Archive of Our Own ^beta

Chapter Text

you are his fire. he's seen you around the keep laughing with your maidens, he gets jealous because you're not talking to him. you two were inseparable since birth, it has been said that both babe cries could be heard all around kings landing. when you were just a babe you were smiling and being vocal, you were a healthy babe and rhaenyra enjoyed that.

lucerys, aegon, and jacerys arranged a small surprise for aemond one day as you were training your dragons; you were eager to see what it was and he appeared to be dreading what was to come. in order to deliver aemond's "gift," luke goes after it and pulls out a pig with makeshift wings on its back. you bubbled down at the sight of it the boys so cruelly teased him for they claled in the 'pink dread'.

"sorry, aemond" you grazed your hand on his and he didnt move, he was motionless and you felt bad like you've played the prank on him.

in 120 AC your aunt laena passes. your father is distraught, and so are your cousins rhaena and baela, they have lost a mother and perhaps a father as well. your great uncle had no time for mourning though he was there, present. you walked towards your cousins and gave them a big hug holding them for as long as you could, til you ran out of breath from being suffocated by the silk cloth of the dresses you bare.

"i wish you the best of luck loves, laena loves you both dearly even in afterlife." you smile as they wipe their tears with their cover up and leave them with their grandmother to find aemond. it was a few hours before you gave in and stopped looking for aemond, he didnt intend to be found obviously.

it was night, the sky black as a crow, you got dressed in your night gown and snuggled your way to bed when a loud roar erupted through the skies of kings landing and you ran to your barred window and saw vhagar flying? what? that couldn't be, you looked and looked to see who was riding vhagar and it was aemond. you gasped in your chambers covering your mouth. was he to disrespect baela and rhaena like this? does he know what he has done? maybe you should go back to sleep and deny ever seeing aemond on your aunts dragon, maybe that was the best. but some reason you couldn't. you threw on some slippers and slipped your way from your chambers and made your way down to the entrance where jace, lucerys, baela and rhaena already greeted aemond.

"it's him."

"it's me" he's smug with the response.

"vhagar is my mother's dragon"

"your mother's dead, and vhagar has a new rider now."

"she was mine to claim."

"then you should have claimed her!,"

"maybe your cousins can find you a pig to ride.. it would suit you."

before you could even get a peep out rhaena lunges for aemond and aemond throws her to the ground, baela comes and punches aemond in the face, he wails in pain as he's hunched over. he comes up and punches baela back.

"come at me again and i shall feed you to my dragon!" he spits nonsense at baela

both girls are on the ground now you're staring at him with disbelief gleaming in your eyes. he's so rude, one dragon and now he's all high and mighty what a dick.

you help baela up and dust her dress off and jace goes for a punch as well, they both are in combat for a while before aemond kicks him to the ground. luce has his eyes set on aemond

"luce, no!" too lae before luce is shrieking in aemond face as he grabs his garments and aemond lands a punch to his face. you run to his side and scold him just like his mother.

"lucerys, i told you no! you are too young to be fighting!!"

"aemond, baela, rhaena, jace, please stop this! you guys are absurd to be fighting over a dragon."

they continue fighting anyway you try to pry one another off of each other and it doesnt work, you land back on your ass every time. you feel like giving up, let them squabble while you walk away like you havent witnessed this fight occur from the start.

they continue to fight aemond one by one until they've got him on his back, they punch and kick like he is a traitor of the realm. aemond pushes jace off first and collides rhaena with baela, luce tries but gets choked by his hand. aemond finds a rock in the sand and raises it to strike lucery's head. gods.. does this HAVE to happen now.

"you will die screaming in flames just as your father did." "bastards." aemond states through closed teeth

"my father's still alive." lucerys breathes.

"aemond! please let him go! he has done no harm nor wrong, he is only a small boy aemond!" you scream trying to see any mercy that was left to offer

"he doesnt know does he, lord strong" with that word jace whips out his knife and steadies for an attack, aemond kicks lucerys out the way and jace swings the knife the best he can and aemond attacks with a stone to the head and he watches as both boys are on the ground, hurt. you can't hold back anymore as you pick up your dress and run towards the abandoned knife and lunge towards aemond jace saw what youwere doing and through sand at him and you slashed upwards not looking where you were slashing only to hear aemond wail and him holding his eye while blood drips from the wound freely. you drop the knife and cover your mouth, just as harrold westerling enters

"cease this at once!" you stand so still hoping and praying to the seven gods would see pity on you, that this wasn't real and you didn't do this to him. gods was it bad. be good to me gods, dont let it be bad.

"gods be good" was what was heard from ser westerling. you fucked up.

standing in the living quarters the court is gathered as king viserys starts questioning anyone. you stand head low dwindling your thumbs waiting for your mother to arrive. the indistinct whispers get to you. you are having trouble with accepting reality at the moment that you space out. viserys starts yelling at both night watchers that swore an oath to protect his blood. alicent, the queen asks the maester if the wound would heal. he responds with an answer just not the right answer alicent was looking for she sits back in disbelief, grieving the lost eye of her son. alicent starts to question her eldest asking where he was when they attacked going as far as to slap him in the act.

doors and more doors open fast and shut slowly as lord corlys and princess rhaenys comfort their grandchildren. while your mother comes in from another door rushing to each of your sides, she examines you, jace, and lucerys.

"who did this?"

"they attacked me!" aemond spits. lies. he spews lies, that's how he gets his way around the keep.

"he attacked baela!"

"he broke luke's nose!"

the sound of everyone yelling nonsense threw you off and you felt dizzy, this was giving you a headache. you couldn't help but try to ground yourself squeezing the table like it owes you money. the bickering and shouting goes on for some time, and now king viserys has had enough of it and wants the truth so he picks on you to tell the truth of what occurred. you sputter for a bit sure that a puff of smoke came out of your mouth as well.

"well.. i saw aemond riding vhagar as his. it was a lot, i tried to stop them but... i ended up doing worse damage."

there was a pause in the court. everyone looks at you in shock. a girl the age of 10 slashed the young princes eye out, you would get no hate but aemond would. getting wounded by a mouthy little girl was not going to sound good if the story was told.

"my child.. you slashed aemonds eye out?" alicent looks dead in your tracks and so does everyone waiting and devoting on the answer that you will give.

"yes, your grace, i did slash his eye out..unintentionally"

"unintentionally? you are to blame for my son's eye being permanently lost; you did not do it accidentally; you have gouged his eye out over an insult to your brothers. don't you feel ashamed, child?"

you appreciated the queens company when you ran into her while creeping about the red keep with aemond, but her words are filled with malice and hatred that you have done this to her youngest son.

"if there is no justice for my son.... i shall have your eye princess. an eye for an eye"

your head whips up immediately when she said those words.

"wh-what? you cant take my eye!"

as you started to weep and worried that your eye would be gouged out in front of everyone, rhaenyra hid you behind herself to protect you. all you have prayed for since this incident is pity from the gods, which you are tremblingly asking for. it was an unfortunate accident and it wouldn't happen again because you didn't mean to do it. you are repeating the phrase "gods be good" in your head. when aemond turns to face you from his seat, his stomach rolls, his chest drops, and his arms fall limp. he doesnt like this feeling. he wants to protest but wouldn't that be a bit weird on his part?

viserys and alicent go on about their son,

"alicent, this matter is finished." the king starts to walk away but alicent reaches for his knife and charges for you. screams are heard as your mother gets up from her position and holds alicent back from you. people crowd trying to see what will happen next.

"you've gone too far." your mother states

"i?, what have i done but what was expected of me? forever upholding the kingdom, the family, the law. while you flout to do as you please."

"alicent let her go!"

"where is duty? where is sacrifice? it's trampled under your pretty foot again."

you wish that she would before anyone gets hurt, you're watching it from behind your mother. you dont need this today and you'll never need it ever. you just want to go to sleep in your warm chambers and forget this ever happened.

"release my mother" you say staring at the queen and the dagger back and forth. she looks down at you, she looks tired but you could give 2 less shits about what she feels right now. you'll give her some sympathy is she takes back her charge and retreats the weapon to the king.

"you've taken my sons eye, you incompetent little girl. you feel entitled to take my sons eye."

"exhausting wasn't it?" your mother interrupts

"hiding beneath the cloak of your own righteousness, but.. now they see you as you are" your mother whispered those last words before she let go of alicent and she slashed your mothers wrist, your mother backed into lord corlys as she holds her wound looking at alicent. it's silent and quiet.

"do not mourn me, mother. it was a fair exchange." aemond starts.

"i may have lost an eye but i have gained a dragon."

"this proceeding is at an end." the king looks to his wife and walks away as the kings guard follow him to the throne.

as morning comes, your mother is getting work done on her wound by the maester. your father comes throught he door hugging you tightly examining you like your mother did. he kisses your dried tears away and makes way to rhaenyra. you leave making way to your room as you see your maidens tidying up and packing your clothes to leave for dragonstone. plopped on your bed and readied yourself for the well earned slumber.

that same night you were supposed sleeping, you leave for dragonstone tomorrow but the rest of your family has fled back because of the incident. they were desperate to get out of there. a big wail was heard and you rushed down to the living quarters of your grandma and grandsire rhaenys and corlys. rhaenys is in hysteric as your fathers burnt body comes into sight. you feel weak, like and corlys hugs you whispering look away but you cant... why your father?

Chapter Text

you're helping jace with his high valyrian, correcting him faster than the maester is doing. you see the maester getting annoyed, it's a cheeky and fun thing to do in your opinion. you rarely have any sisters on this island, you've grown to like dragon riding and sparring with your brothers more than dresses, hair and jewelry. your mother walks in, her belly small but big. you greet her.

"sȳz ñāqes muña" (good morning, mother.) you curtsy and look at jace with a grin, you bully him just by your presence because he can not understand nor speak high valyrian well, oh but you do.

"sȳz ñāqes ñuha jorrāelagon" (good morning, my love.) your mother approaches you and gives you a kiss to the head and walks to jace and you follow suit.
'dranot"

"dranot. dranot." jace repeats he's trying to remember what it means and you're grinning like an idiot.

"having troubles jace?" your tone is mocking and your mother shoots you a glare and you tighten up.

"uh.. the end?"

"the mouth." your mother corrects him and he's pacing back and forth telling himself that he knew that, the denial is heavy. he repeats trying to get the word in his head permanently. you brother joffery is also present in the room with the maiden. both you and your mother watch jace try to keep up with his valyrian.

"perhaps thats enough for this morning."

"no, no. i..i want to keep going. masester."

your mother accepts defeat and continues to watch jace struggle with the language of his people.

"guesi misenakson aegon undas." the maester speaks again. jace paces, your mother strides along the table, you stood in the shadows and watched as he struggled with the most easiest sentence in high valyrian created.

"jace, that's not hard to translate.."

"aegon ordered that the trees should be.... killed." he says this with the confidence left in him during this session, his arms spread and he hears his mother correct him and you giggle pushing yourself off the wall and patting him on his back as a joke.

"kesā ȳdragon rōvēgrie valyrīha mēre tubis lēkia. pāsan isse ao." (i forgot what this meant)

"what? what does that mean Y/N?? mother? what does it mean."

he glances about in search of an answer while you laugh even harder at him. oh, how you enjoy using a language that your brothers cannot grasp. you stop giggling as a door opens, revealing your stepfather entering. he is greeted by your mother, who examines him from head to toe. daemon reads the scroll before handing it to her. you leave the room to play with your younger brothers after your mother dismisses the other guests. according to what you hear from the maidens, after daemon and your mother finished speaking, your uncle wants to cast doubt on your younger brothers succession to the driftmark throne.

your family arrive back to kings landing after a few days at sea. kings landing looks dark and gloomy from afar, abandoned even. the scary eery feeling you feel when you realized you had to see aemond targaryen again after 6 year and you taking his eye. you cursed you would never step foot on kings landing again until your mother takes her throne but your uncle wants to start absolute nonsense so now it's mandatory.

"all hail rhaenyra of house targaryen, princess of dragonstone and heir to the iron throne and her royal consort prince daemon targaryen."

as you exit the carriage with your mother and step-father, you can hear bells ringing. lord caswell is the only person present to welcome you. aaemon and rhaenyra leave to go look for the king. you remained by your brothers side as they made their way to the practice field, recalling all the times they had fought against aegon, aemond, and ser. harwin. everyone is staring at you and your brothers since the three of you don't resemble each other at all. you are recognized to be ser laenor's child, whom he considers to be a gift from the gods. ser laenor was pleased that rhaenyra was able to bear at least one of his offspring. the three of you approach toward the weapons that are set out while ignoring the noise that fills the yard. jace sprints to another area of the yard to touch the damaged wall.

"see? i told you this would still be here." he shows you and luke the indent on the wall.

"what's that?" you ask curiously looking at the damage the wall took.

"when we were younger lucerys thought he had enough strength to swings ser cristons morning star. fascinating it was." jace and luke chuckles at the memory.

luke takes a quick glance at the old people huddled looking at him. you're dead eyeing everyone until they looked away, when it came to the rumors about your kin fire irrupted in you, you were dragonless but still had the gaze of a deadly dragon.

"what's your problem?"

"everyone's staring at us."

"who cares, luke." you roll your eyes, arms folded against your chest. you're annoyed these old hags don't have a life outside of gossiping about children. so badly wanted a dragon to just say dracarys to everyone in the field, it would give you relief. jace tries to make luke smile but he's really insecure about his title to anything, luke cares about the common wealth's opinion you fear.

"no one would question my heir to driftmark...." you lean in searching all over his face. he stutters over
..if i looked more like ser laenor velaryon than ser harwin strong, look at our dear sister, she looks exactly like laenor jace, we are mere outcasts." luke spits venom with those words, you know he doesnt mean to but it had to be done. you rub his shoulder hoping to give him a bit of closure and reassurance that he is not an outcast nor jace.

"it doesnt matter what they think."

there is cheers from the crowd in the back of them and you raise your head to see whos fighting. you follow your brothers, picking up your dress you wish you were a boy wearing pants and a cloak instead of this heavy red dress bestowed upon you by your mother when she was younger. you see aemond and criston sparring. you hold your breath wishing that aemond will not seek you in this crowd filled with little people. you continue to watch aemond dodge ser cristons attacks. jace and luke look back at your and you're staring at the practice fight.

"maybe we should-" luke is interrupted by aemond, he's got ser criston by the neck with his sword.

"good job my prince, you will be winning tourneys in no time." ser criston congratulated the boy

"i dont give a shit about tourneys. nephews... and niece have you come to train?"

as jace squeezes your palm, you inhale air. even though you are the oldest, you feel like your younger siblings are protecting you, even though it should be the other way around. although you want it to happen, they do not want aemond to approach you. you can see that when aemond shoots his eye at you, it is dilated with adrenaline, whereas yours is filled with fire and venom ready to strike. you feel stripped and exposed to this man as aemond follows your curves with his glance, his lips slick with saliva. he approaches you as your brothers prepare to withdraw their weapons.

"nice grēza, princess." (greza = dress)

aemond's mouth quivers at your presence. he's starving and misses the connection you two shared before you removed his eye from its socket. it was enjoyable to him and bittersweet. He coveted it. maybe it was time to renew your relationship now that you're here. to him, your curves are a work of art. your hair was braided with the rest of it down in the back, and you were wearing that red dress. he recalls how frequently you braided his short hair. he objected, saying it was too short, yet you always made it "work."

"kirimvose, uncle. ao vīlībagon sȳz, though ao gōntan daor vīlībagon sȳz enough syt aōha laes naejot sagon ojūdan ondoso iā riña" (thank you, uncle. you fight good, though you did not fight good enough for your eye to be lost by a girl.) your stomach flips in the worst manner conceivable as his mouth is open and his eyes enlarge in response to your audacity. aemond is tall, but not frightening—at least not to you. while he is speaking to you, his shadow falls on you, but you weren't paying attention because you had already crept up on him to feel his body heat. I'm sure you can already feel it.

"nyke ivestragī ñuha guard ilagon kesrio syt īlē merely iā byka riña pār, dārilaros." (i let my guard down because you were merely a small girl then, princess.) you laugh at his reply. a soldier shouts to open the gate, showing your uncle vaemond, though you wish you could talk more. you look at him as he marches into the yard and despise him for questioning if luke's heir to driftmark should feel entitled to the throne since his brother is ill. the next day everyone is called to the throne room to hear and discuss petitions of the rightful heir to driftmark. otto hightower, the hand to the king is standing on the steps of the iron throne as he speaks.

"though it is the great hope of this court that lord corlys velaryon survive his wounds, we gather here with the grim task of dealing wit the succession of driftmark. as hand, i speak the king's voice on this and all other matters."

otto wraps it up with a sit to the iron throne. "the crown will now hear the petitions." everybody is uninterested in this quarrel that your uncle has brought up for no reason. you wish to be anywhere but here, listening to politics bore you like no other. otto calls on vaemond and lets him speak. "my queen. my lord hand. the history of our noble houses extends beyond the seven kingdoms to the days of old valyria."

vaemond goes on about both houses targaryen and velaryon. your mother interrupts him, she is mad with anger that he would even question the heir to the drifmark throne. "what do you know of velaryon blood, princess?" vaemond turns towards your mother giving her his full attention.

"i could cut my veins and show you and you still wouldn't recognize it. you only have one child that is filled with velaryon blood."

he is talking about you, and only you and you know it. you suck in a breath and look at him, he's staring. aemond is staring at you. does he know vaemond is talking about you? "still, if her blood is spilled you would never see velaryon blood the way she is corrupted by the targaryen line she deals with." you cannot stand the way he trash talks you to your mother right in front of everyone. its embarrassing, really.

"i shall not have you spread such rumors about what blood i am filled with, uncle.. my parents are my parents and i will not have you question it. you are a ridiculous old man who's insecure that a younger boy will usurp your way to the throne. you. are. nothing." theres malice behind those words you don't care if it's not your turn to speak you just wish it to be over. you want out of family drama. the court is stunned at your response, they start to chatter about you but aemond just kept his eye trained on you. gods you could fold under pressure right now because of his glare.

the queen stares at you too, they all do. "princess Y/N you have no matter in this. this is about who is to be heir to driftmark, now if you will please wait while ser vaemond is still talking." the queen warns and you shut up while your uncle continues his useless rant. "this is about the furture and survival of my house, not yours." he finishes and looks at lucerys for a second. he turns towards the hand. "my queen, my lord hand. this is matter of blood and not ambition. i place the continuation of the survival of my house and my line above all. i humbly put myself before you as my brothers successor the lord of driftmark and lord of the tides." "thank you ser vaemond."

"daor vala kessa bow naejot ao" (no man will bow to you.) you whisper to yourself and daemon catches it and looks at you with his eyebrow raised and laughed a bit. "princess rhaenyra, you may now speak for your son, lucerys velaryon." your mother walks towards the center just like your uncle did and starts her petition arguing that her son is a legitimate heir to driftmark. doors opening interrupt your mothers sentence and the guard announces your grandfather, the king.

"king viserys of house targaryen, the first of his name, king of the andals and the rhoynar, and the first men, lord of the seven kingdoms and protector of the realm." the king is ill and unable to support himself. he spends the entire day nodding off in bed, unaware of his surroundings. he preferred you over his children by alicent since you were his first grandchild from rhaenyra, and he played with you when he was still able to walk. you feel hurt when your grandfather, with whom you helped create the rest of the westoros sculpture he has in the middle of his room, he had mentioned balerion and how huge he was before he died. before he found himself in this situation, he had prayed to the gods for a dragon for you, and now you can't look at him for more than a second without tears welling up in your eyes. everyone bows their heads together, including you; as his relatives, you are not allowed to disregard the age-old traditions.

people are at a loss for what to do as he hobbles ever closer to the iron throne. you nearly rushed to his side to assist him, but daemon grabbed your arm firmly. the king is examining the crowd. he stops at the stairs of the throne and look at his hand.

"i will sit the throne today."

"your grace."

the hand nods as he moves away from the king. the king is groaning at every step he lifts himself upon. the guard came to his rescue but the king refused his service. it is a struggle to watch so you turn your head the other way and block out the noise. he's almost there when his crown falls off his head and he is there for a minute before daemon comes and picks it up. "i said i'm fine." the king looks p thinking it is a guard again but it's his brother. "ah.." "come on." daemon guides his brother up the stairs while holding his crown in hand. the king makes it to the throne and rhaena taps your shoulder and gives you a smile. the king shifts in the throne seat and damon places the crown back on his head and retreats back to his side of the court. "i must.. admit.. my confusion. i do not understand why petitions are being heard over a settled succession. the only one present... who might offer keener insight into lord corlys's wishes, is the princess rhaenys."

"indeed, your grace."

the court stares as princess rhaenys takes center. "it was ever my husbands will that driftmark pass through ser laenor to his trueborn son... lucerys velaryon. his mind never changed. nor did my support of him. as a matter of fact the princess rhaenyra has just informed me of her desire to marry her sons jace and luke to lord corly's granddaughters, baela and rhaena." you felt a smile start to spread across your face as you turned to face rhaena, who was standing next to you, and offered her your best smile and squeezed her hand. you turned to face your brothers and grinned at them as well. when something that is celebratory occurs or arises, you are happy. you enjoy going out, sipping wine, and dancing with complete strangers. you were like a bright star in a chamber full of darkness because the court maintained its solemn silence, but your joy was short-lived when princess rhaenys started speaking again. "a proposal to which i heartly agree." 'well.. the matter is settled. again. i hearby reaffirm prince lucerys of house velaryon as heir to driftmark, the driftwood stone, and the next lord of the tides." your family is happy, projecting all smiles at the small victory they just won. vaemond stares at your family with disgust and hatred, he knows the secret your mother holds in her hands yet she doesnt care, she wants her kids to have fun and be happy with themselves.

"you break law... and centuries of tradition to install your daughter as heir. yet you dare tell me.. who deserves to inherit the name velaryon. no. i will not allow it."

" "allow it" ? do not forget yourself vaemond."

your uncle must be at lost for words as he stands there but you were mildly wrong. "THAT! that is no true velaryon, and certainly no nephew of mine. princess y/n might be my niece but her brothers are not my kin." he points to your brother. he spits malevolence. what was your uncle getting at exactly, everyone around the keep knew that jace and luke werent ser laenors. no one ever spread rumors about you because you were a spitting image of ser laenor and that made the situation even worse for your brothers. you never belittled them nor your mother. at the end of the day people can believe what they hear but only one person has the right answer to all the controversy and it was your mother. "go to your chambers. you have said enough." "lucerys is my true-born grandson. and you... are no more than the second son of driftmark." "you... may run your house as you see fit...but you will not decide the future of mine. my house survived the doom and a thousand tribulations besides. and gods be damned.. i will not see it ended on the account of this-"

"say it."

your stepfather says to vaemond, you knew what he wanted to say. "bastard" was the right term that everyone called your brothers, even your maidens. it was a dreadful topic and you hated the matter. it was quiet for mere seconds but you felt like it was a minute until your uncle screamed in the face of your mother and brothers. "her children...are bastards! and she.. is..a whore." he shouted with all his might. the crowd gasping, vaemond is really confident he would walk out of this situation unscathed. "i.. will have your tongue for that." no need for it. all the anger built up in you grabbed daemons sword and rushed towards the back of vaemond and you swung the sword towards his head slicing it right off. the body drops to the floor as you drop the sword staring at your uncles body and the blood leaking from the head he once had. how sad it was, yes but he deserved it. dark sister dripping with the stolen life of your once relative.

"he can keep his tongue."

"Y/N!!"

your mother rushes over to you and pushes you away from the body. "disarm her!!" "no need, i've dropped the weapon. prince daemon can retrieve dark sister." you're wiping your hands on your dress as they are sweaty with all the eyes projected to you. you look around and see aemond staring at you with his mouth agape looking at you then your dead uncle, he now knows how he lost his eye to this princess. he's enchanted. the king groans and flops down on the throne and the queen rushes to his side and so does his daughter, you flee in the chaos hoping to avoid a slap to the face from your mother later. you rush to the balcony of your old room but it is not your room. you do not know who's room this but you do not care you just need air.

a few minutes pass and aemond is walking to his room thinking about the way you looked angry as you wielded not your own weapon, you have an occurrence of not holding your own weapon and hurting people. the guard that is with him opens his door and bows his head as aemond heads inside his room. he sits in front of the fireplace with his legs crossed as he stares at nothing, collecting his thoughts. a breeze brushes past him he doesnt remember asking the maidens to open a window for him. stupid he thinks. he strides towards the window and looks as far as he can see and decides that he'll have one of the maidens to close it before bed but a sound from one of the walls he's next to makes a noise, now he's curious. he walks carefully to the wall and touches it. he doesnt know that the princess and heir to dragonstone is on the other side he's ready to pounce at what's behind. he draws his dagger from it's sheath and pushes on the wall and out you come with a yelp. as you fall aemond stares with a smile twitching at his mouth, he's trying hard to not smile at you, he loves a cherishes you but you don't need to know such information yet, he'll make it clear with actions. you immediately scrabble to get up but it's hard to with the heavy bundle of silk and everything else stuck to your body so aemond lends a helping hand, you dont take it at first but you accept defeat. aemond brings you to your feet in a swift move. theres silence, just...silence.

"princess y/n, i didnt expect you to be hiding or spying on me." he's teasing you. you dont like it but he loves it.

"my prince, i was doing neither of those. i thought this room was vacant i did not intend to spy nor hide from you."

you both are close to each other and he's towering over you so you have to look up at him. "ah..so what were you doing in here anyway princess?" "this was my old room so i came to get air from the balcony." you glance at him with half-lidded eyes that are seeped with nothing but dark surrounding them. aemond inhales deeply as he hears his stomach churning and his own blood swirling in his mind. adrenaline is lighting up every inch of his body and he can't take his eyes off the girl in the black gown. the princess slid from aemond but he wasn't aware of it because of the stillness in the room with nothing left to say. as soon as she went, he yearned for her presence and began to miss her. desire. he fiend for the one who had left him with a nasty scar. he was insane and a mad man if he desired his niece like this. he sighed and plopped down on the sofa in front of the fireplace and thought about how she stated that this was once her room. one big room for a small girl, how silly. he closed his eyes and began to drift off to sleep, awaiting to see the princess again at dinner.