Fire And Blood

Two Heads

Daenerys IV

"Rhaenys?"

She glanced down at her niece. Rhaenys's head was resting on her chest, an arm was draped over her stomach and a leg over her thighs. She was pressed tightly into her side. Daenerys did not mind. Rhaenys was a beautiful woman.

"Hm?"

There was very little light, but what little the moon offered was enough to make out the soft contours of her niece's Dornish features.

"When Aegon finally accepts his place as king, who should marry him? You or I?"

It was a question she had wondered about for a while now. He would be their king and a king needed a queen. As for Targaryen customs, he would marry in their family. But he needed to anyway, beyond it being customary for Targaryens. The blood of the dragon needed to be rebuilt, protected and strengthened again and they did not want a queen who was not a Targaryen.

"Have you thought about this as well, then?"

"Of course."

"Hm." Rhaenys shifted a bit and scooted up, coming face to face and bumping her nose against her cheek, causing her to giggle. "That is a good question. The thought of marrying my brother – or half-brother, if you must – is a bit queer, admittedly, Targaryen or not, but I do not wish to marry some other Lord or Lord's son."

"Understandable. I feel the same."

"And Queen Rhaenys does sound nice."

She grinned. "But so does Queen Daenerys."

She did not want them to fight over Aegon and over who should be his queen. She also, desperately, wanted to be his queen. The thought of marrying some Lord's son for pure politics, while not being a novelty and often a necessity, was scary to her. She would be a foreigner once their conquest would begin, whenever that might be. She did not wish to be away from her family. She did not wish to marry into the unknown.

"Aunt Daenerys?"

She felt Rhaenys's warm breath fan gently over her face. "Yes?"

"I really do not wish to be wed to someone I do not know. After everything that's been done to our family…"

"I know, my niece, I know. The comfort of family is even sweeter now."

"I also do not wish for it to happen to you."

Daenerys sighed. "And I to you."

She felt and heard every inhale and exhale from Rhaenys as both of them quieted down. She felt Rhaenys's fingers on her arm and she felt her eyes fixated on her. She could hear her heart beating.

"Aunt Daenerys?"

"Yes?"

"I...do you remember when we briefly talked about Aegon the Conqueror?"

"I…think so." She furrowed her brows. "Why do–" Oh. "Oh."

Rhaenys cleared her throat, several times. "I, uh...I just thought of it a-and, I don't think it'd be so bad."

Daenerys reached over and cupped Rhaenys's cheek, her eyes wide with surprise and shock. "Do you understand what you are proposing, my sweet niece?"

She could feel her nod. "Yes. It makes sense to me."

Logically it did. Neither wanted to be separated from their family, neither wanted to wed and bed a stranger. They both wanted to be queen.

"This could get messy emotionally. What if one of us gets more attention than the other? What if Aegon loses interest in one of us? What if one of us bears him a child and the other does not?"