Chapter Text
It was Viserys' idea, to offer himself to go spend the month in Valyria.
Rhaenyra was pregnant again - it was her fifth baby, Daemon's fourth and their blended family's collective seventh kid - and his brother had mentioned the intention of asking for help with the kids, but not for his help; something about calling Rhaenys or Laenor to watch the oldest kids and make sure they had an adult around whenever labour started and in case they needed to stay in the hospital for longer than expected.
So he had offered himself, as he wanted to be around the kids a bit more. Rhaenys and Corlys spent way more time with all of them, the kids visited them many times a year - Viserys was lucky if he saw them once.
Jacaerys, Baela and Rhaena were teens now, and Lucerys was almost one, that age when kids ultimately decided if they hated or loved their relatives, and he knew better than letting the distance sour his relationships with his grandchildren. Viserys had already lost his chance with Aegon, and was working hard on making things right with his younger kids. He was lucky Rhaenyra changed her mind wanted him around even after the sad things he'd done to her as a parent in the past. It was only fair he helped her.
So he had taken his month free, packed his bags and board the jet to New Valyria.
"Uncle," Rhaena exclaimed from a window when he left his car, parking up in his daughter's covered garage.
"Grandpa!" Luke exclaimed with her.
There was a moment of silence as he left the car and they seemed to move inside the house, and the two were grinning when they opened the door to the garage.
"Uncle Grandpa!" the two kids giggled together.
Viserys shook his head, not surprised. Those two were quite the duo.
"Hello, children," he greeted them. "I take it as my visit was expected?"
Luke and Rhaena rushed to him, hugging him, and he quickly squeezed them back.
"I have gifts," he announced, messing with his grandson's hair. "Rhaena, Helaena sent your birthday gift through me. It's... somewhere in the luggage, I'll find it."
They smiled at him, quick to help with his bags.
"Dad got your room done," Rhaena told him, dragging one of his suitcases. "And muña is gonna have food from your favourite restaurant for dinner."
He smiled. Viserys hadn't seen his daughter in an eternity, since Laenor's wedding.
Sure, they walked on the phone, but calls, pictures and videos weren't enough, he missed her!
Marrying Daemon wasn't exactly what he imagined she would ever do in his life - Aemma would have locked Rhaenyra in a tower and killed Daemon with her own hands if she was alive - and Viserys had resisted the idea for a long time, but eventually, he had to give in and admit to himself that his brother made her the happiest he had ever seen her since they lost her mother. Rhaenyra was, after all, nearly 30 when she made the decision, a grown adult.
"Uncle Grandpa," he heard a little gasp right at the bottom of the stairs, and he let out a little one too when his little arms hugged his legs.
Joffrey.
Viserys picked him up right away, smiling at the messy-haired boy. Gods, that sperm donor had strong genes, but those eyes... those were Rhaenyra's eyes right there, looking back at him.
"Hello," he greeted him cheerfully, still following Luke and Rhaena up.
But Joffrey shook his head.
"I'd like to be put down, please," he requested in perfect High Valyrian. "I don't like being picked up."
His eyes widened.
Oh.
He set him down quickly, and Joffrey seemed just as nonchalant.
"I'm sorry, Joff," he apologised quickly.
His grandson looked up at him.
"It's okay, just ask for my permission first the next time."
Before he could answer, the sound of more steps made him look at the second row of stairs.
"Uncle Grandpa!" Baela exclaimed at the sight of him.
Viserys waited for her to walk down, followed closely by Jace, all four of the teens helping him with his things and into his room.
"That is such a warm reception," he smiled. "You know, my kids only just say hello to me most of the time he sees me."
Luke shrugged as he opened the door to his closet, setting his luggage inside.
"To be fair, they live with you every other week," he reminded him. "We haven't seen you since December, it's been almost a year."
The kids spent their Christmas and New Year's in Westeros with the Velaryons, and a good part of their school holidays.
They visited him on some weekends. Actually, Viserys would accompany them on his flight home, where Laenor and Joffrey would pick everyone up and cross to Driftmark to spend the end of the year together.
He wished they could stay in King's Landing, but it was much easier to travel back and forth between Driftmark and Sharp Point, and the goal was for them to have easy access to Rhaenys and Corlys - he was outnumbered.
A knock on the door made them look at it, and Daemon stepped in with slow steps, squinting at the kids before looking at him.
"Viserys," he greeted him, sounding calm and serene. "Welcome, brother."
Serene. There was something he didn't know for a while that he'd seen his brother being.
"Thank you," he relaxed. "And where's Rhaenyra?"
"Finishing her last day of work," he told him. "You know your daughter, she's an overachiever."
Viserys grimaced.
"A little bit my fault, if I may say," he confessed. "I always expected too much of her and hardly appreciated her achievements."
He wasn't exactly a good father to Rhaenyra.
Or Aegon.
Maybe to Aemond now.
Helaena was his little pearl, and he got his act together long enough to get a relationship with her and Daeron before he lost them too, and was trying to fix it with the other three. It was why he was there.
"Mum celebrated every time Aegon learns a new word," Jace chuckled, looking amused and a little bit embarrassed, and it surprised him.
Really?
"She celebrated the first time I failed a class," Baela added. "With cake. Said how now I knew the feeling of failure and how it wasn't permanent."
Viserys softened. Aemma was the one who found good angles to failing, she always found a way of twisting it into a learning opportunity.
"Sounds sweet," he noted. "You know, my Aemma had a checklist when your mother was a child. You fail in the afternoon, cry at night and try again in the morning. She would love to know Rhaenyra has taught you that."
The kids seemed a bit surprised, but the room fell into a bit of silence as he looked at the four of them. His wife would have absolutely loved them.
"Come on, kids," Daemon decided. "It's still homework time, uncle-grandpa being here isn't going to get you out of it."
Everyone whined, and the way he was welcomed suddenly made a lot of sense.
"Let me know if you need help," he continued as they walked off. "Save math for your mother."
Viserys watched them go and followed Daemon down the stairs to the kitchen.
"So," he spoke slowly. "Baby number four. Or five?"
Four for Daemon, five for Rhaenyra.
"Seven," he corrected him. "And, yes, as if two 15-year-olds, a 14-year-old, a 12-year-old, a 5-year-old and a toddler at just three weren't enough work already."
Viserys shrugged. He knew him enough, his brother always wanted more siblings.
"You've always wanted a big family," he noted. "And Nyra felt lonely as an only child. Now everyone gets to have a best friend near their age, an older sibling to bug like you bugged me..."
"A little sinbling to be jealous of like you did to me," he added playfully, walking to the fridge.
He watched Daemon go. Yes, he was a bit jealous of him. Viserys always had responsibilities while his brother could do whatever he wanted!
"You were mum's favourite," he noted. "I was Dad's assistant."
His brother acknowledged it silently, not arguing with him, which was a new surprise for Viserys.
In the past, he would probably have brought up his exile. He spent a lot of time away, nearly seventeen years. No favouritism from mum had saved him from the wrath of their grandfather.
But that time had passed, and Daemon seemed much less bitter.
They hadn't talked a lot in the last few years, since he'd married his daughter.
"Speaking of multiple kids," Daemon changed the subject, taking a bag of cucumbers from the fridge. "How are yours?"
Viserys relaxed a bit, sitting by the counter.
"Going well, Aegon didn't fail his class the way we thought he would, he got the A he needed," he told him. "Even though I feel like Alicent would have let him give up if she could, I put my foot down."
His brother raised a curious eyebrow.
"You did?" he hummed.
"I'm supposed to pay for his living expenses, but he doesn't need an expensive car to live, or the credit cards he got without my permission, his never-ending leisures, his college fund..." Viserys listed. "If he doesn't feel like following my rules, then he doesn't feel like getting all that extra money."
Aegon wasn't dumb, but he sure was unmotivated, and it was already enough that he had been very close to failing his school year twice before, and he didn't want that to go through that every single time.
"She enables the worst in that boy," Daemon sighed, sounding disappointed. "Did you get Helaena the new driving instructor?"
It was his suggestion when he heard of Helaena's hard time learning to drive.
"Yeah, she has lessons twice a week," he told him. "It got a tutor who works with just autistic people, she is way more patient than the one I hired for Rhaenyra."
Daemon confirmed quietly, putting more food in four shallow bowls.
"What's that?"
"Snack bowl," he told him, putting them down and moving to the pantry. "Before the kids start whining about being hungry."
It was a bit surprising, seeing the little brother he had watched destroy his life, heard of fucking around and being irresponsible, turning around and being a responsible father, filling the fridge with bowls of mixed snacks for his children.
"Teens are hungry all the time," he agreed. "Aemond once finished all of the chips in my pantry in one afternoon."
Daemon chuckled, moving back with a large bag of nuts and dumping handfuls in each bowl.
"Don't tell me," he hummed, taking a large box of blueberries from the fridge, and putting them in the bowls in an equal parting one would only develop by having kids - Viserys had heard a lot of whining about how someone had gotten more 'something' during division time. "The day after my birthday I woke up to my birthday cake completely gone, eaten by all four little by little."
He set the hard plastic aside and opened the fridge again, getting more berries.
"Which is why now we have a snack bowl," he told him. "Which usually lasts a day, a day and a half... something like that. It depends on their extracurricular activities."
Daemon put all nice things in it, with every little berry he knew was easy to find around, and even added cubes of white ricotta to two of the bowls before closing them.
"Pink to Rhaena, yellow for Baela, red for Jace and blue for Luke," he recited, putting them in the fridge.
He was about to move to do something else when he stopped and turned to look at him.
"I'd like to remind you that we do not comment on our kids' eating habits," Daemon spoke sternly as if he was giving him out of his university lectures. "They have a healthy relationship with their bodies and we work hard to maintain that."
Once again, it ached Viserys' heart. Back when Rhaenyra was a teen, she had had her own issues with her looks and eating, and he wasn't smart nor attentive enough at the time to try to help her.
It was sad and beautiful to see how his daughter was working hard to actively give her children and stepchildren the kind of safety he failed to give her.
"I'll keep that in mind," he assured him.
Daemon nodded, seeming to relax. But before they could fish for a new subject to fill the silence, they heard whines coming from upstairs.
"Dad!" Rhaena whined loudly. "Baela borrowed my yellow dress without asking!"
"Did not!" Baela whined back.
His brother looked at him and then sighed as the rushed steps came down.
"Did it!"
"Did not!"
"You did it!"
That continued as the girls came to the kitchen.
"Tell her to give it back!" Rhaena stomped her foot.
She was followed closely by an annoyed Baela.
"Tell her I didn't do it!" she argued back.
Daemon breathed in slowly.
"What dress?" he asked calmly.
"My yellow dress," she told him. "The one with thin straps."
"That you wore two days ago?" Daemon asked.
Rhaena nodded quickly.
"The one that was on the floor when I did my laundry route?" he asked slowly. "Yesterday, when I told you that anything that was on the floor would be laundry?"
Slowly, his daughter lost her winning posture and Baela grinned, seeming very happy to be proven right.
"Yeah," her twin agreed shyly. "That one."
Daemon hummed, shrugging.
"If it's on the floor, it is laundry," he reminded them.
Rhaena sighed, looking frustrated and pouted at Baela.
"Sorry for yelling at you and accusing you of taking it," she apologised.
Just like that, as if it wasn't even a problem!
"You're forgiven," Baela shrugged, already walking to the fridge. "Do we have food? I'm hungry."
He exchanged a knowing look with Viserys, though the twins missed it as Baela passed Rhaena her bowl and then got her own, already digging into it on her way out of the room.
"Bye uncle-grandpa," she spoke, already eating a bunch of berries.
"Bye uncle-grandpa," Rhaena carried her bowl away.
Viserys just smiled as they left.
"Bye, niece-granddaughters," he answered back.