Little Light Strike

The next step comes faster than Daeron feels ready for. He's going to spend the night at his dad's house.

It's the same weekend that they planned to begin building the slide.

It makes Daeron angry that he's going to miss out on this to go for a sleepover he doesn't even want to go to. He tells Rhaenyra and Alicent this as they help him pack his bag.

"Can't he rearrange?" he begs. "I want to build the slide with the others."

"The slide won't be finished this weekend," Rhaenyra chuckles. "All we're doing today is cutting the wood to build the platform. We're gonna have to build scaffolding before we can even get the slide up there. You're not missing anything important, I promise."

He still doesn't want to go. He doesn't exactly have a backup excuse to try and get out of this, though.

"What if I just don't want to go?" Daeron asks.

"It depends on why," Alicent says truthfully, sitting on the bottom bunk of his bed and patting the spot beside her.

Daeron sits down, picking at his fingers before Alicent takes his hands in hers and tangles their fingers together.

"I'm not sure dad is better," Daeron says. "I don't want to go if he's not better."

"He's been doing really well," Rhaenyra says, sitting down on his other side. "He's been going to his therapy and his meetings, and he's passing all of his tests. It's going to be strange for a while, but you can call us whenever you want. Your dad has our number."

Daeron chews on the inside of his cheek, but he nods his head.

"It's gonna be strange?" he checks.

"Yeah," Alicent says. "You haven't been at home with your dad for about eleven months, now, and there's still a long road ahead. It's going to take a while to get used to him again."

"Okay," Daeron says. "And I'm coming home tomorrow?"

"Your dad will drop you off in time for dinner," Alicent assures him. "I'm making spaghetti."

Daeron nods his head.

"Can I take Tessa?"

"Of course," Rhaenyra says. "She's yours."

Daeron packs her into his bag so she's safe. He follows them downstairs and sits himself in the living room window where he can see the driveway clearly.

"How long will he be?" Daeron asks.

"About fifteen minutes," Rhaenyra says.

"Okay," Daeron says.

He waits there the entire time. Rhaenyra stays in the room with him, and Helaena comes to sit with him in front of the window.

"What car does he drive?" Helaena asks.

"I don't know," Daeron says. "Dad sold his car to pay his friend money."

"Oh. How's he taking you to his house, then?"

"No idea."

Helaena hums. She just stares out of the window, not speaking, not moving, barely even breathing.

Helaena has this weird little charm about her where you almost think she's not real, for a minute. She's very fairy like and almost like a pixie, too. She's curious and strange and Daeron adores her because she's so nice in the best way.

She's comforting like the clouds.

A car pulls into the driveway at exactly fifteen minutes on the dot. Dad gets out. He looks as tired as ever.

"You'll be okay," Helaena says.

"How do you know?" Daeron whispers.

"Because I saw you in my dream," Helaena says. "It's all part of the process."

Daeron doesn't know what any of that means, but he gives her a smile to say thank you and grabs his bag.

"Boys, Daeron's going, now!" Rhaenyra calls.

The boys come inside. Aegon gives Daeron a hug while Rhaenyra heads to the front door, ruffles Daeron's hair with a grin.

"We won't do too much without you," he says.

"Better not," Daeron mutters, a pout on his lips. "I'm excited to learn."

"We'll teach you when you get back," Jace assures him. "Promise."

"Don't have too much fun without us," Luke says, giving him a grin.

Aemond rolls his eye at Luke.

"Have fun," he says. "Ignore Luke."

Daeron waves at them as he follows Alicent to the front door with his backpack. He feels a bit like he's walking into a trap when he sees dad waiting in the hallway with Rhaenyra.

"There you are," dad says, giving Daeron an unfamiliar and awkward smile. "Got everything you need? Toothbrush?"

"Yeah."

"Pyjamas?"

"Yeah."

"Underwear?"

"Yes."

"Clean clothes?"

"Yep."

"Socks?"

"I know how to pack a bag, dad," Daeron says. "Can we just go?"

Dad nods.

"I'll drop him off at about four tomorrow."

"We'll be here all day," Rhaenyra says.

Without him. Daeron doesn't want to go.

He hugs Alicent as tight as he can. She hugs him back just as tight, dropping a kiss to his forehead before smoothing his hair out of his eyes.

It's getting really long, now. He loves it, loves his curls and how Alicent teaches him to take care of them with a real curl routine. They all have the curl routine except Rhaenyra and Aemond because they have straight hair. He's growing it out to be just as long as Aegon and Aemond and Helaena and Alicent and Rhaenyra's, one day.

"We'll see you tomorrow," Alicent says.

"See you tomorrow," Daeron says.

He hugs Rhaenyra, squeezes his eyes shut as she kisses his forehead, too.

"You be good, yeah?" Rhaenyra whispers in his ear. "It's just a sleepover and you'll be back tomorrow."

"I know."

"We love you, byka ōños pryjagon."

Daeron knows it means little something-something. He's not that advanced with his Valyrian lessons. He tries to remember it, though.

"I love you, too," Daeron whispers.

He pulls back before dad gets annoyed. He gives them the bravest smile he can get on his face, then follows his dad out to the car and climbs in the backseat. He does the seatbelt up, staring through the window at the other kids sat in the window.

They all hold up their dragons. Daeron's lips twitch with a sad smile as he waves at them, watching them get smaller as dad drives away.

Dad's house is different than Daeron remembers.

It's clean, for one.

It's never been clean.

It's not Alicent and Luke levels of clean, because Luke can be a bit of a clean freak according to himself, but it's cleaner than before, which is progress.

There's food in the fridge and the cupboards and Daeron's bedroom has actual clothes and toys inside of it waiting for him. He's never had new toys before going to Rhaenyra and Alicent's because dad says he just breaks them, anyway.

He leaves his bag in his room, leaves Tessa in his bag, and joins dad in the kitchen when he starts talking about dinner.

"What do you want?" dad asks.

"I don't know," Daeron says.

"Don't you pick dinner at the other house?" dad asks.

"No," Daeron says. "They meal plan a week ahead because there's so many of us."

Dad grabs a frozen pizza out of the fridge.

Daeron hasn't had a frozen pizza since he's been with Rhaenyra and Alicent. They make their pizzas fresh, if they're having pizza, or they order from the Italian restaurant for a treat.

He doesn't like frozen pizzas, but he stays silent as dad shoves it in the oven and grabs a glass of water from the sink.

"How do they manage with six kids?" dad asks.

Better than you manage with one, Daeron thinks, but he just shrugs.

"Rhaenyra has a big family. I think it's just normal for them."

"Does she?" dad says.

"Yeah," Daeron says. "She grew up with her uncle, he's only a little bit older than her, and Alicent, and Laenor, and Joffrey, and Laena, and they all have kids now, except Laenor and Joff, 'cause they don't want kids. They like being guncles. Viserys says it means gay uncles and he learned it on Drag Race. I thought it was a car show, but it isn't. It's cool, though. They all dress up and make their own outfits."

Dad hums, sinking down into his armchair. He doesn't have a bottle in his hand this time. Daeron doesn't sit down either way, stays hovering in the doorway. Dad just turns the television on.

"Go do something until your dinner is done."

Daeron scrambles off to his room and closes the door behind him.

He doesn't play with the toys. He doesn't really do anything except sit on the bed and cradle Tessa to his chest like she's his suit of armour.

Dad calls him for dinner. He picks at the pizza at the kitchen table in silence. He can't finish it. Dad puts the leftover slices in a tub for tomorrow, then washes the plate.

"Go to bed."

Daeron looks at the clock.

"It's not even six, and I have a bath or a shower before bed, and I need to do my reading before I sleep, and-"

"Go, then."

Daeron stares at dad for a moment.

"You aren't gonna help me?" he whispers.

Dad looks over at him, raising his eyebrows.

"You could do all this shit on your own before you went there. Don't lose your independence, Daeron. It'll only make you weaker. You're strong. You know how to do things."

"It doesn't make me weak to want my dad around," Daeron says.

"You clearly don't need me," dad snorts. "Just go away, alright? I've got a headache and you're not helping."

Daeron slams his bedroom door as loud as he can behind him, and the bathroom door.

Dad doesn't come and check on him. Dad doesn't come near his room while Daeron gets a shower and brushes his teeth and hair, then reads a chapter of the book Rhaenyra packed for him, then turns his own light out and gets into bed with Tessa.

He isn't really sure when he falls asleep, but he's awake before dad.

Dad's passed out in the armchair.

The room smells of smoke and something weird and there's cigarette butts in the ashtray, and a green circle container on the living room table. Daeron looks at it curiously, can't help but swipe it off the side to fiddle with in the kitchen.

He opens it, because it opens, and there's something green and little on the inside between little spikes that hurt his finger when he pokes them. It looks like when Alicent cuts up clippings of her plants to plant new ones, except way smaller, and it smells very differently to Alicent's plants.

Daeron didn't even know his dad liked gardening. He puts it back on the living room table and makes himself a bowl of cereal with no milk, because he sniffs the milk and it smells wrong and he can't use it.

Dad stumbles into the kitchen, eventually. He rubs his face and makes himself a cup of coffee. He doesn't even say anything to Daeron, just presses a hand over his hair and stumbles back into the living room.

"Daeron?"

"Yeah?"

"Did you touch my things?"

"No."

"Why are you lying?" dad asks, raising his eyebrows at Daeron. "I'm not going to be mad. Just tell me the truth."

"I just wanted to see what it was," Daeron mutters, looking at his cereal. "Milk's off, too."

His hair falls in his eyes. He pushes it back out of his face, looking over at his dad. Dad stares back at him for a moment, then reaches into his pocket and holds out a few coins.

"Go get some more," he says. "You can have real cereal, then."

Daeron is used to running the shop for milk. It's at the end of the road and dad waits at the front door for him to run there and back.

Daeron tugs on his shoes and takes the coins, running down to the store while dad waits on the front step. He pays the shopkeeper, then runs back to dad and hands him the change.

"Go have your breakfast," dad says, ruffling his hair. "I'm going to get a shower, and then we're gonna do something about your hair. Can't have it in your face all the time, can we?"

"No," Daeron chuckles.

The others sometimes braid it for him so it's out of his face. Alicent always braids his hair before he goes go karting because it's easier to wear his helmet.

He wonders when dad learned how to braid as he eats his cereal with milk. He makes another bowl because he's still hungry, twists his curls between his fingers with a smile because it's really growing long like the others have long hair.

It's like a thing in their family. Everyone has long hair, even the men, and they always style it so nicely. It makes them look really cool. Daeron wants to be cool, too, and Alicent promised to teach him how to braid when his hands are a little bit bigger and can hold more hair because they all have really thick hair, too.

"Alright, c'mon! Let's sort that head out."

Daeron puts his bowl in the sink and runs to the bathroom. Dad has a stool set in front of the sink and where the mirror used to go. Dad smashed it a long time ago and he never replaced it.

Daeron stands on the stool, letting dad start brushing through his curls.

"Tell me about your racing thing," dad says.

Daeron is half convinced it's a trick, but he tells dad anyway.

He tells dad about the track they race on, the same one he raced on with the others for the first time, and about how Daeron wins every race at the end. He tells him about how much fun it is to feel like he's flying in the go karts and how, one day, maybe he'll even drive a real race car like the people on the telly and he'll be famous like Luke is going to be famous.

Something snips behind his ear. Daeron's words trail off as more snipping comes, something cold on the back of his neck.

"There we go."

Daeron stands still for a moment before he lifts his hand.

His curls are gone. They're on the floor around the stool when his eyes drop down to check. All that's left are blunt edges of hair so close to his scalp.

"You look normal again, now. I don't care that you're living with lesbians, Daeron, but you're not gonna fucking grow your hair out and act like one yourself. You're a man."

Daeron drops his hand to his side. Dad tugs him off the stool and he stumbles back to not stand on his hair.

"Clean that up and go play in your room."

Daeron drops to his knees. He picks up his hair, a sob breaking out of his throat before he has time to push it down.

"Are you crying?" dad asks.

"No."

"Again with the lying."

"I'm sorry!"

"You're not, or you wouldn't keep lying. Stop crying or I'll give you something to really cry about."

"You cut my hair!" Daeron cries, glaring up at his dad.

"You're not a girl," dad snaps. "Stop the fucking whining and crying. Clean it up and get out of my face."

"I hate you!" Daeron cries. "I hate you! I hate you! I hate you!"

Dad grabs him by the back of his pyjama shirt, dragging him out of the bathroom and down to his bedroom. Daeron kicks and screams, but dad just shoves him into his room and slams the door shut, the lock turning in the keyhole.

"Let me out!" Daeron screams, kicking the door. "Let me out!"

"Not until you calm down and think about what you've done! You do not say you hate me! You don't lie!"

"It's the truth!" Daeron yells. "It's the truth! I hate you! I hate you! I wish you stayed sick!"

He keeps kicking at the door, bangs it with all of his might, but the door stays locked, and the television is blasting loud enough to drown him out within two minutes.

Daeron keeps kicking, though. He keeps kicking until the wood cracks and his foot goes right through it. He kicks around the hole until it's big enough for him to crawl out of, unlocking the door from the outside and then walking to the living room.

His chest heaves for breath, cheeks burning from the tears as he wipes them away with the backs of his hands.

"I want to go home."

Dad looks over at him, puffs on a cigarette that smells different than the cigarettes he used to smoke. He turns the television down, eyebrows furrowing.

"How'd you get out of there?"

"I kicked the door in," Daeron says. "Natural consequences to you locking me in a room, you see?"

Dad stands up. Dad's never hit him before, but Daeron is pretty sure today could be a day for a lot of firsts if he lets his anger talk for him.

Daeron runs back to his room and yanks the door shut. He can hear dad's footsteps following, but he pushes open his bedroom window and climbs out onto the tree in the backyard. He wriggles up through the branches and onto the roof of the house before dad even gets his bedroom door unlocked again.

"Daeron! Get back down here!"

"Take me home!"

"You are home!"

He's wrong.

This isn't home. It's not a family.

"Daeron!"

"I hate you!"

Dad leaves, slamming Daeron's bedroom door shut behind him. Daeron doesn't come off the roof until dad calls that it's time to go back.

The drive back is silent. Dad won't even look at him, not that Daeron really cares, and he jumps through radio stations and shakes his hand every few seconds. Daeron fidgets with Tessa, strokes her blue wool with the finger that's still sore from poking dad's circle gardening tray.

Dad pulls into the driveway. Daeron can see Luke and Aemond waiting in the window, the two of them waving when they see the car. Daeron drops his eyes to Tessa, his other hand ghosting over the curls that aren't there anymore.

"Come on."

Daeron puts Tessa in his bag, then gets out of the car and tugs his bag over his shoulders. He keeps his eyes on the floor as dad puts a rough hand on his shoulder and guides him up to the front door to ring the doorbell.

The door swings open barely a second later.

"What happened to your hair?" Luke asks.

"He wanted a haircut," dad says, squeezing Daeron's shoulder until it hurts. "It was getting in his eyes a lot."

Luke hums.

"My hair does when I do gymnastics, too," Luke says. "It looks nice."

"It does," Alicent's voice joins. "How was it? Was he good?"

Dad snorts. Daeron shifts on his feet.

"He was an angel," dad says.

Even Daeron can hear the sarcasm.

"Go on in," dad says, pushing Daeron forward. "I'd like a word with Alicent and Rhaenyra."

"Why don't you two take Daeron inside and show him how the slide is coming along?" Rhaenyra says.

"We haven't done anything without him, though, like you sai-" Luke starts. "Oh. Okay. Come on, Daeron."

Daeron follows them into the house.

"No goodbye for your dad?" dad calls.

"We'll meet you outside," Luke whispers, Aemond giving him a smile before they slip out of the house.

Daeron stops in the hallway. He shifts on his feet before turning around and walking back to his dad. He leans into dad, doesn't hug him back, then runs back inside as soon as he lets go. Rhaenyra presses a hand to his head as he passes her, then closes the front door over as she and Alicent step out to talk to dad.

Daeron stays in the hallway. He leans against the wall, closing his eyes as he tries to listen.

"Look, I don't know what shit you're doing with him here to make him like that when he comes home, but it has to stop. I'm not having my kid throwing tantrums like he's a little girl. He's not. He's old enough to know better. He didn't learn that shit from me. You need to stop babying him."

"He doesn't throw tantrums here. He's never thrown a tantrum here," Alicent says.

"He's having a hard time adjusting to things. It's a big change in his routine and it's been a while since he's been back in your house. He's probably just overwhelmed-"

"I don't need you to tell me how my kid is feeling. I know how he's feeling because he never shuts up. You raise your kids how you want. They're your responsibility. Daeron is mine, and I don't want him growing up to think he's special and the world owes him anything. It doesn't. He's not special. He needs to learn how to survive on his own because he is on his own. Nobody is going to care about that kid except me."

"We care-"

"This is temporary. He's my son. He's just another pay check to you. As soon as he's gone, there'll be another kid in his place and you'll care just as much about that one, until they go, too. It's a business for you."

"That is not why we do this-"

"Fine, then it's because you can't have your own real kids and you're filling some emotional void. I don't give a shit why you do it. He's not your kid. Stop acting like you know what's best for him because you don't. You don't know him."

"What's his teddy called?" Rhaenyra asks. "The dragon teddy. He told you about it in your first visit. You taught him all about the old Targaryens and told him what the names meant. What's his dragon called?"

"It's a fucking teddy. Why does it matter?"

"She's called Tessarion," Alicent says quietly. "And it matters because it matters to your son."

"You're home."

Daeron turns his head, eyes meeting Helaena's. She gives him a small smile.

"You cut your hair. It doesn't look the best."

Daeron's eyes drop to the floor.

"We can fix it," Helaena says, holding her hand out in a rare spot of affection. "Come on."

Daeron looks at her for a moment before he takes her hand. She leads him upstairs to her bathroom, and the boys are already waiting in there.

There's a chair in there that someone has brought in, and Aegon is holding a pair of silver scissors with narrowed eyes as he studies them. Jace is shaking out a towel and Luke is putting more on the floor. Aemond gives Daeron a small smile when Helaena pushes him into the room.

Daeron looks in the mirror. He turns his head.

Dad didn't cut it well. It's uneven and jagged at the back and it's too short in some places compared to how long it still is in others. It looks horrible.

"First order of business," Aegon says. "We have to wash your hair. Take your shirt off. We're gonna lean over the bath and wet it all so we can see the layers better."

"Can you even cut hair?" Daeron asks skeptically, shrugging off his bag.

"Well, I'm learning," Aegon says. "Mama has to cut Helaena's because she hates the hair salon, so, she's been teaching me, too. Besides, they're gonna come up and intervene eventually."

"Yeah, you stole mama's scissors and the house is way too quiet to have six children inside of it," Helaena says, grabbing the shower head. "Daeron, c'mon."

Daeron takes his t-shirt off and leans forward over the bath. Helaena turns the water on, waiting until it's warm enough before she starts running it over Daeron's hair. Her hands are so gentle as she guides the water through it, then shampoos and conditions it, too.

"Towel," Helaena says, turning off the shower head.

"Towel," Jace says, holding a towel out.

Helaena squeezes most of the water out of his hair before taking the towel, wrapping it over his back so he won't get wet, then helping him straighten up and flip his hair over. She guides him into the seat, clipping the towel in the front with one of her butterfly hair clips.

"Hairbrush," Aegon says.

"Hairbrush," Aemond says, handing over the hairbrush.

Daeron closes his eyes as Aegon brushes his hair. Nobody says anything, but he knows they're all looking at the damage.

"Here."

Daeron blinks his eyes open, looking up at Aemond. Aemond holds out Tessa with a small smile.

"We're gonna fix this," Aemond says.

Daeron takes Tessa and holds her on his lap.

"Comb?"

"Comb."

Aegon parts Daeron's hair, clips it up with another clip Helaena holds out to him.

"I think we can preserve a lot of the length," Aegon says.

"Yeah, we can blend the shorter patches with longer layers on the top," Helaena says.

Daeron shifts on the seat.

"What do you think, lightning?" Jace asks, sitting on the floor in front of Daeron. "It's your hair. You should decide."

"I wanted it long like everyone else's," Daeron whispers, tears burning in his eyes. "He cut it because he said I look like a girl."

Jace's face drops. He looks over Daeron's shoulders.

"Mama."

"What's going on here?"

"We're gonna fix Daeron's hair so it's even," Aegon says. "It looked bad at the back. It's making him sad."

"Angel face?"

Daeron forces himself to turn his head and look at Alicent. She gives him a soft smile as she crouches down.

"Shall we fix your hair?" she whispers.

"Yes, please."

She nods.

"Right," she says, straightening up and dropping a kiss on his forehead. "Aegon, you will assist."

"Yes, mama."

"Aemond, Luke, go and find my hairdryer, please," Alicent says. "Helaena, headphones, sweet girl. Jace, how about we see if mum can get some hot chocolate started? I think that might make us all feel a bit better."

"You got it."

The younger four scramble out of the room. Helaena returns with her headphones, but she doesn't put them on yet. She just sits on the closed toilet with her legs crossed to watch.

"How short do we want it?" Alicent asks, fingers stroking through his curls.

"Long as possible," Daeron sniffs. "But what if dad cuts it again?"

"Then we fix it again," Aegon says.

Alicent hums softly.

"Scissors."

"Scissors, mama."

Daeron holds onto Tessa as Alicent and Aegon fix his hair. Helaena starts telling him about her bugs which is a nice distraction because Daeron isn't scared of her bugs and he'll hold them without crying like the others.

Helaena puts her headphones on and leaves the bathroom when Luke brings the hairdryer back. Aegon leaves, too, squeezing Daeron's shoulder as Alicent starts drying his hair for him.

Only when the other kids are gone does Daeron let the tears leave his eyes. He looks down at Tessa, shoulders shaking with sobs. Alicent finishes drying his hair in record time, lets him cry it out as she puts the hairdryer on the side and scoops him up into her arms.

Daeron clings to her, buries his face in her neck.

"Please don't make me go back there," Daeron whispers. "Please. Please don't make me go back. I'll be as good as gold, I promise. Just don't make me go again."

Alicent just holds him tighter.

She makes no promises.

Daeron knows it's not down to her where he goes and where he stays.

It hurts.

Rhaenys comes to talk to him after dinner.

She takes him for a drive in her car, says they'll get milkshakes to bring back for the others as a weekend treat. They go to a little diner and order some cookies to share.

Daeron likes Rhaenys. She reminds him a lot of Rhaenyra and Alicent and she's comfortable to be around. She's family like the rest of the Targaryens are.

"Do you want to tell me what happened at your dad's?"

He tells her about dad cutting his hair and how he didn't want him to. He tells her that he got upset and dad said he looked like a girl, and then he got angry at Rhaenyra and Alicent when he dropped Daeron back off.

Rhaenys asks him more questions about dad and his mood, about what they ate and did. Daeron tells her that he went to bed early and wouldn't come inside after the hair cut until he could go back to Rhaenyra and Alicent's, but he doesn't bring up kicking his door in because he'll get in trouble, not dad, and he doesn't want to be in trouble for what he thinks is a reasonable reaction to his hair being hacked off without his permission.

"I don't want to go back there," Daeron says.

Rhaenys gives him a sad look and Daeron knows it's out of her hands, too. He knows that this isn't a good enough reason to not go back and he knows she feels bad about it.

"I'm not going to stop until I make sure you're safe," Rhaenys tells him, holding his hand over the table. "Don't give up. I'm not giving up on you. I promise, Daeron. I'm going to find a way to fix this."

They take milkshakes home for the others.

Daeron doesn't see the progress made with the slide.

He doesn't say anything, either. He knows the others are worried, but they don't outright ask questions and he appreciates that.

It's still exhausting, though, and he's tired. He excuses himself up to bed before Rhaenyra or Alicent even brings it up and he tucks himself into the top bunk with Tessa.

"Angel face?" Alicent says softly, knocking on his bedroom door. "Can we come and say goodnight?"

"Yeah."

They come in. Alicent climbs up the ladder first, smoothing his shorter hair out of his face and kissing his forehead. Daeron just looks at her, something heavy aching in his chest.

"We love you," Alicent whispers. "So much."

Daeron nods, squeezes her hands three times. She gives him another kiss on the forehead before Rhaenyra climbs up. She just looks at him for a moment, violet eyes searching violet eyes.

"It's going to be okay," Rhaenyra whispers. "I promise. We're not giving up on this."

Daeron nods.

"I love you, byka ōños pryjagon."

"What does that mean?"

"Little light strike," Rhaenyra says. "There's not a direct translation for lightning. It's the closest I can get to how fast you are."

Daeron cracks a smile, at that.

He has a nickname, and it's specific to him, and it's in Valyrian, and all he wants to do is cry because he knows things are just going to get worse with dad and he wants to stay here. He doesn't want to leave a place filled with love for a place that's just cold and sad.

That's not right. It's not fair. He shouldn't have to go.

Daeron still has to go to his dad's house.

Rhaenys talked to the people above her that work on Daeron's case and, according to them, Daeron's father is within his rights to cut Daeron's hair.

Daeron is the one being punished for this. He gets an extra session with Talya on the order of the courts which, yeah, it's not really a punishment because he likes Talya, but he's not the bad one here. Why is he the one being talked to about anger when he learned it from his dad?

Still, the sleepovers are every other weekend, so, Daeron doesn't have to see him for a little while and it's a relief.

They go to Luke's gymnastics practices and Aegon's football practice, then to Aemond's martial arts classes. He passes his grading for the next belt and the whole family is there to cheer him on at the belt ceremony two days later.

They start working on the platform for the slide and Daeron learns how saws and drills and hammers work, and he makes sure he's wearing his helmet and has supervision before he does anything because he knows safety is super important here.

They eat dinner on the patio every night because it's summer time, and Alicent bakes more than ever in the summer so they have ice cream sandwiches and cookies and brownies for desert every single day.

They stay up late, too, later than when they're in school, and it's so much fun playing dragons with the others on the treehouses.

Helaena stays down below to observe, but the boys all climb up the ladders armed with foam swords and shields, with dragon wings tied around their chests, and they fight like they're in the real dance of dragons that happened a long, long time ago.

Daeron learns to understand Aemond's blueprints, even if they're difficult to understand for a while, and he thinks Aemond is warming up to him.

He's been a lot more inclusive of Daeron since he went to his dad's house. It's like he's making an extra effort to notice him. It's really sweet and Daeron likes it because he gets on with everyone in this house for sure, now, and he knows they all like him.

His hair is still short, but it's growing out.

It takes Daeron a while to get used to not having his hair braided when he wears his helmets for go karting, but his lack of hair doesn't impact his racing ability. Daeron wins the race again, and he wins the one the weekend after.

He gets a trophy for that one. Aegon puts a shelf up in Daeron's room and lifts him up to sit it on there, ruffling his hair as he drops him back onto his feet.

"You'll be like the real Lightning McQueen one day," Aemond says.

"Who's that?"

"What?!"

Daeron is thoroughly educated on Lightning McQueen and, yeah, he wants to be him when he grows up. He wants to be a racing driver and drive as fast as lightning because he can do it now in go karts and the cars are the next step.

Rhaenyra introduces him to Formula One. Alicent mutters something about needing more chill pills and researching the symptoms for heart attacks in women before going to call Aemma and do some 'motherly venting', which makes no sense because mums don't have vents, houses do, but, sure. Maybe it's some grown up thing and he'll know what it means when he's big.

What he does know now is that he wants to be in those cars, one day. He wants to be as fast as lightning, and he'll have a lightning bolt on his car, and dragons, one for everyone in this family because they're dragons, and they say he's a dragon, too.

Daeron leaves Tessa at home when he goes to dad's next time.

It isn't bad like last time. Dad doesn't shout at him or cut his hair, but he doesn't do anything good, either. He just makes Daeron another frozen pizza, tells him there's a television in his room with some DVDs and to keep himself entertained because dad has a headache.

They don't fight. His bedroom door is fixed. The lock is gone, this time. The bathroom mirror has been replaced.

Dad asks him to pee in a cup.

He says it's because Daeron's doctor needs to check he's healthy. He says he'll give Daeron some sweets if he does it. He says it'll just take a little while and it'll be really easy, and dad knows he's healthy, but the doctor needs to confirm.

"Why haven't Alicent and Rhaenyra told me about the test?" Daeron asks.

"I just got told a little while ago," dad says. "They don't know, yet. But, hey, look, we don't need to worry them with this. We all know you're healthy 'cause they're taking really good care of you, aren't they?"

"They are," Daeron agrees.

"And we don't want to scare them into thinking you're sick, do we?" dad says. "You're not sick. It's just to make sure. We don't wanna scare them and make them think something is going on."

"No," Daeron agrees. "I don't wanna scare them. They have a lot to worry about all the time, anyway. I'm not sick, right? So, I'll pass the test, like you pass yours."

"Exactly," dad says, a smile spreading across his face. "Exactly. So, we keep this between me and you, yeah? We all know they'd never let you get sick, anyway."

"They wouldn't," Daeron says. "Luke and Alicent clean so much. I don't think germs have ever heard of our house. And Helaena carries hand sanitiser everywhere, 'cause she says bacteria thrives in public places, and in hand dryers, and that's why we should always have sanitiser."

"She's right," dad says. "She sounds really smart. I think she would've told you if you were sick. You're healthy. So, pee in a cup for me, and we'll know for sure."

"You got it!"

Daeron's back at Rhaenyra and Alicent's the next afternoon with no arguments, no hair loss, no complaints, and a bag of sweets for himself, but also a bag for every other kid that dad helped him pick out and paid for with a real smile.

It's confusing. Daeron wonders if dad was told off for last time, if he's just pretending to be better, if he actually is better and this is their new normal.

He's not sure.

He doesn't really care, though. He passed his test, according to dad. He also doesn't have to see dad for another two weeks and he'll be back in school, then, ugh, but he gets to go to the Targaryen annual summer barbecue first.

He's really excited about that.

The other kids have told him all about it and it's a big event. Everybody in the whole family comes. It's at their house because they're the biggest family, and Rhaenys and Corlys come over, and Joffrey and Laenor, and Laena and Daemon, and Baela, Rhaena and Daena, and Aemma and Viserys and Baelon.

It's an all out party, apparently.

But, first, the slide.

The slide is finally ready. The slide needs a test dummy and Rhaenyra doesn't think it should be Daeron.

Though, what Rhaenyra doesn't know won't hurt her.

It happens at night, which is kind of stupid in hindsight, but a bad idea is always a good idea when there's three other people encouraging it.

"Where did you even find the bubblewrap?" Helaena whines, hands over her ears as Aegon and Jace wrap Daeron in enough bubble wrap to be as fat as Santa.

"In the shed," Luke says, strapping the helmet onto Daeron's head.

"Maybe we should wrap him when he's up there," Jace says. "How's he climbing the ladder when he's that fat?"

"That's... A good point," Aegon mutters. "Right, spin!"

Daeron spins on the spot in the mud room until the bubblewrap isn't wrapped around him anymore. Aegon unlocks the back door and the six of them creep outside under the moon, Helaena and Aemond shaking their heads.

"Oi, shitbags, go and get Luke's crash mat!" Aegon whispers to them.

"He's going to get hurt," Aemond says. "What about his racing?"

"Natural consequences," Daeron says. "I wanna test the slide."

"Yeah, natural consequences," Luke grins. "We'll follow you up there."

Daeron clambers up the ladder to Aegon's treehouse, Aegon and Luke following him up while Jace helps Helaena and Aemond with the crash mat. The three of them walk across the new drawbridge to the platform where the slide is.

Daeron peers over the wooden railings at the floor, squinting through the darkness.

"That's a long way to fall," Luke mumbles. "Even for me. You don't have to do this."

"I don't think Rhaenyra would've left it up if it wasn't safe," Daeron says.

"Good point," Aegon says. "Besides, there'll be a crash mat, and he's got a helmet, and he's gonna be bubble wrapped."

"Won't the bubblewrap make going down the slide harder?" Luke asks.

Aegon huffs.

"Shit," he mutters. "Okay, no bubblewrap. Maybe we find-"

"You guys are overthinking this," Daeron says, making sure the helmet is on before moving to the entrance of the slide. "Ready?"

"Ready."

Daeron climbs into the slide and pushes himself down. He twists around, giggles echoing through the plastic until he sees the sky again. He slides right out of the slide onto the crash mat, beaming at Jace, Helaena and Aemond.

"It worked!" Aegon cheers. "We built a slide!"

"What is going on out here?"

"Oh, fuck."

"Aegon!"

"Sorry!"

They're all sat at the island like one of those line ups on TV half an hour later. Daeron has been thoroughly checked for non existent injuries by Alicent, who looks quite silly with her hair as wild as it is and her reindeer pyjamas in August.

Daeron doesn't point that out, though. He doesn't think this is supposed to be funny.

Rhaenyra is, according to Helaena, truly coming into her dad persona. She's lecturing the five other kids about how silly it was to wake Daeron up in the middle of the night and use him as their test dummy for the slide.

"He could've really gotten hurt!" Rhaenyra says.

"You wouldn't build something that would hurt us," Aegon says softly. "We knew it was safe because you built it, muña, and you taught us how to fix things safely."

Rhaenyra falters, at that. Alicent gives her a look.

"That's not the point!" Rhaenyra says. "Anything could've happened to him!"

"We had safety precautions," Jace says. "We even remembered the helmet to protect his head, and the crash mat so he wouldn't have any broken bones. He's safe, muña."

Rhaenyra falters again. Alicent's eyebrows climb higher.

"Well, you try playing bad cop when their logic is actually thought out," Rhaenyra says.

"It's the middle of the night! They had no adult supervision! They got poor Daeron involved! He doesn't know any better!"

"But that's what natural consequences are, Ali," Daeron speaks up, now. "If something happened to me, that's just a lesson to be more careful next time. But I knew it was safe, 'cause Rhaenyra built it, and the others wouldn't let something happen to me. We made a mistake, and we won't do it at midnight again, but I knew it was on me if it went wrong."

Alicent is the one who falters, now. Rhaenyra smirks at her.

"That's what growing up is, mama," Luke says. "Having a safe place to make mistakes and learn what not to do, next time."

"You gave us the tools and the place to feel comfortable to do that," Aemond says, nodding his head very solemnly.

"That means you're the best parents," Helaena adds.

It's the icing on the cake, in Daeron's opinion. Alicent sighs, and the others giggle, so Daeron knows they've won.

"Was it fun?" Alicent asks.

"So much fun!" Daeron says. "I went so fast around the corners, like Lightning McQueen! It's such a cool slide!"

Alicent looks over at Rhaenyra. Rhaenyra raises her eyebrows curiously.

"Well," Alicent says. "We're already wide awake. How about we all test the slide out, then have some hot chocolate and go back to bed?"

"She's the cool parent again!" Aegon yells, scooping Daeron off the stool and carrying him outside over his shoulder.

Daeron laughs until Aegon puts him down, and even then, the giggles don't stop. He laughs when everybody climbs up, even Helaena, and gathers around the slide.

"You're the expert, byka ōños pryjagon," Rhaenyra says. "Show us how it's done."

Daeron flies down the slide. He laughs when he lands on the crash mat again, moving out of the way.

"Incoming!" Aegon yells.

He comes down hands first, sprawling onto the crash mat with a grunt. He gets up with a grin.

"So worth it," he laughs.

Helaena comes down much more daintily. She stands up off the slide and skips towards the kitchen.

"I'm going to start sorting marshmallows," Helaena says.

"Have fun," Daeron says.

Luke comes down, next. He forward rolls out of the slide onto the mat, making Daeron giggle as Aegon scoffs.

"Show off."

"Just 'cause you can't do it," Luke laughs.

Aemond comes down in the spirit of Helaena, except he does one of his karate rolls out of it and stands up without breaking a sweat. Daeron stares at him with wide eyes.

"You really are like a warrior," Daeron says.

Aemond cracks a smile at that, ruffling Daeron's hair.

"Thanks, lightning."

Daeron grins up at him. Aemond rolls his eyes, but he wraps his arm around Daeron's shoulder and lets him lean against him as Jace comes flying out of the slide and flies right off the crash mat into the grass.

"I overestimated that," Jace says, rubbing his arm. "I wanna do it again!"

"Alicent, it's just a slide."

"It's a death trap!"

Daeron giggles as he hears Rhaenyra and Alicent bickering at the top of the slide.

"Mama's not good with heights," Aemond says. "When we went to Dragonstone, she took Helaena to a cliff to take photos and she couldn't go near the edge 'cause she was so scared of being that high up."

"Like Helaena is scared," Daeron says. "She gets it from Alicent."

"Yeah," Aemond laughs. "She does."

"Alicent, it's going to be okay."

"Yeah, c'mon, mama!" Aegon calls. "You got this!"

"You got it!" Luke yells. "It's just a slide!"

"It's super fun!" Daeron calls.

"It'll be over before you know it!" Aemond adds.

"It's fine, mama! We're all here!" Jace says.

"I'm going!" Alicent whines.

She squeals as she comes down the slide. She stumbles to her feet, shaking her head as they all laugh at her. Rhaenyra comes down the slide right behind her, jumping to her feet and wrapping her arms around Alicent's waist.

She presses kisses against Alicent's face until Alicent is giggling, shaking her head despite the fact she leans more into the kisses.

They both look so pretty when they're happy. It's like they're in their own little bubble for a moment, like a little pocket of sun, and it just makes sense to Daeron why things in this family are so happy and supportive and loving.

It starts with Rhaenyra and Alicent.

"How long have they been together?" Daeron asks.

"Forever," Aegon says.

"Forever?" Daeron repeats.

"They met when they were four," Aemond says. "And they fell in love. They've been together forever. They even had a fake marriage."

"A fake marriage?" Daeron asks.

Alicent groans.

"Not tonight," she says. "I cannot deal with you all teasing us again."

"It's not our fault you're all in love," Luke teases, making kiss noises.

Aegon turns around so his back is to them, wrapping his arms around himself and moving them up and down like it's someone else's hands. Daeron laughs, chest warm at the joke.

"Aegon!" Rhaenyra scolds playfully. "At least make it look natural!"

"Rhaenyra!"

"Right, not the point. Inside, the lot of you. It's too late for so much excitement."

"The slide was a good call, though, right?" Jace grins at her.

Rhaenyra grins back.

"Rhaenyra."

"No," Rhaenyra says, forcing the smile off her face. "Slight lapse in judgement on this call."

Alicent nods, starting towards the kitchen. Rhaenyra gives them all a double thumbs up and a grin.

"Rhaenyra, if you think I don't know what you're doing, you'd be wrong."

"You don't even have eyes in the back of your head," Rhaenyra complains. "It's just a metaphor, babe."

"I know everything that goes on in this house. Now, you're all helping me with hot chocolate. C'mon, inside."

Daeron follows the others to the house. He steps into the kitchen, Alicent dropping a hand to his head.

"You're okay?" she checks.

"This is the best night ever," Daeron tells her, giving her a massive grin. "Thank you."

Alicent laughs as he hugs her, hugs him back just as tightly. She kisses his forehead, smoothing his hair out of his eyes.

"You don't have to do things if you don't want to," Alicent says. "You know that, right?"

"I volunteered," Daeron admits. "Besides, it's fun! If I get hurt, it's a natural consequence. I'll know better next time. Dad says that you'll never grow if you never bleed. I think it means you won't learn unless you take risks and make mistakes."

"He's right about that," Alicent says.

"It's the one thing I think he understands," Daeron says.

Alicent laughs, ruffling his hair.

"Come on," she says. "We're already up late, and I need some test dummies for my new muffin recipe that Helaena picked out. You can all try one."

"This is really the best night ever!" Daeron says.

"I know!" Alicent whispers playfully, kissing his forehead again before they head over to the others.

It really is the best night. He loves their little secret kitchen parties, which is what Jace calls it when they all sneak downstairs in the middle of the night to hang out. Sometimes they have sleepover parties, too, like when Jace slept in Daeron's room.

Aemond and Luke have a sleepover every night because they share a room. Daeron thinks it would be fun to share a room. He has bunkbeds. It makes sense.

Maybe one day there'll be another kid here that he can share a room with.

Or, maybe, he won't be here when that kid comes. Dad did say a kid would just replace Daeron and they'd do this whole thing over again.

Except, Daeron doesn't believe their love is temporary like dad said. He knows this family love him, and he loves them back. Love doesn't just go away.

They're a family. They're his family.

The annual Targaryen family summer barbecue extravaganza is upon them.

At least, that's what Aegon declares when he comes downstairs for breakfast on the last Saturday of the summer holidays.

They go back to school on Wednesday. Daeron is staying at his dad's house next Saturday.

Tonight is the barbecue.

Daeron's excited. He's actually really excited because Luke and Aemond have told him all about the others, and Helaena told them about the years they'd missed, too, and it sounds like it just gets crazier ever year.

"I think we can convince grandpa to try the slip and slide again," Aegon says, looking between the other kids.

"Puppy eyes," Luke says, pulling a pout onto his face as he blinks at Aegon. "Please, grandpa?"

"Excellent," Aegon says. "Don't waste that face on me, Lukey. Save it for the real test."

Luke grins at him, nodding his head.

"What's a slip and slide?" Daeron asks.

"What?" Helaena says, blinking at him.

"What's a slip and slide?" Daeron repeats.

"You're like Patrick Star," Jace says.

"You live under a rock, dude," Aegon says. "We'll show you. You can help me and muña set it up."

Daeron does help Aegon and Rhaenyra set up the slip and slide while Jace, Luke and Aemond set up the pop up tables on the patio. Alicent is cooking inside and Helaena is off regulating herself before everybody comes over.

It's quite fun being part of the chaos. Daeron helps set the hose up and put it under the little silver brackets to stop anyone tripping over it. He helps set up the water guns for the inevitable water fight. He helps fill the water balloons that Aegon ties because he's the only one who can keep the knots in place.

Daemon and Laena are the first ones there with their girls. Alicent sends them upstairs to get into swimming costumes and they're downstairs within five minutes to run and play on the slip and slide.

"My turn!" Daemon yells, tackling Aegon down the slide with him.

Daeron's never done a slip and slide before. He watches the others go before throwing himself down, laughing as he skids off onto the grass. It sticks to his skin, but he really doesn't care.

"Grandpa!" Jace yells. "Come try! Please!"

"His hip, Jace!" Aemma calls back.

"He can replace his hip!" Aegon yells back. "We'll never be at this barbecue again!"

"Please, grandpa?" Luke asks, pouting at his grandad and blinking his eyes.

He looks a bit like Puss in Boots in Shrek. Daeron thinks it's hilarious how all the adults immediately turn soft when they see Luke.

That's good enough for Viserys. Daeron laughs as Viserys lines himself up with the slip and slide before running forward and sliding down on his stomach.

"We'll be moving forward that hip replacement surgery," Aemma comments.

Rhaenys and Laena laugh at her. Alicent just shakes her head as Rhaenyra throws herself down the slip and slide after her dad.

"She's more dragon than bird," Alicent says.

"Both have wings, though," Aemma chuckles.

They play water fights with the others while Corlys, Joffrey and Laenor handle the barbecue. Daeron doesn't even know whose team he's on because it's just a kind of free for all at this point and they're not holding back.

He's swallowed more hose water today than in his lifetime, but it's fun. They're having so much fun.

"Can we go on the slide?" Rhaena asks.

"Can we put the hose on the slide and make it even better?" Baela asks, eyes wide with curiosity.

Daeron is curious, too.

It's a fast slide already, and the water would make it like a water slide.

"Can we?" Daeron looks at Aegon.

Aegon looks at the others. Little Daena nods, not that she understands what's going on, but Luke and Jace and Aemond nod their heads in agreement.

Helaena shrugs her shoulders.

"I don't play in the water, anyway," she says. "Just put the crash mat out. And ask mama."

"Natural consequences," Aegon says.

Daeron grins. He's learning.

"Ask mama."

"No, ask muña. She's gonna say yes over mama," Aemond says.

"Good point," Aegon says. "Right... Luke, Daeron, you two with me. The rest of you, get the crash mat. Girl twins, enlist Baelon and Daemon. We need all the help we can get to pull this off."

Everybody nods, hurrying off to their jobs. Luke and Daeron follow Aegon up to the patio where the grown ups are. Helaena brings Daena with them, lifting her onto a seat before sitting beside her.

Rhaenyra takes one look at the three boys and raises her eyebrows.

"What are you giving your mama a heart attack over now, hey?" she asks.

Aegon grins.

"We wanna turn the slide into a water slide," Aegon says.

"We have the crash mat, and Baelon and Daemon can supervise!" Daeron says quickly.

"Please, muña?" Luke asks, pouting at her and batting his eyelashes.

"Rhaenyra."

Rhaenyra falters, looking over at Alicent. Alicent raises her eyebrows.

"Is safety not a thing to you anymore?" Alicent asks.

"It's a good idea, to be fair," Laenor says, glancing at his nails. "I need a manicure."

"Me, too," Aemma says. "Wednesday?"

"Wednesday," Laenor agrees, nodding his head.

"Oi!" Daemon calls. "Are we doing this water slide or what?"

"Please?" Aegon asks.

"We'll be safe!" Luke promises.

"It'll be so much fun!" Daeron says, pouting at Alicent. "Please, Ali?"

Alicent falters. Daeron grins.

"That angel face of yours," Alicent mutters, pressing a kiss to his forehead. "Be careful. I don't want any broken bones or hospital trips today."

"Yay!"

The water slide is revolutionary. Daemon holds the hose for them and makes sure they take turns going down to land on the crash mat. Helaena comes to wait at the bottom and take photos, Daena clapping excitedly every time one of them comes flying out of the slide and tickle her before scrambling up for another turn.

Even Daemon has a turn. He skids right across the grass, slides right under the trampoline's legs, and hits the fence with a groan.

Everybody stares at him with wide eyes for a moment. Daemon gets to his feet, shaking his arm before he grins and lifts it straight in the air in a fist bump.

"I call next turn!" Rhaenyra yells, sprinting towards the treehouse.

"Not fair!" Laena yells, running after her.

"Wait for me!" Laenor cries.

"Oh, here we go," Joffrey laughs, running after his husband.

It's hilarious to watch Daemon, Rhaenyra, Laena, Laenor and Joffrey try and fight their way up the ladders and across the bridges faster than each other to get the next turn. The kids all move out of the way of their chaos.

Rhaenyra shoves Daemon down the slide, though Laena shoves her down right after her.

"Oh my god!" Rhaenyra cries. "Laena! What happened to sisters over misters?!"

"We're not twelve anymore!" Laena yells.

"You're acting like it," Rhaena says.

"Yeah, mum," Baela says.

"Dinner!" Aemma calls. "Don't get hurt coming down!"

They don't get hurt coming down the slide. Aemma, Rhaenys, Corlys, Viserys and Alicent hand out towels to all of them and they sit down around the tables.

Daeron stares at the feast in front of them, eyes wide and stomach warm from the joy of the day.

He knows Viserys does a speech after they eat. It's his annual tradition and he cries nearly every year, apparently.

Viserys stands up, the table falling silent as he smiles at them all. Daeron grins back at him when Viserys catches his eye, the man winking at him and making him giggle.

"My family," Viserys starts. "My wonderful, beautiful, crazy family of dragons."

He makes a point to look at his grandchildren, Daeron included, and then his eyes move to Rhaenyra, Baelon, Daemon, Laena and Laenor. They all grin at him. Alicent, Aemma and Rhaenys laugh as they shake their heads.

"Every year, it seems as if no time at all has passed, yet you grow a little bit taller, you get a little bit stronger, and you learn a little bit more. It is the biggest blessing of my life to have a family as large as this, to be able to watch you all grow and flourish into these beautiful souls. It fills my heart with love to have you all. It fills my heart with love that my dreams for a family like this have come true."

Viserys is already crying.

Except, so is Daeron, and most of the people at the table, actually. Even the other kids look moved to tears, which makes Daeron feel better because he did not want to be the only one crying over how sweet his words are.

"We didn't think this was possible, once," Viserys says, giving Aemma a smile. "A family like this, a family so big with a house so filled with love."

He turns his eyes to Daemon and Laena, then Rhaenyra and Alicent, then Baelon. He gives them such a warm smile that more tears spill down his face.

Viserys always wanted a family like this, and now he has one. He has his dream come true, and Daeron is so honoured to be a part of this. He's so honoured that he's been able to live with this family, with his family, because this is a family filled with love and Daeron is like a baby dragon waiting to be fed.

"Thank you all," Viserys says. "Thank you for being here. Thank you for every memory, every year, every member of this family you've brought into our lives. I thought watching you all grow up was the most incredible thing, but I was wrong. Watching you become parents, watching you raise our grandchildren to be the amazing people they are, that is the most incredible thing."

"Dad," Rhaenyra whispers, wiping her tears with a shaky smile.

"I love you all," Viserys says, lifting his glass. "To the Targaryen-Velaryons."

"To the Targaryen-Velaryons," they all echo.

They hold up glasses, plastic cups, juice boxes, a sippy cup for Daena. They all cheers, wiping their tears as Viserys sits back down and leans into Aemma's side.

She kisses his forehead, smoothing his long hair out of his face with a smile.

Daeron recognises that gesture because Rhaenyra and Alicent do it to each other all the time. They do it to their kids all the time. It's a gesture so deeply rooted in love and Daeron thinks it's fascinating that all of this started because of Viserys and Aemma, and Corlys and Rhaenys.

Their children formed a bond. They brought the branches of the family tree together. Daemon brought Laena and they had their children, and Rhaenyra brought Alicent, and now there's six children under their care in the family, and it's all because of four people that there's now twenty sat around this table for a family meal.

This must be what the old Targaryens felt like. Daeron wonders if they felt as much love as he does, if his namesake was as lucky as he is to have a family of dragons that love him so much.

Daeron wonders if he'll ever get to come to another barbecue.

Helaena catches his eye. Daeron looks at her, watches as she gives him a smile and nods. Daeron raises his eyebrows.

Can she read his mind?

She nods again.

Daeron's eyes widen.

"What?" Luke whispers.

"Can she read my mind?" Daeron asks.

"No," Luke laughs. "Yeah. Kind of. Not in the way you think. She just knows these things. She's good at reading us. She picks up on how we think and she thinks the same way to understand us better. She gets you. What were you thinking?"

Daeron just shrugs, staring at Helaena.

She doesn't look at him.

She doesn't actually look at him until it's bedtime, and Daeron kind of forgets when Aemma and Alicent bring out the desserts.

They even have an ice cream station!

Aemma scoops ice cream into bowls for them, and Alicent lets them go crazy with toppings and sauces and sherbets.

Daeron watches Aegon dump so much sherbet on his ice cream, and strawberry sauce, then start mixing it into an almost liquid goo before he adds in smarties and strawberry jellies.

"Don't knock it 'til you try it," Aegon tells him with a grin.

Daeron copies him. He doesn't quite get the hand of the stirring, but Jace steps in when he notices Daeron having a hard time making the liquid goo.

"He had to teach me how to do it," Jace tells him. "You'll have sherbet in every bite, now. It's the best."

It is the best. Daeron has never had better ice cream in his life. He feels the sugar in his veins and it's not long before the kids convince the adults that a nerf war is the perfect way to the end the night.

There aren't any teams. It's a free for all, but it's fun and Daeron is having the best night.

Everybody heads home by eleven. They helped clean up before they left, so, other than maybe having to dry the slide again tomorrow, they're good to go to bed.

Daeron has to get a shower, even if he's tired, and Helaena is waiting on the bottom bunk when he comes out of the bathroom.

He blinks at her. Helaena smiles.

"I told you," Helaena says. "I saw your face in my dream."

"I don't know what that means," Daeron says.

"You will," Helaena says. "I can't tell you, yet."

"Why not?" Daeron asks.

"It won't change anything," Helaena says truthfully. "And it won't mean much now. I promise I'll tell you, soon."

"You promise?"

Helaena holds out her pinkie finger. Daeron grins, linking their pinkies together. They kiss their thumbs to lock it.

"You're a dragon, Daeron," Helaena says, holding eye contact before releasing his pinkie. "Don't ever forget that."

"I'm a dragon," Daeron echoes.

"You're a dragon," Helaena repeats.

He's a dragon.

He is a dragon.

Daeron starts year two. He'll turn seven in April, so, he's one of the youngest in his class, but he doesn't mind. He's with different kids than last year, too, according to the class list Alicent and Rhaenyra have.

The little kids start the day before Aegon and Helaena. They still get up early with them, though, to be supportive. Aegon makes breakfast and Helaena makes cups of tea while Alicent and Rhaenyra get the younger four ready.

Aemond's hair is braided. Luke and Jace's curls are combed properly and tied back out of their faces. Daeron's growing hair is brushed back out of his eyes, but it falls right back in his eyes when he's eating his breakfast, so, he figures it's just gonna get messy today.

That's okay. He doesn't mind. It means it's growing back again. It's a good thing.

He also avoids getting breakfast on his uniform, thank god, and the four of them are lined up for photos.

"We're getting more tomorrow with Aegon and Helaena," Alicent warns them, grinning as she takes photos. "Aemond, smile, beautiful."

Aemond smiles for the camera. They take individual photos, then more group photos, and then Aegon and Helaena wave them off as Rhaenyra loads the four kids up into the car.

"Be good," Rhaenyra tells them, making sure Daeron is strapped in. "And have the best day. I'm picking you all up, remember?"

"We know, mum," Jace laughs, fidgeting with the radio in the front seat.

"I love you all," Rhaenyra says, pressing kisses to all of their foreheads.

"We love you!"

The drive to school is fun. Jace picks a radio station playing songs Daeron doesn't know, but the others know them and sing along to them. Daeron picks up on a few of the words, but then the song changes and he forgets again.

Alicent parks in the car park and ushers them all into the playground. Jace runs off to his best friend, Cregan, and Aemond and Luke sprint across the playground towards Baela, Rhaena and Laena.

Daeron follows. It's not like the last time he had a first day at school in this family. He knows them, now, and he wants to say hi.

"Hi!"

"Hi, lightning," Laena laughs, running a hand over his hair. "This is growing out nicely, huh? You look more like Rhaenyra every day."

Daeron beams at that. It's the highest compliment he can receive, he thinks.

"I hope my dad doesn't cut it again," Daeron says.

"Just stab him if he does," Baela says.

"Baela!" Laena scolds.

"It's like when we play dragon fighting!" Baela says.

"Nobody is stabbing anyone!" Laena says.

Daeron glances at Alicent.

She actually looks amused. Daeron wonders how crazy Laena and Daemon's house is for Alicent to find this funny, because it's clearly not the worst thing Baela has ever said. Though, having met Daemon, Daeron is not surprised.

He's a bit of a wild card, just like Daeron is.

It's why he thinks Daemon is his favourite uncle, not that he would ever say that to Baelon, Joffrey, Laenor, or Corlys.

"So, Daemon told me to tell you to tell Rhaenyra that it's all good," Laena says.

Daeron frowns, trying to draw a line between people in his head to make that sentence make sense.

"Oh, good," Alicent says. "We've cleared enough space. How did the repairs go?"

"He had less than he thought," Laena says. "It's been a good little project for him. I think he's hoping the girls might be interested, but they're not."

"I was interested!" Baela says. "Just more interested in the bike!"

"What bike?" Luke asks.

"No bike," Laena says, giving Baela a look. "Oh, look, there's the bell! Time for school!"

The bell isn't ringing, yet. It actually rings a full fifteen seconds later, Daeron counts, and Laena grins.

"See? School time. Go chat your teacher's ears off so mum can have some alone time," Laena says.

Baela and Rhaena grin. Laena rolls her eyes, but she sweeps them into a massive hug and presses kisses on their faces until they're almost falling over with giggles.

"Come on!" Luke tells them. "We're gonna be late!"

"Come on, mum," Baela laughs.

Daeron is tugged into a hug, giggles falling from his own lips as Alicent lifts him up and spins him around for a moment before setting him on his feet and crouching down to be his height.

"This is gonna be a good year," Alicent tells him. "You've got a big brain filled with so many questions, and we're gonna learn so much. You got this."

"I got this," Daeron agrees. "It's easier than racing."

Alicent laughs.

"Then you'll fly through the work, angel face," she says. "Rhaenyra will pick you up later, okay?"

"I know," Daeron grins, giving her another hug. "Have a good day at work, Ali. I love you."

"I love you, Daeron. Have a good day at school," Alicent whispers.

Daeron waves at the other kids and Laena, then runs off to his new classroom for a new year of school.

Daeron's teacher makes him do a spelling test on Friday afternoon before golden time, just so they can see where their spelling is.

There's words like beautiful, everybody, Christmas, children, behind, busy, gold, and a lot of others.

Daeron knows how to spell these words. Whenever Rhaenyra and Alicent tell him a bedtime story, he reads along and spells out the words he doesn't know so he'll remember them.

Daeron gets all of them right, and he gets a gold star on his test.

His test is clutched in his hand when the final bell goes and he runs to Rhaenyra as soon as he spots her silver hair across the playground.

"Look!" Daeron yells, shoving the test at her. "I got a star!"

"You got a star!" Rhaenyra says, taking the test. "Well done, byka ōños pryjagon! I'm so proud of you!"

"What's he done?"

"Daeron got full marks on his spelling test," Rhaenyra tells the other boys.

"And a gold star!" Daeron says.

"And a gold star!" Rhaenyra repeats.

"Dude!" Jace grins. "You're smart!"

"We have to celebrate, muña!" Luke says.

"Yes!" Aemond says quickly. "Ice cream bar! We have to celebrate the small victories!"

Rhaenyra looks at Daeron. He grins up at her. Rhaenyra laughs, ruffling his hair.

"Ice cream bar," she agrees. "Let's go home and show mama and Aegon and Helaena!"

"Yes!" Daeron grins, grabbing her hand so they can walk back to the car. "This is the best Friday ever!"

The drive home is quick. Rhaenyra asks him about the words on his spelling test and the other boys even give him a few words to spell, which he gets right, too. They're all laughing and excited by the time Rhaenyra parks in the driveway.

The four kids race up to the front door. Jace pushes it open.

"Mama! Aeg! Laena!" he yells.

"Where's the fire?!"

"No fire!" Rhaenyra calls. "Good news!"

"Good news!" Aegon yells, running downstairs with Helaena behind him.

Alicent pokes her head out of their office down the hallway, smiling at them all now she knows there's no fire.

"Good news?" Alicent asks, walking over to them.

"Wait for it," Jace tells her.

Luke and Aemond nudge Daeron forward. He hands Alicent the test, watching Aegon and Helaena move to either side to read it, too.

"He got full marks!" Jace says.

"And a gold star!" Helaena and Aegon say.

"Yeah!" Daeron grins, jumping up and down on the spot. "Rhae said we could have an ice cream bar because Aemond said we have to celebrate the little victories."

"Ice cream bar, huh?" Alicent laughs, looking at Rhaenyra.

Rhaenyra shrugs.

"It's Friday," she says. "He passed his spelling test."

Alicent laughs, nodding her head.

"I assume we'll have some sherbet monstrosities on our hands, later," she says.

"Absolutely!" Aegon says.

"Come on, then," Alicent laughs. "I know where we're putting this."

She puts Daeron's test on the fridge beside a few other papers up there. There's a family portrait Jace sketched, Luke's most recent gymnastics certificate for making it onto the Westerosi pre-Olympic team, a copy of Helaena's photography used in a bug magazine, Aemond's congratulations letter for his last belt grading, and an invitation for Aegon to take extra classes under the astronomy professor at KLU this school year.

"You can take it to show your dad tomorrow, if you want to," Rhaenyra says. "I think he'll be proud of you."

Daeron isn't sure, but he'll take it and see.

They let Daeron choose Cars for their movie with the pizza from the Italian place down the road. Rhaenyra drives with Aegon to pick it up while Alicent and Jace prepare the ice cream bar for after dinner.

They eat their pizza and build their ice creams, Daeron mixing his own sherbet in successfully, this time.

It tastes just as good as last time and he's giggling along to his favourite movie, the same movie that he now has bedding for, and posters on his bedroom walls for, right next to his trophies from go karting.

It feels like his room. This house feels like his house. These people feel like his family, and it's because they are his family.

It doesn't matter about their blood ties. He's a part of this. He knows he is.

Dad's house is dirtier than the last few visits. Daeron's television is still in his room, but he notices the microwave is gone, now. He wonders if dad sold it to pay his friend, but he doesn't ask.

He takes his test with him. He doesn't show it to dad straight away.

Dad says he has a headache, tells Daeron to throw a pizza in the oven if he gets hungry. Alicent has taught Daeron how to safely turn on an oven, purely because she says kitchen safety is never too soon to learn, and he puts the pizza in with no issue.

He gets it out with no issue. Dad doesn't have oven gloves, but Daeron uses tea towels and makes sure he puts the tray straight on the side away from him to cool down. He waits for a few minutes before pushing a chair over and taking a pair of scissors.

He's careful when he cuts the pizza. It burns his fingers, but he puts the slices on a plate and puts the tray in the sink to cool down. He pushes the chair back to the table and takes his pizza to the living room so he can watch telly with dad while he eats.

Dad is smoking, again. He's sipping from a can of something called Red Bull, and the bull has wings. Daeron recognises the logo from Formula One, because they have a team there.

He tells dad about that, and about the drivers for the team. Dad just looks at the telly, face void of emotion.

He doesn't care.

He decides to try something else.

"I had a spelling test, yesterday," Daeron says. "I got full marks and a gold star."

He leaves his pizza to go and grab his test from his room. He brings it back, holds it out to dad. Dad takes it, puts it on the coffee table without looking.

Daeron can't finish his pizza. He puts the leftovers in a tub for tomorrow like dad taught him, drags the chair over to wash the dishes because he's been practicing with the others to help around the house.

He likes helping. There's a lot of them and they make a lot of mess, and it teaches him independence and responsibility. He has to keep his bedroom clean and that's it, but he likes helping out more when he can.

They always make it fun and put music on, or tell stories, or talk about their day.

Daeron washes the plate okay. He puts it on the draining board. He washes the scissors okay. He puts them on the draining board, too.

Alicent washes her oven trays under running water. She says it's how her mum used to do it, so it's how she does it. Daeron doesn't know why, but that's how he does it, too.

He pulls the plug, turns the tap on.

Water hits the tray and practically explodes up in the air. Aegon would tell him it's because of the angle of the tray and how the water hits it, blame physics or something, but Daeron can't really think about that when he's trying to avoid the water spray soaking him from head to toe while also turning the tap off.

He gets it off, groans as he shakes his head and feels the water fly off.

There's water all over the side. It's even up the walls and some of it is dripping off the ceiling. Daeron winces as he lifts his gaze upwards and feels water drop on his face.

"What the fuck have you done?"

Daeron doesn't even get the chance to turn around before a hand grabs him by the arm and drags him off the chair. His butt hits the floor in a way that makes him yelp out in pain before dad starts dragging him towards his room.

"It was an accident! I'm sorry!"

Dad kicks his door open, almost throwing him on the bed. Daeron's back hits the mattress as something collides with his jaw.

He nearly throws up with how much it burns. He can only see white and he's not sure if he's even making noise or breathing because fire is torching him from the inside out.

"I'm sorry."

Dad's hands are kinder, now.

They shift Daeron up and he's moved to sit on dad's lap. He blinks down at dad's jeans, tears streaming down his cheeks as his jaw practically throbs in his head and he gasps for air.

"I'm sorry," dad repeats. "I shouldn't have done that. I'm so sorry, Daeron. I just got so angry, and it exploded. I'm sorry. I'm proud of you for trying to help. I'm proud of you for doing so well in school. I'm sorry."

Daeron hiccups.

"Why are you only proud of me when you're saying sorry for making me upset?"

Dad sighs, rubs Daeron's back.

"I'm not very good at being your dad, am I?"

Daeron shakes his head.

"Are you getting better?"

"I'm trying."

"Is it working?"

Dad sighs.

"How about this?" dad says. "Why don't we talk to the shop and buy some ice cream? We can celebrate your test and watch a film. You can pick the flavour, and the film."

"Really?" Daeron asks.

Dad nods, gives him a tired smile when Daeron looks up at him.

"You have to promise me something," dad says.

"Yeah?" Daeron asks.

"This argument? It'll be our secret. We don't tell anyone. I made a mistake, and I won't do it again. I promise I won't do it again, if you promise not to tell anyone."

"What if they ask me what happened? I don't want to lie."

"You're not lying," dad says. "You're protecting our family, like a man. That's what a good man does. Do you promise? I promise if you do."

Daeron nods slowly.

Dad holds out his pinkie. Daeron stares at it for a moment.

"Ice cream is waiting," dad says.

Daeron links their pinkies together. Dad laughs, setting Daeron on his feet.

"Let's go get some ice cream, then, hey?"

"Okay."

Dad lets Daeron pick chocolate ice cream, even though dad doesn't like it. He even lets him buy some strawberry sauce, smarties, strawberry laces and a little bag of sherbet called a Dib Dab.

Dad doesn't have any ice cream himself, but he picks Cars for Daeron to watch when Daeron sees it on one of the channels and Daeron tucks into his ice cream sherbet monstrosity.

Dad falls asleep within half an hour. Daeron doesn't realise until the end of the movie, but Cars 2 is playing next and he loves that movie, too. Dad won't even notice he's stayed awake because dad sleeps like a rock.

Daeron wants another bowl of ice cream, though. He manages to scoop himself more ice cream with a spoon the way Rhaenyra does, by running the spoon under warm water first to make it easier for himself. He gets four big scoops, pours in strawberry sauce, smarties, strawberry laces and-

He's ran out of sherbet.

He used it all on the last one.

Daeron wonders if dad has any of his sherbet here. Dad likes it, says it gives him a rush like you get a sugar rush. That's what sherbet does. Dad always has sherbet.

He finds a bag of white sherbet in the cupboard. He gets the chair to climb up and grab it, opens the little bag and dumps it all on his ice cream. He mixes it in like Aegon does, making sure he does it enough so it's just right.

He settles back on the couch for Cars 2 with his ice cream, digging in with a content smile as dad snores away in his armchair.

Daeron can't feel the difference between his skin and his clothes because he's that sweaty when he wakes up on the couch. His head pounds away and he's so confused because a black and white movie is playing on the screen and he doesn't even remember falling asleep.

He just feels horrible.

"Dad?"

His voice is weak, and shaky, and his arm is shaking beneath him when he tries to sit up.

"Dad?"

Daeron throws up on the floor. He can't help it. He hunches over, tears streaming down his cheeks as something aches so badly inside of him. He feels horrible and all he wants to do is cry and crawl out of his skin so it stops.

"Daeron?"

"I feel sick," Daeron sobs, hiccuping as he gags again. "I want to go home."

Dad just blinks at him for a moment, then nods his head quickly.

"Yeah, okay," he says. "Let's take you home."

He grabs Daeron's bag from his room, putting his test in there, and he tucks Tessa under Daeron's arm before carrying him outside to his car. He straps Daeron into the backseat, returning with a bucket in case he needs to throw up again.

"Do you think it was the pizza?" dad asks. "How much ice cream did you eat?"

"Too much," Daeron whimpers, clutching his stomach as his heart seems to thunder in his chest. "Everything hurts. I feel sick."

"I know," dad says, reaching his hand back to squeeze Daeron's knee. "I know. Rhaenyra and Alicent will make you feel better."

Daeron doesn't know why dad isn't fighting him on this, to be honest. He's just grateful that the car is moving towards his home, even if the movement makes him throw up again.

Dad parks the car in the driveway, runs to knock on the door before coming back to the car for Daeron. He picks him up, moving the gradually filling bucket and his bag with him as he carries him up to the doorstep.

"What- Daeron?" Alicent says, rubbing her face as she blinks at them.

"He's sick and he wanted to come home and- He's never been sick with me. I don't know how to do this. He ate too much ice cream. We were just watching movies and eating ice cream to celebrate his spelling test," dad says.

"I threw up," Daeron cries, holding his arms out for Alicent. "Everything hurts."

"Oh, angel face," Alicent whispers, scooping Daeron onto her hip. "Oh, you're burning up. This isn't good. Come on. Let's try and bring this fever down, hey?"

"He's gonna be okay?" dad asks.

"We've got him," Rhaenyra says, appearing over Alicent's shoulder.

Alicent carries Daeron straight upstairs and into her bathroom. She keeps hold of him as she turns the water on, dropping the plug in before sitting on the toilet and gently tugging Daeron away from her.

She stares at him for a moment, eyebrows furrowing.

"Daeron?"

Daeron pouts at her, trying to focus his eyes on her as her face seems to move. She isn't moving, though. Daeron feels like he's moving. He feels like he's halfway to another planet but keeps getting yanked back down to earth by something that makes his chest burn as he tries to suck another breath into burning lungs.

"Ali," Daeron sobs, dropping his head against her shoulder. "I don't wanna die."

"Nobody is dying," Alicent whispers, turning the tap back off as she stands up. "Nobody is dying. You're okay. We're gonna fix this, okay? Rhaenyra? Rhaenyra!"

"Mama? What's going on?"

"Hi, little love," Alicent says. "I need you to be really grown up for me right now, okay? Daeron is sick. You cannot let him fall asleep, okay? Promise me?"

"I promise."

Aegon takes Daeron, sitting on Alicent's bed and rubbing his back. Alicent takes her phone and puts it to her ear, calling Rhaenyra's name as she leaves the room quickly.

"I need an ambulance," Alicent's voice comes faintly from the hallway. "Rhaenyra! Call Rhaenys and your mum! Get them over here!"

"You don't feel well?" Aegon asks, glancing over into the hallway before looking back at Daeron.

"Threw up," Daeron whispers, hiccuping as Aegon wipes the tears from his cheeks.

"You're really warm. Should we take this off?"

Daeron thinks he lifts his arms as Aegon tugs his t-shirt over his head, but everything feels like jelly and he's aching all over.

It doesn't do much to cool him down. It feels like he's boiling on the inside and Aegon is saying something to him because Daeron can see his mouth moving, but his words won't register. He hears it, but it doesn't make sense.

When did he learn another language? Does Daeron just not know English anymore?

Everything is so heavy. Aegon guides him to lean against his chest and he's so warm that it makes Daeron's skin crawl, but he's too sleepy to say anything.

Daeron's eyes flutter shut, and everything fades into absolutely nothing.

Daeron is stranded.

Literally stranded.

The six year old is stood in the middle of the woods and he has no idea where he is, except he knows he's not at home.

The trees are different. These aren't the woods at the back of his house.

Still, he's not one to be scared. He picks a direction and sets off walking in the hopes he'll break out of the trees. He doesn't really feel like he's walking, though. It's more like he's floating because nothing really feels real. It feels a lot like a dream he can't wake up from.

So, he keeps walking. He keeps walking through the trees for what feels like days. They get thicker before they get thinner. He loses sight of the sun, then spots it in a completely different place to before.

He's wandering for hours until he's exhausted.

He sits himself down at the base of a tree, picks up a stick and tries to draw in the dirt. He's not as good as Jace.

His dragons look more like dogs, or maybe dogs with wings. They're not great, but they're good enough.

He draws enough for everyone, minus one because Alicent doesn't have a dragon. He's not being mean. It's just that they all know the only way Alicent would ever get on a dragon would be if it was Rhaenyra's dragon.

Daeron pokes his tongue between his teeth as he writes the names of their dragons. There's Tessarion, then Arrax, Vhagar, Vermax, Dreamfyre, Sunfyre, and Syrax. He writes the names of his siblings beneath the names of their dragons, then draws a heart under Syrax and writes mums in there because he's not actually sure how to spell Rhaenyra, but they are his mums so they deserve a spot.

They're the closest thing he's ever had to a mum. They love him in a better way than dad does. They're his mums.

He wants his mums. He wants his brothers and his big sister. He wants to go home to his family.

He's crying again. He's cried a lot in the past few hours, especially when he was sick, but he doesn't feel like he's going to die, anymore.

He just wants to go home. He wants to go to his family.

Something catches Daeron's attention.

He's not sure what it is. Nobody is here. He can't see anything and nothing is making noise. It's like something is just calling to his soul, like how Jace's music spoke to his soul.

Daeron lets his feet guide him through the trees.

He comes out into a field. The sun is setting in explosive patches of red and pink and yellow and orange and it's so beautiful to see the clouds look almost blue against them. It's like a little rainbow collage. It's incredible.

Something cuts through one of the clouds. Daeron squints up at it, wipes the tears to see better.

It's a dragon.

It's a humongous dragon.

The cloud explodes as a dark shadow flies over the field. Daeron stares at the dusty green scales above him, listens to the dragon call echoing through the air.

More dragons come.

Arrax, then Vermax, then Dreamfyre, and Sunfyre twisting through the air together. Vhagar moves higher up, unblocking the sun so Daeron can see the light glinting off golden scales as another dragon flies over.

Syrax is here, too.

That means Daeron is the only one missing.

"Tessa!" Daeron yells. "Tessa! It's me! It's Daeron! Where are you, girl? I'm right here!"

There's a different call. This one sounds almost like lightning, and he swears he sees lightning when a beautiful blue dragon swoops over the trees behind him and circles above him in the air.

Daeron stands fearlessly. He watches Tessarion land on the grass, runs over to the hulking dragon like he saw her just yesterday.

"Tessa."

Tessarion watches him. Daeron lifts his hand, pressing it against burning hot scales. He laughs when Tessa nuzzles into him, nudging her nose against his chest. She's trying to push him towards her back and he lets her.

He climbs up onto her back, holding onto the dragon scales. There's no saddle. He knows the old Targaryens used them, but Daeron doesn't need one. Tessa has him. He knows his family of dragons won't let anything happen to him.

She's so warm beneath him. His body moves as she gets up to her feet properly. Her wings stretch out, so big and blue like the ocean. He holds his breath as she takes off, wind whipping through his hair as she climbs through the air towards the flight of dragons above them.

He feels just as free as he does in the go karts. He feels limitless and unbound and free and happy. It's even better than the go karts, though, because the others are here and they're all on their dragons, and they are dragons.

They are the Targaryens.

At last, they reach the others. Daeron laughs when he sees them.

Alicent is clinging to Rhaenyra, face hidden in silver hair, and Rhaenyra is laughing as she rubs Alicent's back. Aegon and Helaena are having some silent conversation with each other as their dragons chase each other around.

Jace and Luke are laughing as their dragons circle around Tessa, the boys waving at him with bright grins. Aemond peers over the side of Vhagar, hair whipping around his face as he waves down at Daeron.

"Ready for your first flight, valonqar?" Aemond calls.

"Ready, lēkia!"

"Let's go!" Aegon yells, darting past them on Sunfyre. "I'm gonna beat all of you!"

"No, I am!"

"I am!"

"C'mon, Tessa," Daeron laughs, patting his dragon. "Let's go catch them."

Tessa takes off after them. She catches up in no time. There's no winner, at least not in Daeron's mind. He's just happy to be with them. He's just happy to be with his dragons.

Daeron is entirely convinced he's sleeping on a cloud.

There's a list of reasons why he thinks this. Stick with him, alright?

For one, he's so warm. Clouds are warm because they're under the sun, or level with the sun. For two, he's so comfortable, and clouds would be the most comfortable ever to sleep on, like a bed of marshmallows, or something. For three, he feels so safe, and it's the same feeling he had when he was in the sky on his dragon.

Well, actually, there's a slight correction.

He's entirely convinced that he was sleeping on a cloud. Now, all he can hear is an annoying beeping noise, and the more he thinks about it, he can feel something in his hand, something else pinching his finger, and he's not at home because this place smells like bleach and something too clean to be found in their house.

He's not judging how clean they are. Alicent and Luke are clean freaks and admit that themselves. It's just a whole other level of clean.

The last Daeron remembers, he was in the sky, or in the bathroom at home. Neither of those places are this place.

He has no idea where he is.

He manages to blink his eyes open, squinting through the dim light of the room. He's being held by someone, isn't quite sure who until he turns his head and sees he's on Alicent's lap. Actually, he's more lying down on top of her, and they're in a hospital room, and she's asleep.

It's late. She looks exhausted. Her hair is thrown up in a ponytail and her eyes look swollen, even while she sleeps. There's a blanket half draped over them and she's holding him safely against her chest so he can't roll off anywhere. Tessa is even tucked under her arm so she's safe on the bed with them.

It surprises him to see the other people in the room.

Rhaenys and Aegon are asleep on the sofa against the wall of the small room. Rhaenys is wearing her fancy work clothes and Aegon is in pyjamas, head in her lap with a blanket over him. Daeron can see he's holding Sunfyre in his arms.

He figures Rhaenyra is at home with the others. He isn't sure why Aegon is here, but he's happy that he is. Aegon held him before he fell asleep in Alicent's room. He loves Daeron.

He's safe here. He has no idea what happened to him except the fact he was sick the last time he was awake, so, he figures they brought him here to make him better.

He feels better.

Still slightly icky, and he definitely wants a shower and to brush his teeth, but the exhaustion is the most overwhelming and he's content to fall back to sleep in Alicent's arms.

He wakes up the next time to quiet talking.

He doesn't move, for a while. He's content to just lie there and keep his eyes closed while his body properly wakes up.

He feels like he's lying on someone different. It's Rhaenyra. He recognises her perfume now he's more awake than he was with Alicent. She's running a hand through his hair and he can hear her heart beating steadily in his ear.

He's so happy to be with them again.

"How was drop off?"

That's Aemma. She's here. It must've been a bad sick bug if Rhaenys was here last night with Aegon, and Aemma is here, now.

"Rougher than it's been in a long time," Alicent answers.

She sounds sick, or like she's been crying a lot. Daeron wonders if she's okay, if a hug will make her feel better.

"Helaena's at home," Rhaenyra says. "She shut down. She's okay, just shaken up. I took Aegon home so she's not on her own, and dad's with them, too. She saw most of it after Aegon."

"We've called Talya for all of them," Alicent says. "Jace keeps asking if Daeron is going to be at the hospital for a long time like he was, if he's going to be there when they come home. Luke keeps asking why he's sick. Aemond is just quieter than normal, more withdrawn, but I know he's terrified. He just doesn't want to talk about it, yet."

"How's Aegon?" Aemma asks.

Alicent exhales. She must make a face, or something, because Aemma hums.

"He'll be okay," Aemma says. "They all will. Things are going to be different, now. This will never happen again."

"We can't protect them from things like this," Rhaenyra says quietly.

"You can't," Aemma agrees. "But you are their safe space when things like this happens. I'm your safe space when things like this happen. You're allowed to be hurt right now. You have to put on a brave face for your kids, but not for me. You hear me?"

"I hear you."

"Alicent?"

"I hear you."

"Good," Aemma says.

Rhaenyra tightens her grip on Daeron. Daeron squeezes her back.

"It's okay," he whispers. "I'm okay. You don't have to be sad. You made me better."

Rhaenyra's entire body freezes.

"Daeron?"

"I'm okay," Daeron repeats.

"Daeron!"

Alicent is holding him, too, now. He's sandwiched between his mums and he's so happy to be here, to be awake and safe with them. He grabs onto Alicent with one hand to make sure she won't leave.

She's crying. It doesn't feel like happy crying, maybe relieved crying. Rhaenyra is crying, too. Maybe Daeron is, as well, but he's not sure.

He's just so happy to be back with his family.

"Oh, angel face," Alicent whispers. "Are you okay? How do you feel? I'm so happy you're awake."

"I'm okay," Daeron says. "I can't see you."

Alicent lets go. Rhaenyra turns Daeron on her lap so he's facing Alicent and Aemma, who gives him a beaming smile and waves her hand.

"Hi, sweetheart," she says.

"Hi!" Daeron grins. "I'm awake!"

"I know!" Aemma laughs, coming over to kiss his forehead. "I'm going to get a doctor, then call Rhaenys."

Daeron nods, watches her leave the room. He looks at Rhaenyra and Alicent, smiles at them. They smile back at him, so genuinely happy.

"How are you feeling?" Rhaenyra asks.

"I'm okay, I promise," Daeron says. "I don't feel like I'm gonna die anymore. Was I dying?"

Rhaenyra and Alicent share a look. Daeron knows that means this is bad.

"What happened to me?" Daeron asks.

"You ate something you shouldn't," Alicent says. "And it made you very very sick. You were throwing up and you had something called a seizure."

"What's a seizure?" Daeron asks.

"It's a burst of electrical activity in your brain," Rhaenyra says. "Remember how Luke explained that our brain uses electricity to tell our body what to do? A seizure is too much electricity that the brain doesn't understand what's going on and shuts down."

"I just fell asleep," Daeron says. "It didn't hurt."

"Well, that's very good," Alicent says, rubbing his back as she sits on the bed with them. "You rode in an ambulance and the doctors gave you a lot of medicine to make you feel better. They're gonna have to do some tests now you're awake, but it's just to make sure you're feeling all better on the inside, too."

"What did I eat?" Daeron asks.

"Well, that's what we're not quite sure about, angel face," Alicent says.

She tells him that Daeron ate something called cocaine and it looks a little bit like flour. Daeron does not know what cocaine is. He does not feel any better after knowing, especially when he starts connecting the dots.

Dad's sherbet is a drug that nearly killed him and made his brain break for a minute, and it's the same thing that was making dad sick. Dad chose to do this to himself, and Daeron made a mistake by putting it on his ice cream.

He doesn't say anything, though. The doctors come in to do tests. They take some blood and check his heart, then whisk him off to go for something called a CT scan. He doesn't find the machine scary, even when the nurse tells him it's okay to be scared.

He's just happy to be back in his hospital room with Rhaenyra and Alicent after the tests. He's allowed to eat, now, too, and it's none of the hospital food.

Rhaenys is here and she's brought a treat.

"Pizza!" Daeron says.

"From the Italian place," Rhaenys chuckles, setting the box down in front of Daeron. "Dig in, little man. You must be starving."

He is starving. He nearly finishes a whole half a pizza to himself before his belly feels a bit like it might explode. He's in no rush to ever experience throwing up again, so, he pushes the box away.

"Eat," Rhaenys tells his mums, pushing the box at them. "You need it more than I do."

"You do," Daeron agrees. "You look really tired. It'll give you energy and make you feel strong like I do!"

"You're right, byka ōños pryjagon," Rhaenyra chuckles.

"When can I go home?" Daeron asks.

"When the doctors tell us," Alicent says. "Probably tomorrow. We have a few more people to talk to, first."

"Who?" Daeron asks.

"Me," Rhaenys says. "And the police."

"The police?" Daeron asks. "I didn't mean to eat it! I'm not gonna get arrested, am I? I know drugs are illegal! I didn't know it was one!"

"No, Daeron," Rhaenyra says quickly. "You're not going to be arrested. It was an accident. You didn't do anything wrong, I promise. They just need to ask you a few questions about how it happened because it's very scary for them that you were so sick."

He's more than happy to explain now he knows he's not in trouble. Two policemen come in after a few minutes and sit down to listen while Rhaenys asks him questions about how the sleepover with dad went before he got sick.

He tells them about making his own dinner, about trying to wash the dishes and making the water go everywhere by accident. He tells them that his dad got really angry at that and dragged him to his room.

He stops, then. He can't break his promise to dad.

"Is that when you got the bruise on your face?" Rhaenys asks.

"I have a bruise?"

Alicent traces her fingers lightly over his jaw.

"You can tell us," Rhaenyra says softly. "Your dad can't get mad at you. You're safe with us."

"He hit me. I think. I'm not sure. He pushed me on my bed and then everything hurt and it hurt so bad I couldn't see for a minute," Daeron says. "He made me promise not to tell if he promised not to do it again."

Rhaenys nods. Rhaenyra and Alicent already seemed to have figured it out because they don't look surprised. They're not exactly happy about it, of course, but it's not a new realisation. They know him better than he thinks, or maybe this is just quite familiar for them with other kids, by now.

"Has he ever done that before?" one of the police ask.

"No," Daeron says truthfully. "That's why it was so scary. He's never hit me, even when I kicked my door in after he cut my hair. I don't know why he did, this time. I don't know what I did to make him do it. I wasn't bad, this time."

"You didn't do anything wrong," Rhaenyra says.

"Nobody should ever hit a child for any reason," Alicent says. "He should not have hurt you. You did nothing wrong."

Daeron feels like he did do something wrong, 'cause the police are scribbling notes into their notebooks, but he trusts Alicent and Rhaenyra more.

"You kicked your door in?" Rhaenys asks.

He explains that. He explains how dad locked him in his room after he cried over his hair being cut, how he kicked his way through while dad smoked and ignored him screaming, how dad chased him until Daeron got onto the roof and dad couldn't get him down and just gave up until it was time to bring him home.

He then tells them about going to the shop alone and buying the stuff to make their ice creams. He tells them he watched Cars and dad fell asleep, so he made more ice cream for Cars 2. He tells them he ran out of sherbet and remembered his dad talking about sherbet, so, he figured he could use that when he found it.

He fell asleep and woke up feeling sick, he threw up, and then he was here.

"What's happening to my dad?" Daeron asks.

Rhaenys sighs, looks at the police officers. They nod at her.

"Your dad is going to go to jail for a while," Rhaenys says. "It's Monday. You were out all day yesterday. Your dad turned himself in yesterday morning for having drugs in the house. He's pleading guilty, so, there won't be a trial. You won't have to see him again unless you want to."

Daeron doesn't want to, not really. He knows this was an accident, but his dad hurt him. He hurt him. He lied about getting better and Daeron knows that the guilt over lying ate him up inside, but he doesn't know if it ate his dad up inside, too.

She continues to explain that Daeron's father's parental rights are being terminated. That means no more reunification. He won't ever go back to his dad again because his dad's negligence led to this happening, because his dad turned himself in and asked for Daeron to be put with the people who would love him right.

Dad asked for him to stay with Rhaenyra and Alicent. Dad turned himself in. Dad knew what he did was wrong, but how did he know? Did he know Daeron accidentally got into his sherbet or did he turn himself in over the punch?

"What did dad say when he turned himself in? Did he know why I was sick?"

"He had an idea," Rhaenys says. "He brought the ice cream bowl with him for the police. It tested positive."

"I thought he had to take tests," Daeron says. "Tests to prove he wasn't sick anymore. How did he pass them if he is sick?"

"We'll be looking into that," Rhaenys says. "I promise. I don't know how he passed them I wasn't;t handling his side of things."

"What are the tests?" Daeron asks.

"Well, urine tests-"

"Pee?"

Rhaenys nods.

Daeron winces.

"Oh, no," he whispers. "Dad might've cheated."

"What makes you say that?" Rhaenys asks softly.

"He told me I needed to take a test and pee in a cup," Daeron says.

"When?" Rhaenyra asks.

"The visit after he cut my hair off. He said that the doctor told him I needed it, and that you didn't know yet, but that I was gonna pass 'cause I wasn't sick, so, we shouldn't worry you two and tell you, 'cause you two would never let me get sick, and you didn't, 'cause he said I passed the test, but he made me pee in a cup, and he gave me loads of sweets afterwards."

"Well," Rhaenys says quietly. "There's at least part of one question answered for us."

Alicent shakes her head, running her hands through her hair. She looks at Daeron, giving him a soft smile and squeezing his hand.

"Thank you for telling us," she says.

"I'm sorry I didn't tell you before," Daeron says. "I didn't know it was wrong. I thought... I thought, if dad said it was okay, then... He was getting better. That's why I was going back. If he was getting better, if I was still going, then it had to be okay, right? 'Cause nobody would send me somewhere that's gonna keep hurting me?"

"You're not going back," Rhaenyra says. "Nobody is sending you anywhere that is going to hurt you. You didn't do anything wrong, Daeron. I promise, you did everything right. You didn't know what was happening, and that's okay."

"I'm sorry," Daeron repeats.

"You have nothing to ever be sorry for," Alicent says. "Nothing, angel face. None of this is your fault."

Daeron nods slowly.

"What happens to me now?" Daeron asks.

"That's up to you," Rhaenys says. "Where do you want to live?"

"With my mums," Daeron says. "With my family. I want to stay with them forever."

Rhaenyra and Alicent share a teary smile. Daeron knows these tears are happy tears.

"Well, that's very good," Rhaenys chuckles. "Because that's where we think you should stay, too. For now, we'll focus on getting you back to normal. You'll be wanting to get back in your go-kart, soon enough."

"I can still race?" Daeron asks.

"Soon," Alicent says softly. "If the doctors say."

The police go. The doctors come back.

Other than them wanting to observe him again tonight and giving him some medication to take at home for a few weeks, Daeron has a clean bill of health. His system is responding well to the medication cleaning his body and he feels even better when they tell him he can take a shower.

"Can the others visit?" Daeron asks.

"I think that might be really nice," Alicent says. "Are you feeling up for it? It could get quite loud and the doctors said you'll probably get tired a lot faster for a few weeks."

"Yeah," Daeron says. "I miss them. I want to see them. You said they were scared. You said Aegon and Helaena are at home and they're scared."

"Aegon saw your seizure," Rhaenyra says quietly. "And Helaena was still awake when you came home. She heard Aegon shouting for us and she went to help him."

"What about the boys?" Daeron asks.

"They know you're in the hospital," Alicent says. "But they didn't see anything."

"I want to see them," Daeron says. "I want them to see I'm okay. It'll help make them feel better. They don't have to be scared, anymore."

"I think that sounds good," Rhaenyra says.

They decide, more like Aemma and Rhaenys insist, that Rhaenyra and Alicent both go home and take showers while Daeron takes his shower. Other than quick trips home to swap who was staying with Daeron and who was staying with the others, they've not done anything for themselves in terms of more than a quick two minute shower and changing their clothes.

"Pick up isn't for another hour and a half," Aemma says. "Go home, get showers, explain things to Aegon and Helaena, then one of you bring them here and the other pick up the boys. If we stagger the arrivals, we get the scary emotions out of the way first with the big twins, and then the little ones can go crazy."

"I'd listen to her," Rhaenys says. "We've got Daeron."

"They've got me," Daeron agrees, grinning at Rhaenyra and Alicent. "It's only a little while."

"It is," Aemma agrees, moving to sit in the chair beside Daeron's bed. "I even picked something out in the gift shop to keep him entertained while you're gone."

She holds out a bag. Daeron opens it, face splitting into a grin as he pulls the box out.

"Lego racing cars!" he says.

"We can build them before the others get here," Aemma says. "Once you've showered."

"This is the best day ever!" Daeron says.

Rhaenys and Aemma laugh. Rhaenyra and Alicent grin, shaking their heads at him.

"Nothing gets you down, does it, lightning?" Rhaenys asks.

"Nope!" Daeron says. "I love Lego! I love racing cars!"

Rhaenyra and Alicent must kiss and hug him nearly a million times before Aemma tells them they need to leave. They do, even though they're pouting, and Daeron is unhooked from the machines.

Aemma takes him to the bathroom in the room, turning the shower on for him while he brushes his teeth over and over again until all he can taste is mint.

"Can you do it yourself?" Aemma asks.

"Yeah," Daeron says. "Can you wait outside for me, please? Just in case?"

"Just in case," Aemma agrees.

She sets out some clean clothes for him. They're his favourite pyjamas, ones with Lightning McQueen on them, and his favourite towel from home is here, too, and his body wash.

She waits outside while Daeron showers. He doesn't wash his hair because he doesn't care too much about it right now, but he feels so much better after he scrubs his body a few times. He dries himself off and tugs on his favourite pyjamas, joins Aemma again in the hospital room and lets the doctors hook him back up to the heart monitor to keep an eye on him.

Daeron gets to dig into his lego set, now.

"Can you drink some water while we build?" Aemma asks, sitting a Lightning McQueen water bottle on the little tray over his bed.

"In that bottle? Definitely!" Daeron says.

He drinks his water every time he turns a page, like a little system. Aemma builds her car and he builds his, the two of them almost racing to see who can finish it first. It's fun, though, and she keeps telling him jokes to make him laugh and distract him so she can get a step ahead of him.

"You can't distract me!" Daeron giggles. "That's cheating!"

"It's not my fault I'm funny!" Aemma grins.

"You're very funny," Daeron agrees. "Still cheating."

"Fair enough," Aemma chuckles.

"Are my mums okay?" Daeron asks her. "I heard you talking to them. They're sad, aren't they?"

"They were just really worried about you," Aemma says, giving him a smile. "Medical episodes can be scary. And you were asleep for a day, which is a really long time when you're sick. They're happy now you're awake. They're just sad that you were sick. It's not your fault, Daeron. You do know that, right?"

"I know," Daeron says. "It was an accident. It's not their fault, either. They saved me. So did the doctors. They make me feel better."

Aemma smiles.

"I'm really happy you're okay," Aemma says softly. "And I'm really happy that you get to stay in our family, Daeron. You're a very sweet boy."

Daeron grins at her, taking her hand and squeezing it.

"Thank you," he says. "I was thinking about it at the summer barbecue, you know? All of this is because of you."

Aemma blinks at him.

"What is?"

"Our family," he says. "It started because you and grandpa fell in love, and because uncle Corlys and aunt Rhaenys fell in love. They had kids, and you had kids, and your families joined together. Now there's so many dragons and it's all because of you and grandpa falling love. You started this. You made our family possible. You made it real."

Aemma's eyes are teary and her face is soft. She wraps him into a hug, so almost identical to Rhaenyra's hugs, and Daeron hugs her back tightly.

"Thank you for falling in love," Daeron whispers. "Thank you for giving me my mums."

"Thank you for loving them just as much as I do," Aemma whispers. "Thank you for being part of our family."

They just sit there while they wait for the others. Daeron doesn't want to let go of her and Aemma doesn't let go, either. She whispers stories about his mums when they were little and the chaos they used to get up to with Daemon, Laena and Laenor.

She tells him about the five of them stealing Viserys' car and crashing it into a mailbox when Daemon was fifteen and the rest of them were twelve or thirteen. She tells him about the first few summer family barbecues and how they used to play on the slip and slide and have water fights and play in the treehouses like the kids do, now.

She tells him about the five of them sneaking off to have midnight snacks and 'council' meetings, about how the adults all pretended they couldn't hear the sweet childish giggles echoing upstairs. She tells him about the five of them sneaking out at night to climb trees, about the time they played Monopoly at family game night and Daemon flipped the board, which is why they've never played Monopoly since.

She tells him about the time his mums ran away to Dragonstone at fifteen years old and were there for almost an entire week before Daemon could bring them home because Aemma was too sick to travel and Viserys couldn't leave her. She tells him about going back to Dragonstone for their wedding a few years later, about how small they were on their first days of school compared to then, about how much they'd grown up and how lucky she was to watch them grow and fall in love.

"Being a parent is the best gift I ever received," Aemma whispers. "Until I got to become a grandmother."

Daeron beams up at her.

She has a lot of grandkids, five soon to be six, except he knows it's more than that because Aemma considers Baela and Rhaena and Daena as her grandkids because she and Viserys basically raised Daemon as their own with Rhaenyra and Baelon.

It's all because of her and Viserys, Corlys and Rhaenys that this is even possible. It's insane. Families are insane, but Daeron loves his.

He's so lucky to have his family. He's so lucky to have mums and siblings and cousins and aunts and uncles and grandparents. He's so lucky to have a home where there's so much love and support and happiness and safety available. He's so lucky to even be alive right now and he knows that he's never ever going to take his family or life for granted ever.

He can't. He's the luckiest boy in the world to have this chance at a family.

"They're almost here," Aemma murmurs, rubbing his back. "Ready to see your brother and sister?"

"It's been too long," Daeron says truthfully.

He hates being apart from them. He misses them whenever they're not together, except when they're in school or at their clubs because he knows they're all coming home together later. He hates when he's away from them because it reminds him that, at one point, this wasn't a forever thing.

It is, now. Daeron is happy about it, even if he still feels sad about the fact his dad wasn't getting better, but he's more angry with his dad than he's sad, and he's more happy than he's angry. He'll talk about it with Talya when he sees her and she'll help him figure it out in his head. She'll help things make sense for him.

"Daeron?"

Daeron grins at the doorway.

Aegon and Helaena are stood there with Rhaenys and Alicent.

They do not look good. Aegon looks like he hasn't slept in days and his hair is flat. Daeron's never seen Aegon neglect his hair routine for anything. Helaena's braids are messy, too, and she hates messy braids after a few hours because they hang weird near her ears and the flyaway hairs irritate her.

Part of him feels bad. He knows it's not his fault, but he's the one that they care about and they were scared for him. He's not scared often, but if they're even a tiny bit as scared as he was when he felt like he was going to die, then he knows they're terrified right now.

"I'm okay," Daeron says. "I promise."

Alicent gently nudges them forward, slipping into the room around them. She squeezes Aegon's hand.

"He is okay," she says. "The doctors gave him the all clear. He can come home tomorrow and he'll be back to himself in no time."

"You can hug me," Daeron says, holding his arms out. "Please? I missed you."

Aegon walks across the room, first. He wraps his arms around Daeron, Daeron wrapping his arms around his big brother. Aegon rests his head atop of Daeron's, body shaking for a moment. Daeron rubs his back, hopes it makes him feel better.

"You scared the shit out of me," Aegon murmurs.

"I'm sorry."

"It's not your fault. I'm just so glad you're okay."

"I am. I promise, I'm okay."

Aegon doesn't let go of him for a good few minutes. Daeron doesn't complain. He knows Aegon needs this, and he can see Helaena slide her headphones over her ears so he knows she needs a minute to get used to being in a hospital, right now. He just hugs Aegon back.

He does pull back after a moment, wiping his eyes and sinking down into the seat at the side of Daeron's bed.

"I'm okay," Daeron repeats, squeezing Aegon's hand as he looked at Helaena. "I promise. I'm better now you're here."

Helaena walks over to the bed, sitting beside Daeron's legs. She takes his other hand in hers, eyes moving over the monitors before moving back to him.

"You're okay," she says.

"I'm okay," Daeron says. "I'm a dragon."

He bears his teeth, lifts his hands out of theirs to make claws as he growls. Aegon laughs, and Helaena smiles, and Daeron beams at them.

"I saw a dragon," Daeron says. "I saw all of our dragons. I dreamed them. We were flying all together. It was a dance, like Jace's song, and it was... We were flying our dragons. It was magic."

Helaena's smile widens.

"You saw it, too?" she asks.

"You dreamed it?" Daeron asks.

"I told you I did," Helaena says. "I told you back when we were waiting for you to go. You're a dragon."

Daeron grins, stomach warm as he realises what this means.

Helaena always knew he'd be sticking around. She knew he was one of them. She'd been waiting for him. They all had.

"Why don't I get exciting dreams?" Aegon whines. "Mama, that's not fair!"

"I can't control your dreams, little love," Alicent says. "Or theirs."

"But I love dragons!" Aegon whines. "That's so not fair!"

Helaena and Daeron laugh. Aegon rolls his eyes.

"Whatever," he says. "What about these cars, then? You made them?"

"Yeah!" Daeron says.

He tells them about his cars. Helaena takes one, driving it up Daeron's legs as Daeron shows Aegon the stickers on the other one.

"The doctors said I can go racing again, soon," Daeron says. "I can't wait. It'll be like flying on Tessa again!"

"I'm so jealous," Aegon mutters.

"Don't be," Daeron says. "One day, when you're flying into space on your space ship, that'll be like flying on Sunfyre. Maybe you can name the rocket ship after him! Sunfyre the Spacebound dragon!"

"That does sound really cool," Aegon admits. "You think I'll go to space one day?"

"I know you will," Daeron says. "It's all you want to do. You're really smart, Aeg. If anyone can do it, it'll be you. And we'll all be there the whole time, cheering you on. That's what family does, right? They show up, and cheer you on, and they love you and your dreams. That's what we do."

Aegon grins at him.

"You're good at being a brother, y'know?" Aegon says. "You caught on fast. Like lightning."

"It's my nickname for a reason," Daeron says.

Aegon laughs, nodding his head.

"You're right. Thanks, lightning," he says.

"Daeron!"

Jace, Aemond and Luke are here, now, with Rhaenyra, and Daeron grins as they all rush over to the bed and scramble on to sit around them. Helaena quickly slides off to take the seat Aegon vacates for her so she isn't too crowded, and Aegon takes her seat with a practiced rhythm that makes Daeron laugh.

They all have their little routines and quirks. Daeron loves how the location doesn't change the fact that they're all so in sync with each other. It's a bond that transcends words to explain it. It's just how their family works, and every family is uniquely different.

Daeron's family is the best, though.

He can't stop smiling as the three younger boys talk over each other and shove Uno cards at Helaena to shuffle, citing a tradition of Uno being played if they were ever in the hospital after Helaena and Aegon played it with Jace when he was here.

They don't ask questions. Rhaenyra probably explained everything to them, but he's grateful that none of them bring it up.

He doesn't know how he feels about talking, yet. For now, he just enjoys teaming up with Helaena to kick their brothers' asses at Uno.

Healing isn't going to be easy.

Healing also isn't linear.

It's like grief in that way, Luke and Jace tell him, and Alicent backs them up because all three of them have lost either one or both parents and grieve for them every day, even with their complicated relationships.

Daeron won't be back to one hundred percent overnight, but he doesn't think he was ever at one hundred percent before.

Taking a step back from his dad, the recent events, it helped Daeron reflect. He hasn't had a very fun childhood until he moved in with his family.

Healing is easier with them. It's better with them. He gets to heal himself and they get to heal together. It helps that there's no trial over what happened to him, that the judge on his case who ordered the reunification is pushing the adoption forward to happen before Christmas so Daeron can be settled in the New Year, that the past is truly the past now and they can move on from it.

He isn't the only one suffering from this, though; a fact that becomes abundantly clear within the first few weeks of Daeron's return home.

He's not back at school, yet. He has to have doctor's appointments once a week and the cold he caught from baby Daena two weeks after getting discharged had only extended his time doing homeschool because, apparently, his immune system is sensitive right now after being so sick.

Luke tells him it's normal and he'll get better again, soon. He was already medically vulnerable, so, the cold just hit him a little bit harder than it normally would've.

Aegon won't leave him alone.

He's going to school, but he seems almost glued to Daeron's side from the moment he gets home until the moment Daeron falls asleep.

Daeron loves his brother, but he's worried about him, and he knows Alicent is, too.

He knows she feels guilty.

She handed him off to Aegon. Aegon saw his seizure. Aegon's yelling made Helaena see it.

Aegon feels guilty, too.

Both Aegon and Helaena have been seeing Talya about the same amount as Daeron has been. He thinks it's for the best.

Alicent and Rhaenyra have been seeing their therapists, too. They assure Daeron it isn't his fault and he doesn't blame himself or feel guilty, but it's hard not to hurt when he catches Aegon watching him like he needs to know Daeron is really okay.

Jace, Luke and Aemond are handling this the best. All three of them have experience with hospitals or medical treatments or drugs to some extent.

Jace shares stories of how his first few weeks in the burns unit went and how his last foster home before this one didn't help him take care of it and he got an infection and was sick for a while, too.

Luke tells him about his mother's drug addiction and how, unlike Daeron, Luke knew what drugs were from a very early age. He tells Daeron about how his mum got really really sick from them and Luke couldn't save her, and he had to phone an ambulance because she had a seizure like Daeron did.

She died.

Luke visits her grave every month. Daeron asks if he can tag along to the next one and Alicent drives them to the cemetery with Jace so he can visit his parents afterwards.

Daeron leaves some pink flowers he picked from Alicent's garden for Luke's mum. Luke and Jace leave blue and yellow flowers. Alicent pulls out a few weeds that have grown over the summer to make sure everything looks pretty, then adds some purple flowers.

"I hated her," Luke tells Daeron quietly. "I still do, sometimes. I can love her, too. She messed up a lot and she wasn't a good mum, but she tried. It's not my fault that I couldn't make her better."

Daeron knows it's not his fault that he couldn't make his dad better, either. He and Luke are alike in that way. They weren't considered a good enough reason to get better by their parents' standards, but the boys can still love them despite their failures.

It's complicated, but Talya agrees that this is normal after what both Luke and Daeron have gone through.

Aemond doesn't tell him the story of how he lost his eye in so many words. He just says he made his mum mad and then everything hurt and he felt like he was going to die. He spent months fully believing that his mum did it because she loved him, because he deserved it, because it was the natural consequence to his actions.

He tried to run away to go back to her because he didn't know she was in jail. He did run away.

He changed his mind, though.

He came home.

Daeron came home, too.

He had less of a choice in that compared to Aemond's situation, but Aemond fixes him with a look as he sketches away on some blueprints at the kitchen island.

"You fought to come home, Daeron," Aemond says. "You're safe, now. I promise."

Helaena is kind of the nice balance between the stories of support and Aegon's hovering. She doesn't hover in such an extreme way, and she isn't sharing stories of her early childhood before this family with him, but she's been letting him spend time with her in her bug hotel when she gets home from school and she's been teaching him how to take photos of her with her bugs for her scrapbooks.

She always watches him in a way that makes Daeron feel like she is inside of his head right now, but he's long grown used to it. Helaena's just like that and it's nice to feel seen by someone who understands him. It's nice to be understood.

Rhaenyra and Alicent are...

Different feels like the wrong word to say.

They aren't treating him any differently. They're moving on like it's business as usual and the return to familiarity is so welcome considering Daeron has lost school as a part of his routine right now, but they're different.

They don't look at him with sympathy, and they don't bring it up unless he does, which is usually after sessions with Talya if at all.

It's just that their hugs seem more full of warmth and love, almost like they're trying to heal him through a soft gesture. They linger for longer at bedtime and Alicent has made an effort to watch the Formula One races with him, even if she flinches and curses the seven every time a car crashes or almost crashes.

They've also had him in their bed with him since he got home.

They put him in his room, the first night, and Rhaenyra stayed on the bed with him the whole night. Alicent stayed the second night, then Rhaenyra again on the third night, but, by the fourth night, Daeron was getting tired of squishing two of them into a tiny bed when the one not staying with him had the big bed to himself.

He took himself to their room after his shower and curled up between the blankets, dozing off before they came to check on him. He hasn't been in his own room since that night unless he's showering, grabbing clothes, or looking for a toy.

He knows that it's comforting them as much as it's comforting him. It's nice to have them right there if he needs them and Talya said he might have nightmares, but he hasn't. He is waking up through the night, though, and it's getting fewer and further between the occasions, but seeing them right there helps him fall right back to sleep.

For them, he's right there. He's woken up a few times to either of them checking his breathing or his pulse. They always whisper apologies and soothe him back to sleep. He doesn't mind.

He felt like he was going to die. For a moment, he thought he did die. That would explain the dragon flight he got to take. A dream can be just a dream, but a dragon is never just a dragon. It was never just a dragon to begin with.

They almost lost him. Two mother dragons almost lost their little hatchling and Daeron remembers the fear that rattled through his chest when he woke up alone in that woods before finding them and he can't even imagine how much worse it was for them to think that he was dying.

He was asleep for a whole day. There was a whole day where all of them had no idea what was going to happen to him, how he would be when he woke up.

He could've had brain damage. He might never have woken up. He really could've died and the thought of going in such a painful way, in a way that would've left scars on his mums and his siblings forever, it makes his stomach hurt worse than when he lied about Jace's birthday cake.

It's why he doesn't mind the hovering from Aegon, or the stories from Jace and Aemond and Luke, or the watchful gaze of Helaena, or the nights spend in his mums' room because none of them want to part, yet.

Healing won't be easy, but they can do it together.

They survived this together and they'll move forward together.

They have their therapy sessions with Talya. The family come and visit and spend time with them.

Daemon even brings Daeron a go kart that he fixed up himself with a promise to help him find a team so they can get him into a Formula One car, one day.

He can't ride it on a track, yet, but Rhaenyra lets him turn the engine on to hear it and he drives up and down the driveway with his helmet secured by Aegon and double checked by Alicent. It's the most fun he's had since getting out of the hospital and, for a moment, Daeron can see ahead.

He can see what their flight of dragon's are heading towards. He can see a brighter future. He can see their normal life return. He can see the love swelling to a tenfold because this has been horrible for all of them, but it has brought them closer.

It really has.

Aegon calls for a secret kitchen party, except they're not actually celebrating anything as far as Daeron knows.

He does know it's a near miracle that he manages to get out of bed without his mums waking up. He manages to slip out from under their blankets and slide off the bottom of the bed, crawling out into the hallway as Luke clicks the door shut behind him and follows him downstairs.

Aegon has already made hot chocolate for them all. Helaena sets out six bowls of marshmallows next to the cups on the kitchen table. Jace grins as he hands Daeron the whipped cream first.

"Careful," he says. "Aemond wants to show you something."

Daeron eyes the blueprints in Aemond's arm, then looks back at his hot chocolate.

His whipped cream stays successfully in the cup and not on the table, this time. The others do their whipped cream before Aemond stands on one of the chairs and rolls out the blueprints in the middle of the table.

Helaena sets little weights in the corner to keep it rolled out and Daeron's eyes move over the design in front of him.

"It's a treehouse," Daeron says.

"It's your treehouse," Aemond says. "I know it's past summer, but, well, we're in King's Landing, and global warming is real."

"Very real," Helaena says, eyes wide. "It's terrifying."

"But we figured we'd do it anyway," Jace says.

"So, we all worked together to help Aemond figure out a design," Luke says.

Daeron laughs when he takes a second look at the treehouse, taking in the details.

"So, this is gonna be, like, a garage door entrance," Aemond says, pointing out the larger door that he's shaded in. "I don't know what we're gonna use for materials, but I think we could probably weld an actual garage door and work the mechanism in."

"Baelon can do that," Jace agrees. "He's good at mechanisms. He rigged the rocket ship in Aeg's."

"We're gonna paint it like a real Formula One garage," Luke says. "And we thought we could paint Lightning McQueen, too, on another wall! It'll look so cool!"

"We're gonna add loads of stuff," Aemond says. "I have other notes, but this is the structural blueprint, not the interior and decor blueprint."

"Do you like it?" Jace asks.

"I'm gonna get a treehouse?" Daeron asks.

"Of course," Aegon speaks up. "It's family tradition. You're stuck with us, lightning."

His smile isn't as playful as normal and Daeron's heart hurts.

"I'm sorry," Daeron says, reaching over the table to take his hand. "I'm sorry that I scared you when I was sick. I'm sorry I made you sad."

Aegon squeezes his hand, shaking his head.

"You have nothing to be sorry for," he says.

"Don't be mad at mama, either," Daeron says. "She didn't mean to scare you, either."

"I'm not mad at anyone except your dad," Aegon says, stroking his thumb over Daeron's knuckles. "I'm sorry I've been sad. You don't have to worry."

"You're my brother," Daeron says. "That's what we do."

Aegon looks from Daeron to the others. He sighs softly, looking at his lap before looking at Daeron.

"It scared me," Aegon says. "I was the same age as you when my dad put me in hospital and I remembered how scared I was, and I knew you were scared, too. I've been sad because it reminded me of my dad, and because I hate that there's always another kid that's being hurt out there. We got lucky, us lot. We have our mums. Not everyone has this chance and that makes me sad, too."

"I know," Daeron says, squeezing Aegon's hand. "You helped save my life and give me this chance, Aeg. You did. You, and mum, and mama, and all of you. You all came for me in my dream and brought me home. Helaena said she saw me in her dream. I was meant to be here. I'm sad that we got hurt on the way, but we're together. We're all together and nobody is going anywhere unless we're together. We're all okay. We're all safe."

Aegon leans against Helaena's side, dropping his head to her shoulder without letting go of Daeron's hand. Luke mirrors his position with Aemond, Jace wrapping his arms around Daeron's shoulders as he perches on the chair with him.

"We all made it," Jace murmurs. "And we'll keep making it together."

"Together," Luke whispers, a bright smile on his face.

They don't say anything else. There's nothing left to say because they've said it all already.

They finish their hot chocolates. They form a tandem line to clean up. Aemond handles the blueprints. Daeron clears the table. Aegon washes. Jace dries. Helaena and Luke put things away.

The six of them head upstairs as quietly as possible. They all stop outside Rhaenyra and Alicent's door, sharing looks to try and decide who has to be the one to open the door and risk waking them up as Daeron sneaks back in.

"You know," Rhaenyra's voice comes from inside of the bedroom. "If you lot think we haven't known about your secret kitchen parties this entire time, you're really underestimating your mama's hawk hearing."

"Honestly," Alicent's voice joins her. "We invented secret kitchen parties. You can't fool the masters."

Daeron laughs as he pushes the door open, running over to their bed and clambering up to reclaim his spot between the two women sat up in the bed with the lamps on.

"They made me a treehouse!" Daeron says. "They designed me one. It's so cool! I can't wait! Thank you!"

Rhaenyra laughs, patting the bed.

The other five kids run in and scramble up onto the bed. The blanket is kicked away as they all wriggle around to have enough room, even if it means Rhaenyra is not going to get any pillow tonight.

"You know we love all of you, right?" Alicent asks, tucking a few of Luke's curls out of his eyes, even as her eyes remain on Aegon. "More than we could ever say?"

"We know," Helaena answers. "Of course we do. You chose us forever, and we chose you. That's beyond words."

"We love you," Aegon says, hand finding Daeron's over their siblings. "We're gonna be okay. We've got this."

"Together?" Rhaenyra asks, a light in her eyes that means they clearly overheard their conversation downstairs.

"Together," Aemond says.

"Like always," Jace agrees.

"For forever, too," Daeron says.

That's the lesson, here.

Family is a lot of things.

It's support, and love, and understanding. It's compassion and empathy and sympathy, too. It's protectiveness and bravery and comfort. It's also difficult. It's good days and bad. It's repressed memories and sensory overloads and breakdowns in school bathrooms.

It's a storm.

They'll weather it together, though, because that's what family is above all.

It's having people to call home. It's having people to lean on.

It's his mums. It's his brothers and sister. It's his grandparents and cousins and aunts and uncles.

It's not his dad anymore, but that's okay.

He'll work through the anger in therapy. He'll come home to the stars that shine brightest for him and make all dark nights feel less terrifying. He'll fly with the dragons that guided him home and he'll live for them, too, because he really wouldn't be here without them.

They saved his life.

They saved him.

It'll take time to heal, but they have forever, and they'll be doing it together.

"Mama? Muña?"

"Yes, angel face?"

"Yeah, byka ōños pryjagon?"

Daeron stifles a half laugh half yawn in his arm at their simultaneous answers.

"Thank you for finding me."

"We'll always find you," Rhaenyra murmurs.

"Thank you for coming home," Alicent adds.

"I love you."

"We love you. All of you."

"Our little hatchlings."