3 Family

[ 278 AC, Red Keep ]

[ Viserys pov ]

Am I a hypocrite? Well... who cares. It is kinda part of my privileges as royalty to do whatever I want. After all, by what right to the sheep judge the dragon?

Swinging my wooden sword, I moved in Ser Barristan's direction and hit him in the knee, hoping to throw him off balance or something, however I greatly overestimated my strength, and the man remained standing like a statue.

"I already told you I can't teach you, young prince." said Ser Barristan as he stared at me while shaking his head. "You are too young, besides it is the job of the master-at-arms to teach you, not the members of the Kingsguard."

I stared at him for a moment while deciding how to convince him. It was getting annoying to be honest, having a member of the Kingsguard around me at all times. For one, there was not a second during the day where I was unsupervised, which meant I couldn't practise neither my fire bending nor my previous skills. On the other hand, I knew they weren't loyal to me, but rather to my father, so they didn't go against his wishes to obey mine, which left me in a rather awkward situation of not being able to actually get anything I want unless I managed to ask it in a way that matched my father's wishes.

"Come on..." I muttered, staring at him with a pitiful face. "You know that father won't let me receive training from the master-at-arms yet, so why don't you teach me something? Just a few pointers..."

I would be lying if I said Ser Barristan was an interesting man, none of the members of the Kingsguard were. They might have interesting stories, but all they did was stand there in silence while occasionally telling me not to do stuff, and having them change every moon meant I didn't have enough time to convince any of them to ignore me breaking the rules of my father.

"You know I can't do that." said Barristan. "Your father would not appreciate it."

Ugh, I swear everything around here has to do with my father, which isn't a surprise but it is rather annoying. I am already two years old, or as they call it here, two namedays old, however I haven't even left Maegor's Holdfast, which is the safest tower in the Red Keep.

I am literally like a princess locked up in a tower, and I am rather tired of it.

My eyes widened slightly as realisation dawned on me.

'I... am Rapunzel!' I thought.

We both have pretty hair and crazy people have us locked up in a tower.

With a sigh, I sat down on the floor and stared at the ceiling. "Well, tell me a story then." I said, placing my wooden sword next to me and laying down, deciding to no longer think about the similarities between me and the princesses of Disney.

"I'm afraid you already know all my stories." replied Barristen.

Well, that's probably true, after all the only thing even remotely entertaining I get to do is ask servants to tell me stories, and among them the Kingsguard have the best since they have travelled the most. I end up asking them to tell me the same stories over and over again just to distract myself for a while.

The problem with their stories however is that they skip the parts of drinking and killing, which is basically all a soldier does aside from fucking, but I really didn't want to hear those parts so I won't complain.

"Then tell me something about the realm." I said, moving my head slowly and staring at him for a moment, before retuning my attention to the ceiling. "Or the castle then. I saw that today there are less servants here in Maegor's Holdfast, where did they go to?"

Ser Barristan flinched for a second, which didn't escape my eye, before replying. "Today arrives Lord Tywin Lannister, Hand of the King, and his daughter Cersei Lannister." he said, which made me narrow my eyes slightly.

Perhaps that was true, but why did he flinch then? It doesn't make sense... besides they could have just hired more servants if they wanted a good welcome for the Lannisters.

Most likely my father burned a couple of servants alive, so now they are using the staff from this area of the Red Keep to finish the preparations for their arrival...

"Can I go meet them?" I asked, knowing full well what the answer was going to be.

"Sigh, you know you can't go, young prince." replied Barristan.

"Hmph, whatever..." I muttered under my breath before standing up. "Let's go to my mother's room."

Barristan simply followed me in silence as we made our way to the room of my mother, where she was resting calmly.

"Hey mother!" I said loudly once I arrived at her chambers, bringing her attention and the attention of the servants as well to me.

"Hello, Viserys." she replied in a happy tone as she hugged me. "What can I do for you today?"

"Well, I'm bored..." I said in a low tone, placing my head on her lap. "And Barristan doesn't want to teach me how to use a sword."

Ser Barristan simply sighed from the side, however my mom chuckled, amused by my words.

"Well of course, it isn't his job to do that after all." she said calmly while patting my head, moving her fingers across my white hair.

My mom was kind, at least to me. She did her best to keep me away from my father's mad episodes, and in a way shielded me from his occasional anger. It was very much unlike Ursa, who left me at the hands of Ozai and focused on Zuko instead, so without even noticing I found myself caring for her. My new mom wasn't perfect, but I knew she genuinely cared about me, and in a way it made me strangely happy.

"Hmm, tell me a story mother..." I said, closing my eyes while enjoying her warm touch.

She chuckled at my request before telling me one of the usual stories. They were always about dragons and the previous kings who rode them, however I didn't mind.

Slowly, I found myself comparing my new family to my old one. Both Aerys and Ozai were madmen, however whereas Ozai treated me like a weapon, Aerys treats me like a treasure. Ozai had me fight the best benders and go on the hardest missions, while Aerys wants me locked up and safe, shielded from everything that could harm me no matter how unrealistic it is.

Then there was Rhaella and Ursa, and here is where the biggest difference appeared. Ursa casted me aside and focused on protecting Zuko because she thought Zuko needed her more than me, and while she was certainly right, just because I didn't need her as much as Zuko didn't mean I didn't need her at all and so, in the process of protecting her son she left me defenceless and alone in front of a man who only knew how to burn his enemies.

Rhaella on the other hand is different, she doesn't seem to care wether I need her or not, instead she just follows me around because she wants to, she tells me stories because it makes her happy, and she protects me because she loves me.

The last family member I have is Rhaegar, who like Zuko was... well, an idiot. Neither Rhaegar nor Zuko actually cared about their kingdom, one was focused on his honour and the other is focused on a prophecy. Heck, they would both successfully throw their kingdoms into chaos, after all I am sure that once I died because of Zuko the fire nation began suffering from internal struggles.

Speaking of Rhaegar, I have yet to meet him.

"Hey mother, when will I meet brother Rhaegar?" I asked her once she finished her story.

For a moment she had an awkward expression as she stared at me.

"Well... your father said it would be best if you two met once you are a little bit older." she replied, though it was obvious that it was a lie.

Thinking back, Aerys and Rhaegar had a pretty rocky relationship to say the least and, while I am pretty sure it shouldn't be particularly bad at the moment since it is too early, I wouldn't be surprised if father had already started doubting him or something. and forbade him from meeting me.