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Jace was not unused to being woken in the night by his wife. It had been a habit their entire marriage but it had started happening with an ever-increasing frequency over the last month and a bit. He did not complain generally and certainly not tonight, given how she had awoken him.
He fisted his hands in the sheet as she pulled back, sparing him the hot wet feel of her mouth only to run her tongue over the length of him. Baela pulled his hair hard when he was doing this to her but she did not like him touching her hair when she did this. He was hardly going to complain about any conditions she might set under the circumstances.
"Baela," he gasped and she swallowed him down again sucking hard until he arched his hips under her. She pulled off and settled over him. A warm-up then - it was no less of a pleasant surprise. He bit his own lip to steady himself when she reached to grasp at him so that she could sink down onto him. Jace tried not to swear at the slow slide of their bodies together. Baela liked pushing him to that - he knew but he tried to have some self-control. He felt as if his brain was several steps behind his body as he struggled to gather his wits while Baela smiled down at him in the dark, glorious and fierce as she set the pace she liked. Jace slipped one hand between them, his touch briefly skimming where they were joined, before he pressed upwards, where she was sensitive wanting to help her along. She tightened around him at his touch and hissed her approval, circling her hips to make him swallow hard.
“Jace,” she said, still smiling wickedly, “Jace I’m so close.” Jace knew what she wanted - knew her body so intimately now after all their nights together, he surged up from the bed to pull her against him. His hands settled on her bare back and captured her mouth with his as she shifted against him urgently, leaning in to find the exact angle she liked. She ducked her head into his neck as she peaked, gasping and biting at his pulse point which only helped him over the edge along with the clench of her around him and the sensation of his skin against his.
Jace rubbed at her back as she slumped down over him, the satisfaction from his orgasm ebbing through him pleasantly. Baela did not seem so settled even as her breath evened out and as soon as she caught her breath, she squirmed out of his arms. Still restless then. He shifted closer to her and made his own offer.
“Do you want my mouth?” he asked, pressing a kiss to her neck and letting his hand settle on her hip. It would take him a moment before he could go again but he was happy to focus on her and doing so would make that moment shorter. He was careful not to let his hands so much as go near her breasts - which was a new limitation. Jace always remembered when they retired together each night but when woken in the night he had forgotten several times. She would only smack his hands away and then be in a bad mood. But he could see to her pleasure without touching her there and sometimes when she was restless, another round of lovemaking would be enough to settle her. She shivered in his arms but shook her head, tossing her silver hair.
“Maybe when I get back,” she said. “I need to move. I can’t sleep.”
Flying then, the other late-night activity that Baela wanted when restless like this. Jace pressed a kiss to the top of her head and slipped out of bed. He’d only just put his hands on his riding leathers when she came over - still naked as if she wanted him examining her figure - as if he could stop since he had started suspecting. She rested one hand on his clothing so he could not put it on.
“You do not have to come,” she said. “I know you have Lord Sunglass to deal with in the morning.” It had not been long that he had been Prince of Dragonstone in his own right and with his mother and Daemon in King’s Landing, since the winter fever had taken off his grandfather and uncles, the vassals sworn to Dragonstone seemed to be taking their turn in testing him. But he was not worried about that.
“I am not going to sleep while you are out on dragonback,” Jace said. Which was true on several counts. Firstly that he would not be able to sleep while she was out. Secondly that it seemed rather poor behaviour for a husband of less than six moons, not that Baela needed his protection - probably ever - certainly not when with Moondancer. Thirdly that he should neglect her in any way, in her condition , was an anathema to him. Even if she had not as yet told him about her condition. Not even a hint.
“Anyway, Vermax might feel neglected if Moondancer has company and he does not,” he said. Baela would accept him fussing over his dragon, while any attempts to be considerate of her health would only earn him her ire. He supposed this was part of why she hadn’t told him yet. He had done his best not to be oversolicitous or let on that he suspected. Even if Baela did not like being coddled in any way, it rather seemed like her news to share and it was early.
Baela would have been due her moonblood any day now if not for the child he was fairly sure - almost certain she carried because she’d missed the last moon as well. He had not seen her succumb to illness of a morning but she had developed a sudden tyranny over breakfast.
It had shortly after he had noticed that there had been no pause in their evening activities that Baela had become unable to bear the taste of bacon. A week after that it had been the scent of it and she’d picked a fight over breakfast three days in a row until he had realised and changed his own habits. When she’d flown to Driftmark to see Rhaena for her monthly visit and see how the wedding plans were going, he’d broken his fast with bacon. Baela had come back early, smelt it on his breath and turned pale at once - she turned her head at his attempt to kiss her in greeting, shoved his letter from Luke in his hand and avoided him for half the day even after he’d used tooth powder and chewed mint for half an hour.
Jace remembered his mother doing this with every pregnancy save Luke - he’d been too young to go that far back. His memories of her having Joffrey were vaguer. He did not know what food it had been but he knew it had happened only because whatever food it was she had hated, Alicent had noticed and had it served at every event. She’d come back from feasts wretching, with his father furious and powerless. With Aegon, his mother had also hated bacon, and with Viserys it had been all roast meat and they’d eaten more fish than ever in Jace’s life. When Mother had been carrying Visenya, she had hated citrus fruit - Jace remembered his small brothers fighting over who got Mother’s lemon cake at supper.
There were also things about Baela, that Jace had noticed that obviously he had never seen with his mother. She had complained that a favourite dress no longer fit properly. That the laundress had ruined it and now it was unseemly. She had not been wrong - the neckline which had before been daring was now undeniably obscene. Jace’s attempt to not to let his gaze linger had failed miserably. It was not the dress that had changed. He’d flushed when she noticed even though they had been married half a year but thankfully Baela had not known the entire reason for his embarrassment. She had only laughed at him. “Perhaps I can keep it to wear privately?” she had said.
“Yes please,” he had said because it would make her smile. Anyway, he did like it and she knew it so he thought denial pointless. She had kept the dress on when she had borne him off to bed to demonstrate his approval.
As pleased as he was about the news Baela had not yet shared, it had made nearly every conversation they had lately a little awkward. Jace felt like he was constantly holding his breath every time she addressed him until it was clear what she was saying. There had been no announcement yet.
He knew it was her news to share, he knew he could not expect her to do so until she wanted to. He did wonder if there were some reason she had not told him other than timing.
The Dragonmont was gloomy even in day and even with the torches lit, at night it seemed much more vast. It was a great chasm for just eight dragons. Vermax and Moondancer did not seem to have a settled nesting place unlike the longer-term residents though they oft coiled around each other to sleep. Jace had not sent for the dragon keepers to rouse their dragons - they rarely had to. Vermax and Moondancer would approach when they sensed their riders, they were always keen to fly.
On nights like tonight they sometimes they would nip at each other as if they raced up to the mounting platform - as if it could not accommodate both of them, young as they were. Vermax would watch Jace his orange eyes baleful when Jace let Baela mount Moondancer first. He supposed it was not fair to expect a dragon to understand gentlemanly behaviour. The dragon did not hold a grudge long - not when they were borne aloft in flight together and when he was showing away for Moondancer, preening and fluttering his wings, Jace wondered if perhaps Vermax should understand a little.
None of this prepared him for how it felt when they entered the Dragonmont and only Vermax appeared. He would have understood if neither dragon appeared. That had happened once and given what he and Baela had been doing immediately before that visit well it had given them both a moment’s thought about the nature of their bond with dragons that they had never ever spoken about. Jace looked at Vermax - into the chasm, he could see nothing and then to Baela who looked more uncertain than he had ever seen her.
“Māzīs Hūrlilio,” she called and there was not so much as a response. Not a sound of movement or Moondancer’s familiar screeching.
Vermax reared up and flapped his wings. Jace had not seen him act so before. Not even when their bond was new.
“Ynot Hūrlilio, aderī,” Baela said, her tone shifted towards panic.
Vermax regarded her quizzically. Then looked back to Jace. But if he was behaving oddly he did not seem panicked and so it could not be that Moondancer was in trouble - surely. Vermax would know - or admittedly also be in trouble and then Jace would know. He did not recognise this behaviour but Vermax was part of him - had been since he was two. The dragon was not unhappy.
“Rȳbās Vermaks,” Jace said. He reached for the dragon’s flank. “Skoriot iksos Hūrlilio?”
Vermax bent his head and Jace decided this was the quickest way.
“Come on,” he said to Baela who was to his concern, fairly close to the edge of the platform. He grabbed her arm and she did not even object so he knew her concern was driving her quite mad. “Vermax is the quickest way down and wherever she is, he will know.”
With them both mounted - Vermax seemed quite puzzled - though they had flown together before - but just once when Daemon had said Vermax could carry two, Baela had insisted she would go with him before she let Rhaena. Moondancer had followed the whole flight, her cries of outrage loud as if Vermax was stealing from her.
This flight was brief though, Vermax landing by a cavern in the near enough to the chasm entrance, there was some moonlight to see by. Baela had flung herself off Vermax almost before he landed - the gleam of Moondancer’s paler hide visible in the cavern but unmoving.
Jace bit back a scold - she needed to be careful herself but he would not be if he was worried about Vermax - thought he would never be in the condition Baela was in. Probably in, he amended.
Moondancer was asleep, coiled around something. The pose reminded him of the way his brother’s dragons coiled around them when they were small. Moondancer lifted her head at Baela’s voice and she blinked. Vermax was looming over them all. It was a clutch of eggs. Four of them, they were still covered in the fluid that they slid out in, which would harden protectively if they weren’t retrieved to be kept warm in braziers for the best chance of hatching.
“Oh,” Baela said. “Look,” she seemed delighted.
Jace had not thought he might get confirmation from Moondancer before Baela. And it wasn’t truly confirmation, he knew. Clutches did not coordinate with pregnancies entirely. But it was a very good omen. In every way. For his mother’s new reign - less than a year in, for their marriage, for their coming child. He pulled her closed and kissed her and she laughed into his mouth, her happiness infectious.
“Do you think that’s why I’ve been so restless?” she said, after a moment, an oddly vulnerable question. Baela was not one for examining why she was doing what she was doing.
“That or the fact you’re - “ he cut himself off. He’d been so giddy he’d forgotten he was waiting. That was her news. “I’m sure it’s the clutch,” he said but he didn’t even sound like he meant it to his own ears.
“I’m what?” Baela said and he looked at her confused. But she was not teasing him - she looked genuinely intrigued. Because she didn’t know he knew, he assumed. He hoped.
“It is your news,” he said wondering how he had gotten himself into this discussion. In the middle of the night. In the Dragonmont. He thought Vermax might be laughing at him.
“Jacaerys,” she said flatly. “What are you talking about?”
“Baela,” he said. “I don’t mean to assume but you haven’t bled and your appetite has become particular,” Baela could glare all she wanted - he was not going to say he paid so much attention to her breasts he could tell they had changed. “I didn’t mean to realise before you told me.”
Baela did not look angry that he had guessed her news and spoiled it. She looked as if he had said something as ludicrous as he was going to run off to Oldtown to visit his last remaining uncle.
“I am not with child,” she said. Which was unconvincing to begin with and then she bent over and vomited all over his boots.
They had had to walk back to the mounting platform when she had recovered. Vermax had been most unimpressed with the vomit and disinclined to leave Moondancer again. She had not said anything and Jace was worried. He abandoned his ruined boots as soon they were out of the cavern - he could walk the halls of Dragonstone in his socks at least and Baela still looked pale so he wanted to abandon the smell of vomit. He got her some water when they were in their chambers, she rinsed her mouth and then drank it down.
“Should I fetch Maester Gerardys?” he asked.
“No,” Baela denied at once. Which was not unexpected he thought. ”I’m only a little late,” she said surprising him.
“This month,” he said carefully. “But last month-”
“Do you keep track?” she asked, her tone full of accusation.
“No,” Jace defended, wondering how they got here. “It’s the only time we don’t - that we don’t lie together, Baela. That and when you go to Driftmark. I do notice.”
“Clearly,” she said. “Why did you not say?” She sounded more baffled than angry.
“I was waiting for you to tell me,” he said. Baela did smile then.
“Were you going mad?” she said.
“I was trying to be patient,” Jace told her. “But I did wonder how long it might be before you told me.”
This made her laugh, which was good because she had not seemed pleased. And he could not bear to ask if she was unhappy about it - though if she was he supposed he should know. He would always want to know what she felt.
Their one brief discussion on it - the first time she had bled after the wedding had been that they both had not felt an urgent need for an heir, given their youth and all their siblings. Yet despite that conclusion they had not done anything to avoid such an outcome which they could have- he would have if she asked.
“A babe of our own,” Baela said, then she rested her hand on her stomach, her smile lit up the whole room in the dark and Jace felt relief wash over him.
“You’re happy then?” he said.
“Of course I am,” she said as if this was obvious. “About the child.” She paused. “Even this,” he hand on her stomach again. “I thought it would be much worse,” she said. “Not something I barely notice. And I definitely thought you would be much worse.” They both knew there was reason enough to worry about pregnancy in their family history and Jace pushed down that worry as he had been since he began to suspect.
Baela was healthy - a dragon rider, she would have Maester Gerardys and the midwives who had seen his mother through six successful deliveries. She had the best chance of any woman in the realm.
“Well,” Jace said. “Now you know and I know - I can dote. Uncontrollably. If you like.”
Baela laughed and then looked at him with a dangerous gleam in her eye.
“Only if you want to fetch the Maester for yourself,” she said. “I am with child. Not an invalid.”