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He watched her from the back of the class. How she bit her lip while solving a hard problem. How she tucked her dark hair behind her hair, so it cascaded to the other side of her face. She had cocked her head to the left side, bowed over her paper and scribbling of her pen.
He saw her on the school ground, sitting with her friends, laughing and talking. She had a lot of friends, everyone was her friend, except for Joffrey Baratheon. But Joffrey had no friends.
He remembered how she got taunted by Jeyne Poole when she was younger, always called horseface and for the men at her father’s work she was Arya Underfoot. He saw her self-esteem go down and the doubts grow.
He was sitting in the hall when she graduated, cum laude. She had a knock for math and economics, she was smart and had an easy time learning. She only failed crafts and arts, but who needs those things?
She went to Braavos for university and an internship with the Iron Bank. He was there with her. He tried to help her when she got stuck. He was there when she broke down in tears, because she missed home. He missed home too.
She was talking with Brea, first smiling and laughing and then Brea talked about her boyfriend. She fidgeted and looked down. “What is the problem?” the other girl asked.
“Sometimes I wonder if there is someone for me out there. All guys are friends with me, but nothing more. I never even met someone that I would want more with.”
Her voice was small, while her friend conciliated her that there were enough men in the world and that she was young, she would meet someone. His heart broke.
He put his arms around her when she cried herself to sleep, when he saw a small smile on her face he felt better.
The first boy she kissed was sweet Edric Dayne and he thought if it has to be someone let it be him. He will be good, nice and hopefully make her more happy. But that was Ned’s problem, he was to sweet. He was a friend.
Her first time was with the Targaryen boy. All talk, jokes and fire. He matched her intelligence and wits. If there was someone he didn’t want her to be with it was him. Targaryen’s soul seemed to attack her, ignite her and slowly break hers. She had been tired and they broke apart.
She was sitting with her sister, who was happily married and had a kid on the way. “Don’t you want to settle down Arya?”
“I have never met someone I would want to settle down with. I don’t know if there is a person I could settle down with. It feels like there is no one around who I could be happy with. Do you understand?”
But Sansa couldn’t understand it, she had her life perfectly on track.
Shireen had been one of her best friends, smart an shy and literally an Angel. She had met Devan already when they were young. They were soulmates, it felt good, they fitted like puzzle pieces.
“That is my problem you know. There just doesn’t exist a man on earth with whom it is as simple and easy as with you and Devan.”
“Our relationship is not easy.”
“No but you know you belong together and then you know it is worth fighting for.”
Shireen looked at her incredulously, she had no idea that it could feel different.
He was there when she exchanged vows with Edric Storm. The universe was cruel. They didn’t fit like puzzle pieces and they had problems. But she could find resolution with Edric. He was a friend and now her friend for life. She knew that he felt the same. And something about Edric she liked and something about him felt familiar, but there were parts and they were wrong. Them together felt wrong. Watching her felt wrong.
She was looking through a few boxes. “Edric what is this?” She pulled out an old paper.
“Page 12”
A picture of a crushed car came into view and the headline: child died in car crash. She looked at Edric with a questionable look.
“He was my older half brother, his name was Gendry. He was just four years old.”
She felt an ache and she couldn’t understand. It was more than just feeling bad for the boy, it felt like an heartache.
He died to early and he had watched her live. Her who was his soulmate in earlier lifes, they had met many times and now he had died and had left her alone in this lifetime. Hopefully they would be together again, in another lifetime…