pulled my teeth out (an hotd fanfic)
Wrote this fic about Aemond and Alicent’s mother-son bond that absolutely wrecks me because it is so wholesome. Needed to get some of my hotd brainrot out on here and ao3. Enjoy!
The shrill scream that left Luke’s mouth when he cut out Aemond’s eye sent chills down his spine before he even registered the pain. God, the pain, it was excruciating, he had bit his lip when the maester had sewed the severed flesh back together and tried to stop himself from crying out in pain. His mother, with angry tears in her eyes, looked at Aemond with all the love in the world, but when she demanded there be justice, his father had dismissed her, like always.
His father who only ever favored his first-born daughter and never paid attention to his other children had demanded Aemond tell him where he had these lies. Lies?!, Aemond had wanted to yell from the top of his lungs, they are nothing but bastards! Though, when he had tried to even move a muscle in his face, the pain had shot up his face like a bolt of lightning and his mother sensing his pain without even having to look at him, demanded Luke’s eye in return.
He can choose which eye to keep, a privilege he did not grant my son.
You will do no such thing. Rhaenyra’s smug face had won over his father and his mother’s betrayal was written all over her face. There was chaos not soon after and he had told his mother, “It was a fair exchange. I might have lost an eye, but I gained a dragon.” He had tried to comfort his mother and when he cuddled into her neck, she sniffled and looked down at the floor where the bloody knife was. He knew her mind was elsewhere but knowing that she had tried to protect him, with almost everyone against her, the throbbing pain in his face went away just a little.
His mother would always protect him.
The pain had begun flaring up again once he went to bed that night. He tried to get comfortable but the pain was unbearable and the tears that had not fallen before when he was getting sewed up by the maester, spilled over on his cheeks and he let out a choke of a disbelieving laugh.
He had gained a dragon, the largest dragon in the world, but at what cost?
His mother demanded justice and she got nothing. Another stupid, bubbling, joke of a laugh choked out of his throat and that’s when the tears began to gather into the hollow of his neck. God, he was a child, weeping. How pathetic. He couldn’t control it though and when another laugh began to bubble up, his face twinged in discomfort and he gritted his teeth in frustration.
He dug his nails into the palms of his hands and shut his eyes but the pain crept up and up before it settled into his temple. Milk of the poppy had done nothing. Another choke. Another disbelieving laugh. The pain then crept into the other side of his face.
A headache of all things, really? The tears were now soaking into his nightshirt and this time what came out of his mouth was a sob that rang through his room.
He then heard scuffles outside his door and before he could even begin to interpret what they were doing or saying, his mother rushed into the room.
She let out a little sob of her own and kneeled down next to his bedside. Her hair was more unkempt than usual but his mother looked beautiful. She always did.
She choked out, like the little sounds coming out his throat moments before, “My darling boy, I am so sorry.” His mother brushed her thumbs very lightly on his cheekbones and cradled his face delicately but even that brought the flare-up of pain back down to his cheekbone and he jerked back just a little from her soft touch. Her eyebrows furrowed but her eyes were nothing but warm and gentle. She whispered, “Will you let your mother cuddle you until you fall asleep? I might even be here in the morning when you wake up.” His mother began carding her fingers through his hair and the pain that had settled throughout his face subsided just the slightest fraction at the comforting touch.
He hadn’t yet spoken but gingerly, he nodded his head at her question. She pressed a featherlight kiss on the crown of his hair and he scooted a little bit over on his bed to give her room. When she made herself comfortable, he felt himself leaning into her side and he could feel her heartbeat against his face. The pain seemed to throb less when he counted his mother’s heartbeats in his head and his mother was still brushing her fingers through his hair. He heard her say, “My darling boy, my baby boy.” He cradled into her side more and she began to sing a lullaby she hadn’t sung to him since he was three years old.
Her voice was melodic and soothing and he closed his eyes as her lips touched the crown of his hair again. She began to rock him just a little, like he was a little babe again. The song came out breathy and soft.
High in the halls of the kings who are gone
Jenny would dance with her ghosts
The ones she had lost and the ones she had found
And the ones who had loved her the most
The ones who’d been gone for so very long
She couldn’t remember their names
They spun her around on the damp old stones
Spun away all her sorrow and pain
His mother’s voice had gotten softer and quieter as she gently rocked, her lips always brushing against the crown of her hair. When she finished the lullaby, she let out a little sob of hurt in his ear and tucked a strand of hair behind his hair. She whispered, “I am so sorry, darling. You didn’t deserve this. You gained a dragon and I am so proud of you for that. You only deserve good things, Aemond. You can never get back what was taken from you but I want you to know this.”
Aemond’s tears had begun to flow from his eyes again but not from uncomfortable pain. It was from the way his mother was talking to him. She always talked to him in that gentle way of hers that could only come from his mother. She might have been stern at times but he knew she loved him and his siblings fiercely.
He looked up at her, his figure still mostly pressed against her side, and saw her brown eyes twinkling from the moonlight coming through his window. She began, “You will always be my fierce protector. You are brave, wise, and smart, darling. Never forget who you are and if you ever need me, I will always be by your side because you are my son and I will love you forever.”
Her words had become crisper near the end of her speech and the love in his mother’s eyes dulled that ever-present pain in his face and he let out a sigh of minute relief. He changed his position against his mother so he could rest his head on his mother’s lap and she smiled down at him, the crinkles in her eyes became present and he said, his voice croaked out after not using it for hours, “And I will love you forever too, Mother.” Her tight smile grew more genuine and she untangled a loose knot in his blond hair and bent down to press a small kiss on his forehead.
His mother’s warmth and her fingers continuing to work through his hair pulled him into a contentment that resembled the beginnings of sleep. She pressed one last kiss on his temple this time and before he was completely gone to the world, he heard his mother say, “I will be here in the morning, my darling boy. Always.”
He fell asleep with the pain in his face being dulled little by little by his mother’s warmth and kind words.
Yes, she would be here in the morning. Like she always will be.
read it on ao3.
