FOUR - DRAGONLESS DRUNK.
"For fuck sake Aemond!"
Laenora Velaryon cursed into the wind as the tears of her sorrow poured down her cheeks. She had never cursed herself so harshly, so much as she did that day, never felt herself speak such dim words especially to that of her kin. Especially not to her favourite uncle.
She'd never meant to hurt him.
She loved her Uncle Aemond so dearly, he had always been leagues above Aegon in her eyes and the young boy had always been ever so gentle with her, and yet still that day she was anything but gentle with him. Commanding him around, bringing him to tears, making him feel guilt for wanting a dragon, the same way she did, how could she have been so callous?
She wanted more than anything to go back to Aemond and apologise, to take him to see Vhagar and then sneak to his chamber for one of their talks later that eve but her pride was her enemy and as always she couldn't allow herself to throw it away.
"What have you done?" She whimpered, her cries carried away on Driftmark's winds.
Grains of coarse sand made home in her eyes and her hair whipped her around the face as she ran down the stone staircase towards the beach. She ran as far as she could, until she was out of sight and her legs practically gave way beneath her and the child began to sob, not quite understanding why but only knowing that she needed to. Her small body had never sobbed so hard.
"Laenora is that you?"
"Aemond! I-" she wiped her eyes desperately, only for when she opened them again to be met with the sight of her eldest uncle, peeking around the corner with a bottle of wine in hand.
"Gosh you mustn't compare me to that little twat, seriously."
"He's not a twat." She stood to her feet, looming over Aegon with animosity in her stare. The Targaryen prince had never seen anything quite like it.
"Protecting your husband as always I see."
"What are you doing?"
"What does it look like?" He shrugged drunkenly
Laenora studied the thin sheen of stickiness around her uncle's lips, almost for a second too long, and witnessed the way he clutched the glass in his fist, tipping it back as if he'd never be blessed with doing so again. He was drunk once again.
"You're a state Aegon." She told him before finding pews on the same stone steps. His clothed leg brushed against her skirts.
"Forgive me for not being one to enjoy a funeral. It's morbid truly."
"Tis my Aunt you speak of."
"I hate all funerals Laenora." He slurred, rolling his eyes of blue. "Not just your aunt's."
"You must know drink is not the answer to everything uncle. I can hear it in your words and smell it on your breath."
"No god has ever answered to my whims, niece, but wine has never failed me. Perhaps you could use some in a time like this, feigning strength and happiness for your bastard brothers and sham of a father."
"Laenor Velaryon will always be my father." The Raven haired girl hissed, flames licking her every syllable.
The elder watched the tears pool in her eyes once more despite her feigned attempt at anger, and suddenly an unfamiliar feeling crept in, and Aegon found himself in utter fear that she would flee from him too.
"Do you cry for me?" He asked
Before Laenora could even understand what was happening Aegon was suddenly right beside her, his black cape fluttered in the wind and wrapped around her shoulders and his eyes trained on her like the fury of dragon fire. Lae found herself observing him in a way she never had before, seeing the sorrow in his eyes masked by a drunken haze and in that same drunken haze he took her hand up in his grasp, squeezing it tightly as if he may never again.
"Laenora I-" His eyes focused on their intertwined palms. "I apologise."
"If I do not carry this burden then who must it be? No one else holds the strength to carry the weight of death. Certainly not my father of all, nor my grandparents. It's all fucked Aegon."
"I may be able to aide you as of yet. Care for a glass?"
"I don't drink."
"Suit yourself." He spoke broadly, readying the bottle to meet his lips once more.
The Velaryon girl couldn't describe what came over her in that moment but before she even knew it she felt the cold grip of the glass pressed to her own lips and the liquid inside burn the back of her throat. The child fought hard not to spit it back up and instead focused on the warmth that pooled in her belly with every gulp, relishing in it in fact. The bitter taste soon became an easy price to pay.
"Niece."
"Stay quiet Aegon."
She wiped her tears with the dark velvet of her sleeve, tipping the bottle back further and further, until the burn was almost too much to bear.
"Steady."
This time Aegon's free hand willingly reached across and grabbed her own, pulling it away from the bottle until it fell from her grip completely and rolled across the sand coated ground.
"Why is it you seek in your uncles endeavours my dear niece?" He spoke, standing the bottle back up beside himself.
"I just needed a moment away."
"Sorrow is heavy on us all Laenora... Come, let us drown in our cups together. Have you drank before?" His grip on her grew tighter.
"Never."
"Take my hand my niece, let me be your first."
His thumb brushed the back of her palm and just like that Laenora fell under her uncle's spell.
***
"I was always so fond of you as a child."
"I don't recall such a fondness? You used to jest upon me at every turn."
"And yet I made sure you were mine to jest upon Laenora. Never another's, but mine alone."
"Ah yes, that was until you became a drunk."
"And look at you now my niece! We're two of a kind. Besides, I'm not the one who's a dragonless drunk."
Aegon's words sat heavy like a blanket of ice upon Laenora's chest. She felt the sand beneath her fingertips, grains coursing their way into her dresses and embedding into her skin. She clutched handfuls, watching them pour away just as the life force of her dragon once had, the toils of her past met her eyes and she quickly turned away from Aegon, her sights settled on the bottle beside her.
She took a heavy sip, easing her woes. "Contrary to what your mother may have told you a dragon was born to me... hatched beside myself in my cradle."
"Then why is it you've been without one all these years?"
"Morrax... 'Twas what your father called him. He didn't survive until the morrow. Mother said his fire was extinguished before he'd even opened an eye."
"I'm sorry Laenora."
"There's no need uncle. I cannot miss what I hardly grew to know. There is only a void."
"You know... Sunfyre is growing larger by the day. Soon enough he'll be big enough to saddle two."
"I'll have my own dragon by then."
"And which dragon may that be my Princess?"
"The Cannibal." She whispered, her gaze fixed upon the horizon, "I know it to be true."
"A wild dragon?"
"Yes uncle."
"I'll believe it when I see it."
Aegon scoffed, letting out a teasing laugh that stung his niece much worse than he'd thought and the boy climbed to his feet, emptying the last contents of the bottle into the sand.
"Do you think if I threw this far enough it would reach Pentos?" He joked, raising his fist ready to launch the glass into the unknown.
"Don't." She caught his arm, "My Aunt resides there now. Let her rest."
Aegon stared upon her for a moment, wondering what little harm it may cause if he was to kiss his niece, feeling the weight of her palm upon his skin and her brown eyes consuming him. He told himself it was just the wine and fought away the preposterous feeling, telling himself he was betrothed, that his niece was simply his niece. But even his drunken mind did not believe it to be so.
"Why are you looking at me like that?"
"Nothing." He shook his head, "Nothing at all..."
***
"Aegon you must be quiet."
"Or what? You'll have my head?
"Aegon!" She giggled, shoving him by his arm.
"You're drunk niece."
Aegon had never looked at his niece in such a manner than he did that night, and Laenora knew it. She knew it all too well. But her first bout of drunkenness had lead her astray, allowing her to ignore such details; the minor touches, the giggling, the longing gazes.
It was no way for a Prince to look upon his niece.
In a moment of thoughtlessness, the older boy swept Lae off the ground, picking her up by her waist and swinging her in circles around him like one would a child. He held her so close to him, closer than he ever had before, gazing at her wistfully as she shrieked in his embrace. The boy had never known he could feel so much for his kin, not until that very moment.
"I've never known you to be so relaxed."
"Let me down!"
"As you wish."
In an instant the Prince dropped Laenora with full force, almost allowing her to hit the unforgiving stone beneath them before tearing her back up into arms reach.
"I have you, don't worry niece." He smirked, coming to a complete stop. "This is your door I believe. Care if I come inside?"
"People will whisper uncle."
"Let them."
"I shall give them nothing to whisper of. Goodnight Aegon."
"I can't persuade you?"
"Not this time." She leaned through the crevice of her door, smiling upon him. "Goodnight Aegon?"
"Goodnight Laenora." He sighed.
Laenora watched with adoring eyes as Aegon fled down the darkened passage of the castle. A feeling of contempt flooded her body and when she finally saw his face again in her mind she no longer felt disgust or hatred, only a certain giddiness.
With a grin on her lips the child made for her bed, pulling her chamber door shut behind her without a thought. That was until a hand slammed hard against the wood and the girl felt adrenaline shoot through her veins and terror in her heart.
"Laenora." Corlys's voice echoed across her chamber walls.
"Grandfather... The hour is late, what ever is the matter?"
"My dear girl, I have lost mine own daughter. I shall not lose my granddaughter too."
"Corlys you're not making sense-"
"Do not entertain yourself with false Princes, false Targaryens." He suddenly made movement towards her, grasping her face tightly in his hand, "You shall be heir one day."
"I understand."
"I only yearn for what is best for you."
"Tis okay grandfather." Lae swallowed the lump in her throat, slowly removing his hand.
"I do not mean to frighten you." His voice quivered, and in one swift movement he lay a burning kiss to the crown of his Granddaughter's head before exiting her chambers, slamming the door behind him so loudly that it shook the foundations of her walls.
The child allowed the weight of her Grandsire's words to fall from her shoulders and instead shedded herself of her clothes, slipping beneath the sheets of her feather bed and allowing an unfamiliar warmth to fill her belly. Unsure as to whether the origin was all the wine she'd drank, or Aegon; she fell asleep with a cursed smile on her lips.