Chapter Text
Gendry was, quite literally, in a race to keep his job. As he waded through the busy sea of corporate workers alike, the heels of his shoes swiftly and frantically tapped the marble floors of the lobby of King’s Landing Building. He balanced three cups of coffee per hand as they threatened to spill all over his freshly pressed suit.
“Five minutes ‘til 8,” he thought as he skipped and slid past another group of clean-cut professional snoots probably discussing their latest financial conquests. “I can make it.” he said under heaving breaths.
He’d been late and arrived to work after his boss once before on one of her bad days, and Gendry swears she’d transformed into— into something else. At the moment, the only thing he could think of likening her to was a dragon about to devour her prey— or set it on fire— probably both. She was normally a pleasant and kind boss, but she had her moods— and boy were those moods. One day, she could be the most diplomatic and generous woman you’d ever seen, and the next she was nothing short of a bitch— a bitch with a fiery temper and a fragile ego.
The dark-haired man reached a nearly empty elevator and began to relax.
As he peeped a glance at his watch he sighed in relief. “Four minutes ‘til 8” he said to himself. “It’s a two-minute lift ride to the 20th floor. I’m definitely gonna make it.” Gendry then gave the close button a quick tap, and then pressed it two more times for good measure. The elevator doors began to close and his heart could finally stop trying to jump out of his chest.
“Hold the lift!”
Gendry’s head snapped up towards the voice and saw a short-haired girl running towards his direction.
“She’s too far,” he thought. “I won’t make it in time.”
Ignoring his conscience and normally sound morals, he began frantically tapping the lift’s close button in an attempt to speed up its imminent ascent.
“Wait!” the girl cried.
“Sorry.” Gendry mouthed as the doors finally met in the middle.
A few pairs of judging eyes bore holes into the back of Gendry’s head. As guilty as Gendry felt, he was more scared of his boss, so his rude and inconsiderate little act could be ignored— for now.
As the lift reached the 20th floor, Gendry was only a wee bit short of jumping out and was greeted by Missandei, the receptionist, with an almost pitying smile.
“She hasn’t arrived yet!” She raised her hands as if to calm him. “But she’ll probably be in soon. Better hurry.”
He gestured a cup-bearing hand to thank her as he hurriedly made his way throughout the maze of the office. Careful not to spill any of the drinks, he placed four of them on other desks along the way until he made it to the largest and relatively grandest enclosed room there was. He peeked through the glass of the room, and when he had confirmed that it was indeed empty, he fumbled with the keys a bit and pushed the door open.
“Daenerys isn’t here yet.” Gendry sighed in relief. “Thank God.” He placed her cup of coffee on her desk as he began his morning routine of putting everything in order as she liked it to be.
Daenerys was a passionate and brilliant woman— but she could be very forfgetful and even neglectful. He often even had to buy her dogs food (she would bring all three of them to the office). After a few minutes of filing papers, lighting candles, adjusting the airconditioning (weirdly, it was the summertime but she preferred the heater on), and setting up the dogs’ little area in the corner of the room, Gendry slipped out the door and found his way to his cubicle right outside his boss’ glass-encased room.
He sat down and finally took a sip of his own coffee.
It was difficult being Daenerys’ personal assistant— but he had hoped it would be worth it. She was the leading magazine publisher in Westeros, and she had taken a liking to his work ethic making him her assistant a few years ago. He knew it wasn’t exactly a prestigious job (not to talk about being stuck as an assistant for four whole years) , but he had, admittedly, come from almost nothing, and she and the company treated him well. He was bound to be promoted anyway, or that’s what Dany had always encouraged him with. Promotion would not only free him from the rut of his past, but would give him a chance to fulfill his dreams—to give a voice to the voiceless. Tell the stories of society’s marginalized. It helped that Daenerys was a famous philanthropist— popular in the public sphere for her charitable acts, beauty, and high-profile relationships. There were benefits of course to being her personal assistant— front row seats to events, direct interaction and advice from her as a storyteller, even the occasional and extravagant birthday and Christmas gifts. As he said, she was normally a good boss— a good boss with the occassional terrifying streak.
Almost white blond hair shone in the corner of his eye. As she drew nearer, he heard her mutter ominously “Who in the bloody hell gave my brother my new number.”
And from that moment, he knew that for the rest of the day, he would be screwed.
——————
Gods could he be broody. Arya loved her brother-slash-cousin to death but, family be damned, Jon could be a pain to work for.
She came in a little late to the office, thanks to some wanker who couldn’t wait a teensy little minute for her to get on the lift, and although Jon said he was completely fine with it, he proceeded to sulk for the better part of an hour in his office—passive aggressively replying to her queries.
“The fucker’s in an another one of those moods, eh?” Ah, Sandor. The office brute. He was a sourpuss that most of the staff avoided and feared, but Arya liked him.
“Yeah, he seems to be.” Arya nodded. “You’re always in a mood though, aren’t you Clegane?” She scrunched her face into a mock scowl. “Oi u fookers git the fook outta mi way.” Arya put her hands on her hips and comically swayed to her attempt at an impression of “The Hound”. ”Better git those fookin copies to Snow or I’ll rip yur bloodi hed ooff!”
The tall man gritted his teeth and rolled his eyes. “Tell Snow that I’ll be needing his decision on those copies before lunch.” he said as he walked away from her desk.
She fell back onto her seat and grinned. Taking a piss at Sandor was always good fun. She knew he never really minded as long as it came from her.
Arya rather liked the staff in Jon’s office. Tormund, Sam, Ed, Davos, Sandor— they were a fun and relatively rowdy bunch. One of the highlights of her boring days was interacting with and even messing with them.
She loved Jon to death but ever since Ygritte left, his broody little ways had only gotten worse. When she’d agreed to the job, as much as she appreciated his help, she didn’t think that it would be so... boring? Definitely not the same as doing fight scenes or jumping off CGI cliffs as a movie stunt double— but after her shoulder and knee injuries, doing all the extreme things she used to get paid for to do was out of the picture for a few years.
In fact, it was absolutely lovely of Jon to get their parents to agree to have her working again. Menial tasks, father. That’s all she’ll need to do. She’ll just assist me around the office. No motor riding or wrestling with big burly men. I’ve really been needing an assistant since Olly was... vacated of the position. She’ll be fine. She needs to get out of the house.
And she did. But she was a quick-learner and she’d learned the ins and outs of her job quite swiftly within the six months of her employment. Finishing tasks hours ahead of schedule, she needed to find other things to occupy her time. These often included tormenting Sandor and horsing around with Tormund.
Speaking of Tormund... “Oi Giantsbane! Jon’s been bugging you about those reports for weeks!”
—————
He remembered that an article on Dany a few months back said that she was always “the last to leave the office”, highlighting her dedication to the job and refusal to leave without making the most of the day. However, the article’s author forgot to take into account that he could only leave after Daenerys. Always the one to close the office, he had to make sure that her room and her files were in order—and that none of his coworkers were “frolicking” in their cubicles.
Gods he still remembers accidentally catching Missandei and Greyworm in the staff briefing room doing God knows what at some ungodly hour. He hadn’t been able to look Greyworm in the eyes for two weeks.
Part of those late nights (and sometimes even mornings) included running errands and/or grabbing gourmet meals for both her and her dogs as late as 3 in the morning. Today was one of those days. Luckily, he knew just the guy who could whip something up this late in the night. Hot Pie was a friend of his, a famous chef who did specialty made-to-order meals. He opened late and ended late— perfect for Daenerys’ late night cravings. Gendry typed out a quick message to his friend.
Hot Pie! Another set of 5 please. 2 for me and the boss and 3 for the dogs. The usual. Thanks, mate.
Closing “early” today! Have a hot date, if you know what I mean. I have a few ones ready tho, some prick cancelled his order last minute. Mind picking them up in a few?
Oh yeah, thanks Hot Pie. Will be there in 15. Sorry for the trouble.
Will wait.
“Dany.” Gendry popped his head in his boss’ office. “I’ll just pick up yours’ and the lads’ food.” He gestured to Drogon, Viserion, and Rhaegal, her beloved dogs.
Dany hardly looked up from the laptop she was so vigorously typing at. “Thanks, Gendry. Be back soon, I need some copies made in the printing room.” She said as she waved him off.
He was about to turn to leave when she heard her call him.
“And Gendry,” she said looking straight at him now. “Sorry about giving you so much crap about that whole Viserys thing earlier. Not your fault.” The warmth in her voice usually only reserved for her speeches and the camera flowed through her words. Then she quickly went back to her work. “Hurry with that food, we’re absolutely starving.” The warmth was gone and she was once again buried in thoughts.
Ever since Dany’s highly public break-up with Daario Naharis, a popular local actor, she’d been more tense and her anger more frequent. Gendry remembered being at the receiving end of that anger for a long time. Daario had made her happy, but Dany wanted to focus on her career and he wanted to get married and start a family.
“If Dany is going to find a man, she needs someone who will let her embrace who she is. Not that she needs a man, really,” Gendry thought on the lift down. Maybe she just needs to get laid.
————
The office was dark and empty—almost. Arya had packed up her things and was about to leave the office when she heard the sound of glass breaking from her older brother’s office.
“Jon? Are you alright?” Arya said, peeping into his office.
Jon stumbled a bit with some alcohol from his personal stash in hand. “I’m fine Arya, thank you.”
“Jon,” she approached him cautiously. “I think you need to sit down.”
“I’m fine, Arya.” He looked up at her and attempted a smile. “Thank you.”
She still proceeded to sit him down on the floor as she took her spot beside him. She glanced at the laptop on his desk and saw a picture of Ygritte and some blond guy on his instagram feed with his arm around her. “Oh”, she thought.
“You wanna talk about it?”
“Not really.”
“Me neither.” She joked.
Jon smiled. He’d been awfully sad since Ygritte moved away. She wanted to see the world. As much as he loved her, he couldn’t just leave everything behind. Ygritte took it to mean that he didn’t want to be together anymore, and they ended it at that. She’d been gone for more than a year and Jon still hadn’t quite moved on. He’d functioned well enough, but he could never really shake off the sadness in his eyes.
“Hey, Jon?”
“Yes, Arya?”
“How long’s it been since your last shag?”
As if the question alone rendered Jon completely sober, he sputtered to find words. “Excuse me?”
“How long has it been since you’ve slept with someone? 4 months? 5? 6?”
Jon looked at her bewildered. “Yeah, I have no plans of discussing my sex life with my younger sister. Thanks.”
“Oh c’mon, Jon.” Arya rolled her eyes. “We’re both adults— I’m an adult. Just answer the question.”
“What does it matter if we’re adults? It’s weird.” Jon shuddered at the last word. “Why does it matter anyway?” he said as he took another swig of the alcohol.
“Give me that.” Arya said as she took the bottle from him. “It does matter if you spend most of your time moping around all day. You’ve seemed awfully...” she paused “what’s the word?”
“Broody.” He said as he tried and failed to reach for the bottle in Arya’s hand. “You think I can’t hear you and Tormund making fun of me while I’m in my office? The people four floors up could probably hear Tormund.” The dark-haired man chuckled.
Arya winced. “Oops. Luv ya big bro.” She said as she handed him back the bottle.
“So what about my brooding sessions means I need a good shag?”
“I don’t know. You’ve seemed lonely.“ she looked straight at him now. “You haven’t quite been yourself since...”
“Since what?”
“Ygritte.” She looked down. “Ygritte has been gone for more than a year. For your sake, you need to move on.”
“I was with her for six years, Arya.” He smiled sadly. “You can’t just move on from that that quickly.”
She pointed to his laptop screen. “Seems like she has.”
For a moment Arya thought that, for the first time in her life, Jon would snap at her or shout at her— she didn’t expect what he would do next.
He sighed and gave her a small smile. “Sixteen months.”
“Sixteen what?”
“Sixteen months. I haven’t been with anyone for sixteen months.”
“Oh.” Arya looked down. “Oh.” She said as her eyes widened. “That’s about as long as...”
“Yep.” He said as he looked at her. “It is.”
“Damn. That’s why you’re so grumpy all the time.”
“My grumpiness has nothing to do with it. I’m just tired all the time, that’s all.” He said as he moved to get up. “And don’t go gossiping to Sansa. That girl doesn’t know how to keep a secret.”
Arya laughed. “You know what they say, ‘You want to make sure news gets out quicker? Let Sansa know and tell her it’s a secret.’”
Jon chuckled with her. “I’m hungry, wanna get a bite to eat?” He said with his hand stretched out towards his little sister.
“You’re in no condition to drive, Jon.” She smirked as she watched him stumble on his two feet.
“I don’t have to drive, silly.” He rolled his eyes. “I have a driver.”
Arya stood up and waved her hands to mock the older man. “I forgot you were some fancy rich boss.”
“I‘m your boss, Arya.” He smiled as his eyes crinkled.
“Okay, boss. You stay here and finish your reports for tomorrow. I’ll get the food. I know a place.” She smiled as she handed him a stack of papers from his desk. “I won’t be too long.” She said as she walked out his office.
“Get me whatever you got last time, yeah?” he called as she left. “Pot Pie’s, was it?”
“Yeah, sure, Jon. Pot Pie’s it is!” she laughingly called back and whipped out her phone.
Hot Pie! I need 2 meals asap pls! Omw to urs! C u.