Unintended

Epilogue Part Two

Rhaenyra could not seem to keep her hands to herself those first several weeks after she had given birth. The maester had advised her to wait a full two turns of the moon before inviting her husband to their marriage bed again but she had been particularly impatient, despite the stitches she'd received from the small amount of tearing during her labors.

Seeing Harwin hold their children had ignited something within her that she had difficulty ignoring. It had not come as a surprise that he was a wonderful father. It seemed that everything came to him with ease. They had sailed back to Dragonstone only a few days after the birth, and they had hardly been separated from the children since. Rhaenyra had felt awful the first night back, when they had placed the babies in the nursery.

Luckily, Harwin had not felt any better about it, and had insisted they keep the cradles in their own chambers. Whenever the babes cried in the night, Harwin was the first to wake, and he was often already bringing the wailing infants to the wet nurses before Rhaenyra could even sit up. He insisted that she rest, and he doted on her still, the ever-attentive and caring husband that he naturally was.

Rhaenyra had practically counted down the days until she was able to lie with him again. It had come as a surprise to Harwin when she suddenly insisted that the babies return to the nursery, but he did not protest once he realized her plans to resume their activities in the marriage bed.

Rhaenyra felt the urge to throw herself at him nearly every time she saw him holding their babies, singing them to sleep or spoiling them with clothes and toys they had almost no use for.

Though Harwin had greatly desired a daughter, Rhaenyra knew he did not love their son any less. He was beyond proud of Baelon, taking him almost everywhere. He had discovered a method in one of his books to wrap a child against one's body to carry them with ease and, soon after, father and son were hardly parted. Baelon and Visenya's eggs had hatched shortly after their birth, and Baelon's tiny blue dragon remained perched on Harwin's shoulder at all times.

They often took meals out on the grassy cliffs of Dragonstone, Rhaenyra laid out with baby Visenya on a blanket, Visenya's rowdy ruby colored dragon rolling in the grass beside them, and Harwin off in the distance, holding Baelon close and chatting with him constantly. It was easily the most content she had been in her entire life.

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Harwin had always known he wanted a daughter. All of his men in the City Watch had droned on and on about how wonderful their sons were, but Harwin had wanted a girl more than anything. He could not deny, though, the first time he held his son in his arms, that his men might have been right. Baelon was the spitting image of Harwin: dark eyes, dark curls, and a large frame. Harwin had felt a strong sense of pride when he first saw the boy, and could hardly be separated from him.

Visenya held his heart in her tiny fist, his perfect daughter who looked exactly like her mother: pale features and silvery hair. He could not help but spoil her, constantly sending off for gifts for her from across the Narrow Sea. He worried for the day she could voice her own desires, as he knew he would be entirely helpless and she would be the most spoiled girl in the entirety of the known world.

Rhaenyra was round with his child again, only a few short months after delivering the twins, and he was the most content he had been in his life. Harwin had been far too eager to take her to bed after she had given birth to the twins, as the first pregnancy had left her with a very enticing fullness in her hips and backside, and his hands were constantly wandering, fingers digging into the new thickness that remained. She had thought him a liar, at first, for finding her even more attractive after bearing children, but he had an easy explanation for it.