Chapter Text
You were nervous. Walking down the aisle of the Great Sept, your hand clasped tightly around your father's arm, you felt your body shaking in anxious incertitude with every breath you forced yourself to take, with every step you were made to walk towards your own demise. The fearful anticipation of what was to happen kept you tightly in its grip.
It wasn’t that you had been caught off guard by the prospect of marriage per se, the opposite, actually. All your life you had been prepared to one day marry a wealthy noble and fulfill your role and sacred duty as a wife to a powerful man. Thus were the duties of daughters, after all.
However, it had taken you completely by surprise when your father had broken the news to you some time ago that he had managed to finalise all details on your upcoming betrothal and that your betrothed was not simply a noble of good standing, but one of the Princes of House Targaryen. What an honour, indeed!
Although, with that honour also came responsibilities and expectations and the closer the set date for the joining of your family to the Dragon’s came, the more nervous anticipation you felt deep inside. Because what if your future husband found you lacking? What if he wasn’t pleased with what you had to offer as his wife?
You had heard stories about him, because who hadn’t? Prince Aerion Targaryen was the subject of many tales and rumors, none of them looking favorably onto him, most talking about his casual cruelty and his thirst for violence. And you dreaded what that could mean for your life as his wife if that cruelty would land on you as well.
There had been chaperoned visits before the big day, of course. Though not many, you still had had the opportunity to meet your future husband several times before your father had just now brought you to stand next to him in the Great Sept. Those visits had left you nervous and hopeful at the same time. Nervous, because even from those short glimpses you had been able to gauge your future husband’s true temper that was just barely contained underneath the surface of his arrogant exterior. Yet hopeful, because at least he had not seemed angry at you for your betrothal. Hopeful, because what little you had been able to gather from your short interactions had shown you the kind of man he was and what you had seen was that his wrath mostly turned against those that displeased him. So over the last months you had given it a lot of thought and come up with a strategy on how you might just be able to survive the dragon incarnate, and it didn’t differ much from what you had been taught all your life anyway.
Be obedient, be agreeable, be submissive to your husband. Always.
Those seemed to be the most important things if you wanted to keep Prince Aerion from making your life a living hell.
Give him all your attention and Always be available to him, also seemed to be very important rules for the sake of your future, as well as Always be impressed by him, because in your few and short meetings, your future husband had almost preened whenever you had seemed in awe about his boastings and victories. You had quickly flagged him as possessive and jealous by nature as well, so you would have to tread carefully in your endeavour to make friends of your own at court. Prince Aerion didn’t seem like a man that would take lightly to sharing his wife’s attention. He reminded you almost of a child with a new toy that they didn’t even necessarily like or want to use for their own, but they also didn’t want anyone else to use their toy. Simply because it was theirs and theirs alone.
And lastly, what you had internally made into your third set of rules, was to agree with him, to stroke his ego and pretend to understand him, even if you really didn’t. The Prince didn’t seem like a kind man towards those who contradicted him. So, if Aerion would rant to you about how unfair one of his father’s ruling had been or told you of the plans he had to punish a disrespectful knight, you had resolved yourself to simply encourage him in his opinion, even if it proved to be outlandish or wrong or cruel. You had your own survival to think about, and you were certain there was nothing and no one in all of the kingdoms that could protect you from your husband’s ire, should he feel that you were not on his side. Your name surely wouldn’t stop Prince Aerion from turning his cruel side on you, should he gauge you as disloyal and traitorous towards himself. After all, he had gravely injured more important men from more important families than yours for perceived sleights. So no one would dare interfere should the Brightflame raise his hand against his wife.
Of course, you also knew that none of those strategies would be able to protect you if Aerion so desired to just hurt you for the fun of it. Or if he needed to let off some steam. But he would hurt you then anyway, no matter what you had or hadn’t done. You couldn’t influence those moments even if you wanted to and after crying over the unfairness of it for several nights, you had finally acquiesced to it and accepted that no one would be able to change those things.
The important thing was survival, to focus on what you could actually influence. And that was primarily how favorably he would regard his wife in general. That’s where you had to appease him, to be to his liking enough that you wouldn’t wake the Dragon lurking inside of him.
This wasn’t to manipulate him either. You were sure that he would be able to see right through any ploy that meant to use gentle manipulation to do your bidding. You would never dare, too afraid were you of the monster everyone thought him to be. This was simply for your own survival, to become as small of a burden to him as possible. To be as pleasing to his eyes as possible. Pleasing physically as well as in the way you acted. You couldn’t afford to irritate him in any way, after all.
You knew that you would win nothing by opposing him. The world had always been an unfair place for girls like you and bathing in the injustice of your role wouldn’t change it either.
Prince Aerion was to be your husband and there was no evading your fate. All you could do was prepare yourself to the best of your abilities to try and survive your marriage as unscathed as possible.
For all your brave and serene thoughts, you still were a bundle of nerves at the thought of becoming his today. It was one thing to make yourself a plan in your head, to gauge the best strategy to appease who everyone told you would be a cruel husband. However, it was another thing entirely to act it out confidently. Knowing did not make it any less scary. And then, you couldn’t even be sure he would not be cruel to you anyway. Especially tonight…
Everything about him scared you, the thought of speaking your vows to him, with those burning eyes focused on your face. The thought of having to sit beside him while everyone made merry and ate and drank. The thought of what would follow then, the consumption of your marriage.
After your father had led you down the long aisle to your awaiting betrothed, you had curtseyed deeply to show your respect towards the man who would now become your husband. After leaving you in your bowed position for several long seconds, Prince Aerion’s pale hand had finally appeared in your line of vision, granting you leave to raise yourself. You hadn’t even noticed your father stepping aside, all your focus was suddenly on the silverhaired man with the violet eyes in front of you.
“My Prince.”, you greeted breathlessly and you felt his hungry eyes roaming over your body. The new handmaidens that had been appointed to you now, that you were to take your place at Prince Aerion’s side, had done a marvellous job of preparing you for the wedding. Your hair was braided in intricate manners, hundreds of small jewels adorning your head, sparkling whenever you moved with the reflection of the light. Your dress was fit for marrying a prince. It was in the colours of your new house - dark black and red - and the heavy fabric of it almost made it exhausting to wear. Your handmaidens had taken a long time to lace you up in it, but now it fitted perfectly around your body, accentuating it in all the right places. You were relieved to see your betrothed’s approval in his wandering eyes.
After timidly placing your hand in his awaiting one, he lifted it to his mouth in a show of exaggerated tenderness and kissed you softly on your knuckles, albeit keeping his intent eyes focused on yours.
“You look absolutely stunning, my Lady.”, he mouthed along your knuckles, making goosebumps rise up your arms. “Suitable for a prince.”
His grin was hungry and you lost yourself in it for some seconds, before the High Septon started with his blessings.
The ceremony passed in a blur. You spoke your words when you were supposed to, offering your obedience and submission to your husband and promising him heirs, as was the custom of your vows. In turn, you heard him offer you his guidance and protection, promising you the honour of his House.
When the time came, you gracefully offered your right hand and carefully clasped it in his left one that was already outstretched between you, so that the priest may bind your hands together in the traditional marriage rite. What is bound by the Seven, no man might undo.
More words were spoken, but they washed over you and all you could focus on was the heat of your husband’s skin burning into your own, where your hands were joined now.
Oh god, panic threatened to overcome you. The realization of what this meant all of a sudden too heavy for you to carry any longer. You belonged to him now, you were married. You were now bound to the cruel Prince for the rest of your life! There was no escaping him, not any longer. You were now inescapably and irrefutably his to do with as he pleased. The panic was overwhelming.
Then, as if on cue, you felt Prince Aerion’s unbound hand on your cheek, cradling your face almost gently, tilting it up and staring into your eyes intently, effectively distracting you from your inner struggle. There was a lazy grin on his lips as your heart beat frantically in your chest, knowing what would happen next.
Your first kiss.
Your face must have been an open book, showing all of your emotions, your insecurity, your nervousness, your fear and anticipation, because Aerion - now your husband - seemed to drink it all in, greedily.
“Have you ever kissed anyone before?”
His voice cut through the haze in your mind without a care in the world, as if not everyone in the chapel was waiting for you to finally share your first kiss, so the High Septon could declare you husband and wife.
You felt your cheeks flush in a mixture of outrage at the implication of having sullied yourself in that way and embarrassment.
“N-no, my Prince.”, you whispered in return, hating the restless attention of the crowd, the murmured whispers from behind you that were already starting to speculate what the holdup was about.
“Good.”, was your new husband’s only reply, smugness settling in his features, before he finally leaned down to press his lips against yours.
You were frozen, not knowing what to do, your lack of experience making you unsure of how to act. However, Aerion didn’t seem to mind at all, naturally taking charge of the kiss, once again not caring at all about the crowd in the chapel or what would be deemed improper. Holding your face firmly in place, there was nowhere for you to retreat to as he deepened the kiss. When you felt his tongue demand entrance you were too frozen to deny him, obediently opening your lips to allow his dominance. You felt him taking ownership of you, in front of all these people, his tongue possessively running over yours, before finally retreating again to suck at your lower lip. With a final bite to it that bothered just so on the verge of painful, yet not really tipping into it yet, he eventually let go of you. You felt the embarrassed flush on your skin at being debauched like that, in front of the Seven nonetheless. But your husband just smirked at you, satisfaction clear in his eyes as amusement about you feeling uncomfortable twinkled in them as well.
Then, with your hand still softly bound to his, Prince Aerion turned both of you around to face the awaiting crowd. The silence in the Sept was eerie, weary faces looking up at them because no one dared to predict what the Brightflame would take offense to. Morbid curiosity was awarded towards you, because as sympathetic as people were regarding your fate as his wife, they were all horrible gossips as well and were gleefully excited to hear what would become of you.
“Lords and Ladies.”, Aerion’s voice then cut through the silence like fire through ice.
“I present to you, my wife.”
He raised your joint hands upwards, as if showing them off to the marriage party as proof of the done deed. You posed no resistance, letting the sudden roar of applause and joyful laughter wash over you.