green lies, black hearts

XIV

a/n - another one

~+~

Rhaena

Rhaena leaned against one of the pillars-a habit she thought she may have picked up from her father, always a leaner that one-and watched over her shoulder as Shaera walked in the gardens with Qoren Martell. There was a respectable distance between them, as if the pair were not quite friends but not quite strangers. Rhaena watched, biting her cheeks until she swore she bled. She watched and watched. Of course she knew this day would come. Of course she did.

But that didn't make it any easier to watch.

Even seeing Shaera with Aemond was enough to make Rhaena dizzy with envy. It was enough to turn her stomach and darken her vision with a tint of green. But Rhaena would do anything for Shaera. She always would. And if that meant biting her tongue and helping protect whatever it was that Shaera was doing, then she would do it.

"Have you ever kissed anyone before, cousin?" Rhaena asked one day, looking over at Shaera as they basked in the sun after swimming the majority of the morning away.

Shaera pursed her lips, wringing her dark hair out over the massive rock's side. Her shoulders and cheek were red, and her freckles seemed impossibly darker against her sunburnt skin. "No," she answered with an awkward chuckle. She squeezed out the last bit of sea water and brushed her hair down her back. "I don't believe I'm supposed to. Until I'm married at the least."

"You know," Rhaena hummed, "Baela plays kissing games with the boys at Driftmark?"

"She does? Does grandmother kn-"

"Of course she does!" Rhaena laughed and leaned over the rock as she kicked her bare legs. Rivulets of sea water, lit up by the sunlight, dripped down her brown calves and back into the gentle waves that lapped at the jutting rock. "Even father knows what Baela likes to do. He says she's just like him."

"Jace will be devastated," Shaera giggled.

Rhaena waved it off. "He plays kissing games with that one stable hand, he'll survive."

"He what?"

"Oh..." Rhaena grimaced as she looked back at Shaera. "I wasn't supposed to tell you that. Nonetheless!" She clapped her hands and elbowed Shaera. Pretty Shaera. "If they play kissing games, surely you can as well!"

Shaera bit her bottom lip and Rhaena watched as the girl looked down at the water. Droplets sprayed across both of their faces but Rhaena couldn't seem to care. Not when she watched her cousin scrunch her nose and hurriedly wipe at the water on her face in a frenzied way that made Rhaena laugh. She was always laughing with Shaera. It wasn't hard to. If Shaera could always make her smile then surely laughing was just as common?

And surely that warm feeling was just as natural? That one Rhaena only felt around Shaera? That one that made her stomach twist and turn like it was filled with the whales sometimes seen on the horizon. That one that made her think a dragon wasn't necessary because at least she could spend all of her time with Shaera if they were both wingless. That one that made her dream of Shaera, of their times together, of their days in the towns on Dragonstone, of their days reading or embroidering or doing fuck all because they could. Because neither had any responsibilities save for helping out with the young ones. Because neither did anything except for spend all of their free time together.

That feeling that burned Rhaena's cheeks more and more often when they swam together. That feeling that made her heart flutter when Shaera grabbed her hand and dragged her to somewhere in the keep. That feeling that was blazing inside of her right now as she stared at Shaera beside her. As she stared at her cousin and stepsister.