A/N: Hey, guys, so this is a AU one-shot, seeing what would have happened if Arya and Gendry stayed together, he didn't join the Brotherhood and she hadn't gotten kidnapped by the Hound. I made Arya at least 15 or 16 years old, but her age is never really specific, so she can be 30 in your mind for all I know.

OK, so the summary is basically that Arya and Gendry escaped the war by going to Braavos using her coin that Jaquen gave her when he left after helping her, Gendry and Hot Pie escape Harrenhal. Arya thinks that all the Starks are dead except for Jon, now that Sansa disappeared, and he was held at the Wall so she has no place else to go. They go to the Free Cities and end up falling in love. This is the story of what happens about a year or two later.

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Enjoy! I own nothing but the plot of this story

Sometimes, after, they would lie in their bed together and ask each other questions. He would ask about her life before King's Landing, and she would ask about working in the forge.

Tonight, though, Arya stayed silent. She didn't start off the questions, and so Gendry just played with her hair and let her lie down on his chest while she snuggled deep underneath the furs.

Arya stroked his chest, and crossed her ankles. Tonight would be a restless night.

Finally, she sat up, and the blankets fell from her breasts. She got up and went to the fire, and turned over the logs with a poker. Gendry looked at her from the bed and waited for her to come back.

She didn't.

Instead, Arya went to the window and rested her hands against the sill. Gendry liked that about Braavos. They were so open about love, and where the Seven Kingdoms looked at a girl's maidenhood as more important than the girl itself, Braavos viewed a woman as a beautiful being worthy of cherishing. No had any shame here.

"What's wrong?"

Arya looked behind her shoulder and bit her lip. "I don't want to think about it anymore."

That was another thing that changed about Arya, other than her brazenness, which he had been surprised to learn could grow impossibly bigger. She had learned to love again, and to trust. When something was wrong, she told him. And when she didn't, she would let it show, and he would ask because he knew she couldn't bring it up, and she would answer truthfully. And he loved that he had been the one to teach her that again.

Gendry motioned for her to come to him and put his hands on her hips. He brought her down on the bed and rolled her underneath him. He pinned her wrists above her head and kissed her cheek lightly.

"Do you think that what we did was a mistake?" he asked, kissing the spot right above her stomach.

Arya sighed. "No. The only way we could have survived was to leave Westeros. I'm still a Stark and you're still the bastard of Robert Baratheon. We'd get killed sooner or later."

"But would you go back? Would you leave Braavos and go back to Westeros?"

"No."

Gendry kissed her navel, and he saw her eyes slip closed. "Braavos was good for us. Not only would we get killed, but we could never be able to be together. And I love you too much to let you go."

Arya fisted her hands in his hair as he kissed her hipbone. "Say it again," she breathed.

"I love you. And you love me. And we will stay with each other until our hearts stop beating. I will never stop caring or loving you for the rest of my days."

Arya felt a wetness on her cheek and let the tear fall down her face. "I don't like to remember it. I don't like living in the past."

Gendry kissed back up to her lips and let his mouth mold to hers. She gasped and slipped her tongue inside his mouth. He let go of her and closed his eyes. He moved over her and shifted forward, and then Arya was feeling something she knew she could never feel for anybody else, because he was Gendry and she loved him more than anything.

He was inside her, then, and he was kissing her again, and this was what he loved, when they took their time and let everything pass by in a half-asleep haze.

Arya left marks on his back, and she reminded herself this was why she loved him. He was always putting her before everything. He let her mark him because he knew it helped her realize it wasn't a dream the next morning, and that it actually happened.

He took her up, up, up, and then even farther, until she couldn't go higher anymore and she was crashing in such a euphoric state she didn't think she could have the energy to move.

Gendry let out a noise, and she knew it was over as he let his forehead drop against hers, not moving from inside her. Breathing deeply, he said in a ragged whisper,

"There's then, and there's now. Some people like to live in the then, but I prefer the now. Because right now, it means that I'm here with you, and I'm yours, and you're mine. Forever."