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Rhaenyra's lip wobbles as she brings her dress straps over her shoulders. She's needed downstairs to help with set up, yet she dresses slowly. Her eyes brim with silent tears. Her heart pounds in fear.
With each day her rounded stomach grows fuller. She'll soon be too big to get around comfortably. Not long after that she’ll be, yet again, in the bed her mother once called a woman’s battlefield.
As she looks in the mirror, Rhaenyra sees the ghost of pregnancy in her eyes.
So far, she's been luckier than her mother, who'd died in childbirth. And Laena, her cousin, best friend, and mother of her stepdaughters, who had passed the same way.
Five healthy pregnancies later, Rhaenyra lives in fear of her luck running out.
"Rhaenyra, are you almost ready?" Rhaena walks into her room confidently, pausing when she sees the state of her stepmother. "What's going on? Are you okay?"
Rhaenyra wipes her tears with the back of her hand and smiles at her late cousin's daughter. She and her sister are the most beautiful girls Rhaenyra has ever seen and she mourns daily that their mother was not alive to see them emerge as women.
"I'm alright. Just... hormones." She says, swallowing down more tears.
"Are you sure? Trust me, we can cancel the family dinner. Nobody feels like dealing with Alicent and her kids anyway." Rhaenyra laughs at how Rhaena refers to Rhaenyra’s stepmother and half-siblings. They aren't particularly pleasant to be around, but where Rhaenyra feels the lost love between herself and that side of their family, her children know only the dislike found between them.
"No need for cancelling. I'm just at that stage where everything sets me off again. You remember how I was with the Littles."
Rhaena nods, though she still eyes Rhaenyra suspiciously. She takes a few steps forward and presses herself against Rhaenyra’s back, hugging her from behind. She tucks her chin on Rhaenyra’s shoulder and rests her hands on the curve of her belly.
"You're so much like your mom." Rhaenyra sighs, lip trembling again.
"Everyone says that. And that Baela is like Dad." Rhaenyra nods and smiles. Baela is her father's daughter undoubtedly. An hour in a room with them would tell you that with certainty.
"I think your next daughter will be like you."
Rhaenyra and Rhaena lock eyes through the mirror.
"You think it's a girl?"
Rhaena nods, "I think so. It’d be nice, too. Another sister.”
Rhaenyra lays her hand atop Rhaena's on her belly. She rubs her knuckles for a few seconds before pulling them away and turning around to face her.
"I bet everyone is down there wondering what's taking so long. Come on, we've got guests to prepare for."
Downstairs, Rhaenyra makes a round to survey how everything is coming along. Their large family hasn't been all together in years, and never has everyone come to them.
Rhaenyra’s father is the uncontested head of the family, so most family events happened at his house. But he'd insisted this time. Even in his worsening health, he wanted to make the trip.
If his visit wasn’t perfect, Rhaenyra would never forgive herself for making him travel for nothing.
In the kitchen, she critiques the arrangement of the grazing table, frets over the timing of the courses (too slow and her family would be left hungry, too fast and they'd feel rushed), snaps at a member of her house staff for leaving streaks while cleaning the windows, and eventually winds herself so tight she needs to sit down.
One day, unpleasantly soon, she'll be running one of the largest holding companies in the world. She'll need to be a leader, instill fear and respect and do right by her family and business.
Today, she can't even get a family dinner to come together how she wants.
She's sitting on her chair, trying to take deep breaths, and rubbing her stomach when Baela, Jace, and Luke walk in together.
"How's the set up outside going?" She asks through clenched teeth. Their soft banter ceases and the three of them look at her with concern.
Baela excuses herself quietly and walks back toward the kitchen with purpose.
"Good." Jace says slowly. "It's going well. We should be ready by the time everyone gets here."
Rhaenyra stands, intent on seeing their progress for herself. Luke immediately comes to her, giving her an arm to help her pull herself up.
The gesture reminds Rhaenyra of how protective she'd been over her own mother while she was pregnant. Her mom had always tried to brush her off, but Rhaenyra never yielded. She was the only one truly looking out for her.
It's funny now, that she's the one being tended to by her kids. Though unlike her mother, there is no shortage of people looking after her needs first and foremost.
Baela comes back into the sitting room with a glass of water.
"Here." She says, holding it out to Rhaenyra who takes it gratefully.
"How come you didn't bring us water?" Jace jokes. "It’s hot out there! I'm parched."
"Me too!" Luke chimes in.
"Oh, are you thirsty, Luke? I don't see how that can be. At least Jace and I were moving tables, you were sitting in the grass with Joff and the Littles."
"Trust me," Luke says, gesturing to his clothes and the grass stains all over them, "Playing with the Littles is much more labor intensive than lifting a few tiny chairs."
Though she hasn’t been allowed to lift much of anything recently, Rhaenyra would tend to agree. Her youngest sons are a renewable source of energy even as their caretaker’s runs out. She smirks into her water glass.
Leaving the three of them to their bickering, Rhaenyra heads outside to check the progress.
A table big enough to fit everyone would have to be the length of a boat, so instead there are three, arranged exactly per the instructions Rhaenyra left for them this morning. She lets out a sigh of relief, a bit of tension loosening it's hold.
"Mommy!" Aegon calls from across the yard. Rhaenyra breaks into a smile as she turns to his voice. The older of the two Littles sprints across the large yard to meet her, arms outstretched as far as they can go.
"My baby!"
Rhaenyra thought, when she was younger, that she was ill suited for motherhood. Once she had Jace, she was certain she’d been wrong. He was all of the love inside her from the moment she held him in her arms. With each baby, she fell more in love with her children and her role as Mom.
In her shakiest of days, it was the only title she knew she was born for.
Aegon runs at her at full speed and she tries to grab him as he comes flying. She crouches as far as she can to absorb the impact. A few months, hell, even a few weeks ago, she would’ve been able to catch him easily in her arms.
"Oof." She stumbles as he knocks into her, almost falling onto her ass. Aegon's arms wrap around her shoulders, his legs try to grip her waist but can't around her belly. Still, she holds him as best she can.
She hugs him to her and struggles to stand up fully.
"Hey you." She says into his hair. He tilts his head up and plants a wet baby kiss on her cheek.
"Grandpa coming?" He asks.
Rhaenyra nods, "Yes. Grandpa, and the rest of the family, too. They’ll be here soon."
Aegon grins, all red cheeks and baby teeth.
Just when Aegon gets to be too heavy in Rhaenyra’s arms, a second away from her putting him down, Daemon comes up beside her. He's even more red and sweaty than Aegon, but Rhaenyra doesn't pull back when he gives her a quick kiss while taking him out of her arms.
"Thank you." She smiles up at her husband and son. They both smile back down at her.
Daemon uses the arm not holding Aegon to sweep around their yard, inviting her notes. It’s immaculately set up for guests, every floral arrangement and tablecloth exactly to her specifications.
“It looks good.” She says. “Perfect.”
Daemon leans into her and presses his forehead to her crown. He breathes her in. She tilts her head up for another kiss and he indulges her kindly.
There’s never enough of him. Even as he holds their son and she’s full of another of his children. She burns for him. Always.
“Let up! There are children around.” Joff, decidedly into his snarky preteen years, approaches them with a grin. Viserys toddles along after him. The two of them look dirtier than the rest combined. Happier too.
“The four of you need to change clothes before our guests arrive.” Rhaenyra tells them, then wrinkles her nose. “And shower, too.”
“You’d think after living with six boys, you’d get used to the stink of men.” Joffrey lifts his arms above his head, assaulting the four of them with his boy smell.
Daemon laughs under his breath.
Rhaenyra rolls her eyes.
“Plus, you’re gonna have another soon. You should just know your family is going to stink for the rest of your life. Except Baela and Rhaena. And Grandma. And maybe Alicent. I’ve never hugged her. I don’t know if she stinks. My uncle Aegon smells like wine. My brother Aegon smells like food. They both smell bad. It’s because they’re boys. And boys stink.” Joffrey rambles on, emphatically describing the ways boys smell as Daemon smiles in quiet amusement and Rhaenyra blinks and holds her breath.
The smell is truly unyielding.
“I’m just saying,” He reaches the finish, “if you didn’t know boys smelled bad when you were little, that’s okay. But now you’re old and had lots of boys and if you cared so much that they smell bad, you wouldn’t be having another baby boy.” Joff ends with a pointed finger to her belly.
“And what makes you so sure I’m having another boy?” She asks.
Joff scrunches his nose like he hadn’t even considered it.
“You only have boys. Me, and Aegon, and Viserys, and Luke, and Jace. See? All boys.”
“Can’t argue with that logic.” Daemon agrees.
Rhaenyra pulls away so that she can meet Daemon’s eyes. “Do you think it’s a boy, too?”
“I know he is.”
Joffrey holds his hand up for a high five and Daemon slaps it decidedly. “Team boy!” Joffrey smiles, then reaches down to pick baby Aegon up.
“Come on, fellow smelly boy. Mom says we need to smell good for Grandpa.”
“Oh yes, let’s get them cleaned up for their uncle.” Daemon smirks. He gives Rhaenyra’s belly one last rub and turns to follow Joff to the house.
“Stop that!” Rhaenyra calls after him. “Luke just stopped calling you Uncle stepdad a month ago. I think ‘Uncle grandpa’ would send my father into a fit.”
Daemon spins back around, grinning, “You think Luke stopped calling me that?”
Perhaps she’ll be the one going into a fit.
With the boys getting presentable, Rhaenyra busies herself with putting the final touches of everything. She bothers her staff just one last time. She sits down for a bit. She fixes a crooked place setting. She sits down for a bit. She starts up some background music. She sits.
It’s all exhausting, nearly too much so.
Coincidentally, she decides that everything is as it should be the moment she feels her knees wobble tiredly. Then she walks inside to await her guests.
The older kids, Rhaena, Baela, Jace, Joffrey, and Luke are in the sitting room already.
“It’s still the most badass thing I’ve ever seen.” Jace says from his place perched on the arm of the chair, moving his arms excitedly. He stands up, not noticing Rhaenyra watching them, and continues his story. “Aemond is going fucking nuts, saying all this crazy shit and has this big ass rock, right? So, I think we’re all gonna die, like, Rhaena and I got some good ones in, but Baela could’ve pulled her weight more.”
“Screw you. We were all there, except Joff, and I was holding it down. It was you who didn’t do much.” Baela interjects, laughing.
“Anyway, we’re gonna die and Aemond is calling us names and Luke just comes out of nowhere with my fucking tiny ass pocketknife and swipes him up the eye. He was younger than you at the time,” Jace points at Joff, “but he did it. He stabbed Aemond in the eye. Absolutely fucking bonkers.”
Luke stands up to take a bow for the audience and freezes when he sees Rhaenyra.
“First,” She says, quiet and serious, “you shouldn’t be using language like that in front of Joffrey.” The rest of the kids turn to look at her, laughter smoothing into solemn faces.
“Second, I don’t want to hear anything, not one word, about that fight tonight. It was years ago, but he is still sore over it, and you are clearly still gloating. Tonight will be a pleasant evening. You will be kind to your cousins and downright angels to my father and his wife.” Five heads bob in unison.
“Third, if they choose to engage, or bring up that fight, be cool. They’re kind of assholes and they will try to goad you. I just need you to be the clearly better behaved one’s. Alright?”
“Alright.” They answer.
Rhaenyra bites her lip, contemplating if number four is more of a message from her or Daemon.
“Number four,” She starts. “If they start something, and they are beyond reason, —gods know Aemond gets there often— if they start a fight—”
“You end it. Boys, Baela, I haven’t been teaching you to fight for nothing.” Daemon appears behind her, the Littles trailing behind him. He speaks low and slow, transfixing all their kids and Rhaenyra herself.
Their growing family will show a united front. More than that, they will be one.
The doorbell rings.
Rhaenyra holds her belly as the baby inside her kicks wildly.
Corlys and Rhaenys are at the door. They greet their grandchildren with wide smiles and deep hugs.
Rhaenyra’s heart squeezes remembering a time when they hadn’t been so kind to her children.
It had taken a few long, painful years for Rhaenys to get over the appearance of Rhaenyra’s children, and the wound reopened when Daemon and Rhaenyra married so soon after Laena and Laenor’s deaths.
Rhaenyra could never blame her for her feelings, though she did resent Rhaenys for her treatment of her boys.
Now that the wound was mostly healed on both ends, Rhaenys was better. She acted like a loving grandmother to her and Laenor’s boys, and even asked after the Littles in her frequent phone calls.
It wasn’t perfect, and she still clearly preferred the girls, but she no longer ignored Jace, Luke, and Joff, and hadn’t in over a year suggested the girls come live with her and Corlys.
“Rhaenyra.” Rhaenys greets her, Baela and Jace hugged to her sides.
“Rhaenys. It’s lovely to see you.”
“Likewise.” Rhaenys gestures toward her stomach. “You’re getting a bit close, aren’t you?”
Rhaenyra nods and presses a sweaty palm to the side of her belly.
“Just over a month.”
“Boy or girl?”
“Girl.” Jace says at the same time Baela says “Boy.”
“We don’t know, yet.” Rhaenyra explains when Rhaenys arches a brow.
They could know. Rhaenyra had been asked at an appointment months ago if she wanted to know the sex. Rhaenyra didn’t lean one way or another on knowing, so she deferred to Daemon. Daemon didn’t care either.
They ended up asking the ultrasound tech to write it down for them, so that it was there if they ever decided they wanted to know.
The paper she’d written it down on remained unread by them both to this day.
“It’s a girl.” Rhaenys smiles, threading her fingers in Jace’s hair as she does. “The way you’re carrying. If you’re carrying high, and you are, it’s a girl.”
She feels around belly, wondering if that was why she felt her center of gravity shift more than she had with any of the boys. She hadn’t seen the difference so much as she felt it.
Rhaenys was often able to see more than Rhaenyra. Her scope considered information that Rhaenyra hadn’t even thought of piecing together.
“Perhaps you’re right.”
As she walks over to greet Corlys as well, Rhaenyra palms over the curvature of her belly. She itches to compare for herself the way her body carries the baby.
The older kids’ grandfather is in the middle of describing Driftmark in great detail when she walks over, explaining excitedly of his home on rocky shores.
“If your mother,” He looks at her, then to Daemon who’s skulking in the back, “and father, allow it, I’d like for you all to spend next summer with me. Visit the home that will one day belong to you, Luke.”
“Can we?” Joff asks, always ready for the next adventure. Her heart squeezes. She has a hard enough time saying goodbye to them for weekend sleepovers or weeklong business trips. An entire summer seems like hell.
“Luke says you’ll have a baby boy next summer. It would probably be nice to have them off your hands so you can focus on him.”
“A boy?” She turns to Luke, who nods.
“Definitely a boy.” He replies.
“And I would never wish for anything to happen to Viserys, but there’s a chance, a strong one, that you’ll be CEO and chairman by then. You’ll need all the help you can get.”
Corlys means well. Rhaenyra knows he does. He doesn’t mean to snatch her children from under her roof like Rhaenys once had with the girls. But he does hurt her still. It’s his nature to push until he gets what he wants, but he’s pushed too hard this time. He implies that her father would be dead, and she’d be too busy to take care of her kids in under a year.
Tears start to well and Rhaenyra’s hands flex into fists at her sides.
“We’ll think about it.” Daemon cuts in, suddenly right behind her. He grabs one of her fisted hands in his.
Corlys relents for now. Rhaenyra relaxes her fingers into Daemon’s hold.
Not long after, Rhaenyra ushers everyone into the backyard. They hadn’t made it all up to stay in the house.
Her father is late, but Rhaenyra tries to pay it no mind.
She succeeds until the time for her first course comes and goes, and that side of the family hasn’t arrived yet. She checks her phone for any calls or messages, but there’s nothing. She goes through her email to make sure she’d sent the right date and time to them. She frets. She frets and frets and sits down at one of the three tables to fret some more when a member of their staff comes out to her.
“Your father is here.” The girl says, then nods inside the house.
Relief and anxiety fill her at once.
With great effort, Rhaenyra stands again. She turns around to look for Daemon, but he’d already noticed the exchange and is walking over to her, Baela and Jace following him.
“Father is here.”
Daemon nods and takes her arm, “I assumed as much.”
Her siblings and father are already in the house when they make it to the entryway.
Aegon, Aemond, and Alicent look bored already. Helaena looks genuinely happy to see her nephew and cousin.
Her father, though, cannot keep the grin from his mouth, displaying rotten teeth and cracked lips with no shame.
Rhaenyra nearly collapses into him as she hugs him tight.
“Father. I’m so glad you’re here.”
“Not nearly as glad as I am to be here, Rhaenyra. Apologies for our tardiness. I had a bit of trouble getting ready.”
“There’s no need for apologies. I’ve missed you so much.” They pull back from the hug and stare at each other for a long, bittersweet moment. Many unsaid conversations pass between them.
“It’s good to see you, brother.” Daemon steps forward to his brother and Rhaenyra turns her attention to her stepmother.
Behind her, her children speak with her siblings. There is tension and unease, but no outright animosity.
“Alicent. Thank you for coming.”
“Thank you for inviting us. It’s always a pleasure.” Alicent’s words are kind, but there’s always a slipperiness to them that makes Rhaenyra uneasy.
“Why don’t we head outside? The children are all dying to see their grandpa.” Rhaenyra suggests and everyone agrees.
Alicent tries to grab her father’s arm to help him, but Rhaenyra is already there holding him steady. Daemon holds his other arm. The two of them help him outside, paying the others no mind.
They make it to a table before just both Viserys and Rhaenyra collapse. She hadn’t known how little weight her father could bear on his own until she was carrying half of what was left.
“Can I ask you a difficult question?” He asks her when it’s just the two of them. Alicent left to go make small talk with Corlys and Rhaenyrs, Aegon and Aemond went off on their own, and Baela and Jace went back to their other siblings. Daemon is off fetching the Littles for their reintroduction to their grandpa.
“Anything.”
“Are you happy?” He speaks quietly and with great difficulty.
It’s not a difficult question at all.
“Completely.”
“And Daemon? He treats you well? You’re happy with him?” Her father had always been the first to see the good in Daemon, but never when it came to his relationship with her. Regarding Rhaenyra, he held her in such high esteem that no one was good enough, no one worthy of her, especially not his degenerate brother.
“Yes.” She answers simply, then continues. “I know you’ve always been afraid to hear this. But I love him. I believe him to be the great love of my life. I love his girls as I love my boys. I wake up, every day, so happy that we found our way to each other eventually. Yes.” She grabs her father’s hand tightly. “I love him. Why do you ask?”
“Because I do not have much time, and this job, this burden that I’m passing to you, it is a difficult one. It is heavy. If you are not happy, and incredibly sure in your relationships, they will break down under the weight. This job can kill all the love in your heart.” The late afternoon is warm, but a chill runs down Rhaenyra’s spine.
“It will steal what’s left of your life if you let it. I want to know that you won’t.”
Tears fall, though Rhaenyra does not feel like she’s crying. “I won’t. I won’t let it.”
Seemingly pleased with her responses, her father says nothing more.
Daemon comes up to them soon after, with Viserys and Aegon. Aegon refuses to be anywhere but Rhaenyra’s lap, but Viserys crawls into the weak arms of his namesake.
“You’ll have a girl, this time.” Her father says while bouncing Viserys on his lap as best he can.
“Do you think?” Rhaenyra answers in a silly voice, wiggling her nose against Aegon’s. Her tears from before long since dried up.
“I dreamt of her.” Rhaenyra cuts her eyes to him, then to Daemon behind him.
“What was she like?”
Her father looks at her, his one good eye shining bright with tears. “She was born as beautiful as you. As strong as Lady Nymeria. As smart as my dear cousin Rhaenys. She was as brave as your mother. You named her Visenya.”
“Like the Conqueror’s wife?” She asks.
“The Conqueror Queen.” Her father and uncle correct her together.
“Even if I am not around to meet her in this world, know that I knew her.” He chokes on his last words, heaving into a coughing fit.
Rhaenyra dismisses herself hasitily, unable to continue listening to her father’s active deterioration.
Back inside the house, she takes a few long, deep breaths to collect herself.
She orders the first course to be served without her and goes upstairs to her and Daemon’s room.
In her bedside table, there is an envelope. In that envelope is a note an ultrasound technician wrote months ago. Rhaenyra shoves the envelope into the pocket of her dress and goes back downstairs.
She feels a mix of disappointment and pride when her absence is not clearly missed when she comes back down.
At all three tables conversations are going on. Voices blend together. Chatter overtakes the soft music. Rhaenyra slips back into her seat with little acknowledgement.
Only Daemon, who presses a kiss to her temple and rubs over her belly.
The rest of the evening goes delightfully. Everyone has a great time. The food is wonderful. Only two fights break out, but they’re about the correct way to play uno and the market viability of the metaverse. Hardly things to come to blows over.
It’s all together a near perfect evening, but come dessert, the envelope begins to burn against Rhaenyra’s thigh.
She must know.
In front of her whole family, possibly the last time they’ll all be gathered with her father.
Over cream puffs and chocolate torte, Rhaenyra puts a hand on her father’s bony wrist to grab his attention.
“Hm?”
She pulls out the envelope and shows it to Daemon. His eyes widen a bit, then he nods his approval.
“I want you to read this.” She says, handing the envelope to her father.
“What is it?” He asks, setting down his fork and reaching for it.
“It’s the sex of the baby. We had someone write it down, just in case we wanted to know.” Her fingers start to shake, but she holds it as still as she can for her father to grab it.
“I want to know.” She trembles. “While you’re here. I want to know.”
Without a word, her father, with great difficulty, stands up. All conversation hushes within seconds.
“My daughter, your mother, cousin, sister, and wife, has asked me to read something. I thought you might all want to know and find out as I do, what it says.” He struggles with the envelope for a minute, and everyone stays quiet. It’s hard to open with only one working hand. Eventually, Daemon steps in, grabbing the envelope over Rhaenyra’s head, pulling the paper inside it out, and handing it back to his brother.
Rhaenyra holds her breath.
She hopes her father’s dream is to be trusted. A third girl, with all the traits he described, would only further her run of perfect children.
“Rhaenyra, come a few weeks from now, will have a baby…” Her father smiles down at her, glee and pride written all over his face.
“Girl!” He finishes.
Rhaenyra stands up from her table to hug him again, as tight as she can without hurting him. They rock back and forth, holding each other up as long as they can stand it.
Soon, there are other arms around them. Daemon, surely. She feels Viserys climb up onto her chair. Luke, Jace, and Joffrey holding Aegon as well. Rhaena and Baela she’s certain. Possibly the others. They all huddle in close, love pulling them tighter.
Rhaenyra worries for the future. For her baby girl. Her father. Her company. Her family. Her silly dinner party. She worries. She cannot help it. But beyond that, she loves.