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When he met her it was odd, a little girl dressed as a boy, being smuggled back to Winterfell. A lost Lord's daughter with eyes of storm grey and hair ash brown with an anger that flared around her small person. She was young and vengeful when he'd last saw her, and he thinks that perhaps he broke her heart.

He thinks about the girl with stormy eyes who had anger in her heart. Wonders about what happened to her, where she went. He wants to think that there was more to Arya of House Stark than vengeance but he can barely remember her smile, her laugh (though he forced that when he tickled her) and where her life would lead.

She was a friend, a companion in a group of wretched kindred spirits, so where was she now.

When he sees her it’s at his arrival at Winterfell. He calls her name but it’s just above a whisper. She hears, he knows, and her eyes catch his. It was short she was engulfed in a hug by her brother and their connection is broken but he feels a coldness wrap around his heart when all he saw in those storm grey windows was cold nothingness.

Her eyes had been stormy and clouded before, full of things she didn’t say, things she didn’t share but now they were unreadable and the only thing to be noted was the cold look in the eyes of a girl who’s face belonged to a Stark.

When the union of the Stark siblings ends everyone is momentarily rejoicing before it feels like everything is back to business, back to ending the war.

Just as their turning away to head to the buildings he calls her name, hard as he tried, he doesn’t even note a reaction from her. She turns and regards him and no words are spoken; just for a second he thinks that she’s forgotten and that perhaps this is not the same girl but then her brother Jon asks, “Do you know him?”

She answers, her voice a smooth monotone lull. All she says to him is: “It’s good to know you’re alive.” and he can’t help but think about what happened to her.

He doesn’t see her again for some time until he comes to the stables. He came to see the horses, and it’s so quiet that he doesn’t even notice her there. It isn’t until he’s walking by each stall that he sees her and it scares him. Because he hadn’t heard her come in or anything that remotely seemed like she was in the same room as him.

But he shakes off his momentary fright with a laugh, “How long have you been here?”

“Some time.”

“How are you?”

“Fine” and she continues to look at the horse in front of her.

“Arya-”

“Hot Pie works at the inn at the fork between king's landing and here.”

And he feels elated at the knowledge that their companion is alive and it’s a second, just a second that he takes his eyes off her and when he means to comment on their friend she’s not where she was. Instead, he catches glimpse of the shadow leaving the stables and follows it sparingly before he loses it. He doesn’t see Arya again for another week. And that was briefly at breakfast.

The Hound seemed to be the only one who could make Arya come out. They trained together, Gendry himself never saw it but he heard the sounds of clashing steel. The two had traveled together after he and Arya parted ways. When he finally catches a glimpse of the two training, it’s only after Needle stabs the ground just inches from his feet. He picks of the thin metal and walks to where he hears the bout. There he sees Arya showing more emotions than he has in his entire two months at Winterfell. She disarmed and still fighting. She’s swifter than ever, she’s always been quick but now there’s frightening seamlessness about the way she moves. Fluid like water, swift and raging in the way she dodged. He watched for some time, how she nimble she was, how quickly she reacted. Then it was two strikes to the forearm, small knives slightly impaled in the openings of the Hound’s armor, that marks the end of the spar. The Hound curses just before Arya got a dagger poised to his neck in a loose grip.

“Where’d you get the knives?” he asks as he removes the tiny blades. “Not from me this time?” and it’s a joke. One that strikes him odd and he sees the faintest of smiles on Arya’s face.

She takes the blades back and the Hound tells her that tiring her opponent out won’t always work. Some other things are said before someone calls him and Arya turns to see him. Well, her eyes set on Needle first, then him.

He says something simple as he hands her back and she wordlessly takes it. Arya for what she is is something he won’t ever be able to understand. He remembers the wild girl, quick to temper and quick to fight now the girl of five and ten before him had a Stark kind of pretty with a frost demeanor. Gone was the raging fire from before.

It’s hard to catch a glimpse of Arya, even harder when the action of war comes. The walkers aren’t defeated just yet but they’ve been pushed back enough to know that they have a chance to beat the Night King. Unfortunately, that slight victory was dampened by the word that the Lannisters have forces ready to take Winterfell, Euron Greyjoy was to lead according to Bran.

They ready for an attack, and he hears Arya and Lady Stark arguing. “I’m not taking the Cat’s Paw, you keep it.”

“You need something.” And it’s the first time her eyes seek him, “Have him forge you something.”

And before he can ask what she means, Lady Sansa cuts in, “Please don’t bother yourself, Gendry.”

“I agree with young Arya, My Lady. You should have something.” it’s the lady knight that was with them.

“Make her something small and skinny that she can have in her dress pocket. Sharp enough to puncture someone clean through.” and he says without realizing it, “As M’lady commands” and goes to work. He doesn’t catch the look exchanged by the three women.

He makes something likened to Needle and gives it to Sansa. Afterwards, Lady Stark and Arya spend hours in her chambers training. He caught word that Arya was showing Sansa all the major areas to strike a man if one came to Sansa. All resulting in a death that would have them bleed out.

When he sees Arya again she’s fiddling with a small blade, twirling it around her fingers looking blankly at the snowy ground in front of her. She looks up at him, and he tries to talk with her. Tries, Arya mostly listened. And he ends up bewilderedly asking, “What happened to you?”

She doesn’t answer just disappeared like she tended to do.

The Dragon Queen comes to Winterfell, calls Jon King in the North and they arrange to take the Iron Throne. Queen Cersei won’t help with the fight against the dead and was proving a nuisance to deal with.

They were in the council room, discussing plans and Arya speaks for the first time in front of everyone. “I can go to King’s Landing.” and there’s a pause, one filled with dread from the Starks. “I’ve ended scores of men what’s a queen in that growing lot.”

“Arya...” and it’s her brother trying to tell her no.

“House Frey is gone because of me. If I go to King’s Landing, they won’t be looking for my face. They’ll be looking for Stark troops, the Knights of the Vale, and large Dragons. I can get in and kill the Cersei” she turns to Daenerys, “You don’t want any more needless deaths, right?” and the silver-haired woman regards with a sad expression.

And he hates himself for being so bullheaded because they all know what she proposed. They weren’t looking at her the way they were because they were tentative to the monster that became of Winterfell’s lost girl, they were looking at her because this was suicide.

There’s an exchange between the Starks he doesn’t hear because he’s too taken with the fact that everyone accepted the monster that became of Arya Stark and the people still loved her for it because she held the face of Ned Stark. And somewhere in the midst of the fray in Gendry’s mind, he catches this, “When will you leave?” it’s a watery demand from Lady Stark.

“Before Dawn.”

“It’ll still be dark out-“

“I work well in the dark. If I succeed you’ll know. If I don’t then…”

and he notices the red tinging the Lady Stark’s eyes, large Tully features brimming with tears.

“You are to return to home to Winterfell when all of this is over, do you understand?”

“I’ve never taken orders from you, Sansa” and she gives them a smile. and it seems everything is diffused, and more battle strategy is exchanged, he’s placed with Ser Jorah Mormont to front the left flank.

When it’s all done, Arya is gone. She had left long before dawn ever arrived and her true smile was her farewell.

The battles arrive, Arya hasn’t given word. And everyone assumes her dead. Just before the first blood is shed between the soldiers, something strange happens.

Some say the moon covered the sun.

Other’s say the sun turned black and the skies were streaked violet before torn red. He doesn’t remember, a lot of people don’t remember. but he swears he was on the battlefield with Ser Jorah Mormont. He swears he saw Daenerys ride her dragons. Swears he saw the funeral pyre given to Arya Stark just before they’d all left.

And he tells himself it couldn’t have been a dream but suddenly he awakes in a featherbed in a lavish room and is greeted with thundering laughter from a father he never knew. He says they’re headed to Winterfell to see the King in the North. And suddenly he sees his father, remembers attending the coronation of Daenerys Targaryen. Remembers how she gave sovereign power to the North and Iron Islands so long as they swore allegiance to her. Remembers seeing her at Winterfell another time, bringing dragon glass, when the Starks were alive. He could see a memory where his father and she spoke of what to do about the Lannisters. And he remembers Arya. An even littler Arya. One who rode her steeds, dreamt of being a Knight, and ran away from her sewing lessons.

He rides a familiar path to Winterfell. As they do Gendry realizes he knows things he shouldn’t and doesn't know things he should. Like how Rob Stark had been heir to the Northern Throne until her fought a battle in place of his injured father against the Lannisters. Rob named his brother Jon the heir to Winterfell because he was under the effect of a poison that was painlessly sending him into an early grave. He knows of Jon Snow’s true lineage. Knows of the Hound and Tormund and Brienne of Tarth.

When his father, Robert Baratheon and he rode together in the early morning, the last day of travel before the arrival to Winterfell, he asks his father about his marriage. And his father gives him a strange look before answering his question. There Gendry learned that Robert Baratheon was married to Lyanna Stark. She claimed to never be able to bear him children but Robert loved her in spite of that. He was a bastard born before their marriage and Lyanna loved him so much that she asked Robert to make a small Gendry his heir. She had loved him in place of the son she could never hold, gave Gendry the love she could never give to Jon. Lyanna became pregnant once, fell ill and died along with her unborn child. Robert had been despondent but came out and raised him, his legitimized bastard, for the love Lyanna bared for him. 

When they arrived at Winterfell it was a formal greeting for about a breath before the two good friends went into their banter. And drinks and food were given around and celebration ensued. He saw a disabled Bran with his direwolf Summer. Saw Lady and Sansa. Rickon and Shaggydog. Jon and Ghost. He didn’t see Arya until the day he left. But he caught the words spoken about Winterfell's lost girl. The people spoke of the wolf girl that roamed Winterfell in the shadows. In this odd life, Lyanna was never stolen away instead Arya was. No one knows how it happened. It was Nymeria’s loud howls that alerted the Stark boys, they had chased after the dire wolf until they lost her, and with Nymeria out of their sight, Arya’s trail died. The wolves couldn’t track her, some even said a man in the shadows took her. Lady Catelyn Stark was heartbroken, Ned Stark didn't stop searching for his youngest daughter until the day someone said they saw her and brought her back from Braavos. Syrio Forel, a friend of the Starks brought back their lost daughter. No longer a young girl but a lady.

She didn’t speak, from what he hears she didn’t for a year, and she was confined to her room until her father allowed her to trek Winterfell at her leisure.

Arya would disappear for a time, but she would always come back.

He sees her riding Nymeria, hair longer than it had been in their life before. Long and wispy and wild as the wind. Her skin as pale as before, with small silvery scars on her left cheek. He doesn’t call out to her. It isn’t until there is a formal farewell does he see standing with her siblings. And his father goes over to her, ruffles her hair and tells her something he doesn’t remember, all he knows is that he called out to her. Storm grey regarded him and all he says between his smile is “Stay wild. Don’t change, Arry.”

Thanks for reading. -V