I Should Have Trusted You

Chapter 12

Arya

Arya opened her eyes slowly, she had dozed off after Jon and Arya had made loved multiple times, she looked around and knew it was late outside, maybe just after supper time. She felt fingers stroking her scars on her stomach, the ones The Waif inflicted upon her. She was lying on her back while using his other arm as her pillow.

'How did it happen?' he asked, and Arya knew what he was talking about, 'They must have been deep, there is still have little red marks around the edges meaning you only took out the stitches around Winterfell.' He said, Arya looked up to be met with Jon frowning.

'I kept on ripping the stitches, so no they weren't too deep' she tried to reassure him, not wanting him to worry about her more than he was already was. His silence meant he was waiting for her to explain

'I decided to go home. I had booked a passage, I was leaving the next morning. The Waif was sent to kill me, I was on a bridge thinking about all the memories I was gaining. She had a face of an old lady, surprising me, and stabbing me and while she held me down, she took off her face. I head butted her and jumped into the water. After I resurfaced I knew I was in trouble, I was losing too much blood and I couldn't sew well. I went to the actress, her name was Lady Crane. I remember waiting for her to finish her act, it felt like a life time, she helped me. That night she gave me Milk of Poppy, I knew I shouldn't have taken it, but for a second, she made me feel safe. If I hadn't maybe I could have stopped her death.' Arya shuddered at the image of Lady Cranes crumpled body, throat slit.

'That wasn't your fault, you couldn't have done anything Arya, you can't blame yourself.' Jon told her, she tried really hard to believe him, but decided to continue instead of answering him

'I ran and was running on adrenaline, the survival instinct and the thought of you. I tried taking a short cut, and I split my stitches, the pain cut through the adrenaline, leaving me with a thought, if I could get to Needle I would be ok, my legs were threatening to give way at any second but I made it to Needle. She came and closed the door, she mocked me, when I stood pointing Needle at her. I cut the light and I killed her. I passed out but when I woke and burnt my wound and took her face, placing it on the wall. I thought The Kindly Man would leave me after that, I thought placing her face on the wall granted me freedom. On the boat home I caught a fever, too much dirt in my wounds they had to cut me open and clean it. I woke it up the morning we got to Riverrun. I hoped off and left to kill Walder.' She told him.

He didn't say anything at first but then bent down and placed a light kiss on each wound. There were many smaller wounds from her training, showing what she went through to be as good as she was, that being the best wasn't free. When he laid back down she kissed him before hopping out of bed. She started changing,

'Where are you going?' he asked her from the bed

'I haven't had food since this morning, it is late now and I am hungry.' She told him 'besides, Robb or Ellia might come up at any point and they might be shocked to see me naked next to a man.' She smiled. He got up and changed before taking her hand. She led the way down to the hall. She saw Robb and Ellia eating supper from the top of the stair case. She walked down the stairs and they looked up surprise masked their faces. Ellia jumped up and hugged Arya, she felt the tension in Ellia's shoulders,

'We heard Cersei died, and how they locked up the keep to find the killer. We thought the worst.' Ellia whispered, Arya let go of Jon's hand and hugged the woman back.

'I'm ok, Jon found me, I might not have made it out if he didn't show up' Arya let go and turned to Jon, who was looking a bit confused.

'Ellia, Robb this is Jon, Jon this is Ellia and Robb they own the inn.' She told him, he made an o shape in his mouth before turning to the inn keepers