A new cub

Chapter 5

After Arya stormed out Sansa gave Gendry a hopeless look and began to follow after her. Gendry stopped her, "San- My Queen, I think it would be better to let her cool off for a little while. I'll talk to her after we eat."

"You're probably right. You know her way better than I do.  I feel terrible, all I wanted to do was help her out.  I thought I could get another chance at being a good sister to her because I was awful to her the first time around. And please just call me Sansa."

"Ok Sansa," Gendry said with a soft smile, "may I speak freely?"

"Of course"

"You are her sister.  You will always know her better than anyone.  You both may have been separated for a while, but deep down you know both of you will always be there for each other.  She knows deep down your intentions were good, but you don't have to grow up with Arya to know she likes to do everything by herself."

Sansa nodded at that with a little eye roll. 

"Sansa I promise just give her time she will come around.  And if she doesn't soon enough I will talk some sense into her."

"Thanks Gendry, and thanks for protecting her all that time you were together."

"Oh we protected each other I didn't do much besides help convince people she wasn't a girl," he said with smile.

They sat in silence for a moment, picking at their food until Gendry spoke up again.

"Can I tell you a story that you seriously can't tell Arya that I told you.  I know we tried this secret thing before and I royally screwed up, but give it another chance?"

"Sure, I promise"

"Out of all the time I spent with Arya while she was a kid I only saw her cry once. Which is amazing given all of the shit she went through."

"She was really never one to cry."

"Do you wanna know why she was crying?"

Sansa gave a slight nod.

"All day she was very quiet and sort of just hid in the shadows, which was very unlike her. I tried to ask her what was wrong, but she kept just ignoring me and walking away from me.  It wasn't until after we ate dinner that I noticed she wasn't anywhere to be found.  I walked around and found her hiding behind a rock, crying.  I sat down next to her and put my arm around her and for the first time she didn't punch me.  After a few minutes I asked her if she wanted to talk about it.  She took a little while, but her response was its my sister's 16th nameday.

She said she heard at the local inn what the date was the day before and realized it was your birthday.  She said that for Robb's 16th name day there was a big feast and party and she was imagining that yours would have been even bigger.  She even went as far as saying that she really misses you and there was so much that she wanted to tell you and ask you. Even said she would do anything to take back how annoying she knew she was being and just be a normal sister.

So Sansa, I don't think this is going to tear you guys apart. "

Sansa was tearing up at this point.

"I'm going to go talk to her now, don't worry about her Sansa"

"I'm really happy you're going to be in this family Gendry."

He smiled and got up to go track down Arya, but not before saying, "me too, I love her more than I thought physically possible."

He found her sitting outside in the godswood.  

"Arya I'm sure you don't want to talk, but you're going to listen. Everything I said earlier today is 100% true. I love you so much.  Whether Sansa would have written me or not I would have been here as soon as I saw your letter.  I want to be with you. I want to be a Father to this child. You are all I thought about every day since we parted."

She pulled him down into a kiss.  "Gendry I love you too, that didn't change. I'm sorry I stormed out. Its hard for me to except help from others I am so used to doing everything for myself. I also don't like letting people get close to me because I am so used to everyone dying.  So I guess its really just a defense mechanism and.. these pregnancy hormones aren't helping.

They both laughed and kissed again.

"I need to apologize to Sansa, but for some reason it seems like such a hard thing to do right now.  We never used to apologize one day we would just move on. But I think that tore us further apart and I don't want that happen again."

"Trust me Arya, she feels the same way. Why don't we go to bed and you can talk to her first thing in the morning."

"Good Idea" she said as she took his hand and headed back to the castle.