Archive of Our Own ^beta

Chapter Text

Arya’s first day of her new job was going well so far. It was the beginning of spring break and she was asked to come in before the summer rush started to get a hang of how things ran. She learned how to use the register from the manager, a functioning alcoholic by the name of Thoros, and now she was practicing scooping ice cream and making cones with her new coworker. Gendry was a burly, angry-looking, quiet guy – who was also insanely hot.

She had definitely seen him around school before, but he was a year above her and she had never been able to learn his name. He seemed to keep to himself mostly, though she’d seen one or two other boys following him around. And though the rumor mill at school was ridiculously detailed, the only talk she’d heard was about how hot he is, mostly from Jeyne when she was hanging out with Sansa.

She’d get him to be her friend eventually.

-------------------------

It certainly didn’t take as long as she’d expected. Every time Arya and Gendry shared a shift, she saw him smirk whenever she said something snarky to Thoros. Though, in those first few weeks, every time she spoke directly to Gendry, he’d freeze up when they made eye contact, give a short reply, and return to whatever he’d been doing.

She soon realized that he wasn’t a big fan of talking to customers, so she’d asked him to make a deal with her.

“I’ll handle the customers and the registers, while you handle the ice cream. Sound good?”

He had nodded slowly and given her the first real smile she had seen on his face; it had, of course, made him even hotter.

They’d become friends pretty quickly, and while Gendry was still quiet, Arya was able to learn a few things about him – he was saving money for college, he worked another part-time job year round at an auto body shop, he lived with foster parents, and his dad was a dick. His friends, Hot Pie and Lommy, were goofballs who came in for ice cream and to visit him multiple times a week. She smiled at their antics, while he pretended to be annoyed by them.

On the flipside, Arya had told him all about her family – her older brothers, Robb and Jon, were in college, Sansa was in his year (and dating Margaery Tyrell, who’d just graduated and was starting college in the fall), her younger brother Bran was about to start high school, and little Rickon was going to start 6^th grade. She told him about wanting to go to veterinary school, and about her giant dog, Nymeria. She mentioned her friends, who’d come to the shop a few times as well – Meera, Ned, and Willow were hoping to get some free ice cream, but Arya rolled her eyes and had only given them what would fit on the little taste tester spoons.

“So,” Meera whispered, walking up and leaning against the counter when Gendry had gone to check the freezer for more vanilla, “how’s your hot new boy toy?” She wiggled her eyebrows, making Arya laugh. Ned looked a bit crestfallen, sitting with Willow and pretending he wasn’t listening.

“Boy toy? What are you talking about? We’re just friends.” Arya hoped to divert her by handing her another sample spoon with a cookie and coffee flavor on it, with no such luck.

“But you want more, right?” She took the spoon, popped it in her mouth, and hummed happily. “You two would be cute together.”

“Gendry doesn’t see me that way,” Arya said, trying to be nonchalant.

“I think he might, he certainly stares at you enough,” Willow chimed in.

“No, he doesn’t,” Arya insisted.

“Who doesn’t what?” Gendry had walked back to the front, carrying a tub of ice cream.

“These three,” Arya pointed at them, “do not want anymore free samples, so don’t give them any.”

“Hey!” The three friends exclaimed, and Arya shrugged in a ‘tough-shit’ gesture.

“Don’t you all have your own jobs to get to anyway?” Arya asked.

“Fine, fine, we’re going,” Meera said, leaning over the counter and smacking a kiss on her cheek. “Love you, bye!”

Arya laughed. “Kiss ass!” And Meera smirked as she pulled the other two out the door with her.

She hadn’t been able to get that conversation out of her head, because Meera was right, she did want more. She had a giant crush on Gendry, but she didn’t want to mess up the new friendship they had, especially if he didn’t feel the same – and there was no way he did, no matter what Willow thought she saw.

Her persistent crush was especially troublesome when other girls stopped in for ice cream. Nearly every single one would start fluttering their eyelashes and twirling their hair, giggling when he handed them their ice cream. Gendry’s neck and ears would turn red and he’d look away, and Arya felt hot jealousy in her gut, and then annoyance and a bit of shame for feeling jealous at all.

The worst was when Sansa came in with Jeyne. Sansa had come in without her before, and it seemed to go okay; she and Arya had started to get along better in the last year, and Gendry had actually spoken with her a little, even given her a sincere smile when he handed her the ice cream. But Jeyne was still a bitch to Arya, and while Sansa had started standing up for Arya, she hadn’t stopped hanging out with Jeyne.

Jeyne, like all the other girls who tried to flirt with Gendry, fluttered her eyelashes and twirled her hair, and Sansa rolled her eyes before turning to Arya. “I’m sorry,” she whispered, “we were only going to shop in the mall and have lunch, but when I mentioned picking up a pint of mint chip for Mom on the way home, she insisted on coming with me.”

“It’s fine,” she said quietly, looking down at the counter. “Is that all? Just the pint for Mom?”

“And whatever Jeyne gets, I guess,” she sighed. They both looked over at her, still attempting to flirt with Gendry, who oddly didn’t blush this time – he looked annoyed, almost angry? What was that about?

“Arry,” he said suddenly, “can you handle this girl’s order while I grab more spoons from the back?”

“Uh, sure, but I can grab the spoons if you-?”

“No, it’s okay, I got them,” he said, and stormed off.

“Jeyne, what did you say to him?” Sansa asked.

“Nothing! I didn’t say anything!” she cried.

“You obviously said something, because I’ve never seen him act like that,” Arya said.

“Oh what would you know, horseface? Like you could possibly know a guy like that well.”

Arya blinked, feeling her chest get a little tight and her eyes burn, but there was no way in hell she was going to cry because of her.

“Jeyne, go home,” Sansa said quietly, but you could hear the anger in her voice.

“You’re gonna take her side? Seriously?”

“Jeyne, go home, now. I’ll talk to you later.”

“But-”

“Now, Jeyne!”

“Fine!” And she stomped her feet all the way to her car.

“Are you okay?” Sansa said softly.

“Yeah,” Arya replied, looking down at the counter again.

“Arya?” she said tentatively.

“I’m okay,” she took a deep breath before looking up at her, “thanks for- just thanks, Sansa.”

Sansa smiled slightly and nodded. “So,” she grabbed the pint from the customer freezer, “mint chip for Mom?”

Arya let out a small laugh. “Yeah, mint chip for Mom, and when Gendry comes back, sample spoons of double chocolate for all of us?”

Sansa laughed too. “Please.”

Once Sansa had left too, Arya turned to Gendry. “What did Jeyne say to you? You seemed really upset.”

“I don’t really want to talk about it,” Gendry murmured, restocking the rest of the spoons and avoiding her eye.

“Okay. I won’t push, but if you ever do want to talk about it, or anything really, you can, you know?”

He nodded curtly at her, meeting her eye for a second with a half-smile, and then continued restocking.

-------------------------

For one week straight in late June, they worked all the closing shifts together. After serving the after-dinner crowd (where a bunch of giggling girls had, of course, tried to flirt with Gendry), they had to clean everything, restock the ice cream and the customer freezer, and make sure all the displays for the next day were correct. They had finished all of the cleaning, so Arya was sitting on the counter taking a break.

“They come in for you, you know,” Arya told him. 

“What?” Gendry was confused; he was grabbing new tubs from the freezer in the back and wasn’t paying attention. 

“All those girls who come in for ice cream? They’re not coming in for ice cream, they’re coming in to chat you up.”

Gendry grunted and shrugged. “Not interested.”

“You didn’t think any of those girls were pretty?”

Gendry let out a short sigh. “I mean, sure, some of them were pretty, I guess. But pretty doesn’t make a relationship.”

“You could’ve gotten to know one of them,” she suggested. 

Gendry raised his eyebrows at her, his gaze a little hard. “Well, nothing they had to say interested me either.”

Arya nodded, uncrossing her legs and swinging her feet slightly. “So you’re a relationship guy then?”

“Certainly don’t want a one night stand,” he said, picking up another tub from the freezer and walking back to the counter. “You know, you could help me with this instead of us having this conversation.”

“You’re stronger than I am.”

“That’s bullshit, Arry, you can lift these things just as easily as I can. And you’re quicker than me, you’d get it done faster.”

She hopped off the counter. “Fine, Bull, I’ll help.” And that finally got a little smile out of him. She’d started calling him that after Lommy and Hot Pie had mentioned the nickname and how it pissed him off, but when she started using it, he’d just laughed.

Once they’d locked up, they walked into the parking lot.

“Ride home?” Gendry asked.

“Please,” said Arya, “I’m dead on my feet.” She usually walked home, it wasn’t that far. But ever since they started working closing shifts, Gendry had gotten a little protective and ultimately convinced her to accept a ride. He’d told her that he knew she could take care of herself, but she was small (she nearly punched him when he said that) and he hoped she wouldn’t have to use her self-defense skills.

The drive was fairly quiet, but when he parked in her driveway, she turned to him and asked, “Are you going to the 4^th of July festival this weekend?”

“I have both jobs that day, I don’t know if I’ll be up for it,” Gendry said carefully.

“Which shift do you have?”

“The afternoon shift,” Gendry said, a slight question in his voice.

“And you only work mornings at the garage since school let out, right?”

“Yes? Where are you going with this?”

“Please come, I know you’ll be tired, but Hot Pie and Lommy said they’re going, and so did Willow, Meera, and Ned; we could all go as a group. And you’ll get to sit on the rides and there’ll be benches and picnic tables near the food stands – and fireworks! Fireworks are cool!” She rambled.

“Arry, what-?”

“Robb and Jon want to meet you,” she squeaked out, her voice climbing higher as she continued, “as do my parents.”

“Your older brothers and your parents want to meet me? Why?”

“Um, well, they know you’re not just my coworker, you’re my friend, and I kind of talk about you when they ask about how work went, and they’ve been asking me if you were going to the festival so they could meet you, and if you weren’t then they’re just going to come to Scoops to ask you to come over for dinner instead –”

“Okay, I get it, I’ll be at the festival,” Gendry said.

“Oh, good,” said Arya, relieved. “And if they’re weird at all, I can make it up to you somehow. I could even take your shift at Scoops that day so you only have to work the one job instead of both – that way we’re both a little tired instead of you being dead on your feet.”

Gendry smiled at her. “No, it’s okay, you like these festivals a lot more than me. You go enjoy it, and I’ll meet everyone there.”

“Are you sure?”

“Yeah,” he said, still smiling at her, “thanks though.”

Arya smiled back at him, gave him a quick hug, and jumped out of the car. “Okay, so I’ll text you when I get there, and you’ll let me know when you’re on your way?”

He nodded, and they waved goodbye to each other. When her front door closed, he dropped his head onto his steering wheel and groaned. He was in for a rough weekend. Why did he have to fall for someone so outgoing?

Chapter Text

Gendry had been at Scoops for an hour when his phone buzzed in his pocket.

Arya: I’m at the festival now 

Arya: Just saw Hot Pie, he’s got his own stand! You didn’t tell me he bakes-guess I understand where he got his nickname now lol

Arya: How’s Scoops? You’re with Anguy today right?

He was indeed working with Anguy, who was very conspicuously reading over his shoulder.

“Arya... that’s the little chick, right?” Anguy said.

“Yeah, and she’ll kick your teeth in if you say that to her.” Gendry said bluntly as he texted her back.

Gendry: Every time hot pie visits, he goes on and on about recipes, I figured you knew

Gendry: And scoops is dead, no ones come in so far. Maybe thoros will let us go early

Arya:  😊 hope so!

“Wow, she texted back really fast. She’s so into you.” Anguy wiggled his eyebrows at him and scooped some mini m&ms from the toppings bar into his hand.

“What? No,” Gendry said, scrunching his eyebrows together. “We’re just friends.”

He shrugged. “If a girl answers your messages immediately, it means she was waiting for your reply. She likes you, trust me.”

“And why would I do that?” Gendry asked with a hard stare as Anguy grabbed more toppings to snack on. “Didn’t you say you’ve never been in a relationship?”

He waved him off. “Relationships: no, but in one year of college, I hooked up with six different girls.” He puffed out his chest and Gendry forced himself not to laugh.

“And this makes you an expert on girl behavior?”

“More of an expert than you, Mr. Unsocial Butterfly,” Anguy teased. “Come on, think about it, how does she act around you? Unless you really wanna keep things platonic?”

“Well-" Gendry started uncomfortably.

“Avoiding the question means you like her too! So, how does she act? Does she flirt, does she tease you, is she standoffish, does she touch your arm a lot?”

He sighed. “I don’t- she doesn’t really act any differently with me than all her other friends.”

Anguy frowned. “But her texting definitely seemed like she likes you.”

“She probably replied quickly because she wanted to know how soon I could get to the festival.”

He paused. “She asked you on a date... to the festival?”

“It’s not a date, she said ‘We could all go as a group’ with our friends.”

“But she was the one to suggest this group date?” Anguy grinned.

Gendry rolled his eyes. “Yes.” He hesitated. “She- her family wants to meet me.”

Anguy’s smile widened. “She told her family about you? And you’re not already dating? She really likes you!”

He shook his head, trying to fight the blush crawling up his neck. “Arya’s just outgoing, and close to her family, she talks to them about all her friends.”

Anguy snorted. “Sure, man. Whatever you say. But I think if you asked her out, she’d say yes.” And he grabbed more m&ms and walked off into the back room.

For the next two and a half hours, Gendry attempted to avoid thinking about their conversation, because there was no way Arya liked him. Unfortunately, with not one customer to distract him, the whole thing played on a loop in his brain.

Could Arya like him? They’d never hung out outside work before, unless you counted giving her rides home. But she invited you to the festival? That’s gotta mean something. But it’s a group hang, not a date. She could’ve been nervous about inviting just you, and used the group idea to be able to spend time with you? No, that was stupid. And on and on it went.

He didn’t get a reprieve from his cyclical thoughts until Thoros came out of his office.

“Alright, you two, pack up. We’re closing early today,” Thoros ranted. “No customers whatsoever. Every year I convince myself to have this place open on the 4^th, and every year: zilch. That’s it! Next summer, this place will be closed on independence day, mark my words!”

Both Anguy and Gendry were stifling smiles, knowing full well that they’d be open next year, remembering Thoros’ rant from early June: “This is the year that we have at least one customer on the 4^th who decided to come here instead of going to the festival!”

They cleaned up what few things needed cleaning, and left Thoros to lock up.

“So,” Anguy started, “you gonna ask out Arya at the festival then?”

Gendry sighed. “I don’t know, man, I really don’t think she sees me that way.”

“Still think you should shoot your shot. You never know where it might lead. And if she says no, just play it cool. You’re friends, you’ll be fine.”

He still wasn’t sure. “Maybe, I don’t know. We’ll see.”

“I’ll take it!” Anguy laughed. “I’ll see you there, me and some of the other guys are partaking in the pie eating contest!”

Gendry just laughed and shook his head. “Later!”

He pulled out his phone to text Arya.

Gendry: Thoros let us out early. I’m gonna head home and shower really quick and then I’ll be there

His phone buzzed almost immediately, again.

Arya: Yay! Can’t wait to see you 😊

Chapter Text

Arya’s phone chimed as she and her friends were exiting one of the rides.

Gendry: Just got here, at hot pie’s stand. Should I stay here or meet you somewhere?

She looked down at the message. Meet her, just her? She couldn’t help but feel a little giddy, even if she knew he meant ‘you guys.’

Arya: Stay there, we’re on our way! 😊

She turned to Ned, Willow, and Meera. “Gendry’s here! Ready to take a break from the rides for a quick snack?”

Meera and Willow failed in their attempts to hide their smirks. “I think we all know the real snack you’re hungry for,” Meera teased. Ned seemed uncomfortable and looked away.

Arya scoffed. “Oh, fuck off. Let’s go, Hot Pie’s stand is right over there. I’ve heard his bread is to die for.”

“You know what I also heard is to die for?” Willow giggled. “Gendry’s ass!” And she pointed to where he was standing, his back to them, ordering from Hot Pie. Meera and Willow cackled, Ned remained quiet.

Arya grabbed their arms. “Guys, shh, he’ll hear you!”

“Good!” they shouted, and using the arms she grabbed, they launched her forwards, causing her to stumble into Gendry.

“Ow!” Arya cursed. She’d smacked her forehead into his shoulder blade before catching herself with her hands on his waist.

He spun around. “Arya! You okay?” He bent down to take a look at her head.

She was rubbing her forehead and glaring at Meera and Willow. “Yeah, though I didn’t realize how hard you were, Waters.” She froze. Gendry’s back straightened swiftly. Blushes were bright on both of their faces. Meera and Willow’s eyes and smiles widened comically. Ned looked mortified, but at least he looked at her apologetically.

“I mean, you’re… solid. Shoulder blades are like… rocks,” Arya came up with.

“Right.” Gendry cleared his throat and nodded.

They both quickly turned to Hot Pie and ordered the first thing that came to mind. They grabbed their food after thanking him and sat at a nearby picnic table.

“So,” Arya started, trying to break the awkward tension between them, “how was work? You and Anguy have fun?”

Gendry breathed a sigh of relief, thankful for the topic change. “Oh yeah, did you know he’s hooked up with six different girls since starting college?” He joked.

Arya laughed. “What, is he going for some kind of record?”

“No idea, but he seemed mighty proud.”

Conversation was much easier for them after that. The others joined them, with some minor teasing that they rolled their eyes at.

“So, where should we go next?” Ned asked them once they were all done with their food.

“We haven’t been on the swings yet, or the gravitron,” Arya suggested.

“You really like the stuff that spins, huh?” Willow giggled.

Arya stuck her nose up in the air a little. “They’re fun. But whatever, if no one else wants to go on them -”

“I’ll go with you,” Gendry said.

“Yeah?” Arya smiled widely.

“Yeah,” he shrugged, “You couldn’t pay me to go on the carousel, but I like the other spinning stuff too.”

“Yay! What about you guys, you coming?”

Ned opened his mouth to respond, but Meera beat him to it. “Nah, I think we’re gonna go on g-force next.”

“G-force is also a spinning ride!” Arya laughed a little incredulously.

“True, but it also swings you back and forth really high!” Willow explained.

“Go! We’ll meet you guys later!” Meera called out, grabbing the other two and walking off.

Arya turned to Gendry. “Wanna see if Hot Pie and Lommy wanna come?”

He nodded and walked to the side of the stand. “Hey guys, you up for rides?”

“Not yet, we have a break in forty-five, we’ll find you then,” Lommy replied.

Gendry said, “See you later,” and he and Arya walked off.

They’d had fun on the swings, sitting next to each other and joking around. But as they got off the gravitron, Arya was feeling even happier; Gendry had grabbed her hand when she’d slid up the wall higher than him, and hadn’t let go until they were both safely back on their feet.

“Should we check in with the others now?” He asked, with a slight blush on his face.

Arya pulled out her phone to text the group chat when she heard her name being called. She looked up to see her family walking towards them.

“I’ll text them later. Ready to meet my family?” She turned to Gendry.

“Guess so,” he said.

“Hey guys!” she said once they had all gotten close enough. “This is Gendry. Gendry, these are my parents, and my brothers Robb, Jon, Bran, and Rickon.”

“Nice to meet you all,” he greeted.

They exchanged pleasantries, except Arya’s father, who was looking at him searchingly.

Arya looked between them. “Dad?”

“Hm? Oh, sorry, you just look incredibly familiar,” Ned explained.

“I mean, I work with Arya at Scoops,” Gendry started.

“No, not from Scoops.” Ned paused, thinking.

“I also work at Mott’s auto shop, if you’ve ever brought your car in,” Gendry offered.

“Tobho Mott? Hm, maybe that’s it.”

Gendry looked at Arya, who just shook her head.

“You’re working two jobs? That’s quite a lot for a teenager,” Catelyn commented.

He looked to Arya’s mom and shrugged. “Gotta save for college somehow.”

“Your parents don’t work?” Catelyn asked, to which Arya nearly growled, “Mom.”

“It’s okay, Arry. They’re retired; they do a few odd jobs here and there if someone asks for help, but most of their time and money is spent taking care of me and a few others,” he replied sharply.

“That’s…admirable,” Catelyn decided.

“I think so too.” Gendry smiled tightly.

“So,” Jon jumped in, “having fun? Where are the rest of your friends?”

“They didn’t want to ride the gravitron,” she rolled her eyes, “so it was just me and Gendry. We were about to see where they got to when you guys showed up.”

“Right, so how about you go find them now.” Jon lowered his voice so only Arya and Gendry could hear him. “And I’ll keep the rest of the family off your back for the rest of the day.”

“Thank you,” Arya whispered. “Love you, see you back at home!” she called to everyone else.

“I am so sorry, I knew they were gonna be weird, but I should’ve warned you that my mom can be judgmental.”

“It’s fine. I mean, sure, what your mom said was a bit invasive, and whatever was going on with your dad was odd; Robb was kind of staring daggers at me the entire time, and Rickon seemed indifferent; Bran didn’t say anything, but he seemed interested… Jon was nice at least.”

Arya put her head in her hands and groaned. “Oh my gods, why! I swear, they’re usually cooler than this, I don’t know what happened!”

“Arry, really, don’t worry about it. All families are weird, it’s not a big deal.”

“Are you sure?”

“I’m sure,” he said matter-of-factly. “Look, there’s Hot Pie and Lommy – hey guys!”

“Hey!” Lommy shouted.

“Come quickly, we’re about to start the pie-eating contest!” Hot Pie yelled.

“Pie-eating contest? Since when did the festival have that?” Arya asked.

“Since Hot Pie offered his baking services; he noticed last year that there wasn’t one and asked if they could instate it. He baked a number of different pies for them (gods, the kitchen was a mess) and the people who run this agreed. Anguy said he and some of his friends are doing it. Wanna see them make idiots of themselves?”

“Oh, I am so in.” Arya laughed and took out her phone to text Meera and the others to let them know where to find them.

The seven of them sat back, eating the burgers and hot dogs Willow, Ned, and Meera got for everyone. They watched the chaos of the contest unfold, laughing at the messes on everyone’s faces and the not-so-subtle sabotage between Anguy, Tom, Lem, and Harwin. The four of them had tried their best, but the winner was ultimately little Lyanna Mormont, who accepted her trophy and gift certificate with more grace than you would expect of someone with pie all over their face.

Being full of food, and having been on all the rides they wanted to, the group decided to waste their money on the (most likely) rigged games for the rest of the evening. Arya, Gendry, Ned, and Lommy all stepped up to play the ring toss. Meera, Willow, and Hot Pie cheered them on.

“Uh, are you guys seeing this?” Hot Pie asked them.

“Seeing what?” They asked.

He pointed to Ned, who was looking at Gendry and Arya intently.

“Oh, that? I wouldn’t worry. He can get a little competitive sometimes, but he’s not a sore loser or anything,” Willow rationalized.

“…If you’re sure,” Hot Pie said, though he continued to observe Ned closely.

All four of them managed to get at least one ring around a bottle, but only Gendry scored with all three rings, and so could get a top tier prize. The others all picked out prizes from the second tier: Arya chose a coloring book, Ned chose a mini version of the ring toss, and Lommy excitedly grabbed a sticky hand toy, ready to slap everyone with it.

“What about you, Gendry? What do you want?” Arya asked.

“I don’t know. I didn’t think I was gonna win, I don’t really want anything.” He shrugged. “Why don’t you pick something?”

“What? No, I didn’t win, so I don’t deserve it,” she protested.

“Come on, Arry, you seemed disappointed when you didn’t make the third throw. Obviously there’s something you want, and since I’m not gonna pick anything…”

“Oh, well, if you’re sure,” she felt her cheeks heat, “the wolf plushie looks just like Nymeria.”

The carnie handed it to her, and then leaned over to them and said, “You two are adorable together.”

Arya’s blush deepened, and she stuttered out a denial. Gendry’s whole head looked like it was about to burst into flames. Hot Pie noticed this and chuckled to himself, but it died in his throat as he once again observed Ned staring at them. This time, there was no doubt in his mind that Ned was incredibly jealous.

The group moved on to another game, and then the next game, and the next, until the sun was nearly below the horizon.

★★★★★★

Arya, Gendry, Ned, Meera, Willow, Hot Pie, and Lommy were sharing a large blanket waiting for the fireworks show to start. They were at t-minus five minutes, when Gendry got up and asked if anyone wanted snacks, with a chorus of yeses for popcorn.

“Hurry back or you’ll miss when they start!” yelled Lommy, to which Gendry nodded and took off.

The group chattered on, but Arya wasn’t paying attention. She was staring up at the sky, trying to catch the few stars peaking out against the bright lights from the festival, and anticipating the first flash of color that would signal the start of the show. She shivered a little as a breeze blew by and went to shrug on her sweater.

“Do you want my sweatshirt?” Ned offered.

“Oh.” Arya jumped a little in shock, forgetting that he was sitting right next to her. “No, that’s okay. This should be enough to keep me warm. Thanks though.”

Ned smiled slightly. “You excited? You love fireworks, right?”

“Hm?” She hadn’t been paying attention. “Oh, yeah. They’re not exactly environmentally friendly, but I figured twice a year isn’t too bad, I guess.”

Ned nodded, clearing his throat. “So-”

“T-minus 60 seconds!” Willow shouted.

Arya looked around, noticing that Gendry wasn’t back yet. She was about to stand up and go find him to help carry the popcorn, when Ned grabbed her face and planted his lips on hers. She pulled back and gaped at him, and Ned froze.

“Ned, what the hell?” she whispered. He opened his mouth to say something, but nothing came out. Arya shook her head, feeling her chest tighten, and got up and walked back towards the festival.

“Arya, where are you going? It’s about to start!” Meera called to her.

Arya shook her head again. “I’ll be right back,” she said tightly.

She walked back to the festival area, sitting at one of the picnic tables, hands gripping the bench and taking deep breaths as she heard the first of the fireworks explode. She felt silly getting so worked up over a stupid kiss, but she was freaking out. How long had he wanted to kiss her? Was their friendship ruined? Why didn’t he ask her if he could kiss her? Oh no, had she sent him the wrong signals?

“Arry? What’re you doing over here? You’re missing the show.” Gendry had walked over, arms full of cups of popcorn. At the look on her face, he quickly set the cups down and squatted down in front of her. “Hey, what’s wrong? What happened?”

“Ned kissed me,” she croaked out.

“Oh. Okay…?” Stupid, he was stupid for thinking she could ever like him bac-

“I didn’t want him to kiss me,” Arya said more firmly.

Anger appeared across Gendry’s face. “Are you okay?”

“I don’t know? Um, I came over here to just get some air and calm down, but…”

“Do you want me to drive you home?” he proposed.

She gave a jerky nod, and looked over towards the field. “I should probably let everyone know I’m leaving.”

“Text them, they’ll check their phones before sending out a search party.”

She let out a short exhale through her nose – the tiniest of laughs, and said, “Right. And all the popcorn you just bought?”

Gendry shrugged. “We’ll take it with us.” And that got a half-smile out of her.

On the drive home, she ranted about how she and Ned were just friends and she didn’t understand where that came from. All the questions she was thinking before came pouring out. Gendry let her vent, adding in ‘hms’ and shakes of his head when she made a point.

“I don’t understand. I thought I was only sending out friend signals. Did I lead him on or something?” Arya looked heartbroken.

They pulled into her driveway as he spoke. “I don’t know. From what I’ve seen tonight and when he’s come into Scoops, I’d say no, but I’m no expert. Meera and Willow have been around you two more, they’d probably know better.”

She nodded stiffly. “Okay.”

“But Arry,” he waited for her to look up at him, “even if you did send the wrong signals, he still shouldn’t have kissed you without asking. You didn’t do anything wrong.”

She gave a weak smile. “Do you think we’ll be able to stay friends?”

Gendry shrugged. “It’ll probably be awkward for a while. He’s most likely as embarrassed as you are upset. As long as he isn’t a dick about it, you guys should be fine.”

She nodded again, and took a deep breath. “Okay.” She paused. “Would you wanna come in and watch a movie or something? Put this popcorn to good use?”

He laughed. “Sure. What did you have in mind?”

They got out of the car and walked into the house, dumping the popcorn on the coffee table in the living room. “Not sure, but definitely not a rom-com.”

Arya toed off her shoes and threw the TV remote to Gendry. “Pick something. And make yourself at home,” she said, burrowing herself into a fluffy throw blanket.

He took his shoes off and placed them by the door before joining her on the couch, flipping through the channels, and settling on some reruns of a kids cartoon. He grabbed the cups of popcorn and handed one to her, which she slipped inside her cocoon and started eating using only her tongue. Gendry laughed.

“What?” she said, laughing slightly.

“What are you, an anteater?”

“It keeps my hands from getting dirty,” Arya replied faux-haughtily.

“And what happens when your tongue can’t reach anymore?”

“Cross that bridge when I get to it.”

They both laughed, and Gendry just shook his head, but every time she wasn’t looking at him, he also used his tongue to grab the popcorn.