Chapter Text
"Alright, let's just go through it again," Daemon requested as Rhaenyra checked on Luke's backpack, looking for the video game he couldn't find.
The kids were going to Westeros.
All of them. Baela, Rhaena, Jace, Luke and Joff.
"Daemon, please," Laenor interrupted him. "Unless Rhaenyra did a full 180 with Joffrey, I've done everything you're doing now twice before."
She chuckled.
Her ex-husband had been spending the month with them to make the transition a little easier, and the boys couldn't be more excited to have their daddy around. Even Joffrey was all clingy with him, and maybe her current husband was a little jealous.
Daemon loved the boys very much, and was a bit too attached to little Joff considering he knew they had to share him with Laenor.
Convincing him that her toddler was ready to go spend some time with his father was a group effort.
"Found it," she picked up the blue thing. "I also packed your favourite gummies, and crayons and paper for you to do a pretty picture, okay?"
"Okay," her sweet boy nodded.
Rhaenyra caressed his cheeks, smiling largely. Oh, she was going to miss them so much.
"Are you excited to have fun with daddy?" she asked, anyway. "I heard he has a surprise for you when you get there."
"Yes," Luke celebrated.
She kissed his cheek, and raised her eyes at the call of their flight. Time to board, then.
"I want you to take all possible pictures, okay?" she petted his hair.
Joffrey, Laenor's boyfriend, watched them a little from afar, looking a bit anxious.
He was still a little nervous about everything, she knew it. Things were still new for the boys, he didn’t want to impose.
"Alright," she called them. "Time to say goodbye, everyone."
Jace ran to her, squeezing her tightly, and she kissed his cheeks and Daemon squeezed the twins before Rhaena came to her, hugging her tightly and giving her cheek a kiss.
"Bye, aunt Rhaenyra."
"Goodbye, sweetheart," she kissed her cheek.
Baela moved to her, a little bit unsure. She was taking a little bit to adapt to Rhaenyra, like Jace to Daemon.
"Do you want a hug, Baela?" she offered. "We can also have a high-five."
Baela looked at her and then at Daemon just as he actually high-fived Jace.
"I want a hug, but I don't want a kiss," she decided.
Rhaenyra just smiled.
"Whatever you want, Baela."
Her stepdaughter walked to her, and squeezed her in a shy hug before adjusting her backpack and going to her sister.
"Mama," Joff called, rushing to her in his little feet. "Come mama."
Oh, her heart squeezed so tiny in her chest.
"I'm not going, baby," she smiled. "It's daddy time, remember?"
Joffrey looked at Laenor and then at her.
"Why?" he asked, looking confused. "No. Come, mama."
She blinked a few stubborn tears away, trying to keep everything very positive.
"Because it's daddy time," Rhaenyra picked him up, kissing his cheek. "Remember? You can call mama on the phone, but you'll be with daddy."
"Nyra," Daemon sighed by her side. "Maybe he's too young to go."
She looked up at Laenor.
What if Joffrey missed her too much? He was barely past his 15th month of life.
"We need to give it a try," her ex-husband reminded her. "He needs to get used to spending time with me."
Rhaenyra breathed out.
"It's only two weeks," she reminded Daemon. "This is our test time for the end of the year."
The boys were all supposed to spend their school breaks with Laenor, it was their agreement.
Her husband scoffed, crossing his arms, but Joff reached for him.
"Kepa," he called. "Come, Kepa?"
He pressed his lips, closing his eyes for a moment before reaching for him and petting his hair.
"It's daddy time," Daemon reminded him, a bit more stern. "And you're going to have so much fun with him. But we'll stay here while you go, okay?"
Her baby boy seemed to process it slowly.
"Daddy come?" he looked at Laenor.
Her ex-husband smiled at him, reassuring.
"Daddy, and Jace, and Luke," Daemon listed. "And Baela and Rhaena."
Joff looked at Rhaenyra again, and then at him, and her husband caressed his cheek.
"And you are going to be a big boy, right?" he asked. "And have lots of fun with daddy, grandpa and grandma."
Laenor walked to them, offering his arms so Joffrey could go to him, holding the folder with the kids' travelling documents in his hand.
"Goodbye, my little love," Rhaenyra spoke softly.
"Goodbye," Daemon waved.
Joff waved to them, looking a little boomed, but giggled when Jace and Rhaena - already waiting in line with Joffrey - distracted him with belly tickles.
She watched quietly as they left, waving to each kid that turned around to say goodbye, feeling Daemon squeezing her a bit tightly.
"You know, he has just as much experience as you do," she reminded him. "Laenor can do it. And his parents are going to be close too."
Daemon scoffed, not looking any happy, but followed her down to his car anyway, opening her door and stopping when a baby cry echoed through the garage.
"That's Joffrey, they followed us," he turned around. "They are not going anymore."
Rhaenyra raised her eyebrows.
What in the gods' good-
"It's not," she corrected him. "Joffrey doesn't sound like that."
He continued to look around, hyperaware, and relaxed, realising she was right.
"Dammit," he mumbled under his breath.
Rhaenyra shook her head.
Her poor husband.
And there she thought she was the one going to need comforting.
It was just two weeks, then the kids would be back. And they would call twice a day, they could do it.
“You know, this is the first time in 11 years we are truly alone.”
And that was enough to distract him.
"Oh, it is?" he teased her. "I hadn't noticed."
She chuckled.
"No Alicent or dad," she rested her head on her seat. "No kids or baby..."
He scowled a bit.
"Sadly, I think Joff barely classifies as a baby now," he sighed, sad. "We got a toddler in our hands."
She sighed, a bit sadly.
Rhaenyra had just turned thirty, and she already had not one, not two, but three growing children. Five with the girls.
Not even 31.
So many kids and yet...
"My love?" she called. "Can I ask you an honest question?"
Daemon glanced at her, focused on the road.
"Always."
"Do you think five kids is too much?" she asked. "Too many of them?"
Her husband chuckled, smirking.
"My love," he clicked his tongue. "There is no such a thing as too many kids."
She giggled.
"Such a small population in Valyria," she teased him. "We need to rebuild our empire."
New Valyria was such a young country, barely past its 150th birthday.
"Maybe if we have enough babies, dragons will be reborn again," Rhaenyra giggled more.
Daemon laughed.
"Is that what you want, my love?" he looked at her as they stopped at a traffic light. Rhaenyra bit her lower lip.
He would often tease her about old Queen Rhaenyra - the first woman to govern the Seven Kingdoms, who had kidnapped a septon on dragon back so he could marry her to her uncle - and her dozen children, princes and princesses, only one baby away from having as many kids as Good Queen Alysane - although Queen Rhaenyra's children all survived childhood and went on to continue their dynasty.
Daemon suggested they should be the same, but it never felt very real or past the joking point.
"Oh, yes," she giggled, feeling silly, like when she was a girl, and he wasn't brave enough to take her. "I'd love a dragon."
He chuckled, resting a hand on her thigh, driving again.
It was how he called the kids. Little dragons.
"I can find you an egg," he hummed, pretending not to understand her. "We can try to nest it."
It was all teasing, she knew.
Dragon eggs still existed, but were completely turned into stone, and were all in museums, except for the big black one her father had as decoration in his study.
"And how would we?" she spread her legs a little. "They need a lot of heat."
He pushed his hand up slowly, caressing her skin as he did.
"I think we can find a way," he hummed. "I think we can get our room very warm."
She giggled more, and gasped when he simply pulled his hand from her thigh and pushed them into her shirt, putting it over her breast and pinching her nipple through the bra as he drove past their gates.
"Daemon!" she Rhaenyra gasped. "The security people!"
He scoffed, teasing her in circles.
"It's our home," he reminded her, driving faster, moving to the garage - already open.
She rolled her eyes, and he smirked.
"I could fuck you in from of them if I wanted to," he reminded her.
Her pussy had no right to get that wet.
Daemon stopped the car, taking off his seatbelt quicker than she could see, and she gasped when he grabbed her neck and pushed her against the seat and kissed her lips, hungry and passionate.
"Kepus," she whimpered when he pulled away.
His eyes opened, darkened and shocked, so surprised that his grip loosened, and Rhaenyra giggled, unbuckling her own seatbelt and slipping out of the car and running to the door of the garage, and her husband put his head out of the window.
"Oh, you wanna play this game?" he asked, shocked.
"Yes," Rhaenyra grinned. "I do."