Sansa had gone missing." Gendry straightened his back. Petyr took him in with a wary gaze.

Without another word, Petyr turned to walk down the stairs. Gendry let out a breath he didn't know he had been holding and turned to look out over the mountains.

Fuck.

In the infirmary, the nurses had slid a light blue robe over Sansa's shoulders to protect her modesty as she lay on the examining tables with one of her feet in the air. Carefully, the old Maester maneuvered her heel in his hand. Sansa sucked at her teeth in pain.

"Looks like a sprain alright," the Maester's voice warbled.

Thank gods his eye sight is poor. Sansa frowned and forced another tear out of her eye.

"Keep it elevated for the rest of the day, and see how you feel walking on it tomorrow." he prescribed. Standing up, the Maester nodded to the guard. "Take her back to her chambers and let her rest."

As the guard picked Sansa back up, Petyr entered the room.

"Nothing to worry about, my Lord." the Maester said. "A simple sprain is all. Should be fine in a few days."

Petyr turned his face to Sansa, who looked pitiful and small in the guard's arms.

"You gave us quite a fright this morning," he said carefully.

"My sincerest apologies," Sansa said. "I had screamed for help all night, and must have fallen asleep when you checked the Gods wood."

"Must have," he said neutrally. He turned his attention to guard. "Very well, take her to her chambers."

The guard strode down the hallway silently. Once in her chambers, he quickly deposited her on the bed and left the room. Sansa reached over her shoulder and took a pillow from behind her, tossing it down and propping her foot on top.

The door opened quickly, and Petyr strolled in, his cloak billowing behind him. Waiting for the click of the door closing behind him, stared down at her. Once the door closed, she spoke.

"Fine performance you pulled off," he said stoically.

"Well I did learn from the best," she said, pushing herself up into a sitting position.

"Where were you then?" he asked.

"Gendry and I stole cakes from the kitchen. I showed him the area behind the Godswood's rose bushes and we ate down there and fell asleep." she said. She gestured down to her foot. "When we were climbing up after we had overslept, I tripped and fell down the pile."

Petyr took her in, not sure whether or not to believe her. Sansa's face didn't give anything away. Finally, he opened his mouth.

"Get some rest, Sansa," he said finally. He turned and left the room, and for a moment, Sansa held her breath as she listened for the sound of his boots clicking down the hallway.

Turning over to her bedside table, Sansa pulled some parchment, a quill and an inkwell from the drawer. Carefully maneuvering herself to turn on her side while keeping her leg elevated, she cleared a space for the paper on the table and unscrewed the pot.

Gendry stayed away from Sansa's room most of the day. In truth, he avoided the entire wing. But, knowing that Petyr would probably have spies on guard during the night, he decided it'd be best for appearances to go and visit his betrothed in her sick bed. He waited until Petyr took meeting with some Lord or another, and quickly made his way to her door.

When he entered, he saw the septa before he saw Sansa. She was sitting by the bedside, carefully embroidering something. When he looked up, her round, elderly face shout up and scowled.

"What are you doing here? You can't just enter a lady's chamber-"

"It's fine," Sansa put aside the book she had been reading and sat up smiling. Gendry made his way to her side and took her hand, trying to convey all the marks of a concerned and loving fiance, ignoring the fluttering feeling inside that he need not 'try' something that was starting to feel more natural.

As Sansa took his hand, he felt a small object being placed into his palm. Her face gave nothing away as she beamed up at him.

"How are you feeling?"

"Better," she said. "Should only be in here another day or two." she squeezed his hand and pulled away, and Gendry closed his fingers over whatever she had left behind. Quickly, he dropped it into his pocket, keeping his focus on her.

"Should know it takes more than a few rocks to keep a Northern girl down," he smiled. Sansa's face flushed pink, and she looked down at her hands.

"Well," she said, absentmindedly rubbing her thumb over her other hand. "I couldn't have escaped if you hadn't found me."

He smiled back at her as she looked up at him. From the side of her bed, the septa clucked.

"I take it's time for me to go," he said. Sansa's smile fell a bit. Gently, Gendry reached out and put his hand on the back of her neck, leaning in to kiss her forehead. Before the Septa could reprimand him for being so improper, he dropped his hand from her back and turned to leave. Sansa felt her cheeks warm.

He waited until he was in the forge to pull the gift Sansa had pressed into his hand. Upon looking at it in the light, he saw it was a meticulously folded note, with some object entrapped. Carefully, he pried the paper apart. Two sheets stacked onto each other folded out.

Gendry

Lie or no, a lady always thanks the knight who saved her from peril.

I look forward to more stars in the future.

Sansa

Gendry pulled the other larger paper from the back and turned to see what was written on it.

Unlike the other piece, this page had been ripped from a book. As Gendry scanned over the words, he recognized the prose from the story she had read to him in the forge all those months ago. However, that's not what caught his eye at first.

In small, careful lines, Sansa had drawn him across the page in red ink. Sketches of him in the forge, hunched over a book, and inspecting a small rose. She must have been watching him, all those days that he had sat across from her stumbling over words or bringing his hammer down. All this time he thought she had been scribbling notes or writing letters to whomever Baelish had her write to. Instead, she was drawing, marking up her own books with his likeness and then tearing them out to present to him. Gendry ran his finger over the red ink, amazed by the likeness. Sansa was very talented.

Putting the note back into his pocket, he felt something else, something hard, press against his finger. Fishing it out, he saw that it was a small charm in the shape of a bird.

She wore this the day I arrived. He ran the pad of his thumb over the silver, feeling the minuscule indents that defined the bird's features. He walked over to his work bench and fished out a length of a long leather string. Carefully he threaded the leather through the loop in the chain and tied the two ends together. He placed the necklace over his head and pinched the charm in between his fingers.

More stars in the future.

He tucked the necklace under his shirt.

Turning to his work bench, he decided to start a new project.