dancing with our hands tied | r. targaryen

xiv.

THREE YEARS LATER
114 A.C.
KING'S LANDING
•••

ALAYNE COULD HEAR CRYING FROM DOWN THE HALL AND SHE WAS ABSOLUTELY SICK AND TIRED OF IT. WHICH WAS WHY SHE WAS GOING TO PUT AN END TO IT. She was now a girl of nearly eighteen years, but she felt older with the amount of crying she put up with. Alayne shoves the door open to the nursery and there she finds her sister rocking her son, Prince Aegon Targaryen, the second of his name.

Who also happened to be celebrating his second name day.

"Aegon please," Alayne hears her sister beg. Over the last two years, Alayne learned her sister didn't have a nurturing bone in her body. She grew easily frustrated with Aegon as he sobbed and passed him off to servants to care for. Alayne probably spent more time with her nephew than her sister spent with her son.

Alayne sighs as she makes her way over, "He doesn't like to be held like that."

Alicent looks over to see her sister standing there. Alayne holds her hands out and Alicent doesn't hesitate as she passes her crying son over to Alayne. She takes the young boy and hugs him so that Aegon can rest his head on her shoulder.

The crying comes to an eventual stop and Alayne smiles as she strokes her nephew's back. She looks up at her sister who simply seems relieved that her son had finally gotten quiet.

"How did you do that?" Alicent asks.

"He is lazy and does not like to have to hold himself up," Alayne informs her sister, "Since he was a babe he's perched his head on my shoulder. You would know that if you held him more."

"I do hold him," Alicent responds as she takes a seat in a chair, hands falling on top of her pregnant stomach. She and the king were expecting their second child together, "He throws a tantrum when I do."

"Perhaps he is jealous?" Alayne suggests, "He knows that you are expecting another."

Alicent scoffs and Alayne smiles but it slips away as she looks at her sister. She could recall Aegon's birth, and how scared her sister had been. She and Alayne were hardly on speaking terms but Alayne sat outside the room to ensure that her sister wouldn't suffer the same fate as the queen before her. It was there that she heard her sister's pleas for her. It was Alayne who she wanted at her side and Alayne was there, holding her hand.

Alayne had wiped the sweat from her sister's brow and the two of them had let out relieved laughs as Aegon cried loudly. Alayne had sat with her sister through the night, being the second person to hold the prince. She was also the one who had to deliver the aloof princess the news of her younger brother. Rhaenyra did not care for Aegon. She made that clear in his earlier days and made sure that their half relation was known.

"Don't be silly," Alicent states, "Aegon hates me."

"He does not hate you," Alayne says as she gently rocks the boy.

"I am a horrible mother."

"You are a young mother," Alayne retorts, "Thrust into a position that no one has prepared you for."

"Motherhood isn't something that you prepare for," Alicent responds, "It is something that is natural, instinct."

"Not to everyone," Alayne says as she looks at her sister, "Give yourself some time."

Alicent looks at her sister, watching as she rocks her cooing son.

"You seem quite good at it," Alicent observes.

"Yes well I am quite good at everything," Alayne says with a smirk as she looks at her sister. Alicent raises an unimpressed brow and Alayne chuckles as she gently strokes Aegon's hair, "I guess I know he's a piece of you which means he's a piece of me and I just want to protect him."