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Criston leaned over to kiss Rhaenyra's cheek, and she paused, hand on the car door to let him. He wasn't usually very affectionate in public, and this was a rare moment. "It will be fine," He told her quietly. "You're going to love her."
"I hope you're right," she sighed, pushing the door open and stepping out. "If I have to have a new stepmother, I'd at least like to be friends with her."
Her boyfriend smiled, leaning across to close the door before she could do it. "You got me to go out on a date with you, you can get along with whoever your father met at his craft club."
Rhaenyra thought about saying that getting Criston to go out with her hadn't been hard at all, but instead closed her mouth, waved to him, and then walked into the restaurant. She thought Olive Garden was a little low-class for an engagement announcement, but that was her father, desperate to pretend he didn't have money. When she asked for the Targaryen party, the waitress smiled and led her to the back of the restaurant. Her father was already there, sitting at a corner table and he gave a thin smile as Rhaenyra sat down next to him.
She nervously smoothed her skirt over her knees, looking over at the chair beside her father's. A white jacket was draped around the back, as was a small purse. It looked just like the one Rhaenrya had bought for her best friend Alicent, which made her smile. Whoever this woman was, she had good taste.
"So," Rhaenyra said, leaning forward. "Where is the woman of the hour?"
"In the bathroom," Viserys said. He wouldn't meet her eyes, gaze fixed on the wood of the table.
"I still can't believe I went off to college for a semester and you somehow found time to start dating. It's almost like you're trying to replace me," She meant it as a joke, but her father's head snapped up and he was suddenly urgent, reaching out to grab her clasped hands in his.
"Rhaenyra, you have to understand. This isn't about you, I swear it!" He said urgently, violet eyes locked on hers.
Rhaenyra smiled awkwardly, extricating her hands from his grip. "I know dad, I was joking." She assured him. "Unless this is your way of trying to tell me she looks exactly like me. That might be weird."
Viserys started to open his mouth, then shut it as a woman slid into the chair beside him. Alicent Hightower didn't look any different from when Rhaenyra had bid her a tearful goodbye in the airport when she left for college four months before. She was still doing her makeup the same conservative, church-girl way, and her red-brown hair still lay in elegant waves around her face. Today she wore an elegant red dress that offset her complexion well, and she was smiling too widely as she rested a hand on her father's arm.
For a moment, Rhaenyra couldn't comprehend what was happening. Her mind simply refused to accept that her best friend and her father would be sitting next to each other in any context that wasn't an event she herself had planned, that they would look at each other with love in their eyes.
"Honey," Her father began. "I know this is going to be hard for you, but you have to understand. She brought me out of my grief for your mother and, well, we realized we were a good fit."
"Trust me," Alicent added. "This is weird for me too, but just think! We're going to be family now!"
"Family!" Rhaenyra's lips were numb. "He's old enough to be your dad too!"
Alicent's eyes flashed. "I know, but I'm in love with him, Rhaenyra. What do you want me to do!" The hand that wasn't in Viserys's jerked on the table, a motion Rhaenyra knew well. She was surprised Alicent had learned to stop biting her cuticles at all.
"What do I want you to do?" Her voice was incredulous. "Not marry my dad!" Rhaenyra turned to Viserys next, feeling a burn in her eyes as she looked at the man who had once been the most important person in her life. "And you! Finding a woman your own age and not a freshly eighteen year old girl would have been nice! Alicent was eight the first time she came over! You know what people are going to say about you!"
"Rhaenyra," Her father yelled, and Alicent jumped to her feet.
"I came onto him, for your information. I'm eighteen! I can do what I want."
"I can do what I want!" Rhaenyra slammed her hands down on the table, standing up as well. "That's your explanation. Are you a child, Alicent!"
"Why do you care!" her best friend crossed her arms, green eyes shining with tears. "I thought you'd be happy for me! I thought you'd want us to be family!"
She swallowed hard to keep down a sob. "Because you're going to ruin my father's reputation! Because it's wrong! Because you only went for my dad because he's rich and you can't get with a guy your own age!" The last blow was very low, and Rhaenyra knew it. Alicent had cried to her about how every date she went on felt wrong, and spoke in confidence about the Hightower's financial struggles. When a tear slid down the other woman's cheek, she almost felt bad.
"Rhaenyra!" Her father finally stood as well, and everyone in the restaurant was staring. "Stop acting like a spoiled child. I am marrying Alicent and I need you to accept that like an adult!"
She scoffed. "Then you should have gotten engaged to an adult."
Viserys's gaze hardened. "Don't you start with those vile accusations. I will swear on my life I didn't look twice at her until she started working at the craft store."
"Do you think anyone but me is going to believe that!"
"Rhaenyra, please," Alicent's voice broke and she reached out for her, but she flinched back. "Lets not fight. Why do you care what people think of us if we all know nothing wrong happened!"
Furiously, she swiped at her eyes. "Because it's common sense, and I can't live the rest of my life having to explain to people everywhere I go that you're my stepmom and not my sister, and-" Now it was Rhaenyra's turn to be at a loss for words. She couldn't explain exactly why Alicent marrying her father made her so angry. Yes, it was true that everyone would assume he had not suddenly become interested in her after she was of age, and yes, it was creepy anyway, and yes, she was mad no one had told her, but more that, Alicent getting married made her furious and sad in a way she didn't have words for. They were eighteen, they were supposed to have so much more time to be young together, to go to beach with their boyfriends and do nails and go clubbing and call for hours to gossip about mutual friends, and now all of that was getting ripped away because her best friend would be married to her father.
"Fine!" She finally yelled, throwing out her hands. "Get married! Have your screwed up little family! Just do it without me!"
Ignoring their please for her to come back and the naked stares of the other diners, Rhaenyra turned and stalked out, heels clacking loudly on the tile floors. Only when she was outside and the December air was cutting through her dress to chill her to the bone did she start to cry, hot tears spilling down her cheeks and shoulders heaving. An old couple making their way inside regarded her worriedly, and the woman put a gentle hand on her arm.
"He wasn't worth it anyway sweetie," she said in a comforting tone, and that made Rhaenyra laugh through her sobs for just a moment. This woman thought she had just been broken up with. Rhaenyra supposed it did feel a bit like that, but somehow even worse. She wasn't losing a boyfriend she'd been dating for a few months, but her best friend since childhood, who had been there to laugh and cry with Rhaenyra through every significant moment of her life, and her father, which was so enormous she couldn't even begin to comprehend it.
When she thought she could talk, Rhaenyra took out her phone and dialed Criston's number.
"Nyra?" His tone was worried when he answered. "Is everything alright?"
"Can you come get me?" she choked out, feeling like the child her father had accused her of being.
Blessedly, her boyfriend didn't ask why, just told her yes, and fifteen minutes later his car was pulling up outside. Climbing inside, she was met with the best hug Criston could manage inside a small car and a kiss to her temple.
"What do you need?" He asked, shifting into drive as she buckled her seatbelt. "I live to serve."
That got a small giggle from Rhaenyra despite herself. "How big of an ask can I make?" She asked hesitantly.
"Anything, though I'm thinking I need to get you ice cream first."
"Can I move in with you?"
To Criston's credit, he did not crash the car, or even swerve, but his "What!" Was loud enough to hurt her ears. "I mean-" he started. "Sure, but we've been dating for, what? Two months? Doesn't that seem a little soon?"
"My dad is marrying Alicent," She said by way of an explanation. "I can't be in that house with him."
He drew in a shocked breath. "Alicent as in your childhood best friend Alicent?"
"Yeah."
"Rhaenyra Targaryen, if you asked me to get revenge-married I would say yes."
Rhaenyra did laugh at that, though it soon devolved into hysterics that had Criston watching her nervously out of one eye as he turned into the parking lot of the grocery store. Finally, she wiped her eyes and looked up at him. "How about run in for ice cream and then go get my stuff."
Thankfully, a lot of Rhaenyra's stuff was still in her dorm, and what she'd brought home was mostly in boxes, so it was a simple matter to load them into her car and Criston's. Unfortunately, she couldn't pull the power move of her dream and take all the furniture, but Rhaneyra took everything but from her childhood room. She even took down the curtains, knowing it would look weird from the front of the house when her room was the only one not to have the matching set.
Waking up the next morning in Criston's apartment to the mug of coffee he brought her and three missed calls from her father with another five from Alicent , Rhaenyra smiled, and she didn't stop smiling until Criston asked her if she was going to be able to come back to college with him for the spring semester if she wasn't speaking to her father, who payed for it. To that, she swore and realized she might have to make a couple of concessions.