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the crown prince Jacaerys finds himself falling for his mother's new queensguard.
Jacaerys Velaryon âą Masterlist | @sylasthegrim
My dear betrothed | @slaytheusurper
After years of not seeing each other, you are to be wed to your cousin Jace, but can you hold off your desires for each other before the wedding?
I am yours and you are mine, whatever may come | @/slaytheusurper
After your mother Rhaenyra ascended the iron throne you were finally able to wed your betrothed. But with a royal wedding comes a bedding ceremony.
Grief | @jacaerysgf
Plagued by you, Part two, Part three | @/jacaerysgf
Otto doesn't go to Dragonstone you do. And you are faced with a past you never thought you would see again right before the war.
Your Reflection | @/jacaerysgf
when the thoughts jacaerys has had his whole life finally can no longer be pushed down he seeks comfort in you
Flowers | @/jacaerysgf
In a world where the dragons do not dance it's time for Jacaerys Velaryon to choose a wife as the heir to the iron throne. When House Targaryen invites all the eligible ladies in the seven kingdoms to meet the prince, chaos follows. In comes you, a lady from a minor house who makes an impression on a certain prince.
Forbidden | @illyrianbrat
BOUND BY DUTY | @house-strong
THE TORMENT of a life time | @/house-strong
LOVE, PARENTS, and truths  | @/house-strong
i love you  | @murdocksdaughter
jacaerys finally confesses his feelings at the oddest hour
missing you, kissing me | @/murdocksdaughter
leading up their wedding y/n and jacaerys has had any alone time together
teaching his wife how to fight | @sourcherryandsprinkles
Saving Jacaerys during the battle of the gullet | @/sourcherryandsprinkles
IMAGINE | @/sourcherryandsprinkles
the scene where Ulf disrespects Jace | @/sourcherryandsprinkles
Blessing disguised as a Curse | @asumi2020202
You were Alicent's daughter. Younger than the three, Aegon, Aemond and Helaena but older than Daeron. After returning from Dragonstone, Rhaenyra proposes a marriage pact between her eldest and you. A man your mother had warned you about.
Midnight Battle | @/asumi2020202
The Kingdom was at peace when a small battle began inside the Red Keep. But.. it was not a normal battle.
Crossroads | @hxtd
prince charming does not merely exist within fairytales, though he might be a little more unorthodox than expected.
news had broken out that the throne has been usurped. jacerys rides his way to winterfell, the end to the north where he meets cregan stark. and in evidently, you, lady mormont of bear island.
mormont!reader
Cracked | @toms-cherry-trees
No one ever said duty would hurt like this
Something wrong with me | @maidragoste
Jacaerys comforts his wife after she tells him her worries.
Nothing Can Happen | @chloe-skywalker
Jace fallâs in love with Cregon Starkâs twin sister.
the other one | @delulujuls
heart want what it wants, and y/n's heart belong to young prince from dragonstone, not to the future cruel king of westeros.
the right one | @/delulujuls
the hardened and hateful heart of the future king of westeros is no match for the tender and loving heart of the young prince of dragonstone. so it's not difficult to guess whose heart belongs to the young targaryen princess
Saving Face | @hughesmybaby
with what was supposed to be a happy moment in the new chapter of your family with jacaerys, only wounds linger when your mother is unhappy with your childâs appearance.
Overprotective | @imagines-for-the-fangirls-soul
Jaceâs overprotective nature begins to grate on the readerâs nerves as the birth of their first child looms closer.
Safe and Sound | @/imagines-for-the-fangirls-soul
Jace comforts the reader after they wake up from a terrible nightmare.
LINGERING IN OUR MEMORIES, PART 2. | @goldsainz
Death does not scare me | @eunoiathewriter
They all thought she was only feeling a bit under the weather, but that soon proved to be wrong. It made Jacaerys realise one thing, the forever he wanted with her would not last long so he had to, one tell her how he felt and secondly do something so he knew they would be forever.
ÊáŽáŽ áŽ áŽáŽ ÉŽáŽáŽ | @anatay004
Ever since you were kids, Jacaerys detested you. And, quite honestly, you didnât know the reason behind his hatred towards you (or cared enough to), until one night youâre betrothed to no other than him.Â
under the weirwood | @targaryen-jpg
Hunger | @vhagarsback
jacaerys just wants to see all of you, despite your shyness.
Warm | @/vhagarsback
jacaerys finds you, and he will never let anything happen to you.
Not ideal | @starless-starkov
reader is known as daemonâs bastard daughter but jacaerys doesnât care
Kerosene, part 02, part 03 | @aphroditesmoon
after you find out your family has been orchestrating a plan to use you as a scapegoat to assure your brother's reign. You pledge your allegiance to the black queen and switch alliances as pleaded by your secret lover himself, prince jacaerys velaryon.
Replaceable, part 02, part 03, part 04 | @/aphroditesmoon
After your twin sister decides to run away weeks from her wedding to the prince and heir to the throne, Jacaerys Velaryon, you are left with no choice but to step in her place.
Sweet Nothing | @its-vannah
Question� | @/its-vannah
Vigilante Sh*t | @/its-vannah
RUEFUL | @januaryembrs
Jace says goodbye to his pregnant wife as he leaves for the North
WHAT ONCE WAS | @urblondiebaby
for the lovers who found a mirrored heart | @enviedear
amid the dance of dragons, queen rhaenyraâs prospects blossom after the discovery of a potential and powerful alliance. she sends her firstborn to enact a plan of union, condemning him to a marriage of dutyâor so he believes.
The coronation | @thesongoficeandfir3
The Great War, PART 2, Â PART 3 | @vividxpages
Jace and you are lovers, but stand on opposite sides of the war, not allowed to see each other anymore. But love always finds a way.
âlay it all on meâ | @/vividxpages
With the Queen and your betrothed Jacaerysâ delayed arrival, you are left in charge of the dayâs council meeting. When one of the lords starts to speak of a possible bedding ceremony for your upcoming wedding, your thoughts begin to spiral badlyâŠ
âin the dead of nightâ | @/vividxpages
when Jace is attending a late council meeting, two hired assassins take their chance to sneak into your chambers and hold you captive. Taken to the dragon caves below and meant to be slain by your own betrothedâs dragon, you have to trust the bond between Vermax and you is strong enough to escape your captorâs murderous plans.
You could not leave him. Not when your very breath was the only thing that kept him tethered to this world
Beacon of Hope | @princessbellecerise
After the war, Jacaerys finally finds his purpose for living again
Court Shenanigans | @/princessbellecerise
Missing their father, your children decide itâs a good idea to interrupt him in the middle of court
Husband Jacaerys | @/princessbellecerise
Headcanons about married life with Jace
Rotten Soil, Rotten Fruit | @/princessbellecerise
You are Alicent Hightowerâs pride and joy. Sweet and innocent, youâre the apple of the Queenâs eye more than her own children are. But how will she react when you slip into the hands of her enemies?
Starry Nights | @/princessbellecerise
Jace takes his little family on a night ride when they canât sleep
Leap of Fate | @idkyetxoxo
A young womanâs daring climb over a wall to escape an arranged union leads to an unexpected encounter with her betrothed himself. What begins as a night of escape becomes the start of an enchanting story of love and destiny.
Family Legacies | @/idkyetxoxo
Amidst the chaos of war, two childbirths unfold. A motherâs potential agony and a new motherâs fear collide, as life and loss intertwine in a moment that will define their familyâs legacy forever.
Masterlist | @/idkyetxoxo
Always Enough | @/idkyetxoxo
A new mother battles overwhelming guilt and helplessness as she struggles to soothe her crying babe, feeling like a failure in the face of her emotional breakdown. In the quiet aftermath, her husband's steady presence offers a fragile comfort.
War Between Kin | @bumblesimagines
When Rhaenyra Targaryen takes her throne back, she ensures to take care of the remaining Greens in the Keep. Jacaerys attempts to figure out the whereabouts of the Usurper King Aegon by questioning his younger sister.
Vermax | @spxllcxstxr
Jacaerys takes a servant girl to see Vermax
Dragonrider | @/spxllcxstxr
Prince Jacaerys catches you claiming the Cannibal
My King | @creganslover
You find your dear husband sulking in his study.
SPOILS OF WAR | @luvrottt
The war between kin was not long fought; culminating in the bloody battle of kings landing a mere moon after the battle of rooks rest in which Aemond âkinslayerâ slew his brother Aegon the usurper. And yet; thousands lay dead, the realm is uneasyâ there still lies a dragon in the reach whose motivations are yet to be known. A Queen is in chains, a princess is amidst salt and sea, and another feels a prisoner in her own home enclosed with walls that have both eyes and ears.
Honeyed | @eldrith
âAfter we heard news of your success in the rebellion, Her Grace was eager to have you sit council with us. She seems to remember you quite fondly.â He says honestly, âShe believed we would get along quite well.â
and his will be the song of ice and fire | @ophelieverse
during his first stay at Winterfell,Jace and Y/n got much closer than they should.Now,after knowing the prophecy about the song of ice and fire from his mother,Jace is determined to make it true with the most beautiful lady he had ever seen.
A silver haired girl | @realmsdelght
a visit to a brothel leads to sharing feelings that had been buried deeply within the twins
Gates of the Moon | @/sylasthegrim
Upon getting his brothers to safety in the Vale, Jacaerys finds a kindred spirit in Lady Jeyneâs sister. They share a night before he leaves for war, that bears unexpected fruit.
Dad!Jace x Mom!Stark!reader | @/thesongoficeandfir3
You and Jace have a slight disagreement on a decision made about your eldest child
Anya is live and ready to show you everything. Watch her strip, dance, and perform exclusive shows just for you. Interact in real-time and make your fantasies come true.
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saw a tweet of a moot who just got into asoiaf saying she doesn't like targ & almost any asoiaf men cause there's not a single one so far that doesn't âšfrequentâš brothels and whores.
SO, âcoughâ LO AND BEHOLD, I PRESENT
Jacaerys Targaryen my noble virtuous gentleman & certified pretty boy
(and most of the beautiful stark men too. HONOURABLE)
could I ask for a Gwayne Hightower x wife!reader- where the reader is on team black and he is obviously on green, And he sees her on dragon back during one of the battles heâs apart of ?
back to you | g.h
Pairings: Gwayne Hightower x Wife!Reader
Summary: at Rookâs Rest you find more than battle
WARNINGS: angst, hurt to comfort, reader is team black, reader is Rhaenyraâs sister, reader is mentioned to have silver hair, my man is desperate in this one
A/n: bring back men yearning pls
masterlist | wc: 6.3k
THE ROAR of dragons tore violently through the sky, and you felt it vibrate in your bones even before Cannibal spread his immense black wings over the battlefield of Rook's Rest. The air was so thick with smoke it burned your lungs with every breath, heavy with the acrid stench of ash, freshly spilled blood, and the metallic tang of clashing weapons. Beneath you, the battle stretched to the edge of the forest like a vast open wound carved into the earth: thousands of men fought amid agonized screams and frantic neighing, tattered banners whipped through the flames, while shattered catapults and overturned wagons littered the ground with splintered wood and lifeless bodies. From the sky everything seemed small, and yet you could make out every detail, every knight struck down, every blade sinking into flesh. Cannibal let out a low, rumbling growl, his massive body trembling beneath you, eager to descend into what, for him, was nothing more than a feast.
Your eyes were fixed on Rhaenys Targaryen. She had fought like a queen, like a legend destined to be remembered for centuries, and even from that distance you could see the fierce elegance with which she guided Meleys through smoke and fire. You had arrived too late. Fate had already chosen for her. You watched the enormous jaws of Vhagar close around the red dragon's neck with a brutality that stole your breath, the sound of bones breaking blending with Meleys' desperate roar, and for a moment time seemed to slow to a halt. Then the dragon fell. It dropped like a star devoured by the sky, crashing into the castle walls below in an explosion of stone, fire, and dust. The impact made even Cannibal shudder, and a towering column of flames surged upward, swallowing everything. You gripped the saddle so tightly your fingers ached, as a dull, savage pain tore through your chest.
Cannibal roared, and his cry echoed across the mountains and over the battlefield, forcing men and horses alike to pause for a fleeting instant. Even Vhagar seemed to stiffen. Atop the oldest dragon in the Seven Kingdoms, Aemond Targaryen slowly turned his head toward you. His single eye narrowed, immediately recognizing the dark shape of Cannibal emerging from the clouds like an omen of death. A faint, almost amused smile touched his lips. He knew you. He could read the fury consuming you better than anyone, because that same fury ran in his blood as well. For a long moment, neither of you moved. Brother and sister remained suspended above an army that continued slaughtering itself, watching one another like two predators deciding which would devour the other.
Below, Gwayne Hightower, the man who had become your husband only a few years earlier, found himself unable to breathe. He saw you emerge from the sea of smoke with a determination he had never forgotten, Cannibal's vast wings spread like a shadow capable of blotting out the sun itself. For a moment, the clash of swords, the cries of the wounded, the noise of armor, and the crackle of flames all vanished. The world seemed to shrink until it held only you. You, who had once shared his bed in the silent chambers of Oldtown. You, who in rare moments of peace had spoken his name with softness. You, who laughed so quietly that he had to lean closer just to hear you. You, who now rode toward death. His fingers tightened unconsciously around the hilt of his sword until his knuckles turned white, his heart pounding painfully in his chest. He had spent the past weeks trying to convince himself he had forgotten you, that he had buried every feeling along with your broken marriage. He had told himself the war had erased everything, that oaths mattered more than love, that you now belonged to different worlds. And yet one glimpse of you was enough to shatter every lie he had so carefully built.
He still loved you. He understood it with brutal clarity as he watched you lean forward in the saddle, completely fused with your dragon. He could still remember the warmth of your skin against his, the scent of your hair when you fell asleep on his chest, the way you would look away whenever he tried to kiss you first, only to make him chase you with a laugh. In truth, he had always been the desperate one. He was the one who sought your lips with impatience, who chased every small gesture of affection as though it were a privilege. You never denied him, but you always made him earn it, and that was what he missed most. Not the caresses, not the kisses, but the constant need you had created within him, that hunger for your presence that no other woman had ever been able to satisfy. He looked at you now, smeared with ash, infinitely different from the girl he had married and yet exactly the same. Still capable of breaking his heart with a single glance. He wanted to meet you in the ashes of your yesterdays when life was easier, waiting where the light used to fall, recalling what you had when present felt empty. Learning how to miss you.
He understood it completely the moment Cannibal lowered his head and plunged into a dive toward Vhagar. The sky itself seemed to crack under the force of the impending collision. Gwayne stepped forward without even realizing it, as though reaching out a hand might somehow touch you up there. "Don't do it..." he whispered, but his words were swallowed by the chaos of battle, lost to the wind and the thunder of dragons. No one heard him, not even you. Perhaps that was for the best, because he knew you well enough to understand that you would not have stopped anyway.
You faced your brother without the slightest hesitation. There was no fear in your movements, no doubt, not even the faintest trace of mercy. Only fury, fueled by the grief of Rhaenys's death and years of smoldering resentment. Cannibal opened his jaws, revealing rows of enormous, jagged teeth, and his roar made the air tremble before a torrent of black and red flame engulfed Vhagar. Aemond's dragon answered at once, unleashing a blaze so vast it resembled a burning wall. The two infernos collided in the sky, creating a storm of sparks and ash that rained down upon the battlefield like fire. Below them, men screamed and scrambled for cover, while terrified horses broke ranks, trampling friend and foe alike. Aemond guided Vhagar with precision, every command delivered through the slightest shift of his body, while you responded with equal instinct, as if Cannibal were an extension of your own will. The two dragons crashed into each other with devastating force, claw against claw, wing against wing, locking together in a violent dance that seemed to shake the very air.
It was an impossible battle. Gwayne knew it. Everyone did. Vhagar was the oldest, the largest, the most powerful of the living dragons. Every battle she had fought had carved scars into her immense body, shaping her into a creature that seemed made for war. Cannibal, for all his ferocity and wildness, was still younger, smaller, forced to make up with speed what he lacked in strength. And yet he did not yield an inch. He continued to assault Vhagar with relentless determination, forcing even the colossal dragon to recoil beneath the violence of his attacks. Gwayne followed every movement, his heart clenched in a vice. He saw you lean from the saddle as the wind lashed your ash-streaked hair, saw blood running down your temple without you seeming to notice, saw your eyes burning with rage. It was the same expression you had worn the day of your separation, the day he had spoken the words that destroyed you both, confessing that he would fight for Aegon. He still remembered the silence that followed, far more painful than any scream. In that moment, you had understood that something between you had broken forever.
It all happened in the blink of an eye. Cannibal seized a fleeting opening in Vhagar's guard and lunged at the massive dragon's neck with savage ferocity. His jaws snapped shut with a terrifying crack, sinking his teeth into the ancient armored scales until they pierced through. The roar that erupted from Vhagar's throat was so powerful it made the sky tremble, a sound filled with pain and fury that echoed for miles and brought the battle to a stunned, fleeting halt. Dark blood streamed down the old dragon's neck, evaporating almost instantly in the heat of the flames. Vhagar writhed violently, trying to break free from the grip, while Aemond pulled hard on the reins, shouting commands in the tongue of Old Valyria. Cannibal did not let go. He tightened his hold with relentless determination, intent on tearing flesh down to the bone. Below, Gwayne held his breath, unable even to blink.
Vhagar crashed to the ground with brutal force. Her enormous claws sank into the blood-soaked earth, shattering stone, wagons, and bodies alike without distinction, while a wave of dust and debris rose all around her, forcing men and horses to retreat in panic. The thunderous beat of her wings swept away already-tattered banners, feeding the fires that devoured Rook's Rest, and her roar echoed through the broken castle walls. You did not hesitate for even a moment. You pulled sharply on Cannibal's reins, guiding him with the weight of your body, and the dragon understood your command before you spoke a single word. With a powerful beat of his wings, he soared back into the sky, leaving behind the black smoke and flames that reflected across his dark scales. You were finally satisfied.
Below, Gwayne Hightower followed your every movement without even noticing what was happening around him. The screams of soldiers, the clash of steel, the shouted orders, all of it reached him as though muffled and distant, as if he were submerged underwater. Only you existed. His eyes could not leave your figure as you slowly pulled away above the battlefield, higher and higher, closer to the smoke-blackened clouds. That was when something caught his attention. A short distance away, among the charred remains of a collapsed tower, an archer stood as still as a statue. He was filthy with dirt and blood, his face smeared with soot, his hands trembling so badly it seemed impossible that he could still draw a bow. And yet his gaze was steady, fixed on you. The arrow was already nocked, ready to fly. For one terrible instant, Gwayne saw clearly the path it would take. His body made the decision long before his mind did.
It was as if he moved on instinct alone, adrenaline suddenly surging through his veins. In a few strides he reached the man, slamming into him hard enough to make him stagger. But the archer's fingers had already released the string. The arrow flew regardless, slicing through the air with a thin, deadly whistle, so fast it was almost invisible. Gwayne lifted his gaze at once, unable even to breathe. He felt his heart pounding so violently it hurt, as he followed that slender line of death climbing into the sky.
The arrow that would have surely struck your heart hit your shoulder instead. Even from that distance, he saw your body jolt from the impact. Blood splattered across Cannibal's black scales, staining the already dirtied fabric of your clothing, while your face twisted in a sudden grimace of pain that made his stomach tighten. Your body wavered dangerously on the dragon's back. One hand reached desperately for purchase on the saddle, the other instinctively grasped the wound. For a long, endless moment, it truly seemed as though you might fall.
Gwayne felt a scream rise in his chest, but he could not release it. It remained trapped there, choked into nothing more than a broken breath. "No..." he managed to whisper, his voice so weak it was swallowed instantly by the wind.
Then he saw you react. With sheer stubbornness, you clenched your teeth and slowly straightened in the saddle. Your hand trembled as it grasped the shaft of the arrow lodged in your flesh, but you did not try to pull it free. You simply pressed your palm against the wound in a desperate attempt to slow the blood that continued to run down your arm. Cannibal, sensing your pain, let out a low, uneasy growl, but continued to climb, obedient to your commands. Gwayne released a trembling breath he had not even realized he was holding. He had saved you. He had changed the course of that arrow. He had betrayed his men, his oath, his very house. He had done it for you. He had chosen you. He watched you grow smaller and smaller against the gray sky, his chest rising in uneven, ragged breaths, unable to find a rhythm.
And then he saw you fall.
Your hand slipped. Your fingers, weakened by blood loss, slowly lost their grip on the saddle. Gwayne's eyes widened. For a moment, he convinced himself you would recover once more, that you would seize the reins again, that Cannibal would correct his flight. You were strong, the strongest woman he ever knew. But it did not happen. He watched you slip from the dragon's back in slow motion. Your body separated from the saddle and hung suspended in the void for a fraction of a second before being swallowed by the sky.
"No." This time the word left his lips with more force, but it was still too small, too fragile to reach you.
His heart seemed to stop. Gwayne took a step forward, then another, without even knowing where he was going. He kept staring at the sky like a madman, reaching out a hand in your direction, as though the distance between you might suddenly vanish, as though wanting it enough could make it so. But you were too far away, too high above him. And he was only a man, with a sword too heavy in his hands and too much love in his heart, bound to a ground that would never let him reach you. He watched you fall, powerless to do anything at all. Your hair scattered in the air, and from that distance your face seemed strangely serene. At peace, as if the war and all its suffering had suddenly been stripped away from you. Then your body disappeared beyond the veil of smoke and low clouds, swallowed by a void Gwayne could not see.
The noise of battle returned all at once, crashing over him with unbearable force. Everything felt too loud, too close. Gwayne stood frozen in the chaos, his eyes still fixed on the place where you had vanished. His hands trembled uncontrollably, and his sword nearly slipped from his grasp, held only by a strength that was no longer there. He could not move. He could not even think. He saw the moment again and again in his mind. He had tried to save you. He had seen the arrow. He had acted without hesitation. If he had not struck that archer, the shaft would have pierced your heart and killed you instantly. And yet it had not been enough. He had only changed where the wound landed. Only delayed the inevitable.
A cold, unbearable emptiness began to consume his chest, hollowing him out from within, stealing the breath from his lungs. His knees nearly gave way beneath him, and he had to drive the tip of his sword into the ground to keep from collapsing. He felt his heart tightening more and more, as though an invisible hand were crushing it without mercy. All his life, he had tried to be the man others expected him to be, a good knight, a worthy son of his house, a man faithful to his oaths. And he had failed. He had tried to be a good husband too, when he had still had the chance, but he had failed at that as well. Every choice he had made, every sacrifice he had endured, seemed to have led him inevitably to this exact moment. You had fallen anyway. The arrow had reached you anyway. And he had not been able to stop it.
He slowly raised a hand to his face, brushing at his eyes as though wiping away the tears threatening to fall might also erase the image of what he had just seen. But the memory of your body falling into the void remained etched behind his eyelids with brutal clarity. The more he tried to push it away, the more vivid it became, the heavier the weight of guilt pressed against his chest. Perhaps this was his punishment. For the selfishness that was planted in the human body. Perhaps the gods were punishing him for his greed. He had wanted both, had demanded to keep the honor of his house and, at the same time, the love of the woman he had lost. He had believed he could serve two masters without losing anything. And the gods, as they always did, had claimed the price of that illusion.
Night fell slowly over Rook's Rest, swallowing everything in its darkness, erasing every trace of the battle. The last cries of the wounded had faded one by one, replaced by the low crackling of fires lit among the ranks of the victorious army. Tongues of flame flickered in the night wind, casting brief light upon exhausted faces smeared with dried blood, soot, and dirt, eyes reddened by fatigue and war, hands still unable to stop trembling after hours spent gripping a sword. The acrid smell of smoke lingered everywhere, mingling with that of burned flesh, worn leather, and blood soaking into the ground. Here and there someone laughed; others drank in silence, staring into the void with hollow gazes, too drained even to speak. The crows had already begun gathering in the trees at the edges of the battlefield, patient and still, waiting for morning to claim their feast.
Among the soldiers, the same words passed from mouth to mouth, whispered beside the fires. They said the battle was over, at least for that day. They said Vhagar had survived, though gravely wounded, and that Cannibal had vanished into the sky, never to return. But above all, they said that you were dead. That after falling from your dragon's back, you had plunged into the lake beyond the forest, swallowed by the black waters without leaving a trace. Some even claimed they had seen your body disappear beneath the surface. Others swore no one could survive such a fall. Each time your name was spoken, it was followed by a satisfied laugh. To many, you had been nothing more than a traitorous princess who had met the fate she deserved.
Gwayne Hightower, however, could not believe a single word of it. He simply could not. Sitting a short distance from the others, his back resting against the rough trunk of a great oak at the edge of the encampment, he stared straight ahead without truly seeing anything. His cloak was still stained with mud and dried blood, his armor scratched in several places, barely reflecting the flickering light of the nearest fire. His hands lay motionless on his knees, as still as those of a statue. Around him, the camp slowly drifted to sleep. Some soldiers continued recounting moments from the battle, their voices thick with exhaustion and wine. Someone laughed too loudly. Someone else wept, believing no one was watching. The blacksmiths gradually extinguished their makeshift forges, the stablehands checked on the last surviving horses, and little by little every sound seemed to fade, becoming muffled and distant. Gwayne had the distinct sensation of standing behind an invisible barrier that separated him from the rest of the world. His body was present, but his mind remained suspended in the sky, in the exact moment he had seen you fall.
No matter how hard he tried to distract himself, it took only the briefest closing of his eyes for it all to begin again. He saw the archer. The arrow leaving the bowstring. The moment he struck the soldier in a desperate attempt to deflect the shot. Then he saw the bolt reach you anyway, burying itself in your shoulder with a violence that stole his breath. He saw the blood staining your dress. Your hand clutching desperately at the wound. Your fingers slowly losing their grip on the saddle. Your body tilting ever so slightly. And finally, the fall. Again, and again, and again. Each time, his stomach twisted painfully, forcing him to bend forward. He squeezed his eyes shut, pressing his fingers against his eyelids until it nearly hurt, as if physical pain might erase what tormented his mind. But it did not work. The image remained there, seared behind his eyes with unbearable clarity. The more he tried to push it away, the more vividly it returned, as though the Gods liked the way it devoured him from within. All he could do was relive it and hope, somehow, to earn forgiveness for his sins.
A long, trembling breath slipped from his lips as he slowly ran a hand over his weary face. Beneath his fingers he felt skin caked with dirt and dried blood, and the cut he had taken across his cheek during the fight. He was exhausted, but he knew he would not sleep. Around the fires, some soldiers drank to their victory. They had accepted your death with a readiness that made him sick. They called you a traitor. They laughed, imagining your body dragged to the bottom of the lake. Someone even claimed that Cannibal had abandoned you, unable to save his own rider. Gwayne had clenched his jaw until he tasted blood, biting the inside of his cheek hard enough to tear it, just to keep himself from rising and striking the first man who dared speak your name with such contempt.
Dragons fell, and their riders died. It had always been so. Ever since the Dance of the Dragons had begun, every battle had claimed its toll of fire and blood. It was the fate of those who rode such creatures, everyone knew it. Everyone accepted it. But that simple truth did nothing to comfort him. Because to him, you had never been merely a rider. You were not just a Targaryen princess. You were not simply a name destined to appear in the songs of bards.
You were his wife. The woman before whom he had spoken vows he believed eternal. The girl he had learned to love long before politics, war, and the duties of your respective houses forced you apart. You had been his home, his refuge, his greatest weakness and even greater undoing. Even after your separation, even after finding yourselves on opposing sides, he had never stopped thinking of you. He had tried to convince himself otherwise, of course. He had told himself that time would heal every wound, that distance would extinguish that feeling that picked at his chest. But every attempt had failed miserably. You had remained his greatest regret. His ruin. And, despite everything, you were still his only love.
When the last fire in the camp dwindled to a bed of reddish embers and even the final conversations faded into silence, broken only by the snores of sleeping soldiers, Gwayne knew he could not remain still a moment longer. He rose slowly, careful not to make a sound. His joints protested from the strain of the day, but he did not notice. He adjusted his cloak over his shoulders, left his sword sheathed, and walked away without looking back. He moved between the tents like a silent shadow, avoiding the sleeping men and the sentries who watched the forest with heavy eyes. Each step carried him farther from the camp and closer to the place where you had vanished. He did not truly know what he was searching for, perhaps only a body to mourn, a grave before which he could kneel. Perhaps he needed to see with his own eyes the final proof of your death, because a part of him stubbornly refused to believe it.
The forest welcomed him with silence. The trees towered high above his head, turning the moonlight into thin blades of silver that barely pierced the dense weave of branches. The ground was damp, covered in leaves and moss that muffled his steps, while the wind stirred the treetops, producing a constant rustling like an incomprehensible whisper. Now and then a broken branch cracked beneath his boots, or a nocturnal creature fled through the underbrush, but otherwise the forest seemed to hold its breath with him. The air was far colder than in the camp, damp and heavy. Each breath filled his lungs with a painful sensation, yet he kept walking without slowing. His heart beat faster with every step, feeding a hope he desperately tried to smother, for fear it would destroy him.
When at last the trees began to thin and the lake appeared before his eyes, Gwayne stopped instinctively. The water lay still as a black mirror, so dark it seemed bottomless. The moon reflected upon its surface in trembling fragments, barely disturbed by the wind, while a thin mist began to rise from the shore. No sound came from the water. No ripple. No sign to tell what had happened only hours before.
Gwayne swallowed hard, his heart pounding in his chest. "Please..." he whispered hoarsely, not knowing whether he was praying to the gods, to the lake, or to you. It was a desperate plea, spoken without even realizing it.
He began to walk slowly along the shore, his eyes darting frantically from one point to another. He searched every reflection, every log carried by the water, every dark shape lying among the stones and reeds. His hands trembled so violently that he had to clench them repeatedly to keep from losing all control. The farther he went, the more despair grew within him. He was ready to throw himself into the lake without a second thought if only he glimpsed a fragment of your cloak beneath the water. He did not care about the depth, nor the cold. He did not even care about dying. He only kept searching for you, with the same stubborn determination he had always had when it came to you.
Then, suddenly, his gaze stopped. You were there, lying on the shore, motionless, just a few steps from the dark water. Your hair, still wet, spread in disarray over the damp grass like threads of silver in the moonlight. Your clothes were soaked with water and blood, clinging heavily to your body, while one of your arms lay abandoned at your side. For a long, endless moment, Gwayne stood completely still. His heart nearly stopped, and terror seized his throat so tightly he could not even breathe. From that distance he could not see the rise and fall of your chest. He could not tell whether you were breathing. And his greatest fear, the one that had driven every step he had taken toward the lake, rose up once more to devour him. He feared he had arrived too late. He feared the gods had made a mockery of him.
Gwayne lunged forward, breathless, running along the uneven shore of the lake without regard for the slippery stones, the low branches that scratched his face, or the mud that slowed his steps. The only thing he could see was you. Every beat of his heart felt like a blow struck directly against his ribs, so fast it stole his breath. When he finally reached you, he dropped to his knees beside you, splashing water and mud across his cloak. For a moment he remained completely still, unable to convince himself that you were truly there. He stared at you with a terrified expression, as if a single wrong movement might make you vanish before his eyes. Then his hands, trembling uncontrollably, moved slowly toward your face. He brushed your forehead gently, as though he feared even the pressure of his own fingers. He caressed your cold cheeks, still damp with lake water, tracing the line of your jaw down to your neck in a desperate attempt to feel a pulse. A strand of silver hair, stuck to your skin, covered part of your face. He moved it aside with infinite care, letting his fingers linger briefly in your hair in a gesture so familiar it almost hurt him. How many times had he done the same in your chambers in Oldtown, when you fell asleep beside him with your face hidden against his chest? How many times had he watched those strands spread across the pillow, convincing himself that such happiness would last forever? Now that same hand trembled too violently to even touch you.
He was already sinking into the abyss of despair when it happened.
A faint breath, barely perceptible, slipped from your parted lips, breaking the silence of the lake. It was the slightest whisper, so weak that another man might not even have noticed it. But Gwayne felt it, felt it with every fiber of his being. His eyes flew open in disbelief as the world seemed to halt around him once more. He remained motionless for a few seconds, almost afraid he had imagined it. Then your chest rose slightly, in a slow, labored movement, but enough to shatter, in a single instant, all the pain that had suffocated him until then.
A broken sound escaped his lips before he could stop it, something between an incredulous laugh and a choked sob. Tears stung his eyes, but he made no attempt to hide them. "You're alive..." he murmured softly, as though he feared that speaking the words too loudly might frighten the gods into taking back what they had just spared him. He was definitely a selfish, selfish man. "You're alive..." he repeated, this time with his face bent close to yours, as if he needed to hear the words from his own lips to truly believe they were real.
Urgency immediately replaced his astonishment. Gwayne roused himself, quickly wiping his eyes with the back of his hand, and without wasting another moment he seized the edge of his cloak. With a sharp tear, he ripped a long strip of fabric from it, ignoring the sound of the cloth splitting. His fingers were clumsy, made awkward by fear and cold, yet he tried to press the makeshift bandage gently against the wound still bleeding on your shoulder. The arrow was gone, likely broken during the fall or lost in the waters of the lake, but the blood continued to seep slowly, soaking your already drenched clothes. Each time the fabric darkened with red, Gwayne's heart seemed to tighten further. He lifted you with the utmost care, slipping one arm behind your back and the other beneath your legs just enough to move you away from the shore. He drew you against his chest, trying to shield you from the cold night and the damp ground. At once he felt the weight of your body yield against him as he had never felt before. Your breathing, weak but present, broke against his armor and passed through the fabric of his tunic to reach his skin. It was the most beautiful sound he had ever heard.
"Stay with me..." he whispered, his voice breaking as he lowered his head until it brushed against your forehead. "Please... stay. Don't leave me now."
For several endless moments, he feared you had not heard him at all. Then your lashes began to tremble softly. Your eyelids lifted with agonizing slowness, as if even that simple movement required immense effort. Your eyes, still clouded with confusion and pain, wandered aimlessly before finally settling on his face. You looked at him for a long time in silence, your expression lost and distant. It was as if you were trying to remember where you were, or perhaps simply trying to understand whether he was real. For a long moment, neither of you spoke. Gwayne held even his breath, terrified that this fragile connection might shatter.
You continued to stare at him. Your lips parted slightly and, in a voice so faint it nearly blended with the wind through the trees, you asked: "Am I dead?"
Those words pierced his heart. Gwayne shook his head immediately, leaning closer to you. One hand remained firm behind your back, the other still cradled your face as if he feared you might vanish at any moment. "No." The answer came too quickly, broken by emotion. "No... you're here. You're alive." He swallowed hard, but the words poured out of him uncontrollably, dragged forth by weeks of silence and a guilt he could no longer contain. "I'm sorry..." he whispered, lowering his gaze briefly before searching for yours again. "I'm so sorry. I... I didn't meanâ I saw that man. I thought that if I could stop him..." His voice broke. He drew a deep breath, but it did nothing to steady the tremor in his chest. "If I hadn't intervened, maybe... maybe the arrow would have taken a different path. Maybe you wouldn't have fallen. Iâ" He closed his eyes for a moment, unable to continue. "I can't stop thinking about it."
His hands instinctively sought yours. They always sought your. When he finally managed to lace his fingers with yours, he was almost startled by the contrast between the warmth of his own skin and the cold that had overtaken yours. They were freezing, so cold it frightened him. He held them with the utmost care, as though afraid of hurting you, then slowly brought them to his lips. He pressed a long, trembling kiss upon them, just as he had done countless times during your marriage. It was a gesture that had become an involuntary reflex of his love. Every time you were sad, every time you were afraid, every time he returned from a long ride and found you waiting for him, he would take your hands and kiss them in that exact same way. Now he did it again, his eyes shining with unshed tears, his heart in pieces.
You were so pretty even like this. His pretty girl.
"It's my fault..." he whispered against your skin, almost unable to look at you. "You fell because of me. I made you fall. I don't even know how to ask for your forgiveness, my love."
You watched him for a long time without interrupting. There was no anger in your eyes, only an infinite weariness, made deeper still by the pain of your wound. Slowly, with an effort that broke his heart just to witness, you freed one hand from his grasp and lifted it toward his face. Your fingers trembled visibly as they reached his cheek. You touched him lightly, with a caress so gentle it felt like the brush of a feather. Gwayne remained completely still, holding even his breath. It had been so long since you had last sought his face. "You need not to apologize..." you murmured, your voice barely audible. A faint smile appeared on your chapped lips. "You were only protecting your family. Just as I do."
He lowered his gaze slowly, letting his forehead rest against yours. What an angel you were, he thought not even the fairest maiden could ever hope to be like you. What monster he was to ruining you like this, rotting you until your core. "It shouldn't be this way..." he whispered bitterly, gently stroking your still-damp hair. His fingers moved through those strands with the same tenderness as before, as if every gesture might carry you back to when you had been happy. "We shouldn't be on opposite sides. We shouldn't be forced to choose." He lifted his eyes again to meet yours. "You too are my family."
His hand lingered on your face for a few moments more, caressing you hesitantly. It was as though he were touching you for the first time, and yet as if his body remembered perfectly every line of your face. His fingers traced slowly along your cheek, the curve of your jaw, until they came to rest near your lips. The most beautiful lips he so loved kissing. For a moment, it felt to him as though he were back in your chamber in Oldtown, he could almost hear the rain against the windows, smell the burnt candles and the warmth of the sheets. For a few heartbeats, the war ceased to exist. There was only the two of you.
He leaned down toward your face, and finally he kissed you. That kiss carried every unspoken word, every night spent longing for you, every wrong choice that had led you both to that lake. His lips trembled slightly against yours, as though he feared it might truly be the last time he would ever be able to do so. They were soft despite being chapped by cold and exhaustion. And you, despite the pain coursing through every part of your body, let yourself fall into him, into his arms, against his chest. That was where you belonged, in his arms. Gwayne held you a little tighter, one hand finding your waist, careful not to touch your wound.
How he loved kissing you. How he loved when you clung to him as he was your savior. His heart always exploded in an hundreds of sparkles, making him dizzy with your taste. He felt so drunk of you, feeling you everywhere. Yet Gwayne wanted to feel you even more, merge his body into yours, flesh into flesh. He wanted to burn into you. He wanted you to kiss him forever.
He wanted. He wanted. He wanted. Why he wanted so much? Is he allowed to wanting?
Itâs was so hard not to when you touched him so, looking like the prettiest dream.
When he finally pulled back, it was only by a few inches. Your breaths still mingled in the cold night air, your foreheads nearly resting against each other, lips still chasing. His eyes could not leave yours, as though he feared that looking away might cause him to lose you again. He remained there, motionless, gently stroking your cheek with his thumb. He could not let you go. After believing you dead, after watching you fall from the sky, after thinking he would never hear your breathing again, separating from you now felt simply impossible.
I'm really feeling up to writing after a lot of months after watching S3 of house of the dragon so my requests are open for aemond and jacaerys (and gwayne too maybe I'd like to try my hand at that) so, ask babies âĄ
Synopsis: For years, Prince Aemond Targaryen wrestled with a question no maester, knight, nor king could answer for him: how does one court a lady like you?
Warnings: Miscommunication Trope, Fluff, Courtship, Soft Aemond, Down Bad Aemond
Word count: 4.5k
Part: I, II, III, IV
He met you on the last day of spring. You were a shy little thing, hiding behind your father's legs and clutching onto your motherâs skirts as they tried to introduce you to the queen. Aemond had stood beside his mother then, his eyebrow raised as you slowly stepped away behind your parents and curtsied low before them. Your eyes were steady on the ground, and Aemond almost laughed when you quickly hid yourself from their gazes.Â
You were an odd one, he thought for a while. He did not mean to spy on you, yet he often found himself hiding behind a pillar or bush just to observe the odd and overly quiet girl from Essos. You were born in YiTi. A land so distant and different from them, and Aemond had believed that your oddness was because of your landâs customs. However, as days and moons passed, he learned that you were truly just different from the other ladies of the court.Â
Aemond was no stranger to the peculiar. He had seen eccentricity before, his family being a prime example. His sister was overly interested in bugs and murmuring to herself. His eldest brother had a strange fascination with women twice his age. Even his father, the king, was hyperfixated on the miniature models, spending most of his time on them instead of caring for his children. Aemond was not in a state to question nor critique your demeanour, he was simply curious.Â
He was curious why you hid yourself in the desolate corners of the gardens, the shade of a weeping willow tree near a pond being your favourite. He was intrigued by why you barely spoke, and if you did, you spoke so softly, as if you were whispering a secret that was only meant for certain ears to hear. But most of all, he was eager to learn why he was so interested in you.Â
Perhaps it was your appearance. Admittedly, there were not many YiTish in courtâ there were only three, you and your kin. Perhaps it was that. Aemond was fascinated by your fox-like eyes, heart-shaped lips, and your silky onyx hair. And as you two grew older, your already striking appearance only furthered. It was a shame you hated attention, as you were always the center of it. Aemond could not recall a day when not a single knight, lord, or even prince did not look back at you as you passed them in the halls. He noted how their pupils would always dilate ever so slightly, and some would even let their mouths hang in astonishment.
Maybe it was because of your insistence on not being noticedâ maybe that is what fueled his intrigue. An ironic turn of events, for even if you try to hide yourself behind crowds and shadowy corners, he still found you. Once, you were invited to play the hiding game with other ladies of the court. Where the other ladies hid themselves behind pillars and cramped broom closets, you opted to hide in the wine cellars in hopes they would not find you and simply leave you be. Aemond found that particular memory quite amusing. Especially as it was the first time he saw your fox-like eyes turn doe-like as he caught you by surprise.Â
âWhat are you doing here?â Aemond questioned as he saw you tilt your head to read the marking on the large, oak barrels. A surprise yelp left your lips, and it was the loudest sound Aemond had ever heard you make. He bit back his smile as you rested a hand on your chest, your other hand fisted your skirts as if to ground yourself.Â
You were twelve now. You had spent the last three years in the Red Keep, but only now did Aemond decide to speak with you. He must admit that he had gotten used to simply following you about the castle, that speaking to you barely crossed his mind. It was thought that only came in the dead, silence of the night. Where, instead of sleeping, he would think of an opening phrase to utter if and when he approached.Â
âMy prince,â You curtised quickly, your eyes still planted on the ground, and did not even dare to look at his. âI was playing a game of hide and seek with the other ladies,âÂ
Aemond hummed as he cautiously took a step forward. âYou are quite competitive then. Not a single one of them has even ventured near your hiding place. I suppose you could be declared the winner.âÂ
You gave a wry smile, eyes still planted on the ground, where you could see each cautious step the prince took to inch closer to you. Aemond observed you closely, as this was the closest he had been to you since the first day you two met.Â
âYou are gifted in hiding.â The prince remarked, and he felt his heart skip a beat as a small yet true smile came to your lips. âAnd you are gifted at seeking.â You remarked, but the smile on your lips dissipated, and a questioning frown took its place.Â
âHow did you even know I was here, my prince?â You asked in great confusion. Not even the ladies who invited you to their game found your hiding place. How then did the prince find you?
Aemond never answered your question. Even after moons passed, he never once explained how he would always find you; he would only appear by your side, and he was fortunate enough that once he discovered a concealed corner, you were kind enough not to leave or excuse yourself from his presence.Â
The following year, a decision was made: Prince Aemond made known his intention to court you.Â
You could still vividly remember the confusion that overcame you when your father informed you of his conversation with the prince.Â
âHe was quite eager for my approval if I were to be honest. He would not leave my side the entire afternoon. Well, at least not until I gave him my blessing.â Your father hummed as he poured himself a cup of wine. The moon was high, and so was your bewilderment. You never thought that a prince would court you. A statement not at all brought forth by modesty, but genuine confusion. When he discovered you in your hiding places, you assumed he was merely searching for somewhere to conceal himself as well. It never crossed your mind that he had been searching for you all along. âBut why would he wish to court me?â
âI believe that is a question we should be asking you, my child.â Your mother hummed, a small, almost teasing smile on her lips as she did her nightly embroidery. She hummed and exchanged glances with your father, who hid a smirk behind the cup of wine he raised to his lips. âI wouldnât even know what to answer. I, too, am just as confused as you.â
âWell then, perhaps it is best that you ask the prince the question on all our minds.â Your mother suggested, as you mindlessly nodded, standing and kissing their cheeks as you returned to your chambers. However, as you neared the door to your room, you froze in shock as you saw the prince already waiting for you in the shadowy halls.Â
He had a small flower pot in his handsâ a rather odd image of a royal prince holding a potted orchid in his hands when you had gotten used to seeing him holding his sword.Â
Aemond felt out of breath as he stared at you through the light of the moon. You looked radiantâ etherealâ nymph-like.Â
âThis is for you,â he nervously said. Aemond was a brave man. He was courageous when he claimed his dragon. He was courageous when his eye was taken. And he was courageous when he asked for your fatherâs blessing to court you. However, he felt the courage he always relied on falter when he came face to face with you.Â
He watched as your ever stoic gaze finally met his. In the years he had known you, he had gotten used to your overly composed state. You were reserved, like he, however, you were more consistent in your reservation. The only moments when he actually witnessed your reactions were moments when you were startled or confused.
âWhy?â You asked plainly, and Aemond felt his heartbeat in his ears. âWhy? Because Iâve noticed you are fond of flowersâ and I do believe that your favoured ones are orchids.â He explained and held out the pot closer to you. A confused frown overcame your face.Â
âNo⊠why had you decided to court me, your highness?â You asked, not wanting to be vexed by the question the entire night. Unfortunately, your question was left unanswered once more as the prince simply reached for your hand and placed the small bundle of flowers in it. A smile on his lips as he bid you good night and left the halls.Â
How do you court a lady? Aemond could not help but think. He had hoped that he would find the answer long before he asked for your fatherâs blessing, yet here he was, kept up at night trying of ways on how to court you.Â
In hindsight, courtship should have come naturally to him. However, he was a princeâ a pawn for the crown. The custom was to bind him to a lady who came from a family that could be great allies to the crown; however, Aemond had taken it upon himself to find a match made by himself, not his grandsire or mother. He had seen the effects of marriages borne out of duty, and as dutiful as he was, heâd rather not subject himself to a loveless marriage filled with misery.Â
Do you win a lady through gifts? Aemond thought. Ladies of the court seemed to easily give their agreements to the lords who courted them when they were given gifts. Who was Aemond to question such traditions? Especially when he was entirely clueless about what to do.Â
It started with little gifts left by your door. Each morning, you would be stirred awake with a light knock on your door and a gift left unattended. The first morning, it was a jade pendant from your home, YiTi. The light green stone was remarkable and unmistakable under the early morning sun.Â
Aemond hid himself behind a pillar and watched your knitted brows as you held the necklace to your eye, a small smile on his lips as he could already foresee the image of you wearing his little gift. However, Aemondâs enthusiasm was left dim when he found you in the gardens, bare-necked, and mentioned naught about the necklace you found.Â
The prince was disheartened, but not so much to easily relent. It was the first days of your courtship. Of course, he could not be so vain and arrogant to think that you would lay yourself on his feet after offering you a simple pendant. He at least thought a small blush would come to your face when you met him that day; however, he supposed he asked for much for his little effort.Â
The second day, he sent a pair of pearl earrings. Pearls harvested from the mighty seas of the Orient. On the third, he sent a set of gold rings mined deep within Casterly Rock.Â
When the fourth day came, he sent various rolls of fabric for your dresses. Light blue silk from Lys. Delicate white laces from Myr. A serene cream velvet from Braavos. Crimson brocades from Volantis. Fine threads of various colors from the Reach.Â
Aemond almost revealed his hiding place in great concern when you opened the door, and the rolls of fabric that he set upright came toppling down. Almost crushing you if you were not agile enough to step to the side. You did not use a single fabric nor thread for any of your fine dresses.Â
By the fifth day, the prince already had the inkling to quit. It was clear that you were not easily impressedâ he was foolish to think you otherwise, for if you were, he certainly would not be this eager in your courtship. Nevertheless, the prince was no quitter.Â
By the fifth day, he veered away from the usual gifts given to the court ladies. Instead of shiny things, the prince left a small wooden dragon that he had carved in childhood. It was imperfectâ it was left dusted in some corner of his chambers for years until the moment the prince decided to offer it to you.Â
When you opened your chamber doors after hearing a soft knock, you almost expected a chest of gold left by your doorstep. However, a small, yet true smile came to your lips when you saw a simple carved dragon made from oak waiting for you. Aemond almost hollered in triumph as he saw the corners of your lips curl upwards ever so slightly. Inspecting the carving with more interest than the shiny jewels he had left days before.Â
He watched as your fingers delicately traced the carvings he made, a sense of giddiness at the thought that your fingers caressed the wood that bore his touch. A new sense of hope coursing in his bloodstream.Â
Aemond had foolishly hoped that it was enough for you to return his affections, or at least announce your favour towards him, so the other line of suitors who paid you tribute would dissipate. However, the prince would be a fool to think that simple carving would have you swooning.Â
Word got around about how you set the little carving on your bedside table, near you, even in sleep. That was enough to inspire your other suitors to send you tens of pieces of woodwork, turning your chambers into a woodcarverâs shop.
Aemond knew he must take a different approach, which led him to question once more: How do you court a lady?Â
Could Aemond win you through feats of strength?Â
As all know, Aemond had no care for tourneys. He found it pointlessâ superfluousâ pathetic for a man of his station. Yet, he rode out into the grounds, adorned in his armour, hoping to seek the favour of the lady he courted.Â
Aemond struggled to find where you sat through the slats of his helm. His mount circled the grounds as he searched for you through the jeering crowds, when he spotted the familiar outline of your parents without you by your motherâs side. He frowned severely as he realized that you would not attend, and he could not seek your favour.Â
He felt foolish as he charged his horse, his lance unadorned by a flower garland but stained by blood. He knew you well. You hid from crowds. What then led him to believe that you would willingly attend a tourney? Aemond felt no satisfaction the entire day, even if he was named the victor. The only speck of satisfaction he found was when he spotted you by a bench in the quiet gardens as a celebratory feast commenced. You said not a word when the prince sat next to you. Yet, that was enough for Aemond.
However, not enough for him to learn how to capture your favour. Especially as Aemond heard cruel whispers of you leaving Westeros.
âYou are leaving?â The prince asked in dread as he found you in your usual place, hidden inside the weeping branches of a willow tree. It had been a year after he announced his intent to court you, and it had been a year filled with gifts, flowers, and attention that you not once asked for, but Aemond was enthusiastic to give.Â
He stood behind you as you sat on the cool, soft grass. His body tense, his stomach pitted, and his heart aching even if he denied it as such.Â
You turned your head to glance at the prince, his eye steelyâ almost seething, and his hands clenched tightly by his side. Aemond swallowed thickly as the afternoon sun cast you aglow and formed an angelic halo. How could you look so beautiful even as you threatened to leave him?Â
âOnly for a year, my prince.â You explained and watched as Prince Aemond fervently shook his head and took his place next to you. âYou are to leave for a year.â He gritted out, his fists clenching tightly around the damp grass.Â
âWell, a year and two moons. It takes a month of sailing and traveling to reach YiTi.â You clarified as you set your eyes on the pond's calm waters, which reflected the afternoon light. Aemond breathed heavily at the thought of you leaving him for more than a year. What shall happen then? Would you garner new admirers in your homeland? Should you be forced to take a groom who resembles your own culture and customs? What should become Aemond then? Would he be a man who lost the only lady who consumed his thoughts for the past five years?Â
âWhat of our courtship then?â He could not help but ask, his hand that gripped the grass, loosening as it inched closer to yours. âWhat of it, your highness?âÂ
Aemond pursed his lips. His eye was intently studying every possible expression that may come to your ever-composed face. He stayed silent, and he heard a sigh leave your lips before you turned your head to meet his gaze.Â
âDo you wish to cease courting me?â You asked quietly, heartbeat erratic, and you tried your best not to let it show.Â
âNo.â The prince quickly answered, and you bit back a smile as you stood, watching as the prince followed each single one of your movements. âThen court me in YiTi, my prince.âÂ
âAnother letter, my lady,â a maid called as she approached with a rather thick scroll that was wrapped tightly and bore the Targaryen seal. It had been three moons since you had left Westeros, and it had been three moons filled with consistent letters from the prince.Â
You sat upright on your bed, your eyes glancing and admiring the simple wooden carving of a dragon that the prince gave you years before, placing a small smile on your lips as your maid exited your chambers and left you in your own company.Â
How long must I live in agony, my lady?
You breathed out a laugh as you read the first line of the princeâs letter. You sighed dreamily as a blush came to your cheeks, and your fingers caressed the bold letters of what he wrote.Â
Sometimes, at night, you feared the prince would leave you spurned. You feared that you were not enough for him to keep interested. That your overly composed and some would even say, stoic demeanor would run him off, and heâd find a lady who did not struggle in showing their affections.Â
In truth, the reason why you were completely perplexed when he decided to court you was because you had been completely infatuated with him ever since you arrived in the Red Keep. As children, many feared him and his lack of one eye, but if you were being honest, you quite liked him that way.Â
It was a tragedy, of course, but the silver lining was that even if he had only one eye, never once did the unique lilac orbs leave your thoughts.Â
You bit your lip as you drafted your letter of reply. The prince had sent a dozen letters, yet the one you wrote would only be your fifth letter sent. You stared long and hard at the blank parchment, torn as to what to write. Fear was a powerful emotion that often left their captives paralyzed. And so, you took a deep breath and simply wrote.Â
Wrote anything and everything you could think of. No direction. No aim. Simply a letter written in hopes the prince would be reminded of your existence and would wait until your return.Â
I believe your dragon would enjoy the East. There is a vast valley near my grandsireâs keep that your great Vhagar would find agreeable.Â
I also believe that you shall enjoy the East. I recall that you are fond of combat, and here, there are customs in which fighters do not rely on weapons but simply their bodies. Men fight with open palms, swift and fluid like water, while others strike with such force that one would think their fists forged from steel. I suspect that you shall excel in such a kind of combat, my prince.Â
Aemond bit his lip as he reread your letter for the tenth time in an hour. Gods, he wanted to feel foolish. There he was, in his grandsireâs study, being forced to listen to business dealings, all the while his only thought was of you. His heart that beat for no other than you, swelled at the thought that not only did you write to him, but you as well knew of his fondness for combat and were thinking of his dragon too.Â
Lord Otto eyed his grandson in curiosity and concern. For the past hour, Aemond read a letter repeatedly, would let out a yearning sigh, and stare at the wall with an odd softness in his eye that he could not believe was capable. âAre you listening, Aemond?âÂ
Aemond breathed out another sigh. His mind recalling what you had written, imagining your voice that uttered what you wrote echoing in his head. Gods, he missed you. He did not even think heâd miss you as intensely as he did. You were a quiet little thing, you prefer to go unnoticed, and the prince foolishly thought that he could manipulate his mind to think that you were simply hiding away in your corner, but he felt your absence deeply, and he could not concentrate on his duties.Â
âThis is pathetic, my prince.â He heard his grandsire sigh from his desk. The lord handâs gaze steady on a parchment containing business while his grandson reread a letter over and over.Â
âI did not ask for your opinion.â Aemond gritted out. The elation he felt just moments earlier quickly disappeared at his grandsireâs words. Otto Hightower sighed.Â
âYou are a prince of the realm. You have hundreds of ladies at your disposal, yet you obsess over a lady who cannot even name you as her favoured suitor. A lady who you had let distract you from your duties. Had you acting and sighing like a damsel as well.âÂ
 âShe had made you weak. Turned you into a simpleton.âÂ
Prince Aemond frowned deeply, his fists clenching around air. No word of reply nor defense on his tongue as his grandsire plainly said the doubts and thoughts he fought hard to repress. Aemond had grown distracted as to who he truly was. He acted like a love-sick pup when he was meant to be a dragon prince.Â
Aemond did not respond to your letter. Nor did he respond to the other two that followed. He simply let the year of your absence pass. His grandsireâs word aimed true to his heart. All his life, the only thing the prince knew was that he did not like being seen as weak. He had been weak as a child, as he let his brother and nephews constantly belittle him. He knew it could not happen once more, even if you were the reason.Â
For the following moons, the prince made no move to contact you. He sent no bi-weekly letters. He sent no greetings or regards. He even hindered himself in sending you a bundle of gifts on your name day. He exercised a great feat of restraint and control for an entire year, simply lying in wait until the dawn of your return came.Â
Prince Aemond stood by the docks, his veins fueled with adrenaline and his heart aching to see you once more. He did not know how he had been able to resist you for a year, yet it did not matter, for now his long suffering was to come to an end.Â
However, as he watched your parents disembarked the ship, it was painfully obvious that you were left in YiTi.Â
***
Prince Aemond broke your heart. Your great fears of being left spurnedâ of being forgotten turned true as the prince seemed to forget your existence. He ignored your letters, even if you sent three scrolls consecutively. You had spent your days staring longingly out the windows, hoping that the ravens that flew would come with a letter from a prince, but none did.Â
You tried your best to hide the grief you felt at the princeâs action. You tried to act your usual detached and unemotional self. But each time you would sit alone in either the great gardens of your home or at banquets and feasts, you feel your heart pit as you had gotten used to the prince finding his way to you and accompanying you even through silence.Â
The days that led to your return to Kingslanding, you made the decision to stay in YiTi. You could not subject yourself to return to Westeros with a broken heart. You could not fathom the thought of facing Prince Aemond once more. And so, you stayed. You did not return after a year and two moons. You stayed in YiTi under your grandsireâs care and hoped that the ache in your heart would dissipate soon enough.Â
âThe Westerns are simple-mindedâ especially the Targaryens. They act as if they are gods among men when in truth, theyâre mere ferrets who only rose to power because of their dragons.â You hear your grandfather remark as you join him for supper.Â
Your parents had sent word that they were already in Kingslanding, and they also mentioned that the courtiers had to ask why you did not return. They mentioned naught of the prince, and you did not know whether to feel grateful or not.Â
âThey reside on stolen land. They trample over the cultures and customs of those before them and punish those who disagree with their views. They appear to be almost the same as us, but not quite, for they trample over others they believe beneath them.â Your grandsire continued as you picked on your food.Â
âThey were kind hosts,â You defended quietly, but heard as your grandfather clicked his tongue and watched him shake his head.Â
âItâs a lure, my child. Kindness to those men is given for their amusementâ once they tire, they discard what no longer entertains them.â Your fingers tightened around the porcelain cup in your hands, holding it tightly so that you feared the warm tea might spill the moment you cracked the delicate clay. âItâs a lesson you must learn soon enough.âÂ
Across the narrow sea, a prince stewed in rage, anger, fear, and sadness, trying his best to figure out how to get his girl back.Â
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can we see maybe modern jace getting jealous but like not in a toxic way in a are you honna leave me way. and hes sososo soft and needs cuddles? tnkss
Henllo my lovely lovely reader! This has been pending for a while but thank you for waiting so patiently!! đ«
Sorry my Alicent lovers, sheâs a b*tch in this đ„č
Enjoy~~
Jacaerys Velaryon had always considered himself an unusually secure person, all things considered.
Not arrogant. Never that. Just settled, in the way people are when they've already survived the worst version of a question and come out the other side of it.
He hadn't always been that way, though.
He remembered being eight, sitting on the floor of his bedroom with a split lip and dirt still ground into the knees of his trousers, shoulders shaking with the effort of not crying. He remembered the door opening, and quickly scrubbing his sleeve across his face, and how his mother had known immediately anyway.
I didn't lose, he'd told her.
I never asked if you did.
He'd tried to explain it that some boy at school had said Jace couldn't possibly be Laenor's son, not really, not when he didn't look a thing like him. Rhaenyra had gone very still for a moment, as if deciding how much truth a person could hold.
Then she'd taken his small hands in hers and told him the truth anyway. That his biological father had been a man named Harwin Strong, who had loved him very much, but who had passed away before Jace and his brothers were even old enough to properly remember his face. That Laenor was still his father in every way that mattered, because Laenor was the one who'd stayed awake through nightmares, who'd taught him to swim because he was terrified of the deep end, who had looked at him the day he was born and said, simply, he's beautiful.
Blood doesn't make a father, she'd told him, cupping his tiny face in both hands. Love does.
He had believed her. He still did, thirteen years later. The whispers about his features, brown curls where there should have been silver, ordinary eyes where there should have been that unmistakable Valyrian violet, had eventually faded into something he barely registered anymore.
Or so he'd thought, until the afternoon you brought home a magazine.
ââă»àš ⊠à§ă»ââ
You'd arrived at his flat practically glowing, a glossy issue of Rogue clutched against your chest like you'd just won something.
"I finally found it," you announced, dropping onto the sofa beside him without any warning, already flipping it open across your lap.
Jace looked up from his laptop, smiling before he'd even fully processed what you'd said. "Hm?"
"The newest issue. My favourite actress is on the cover."
You talked while you flipped through the pages, filling the room with easy, unhurried chatter about filming locations in Italy and a rescue dog she'd apparently just adopted and a dress you thought was, in your exact words, criminally good. Jace didn't follow half of it but he liked it anyway, liked the sound of your voice more than the content of what it was saying, liked watching your face light up over things he'd never have cared about on his own.
Then you gasped.
"Oh, I didn't know they interviewed him too."
He glanced over, more out of habit than curiosity, and felt something in his chest go quietly, unpleasantly tight.
A full page spread of his uncle Aegon looked back at him. Expensive tailored suit. Silver blond hair styled to look effortless, which it absolutely was not. Pale lilac eyes catching the studio lighting like the camera had been built specifically to flatter him.
Young Entrepreneur of the Year, the headline read, and privately Jace thought that if anyone in that family had actually earned the title, it was Aemond, who did the real work while his older brother smiled for photographers and accepted the credit.
You didn't know any of that, of course. You just kept scanning the article, murmuring something about how ridiculously photogenic he was, how well that whole family photographed in general, the lighting, the styling, all of it.
Jace stared at the page. Silver hair. Purple eyes. The exact same features that ran through his mother, through Laenor, through nearly everyone he'd ever sat across a dinner table with.
Everyone except him and his brothers.
Alicent's voice surfaced in his memory before he could stop it, unbidden and unwelcome. Such a shame, isn't it. The poor boy didn't inherit any of the family's beauty.
He hadn't thought about that sentence in years. He resented that it had apparently just been waiting for him.
Would someone like her rather have someone who looked like that?
He hated the thought the second it appeared. Hated himself a little for thinking it at all. Before he'd properly decided to do anything, his hand had already reached over, closed the magazine, and sent it flying across the room.
You blinked. "...Did you just throw away my magazine?"
"Maybe."
"I paid 1 silver stag for that."
"I know."
"You just launched it across the room."
"I did."
"Why?"
He opened his mouth but nothing useful came out, because what was he supposed to say. Sorry, I got irrationally jealous of my own uncle because a decade old insecurity just woke up without warning.
"...I panicked," he settled on.
"You panicked⊠at journalism?"
He nodded, solemnly, as though this were a reasonable answer.
You stared at him for a long moment before you burst out laughing, calling him a weirdo, asking if he'd genuinely been jealous of glossy paper. His ears went pink immediately, which only made you laugh harder. He denied it. You didn't believe him. Eventually you crawled across the sofa, nudged his shoulder with yours, and pinched his cheek.
"My pretty boy," you said.
His heart stumbled slightly. "...Really?"
"Jace. I've been dating you for months. I think that answer should be obvious."
You kissed the corner of his mouth and went back to your magazine, entirely unbothered, and the knot in his chest loosened. Not all the way. Just enough that he could ignore it for a while.
He didn't know yet that it wouldn't be the last time.
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The real trouble started, as most things in that family did, because Rhaenyra forgot to mention one small detail.
"Mother invited us for dinner," Jace said, grabbing his keys off the counter. "Just a quiet evening."
"I'm finally meeting your family properly?"
"You've met Luke and Joffrey."
"They kidnapped me for bubble tea. That barely counts."
"They like you."
"They interrogated me about how I really like you or was it the money."
Jace nearly dropped his keys. "...They what."
"They're sweet," you said, slipping your hand into his as you headed for the door, laughing at his expression. "Terrors, but sweet and making sure I wasnât some gold digger."
The drive over was easy, your hand resting in his the whole way, music low through the speakers. Neither of you suspected a thing, right up until Jace opened the penthouse door and his smile simply vanished.
"...Oh."
You peered around him and froze.
It wasn't a quiet family dinner. It was the ENTIRE FUCKING family. Viserys settled comfortably in an armchair with a cup of tea. Daemon sprawled across the sofa like he'd personally paid for it. Baela and Rhaena setting the table. Helaena curled by the window with her cat in her lap. Luke and Joffrey wrestling over the remote. Aemond by the balcony doors, absorbed in his phone. Aegon stealing appetizers straight from the kitchen counter. Otto (who the fuck even invited him?) deep in conversation with Viserys about something political. And Alicent, wine glass in hand, wearing the expression of a woman who very much wished she were somewhere, anywhere, else.
"I swear to you," Jace whispered, "I had no idea."
You squeezed his hand. "I know."
"You do?"
"You have the worst poker face I have ever seen in my life."
Relief crossed his face so fast it was almost funny. "Thank you."
Before either of you could retreat back toward the elevator, which you were both, quietly, considering, a voice cut through the apartment like a siren.
"OLDER BROTHER JACE IS HERE!" Joffrey bellowed, pointing dramatically at the two of you. "AND HE BROUGHT HIS GIRLFRIEND!"
Every single head turned at once.
The silence that followed was the kind you could feel in your jaw. You raised your free hand in a small, painfully awkward wave.
"...Hello- Uh- Hi."
Nobody spoke. You considered, briefly and seriously, whether the floor might simply open and swallow you.
Then Rhaenyra blinked, and her whole face transformed. She crossed the room so quickly you barely had time to brace before she'd taken both your hands in hers.
"So you're the lovely girl," she said warmly. "It's wonderful to finally meet you. Jacaerys talks about you far more than he'd ever admit."
"Mother."
"You do," Luke chimed in helpfully.
"Constantly," Joffrey agreed.
"He smiled at his phone for ten minutes yesterday," Luke added. "It was embarrassing."
"It was disgusting," Aegon called from the kitchen, not even looking up from the appetizers.
Jace pressed two fingers to the bridge of his nose. "I'm leaving."
"No you're not," Daemon said lazily, without opening his eyes. "You brought entertainment."
Before Jace could formulate a defense, Baela had already appeared, looping her arm through yours. "There she is. So this is the famous girlfriend."
Rhaena arrived a half second later. Helaena drifted over more quietly, studying your earrings with real interest.
"I like your earrings," she said.
"Oh, thank you."
"They're little stars. They remind me of the night sky. I like stars."
"I noticed," you said, smiling, and Helaena looked pleased in a way that felt like a small, private victory.
Before you'd fully registered what was happening, you had been deposited onto the sofa between Baela and Rhaena, and the questions began arriving from every direction at once.
How did you two meet. Who confessed first. Who kissed who first. Has he written you poetry.
Across the room, Jace groaned. "Oh no."
"Save yourself," Luke advised solemnly. "There is no saving anyone once those three start."
You laughed, a little nervously, and did your best to answer everything while Baela stole your phone to look through your photos and Rhaena gasped theatrically at something on it. Meanwhile Jace had slipped, almost against his will, into older brother mode, standing between Aegon and Luke to prevent whatever low grade argument was brewing between them, even though privately he wanted to throttle Aemond himself for something said twenty minutes earlier that he'd already half forgotten.
A part of you, watching all of this unfold, felt faintly like you'd wandered into a room full of supermodels who happened to also be a family. Every single one of them was, infuriatingly, beautiful.
ââă»àš ⊠à§ă»ââ
Rhaenyra found you again not long after, this time in the kitchen, gently but firmly informing you that guests were not permitted to help with dinner.
"I promise I'm capable of chopping vegetables without losing a finger," you said, already reaching for the knife regardless.
"That's not the point."
"I don't feel like a guest."
Apparently that was the correct answer, because five minutes later the two of you were standing shoulder to shoulder at the counter anyway, Rhaenyra sliding a tray into the oven while you worked through a pile of peppers beside her.
"You know," she said, glancing fondly toward the dining room, where Luke was currently attempting to balance three dinner rolls on top of Joffrey's head, "I've been trying to get my boys to help me cook for years."
"They don't?"
"Oh, they try." She laughed. "They're just enthusiastic."
"That's a diplomatic way of putting it."
"They have good hearts, though." Her expression softened as she watched them. Then, with no real change in tone, as though she were asking about the weather: "So. What do you see in my eldest?"
You nearly choked on your own laugh. "Oh."
"Don't 'oh' me. I'd genuinely like to know."
You looked through the doorway. Jace was still stationed between Aegon and Luke, hands raised placatingly, trying to referee an argument that had apparently escalated to include a butter knife.
"I don't know," you said slowly, and then, more honestly, "everything just feels easy with him. I've never had to pretend to be anything I'm not. He listens. He remembers little things, if I mention I like a certain chocolate once, it just shows up on my desk during exam week without me asking. He always walks on the side closest to the road. He sends me good morning messages every single day, even when he saw me the night before. He pretends he doesn't like horror movies, even though I know he secretly does, because he always asks if we can watch another one right after."
A fond laugh slipped out of you before you could stop it.
"And I've never once doubted that he loves me."
Rhaenyra had gone quiet beside you, her eyes suspiciously bright. "That sounds like my Jacaerys," she said finally, smiling. "He gets that from his father."
You opened your mouth to ask which one she meant, but before you could, Viserys wandered into the kitchen, and the question dissolved into the next moment before you'd found the words.
"There you are," he said kindly.
You straightened instinctively. "Mr. Viserys-"
He waved the title away with mild exasperation. "Oh, enough of that. Viserys is perfectly acceptable."
"It doesn't feel right."
"Then Grandfather."
You blinked. "...Excuse me?"
"If you're important to Jacaerys," he said, patting your shoulder gently, "then you're important to me."
Something in your chest went warm and slightly overwhelmed. "Thank you. Grandfather."
He beamed, patted your head affectionately on his way past, and wandered back toward the dining room looking thoroughly satisfied with himself.
Across the room, Alicent watched the entire exchange over the rim of her wine glass, her mouth pressing into a thin, unreadable line.
ââă»àš ⊠à§ă»ââ
Dinner was chaos, in the fondest possible sense of the word.
It started with Luke and Joffrey arguing over the garlic bread, which somehow evolved into Aegon stealing half the basket, which somehow became Aemond calmly threatening to stab his brother with a butter knife.
"I wouldn't actually stab you," Aemond said, sighing. "It'd be unhygienic."
"See," Aegon grinned. "He loves me."
"I tolerate your existence."
"That's practically affection in your language."
Jace pinched the bridge of his nose. "Can we please have one family dinner where nobody threatens bodily harm?"
Daemon didn't even look up from his wine. "No."
"Fair enough," Jace muttered, and you had to cover your mouth to keep from laughing out loud.
He glanced at you across the table, and the sight of you smiling seemed to visibly loosen something in his shoulders. Without quite thinking about it, his foot found yours under the table. You nudged him back.
Baela noticed immediately. "They're flirting under the table."
"We're sitting right here," Jace said flatly.
"You think we don't notice?"
"We don't."
"You literally just smiled at each other over touching feet."
"We did not."
"They're adorable," Helaena offered dreamily.
"They're embarrassing," Aegon corrected.
Dessert arrived, and for a few merciful minutes, the table went quiet, cake apparently commanding more loyalty than gossip. Then Daemon set his fork down with a particular stillness that Jace recognized immediately as trouble.
"So," Daemon said.
"No," Jace said.
"I haven't even asked anything."
"I know that tone."
"Do you?"
"Yes."
Daemon leaned back in his chair, entirely unbothered. "So. When's the wedding?"
Jace inhaled a piece of cake at exactly the wrong moment and doubled over, coughing. You nearly dropped your fork.
"Uncle, we've only been together a few months."
"So? I was younger."
"We're twenty one."
"Your mother had Lucerys by your age," Daemon pointed out, entirely too pleased with himself.
Rhaenyra rolled her eyes so hard it was audible. "And look how that turned out."
Daemon simply laughed at his nieces suffering, placing a hand over his heart.
"I was aiming lower," Rhaenyra said sweetly, and the whole table dissolved into laughter, even Jace, some of the tension finally easing out of his shoulders.
Then Alicent spoke, calm and almost thoughtful, as though continuing a conversation no one else had realized was happening.
"I suppose there are advantages to waiting," she said, cutting neatly into her dessert without looking up. "After all, when choosing a life partner, appearance does matter. Especially when one hopes for beautiful children." A small, polite pause. "There are certain features that tend to remain within Valyrian blood. It would be a shame to lose them."
The table went completely still.
You frowned, not immediately understanding, but you felt Jace go rigid beside you, watched the color drain slowly from his face as his hand tightened around his fork hard enough that his knuckles went white.
"Alicent," Rhaenyra said, and her voice had turned to ice.
"I simply made an observation."
"It was unnecessary."
"Am I wrong?"
That was it. Jace's hands hit the table hard enough to rattle the plates, his chair scraping violently backward as he stood. He didn't look at anyone. He simply walked out, and by the time you'd scrambled up and mumbled an apology to the table, the elevator doors were already sliding shut behind him.
"There is absolutely nothing for you to apologize for," Rhaenyra said quickly, gently, but you were already moving, grabbing your bag and hurrying after him, catching the elevator just before it closed completely.
The ride down was silent. His hands were trembling, barely, at his sides. You reached for his sleeve. He didn't pull away, but he didn't respond either, and you decided, wisely, to simply stand beside him and wait.
Whatever this was, you understood by now that it had very little to do with a single comment at dinner.
ââă»àš ⊠à§ă»ââ
The drive home was quiet in the wrong way. Not the comfortable silence you two usually shared, the kind filled with idle hand holding at red lights and half finished sentences. This one sat heavy in the car, pressing against your ribs.
Jace's knuckles never once loosened on the steering wheel. You looked at him more than once. Each time, his jaw was tight, his eyes fixed straight ahead, his expression carefully, deliberately unreadable.
You thought about speaking, several times. Each time, something told you he needed the silence first.
When he finally parked outside your building, neither of you moved for a long moment. Then he climbed out, and the driver's door shut harder than he'd clearly intended, the sound echoing through the parking garage. You flinched. He closed his eyes immediately.
"...Sorry."
Even angry, even shaking slightly with whatever he was holding in, he still walked around to your side. Still opened your door. Still waited until you'd stepped out before he let it close.
You offered him a small smile. He couldn't quite return it.
The walk upstairs was just as quiet. Keys jingling. The lock clicking open. You slipped your shoes off by the entrance and settled onto the sofa. He didn't sit. He started pacing instead, kitchen to living room and back, one hand buried in his curls, the other rubbing restlessly at the back of his neck.
You'd seen him stressed before. Exam weeks. Presentation deadlines. The time Luke had nearly set off the fire alarm attempting to make grilled cheese. Never quite like this.
"...Jace."
He hummed, distracted, not stopping. "Mhm."
"Jace." Firmer this time.
He stopped mid step. Turned, slowly. "...What?"
The sharpness in his own voice seemed to surprise him as much as it did you. His face fell almost instantly. "...Sorry."
"I'm not angry at you."
"I know." He dragged a hand over his face. "I'm sorry."
You stood, crossing the room slowly. "What happened tonight?"
"Nothing."
"Jace."
"It was just Alicent."
"No." You shook your head gently. "I know that's not it. You don't storm out over one rude comment. You've dealt with comments like that your whole life. So what actually happened?"
He looked away, toward the window, toward anywhere that wasn't you.
"You don't have to protect me from it," you said quietly.
"I'm not."
"You are."
"I'm fine."
"You've been pacing for ten minutes."
"I'm thinking."
"You're spiralling.â
"I am not spiralling."
"You threw my magazine across the room because I complimented a photoshoot," you said, and watched him blink, caught off guard.
"...You still remembered that."
"I remember everything."
Silence stretched between you, longer this time. Jace finally walked into the kitchen and braced both hands against the island, his head hanging low. You followed, standing close enough that your shoulder nearly touched his, and rested your hand gently over his.
His fingers twitched beneath your palm.
"...Talk to me."
He swallowed hard. When he finally lifted his head to look at you, the anger had drained out of him completely. What remained, underneath it, was fear. Raw and unfamiliar, a version of him you'd genuinely never seen before.
"Do you," he started, voice barely above a whisper, "do you really want to be with me?"
You frowned. "...What?"
He laughed, short and humourless. "Stupid question. I know how it sounds." His hands moved helplessly, searching for words that weren't quite arriving fast enough. "I've never cared. At least, I thought I hadn't. My whole life, people have looked at my family. My mother. My father. My uncles. My cousins. And then they look at me, and they don't even have to say anything. I already know."
He let out a breath that shook slightly on its way out.
"I don't have silver hair. I don't have purple eyes. I don't look like them. And tonight, when Alicent said it, I couldn't stop thinking. What if she's right. What if you deserve someone who actually looks like he belongs in this family."
Before another word could leave him, you stepped forward, placed both hands on his face, and covered his mouth.
"...Mm?"
You stared at him, entirely unimpressed. "Wow. I always thought I was the yapper in this relationship. You are giving me serious competition."
The confusion on his face cracked, just barely, into something almost like a laugh.
"I am not finished," you said, and he nodded obediently, waiting until you lowered your hand.
"The absolute nonsense that just came out of your mouth might genuinely be the stupidest thing I have ever heard in my life."
"...Excuse me?"
"You heard me." You poked him firmly in the chest. "Absolute. Poppycock."
"What does that word even mean?â
"It felt appropriate."
Despite himself, the corner of his mouth twitched upward.
You folded your arms. "So. You think you're not handsome because you don't have silver hair."
"That's not exactly-"
"And purple eyes."
"I-â
"And because you don't look like the rest of your family."
He sighed, dragging a hand down his face. "When you say it out loud, it does sound a little ridiculous."
"A little?"
"...Very."
"Good." You reached for both of his hands before he could think about retreating again. "Now answer me something. If I woke up tomorrow with silver hair and purple eyes, would I suddenly be more beautiful to you?"
His answer came so fast it nearly overlapped your question. "No."
"Why not?"
"Because you're already beautiful as you are.â
"No matter what?"
He squeezed your hands. "No matter what."
"So if I stayed exactly the way I amâŠâ
"I'd still think you're the most beautiful girl in every room I've ever walked into." Jace continued.
You smiled softly. "Exactly. So why," you asked gently, "are you judging yourself by a standard you'd never once judge me by? You don't look at me and wish I had silver hair. You don't wish I had purple eyes. You don't wish I looked more Valyrian."
He shook his head slowly. "I've never once thought that."
"Because you love me."
"...Yes."
"And I love you," you said. "You don't need silver hair for me to think you're handsome. You don't need purple eyes. You certainly don't need to look like Aegon." A small laugh escaped you. "Thank God, honestly."
That, finally, pulled a real laugh out of him, quiet but genuine.
"I happen to like your curly brown hair," you continued, reaching up to run your fingers through it. "I like your freckles. I like the little scar on your chin from when Luke hit you with a cricket bat, which he insists to this day was an accident."
"He maintains his innocence."
"He was absolutely aiming for you."
"He denies it."
"He's lying."
Jace chuckled, some of the tightness finally leaving his shoulders. You cupped his cheek gently.
"I like your smile. I like how your eyes crinkle when you laugh. I like that your nose scrunches up when you're concentrating on something. I like that your hair sticks up every morning because you refuse to dry it properly."
By now he couldn't quite meet your eyes, his cheeks warming visibly.
"And," you said softly, "I like that you're kind. That you remember every little thing I tell you. That you've never once made me feel like I was too much. You listen. You care. You love so quietly that people don't always notice it, but I do. Every single day."
His eyes had begun to shine, suspiciously bright.
"So don't you dare stand there and tell me I deserve someone else," you said, tapping his chest gently. "I already found exactly who I wanted. Not because of what you look like. Because of who you are. And if I had to choose all over again, I would still choose the ridiculously handsome boy standing in front of me."
That was what finally broke him. He stepped forward so suddenly you barely had time to react before his arms wrapped tightly around you, his face pressing into the curve of your neck like he was trying to memorize the shape of you against him. You wrapped your arms around his shoulders, one hand sliding into his hair, and felt him exhale, one long, shaking breath, like he'd been holding it in for years without realizing it.
"I'm sorry," he mumbled into your shoulder.
"What are you apologizing for?"
"I don't know." He laughed weakly. "I think I've just spent so long pretending it never bothered me. It did. So when Alicent said it again tonight, I believed her."
You pulled back just enough to look at him properly.
"No," you said. "You believed the frightened little boy who got teased on the playground. You didn't believe Alicent. You just forgot what your mum told you."
"Blood doesn't make a father," you said quietly. "Love does."
His breath caught. "You remembered that."
"Of course I remembered. You told me that story."
"You really do remember everything."
"I do."
You brushed a stray curl off his forehead. "And your mum was right. You are loved beyond measure."
He closed his eyes, and this time, when he leaned into your touch, it wasn't because he needed convincing anymore. It was because he'd finally, fully embraced himself.
ââă»àš ⊠à§ă»ââ
Later that night, the two of you lay tangled together beneath your duvet, though tangled was perhaps too generous a word, since Jace had somehow managed to occupy roughly ninety percent of the available space, his head resting against your chest, one arm locked securely around your waist. He wore the most spectacular pout you had ever seen on a grown man.
"Feeling better?" you asked.
A muffled noise, which you chose to interpret as yes.
"You know," you said thoughtfully, "I think there's a very easy solution to your whole crisis."
He looked up, immediately and correctly suspicious. "...I don't like that sentence."
"You could always dye your hair."
Silence.
"Platinum blonde," you continued sweetly.
Jace stared at you, utterly betrayed. "I'm sorry?"
"You heard me. I think it'd suit you."
"It absolutely would not."
"We could get you purple contacts too."
His eyes widened in genuine horror. "You wound me."
"I think you'd slay."
"Do not say slay while I am emotionally vulnerable," he gasped, and you burst into laughter, unable to help yourself.
"I'm serious."
"I'm sorry."
"No, you're not."
"I'm a little sorry."
"You're enjoying this far too much."
"I really am," he admitted, and then his eyes narrowed, that mischievous glint returning that you'd learned to be wary of.
"You know what," he said.
"...What?"
"I've decided."
"No."
"I no longer want sympathy."
"...You don't?"
"No. I've decided you deserve punishment. For crimes against your boyfriend."
"You're being dramatic."
"I think I'm being perfectly reasonable."
He lunged before you could brace yourself, and you shrieked, dissolving almost immediately into helpless laughter as his fingers found your sides. "NO! Jace!"
"This is what happens," he declared between your laughter, "when you suggest I bleach my hair!"
"I'M SORRY!"
"I don't believe you!"
"I TAKE IT BACK!"
"You called me slay!"
"I DIDN'T CALL YOU SLAY, I IMPLIED IT! AND YOU STILL SLAY!â
"That's worse!"
He finally relented, collapsing back against the pillows beside you, both of you breathless, your sides aching from laughing. After a moment, he reached over and found your hand in the dark, lacing his fingers through yours, lifting your joined hands to press a slow, lingering kiss against your knuckles.
"So," he said quietly.
"So?"
"...Thank you."
"For what?"
His thumb traced absentminded circles over the back of your hand. "For choosing me."
You didn't answer with words. You leaned over instead, pressed one soft kiss to his forehead, another to the corner of his mouth, and finally rested your forehead gently against his.
"There was never anyone else I wanted," you whispered.
And for the first time all night, Jacaerys Velaryon smiled without a single trace of doubt left in it.
summary: After coming off a date with a bad review, Steve sets out to prove that he really is good at going down on girls.
tags: MDNI!! [roommates/friends to lovers] [smut] [oral fem receiving] [mutual pining] [he just needs an honest review] [friends help each other...right?] 2k words
a/n: While brainstorming this fic, I couldn't decide whether I wanted it to be fluffy or smutty, so I had you guys vote. And you wanted me to write both. (Here is the fluffy sister fic if you want to read it!)
It is your deepest held belief that Friday nights are, indeed, best spent in.Â
Youâre on the couch, curled up with a book, basking in the soft lamplight as steam from your favorite tea reflects in the dark windows beside you.Â
All is peaceful. All is quiet. Itâs perfect.Â
And then your apartment door opens.Â
You jump, looking over your shoulder just in time to see your roommate, Steve, storm through the entryway. His dress shirt is untucked, tie loose, and his hair is a wreck, like heâs run his hands through it a million times.
Thatâs not a good sign for a man supposed to be on a fancy date tonight.Â
He said, if things went well, heâd probably end up back at her place for the night. You thought that might be a little presumptuous, but hey, itâs Steve Harrington youâre talking about here.Â
Steve looks around wildly, and when his eyes land on you, the intensity in them takes you aback.Â
âIâm guessing things didnât go well, thenâ?â you start, but he cuts you off, his words overlapping yours.Â
âTake off your pants.â
You freeze.Â
What theâ
He must not register the utter shock on your face, because heâs already moving towards you. The silky tie snaps through the air as he rips it from his neck. God, he must really be wound up. He didnât even take his shoes off at the door.Â
âExcuse me?â You manage to choke out.Â
âDonât freak out, I just really need to try something,â he grunts, rounding the couch. âJust for a second.â
The moment his knees hit the carpet in front of you, your jaw goes slack. Â
âHarrington!â You scramble back into your mountain of pillows, nearly knocking your mug off the side table. You reach out and steady it with one hand, suddenly very aware of how your tank top has ridden up with the movement. âWhat the hell are youâ?â
ââŠcanât believe she said that,â he mutters, ripping back the blanket thrown over your lap.Â
âWho said what?â
He doesnât respond, eyes locked on your short sleep shorts. Theyâre a cute set you picked up recently at the mall. Navy blue with white flowers. Innocent-looking. Sweet.Â
But heâs staring at them like heâs going to rip them off with his teeth.Â
Heat rushes to your cheeks.Â
While you canât deny what that look is doing to you, thereâs something else trapped in his gaze. Sadness? Not quite. Disappointment, maybe? Youâve only been roommates for six months, but you already know him well enough to know when heâs upset.Â
Reaching down, you grab a fistful of his hair and tip his head back. His eyes snap to yours.Â
âWhat did she say?â you ask again, firmer this time.Â
Steveâs lips form a thin line before he sighs heavily. You drop his hair.Â
âShe said I was bad at sex. Specifically, bad at...this.â He gestures unhelpfully between your legs and your stomach swoops as his finger almost brushes the seam of your shorts.Â
It takes you a second, but then your brows pull together. âShe actually said that?â
âNot exactly,â he groans. âThe date was fine. It was our third, so when she invited me upstairs, I figuredâŠwell, you know. And then we got to making out and it was hot. I guessâŠâ
You swallow hard and gesture for him to continue, even if the thought of his lips trailing down some other girlâs neck feels like a knife in your side.Â
âAnd then I went down on her and she saidââ He cuts himself off with a miserable little huff before resuming. âShe said it wasnât doing anything for her. At all. Like it wasnât good enough or something. Can you believe that? I couldâve lived if she said my thrust game needed work or something, if we had even gotten to that point, but this? This is, like, my thing.â
Oh. Okay.Â
Yeah, you couldâve gone the rest of your lease without knowing that eating pussy is your hot roommateâs thing.Â
That is not good for your little crush you have going on that you refuse to talk about. Or think about. Ever.Â
You nod quickly and clear your throat. âS-so, what exactly does this have to do with me?âÂ
Steve just shrugs. âWeâre friends, right?â
âRight.â
âRight.â He levels your gaze, brown eyes soft and playful in the lamplight. âSoâŠâ
The moment stretches between you, an invitation, an ask, and a dare all rolled into one.Â
âSo, because weâre such good friends, we justâŠgive each other oral sex?â
Steve sighs. âLook. I just want a second opinion, okay? I mean, this is bad. Really bad. If Cindy didnât like it, then what if other girls didnât either? Then Iâve just been lied to all this timeââ
Your gaze drops to his fingers digging into the couch cushion beneath you, and despite yourself, a smile creeps across your lips. âOh my God, this really got to you, didnât it?âÂ
âWhat?â He balks. âNo! Itâs justâŠI need to set the record straight.â He taps your knees with a knuckle, playful but firm. âSpread âem.â
You bark an unbelieving laugh that ends in a sound too close to a whimper when his hands come down on your thighs.Â
You cannot let him do this to you. If you do, youâll never be able to get over your secret-no-good-very-bad-crush on your roommate.Â
You force yourself to breathe. âIâŠI donât want thinks to get weird.â
 His eyes flick up to yours. âWeird?â
âBetween us.â
Steve seems to take a second to understand what youâre saying, and you watch as an emotion you canât place crosses his face.Â
Suddenly, he moves to stand. âYouâre right. Sorry. God, Iâm an idiot. What am I thinking, I justââ
Panic spikes and you snatch his wrist before you even really know what youâre doing, cutting him off. âNo, wait. Itâs like you said. WeâreâŠfriends, right?â
He nods quickly. Too quickly. âYeah.â
âSo, we donât let it get weird.â The words spill out of you before you can take them back. But you donât want to. âIâll give you an unbiased review. A one time thing.â
You watch as his lashes drop again to your legs, and his pupils widen as your knees fall apart a little on instinct.Â
âYouâre sure?â he asks, voice thick.Â
In an effort to appear nonchalant, you shrug. But youâre salivating when his tongue darts over his bottom lip.Â
 âYes,â you breathe.Â
He doesnât waste a second dropping back down to his knees, and your legs widen immediately to give him space.Â
âSo, youâll tell me the truth, right?â he rasps, eyes jumping between your face and your hips. âBe honest. I can take it.â
âHonest,â you agree, but the word comes out in a whisper as his fingers slip under your waistband.Â
Your face burns as he pulls down your shorts and panties in one smooth motion, baring you to him. His hands gently ease your thighs farther apart, and you fight the urge to squirm under his gaze.Â
âSteve! Stop looking at it like that,â you gasp.
âWhy?â he asks without glancing up. âItâs pretty.â
Shit.Â
Youâre not strong enough for this.Â
But when he finally looks up, you recognize the silent question in his eyes. Heâs asking for permission. You could stop this right now, and he would let you easily. Heâs probably never even bring it up again. No harm done.Â
And you should.Â
God, you should.Â
But you donât want to.Â
So instead, you just nod, not trusting your voice to speak.Â
As he leans in, you brace for the feeling of his tongue, but youâre surprised when he starts by justâŠkissing you.Â
His lips are soft against your folds, and your breath catches at the tenderness there. His eyes find yours before he goes lower, and the moment his nose bumps your clit, your body jolts in his hold.Â
He makes a muffled sound and his eyes drift shut, large palms moving to your hips, pinning them to the cloth couch beneath you.
 Then thereâs that wet heat.Â
His tongue slides over you with just enough pressure, starting slow and exploring your entrance.Â
âOh, God,â you whimper.Â
His hair is so soft against your inner thighs, and when he makes a sound of encouragement against you, and his tongue swirls higher, catching the underside of your clit, your mouth drops open in a silent moan.Â
Heâs hardly done anything yet, but the way heâs doing it, so confident, and steady, itâs unlike anything youâve ever felt before.
âSee? Good, right?â he mutters, the words muffled and slick against your core. âI know what Iâmâmmm, fuck, you taste good.â
Before you can respond, his hands wrap up and around your thighs, and he hauls you closer. Your tank top rides up even higher as you slide down into the cushions, but you donât reach up to fix it.Â
Mostly because Steve Harrington is going down on you, and that thought alone is nearly making you lose your fucking mind.Â
His lashes flutter shut as he makes out with your dripping cunt, his throat bobbing as sucks gently, swallows, and goes back for more.Â
Youâre surprised to find thereâs no performance to his actions, but more of a genuine enjoyment.Â
Steve eats pussy like he wants to.Â
You watch, transfixed, and you canât help but roll your hips once against his mouth, smearing your slick all over his pretty fucking face.Â
Too pretty for his own good.
A sound escapes his chest, something caught between a moan and a whine, and he nods against you, peeking up from beneath his lashes.Â
The carpet whispers as rises higher on his knees, mouth traveling up your mound and over the soft, sensitive skin below your belly button.Â
But you whimper at the loss, pushing his head back down.Â
His throat vibrates against you with a chuckle, but he follows you obediently. âOh, yeah? So definitely doing something for you then.â
âShut up,â you groan, but the sound dies out harshly when his mouth latches to your clit and sucks.Â
Hard.Â
You gasp, back arching as your core clenches instinctively.Â
Then, without warning, he pulls back.Â
You look at each other, chests heaving. Suddenly, youâre afraid heâs done. That you now have to give a report based on that.Â
âIs that it?â You squeak.Â
âWhat? God, you think I would just leave you like that? No, I was just thinkingââ He draws in a breath, like he needs to physically rearrange his thoughts. âWell, I havenât even kissed you yet.â
You just stare down at him, chest heaving, bare and slick from the waist down.Â
He takes one look at your face and clears his throat. âRight. Later.â He leans in again, but pauses before glancing up at you one more time. âYes?â
âYes, Harrington, I will kiss you, later,â you whine pitifully, canting your hips into his hands.Â
He seems pleased, and wastes no time picking up where he left off.Â
And this time, he doesnât tease you.Â
Your head hips back, a moan tearing from your throat as two of his fingers spear deep inside and his mouth closes over your clit.
As you threaten to fall apart beneath him, Steve just watches.Â
Every little whine and whimper. Every jerk and arch of your back. Every wriggle of your hips and curl of your toes.Â
He studies you like a map, surveying everything that makes you soak his face, everything that makes you clench hard around his fingers, his tongue, and finding new routes to all those destinations.Â
The tension between your hips pulls tighter, and when he reaches up to palm your breast, slipping his hand underneath your tank top, you wonder if he can feel it.Â
The way your heart slams against your ribs.Â
A silent, helpless confession. A call for him to see that this will not, in fact, be a one-time thing.Â
That youâve been thinking about thisâabout himâever since the day you moved in.Â
That ache builds like a tidal wave, threatening to break, and your fingers fly to his arms for stability. Heâs warm, and strong, and his muscles shift under his dress shirt.Â
Itâs honestly impressive how quickly he responds, how easily he reads every subconscious signal your body gives him. Because when that breathy, urgent whine starts to leave your lips, his thumb replaces his mouth on your clit, rubbing firm, perfect circles that drive you higher. And then he dips lower, tonguing your entrance, devouring you in thick, broad strokes, pushing you to the fucking brink.Â
âYeah, you gonna come for me?â He slurs against your aching cunt. âJust like that. Thatâs it. Iâve got youâmmhmââ
The second his tongue spears deep inside, the tidal wave breaks.Â
Your moan fills your quiet apartment, and you nearly come off the couch with the intensity of it. The rush is unlike anything youâve felt before. You have no option but to surrender fully to it as it pulls you under, shamelessly riding your orgasm out on Steveâs tongue.
Steveâs ready for it though. He goes with you easily as your hips rise and fall, strong hands holding you to his mouth, unwilling to let you slide away.Â
When the pulsing eventually fades to shuttering jolts, he pulls back, but his hands stay on your hips, caressing you softly, bringing you back down to earth.Â
You bite your lip, looking down at him panting between your knees. Your body aches, but in a good way. Like you need more, but somehow, it still wonât ever be enough.Â
âGod, Steveââ you whine, but youâre cut off by him lunging up across your body and pressing his lips to yours.Â
You laugh into his mouth, tasting yourself on his tongue as he kisses you eagerly.Â
âYou have no idea how long Iâve been waiting to do that.â He murmurs, pulling back a little.
Something catches in your chest at his confession, and you thread your fingers through his hair, pulling him back down for another kiss.Â
This one is different.Â
Deeper, and softer, andâŠmeaningful.Â
He sinks back down onto his knees, squeezing your thigh, your waist, like youâre something precious.Â
âSo, tell me , honestly, was it good?â He urged, gazing up at you.
You blink dumbly, throughly flushed. âYeah, uhâŠno notes.â
He smirks. âYeah, thatâs what I thought. Five out of five stars.â
âI donât know, Harrington. That literally means no room for improvement.â Youâre not sure his ego is ready for that.Â
âOh?â His lips tilt in a crooked smile that makes you want to kiss him again. âWhat would you have me do to earn that fifth star, huh?â
His lids go heavy as you tighten your hold on his hair and urge his mouth back down where you want it.Â
âYou could do it again.â
a/n: It's my canon that his date, Cindy, was just hung up on her ex, and Steve was the unlucky rebound that night. Plus, Steve wasn't that into it. Because he was thinking about you, obviously. Also, here is the fluffy version sister fic if you care lol
ᄫᥠdividers by @cursed-carmine| steve masterlist | drop by my desk
hi guys! I'm unemployed again and have a lot of free time in hand, feel free to send new fresh requests for me to write cause i miss writing on here âĄ
is the commission community on tumblr alive whatsoever? i was wondering if i should start doing a few commissions and i wanna know if tumblr is the right way to go?
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Oh my God I miss tumblr so much i just started a 9 hour job at a clinic like a week ago and it leaves me soo exhausted I MISS WRITING I MISS READING I MISS MY MAN MY BABY STEVEđđđđđ
Imao stranger things stans keep talking about ships when actually we should talk about how the main female character got nerfed and sidelined to prop up the male character (Will)
They gave Eleven's WHOLE storyline to him, even the fucking rivalry with Henry and the friendship with Max