Work Text:
Pain. Darkness. Did it always hurt this much?
He had known death from an early age. His father- mother’s husband- had died when he was naught but a boy. Death had always been violent and terrible, done swiftly and true.
That wasn’t his case, though.
He sank in the water slowly, and then all at once. He gave up fighting sooner rather than later, accepting his fate.
He found that death was a soft acceptance of your fate. He found that it was suffocating, and then easier to breathe than ever before.
Soon, the cold water turned to warm water, and he was standing in the halls of Dragonstone.
“Hello?” Lucerys called. “Is anyone there?” His voice echoed throughout the vast hall, reminding him of his loneliness.
“Lucerys?” He heard a familiar voice ask. He turned around and his eyes widened.
“Harwin?” He asked softly. Ser Harwin’s eyes brimmed with tears as he drew the young man into a hug.
“You aren’t supposed to be here this young,” he whispered sadly. He kissed his hair, and held the boy tightly.
“I was scared,” Lucerys whimpered. Harwin raised his son’s chin so that he could see his face.
“You were Strong , ” he whispered. “You died a warrior’s death, but it should not have been your fate, my son.”
“Mom was sad when you died,” he said. Harwin nodded through tears of his own.
“I would have loved your mother with as much fire and fury as dragons like her are worthy of,” Ser Harwin whispered tearfully. “Had I lived.”
“You left us!” Lucerys whispered furiously.
“I had no choice, Luke,” Harwin choked. “I hung on as much as I could.” He wiped his son’s tears away with his thumb. “You and your brothers were my last thought, and your mother’s face was the last I saw. I loved you boys more than the The Seven loved the Andals and the First Men.”
“Will mother worry?” Lucerys asked. “About me dying?” Ser Harwin sighed.
“She’s a mother. It’s in her nature to worry. She will mourn, in a different way than she mourned me, but there is something I must tell you about grief, son.”
“It’s just love in a different form for the living, right?” Lucerys whispered. He nodded and smiled.
“That’s right, my boy.” He kissed his son’s forehead.
“I missed you, father. We all do.” Ser Harwin nodded and gripped his son tightly in a warm embrace.
“I miss you too,” he whispered. “More than you would ever know.”
“I’m here though, aren’t I?” Lucerys asked hopefully.
“You are,” his father confirmed sadly. “But you are safe.” He gripped his son’s shoulders and knelt down to Lucerys’s eye level. “I am sorry that I was not there in your time of need, my son. As your father-“
“-you’re here now, though, and so am I. You couldn’t do much from here,” Lucerys gestured around them. Harwin’s eyes brimmed with tears.
“You did always have a habit of interrupting,” he chuckled.
“I regretted not getting to know you enough.”
“You were a boy- you couldn’t have known.” Harwin paused. “I didn’t know it was coming until it was too late.”
“That seems to be the case,” Lucerys nodded in agreement.
“I love you, my son,” Ser Harwin said. “My Strong, brave boy.” Lucerys gave Harwin a crushing hug.
“And I love you too, father.” Ser Harwin kissed his son’s cheek.
“Come,” he said, extending a hand, “there are people waiting to meet the Strong Prince of Westeros.”