Chapter Text
For so many years all Arya Stark had was her vengeance, she had never believed that she would turn her back on it. She couldn’t fathom that there was anyone who could convince her to do so but somehow in a crumbling keep, with her last kill within her reach Sandor Clegane did just that.
In that moment the man she had come to care for as deeply as she had once hated him gave her a choice. Die with Cersei’s blood on her hands or live knowing that with Daenerys Targaryen hunting her the Lannister Queen was as good as dead.
It should have been a simple choice but letting go of the one thing that had driven her onwards for so many years was harder than she had ever thought it could be.
“Live girl” Sandor urged her as he pulled her into the first and only hug the two of them would ever share. “Have a good life” he almost begged her “live enough for both of us”
Watching him walk away to claim his own vengeance Arya knew she would never see him again and it hurt almost as much as slipping away from her family in the early morning light had. She knew if she had bid them farewell, they would have tried to stop her so she had left them without a word.
She had thought she was doing the right thing at the time but she now knew that if anything happed to her (or Gods forbid them) and she never saw them again, she would die with the regret that she had robbed herself of the chance to say goodbye to them, she would not make the same mistake with Sandor.
She called out to him just before he left the room, using his real name for the first and last time, she wanted to bid him farewell, she really did but the words would not come, so she thanked him instead. Inwardly she cursed herself, the girl she had once been could have given him a much better send off, she would have hugged him tight and asked him if he really had to go, she might even have wept but that girl was dead, she died many years ago and Arya couldn’t resurrect her no matter how much she sometimes wanted to.
Sandor gave her one last look, his gaze held both deep sadness and a lingering hope but more than that it held understanding, not just of what she was trying to convey but also what she was feeling. If time wasn’t so short Arya thought Sandor might have hugged her again but instead, he gave her a firm nod and a soft, sad smile.
Arya had to turn and leave then, she could not watch him walk away from her knowing only death awaited him, leaving him hurt but having him leave her would have hurt even more.
As she ran from the room Arya was surprised to hear Sandor yell after her “Live girl, live well” he bellowed and, in that moment, Arya swore to herself she would try to honour her friends dying wish.