Hey everyone.
Here's Chapter Twelve. I deviated from the original path for this chapter, but I really like where it took me! I think that it's much better this way, and I'm excited for what's going to happen in the next chapter.
I am going to switch back to Lace and Leather for a couple chapters, just so I'm not getting too bored with the same thing. So it'll be a few weeks before you get another update here.
In the meantime, please enjoy.
Also, if you could send some thoughts and prayers my way, I would really appreciate it. My husband and I found out today that one of his oldest and closest friends passed away in a horrible car accident last night. He leaves behind two amazing children. His daughter was actually born only 3 days after our own. We're absolutely devastated.
Sorry to bring the mood down here at the end, but I consider you all my friends and family so I felt I needed to share.
As always, any recognizable characters are entirely property of George R R Martin and I am just playing with them for a while.
all my love
xoxo
Cassiopeia
Chapter Twelve
Monday morning came faster than Arya anticipated and it seemed like her drive to the House of Black and White went by in the blink of an eye.
She had changed in the change rooms and came out to the main area of the gym. She couldn't see Jaqen anywhere so she figured she would stretch, then start on the treadmills until he arrived.
She had been running for no more than five minutes, when she heard the deep voice from her right.
"Hello Arya Stark. How is a lovely girl today?" he said, as he walked over and folded his arms over the hand rail of her treadmill.
"I'm…good." She replied, in between breaths as she continued her run. She didn't fail to notice that he had called her 'lovely girl'. She was curious as to what made him decide on that nickname for her today.
"Today a man thought we could try sparring, if a girl is interested." He told her, smiling.
"Gods, really?!" she exclaimed, as she quickly shut off the treadmill. She was more than excited to try and actually land some punches today.
She wiped down the machine, grabbed her water bottle and walked over to the matted area of the gym, following after her Lorathi instructor.
After she put her water bottle to the side of the mat, she met him in the middle.
"So, a man figured we could start with learning defensive stances today." he said to her. "What? I thought you said we were sparring!" she snapped. "A girl did not think after one day of throwing punches, she would be ready to actually fight her instructor, did she?" he questioned.
"Maybe you saw a lot of promise in me and thought we could skip straight to the good stuff?" she replied, knowing full well that he hadn't and she was just pushing her luck.
"Maybe next session." he informed her with a wink.
She blushed. She wondered what was going on with him today. Was this about what happened at the house on the weekend? About their kiss? Her cheeks burned with embarrassment as she remembered the feeling of his lips on hers. She desperately wanted to reach her hand up to touch her lips as she thought about it, but she used all her strength to refrain from doing it.
She shook her head in an attempt to bring her thoughts back to the present.
"So, where are we starting?" she questioned as she folded her arms across her chest.
"A man thought that we could start with some holds and he could teach Arya Stark the best ways to remove herself from them." he responded, nodding at her.
They got to work quickly and he began showing her how to get away from her attacker, if he chose to come at her from the front.
To his surprise, she was a fast learner and she was picking up the movements fairly quickly. He was impressed, but he wouldn't let her know that.
As he continued grabbing her upper arms, for her to practice the escape so she would learn how to do it without thinking, he couldn't help but admire the determination within her eyes as she focused all of her attention on the task at hand. He could see that no matter what, she would never let this happen to her again.
After a few more minutes he suggested a water break, noting the perspiration covering the girls face.
As they sat on the bench on the left side of the mat, he spoke to her.
"How was Arya Stark's Sunday?" he inquired, as he took a sip of his water.
"Better than the boys' that's for sure!" she answered with a laugh.
He couldn't help but smile with her. He loved her smile and couldn't bear to look at it without returning one as well.
"What does a lovely girl mean?" he asked, curious as to what her two brothers got up to the day previous.
"Well, they clearly celebrated the success of their show a little too much." She answered, as she held her finger and thumb about an inch apart. "They didn't get out of bed until long after noon. Sansa was pissed when she came downstairs to discover that Theon threw up on the floor beside the couch. She immediately got a bucket of water and ice and dumped it on him to wake him up, then after he yelled at her for waking him up, she yelled right back and made him clean it up, before kicking him out of the house. It was amazing to watch." She told him animatedly.
It was such an amazing story and she would bug Theon about it for the rest of his life.
Jaqen laughed whole heartedly as she finished her story.
"A man is sorry he missed such a great morning at the Stark home." he said to her.
He stood up from the bench and made his way back over to the mat, indicating that it was time that they continue their lesson.
"Now that Arya Stark has learned an escape from an attack from the front, let us move to an attack from behind." he informed her.
She nodded in reply and turned around so that he could begin his hold.
As Jaqen placed his arm loosely around her neck, Arya felt a shiver run down her spine.
She suddenly began breathing heavily and before she knew it, her world turned black and she crumbled to the ground.
XXXXXXX
She woke to a cold towel on her forehead.
"What happened?" Arya asked Jaqen, as she slowly rose from her flat position on the floor.
She looked around to see if anyone else was watching them, only to notice that no one else seemed to be paying attention. She had to wonder if Jaqen had something to do with that.
"It seems a girl suffered from a panic attack and she blacked out." he answered, as she continued to dab her forehead with the cloth. "A man feels that his attack from behind may have brought back some painful memories."
"Crap" Arya thought to herself, "well that's embarrassing." She hadn't even realized what was happening and then suddenly she was waking up from the floor.
"Um…sorry about that…I guess." she told him, as she rose to her feet.
"Arya Stark has nothing to apologize for. A man should have anticipated something like this to happen. A man seeks Arya Stark's forgiveness for his error in judgment." he said to her, as he bowed.
"Jaqen it's fine. Really. You don't have to apologize to me." she said, as she rubbed her hands over her thighs in a nervous gesture. "Can we continue on with the lesson? I'm fine now, really." She continued.
"A man feels that we should end the lesson early today. A man is sorry Arya Stark." he replied. He attempted a smile.
Arya should have expected him to act like this. Everyone thought that she was a small, weak girl. Why would her trainer think any different?
"Whatever Jaqen. I'll see you later." She told him, as she turned and quickly walked into the change room to shower.
"Arya wait!" he called after her, only to be met with silence. He lowered his head in defeat.
XXXXXXX
When she emerged from the change room, Jaqen was nowhere in sight. Arya was pleased she didn't have to see his face again today. She was too angry to face him right now.
Now that she had some free time, she wasn't sure what she should do with it. As she made her way to her motorcycle she thought about her options.
She didn't have to work today, so she could go in a see if she could pick up a shift, but it was a Monday so she was sure that they wouldn't be busy enough to need her, and to be quite honest, she didn't really want to go to work anyways. She knew that Hot Pie was working, so spending time with him was out of the question.
There was always Gendry, but she didn't feel like explaining to him why she wasn't at her training session.
Then the idea struck her.
She had wanted a new tattoo for a while, and this was the perfect opportunity for her to get one. She had the time and enough cash in her savings to get it done today. Hopefully Sansa had some time.
She got on her bike, started it and put her helmet on, and quickly drove off towards The Lion's Den.
XXXXXXX
Sansa had finished her last client an hour ago, and had Sandor's next appointment at three this afternoon. So she had a couple hours to kill. She was hoping that she could get at least one walk-in today so she actually had something to do. She really didn't want to clean her room out of boredom, when it was already spotless.
The bell of the front door chimed signaling someone arriving. Sansa hadn't seen anyone walk past her office so she knew no one had left.
She made her way to the doorway to see what kind of customer just walked in, hoping that they would want something done today.
To her surprise she saw her sister standing at Myrcella's desk.
"Arya, what are you doing here? Is something wrong?" she asked, concerned something happened to her sister.
"Sansa! Just the sister I was hoping to see! My lesson ended early today and I had time to spare so I was really hoping you might have time to tattoo me today." Arya said to her.
Well this was a surprise. Sure, Arya had a wolf tattoo already, but Sansa had no idea that Arya had wanted anything else.
"Well you're in luck." Sansa told her. "I have a few hours free. So come on in sis, I'd be happy to." She continued, as she waved her sister into her room.
Sansa grabbed her notebook as her sister sat on the chair across from the stool.
"So what were you looking to get today?" Sansa asked, as she clicked her pen to start her notes.
"Okay so don't judge me, but I kinda want something similar to a couple of yours." Arya answered.
That truly surprised Sansa. All of her tattoos were very feminine and that really wasn't her sisters style, so Sansa was excited to see what her sister had to say.
"Really?" she said, "Which one are you referring to?"
"Okay, so, I like your garter, it looks great on you, but I don't want something exactly like that. It's way too girly for me. And I really like the dark black with the gem on your forearm, but I don't need any jewels or anything. The part that I really like is the lace. It looks nice without being to prissy, you know?" Arya answered rapidly in quick sentences.
Sansa could help but smile at how excited her sister was as she talked about what she wanted. She carefully wrote everything down, making sure not to miss a thing. Arya continued talking about what she was hoping to get.
"So I like the lace and I was hoping to get a dagger in the middle. I want it to be nice, maybe even pretty, but still badass." Arya said, as she clasped her hands together.
"There we go, that sounds more like you." Sansa remarked, as she sent a smirk in her sister's direction. "Anything else?" she asked.
She wanted to make sure that this was perfect for Arya. Of course, Sansa wanted all of her clients to be happy, but after everything that happened recently, making her sister happy with something she excelled at, was the least she could do for her.
"I don't know. You can get creative if you want. I trust you." Arya answered.
"Aright. I'll figure something out." said Sansa. "Oh! One last thing before I start sketching, where did you want to get it?" she asked.
"Uh…my…sternum?" Arya replied as lowered her head to avoid her sister's eye and began wringing her hands.
That really threw Sansa for a loop. Her sister wanted an underboob tattoo! Sansa couldn't believe it, but she absolutely didn't let it show on her face.
Sansa remained professional as she wrote everything down, making sure to not let her surprise show on her face.
"Well, this shouldn't take me too long to draw up. If you wanted to head to the store across the street and grab something to eat, by the time you get back, I should be finished." Sansa explained.
Arya took her up on that offer and nodded as she hopped off the tattoo chair.
She was relieved that Sansa wasn't judging her for what she wanted to day. Or if she was, she certainly wasn't saying it out loud.
Sansa quickly got to work on some lace designs. She made them both exactly the same except for the focal piece in the centre. She decided that along with the knife, something else might look nice as well. On one she decided to have the dagger piercing down through a heart and on the other, she had the dagger piercing upward through a rose. They could both be done in colour or black and white, but Sansa really thought that a pop of colour would really make it perfect.
After 20 minutes, her sister returned.
"Sorry I took a little longer, I was texting Gendry and kind of lost track of the time." Arya said to her, looking to the floor.
"Oh its fine Arya, I just finished them anyways. You're good." Sansa replied. "Here I added something else in the centre, along with the dagger. I just thought it looked a little too plain without the additions."
She handed the drawings to Arya and leaned back in her stool.
After a minute, she asked her sister what she thought of her work.
"So? Opinions?" she said.
"Well, no offence Sans, but I'm not huge on the heart. It's too girly. If it were an anatomical heart, that'd be badass, but not this. Sorry." She informed her, as she handed her the drawing that was in her right hand.
"So is that the one you pick then?" Sansa asked, as she grabbed the sketch from her sister, as she gestured to the remaining sketch in her sister's left hand.
"Yea, I like this one better. You're right, the rose is definitely a nice addition, but could we maybe make it red?" Arya asked, as she looked to Sansa for an answer.
"I was hoping you'd say that!" Sansa exclaimed as she clapped her hands together. "I thought adding colour would be perfect."
The sisters smiled to each other, glad that they had come up with something beautiful between the two of them.
"Well, take your shirt off and let's get this show on the road!" Sansa belted, excited about where this afternoon had taken her.