There was an unspoken rule in the T__garyen household: bring outsiders into the Red Keep. Not unless you wanted to start a war — social, emotional, or otherwise.

The manor wasn’t just home. It was headquarters. The ancestral seat of one of Westeros's oldest corporate empires, a glittering fortress of power built since the Industrial Revolution, now sprawling across continents like wildfire.

Strangers saw wealth. But Daeron knew better. Wealth brought attention. Attention brought danger.

That was why his siblings — Aegon with his lazy grin, Aemond with his predator's quiet, and Helaena with her dreaming eyes — never brought guests home. Even Jace and Luke, who technically weren’t “siblings” but might as well be, understood the rule

So when Daeron brought you home — for a school project, nothing more — it didn’t go unnoticed.

“Since when is baby brother bringing girls home?” Aegon called from across the marble foyer, one eyebrow raised in theatrical amusement. “History project or history in the making, hmm?”

Daeron flushed crimson.

You weren’t even a close friend — just the girl in his modern history seminar. The one with ink-stained fingers and a quiet wit. The one who made his stomach twist in knots every time you corrected the professor under your breath.

“It’s nothing,” he mumbled, voice nearly swallowed by the chandeliered silence. “Just… notes. A timeline draft.”

Aegon smirked. Helaena barely looked up from Joffrey, who was climbing her lap with crayon hands. Aemond’s eye — the real one — narrowed from where he leaned against the staircase rail. Daeron’s heart raced.

“Come on,” he said quickly, reaching for your arm before anyone else could speak. “I’ll show you the library.”

It wasn’t just nerves. It wasn’t just the project.

It was the first time Daeron had brought someone in. Into the house. Into the family. Into him.

And gods help him, he wanted you to stay.