The Dragon Who Bent | Aerion Targaryen x Cousin Wife (Valarr fem twin) reader | Chapter 10
Not the comfortable, ordinary weight of blankets and warmth and the dull press of sleep still clinging to his bones.
Daenys had wrapped herself around him sometime in the night like a vine that had decided it preferred princes to trellises. One leg thrown shamelessly over his hips, her face tucked against his throat, one arm locked around his middle with the stubborn conviction of someone determined to keep what was hers.
Her hair lay everywhere, brown silk across his chest and shoulder, with that single bright streak of silver at her temple catching the faintest early light. Her breathing was slow and soft, warm against his skin.
He had learned through hard experience that if he moved too quickly while Daenys was in this state she would wake half asleep and unreasonable and then he would never leave the bed again.
Part of him the worst part thought it might be worth it.
Dawn had come anyway. Duty had come. Court would come with its endless petitions and its endless men who thought their voices mattered. His father had made it plain the day before that Aerion was expected in the yard after court, and Aerion had made the mistake of agreeing, as if the realm had ever been allowed to matter more than the girl curled against his throat.
He stared at the ceiling for a long moment and tried to become a man who could stand up.
Daenys sighed in her sleep and tightened her hold like she could sense betrayal through dream. Her leg hooked more firmly over his waist. Her hand, resting over his heart, pressed there once as if to remind it of its proper allegiance.
Aerion's chest went tight.
"My heart" he whispered, though she did not hear him.
His fingers slid up the length of her spine, slow and careful, smoothing as if he could soothe her even while plotting his escape. He kissed her hair just beside the silver streak and closed his eyes for one selfish breath.
She made a tiny contented sound.
He shifted only the smallest amount, barely a change in the angle of his shoulder, barely a breath.
Not fully. Not sharply. Just enough for her lashes to flutter and for her mouth to find his skin, as if she needed proof he was still there.
"Aerion" she mumbled, voice thick with sleep.
Her eyes opened halfway. Brown and unfocused, drowsy and soft. She stared at him like she was trying to remember what year it was and whether the world was worth acknowledging.
Then her gaze drifted downward.
To his chest. To the way his arm was under her. To the fact, obvious now, that he was awake.
And therefore, in her mind, capable of leaving.
Her brows drew together in slow horror.
Aerion did not answer at first because there was nothing safe to say. He only brushed his thumb over her cheekbone, gentle like she was something breakable and holy.
"Yes" he said finally, very softly. "I have to get up."
Then, with the solemnity of someone delivering a sentence, she tightened her arm around him and pulled herself closer.
"No" she said again, louder this time, as if volume could alter the laws of time itself.
"You cannot simply say no to time," he murmured.
Daenys yawned directly into his throat and without lifting her head said, "Watch me."
She pressed her face deeper into him, as if refusing to look at the world might prevent it from existing. Her leg tightened around his waist. Her fingers, warm and sleepy, curled into the fabric of his shirt like she meant to anchor him to the mattress by force of will.
Aerion stared down at her.
He could feel her heartbeat through her tight embrace.Slow. Confident. Certain she would win.
This was what the realm wanted him to leave.
He bent his head and kissed the top of hers then lingered there breathing her in. When he pulled back she still had not moved. Her eyes were shut again. Her mouth softened against his skin.
As if she could simply go back to sleep and wake up in a world where Aerion did not have duties.
"My sweet girl" he whispered.
Daenys made a sound that might have been agreement or might have been a threat.
Aerion tried a different approach.
He slid his hand under her hair and gently scratched at the back of her head, the way he had discovered by accident made her melt completely. Her shoulders loosened at once.
"Mmm" she hummed, content.
"You are very clingy this morning."
"I am your wife," she mumbled, as if this explained everything in the world.
"It does" Aerion admitted, and it was the worst part, because it truly did.
His fingers stilled in her hair. He swallowed once and said carefully, "I have court."
Daenys did not open her eyes. "Tell them to leave."
"You are my husband," Daenys said, voice still thick and slow.
Then she shifted her face slightly and kissed his collarbone, one soft sleepy press of her mouth, thoughtless as breathing.
Aerion stopped breathing.
It was not seduction. It was not even intention. It was simply Daenys half asleep being affectionate because she loved him and because she had never once in her life considered that Aerion might survive such things.
Aerion's hand tightened at her waist, not painful, only helpless.
"You are trying to ruin me before sunrise" he said, hoarse.
Daenys's lips curved faintly against his skin. "Good."
Aerion let out a slow breath that trembled at the end.
He should not have been smiling.
"Look at me," he murmured.
Daenys shook her head without lifting it. "No."
He slid two fingers under her chin and coaxed her face up. It took almost no effort. She yielded to his touch the way she always did when she wanted him to think he was in control.
Her eyes opened again heavy lidded and sweet.
And then, because the gods were cruel and because she was Daenys her lower lip pushed out.
Aerion felt his heart cave in.
"Oh" he breathed, as if wounded.
Daenys stared at him with the faintest shimmer of moisture gathering at the corners of her eyes. "Do not go."
Aerion's throat tightened so suddenly it startled him. He lifted his hand to her face, thumb brushing under her eye as if he could smooth the wetness away before it dared fall.
"You are not crying," he said, offended on her behalf.
"I am not," Daenys whispered.
"You are thinking about it."
Aerion's eyes closed. "Sweetheart."
"I woke up and you were awake thinking of leaving me," she said, as if this were the deepest betrayal imaginable. "That is unkind."
"I did not mean to," Aerion said helplessly. "My heart, I did not mean to."
Daenys huffed a tiny laugh that turned into something suspiciously close to a sniff.
He leaned down and kissed the corner of her mouth, soft and slow, because he did not know how else to fix her. Daenys sighed into it, her hand sliding up to cup the side of his neck, keeping him close with sleepy grabby insistence.
When he pulled back she chased him by a fraction, lips parting like she meant to steal another kiss by force.
Aerion stared at her like a man watching himself drown.
"I will come back" he said again, trying to make the promise sound like law.
She searched his face, still half asleep but sharp enough to know when he was lying.
Aerion added quickly, "I will make them move quicker."
Daenys's brows knit. "You cannot hurry old men."
"I can frighten them," Aerion said with absolute conviction.
That got a small smile from her. Sleepy, reluctant, precious.
Aerion seized on it like a lifeline.
"There" he murmured. "That smile is my permission to stand."
Daenys's smile vanished instantly. "No it is not."
Aerion laughed under his breath and pressed his forehead to hers.
"My heart" he whispered, "if I stay, my father will peel my skin off."
Daenys's nose wrinkled. "My uncle would not."
"He would" Aerion said grimly. "He has the look of a man who has imagined it."
Daenys's mouth twitched despite herself.
Then her arms tightened again, stubborn. "Five more minutes."
Aerion's entire body softened.
"Five," she repeated, voice firm in that adorable sleepy way of hers. "Or I will be difficult all day."
He knew with perfect clarity that this was blackmail.
He also knew he would pay it.
He kissed her forehead slow and reverent. "Five."
Daenys exhaled like she had won a war and immediately let her eyes close again settling against him with profound satisfaction.
Aerion held her unmoving for the promised minutes.
He watched the slow rise and fall of her breath. He traced the silver streak at her temple with his thumb once lightly like a private prayer. He let himself memorize the softness of her mouth, the warmth of her skin the way her hand rested over his heart as if claiming it.
It was ridiculous that he still needed reminders.
When five minutes passed far too quickly Aerion tried again.
He shifted his hips slightly preparing to slide out from under her.
Daenys's arm tightened like a trap.
His head fell back against the pillow.
"Daenys" he said laughter and despair tangled in one breath. "My Sweet Sweet girl."
"I cannot leave if you are physically restraining me."
"Yes you can" she mumbled, eyes still closed. "You are strong."
"It is exactly the point," she said sleepily.
Then without opening her eyes, she kissed his throat again and whispered "Stay."
Aerion went utterly still.
His whole body stopped as if her mouth had pressed a seal into his skin.
Then his voice came out low and wrecked. "You are going to kill me."
Daenys smiled, barely there, and finally opened one eye.
"Later," she murmured. "Not yet."
He should have stood. He should have escaped. He should have remembered he was a prince and not a foolish man being undone by a sleepy girl clinging to him.
Instead he tightened his arm around her and kissed her gently.
"Alright," he whispered. "Two more minutes."
Daenys sighed victorious and curled into him as if she had always belonged there.
For two minutes he let himself pretend he had no duties, no court, no father waiting to scowl him into obedience. Only Daenys warm and heavy against him a leg around his waist, a hand over his heart her mouth soft against his throat like she was marking him as hers one kiss at a time.
Then because the gods had never once allowed him peace for long, those two minutes ended too.
Aerion drew a breath and gathered what was left of his will.
Daenys hummed sleepily, already drifting again.
"I am going to stand" he said. "If you hold me, you will be stealing a prince from the realm."
Daenys did not open her eyes. "Let them suffer."
Aerion laughed softly, helpless. He pressed one more kiss into her hair.
"You are cruel" he whispered.
"I am loved" she murmured.
That landed so softly and so surely that Aerion's chest tightened.
He kissed her temple right by the silver streak and whispered back like a vow. "Yes."
Then he did the only thing he had any hope of doing without waking her fully into protest.
He shifted carefully and slid his arm out from under her, slow as a man disarming a trap. Daenys made a small displeased sound and tightened her hold at once, leg clamping more firmly, hand fisting in his shirt.
Aerion bent and murmured into her hair, softer than court would ever hear him speak, "Sweet girl, please."
Daenys's eyes cracked open.
She blinked at him, still hazy with sleep, mouth in a pout.
Aerion looked at that pout and felt his soul leave his body.
Just a soft press at the corner of her mouth.
Aerion took advantage of the sigh like a criminal.
He slid out from under her at last and stood.
Daenys immediately made a plaintive noise and reached for him with grabby hands, fingers catching his sleeve.
He turned back at once, because he always turned back.
She sat up a little, hair falling forward. "Do not go."
"I have to," he whispered. His hand went to her cheek again, thumb stroking gently. "But I will come back. I promise."
Daenys stared at him still offended still sleepy still entirely too capable of undoing him with nothing but her eyes.
Then she said quietly, "If you leave me bored I will become a menace."
"You are always a menace."
Daenys's eyes narrowed. "An unattended menace."
Aerion sighed like a man facing the inevitable.
"What do you want," he asked.
Daenys blinked slowly thinking hard in the way only half asleep people did.
"Bring me back something" she said at last.
Aerion softened instantly, relief and devotion flooding him so fast it was embarrassing.
Daenys's lip pushed out again, smaller this time. "Something that proves you remembered me."
Then he bent close kissed her forehead and whispered "I never forget you."
Aerion kissed her again, slower, and felt her relax.
"I will bring you something," he promised. "A ribbon, a sweet, a book, a dragon egg if you ask it."
Daenys smiled, faint and satisfied.
"Now" Aerion said, because he had to make this a bargain or he would never leave, "you will stay in this bed for a little longer. You will rest."
Aerion kissed her quickly, stealing the argument.
When he drew back he said, very softly, "Be sweet for me."
Daenys blinked at him, then nodded the smallest amount, like granting a favor.
Aerion exhaled, victorious.
He stood again, backed away as if she might lunge, and reached the door.
Behind him, Daenys called, voice still thick with sleep but carrying clear warning "Aerion."
He paused, hand on the latch.
"If you are late" Daenys said, sweetly, "I will terrorize your brothers."
"Do not" he said, already knowing she would.
Daenys smiled into her pillow. "Go"
And as the door shut, Daenys's quiet little laugh followed him down the corridor like a prophecy, warm and dangerous at once.
Not because he feared his father.
Because he knew, with absolute certainty, what happened to the Red Keep when Daenys was bored and unattended.
And because no one in the Seven Kingdoms, not king or septon or knight, could handle his wife quite as well as he could.
Certainly not his brothers.
Update: The Dragon Who Bent (Aerion x Daenys) moving to Wattpad
Episodes 11 and onward of “The Dragon Who Bent” will be uploaded on Wattpad from now on.
If youd like to keep reading, you can find it here => Wattpad: https://www.wattpad.com/story/409583154-the-dragon-who-bent-aerion-targaryen
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