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“You dropped this”
Gendry found Arya helping to clean up in the library. He approached her, carrying the weapon he had put so much care into making for her. His only thought as he made it had been, it had to be the best and strongest weapon he had ever made, it had to keep his lady safe. Little did he know Arya would end up saving the asses of himself and all of humankind. He really still knew so little about this amazing woman…
Arya gave him a small smile as he approached, “I’m glad you’re ok.” She took the weapon from him and twirled it around in her hands like she’d done when he first brought it to her. She looked at it fondly, still impressed with his work, “Thanks. It worked really well for a while. Then I dropped it when they rammed my head into a wall and I ran.”
“Only the best for milady…” he said softly as he gently touched her scraped and bruised face around her right eye. She tensed slightly, Gendry sensed this was not due to any pain and he quickly removed his hand, backing off, changing the subject, “If you’d listened to me and gone down to the crypt we’d probably all be dead now. I promise I will never doubt you again.” He rested himself back onto the edge of a table that was next to them, this adjustment put them at about eye-level.
The energy shifted as they both felt the awkward question hanging between them. This was the first time they’d seen each other since Arya saved the world, since they both almost died, since the night before the battle, since….
Finally, Gendry broke the silence, “So we didn’t die…” he trailed off, leaving that thought in the air, his eyes raised to meet hers, watching her reaction. Arya glanced up at him silently, unsure what to say. Gendry continued, “I lied to you.” Arya looked at him, confused. “About the Red Woman. I was with her…. Or…she was with me… it’s all kind of a foggy nightmare to me now.”
“What happened?” Arya finally said, breaking her silence.
“Mostly what I told you. She stripped me naked on a bed but before she tied me up, she also stripped naked and climbed on top of me, fucked me a little bit and then climbed off, tied my hands above my head, tied my feet and covered me in leeches.”
“So she raped you…”
Gendry scoffed, “No… I mean, at first I didn’t mind…. I mean…” he stammered.
“Did she give you a choice?”
“Well… no, but….”
“Would she have let you stop her, before she tied you up, I mean?”
Gendry hesitated, stammering a little, “I…. I… guess not… Anyway, I lied to you because… I’d rather forget it ever happened. I don’t remember it fondly…”
“I knew she was going to hurt you.”
Gendry paused, looked down, there was something else he wanted to say. “I also lied about the three girls…” He slowly raised his eyes to meet hers, this part was harder for him to admit.
“There were more than three?” Arya asked.
“No.” He said softly.
Arya looked confused. Gendry continued, “I’m not sure if the Red Woman counts but, she was the only one” he paused, “until you.”
Arya looked more confused, “I don’t understand…”
“I mean, I’m no saint…. There were girls. I kissed other girls.” He took a deep breath and sighed, “I was just never with any of them.”
“Why not? They stopped you?”
“No… I stopped them.”
“Why?” Arya couldn't make sense of any of this.
Gendry sighed, “I grew up not knowing much about my own mother and nothing about my father. I grew up feeling lost, abandoned, unwanted. I told you, I never had a family. Finding out who my father was… how I came to be. I never wanted to do that to a kid. I never wanted to risk bringing a child into the world who might grow up like I did. So…every time I kissed a girl, I would ask myself two questions…” he counted off on his fingers, “‘Do I love her?’ and ‘Do I want to be with this woman forever?’” Gendry shrugged, “the answer was always no…”
Gendry trailed off, letting that hang in air. Arya felt a shiver run through her… had he asked those questions with her? Or… “And then we thought we were going to die…” she said.
“That’s not why I did it.” he said firmly. He paused a second and then, “Maybe that’s why you did it…” he looked her in the eyes, softly, hoping she could see in his eyes what he was saying. But just in case she needed it to be said, “Arya, when you kissed me, I asked myself those two questions…”
Arya’s heart was pounding, she could barely breathe, she thought she knew the answer to her question before she asked but needed to ask anyway, “And…?”
“I didn’t stop you” he whispered, he met her eyes and said softly with a small smile, “I could have stopped you…” He looked at her steadily, watching her face, gauging her reaction.
Recognition setting in to the meaning behind his words, Arya looked at him with a small smile. She slowly closed the short distance between them, not shifting her gaze from his face as she placed the weapon on the table he was leaning on. Without a word, she gently touched his face with both hands and kissed him gently. “I love you too. I always have.”
Gendry smiled and kissed her back deeply, taking her face in his hands. After a moment they broke their kiss gently, touching foreheads, blissful and happy. “Just so you know…” Gendry said, catching his breath, "I already loved you and thought you were amazing before you slayed the Night King but…” he laughed softly, “I do admit that was sexy as hell…”
They laughed as they kissed again.
End