Chapter Text
As Aerion and Jacaerys grew up their differences became more apparent, even at age 5 they had glaringly different personalities. While Jace liked to spend time playing pretend with their younger brothers and following their mother around like ducklings, Aerion preferred spending his days watching the kingsgards spar or sneaking into the dragon pit. It wasn't unusual to see Aerion staring intently at the Knights almost as if he was analysing their every move.
He was…, he knew when a knight's grip was not tight enough on the sword or then one's fighting stance was off balance. Sometimes he would tell them all the things they were doing wrong but then he would just be ignored which led to Aerion stalking off with his fist clenched.
Today was one of those days, he had been particularly annoyed with a dark haired knight training his older cousin Aegon and bored of watching his cousin embarrass himself he strutted to the gardens deciding to torment his mothers ladies instead , little did he know there was one king's guard following the small boy. To focus on his task of finding one of his mothers ladies in waiting to scare, he only knew he could do this because his mother was wilfully ignorant to her second youngest temperament.
When he eventually found one of the more temperamental women, he hid behind a large tree in the gardens and collected some rocks to throw at her. He knew it was a childish way to torment her but it was better than crying from boredom at the sparing yard. But just as he was winding up to throw the rock at her he felt a hand grip tightly around his raised wrist.
“What are you doing boy”
Aerion dropped his rock at the sound of Sir Hardwin's voice, and put on his most innocent face before replying to the man. “I am just making some fun ser, i mean no harm”. Aerion could tell Hardwin did not believe him, he could see it in his eyes, the same ones his brother had. And he hated it… how his man acted as if he was a picture of a knight, but Aerion knew and so did his parents and when his brothers grow older so will the court.
“What were you planning?” Said Hardwin in a tone that reminded Aerion of Maekar, "I was just seeing how far I could through this stone Ser”. Hardwin looked at Aerion then back at the lady “you should know that a respectable prince would do no such thing”. Aerion looked away from the knight, and took a deep steady breath, “Me and my chances of being a respectable princeling have already gone because of you and my brothers” he mumbled bitterly to himself. But those words did make Hardwin drop his grip on Aerion's wrist, though what happened next Aerion would rather a bruised wrist.
Hardwin knelt down on one knee to be at Aerion's stature, and his dark brown eyes met Aerion's bright violet and he had a very serious tone in his voice. “Where did you hear that, who said it?” Hardwin sounded just like Maekar now, and a pit of shame formed in the boy's stomach. He let Hardwin get the better of him, Hardwin had made his resolve crumble and Aerion was not going to forgive him.
Aeion did not see Hardwin's face when next he spoke for the boy was too busy looking at a robin in the tree branches. “You must understand Aerion, that those words are more than an insult…” . Hardwin did not sound angry now, he almost sounded to Aerion as if he cared. “Aerion my prince can you look at me… you need to understand this.”. Hardwin put both his hands on the small boy's shoulders and just looked at him. Aerion turned to look at the man with unsettling apathy.
“I don't know why you care, it's yours and Mothers fault I have his problem”, Ser Hardwin did not reply to Aerion's comment, he just looked at the small boy sadly, patting him on the head and leaving with the parting words of “If you won't be good for me at least be good for you mother, she needs your fury”
Aerion watched as the man walked away, this time listening to the clunk of his armor and the chirp of the robin. He imagined Hardwin tripping and falling, maybe even hitting his head on a stone, the image made the boy smirk.
When the sound of Ser Hardwin's armor had faded into the background Aerion brought his focus back to the chirping robin. Without hesitation Aerion found his heaviest rock and whipped it at the small bird. He watched as the small animal fell from the tree and hit the grass with a soft thud, Aerion looked at the sad creature for a short while, it had been so long since he had lashed out, it felt nice, like it was well deserved. But when he looked up from the animal to leave he saw her staring at him, Helaena.
~
Some days after that encounter Aerion found himself sitting apart from his brother in the Keeps library, they were having lessons in High Velaryon and while Jace could barely even pronounce the sounds in the alphabet. Aerion was completely fluent, their teachers even called him a prodigy, now was he going to divulge that he had already had years of teaching… no. He enjoyed holding it over his brother's head, a common insult Aerion would throw at Jacaerys was, “you may have a dragon, but you're too dumb to command it”. Though Jace would just laugh it off and tell Aerion to be nicer or he’ll get Vermax to burn him. That's another thing Aerion hates about his brother, even with all his insults and snears Jacaerys still thinks that him and Aerion are the best of friends.
Aerion was bored to almost tears, having to do self study just because all the people in the castle were to incompetent to teach him anything of value that he didn't already know. He was a prodigy, too good for the stupid maester, and anyway it's not like any of them want to teach Aerion, he’s still as stoic as he was as a babe. It unsettles most of the staff in the Keep, they say he’s too quiet for a boy, so they ignore him, that is if they even notice Aerion in the room in the first place. So he bided his time waiting until the maester was helping Jacaerys, and then he slipped away, patting silently down the halls.
He walked aimlessly through the halls for some time, that was until he found spiral stairs that he could not remember where they led, and letting his curiosity get the best of him he climbed up the spiral. It took him some to reach the top, using both his hands and knees to crawl up the spiral he eventually found a hall. It wasn't a very long hall, it had protruding windows but there was only space for one rather small man to fit and for all the windows the hall was remarkably dark. Aerion heard voices at the end of the hall, just past the ornate oak doors, he only recognised one. It was his “grandmother” the queen, Aerion had never liked her, in the history books he used to read in summerhall he had come to the conclusion that she was one of the reasons for the death of the dragon. There are many more reasons for his dislike of the queen but her bad political decisions to put her son on the iron throne.
Aerion creeped closer to the door to hear what that woman was saying, he had his ear pressed against the hard wood and still he was unable to hear the conversation, although he did get some idea of what was being said it was ultimately too boring for Aerion to keep being invested. he decided to wait in one of the shaded window corridors and much to his luck the oak door opened soon after he situated himself in the shadows.
He watched as Alicent, her father and a man he did not recognise walked out of the room, they thanked the unknown man and walked down the stairs. The man watched as Alicent and Otto descended the stairs then slowly turned and started to limp back to the room at the end of the hall.
Aerion looked the man up and down as he passed Aerion's hiding spot, he was not an interesting or handsome man, and Aerion did not think him important because he would have known who the man was. The only interesting part of this man was his clothes, they were adorned with the crest of house Strong. So why was the queen and her father having a private meeting with him, Aerion had no impression that the hightowers favoured the Strongs especially that Hardwin was so trusted by his mother. ‘What could that woman be up to?’ was all he could think about as he himself descended the stairs when he thought the cost was relatively clear.
He wandered mindlessly through the halls of the red keep for a short amount of time, thinking about what Alicent might be up to. Maybe she has been hatching her plan to overthrow his mother earlier than he knew about, Aerion wasn't completely surprised he could understand that the pressure for her blood to even come close to the greatness of pure Targaryens would make any weak willed woman crack.
Alicent… She was the first target he needed to snuff out, if he managed to subdue her early most of his work will be done for him. All he needed to do was make her task seem impossible. Cut off all her loyalties and strangle her from the inside, ‘Her children will be dealt with later’ thought Aerion. Her Children Aegon, Helaena, Aemond, and Daeron were not as much of a threat to the dragons as Otto and Alicent were. As far as Aerion cared Alicent's children were just puppets none of them in many times his mother forced him to speak with his uncles and aunt did he think they had value to add to his house.
Aerion went on formulating different plans only for a small time before he was found and promptly dragged back to his lessons. It was the maester that found him having realised his disappearance a small time after he ran out the room, and he was promptly dragged back to his classes for the rest of the day.
~
It was late the next time Aerion had a moment to himself, after his disappearance from his lessons he had been made to spend the day with Jacaerys and Lucerys witch was its own form of torture in Aerions mind but at lest Joffry was not brought to “play” with them. Having to entertain Jace and Luke is already tedious enough without a babe screaming in the same room. Though spending time with those simpletons did spark an idea in Aerion, it happened when his brothers forced him to play soldiers with them.
Before they were allowed to start Luke insisted on Choosing a knight from a history book, so all three of the boys sat for a time looking at old tales of knights, then Jacaerys and proclaimed that he would not be a knight from history he would be himself when he was a decorated knight. Which for some reason jogged Aerion's memories of reading about his brother and his premature death.
This worried Aerion, not for the fact that his brother was to die at the age of six and ten; No, the thing that worried him was that he forgot details of the dance, without his knowledge of the past he would be useless and the dragons would die. He would fail and his second chance at greatness would ultimately lead to a pathetic house and existence.
So he would record all he knew, he would find a blank book and scribe all he knew of the dance on the pages, and so no one unworthy reads the pages, he would write in velaryon. It would hone his skills at the language and keep his knowledge of the dance intact. Now all he had to do was find the blank books. He went rummaging around his and Jacarey's shared chambers, though his search was fruitless, he just came to the decision to ask the maestars on the morrow.
He spent the rest of his time before he retired to his shared bed going over all his history and knowledge obsessively, saying names and dates and places over and over until he accidentally put himself to sleep.
~
When Aerion awoke from his sleep he was not in bed, no… he was on the floor. The cobble was freezing to the touch and exceptionally smooth, unlike anything in the red keep. Panicked, Aerion rose from his position on the floor to hopefully understand where exactly he was. When eventually reached his full stature and looked around he recognised almost nothing around him except the girl standing before him. She was staring like she had done days before but when their eyes met Aerion was engulfed in green. He felt it burning his clothes and skin before his vision turned green.
And then he awoke with a yell, startling Jacaerys who was asleep besides his brother awake. “Aerion, brother what happened?” Said Jacaerys in a tired but still worried tone. “Tis nothing brother, just a dream. Go back to sleep.” Replied Aerion not looking towards his brother. “Are you sure Aerion… you do not look well”. At this Aerion looked at his hands through the dim glow of the moonlight streaming through a window in their shared chambers.
He was shaking, and even by looking at his hands he could tell he was paler than normal, Aerion looked up from his hands to face his elder brother. “I am fine brother, do not worry. let us go back to sleep” these words seemed not to comfort Jacareys, whose eyebrows were still pinched with worry for his younger twin. But against his better judgement laid back down with his brother facing away from him and waited until Aerion's breathing had levelled and he was sure his win was asleep. Then placed his head against the younger boy's back and fell into an uneasy sleep with him.