The unwanted princess - H.o.D.

Alone together

The funeral had been... Well, a funeral. Pretty, meaningful, boring. And, as it usually happened whenever more than half of their family got together, the tensions were at an all time high. Lord and Lady Velaryon did not like Daemon one bit, which was not that hard considering the man had spent several moments of the funeral laughing instead of honoring his late wife. From across the yard, Valora noticed more than once the exchange of looks between her sister Rhaenyra and their uncle and, judging by Queen Alicent's face, she was also aware of that fact. Completely blind to it all, as usual, her father seemed to not have noticed any of the tension around him and no one dared mention it to him, considering he was not only the patriarch of the family, but also their king.

So, instead, each person around did whatever they deemed better to kill time. For Jace and Luke, that meant staying beside Rhaena and Baela as they tried to comfort the two girls who had just lost their mother. For Aemond, it seemed to be hanging near Helaena as his sister played with whatever bug she found crawling around. For Valora, as always, it meant simply staying out of everybody's way, by herself. For Aegon, it seemed, it meant drinking until he could no longer recognize himself.

As expected, that didn't end that well, and when Otto Hightower, of all people, found Aegon, drunk out of his mind, laying down at some steps nearby, he picked him up and urged him back to his chambers, scowling the boy like the damn child he was. Valora felt her blood boiling, her cheeks heating up when she noticed the way her father's eyes met hers across the yard, his stare hard and clear. Because of course the only time he remembered he had a daughter was when he expected her to fix a problem that wasn't even hers to begin with.

Serves her right for having been betrothed to a drunken fool as a babe.

"My princess." Ser Arryk bowed from his place stationed in front of Aegon's chamber's door. "The prince is abed."

"I shall come in anyway." Valora argued, Ser Dalt straightened up behind her when Ser Arryk hesitated on following Valora's orders.

"The prince is simply expecting to protect the princess from seeing him in such a state." Ser Arryk tried to argue.

"If Aegon cared how I saw him, he wouldn't have drunk himself stupid in public." Valora almost rolled her eyes. "Now, I will be seeing the prince tonight. So either you step inside and announce my arrival or you step aside and let me do the honors."

Ser Arryk sighed, exchanging a look with Ser Dalt only to be met by an amused glimmer in the eyes of a man who had watched this little demanding girl grow up into an even more demanding young princess.

"One moment, princess." Ser Arryk relented, stepping into the chambers and disappearing inside as Valora giggled when she turned over her shoulder at the sound of Ser Dalt's chuckle. "You may come in, princess."

"Thank you, Ser." Valora nodded at the man as he held the door open for her.

"What do you want?" Aegon asked, his words slurring quite a lot while Ser Arryk closed the door behind Valora.

"You are embarrassing." She said, moving to stand at the foot of Aegon's bed with her arms crossed over her chest.

"Thank you." Aegon responded sarcastically, his hands covering his eyes as he laid shirtless under his silky sheets.

"I mean it, Aegon."

"So do I."

"Gods." She groaned, pulling back Aegon's sheets only to step back once she realized he was not only shirtless, but also very much naked.

"Fuck you, Valora." Aegon grunted, sitting up on his bed and tugging his sheets back from her to cover his lower half again. "If you came to berate me, you might as well leave."

"Better me than your mother, is it not?" Valora scoffed, to which Aegon scowled. "I just... Gods, Aegon, do you know how bad you made us look?"

"Us?" Aegon scoffed right back at her.

"Your family, you fool."

"You are not my family." Aegon shook his head.

"I am sorry to tell you, my prince, but yes, I am." Valora squinted at him. "I am your half-sister. And I am to be your wife."

"You are not yet." Aegon shrugged.

"I will be soon." She argued. "So if you think I will let you walk around, drunk out of your ass and bringing shame into my name - my children's names - you are much mistaken."

"Well, maybe we won't even have to worry about your children, considering your mother barely had the capacity of bearing them in the first place."

It was low. Aegon knew it as soon as the words left his lips, but even when a flash of hurt crossed over Valora's face, Aegon didn't apologize. He wouldn't. She was the who came into his chambers to annoy him, was she not? And talking about their marriage? About their fucking children Aegon didn't even want? She deserved it. She deserved every bit of the hurt he inflicted on her. She did.

"Aegon..." Valora sighed, her shoulders dropping as she, seemingly, let go of all the fight she still had in her body. "Do you know... I mean, the labors of birth are a perilous thing."

"I'm aware." Aegon grunted. And he was. Maybe not completely, considering he had not paid that much attention to these particular lessons with his maesters but he knew. "Is that supposed to make me feel bad for you?"

"Not particularly." Valora shrugged, walking around Aegon's bed and sitting down on it without asking him for permission first. "I just mean... From a young age, I've known what my duty was. To give you heirs. You know that. Right?"

"Yes." Aegon said, still eyeing Valora suspiciously as he sat as far away from the girl as he could. "Of course I know."

"Of course." Valora rolled her eyes. "But knowing it, doesn't make it easy. Doesn't make it less scary. Because you are right, Aegon. My mother was only able to give my father three - well, two children. She died giving birth to me and my brother. Lady Laena died during childbirth too. It is scary, Aegon and I am terrified that, just like our father, you will take the first opportunity you have to put me through the knife and marry some better lady. I am scared that the gods put me into this world to be nothing but a waste, unwanted by my father, by my siblings, by my husband... I'm scared, Aegon. I am terrified. But I am going to perform my duty. As your wife, I will give you your heirs. All I ask of you is that you too perform your duty. As my husband."

"Which is..."

"Honor me." She said, hating the way she sounded so damn desperate. Desperate to be of service, to be someone's something - anything. To be wanted. "If we don't have any children, discard me as gently as you can, but if we do, honor them. Don't be to them the father Viserys is to us. And you don't... You don't have to love me. You don't even have to like me. Just, Aegon... Help me and I will help you. Always."

One look at Aegon let Valora know he seemed as surprised by her words as she was. And for a second, as Aegon stared at her in some kind of stunned silence, she worried he would laugh at her. But instead, Aegon just bunched up the sheets in his hands and sighed.

"If you perform your duty to me, I will perform my duty to you." He said and it was Valora's turn to be silenced. "Always."

"Swear it?" She found herself asking, for a moment, not the strong young princess she had made herself to be.

For a moment, she was just a little girl, alone in the dark, reaching out a hand blindly for a boy she figured felt just as alone as she did. And, to her surprise, that boy seemed to be reaching back to her, so that, for the first time in years, they could finally be alone together.

"I swear it."