Chapter Text
The first thing Aerion was thinking when the burning of his throat finally stopped was that he genuinely didn't think the wildfire would hurt, Dragons breath fire and they don't get hurt, so why would drinking it have any effect on him. And anyway he remembered that Daeron had told him not to drink the wildfire for it will surely kill him but why would Aerion listen to his drunkard brother. For Dearon was drawing in his cups, doing nothing but whining about childish night terrors while he– Aerion Brightflame was, well… Aerion didn't actually know what was happening to him.
This is when Aerion had his second big thought of the day, where the fuck am I. he didnt feel as though he was in his body, he felt almost bound, though the thing holding him tight was quite soft. When he decided moving was out of the question he tried to open his eyes to see what it was holding him, and he saw a glimpse of a nurse maid? Her face lit up when he made eye contact with the lady, she started cooing at him.
‘What the fuck?’ was all he thought before that same nurse maid started to pick up his new small body. And that's when he realised he was a babe, the wildfire had transformed him but not into a dragon but into a babe…. “You are quite a vocal young prince aren't you” said the young nurse maid, snapping Aerion out of his thoughts and also out of his involuntary crying fit. The young maid giggled, “oh im sorry my young prince, i did not mean to offend you.”, she then held Aerion close to her chest blocking his view of anything. ‘Well at least I'm still a prince’ Aerion thought as he was being carried but the annoyingly happy girl.
Almost as soon as he was comfortable in the young girl's arms he was put down again, “here you go Princess Rhaenyra” said the maid as he was put in the woman's arms. This new woman he assumed to be his mother, she had the Targaryen look, pale hair, pale face, pale eyes, and those eyes were staring at Aerion like he had hung the moon and the stars, “he looks just like me…” she smiled down at him than hesitated, looking into his eyes worriedly, “are babes this young normally this quiet, Jacaerys didn't stop crying not even when the mister took him, and this one, well he's just looking at is just looking at me”.
The young Maid laughed again, a sharp squeak that if Aerion could, he would throw something at the girl. “He is a bit of an odd babe, unlike his twin who is still screaming down the hall, but there is nothing wrong with him, I think he is just angry with me.”. Aerion's mother tilted her head and the woman, wordlessly asking her to elaborate. “I was talking to the young prince as I brought him to you, and I complimented his lungs, he's been silent ever since”, the maid giggled again. His mother smiled at that, after she had been assured that her new son just had an attitude even if he was only a few hours old.
“Have you come up with a name for the boy? I know Sr Leanor had the honour of naming the first boy.”. His mother gave a nod and pulled Aerion closer to her so that her forehead was touching his. “Yes, he shall be Aerion Velaryon, First of his name.”
Aerion recognised these names as soon as he heard them, they were the names of some of the last dragon riders of his house before they all stupidly killed themselves in a civil war. And as he looked up at his “mother” he noticed that she bore a remarkable resemblance to The Princess Rhaenyra, mother of bastards. Thinking of those boys just pisses Aerion off, they carry his family's name even though they are tainted by a plane father, it made him sick. But then there was a beet of silence in Aerion's mind before something finally clicked in his mind.
Because, no this woman did not bear a resemblance to the princess… she was the princess and Aerion was now one of her bastards, and just the thought of that made him sick.
~
The next time Aerion woke up he was no longer in his mothers arms, he was in a cot, with little carved wooden bars, probably to keep his wormish baby body in. Though it's not like he can do much as a new born, he can't even lift his head from his shoulders. The most he can do is move his useless fat baby arms and wail but Aerion had too much pride to cry. But his pride didn't stop him from looking around the room and from his wandering eyes he found it, the bastard, a boy, his twin, the one the young nurse maid and his mother were talking about, Jacaerys.
He was asleep, bundled close to Aerion in the cot, so Aerion kicked his small foot out to see if he could wake the boy, but Jacaerys was like a rock, dead asleep. His small curl of dark brown hair lay flat on his head as undisturbed as his sleep, Right next to him a dragon egg, a dark rich green colour. He could feel the warmth of another egg next to him but he had yet to develop the muscles to turn and look at it. So he laid and studied his brother for some time, he wondered if they looked the same in all their baby glory or when they got older who would be taller.
Of course Aerion knew a decent amount about Jacarys already why would he not. His bastard ancestry was one of the driving forces of the dance, Jacaerys Velaryon, arguably one of the most famous bastards of house Targaryen, before the blackfyre mongrels that is. He could feel his contempt for the boy already and all he was doing was sleeping while Aerion watched him.
And this is how Aerion spent the first few weeks of his new life, watching the boy. He had learned many things about his surroundings from listening to the maids, and wet nurses taking care of him and Jacaerys. For starters he learned that he was once again second born but this time to Jacaerys and not Daeron.
He was introduced to new babe Daeron, this time he was to be a cousin to Aerion. Though all Aerion thought of this babe is that he is just as boring as Jacaerys. Apparently the three of them were to be Milk-brother, Aerion had overheard his mother complaining about this fact to one of the maids when she came to play with her children.
That was also the day Aerion realised his place, he was a child of Princess Rhaynara Targareyen. The gods had placed him in a time before the dragons had gone, the gods had not granted his wish, no they had given him a purpose, to protect the dragons. Protect the dragons from both sides of his family's impending civil war and make sure they live to burn every last Blackfyre bastard to disgrace the family name.
~
All of Aerion's thinking and watching had gained him a reputation among the maids, some were frightened by his lack of tears others just thought he was odd. When he was eventually visited by his father, Aerion's reputation was all Leanor spoke of. “Ah! All the talk of the maids are true then”, said Laenor Velaryon, in an all too cheery voice, taking Aerion out of his cot with Jacaerys by the shoulders. “A pensive little boy they say. Never cries or wines, only stares with his dragon eyes” Leanor looks at Rheanyra for a second who just entered the room, her chambers, before fixing his gaze back on Aerion.
“I think he is just not interested by any of them, the wet nurse says that if he is not looking at her then he is curled to Jacaerys or his egg” Said Rhaeynara, watching her husband with her younger son. Leanor sensing his wife's Watchfull eyes pretends to drop Aerion, making Rheanyra lunge forward and Aerion wishes he had teeth to bike them man's hands.
“Don’t do that, he is still small you may hurt him if you play so ruff with him”, Rheanyra scolded. “He's a babe, he will bounce!" Laenor barked out a laugh, “look at him, he is so stoic, it's like he's a snowflake from the north”. Aerion's face scrunched up a moment, Leanor laughed. “I think I've offended him,” Leanor pulled Aerion closer still not fixing his grip on the babe, “Oh how have I offended you my little prince. Why would i not call my boy a snowflake, such a small pretty little thing, don't you agree Rhaeynara.”. Laenor turned both himself and Aerion still hoisted by the shoulders to face the princess. “He is a handsome babe…, look at his hair it is more pale than mine” Said Rheanyra as she motioned to take Aerion away from his tormentor.
When Aerion was placed in his mothers arms he instinctively curled into her, happy to not be held from his armpits anymore. Rheanyra smiled down to Aerion before addressing her husband “He seems happier now that he is away from you” she joked. Leanor just looked at Aerion in his wife's arms and raised a judgemental eyebrow. “That's fine, you can have him, ill have Jacaerys, we each get one to favour us.”. Rheanyra just gave a pity laugh before resting Aerion back in his cot with his brother and their eggs.
Aerion lay in his cot listening to his parents talk, it was harder than normal to overhear the conversation, but what he did manage to catch was all he needed. Sr Hardwin Strong was a man never mentioned in Aerion's history books but Rhaenyra Targaryen's first sons being bastards was fact, even to the small folk. It made his blood boil, just knowing he had to share a bed with a boy as plain as him.
~
It was dark in his mothers chambers, he and Jacaerys had been moved into them after the misters proclaimed that they were no longer fragile newborns but now proper babes; the maids had the curtains pulled in the hopes that he and Jacareys would sleep. Of course Aerion was awake, he had trouble sleeping as of late, every time he even started to fall asleep he saw flashes of something that always startles him awake but he can never remember what it was after he opened them again.
It has been quiet for sometime now, only occasionally would Aerion hear the footsteps of a lone king's guard making his rounds around the castle. But the clunk of armor did not disturb either babe, the thing that was disturbing Aerion at this moment was trying to remember all the details of the dance. He had more knowledge than most in his family on this topic, the dance being one of the last times his house had dragons, the dance had been an obsession of his from when he was small.
He had been going over all of the key events in his head, ‘dead heir, bastard sons, one eye, remarried to the rogue, death of the king, princess Helena's son, the dance etc.’. He repeats lists like these over and over in his head. They are the only thing keeping him sane when he is trapped as a babe.
But he was growing fast, not as fast as Jacaerys, but still fast, he could crawl now which drove the maids up the walls. Aerion had a tendency to go crawling about and it just so happened that he had an unfair advantage, Of both being an eerily quiet babe and also his years of knowledge of the passages in the red keep. He had a tendency of winding closer to the dragon pits with every escape and it had gotten so bad that they had to station extra knights outside wherever he had been placed just in case he slipped through an open door.
Aerion was never successful in his adventures to the dragon pit, much to his chagrin, but his mother did notice his ambition and promised him in what Aerion thought to be her most degrading baby voice to take him to go see Syrax when he was older.
Back in the dark room Aerion could hear Jacaerys letting out soft breaths. The noise was slowly starting to annoy him, though almost anything Jacerys did annoyed him. Jacaerys was a loud babe, always laughing or screeching at something, Aerion's polar opposite, which seemed to amuse almost everybody in the keep. Aerion could stand Jacareys snoring… most of the time, but today was different, they had been handled together all day meaning Aerion had no end to his noise, and he was about to lose it.
That was until he heard a new noise in the dark, it was a tapping noise, slowly getting louder. That was until he heard a crack that was when he moved his body to face his brother and also the noise.
The dragon emerged quietly, and wrapped its warm body around Jacaerys. Aerion could feel the heat from the majestic animal even though the boy was not touching the animal. He was mesmerised by the hatchling's beautiful olive green scales. Jealousy curled in Aerion like ivy vines, just looking at his brother's plain appearance, and yet he still got a dragon first…
‘Just a matter of time’ Aerion thought back to his own egg at the other end of the cot, a bright gold egg like the one his father Maekar had placed in his first cot. Then suddenly Jacaerys moved in his sleep, prompting Aerion to move away from him and towards his own egg and when he brushed up against the egg something shattered in him.
His egg was cold…
He really fucking hated Jacaerys