Luke and Aemond's first meeting
Merman king Viserys fell in love with human Aemma and had Rhaenyra, who's half-mer. She can grow gills and some scales on her legs, but no tail.
Rhaenyra turned away from the sea when Viserys didn’t let her marry Daemon and because she wasn't accepted as future queen due to not having a tail.
She moved to the nearby fishing town and married Harwin, never telling him about her heritage. But she couldn’t keep her sons away from the sea, especially Luke - he carries too much of her in his blood to be separated from the water.
Luke became a fisherman, while Jace is learning to take over Harwin's and Rhaenyra's family business (not specified yet).
One day, while Jace is taking a stroll on a more secluded beach, he finds a naked man on a rock, who looks drunk off his ass.
It's actually mer!Aegon, who ran away from home a few days ago because he hates his prince duties. Then he got high on puffer fish and sunbathed on that rock so long that he got dry and shifted into human form. He's crying because the transformation hurts.
Jace takes the guy to his place to help him, trying to sober him up under the shower. After a few minutes, Aegon shifts again, moaning in pain pitifully. Then he gets a good look at Jace and forgets all about that because Jace is cute. And freckled. No one has freckles among the merfolk.
Sitting on the bottom of Jace's tub and shamelessly flapping his pink tail fins, Aegon tries to flirt. Jace just gapes, questioning his own sanity.
Aegon knows a few human words, so he tries using them, asking for fish. In a daze, Jace brings him some - and Aegon flashes him a row of razor sharp teeth as he wolfs the whole thing down in one second flat. Then he goes back to batting his tail fins at Jace.
Meanwhile, Luke is out on the sea, pulling one of his larger fishing nets out of the water. It's not only fish that he pulls out though, but a trashing, panicked mer.
It's Aemond - he's been dutifully searching for his brother upon his mum's request. Normally, he wouldn’t come this close to humans, since he lost his eye because of them when he was a child, but he also knows that Aegon wants to escape to the land so he's more likely to be found by the shore.
Aemond thinks he's fighting for his life while the human's ridiculously warm hands slide over his skin to hold him down, but he can't escape the ropes.
When Luke approaches him with a knife, he's ready to bite him, to fight in any way necessary, but then it turns out that Luke just wants to cut his bonds. Mumbling human words that Aemond doesn't understand ("Shh, it's okay.")
Aemond wants to go back to the water immediately, but he sprained his tail with his writhing and he tired himself out. He knows he wouldn’t make it far. Vhagar can't come help him either because there are too many ships nearby.
But this human doesn't seem threatening, upon second glance. He has very interesting tan skin and he smells nice. Aemond decides to hang around until some of his energy replenishes. He and Luke sit across from each other in almost complete silence while he slowly, warily munches on a fish from the pile around him, never taking his eye off Luke.
