Chapter Text
There was something strange that night.
Aemond could tell he had never seen a storm of these magnitudes, with furious winds and heavy rain, so dark, so dangerous; some would say that the sky was falling apart due to the Gods’s rage.
Not that it actually mattered at all.
Aemond wasn’t alone, he had his Dragon, Vhagar, and no storm would represent an actual threat to her; she was a veteran and she had survived hundreds of adversities worse than a stupid rain. Yet, Aemond couldn’t get rid of the feeling that she wasn’t listening to him that night, as if she was absent in her mind.
The weather’s conditions were perfect, otherwise, Arrax would be able to escape from Vhagar’s claws. Prince Lucerys signed his own destiny when he decided to enter the castle despite having previously seen his Dragon outside. Now, Lucerys was all his to send a message to the Blacks. All his to pay the debt he was still owed.
When he found his nephew, he confirmed that Vhagar was not obeying, not at all, even when it seemed that she actually wanted to attack Arrax; something was preventing her from just doing it as if the rainfall would have created an invisible wall between him and his naive nephew.
Aemond lost his patience when he saw Lucerys attempting to fly away as if he could just leave again without giving Aemond what he owed him. So he ordered Vhagar to fly high, very high, and descend at full speed, knowing that her open jaws could swallow both Arrax and Lucerys together in one single bite, and just when he was about to reach them–
Vhagar dodged Arrax by a minuscule distance.
Aemond’s vision went all white for an instant, and the rest of his senses abandoned him until the moment he recuperated his sight and everything was reduced to staring at Lucerys as if he had never seen him before. The world turned mute, there were no noises, no storm, no screams; just the image of Lucerys falling from his Dragon into a tidal abyss.
Maybe it was the Old Gods, maybe the New ones, or just something else that impulsed him to catch his nephew while he was falling without even thinking of it, with no thought on his mind besides preventing Lucerys’s death.
He was lucky that Vhagar possessed that size, otherwise, he would have never been able to save Lucerys on time. The thought alone made him shiver in a way he could not comprehend.
When his arms were around him, Aemond swore he wasn’t able to see anything but his nephew; he couldn’t even sense Vhagar’s back under them. There was only white and Lucerys between all the mess on his head.
He then knew it was not normal.
The way he was feeling, it made no sense.
Time was slowing down, and he was pretty sure he was hearing Lucerys’s accelerated heartbeats as if they were his own. How could it be possible? There was a bloody storm; they were under this murderous weather, and all he could feel was that body against him, as if it was only them –
Just when a foreign sensation invaded his own body. Fear. Fear of dying, sorrowness, loneliness, and a powerful desire to scream.
This… this was not his. His one eye focused on his nephew’s numb face, and he understood that this was how Lucerys had been feeling. How the near experience of death must have felt.
Then, his surroundings slowly returned to normal, as if it was just now he could be aware of where they were, and Lucerys’s eyes widened in horror as he broke free from Aemond’s grasp with a cry, trying to get as far away as he could from him.
“It can’t be,” he screamed.
So, Lucerys had also felt it.
“You can’t be–” He squirmed in his place over Vhagar’s back and stared at his right side. Looking for Arrax, probably. “Not you.”
Both had heard those old Valyrian tales but never witnessed them in person.
The last time someone had claimed to have found their Soulmate was years ago when King Jaehaerys I wedded his wife Alyssanne Targaryen. Rumors said that Soulmates died along with them; others said that these kinds of bonds had started to die the mere instant Aegon I laid his eyes on Westeros and Valyrian's blood started to fade.
There were so many different versions, some old tales said that you may live your entire life with your Soulmate in front of you and still never find out who it was, while others said that the connection between two Soulbonds was instant and could never be replaced, however, there was an aspect where all the stories coincided; you could never be able to kill your other half, no matter how hard you try; your destiny is entangled with this other person; your Soulmate.
Aemond turned his gaze over Lucerys one more time
Lucerys was his Soulmate.
The affirmation felt so natural, a truth he had always known and had always been there, even when he had had to wait for two decades to learn about his real connection with his young nephew.
Such a fact should have bothered him, from all the people; it had to be the same brat who had taken his eye off; however, Aemond found no anger towards his new discovery. Instead, he felt something else, something that he rarely experienced in his day-to-day life; satisfaction.
For the first time since his birth, he had found that something belonged to him for the mere fact of having been born. Something that was his by right and no one could take away from him.
“I’m afraid, nephew,” he started to speak, after what felt like centuries of being caught in the rain, “that it’s true.” He moved slowly as Vhagar flew away from the storm.
Lucerys called for Arrax, but the creature didn’t come. Everyone now knew where he belonged.
Aemond smirked when his hand reached Lucerys’ cheek.
“Gods be good; you can’t be—“
“I can,” he said at the same time Vhagar descended, putting them safe from the weather. “You belong with me, it seems to be the Gods' will, nephew.”
Lucerys’ moisted gaze stared at him, he didn’t apart from the touch but did not lean into it, either.
“You don’t even know how to love,” he whispered so softly that his words almost got lost in the wind, yet, Aemond managed to hear him.
Words wouldn’t hurt, no when they hid some truth in them.
“I don’t need to know,” he replied with no anger in his voice while his hand cupped his nephew's soft cheek. “You’re mine from now on,” his lips curved up in a parody of a smile as he added; “I’m content just with you knowing that.”