Chapter Text
Arya thinks Gendry might be a little stupid. In her defense, she happened to only catch him in times when he's seemingly not on planet earth, opting for a better daydream.
His head is always in the clouds and most of the time, it rolls right off of her pretty easily, but sometimes it just really pisses her off. What on earth could possibly be more interesting than her stories of fencing in middle school? Or how good she scared Sansa with the masks she always wore around the house when she was younger? Or how she's the fastest runner in all of Winterfell and maybe even Westeros?
She shuts her book closed and slams it on the table in between them earning a loud "thud!" at the false marble table making contact with the hard cover of her book.
Gendry's head snaps up to her narrowed grey eyes.
"Alright. That's it. What the hell is it now?"
"Huh?"
Arya rolls her eyes,"You were totally zoned out. What's on your mind?"
"On my mind?"
"Yes, on your mind, did you wake up extra stupid today?"
Gendry glares at her before answering,"Oranges."
"Oranges?"
"Yup?"
"Why'd you say it like a question, shouldn't you know for sure?" Arya pauses at his flat look," Alright, whatever. So oranges? You have oranges on your mind?"
"Uh huh," Gendry nods before smiling at Arya,"oranges on my mind."
Arya just shakes her head at Gendry. Sometimes she thinks Gendry is a little too weird for his own good, and considers him lucky he has her as his friend and not someone else whose patience wears incredibly thin. She doesn't know anyone else that could tolerate this much stupidity and weirdness rolled up into one giant brooding boy.
"Okay. Oranges. What about oranges?"
"I think we should make an orange meringue pie for our home ec. project." Gendry says, so sure of himself and content with his words.
Arya grimaces at Gendry,"We should make a what?"
Gendry rolls his eyes at Arya,"You heard me, an orange meringue pie. Maybe you woke up extra stupid today."
Arya glares at Gendry before speaking again,"That sounds like the most impossible thing in the world. An orange meringue pie? Why on earth would you want to make an orange meringue pie?"
"Maybe because it fills out a few of the requirements for our project? And other stuff." He mumbles the last bit to himself.
Arya snorts,"I can't believe you're actually worried about that. We should just have Sans-"
"No! We won't have Sansa bake us lemon cakes."
"Why not?" Arya whines, her face scrunched up in annoyance, earning another eye roll from Gendry.
"Maybe because it's cheating? And maybe because lemons and cherries and even blueberries are the fruits that everybody in our class are using to bake their treats. Oranges are superior and will set us apart from the crowd. You know how hard pies are to make-"
"I also know how much you suck at baking-"
"And everybody else will be making a cake, or scones, or squares-"
"How do you even mix meringue with oranges-"
"And you and I have the strong advantage of actually liking our project partners-"
"I think tolerate is a more appropriate term-"
"So orange meringue pie?"
Arya stares at Gendry in his stupid face with his inky black hair falling a little over his forehead and into those big blue, god no, he's giving her his puppy dog eyes and-
"Goddammit. Fine! Fine, we'll bake your damn orange meringue pie."
Gendry smiles at her and it might rival all the stars in the sky and if they weren't in the school cafeteria, maybe she'd let him see how badly it affected her, but they were in the school cafeteria and they were just friends, so maybe she didn't need to let him see the magic that only he can seem to work on her.
"Thank you thank you thank you. It'll turn out great and we'll have a blast, I promise."
Arya just smiles at him,"We better."
He smiles a little wider,"Okay, great. I think we should each attempt at making a pie each on our own to see where each of us are strongest and where we're the weakest and then combine our forces to make the most killer orange meringue pie."
His eyes were excited and she'd laugh if he wasn't so dead serious about baking pie. So she just nods in agreement.
"Sir, yes sir." He rolls his eyes at her while she stifles her laughter,"What? No official titles during our pie making endeavors?"
He smiles at her mischievously,"Oh no, we can use as many official titles as you want, m'lady."
Arya's face falls flat and she narrows her eyes,"Shut it."
Gendry hadn't expected to be so pleasantly surprised. Sure, he knew how adorable Arya thought his puppy dog eyes were and he also knew that if he gave Arya said puppy dog eyes, they would work a charm to get her to agree to making orange meringue pie the way they always made her agree to do anything for him, but she was almost always so strong in her convictions and this was something he actually wanted to do with her more than anything so it was safe to say the thrum of his heart rate calmed and steadied itself at her agreement and his eyes widened in honest disbelief and pleasant surprise.
Growing up, he loved orange meringue pies if only because of his mother. He'd never actually made one on his own, but always helped his mother make them. It had become a special little thing between them that he always looked forward to whenever he caught a whiff of whatever his mother was cooking in the kitchen up until he was 11 and she passed away.
Now he was 16 and he and Arya had become inseparable over the last few years when he met her in middle school.
She was quite possibly the wildest person he ever met and she always saw the brighter side of things which didn't annoy him as he thought it would when he met her as only a young boy grieving the fresh loss of his mother.
She helped him more than he thinks she knows in that time and almost all the time if not always. She helped him when he didn't know if anybody would adopt him from foster care, talking him through all the reasons why any parent would be lucky enough to be his parent. She helped him when he wanted to make a good first impression with Mr.Mott, his at the time potential adoptive parent, picking out a thank you card, tying his tie a little crookedly, and trying to slick his hair down and shrugging her shoulders when it just keep sticking up in random directions and saying it added to his appeal. Mr.Mott ended up adopting him after all.
He shared everything with her, from where he grew up to all of his deepest secrets to pizza slices and grape soda after school. She was his best friend and he's certain there's nobody else, not a single soul, quite as remarkable as her.
From the way she smiled, to how she laughed extra loud around him because she was comfortable, to the line that appeared between her eyebrows whenever her face would scrunch up in annoyance to just how bright her grey eyes were, Arya was the presence in Gendry's life that made each day a little brighter even when they argued till they wanted to rip their hair out.
So what if he thought all these things about his best friend? It's not like any of them were untrue. Oh no, he's certain they are the truest thoughts he ever thought. Gendry is certain that Arya is the prettiest, wittiest, and nicest person he's ever going to know, that anybody would be lucky enough to know. It's not like he needed to voice any of this out loud. What good would letting his best friend know how utterly taken he is with her be?
For now, he would just have to relish in her agreeing to making orange meringue pie with him while they enjoyed the rest of their lunch hour.
And that single though alone was enough to keep him smiling through the rest of his day.
After the school day ends and Arya and Gendry get their usual after school slushies at the 7/11 by their school (cherry for him, coca cola for her) and Gendry walks her home, she goes straight to her room and throws her bag onto the floor, changes into pajama pants and a sweatshirt before storming into Sansa's room.
"I need your help."
Sansa lifts her eyes from the romance novel she was reading and smiles coyly at Arya,"Hello Sansa, how are you today? I'm quite well Arya, thank you for asking."
Arya suppresses an eye roll to be in Sansa's good graces for her favor on learning on how to make an orange meringue pie,"Hello Sansa, how are you today?"
"I'm quite well Arya, thank you for asking." Sansa repeats, nodding her head and smiling.
Arya just snorts,"You are a piece of work. But I do need your help."
Sansa eyes Arya carefully. Arya always prided herself on being entirely in control of what she did and how much she knew. Asking for help wasn't necessarily hard for her to do especially when she had so much family at her disposal to help, but it was still a slight to her pride and Sansa appreciated her ability to put that aside and ask for help whenever she knew she needed it.
"What do you need?"
Sansa, when they were younger had always insisted on giving everybody her opinion, especially Arya. In the times when all she wanted to do was sword fight with Bran and Rickon and roll around in dirt with Theon and Robb and play Robin Hood with Jon, it annoyed Arya to no end. Now that they were older and Arya rolled around in dirt a lot less, she found she appreciated Sansa's advice and unprompted looks of knowing when she's right about something.
"Will you help me make an orange meringue pie? Well not help me make it, more like walk me through it while I do all the work, otherwise Gendry will think I'm cheating."
Sansa laughs before the words settle in her mind and she grimaces,"orange meringue pie?"
Arya rolls her eyes,"Don't even get me started-"
"Why would anyone go for oranges when lemons are right there?" Sansa asks incredulously.
"Believe me. I wanted to bake lemon cakes. Or have them made at the very least." Arya mutters the last part to herself before continuing,"Gendry really wants to make orange meringue for our home ec. project."
"I wonder why," Sansa mumbles before speaking up for Arya to hear, "Shouldn't Gendry be here to make the pie with you then?"
Arya nods,"Yeah, but we're not making a pie together yet. We're making our own individual pies to see what each of us are better at and what we'll need to work on."
Sansa nods in understanding,"So why orange meringue pie?"
Arya thinks for a moment on this,"I'm actually not entirely sure why, but he seems really passionate about oranges."
Sansa looks amused, like she knew something about this whole thing Arya didn't,"Does he?"
"Apparently. Never seen him eat any though."
Sansa smiles to herself before shaking her head and dropping her book on the bed to get up and stand with Arya by her door frame,"Well what are we waiting for? Let's go make some orange meringue pie!"
Arya smiles at Sansa and nods excitedly,"lets."
Making pie wasn't easy, by god was it not easy. Arya absolutely despised making pies growing up, but her mother always loved the smell of baked apples or cherries wafting through the air, so for her sake, she would try. Arya was no coward and would stick her face right up to any challenge, but there was just something about pie crust she absolutely despised.
"Arya, you have to be gentle but firm."
Arya snorted,"It is quite literally impossible to do both. They're polar opposites."
"Quite impossible, sure, but you manage to make it work so why don't you sprinkle some of your personality into this pie." Sansa shoots back.
Arya just shakes her head, and keeps working to get the pie crust to stick together before rolling it up into two separate balls and putting them into ziplock baggies all while Sansa starts on slicing the oranges for Arya, getting at least one step out of the way. Once Arya has the pie crust in the bags and sealed, Sansa claps delightedly before telling her to put them in the fridge for a bit while they work on the meringue and the orange filling.
Sansa and Arya, on the surface and to anyone who happened to spare a second glance, had very little in common. They were as different as day and night. Sansa absolutely adored romance novels and going to the beach and chamomile tea while Arya always opted for sci-fi novels and adventuring through the backwoods and reaching obscene amounts of caffeine levels with caramel lattes. They might have had these superficial differences, but they still managed to appreciate those non similarities a lot more than when they were younger.
But for every difference Arya and Sansa had, they had 3 things in common. They were both undoubtedly smart, they could both tell whenever their brothers were lying, and no matter how much Arya claimed to hate making them, they both loved to bake, or at the very least, bake together.
It was something everybody had taken note of, and maybe Gendry knew that some Arya and Sansa bonding time was overdue since they haven't properly spent time together in a few weeks.
"So, when are you and Gendry going to try your pies and when is the assignment due?"
Arya, while whisking her meringue, thinks on everything,"We're going to compare pies tomorrow during home ec. I think. Or at the very least, try my pie first. I don't know if he's bringing in a pie tomorrow. We hadn't really discussed when we'd bring in our pies. Oh and the assignment is due 2 weeks from tomorrow, so plenty of time to figure out how to perfect our pie."
Sansa hmm's before speaking again,"It makes a lot of sense. I almost forgot that this was the midterm assignment every year for that class. I heard Willow talk about how she and Aegon are making an apple pie."
Arya nodded, not really caring about whatever Willow and Aegon or whoever else in their class was making. She only cared about what she and Gendry were making.
"Told Gendry we should've made lemon cakes but he was so dead set on this, I'd just hate to break his heart." Arya laughs and Sansa joins in before reminding her to pause on the meringue and take the dough out of the fridge.
"I'm sure he appreciates it." Sansa says with a little joy in her voice. A little too much joy in her voice. She knew something Arya didn't and that didn't bode well with Arya while she made pie.
She stops kneading her pie crust and looks at Sansa flatly,"What is it?"
Sansa just stares at her innocently,"Pardon moi? I didn't say anything."
Arya just rolls her eyes,"You didn't have to frenchie, now spit it out. You did that earlier when I mentioned the orange meringue pie, what's so damn special about orange meringue pie?"
Sansa just stares at Arya bewildered,"You can't be serious, can you? I mean you're not actually dense right? I know I tease you Arya, but jeez, even I'd expect you to know or to have at least remembered by now."
"Know what?! Remember what??" Arya takes her hands away from the pie crust entirely and steps away from the ingredients, not trusting herself to fling everything everywhere if Sansa didn't just tell her already.
"He likes you, you idiot!"
Arya stares at Sansa for a solid minute before she cracks up in laughter, throwing her head back and clutching her stomach.
"Yeah right. Good one Sansa,"She says in between laughter. Once she sobers up, she notices that Sansa hadn't been laughing with her and was in fact quite serious.
Arya sucks her teeth and rolls her eyes,"Oh get a grip, Sansa. Gendry does not like me. We're best friends."
Sansa just shakes her head in complete disbelief,"You really don't remember?"
"Remember what?"
"What he said! What he always says! Every year, when mom makes pies for Christmas-"
It hits her like a ton of bricks and she wonders why she hadn't thought of it before. Probably because she didn't think she'd be the person he'd want to make orange meringue pies with again. Probably because all she had been thinking about was home ec. and her and Gendry acing this project the way they aced all their projects,"oh."
"Yeah. Oh. Finally, she gets it!! Would you like a prize?"
"Shut it, cheeky." Arya glares before resuming in making her pie,"So what? It's not like making orange meringue pie with me is as significant as that and like I said before, we're best friends."
Sansa truly doesn't know how Arya could be so oblivious,"Yes, yes it is as significant as that! Arya, he hasn't made or helped make orange meringue pies since he was 11 after his mother died! He said it himself, he'd only make them again if he trusted somebody enough to make them with him. And like I said before, he likes you. This stuff happens to best friends all the time, they're just always a little too stupid to see it at first." Sansa finishes, like she's won the argument and maybe she has but Arya would never let her know that.
"Or it could just mean that he trusts me and that he's ready to make his first orange meringue pie since he was 11."Arya says it so strongly, Sansa knows there's no arguing with her on this for the time being. She shakes her head at her sister.
"You are impossible."
Arya was quite proud of the finished product and she couldn't help herself but to hope Gendry might be a little proud too.
Gendry.
Sansa wasn't right, was she?
Maybe she had just read one too many romance novels and decided to project her ridiculous tropes of love onto Arya and Gendry. Or maybe she knew how Arya felt about Gendry, truly felt about him and decided to tease her. No. Sansa wouldn't, not anymore. She'd be supportive. Maybe that's what she was being.
But Gendry couldn't actually like her, could he? She was his best friend, she wouldn't expect him to see her that way but it didn't seem impossible, not when she truly thought about it.
Not when she truly thought about how despite his absolute nervousness and anxiety over where he lived, he still invited Arya over for dinner a few weeks into their friendship. Or how he glares at absolutely every single person but always has a smile for her (and when they're in company, the rest of the Starks). Or how he truly was incredibly smart and exceptionally gifted in science, but he let himself be a little stupid around her (and in turn, she would be stupid around him too).
She truly couldn't believe she hadn't remembered it when Gendry brought up orange meringue pie's but maybe that's what he had hoped for?
Maybe a chance to say how he actually felt without actually diving head first? It didn't make much sense so she shakes the thought away as she heads to home ec. that morning.
She didn't need to be thinking about this, not when she was about to see Gendry in a few short hours.
God, what would he think of her? Completely flustered, eyes wide, her brows furrowed and cheeks all red.
She needed to get a grip and a handle on herself. It was Gendry, her best friend and the person she could trust with absolutely anything. Even her heart.
She groans and god could she just go one minute without making this about her crush on him?
She shakes her head in an attempt at shaking her thoughts away as she enters the school building, shortly stopping by her home ec. class to leave her pie in the class fridge until fourth period when she and Gendry actually had home ec.
She noticed all the other treats in the class fridge, like Willow and Aegon's apple pie that Sansa had mentioned yesterday.
She closes the fridge before heading to her first period class and tries to push any thoughts of Gendry and orange meringue pie out of her mind for the time being.
Getting through her first three periods seems like a mission and a half with all her teachers talking for longer than they need to. In second period math, she sat next to Gendry and they kept flicking tiny paper balls at the back of Joffrey Baratheon's head. She also tried to whisper to Gendry three times about the pie she left in the fridge in home ec, although he kept on asking her to repeat herself and on the third try he just smiled and nodded at whatever it was she said. Third period runs a little later than normal, causing her to be late for fourth period, but it's not the first time she's been late to fourth period and it certainly won't be the last.
She heads to home ec. with a small smile on her face, entirely excited to show Gendry her pie she made.
Ms.Mordane had made the class itinerary for the following two weeks to be focused on their assignments and collaborating with their project partners and even going around to other pairing's stationed at their counters to maybe learn a few tricks on what would work better for all of their adventures in baking so she's not at all shocked to see Ned Dayne with a spoonful of Wylla Manderly and Meera Reed's peach cobbler in his mouth when she walks in.
Ned looks pretty satisfied and judging by the widening of his eyes the more he tastes their cobbler, Arya knows Wylla and Meera knocked this project out of the park.
"Arya! Come here, you've gotta try Meera and Wylla's cobbler, it's out of this world." Ned smiles at her and she walks over and tastes it and understands in an instant why his eyes kept growing bigger and bigger when he had tasted it before her.
"Oh my god, that was heavenly." Arya mumbles, reaching for a napkin. Meera and Wylla smile at her before turning their smiles to one another and fist bumping each other.
Arya turns to Ned, who was staring longingly at the peach cobbler. Arya has to stifle a laugh behind her hand before speaking to Ned.
"What are you and Jeyne making, Ned?"
Ned looks from the cobbler to Arya and smiles, "Strawberry shortcake."
Arya nods and smiles back. Ned was nice and often liked to help his classmates whenever he could, especially if it meant he got to eat pie.
"What about you and Gendry?" Upon hearing Ned say his name, Arya suddenly realizes she has yet to see her project partner. She looks around the room and sees him by the fridge, surrounded by several sweet treats and Willow Heddle standing beside him, throwing her head back in laughter and shoving his shoulder lightly. Arya feels something shift in her stomach before she turns back to Ned.
"Pie."
"Pie?" Ned asks.
Arya nods, "mhm, pie."
Ned, not phased in the slightest, smiles, "Nice. Pie. What kind of pie?"
Arya looks over at Willow and Gendry by the fridge still, tasting different pies.
"Orange meringue."
Ned's eyes brighten, "Orange meringue pie? I've never had that before. Oranges are my favorite fruit and I'm sure you and Gendry are absolutely going to kill it."
His excitement and honest words causes Arya's lips and eyes to perk up a little before she parts from Wylla and Meera's counter to walk over to where Gendry and Willow were.
She was hoping she could finally give Gendry a piece of her orange meringue, it had only been plaguing her for the last three hours before she arrived to home ec.
She stops walking until she's standing a little bit behind Gendry and Willow at the counter stationed a few feet away from the fridge, waiting for the former to notice her looming presence behind him.
Aegon was looming near the station she was standing by and shot Arya a smile way too wide to be anything less than friendly but she just ignores his smile and turns to look at Gendry and Willow, who still hadn't noticed her.
It feels like a century and neither of them feel her stare, so she's left to listen as she watches Gendry lift a forkful of orange meringue pie in front of him, is that my pie? to his lips, chew and swallow before giving a slight shrug and slight nod of his head before taking a forkful of the pie in front of Willow, chewing, swallowing and then letting out a little sigh.
"So what do you think?" Willow asks him, smiling at the pie sitting in front of her.
Gendry just shakes his head a little, "I think I wish this orange meringue pie was half as good as your apple pie."
Arya thinks she feels the wind knocked out of her and doesn't really want to stay to hear the rest of whatever Gendry has to say about her orange meringue pie.
Her orange meringue pie that she made for him.
Arya doesn't cry very often, but she thinks this moment, hearing her best friend like Willow's pie better than hers, Willow who he's never even spoken to, Willow who's all pretty with her long brown hair and round brown eyes smiling at Gendry, she thinks this might be enough to make her cry and the fact that she's thinking about crying over a boy makes her want to cry even more.
But it's not just any boy she wants to cry over. It's Gendry. Gendry with his scowl fixed on, Gendry who only ever says anything funny when Arya's around, Gendry who gave her his way too big for her sweatpants after her period made itself known on her blue jeans a year ago. Gendry who argues with her on why he likes parks and rec. more than the office.
Gendry who's her best friend and who she likes more than she thought she could like anyone.
She walks over to the head of the class where Ms.Mordane is seated, writing up the class schedule for the weeks to come after their baking midterm and asks if she can be excused on account of feeling really nauseous all of a sudden and when she gets the okay from Ms.Mordane, she's out of the door before she can even hear Gendry calling her name behind her to show her the pie he made last night.
The pie he made which he thinks needs a lot of improvement if Willow's pie is any type of rubric to go by.
She's gone to the empty cafeteria before she even has the chance to find out that it wasn't her pie he was talking about.
It was his.