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

Bonus: Snowfall - Gendry

This is a spontaneous project I started writing today. As a Christmas/Winter special I will write some short one-shots featuring my characters before this story starts. So they will be set sometime during season 7 of the show and feature how snow starts falling over the kingdom in conjunction with the army of the dead drawing closer. I figure it could provide some insight into my version of the characters and also a nice contrast to where they are today.

This first one-shot features Gendry and is set before he returns to the show in season 7. I will at least do one for Meera as well (set right after she returns to the Neck), and perhaps for some other characters as well (I have ideas for Tyrek, Robin, Desmera, Talla, and Devan right now, and yes, Tyrek's will probably include how that damn bedroom door in Storm's End got broken).

A light layer of white powder laid on the ground when Gendry stepped out of the workshop. It glistened in the pale moonlight and stood out against the black night sky. The sight surprised him. He had been fast at work by the furnaces and not noticed the snow falling outside.

On the streets, music and cheering echoed. The first snowfall was always a time of celebration. Not because the snow was a good thing, but because it might the common people's last chance to celebrate before the cold entrenched on every aspect of their lives. Food would soon be scarce and children would freeze as the firewood ran out. So they ate what they had now and danced the night away before they could dance no more. Happiness was fleeting in Fleabottom.

He walked down brightly illuminated streets, the snow made everything shine in another light. As a couple of the queen's guards passed he tried to blend into the shadows. Even after all these years, they scared him. Maybe they would one day recognize him as Robert's bastard.

When he came back to the capital he had done as Davos told him and hid in plain sight. He returned to his old job in Tobho Mott's workshop as if nothing had happened. The only thing he had done to hide was to cut his hair, to make his resemblance with Robert less obvious.

So he had worked. That was the only thing he did. After the sept blew up his master hadn't returned to the workshop. They said Tobho Mott had been killed in the explosion. But it was also possible that he had taken the opportunity to escape. Because, as Gendry soon became aware of as he tried to run the workshop in his master's absence, the workshop was failing and owed great sums to several creditors.

Gendry had continued working tirelessly, trying to pay the debts. Because what else was there to do? He worked day and night it seemed. And as the war drew closer armor became more sought after. Although making weapons for the family that had killed his father, and almost killed himself, was hardly what Gendry wished for it did keep the workshop afloat and put food in his belly.

But what did it matter? Sometimes he wondered if this was all there. Work and more work. And then an early death caused by conditions caused by the workload.

He had been saved from dying at the hands of his uncle. But was he really worth saving if this was all his life ever amounted to? Another bastard meeting an early death in the alleys of Fleabottom.

There had to be something more. The thought wouldn't leave him.

He walked up to a pie stall to get something to eat, even if he wasn't celebrating he could eat at least eat something good for once.

As he put a coin on the counter the lady in the stall shook her head. "Gendry," she said. "You know you don't have to pay."

"But you know I will always try," he replied and smiled. The woman was round and had curly dark hair, just like her son. The friend Gendry had left behind on the way. He had visited her to tell her of her son's whereabouts soon after he returned. She deserved to know that Hot Pie was alive and well. Hopefully better off than in the capital.

"It was a long time since I saw you," she said and returned the smile.

"I've been busy," he said and took his pie. "Thank you."

He left quickly, worried to be seen talking to Hot Pie's mother. That's why he didn't come around often. Perhaps the queen knew he had traveled with his friend. Perhaps she would be able to find him if he connected with his family.

He walked to the cliffs that overlooked the harbor and sat down to eat. This was where he and Hot Pie often had sat together when they were young. Hollering and bickering as boys did.

Gendry missed him. He missed Arya. He missed... someone.

He could hear the life of the city; music and voices. But he couldn't join them.

His life these days was lonely. No one to care for or to care for him. But it was his own choice. He could have found a girl, settled down, had a couple of children. Most men his age did. He wasn't a bad looking guy, he knew that from the way girls smiled at him in the back-alleys.

But Gendry couldn't allow himself to love. Not with the threat hanging over his head that one day the queen would come for him. He didn't believe that she had forgotten. One day she would come for him. And if he had a wife and children she would hurt them too.

And then there was Arya. He couldn't forget her. He couldn't forget the time they shared together. They had been so miserable then but now it all seemed like a happy dream. Because they had got through it, together.

He hadn't been lonely back then at least.

After finishing his pie Gendry got up. He walked back to the workshop and started working again. Work never stopped. When he wasn't working on customer's orders he worked on something for himself. A weapon. Just like his father's.

Gendry didn't know much about his father, but he knew one thing, he knew Robert Baratheon fought with a warhammer. And when he worked on that hammer during late nights he felt less alone. He felt like he had a family. He felt like he belonged somewhere.

***

When the first morning sunlight started peering in through the window the next morning Gendry still worked. He looked out, the snow seemed to be melting again, pondering if he should try to get a few hours of sleep. But it hardly seemed worth it.

He leaned on the workbench for a moment as he tried to gather the strength for another day or work. Another day of thousands of days of work in front of him. Then he took a sword, put it on an anvil, and started hammering.

"Wasn't sure I'd find you here," a voice suddenly said behind him.

He recognized that voice. It was the voice of the man that had saved him. It was a voice that gave him a glimmer of hope of something more.

Gendry turned around and found himself face to face with a familiar bearded face. A face he'd never thought he would see again. But he was happy he'd been wrong. He greeted his friend with a smile and nod.

"Thought you might still be rowing," Davos continued with a smile.

They exchanged pleasantries and caught each other up on recent events. But Gendry knew that wasn't why Davos had come.

"You came to get me?" he asked bluntly. "You want me to come with you?"

"I think you need to understand-" Davos started, seemingly prepared to convince Gendry.

"I'm ready," Gendry said, with no hesitation. No matter what awaited him, it was better than this. It was something more.

He went to pack his few belongings and lastly his hammer. "Let's go."

Gendry left King's Landing that day. He left to find something more. He left the loneliness and hopelessness behind to go on a journey much greater than he had ever imagined. It would take him beyond the wall, to Winterfell, and to the Stormlands. And one day back to the capital again.

He wouldn't be a blacksmith then, he wouldn't be hiding, instead, he would stand on the barricades ready to take down a king. He would have another name. He would be Lord Gendry Baratheon.

He would have found something more. So much more.

Author's Note: Yes, the end scene here is supposed to be the scene where Gendry returns to the show. I rewatched it a couple of times to make the lines match.