#this shoulda came yesterday but i was a dumb dumb and misread the req

[lullaebies]

Aegon III/Jaehaera prompt/request: Jaehaera is with their kids (maybe they're in the godswood playing) and Aegon ends up joining them?

(also Alicent is alive because why not? And if two of their daughters could be named for their moms I think that'd be cool)

“Get down from the tree at this instance, young lady,” Alicent warns, face lifted to look at the very branches of the heart tree. 

Jaehaera snaps her head back. Her grandmother had been a great aid with her daughters, but sometimes they grow rambunctious beyond belief. Helaena and Rhaenyra are seven now, and their elderly grandmother had struggled to keep pace. Alicent’s now grey hair has blended somewhat unremarkably between her silver-haired family, but it is hard to match with a dragon-spirit.

“No,” Helaena answers, hugging the thick branch of the tree, silver strands cascading down, hanging in the air. “I like it here.”

Jaehaera frowns at her from below. She had been busy braiding Rhaenyra’s hair with all the flowers she wanted in it. Helaena was supposed to wait her turn, but alas, she would not. “We said no climbing, Helaena!”

Her daughter sticks out her tongue, managing to sit up on the branch fearlessly. 

“I will get a Kingsguard,” Alicent says after trying to lift her hands to reach her; the heart tree is stocky rather than tall, but her hands are too short. “I will not have you falling down this branch!”

“I never do!” The girl answers, dignified.

Jaehaera ties off Rhaenyra’s braid, and the girl stands up, looking at her sister. “Yes you do!” she says, while swishing around her braid proudly. “Grandma will get Mister Willy to get you!”

Jaehaera tries to maintain a serious demeanor. Ser Willis Fell will never vanquish this silly nickname. Jaehaera lifts herself to come by the tree. “It is time to get down, Helaena.” 

“Don’t wanna,” the girl repeats in giggles, stuck to the tree like a cicada. Her little stubborn girl. This Helaena is not her mother, but she can’t help but feel stressed at the idea of her falling. Jaehaera is sure her grandmother feels similarly; only a few years ago she had refused to leave her rooms, still. 

“Papa,” Rhaenyra suddenly exclaims, running towards an incoming figure and hugging his leg. “Helaena climbed the trees again!” 

Aegon, patting gently against her head, hums. “And is making far too many people beg again, is she?”

“Yes!” 

Jaehaera turns around to him, a little sigh escaping her when her husband comes by her side. “She was supposed to be waiting her turn for a braid.”

Aegon hums. “The first mistake was expecting her to wait,” he says, and after some pause, kisses the side of her head. He’s been opening slowly to all touch since their daughters grew up.

They’ve come into a good place in their marriage, this last year. He tries to reach out more, even when her grandmother still turns stony whenever he comes around. Alicent curtsies at him respectfully, but is clearly concerned more by her granddaughter to spare him too much of her gaze. She lifts her arms again. “Helaena, come down.”

Aegon gives Jaehaera one glance, before he steps forward between grandmother and granddaughter. “Let me,” he says, and he lifts his arms himself. Alicent’s brown eyes squint at him, but move aside. He actually reaches the legs the girl had been swinging, and she giggles. “Jump to me, daughter? I’ll catch you.”

Helaena licks her lips. Her deep amethyst eyes have a happy glint to them. This is just a way to fly for her. The girl lifts herself off the branch, and falls, but into her father’s safe arms. He catches her in a big hug.

“There we go,” he says, smiling at his daughter as he turns back to Alicent. “Now we all can be calm.”

Her grandmother still struggles with Aegon at times, but her brown eyes turn softer then, holding her wrinkled hands together as she watches her chuckling granddaughter. Alicent gives him a nod and speaks gently. “Thank you, your Grace.”

Aegon nods back at her, gracefully humble. Looking back at Helaena, he holds the strands of her hair. “Do you want your hair braided too, now?”

Helaena glances at Rhaenyra, and they share some mischievous look. “No,” she says. “Papa’s turn.”

“Papa’s?” he asks, and before Jaehaera knows it, Rhaenyra tugs on her hand and rushes her to her father. Helaena is already tugging on Aegon’s hair. 

“Papa’s turn, papa’s turn!” Rhaenyra repeats, and Jaehaera laughs at the look on her husband’s face. Oh, he’s positively shocked, almost speechless as he realizes there is no escape.

Jaehaera brings a hand to his shoulder. “Your turn, husband,” she tells him. “Sit down, if you may.”

“..If you ask so kindly, I suppose I must,” he says in soft exasperation as Helaena already tugs on some of his strands. He hardly ever breaks into a smile, but there is a tug on the corners of his lips. He sits down, and lets Jaehaera and their daughters come around him. Jaehaera runs a hand through his hair gently, hoping he knows she is glad for this, too.

Her grandmother sits slightly farther away, watching all throughout, any frown or scowl notably absent. Later, when Jaehaera escorts her back to her rooms, Alicent gives her an old book. Beautifully illustrated, but not well tended to — it seems a page of it is missing. 

“You should read it, with your husband and the girls,” she tells her. “The kindest of days are those passed with stories told at the shade of the heart trees.”

#this shoulda came yesterday but i was a dumb dumb and misread the req #hope you enjoy this friend!! #jaehaegon #jaehaera x aegon iii #aegon iii x jaehaera #jaehaera targaryen #aegon iii targaryen #hotd #hotd imagine #reqs #answered #my fanfics #my fics #forwithinthishollowcrown