content: Not even the Gods could tear Jace from your hands before they were ready for you as well.
words: 1.5k
cw:MDNI 18+ canon typical violence, season 3 spoilers, reader ride Vermithor, reader is a Targaryen, but no features are described, not proofread, lmk if I missed any
a/n: this is me fixing my sorrow :) I know it's short, but I needed to do something before I could do my school work so here this is lol. I apologize if it's trash.
Your knee bobbed anxiously as you glanced behind you looking to the setting sun. Your riding gear was still slightly damp, but still had not removed it, minus your gloves that had been discarded halfway across the room.
You clutched his hand in your own, and it felt colder, but mayhaps that was your imagination. You swore your hand still felt as if it was submerged into the cold water, the waves rocky against it.
And if you stopped moving too long you could hear the ongoing battle surrounding you. The cries of Vermax. Your own dragons roars of furry as if he fed off your own anger.
The blood. His blood from his injury stained your clothing, but you could not find it in yourself to care currently.
You could still smell the burning flesh of men in your nose, as Vermithor burned the ships as you worked to pull his body out of the water. His body that seemed so lifeless an arrow piercing through his back. He almost—
He is alive.
He is alive.
He is alive.
You had to keep repeating it to yourself in the silence as your mind wandered. Rhaenyra had stayed for sometime, but once it was assured that he would pull through she once more had to return to duty.
Leaving you alone with nothing, but the comforting sound of his breathing. You had never once thought you would be so thankful to hear it, to be able to see the steady rise and fall of his chest, but you were almost without it.
You looked out at the sky once more as if that would ease anything. If it would seize the loudness of your mind despite the quiet room.
Then you heard it. Your name. It was so clear and coming from the only man you had ever loved. Your head snapped over to the bedside.
Jacaerys sat looking at you, his eyebrows drawn together sitting himself up slowly, his face cringing in pain, "Where am I?" he asked, looking around at the room, trying to search for some familiarity.
You sat unmoving. Staring, blinking at him as your mind finally went still. He was awake. He was calling your name. He was staring at you with those brown eyes you loved so much.
And he was alive.
"Oh thank the Gods," you cried shooting forward wrapping your arms around him. He winced slightly, and you tried to pull back, but he did not let you he stood clutching you tighter holding you to him.
It showed that for a moment he had felt the same fear that you had. That you would never see the other again. That your last conversation had been something about strategy and battle rather than your complete adoration for the other.
You had almost lost him.
But you hadn't. You had gotten there in time.
"How…I don't remember getting here," he said, finally realizing he was in Dragonstone. He was home. He was safe. Though he could not remember much other than the arrowing soaring into his back. He could put the pieces together.
Jace allowed you to pull back so that you could look at him, really look at him, "You think I would hear about you going into battle and not come?" you questioned.
He said nothing at first, his hand raising to trace your face as if to confirm that you were real. That this was happening, and not some twisted afterlife heaven giving him a scenario that he wished could happen, but never did.
"What were you thinking? Vermithor and I—" Your voice, began to rise half in anger the other in frustration of him going off without you.
He did not mean to smile, but he could not help it. You were real. You were lecturing him just like you always had, "You had other matters to attend to," he said, tracing along your brow, with a fond smile on his lips.
You scoffed holding his eyes, the anger on your face evident, but slowly drifting away, as his eyes visibly softened looking to you.
He is alive.
He is alive.
He is alive.
Your hand lifted, resting against his cheek. Both your heads leaned forward, your foreheads resting against the other, as your shaky breaths filled the air, "Nothing is more important to I then you, Jacaerys. The Gods will not separate us. Not yet. I will not let them."
"That is not for you to decide," he told you, as if it would release the burden, but it did not, because it was not a burden. It was the truth. You would not allow anyone, thing or power above attempt to rip him from your grasps.
You shrugged, "It is now, because I will not loose you. I could not bare it," you told him lowly, your frown deepening at the thought. That had almost been your reality. A life without him.
You could not imagine it. A world without Jace would be hollow.
Neither of you spoke for a moment, sitting the silence your heads resting against the other as it slowly soothed your fast beating heart.
He is alive.
He is alive.
He is alive.
Jacaerys was the first one to break the silence, "I wish to be wed. I cannot imagine dying not at least knowing you were my wife."
You pulled back from fully looking at his features once more. There was absolutely not hesitation in his words. He meant them just as much as you had meant yours moments ago. Your mouth oped slightly, as you tried to form a coherent though.
"You will not die," you insisted, and you meant it.
"Humor me…please. I do not wish to wait any longer," his hand reached out, cupping the side of your neck at the pair of you stared at one another.
Being married to Jace did not scare you, not in the slightest. He was the only man you had ever loved. He was already set to be your husband, and what harm could moving up the date do.
After-all you had almost lost him forever. You had almost been forced to live a life without him, and you could not bear the thought of that. You truly knew deep down that you could loose the other at any possible moment. This was a war nonetheless.
You both deserve some happiness.
You leaned forward pressing your kiss to his mouth sealing your mouths together as you tried to pour every single emotion you felt into him. You hoped he knew how much you loved him. How much you care for him.
You only pulled away when your lungs begged for air and even then it was almost painful. neither of you wanted to spend another moment unbound from the other.
"I will take that as a yes," he breathed out. You could feel his lips turning up slightly, as if he was laughing, and the sound warmed your heart.
He is alive.
He is alive.
He is alive.
You wanted nothing more than in that moment to tuck him between your ribs to keep him safe next to your heart, the one that beat only for him, "Once you can walk again…we can be wed."
He moved instantly trying to get out of bed. "Sit your ass back down I did not mean this very second you fool," you said pushing him back against it lightly.
"But—"
You shook your head, rolling your eyes as you pressed a delicate kiss to the top of his head, "You need to rest," you told him standing.
His hand shot out wrapping around your arm, "Do not leave," he pleaded, his eyes begging as if he was scared you would disappear forever once you were from his view.
You pried his fingers from his hand, before lacing your own through it sitting back in the chair at his bed side. You looked at him with a small reassuring smile as he watched your every move, "Rest. I am not going anywhere. Not without you. Besides you must rest if you wish to marry me."
Jacaerys nodded, not quite settling against the pillows, his face still full of the unspoken fear that you would disappear. Though he did not know you held the very same. That you wondered if your mind was playing tricks on you.
He is alive.
He is alive.
He is alive.
You smiled at him, "I am not going anywhere," you said, bringing his hand to your mouth pressing a soft kiss to each of his fingers that held yours so tightly, "Rest. Please for me."
He finally nodded, "As you wish, my love," he muttered, leaning back against the propped pillows, but he did not close his eyes instead he stared solely at you, and you back at him.
He is alive.
He is alive.
He is alive.
And he would soon be yours and only yours forever.
When you save Jace at the battle of the gullet he insists on taking you back to dragonstone. Honoured as the woman who saved a princes life your offered the chance to wed the man you have fallen in love with, but with that comes the loss of your true love, the sea.
Requested (1)
Jacaerys x mermaid!reader
Word count: 3,034
CW: battle of the gullet, fighting, near death experience, fluff. minor Angst. kinda proofread. based on the little mermaid.
authors note: not sure how i feel about this
The tale of mermaids was known throughout the world. Some mermaids lured men to their deaths, using their songs as weapons, others ruled the waves, protecting the sea against men, sea dragoons and monsters of old. Others saved men’s lives. Though most were born to see humans as the enemy, the men who polluted their water and chased and hunted their kin. But you had always been fascinated by them, by their boats, the objects they dropped into the sea, and by their dragons.
Where your family lived, the narrow sea, boats passed through daily, merchants shouting from decks, crates falling into the sea, crates filled with jewels and other treasures. Some days dragons flew. Not the kind you saw under the sea, the ones that had become myth to those on land, but the kind that flew in the sky, bringing fire with them.
Today dragons flew, and ships sailed. But the seas lacked their usual calm, and the dragons breathed fire so dense it filled the sky with smoke that even you struggled to breathe as you swam beneath the
You should have swam away the second a ship burst into flames, should have ignored it and left. But a dragon fell, and a man with it. Nearly crushing you beneath the waves.
A man with hair that curled in the same way the waves crested, his face serene as he sank. A large gash across his forehead had knocked him out, leaving him perfectly calm as his lungs filled with water.
You should have left him, let him sink to the sea floor as you had with other fallen sailors. But something about this man pulled you in. You felt so inclined to save him; perhaps it was his handsome face or the fact that you had seen the determination in him as he flew through the sky. Whatever it was, it had you down to him descending with him, before grabbing his hand and pulling him from the watery depths and pulling him to shore.
Pulling him to shore, you worked to free the water from his lungs, your own breath heavy as your body began to adapt to being out of water. Your hands worked to pump air into his lungs until water spilt from his lips, his breath harsh.
His eyes locked with yours as breath filled his lungs. Relief filled his eyes at the sight of you, his saviour. He had seen you in the water, and now here you were. “You…” he murmured, his eyes barely open as he turned to look at you, “you saved me.”
You nodded, pushing yourself more onshore, the man's eyes snagging on your tail before, “mermaid?” he humbled, rubbing his eyes, his hand snaggign on the gash on his forehead.
“Yes,” you spoke, the word hesitant as you tested the common tongue on your lips. Your hand reached for his hair, playing with the curls, as you felt your tail turn to legs. “Do not be scared,” you hummed, your voice shaky and unsure, as your mind worked hard to remember the lessons you had been given on humans and their tongue. “I help you,” you muttered.
“Thank you,” he murmured, his eyes now locked in your face, the serene look returning as you helped him. “You saved my life. I am in your debt.”
You tilted your head, regarding the curly-haired man carefully as he sat up, his hand reaching for yours. You regarded him carefully as he took your hand and brought it to his lips, placing a soft kiss on it.
A blush rose to your cheeks at his action, a shy smile on your face. No one had ever kissed you, but you had seen humans do it. Heard their tales of kisses and love whenever you snuck away from the sea to a fishing town, sitting on the harbour as you listened to their drunken tales.
He rose slowly, his hand holding yours as he steadied himself, his breath still heavy. His hand tugged on yours, helping you to your own feet. Wobbling as you did so. His eyes darted down, snagging on your naked legs as his eyes trailed your body, his gaze more assessing than lingering. The blush on his cheeks told you all you needed to know.
“Your tail?” He murmured, surprised at the sight of your legs.
“Oh,” you sighed, looking down your body, “only in water, on land I have,” you tilted your head, thinking of the word, the man’s eyes locked in you, his blush still present “legs! I have legs,” you laughed, proud of yourself for remembering the word.
“Oh,” he murmured, going to dorks more before his arms landed on your hips to steady you, stopping you from falling as you wobbled. His eyes landed back on your naked form, his blush deepening further. “I-“ he pulled at the cloak on his back, offering it to you, “sorry it’s wet,” he sighed, looking around for something else to cover you with.
Taking the wet cloth from his hand, you eyed it sceptically, unsure of what it meant and what it was for.
“To wear,” he spoke, taking it from your hand and wringing out the tensing water before draping it over your shoulders. “See?”
You nodded your eyes, more focused on his face than on what he was doing. “You are very beautiful,” you spoke absentmindedly, your hand reaching for his curls.
Jace blushed, “As are you, my lady,” he cleared his throat, his hand coming to soothe the hair you had brushed out of place, “ I am Prince Jacaerys,” he presented his hand, offering for you to shake his. “You may call me Jace,”
You spoke your name as you eyed his hand, your finger tentatively reaching out to grab it. Holding his hand, you both stared at each other, neither of you knowing what the other wanted nor understanding the thoughts racing in your heads. “Are you….feeling well?” You asked your hand reaching for the gash on his forehead.
He hissed, his hand coming to meet yours, “I-“ he looked up, his eyes locking with dragonstone, “we should get back, my mother-“ he shook his head, his eyes trailing over you, “would you- would you come with me…please,”
“Prince Jac-“
“Call me Jace, please,” he interrupted, his hand reaching for yours, “you do not have to come if you do not wish.” He spoke, watching as your eyes darted back to sea, your home.
“I will come,” you nod your hand, gripping his, allowing him to lead you to Dragonstone.
“How do we know we can trust her?” Rhaenyra, his mother, spoke. Pacing the floor of her rooms. She had eyed you warily at your arrival. The war had made her paranoid, and even you the stuff of myths and legends. The very being Laenor would whisper about as he tucked their sons to sleep each night. And the very fact that those who resided on Driftmark and Dragonstone swore haunted the seas more than swam in them. She viewed you, as she did most, entirely as a threat. A threat her son refused to see, a threat her son had started falling in love with the second you helped the water leave his lungs.
“She saved my life,” Jace dismissed, his face set in determination. “And besides, she knows nothing of this war, how could she be a threat?”
His mother stopped her pacing, turning to face her son, the son that lived and blamed himself entirely for the battle of the gullet, entirely for Viserys's disappearance, the son that had he died, who had turned her mad. “Your father would tell you stories of mermaids, do you remember?”
Jace nodded, a fond smile on his lips; they had been his favourite tales as a child. Even the ones of mermaids luring men to their deaths, he had always enjoyed them, always desired to meet one and see if they were truly as beautiful as they would say, truly as cruel or if they were just misunderstood.
“Then you remember the tales of them luring men to their deaths, of them twisting their minds and turning them mad-”
“She is nothing like those tales; she saved me!” Jace interrupted, the fury he had not felt since he met you taking over him. “You have seen her! Met her! She is kind and caring and simply curious about us and our world as we should be hers.”
His mother sighed, walking towards Jace, her hand caressing his cheek gently as a soft smile came to her face, “That does not mean she does not have an ulterior motive.”
“Mother,” Jace began, shaking her off him, “she saved me, for no reason at all.” Jace sighed, starting to pace as his mother had before, “Just…please, mother, see the good in her before you try and look for the bad.” His mother sighed, watching Jace as he turned to leave.
“What is this?” you asked, holding the jewelled necklace Jace had given you in your hands. You had been on Dragonstone a few weeks now, and Jace had found his company filled with you, at least in the few moments he could spare from helping plan his mother's war.
Jace smiled, reaching for the necklace and motioning for you to turn around, “It's a necklace, you wear it around your neck,” he explained, as he placed it on your neck. Your hand flew the necklace, playing with the pendant, a sea dragon. The perfect symbol for you both.
“Oh!” you gasped, walking to the mirror and admiring it, “a gift?” you asked, turning to Jace with a bright smile on your lips, before turning and running into his arms.
Jace smiled at your actions, wrapping his arms around you. “Do you like it?”
You nodded, “It is very beautiful,” you sighed, “beautiful gift from a beautiful man,” you smiled, causing Jace to blush as he always did when you complimented him.
You turned back to the mirror, folding with the pendant as Jace watched you, “My mother wishes to get to know you.”
“The queen?”
Jace nodded, walking up to you, his hand on your shoulder.
“My father is a…” You stalled thinking of the word, “a ruler, a king?”
“You're a princess?” Jace asked, as you turned to face him, kissing his cheek as you often did.
“Yes,” you nodded, “will she like me if I'm a princess?”
“It is impossible to dislike you entirely, especially if you are a princess,” Jace kissed your forehead, smiling softly at you.
His mother sought you out two days later. A guarded look on her face as she walked into the chambers Jace had gifted you. “Sit,” she ordered as she watched you stand to greet her, wobbling slightly, still not quite adapted to your legs and feet. “Jacaerys tells me that you are a princess,” she begins, watching you sit. You nod, a nervous smile on your lips. “Your father,” Rhaenyra began, her eyes assessing you as she spoke, “he is a king?”
“Yes, he is…” You stumbled over your words, “is a king of what you call the narrow seas,”
Rhaenyra sat back in her seat, “Then he knows the boats that cross it, the tradeships, warships.”
You nodded, sitting up in your seat, “Yes, he watches them, has others do it too.” You felt more sure of yourself, “he could find ships, or where they went. I could have my father find the boats…Or I could find them.”
“And what would you want in turn?” You were sure she was tricking you; she had been standoffish with you from the start. Bar the initial gratitude and thanks for saving her son, she had simply viewed you as a threat or even an obstacle. But you understood why war made anyone paranoid.
She was like your father in that aspect, paranoid, specifically after loss. Your mother had been killed by a human, and as a result of his paranoia, he had banned your curiosity. Refused to let you so much as look at humans, let alone live among them. All you had ever wanted was to be free to do as you wished, free to choose to let humans live rather than let them sink to the ocean floor.
And with that choice, the choice to save Jace, you had gained that freedom. I had lived it for only a short time, but it had made me want more. More of life on land, and more of Jace.
“I want Jace,” you murmured, your eyes locking with Rhaenyra, a smile on her lips.
“Do you love him?”
“As much as and more than he loves me,” you smiled, thinking of Jace. It was the truth, entirely. Since the moment you saved him, and he had offered you his soaked cloak. He had been nothing but kind to you, and though at first you were sure it was in payment for his life, as time went by, the kind smiles, the gestures to escort you around Dragonstone, telling you the history of his house, the land and the legends. The mural of mermaids and sea dragons was in his father's old rooms. The gifts were when you knew he felt the same as you. You had told him how mermaids courted each other. The first gift was always pearls.
On the sixth day of Dragonstone, Jace had awoken you with a pearl necklace and earrings. “What is this?” you asked, a large smile on your face as Jace offered you his own sheepish smile.
“A gift,” was all he said, scratching the back of his head, waiting for you to put them on. “Do you like it?” he asked. You nodded, smiling softly, “Did I get it right?”
Your smile turned to a grin, his nervous smile easing as you realised what he was doing, courting you. “It's perfect.”
The next day, he presented you with a bouquet of wildflowers from the coasts of Dragonstone. And after that, silks and jewels.
He followed every step of your traditions, each time so eager to please, so happy when he got it right, and made you happy. It made you fall in love so easily. I want him more and more. But with Rhaenyar's aversion to you, her lack of trust. You knew that the only way to get Jace was to build her trust, even if it meant defying your father's laws more than you already had.
You spent the next three days after you met with Rhaenyra scouring the seas. After three days, you had found the ship that took her youngest, Viserys. Three days, and Rhaenyra, who felt like she was stuck in purgatory, cried with so much relief at the sight of him that she gave you exactly what you wanted, Jace's hand in marriage.
Everything had gone as you wanted, you got your freedom and Jace. A match history book would always be speculated on and questioned. Rhaenyra would be called mad for thematch, even if you had saved two of her own lives, risking everything for her.
And everything costs you the sea.
Your father had been an unhappy, mad, paranoid and angry since your mother's death. Had made rules that kept you bound to sea. Bond to letting humans sink and drown. Rules and laws that bid you from going near land and seeing the sights your mother had loved. She had always loved humans, loved to watch them swim, to sail. To fly the skies on their dragons. But then a human had killed her, a rogue arrow, costing her her life. And paranoid that your father had forced you away from the beaches and villages you once visited. Stopped you from listening to the human tales and songs.
The tales and songs you longed to live yourself.
And because you had saved a human, had lived as one for weeks, had helped save another, using the sea as your guide. Your father grew even angrier than he had before.
He had found you after nearly three moons on Dragonstone, had swam and waited by the very beach you had pulled Jace to and saved him on.
“You defied my laws,” he had stated, seeing you walking hand in hand with Jace, a bag full of seashells on his shoulder.
Jace's hand tightened around yours as you walked closer, feeling your nerves. “I wanted to leave the sea,” you breathed, your eyes darting to Jace as you spoke, “to live the tales mother spoke of,”
“The tales that got your mother killed?”
Jace's hand tightened around yours, feeling your father's anger even if you were both speaking a tongue entirely foreign to him.
“It was an accident,” you insisted, squeezing Jace's hand in comfort.
“I won’t have you suffer the same fate as her,” your father spoke, his voice angry, yet you could hear the concern in his voice, the fear. “Come home.”
“I don't..” You looked to Jace and then back to your father. “I don't wish to be confined to the sea,”
“The sea is your home,”
Your eyes locked with Jace, the unsure look on his face, his desire to pull you away from the beach and your father.
“It is but I-” you swallowed roughly, “I want the freedom of land and sea, as mother had,”
“You cannot have both.”
“I love him,” you looked to Jace, repeating the words in the common tongue, your body moving closer to his on instinct, “I cannot help him, not after everything.”
“Then loose the sea, loose me,” your father spoke, his tone angry but his eyes sad. Fear of losing you had forced him to push you away. You feared the regret would come, that choosing to live the tales and stories your mother had loved, that you had grown up hearing and desiring, would be worth it.
That loving Jace would be worth it.
The hug he gave you as your father swam away, the soft cradling of your face and the soft press of his lips against yours, mutterings of love, showed that it was.
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