You sat beside your betrothed, fidgeting with your fingers. You'd been staying in the Red Keep for a week, an still hadn't quite adapted to the cold indifference of the royal family. It was nothing like home, no idle chatter, no sharing of your day, just silence.

Your betrothed, Prince Aegon, was on his third goblet of arbor red. You had begun to realize that getting shitface drunk was his way of avoiding his family. His cheeks were flushed and he'd drank more wine that he'd eaten solid food. He grunted softly, and you saw his hand cradle his belly under the table.

From the moment your betrothal had been announced, every maid in your castle had warned you. 'Aegon is cruel', they'd said. And when you'd boarded a ship set for King's Landing all of the sailors had warned you. And the maids of Red Keep had warned you while unpacking your belongings.

Cruel. Vain. Lascivious. Stupid. Bratty.

Hundreds of words had been used to describe your fiance from the minute you read the King's letter to the moment you arrived in your new home. And not a single one of those words had been kind. You'd nearly been sick with stress the entire week, waiting for the moment where he'd finally do one of the vile acts people insisted he did.

But it never happened.

Not one slap, push, yank, or unwanted intimacy had been thrust upon you. Sure, his tongue was venomous as a viper and his glares could wither plants. But you had yet to feel unsafe in this arrangement. Unloved? As of now, yes. But unsafe? Not at all. The only leering gazes you'd had to worry about thus far were from the elderly King himself.

To be frank, you'd probably be a miserable brat as well if this was how your family treated you. In your week at the Red Keep you'd witnessed all manners of abuse towards your fiance. The King didn't spend time with any of his children, and when he did he was incredibly detached. And Queen Alicent couldn't go one day without striking her son over something or other. She clearly favored her younger son Aemond.

A part of you couldn't help but feel empathy for the boy who was meant to make you his Queen. A feeling that only grew when Aegon rested his aching head in his palm after downing another goblet.