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Arya stumbled into the bedchamber, Gendry closely behind her. The heavy wooden doors were slammed shut immediately, and Arya could hear the roaring laughter and chuckles of their wedding party as they bolted the doors for good measure.
Arya raised one of her eyebrows and turned to look at Gendry, who was readjusting his smallclothes.
"I really don't know why everyone still insists on the undressing. Why can't the couple do it themselves? Even Sansa was all for it. How is getting undressed in public proper?" she asked, annoyed.
Gendry's eyes met hers.
"Maybe they think we'd be too shy to do it ourselves. They clearly haven't seen the way you've been trying to compromise me in the last few days." Mischief glimmered in his eyes as he suppressed a smile.
Arya furrowed her brows even further.
"Me? YOU were the one constantly pulling me into dark corners!" she countered indignantly.
Gendry caught her hand and pulled her close to him. He pressed a brief kiss against her lips.
"Let's just say we certainly wouldn't have needed their help," he whispered, his mouth brushing hers. A sly smile formed on Arya's face and she slowly slid her hands up his chest and around his neck. She started rubbing the back of his neck slowly, knowing from their time in those very dark corners how he'd start to melt under her hands. And true to her experience, Gendry let out a low moan whilst pulling her firmly against him. Arya buried her face in the crook of his neck and smirked against the soft skin. Gendry's hands roamed across her back, all the way down to the small of her back and up to her neck and scalp. She could feel his hot breath in her hair, and desire for him shot through her body, coiled in her guts and concentrated hot between her legs. She slowly opened her eyes, determined to kiss Gendry into oblivion, when her eyes fell on something unshapely covered in light blankets behind him.
"Gendry?"
"Mmmmh..." was the rumbling reply. Gendry's eyes were closed and his face radiated contentment.
"What's that behind you?" Arya asked. Her voice sounded raspy.
"Hmmm?"
Arya cleared her throat.
"The thing that's covered in blankets," Arya added, this time in a steady voice. She squinted at the blankets.
Gendry slowly opened his eyes and twisted his head, still dazed. As soon as he saw what she meant, his features became guarded.
"'s a wedding gift," he replied cautiously. This time it was him who had to clear his throat.
"For us? From whom?" Arya asked, inspecting the thing across Gendry's broad shoulders. It looked like a collection of some sort of pieces positioned on an armchair and covered in said blankets.
"For you. From me," Gendry clarified, his expression still unreadable.
Arya's arms slipped from his neck to rest on his chest, and Gendry took a small step to the side to offer her a better view of the armchair and its mysterious occupants.
Arya slowly stepped towards her gift, her hand absent-mindedly grazing Gendry's abdomen. Once she reached the armchair, she pulled the blankets aside with one swift motion. When she saw what had been hiding underneath, her breath caught in her throat.
Gendry silently stepped next to her as Arya hesitantly reached out and ran her fingers across the smooth metal.
"A few weeks ago, your sister came to me. She was worried that I wouldn't have a wedding cloak befitting your station for you. Kept talking about how important the cloak was in showing that you were now under my protection and that. So, the cloak today - that was all her. But it got me thinking," Gendry paused, trying to gauge Arya's reaction to the gift in front of her. Annoyance had crossed Arya's face for a second when Gendry had mentioned Sansa's worry, but otherwise her face remained unreadable as she inspected the pieces in front of her in great detail.
"We both know - hells, everyone knows - that if we ever get into a fight, you'd be the one protecting me. No matter how much I practice, I'll never be able to keep up with the Commander of my Queen's army. Not even the best of knights could keep up with you."
Arya had finished her examination and turned to face him.
"And that's fine. I've got my own way of protecting you." Gendry avoided her gaze and focused instead on the armor in front of them.
"I may not be able to ride out on the field with you to protect you - not that you'd want that, anyway - but I can still make sure you get home safe."
He picked up one of the gauntlets and held it in front of her eyes.
"I've been working on a special metal for a while now. It's a combination of Valyrian steel and regular iron, and it is much stronger than anything used in armors so far. The thing with Valyrian steel is that you can't make it thin enough to be an armor you can still move in. It's too thick and heavy. But I've found a way to mix it with regular iron so it can be forged into a light armor that's still as strong as Valyrian steel. It's all about the quality of the iron, really. You have to use the best iron possible, and make it even purer by melting it again and again, so the bad bits stick at the surface of the melt and you can scoop them out. You can only mix the iron with the Valyrian steel when it's as pure as it can be, and you have to make both really hot, much hotter than when you normally forge Valyrian steel."
Arya kept looking at the gauntlets he was holding.
"Anyway, this is the first full armor I made out of it. Ja'an helped me get the measurements for your body, so it should fit like a second skin. It covers all the joints, too." He pointed at the end of the gauntlet where it connected with the upper arm brace. "The individual parts are really small and they overlap, so you can still move your arm in any direction without creating any openings for arrows or swords. The same goes for the helm." He gestured towards the wolf-shaped helmet.
"And if something doesn't fit, I can still change the shape or size." Arya still hadn't said anything, and Gendry was slowly beginning to panic. After staring at the gauntlets for another few seconds, Arya suddenly lifted her left hand to cover her eyes. She flung her right arm around her stomach and deeply dug her fingers into her side. Gendry watched in a mixture of alarm and confusion as her lips pressed together to form a thin line. But before he was able to question what she was doing, he noticed a single tear slipping past Arya's fingers, and to his horror, he realized that she was crying.
Mentally berating himself for picking the wrong present, he hastily dropped the gauntlet, stepped closer to her and gently grabbed her shoulders.
"It's alright, don't worry, you don't have to like it... I- I can find or make another present for you! I know you've got an armor already, but I just thought you'd like the new steel... But if you -" he stammered, desperate to right the wrong.
"No!" Arya quickly shook her head and brushed the back of her hand across her eyes. "I like it. I love it! I do! It's just that..." she scowled, paused to look at the armor once more, and her voice cracked at her next sentence.
"That’s the most thoughtful gift anyone has ever given me," she said, taking a deep breath and raising her burning eyes to meet his. Her right hand reached up to cup his cheek.
“This is the reason why you are the only man in the world I ever could have married,” she said so earnestly that it was almost funny to hear such a sentence coming from her mouth. “At first, I never wanted to marry because I thought that I’d never find a man who’d like me the way I am and who’d let me be who I wanted to be. And then, after everything that happened – Father, Mother, Robb, Jon, Bran, Rickon – I just accepted that I’d be alone from then on. I found Sansa again, but she got married and eventually she’ll have her own family. But then I came back here, the place I hate the most in this world, and there you were, and you were proud of what I’d become and you were there for me whenever I needed you. And now we’re standing in our bedchamber on our wedding night and you give me this, and - ” Her left hand weakly gestured towards the armor as words seemed to fail her. But Gendry understood anyway.
“I won’t be alone anymore. I have a family now. I have you,” was what she was saying. He knew because he felt the same. He pulled her into a crushing hug, and it felt as if Arya clung to him for dear life as she buried her face in his chest. Gendry closed his eyes and nuzzled her hair, just relishing the moment.
Arya sniffed. "Seven hells, I can't believe I'm crying!" she swore. “I’m turning into Sansa. This is so stupid!” She withdrew from him to furiously rub her eyes, but remained close enough for Gendry to cup her face in his hands.
“It’s human,” he corrected her with a smile. Arya furrowed her brows.
“It’s still stupid,” she murmured when Gendry rested his forehead on hers.
They stood like this for a few moments, until Arya suddenly pulled Gendry firmly against her again and captured his lips in a passionate kiss.
"I love you," she declared breathlessly.
“I love you,” Gendry replied, smiling. He lifted her up, pressing her as close to his body as possible, and Arya wrapped her legs around him to lock them behind his back. Her hands were back in his hair, and Gendry was painfully aware of the little fabric of their smallclothes between them as she clung and moved against him. His hands slipped under her shirt to caress her back, while Arya planted a trail of kisses down his face and neck, where she began to suck at the sensitive skin.
"Do you want to try the armor on now?" Gendry rasped between kisses, but it only drew a determined shake of the head from Arya.
"No. Tomorrow." she replied breathlessly against his lips.
Gendry's reply was a light smile and a tug of her lip with his teeth. The heat Arya felt earlier was back, cursing through her body even stronger than before.
"Bed! Now!" she demanded huskily.
"As m'lady commands."