Chapter Text
Tuesday had brought with it as fine an afternoon as Rhaenyra Targaryen could’ve asked for. The previous day’s rainclouds had departed, the sun was shining, and the autumn chill had temporarily retreated. Best of all, she had nothing due the next morning, leaving her with plenty of time to sit at a table outside the student center and enjoy all the cute boys and pretty girls of King’s Landing University walking past dressed for the unseasonably warm weather.
The only thing she needed to make the experience complete was some coffee and that was on its way. Up the street she could see Laena Velaryon walking toward her, a pair of drinks in hand.
She waved Laena over towards her. “I saved you a chair.”
Laena handed her a cup and set the other one down on the small table between them. “Here you go. One large salted caramel cream cold brew for my favorite cousin in the whole world.”
“You’re the best, Laena. How much do I owe you?”
“Don’t worry about it. You got those burgers last week, remember?”
Rhaenyra took a big gulp and let out a murmur of approval. Her drink was a perfect mixture of salty, sweet, and bitter, decidedly better than usual.
“You like it?” Laena asked.
“It’s great. The Dragonpit must’ve changed the recipe or something.”
Laena settled down in the chair next to Rhaenyra’s. “Actually, I went to Maegor’s Holdfast. You know, the place up on the hill in south campus. It’s a bit of a hike but Yara keeps going on about how much better the coffee there is.”
Rhaenyra snorted. “She probably just thinks the baristas are cuter.”
At the mention of baristas, Laena went quiet, scratching her forehead for a moment before coming to a decision. “So, I wasn’t sure if I should say anything about it but someone you know was actually working there.”
She leaned in closer, intrigued by the statement’s vagueness. “Who? Harwin’s creepy brother? That redhead from chem lab with the pierced tongue?” Laena bit her lip rather than answering and Rhaenyra threw up her arms in frustration. “Come on, don’t keep me in suspense here.”
Laena’s response was a single, quiet word. “Alicent.”
Rhaenyra was lucky she’d been sitting down because it felt as if her legs had turned to rubber, a torrent of emotions hitting her all at once. “Alicent? My Alicent?”
“Alicent Hightower, yeah.”
“Alicent Fucking Hightower?!”
“See, this is why I wasn’t sure if I should even tell you. You’re already freaking out.”
In spite of the fact that she most obviously was freaking out, Rhaenyra still insisted, “No, I’m not. It’s just, this is crazy right? Nobody even knows where she went after prom night and now you’re telling me she’s right here on campus, working at Maegor’s Holdfast like nothing happened? What the fuck is going on?”
Laena took a long drink of her chai latte before answering. “Look, I get that you’re curious, Rhaenyra. I’m curious too. But I still don’t think you should go running over there.”
“Then why did you say anything to me in the first place?”
“Because the coffee was so good. I was worried you’d go there for more and get ambushed.” She ran a hand through her long, white curls. “Do you remember what that girl did to you? What that summer after your senior year was like?”
There was no denying Laena was right. Alicent standing her up for prom would’ve been bad enough but her one-time girlfriend had disappeared entirely. No calls, no texts, nothing. She hadn’t even come to their graduation a week later. A devastated Rhaenyra had spent the entire summer alternately sobbing and cursing Alicent’s name, not to mention doing some regrettable things in an effort to get over her heartbreak…
“Okay, yeah, I was a mess. Bad decisions were made.”
“To put it mildly. But you never would’ve stooped so low as to hook up with Criston Cole if Alicent hadn’t broken your heart first. So take my advice and don’t go there again.”
An uncomfortable silence followed, lasting for several twists of Rhaenyra’s ruby ring around her finger around before she finally asked, “Did she see you?”
“Rhaenyra…”
“I’m just asking. Did she?”
Laena threw up her hands, clearly annoyed by Rhaenyra’s persistence but unwilling to fight about it any further. “I don’t think so. It was pretty busy and I was in another line so she doesn’t know that you know about her working there. Just let it go.”
****
Rationally there was every reason to trust Laena’s advice. After all, she was the one who’d had to listen to endless hours of Rhaenyra’s anger and grief after the breakup. She was also the one who’d cautioned her against giving rebound handjobs to moody jocks on the football team, no matter how handsome they were, not to mention the one who’d asked Uncle Daemon to threaten to break said jock’s legs if he didn’t leave Rhaenyra alone. When it came to her and Alicent, Laena definitely knew what she was talking about.
If Rhaenyra had any sense at all she’d listen to her cousin for a change and stay the hell away from Maegor’s Holdfast. And she had. For a whole day, anyway. She’d gone back to her dorm room, worked on her lit paper, ordered some Braavosi food, watched a movie, and done her level best to think about anything other than Alicent Hightower.
It was a vain effort. Over and over her mind had drifted back to auburn curls and deep brown eyes, to years of shy smiles and nine months of stolen kisses. Alicent hadn’t just been her first love, they’d been best friends even before dating, a connection that made the break so much more excruciating. In the last year and a half Rhaenyra had done her best to put it behind her but knowing that Alicent was so close, all of the old feelings had rushed back like the tide.
It’ll pass, she’d tried telling herself every time the impulse to run up the hill to Maegor’s Holdfast struck. You got through it before and you’ll do it again. Just stay strong.
But that night she’d dreamed of their first kiss. Something had been building between them the whole summer before senior year but they hadn’t acted on it until late August. Rhaenyra was afraid of ruining their friendship and Alicent had been scared of other things as well. That night, though, they’d gone with the usual gang down to the waterfront and while Laenor regaled the rest of them with stories of his freshmen year exploits at college, she and Alicent had sat on the dock, sharing an ice cream cone.
When Rhaenyra passed it back, their finger-tips had brushed together and to cover the awkwardness, she’d told a joke, one that Alicent laughed at louder than it deserved. The musical sound made Rhaenyra grin and their eyes met for a long moment of hesitation before she leaned in and took her chance. Alicent had almost pulled away, but after a heartbeat she’d kissed her back, her lips so soft that Rhaenyra had thought she might melt into them.
It had been the first of many, the two of them trading kisses until ice cream dripped down onto their fingers. Only when their friends got close had they pulled apart, at least for a little while. But that wasn’t the way Rhaenyra had dreamed it last night. This time they were still deep in that first magic kiss when Alicent lost her balance, tumbling backwards toward the water. Rhaenyra grasped for the bracelet around Alicent’s wrist but it slipped off, leaving her screaming with nothing but a band of gold in her hand as her love fell into the abyss below.
She’d awoken in a sweat, her heart beating out of her chest, needing hours before she could find sleep again. Even then her rest had been a fitful thing, haunted by images of what she’d had and lost, and by the time morning came, Rhaenyra knew that listening to Laena’s sound advice wasn’t an option.
It was a realization that had brought her to Maegor’s Holdfast but it hadn’t yet been enough to get her inside. Three times already she’d circled the block without opening the door, her need and her fear balancing one another out almost perfectly.
The previous day’s warmth had vanished and Rhaenyra tugged on the sleeves of her black wool coat, unable to get them to sit right. Once more she looked at the windows of the coffee house, silently cursing the fact that they were too tinted for a real look inside. There would be no sneak peeks of Alicent, allowing her to satisfy her curiosity while avoiding a confrontation, and as she fretted, the door opened. For an instant her breath caught in her throat but it wasn’t Alicent coming out, just a couple of theater kids gossiping over their lattes.
Okay, Rhaenyra. Time to stop being such a fucking coward and do actually this.
With a final tug on her ring, she crossed the street and pushed open the front door. She’d deliberately chosen the same time of the afternoon that Laena had come in the day before but she wasn’t the only one who’d picked it. Maegor’s Holdfast was packed with students in search of caffeine and Rhaenyra wasn’t tall enough too see over them.
She did her best to elbow her way toward the front, craning her neck in the direction of the counter. Unfortunately her efforts left Rhaenyra horribly distracted, not noticing the crush of people coming in behind her until some overeager customer pushed against her back, knocking her forward. She reached out for something to catch herself on but though she succeeded in grabbing a nearby purse, all that accomplished was to yank the girl holding it around while Rhaenyra herself tumbled the rest of the way to the floor.
“Oh Gods, I’m sorry,” she blurted out even as the crowd around her pulled back to give her space.
“Is everything all right here?” A familiar voice asked and Rhaenyra looked up only to find herself starring straight into the face of Alicent Hightower.
Somehow Alicent had only gotten more gorgeous in the year and a half since Rhaenyra had seen her. Her long copper hair was now attractively styled, the last bits of blotchy teenage skin had cleared up, and in spite of the unflattering red employee polo she wore, Rhaenyra could tell that she’d filled out in the best possible way.
All she could do was stare and Alicent wasn’t much better off. Those big brown eyes were wide as she looked down at Rhaenyra and her mouth hung open without sounds actually coming out. For several seconds both of them stayed like that, frozen in place, until finally Alicent managed to ask, “Rhaenyra?”
“Yeah, it’s me,” was her answer, even as she kicked herself for not having thought of a better one.
“Why are you here?” As Alicent asked the question, she extended a hand up and before Rhaenyra could worry about what she was doing, she took it. The feel of warm skin against her made Rhaenyra’s heart pound and it took her a second to realize Alicent was adding, “Oh, for coffee, I guess.”
“Uh, yeah,” she replied too quickly, not willing to admit her real motives. “Just needed a fix.”
“I can take care of you over here.”
Rhaenyra’s mind raced. She’d come here without much of a plan, or perhaps too many different ones. Urges to yell, demand answers, ask if Alicent was all right, and even throw herself into the other girl’s arms were warring inside of her and instead of heeding any one of them, she just followed Alicent over to one of the registers.
Her ex seemed equally uncomfortable, not meeting Rhaenyra’s eyes as she asked, “What can I get for you?”
Rhaenyra had more or less lost the ability to think coherently and so she just repeated her order from the day before. “Large salted caramel cream cold brew."
“What blend?”
“Whatever’s good.”
She handed over her student card to pay and Alicent said, “You can pick it up over there by the counter.”
“Thanks,” she mumbled as Alicent gave her the receipt but inside she was panicking. It felt as if she was about to walk out of both the shop and her ex’s life, no wiser than when she’d come in. “Listen, Alicent…” she began desperately.
Before Rhaenyra could reveal that she didn’t know how to finish the sentence, Alicent blurted out, “Can we talk?”
She laughed nervously. “I’d say we should get a coffee but, uh, you’re already working here.”
Alicent’s smile was forced and Rhaenyra could see the same uncertainty she felt herself, each of them trying to figure out what the other was. “I get off at six. Can you meet me outside?”
“See you then,” was all she could think to say and though she had no idea if it was the smart response, it was the only one her heart would let her give.