Hi! I planned to update earlier, but there wasn't time :S ok, so new chapter!

Quick note for people that say that they would be grossed out by a sexual relationship between Arya and Jaqen... I just have one thing to tell you: trust me, please. I know what I want to do with this story, and I hope that in the end everyone will be pleased.

The storm didn't recede. Instead, it just kept growing stronger and fiercer. The sound of the wind was deafening, and rain fell with such strength that it had already flooded the ground beneath them. Sansa, Sandor and Jon had been searching for Arya for hours, riding south. The knights had broken into four groups, and each on of them went in different directions: north, south, west and east. Sansa, Sandor and Jon were riding south, and for now they had been unsuccessful in their mission. As minutes passed, things just seemed to be getting worse. They had no idea in which direction Jaqen and Arya had escaped, and the storm didn't allow them to see anything. They felt that they were riding towards a dead end.

"Arya!" Sansa was yelling, trying to be heard over the noise of the storm. "ARYA!"

"Aryaaa!" Jon called the girl, hoping to get a response.

"Fucking hells, wolf-bitch!" Sandor barked, feeling in an even darker mood as time passed and he was even more tired and annoyed. "When we find you, I'm gonna gut you for running away today!"

He didn't mean it, of course, but he was really annoyed.

They couldn't hear or see anything. They heard the tree branches cracking and they feared that one would fall on them. Sansa wasn't worried about herself, but Jon and Sandor did feel afraid for her.

"Sansa, we have to go back!" Jon shouted. "It's very dangerous!"

"No! We need to find Arya first!" she shouted back. "I'm not going back home without my sister!"

"I'll go to the seventh hell before I let you stay one more minute in this fucking storm and get killed, little bird!" Sandor yelled, angry. He wa really worried about his wife, and he didn't want any harm coming to her. As much as he wanted to save his gooodsister, he had to think about Sansa first. She was more important than anything else to him, and right now she was in danger. "We'll come back to look for her when the storm is gone, I promise!"

"By then, it might be too late!" Sansa replied, looking around desperate, but there was nothing there.

"Please, Sansa!" her husband begged. "The braavosi will be taking care of Arya! Now I need to take care of you!"

Sansa didn't say anything, she just sighed, and nodded, agreeing with Sandor to return to Winterfell for safety during the storm. Just as she was turning her horse around, lightning iluminated the sky, allowing to see a figure that passed galloping at great speed next to her, splashing water everywhere and following a great direwolf.

"Gendry!" Jon shouted at the young man, recognizing him as he galoped away.

"Where are you going, you son of a whore?!"

Gendry ignored them. He just kept urging his horse to run faster behind Nymeria, who was leading him towards the south. He was completelly ignoring the raging storm around him, he wasn't frightened by the powerful thunder omnirange the furious wind and rain that blinded him. The only thought was that Arya was out there, and she could get hurt in this weather. In spirit, she was incredibly tough, but she was also a fragile little being that could not stand against a storm like that. The sooner that Gendry found her, the safer that she would be. He was worried sick about her.

Where are you, damn you Arya, where are you...? Gendry muttered in his mind. He couldn't see a thing around him but he could see Nymeria, and he was just following her without questioning the direwolf. He had long ago left behind Sansa, Jon and Sandor, and now he was almost completelly alone, save for Nymeria.

"Arya!" he shouted, hoping to be heard over the wind. "ARYA!"

The wasn't a reply. How far away was she? Had Jaqen H'ghar hurried a lot to get both him and the young lady as far away from Winterfell as possible? Where they still alive? Gendry didn't even want to consider the alternative to the last question. He was going to find Arya, he was going to find her...

"ARYA!" his voice got lost in the storm.

Far away from there, Arya Stark rode in the back of a horse with her arms richly wrapped around Jaqen H'ghar, trying very hard not to fall off. She wasn't afraid of the storm, or at least not a lot, but she had kept her eyes shut since the lightning strted to get more intense, and flinched at the sound of the thunder that made her feel like her ears were going to explode. She pressed the side of her face against Jaqen's back, who hadn't said anything since they left Winterfell. Was he regretting leaving the castle and adventuring into that dangerous weather?

As if he had read her mind, Jaqen suddenly spoke.

"Are you alright, lovely girl?!" he asked, loud enough to be heard over the storm.

"Yes!" she said without hesitation. She wasn't afraid, she really wasn't.

"You haven't changed your mind?!" he kept asking.

"Do you want to go back?" she shot back. Maybe he was really regretting it after all.

"No!" he said then. "A man will only do what a girl tells him to do! What do you want me to do, lovely girl?!"

"I don't want to go back" she whispered. Somehow, he heard her, and he kept galloping.

She wasn't sure where he was taking her. She knew that they were going south, but they hadn't taken the kingsroad. No one would have it easy to find them that way. They were galloping through the woods, and the trees were shaking around them, moved by the wind and whipped by the rain. Arya was a little afraid that one of the trees might fall on them a crush them. She had seen many trees that had been torn out of the ground by strong winds like those. She held on tigger to Jaqen, amost crushing the breath out of him.

"Don't be afraid!" she heard Jaqen exclaim. His voice seemed to come from far, far away... "A girl must not be afraid while a man is with her!"

She knew that. Nothing was going to happen to her. So she relaxed, and just let herself be carried away on top of the galloping horse through the storm and the woods. She didn't really know how much time had passed, or how far away they were. Had people already realized that she was gone? Were they looking for her? Was Gendry looking for her?

She surprised herself with that last question. What dis she care if Gendry was looking for her? She hoped he wasn't, and if he was, then she disn't want him to ever find her. She didn't want to ever see him again. She regreted not having brought Needle with her, so that she could stick the stupid bull with the pointy end if she ever saw him again.

Thunder struck right in the sky over their heads, illuminating everything for moment in a terrifying way. The sound was deafening. Arya screamed, actually frightened this time, and Jaqen's horse stopped galloping and raised itself over it's back legs, throwing Arya off it's back and into the wet and muddy ground. She felt the air leaving her lungs when her back hit the ground, and the mud stained her clothes and hair, but the heavy rain washed it away when she stood up. Jaqen managed to control his horse quickly, and he extended his hand towards Arya to help her up again. However, before she could even hold his hand, yet another thunder struck again, and this time it hit one of the trees in front of them. The tree was immediatly set on fire and it broke in half, falling in front of them, bloking the path.

Jaqen's horse went crazy with fear. Jaqen held the reigns tightly, trying to control the animal and calm it down.

"Bloody beast!" Arya heard the man muttering before he fell off the horse as well. The animal acted like if it was possessed, and ran off in fear of the fire as soon as it found itself free of its master.

Arya though that maybe Jaqen would run after the horse, but he didn't; he just let the animal go and run for it's life. Jaqen closed the distance between himself and Arya with two quick steps, and grabbed her arm.

"Come, lovely girl. It's not safe here" because he was closer to her now than he had been before, he didn't need to shout anymore, and Arya heard him perfectly fine.

She looked up at the dark sky for a second before following Jaqen, who was walking away from the fallen tree that had been set on fire. Arya still had no idea where they were heading, but she knew that being out there in the open right at that moment was extremelly dangerous. They needed to find a safe place to hide from the storm, and quickly, before another tree fell on them or lightning hit them. Arya didn't want either one of those two things to happen to them.

"Where are we going?!" she asked, trying to keep up with Jaqen. The man was still holding her arm and was almost running, and he was too fast. "We could look for an inn!"

"The closest inn is in the kingsroad, lovely girl, and we have kept a big distance from it. We will be dead before reaching it in this weather."

"But we don't know where we are going?!" she exclaimed. She didn't want to panic, but she was starting to.

Jaqen turned his head around to look at her. The rain had soaked him too from head to toe and his hair was all over his face. His eyes were dead serious, but a small smile appeared on his mouth.

"A man does" he said then, urging Arya to move faster. She did, and didn't ask any more questions. She just followed him, and before long, they found a little cave big enough to fit them both in if they knelt down on the ground. It wasn't exactly a cave, but more like a hole in the ground made by rocks, dirt and lifted tree roots. However, it was enough for them, as long as it kept them from further soaking under the rain.

"There" Jaqen said, pointing with his finger to the small refuge. Both him and Arya immediatly ran towards the place, hurrying inside it. It was a relief to stop being constantly hit by the heavy rain drops.

It wasn't very comfortable inside that place. It was terribly small, and Jaqen had to kneel and bend his head down a little to completely fit inside it. Arya was smaller than him and didn't have to bend her head, but she also had to kneel down. Both their backs hit the wall made of dirt, rocks and roots, so they couldn't get farder away from the rain that fell down in the open, but at least the place was wide enough from side to side so that they could lay down to rest. They didn't do that yet, however. Jaqen's eyes were moving around, trying to find any dangers that could be hissing out in the open in front of them. Arya was at his side, hugging herself tightly. She was freezing and couldn't stop trembling. She hadn't bothered to grab more clothes when she ran away from Winterfell, and she just had a tunic, breeches and a pair of boots on, nothing more. Jaqen seemed to notice that when he heard her teeth were chattering.

He removed the coat he was wearing and threw it over her shoulders. Arya felt instantly better and warmer. It might be because the coat still had Jaqen's warmth on.

"Thank you" she murmured. She noticed then that Jaqen was wearing only a tunic too. "But now you are going to be cold..."

Jaqen shook his head. "A man will be fine. But a man wants to know what happened to the lovely girl back in the castle. What did the boy do?"

Arya didn't want to talk about it, but she figured that since Jaqen hadn't questioned her before and was stuck in the middle of that terrible storm because of her, because she had asked him to take her away. She knew that he deserved an explanation, but she couldn't bring herself to talk about it yet. She was still in shock.

Jaqen understood, and he sighed.

"It's alright... You can tell a man in the morrow, when things are better" he said, gently placing his hand on her shoulder in a comforting way.

"I'll tell you" she whispered. "I just need to rest."

"A man knows. Sleep, girl. A man will keep watch for the night."

"Dont let them find me" she quickly said. He eyed her suspiciously.

"A man won't let that happen" he said, and Arya knew that he wasn't lying. He had promised her that he would do whatever she wanted, and she knew perfectly fine that he always kept his promises. "But if you change your mind, a girl needs only ask..."

"I want to leave Westeros" she suddenly blurted out.

She disn't know where that had come from. She had just said it. She disn't know why she had said it, but she knew that at that moment that was the only thing that she wanted.

Jaqen looked to be alarmed. He hadn't expected her to say that, and now he was frowning. He stared down at her trying to find out what was on her mind, but he couldn't. He gave up, and he sighed yet another time.

"As a man said before, a girl need only ask. A girl commands, and a man will obey."

Good, she thought. She felt calmer then, knowing that they would really go very far away, as promised. She didn't really want to leave Winterfell, she didn't want to leave her family. But her almost irrational mind could only think of Gendry, and she wanted to be as far away from Gendry as possible. Going away to Essos would fix that.

It started raining even more heavily that before. The noise it made was extremelly loud, and the rain was coming inside their little refuge, keeping them from being dry and warm.

A cold chill ran through Arya's body, and she shivered. The coat wasn't enough to keep her warm; if she continued like that, and soaked as she was, the. She was going to catch a cold and that would be bad.

Suddenly, Jaqen's arms were around her, and his hands were rubbing her back to keep her warm. Arya silently thanked the gesture, and rested her head against Jaqen's chest. In a minute or so, she was warm enough to stop shivering, though she was still soaked to her bones.

"Thanks" she whispered.

"Is that better?" Jaqen asked. Arya nodded, and pulled away from him. He let his hands go of her.

There was an awkward silence between them then. The only thing that could be heard was the wind, the rain, the movement of the trees... Arya stared straight into Jaqen's eyes. She felt something in the pit of her stomach then, and she didn't know whether to move her sight away from him or not.

She did look away, when an specially powerful lightning illuminated everything, making everything as light as in plain daylight. Both Arya and Jaqen took their eyes away from each other and looked outside from their small refuge for a second, observing everything while it was still illuminated. A few seconds later, when it was dark again, they heard the thunder. They looked into each other's eyes then, just for an instant...

She didn't know how or why she did it. She just knew that suddenly, she was kissing Jaqen.

She hadn't even planned it, and she was just as surprised as he was. She had felt the impulse, and she had followed her instinct. She pressed her mouth against Jaqen's, feeling the soft touch of his lips against hers. It was a very strange feeling, yet pleasant. Her lips were pressed hard against his, and it was an impulsive kiss, yet it was innocent. Jaqen seemed to be startled at first, completely taken by surprise, but he didn't pull away. He just stood there until Arya separated her mouth from his and pulled back.

She stared directly into his eyes while she felt that she was blushing furiously. She was afraid that what she had just done was a stupid, foolish thing. Why had she kissed him! Obviously Jaqen couldn't like her... Surely she was mad at her now, and he would leave her alone in the middle of that awful storm...

Another lightning and thunder. Before it was over, Arya and Jaqen found themselves in each other's arms, kissing passionately. Arya was kissing him, and he was kissing her back!

Arya couldn't think of anything more than what was happening right there at that moment. There wasn't anything soft or innocent of gentle about that kiss; that kiss was fierce and desperate. Jaqen's arms held her tightly, and she moaned against his mouth. Her lips parted, and the kiss deepened, becoming something wet and exciting. Their tongues danced in their mouths, exploring each other. Jaqen buried his fingers in Arya's hair, while her arms were around his neck, and she pressed herself against him. All that was something completely new and unexplored for her. She felt an infinity of sensations exploding deep within herself, making her skin burn with... desire?

Arya leaned more against Jaqen, making the kiss harder, and the man feverishly kissed her in return. Arya heard him moaning in the back of his throat... No, she didn't hear him, she felt him.

Then the kiss became softer, and as quickly as it had started it ended. Arya and Jaqen separated from each other and they stared into their eyes. Arya's face was burning, and Jaqen was panting. It was so strange for Arya to see the man like that... he was always so calm in every ocassion, yet here he looked like he had no idea how to act, or what to say, or even could put his thought in order. Arya felt the same way. Her lips were sore and swollen (just like Jaqen's!) and she felt like there was a hurricane inside her. What had just happened? Why had it happened?

"Jaqen..." she started saying, but he gently hushed her. His hands were still on her hip and tangled in her long wet locks, were they had stayed during the whole time they were kissing, instead of roaming around her body like she knew that other men did to women. She realized that Jaqen had been very... respectful. She didn't exactly know what to make of it, but she felt comfortable.

Jaqen took his hand away from her hair and caressed her face with his fingers. It was strange that an assassin's hand could have such a gentle touch. He was still breathing hard, but he had manage to regain a but of control over himself.

"A girl has had a long day" he said then. "A girl should rest."

"But-"

"Go to sleep" he insisted, but not harshly. "A girl needs all her strenght for tomorrow."

"And what about you?" she asked.

"A man will keep watch, to make sure no enemies approach a girl in the dark" he said with a small smile on his lips. He leaned forward and Arya thought that he was goig to kiss her again, but he didn't, not exactly. He placed a soft kiss on her hair, and then he took his hands away from her hip and face.

Arya laid down on the cold and wet ground. It wasn't very comfortable, but she had gotten used to sleeping in worse places during the war. Besides, she was incredibly tired, and she just wanted some sleep. Too many things had happened that day. She closed her eyes, and she heard Jaqen making himself more comfortable in the little space that they were in, sitting in a proper position to keep watch. Then, with the sound of the outing rain and the now more distant thunder, Arya slowly fell into a deep sleep full of dreams.

Gendry was in every single one of them.

My Gendrya feels are hurting!

People who wanted the kiss (me included, let's admit it) you got it! People who would be grossed out by Jaqen/Arya... That wasn't sexual! So everybody happy!

Now Gendry on the rescue!