Chapter Text
Alicent hates airports.
The omnipresent stress of disorganized fathers who fear getting there five hours before their flight is already being late. The helpful staff jumping at her side the second she begins searching for the gate and dares to appear lost on the way. The children running around parentless, the babies too young to travel who might end up sitting right behind her in the plane and ruin the seven hours of anxiety she plans on experiencing, the adults who keep their lights on to read during the night and blind sleep from her eyes.
The planes themselves, horrific gigantic machines she’s supposed to trust a random person she’s never met nor checked the competencies of not to run to the ground and kill her.
We need this, Alicent. A week of peace, away from everything, just the two of us. When was the last time we flew away and had fun?
Alicent had agreed on a whim - and possibly because of the pinot noir already well absorbed by her system, courtesy of Rhaenyra’s overly expensive stock gifted by business partners and clients - and as she makes her way to her best friend through the halls of the airport, she begins to deeply regret every event that led her to pick that decision.
The next eight hours Alicent will spend being absolutely insufferable should teach her a lesson - and enact a vengeance bloody enough to sate her thirst.
“Ah, here you are. Thought you’d bail on me and never come.” Rhaenyra brings Alicent into an embrace in the middle of the hall, ignoring the crowd flowing around them. She tries not to return it but she fails once the familiar warmth of home surrounds her. Even after twenty years of ups and downs - mostly ups, she’ll give them that - Alicent doesn’t think anyone will ever give hugs as comforting as those produced by Rhaenyra. Allow her to put her irritation to the side for those brief four seconds before she starts complaining all over again.
“The idea might have been considered to great lengths but the love I once held for my best friend convinced me not to betray her.” She pauses and pretends to look around. “By the way, have you seen her? She shouldn’t be too far.”
“Asshole.”
“Right. You said that.” Rhaenyra rolls her eyes but a grin remains perched on her lips. She grabs Alicent’s small suitcase from her hand, ever the frustrating alpha - or just a naturally kind person with muscles to flex around, but Alicent is frustrated, in case anyone forgot about that part - and starts walking toward the two seats she reserved for them next to the boarding area.
After thirty minutes of catching up - about the new deal Rhaenyra just closed with a Dorne start-up she had her eye on for a month and the perfume Alicent invested in with pretty golden flowers spurting from the bottle and the ugly brown boots Aegon begged her to gift him for his fourth half-birthday - they finally start boarding and Alicent’s anxiety ignites an ache in her chest again.
Humans are not meant to fly, eternally defying the laws of nature and bending them to fit their narrative. The images her brain sends to her eyes belong in horror films, bloody bodies and drowned paleness, and she swallows an incoming sickness down, only feeding it fear further.
“Where are we seated?”
“Um, ‘round the front.” Rhaenyra is still carrying their two suitcases, Alicent holding onto their passports.
This trip being Rhaenyra’s idea, she also offered to pay for it in full. Alicent lives a comfortable life in a cute little townhouse with Aegon who’s currently staying with his grandfather, and there’s very little she could wish for. But Rhaenyra’s life could not exactly be described with similar vocabulary. It’s extravagant and shamefully ignorant of it, filled with more money than she can conceptualize, and no amount of quarreling managed to convince her to not pay for all of it.
Alicent should have seen the first-class duo seats coming, but after so long, Rhaenyra’s money sorts of slips out of her mind entirely. It’s always there, in the background, like a painting of soft green hues hung above a bed one has passed too often to notice. The annoyed glare she shoots her way gets promptly ignored as Rhaenyra immediately rushes to help Alicent settle in the window seat and joins her side.
“I’m never letting you book a trip without being right next to you again. First-class seats are pushing it too far.”
“To be fair, my assistant booked it, not me.” shrugs Rhaenyra, reaching for a book in her bag and throwing it on her lap. Alicent grabs it mindlessly, turning it to read the cover. The tall ancient tree engraved onto it immediately reminds her of what it holds.
The last time Alicent saw this book, she carried a bag with messy clothes hurriedly thrown in with children's toys, after-school snacks running with too much sugar, and a single book she had grabbed rather randomly and added to the pile. Rhaenyra had opened her front door in the middle of the night and not asked a single question. Instead, she had welcomed them inside, prepared her special cinnamon hot chocolate for a wide-awake Aegon, and allowed Alicent an hour to cry alone in a barely used guest room.
It weighs heavy in her hand, filled with scrapped-off stories and tear-stained pages. Yet, when she opens it and her eyes skim over the first page, nothing looks out of place. It’s a short fantasy book she’s always wanted to read. Nothing more than a prop of an award-winning drama. It might serve as a sufficient distraction to the death trap that’s about to start flying.
“Thanks.”
When taking off starts, she’s abandoned it for Rhaenyra’s hand, cheek pressed against her shoulder and a palm rubbing wide circles on her back. The scent she’s always known is there, its source inches away from her nose, and when Alicent closes her eyes all she can smell is comforting sandalwood and blackcurrant with a delicate touch of honey her body relaxes into. The seat vibrates under her but the arm around her back keeps her grounded, focused on nothing but how exceptionally warm she feels.
Rhaenyra clearly sensed her distress - not that the five minutes Alicent spent talking her ears off about why she really couldn’t afford to die right now didn’t help - and is purposefully enveloping her in a soft cloud that calls for the stress tight in her muscles to slowly die out.
When she opens her eyes again, they’re already high up in the sky and Rhaenyra is nursing on a glass of champagne while typing on a laptop she swore not to bring, Alicent’s head cold from resting against the window. A sharp glance at the low gray dripping from the clouds seizes her heart in panic, and she closes the tiny blinds meant to hide the gloomy vision.
“Champagne, really?” she says, clearing sleep from her throat. “Get sick on me and I’m not talking to you again on this trip.”
Rhaenyra startles, staring at Alicent like she forgot about her presence entirely. She laughs, nudging the glass in her hand, and Alicent hesitates before taking a sip and giving it back. Bubbles pleasantly tickle her tongue, and she decides turning down free alcohol included in their tickets would be a crime.
“Come on, we’re here to celebrate. If we get sick, it probably means we’re doing everything right.”
Celebrate .
A year ago, Alicent never thought she would come to own the freedom to exist as her person again, any less to celebrate this new development. When she left an abusive marriage of five years in which all energy and life were slowly drained out of her and all of her friends but one chose to desert her world, celebrating was the furthest thing from her mind. All she wanted was for her son to be safe and happy, and to detach herself from the shackles of an alpha she ached to leave in her past.
Rhaenyra had spent two years trying to get her to change her mind when she first met him at a gala organized by her family. He was sweet, and Alicent had decided six months before that the time to settle down had more than come. She should have listened when Rhaenyra told her he was sometimes involved in shady business for her father, or that she didn’t like how he stared at her when she looked away, or when he proposed two months after their first date. She should have seen it all coming, and that’s what made it all harder to stand back up when it hit.
The scar on her neck is barely visible anymore, a broken bite she has since rejected, but she sometimes accidentally brushes against it in the shower and gets sent back to the past and its darkness.
Rhaenyra had helped her file for divorce, helped her start working again two floors down from her own office, helped them find a house a few streets away in a safe and guarded neighborhood, and when the papers were finally signed thanks to the literal army of lawyers she placed behind her, she was the first person Alicent turned to.
The first person to allow normalcy to flow back into her life as she endured her own divorce for entirely different reasons, the first person to make her smile and cry and laugh just like they used to, the first person to treat her like more than a victim who would never truly heal.
Often, Alicent wondered if a twin of the sun had once accidentally dropped into her heart and diffused a perpetual heat there no winter nor obscurity could ever tarnish. It throbs with a soothing warmth, and heals scars like a homemade balm.
Two months ago, after Rhaenyra’s peaceful divorce from Harwin got finalized, she suggested they both celebrate their newfound freedom with a nice and cozy trip and took the first time off she had in two years.
“We’re not teenagers anymore, Rhaenyra.” Alicent reaches for the book again and opens it to the first page. “Not that I never have doubts about you still having the brain of a eighteen-year-old.”
“You were eighteen with the brain of a forty-year-old woman and I never said anything, so- ouch.” Rhaenyra pretends to rub the pain from her arm, falsely glaring at Alicent. “That was mean.”
“You love it when I’m mean.”
A smile is the only answer she’ll get.
-
By the time the taxi takes them to the hotel, Alicent has decided this was all a terrible idea.
She got sick halfway through the flight from the onslaught of different scents all blended together in the enclosed space of the plane and had to breathe through a mask for an hour with Rhaenyra biting back a laugh next to her. Then, the water she sipped on to wipe the discomfort away spilled all over the front of her shirt - her very white, very thin shirt - and the beta assigned to care for them lost his gaze in her cleavage at least twice before Rhaenyra glared and scared him away. Oh, and the movie she watched sucked.
All in all, Alicent is ready to slip into bed and never come out again for the rest of the week. Problem is, it’s still morning where they arrive, the sun is blazing, sharp heat flying high in the deep blue, and Rhaenyra is already eyeing the clear water of the sea like she cannot wait to jump headfirst into it. Alicent is pretty confident her friend won’t just leave her in their room while she goes and have fun, to her great demise.
She’s still trying to check if she has any data on her phone when they reach the hotel entrance, frustratingly hitting icons she never encountered in six years of owning it, and she only notices its grandeur once they’re standing in the hall, a woman rushing up to them with keycards in her hands.
Alicent almost drops her phone when she takes in the golden tones perfectly accentuating the crawling plants climbing white walls and wooden furniture blended in with more modern tropical colors. The hotel is bustling with staff and a clearly premium clientèle, and a large glass sphere filled with a small running pond and warm-toned flowers immediately catches her eye.
The canvas sketched before her eyes comes straight out of a movie, or out of those weird documentaries about rich people she watches every few weeks with pizza and wine, and for a second she thinks she must have died during the flight and her brain is projecting delusion for her last breathing moments on this earth to be peaceful and appreciative.
Rhaenyra doesn’t even take a second to glance at the regal decorations and the staff clearly assigned to impress the Targaryen heiress, instead reading through a contract and drawing her famous signature at the bottom of a page.
“Rhaenyra…”
She’s already slipping away toward one of the all-glass elevators, tugging Alicent along with her, and the people around them is the only reason she controls her temper and avoids making a scene. No one follows after them and once the doors slip shut, she’s off like a rocket.
“Rhaenyra, this is way too much! You told me we were going somewhere calm to a cute little place your mother told you about. That’s- that’s not little in any way.”
“I mean, it kinda is. You should where we went on our family vacations. This place is cute and it has all we need to relax for a week, so stop worrying that sweet mind of yours and just… have fun, I don’t know.”
Alicent’s lips part, a protest lingering on the tip of her tongue. The elevator dings, Rhaenyra staring at her with determination she knows she won’t ever win against, and she sighs. “Okay, but I’m paying for everything else.”
“Sure.”
There is as much honesty in that word as there was when she told her she wouldn’t drink too much at parties when they were still in college. Meaning the sentiment is there, but will never actually concretize.
The room is even more majestuous.
The door opens to a cozy living area with floor-to-ceiling windows open to a clear view of the sea only interrupted by tall palm trees and thin traces of white clouds. The water is so blue it merges with the sky, their shades identical. One window is open and she realizes it’s actually a door leading to a small balcony where a cute little table and two chairs rest - perfect for breakfast in the sun if they wake up too late to have it downstairs.
The sheer curtains fly in sync with the warm breeze and no matter how much Alicent tries to hold onto her anger, she feels all of it dissipate the more time she spends in here. Rhaenyra stares at her, hands on her hips as if to say want to leave now? and Alicent decides to ignore her to explore the bedroom.
Their suitcases have already been brought up and rest against the wall. Alicent hadn’t even realized she had let go of hers when they stepped out of the taxi.
The bed looks so soft she’s suddenly a lot more convinced she just wants to lay there for the next hours. It’s large - larger than the one Rhaenyra has in her bedroom back home and she didn’t think that was even possible. An envelope rests at the foot of the bed. A bouquet of anthurium and blood lilies and a pink sort of orchid Alicent isn’t familiar with sits on a small table she’s not sure to understand the point of, but it’s cute nonetheless.
“Oh. I don’t think we got the right room.” Rhaenyra enters after her and stares at the bed like it might turn into a car and run her over. Alicent is already working on slipping out of her heels for the flats she packed in her suitcase and her jeans for a large skirt she bought specifically for the trip. The bed is even softer than it feels, and she feels herself sinking into it.
“What, were we supposed to have a pool in there or a constantly fed buffet? I don’t think we’re missing anything.”
“No, but I asked for a suite with two beds instead of one. I didn’t want you to feel… Well, I wanted you to have a choice.”
Alicent stills, and for a long second, she’s entirely lost for words.
Her heart throbs with warmth, and she wonders if the sweat on her palms can still be credited to the heat. To be entirely fair, it didn’t hit her until Rhaenyra said it - that they would have to share the bed she spent two whole minutes admiring for a week. But she also thinks they should be fine. They’ve slept together - well, in the same bed - on more occasions than either cared to count. It made for a few awkward encounters when they were still hormonal teenagers figuring out their designation but they’re grown adults now.
They should be fine.
It’s not like Alicent has felt much more than disgust or the occasional peace from other alphas for the past four years. Scents only make her dizzy in the worst cases, and in the best ones - like Rhaenyra’s on the plane this morning - they calm her down. Intricate defense mechanisms have been pretty much woven into her core and keep her from feeling much of anything else for their kind.
“We can sleep together.” Alicent rushes to say, a light blush spreading up to Rhaenyra’s ears accompanied by a grin she promptly tries to bite back. “I mean, in the same bed. Unless the other room had a jacuzzi-”
“Oh, there’s a jacuzzi in this one already.”
“A… right. Of course there is.” Alicent shakes her head, bending down to unbuckle her heels and finally freeing her feet. “Would you be a dear and fetch me my suitcase? I need to change, and you should probably do the same.”
Alicent changes into the black two-piece swimsuit Rhaenyra told her she would not be allowed here without and by the time Rhaenyra comes back from the bathroom, she’s still trying to wrap her skirt tight enough around her hips for it not to fall. It’s a pretty thing that falls down to her feet and reveals the shadow of her legs, red tropical flowers making up a pattern she immediately fell for.
Rhaenyra clears her throat and reaches for the light fabric. “Need some help?”
“Sure. Just tie a knot here.”
The shower she took has washed all foreign scents and perfume from her skin and Alicent finds herself drifting toward her touch, swallowing back the weight in the back of her throat when fingers brush the naked skin of her hip.
It burns deliciously, buzzing under the heated surface of her skin and sending shivers to crash against her like waves hitting rocks and eroding their perseverance until water floods cyclically flood their core. No one has touched her in ages, and she realizes her omega is surely starved for some human attention and appreciation.
It’s the only way to explain why the buzz travels deeper, tightening her core and whispering a pleasing kind of pressure in her belly that ignites shame to blossom on her cheeks.
Rhaenyra is handsome - always has been, to be fair. She wears an oversized shirt opened to reveal her own bathing suit and a toned stomach Alicent quickly averts her gaze from. The shorts she’s slipped on have cute little flowers all over them and they look just about adorable. They kind of match her own skirt, and she wonders if she bought them in the same store.
“Good to go.” says Rhaenyra, punctuating her words with a pat on her lower back, and Alicent reaches for the bag holding her beachwear to distract herself.
The pool - no, the pools - are what Alicent imagined of a five star hotel but possibly ten times better. Some of them are clearly meant for kids and families and Rhaenyra tugs her away from there faster than she can look. They settle in a relatively calm spot where they shouldn’t be too bothered, protected from the sun by the wooden sunshades made with palm tree leaves.
Rhaenyra clearly looks like a kid excited to jump in the pool for the first time but she lingers by her side, waiting for her approval.
“If anyone comes by, order us a drink.”
“I will. Play in the water all you want, I’ll still be there when you come back.”
-
The water is just warm enough not to freeze her off while serving as a good alternative to cool down from the heat. It’s not unbearably hot at this time of the year, but the sun is harsh enough for her to need to reapply sunscreen pretty much every hour unless she wants to spend the rest of the week with her shoulders burning and her face an eternal red color.
She rubbed some off in the bathroom before joining Alicent and at this rate, she’ll probably have to swim back to the deckchairs soon. The infinity pool is exactly what she needed to relax after seven hours in a plane next to Alicent and the constant release of anxiety that quite literally engulfed her for all of the trip. She tried to help her calm down but after four years of being controlled by her husband with the power of his pheromones alone and three of being mostly insensitive to any, Rhaenyra is always wary around her.
Turning from the edge of the pool, she glances behind her at the thought of Alicent and freezes.
The large skirt she helped tie now rests folded on her own chair. The sun has shifted a bit up in the sky and now threatens to shine more directly over pale skin that very rarely sees the light. It took three months for Alicent to wear clothes leaving her arms bare and five for her ankles to feel the wind again. She’s come a long way since then, always at her own pace, and Rhaenyra is there to congratulate her at every step.
She’s currently kneeling on the chair, turned away from the pool, and she shifts on her knees as her body extends to reach for soft pillows she carefully places where her head should rest. Rhaenyra gulps. Blue eyes fight against the assault of the sun to travel over more naked skin than she has seen in a very long time and she wonders if this bathing suit choice was really… appropriate.
It’s far from being extravagant. A simple cut wrapped snugly around her hips and with little ribbons tickling her skin. The top is modest and fits rather perfectly, with a light balcony Rhaenyra has absolutely not found her stare drifting down to when she helped her in the bedroom.
Nothing special.
That is, only if the person wearing it wasn’t so special herself.
After having Aegon, her body has changed a bit compared to their younger years. Rhaenyra used to spend days reminding her not to miss out on lunch, to prepare dinner for the two of them when Alicent arrived late from her classes because she knew she wouldn’t bother cooking so late. Now, however, her hips look fuller, like they’d fit perfectly cradled between her hands.
Like tempting ghosts of pheromones, flashes of just that haunt her and blinking them away has no effect. Something about red hair cascading down tight shoulders has a particular effect on her mind she wishes she could ignore. The fabric of her top is almost hidden from there, and she can image Alicent naked, barely holding herself up on her hands while her cock works its way into her, sharp thrusts running deeper than any of the pathetic alphas she indulged surely ever reached.
It’s a disgustingly possessive thought - to think no one but her could ever treat Alicent how she deserves to be revered, that no cock would fit the walls of her cunt entirely tailored for her own quite like she would, that Alicent will never know pleasure until she knows hers. Rhaenyra would never allow herself to think such revolting ideas, but her alpha has a mind of its own, and it leads her to places filled with sin and self-hatred.
Rhaenyra inhales sharply, pressing further against the wall of the pool to ground herself.
This is her friend. Her best friend of twenty years on whom she might have had a dumb crush while they were still in college, but that was nearly a decade ago and she’s grown out of that weird phase where her alpha rejected any other omega and forced her to picture Alicent’s doe brown eyes and sweet cherry scent every time she so much as tried to forget about her in the arms of another.
She has no excuse to jerk off in the bathroom after an intense game of truth or dare among friends, or to bite into pillow while imagining it to be pale pliant skin anymore. Years have passed, Rhaenyra has grown, and Alicent deserves to be regarded as more than an omega meant to keep her cock warm and her come flowing.
Alicent is not interested in a relationship anyway, and she won’t be for a very, very long time. Neither is Rhaenyra, really. But now that his scent no longer covers hers, now that Alicent is finally spending time with her like they used to, and now that she’s sitting on her knees again and stretching her arms hypnotizingly above her head and -
Rhaenyra clears her throat and turns back to stare at the dreamy scenery before her. This is what she brought them here for; the tall trees and the soft sand spread over the horizon like a desert of hot snow and the small waves hitting the shore before taking away what has been given in a slow rhythm. Not to focus on her best friend’s beauty and betray her trust by sexualizing her every move.
This is probably just the consequence of the drought her sex life is going through. Sex is probably the only thing that worked out with Harwin - and the main reason it took her so long to understand they would both be better off without each other - and her alpha is latching onto the first person it encounters and is familiar with to sate a missing need.
It’s natural, and fantasies do not have to mean anything as long as she remains respectful and manages to push them to the side when it matters.
Still, she’ll make another lap to ignore the heat concentrated in the lower half of her body.
Just in case.
-
Jetlag will absolutely kill her this afternoon, but until then - and until she can spend all of it lounging in that nice bed without disappointing Rhaenyra - Alicent will make the most of what has been given to her.
Nice pillows to rest her back against, a sweet sweet pink cocktail with unknown alcohol swimming among raspberries, a book a kind beta wearing the hotel’s uniform offered her, some fruits to snack on, and a view most… exquisite.
Alicent lowers her sunglasses to sit right under her eyes when Rhaenyra starts swimming back toward their spot and she glances at the stairs to the side, expecting her to go there. Instead, Rhaenyra braces her hands on the edge of the pool in front of her and pushes herself on strong arms, knees effortlessly slipping out of the water.
Her life must have truly turned into a film, because for a moment, she thinks time almost slows down from its usual pace. Right as her arms extend to bear her weight, it halts to give her immense opportunity to admire stretched muscles dripping with water and clearly well-cared for shoulders. Briefly, she wonders how easily those same arms would hold her down - wonders if there’s even any way she’d manage to squirm out of them by sheer will or if she’d be trapped in their embrace and made to take everything-
She clears her throat, glancing back down at her book.
“Water’s nice, you don’t wanna come?” Rhaenyra reaches for a white towel and tries to get most of the water out of her hair. Drops form a puddle at her feet and some fall on Alicent’s legs. She’s too busy staring at flexing biceps to feel much of anything.
“I’m fine. Perhaps later this week but not in the pool. The sea looks great, we should try it out.”
“Still remember how to swim or should I buy some inflatable toys before you get in the water?” Alicent glares but dares not respond. She turns a page of the book before realizing she’s entirely lost in the story and going back. Rhaenyra bends down to search through their bag and retrieves a white bottle from it. “Do you mind?”
Does Alicent mind smearing sunscreen all over the tight muscles and the toned back of her best friend who, weirdly enough, she keeps noticing to be an extremely sexy alpha as if that hasn’t been the case for most of their lives?
Of course not. It’s not weird unless she makes it weird.
Nothing abnormal about kneeling over Rhaenyra’s ass while squirting cream over her hands and warming it up before touching heated skin. Rhaenyra is her friend and friends… help each other by rubbing sunscreen into extremely attractive muscles all the time.
All the time.
The sun suddenly feels particularly hot even through the shade protecting her skin and beads of sweat run down her back. Rhaenyra has all but merged with the pillows under her, body entirely relaxed and pliant under her hands as she all but focuses on making sure she doesn’t catch a sunburn by playing in the water. She knows Rhaenyra works out a lot. Everyone does, to be fair, considering she doesn’t own a single outfit not meant to showcase that little fact.
Alicent has turned down any invitation to join her at the company gym after work because no one is more despicable than alphas who think themselves universally attractive just because they spend six hours a week lifting heavy weights in a room full of stinky pheromones and puddles of sweat. But she knows Rhaenyra goes there all the time - not only because she told her, but also because she can quite literally feel it.
It’s… nice, she thinks. She doesn’t know if liking a big strong and kind alpha is falling a bit too much into the whole omega stereotype, but it’s nice anyway. Alicent can protect herself, she can fight and talk back because she’s strong and capable and Rhaenyra always reminds her of that, always whispers it in her ear when she thinks she’s asleep and always encourages her to show it.
And she’s never really had the opportunity to consider what she might actually enjoy in a partner. Classes took up most of her attention in college and while Rhaenyra hung out with each of the prettiest omegas she could find, Alicent was nose-deep in accountability books. She took suppressants as soon as her body allowed it and ignored the parts of her biology she only perceived as a weakness to drag her further down and force her to fight harder to be considered seriously.
Then, she met him, and it was all about convenience more than it was attraction or compatibility.
Maybe she likes alphas like Rhaenyra. Respectful, mindful of her boundaries, protective but never possessive. Kind. (Strong and able to effortlessly cary her in her arms and perhaps even to hold her against a wall while her mouth nips at the gland on her neck and-). Sounds like a dream, to be honest.
A low groan vibrates from the body under her when she pushes skin particularly hard and she pulls away with a soft pat to her back.
“This isn’t a massage. Unless you want it to be one, but in that case, you’re giving it back tenfold later today.”
Rhaenyra tenses under her, shoulders suddenly a lot tighter. She leans on her elbows and takes a deep breath. Alicent moves away, hurrying to her seat when she realizes standing on her feet is more difficult than it should be. She’s back to reading when Rhaenyra finally stands and she rushes to the pool so fast that Alicent doesn’t catch the flushed face nor the bulge tenting large shorts.
She shrugs, grabs her cocktail to take another tentative sip, and sighs happily as she places the pillow perfectly under her head, lowering the top of the chair for it to lie down.
-
“Why aren’t there prices on this menu? Was the restaurant included with the room?”
Rhaenyra looks up at Alicent and considers telling her the truth for one brief moment. Then she remembers Alicent insisting to pay for the rest of their expenses and the lie is out before she can contain it. “Yup. All paid for, so order whatever you like.”
Alicent eyes her warily but Rhaenyra avoids her stare to call for a waiter’s attention. He hurries by their side, and she wouldn’t be surprised to find out the hotel has assigned some of their staff specifically to them.
“Good afternoon, ladies. The hotel sends you their congratulations.”
Alicent perks up, letting go of the menu to stare up at him. “Congratulations…”
He shifts on his feet, smile tightening at the edges. Doubt lingers in his scent and Rhaenyra picks it up. “For the wedding, of course.” He motions at Alicent’s hand, a small diamond shining on her ring finger. “If you wish to celebrate such a special occasion, then we have just the specialty for you to share and some of our best sépage to accompany it. Our chef will gladly prepare his own version of a sole meunière to accompany your lunch.”
Rhaenyra doesn’t know whether to laugh or cry. Alicent makes the decision for her.
“Oh,” she fails to hide laughter behind her hand, cheeks turning a sweet shade of pink Rhaenyra is particularly fond of. “No, no, we’re not… we’re not engaged. Just friends on a vacation.”
Rhaenyra wonders what would give anyone the idea.
The ring was a gift when they both graduated from college and she spent two years telling her it wasn’t real until Alicent got her to admit to the few thousand pounds she’d spent on it one evening when alcohol had flowed too much. She took it off once she got married, and put it back on almost immediately after selling her engagement ring.
It might look suspiciously close to one, however, and she supposes she cannot exactly blame him for it.
There’s also the fact that Alicent hasn’t taken a shower just yet, and after spending seven hours sitting close to her, Rhaenyra’s scent has sort of rubbed off on her and continues to engulf her in a thin blended cloud that is very much them . Alicent probably cannot perceive it, but Rhaenyra caught whims of it when she helped with the sunscreen earlier and she hasn’t exactly managed to forget about it just yet.
“Pardon my mistake, then.” He gulps, half bowing in apology, and takes their drink orders after sharing some advice about their best cocktails.
What follows is a tense moment of silent as Alicent avoids her side of the table and glances at the outdoor restaurant area. It’s relatively empty at this time of the day and she recognizes a couple that sat a few rows down from them on the plane. An adorable female alpha and her pregnant wife, probably on vacation to wind down.
Rhaenyra dares not think of what the ring once meant to her.
“Do we look like a couple?” Alicent finally says, playing with golden band still.
“Um?”
“I just feel like we might. Going on a vacation together and staying glued at the hips like a newly mated couple… Wouldn’t be surprised if you hid a ring in my drink and got down on one knee to propose.”
Rhaenyra smiles, ignoring the unease crawling around her ribcage, and she reaches for her drink when he comes back to hand it to her. “At the rate you’ve been gulping down cocktails since we got here, I fear it’d turn into a rather awkward situation. Or a life-threatening one, which isn’t much better.”
“You wouldn’t take your fiancée to the hospital if she swallowed down a diamond?”
“A diamond?” grins Rhaenyra, reaching for Alicent’s hand and turning the ring for the lone diamond to shine upward. “I’d be a pretty bad mate prospect if I didn’t get you at least three. Wouldn’t recommend agreeing to the proposal if it didn’t cost me at least a monthly paycheck.”
“Right. You need to teach me some of your gold digger ways, because I fear I’m not doing so good there. I’d probably agree just because your smile is cute and you like me, so…”
The cocktail Alicent ordered is an odd mint green color, a tiny umbrella dabbling in it. She takes a sip and frows, nose crunching in what Rhaenyra reads as disgust, but is in reality a reaction to its temperature. She pushes the glass toward her and trades it for the simple mojito she ordered, washing the taste away.
“The prettiest omega in the whole hotel and she’s already agreeing to be mine? Really need to take time off more often if that’s what it gets me.” Alicent rolls her eyes, but she knows the compliment pleased her. After years of not receiving any and being taken for granted, praise always has a delightful effect on her - and Rhaenyra has noted this down in a corner of her mind she’s never truly erased. “If anything, I think he got the idea because you kinda smell like me. Must be the plane.”
“Oh.” Alicent’s smile falls, and she visibly tries to focus on her own scent, failing to note its change. “Did you scent-mark me while I slept? I didn’t think this could happen so easily.”
The mint green almost splashes all over the table and stains her shirt, the glass fortunately not falling from high enough to shatter. The noise it echoes is sharp, attracting the attention of the couple she noticed earlier.
Forgetting just how unbalanced with healthy dynamics Alicent sometimes remains is a mistake Rhaenyra rarely makes, but the paradisiacal scenery and the cheerful ambiance proves itself traitorous. Her thoughts run faster than her brain can follow, and she takes a deep breath to think about her words carefully.
“I would never mark you without your consent.” she starts, the mood suddenly a lot sourer. She reaches for Alicent’s hand over the table and holds onto it softly. A thumb rubs circles on her knuckles. “That’s assault, and no one should ever take such liberties with someone else without clearly checking in with them.”
The light in Alicent’s eyes flickers, like a swift rain falling onto a camp fire and threatening to force it to sleep. The corners of her lip hesitate to form a smile until they settle into a neutral expression Rhaenyra knows too well. “I know.” she sighs, and looks away. “I know .”
Rhaenyra inhales sharply before nodding, squeezing the hand under hers before letting go. “Good.” She clears her throat and realizes she might have come off too strong. “I guess with all the time we spend together, it isn’t entirely unheard of. Now that both of our previous attachments have faded, we might be latching onto each other. Nothing to worry about.”
Alicent doesn’t look entirely convinced, but she smiles again, and Rhaenyra decides they need to start talking about something else.
Lunch is a quick affair and Rhaenyra can see Alicent is exhausted by the time they start digging through dessert, a simple piece of strawberry cake with a scoop of vanilla ice cream she orders but lets Alicent eat almost on her own.
Getting back to their suite reminds her of their… predicament, and she escapes to the bathroom before Alicent can start searching for nightwear in her suitcase. She turns the heat a lot higher than her body can stand, but it’s the only way to ignore the ache spreading in her chest and weaving itself around her heart, constricting its pulses and tightening the more time she spends around Alicent’s presence.
She’s her friend, has been for longer than Rhaenyra’s memory can reach back into the past, and there is no reason for a few natural scent issues to ruin that. It’s normal and hormonal, and it doesn’t have to mean anything unless she wishes it to.
And if Rhaenyra’s hand drifts down between her legs and palms at her length until white gets washed away by the shower stream, it’s only a safety measure for their nap to go uninterrupted.
-
When Alicent wakes, it’s the middle of the night.
The windows are still open, a light breeze passing through sheer curtains and tickling the side of her face. It’s hot, unbearably so, and her eyelids are stuck together from exhaustion. Alicent turns, and then she turns again, her nightshirt sticking to warm skin and enveloping her in an uncomfortable cocoon of heat and sweat and the fabric is just too much. She reaches for the hem of a college shirt Rhaenyra once lent her and throws it over her head.
It lands somewhere on the floor in a soft thud, and Alicent pushes the sheets away until a content sigh escapes her lips. The air now hits her back in uneven waves, soothing her body back to calm and forcing her brain back to sleep.
The bed is big enough for the both of them to share without ever falling into each other. Alicent shifts further on her side, takes a deep breath, and falls back into the clutches of the dark.
-
The air has turned significantly warmer by the time Rhaenyra reaches consciousness again. Leaving the windows open during the night might have been a mistake, but it was a bit windy when they fell into bed last night and it helped with the heat.
Her arms are tense and her back aches. She usually prefers sleeping on her right side but she must have turned during the night and ended up like this - on her back, pillow irritatingly attempting to escape under her head. A yawn distracts her and she stretches her arms above her head, a small whine cutting through the silence and the birds chirping and jumping on leaves.
She freezes, and for a second, she wonders if that sound came from her. Rhaenyra’s eyes flutter open, fighting against a low sun, and she brushes sleep from them to look at the other side of the bed.
Alicent isn’t there anymore.
Well, one of her legs spreads up to there, but the rest of her body has gravitated toward the middle during the night and now she’s… quite literally hanging onto Rhaenyra like a pillow, arms clutched around her front and her cheek pressed against her stomach.
Which is fine. It’s just fine.
They hug all the time and she knows Alicent sometimes has the tendency to crave physical contact when they sleep side by side. She used to do this all the time in school, and then it always got worse when her cycles came closer and she stayed glued to her side pretty much all the time. It’s clearly not the case here - Alicent would have told her if she could go into heat again, they tell each other everything - but old habits must perdure and that’s why she’s sleeping half-naked over her.
Great.
Rhaenyra clears her throat, arms hovering above the bed as they search for where to settle without bothering Alicent from sleep - and without accidentally touching unblemished warm skin. Thick auburn curls are spread all over her back and hide her face, and Rhaenyra feels the urge to push them away to reveal soft features and tired eyes.
Another whine echoes between them, and this time, it’s accompanied by movements. Alicent breathes heavily through her nose before yawning herself awake, air tickling the side of her abdomen. Rhaenyra tries not to squirm, but the action also highlights an importantly missed part of their current predicament - which has nothing to do with the pair of breasts pressed against her abs.
Alicent pushes herself on her hands aided by the toned plane of her stomach to get her bearings back and blinks sleep away.
“Rhaenyra?”
Rhaenyra’s lips part to form an answer but her eyes trail down below Alicent’s exhausted - yet still so, so addictingly enchanting - features down to mouth-watering collarbones and land on a sight she’s torn between wanting to turn away from entirely or worshipping for the next hour - two possibilities currently not available to her.
Alicent yawns again and stretches her arms above her head, arching her back. Saliva pools under her tongue and her teeth ache to plant themselves into supple skin and scatter bites all over her chest, and she’s trying to look away like a respectful friend but the light breeze has hardened her nipples and they’re pretty much offered to her and begging for the warmth of her mouth to envelop them in the kind of pleasure only she could grant Alicent and her lips ache and her stomach tightens and-
“Oh, god.” A delicate flush takes over pale features and two hands shift to hide a view that might as well be tattooed over her eyelids for eternity now. “Sorry, must have been too hot during the night. Would you mind?”
A fissure separates her heart into two equally displeased halves and her stare might as well burn lasers over Alicent’s skin in a poor attempt to hang onto the image now engraved in her mind.
Her tongue feels heavy in her mouth, tickling with a need she didn’t think she could still have - to bite and claim and support her lips in a quest to pull the sweetest whimpers out of Alicent’s mouth and fluster her with the sheer power of her own. She wonders if this is what omegas feel during their heats; the emptiness in her mouth clawing at her skin and forcing her to think that if she doesn’t push Alicent down to the bed and nips at her chest until she’s too sensitive to even coherently understand the notion of pleasure anymore, she’ll turn incurably sick.
Alicent raises an intrigued eyebrow when Rhaenyra still doesn’t move, and she tries to blink flashes of a beautifully flushed chest and hardened buds aching with frustration away to make sense of what was asked of her.
“Um, sure. I’ll fetch you some clothes.” Rhaenyra jumps out of the bed as soon as Alicent allows her to move again and she grabs one of the fluffy hotel robes they didn’t use yesterday. She hesitates before giving it away, and mentally scolds her alpha for even considering this. “Wanna take a shower before we grab breakfast?”
Alicent reaches for it and keeps her back turned while slipping it on. “I don’t think breakfast will be on for a while. It’s pretty early, the sun hasn’t even fully risen yet. Maybe we could have a walk on the beach to wake up?” She stands to explore her suitcase for appropriate clothes and Rhaenyra follows each movement instinctively, turning away when she notices Alicent digging through the underwear she packed.
How old is she? Blushing from seeing an omega’s panties and naked breasts like an alpha experiencing their first rut and loosing all sort of intelligence? Absolutely pathetic.
“We could if you’re up for it. Try not to forget your shirt this time.”
Alicent glares at her but the blush deepens on her cheeks. She doesn’t seem to grasp the edge of seriousness visible in her tone. “Says the person who used to sleep naked all the time and flashed me every week in the morning because she forgot to put on some pants.”
“I was young!”
Alicent mumbles something under her breath Rhaenyra doesn’t quite catch, and she decides to give up. She’ll take another shower. Just in case.
-
The next two days are… odd.
Alicent keeps complaining about the heat even when Rhaenyra feels it has lowered a lot compared to their arrival day. It’s probably a question of sensitivity and she’s less used to such temperatures than Rhaenyra who almost craves scorching hot showers and turns the heater way higher than most, but after a while it becomes worrisome .
A light shean of sweat always coats her neck and her back in the morning like she ran a lap or two before waking up, and Rhaenyra tries to ignore it and pretend it isn’t there, but she also makes a pretty good cause of complaining about it every time. Alicent is always scratching at the glands on her neck and the last time Rhaenyra accidentally seized her by the wrist to help her up stairs, she nearly doubled over in what she believed to be pain, but that looked suspiciously close to bordering on pleasure.
The AC in their room has been turned so high Rhaenyra fears she might catch a cold, and Alicent has already asked her to check at the reception about it working properly even if she keeps insisting it’s functioning perfectly fine.
And then, well, there’s everything else.
Alicent is usually pretty confident. Not necessarily in herself - Rhaenyra is helping her work on that - but it’s rather an image she sends most of the time. She’s not impressed by alphas or anyone else and doesn’t have much difficulty with letting them know. Her husband had been an exception - and even then, before he started abusing his power over her and forcibly used his status to turn her into a pliant omega meant to do his bidding, she never took shit from him.
Words are a sword when wielded by her tongue, and Rhaenyra has witnessed a few assassinations in her life all because of people who didn’t know to understand limits. She insists to handle everything on her own because she cannot stand anyone giving her orders anymore, and she doesn’t particularly appreciate anyone getting into her space.
And it’s still the case, but something in her behavior has shifted.
Like she’s become the textbook version of an omega; docile, always looking for directions, craving submission in a way Rhaenyra has never seen her and especially not since the separation.
She bats her eyelashes and awaits praise every time she so much as completes a meaningless task Rhaenyra has given her - she never thought handing her a glass of water would make Alicent so happy, but the thank you that followed left a content smile on her lips for well over an hour afterwards.
The main worrying factor is that she hangs onto her arm like letting go might physically hurt her. It’s obvious she’s not aware of just how much she’s doing it, and Rhaenyra probably wouldn’t notice if it wasn’t for how difficult it has become to do anything with a weight wrapped around her biceps.
“Are you scared I’ll fly back home without you?” ended up asking Rhaenyra one evening at the restaurant while Alicent dug through her sweet potato fries, chair glued to her own.
“Um?”
The confusion radiating in her stare had convinced Rhaenyra this was all a mistake on her part and that she was probably reading into things that did not exist.
But then, Alicent started being… Well, weirder, for lack of a better word.
She spent at least ten minutes rearranging the pillows on her deckchair the next time they went to the pool and stole some of the ones on her own chair to place under her head. Rhaenyra watched all of it entirely confused from the water and wondered if perhaps they should choose another spot next time if she really hated this one so much, but then she did exactly the same thing when they went down to the beach and exchanged their two towels after Rhaenyra decided to go back into the water.
They share a suitcase now, and although she first believed it to be a cute - and extremely sexy - fashion choice, she’s not sure Alicent wearing her shirts open over her swimsuit top is entirely normal anymore. It should be, and without everything else happening around them, she’d probably insist it is.
She never sleeps with a shirt on anymore and it’s gotten to the point where Rhaenyra doesn’t think a single part of her body except for her mouth has not awoken without feeling the weight of two tempting buds poking her ribs or her back or her legs - she still doesn’t know how Alicent ended up turning upside down in her sleep, but she thinks she’d rather not figure it out.
But the most worrisome part in all of this is how much she seems to gravitate toward literally anyone who graces her with their attention. Sweet praise and a well-placed compliment and that pretty blush is back on her cheeks, eyes dipping down to the floor in what Rhaenyra refuses to believe to be submission, because when has Alicent exhibited such behaviors? When they were still in college and she felt particularly antsy because of her suppressants or when someone she was actually attracted to showed interest in her? Possibly. But none of that is the case here.
Rhaenyra sighs, glancing at where Alicent’s chair now rests empty. It’s been that way for well over ten minutes by now, and she shouldn’t be so worried because that’s typically the type of behavior her friend despises, but with all of the evidence stocked up in her mind, she fears where the end of this case will bring her. She fears for Alicent , and that’s entirely normal.
As a friend.
She finds her near the little cabin selling cocktails and fruit snacks. The man preparing her drink is doing a bit too much for her tastes, throwing the shaker around like a dancer, but Alicent barely pays any attention to him.
Someone else entirely seems a lot more interesting to her for the time being.
Rhaenyra watches from afar, hands on her hips. A blonde woman is talking to her and she only guesses her to be an alpha based on the stupid grin perched on her lips and the way she purposefully flexes her arms by leaning against the bar like the most basic flirting techniques would ever work on someone like Alicent Hightower.
The red of her hair shines particularly clearly today, and she remembers Alicent telling her the sun tends to have that effect.
The other woman opens her shirt further, motions at a patch of skin above her belly button, and Alicent does something Rhaenyra did not think her face could even produce.
She giggles.
A full-on high little thing Rhaenyra hears down from where she stands, barely hidden by a hand and accompanied by an adorable blush the alpha will most definitely take as a signal and misinterpret.
Rhaenyra is standing behind them before she knows what’s she doing.
“Hey, got the drink you wanted?”
Alicent startles when she speaks, and Rhaenyra feels almost bad for forgetting her sense of smell is still entirely broken and she struggles with feeling people coming up to her. The other alpha simply stares, curious and wary, and Alicent breaks into a wide smile as soon as she realizes her friend has joined her.
“Nell suggested I try a Hurricane instead. Do you want to taste mine?” Alicent hands her the glass filled with a tasty-looking red drink, and Rhaenyra sips at it like refusing anything from her today would rip her heart out and tear it into shreds.
“I used to train as a barista before I started investing in restaurants and bars. Gotta say, it never truly leaves you. I could make you a few ones someday. I’d love to hear your opinion on my skills .”
The next sip passes by the wrong pipe and it takes Rhaenyra a minute to come down, her face red both from coughing and the rage growing in her chest. There was an insinuation in there she doesn’t enjoy very much. Alicent has surely missed it, because once she’s sure Rhaenyra is fine, she’s back to batting her eyelashes at the alpha.
“I’d love that. We leave in five days, so you’ll have to be quick.”
Nell shrugs and fakes being heartbroken. “I fear I don’t know how to do that.” She’s mostly avoiding Rhaenyra to stare at Alicent, and although her eyes remain respectful, she senses they dip down to the top of her swimsuit and the curve of her hips when she’s not looking. “Did you come here together then?”
She eyes the glands on Alicent’s neck with a raised eyebrow, probably missing the broken bond there as it has now mostly faded. Her scent is coming off a lot more aggressive than before when she watches Rhaenyra close the last bit of space left between her and Alicent but it’s all directed toward her. The bartender moves away to serve other clients in a poor attempt to escape, probably already made up on how little chance he has to win against the two of them.
“We did, actually. Our suite isn’t particularly open to strangers, though. I fear you’ll have to keep those skills to yourself.”
Alicent sips at her drink completely oblivious to the glaring match they’ve both entered. She hums, nodding her head in approval of its taste, and Rhaenyra tightens the hold she has on her waist.
“And what do you think, Alicent? You could pass by my room tonight if you want.”
“Oh, I don’t know about tonight. We already have reservations outside in the city. Another time, perhaps.” Nell’s smile falters, and she’s clearly trying to understand whether or not this was meant as a straight up rejection. Rhaenyra wants to scream that it is and she should close her shirt, hide her abs, and walk away. She doesn’t. Alicent slips out of her arms and leans over the counter to call for the man’s attention again.
Rhaenyra’s eyes dip down to her hips and perhaps a tiny bit lower, before settling back on her current problem who it seems had a similar idea. Nell coughs and takes a longer sip than needed, finishing her drink entirely.
“We’ll take another one. Oh, no, two actually.” Alicent turns back to face them and she’s back in the middle, at equal reach. “So, we were just talking about surfing and I told her that’s probably something you’d enjoy.”
“Right. Maybe not this week though. I have other things planned. With you .”
“I wouldn’t mind watching you two from the beach.”
“Yeah, I’m sure there’s a lot I could teach you." The smug look shot her way almost makes Rhaenyra visibly tremble in rage. "You seem to be lacking in quite a few areas, definitely could use the help." She turns to face Alicent again and perches a hand on her hip clearly meant to push her shirt further away. "I could take you on a ride too. The sea's been perfect recently and we could take it nice and slow."
Alicent stares at her like she shaped the stars from her mind and hung them in the sky with the strength of her own arms, even stepping closer until their scents blend together and Rhaenyra cannot decipher which is which anymore. She can't tell if Alicent understands all the sexual innuendos being thrown her way but she definitely does, and she's not entirely fond of them.
Nell smiles, and before Rhaenyra can catch it, one of her hands reaches up to brush a red curl away from her eyes and tucks it behind her ear, the tip of her fingers innocently tracing a path down to her neck. Alicent's eyes neatly shift color, brown turning five shades darker and blush blooming down to the top of her breasts. And there's that giggle again, only broken by her surprise when Rhaenyra suddenly decides she's had enough and wraps an arm around her waist.
"Thanks for the offer but we have a busy week with lots of plans that unfortunately cannot involve more than two people." Alicent is clinging to her side before Rhaenyra even needs to further explain her entirely made-up excuse, and she sighs happily, a shiver of relief coursing through her body. "It was nice meeting you, though."
"Yeah, you two are fun to be around. If you ever need a friend," she reaches for Alicent’s hip inches away from Rhaenyra’s and gently seizes it in her hand, rubbing soft skin with her thumb. She gives it a light squeeze that quite literally makes Alicent shiver. "I'll be around."
For a short moment, Rhaenyra thinks Alicent is quite obviously hesitating between two opposite - and yet mirrored - ends of a spectrum. Their scents fight each other in ways words cannot, and engulf her in a cloud of need and possessiveness and tension she fears might trigger her but that she's too late to stop.
Alicent breathes in deeply, her eyes slipping close, and when she opens them again they're clouded with something Rhaenyra isn't sure to recognize. The hand remains on her hip, staking a claim she has no right to, and it's tempting her omega more than an alpha ever has.
Then, she blinks, lips breaking into a smile, and glances up at Nell apologetically. "Sure. See you around."
She walks away with Alicent on her arm, and Nell considers protesting but the words die down in her throat when she realizes Alicent is entirely content with sticking by her side.
"Wait, Rhaenyra, my drink…"
"I'll get you another, I'm sure she'll need them."
A very odd day indeed.
-
When Alicent wakes this time, the sun is already well on its way high in the sky.
The windows are closed and the AC is running faster than it should, but she considers getting out of bed just to check if it didn't break during the night because there's simply no way it's working properly.
The sheets are damp under her; unless it's her body, covered in sweat and running warmer than the temperature she takes her coffee and sticking uncomfortably to the bed. She sighs, a half-hidden groan lost somewhere in there from the weakness residing in her limbs, and attempts to push them away until she realizes they're already at the foot of the bed.
Moving seems to awaken a cruel ache inside of her and she realizes that the pair of cotton white panties she wore to bed itch uncomfortably against her skin and stick to her thighs, where all the heat is somehow pooling to and burning deep in her belly. She pushes them off her hips before she can think about it, about being entirely naked and hot and squirming in bed right next to Rhaenyra who's-
Rhaenyra.
Her best friend, her kind and loving and protective and strong best friend who always knows what she needs and always delivers it so well.
An alpha.
She inhales sharply, and pheromones assault her nose like they haven't in literal years, running through her blood like the first taste of a drug and making her feel so, so good all while worsening the ache boiling under her skin. Alicent whimpers from the onslaught of the pain, hands dipping down to press against her stomach, and she functions on little more than instincts when Rhaenyra flashes before her closed eyes like a lighthouse meant to guide her home.
"Rhaenyra?"
She clears her throat when she fails to recognize her own voice. It's thick with the kind of need she hasn't felt in ages, dripping with honey and an addictive taste of sugar.
Rhaenyra doesn't move but Alicent knows she's there, inches away from her. She pushes herself on her hands and all but crawls to her side of the bed, biting back needy whines and pleading whimpers like they might mean more than she wants them to.
Today is probably a particularly hot day and the heat hit her harder than it usually does. She might be sick, perhaps from the wine she had last night with the oysters or perhaps from a bacteria in the sea, and she'll take a few meds and be ready to go and enjoy the beach for another day.
This is all perfectly normal.
Rhaenyra needs to tell her this is normal.
Rhaenyra needs to hold her and soothe the pain away, to keep her safe and secure tight in her arms and press her against the mattress with her arms, to nip at her neck and bite and claim and ease all the pain away with the power of her lips and the thickness of her cock, to-
"Rhaenyra, please?"
Her hand falls upon an arm, and she pushes onto it with all of her weight in an attempt to turn her on her back. Rhaenyra stirs awake, yawning and stretching until her back cracks and her arms release the night's tension, but her eyes remain closed, refusing to enter an already lost fight against the sun.
" Please ."
Alicent isn't sure of what she would have done if Rhaenyra hadn't heard this last plea. She all but falls over her, nose immediately seeking the source of that sweet scent as her hands grasp at fabric she wishes away but that very disappointingly stays there.
Rhaenyra coughs like she just breathed in a cloud of smoke, and she moves, at first away, but when Alicent clutches at her, she stops and allows her to climb over her body and settle comfortably against her front. She’s warm in a deliciously addictive way that somehow cools her body down, and the pressure clawing at her core only throbs harder, wet and hot and frustratingly empty.
"Alicent?" A hand tentatively hovers over her back before resting there, and Rhaenyra hisses at the temperature, instinctively pulling away. "Fuck. Fucking hell, are you… you're… Fuck ."
"You said that." mumbles Alicent against her neck, a broken chuckle punctuating her words.
"This isn't funny." Rhaenyra shifts under her and the next thing she knows, the toned body lying under her own is gone, replaced by a very unsatisfying pillow. Alicent blinks the need away from her eyes and tries to look at where Rhaenyra is pacing holes in the carpet next to their bed, head in her hands.
The missing contact and that panicked edge taken by her scent force the pain to burn hotter and a single tear travels down her cheek, landing on the soft fabric of the pillow.
Rhaenyra stops to stare at her, breathing heavily.
Alicent isn't thinking when her mind tells her she needs to please her alpha, but in the boiling sea and the thick fog clouding the room, it is all that makes sense - the only call she can answer.
Its honeyed voice blows in her ear and and the urge to entice her into rushing back to her side is louder than any worders and sweeter than any alternative. She needs to convince her to never leave this bed again. Her body turns and her hips shift, and even on shaking knees, she manages to place them correctly for her back to face Rhaenyra. Gripping onto the sheets like they might anchor her down, she falls on her stomach and settles there until she's comfortable. Until it feels right.
When her knees part to reveal folds dripping with need Alicent isn't sure to make sense of anymore, Rhaenyra's breath hitches, and time stills altogether.
"Alicent…"
"Hmm?"
The scent edges closer to the bed, and she can already imagine the next minute perfectly.
Rhaenyra will kneel right behind her, pull those cute flowery shorts down and hold onto her hips all tight and strong and yet so, so tenderly rough so that she doesn't move when the head of her cock dips right into her entrance and teasingly hovers there for a second before filling the emptiness burning between her legs with a sharp thrust of her hips.
She'll whisper praise in one ear, and filth in the other, and the sheets won't be enough to muffle moans or pleas. Her chest heaves with shallow breaths, and if she closes her eyes, she can almost feel it - wet hardness pumping hot pleasure into her core, each thrust bottoming out and pushing sharply against her ass, intense bliss washing over her. The slick cotating her inner-thighs and exposed labia would be shameful in any other case.
And Rhaenyra will make sure all the pain goes away, transformed into a lingering ghost of prickling tension erased by the sweet whispers of pleasure her thumb will form over her clit. Alicent will be good and she'll let herself be taken and claimed by the only alpha who deserves her because she needs it.
Because she wants it.
The touch never comes.
"Alicent, love, you're going into heat. Do you understand?"
Instead, Rhaenyra walks around the bed to face her again and reaches for her face, cradling her cheeks between her hands and trying to get Alicent to focus on her. She does, with great difficulty and with her eyes immediately dipping down to the bulge pressing against her shorts, but she's still aware enough to understand she's being talked to.
"I- You need to tell me where you keep your suppressants. If you take them now, maybe you can feel better soon. Maybe… I don't know, tomorrow? It'll die down and you'll be fine again."
Alicent hasn't taken suppressants in four years.
Her husband threw them away at the beginning of their marriage when they tried to conceive, and after Aegon, she never got into a single heat. Rhaenyra's family doctor - also her own, now - said her body had probably sensed the harm their relationship caused and the constant submission he forced her into made her reject her natural cycles.
Suppressants were useless to her, and a waste of money, and when after their separation she didn't get a single symptom again, she found no use in them.
Alicent isn't supposed to go into heat. And she's not supposed to need to suppress one.
Her fingers tighten on the sheets and she whines when a particularly hard pulse throbs in her stomach.
"I don't… don't have any. Please . Make it go away."
Her hips lower down on the bed and she turns on her back, breathing heavy and broken, as she tries to fill her lungs with as much air as humanly possible. Rhaenyra is still there, looking utterly crestfallen, and she understands this won't be as easy as she made it out to be.
Rhaenyra rushes out of the room, and hot tears pool in her eyes.