Chapter Text
Myrcella Baratheon should have enjoyed Christmas.
After all, Winter was her favorite seaso: it always gave her the perfect excuse to wear cozy sweaters and drink a lot of hot cocoa, her favorite thing in the whole world.
Back when he was a child on aunt Brenda’s ranch she spent it recreating the nativity scene much to her aunt’s amusement since she didn’t believe in anything but pure utter capitalism.
She’d choose two horses and make them play the bull and the donkey, while she put a blue blanket over herself and a doll to play the Holy Mary and the newborn Jesus.
It was probably the silliest thing ever, but Brenda would indulge her in a normalcy of traditions that she had outgrown once she had moved out of the countryside and in the city to study and then to work.
There she had discovered snow and she had felt like a child again as she stared at her first snow battle, being involved in it swiftly by her roommates, Isabella, and Saera.
She loved even the prickly coldness of the season.
But when the holidays came around, she dreaded the moment since it’d mean having to go back to her family.
And this year, she couldn’t truly avoid it.
The previous she always insisted that she’d be staying with aunt Brenda, after all neither she or father truly knew or cared where she’d be spending Christmas.
But this year her aunt was in the hospital, and she wouldn’t be getting out any time soon to celebrate Christmas together at the ranch.
It didn’t help that Cassandra had been literally pressuring her into coming back:
‘It won’t be as bad as the last few times’ when Myrcella had just hoped to be ignored while her family flaunted how together their lives were, asking their middle daughter whether she had settled into her new job – not up to their standards – and most importantly.
‘Where is the lucky guy?’.
And for all these reasons, Myrcella had answered her older sister, the sole person in the family that truly cared about her, that she didn’t know whether she’d be able to make it in time for the Eve’s dinner, as was tradition:
‘I am the new one at work’ technically she had been the new one for three years, but her sister didn’t have to know that ‘… and I might need to stop by aunt’s hospital since she has been so fussy when the nurses come around’.
Another lie, since her aunt had befriended both nurses and doctors alike and much to Myrcella’s amazement, Daemon Targaryen, one of her closest friends, spent much time with her whenever her niece couldn’t because she had the turns at the clinic.
Her aunt would be well, even more when Daemont had already told her that he’d be staying for the Christmas’ Eve, since he had planned to fill the room with Laena and all the children to cheer up the poor woman, since he had already gone by the nurses and doctors and convinced them easily – read it as, with a little bribe.
‘You need to relax, Myrcella’ he had uttered once as he lightly took her by the shoulders ‘… have you even been doing anything aside visiting the clinic and the hospital’.
And technically Myrcella couldn’t argue with him, considering that the other place that she had been at, these days, was her apartment, which as both Saera and Isabella left to move with their own significant others, was downright depressing and lonesome.
‘Alright, alright, you, busy lady’ Cassandra had shot back as she switched sides to hold her phone and Myrcella could guess that she had done so to pick up her toddler ‘… but Jacob will be truly sad’.
‘That’s a dirty move’.
Myrcella stood by the belief that pups were much cuter than babies, but her nephew was the sole exception that she made to such a rule, and it was mostly because Jacob Lannister was enamored with his cool aunt and always waited for her in the few occasions that she was at family’s dinners.
‘… and you know it’.
‘Can’t wait to meet you, sis, at the dinner’ and before Myrcella could remind her that she wouldn’t have come, her sister had dropped the line.
And here she was still thinking, a week later, to that talk as she wrote some paperwork at the clinic, mostly supplies that she’d need to restock and dismissal papers for puppies who’d be leaving for their homes for these holidays.
Gods, paperwork making her happy should be a rather alarming sign.
And she was glad as her first client of the day turned around.
Even more when she realized that he was the white-haired cutie with an old rescue-dog that seemed aggressive with anybody but Myrcella.
‘Much like his owner’ one time Maera, her superior, had commented much to the girl’s utter embarrassment who by now had grown used to chatting up the handsome dog-owner through prescribing him meds for his dog and health check-ups.
“Already back?” she giggled, feeling like the silliest, as she thought about the fact that her hair was probably a mess since she had come to this shift right after a hospital one since her aunt’s conditions had worsened in the night and it was Daemon who had insisted that she ‘went anywhere else to get her mind off work’.
Hence she had been stuck to paperwork as the clinic was supposed to be closing in a bit and she would be staying just an extra-hour to make up for the shift that she had forgone the previous day.
Mostly to make it up to herself since Maera was the most comprehensive and considering that Myrcella was always the first one to arrive and the last to stay, she wouldn’t have even thought of reprimanding her for leaving early on a shift.
Even more considering what was going on with her aunt.
Everybody walked on eggshells around her, as her aunt’s condition worsened and some days, she just wished to scream in their faces how little she cared for their way to make her feel better, because what she needed now was to work her way through the sadness she felt, not their sympathetic smiles and fake gentleness.
“Yeah sorry, I…”.
Aemond – he had given her his name as Myrcella brought him coffee while they both waited for a small operation on Vahgar – flushing lightly and continuing to gently lull the huge dog on his arm as if the little lady weighted nothing more than a sack of potatoes.
Myrcella certainly wasn’t thinking impure thoughts about such a thing.
“She… she has been acting weird, like… kept on not eating and… just generally…” he was rambling, and he must have noticed that Myrcella had caught him doing so “… ok, sorry, I am worried”.
“No worries” in all honesty, checking on a favorite client seemed the best way to get her mind off her sick aunt’s face in this moment “… I can give her a quick check and then we can see through the medicine that we last gave her to see whether they can have this kind of side-effects”.
“Thank you” Aemond huffed out as Myrcella brought him to the examining station as she grabbed her coat and put it on hastily as she smoothed her hair inside “… you are a literal angel”.
Oh gods, was she glad to be giving him his back as she stumbled with the handle of the door of the examining station much to her utter embarrassment, before letting him enter and gently deposit Vhagar on the small bed with the already clean paper since Myrcella had checked everything before starting on the paperwork.
“I didn’t know whether you were still open…” Aemond kept on rambling and Myrcella could see exactly why he was worried as Vhagar promptly laid down without her usual reckless behavior, almost unreactive “… I tried swinging by yesterday when I first noticed her not finishing her entire bowl, but you weren’t there”.
Oh gods, Myrcella shouldn’t have taken it as more than him thinking her the sole capable to handle her dog.
But gods if her heart didn’t skip a beat.
“I had a family emergency” she bit through a bit sensitive on such a subject as she adjusted Vhagar gently to start groping her stomach with one hand as she caressed the dog with another “… sorry”.
“I… I mean not that…” Aemond stumbled through his words and suddenly Myrcella found him at her back, which made her halt a bit in her ministrations and Vhagar whined loudly “… sorry, I didn’t mean to sound like I was requesting you”.
“Vhagar does” Myrcella tried to brighten up the situation as she gently kissed the dog’s head and her tail lightly thumped against the bed in happiness, a good sign that whatever it was her limbs weren’t impaired, although she was worried by the slurred and slow reactions “… she wants only me”.
“You might be just her favorite person” Aemond giggled as he gently came to face her dog caressing her head gently and scratching her ears delicately “… I can’t believe that I save her from being put down for excessive aggressiveness and she repays me with this”.
“Oh, don’t be a sore loser”.
The stomach seemed alright so Myrcella had an inkling that it might be the meds, even more considering just how many the dogs had to be on.
She might have to ask a second opinion to Maera but first let’s see if there was anything obviously crashing,
“… you are a close second”.
Aemond smiled lightly at that, and Myrcella was again all too happy to move to where they kept their patients’ records – stumbling just the tiniest bit – to check in Vhagar’s various meds as she moved slowly and noticed that a few might give those side-effects even more if combined with the coldness of the latest days.
“Alrightie, good news, it isn’t anything too bad” and much to her utter happiness, Aemond let out the softest relieved breath as he gently smashed Vhagar’s cheeks in his hands and gave her an happy kiss to the same place that Myrcella had kissed not too long ago “… her meds aren’t exactly perfect for her system during this winter, I need to check with Maera but I’d say that we need to leave out a few or at least lower the dosage”.
“I can rewrite you a list with the appropriate dosages, but I’ll need you to come around tomorrow when you can so that Maera can further give her a check”.
Maera had been doing this job for more than Myrcella, although the woman always insisted that ‘the girl was as smart as a whip’ but she wasn’t the veterinary with a worldwide fame.
Not yet at least.
“It seriously is all that?” Aemond seemed surprised and his shoulders were partially tensed up, as if he couldn’t believe that he could let his worries go.
“It’s the winter” Myrcella explained softly, as she came closer to him and gently started to brush a hand through Vhagar’s perfect mane, although a few spots were missing due to her older age “… it might make some dogs react badly to meds, so I’d just say to try to see if with the different meds and dosages anything changes in the next days”.
And before Myrcella could fully realize it, Aemond gently enveloped her in his hug and fuck if his relief wasn’t her own as she rejoiced in the soft human contact that she had been aching for.
Not the frail hand of her aunt, Daemon’s pitiful looks or Maera’s gentle touches.
But as soon as it happened, it disappeared.
“Shit, shit… I…” Aemond looked like he was about to cry from embarrassment “… am sorry, I didn’t mean to come onto you…”.
“It’s fine” Myrcella shot back because it truly was.
And it’d be totally fine if he wanted to do it again.
“… I have been attacked by more viciously cuddly dogs”.
She tried to ease up the customer’s embarrassment with humor, since it was her way to dismiss embarrassing things, a trick that she had been taught by her aunt, whenever she came home from school after another day of being belittled because of her dyslexia.
“… no, I mean… I… really appreciate it” she didn’t know what happened, but it looked like she had opened Pandora’s vase as Aemond still didn’t look at her in the eyes but moved his lips to speak again “… you are always so nice with Vhagar and…”.
“I’d say she has been through a lot”.
Her story was quite impressive: she had been rescued by Aemond from a kennel, as she was about to be put down for excessive aggressiveness; she had been born as a rescue dog but once her owner had realized that people paid better for dog fights than rescue ones, he had pushed his dog into it.
She had been so mean to Aemond, who had trained her personally and from what Myrcella saw an unshakingly bound had been born, with the dog following her owner everywhere and acting like the sweetest puppy whenever he picked her up or gave her cuddles.
“… and it isn’t just Vhagar” still Aemond went on “… you are also so kind to me”.
And in all honesty Aemond had been an utter asshole when he had first come to the clinic, requesting that they treated Vhagar’s stomach bug with the bestest of cares, acting all snobby and distrusting as if Maera wasn’t one of the best in the countries and treating Myrcella who had approached him to take a few parameters quite shittily, enough that Maera had thrown him out of the clinic.
‘We are treating your dog as long as you fucking don’t harass my co-workers’.
And although Myrcella felt a bit annoyed for again being disrespected, she had brought him news through everything that went on with Vhagar as he waited outside, even going as far as to bring him coffee because he looked like he might need it.
He had taken the cup looking at her as if she was indeed a miracle, before apologizing to her and giving her his name.
From then on, she had distinct crush on him.
On which she refused to act on because:
- it would be unprofessional
- Myrcella was anything but a pure ball of lack of self-esteem.
“… like I was an asshole to you”.
“I am not going to deny that” she muttered with a smile on her lips at that memory.
“Oh gods, you absolutely shouldn’t” he shot back with a small smile on his face “… it’s just that whenever I… get… lost because I don’t know what to do with Vhagar, I can count on you”.
And in all honesty Myrcella felt herself fluster at such an intimate comment, like of course she’d be doing anything to save the sweet thing that Vhagar was, who deserved nothing else but gentleness after the life that she had led.
She just didn’t expect to receive praise for it.
She certainly didn’t do it for that.
“You know… I… am extremely grateful for you, and in all honesty, you could ask me anything and I’d be extremely glad to agree to anything…”.
“Come to my Christmas family dinner with me”.
To her defense, Myrcella hadn’t meant it as anything but a joke, but her tired and aggravated tone must have probably made it seem more serious than it was meant to be and much to her utter surprise, Aemond’s expression moved from surprise into shock and then he scolded his face into neutrality, which was probably worse than outright rejection.
Oh gods, congratulations Myrcella, you have screwed another nice relationship.
“I mean… I was obviously joking, I mean… I…” she couldn’t dig herself farther by this point “… you see I just… got invited to this Christmas’ Eve family dinner and I… can’t say no because my nephew will be sad, but at the same time I am the sole single sister and I dread the ‘where is the lucky man’ question, which is… downright disrespectful considering they all know I am pan…”.
Yeah, she could dig her grave even deeper.
“Alrightie, I am writing you that list and stopping with the weird nonsense”.
She should definitely do that, also because she was sure that she had grown into a tomato by now with the way her cheeks were heated, and she’d have to probably change her coat since her anxious sweat always smelt like utter shit.
“… wouldn’t want to keep Vhagar longer, not when she looks so close to nap…”.
“I’d do it, you know” Aemond hadn’t only spoken to her again after her whole monologue but also gently grabbed her wrist to stop her from leaving “… I’d accompany you to your family dinner to spare you the embarrassment of other questions about your single life”.
She must have fallen asleep on the paperwork and now she was probably sleeping on it.
And she’d wake up with the ink marks on her face, because there was no way in hell that her hottest customer with the cutest dog would agree to such a crazy plan.
“Just…” she should have known that there was something smelling awfully “… if you do the same with my family dinner, on Christmas”.
“What in the ever-loving fucking fanficy world happened?”.
Myrcella tugged her phone away from her ear as she checked on her boiling potatoes and pumpkin all too aware that she had run out of pre-made meals and if she ate more take-out she might have as well give her poor liver an attack.
Still, her stomach was grumbling, and her soup wasn’t any way close to being done, seeing as she had just come back from closing the clinic after having stayed a whole other hour to talk with Aemond about their Christmas plan.
And obviously on the way home, she had informed her past roommates – and now best friends – about what had happened.
“… I swear to God, Saera, if you don’t lower your volume” Isabella’s calm voice reeked through the receiver as Myrcella said screw it and put the whole conversation on speaker as she went to try to find anything in her empty pantry “… but yeah… that does seem out of a romance book”.
“Well, I don’t read romance books” Saera shot out as Myrcella reached an old pack of chips that turned out to have an expired a year ago “… and in my world, that is called a fake-dating fanfic with twenty-five thousand words and a happy epilogue, which is… good for you, Myrcella”.
“Yeah, if he doesn’t turn out to be a serial killer” Isabella butted in, as she always did being the older among them and the most rational “… do you want me to ask Harwin to run a check on him?”.
“I don’t think so” Myrcella muttered as she considered whether the stomachache that she’d get from eating stale food would be worthy easing the pain of her hunger in that moment “… I mean… he doesn’t even have social media, so I don’t know if you’d find anything”.
“Alright, let me stop you right then, that’s a red flag” Saera butted in again, as she always did and Myrcella heard distinctively the clatter of her hands against the computer, which made her giggle as she could imagine her nose scrunched up and eyebrows tensed as she wrote a piece of code over and over “… like… who doesn’t have social medias, nowadays?”.
“I just have LinkedIn” Isabella replied with annoyance in his tone as Myrcella raised the intensity of the fire and threw away the old bag of chips “… I mean… still, I agree with Saera that is sketchy, like…”.
“He is an esteemed costumer of the clinic”.
Myrcella wouldn’t have certainly told them that during their first meeting he had insulted her calling her unqualified, but it wasn’t like she was lying considering that not only with time both she and Maera had grown fonder of the boy and his affection for his dog, but he had also donated to a few of the charity events.
Much more money than Myrcella could fathom he did with his work at a publishing house, but the saying went that you didn’t throw back gifts.
“… you know who was thought to be an esteemed member of society, Myrcella?” Saera questioned her rhetorically as she threw salt in the water, wondering whether she had already or not “… Ted Bundy”.
“You need to stop with the true crime series” Isabella commented, and from the light movement of papers around Myrcella could only guess that as always, she had brought her case home with her, much to Harwin’s enjoyment for her workaholic ways “… I am telling you that I work in the justice system and oftentimes all those things are exaggerated…”.
“You know how many women die because they get told that they are acting exaggeratedly?”.
“Girls, I… don’t mean to stop your riveting talks, but I just called you to tell you how such a crazy thing happened and not to receive your thoughts about my pitiful excuse of a life”.
In all honesty it was almost a principle of their friendship: not to judge the other.
Isabella came from a family that didn’t listen to her often as Myrcella, all too prone to criticizing her when she failed, while Saera hadn’t ever grown up into a true family and most of the time, she had to do with what went on not to talk about the fact that she had built herself from scratch.
They didn’t judge each other, but they knew that they could count on the other.
“I am just saying that you need to be careful with this type of things, ‘Cella” now Saera’s tone was much softer, although her usual sarcasm hadn’t disappeared “… but yeah, I honestly don’t think that what is happening is real… it’s just… it just belongs in a fanfic!”.
“I keep ignoring what a fanfic is” Isabella muttered “… but yeah… I agree about your safety Myrcella, you send us your address, understood? And we come and get you the time that you send us a message, alrightie?Or if you don’t answer our messages in ten minutes!”.
“You know I love you, guys, right?”.
Myrcella felt the need to say it out loud, both for her and both for them: it had been such a long time since she had been allowed to effectively let out her feelings even more since her aunt’s health had started to worsen.
“Of course, dearie”.
“Myrcella, we aren’t fucking stupid”.
Well, she did love them a whole lot.
“So, how bad of an idea does this whole thing seem?”.
Now, she did allow them to judge her all they wanted and much to her concern she was met with silence.
“… I am just going to say that I think it’s beautiful that a boy has asked you on a date” Isabella started.
“It technically isn’t a date”.
“… although it is kind of weird that you are bringing him to your family to meet before even going on a true one” her friend finished as the moving around of papers restarted.
“… well, we aren’t… like… dating or trying to for the matter”.
It was a strictly business proposal.
At best a quid pro quo.
‘You know the whole situation about being the single child?’ Aemond had uttered as they drank the awful coffee from the coffee machine at the clinic ‘… you aren’t the only victim of it, during the holiday season’.
‘Did you ever get put at the kids’ table because ‘apparently there wasn’t enough space at the grown-ups one’?’ Myrcella had asked him as she grimaced at the dirty water she drank ‘… because it has happened to me… twice’.
‘Oh, sweetheart, I got told that I should try this new Christian dating app’ and maybe Myrcella might have ignored the whole true meaning of the phrase for that ‘sweetheart’ ‘… by my own mother’.
So, the plan was easy: Aemond would pretend to be her boyfriend at her dinner and Myrcella would pretend to be her girlfriend at his dinner.
Perfect.
Aside from a fact.
‘Are you sure that your parents won’t be disappointed?’ Myrcella had asked Aemond ‘… I mean… I am a veterinary at a clinic… nothing fancy’.
And much to her utter surprise Aemond had just looked like she had just insulted his mother.
‘Myrcella, you are literal one of the few people that doesn’t make me want to strangle myself when I talk to them, not to talk about the fact that you are a veterinary… at one of the clinics in the country’.
Alright, alright, ego boosted.
“Ok, you are telling us all of this and denying that you’ll end up married with three dogs by next year?” Saera shot back as she finished the whole conversation “… Myrcella, the Nile is a river in Egypt, you are in a fucking fanfiction!”.
“Can we go back to the part when he said that you are the only person that doesn’t make him want to strangle himself?” Isabella butted in with worry in her voice.
“Romantic, isn’t it”.
“More like creepy” her older friend replied “… so yeah, I am running that check and you are sharing your location”.
“Of course, mom”.
“But in all honesty…” and Isabella lowered her voice as if she was about to say something in utter confidence and somehow Myrcella leaned in closer to the phone as if they were again in the same room and not countries apart “… I am just picturing your bitch of a sister’s face when you’ll walk into with the hottest guy on the universe”.
“Why do you think that he is the hottest guy in the universe?”.
“Because you, my dear ‘Cella, are the hottest woman in the universe” well, wasn’t this day a continuous occasion to learn just how much she could flush “… and if you deny this, I swear I am taking the first flight back home and…”.
“Alright, alright, I… my soup is boiling” which definitely wasn’t but she couldn’t stand another lesson in why ‘she should own up to the fact that she was a bad bitch’ “… it was nice to have your opinion on something I have already set my mind upon, so ahem… same time next week…?”.
“Yeah, sweetie, and don’t forget the messages and location”.
“Oh Isabella, no need to be so dramatic, maybe the most choking that he’ll do is the one on his dic…”.
“And that’s my cue to close this talk” Isabella muttered, although it was obvious that she was grinning from ear-to-ear “… but seriously guys, I love you”.
“Love you, too, worrywart” Myrcella mumbled “… and love you, hacker”.
“Love you, mom” Saera replied and then added “… love you, too, bad bitch”.
And the conversation clicked off and right as her soup started to boil, Myrcella felt the tears exit her eyes.
Myrcella was nervous.
Maybe this had been a mistake.
Maybe she could message Aemond and tell him that she was sorry, but she was going to run out of him because there was no way that this could work.
They couldn’t fool their way through a whole family dinner, although all throughout the week before such an event they had chatted and even talked on the phone, after he had given her his phone number – officially, since she could see it on Vhagar’s file, not that she would have… patient-doctor confidentiality and all that – the following day after the agreement as Maera checked on his dog.
‘Thank you for actually agreeing’ he had seemed quite bashful, as if she was the one doing him a favor and not the opposite.
‘Thank you! You have spared me from doing one more gift to my parents!’.
And he had actually insisted on giving her parents a gift, and Myrcella had basically directed him through the mall as they talked.
‘I want to be a rather memorable son-in-law’ he had joked much to her utter embarrassment ‘… gotta make the little time spent as memorable as possible’.
He had settled on a cashmere scarf for her mother and a set of pens for hierfather, which Myrcella knew were gifts that would have stroked her parents’ egos, although she didn’t still understand how Aemond could earn so much.
But her question was promptly answered as she - checking the phone for the umpteenth time in the desperate hope of Aemond cancelling this crazy plan while she waited for him in her car - noticed a new message from Isabella, who rarely initiated convos since she dreaded messages.
Hence it was an emergency.
She opened it quickly as she sent out a small look to see whether Aemond had appeared, since she had sent him a message that she had arrived to pick him up at his apartment – they had decided that she’d pick him up since she knew the road better – and received a ‘five minutes’ answer.
And in all honesty just three of those minutes had passed.
She quickly swiped through Isabella’s message, thinking that maybe she hadn’t received her locations and was panicking but surprisingly it was a photo and a link, captioned with a ‘you are going out with THE Aemond Targaryen’.
Wait, Targaryen?
Like Daemon’s surname?
Also known as the family that literally reigned over the entirety of the country through a wole generation of lawyers, economists, and politicians?
But yeah, the photo looked every inch of Aemond, although Myrcella knew for sure that he had used the name Hightower in his file for Vhagar – and it made her wonder how the hell had Harwin and Isabella managed to find that out from just his name – which was his mother’s maiden name.
She quickly clicked the link as another minute passed and quickly read the header: ‘young bachelor Aemond Targaryen disrupts family tradition of greatness to work in a small independent publishing house, with the support and blessing from his mother’.
She had just the time to read the following three lines – ‘Always distinguished and proper, Aemond was thought to be the pride and joy of his family and yet he seems to have projects of his own as he tells…’ – before a knock on the door effectively startled her and she almost smashed her head against the car horn, much to her utter embarrassment.
And as if this wasn’t embarrassing enough, Aemond looked at her as if he was trying to understand something extremely complex, before he raised his hands as if to show her, he wasn’t dangerous, showing his arms filled with various bags of different dimensions.
“Sorry, didn’t mean to startle you” he muttered, once Myrcella finally decided to unlock the door almost mechanically while she processed the fact that she had asked one of the most desired and interesting bachelor to fake-date her for the sake of avoiding awkward Christmas dinner questions “… and sorry also for being late I… was facetiming Vhagar”.
“How is she?” ask about his dog, she could do that “… is the new dosage better for her?”.
“Oh, well she is a whole new dog” he commented also much more at ease talking about this “… I swear to God, it’s like having a teenager with no bedtime”.
“Oh gods, you had a bedtime as a teenager?!”.
Well, she didn’t know shit about him.
“You didn’t?” he shot back as he put on his seatbelt once he finished adjusting the gifts in the passenger seats and such an act shouldn’t have been this sexy, as it didn’t help that he had the prettiest hands a man had ever owned.
“Nope” aunt Brenda believed in self-regolation down to a ‘t’ and had never reinforced too many rules with Myrcella, even more considering that she had always been the quiet and easy child, although her family didn’t believe such a thing.
Among the absence of rules, Myrcella had never had a bedtime and it truly showed in the fact that she didn’t have any normalcy in her sleeping schedule as one could notice from her eyebags.
“My aunt… she… she believed that I’d have learned better than staying up till late” she mused as she moved to switch on the car, all too glad for the radio playing behind to avoid the uncomfortable silence that now flooded between them.
Their conversation and chats had been much easier back at the clinic, and Myrcella had to admit that the fact that she had basically discovered that he was a celebrity didn’t help in making her feel at ease, although she was basically spilling the beans about her girlhood to him with a bit too much comfort.
“… except – as my eyebags will teel you – I never learned anything from that”.
Aemond laughed weakly at that, obviously a bit uncomfortable by the whole situation.
“My mother…”.
Oh, just one of the most influential women in the country, that Myrcella would meet the following day.
Oh fuck.
“…oh gods, she’d get so pissed with my brother for staying up till late and he’d just raise the music over her screams”.
“Oh gods, I…”.
His brother, just Aegon Targaryen, probably the most corrupted politician in the country and known for his passion for pretty girls.
How the fuck hadn’t she managed to understand who Aemond was?
Like she kept up with TV, but in the latest period she had just been extra-busy with her aunt, work and just generally avoiding her family.
“… that seems a lot”.
“Yeah, family tends to be” he muttered as he shot Myrcella a sly look to check her reaction and it took everything in her to steel her face on the road.
“… I guess that’s why we are stuck in this together” she was just able to mutter as she questioned why she hadn’t thought this through, and not just agreed because she needed desperately a cute plus one.
And Aemond was desperately handsome.
Of course, he was handsome, he came from a family of beauties!
“Just let me tell you, again, how glad I am that you accepted to also visit my family, I mean…”.
Oh gods, wasn’t he cute when he stammered through?
No, Myrcella stay focused, he purposely lied to you and withheld some very important details, such as the fact that while he’d be forced with her middle-upper class parents, she’d be handling probably one of the most influential family in the country.
She was fine.
Totally fine.
Better have those breathing exercises through before she got a ticket for driving too slowly.
“… and thank you for picking me up”.
“It’s the least I could do” Myrcella muttered “… also do you think that we should rehearse?”.
Because the sole thing that could make this more embarrassing than simply having to face one of the most influential families in the whole world, would be royally fucking up in front of them, as she forgot a specific detail about Aemond.
Oh gods, she got the same anxiety that she had when doing exams in uni.
Or being asked to read out loud.
“We met at the clinic, you helped me, and I asked your number” Aemond repeated almost mechanically, and Myrcella nodded along.
This way they had a perfect cover with her job, and it was very plausible although, knowing him as she did, she thought it rather unlikely he would have asked for her number so boldly.
He was kind of shy and Myrcella definitely liked him a whole lot more for that.
“… this is our third month together, and we didn’t speak to anybody about this because we weren’t sure whether it’d last”.
“Oh gods, that does seem like a good plot for a romance novel” Myrcella smirked trying to lighten the tension, just to realize that Aemond was looking at her with surprise “… my friend… Isabella… she has a guilty pleasure for those, kind of…”.
“My publishing house is specializing in those, actually” Aemond explained, and Myrcella listened on, since he wouldn’t often speak about his job and she hadn’t realized since they had started to slowly organize their fake dating life how little they spoke about each other’s life, focusing on Vhagar.
And how good it felt to talk with somebody about her life.
“… we are trying to settle onto a younger audience, considering they are the ones running the social medias”he explained as if it was something that was giving him a lot of grievance “… booktok and all”.
“I think it’s a good move” Myrcella praised him “… I am honestly glad that I am not doing anything organizational or branding, because I’d be found constantly posting puppies”.
“That would not be such a bad move” Aemond mumbled lightly, with a softer smile that got Myrcella to form one of her own on her lips “… I mean everybody loves puppies”.
“Much better than human babies” Myrcella piped in “… that’s what I always said, but Jacob, my nephew is the sole exception!”.
“Oh yeah, you did talk about him a whole lot” and it warmed her heart to know that Aemond remembered “… he is almost three, isn’t he?”.
“Yeah!” Myrcella jumped in “… he is the absolute cutest, calls me ‘aunt Mimi’ because he can’t pronounce the entirety of my name and when he was younger he’d use to knead my hair to get to sleep when I was babysitting him for Cassidy”.
“Cassidy as in Cassandra?” Aemond jumped in “… your older sister, right?”.
“Yeah” and then to further clarify she recounted “… it’s Cassandra, Maris, me, Ellyn and Floris”.
“Your father must have been the most worried person in the whole world” Aemond joked “… I can’t speak from experience, but dads tend to be overprotective with daughters”.
“After you get five you start to become just eager about when they’ll leave the family nest” Myrcella didn’t realize the bitterness in her tone till an awkward silence fell between them and she bit her lips as she realize that she had spoken the wrong thing “… you’ll do fine”.
She didn’t know why she felt the need to comfort him, when he should be the one doing such a thing but it was obvious even with a quick look that Aemond wasn’t at its most comfortable and Myrcella couldn’t blame him considering that as much as she was rightful in freaking out about meeting her fake-in-laws, he was also having a similar experience.
With complete strangers.
And an almost-stranger in the seat beside him.
“By the way… I…”.
He was red in the face and Myrcella was glad that a red light allowed her to turn to him to take in the sight that a flushed Aemond Targaryen was: all pinkish cheeks and scrunched up nose and tense eyebrows, as his eyepatch matched the perfect shade of the greenish sweater he was wearing.
“… if we get asked to kiss, what…?”.
“Well, I…”.
oh shit, why hadn’t she thought about that?
There was no way that she’d kiss him.
There was no way that she’d develop feelings for such a pretty boy after a kiss.
And with everything going on in her life, that was the last thing that she needed.
“… guess you should go for it”.
Oh gods, could she be more pathetic.
“I wouldn’t want to be disrespectful…”.
“Oh, no, you totally wouldn’t be, believe me”.
Thank God the green light came on and she was allowed to move again and focus on the road.
“… I’ll keep that in mind” Aemond was just able to mutter as an awkward silence filled with bad Christmas music filled the car and Myrcella was all too happy to focus all her attention on the outside world, as she tried her best for a smooth journey to Cassandra’s home, where the dinner would be hosted.
To which they arrived taking too much time as she was all too happy to park the car beside what looked like Ellyn’s vintage car that she had gotten for her eighteenth birthday, exiting quickly.
She didn’t even shoot a look at Aemond to check whether he was about to exit or if he needed a hand with the presents.
The coldness of the night was, in that moment, the most pleasant sensation as it brought her lucidity about the fact that she had thrown herself into a mess, but now she had to do everything possible to go through with this.
To make her entire family believe that a ten like Aemond had picked a four like her.
“Myrcella” oh fuck, his name sounded so good on his tongue “… are you alright?”.
A completely normal thing to say to somebody crunched down on the ground, trying to regain her ability to have a working brain.
“Yes, yeah!” she rushed to his side as she tried to get a few bags off him, as he just pushed them up his head much to belittle her smaller height as he smiled like an asshole.
A hot asshole.
“… I can handle” he muttered softly much to Myrcella’s embarrassment as she turned to knock on the door, but before she could do so, she heard a scurrying of feet a signal that they had all been waiting for her at the door.
Not a good sign.
So, she pushed her hand into Aemond’s, much to his utter surprise, although he squeezed it back immediately, as she huffed out a simple:
‘Ready?’.
‘As I’ll ever be’.
And she turned to him, because as much as she was in a whole mess because of his lies, she couldn’t deny that he was probably doing much more than many had ever done for her and she wanted to desperately tell him ‘thank you’ but right in that moment the door opened.
“Welcome, Myrcella and… who are you?”.