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"𝐆𝐎𝐎𝐃 𝐌𝐎𝐑𝐑𝐎𝐖 𝐀𝐋𝐈𝐂𝐄𝐍𝐓," 𝐑𝐇𝐀𝐆𝐀𝐑 𝐆𝐑𝐈𝐍𝐍𝐄𝐃 𝐓𝐎𝐖𝐀𝐑𝐃𝐒 𝐇𝐄𝐑 𝐖𝐈𝐓𝐇 𝐓𝐇𝐄 𝐒𝐈𝐃𝐄𝐒 𝐎𝐅 𝐇𝐈𝐒 𝐄𝐘𝐄𝐒 𝐂𝐑𝐈𝐍𝐊𝐋𝐈𝐍𝐆 𝐈𝐍 𝐀 𝐆𝐄𝐍𝐔𝐈𝐍𝐄 𝐒𝐌𝐈𝐋𝐄 𝐓𝐇𝐀𝐓 𝐒𝐇𝐄 𝐆𝐋𝐄𝐄𝐅𝐔𝐋𝐋𝐘 𝐑𝐄𝐓𝐔𝐑𝐍𝐄𝐃. She was sitting bellow Godswood with a large book in hand and lemon cakes to her right.

"Rhagar, you seem in a pleasant mood," she greeted and he nodded before looking down at his feet and back up to her.

"Indeed I am but I must confess that I have something to say to you," she arched an eyebrow at him before placing her book to her side and patted the space next to her.

He sat down and leant against the tree before saying, "I wanted to thank you for standing by me at the Queen's cremation, you could've stood with Rhaenyra or your family but you chose to comfort me and for that must say I am thankful to have you as my friend." Alicent smiled kindly and placed her hand on top of his whilst soothing the scars that planted themselves on his knuckles.

"It is quite alright Rhagar you should know that you are too one of my closest friends as well," he bashfully grinned as he looked to the ground where his feet lay. "But I would like to ask you something," she broke the comfortable silence with a small voice.

He gave her a nod and she bit her lips before looking as though she was choosing her words carefully, "why is it that you and Rhaenyra hate each other so much?" She peered up at him with curious eyes and he felt himself grow slightly annoyed at the question that he'd heard a thousand times.

"No comment,"he took his hand from under hers and crossed his arms, sulking back into the tree with his shoulders sagging.

"Please Rhagar," she leant on his shoulder but he turned his head away from her with a gruff no, "come on didn't you say before that I am your friend now friends tell each others secrets," she poked his cheek with a cheeky grin.

"I renounce our friendship," Rhagar turned his body fully away from Alicents and he heard her let out a light laugh from behind him.

"How about this?" She placed her hand on his broad shoulder and tilted him towards her though his face was still staring at the bushes that surrounded the many walls. "You tell me why there's a feud between you two and I'll let you burn one of my fathers robes."

Rhagar's ears perked up and he angled his head to narrow both of his eyes at the Hightower girl, "five robes."

"One."

"Three."

"One."

He huffed before rolling his eyes, "two," he looked up at her with an intrusive eyebrow to which she rubbed her forehead before nodding, "fine two robes now tell me." Alicent sat crisscrossed with her back against the bark and the book had been long forgotten as she used it to lean her hand on.

Rhagar grumbled before fiddling with the strings that tied his tunic together before swallowing thickly, "when we were younger I," he clenched his jaw and focused on the cotton between his fingers, "I proposed to her," Alicent clasped a hand over her mouth to stop herself from laughing though her eyes were wide. He ignored her and kept his embarrassment hidden but it showed easily as his cheeks turned red. "She took one look at what was in my hand the ring was made from pure silver with a large diamond that I stole it from my father and picked it up before throwing it in my face."

Alicent couldn't help the snort that left herself though she quickly apologised when he sent her a glare, "she said to me, 'oh Rhagar I'm too good for you,' and walked off with a stupid smirk."

A look of recognition crossed Alicents face and she began to laugh loudly to which Rhagar stared at her in offence, "do you mind! I am sharing one of the biggest secrets I have and you are laughing," he fumed at her.

"No it's not that it's just- you proposed to my sister as well as a Martel girl before you asked for Rhaenyra's hand," she pointed out and placed a hand on her chest to calm herself.

"So?" He tried to seem unbothered but he began to count the amount of times he'd asked someone to be his wife.

"So! She thought she was not first choice trust me I remember when my sister ran in with a ring on her finger and Rhaenyra nearly ripped off her finger trying to get it." She quickly snatched her hands to her mouth as if she spoke a deadly curse.

"I beg your pard-,"she now slapped a hand to his mouth, "you will tell no one I told you that or so help the old gods Klauth will look like a saint compared to me." He took one look at the seriousness that was in her gaze and nodded humbly before shuffling further into the tree.

"You can be scary you know," he pointed out to which she smirked before dusting off her dress and waved her hand for him to pick up the heavy book that laid on the floor. Rhagar heaved himself from the tree and held the book close to his side, "oh I know," they began to walk back into the castle where the many stone stairs start.

"So about them robes," he wandered off and she groaned before cursing, "I thought you'd forgotten about that."

He loudly laughed before it eased into him saying, " you think I'd miss seeing the look on his wrinkled face please then you don't know me friend."

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"What do you think the black one or the red one?" He held the robes up against him and decided upon himself that it would be the red one that joins the fire. He scrunched his face in disgust and threw it in a substantially large pile that had began to clutter a side of the room.

"Fathers going to kill me," Alicent worried and began to pick at the skin of her nails as she stared at the closet that began to hold less and less of his clothes.

What was only meant to be two robes had began to grow into pairs of breaches and boots along with many, many robes.

"Alicent," he warned and quickly snatched her hand from her nails, "it's going to be fine I already told you that you can blame this all on me if her ever suspects it was either you or your sister, which he won't."

She scratched the back off her head but still looked anxious, Rhagar tossed her a pair of boots to which she clumsily caught with a small squeal. "Burn them," he pointed with a poker and the large fire that sat in the centre or the wall across from them.

"No i- I couldn't he's my father."

"Oh fuck him for a minute Alicent," he snapped abruptly, "take some of your anger out on something that belongs to him, you may never be ready to look at him but you have to release your anger some way or else it consumes you."

She sighed and tried to writher out of the situation but he held her stare and continued to point to the fire place with the iron rod. Alicent slowly walked to the fire and timidly threw a boot in the fire, the flames engulfed the leather and fused around the black till it turned into a shrivelled brown.

"Now use your words like this," he took a pair of breaches and balled them up before throwing them into the wide and open fire place with force, "I hate how Daemon can never keep his mouth shut!"

As if the fire was his voice the orange lifted itself up and over the cotton before slamming itself over the light material in a rage.

Alicent took a coat of her fathers and walked towards the fire with purpose, "I hate how my father tries to manipulate me!" She chucked the coat down and didn't stop there as she reached for a large glass vase that held flowers in it, "I hate how my older sister lets him!" The glass smashed against the wall with a loud cracking sound and water spilled onto the floor with dead flowers that were now bent out of shape as they lay broken, on the stone floor.

Rhagar's eyes seemed to light up and he rested the iron in both of his hands like a sword and hit anything that managed to cross paths with him. Alicents spiteful words became muffled in the background as he was now focused on the many splinters of wood that flew across the room as he damaged many wooden tables and bed posts.

With one final hit the rod flew from his hands and carved itself into the wood above the pillows on the untidy bed. He breathed heavily and placed both of his hands on his waist until his head snapped to the open window and he arched an eyebrow in interest.

He spun to Alicent who had her eyes closed and was breathing in through her nose and out through her mouth though she opened her eyes once she felt Rhagar looking at her.

  "How about we visit Klauth?" He heaved up the remaining boots and cloaks in his arms before giving her an excited grin to which she giggled lightly at before opening the door and holding her arm out.

"After you," she teased before he bowed his head and said, "don't mind if I do," and with that they left the room beaten and smashed just like her father had done or was planning to do with his daughters.

They were running down the steps when they heard voices back where they had just came from, "what has happened here!" The voice roared, Alicent and Rhagar looked to one another before the two of them bolted down the stairs, bumping into servants who wrung their hands at them and out into the court yard, past the gates and into the village.