Aegon rarely goes with his siblings when they venture to the Dragonpit, deciding he'd rather go alone at queer hours of night. Helaena does not mind, though maybe she worries, as it allows her time alone with Aemond. Time that goes unquestioned by most.
It's in the quiet and dark of the Pit, when there are no Dragonkeepers around, that they can gossip. Celebrate the pregnancy without watchful eyes. 'Two, are you certain?' Her brother cups his hands around her growing belly.
Though she feels the sharp pain of the babes within most days, Helaena smiles when she feels his heat travel deep within her. She leans against the cold of the Pit's walls with a quiet nod.
Dreamfyre watches them from her roost at the very end of the aisle. In the darkness, her eyes and scales are nearly black.
'I saw them and I named them.' Aemond raises a brow and makes a move to grab his sister by the waist to taunt the names from her lips. Dreamfyre, though she has learned to quite enjoy the one-eyed Prince, growls from her shadowy lair. Helaena only laughs in Aemond's arms. 'I want to keep that secret, and so does she.'
Nimble like the wasps she watches in the gardens, she ducks out of Aemond's grip and runs to her sapphire dragon. She can feel Aemond's necklace battering against her chest under her blouse. Concealed in her skirts, his gift remains. 'I have a gift for you, valiant prince.' She beckons him closer and smiles wider as she notices the unease in his approach. 'Come, it's here.' Running a teasing hand down her leg, a fire builds in her as she waits for his touch.
Aemond glances at Dreamfyre and drops his gaze. 'You sure you want to do this in front of her? Don't you think it goes against all laws of decency-'
'We're not going to fuck in here, Aemond.' Helaena reaches a hand over her mouth when she hears the words she's just spoken. 'No, there is a gift here. I promise.'
Her brother is careful as he reaches for the skirts of her dress, playing with the fabric for a beat before lifting them. When his hands graze the knife, his eye goes wide. He unsheaths it from the band around her leg and pulls it out. They both admire the blade, shining black in the darkness of the Dragon Pit. It was straight and slender, the handle banded with black leather. At the handle's end, a small blue jewel. 'I told ser Criston it was for Aegon," she tells her brother softly, 'for his nameday. That's already passed, I guess I forgot.'
Her brother raises his gaze to her and smirks.
.
HATCHING
Jaehaera comes rather easily. She is small, especially compared to her brother who has yet to arrive. Helaena embraces her quiet daughter with a nervous smile. Even when the nurses assure her that the silence from the newborn, though not expected, is perfectly safe, she worries. 'What if she dies in my arms.'
Panic fills her veins and sends Jaehaerys out with haste.
He, unlike his elder sister, is as loud as a babe should be. He screams with a shrill little voice as the nurses clean him off and cut the cord that still connects him to his mother. When Jaehaera is taken by Queen Alicent so Helaena can give her son a looking over, both of them go quiet for a short while. 'Little lamb,' she coos softly, 'soft and sweet. Welcome to this world.'
He smiles up at her for the briefest time before he starts to bawl again. Even as his cries grow louder and louder, defeaning his mother and everyone around, Helaena is smiling and Jaehaera is silent.
'Would the princess like us to...deal with his excess...the toes that do not belong?' The midwife nearest to her grabs the boy's foot with care and parts his toes to show an extra one on each foot. 'It would only take a short moment, and the pain will not last, I assure you.'
