#i was feeling the Rhaemond withdrawals and had to get this out

[dontforgetoctober3rd]

Savior

A new Rhaemond drabble!  Blabbity blah it is obv a no Dance of Dragons AU, y’all know the drill everybody loves everybody etc ANYWAYS It’s the day before Aemond marries Rhaena and he finally has a real conversation with her about the claiming of Vhagar.

—————————

Aemond quite liked this little balcony near the sea.  Often it was used by Daemon to train a bit with Ser Criston but for today, he had requested it be done up for a private dinner for him and his betrothed.  The Cargyll twins stood sentry by the wall some ways away, giving them their privacy but keeping them in line of sight.

A small rectangular table with a deep red cloth and two chairs facing the sea...assorted little cheeses and scones...two goblets of ale (Rhaena had apparently never tried it before coming to the Red Keep and immediately took a liking to it when Aemond had given her some)...a vase with a cherry blossom branch...and his Rhaena sitting and waiting for him, watching as Vhagar flew in the distance.  Her own dragon, Morning, was still the size of a small cat but someday they would fly together.

“She does enjoy showing off, when she’s aware she has an audience,” Aemond said, joining her at the table.  The smile of delight she graced him with warmed his heart.  Too many lemon cakes and he grew sick of them, despite being his favorite, but Rhaena’s smiles? If anything, he felt he never got enough of them.

“As she should!” Rhaena added in mock indignation. “Why shouldn’t she show off her beauty?” 

Aemond took Rhaena’s hand.  “You think she is beautiful?  Truly?  Is she not fearsome to you?”  

He was smiling still...but Rhaena sensed the conversation had shifted in a different direction... Her own smile left her face but her manner of speaking was reassuring.

“Of course!  She has her own kind of beauty.  Granted, every dragon has their differences but what other dragon has what *she* has?  Her demeanor, her battle scars, and ESPECIALLY her ferocity are what make her absolutely magnificent.”

Aemond smiled and looked away from Rhaena, towards the sea at his dragon.  “Do you regret it?  Not having the chance to claim her..because of me?  I know you have said countless times you made your peace with it-”

“I have, my love.” Still holding his other hand, Rhaena tilted Aemond’s head toward her, boring into his one functional eye with both of hers.  “I have long since made my peace with it and not just that...but I am grateful that you claimed her when you did.”

Aemond looked momentarily puzzled but Rhaena continued.

“...I often think of it, if you had not claimed her.  Do you know what probably would have happened?  I wouldn’t have made the attempt the next day.  Or the next.  Or for a long while after that.  Who is to say Vhagar would have remained on Driftmark, waiting around for a mere human to claim her?  I felt like the world had stopped when I lost my mother...it would have been weeks before I felt like I had the sufficient fortitude to make the attempt to claim her former dragon...”

Aemond kept listening intently, stroking the hand she was holding with his .  Rhaena still held onto his face, hand on his cheek.

“...if you hadn’t claimed Vhagar when you did...I think she would have flown away before I could try...think how lonely she would have been.. Mother was the first rider to claim her since Visenya.  Visenya!  Decades of loneliness, my love, before my mother finally found her.  Just...the thought of having almost done that to her again, subjecting her to such solitude, even if unintentionally...” Rhaena brought her forehead against Aemond’s, both nuzzling into the other. “You saved her, Aemond.  You were brave enough not only to dismiss rules of decorum but to stand before the biggest dragon in the world...you saved her and she knows it.  I know she does.”

Tears were streaming down Rhaena’s face at this point, Aemond wiping them away, peppering her forehead with gentle kisses.  A mighty roar from Vhagar broke the somewhat melancholy air, and both of them giggled.