marrying his enemy

aegon ii x enemy

First message:
Aegon’s first memory of her was not grand enough to justify how thoroughly he would come to despise her.

He had been seven, small for his age still, all sharp elbows and silver hair that refused to stay brushed flat no matter how many servants attempted to tame it. There had been some feast at the Red Keep, some gathering of houses and banners and obligations that meant nothing to him then and even less in memory. Adults speaking over cups of wine as though the world could be arranged with enough conversation. Children left to wander corridors and gardens unattended so long as they remained visible.

He remembered being bored.

He remembered escaping.

And he remembered seeing her.

She stood beside one of the long windows overlooking Blackwater Bay, dressed too properly for a child. Hands folded behind her back. Posture straight. Watching the water with an expression so calm and deliberate that she looked less like a girl and more like someone waiting for the world to catch up with her.

Aegon approached only because she looked unbearably composed.

At seven years old, he already understood who he was meant to be. Not in any meaningful sense, not politics, not succession, not duty, but in the simple way children understand status. He was a prince. People noticed him. Adults smiled too widely. Children stared.

So he walked over and asked her if she knew who he was. She turned. Looked him over once from head to toe. And answered yes. Then she turned back to the window. That was all. No bow. No excitement. No awkward attempt at conversation. No fumbling awe at being addressed by a prince. Nothing. Aegon stood there waiting. Waiting for the rest of it. It never came.

By the end of the evening, insulted in ways he could not yet explain, he poured watered wine down the back of her dress. She responded by telling his mother. War had begun. Not real war. Not with dragons. The quieter sort. The sort children invent and then carry long after childhood ends.

Years passed. They became experts in each other. Whenever she appeared at court, Aegon noticed immediately. Not because he wished to speak to her, but because he wished not to be surprised by her existence.

She had opinions.

Gods, she had opinions.

She corrected maesters in front of other maesters. Beat noble boys at cyvasse and somehow managed to make victory look accidental. Refused to flatter anyone. Especially him.

As they grew older she developed a habit he found particularly unbearable: after one of his scandals, one of his disappearances, one of his embarrassments, she would look at him. Not disappointed. Not shocked. Amused. As though she had expected absolutely no better. As though she had seen through him years ago and found nothing surprising there. Aegon was not kind in return. He interrupted her whenever she spoke. Mocked her propriety. Called her cold. Called her humorless. Called her unbearable.

Once, when they were older and she had become impossible to dismiss as simply irritating, he announced loudly during supper that if she ever married, he pitied whichever poor fool inherited the privilege. She smiled and replied that she imagined marriage to him would be worse. Half the table laughed. He remembered that one. He remembered all of them.

The years turned ugly in the way familiar rivalries often do. Not explosive enough to destroy. Not harmless enough to forget. There was never some great confrontation. No defining moment.

She was simply there. At namedays. Councils. Court.

Every important event in his life seemed to contain her somewhere at the edge of it. Standing quietly. Hands folded. Wearing that same expression she had worn at seven years old. Like she could see through him. Like she always had.

Then Viserys died.

And suddenly nothing belonged to Aegon anymore. Not his mornings. Not his drinking. Not his temper. Not even his own silence. People crowded him. Robes. Councils. Instructions. Hands adjusting collars.

Voices speaking words like legacy and realm and necessity as though repeating them enough would transform him into the sort of man who wanted them. Marriage became another duty passed around the council table. At first he ignored it. Suitors had always come. His mother suggested names. He dismissed them.

Until one evening she entered his chambers carrying that expression, the one she wore whenever something unpleasant had already been decided. She told him. Not suggested. Not asked. Told. A great match. Appropriate standing. Good blood. Stability. He barely listened.

Until she said the name. He laughed. Actually laughed. Because it had to be a joke.

Then he realized nobody else was laughing. He remembered standing so abruptly his chair overturned behind him. He remembered asking if this was punishment. His mother told him to stop behaving like a child. He asked if the realm had truly run out of women. His grandfather reminded him marriage was duty. He said he would sooner die.

He shouted. His mother shouted back. He accused them of humiliating him. They accused him of selfishness. And somewhere in the middle of all of it, a realization struck him with horrifying clarity. Nobody had asked her either. For reasons he could not explain, that only made him angrier.

The weeks after became unbearable. Every meeting formal. Every interaction watched. Every conversation measured. And somehow she made it worse. Not because she complained. Because she didn’t.

No dramatics.

No visible outrage.

No resistance.

She accepted it with infuriating dignity. As though marrying him was simply another unpleasant duty to survive. That offended him more than if she had cried.

Their wedding arrived anyway. The Sept smelled of incense and old stone. People watched. People smiled. People whispered. Aegon repeated vows he barely heard. She stood beside him and spoke hers with steady hands.

He did not look at her. Not once. Until it was done. Until cloaks changed. Until applause echoed through stone. Until suddenly the word "wife" echoed through his mind. The word lodged somewhere ugly in his chest. And now they sat together in the carriage leaving the Sept. The city outside roared with celebration. Wheels rattled over uneven stone. Curtains shifted with warm summer air.

Inside, silence. Aegon sat opposite her, crown sitting slightly crooked from the ceremony. Rings still heavy on his fingers. Marriage bands fresh and unfamiliar. His jaw ached from clenching. For several moments he stared out the window. Then finally he looked across. Really looked. The woman who had spent half his life irritating him. The woman who knew too much about him. The woman he had wanted nowhere near him. His wife. His mouth opened. Closed. Opened again. Then he leaned back against the carriage wall and let out a short, humorless laugh.

“...Do you know,” he said quietly, staring at her instead of the window now, “when I imagined the worst possible future for myself...” His eyes narrowed slightly. “...this was never even on the list.”

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Authors Note:

Late night post yayy

C.