#me: but what if 22k chapters were the soul of wit

[mitchelljoni]

Chapters: 3/4 Fandom: House of the Dragon (TV) Rating: Mature Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply Relationships: Alicent Hightower/Rhaenyra Targaryen Characters: Alicent Hightower, Rhaenyra Targaryen, Viserys I Targaryen, Otto Hightower, Criston Cole, Gwayne Hightower, and also literally everyone else at some point probably Additional Tags: Alternate Universe - Modern Setting, Alternate Universe - Orchestra, Enemies to Friends to Lovers, Gratuitous References to Rachmaninoff, violinist alicent (read: insane perfectionist), pianist rhaenyra (read: dramatic and self-obsessed) Summary:

And even if getting Rhaenyra in as a soloist was a staggering show of nepotism, she was still the best concert pianist on the planet. It was like when Dmitri Junior recorded Shostakovich’s second. You could get mad about it for a bit, but it was ultimately fair game. Alicent had already reached all these conclusions because Viserys had spoken to her weeks ago about programming the Concerto, which only had the unwanted effect of giving her time to turn it over in her brain like a particularly nauseating Rubix cube. Each solution of the puzzle led her to the same conclusion: she would be seeing Rhaenyra imminently, and there wasn’t a damn thing she could do about it.

 After ten years apart, Rhaenyra Targaryen re-enters Alicent's life for a set of solo engagements with her orchestra. Things go about as well as expected (not very).