From the Ashes (ASOIAF) (Sandor Clegane x OC)

Chapter 26: Gendry

"Pr-i-nk.....no wait prince Rha...Rhagar Targaryen....was vic-tor of the towr....no wait....tourney at......Harranhal." Gendry read. He sighed and pushed the book away, " this is ridiculous. I sound like a child. I'm never going to be able to do this properly."

"You think you sound ridiculous? I was three times your age when I learned and I was being taught by an actual child. You're younger smarter and far more stubborn than I am. If I could learn to read there's no reason you can't as well." Said Davos.

"I still don't understand why it's so damned important. I have the maester to read my letters for me at Storm's End, and I'm the Master of War, not the Master of Laws."

"Exactly, you're the Master of War." Said Davos, "so what happens when we're at war, and an urgent raven comes to you on the front lines of a battle and you have to go in search of someone who knows how to read before you can act on it?"

"You know just once, I'd like you to not be right about everything." Gendry said grumpily, "one of these days you're going to finally get something wrong and I won't know whether to feel vindicated or disappointed."

"Vindicated? See look at you using fancy words. You're learning." Davos teased, Gendry shot him a look and he chuckled.

"I've been wrong more times in my life than I can count lad." He said, "Unfortunately even sometimes when it really mattered. But this isn't about right or wrong, it's about me caring about you, and wanting to see you better yourself."

"I know." Gendry replied, "and your genuine care makes it all the more annoying."

He went dutifully back to the book and struggled through four more pages before Davos mercifully let him be finished. He said goodnight, grabbed his jacket and headed out into the night. It was a rare clear night on Pyke, the sky was a blanket of velvet black with stars winking across it like scattered diamonds. He liked it here. From their rooms at the base of the castle he could look down on the thriving town below, a warm glow of yellow light that couldn't quite reach up into the desolation of this place. He looked out over the dark water as the cold salt air whipped through his hair. It was funny to him how much the sea called to him. He'd been born in Flea Bottom and seen nothing of it except the Blackwater Bay for the majority of his life. Yet the day he'd take his seat at Storms End, looking out across the Narrow Sea from a top his high tower, he knew it was a place he was meant to be. He was looking out at a different sea now, the Western sea, no one knew what lie beyond it. I wonder if she's still out there, he thought. He shook his head and pulled his jacket tighter around him before starting off down the road towards the town.

It was almost impossible for him to be here on the Western shore and not think of Arya. In truth she was with him wherever he went, but here in the place she likely sailed from it was as if she were a ghost, a shadow haunting his steps. It was madness the way loving her had crept up on him. When he'd met her she'd been an annoying, headstrong little girl who never listened to anyone's advice and acted as though she never needed anyone, and he'd abandoned her. He'd thought back to that day a hundred times if not more, her big round eyes filling with tears that she tried so hard to hide, telling him that she would be his family, begging him to stay, and he'd turned his back on her. For what? It took less than a day for the brotherhood to sell him off. He regretted a lot of things in his life, but he regretted that the most. He wondered once again how different things might have been if he'd stayed with her. Been with her as she grew from that hard headed little girl into the fierce and beautiful warrior she became, would she have loved him? Could family have come to mean something different for them? He sighed, shoving his hands deeper into his pockets. It didn't matter, because he didn't stay. And she'd gone, learned how to be a deadly killer across the Narrow Sea, and when she came back she didn't need anyone or anything.