𝐁𝐎𝐑𝐍 𝐓𝐎 𝐃𝐈𝐄 | aemond targaryen

𝐢𝐱. I swallowed my heart to keep you sane

❝watch me,

I will go down to my own sun,

and if I am burned by it's fire,

I will fly on scorched wings.❞

.·:*¨༺ ༻¨*:·.

"Must we really go to this dinner?" Aemond said, his head on Visenya's lap as they took a moment of peace in the gardens beneath the sacred tree, her fingers threading through his hair. "I quite like my position right now."

"I'm sure you do." Visenya said with a grin. "But Viserys wants his whole family there."

"When have we ever been a family?" Aemond said, looking up at his wife who rolled her eyes at him.

The sky was darkening and the time to take their leave of the peace and quiet of the gardens was coming but neither could bring themselves to stand and walk into the flames that would be this family dinner that the King had requested.

Alicent strode through the halls of the Red Keep, searching for them. But when she laid eyes on the soon to be parents she did to have the heart to call them away from the peace that they would not get for much longer. Her heart yearned for this domesticity.

She grieved for what she had lost as she held back tears, watching on as the girl she thought of as a daughter smiled down at her son. A smile broke through the tears. How lucky she was to always witness their secret moments of tenderness, albeit from the shadows.

"I fear, this may be the last of our peace." Visenya said softly but loud enough for the Queen to hear. "For what it's worth I've enjoyed our adventures, Aemond Targaryen."

"Our adventures are far from over, my love." Aemond said as he lifted his head from her lap and cupped her cheek in his hand. "As long as dragons roam the land, we live on."

Alicent turned away, disappearing into the shadows for a moment to swallow her grief. Oh sweet Sumer children, she thought to herself. How, after all they have seen can they still love so purely?

.·:*¨༺ ༻¨*:·.

Aemond and Visenya were the last before the King to arrive at the dinner chamber. Visenya held her husbands arm as he guided her to her seat beside him. Pulling out her chair from the table so she could sit and then took his place beside her as he always did, never allowing a servant to do what he could do for his wife.

Visenya felt her mothers eyes on her and for the first time in seven years, their eyes met. Mother and daughter, by blood. Rhaenyra nodded at her first born and Visenya nodded back, her neck stiff as every bone in her body rejected the familiarity. Rejected the immediate need to be in her mothers arms, to feel the comfort she had only felt as a girl.

But instead, Visenya turned to the door as Viserys was carried in. Rhaenyra wouldn't be the one to leave her staring as she left this time.

The table was silent as the King was set in between his wife and daughter, his golden mask glinting in the candle light.

"How good it it, to see you all tonight." Viserys said, looking around the table at his family. His breath rasping as he spoke. "Together."

Everyone looked down as his eye travelled down the table, as though the stranger had come in the form of a man to their dining table. All instead of Visenya who smiled back at him, a gentle smile that made the candlelight seem to glow.

"Prayer before we begin?" The Queen asked the King to break the silence that had descended upon the unconventional family. The king nodded.

Alicent said the prayer as all heads bowed in worship. Aemond who cared not for any God other than his wife, merely watched as his wife rubbed her stomach uncomfortably. He frowned, while their family was busy with prayer he reached over and rested his own hand upon her lower stomach and rubbed gentle circles.