The Stag and The Frog - (GendryxMeera GOT fanfic) Part 1: Alone

23: Before the world shatters

"It's too late anyway", she said, still looking down on the ruins. "What are you doing here yourself?"

She needed to steer the conversation elsewhere.

He sighed. Apparently something was bothering him too.

"I came to find my father, or at least feel close to him. And this felt like the right place to do that. I lived in the city down there all my life, but I've never been to this castle. I've never seen the city as he did."

Gendry glanced down on the city as he said that. Almost like he saw it for the first time.

"And seeing it from here..." he continued. "We must have all seemed so small to him. Like ants, just working away day after day."

She nodded. From there the city did seem so small. Like it wasn't actually real.

"So why tonight, why do you come here now?" she asked.

"Because I choose him tonight... I had to choose between love and being a lord. And I chose my house, I chose my castle, I chose my father. I guess I wanted him to know I made that choice. I choose House Baratheon. I wanted him to be proud of me. I wanted him to see me. But sitting here now I don't think he ever would have, he wouldn't have seen me. Because I was just one of the ants down there."

He got quiet for a moment, seemingly pondering what he had just done, what he had just said.

"If he had known about you I'm sure he would have seen you, Gendry. He would have been proud of you. You made the right choice. You are the last of your house, just like me, and you can't walk away. I see that, and I'm sure he would."

She looked at him now, even though she had been avoiding it. Because she wanted him to know that she saw him. If that made her tell him the truth, then so be it. His blue eyes looked so sad now.

His hand searched for her palm and as he found it he clasped his hand around hers. His grip was tight like he needed something to hold on to.

"You're right," Gendry said with a tone of determination, but a look of hesitation. "I can't walk away. I have to choose my house. I have to be more than one of the ants down there. So I had to walk away from her instead."

"Who was she?" Meera asked.

"Arya... Arya Stark. I knew her a long time ago when we were just kids. I loved her then but was too young to know it. Then I found her again when we were old enough to understand love. But she wasn't the same anymore, and neither am I. I realize that now. She couldn't be mine, and I can't be hers. Because we have chosen different paths."

Another Stark. Another young innocent love that could have been something more. Another journey that had ended in heartbreak.

That's when Meera knew. She knew she could tell him. She needed to tell him. Because she knew he would understand.

So she looked into his blue eyes, letting herself get swept away by them. And she started to tell the truth.

"I loved someone once too. When I was too young to know what love was. He was kind and sweet and I think he loved me too. But he was also too young to know it. We traveled up North together. To find something. And when we found it... it changed him. He became someone else. Someone who is not kind and sweet. When I looked into his eyes before I used to see light, but now I don't see anything. His eyes are just empty and dark. And it scares me. He scares me."

Meera continued to look into Gendry's eyes. They had the same light in them as she had once seen in Bran's eyes. They comforted her. She could see that he was honest, true and good.