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1.
Arya sat with Gendry in the cafeteria and glared balefully over at Joffrey’s table, where he sat being the prick he was as well as the asshole boyfriend to her sister. She took out her frustrations on her peas, smashing them with the flat of her fork.
“What is your deal?” Gendry asked, and successfully snapped her out of her stare.
She turned and frowned at him, “Joffrey’s a dick.”
“This is not new information, Arya.” Gendry stated. “What happened?”
She rubbed her hand down her face, “I overheard him talking to Sansa last night, and he was being just awful to her, I kinda just want to punch him in the face.”
“If you do that you’ll probably get in trouble.”
She sighed, “Yeah I know.”
“I dare you to flip off Joffrey!” he exclaimed, grinning at her.
She raised an eyebrow and turned towards Joffrey, when he looked up from his lunch she raised her middle finger, and he scowled in response, moving to get up when his guard dog placed a hand on his shoulder and he sat back down with a sour expression.
“At least act like it took some guts.” Gendry said, disappointment lining his face.
She grinned over at him, and laughed, “His father and my father are best friends, he can’t touch me without getting smacked, which his dad would do. You’ll have to come up with a better dare than that to pose a challenge.”
Arya was laying down on Jon’s bed when Gendry walked in through the joined bathroom. He came over and sat down on his twin bed across the dorm room from the one she was currently occupying. “
“Why do you always lay there, you know it drives Jon crazy.”
She rolled to her side and grinned at him, “Would you rather me sit on your bed and have Jon wonder when we became such close friends?” He shook his head with a smile. “What were you doing in Robb and Theon’s room anyway?”
A sly grin spread across his face, “Robb needs a better spot to hide his keys.” He lifted his hand and shook the dangling keys so they tinkled.
She sat up with a smile to match, “He’d kill us.”
Gendry said the magic words though, “I dare you.”
She had no choice then, and hopped up and to grab the keys from his hand and drag him out the door. After they walked over to student parking they drove Robb’s rather expensive car to the mall to see a movie, which they spent in the back of the theater making out.
When they left the movie it was to a slew of angry texts from Robb, which varied from ‘IF YOUR NOT BACK HERE IN TEN MINUTES.’ and ‘YOU’RE SO DEAD.’ But Arya considered the day a success even with the death threats.
Arya spent weeks on the receiving end of Robb’s glares, responsibility lectures, and rants about his ‘baby’. She was now just waiting for her moment to get Gendry back.
2.
The moment came after a trip home to Winterfell, her mom had loaded all her kids up with food to stock up their mini fridges. Gendry was especially excited to see the new contents of the fridge as it gave him a break from the cafeteria food.
He had just taken out the macaroni and cheese from the microwave when Arya walked in. She plopped next to him on the bed and stole his spoon, scooping up a mouthful of cheesy noodles. She went in for another scoop which resulted in Gendry pulling the container away.
“Hey, this is mine, go get your own.”
She raised an eyebrow, “And what are you going to eat that with?” she waved his spoon. “Your face?”
He scowled, “Maybe, I will!”
“Ok, I dare you. Eat that without using utensils or your hands.”
He stared her down for a second before dropping his face into the mac and cheese, Arya’s hand flew to cover her mouth as he took several mouthfuls of the macaroni. When he looked up and turned to her, cheese was smeared across his face, and as she watched a noodle fell back into the pan,
He smiled and asked, licking his lips, “Is this what a facial feels like?”
She broke out laughing, and smirked, “I dunno, you’d have to ask Robb.”
He joined in her laughter, and when she kissed him he tasted like chedder.
3.
The next week, they sat across from each other with a bottle containing the leftover vodka from the night before, three different flavors, mixed together. Arya was glaring at it like it contained the last sample of small pox.
“You can always back out, you know.”
She turned her scowl to him, “I never back out of a dare.” He gestured at the bottle in a 'proceed' gesture. She poured herself a shot and took it before she could change her mind.
Almost immediately she stuck out her tongue in revulsion, “Gods, this is disgusting.”
He laughed, but grabbed her a pop from the mini fridge to chase the taste away. “I still can’t believe you did that.”
She held the can in her hand, opened but not sipped, and leaned forward to kiss him, in his surprise he left his mouth open and she snuck her tongue in. He reeled back and snagged the pop from her and took a swig. “That was disgusting.”
“Payback is in order I think.” She stated, “I dare you…to,” She couldn’t really think of anything good, “go stand on the roof.”
The look he gave her was judging, “Really? That’s the best you could come up with?” he got up and walked over to their window, he popped the screen off and climbed down onto the lower level roof that came up to his third floor dorm.
He stood for a second before turning and asking, “How long do I have to stand up here for.”
“Until I say so.” She stated, leaning a little out of the window.
One rain event later and she was gladly helping Gendry out of his soaking clothes to, you know, share body heat.
Wouldn’t want him getting sick.
4.
They were walking through campus on their way to grab food. They were passing near a river when Gendry stopped, looking at all the worms wriggling on the ground in the cracks of the concrete.
"What?" Arya questioned, seeing nothing of interest.
"Dare you to touch one of them."
She let out a quick laugh, "Really, that's it?" she crouched to the ground, looking up at him she asked, “Which one do you want me to touch?”
"That fat, rolling one." She pointed at the one he described, and he nodded.
"Okay, easy enough." And she picked it up, standing next to him, holding out her prize.
"You don't think it's gross?" he inquired, bummed at her lack of response.
She rolled her eyes, dropping the worm back to the ground before starting to walk again. "Not really, you'll have to do better than that. Now come on, I'm hungry"
5.
She was at her dance studio practicing for her next show, when she spun around to see him leaning against the doorway looking in.
"You're here early," she puzzled, "I thought you had study group till five."
He shrugged, "We called it quits, we needed a break. Will you show me your routine?"
She tilted her head but decided to show him instead of giving him the third degree. When she did the final spin and finger snap he was looking at her with a peculiar expression, one Arya wasn't used to seeing. "What?" She suddenly felt self conscious.
"You're amazing." He breathed out.
“You act like I’ve never danced for you before.” Arya was full on blushing now.
"Yeah, but normally it's for a group," his hand found the back of his neck and rubbed, his go to nervous gesture, "this was just for me."
She smiled and walked over, pecking him lightly on the lips, "You should see it when I'm in costume."
The mood turned light hearted and he asked, "Is it a sexy outfit?"
She scoffed and went to grab her bag so they could leave. "Not even, just this stupid dress." He laughed at the thought of her in a dress and she turned and scowled at him, bag slung over her shoulder. "I dare you to wear a dress, in public, and then try to say something to me."
"But I didn't say anything!" He exclaimed, she just rose her eyebrows in response.
"Fine, but you'll have to find me something that'll fit."
The next day when she biked over to Gendry and her brother's dorm she arrived to a crowd forming near the bike stands and when she pushed through she couldn't help the laughter that burst from her lips. Gendry was standing there in an old patterned dress, a hat, and a grey wig.
“What are you laughing at?" he asked when he saw her, "I look better in a dress than you do."
"You'd look even better with it off." She replied, holding her straight face for only a moment before she broke out laughing, "I can't believe I just said that."
He started chortling, "I can't believe you said that either." But it didn't stop him from dragging her through the crowd and up to his room.
Once the dress was off him Arya couldn't resist pushing him on the nearest bed, because, well, he really did look better with the dress off.
+1
Unfortunately, as they discovered after they finished fooling around, the closest bed was not Gendry's, but Jon's, which now seemed to have a broken spring board.
They were inspecting the damage when Arya turned to him and challenged, "I dare you to tell Jon how his bed broke."
He turned to her in alarm, "Are you trying to get me killed?!"
"What, you chickening out of a dare? That's not like you." She stated.
“I don’t care how much you dare me, I’m not going to be the one to tell Jon how his bed got broken.”
In the end they didn't have to tell him, because her brother's apparently already knew about their relationship, that didn't stop Jon from making noises of disgust and making them buy new sheets and put his new bed together.
Later, after Jon's bed was fit for sleeping once again, not that he used it often, given how he basically lived at Ygritte's, she lay curled up on Gendry's side on his tiny twin bed.
"I dare you to tell me how you feel." Gendry whispered.
She bit her lip, and mumbled, “You say it first.”
He smiled, and leaned in to kiss her forehead, letting the words escape his mouth in the most loving way he could convey.
“I love you.”