Undeniable Plural // Arya x Gendry // Slow Updates

One. "A Good Bad Influence."

"What are you doing?"

"Depends. Are you going to judge me?" Her back's to him and he leans against the door frame.

She was staring down at the rusty faucets and slightly yellow tinged water.

"Well, that really depends if that's blood you're cleaning off your shirt."

"Says the guy in the girls' bathroom. You're not really in any position to be judging me, are you?"

Gendry cracks a smile. "Touché."

Arya gives a small smirk and pulls her shirt overhead without a second thought. She lets the tap water run over it, soaking it through. Arya's wearing a simple charcoal grey bra. There's nothing special about it, it's just a plain old bra, but Gendry can't stop staring at it. So, instead, he crosses his arms over his chest and leans against the chipped green wall, focusing on Arya's beat up Chuck Taylors, as she anxiously taps her foot against the checkered tiles. He's actively trying not to blush and look at her extremely distracting cleavage, even though he kinda sort of really wants to.

She won't look at him.

Gendry sighs and runs a hand through his already disheveled black hair. He studies the crimson stained sink. His gaze flickers to the angry red blotches that stain on Arya's half soaked band shirt that she's vigorously scrubbing with some disintegrating paper towels.

"You've gotta stop doing this, Arry. One more fight and you're gonna get expelled."

Gendry walks over and turns off the tap and grabs a wad of paper towels starts wiping the sink clean of the blood as she holds her shirt underneath the hand dryer.

She rolls her eyes. "Why should I care? It's not like I can learn anything from the public school system, anyways."

Gendry chucks the wad wet, bloody paper towels in the trash can and turns on the tap and lets the last of the blood wash down the drain as she slips her damp shirt overhead.

He looks over at his best friend.

Arya looks pale and defeated. Her stormy grey eyes are those of someone who has suffered and lost far more than anyone ever should in a lifetime and they look out of place on her face, the one that makes people think she's thirteen rather than fifteen.

Gendry runs a hand through his increasingly messy hair, a reflex of his when he doesn't quite know what to do. Which is most of the time, hence is perpetually unruly hair.

"What happened to proving everyone wrong?" He asks the small girl. "To show them that you aren't what they all think? That you aren't just some... delinquent."

Arya grips the edge of the sink behind her, her knuckles turning ghostly pale and bloodless as she glares down at the generic pattern that the black and white checkered tiles made on the grimy floor.

"Are you just going to run away and hide like Sansa does when things get bad?"

"I am not my sister." She voice was like shards of glass. Broken and dangerous.

he steps closer to her, their chests almost touching. "Then prove it."

She stubbornly shakes her head and shoves him away. She steps back and analyzes her best friend's profile. The rumpled hair and iridescent eyes. His easy smile and the little black mole on his left cheek near his dimple.

Being the star lacrosse player made him one of the most popular guys in school. Everyone knew the bull who would take them to the state championship again this year.

But he was still innocent. The world hadn't quite beat him down. At least not yet.

That was the biggest difference between the two best friends. Not tall and short. Not light and dark. Not popular and feared. Not rich and poor.

It was innocent and scarred.

It wasn't obvious, from the outside, but it ran the deepest. And Arya would do anything to protect him from that awful truth for as long as possible.

Sure, his mother was a vindictive bitch, and his younger brother Joffrey was undoubtedly the spawn of Satan. His father was a drunken asshole. But his little sister Myrcella and his baby brother Tommen were the sweetest kids, as was his little cousin Shireen. But he had never faced his mother's wrath. Arya would have thought that Cersei Lannister was heartless if it weren't for her children. She was fiercely protective of them, to the point where it was almost obsessive.

The world hadn't broken him. Not yet. Arya would do everything in her power to make damn sure that it never did. And that was one thing Arya had in common with the vindictive Cersei Lannister.

"Why'd ya do it?"

Arya may have a quick temper, but its always in reaction to something else. Someone else. She always had a reason, even if it wasn't a good one.

"They called him a psychotic bastard who deserves to be locked up. They said I was going to end up just like him. And my traitor dad."

The last part came out as barely a whisper, but Gendry hears it. He steps towards her until there's hardly any distance left. He puts his hand on her slightly shaking shoulders. Arya seems so small against his frame. Gendry lifts Arya's chin to look her in the eyes.

"Arya, you know that's not true. He wasn't a traitor, far from it. And your brother... well, he... I mean... Look. You can't just go around breaking people's noses and handing out black eyes like they're lunch tickets."

Arya rolls her eyes and looks away.

"Do you think that's what Jon would want? If he was here? What would he think of you getting into fights on his behalf and risk getting expelled for it?"

"But he's not here." She whispers it as if she's hoping that her words weren't true.

But they are.

Her eyes study the graffiti on the bathroom stall doors.

He stares at her for a minute, before blurting out, "Come on. I think I've got a clean jersey in my truck. We can go get milkshakes at Pie's."

She gives him a devilish smirk. "But that would involve ditching class, Mr. Baratheon."

"I'm aware, Lady Stark. But milady seems to be in need of a milkshake from Pie's and I must oblige." He says with a grin, giving her a mock bow.

Arya punches him. "Stop calling me that, stupid."

Gendry just laughs. "Come on, Arry. It's Friday and you always say 'rules were made to be broken.'"

And just like that, Arya is back to her usual teasing self. "The Golden Boy? Ditching class? I never thought I'd live to see the day!" She over-dramatically throws her hand over her heart and gasps in mock surprise.

Gendry just chuckles at her antics. "What can I say? I guess that I've had a good bad influence."

She grins and attempts to shoulder checks her best friend, though it's more a shoulder, elbow check because of the height difference. "Damn right."

"Fine. Let's hurry up and get our stuff so we can get the hell out of here already."

"As milady commands."

"Shut up!"

"Ow!"