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The late stages of the pregnancy meet Lucerys Velaryon with horrendous, breathtaking pains.
"I am too beautiful to suffer like that," he sobs as he tries to lay down, Aegon catching him into his embrace, bringing closer.
He is always here to catch Luke.
"I don't understand if you're crying or making a jest about how pretty you are," Aegon speaks, cradling his husband's tear stricken face.
"It's not a jest," Lucerys cries louder. "I am delight! Well, not now obviously, now I look like the leviathan the likes of which used to inhabit the Sunset Sea. But generally I'm a very fine presence to have around."
"I know that," Aegon kisses his forehead. "Now try to calm down a little."
"Don't tell me to calm down!" Luke argues. "Has telling to calm down ever helped anyone? I would wager not!"
"What can I do to make it better?" Aegon lays his husband's head on his lap and caresses Luke's hair, wet with the sweat.
"Kill me."
"Aside from that."
"Can I have more milk of the poppy?"
"Maester Gerardys said-"
"I know what maester Gerardys said!" Luke howls as another spasm overcomes his body. "I hate it. I'm never bearing another child again, ever. My body is literally," he stops to hiss through gritted teeth. "Tearing on itself to accommodate the child. I have no- Argh, ...idea how it's supposed to rebuilt itself back to its original form."
"Daemon told me it used to be easier when valyrian blood was stronger in our veins, purer."
"Daemon can chock on- oof, no, really, Egg, love, please just kill me. It would be mercy. Please, my sun, please, please, please-"
Aegon grits his teeth as he launches his husband closer to his chest.
"No," he replies firmly. "Stop asking for that. I am not losing you both to some midnight pains."
Luke sobs.
"Easy for you to say when you're not the one suffering from them," Aegon's lap and chest are wet with tears now. "You're lucky I like you."
I am, Aegon agrees mentally. And to have you, like this, in my arms. I'm the luckiest man alive.
"Shh," he speaks instead. "Do you want me to sing to you?"
"You don't want any lullaby now; I fear they will only irritate me more."
"I can just hum a melody. Or," Aegon wiggles eyebrows, making his husband laugh weakly. "I can sing brazen tavern songs or the drunken sailor ones. Your pick."
"Brazen tavern ones," Luke asks softly. "Please."
His uncle nods and begins, trying to ignore the way his lover's body convulses from time to time.
Valyrian blood magic made is possible for the men of their descend to bear children.
But it didn't make it easy.
"They never wanted me," Luke sighs later when the pain subsided and they talk about everything and nothing, relieved the torture has passed. For now. "They wanted my valyrian blood for the child to have a dragon, and the Driftmark throne. It was not about the person you could marry, but about what they could gain. You," he looks back to gaze at his husband. "Wanted nothing of that."
I want you, comes unbidden, tearing Aegon's whole soul at the seams. I don't want your throne or your bloodline; I want you and our son. I want him to be born healthy and for you to love me.
How do you confess to a man you married out of convenience what you're in love with him?
"Do you love Aemond?" he asks instead. "I know he hurt you and kept hurting you well into our marriage, I saw it with my own eyes. But do you...love him?"
Luke turns to him fully, the setting sun making his head look as if with a halo, adorned with last beams of light.
There is something uncertain in his face, something searching, but Aegon can't see it clearly, for he is staring directly at the sun.
In all the ways possible.
"Do you love Jace?" He replies with a question of his own.
Answering this is the easiest thing Aegon ever did.
"No," he sighs. "I don't think I ever...truly loved him. I was infatuated with the idea of him, perhaps, driven by nostalgia of our childhood and enchanted by his looks. But not loved, no."
Luke tilts his head to the side.
"And have you ever loved anyone?"
"I did," Aegon nods. "I do."
Lucerys's face scrunches.
"Who?"
And Aegon laughs, he laughs loud and unabashed and a little bit broken and instead of answering he steps closer, takes Luke's face into his hands, and kisses him with everything he has, everything he is, with his entire self.
Luke's arms wound around his neck as he leans into the kiss, trying to get more comfortable with the budging stomach in the way. Aegon lets go of his husband's face to caress the belly. When he breaks off the kiss and kneels, face to face with the child hidden beneath his father's flesh.
"I love him," Aegon speaks honestly. He might be too much of a coward to tell Luke how he feels, but has no need to hide it from their child. "I love him more than I thought was possible, I loved him from the first bump, from the first kick, from the way he seems to always listening to my voice. Long time ago I promised myself to be a better father than my own is and I intend to keep this promise."
He kisses the stomach once, twice, three times and hears Luke chock on a sob.
"We might not have been each other's first choices, and yet we chose it, us." He looks up, gazing at his husband with an open love in his gaze.
Once upon a time he thought Luke to be alike the sea god; now he knows his beloved to be the only god he will ever pray to, the only deity he will ever worship.
"I will love our family and our child with all I have, if you let me."
"Let you?" Luke cries openly, loudly. "Aegon, you already have everything. I-"
And when, as quickly as it came, it goes away.
Their serenity, their peace.
Luke pales so much he looks like a ghost.
"Egg," he murmurs. "I- The baby-"
Aegon smells it before he sees it.
Blood.
Throughout the entire pregnancy Lucerys Velaryon has voiced multiple concerns what the child he bears is ought to kill him.
Now, for the first time ever, Aegon fears his husband's voice to ring the truth.
He is pacing in front of the chamber, hands in his hair, tugging at the strands helplessly.
Please the Seven, do not let him die, he begs. Please Old Gods, the Gods of Old Valyria. Anyone! Please let Luke and the baby be safe. Please-
The door opens and weary-faced maester walks out.
It's not Gerardys, oh gods, why did Gerardys have to leave for Driftmark now of all the times?
Daemon was already sent to collect the man, but the time is running out and Orwyle-
"I fear it is not safe for the babe to be delivered yet," Orwyle says. "Considering the complications Prince Lucerys has met during the term of carrying the babe and what it's his firstborn, I see the only option is to forcefully suppress the seizures. It will give the child enough time to develop in full."
Aegon wants to scream.
None of that would have happened if Gerardys was here.
Why is he not here?!
"And what," he hears himself saying. "Would to happen with the father and- and the child if the term of bearing the babe was longer?"
He sees both Rhaenyra and his mother's eyes land on him, confused.
"Depends on how longer."
Aegon gulps.
"Let's say," he begins carefully. "Another moon or so?"
The Maester hums deeply.
"In that case the best case scenario was to proceed with the labor," he nods, deep in a thought. "The suppressants would most likely damage the fully developed child if used when the natural time to give birth comes. But from I've gathered in Maester Gerardys' notes, it is not due for - oh, actually exactly one moon -, so we will proceed with the supress-"
"No," Aegon hears himself shout "No suppressants. Do not give my husband any of those."
"Aegon," Rhaenyra tries softly. "I understand what you're terrified; it is scary to feel so helpless. But Maester Orwyle knows what he is doing and he was all of Gerardys' notes-"
"He can't use his notes," Aegon insists, feeling tears prickling at his eyes.
"Aegon," his mother starts.
"Gerardys is famous for low mortality rate of the women in labor; I'm sure his notes are-"
"Unreliable," Aegon half-sobs. "He lied in them; Luke asked him to."
Luke will be so mad when he finds out Aegon tattled out his secret.
But if it means his husband will be alive to be angry at him, to even hate him, when Aegon can deal with it.
"Aegon," Rhaenyra starts.
"What do you mean? Why would Luke-"
"What did Gerardys lie about?" Comes Aemond's voice, tense as never before.
"The due date," Aegon manages out. "The child is due now. Orwyle, please, make my husband push, start the labor. If you give him suppressants now-"
"It will kill the child," maester realizes, face contorting with horror. "I almost- Why would Prince Lucerys ask maester Gerardys that?"
"It's...personal," Aegon lets out. "Please, maester-"
"Of course," Orwyle nods. "Thank you for telling me the truth."
And with that he immediately leaves.
The devastated prince hardly manages to blink before the hit lands.
He feels his brother's fist break skin and tear at his lip, blood seeping through the damage.
"Aemond," their mother shouts. "What are you doing, why would you-"
"You knew," seethes the one-eyed prince. "Luke hid it from me and you knew!'
"What are you talking about?" Rhaenyra demands as the guards hold the angry prince down and the queen helps her eldest to his feet. "What did he knew?"
Aemond looks like a madman; his chest heaves and his single eye blazes with fire unknown to mortal men.
"There would be only one reason for Lucerys to lie about his term," he spits out, anger bubbling in his chest. "To hide the true father of the child."
"What are you imply-"
"It's mine," Aemond whispers, but in the hollow halls of the Keep it sounds almost like a shout. "This child is mine."
There is a loud, gurgling laugh coming from somewhere and it takes Aegon ridiculously long to realize it's his.
"No, he isn't," he replies.
"You know it-"
"Just because you conceived the child," the older prince cuts his brother off. "Doesn't make you his father. I am the one married to Luke; I am the one who learned every gods damned valyrian lullaby to ever exist and sang it to our with Luke baby, it is my voice the child recognizes. You are no one, a distant uncle my son will never even have to interact with much."
The silence what rings in the hall next feels malevolent.
"Well, you've done it and fucked everything up," a new voice comes calling as Daemon Targaryen emerges from the corner, maester Gerardys close behind him. "Luke will kill you."
Aegon sniffs and wipes his face with the sleeve; blood and snoot alike.
"As long as he lives, I don't actually care." He moves his gaze to the old maester. "Maester G, I had to- Orwyle wanted to use suppressants and I-"
"You did well, my prince," the old man comforts him, patting his shoulder gently. "On the term Prince's Lucerys is suppressing the labor would put his and the child's life in danger. I'm sure your husband will understand what disclosing the truth was done out of the most necessity."
"It was," Aegon nods. "Gods, it was. Can you, please, come in there? Luke trusts you. Please, he really needs all the help he can get."
"Of course," the man puts a comforting hand on Aegon's shoulder once again. "Leave it to me."
And with that he opens a heavy oaken door and walks in, the young prince's screams growing more prominent with that movement.
Then the door closes and leaves Aegon, faced against his family and the hard truth revealed.
"Well, it happened," Daemon is the next one to put a hand on Aegon's shoulder and the young prince leans into the touch, seeking some brief comfort. "And you did well, boy. Now breathe, Luke is in good hands."
"Daemon?" Rhaenyra asks; her voice thick with too many questions.
"Aemond?" Alicent echoes as her second son is finally freed from the hold of the guards.
The one-eyed prince looks away.
"We have a lot to discuss, do we not?" Daemon chuckles. "And I believe we have the time."
Please let him live, Aegon begs. Please them all live. I will do anything; gods, ill stop drinking, I'll become the best lord-consort Driftmark could ever have. Just save my family. Oh please save them.
Behind the closed door, trying to force their child out of his body, Lucerys Velaryon screams.
"What did you do?" He asks his brother tiredly as they wait for the end of the nightmare what is delivering a child.
Aemond raises a head from his knees.
"What?"
"What did you do for Luke to resent you so much?" His brother repeats. "For him to marry and loudly proclaim me the father of his child?"
Aemond looks pained at that question.
"I have...reacted badly after the night we shared," he admits quietly, sadly. "Very badly, ugly even. He- Lucerys stormed off when and the next time I saw him-"
"Was when we announced our betrothal," Aegon nods. "You fucked up a great deal here, but I'm not complaining."
"Of course you're not complaining," Aemond seethes. "You have married my-"
Alicent makes chocked sound.
"Aegon," she begins softly. "Did this boy...make you?"
Her firstborn snorts.
"I mean, he tried to seduce me and, well, all things considered, succeeded, but no. I agreed to his offer and it was quite nice of him to offer it in the first places. He could just make me; no one would believe I didn't put a babe in him. But he asked and we made a deal. And he has kept his word, unlike me," he sighs. "He will kill me for that."
"Lucerys has no right to judge or blame you-"the queen starts, but is quickly cut off.
"Lucerys is the love of my life," Aegon replies forcefully. "I will not live if he and our - yes, our - baby do not survive the night. Yes, it started out of convenience, but I-" the prince hides his face in his hands, making the sound come out muffled. "He is the best damn thing to ever happen to me. I am a much better - and happier - man with him around and I can't-" he cuts himself off.
"He might not love me, but my love will be enough for the both of us. I swear," he looks up at his sister, who has been surprisingly silent for the entire time. "I will be the best father ever for this child. I will treasure Luke as he deserves it. I will do anything-"
"The deal," his sister speaks. "What were the conditions?"
Aegon gulps.
"We marry and I raise the child as mine. And in return I can sleep around all I want."
"That's all?"
He winces.
"No. The moment Luke and Aemond get back together, the deal is off."
He sees his brother take it in.
"You would-" Aemond begins. "You've ruined everything; took my child, took my love and made damn sure I would have no chance. This is cruel even for you."
"You had your chance," Aegon reminds him. "And you blew it off spectacularly. Why would you deserve the second one?"
"The child is-"
"Luke's, and Luke wanted to have absolutely nothing with you after you ruined your own happiness."
“And then you forced his hand.”
“I forced his hand? I picked up the ruins of your own making, you-“
The door opens.
Maester Gerardys stands in the threshold, wiping his bloodied hands with the towel.
Aegon jumps to his feet.
“Luke-“ he begins and when hears it.
A sound of the baby crying.
Maester smiles tiredly.
“It went well,” he sighs. “Both the father and the child are out of danger. You can come in.”
Aegon does not need to hear it twice.