𝑺𝑯𝑨𝑫𝑶𝑾 𝑶𝑭 𝑭𝑳𝑨𝑴𝑬𝑺 -𝒂𝒆𝒎𝒐𝒏𝒅 𝒕𝒂𝒓𝒈𝒂𝒓𝒚𝒆𝒏

𝑪𝒉𝒂𝒑𝒕𝒆𝒓 𝑭𝒊𝒗𝒆 ~ 𝑩𝒍𝒐𝒐𝒎𝒊𝒏𝒈 𝑹𝒆𝒍𝒂𝒕𝒊𝒐𝒏𝒔

*Hey y'all! So now that the intro part is over (YAY) so in this chapter there is a five month time jump. *

Ilyna woke to the sound of a knock at her door. She had grown acccustomed to that sound since her time of living at the Red Keep. It had been nearly half a year since she first set foot in King's Landing and there were many things that Ilyna had never expected. One being her friendship with the Princess Helaena. Every morning her handheld would knock to inform Ilyna that Helaena had come to eat with her. It had started several weeks after her first encounter with the princess. her quarters to fulfill her promise to her. While she still was not fond of insects, Ilyna and Helaena became friends that day. She realized that Helaena was like her and did not have many friends in the castle.Over the past months Ilyna had even noticed that some of the children who lived there made fun of the princess and her aversion to social interaction. She found their comments and actions immensely rude and asked Helaena if she wished to cease hearing them as she walked past . The princess did not acknowledge any of their words and simply ignored them as if they did not exist. Ilyna found Helaena to be a little unusual at times just as Prince Aemond had said, however this did not deter her friendship with her. most of their time together when they were not with their families or at lessons.

"Come in!" Ilyna hopped out of her bed to greet Helaena. She had grown quite fond of spending her mornings with the princess and though they barely spoke most of the time, the company was enjoyable nonetheless. The door opened and the princess went to take a seat to the table in her room. When they first dining together Helaena had remarked about how small her table was and not fit for more than one person to eat at, several days later a larger table had arrived in Ilyna's room.

"How has your morning been Helaena?" Ilyna asked, taking a seat across from the princess. Several weeks had passed since the princess had asked Ilyna to stop referring to her as "my princess" or "Princess Helaena". Ilyna knew this was an indication of their blooming friendship.

"I ran into Aemond on my way. I invited him to eat with us." Helaena said, watching the handmaidens prepare the table for the meal. Ilyna's eyes widened, she was still in her nightgown and while most mornings she put on a very informal dress for breakfast she needed to look presentable in front of the younger prince. Ilyna ran to her chest of clothes and searched to find something presentable.

"He said he would join later." Helaena said loudly from her seat. Ilyna let out a breath of relief, she had more time to figure out how to look presentable to the prince. In her time here she had seen a lot of Prince Aemond, in fact she talked with him the most out of all the Targaryen children. She found it easy to converse with him since they were the same age and some similar interests. They were both fond of reading and spent many hours in the library together; while Prince Aemond was interested in history and the studies of man, Ilyna preferred to read lavish tales. When they finished she would tell him of the wondrous stories she read and he would merely listen, sometimes comment on an absurdity in the story, but only watched her with a small smile. She would do the same for him when he spoke of the history books he studied.

Over the months she had found herself growing fond of the prince. There were times when she found herself staring at him while they read or when he trained or even when they spoke. She did not understand what she was feeling towards Prince Aemond but it made her heart jump every time he complimented her or even just smiled at her.

She had finally found something that seemed acceptable, a pale yellow dress, and quickly put it on. She walked back out to the table and Helaena smiled at her outfit.

"That color looks nice on you, why have you dressed up?" Ilyna looked down at her dress, it wasn't one of her prettier dresses.

"Helaena I cannot be unpresentable when your brother arrives. I am a lady and he is a prince. I have to be dressed up when we meet." Ilyna sat down across from the princess. Helaena simply nodded, Ilyna knew she had heard such things before. Most girls were taught in their etiquette classes how to present oneself in front of a lord, prince, or king. Though maybe Helaena hadn't learned; she was a princess after all, who knows what she was taught in her etiquette classes since she already had a higher standing than all of the lords and ladies of the court.