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Gendry
A pearl of sweat rolled down from where his hair was plastered against his forehead, and it fell down, over his eyelid and straight into his eye, blurring his vision.
The proverbial last drop.
The annoyed groan he had been keeping in check came out as he used the back of his hand to brush it off. Thankfully, there wasn't any traffic, just the two of them in the old clunker in the middle of nowhere, traversing the vast nothingness of the Red Waste. His groan, though, seemed to bother his companions, as a deep growl came behind him, but Gendry paid it no mind. The other complaint, though, was harder to ignore.
"What's your fucking problem?!"
"You want the list chronological or alphabetical?" he said without missing a beat.
"Asshole."
He would have expected ' idiot ' or ' stupid .' Those never angered him as he considered them terms of endearment.
' Asshole ,' on the other hand, meant that Arya was royally pissed off.
"I'm sorry my discomfort is bothersome to you, m'lady ."
Arya hated being reminded of her blue blood, and Gendry knew very well he was throwing kerosene to the fire.
He didn't fucking care, though.
Her eyes were throwing daggers at him. He could feel them like embers on his skin, even if he kept his eyes on the Sand Road. There was no need as the road was a straight line that stretched for miles under the inclement sun. As long as he kept the wheel straight, he could drive blindfolded, but he wasn't going to give her the satisfaction. Gendry tried concentrating on the road, on the vast desert around them, but despite that, he couldn't stop listing in his head all the steps that landed them where they were.
It was all his fault, alright.
It had all been doomed the moment she asked him to drive through Essos, and he said yes, and all the yeses that came after. Put your life on hold for a month so we can go on this poorly-planned road trip? Okay . Take the old clunker I bought dirt cheap when I first arrived in Braavos broke? If that is what you want. Take Nymeria along because if I put her in a kennel, they'll keep her caged the entire time? Sure. Take only backroads to really experience Essos? Not entirely sure, but if you are. Jump. How high?
It was his fucking fault. It has always been. For some reason, Gendry had never been able to say no to the tiny Stark since they met at that wretched boarding school in Harrenhal where Uncle Stannis had sent him.
No, that was a big fat lie.
Gendry didn't say yes. In fact, he rarely said yes at first to Arya's schemes. Instead, he'd grumble, complain and argue, but in the end, he'd find himself meeting Arya at 3 am outside the Harrenhal Prep's main building, ready to break into Principal Lannister's office.
And that was precisely how he found himself right there, in the middle of fucking nowhere, riding on a 57' Sandsteed with no AC, that guzzled gas like there was no tomorrow, and a hairy direwolf that took all the back seat. Gendry was exhausted from driving. He had been driving for the past two weeks straight, after all. Arya had argued with him whenever he complained of a sore back and knees that screamed with pain, saying it was his stupid fault because he refused to let her drive.
It wasn't that he didn't want her to drive.
Arya was an excellent driver.
It was that the fucking boat of a car had one of those big front benches instead of individual seats. The kind where both the driver and the passenger had to choreograph their movements to adjust it. The problem was their size difference. When they moved the bench to a distance that would allow for Arya's feet to actually reach the pedals, Gendry smacked his knees against the glove box and his forehead against the windshield. Arya then suggested that he got in the backseat, but he couldn't ride in the back while Arya drove. It wasn't fucking ´Driving Miss Oleana' for fuck's sake! Not to mention that it would mean to cram in the back with Arya's horse-sized furnace of a dog.
Gendry loved Nymeria. He really did. But right about then, he was at his wit's end, and he hated everything about their situation.
So, even with the windows down, the heat was unbearable. There was absolutely no breeze. And his cotton t-shirt felt soaked and plastered on his chest. His sweat making the once-light cotton weigh like a ton of bricks.
Fuck it.
Gendry couldn't take it anymore. He pushed his knees up to steady the wheel while he reached to the back of his t-shirt and pulled the collar up, shedding the damp fabric and throwing it behind him. A surprised whimper and the sound of Nymeria shaking her massive head followed his action.
"What are you doing?"
Gendry grumbled, and taking a quick side glance, he replied, "Playing football. What does it look like I'm doing?"
"Keep your t-shirt on!"
"Why? I'm hot, and it was soaking wet."
"Well, I'm hot too!"
"And whose fault is it?"
Arya
Gendry had been avoiding her stare for the past fifteen minutes, right after calling her m'lady . It was not a slip of the tongue since he very well knew how much she despised being called that. However, there was no question that whenever Gendry did it, it was a purposefully thrown barb.
If looks were daggers, the ones she had been throwing his way had millimetric accuracy, and the way his jaw tensed and his neck reddened, even more, told her she was successful in making him uncomfortable.
Good.
Arya was patient and could hold a grudge like nobody else.
The downside was that the more Gendry complained and lashed out, the more her own anger festered. So, yes, the heat was the culprit, but there was a lot more behind it.
It was the way her best friend had seemed annoyed at every single thing since the beginning of their trip. The broad smile that had greeted her when she picked him up at Braavos airport vanished when he got in her car, and Arya struggled to get it going. It was just tricky, and Arya had a ritual to get it going, but Gendry had scowled and asked her what crappy Braavosi mechanic had serviced it. Then, when Arya told him she hadn't taken it to a mechanic, he had had the nerve to groan out loud.
They had wasted two whole days of their trip, with Gendry working on the Sandsteed, and not once he mentioned anything about the fantastic deal Arya had made getting it. Like he didn't remember at all telling her that the 57' Sandsteed was his dream car one night watching a blood moon lying down on the roof of Arya's dorm building. Gendry had been adamant about not letting her drive and annoyed at the mixed tapes she had prepared for the trip to top it all.
And the last drop had been when he threw his t-shirt back, hitting Nym right on the face.
"Are you fucking blaming me for the weather? You are an adult with a smartphone, don't tell me you never bothered to check the forecast!"
"Oh, I did. I most definitely checked everything, but I was not the one who thought it a good idea to attempt this stupid trip without AC and with a massive heater in the back!"
"Well, you could have said no!"
Gendry looked back at the road like it wasn't the same thing for miles and said under his breath, "Yeah, like that would have worked."
"What did you say?!"
"You heard me," he answered without peeling his eyes from the road.
"And what is that supposed to mean?"
Gendry turned to face her, and the icy blue of his eyes slapped her hard.
"Like you'd ever relent if I said no. Face it, Arya, this is just our friendship through the years. You come up with the wackiest plans, and I refuse and complain, but sooner or later, we end up doing what you wanted."
"Well, if it weren't for me , you would never do anything. You'd stay in day and night and experience nothing!"
He didn't say anything but clenched and unclenched his jaw.
Another fifteen minutes passed, and Arya could feel herself seething. There was nothing worse to her than having her sword unsheathed and an opponent that refused to engage. Her chest was heaving, and with every breath, she could feel the once soft cotton of her own top now soaked in her sweat, chafing her nipples like it was sandpaper. She took one more look at Gendry and his now bare torso, with one drop of sweat sliding down his chest until it disappeared in the pool of his navel.
The trail of that drop of sweat triggered a dull ache in Arya as her core caught fire, but her ire was worse, and she chose to ignore it.
"Fuck it!" she said, grabbing at the hem of her own top, shedding it.
The relief was instant, and she smiled triumphantly. Gendry did a double-take, and she felt the slight sway in the car.
"What are you doing?!"
"Playing football. What does it look like I'm doing?" Arya replied, throwing his own words back at him.
However, his reaction made the brief relief fizzle, and Arya felt, once more, overheated with the weather and annoyance and something else she hadn't had enough time to name.
As she squirmed in her seat, trying to dull the budding throb inside, she felt the irritation that the rubbing of her damp denim shorts against her skin caused.
Without thinking twice, she unbuttoned and unzipped them and shimmied out of them, letting them fall right next to her top by her feet.
"Are you fucking kidding me?!" Gendry yelled, and this time, the car swerved noticeably.
"Put your clothes back on!"
"Why?!" Arya yelled, bracing herself with a hand on the door and the other on the roof of the car. "You took off your t-shirt!"
"I'm still wearing shorts!"
"No one is fucking stopping you," Arya replied, quirking one eyebrow.
"Arya!"
"What?!"
Gendry grumbled, looked at the road for a moment before looking back at her.
"At least keep your bra on!"
"Tough luck, I wasn't wearing one."
"You can't be topless!"
"Why? You can."
"You know it's not the same."
"And that's a fucking double standard!"
Gendry
Great.
Nothing around the Red Waste but road and the occasional pole, and he was going to manage to total the car because Arya just stripped down to her panties.
How was Gendry expected to drive in a straight line when, just inches away from him, Arya was practically naked?
He was a red-blooded heterosexual man, for fuck's sake!
The voice in his head laughed mockingly.
'Yeah… Like that's the only reason.'
Gendry grimaced at the thought.
Despite how much he tried to deny it, he had to admit that it was not just that there was a set of lovely breasts with dusty pink nipples just at arm's length. They were heaving up and down with rage, daring him to confirm that they would be just the perfect size for his hands. No, it wasn't just that, nor the short but surprisingly well-toned legs displayed to him from toes to hip bone that he was sure were strong enough to choke all air out of his lungs if his spitfire of a best friend finally decided to kill him.
But on the upside, what a way to go with those wondrous legs wrapped around his neck…
No! it wasn't that, even when those assets were enough to distract anyone.
It was that all those lovely body parts belonged to his best friend of so many years, and she was near naked next to him, save for her cotton bikini briefs. The very same best friend that he had missed oh so desperately for six months since she moved to Braavos after college and that Gendry struggled daily to convince himself he only loved platonically.
Gendry cleared his throat loudly like he had something stuck there, though there was nothing. What he was really doing was trying desperately to clear his mind from that train of thought, trying to go back to being annoyed at the inclement Essosi sun and at a gorgeous vintage car that was not properly maintained.
It almost worked when all that was gained was lost as Arya interrupted his thoughts.
"Gross!"
Gendry groaned and looked out the corner of his eye, just about to bite and fight some more, but he was once more startled by her naked chest. He kept his eyes on the road, and he shifted uncomfortably.
'Great,' he thought to himself. Not only was he hot and sticky, but he was well on his way to sexual frustration, and Arya didn't seem to even fathom what being topless was causing because he was her best friend.
'No, worse than that,' the voice in his head hissed. 'She sees you as one of her brothers or that Greyjoy twat.'
The nasty voice continued, 'If you weren't too low class and too much of a bastard to compare to her brothers, that is.'
It seemed like he was in the right mood to wallow.
Arya was his best friend, but that had not stopped him from wondering how her skin would feel on his fingertips or the way his name could sound coming out of Arya's pouty lips in the throes of passion.
Gendry couldn't stop himself from groaning loud when that particular thought made him squirm in his seat, and he hit his knee hard with the console as he tried to shift without getting Arya's attention on his predicament.
"I can't believe you actually suggested I put a bra on. Do you know how fucking uncomfortable it is to wear a damp bra with this heat?"
"Well, it can't be any worse than driving in this weather with a hardon, but who the fuck am I to know?" Gendry was unable to stop himself from muttering under his breath.
"What was that?" Arya asked.
"Nothing!"
"You clearly said something."
"I didn't."
"You did."
"Did not."
"You're a fucking child!"
Arya
If only Gendry had let it go.
Even made a joke about her looking like a twelve-year-old with mosquito-bite tits.
It would have stung, certainly, but she would have laughed and said something about his pecs looking like he had larger boobs than hers.
But Gendry had not let it go.
He had yelled at her to put on her top again, despite himself being topless, and then he had kept groaning and growling, and the moment he happened to look her way, he had looked away immediately, as if offended by her bare tits.
The fact was that Gendry would never look at her as he did at the girls with low cut tops and breasts spilling out as they pretended something was wrong with their cars when he worked as a mechanic to put himself through college.
Arya bitterly reminded herself that she would forever be just his friend from boarding school.
The sudden despair almost made Arya want to cross her arms above her chest and get as far away from him as she could, facing the window, where he could not see the tears threatening to spill, and she could lick her wounds in peace. But that was not the way Arya was, and instead, she kept feeding the fire. Making a fuss about Gendry clearing his throat, trying as she might, to concentrate on something to make him disgusting, instead of the way his naked torso had been making her feel as warm inside as the sun of Essos.
Arya was trying to pick up a fight, saying whatever shit would get his Baratheon bad temper flare, because there was nothing worse than when Gendry retreated into himself, and she was left outside stirring in her own anger.
" You are the fucking child!" he barked back at her, and this time, he turned to face her, and his blue eyes looked cold as they set on her.
But despite their iciness, they felt blazing hot as they lowered to her chest just for a second, making something in her tighten, and her cheeks blushed when she realized he could probably see what he did to her in the reaction of her bare nipples. Suddenly, her decision to shed her top was the worst mistake she could have ever made.
But just as quickly as Gendry looked down, he turned to look away from her, convincing Arya that it was because he was shocked and disgusted.
"Stop the car," she commanded.
"I'm fucking tired, Arya. The sooner we get to the next town, the sooner we can get out of this fucking heat, and I don't know, maybe they'll even have AC, or at least a fucking fan."
"Stop the car, Gendry," she repeated.
He didn't say anything for a second that stretched liked hours.
"No," he finally said.
"Why the fuck not?"
"I've already told you why not."
He didn't want to say what Arya was sure would hurt her, but despite the pain growing in her stomach, she had to see it through.
"You are a fucking coward," she threw out like a gauntlet, convinced he'd pick it up.
"I'm not a fucking coward," he said, taking small glimpses her way. "I just want out of this fucking car and-"
"And away from me and my disgusting tits?" she interrupted him.
"What are you fucking talking about?!" Gendry asked, turning to see her, with his eyebrows knit.
"Don't lie. I can see how repulsed you are about by my tits."
Gendry had the gall to laugh.
"Yeah, right."
He turned back to the road, determined to ignore her.
"Stop. The fucking. Car," Arya repeated.
"Make me."
Gendry
Well, Gendry hadn't expected that .
Yes, he challenged her. That much was true.
But he hadn't really expected her to jump to his side and try to grab the wheel, getting her breasts, and particularly, her pointy nipples rubbing against his bare skin.
And boy was her skin softer than in his wildest dreams.
Even if the contact had been with his arm.
'I bet they'll feel even softer on my fingertips… or my tongue.'
He had grunted loudly to banish that thought from his head.
The car swerved, but luckily there was nothing around to hit. Gathering his wits, he pulled to the side of the road, and he made it come to a complete stop. Grabbing to her side (right under her breast, thankfully,) he pushed her back.
It took a second for them to calm down and their chests to catch their breaths. Gendry could see that Arya was fuming. He knew all of her faces to know that, though it wasn't the face she had for when she was just about to jump into a fight with someone twice her size.
It was the other face.
The one she made when her fury was so profound, so helpless, that fat tears would start to gather in her eyes.
He knew her enough to know that she'd always escape avoiding anyone else to see it.
Anyone but him.
Gendry's mouth opened to say something, but right then, Nymeria let out a resounding whimper, and they both turned to see Arya's dog looking sickly.
"What's wrong with her?" Gendry asked.
"What do you think?!" Arya barked back. "She's nauseous from your swerving."
"My swerving? Did I just imagine you trying to have us crash? Is she going to be sick?"
"She's fine! And I told you to pull over, but you didn't!"
"And, of course, any sane person would have done what you did, right?"
Arya ignored his last jab and instead leaned back to give Nymeria water from the special doggie bottle she had.
"Here, Nym," she said. "Drink some water. I promise Stupid, here, will drive smoothly from now on."
Gendry would have said something back, but right then, the position Arya was in made her breasts hang in such a sensual way that he couldn't stop his mind from taking mental polaroids for future use.
Arya
Only when Nym looked better, and Arya moved back to her seat, she glanced towards Gendry. He seemed startled and quickly looked away, while a deep crimson tinged his chest, and it crept up his neck until it reached his high cheeks.
A breath caught in Arya's throat, with the wild notion that she had just caught her best friend staring at her dangling naked breasts.
It couldn't be.
It was madness.
Gendry didn't find her attractive.
And yet.
Had he crossed his legs and surreptitiously pulled at the inseam of his shorts?
"Is she doing better?" Gendry asked with his voice higher than usual, without looking her way, as he turned the key in the ignition. "We should get going."
"Gendry."
"Unless you think she needs to be walked."
Arya knew her best friend well enough to know when he was trying to hide something.
"Look at me."
His face scrunched up.
Gendry cleared his throat, and rubbing at the back of his neck, he said, "I think it's best if I don't."
Arya braved herself to ask what was gnawing at her, "Is it because you don't want to see me like this or…."
Gendry's eyes set on hers, and they seemed to be asking something.
Arya nodded, and, while she had meant to do it slowly, she moved jerkily.
Gendry's eyes lowered then, and Arya felt them on her skin, catching fire, shaming the rays of the Essosi sun as the smoldering trail of his gaze lead down her neck and her collarbone until it came to rest on her breasts. Arya had been topless for the past half an hour, but it was only then that she felt truly bare as her best friend's furtive tongue wet his lower lip.
"You got it all wrong," Gendry spoke, startling her. "It's not that I don't want to see you like this."
"What is it then?" Arya dared ask.
Gendry closed his eyes and shook his head.
"It's just," he said, and his Adam's apple bobbed as he swallowed, "that it is a slap in the face that you bared yourself because your fucking car has no AC, and not because you'd want me to see you like this. It's just not how I imagined it would happen."
Arya felt herself turning to liquid. She wasn't bothered by the heat anymore, as inside she was white-hot, and every hard angle in her felt suddenly smooth.
"You imagined it?"
"Well, of course, I did!"
"But you never said anything!"
"How could I? What was I supposed to say? 'Hey Arya, hope this doesn't change our friendship, but just FYI, you happen to star in every single one of my sex fantasies!'"
Gendry was ranting, throwing his arms in the air, missing completely what his words were doing to her.
"Gendry."
"What?"
"Look at me."
"Why?"
He was purposefully avoiding looking at her, but for the very first time that wretched day, Arya no longer worried that it was because he felt repulsed by her.
"Because," she spoke after licking her lips, "I want you to see my bare breasts and not just because there is no AC."
Gendry's jaw grew tense, and after taking one deep breath, he turned to face her. He took his time to look, and Arya could swear she could feel his eyes on her skin.
"You're beautiful," he finally said.
Arya scoffed, and shrugging a bit, said, "Yeah, right. If only my tits were bigger."
Gendry shook his head but kept his eyes on her breasts.
"No, they look like the perfect size for my hands, and my hands are not small."
Arya heard herself sigh at his words and felt her skin prickle into gooseflesh.
Gendry scrunched up his face and added, "Did I fucking say that aloud? I'm really sorry, let's pretend I didn't say that."
"No!" Arya was prompt to object. "No, I think… I think you should check for good measure."
"No."
The word felt cold, and she no longer could register the blazing heat of Essos.
"I mean, I will, but there is something I'd like to do before."
"Yeah?"
Gendry didn't say anything else, and instead, he placed his hand in the same spot on her side, just under her breast, that only a few minutes before he had touched to push her away. This time, though, his thumb ventured up to rub ever so slightly the soft flesh under her breast. Then, looking up to her eyes, he prompted her to slide over the car bench until her knee bumped up with his thigh, and moving his hands to her hips, he gently picked her up and sat her on his lap.
"Gendry-" Arya's words were drowned by his lips.
The kiss was hesitant at first, their lips brushing against each other ever so subtly. After the initial contact, they parted and looked at each other. Then, when Arya saw what she didn't realize she had been so desperate to find in them, she placed her arms around Gendry's neck and kissed him hard. Gendry's arms circled her naked back and pulled her closer to him, their bare torsos coming together. His right hand went to the back of her head and blindly found the elastic band holding her hair in a messy bun, and he pulled it off, freeing her locks so he could run his fingers through her hair.
Gendry
Gendry knew Arya's hair would feel silky.
He didn't have to touch it to know, but he was pleased to prove himself right, as they kissed their breaths away, and his fingers buried in her locks as he massaged her scalp.
His left hand then ran down her back, feeling the slight bumps of her spine, and he smiled against her lips when Arya shuddered, making the little pointy pebbles of her nipples rub against his chest so deliciously. He couldn't stop himself from bringing his hand to her pert backside, and he squeezed it hard and pushed her down against him, leaving no doubt in Arya of just what she did to him.
"Gendry," she mumbled against his lips, and he was more than pleased for the wondrous new way in which she said his name.
Gendry forced himself to part from her lips, and they both stared at each other.
They burst out laughing.
Or more accurately, they giggled the way they did when they were teenagers, and they were the only two people in the world in on the joke.
When they sobered up, Gendry chanced a look down, back to her bare breasts.
"Arya?"
"Yes?"
"Is it okay if I attempt to prove my theory now?"
"The one about my tits not being too small but-"
"The perfect size for my hands? Yes."
Arya arched her eyebrows and lifted her chin as she said, "For science, of course."
Gendry's hands moved from her bum to her front, circling around her hips and rubbing up and down her thighs before trailing up slowly.
"Those are my thighs."
"Shhh, woman! I've got my method."
Arya
Arya chuckled.
She had spent years comparing herself to others and finding herself lacking. Still, the image reflected on Gendry's blue eyes, as he cupped her breasts in his hands, convinced her that 'beautiful' was precisely how he saw her. Any doubt that lingered in her head, those long six months she spent on her own in Braavos, unsure of her feelings for her best friend, burst instantly like a soap bubble.
She threw herself towards him and crossed her arms behind his head. She kissed him again, trapping his hands around her breasts in between their chests.
Her hands moved to his nape and then slid to the sides of his jaw as she desperately kissed his mouth, his cheeks, his eyes, with desperation, reveling in the new bond between them. Then, finally, she pulled back, but his hands could only follow her breasts so far, as she pushed him down on the bench, and she perched herself astride him, her hands quickly unbuttoning his cargo shorts, while she planted sloppy kisses on his neck.
"Arya," Gendry moaned, making her chest expand. "Arya."
Her hands were already sliding the zipper down.
His hands held on to her wrists, stilling their action.
"Arya, wait a moment," Gendry said, sitting up.
The delicious heat in her core was rapidly turning into a knot in her stomach.
"You don't want to?" Arya braved herself to ask.
Gendry let go of her wrists, and bringing her face towards him, gave her a quick peck.
"I want to," he said as his eyes lowered to see her almost naked form, with only her bikini briefs covering her. "Gods! I want to, but I won't make love to you for the first time in this car pulled over the side of the road and with Nymeria staring."
Something caught in her throat at his words.
"Make love to me?" Arya asked.
Gendry groaned.
"Make love together ? Forget the words I used," Gendry said, and he opened his door and got off the car. He walked to the back and opened the trunk, and rummaged their bags for a while.
Arya smiled, thinking how Gendry had missed entirely what his choice of words had done to her, the fact that he referred to it as 'making love' and the promise of a future that 'for the first time' made.
"Here," Gendry said, climbing back into the car, holding something.
Instead of handing her the item, Gendry grabbed her hand, and he put it through the sleeve of a cool thin shirt of his.
"What are you doing?" Arya asked, smiling.
"Well, I plan to speed my way to the next town to find the best hotel they have to offer, and if I want to make sure we get there in one piece, I need to have these lovely things covered."
Arya let him finish clothing her, and she noticed he had brought something else.
"What's that?"
Gendry lifted the other item and started putting on a fresh t-shirt.
"Fair is fair," he said, when his head emerged through the collar, his mussed hair making him look even goofier.
Once they were no longer topless, Gendry turned the key in the ignition, but they remained where they were. Then, after a second, he turned it off again.
"What now?" Arya asked.
Gendry turned to her and gave another searing kiss, and parting, he grabbed the sides of the shirt she wore, and he pulled it open.
"Just needed another look to tie me over," he said, pulling the sides of her shirt closed once more and giving her a quick peck.
"Gendry."
"Yes?" Gendry replied, without looking her way, but with his hand on her thigh, giving her a squeeze.
"Mayhaps we could find a kennel for Nym in the next town."
Gendry turned to look at her, and smiling, he asked, "I thought you didn't like to put her in a kennel."
Arya shrugged and said, "I don't, but... Being in a kennel for a day won't be too bad."
Gendry smiled sideways and licked his lips, setting butterflies loose in her stomach.
"Of course," he said. "We'll look for a good kennel where Nym can stay for a day... or two."
Arya smiled and looked forward to the road.
The heat no longer mattered.
She covered Gendry's hand high on her thigh with hers and thought that, despite Gendry's complaining about everything that had gone wrong with their road trip, it was starting to look like the best idea she had ever had.