(Untitled)

[lonewolflives]

This had to be one of Arya's favourite weekends, if not her very favourite. She got to be herself, only different. And not really different, only older

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[maybe_youll_die]

"What are you doing?" Wednesday asked her, standing very still and watching Arya - and she knew it was Arya, it wasn't hard to tell - move very deliberately over the sand.

[lonewolflives]

"Water dancing," Arya said, flowing through one final lunge and then drawing herself up, saluting Wednesday with her sword. "You too, huh?"

[maybe_youll_die]

Wednesday nodded solemnly, knowing exactly what she meant. She didn't really mind that much, except that it was even harder than usual to find something to wear.

"How do you water dance?"

[lonewolflives]

Arya bit her lip for a moment and toyed with her ponytail, which had a rather different look than it usually did, not that Arya noticed. She'd never had the question put exactly like that.

"By being like water," she said, having thought it through. "Instead of hacking and hammering, you flow around the opponents weapons. Because you can't cut water. But water can take down a mountain. It's looking with your eyes, hearing with your eyes, feeling with your skin; being quick as a snake, fierce as a wolverine, swift as a deer. Calm as still water. That's how you water dance."

She still missed Syrio Forel a lot, sometimes.

[lifeisnotasong]

Sansa had been far too busy with Eddara to pay much attention to Arya so when she came across her doing that swordwork she called dancing she notices immediately the island had done it again. Made Arya older and pretty. Sansa had told herself last time that Arya had been pretty but not prettier than her but there was no doubt this time that Arya was prettier than her. Sansa could barely do anything with her hair but braid it and she got hardly any sleep and it showed. She cuddled Eddara close to her told herself it was worth it and tried to smile at Arya. "Oh it got you again," she said quietly.

[lonewolflives]

"It did," Arya said cheerfully, if quietly. She nodded at Eddara and said, also quietly, "Is she sleeping?"

It was nearly a whisper, even. Babies needed their sleep.

[lifeisnotasong]

Sansa shook her head, "she just woke up," she said. So had Sansa for that matter, she felt all rumpled and messy, it was annoying that when Sansa was a mess she looked a mess and when Arya was a mess, she made it look good.

[lonewolflives]

"You look like you did, too. Hello, Eddara," Arya said since that was the case, speaking a little bit louder.

[soldieringlife]

Prior had decided to go down to the beach to build a sandcastle or do something else properly childish, and noticed the young woman practicing swordfighting on the sand. It took a minute for him to recognize her, but the features were fairly unmistakable. The ugly duckling (or unremarkable, anyway) had grown up into a swan.

"Arya," he said, rather surprised. "You look really nice." He knew she wasn't the sort of girl who cared about how she looked, but he couldn't help pointing out the obvious.

[lonewolflives]

"Thanks," she said, finishing a form and then sheathing her sword. She didn't care how she looked, really, but it was still nice to hear after having had Sansa's friends call her 'Horseface' when she was growing up. "Is that you, Billy?"

[soldieringlife]

"Yes, unfortunately," Prior said. His inner little boy was quite fascinated by the swordfighting. Alas, that little boy had ended up with a rifle and a bayonet. "I didn't know you could swordfight. You're very good."

[lonewolflives]

"Didn't you? I've been doing it for years, now," Arya said. "I'm better than I was, but I'm still nowhere near as good as the man who taught me first."

[_kinginthenorth]

"You know," Robb says absently, pausing for a moment to watch her, "if this had happened next week, you might've convinced Father to let you in the melee."

[lonewolflives]

Arya flashed a wry smile over her shoulder at him, without pausing in her movements. "Might have. I doubt it, though. Even if I looked like this he'd probably still see me as ten or something."

Amusement warred with annoyance towards the end of this. The melee would have been fun.

[_kinginthenorth]

"You're still in the joust," Robb says with a shrug. "That's impressive by itself, that you talked him into it."

[lonewolflives]

"I never would have managed that back in Westeros," Arya agreed. "Probably the fact that most of the people jousting won't be expert knights has something to do with it?"

Non-experts waving lances around could be just as worrisome, but if no one with the power to forbid her entering had thought of that, Arya wasn't about to bring it up. She was looking forward to this.

[flyboy_shepp]

John'd been up to his eyeballs in kids all day, and he was about ready to just head back to his hut and hide out for the rest of the weekend. Except there really weren't as many adults anymore, and one of the few council members left alone couldn't really do something as undignified as hiding.

Even if he wanted to. A lot.

He was half distracted as he made his way down on the beach on patrol without Dwight (thank god) when he caught sight of Arya doing some water dancing. Granted, she was a bit taller and different in ways John wasn't thinking about, but he'd seen her do those moves enough times to recognize her a mile away.

"I see you've changed again," he commented as he jogged up.

[lonewolflives]

"You didn't," Arya said, and did a very job of convincing herself she was not feeling a little bit pleased at this discovery. She finished a move and rested Romance's point in the sand. "Are you disappointed, or happy you don't have to get me to reach things for you?"

[flyboy_shepp]

"Happy I'm still me, but ready to shoot the next kid who tries to climb into my ferris wheel," John admitted, shooting Arya a look at the kid crack. Just because he'd been small as a kid didn't mean he couldn't take care of himself.

[lonewolflives]

"Have there been a lot of them?" Arya said. "I mean, it doesn't go if it's not turned on, so why try to sneak onto it? You'd just sit there. At the bottom."