Alright, alright. I know I said I would have uploaded this by morning and I didn't. Don't hate me. My hubby decided to take me on an early morning trip to Denny's, so my mind was literally elsewhere. This is what I would call the second half of chapter seven. We get more of Sansa and Sandor together, and Gendry finally finds out about the attack.

The next chapter is gonna have some girl talk between Sansa and Margery, and probably a scene or two with the boys before their show. I will also have a scene with Arya and Jaqen at the gym. So, look forward to that. :)

As always, George R R Martin owns the characters, only the plot is mine.

Please read and Review!

Thanks everyone

xoxo

Chapter Eight:

"So, you work with my brothers, for Jaime Lannister. What's that like?" Sansa asked Sandor, as she began his outline. "Lannister is a good enough boss. Never had a problem with him." he told her. "And my brothers? What are they like?" she questioned. "Can't say. Don't talk to anyone else if I don't have to. First time I spoke to them was to ask about their wolves." he answered. "And now you're here." she said. "And now I'm here." he reiterated. She wondered why he didn't like to talk to anyone else, he seemed like a nice enough person to her. She thought for a few minutes about asking him why he chose to work alone, and decided that it seemed like a safe enough question. She felt she needed to tread lightly however; she didn't need to offend him at the beginning of this appointment.

"So…if you don't mind me asking, why do you avoid talking to everyone else?" she asked. He laughed then, his large body shaking underneath her hands. "Girl, it's not that I avoid people. People avoid me." he told her. "Why? You seem like a nice guy. Why would they avoid you?" she wondered aloud. He scoffed at her question. "Ye really need to ask that? Are ye stupid?" She was slightly put out by his response, but she pushed him to answer her question. "Obviously I needed to ask, otherwise I wouldn't have." she said back, "And no. I'm not stupid, thank you." He laughed then. "Aye. If you're not stupid, then you're naïve." he responded. "I'm sorry, but you still haven't answered my question. Why would people avoid you? It can't possibly be your sunny disposition!" she teased.

He was quiet then. It was a few minutes before he spoke up again. "It's my face. They want to avoid my face." he said, in a voice that was quiet, but still very angry. She quickly grasped, that this was a sensitive subject. She felt horrible for asking. Obviously she had seen his scars; everyone who had ever been around Sandor would have seen them. But they were just scars, and she was sure he hadn't asked for them to be there. They looked like burns, so she guessed that there had been some sort of accident involving fire. She wanted to say something to him to change the subject, to turn it to something a little more light hearted. She thought for a moment, before she came up with the perfect response.

"Really? I would have assumed it was your hair! You really do need to do something about it. It's horrible." she informed him. She felt him shake underneath her hands again, laughing, even though she may not be able to hear it. This brought a smile to her face. She was glad that his mood had shifted, and she could feel the tension disappearing from the room. "What's wrong with my hair?!" he asked. "Well, there is an awful lot of it. Are you truly asking my opinion?" she said. "Aye." "Well, if you don't mind me saying, I can see that you have a part of your scalp where the hair doesn't grow. So instead of keeping it long and covering it the best you can, why not emphasize it?" she told him. "And what would you have in mind, Little Bird?" he questioned. "Well, I would say shave the sides and back completely and cut the top. Not short, but shorter than now. Maybe til it was a few inches long, and then sweep it back." she said. She had seen men with this hairstyle before, and she thought it would suit Sandor nicely.

He turned to look at her then, forcing her to take her gun away from his shoulder blades. "A hipster! Ye want me to look like a fuckin' hipster?!" he barked at her. She rolled her eyes at him. "No. I don't think you'd look like a hipster. Have you ever seen that show 'Vikings'?" she asked him. "Aye." he said nodding, as he turned his head forward once more. "I was thinking more along those lines. More the look of a warrior." she said, before muttering, "You certainly look like one." She thought she had said it quietly, and that, over the noise of her machine, he wouldn't have heard her. She was wrong.

"Ye think I look like a warrior, do ye?" he teased. Shit, she thought to herself, turning as red as the walls of the shop. He obviously wasn't supposed to hear that, and now she had to figure out how to answer that question. "Um…maybe?" she said, regretting it as soon as it left her lips. 'Wow. What an intelligent response.' she thought to herself. If she didn't have her tattoo gun in her hand she would have smacked herself in the forehead. Sandor wasn't going to say how much he enjoyed her answer, so he decided that he would just smile and keep it to himself.

They took a snack break, having just finished the first hour of his tattoo. Sansa got off of her stool after she finished her granola bar, and stretched one last time, knowing she was going to be hunched over for at least another hour and a half. As she raised her arms in the air, her white, lace back camisole raised, to reveal a portion of her slim stomach. Sandor couldn't take his eyes off her. He noticed another tattoo that he had, obviously, not seen yet. From what he could see peaking out of her light wash, skinny jeans, it looked like blue roses. He noted that these roses had plenty of thorns around them. Any rose tattoo he had ever seen before had never had the thorns included. He wondered why Sansa chose to include them.

"Does that lead to your rose garden?" he asked Sansa, smiling wide. She quickly pulled her shirt back down, to cover her roses. "No!" she nearly shouted, as Sandor began to laugh across from her. "Why the thorns? And why such a painful place?" he asked, curious if there was a special meaning behind them. She hesitated before answering. "They're…um…they cover some scars." she eventually admitted. Sandor didn't like the look that came on her face. "What happened?" he asked, as he got back into position, noticing that Sansa was making her way back to her stool. "Something…something I'd rather not talk about, if that's alright." she told him. He could hear the pain in her voice, not wanting to make it any worse, he said "Of course, Little Bird."

That sparked her memory. She had been meaning to ask him why he continued to call her that, and this was the perfect opportunity to do so. "Why do you keep calling me that?" she asked him. She heard him laugh again. "Your tattoo, Little Bird. How could I not call you that?" he teased. She rolled her eyes at him. "You know, cardinals are a songbird, Little Bird. Do you sing too?" he inquired. This was something she didn't care to admit to people, but she did sing. She thought she was rather good. She hadn't actually done it in front of anyone before, so she wouldn't really know. "I do. But don't tell anyone. No one knows. It'll be just our little secret." she said to him, as she poked him in the ribs.

"Well, this I have to hear!" he exclaimed. "NO! Absolutely not!" she told him, far louder than she meant to. "I mean…no, I've never done it before in front of anyone. I literally mean no one. I'm absolutely not ready to do that." she said, in a calmer voice. He laughed at her again. "Fine. But one day Little Bird, you'll sing for me." he declared.

"So tell me, do you have any other siblings?" Sandor asked. "Well you know that I have my two older brothers, but I also have a younger sister, and…" she paused, "and that's it." He could hear the shift in her voice. She had seemed like she was in a good mood, but he could hear that it had changed. "What's wrong, Little Bird?" he questioned. "It's nothing. It's long since passed. I'm fine." she answered, though he could very clearly hear that she was not. "No you're not." he said, turning around in his seat. "Sandor! I-" she exclaimed before he cut her off. "Tell me what it is. What happened?" he asked. "It's just…well I also had two younger brothers." she answered, with her eyes looking at the floor. "Had?" he asked. "They…they died. Two years ago. A car crash. My parents too." she told him, wiping a tear from her eye.

'Fuck' he thought to himself. She had clearly been through some pretty rough shit, and he just dragged it all back up. "I'm sorry Sansa." he said, and he truly was. If he had had any idea, he wouldn't have brought it up. "I've lost a sibling too. I know what that's like" he told her. His sister had died in the same fire that scarred his face. His older brother, Gregor, had caused it. He said he was just playing around with the matches, but Sandor knew better. "I'm so sorry Sandor. That's awful." she said. "Aye, but that's long passed." he replied, "But let's get back to work."

xxxxx

Arya had just finished her session for the day. Jaqen had even let her hit a sandbag at the end, so she could feel what it was like to make contact. He was walking her to the locker room, so she could grab her things before headed home to shower before work.

"A girl will be running and lifting tomorrow." Jaqen informed her. "Do I really have to? Why can't you just keep teaching me to fight?" she whined. He smiled at her and said, "A girl wished to become stronger, and this is the only way she can achieve that." "I guess I did say that. But don't expect me to enjoy it." she told him. "Just so." he answered. "Until tomorrow, Arya Stark." he said, before bowing and walking away. She rolled her eyes, as she walked into the locker room to grab her things.

As she climbed into the shower, she thought about the way her body reacted when Jaqen had touched her. It almost felt like he had shocked her. It was as if there was electricity flowing through her body, when he touched her. It wasn't something she had ever experienced before. She shook the thought from her head, and shut the water off so that she could get ready for work. Today was the first day she would see Gendry since it happened. She wasn't excited for the outcome that she knew was inevitably coming. She didn't bother to hide the quickly disappearing black eye, Gendry would flip out regardless.

When she got to work, the bar was empty, so she thought that she should get it over and done with, as soon as possible. Rip the band-aid off, so to speak.

"Gendry…can I talk to you before we start working?" she asked him, walking around the bar. "Sure Arya." he said, putting the cloth that he had been using to wipe the bar top off down. "Holy shit, what happened to your eye?!" he exclaimed. "There was an…incident…on Sunday. After I left work." she told him, avoiding his eye. "An incident? What do you mean, 'an incident'?" he asked, "Did someone hit you?" "Yea…that. Among other things." She told him.

"What do you mean?" he asked, in a tone more serious than his last. She couldn't say the words. Gendry knew from her lack of words, that this was something horrible. "Arya…no!" he yelled, grabbing a glass from the bar and smashing it on the floor. The anger in his voice and the sound of the glass hitting the floor cause her to flinch. When he grabbed her arms, she couldn't help but let out a small yelp.

"Gods Arya! Someone raped you?!" he screamed in her face. She flinched again. "No, Gendry. It…it didn't get that far." "Thank the gods!" he said, as he pulled her into his arms. The tears were flowing freely down her face, and she did nothing to stop them. No one had held her since it happened, and she was happy to feel the comfort. They stood behind the bar like that for what felt like hours. Her tears had stopped, when he asked "You said…you said it didn't get 'that far'. What does that mean?" She paled when she heard the question. When he looked at her, and saw her reaction, he realized his mistake. "Shit. No! That's not what I meant!" he said, dragging a hand over his face. "I meant…why. Why didn't it get that far?" he clarified.

"Oh." she said, "Someone…someone heard and stopped it." "Someone stopped it? Do you know who?" he inquired. "Actually, I do." she answered, managing a small smile. "I've decided to start training at a gym. And I'm taking self defense lessons." she told him, proudly. "Okay…but what does that have to do with who stopped it?" he questioned. "The man who saved me, he's my instructor at the gym." she answered, smiling widely this time. "Well, that's interesting. Who would have seen that coming." he remarked.

She was glad to have gotten this conversation out of the way. She didn't like the way Gendry had been looking at her, for the rest of their shift. It was as if he thought she was going to fall apart or something. She knew he would get past it eventually, but it was still annoying to deal with, in the meantime. She thought back to her training today. She could really see herself taking something away from this experience, and she was happy with the decision that she had made. She wasn't excited to go back on the treadmill tomorrow. She groaned. Her legs hurt now just thinking about it. But there was something good about tomorrow. She would see Jaqen again. She didn't understand why, but that thought, made it feel like it was all worth it.