Chapter Text
Gendry was halfway into his third beer, enjoying his usual Friday night drinks with Arya at their usual pub with their usual friends when it hit him. It was nothing in particular, really. She sat beside him, looking the same as she always did, wearing jeans, a flannel shirt and sneakers, her hair pulled into a ponytail, a beer in her hand. It wasn't anything she said either. But as she threw her head back and laughed at some ridiculous story Hot Pie was telling, something changed. He wanted, more than anything, to kiss Arya.
The feeling came out of nowhere, and he didn't know what to do with it. It was exhilarating and terrifying at the same time. Kissing Arya wasn't really something he'd considered in the 10 years he'd known her. They'd met when she was 13 and he was 18 and he'd thought of her as Robb's little sister and later, a friend. This was new.
Robb and Gendry had been roommates in King's Landing since their first year of university. They'd quickly become friends, and when Robb found out that Gendry didn't have any family of his own, he'd invited him home for the holidays. He'd fit right in with the Starks, and it had become something of a tradition for Robb to bring Gendry along to Winterfell whenever he paid a visit himself.
Gendry and Arya had always gotten along like a house on fire – they loved the same movies, shared the same sarcastic senses of humour, and both had felt like outcasts growing up. A city boy all of his life, Gendry found that he wanted to get out in nature, so Arya started taking him along when she set off on one of her day hikes in the rugged Northern countryside. Gendry wasn't as good at navigating the narrow paths or climbing the scattered boulders as Arya was – she was so small and agile where he was ungainly and heavy-footed, but Arya had shown a level of patience with him that she normally didn't possess. Gendry came to really enjoy their hikes and conversations and it became one of his favourite things about visting Winterfell.
When Robb had gotten engaged to Talisa last year, he told Gendry he'd be moving in with his fiancée, but that Arya was moving down to King's Landing to begin her Masters in Westerosi History and that maybe she could take over Robb's room. Gendry didn't like change much, but he did like Arya, so he'd quickly agreed and suddenly she was his roommate.
It worked out well for both of them. They didn't see each other much during the week, with Gendry working and Arya studying. Neither of them dated much, nothing to speak of anyway, so the weekends were theirs, and they had developed a comfortable routine. Fridays they met Hot Pie and Lommy at the pub, Saturdays were movie night, and Sundays they would have breakfast together. It was easy and it was familiar, just the way Gendry liked things, and now he was ruining it all. Nothing would be the same again.
As Gendry contemplates this turn of events, Arya turns her attention to him.
''What's up, Gen?''
''What? No, nothing, I -,'' he gestures futilely and knocks over the remnants of his beer.
Lommy and Hot Pie cheer, while Arya reaches across the table to grab some napkins, leaning in close. Gendry can smell her hair and feel the warmth from her skin as her bare arm presses against his.
''You know what,'' he says quickly, pulling his arm away, ''I just remembered, I need to – I'm going to just – I'm going to go.''
Arya eyes him with a raised brow. ''You want me to come with?''
''I'm fine, everything's fine. Just tired.''
''Okay cool,'' Arya says, ''Cause I want to hear the end of this story. I'm going head out soon though. See you at home!''
''See you at home,'' Gendry says in the lightest tone he can manage. He heads out of the pub as casually as possible, but once outside finds himself leaning against its brick facade, trying to gather his thoughts.
Maybe, he considered, it was just a fleeting impulse. Maybe it would just go away.
He was wrong.