You know what would be cute? Back at Summerhall Egg‘s mother was reading to him before bed. When Maekar comes looking for his wife because she did not join him, he finds her and Egg asleep, the book still in her lap.
THISSS, stop it you guys are so sweet with these ideas.. i fell into writing this thank you so much for the gift, I needed this cuteness today, I hope you enjoy!! 🥹💗
beautiful boy
summary: your youngest son comes to you late into the evening, scared and startled and luckily you know just the trick to comfort him.
pairing: aegon 'egg' targaryen x mother!reader (platonic ofc), maekar targaryen x wife!reader
warning(s): mention of aerion's history/violence to egg, legit just mum and dad sweetness with the baby egglet
Your home was more than a fortress and a tower, it was what you created. The Red Keep may have been the seat of the realm, and the stronghold by your marriage blood. But it was not your family.
Summerhall was where family was. What you had made, the love you created. And with six children by your bosom and most near grown, said love only seemed to grow. Despite the hardships you faced, battles and responsibility seemed nothing compared to the worst of it, which was what burned on the inside. Like the way your children treated one another, or rather one of them.
Aegon, your youngest boy. Sweet and kinder than any you had known. He wasn't so easily startled, the courage of ten men you'd wager by the time he was crawling, and unlike anything you or your husband had seen. And you knew beyond any doubt was there one thing to truly frighten the boy, and that was his brother. Aerion. Older by nine years, a short interval you'd left between Daeron and him, compared to Aegon his brother and his sisters, there was a lot to be differed. But even your Daeron, the eldest, no matter his own proclivities and ailments, he found a way to be gentle, kind, human to him, and to others. Something Aerion had lacked, and why, you were forever unsure. But you knew there was nothing to be excused.
You had readied yourself for bed, hair fanned out loosely at your back, robe delicate and draped around your shoulders from the growing cold. You had only set the brush down onto the silver tray with a soft clatter when the heavy thud hit the room, your tired gaze meeting with a familiar and wide eyed face. Soft, silver blondes of cropped hair falling at the sides of his face, fine nightclothes shaking around his small frame.
Aegon. Your Egg.
"My darling boy what ever is the matter.. " You stopped yourself before you could finish. The light reflecting off the tears in his eyes.
"He.." He couldn't manage the words himself as you ducked to him, knees crouching, soft fabric touching the floor as you embraced him, hushing carefully. But he didn't have to say who, it was already known.
There was only one, Aerion. You had done everything imaginable, both you and Maekar. Scolding him, taking him to maesters to cure his fits of rage and temper, isolating him though it hurt. Your husband had even suggested sending him away, and though it ached, he was your child after all, it was proving to be the only option. All he did was frighten the people and scare his own brother off, and you had lost track of your youngest son more than enough. There was efforts a plenty, and you had bitten the end of your tether with it, too many nights ended like this.
You made no other comment, only soothing the round soft skin of his cheeks under your thumb, gently swiping the lone tears that threatened to fall.
"Was your father there..?" Your voice was a whisper, though you already knew. Maekar was the first to be alerted, often walking the corridors by their near chambers at this time of night so much that he would tire himself more than he already was. Checking, making sure by any means Aerion wasn't to go near his another's chambers, and yet somehow there were still moments where he'd bypass him.
"Yes, he found him.." He sniffled, the sounds muffling as you pulled him tighter into you, arms welcoming around his middle and up his back as he opened to yours, small hands falling loose at your back, his fingers still clutching tightly. You stayed there for a moment, nodding against him, stroking up his back as he calmed, trembling chest easing into soft rising and falling.
"Dare I ask?" You tested after the minutes passed, careful to break the silence as you both seemingly fell into the embrace. And you thought you had scared him off until a heavy exhale came from his small body, sucking in a breath. But still refusing to move, as if to hang onto you as long as he could.
"He brought the knife again.. this time he only showed it to me, something about claim. I don't know what, but father came in before he could.." Most of the words came out as a fearful mumble, but you heard enough, his voice slowing, reminiscing as you did, remembering that night well. Aerion had threatened him fully for the first time, Aegon only four, a knife plunged deep between his legs whispering obscenities even you wished to forget. Ones that haunted you all. And you stopped him before he went further than he wanted to, your own body going rigid, though you prayed thanks to the Gods, and your husband, that he hadn't done it as before.
You pulled away from him gently then, not straying far, your hands clutched at the sides of his arms as your stern expression met his pale face.
"And he will not do such a thing again." You meant it, though you were never sure, you couldn't be, and that's what ailed you most. Though your voice did not falter, nor did the stern expression leave your face. He wanted to believe you, he really did, he trusted you, though until Aerion was far away he wouldn't feel it, not truly. And somewhere deep down, neither did you, but he had you, and you him, and even in the grim, it was enough.
"I will speak with him.."
That part he believed. You always had, his father first, strong and reprimanding, yelling and his own palm sitting upside the head heard from across castle walls. And then you. You were softer, just, more dangerous. The way a predator is when they were about to strike. He was your son after all, you loved him as your husband did, but you wouldn't let this consume you all, much less at the expense of another no matter how much you loved him. And Aerion listened, he respected you both.. though only if it lasted for a short while.
He only nodded, big violet eyes blinking back at your own and a smile crept on your cheeks, weary, but eager, distracting. A familiar idea popping into your head, rising gracefully onto your legs and ushering him into the chambers completely. Soft feet padded the stone floor and onto the Myrish carpet, your hands reaching toward the wooden door to click it closed, his frame jumping subtly at the sound, darting back to you as you began to speak, easing him with your presence alone.
"You know.. I was thinking today of our dragons, and which ones you might choose." A lighthearted thing, a conversation that was secret and known between you two, like an inside joke you had saved for the darkest of times. Something that connected you. You followed after him, inching toward the armchair as he shuffled around, ghosting his hand across the small set of bookcases in the corner by the window.
"I hadn't thought of it.." He was focused, shrugging, not dismissing, but searching. Eyes trailing the multicoloured bindings of every cover and title, and you watched him, for you knew if he couldn't find adventure outside, he would find it in the very books you had read to him since he was a babe.
"Nonsense. You always have an idea. Come.. I'd like to know." It was your best attempt to take his mind elsewhere, though it did intrigue you, the ever changing answers depended on his mood, and you were curious as to who drew the short straw this time. More so, you could only guess. He hummed softly, stopping in front of one shelf, and pulling out a large leather-bound book, tucking into his side before turning back to you, the thickness of it nearly spilling from where he had to hold it in two hands. A musing and gentle look on his face, nearly mischievous as he handed it to you, your palms reached out from where you now sat on the plush cream chaise.
"Tyraxes, he didn't even hatch properly.. unable to fly, unable to anything, useless really." You huffed a laugh, placing the book into your lap as you tugged your robe around yourself, much like a blanket. He climbed on after you, rolling into your lap, sneaking his arm around your side and snuggling into the warmth of your body. You raised an eyebrow as he flicked the pages of the book, one of many stories, one you knew well.
"And who pray tell would that be for?"
"Aerion of course, he's an idiot, it would be perfect." His tone was careless, though putting a lot of thought into it, fingers coasting along the ink beginning to end. You only hummed, not disagreeing completely, though not one to spur him on too loudly.
"And what of you..?" He had named many before now, every size, every age, every shape and colour known to history, he was never short of knowing another.
"Syrax."
"Princess Rhaenyra's dragon?"
"Yes, she's a battle dragon. A pretty yellow too, and she bonded with her. I would like that.."
Sometimes it tugged at you, the histories of lineage and what you once knew, what you had lost come the ages. But your own traditions kept it alive, even this one, even of the people and it's dragons who were near forgotten by history not long since passed. You smiled to yourself at his words, so passionate, tumbling out so sure of himself that the night's terrors had almost been left behind.
"And Daeron shall have Sunfyre, and Aemon on Moondancer, and my sisters can have Dreamfyre and Vermax. You on Balerion and Father on Caraxes." He hadn't given you another chance to speak, already made up his mind though he refused to tell before, as if he'd been repeating it over and over. Each one made you light up, every one of them chosen so carefully, though yours made you pause, almost snorting as you chuckled.
"Balerion..? For me?" Your head cocked downward, as he looked back up at you, almost offended as if you should have known, head nodding proudly.
"Of course.. it was Aegon the Conqueror's dragon. Aegon like my name because you named me, and because Balerion was the most biggest and fearsome dragon's in all of Westeros. And you are strong just like him mother.."
The words settled in your chest, even at his age, perception didn't come quietly, he saw all of the little cracks and tethers as well as ever strength. Your heart swelled, nodding softly to yourself in contentment, your arm coming around him to squeeze him closer to you, kissing the top of his head lightly.
"Then.. I shall take it my sweet boy."
His hands stopped steady onto one of the middle pages, palms reaching up to pull it into your view though in his lap still, the ink wide and true in your vision over his head.
The Knight and The Falling Star.
You stroked the top of his head with one palm, the other coming to thumb at the page, his own tucking back around you. His own tiredness getting the better of him as he rested backward, hair falling onto the tresses of your own.
"This is the one?" You murmured quietly, and he only nodded into you. The very one you had read to him many times, his own proclaimed favourite.
"Then I shall read it.." You fell into the story just as he did, no matter how well you knew it, the words leaving your mouth smoothly, punctuating every knight's line clear and true, just as you had imagined it being said aloud, with chivalry and proclamation. He giggled at the lighter parts and curse words which you refused to speak, tensing at the battle scenes and threats casted by evil.
The story was one of knights, a kingdom broken and a lone falling star, so rare, so otherworldly, they swore it was that of legend. But when the sword the lone knight forged from the fallen star and stone was wielded, he became unbeaten, bested by no other man, and he could protect any one he wished to, saving both family and his people for restoring good to his land.
It may have been called far-fetched by people who knew of too much, refused faith, but your Egg held onto dreams, onto the hope of what he wanted to become one day. And you foresaw it with him.
The story came to a close, a shorter one by most means, the last sentences trailing off into your soft yawn, so silent you thought he may be a sleep. Though you pushed on, his voice following the words identical to your own on the last line, knowing them by heart.
"You could have made me jump.." You shook your head, closing the book gently with a chuckle between your fingers and drawing it from his lap, placing it onto the wooden table beside you.
"Daeron says that the book is true.. that the star's knight will come into one's path. He didn't say who.. do you believe him mother?" His voice was unbelievably tired, you could hear him drifting odd mid sentence, eyes wandering up to yours, lidded and comforted at last. Your fingers threaded through the silver strands tenderly, soothing.
"I believe your brother sees what most do not. We would do well to trust in him when the time is right.." Your voice hushed him into his dreams, head falling into your lap as yours did a similar lull against the back of the chair. There was no doubt what your eldest son saw was true, even if you were one of the few to believe him, you just hoped whatever or whoever it was, would be as just and kind as the stories say.
—
Mere minutes had passed by the time Maekar had stumbled his way into the doorway, frustration and curses linking his every step, tugging without a care at the collar of his doublet, dropping it to the floor.
"That boy is going to be.." The gravel of his tone reverberated the room, but it barely pricked anyone's ears, sleep had already taken you both, his eyes widening almost out of character at the sight. The pair of you tucked into one another, beside the dying crackle of the hearth. His wife and youngest son, he felt his chest tighten as he stalked closer, fingers ghosting over the book just beside you, tracing the top of the chair. He felt himself looking the way he did as he when you had brought him into this world.
Sweet, peaceful Aegon, and you fearless and strong with him in your arms, himself not far away. He gets it from you he supposed, you swore otherwise. Perhaps both. His face softened slightly, the brash words and ill feeling of Aerion's actions fading just for the moment, to be dealt with another time. Instead now the warmth filled the air, emanating from you both, soft firelight glinting across all of your faces.
You twitched at his hand brushing your face, tucking a fallen hair from your face, opening your eyes sleepily, barely awoken, yet meeting his gaze, "How did he take it?" He shook his head, well and truly focused, "As well as a boy does, like a coward."
You raised an inch, Egg huffing in unconscious protest at your movement, both of you freezing. "I'll speak with him." You whispered defiantly, and he waved you back, moving you gently back into where you lay, "I believe you should stay here for now, it seems you have been taken." Maekar grimaced in feigned annoyance, leaning over to press a kiss to your forehead.
"I will join you soon, my love."
And you did, his arms pulling you in tightly, your back to his bare chest, gesturing fond promises to one another into the night, Egg snuggled into your neck at the other side, small hands tucked between you. You spoke to him of your time together before you had fallen asleep, dreaming of dragons and knights until your voices fell to a hush of snores and mumbles.
The both of you unknowing, that with steady breaths and eyes shut tightly, Egg was listening all the while, a smile reaching into his dreams at hearing you, the closeness, the love exchanged— something sacred that battled away the fear. Something he would recall for years to come even when this, all of you, were long gone.
a knight of the seven kingdoms is about the cycles of fathers and their sons. maekar comforting egg when egg approaches aerion’s bedside. egg running to dunk despite lacking his father’s permission. ser arlan riding out with dunk and egg but turning away because it's time for dunk to let him rest and have his own adventure now. what if i exploded what then.
im just straight up ignoring the canon and making my College AU with Dunk, Aerion, Daeron and Raymun (Egg’s their mascot carried in Dunk’s pocket dimension /j)
