Stranger - hotd

10

Valaena hasn't received a reply from her stepfather, and as the weeks passed she didn't think on it. If her parents did not see it as important than why should she.

Valaena and Aemond found creative ways to sneak away together. Mounting their Dragons and flying towards the little scattered islands around the bay, or using Maegor's passageways to sneak into hidden rooms or in eachothers at night. The two were suprised that they hadn't been caught yet. And besides Aegon, complaining that they smelled of a brothel once or twice, no one suspected them so far.

Aemond had put in a request to his father to marry Valaena early, as he felt responsible for having tainted her
Honour without making her his wife. And so he waited for Rhaenyra's approval.

One afternoon the two lovers had just finished another tutoring lesson. Aemond had brought Valaena a bowl full of fresh figs and she was eating the green and pink fruits as Aemond braided little strands of her hair. They had promised Helaena to take her to the markets on the morrow, and by noon the Prince and Princess had nearly fallen asleep. The hot sun bright on their cheeks.

"Princess, a raven came, your mother urges you to visit DragonStone on the morrow." Valaena frowned as the Knight handed her the letter. She pulled her lip between her teeth. Aemond moved his arm, allowing her to sit up. "Is everything alright?" Questioned the Prince her as he softly squeezed her hand.

He had grown lazy in watching himself of late. In his mind, they would be wed by atleast the end of the year. Which was soon. He knew she was already his and he hers. 

"My mother writes that all is well but that she urgently requests my presence at home. She says she won't keep me long."

Aemond nodded at Valaena. "Do you want me to help you pack?"

Valaens frowned, before grinning at Aemond and nodding with a playfull courtesy. "Please do."

At night, Aemond snuck into her rooms again. He watcbed Valaena as she brushed her hair and softly hummed an ond Valyrian Song. He snuck up to her. Wrapping his arms around her and kissing the top of her hair. She smelled sweet, like violets and lilac. 

The two spoke about their future together, how Valaena wanted to travel across the realm, how she wished to settle at DragonStone or perhaps further down south perhaps. On the edge of Dorne. She told Aemond that as soon as her mother ascended, they would have whatever freedom they wished.

He kissed her temple softly, raking his fingers through her hair untill she fell asleep on his lap, in front of the hearth. Her fingers curled around the edge of his doublet. He smiled at her, wondering deep down what their future would truly look like, as Aegon would be crowned, not Rhaenyra.

He placed her in her bed, covering her with the soft linnen blankets and kissing her cheeks. She frowned then stretching out her arms and begging him to stay.

At dawn, Aemond left her room bedore the Servants would notice, and with a chaste kiss, she promised to see him soon again. She told him that she had expected to be back before tomorrow's supper. If not already tonight.

Once she arrived at her ancestral home, she broke her fast with her twin, who refused to tell her what was going on, instead he tried to distract her by talking about his lessons and how he wished for her to show him her archery skills. Though when her mother and Daemon dismissed Jacaerys to talk to her. She felt a pit forming in her stomach.

When they spoke she wanted to throw up.

Rhaenyra and Daemon had realized that Valaena could be used against them in the future, were either Aegon or Aemond crowned King in Rhaenyra's place. They argued that she couldn't marry Aemond, not if she wished for her family to remain safe and alive. They walked her through all the possible solutions they had come up with, but they all ended with her becoming Aemond's wife as a threat to their safety.