Work Text:
“Why is your sister doing this again?” Gendry asked curiously as he watched Arya carelessly throw packs of red paper napkins into their already full shopping cart. She crossed the item off of Sansa’s neatly printed list and stifled a sigh, they weren’t even halfway through it yet.
“Because,” Arya reminded him with an eyeroll. “Margaery’s brothers are coming into town and Sansa wants to make ‘a good impression’.”
“Does she honestly think they won’t like her if she doesn’t have” Gendry surveyed the list before frowning up at Arya and reciting, “’Silver tinsel but not the glitter kind. I swear to the gods Arya, not the glitter kind.’” Gendry looked down at the list again with a shake of his head, “I thought you said she’d calmed down lately.”
Arya shook her head and stood on the rung of the cart to ride it forward a few feet. They were the only people in the aisle, and as far as she could tell, the whole store. Well except for a handful of employees who looked like they’d rather be anywhere else but working the overnight shift two nights before Christmas.
“Sansa doesn’t know the meaning of calm.” Arya jumped off the cart to pull it to a stop as they reached the holiday corner of the store. It was incredibly picked over thanks to the date, the next time Margaery’s brothers decided they wanted to surprise her with a visit they had better forewarn Sansa. Or at least Arya, so that she didn’t get roped into things like this.
All of the Starks had been dragged into helping out, Sansa had done more than her fair share of helping all of them over the years as she had been quick to remind them all over the phone that morning. Arya figured that if all she had to do was help her sister plan a last minute holiday party to erase the debt of the two times Sansa had picked her up from the sheriff’s station she was getting off easy. She had forgotten when she’d thought that who she was helping. Her choices had been either supply run or deep cleaning Sansa’s apartment so out of all the siblings Arya felt like she had drawn the easiest task. That was before she had seen the list of course.
“They only have glitter tinsel.” Arya sighed, grabbing what little was left and tossing it into the cart. Sansa could yell at her later. This was the third store she’d dragged Gendry too and the other ones had only had pink tinsel. Sansa was just going to have to deal with the glitter.
Gendry frowned down at it but didn’t say anything, wisely keeping silent as he crossed it off the list.
“She wants ‘enough candy canes that even Rickon couldn’t eat them all.’” Gendry read off the list before looking up at Arya with a pinched brow. “Does Rickon eat a lot of candy canes?” he asked doubtfully.
Arya wrinkled her nose in memory of three Christmases ago when he had made himself sick off them. How he had done that and still called them his favorite candy was beyond her.
“We’re going to need every box they have left.” Arya sighed feeling a headache forming in her temples. Gendry wrinkled his nose in distaste but followed after her to the next aisle.
At least Arya wasn’t having to do this errand alone. Gendry and her had been hanging out in her apartment watching a movie when she had gotten the frantic phone call from her sister demanding it time she paid back some of the ‘sisterly goodwill’ Sansa had given her over the years. Arya didn’t think that threatening another person with it meant it was very goodwill but she didn’t feel like arguing when Sansa’s voice got that high-pitched.
Gendry had been quick to offer to take her shopping which was good because Arya didn’t have a car and his truck would be way better on the snowy roads than anything she could borrow from her siblings. This was his first time being around her family for the holidays as her boyfriend and he was adamant about getting into her family's good graces. Arya had told him repeatedly that her family liked him but Gendry could be as stubborn as her sometimes and refused to believe her. If shopping for her sister’s crazy last minute party was what it took for him to understand that the Starks liked him than Arya might be able to kill two birds with one stone that night.
“Why in the seven hells does she need ‘four rose shaped tree ornaments?’” Gendry asked shaking his head the further he read down the list.
“Don’t ask.” Arya sighed, loading the boxes of candy canes she’d found stuffed at the back of a shelf onto the cart.
“Hey.” Gendry said suddenly, grinning as he grabbed something off the shelf above her and held it out to her. “Mistletoe.”
Arya ignored the speeding up of her heart as she glared at the plastic sprig in his hand. “Is it on the list?” she asked softly, as much as she loved any excuse to kiss Gendry they were already behind schedule.
Gendry looked away from her to scan the list again before shaking his head quickly. “No, but what’s a holiday party without mistletoe?”
Arya snorted. “One where the majority of the people attending it are related.”
“Well...” Gendry paused before slowly raising the mistletoe so that it hung above them. Arya glared up at him halfheartedly. “We’re not related.”
“Shut up.” Arya rolled her eyes and moved to shove past him but Gendry caught her arm lightly and drew her to a stop.
“Didn’t anyone ever tell you it’s bad luck to walk under mistletoe and not kiss?” Gendry asked softly, his eyes never leaving hers. For a moment the bright fluorescent lights of the store seemed to fade away as Arya held his gaze.
“It’s plastic mistletoe.” Arya reminded him with a frown, glaring up at the item in his hand. If she kissed Gendry now, she wouldn’t want to stop and then she’d end up in deep water with her family. Again.
“That doesn’t make it any less real.” Gendry argued, placing his other hand on her back and pulling her closer to him.
Arya let him do so with a halfhearted sigh. “We need to finish this list.” she reminded him, if they kept getting distracted like this they’d still be shopping when the party started. Her phone had been blowing up with texts for the last hour from her siblings wanting status reports. After Bran sent her a picture of them cleaning the apartment she didn’t know why any of them thought she’d be in any kind of a hurry to return.
“We will.” Gendry assured her, still holding that damn fake mistletoe above their heads.
Arya wrapped her fingers around the arm holding the mistletoe and halfheartedly tried to pull his arm down. She couldn’t reach much past his elbow with the way his arm was extended so it wasn’t very effective. “Knock it off.”
“Make me.” Gendry grinned cheekily and Arya huffed out a breath at the sight.
“Fine.” She rose up on her tiptoes and tried not to feel annoyed when she still couldn’t reach Gendry’s face. Sometimes she hated how much taller he was than her. Gendry took pity on her pulling on his shirt after a moment, probably because he knew she was half a second away from climbing onto one of the shelves to reach his face. He leaned down the last few inches to meet her lips, kissing her softly. He tasted like peppermints which Arya usually hated but she didn’t mind it so much when it was mixed with the taste of him.
“Was that so terrible?” Gendry asked as they broke apart, his thumb rubbing circles on her back.
Arya rolled her eyes and grabbed the mistletoe from his hand, not looking at him as she chucked it into the basket.
“I thought you didn’t want that at the party?” Gendry asked curiously as Arya started down the aisle again.
Arya cast him a look over her shoulder and raised her brow. “Who said it was for the party?”
Gendry laughed and wrapped his arms around her waist, making it nearly impossible for her to walk and push the cart at the same time. At this rate the party was definitely going to have started by the time they finished shopping.