The Greens were still reeling from the loss of their King, Aegon, but a new one had been crowned and they all followed their new leader blindly. Aemond had proven a worthy leader before and all of them believed in him, more so than they even believed in Aegon. Winterfell was less than a fortnight away and their encounters with the Blacks became more and more frequent. The new King and Queen had received word from the Queen Mother, Alicent, who informed them of rumours going around the capital. Rumours which claimed the Blacks would soon fly there and take it from them. She urged them to come back, turn away from the North and remain in the Red Keep for a time, but they refused, their eyes were set on the northern seat of House Stark and the people who lived in it.
"My Queen," Ser Rayford Ironleaf, one of their newly appointed King's Guard, began. "The King has sent me to fetch you, he's waiting for you in his tent."
Rhea turned to him and nodded, following the man from the outpost she had been in all day to her husband's tent. Ser Rayford let the two of them alone after Aemond gave him a new task for the remainder of the day. Rhea had her arms crossed and looked at him expectantly.
"What is it?" She asked, busying herself as she sharpened her dagger.
Aemond smiled with a cocky look on his face, he walked behind her and slid his arms around her back, letting them rest on her as he rested his chin on top of her head.
"Nothing, in truth," he admitted and she grumbled in a discontented way, which made him laugh.
"There's nothing to laugh about, Aemond. If you feel like you have nothing to do, it is your concern. I, on the contrary have plenty of things to do." She said a bit displeased but a smile crept her way to her lips as she turned to look at him. "What did you want, really?"
She leaned on the table behind her, both of her hands on it as Aemond's hands remained on her sides. He smiled again. Gods, she loved his crooked smile.
"I just really enjoy how it sounds when I ask people to go fetch their Queen, my Queen," he admitted in an audacious tone.
Rhea shook her head with a sheepish smile.
"You do, do you?" She asked seductively. "Well, duly noted, then, my King."
He languorously wrapped his arms around her again and planted soft kisses on her lips, smiling as he felt her melt under his touch. While he used to dislike her calling him her prince, as he knew she did it to piss him off most of the time, except when she did it in bed, he thoroughly enjoyed being called her King. It awoke something in him, something primal.
"Don't you love it? Hearing them call you that, bow to you, as they always should have?" Aemond asked, a bit more serious this time.
"I don't, actually," Rhea admitted and continued as she saw her husband's confused expression. "I have done nothing to deserve the title, the reverence which comes with it. I fight with these men, I don't need them to bow their heads for me, I just need them to keep their heads."
She looked serious again, inching away from him ever so slightly. He lifted an eyebrow and grinned.
"What?" She asked.
"I can think of a few ways to make you like it, love," he answered and, in a swift movement, sat her on the table behind her, her legs spread and his hand already sliding towards their middle. She smiled against his kiss, wrapping her arms around his neck, pulling him to her.
"My Queen," he whispered over and over again his her ears as his fingers finally reached between her legs and she moaned, tilting her head back as he circled there. He had a devilish grin on his lips and he knew she was ready for him already. "Like it better already, don't you?" he inquired confidently. She nodded as she pulled him to her closer.
"When it's out of your lips, I do," she panted.
"I know the feeling," he chortled. "I know exactly what you mean."
With these words, he slid her trousers off her legs and looked up at her from in between her legs, his tongue toying with her labia as she squirmed under his hot breath. After making her impatiently wait, he finally put his lips on her clit and she cried out in pleasure, the release she felt was incomparable.
"I want to do that for the rest of my life," he grinned as he came up and kissed her. She was out a breath and beads of sweat rolled on her forehead.
"Please, do", she chuckled and helped him get out of his own trousers. Placing himself at her entrance he thrust inside her, her fingers digging in his arms.
"If you weren't already my wife, I would ask you to marry me again every day," he puffed vigorously.
As both of them reached their climax, they rolled off the table they were on, fell to the floor and erupted into cheerful laughter.
"I'd say yes every day, Aemond. Just so I can relish in the pride I feel when I call you husband," Rhea cuddled up to her King.
"Have you warmed up to the idea of being called Queen, then?" Aemond asked as he wrapped his arms around her and kissed the top of her head.
"Hmm," she paused to think. "As long as I'm your Queen, I don't care what everyone else calls me."
"You were my Queen long before I was even crowned, my love."
Both of them stayed in silence, enjoying their comfortable bubble a little while longer before going back to their mournful reality.
They felt Aegon's absence more than ever, especially in the evenings. In the last week before he died, the three of them gathered every night around a fire and reminisced about their shared past until their lids could no longer support the weight of their tiredness, chatting away the hours light-heartedly and they were moments the new King and his Queen would cherish until their last days.
Winterfell was only a day away when Aemond heard the news the Blacks had sent their men to storm the Red Keep and the Dragonpit in King's Landing. He had received a raven stating his mother was taken prisoner, along with Daeron, and they were being taken to Winterfell as well. It would be a family reunion, then. Although not a happy one. Had he been the same as he was before, he would have flown to the Stark seat himself and set it ablaze on his own, without a single thought. But as a King he couldn't just act recklessly any more.
"Let me do it, then," Rhea urged her husband as she walked fast, trying to catch up with him. "Send Sapphire, and me, we'll surround them and force them out."
He turned to look at her, stopping in his tracks and a loud sigh escaped him as he pinched the base of his nose.
"Rhea, my love," he started irritably. "I have said this countless times now, I will not send the Queen of the seven fucking kingdoms to discuss with the enemy. I have done it once, and I will not be doing it again."
Rhea groaned angrily.
"I won't be going there to discuss anything, Aemond."
"Exactly. You won't be going there, full stop."
Both of them were already stubborn before, but they were being particularly stubborn on that day. The stared down at each other, flustered.
"Your brother, your mother are in their custody, who knows what they're going to do to them," Rhea spoke again softer. "They killed the dragons remaining in King's Landing, there isn't much more we can do to stop them from actually getting the upper hand and deposing you, Aemond."
He sighed again, he knew she was right, of course.
"I won't loose you because we took to long to act, love. I won't loose you at all. I'll kill Rhaenyra myself if I have to." Rhea spoke hurriedly, wiping angry tears from her eyes.
Aemond tilted his head, taken aback by his wife's words.
"You wouldn't-"
"To save you? I'd kill my own self, Aemond."
He closed the space between them and held her close to him for a little while, kissing the top of her head vigorously.
"You're still not flying there on your own, Rhea," Aemond concluded as he let go of his wife.
She let out a groan and smiled softly at him. They would attack the northern seat of House Stark the next day. They would fight the most decisive battle yet, and they hoped to all the gods they would live to see another day.
"If today's our last day together, let us not fight, my love. Let us enjoy the other's company," Aemond offered, one of his hands still clinging to her. If he lost her in battle, he would go mad, he knew it. He would never want to live in a world where she wasn't, he didn't even want to imagine one.
Rhea gulped as she tried to push her anguish away, trying not to think of the next day, trying not to think of all the things she could loose then.
"Today is not our last day together, Aemond. Not if I have a say in it," Rhea stated resolutely.