Chapter Text
Rhaegon was seven months old when he stood up. A few days later he took his first steps. He fell immediately, of course, but it was his first step towards independence. Aegon watched him with wide eyes the whole time. His little brother was adorable. Still annoying, though.
His mother began visiting them more. He learned that she had taken a while to recover from giving birth to them. Aegon didn’t really know the significance of her, because he was seven months old and they had barely seen her. Neither of them were all that attached to the young woman.
But Rhaegon knew this woman was his mother. Could understand how that meant something. His past told him that her absence was strange. Aegon didn’t care because he didn’t know that he should care. Rhaegon did.
So he eyed his mother suspiciously as she watched them from her seat in a stuffed chair. Rhaegon was giving Aegon toys to inspect. They were sitting on the rug together while their nursemaids flitted about in the back of the room.
Rhaegon’s mother didn’t seem to know what to do but watch them.
She was beautiful. Stunning. Her hair was a rich, deep auburn, falling to her waist in ringlets. Her eyes were a doe brown, her nose small and upturned, and her skin pale and unblemished. Her deep green, flowing dress highlighted her beauty to an inspiring degree.
She looked very young, maybe eighteen or so. Rhaegon knew that he was too young, for the social standards of his past life.
She looked tired.
Rhaegon sighed at Aegon, who blinked at him stupidly. He used his brother’s pearly-silver head to grab himself up, topping the giggling baby in the process. Rhaegon took several wobbly steps towards his mother.
She was staring at him with her mouth open in shock. He stumbled into her dress and grasped on tightly to keep himself steady, fucking newborn balance.
Rhaegon blinked at his mom. She blinked back.
“Egg,” he said, pointing at his brother. “Egg!”
It had been his first word, spoken in secret between him and his annoying baby. His second had been Rhaenyra. He’d make his mother work to earn his third word, he decided.
Alicent stared at him. “Egg? Do you mean Aegon?”
Rhaegon grinned and nodded. He grabbed her picked-at, raw fingers and tugged.
“Egg!”
She stood up uncertainly and let him lead her to his stupid baby bro. He plopped down and patted the rug beside him pointedly. She sank down, her rich, forest-green dress falling beside her.
Rhaegon grinned at his curious Egg. He pointed to their mom. “Egg!”
Aegon looked to where he was pointing obediently. His big, dark purple eyes blinked.
Rhaegon scooted forward, “Egg,” he caught his brother’s attention. Once those big purple eyes were back on him, he waved his hand at Alicent.
Aegon watched him attentively. Rhaegon grabbed his pudgy little hand and waved it at Alicent for him.
“Egg!” He urged, and let go of his baby bro’s hand.
Egg waved at Alicent and looked back at him questioningly.
Rhaegon beamed from ear to ear and fell forward to give his baby a big hug. Aegon squealed in delight and wrapped his arms around him back immediately. Rhaegon gave his cute but still-annoying baby bro a big, fat, kiss on his pudgy cheek, making giggles erupt from his Egg.
“Egg, Egg, Egg!” He chanted approvingly.
Aegon waved at Alicent again, and Rhaegon nodded and laughed and hugged and smooched his cute- I mean annoying- fat little cheek.
He looked at Alicent proudly, cuz look at my adorable baby bro! He wanted to crow at her. Isn’t he so sweet?
She was smiling ever-so-slightly, her big brown eyes wide with wonder.
“That was wonderful, Rhaegon,” she murmured softly.
He grinned.
He had Aegon show their mother all of their pretty toys. Every time Aegon did something good, like waving or asking for a toy back with his hands instead of screaming, Rhaegon gave him a kiss and a hug.
Being glued to a pretty darn cute baby's side 24-7 had him feeling things, alright? Especially since they didn’t really have anyone to raise them, per se.
Rhaegon didn’t like their situation very much. Their parents were gone. They were raised by servants who fed them, clothed them, entertained them, and then left them. They offered them comfort sometimes, but the twins didn’t know any of their names. They knew their two nursemaids by their faces, but the other servants rotated out before they could get used to them.
Rhaegon… was so, so glad he had a twin.
He knew he would have been lonely, otherwise. They were watched over by distant, nervous servants all day, and their nursemaids visited them at night to feed them, but they weren’t hugged, kissed, or talked to. They were distracted with toys if they cried.
Rhaegon knew he was the older brother. Not only that, but he knew he’d lived before. He was even older than he looked, through his memories, if not his body.
He felt responsible for his Egg.
So he was. He put it upon himself to be the person for Egg that they didn’t have. His family, his brother, his teacher. Rhaegon had a goddamn baby brother and he’d be damned if he let Egg be raised by distant servants unable to be too close to them.
Besides. As annoying as Egg could be, he was really goddamn cute. Once that pinched, purple, newborn look had faded, Aegon was a freaking cutie patootie.
He had dark purple eyes, pale, silver curls, and chubby pink cheeks. He had tiny, baby fingers and toes and his giggle was high-pitched and uncontrollable. His nose scrunched when he was angry and his eyes got all teary when he was sad- which always happened when Rhaegon was on the other side of the room for too long.
So yeah. His annoying little bro was fucking adorable. Sue him.
He’d been teaching Aegon to ask for things with his hands. Food was asked for by putting his fingers in his mouth, and toys were asked for by reaching towards them with grabby hands. Funny enough, Egg reached towards him with grabby hands the most, his signal to come closer to him.
The incessant screaming and crying had died down so much after getting those little signals through to his brother. Now he could see the cuteness under all that annoyingness.
He was really hoping Alicent would see it too. Rhaegon wanted his brother to know their mom.
Egg was showing off his black dragon figurine to Alicent, who was making the appropriate wows and oohs at the sight. Egg looked happy. Rhaegon was happy too.
He stood up and grabbed Alicent’s pretty hair. She blinked at him and smiled at that tiny turn of her lips. He smiled back.
People in his last life would have killed for hair like hers, he thought vaguely as he ran his chubby baby fingers through her ringlets gently. It was such a rich, chestnut red, but could be confused with brown as well.
He remembered his crusty dad and blanched.
He really, really hoped he got his mom’s hair.
One of his hands went up to his own curls. Egg’s hair was a looser curl, but he knew he had ringlets from the feel of them. Alicent watched him and blinked.
“You have my curls,” she told him with amusement. “But your sire’s hair color. Though, perhaps a bit more gold than silver,” she mused.
He grinned shyly at her and pulled his fingers out of his hair. Then a thought came to him, and he pointed to his eyes.
His mom blinked again, this time in surprise.
“Do- do you want to know what color your eyes are?” She asked unsurely.
Rhaegon grinned and nodded quickly.
His mom looked at him strangely but answered his question. “They are a very pale lilac. I can’t say I have seen eyes like yours. However, my father told me that your great-uncle, Aemon Targaryen, had lilac eyes as well.”
Rhaegon hummed and thought about that. His great uncle, huh? Well, it was nice to know he looked like someone else in the family, and that person wasn’t King Nosy. His eyes wandered to Egg, who was playing with his dragon toys.
Egg had very pale gold hair that looked silver in the sunlight. His eyes were the same dark violet that Rhaenyra had.
Rhaegon wondered why they had to be born to the freaky ghost family. What if his cute egg grew up and looked like King Crusty?!
Alicent left a bit later when Egg started fussing. Their nursemaids stepped in and Alicent stepped out, walking out the door they had never left as Egg started shrieking. He probably needed a change, or to eat, or just wanted to be a little brat.
Needed to breastfeed and piss and shit himself were things Rhaegon Did Not Think About. He had a list. Those were at the very top of the Rhaegon Doesn’t Think About list.
It was quite genius of him, he thought as Aegon was seen too and he could stare at their pretty dragon figures.
He did think about all the dragon toys, blankets, curtains, and tapestries in their room though. He wondered what that was all about.
—-:—-
Aegon was ten months old when he stood up for the first time.
Rhaegon had gaped at him, stunned. Egg had pulled himself up using the big stuffed chair and looked around immediately. Once those big purple eyes found Rhaegon, Egg’s nose crinkled angrily and he took a single step towards him before falling immediately on the fluffy rugs all over their room.
Rhaegon shrieked and ran clumsily over to his confused baby bro. Egg had stood up!! Oh my god?!
Rhaegon peppered his giggly brother with smooches and hugs and tickled his stomach until he was rolling away from him desperately. The rest of the day was Rhaegon helping Aegon stand up and then walking backward, holding Egg’s hands as he learned how to walk. His baby bro quickly bored of it, so they started playing with their favorite dragons.
Rhaegon’s favorite was the nightly black dragon with big wings and red eyes. Aegon’s favorite was a bright red dragon with golden eyes. They pretended to fly around their room with the dragons in hand, swooping and diving and making roars and growls with their voices. Rhaegon managed to get Aegon standing and taking baby steps in the game, which was a total win.
Up next was making Aegon say his name, which happened a mere month later.
“Gah!” Egg said.
Rhaegon looked over from the interesting swirled painted on their cage’s bars. His baby brother was staring at him, his eyes almost black in the early morning darkness. His nose scrunched up angrily.
“Aega!” His baby brother said.
Rhaegar gaped at him. He crawled over to his blinking brother and pounced on him. He wrapped his stumpy arms around Egg’s fat head and sniffed. He blinked away the tears gathering in his eyes.
“Aega,” he repeated proudly.
“Aega!” His baby brother giggled happily. “Aega, Aega, Aega!”
Rhaegon burned the memory into his brain. He swore right then and there he wouldn’t forget this moment, not ever.
He also swore to always be there for his baby brother. His Egg.
—-:—-