#dreamflame

aerion who kidnaps pretty things and keeps them captive to play with until he gets bored and kills them. it starts out smaller than that, of course, in high school -- girlfriends he abuses, drugs, rapes, shuts up with threats or money or by targaryen reputation alone. it doesn't go as far as murder until later.

he uses a little cabin on the grounds of summerhall, deep into the woodlands, that used to be dyanna's haven. nobody but he and daeron have visited it in more than a decade, and it used to be the place she went when six kids and a husband who was obsessed with her became too much.

daeron who knows about it because aerion drugged and raped his first college gf when they visited after first year of uni/college. daeron passes out drunk, wakes up to aerion fucking her while she whimpers and cries. vomits, demands to know what the fuck aerion is doing, realises that aerion is staring him in the eye when he finishes, feral and grinning

the morning after she'd been confused, couldn't really remember much, did they drink that much? daeron let her believe they had, because in the moment it had been easier than telling her that she had been drugged. it was kinder that she believed they'd had sex while blackout drunk (wouldn't be the first time) than to tell her that she'd been raped by his little brother. aerion was a monster, but he was right about that much.

daeron who aerion continually manipulates into playing caretaker because he enjoys watching daeron get attached and wracked with guilt and grief but ultimately being unable to betray him.

he thinks it's amusing how pathetic and cliche it is that daeron keeps trying to protect/help/save them (he knows daeron sees their mother in them, that he's subconsciously trying to heal the wound of her suffering and death). he's pretty blind to how it's equally cliche that he's recreating dyanna's death* with a version of their mother that doesn't die until he decides they do, who can't leave without his permission, who he can vent all his anger and hurt at the abandonment onto.

he tells himself he chooses people that resemble her -- not always the look, but the mannerisms, the pattern of speech, the personality -- because it makes it impossible for daeron to resist, but... well. he lost her too.

daeron who tries to tend the wounds, bring food, and not get attached because he knows what the outcome is going to be. but he can't help himself. can't help himself because he is genuinely appalled by aerion's sadism, but also because it feels so good to be the brightest thing in someone's world. the softest, kindest, best thing. the thing that they cling to and crave.

aerion offering daeron a choice, sometimes, on days where his toys are a little too broken for rough handling -- on days where daeron tries to push back. you or them. you can get on your knees for me, you can bend over for me, you can take the pain instead. which will it be? well, beg for it, if you really mean it. beg to suck my cock, daeron. beg for me to fuck you. beg for me to hurt you. do you think they'll still see a saviour when they've seen you cum on my cock? or will they see you for what you are.

daeron knows how fucked up it is when they start to want him to touch them, to fuck them, just so they feel like they have a choice, have control of something in aerion's tiny, suffocating nightmare world. It always starts out as their attempt to win him over, to convince him to help them, but eventually that hope gutters out and they just want something that doesn't (only) hurt.

reader who's the latest victim. who might have a chance to survive because daeron's been circling the drain and aerion is worried he'll break if he doesn't give him something to hold on for. you shouldn't get your hopes up, though.

death would be kinder.