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If someone had asked you those years ago when you were still a maiden yet to be wed if Aemond Targaryen would be sitting in the secluded patch of grass in the royal gardens having a picnic with you and your children on a sunny afternoon you might have laughed at the prospect.
As cordial as Aemond had been even before you were betrothed and merely two people who attended the same certain events hosted by the King and Queen, he had never been one for slowing down. You would have said all Aemond loved to do in the afternoon was train with Ser Cole or perhaps spend time in the library reading.
But out in the gardens? Where everyone would see and perhaps stare at him? Oh no, you would never find him there.
He had once told you after you were betrothed that he disliked the gardens because people tended to… stare, to say the least. Perhaps in the secluded part of the library or in the training yard no one cared to pointedly stare at his scar or eyepatch. In the gardens this was not the case.
And yet here he was with you and your two daughters. Aerea past her seventh name day and Daena past her fifth. Your eldest sat besides yourself and Aemond with a sketchbook in her lap as she drew the bush not far from your family’s spot in the shaded patch of grass. You smiled at the sight, her face scrunched up so slightly in concentration. She would suck in her small cheeks when she did this and purse her lips in focus, making her look much like Aemond. Her hair so silver highlighted by the sun and the breeze that drew wisps of her hair from her braid made her look even more like him.
Besides her in Aemond’s lap was Daena with a cluster of violet and blue colored flowers in her lap. Her head of silver hair was bowed down in concentration as she threaded them together in the shape of a crown. She always insisted on wearing her hair down, detesting braids of any kind. Gods forbid you keep her hair out of her face. Sometimes when her Aunt Helaena persuaded her she would have her hair braided around her head like a halo if only because that is how Helaena always wore it. But now with her hair down in its natural state you could see how her curls that looked striking like your good mother’s went past her shoulders and were picked up in the breeze.
Aemond insisted their silver locks and violet eyes that looked just like his did not make them look like him at all. Frequently he said they had all of you, your nose, your lips, your eye shape. “A good thing,” he said to you once in your chambers as the sky set in deep oranges and pinks in the early eve. From his seat in the chair by the fire he had a strikingly calm and fond energy about him. “They’ll be as beautiful as their mother.”
Now, his book was long forgotten besides him as it laid in the grass. You were no better as your embroidery was in your lap, the needle having not been picked up in quiet some time. The cane by your side had been placed on the grass was a reminder of how long you had been here.
Daena beamed as she lifted up the finished crown in her hands to examine it. She turned around in her father’s lap to face him. Silently she lifted the crown of purple and blue flowers to Aemond.
“For me?” he asked her, gently moving his hands in front of her.
She grined toothily. “Blue poppies and purple aster,” she looked down at her flowers as if to check she got the color and names right. It would not surprise you as she was as meticulous as Aemond was. She looked back up at him and looked more giddy than before. “Just like your eyes Kepa!”
Years ago when you had first come to court you would have thought Aemond tempermental at best. The very first rumor you had heard from another lady your age was that he had screamed at a servant when she saw him without his eyepatch on when bringing something to his chambers. As you saw him with your daughter, tilting his head down so she could place it on his head, you were glad you never paid attention to those rumors. His hands were strong and could kill but he only held the ones he loved with gentleness and loved them with reverence.
The people of court could never know how much Aemond loved his family.
He looked over to where his elder daughter sat on the grass beside him, finishing the sketch of flowers she had been working on. The charcoals of beautiful vivid colors he had gifted her from Essos had gone to good use as the deep pink of the flower came to life again on her sketchbook. “How do I look?” he asked her with a soft smile.
For the first time that afternoon the concentrated look of sucked cheeks and pursed lips disappeared and she gasped in wonder, reaching the gingerly touch a blue flower. “Ao jurnegon gevie, Kepa.” You look beautiful, Father.
Was it the reverence for her father that made him smile or was it simply that he was with his family on an afternoon of such bliss? Maybe it was something that he did not think he deserved when he was younger and always thinking of the legacy in histories instead of the people around him. Aemond reached out and stroked the side of her head lovingly. “Good,” he chuckled approvingly. “Your valyrian improves every day, jorrāelagon zaldrīzes.” Dearest dragon.
At her father’s approval Aerea beamed much like her little sister, though hers was remarkably less toothy. It was a beam of a smile all the same. Daena went back to making another flower crown which you suspected would be yours. After that she would undoubtedly make her big sister one too.
Your little family was content here in the shade and as another breeze picked up Daena’s silver curls, you had no intention of picking up the embroidery in your lip. Glancing at Aemond who you found already looking at you with a soft, loving smile, you returned his smile and knew that like you, he had no intention of picking up his book either.
If some ladies and lords in the court caught sight of the fearsome Aemond Targaryen with his family they made no move to make it known. Years ago Aemond might have wanted to avenge any slight, even that of a whisper about him that was mere gossip, but now he seemed to care little for that.