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Daeron wakes with his head splitting apart and the world cleaving in two. It wasn’t, but to him it was. One too many cups of wine last night to drown out the dreams has led to him feeling as if he just got knocked in the head by a boulder or two. He tries to roll over in his bed, but that just makes his head hurt worse. So, he just lays there and tries not to die. Eventually, he drifts off back to sleep, hoping he doesn’t have any dreams this time and that he wakes up with little to no headaches.
He wakes up again and his headache has lessened enough for him to actually move and get out of bed. Daeron is surprised that nobody has come to drag him out of his room for something or another yet. His uncle’s family was visiting Summerhall for the time being before they were off to the tourney at Ashford Meadow and that is what led to his current predicament. He, Valarr, and Matarys had gotten into the good Dornish wine that his father kept in the cellars of Summerhall. What they didn’t know was why he had drunk so much.
Daeron thinks Valarr might know, with how perceptive he is. He can’t really hide much from him whether it’s of his own volition or not.
He moves at the pace of a slug and slowly dons new clothes that don’t reek of wine. He could have called servants in to do it for him, but the servants were a bunch of gossips, and he didn’t need his father to know how drunk he got last night… again.
He splashed some water from the basin in his bathing room on his face to wake him up more and left his compartments. He made his way towards the dining hall where they ate their meals every day in hopes he may find some of his family.
When he arrived at the dining hall all he found was Egg munching on an apple quietly.
“Where is everybody?” Daeron asked and Egg jumped a mile off of his seat and fell on the floor holding his apple. Daeron gave a quiet chuckle at the display. “Scared you, did I?”
“Yes, brother, you scared me if you couldn’t tell,” Egg rolled his eyes, “Uncle Baelor and Father are in Father’s study discussing something that is probably boring. I don’t know where Matarys and Daella are, but Valarr is in the library. Rhae’s probably still asleep.”
“Thanks for all of your help, my dear brother. I shall be on my way,” Daeron ruffles the short silver-gold hair on Egg’s head to his protest and grabs an apple on his way out of the hall.
“Going to see Valarr, are you?” Egg shouts on his way out. Daeron ignores him.
Daeron indeed goes to see Valarr in the library, absentmindedly seeking the comfort Valarr unquestioningly always gives him. The bond that the two of them share is something quiet, sturdy in its foundations. They grew up together, training with both swords and their minds together.
Daeron thinks it’s time for him to confide in Valarr about his dreams. There is no other, save perhaps Egg (but that’s only because he is Daeron’s favorite sibling), that Daeron would talk about his dragon dreams. It is not an easy thing to do. His dreams are sporadic and hard to decipher. They often leave him shaking and throwing up as a side effect. Drinking heavily at night and sometimes throughout the day is the only thing that gives him some reprieve from it all.
Daeron walks into the library and immediately sees Valarr looking through the books and scrolls on the shelves. He takes a moment to observe him from afar, noticing the way Valarr looks and holds himself. Valarr’s hair was slightly disheveled in appearance, and he had shadows under his eyes, but his posture was fluid and not rigid.
He walked closer to Valarr, but Valarr was not in the slightest bit surprised at Daeron’s sudden appearance, unlike Egg. He simply put down the book he was holding and let Daeron lean on him for support. Daeron took a deep breath and let himself relax some.
“Is something the matter?” Valarr asks quietly.
“Yes.” Daeron said simply.
“And would you like to talk about it?”
“Yes.”
They moved towards a cushioned bench in a corner away from the main part of the library and made themselves comfortable with Daeron leaning his head on Valarr’s shoulder.
Taking a deep breath, Daeron begins his explanation for why he drinks all the time. His dreams.
“I am dreaming almost every night, and not good dreams filled with sunshine and good fortune. They are prophetic dreams that are hard to understand most of the time and leave me shaking once I tear myself out of them. Sometimes I even vomit if they are particularly bad. Valarr, I drink almost every day and every night for some form of relief. The hardest part to admit is that they indeed scare me,” Daeron explains with tears forming at the corners of his eyes.
Valarr is a silent pillar of support through it all, just letting Daeron spill his worries onto him. Towards the end, he slips his arm around Daeron and just pulls him closer, as if they could become one being.
“I think you are incredibly brave for attempting to deal with it alone, but you are alone no longer. I will help you work through this, Daeron. No matter the cost.” Valarr looks deeply into Daeron’s troubled eyes once he finishes. Valarr’s mismatched eyes looking into Daeron’s deep purple ones.
Daeron just squeezes Valarr tighter and whispers a thank you.
Daeron once again dozes off against Valarr’s shoulder, and they wake up with legs intertwined on the cushioned bench. Once Daeron notices, he blushes a bright red but doesn’t attempt to remove himself from Valarr and takes advantage of Valarr’s obliviousness to snuggle in deeper.
The slight movement of Daeron is enough to wake Valarr up slightly, but all Valarr does is kiss Daeron’s forehead and fall right back asleep. Little do they know, Egg watched the moment from the entrance of the library and quietly snuck away, tucking that bit of information away to be used for later.
Valarr and Daeron would wake up again sometime later, looking into each other's eyes once more. Daeron tucked a piece of Valarr’s dark brown hair behind his ear and reached up to kiss him fully without realizing that they had never kissed before and it was only in one of his daydreams.
Realizing what he had done, Daeron attempted to flee, but Valarr just pulled him back in to return the kiss. Valarr then deepened the kiss and moved them back onto the bench. Once they both needed to catch their breaths, Daeron just looked at Valarr with a question in his eyes.
Valarr spoke with a hoarse voice, “I’ve been wanting to do that for a while now.”
Daeron just hugged him in response and said, “I don’t know what I would do without you.”
Later, Maekar and Baelor would stumble upon them sleeping once again in the library, but at Baelor’s urging, they left them alone.