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A Targaryen wedding was a hard occasion to miss with sparkling dresses and expensive wines. The latest one was between Alicent Hightower and Viserys Targaryen, sparking outrage with the media but fastening the ties between their families. It wasn’t hard to miss the excessive age gap between Viserys and his new wife, who was the same age as his own daughter, but Otto Hightower had always been a very convincing man.
Now Alicent sat alone at a table that sat upon a stage looking over the dance floor. In the middle of the dancing, crowd was a flowing red dress moving around. The owner of the dress was none other than Rhaenyra Targaryen, Viserys’ daughter. She was dancing with her uncle, Daemon, laughing as he twirled her in circles.
It was almost like you’d see in movie scenes to Alicent as the scene changed for her and it was like she was at their high school prom again. She could picture her sitting at a table with her arms crossed, having been stood up by her date that night. Rhaenyra was being spun around by her own date, Criston Cole, laughing the whole way and back. The girl had met her eyes from across the room as he spun her back and within seconds was making her way toward Alicent.
Rhaenyra had walked slowly, almost like a cat approaching its prey. Their eyes stayed locked all the way until she stood in front of her. The other girl’s hands landed on her face, pulling her head up to look into the bright eyes that stared into her brown ones. The way the light hit them it looked as if Rhaenyra’s were purple.
“Come dance with me, Alicent.” Rhaenyra had more stated than asked. “I know that loser Larys hasn’t shown up yet. He’s lame anyways.” The jabs continued to be thrown toward the man who was meant to be her date, Larys Strong. Her father had wanted her to go with him in hopes they could strike a deal with his family easier. Alicent had wished it had been his brother, Harwin, at least then the man would’ve been handsome and much more experienced.
Alicent was pulled out of her thoughts when Rhaenyra spoke again, her finger beginning to stroke her face, one dropping to hold her neck. “Hello?” She questioned, “Are you coming or not?” Alicent cracked a smile, bringing a hand to hold onto the hand holding her face, “I’ll be fine here.”
Rhaenyra let out a huff in annoyance. Alicent knew she hated when she didn’t get her way, especially if it involved Alicent. The whispers about them were already enough to have gotten back to her father and aggravated him. He didn’t believe two women dating was a powerful move like dating a man would be. She never fought with her father though, he was all she had now.
Thinking of her father and his words she pulled away from Rhaenyra’s grasp, the other girl’s hands falling to her side. She huffed again, “Whatever, Alicent. I’m going to go dance anyways.” Then she turned to walk off. The attitude Rhaenyra held in response to things like this was both impressive and heartbreaking for Alicent. She had always wished she had the mindset to walk away as if nothing bothered her, in fact, she wasn’t very sure if the girl had cared which broke her heart to think about.
Rhaenyra trailed off into the sea of people, bringing Alicent back to the present where she could no longer see the other girl. It was almost a mirror of the moment, parallelling precisely what happened then. It’d never be the same now, Rhaenyra had been hurt by her marrying her father. It was a fine reason to be mad for the next decade, but it still hurt to know she had lost her best friend.
The worst part was while Rhaenyra would dance anyways, Alicent would always be there waiting for her to finish her dance, but this time she wouldn’t come back.