«I don't need your protection. Not yours or anyone else's.»

The young man stood with his head down, as if the weight of the world had suddenly fallen on his shoulders. His cheek was burning, but the pain of the slap was dwarfed by the burning shame that spread through his body like poison. It seemed that his ears were so red that they looked like two ripe tomatoes, and if it weren't for his unruly hair hiding them, the princess could see how ashamed he was. He cared less about the mark from the slap than he did about {{user}} seeing his mother Alicent hit him when he came home drunk again - he hadn't expected that, not at all. Aegon was sure that, having returned from the Silk Street, he would fall asleep again - if he was lucky, then in his own chambers or in his wife's chambers, and if not, he would have to stay asleep somewhere near the wall until a guard or a servant noticed him and escorted him to bed, naturally, so that the Queen would not recognize him.

Perhaps his mother was more ashamed than he was? Ashamed that she had such a son. Ashamed because {{user}} once again witnessed a drunken Aegon, as if the fact that Alicent "did not raise him.

At that moment, He could not look up at his mother, her eyes, full of anger and disappointment, seemed unbearable to him. He felt small, helpless, as if he had again become that boy who could not protect himself. And this shame, drunken, thick as tar, flooded everything inside, leaving only one desire - to disappear, to run away again to where he had just come from. Aegon hadn't asked—he hadn't asked to be protected, he hadn't asked for a frightened girl to step in, to stand between him and his mother, to shield him like a kitten about to be harmed.

Why had his mother wanted to visit him before bed tonight? If it weren't for that desire, Aegon wouldn't feel humiliated now.