OOPS! Sorry guys! I don't know how in seven hells I did it, but I deleted this chapter! So now, I'm uploading it again :S
Cheesy chapter. Forgive me, but it had to be this way ^^ And sorry for the delay in updating. I'm so tired lately and I have writer's block most of the days.
There is dialogue from the show at the end of this chapter. I do not own it, I'm just borrowing it!
PLEASE REVIEW! Reviews mean a lot to me, and encourage me to keep writing. I really want to know what you think of this story by this point, the good things and the bad things. So please, please, please! THANKS! ^^
"Arya!"
"No!"
"Arya, open the the door!"
"No!"
Sansa cursed under his breath in a rather unladylike way that she had picked up from her husband's coarse language. She hit the heavy wooden door again with her hand in frustration, and again her sister ignored her. Arya had locked herself inside the bedchamber as soon as she saw the opportunity, when everyone left her alone, and she was stubbornly refusing to step out of it or let anyone in. Sansa was getting irritated with her, though she knew that what was happening with her sister was that she was extremely nervous, and she was having a panic attack. After all, Arya was used to dealing with men's problems, and froze when the time came to face other kind of problems that had nothing to do with violence or battles or fights. She just wasn't used to it, and then she became afraid even though she had nothing to be afraid of!
It was, after all, her wedding day.
Sansa understood that, because such an event was far different from everything else that Arya had experienced before in her life, she was nervous, and scared. She was happy, yes, and she wasn't doubting her feelings for her soon-to-be husband, but a lot of things were happening in a very short period of time. If she would just allow Sansa to come inside the room and talk to her!
"Arya, please!" she begged, trying again in vain.
"Go away!"
Sansa heard steps approaching from the hallway and she turned her head in that direction, and she was extremely relieved that it was her husband, Sandor, already dressed up in fine clothes to attend his goodsister's wedding. He frowned when he saw his little wife trying desperately to open the damn door.
"What's the matter, little bird?" he asked, looking at the door in confusion.
"It's Arya! She's just as damn stubborn as you on our wedding day, she won't... fucking door!" she exclaimed and cursed again, surprising even herself. She hit the door with her hand, angry. Sandor looked at her for a second before breaking into a fit of amused laugher when he heard her cursing. He always laughed whenever he heard her cursing and saw the bad influence that he had had on his wife's manners.
Sansa did not like it.
"Sandor! It's not funny!" she exclaimed, getting angry at him too. "The ceremony is in half an hour, we can't keep the guests waiting! And the groom!"
Sandor stopped laughing, knowing that Sansa would hit him if she got any angrier with him. He approached the door trying to keep a more serious face, and barked:
"Wolf-girl! If you don't come out, I'll make sure to take to out myself!"
"Go to hell, Sandor!" Arya's voice came from inside the room.
"I'll give you five seconds!" he barked at the door, ignoring her protests. His wife looked at him a little bit alarmed.
"Darling, what are you going to do...?"
"Step aside, little bird."
That did not make her feel any better. Maybe calling her husband for help had been a terrible idea. She took a step back...
"Sandor...?"
"One!" he barked at the wooden door behind which Arya was hiding stubbornly.
Arya did not open the door.
"Two! I swear, wolf-girl, I'll kick the door down and kick you out!"
"Sandor, maybe if you are more delicate about it..." Sansa suggested, putting special emphasis on the word 'delicate'.
"That doesn't work on your sister, little bird. She has a head as hard as a rock. Three!"
Still, no reply.
"Four!"
"Go away!" Arya protested from inside the room, but she still didn't the door. SHe was exasperating her sister and trying her goodbrother's patience. Sandor wasn't a man who didn't act on his threats. He would really kick the door down and make her come out of the room.
"Five!" he roared, and prepared to kick the door down as he had promised. He took a step back, but Arya's voice stopped him.
"Wait!" And finally, there was a 'click' and the youngest Stark girl opened the door. She did not look happy, and she shot daggers at Sandor through her grey eyes. Sansa stepped into the room quickly before her sister could close it again. She took Arya's hand and guided her towards the boudoir and sat her in front of the mirror. Arya did not protest this time.
"Arya, you stubborn girl! Why did you lock me out?!" she asked. "You seemed so happy before!"
"I am happy!" Arya exclaimed, speaking the truth. "But I am scared!"
She looked ashamed to be afraid at a moment like that, and Sansa looked at her with loving and sisterly understanding. She held her sister's face between her hands and made Arya look at her straight in the eyes.
"Arya, everyone gets scared on their wedding day. Even I was scared!"
Arya raised an eyebrow skeptically. "What could you possibly have been afraid of? Sandor and you had already gone through a lot of things that are supposed to happen after marriage!"
Sansa chuckled. "Is that what you are afraid of?"
"I'm not afraid of that!" Arya said, blushing furiously and ignoring the Hound's amused expression at her left. "I'm afraid of... the future. And everything that it holds. I'm afraid of what might happen years from now after this day."
"Arya, everyone has those fears," Sansa assured her. "Sandor and I have those fears. Jon and Ygritte have those fears. I'm sure that Mother and Father, and Robb and Talisa, had them too. Everyone has them. but you know the best way to not be afraid?"
"What?"
"Just live everyday step by step, and enjoy it," Sansa smiled. "You have suffered enough already. Life has put many obstacles in your way, and you passed them all. Now it is your turn to be happy."
"You have suffered more than I have," Arya whispered, looking guilty all of a sudden. "Are you happy?"
Sansa didn't hesitate to say: "Yes. I am happy. Much was taken away from me. My parents, my brother, my son... But I still have a wonderful family that loves me and that I love. I have a husband that is my entire life and that loves me more than anything. I have a life, and a reason to want to live it. And you have it too."
Upon hearing her sister say those things, Arya managed to smile a little, but it was a true smile.
"I know that this was never the thing that you really liked, all this... lady stuff," Sansa laughed, feeling tears stinging in the back of her eyes because of all the emotion that she was feeling, and upon seeing her sister on her wedding day and because she was talking of those things. "Weddings and husbands and children and love... You always wanted to be a knight and fight with swords."
"I still want to fight with swords. I just don't want to be a knight. And I want to get married," Arya quickly stated.
"And I believe that Gendry loves that about you, your wild spirit. And you will have children that are just as wild and stubborn as you. You have nothing to be afraid of, Arya, because you are surrounded by people who love you."
Arya knew that, she did. And she knew that she had been stupid before, refusing to come out of the door to attend the wedding. She was going to get married to the man she loved, everything would be alright, she would have a happy life, and she was going to still be able to be who she really was. No one or nothing was going to stop her.
When Sansa saw that Arya was more calm than she had been before, she turned her head to look at Sandor. "Could you leave us alone for a bit while we finish making her ready? Tell everyone will be there in a few."
Sandor nodded, and he gave Arya a supporting look with his eyes. She smiled at him, thanking him silently, and then Sandor left the room. Once the two Stark sisters were alone in the room, Sansa started helping Arya to finish getting ready for the wedding. Before she was locked out of the room, she had already managed to make Arya put on the dress. Arya had stubbornly tried during those past months (during which she had turned five and ten) to get everyone to allow her to wear breeches and a tunic to a wedding. She said that she was already acting too much of a lady by getting married, and that wearing an actual dress would go against her values. Sansa had not tolerated that.
"Over my dead body!" she had cried scandalized. Anyone would think that Arya had admitted that she was killing newborn puppies, judging by the horrified expression on Sansa's face. "I've lived my entire life thinking that you would never get married! Now that a man has finally achieved the impossible, I'm not going to let you ruin it for me!"
Sansa had been dead set on her decision to make her sister wear a beautiful dress on her wedding, and even though Arya had protested and even turned to Gendry for help, it had been of no use. The man had just shrugged.
"You actually look perfect in a dress..." had been his excuse for not supporting her against Sansa. If looks could kill. Gendry would have died a hundred times already.
"You traitor... If you continue to be so 'supportive', I will reconsider if I want to marry you!" Arya had threatened him, making him laugh.
But now, she was actually wearing a dress. And she had to admit, much to her despair, that she looked absolutely stunning in it.
She looked at her reflection in the mirror. It returned her the image of a thin girl with small but enough curves. The bodice of the dress was tight, marking her figure, and it was white with silver embroidery, in the colors of House Stark. She had a diamond and silver tiara on her head, and her dark and shiny curls fell perfectly over her shoulders and well past her chest, almost reaching her waist. She was a beautiful young woman.
"I look so much like a... girl," she said. Sansa chuckled.
"Well, you are a girl."
Arya rolled her eyes. "You know what I mean! I look like a lady."
"Is that bad?" Sansa asked as she fixed the tiara on the top of Arya's head and made sure that the dress was perfectly neat.
"I guess... not."
"You are going to be a Lady now. And even more important lady than me!" Sansa laughed, amused by the turns and twists of life. "Lady of Storm's End."
"It sounds so strange," Arya said, bitting on her lip. "I don't know if I'm ready. I never prepared for this, unlike you. What is a wife supposed to do? What is lady supposed to do? And how can I stay true to myself while being both without messing up?"
Arya was afraid that people might find her worries stupid and childish, or that they might think that she was not fitting for the role of lady and wife. She had never cared about it, not even one bit. But now, being those two things meant being able to stay at Gendry's side, which was suddenly what she wanted more than anything.
Sansa did not find Arya's worries stupid. She understood her sister perfectly, and wanted to cheer her up and calm her nerves down. She wanted her to be happy.
"Arya, you will always stay true to yourself. You are getting married because you want to, remember; no one forced you to do it, and that means a world of difference. You love Gendry, which means that you will be a great wife, better than many others. And as for being a lady... well, at least you have more knowledge on that than poor Lord Baratheon!"
That was true, and it made Arya laugh along with Sansa. Gendry had spent the past few months learning how to be a Lord with the help of Bran and Jon. Sandor had tried to help a little, but he had little patience to teach and even less patience to be a lord (he thanked the gods that he had his little bird to help him, or he would be doomed), so he wasn't of much help. Bran and Jon had done the best job that they could transforming Gendry from a mere bastard to a worthy Lord of the Stormlands, and though they knew that he would grow to become a great and just lord, the lad was still too nervous. He had a lot of responsibility all of a sudden, but he was putting great effort into being worthy of his new title... and of his new wife.
Arya would have married him even if he had stayed a bastard, a simple armorer. She didn't care about titles and lands and castles and lords, though she recognized now that life in a castle was easier that facing the dangers outside. Having lived those dangers themselves, and hunger and fear and cold and hopelessness, Gendry and Arya were sure to make great rulers over their people, for they understood their needs and their suffering. Maybe that was the main reason why Gendry had accepted his new identity.
Sansa tried to put a little bit of kohl in Ara's eyes, and though the bride refused and protested at first, she later sat still in front of the mirror watching her reflection while Sansa put the thrice-damned thing on her eyes. When she was done, Arya blinked several times and stood to get closer to the mirror. She had to admit that it hadn't been a bad idea. Sansa had just put a tiny bit of it, and it made her storm-grey eyes look smokey and deep and hypnotizing.
She turned around to stare at Sansa and smiled, grateful.
"Thank you."
Sansa didn't say nothing. She just stared at her little sister in her white and silver wedding dress, looking proud and beautiful, and tears appeared in her eyes again. Arya frowned.
"What's wrong?"
"I just... I'm so happy that this day has arrived," Sansa said, being able to contain her tears. She was a very strong woman after all, and nowadays it took a lot to make her cry. She hadn't cried often in years. "Not just because you are getting married... It's because we all finally get to be completely happy! At last..."
Arya didn't think twice about it and hugged her sister. She had never been good at expressing her emotions, and she didn't use to have a good relationship with Sansa even though she had always known that deep down she loved her older sister. Sansa was a little surprised by Arya's sudden demonstration of affection, but she hugged her sister as well after two seconds. Arya sighed, but she didn't say anything. After a few moments of just standing there hugging each other, they let go and Sansa looked at her little sister with a bright smile on her face. Her smile was contagious, and Arya ended up smiling too.
"Well!" Sansa exclaimed, making sure that her hair was still in order and that so was Arya's and her dress and her face. When she saw that everything was perfect, she held her sister's hand. "It's time!"
The Sept in Winterfell was small, but big enough to celebrate the wedding there. It had been built by Eddard Stark for his lady wife Catelyn when she came to Winterfell, leaving her home in the South behind. Now, that sept was going to witness a second wedding that year, the first having been the wedding between Sansa Stark and Sandor Clegane, and the second one the wedding between Arya Stark and Gendry Baratheon.
Gendry was shaking at the front of the Sept, waiting impatiently for the moment when the wedding would start and his beloved wife would come into the Sept and walk towards him to say the vows and marry him him in front of the gods and their people. He had never been so nervous in his life, and he could feel his hands shaking and his whole body trembling. It amazed him, the effect that Arya Stark had on him. He had never felt so uneasy in his entire life, not once. Neither had he ever felt so happy, except when the girl told him that she loved him and that she did want to marry him. He had not expected her to want to marry him, or anyone! It had been the greatest gift that he could have had.
Everyone in Winterfell had been happy with their betrothal and had congratulated them as soon as they heard the news. Lord Bran Stark was greatly surprised, but he had been happy for his sister and his future goodbrother, and had patted him in the back saying that he was glad to have such a good man as an addition to the family. Bran had always trusted him and had had faith that things between Gendry and Arya would get better, and he had been right. Young Rickon had been delighted. He saw Gendry as his older brother now, and cherished him as much as he did Sandor. Jon's wife, Ygritte, had laughed with surprise when she heard the news. She had congratulated Arya, and she had shot a warning look at Gendry and she had told him that he better be careful, because if he wanted an easy wife he was making a big mistake. Arya was just as wild as she was. Gendry knew that, and he also knew that he had to be careful with Arya. He still remembered that time when she had punched him in the face when she got angry with him, and if he focused enough he could still remember the pain. He did not want to experience that again.
he clutched the Baratheon cloak that he was supposed to give Arya tightly with his hands and fingers. He couldn't stop looking at the door, waiting for Arya to come...
Sandor approached him them, slowly. He took Gendry's attention away from the door, and the young man smiled a bit when he saw his soon-to-be goodbrother.
"Nervous?" Sandor asked, rasping as always. Gendry found it very intimidating, the way in which the huge man's voice sounded like steel on stone... though for some reason it sounded softer than other days. Different. But still cold and deadly and menacing.
He nodded.
"Aye," he admitted.
"Don't worry, lad," Sandor said, imitating Gendry and looking at the door. "She loved you, and you love her. Your marriage will be happy... As long as you don't try to tame her into being a normal lady like all the others."
"That was never my intention."
"I know. But if you ever dare to hurt her again in any way... If you ever fail her again..." Sandor rasped in the most threatening and deadly voice that Gendry had ever heard or been addressed with in his life, "you won't have to worry about her killing you, because I will have already done it first."
Gendry knew Sandor well enough already to know that the man always meant it when he threatened someone, and he knew that if he wanted to keep living, he better make sure that Arya never had any complains about him. Sandor loved Arya like a little sister, and he would never allow anyone to harm her ever again and live long enough to tell it. Gendry swallowed past a gulp in his throat and dared to look up to Sandor's grey eyes.
"Don't worry," he said. "I will devote my life to her in very sense."
That seemed a good enough answer to for Sandor, who nodded.
"Good," he said, and then he walked away.
Sandor got lost in the crowd that awaited for the arrival of the bride, and Gendry turned his attention back to the door. Someone walked in at that moment, and Gendry opened his eyes wide when he saw that that person making an entarnce to the Sept was none other than Sandor.
He turned around to look all over the place. He could swear that he had just seen Sandor leave his side and go in a complete different direction, and now he was walking through the door! he looked at the man again, and Sandor saw his pale expression as if he had seen a ghost, and frowned before approaching him.
"Are you alright?" he asked Gendry when he reached his side. Gendry didn't say anything at first, just stared at him dumbstruck, unable to comprehend what had just happened. His expression and silence annoyed Sandor. "Lad! Are you alright? Looks like you saw a ghost!"
Finally, Gendry found words.
"How did you do that?" he asked, and Sandor frowned even more than before.
"How did I do what?"
"That! You were here... a second ago. And now you walk into the room from outside?"
From Sandor's expression, anyone would think that the man believed that Gendry was an idiot.
"I have never been inside the Sept, lad. I was with your bride and my wife; the little wolf is as stubborn as a mule, but she is finally coming."
"You were right here seconds ago," Gendry insisted, pointing to the spot right next to him where he was standing. "I was talking with you."
"Boy, how many skins of wine have you drank already?" Sandor asked, now a bit worried about the young man and clearly thinking that he was terribly drunk. However, Gendry hadn't drank a single drop of wine, not even of ale, and the comment annoyed him.
"Listen to me! You were right here! It was you!"
And then it hit him. It felt like a slap to the face, but it made complete sense all of a sudden. Hadn't this already happened before months ago, but with him? Hadn't Arya, Sandor and Jon believed that they were traveling to the Twins with Gendry, and later it turned out that it wasn't him...?
He started laughing once he figured it all out. He couldn't believe it, but he supposed that that had to happen sooner or later. Before Sandor started believing that he had lost his mind, Gendry proceeded to explain.
"Jaqen H'ghar." he said, and a dark expression shadowed Sandor's expression. "he came to tell me to never hurt Arya, or he would kill me."
"Huh. Did he? Well, good, because I was going to tell you the same thing."
"Where you?"
"Yes. You hurt the little bird's sister, and I'll shove my sword so far up your arse that you will choke on it."
Gendry was highly alarmed by that statement, but he didn't allow it to show on his facial expression. He was still too surprised by the braavosi's appearance in Winterfell, right before his wedding. He stared at all the people that were in the small Spet, trying to find the man. Obviously, Jaqen H'ghar was no longer wearing Sandor's face, and Gendry was not able to locate him in the crowd. Many would say that he should be alarmed by the man's presence there. He was, after all, the man that had almost taken Arya away from him forever... But he had let her go, and he had disappeared until now. The fact that Jaqen H'ghar was there, hidden in between Winterfell's guests to warn Gendry that he would not let any type of harm come to Arya, was good news for the Lord of Storm's End. It let him know that there would always be someone in the shadows taking care of Arya, and no matter what happened, she would be protected.
it was then announced that the bride was about to enter the Sept, and he felt a tight knot forming in the pit of his stomach. He swallowed hard, and Sandor patted him in the back.
"Breathe," the huge man rasped before going to his place, leaving Gendry standing there alone in front of the Septon.
Then he saw Arya, and he could swear that something inside of him had caught fire.
"I'm going to call Jon," Sansa said. It had been decided that Jon should be the one to give Arya away to her husband, as her father was dead, Bran would have difficulties due to his paralysis, and Rickon was too small. Jon was her cousin and had been raised as her brother for almost their entire lives, so he was the perfect person to give her away.
Arya stopped Sansa grabbing her wrist. "Wait! Will you... will you come with me too?"
Sansa had been Arya's pillar of hope since they day in which they found each other again by accident in Braavos. Arya had helped her sister when she needed help, and then Sansa had helped her when the tables turned. Arya wanted her sister there with her, giving her away to her husband alongside Jon. Sansa smiled tenderly, and nodded accepting her sister's request.
"I'll be right back," she said, disappearing into the Sept.
She came back with Jon, who was stunned upon seeing Arya and took a step back, not believing that that was the same girl that used to be so little and dress like a boy and be all dirty and have her hair all messy, and her knees full of scratches. What was left of that little girl in the young woman that Arya had turned into was that same wild spirit that she had always had reflected in her grey eyes. She would always be Arya, but now she was beautiful.
"Gods, Arya," Jon said with a smile, approaching her to hug her. "You are beautiful!"
"Really? You mean it?"
"With all my heart. Now come. Everyone is waiting for you."
She was much calmer than she had been before. She was still nervous, yes, but she wasn't shaking. She held her head high, and took Jon's arm with a smile on her face. Then, with her free hand, she took Sansa's arm, and all three of them together walked inside the Spet where everyone was waiting for the ceremony to begin.
Arya couldn't see anyone face. It's like no one existed around her, except Gendry, who waited for her standing in front of the Septon. Arya smiled when he saw his eyes as soon as he saw her. Gendry took all of her in through his eyes, not leaving a single inch of her without carefully observing and admiring it. Then Arya started walking, guided by Jon and Sansa, and they delivered her to Gendry. Her eyes never left his blue ones, and when Jon and Sansa placed her hand in Gendry's hand she felt a shock running from the tips of her finger through her whole arm. She had to admit that it was wonderful to feel that way. No hate, no pain, no darkness... there was just happiness and love for them now.
Yes, this is the life I want, she thought, still looking into her son-to-be husband's deep blue eyes.
She didn't even feel Sansa and Jon leaving her side to go and join the other guests. She was just as lost looking into Gendry's eyes as he was looking into hers. Only the voice of the Septon brought them back to reality.
"You may now cloak the bride and bring her under your protection," he said in a deep voice.
Arya looked down to Gendry's hands. He was carrying her wedding cloak. He unfolded it and moved to cover her back and shoulders with it, moving her hair gently out of the way and brushing her neck with his fingers in a way that made chills run down her spine. The cloak was yellow, with a black stag sewn in it. A Baratheon cloak.
It was happening. The moment had finally come, and Arya was reasy to take the next step.
Gendry moved again to stand this time by her side, and she placed her hand over his and both of them moved their hands forward to the Septon, who tied a white bow around their hands as a symbol of union.
"In the sight of the Seven, I hereby seal these two souls, binding them as one for eternity," he finished saying those words as he finished tying the white bow around their hands, and then he proceeded. "Look upon each other and say the words."
It was time for their vows, which would unity them forever in marriage. They turned to face each other, and they took a deep breath together. Arya wasn't sure if she was going to be able to speak, but when she opened her mouth, her voice came out firm and strong. She said the words at the same time as Gendry:
"Father, Smith, Warrior. Mother, Maiden, Crone. Stranger."
"I am his, and he is mine."
"I am hers, and she is mine."
"From this day..."
"...Until the end of my days."
Ok, so this chapter was going to be waaaaaayyy longer, but it was going to end up being extremely long and I did not like it that much. So I was satisfied ending it here, and I hope you guys are happy with the cheesy wedding chapter. Now there must be a bedding! And many more chapters to come!
I promise that I will try to update much faster this time to be able to put what would have been the entire original chapter up as soon as possible :) Not sure if I will cut it in two or three parts.
Remember, PLEASE REVIEW! It means a lot to me! ^^