[ Brontide ] Arya x Gendry
Brontide - The low rumbling of distant thunder.
[[Iâm writing this about a Southern summer, because reasons]]
The air was so sticky that it made her skin feel like she was covered in wet syrup and her lungs were half-drowning with all the moisture clinging to them. Â She knew she smelled like sweat and dust and that weird, almost-metallic stink your skin gets after youâve been out in the sun for too long and youâre starting to turn red. Â Gendry wasnât much better off than her; his neck and arms were almost as red and ruddy as brick, and she had to stifle a laugh as she looked at the pair of them â her, with the pink knees and red nose and the freckles that had been popping up everywhere since Spring had first lured her outside her parentsâ house; him, with his tanned skin and dark hair and eyes as clear as the sky that theyâd been running around picking blackberries under earlier that day, but now he was brick-red and covered in a light sheen of sweat and his fingers were stained with the indigo juice from all the wild berries theyâd eaten. Â Her own hands were stained covered in little scrapes and cuts from the briars protecting the sweet cache of wild treasure; her legs and arms fared no better than her hands.
She sat on the tailgate of his truck, linking her messy hands together to rest on her thighs as she stared up at the sky. Â About an hour before, the blue had been intermingled with harmless white clouds, but now, it was slowly being overtaken by a siege of light then darker grey, tinged with black on the horizon, the perfect ombre that told her a storm was coming. Â The wind had begun to kick up not too long ago and her hair was being tugged none-too-gently from her ponytail. Â
"Stormâs coming," he grunted from beside her, turning his face up to the sky to take in the sweet relief of the slowly dropping temperature and the wild breeze whipping around them.
"I gathered that myself, funnily enough," she gave his bare shoulder a gentle shove, his skin hot and sticky under her palm.  Her tone was light, teasing; she was too elated by their perfect day of splashing through tiny creeks in the middle of the woods and fighting bushes for the berries, even when he was yelling at her not to go any further in, because there were goddamned snakes and too many briars and she was only wearing her beat-up Vans and cutoff shorts, but nonetheless being pleased when she came back with a bucketful of her own and a walking stick to push down the undergrowthâŠ
"Oh, shut up," he growled, wrapping one of his sweaty, hot arms around her thin, burnt shoulders and pulling her to him, his fingers finding the only spot in her side where she was ticklish and attacking her in retaliation for her rudeness as she laughed and tried to fight him off.  It shouldâve been disgusting, the heat emanating from his truck bed and the dirt covering them both and the gross sticky sweat covering his arms, but all Arya could think about was how nice the heat from her sunburn felt against his even if it was uncomfortable and how Gendry always smelled so nice, even if he was sweaty and dirty and had been running around in the woods with her.  She wondered briefly what it wouldâve been like to kiss him, laughing aloud at both the absurdity of it and the swooping sensation of all the places where he was poking and tickling her as she squirmed but he had her trapped and she bet he tasted like all the blackberries theyâd been eating and she wanted so badly to kiss his slightly-chapped lips and find outâŠ
But then a low rumbling noise and a flash down in the horizon had him ceasing his teasing and he let her go almost as if heâd been electrocuted. Â
"Alright, âArry, thatâs our cue. Â I sure as hell donât want tâ get hit by lightening in the bed of this goddamned truck, and yer momâll be wantinâ them berries fer her pie."
She felt the first drop of rain on her nose as her cheeks turned the same shade of red as Gendryâs neck, and she was glad he didnât see because he was already hopping into the driverâs side, shouting at her to hurry the fuck up as she slipped off the back of the truck. Â Arya slammed the gate back up as another rumble of thunder sounded much closer than before. She was just sliding across the cracked leather of his beat-up front seat as the dams finally burst in the sky and the deluge began.
