The King's Whore - Aegon/Aemond

Chapter 12

“Fern?” A stern voice calls out to her in her dreams.
In her dreams.
Had it really gotten so bad?
Had she really started dreaming about him now?
His serious face. Rough swordsman's hands on her shoulders. That one piercing eye. His hair. The way he smelled...
“Fern! Where in the Seven Hells is my brother?” He shook her.
And then she was awake.
He was still there.
It wasn't a dream.
“Aemond?” She asked groggily, her head pounding. She couldn't manage to focus her eyes on him.
She held onto him as she sat upright, falling against his chest. He steadied her, brows knitting together.
“What's wrong with you?”
She giggles softly. Why was she giggling again? She didn't remember... But that made it funnier somehow.
Aemond frowned at her, grabbing her shoulders. “Fern? What... I would expect this from Aegon but not you. What did you do?”
“We...” She grinned. “Would you like to know everything we did? How I got on my knees and–”
“Fern.” He warned, looking away from her with a grimace.
He looked so miserable. He always looked so miserable. So serious.
She wanted to see him smile. Or blush. Or do anything... Anything that didn't make him look so sad.
She leaned in suddenly and kissed him.
Aemond froze.
For the briefest moment, almost as if he'd never done it, he kissed her back. And then he pulled away. But she'd felt it. She'd felt him lean into her touch. She'd felt his lips move against hers before his brain took over again.
Fern collapsed the moment he pulled away, eyes closing.
“Fern?”
She didn't answer.
“Fern?” His voice was more urgent.
She still didn't answer.
“What did you drink, Fern? What did you take?”
She groaned.
“Fern!” He yelled, anger in his voice.
“I don't... We drank some... In... In place Aegon found and I...” She pulled a face, confused and dazed. Her whole body hurt.
Aemond knew more than he would've liked about drinks and drugs. He'd always been the one to look after his brother, to watch over him and make sure he didn't die when he threw up in his sleep or fell and hit his head.
But he never thought he'd be playing the dutiful maid for some whore that he hardly knew.
He lifted her up into his arms and her head lolled against his chest. He'd never really noticed how small she was until that moment. With her head high and that defiant glare... She always seemed bigger somehow. Stronger. Like she could take on any man or beast.
But she wasn't even a particularly big woman. She was... She was just a girl. A small, fragile, human, girl.
He lay her down on her bed, pulling the covers over her to keep her warm. She groaned as soon as he let go of her.
In her state, she probably thought he was Aegon. She probably had no idea.
Without even thinking about the action, he moved down to brush her hair from her face, tucking it behind her ear.
She looked so serene in her sleep and he felt like an intruder seeing something that he should never have access to. Seeing her when she was vulnerable.
He let his hand linger on her cheek silently cursing himself for it.
It was stupid. It was so stupid. He shouldn't... He couldn't... And yet he was.
He'd dreamt of her... Since they had...
He'd dreamt of her a lot. And found himself thinking about her when he should've been focused on other things. And then he'd see her around the Keep, even when she didn't see him... Like she was some sort of ghost haunting him. Or maybe he was the ghost. Maybe he was the one stuck in a time long gone. Stuck in a moment that he couldn't move on from.
He'd lost his eye.
And then he'd lost some part of himself to her.
She'd been kind to him. He remembered that. When no one else had been, she'd been gentle. She'd never made him feel ashamed of his eye. She'd never made him feel uncomfortable about... Their encounter.
She'd always been good to him.
“Aemond...” She moaned in her sleep, writhing a little on her bed.
He felt the heat rise to his cheeks like he was some stupid little boy again and it made him feel ashamed.
He was a man. He was a Prince. He was rider of the greatest dragon in the world. And he was blushing like a girl.
He sighed, shaking his head. Slowly, gently, he lifted her slightly and held a cup of water to her lips. She didn't do anything so he made her drink. Made her hydrate and take the fluids.
She'd appreciate it in the morning.
Her head fell against him again and he had to prop her up to keep her stable.
“You idiot.” He whispered, wiping the escaped water from her chin. “Behaving like him. Sinking to his level like some reprobate. You're lucky you're still breathing. Gods. Look at yourself, Fern.”
He shook his head, hands flexing at his side nervously.
“I'll stay with you.” He told her, sitting down beside her bed. “Rest.”
He knew this wasn't a simple case of overdrinking.
Someone had put something in her drink.
And even though he knew that probably meant Aegon was in the same boat, he couldn't help but curse his brother. He'd not looked after her. Worse, he'd gotten her into this mess. He'd encouraged her to follow him down this road.
“I know you won't remember any of this.” He said, unable to shake the worry from his face. It didn't belong there. A prince worrying over his brother's favourite whore was ridiculous. And yet here he was. Caring for her, worrying about her. “You'll wake tomorrow and go back to him and this job that you don't need in this place where you don't belong. You can read, you can write, you can speak different languages. You could do anything, Fern. You could be anyone. You don't have to be like Aegon. Not anymore.”
She didn't move or say a word.
Aemond sighed, rolling her onto her side in case she was sick.
He clenched his jaw, eye aimed heavenward, and stood.
When he left the room he came across that woman... The one with the red hair... The one that had been there that day.
He kept his chin up, his shoulders back, silently reminding himself that he wasn't that little boy anymore. He was a swordsman, a dragonrider, a threat.
“You.” He gestured at her and she slowly sauntered over with a devious grin. The minute she moved to touch him he pushed her away with a disgusted expression. “Go in there. Look after her.”
“That'll cost you. My time isn't free.”
Aemond sighed, rolling his eye, as he passed her some coins.
She grinned. “Anything else, m'lord?”
“Have you seen my brother?” He asked. “Have you seen Aegon?”

Sorry for slow updates I'm in the north pole👁️👄👁️
–Rhi