"Is that all I am to you? Your Queen?"
Jon knew he should have been more sympathetic towards Daenerys' grief but he had enough of people trying to use him for their own gain. He wanted to believe that Daenerys genuinely loved him but now as she said those words he did began to wonder whether it was just a ploy to make sure he was well behaved but no more, "If you are the Queen to me it's only because you have made it so."
"What?" Daenerys was shocked at Jon's outburst. Ever since he found out about his parentage he had been walking around like a ghost barely taking in what was going on around him but now there was fire in his eyes.
"I remember when I first came to Dragonstone." Jon walked towards the window looking out towards the sea. "I didn't think I deserved to be King. I was a bastard, I was never meant to rule and yet for some reason the Northern Lords chose me to lead them." Then he turned to Daenerys, "Then there was you with your fancy names and prestigious bloodline thinking it gave you all the right to rule the Seven Kingdoms."
"It is my birth right." Daenerys snapped angrily.
"But it's not is it?" Jon growled aggressively. "It's mine, you know it is and yet you want me to hide who I am just because it benefits you!"
"So are you are saying you want to be King now?" She could have burned him alive right now but she wanted to hear it from him, not Varys, not Sansa, not Tryion but him.
"I don't!" Jon was getting frustrated. He had said that he didn't want to be King so many times now but no one was listening to him.
"Then what do you want?" Daenerys shouted angrily.
"You know you're first person to ask me that?" Jon laughed cynically. "For most of my life no one cared enough to ask me what I wanted."
Daenerys flinched at that but she didn't want to feel any sympathy for the man that could potentially usurp her claim no matter what she might feel for him. "Just tell me."
"Do you really want to know?" Jon approached her forcing her to look at him. "I want to be free." He could see the confusion in Daenerys face so he continued. "Do you remember when we were in the Dragon pit and you told me of how our ancestors chained the dragons?"
Daenery nodded in remembrance. She remembered how he tried to reassure her that the witch hadn't cursed her. He made her believe that one day she could have a human child of her own but that wasn't what he was talking about right now. He was talking about something else.
"We've become those dragons Daenerys." Jon explained, "That throne has made our family weaker not stronger. The Dance of Dragons, the Blackfire Rebellions, the Nine Penny Kings, our kin slaughtering each other in droves all for the Iron Throne and now it has turned you against me your only living relative."
"No Jon." Daenerys shook her head in denial. "You pushed me away first."
"No." Jon shook his head turned away from her sadly. "As soon as I told you who I was all you could talk about was how it affected your claim. Even when you came to me after the Night King was defeated it was only to ensure that I didn't tell anyone of my heritage." Jon then turned to her and said, "You think I'm disgusted with our relationship because you're my aunt? You're wrong, the only reason why I'm so disgusted with you right now is because I'm just beginning to realise that you never loved me at all."
"No I do love you Jon." Daenerys cried stepping towards Jon but he stepped back.
"Just not enough to give up the throne right?" Jon looked at her sadly, "You love that throne more than Rhaegal, more than Missandei, more than Drogon and most certainly more than me." Jon began to walk away but not before turning to her, "You don't have to worry about me becoming a threat to your claim anymore. As soon as the war is over I'm leaving the Seven Kingdoms. You'll never have to see me again."
After Jon walked away Daenerys fell to the floor and cried. She didn't want to believe in the possibility that Jon could be right but the signs were there. She remembered when she had left Daario in Meereen and how she had felt nothing. Daenerys told Tryion how the thought of feeling nothing frightened her. Tryion had told her that the great game was terrifying but she hadn't anticipated it to be this much.
Daenerys had lost so much to this game, friends, loved ones but she was beginning to wonder if she had lost herself along the way. She had thought back to the girl she had once been. The girl who wanted to go home, to the house with the red door and the lemon trees outside. It was never a palace but to her it had felt like home. Dragonstone didn't feel like home and Daenerys was almost certain that the Red Keep wouldn't feel like home either. So if those two places weren't home then where was it?
The answer didn't come to Daenerys during the battle for Kings Landing. The bell had rung signalling Cersei's surrender but she had barely acknowledged it. She wandered into throne room and sat in the Iron Throne. She had fought for this for years and it still didn't feel like home to her. Jon was right the Iron Throne was a chain and it had made Daenerys smaller. Getting up and glaring angrily at it as though she wanted nothing more than to have Drogon burn it till there was nothing there. For the throne had brought her nothing but pain and misery.
Daenerys didn't even notice Arya arriving behind her looking at the throne in disgust, "It's just as ugly as I remember."
"All that death and destruction for this thing." Daenerys thought about all those people that died in her quest for this throne. It had all seemed so pointless now.
"Are you saying you don't want it now?" Arya turned to her in surprise. Maybe she underestimated the Dragon Queen.
"Jon said that the Iron Throne had become a chain and that we Targeryen's became smaller because of it." Daenerys said quietly thinking of Jon's words wondering where he was now.
"I had no idea that my brother had become a poet." Arya commented. Everything was different and nothing in Winterfell had felt the same to Arya.
"You still see him as a brother knowing who he is?" Daenerys turned to Arya. Daenerys had little knowledge when it came to families. All she had was Viserys and he wasn't a good example. She wanted a family that Jon had described when he spoke of the Starks but what she had seen of them didn't quite resemble to what he had spoken of. Daenerys wanted to know from Arya's perspective because she was the one closest to Jon.
"It takes more than blood to build a family." Arya spoke softly, "The Stark's know that better than anyone. Once you are accepted into the pack that's it. Too bad Theon hadn't figured that out until it was too late." Whilst Theon did defend Bran in the end so much heartbreak could have been avoided if Theon accepted that he was much a Stark as she was. However Arya couldn't help but feel they had placed Jon in that same predicament by forcing him to chose between his Stark and Targeryen heritage. Perhaps if she and Sansa had been a little more accepting of Daenerys Jon wouldn't have felt the need to push everyone away.
"I think I had a family like that once." Daenerys suddenly realised, "Jorah, Sir Barriston, Missandei and so many more. All lost now because I was blinded by this chair."
Arya had never seen the Dragon Queen so vulnerable before. It wasn't until now that Arya was finally beginning to see what Jon saw in Daenerys. "I lost family too thanks to this chair." Arya took the Dragon Queen's hand squeezing it in sympathy, "You're not alone."
The moment was interrupted by Gendry crashing in like the bull he was. "They told me I would find you in here."
"What are you doing here?" Arya shaking her head in annoyance.
"I came to tell the Queen I don't want to be the Lord of Storms End anymore." Gendry explained nervously scratching the back of his head.
"Why would you do that?" Arya looked at Gendry as though he had lost his mind.
"I don't want to be some lord in a castle." Gendry explained, "I was happy being a blacksmith. I was even happier travelling with you. Minus the rat torture, and the leeches, and the rowing."
"Okay shut up." Arya laughed putting her arms around Gendry, "You can come with me but don't get in my way."
"As my lady wishes." Gendry smirked which had earned him a playful smack from Arya.
It was observing the young couple that made Daenerys finally realise what she wanted to do. She immediately rushed out of the throne room where she had suddenly run into Tryion. "Your Grace. I just came to inform you that my brother has captured Cersei." Tryion noticed that his Queen was distracted, "Don't you understand your rule is assured now and with Jon leaving…"
"What?" This gave Daenerys pause, "Jon has left already? Did he say where he was going?"
"I fail to see the problem your Grace." Tryion looked at his Queen in confusion. "He's made it perfectly clear he doesn't want the throne and with him leaving the Seven Kingdoms…"
"I don't want to be the Queen." Daenerys spoke quietly thinking of the young girl she had been on the start of her journey. "I want to go home." She left Tryion and went in search of Drogon. Jon may have not been Drogon's rider but the dragon was smart enough to know Jon's identity before she did and if anyone could find Jon Drogon could do so without a problem.
Jon had been riding North when Drogon landed right in front of him causing Jon's horse to rear back in fright. It was so sudden that it had caused Jon to fall off his horse. He glared at the dragon who tilted his head innocently. Jon turned and looked to where the horse had run off to but stopped when heard a voice, "I'm afraid your horse is long gone Jon Snow."
He turned to look at the woman sitting smugly on top of her dragon. She didn't look like the broken woman he saw in Dragonstone. She looked very much like the woman before the battle for Winterfell. Daenerys looked very much like the woman he fell in love with but he shook his head at the thought. He would not be fooled again, "I'll walk to the nearest inn."
"I can always offer you a ride." Daenerys knew it wouldn't be easy to win him back but she was just as stubborn as he was.
"I'm not going to Kings Landing." Jon was in no mood for games and continued on his way.
"Good." Daenery spoke confidently, "Neither am I." This forced Jon to stop and really look at Daenerys. She climbed off Drogon and approached him. "You told me what you wanted and now it's my turn."
"I already know what you want Daenerys and that's the Iron Throne." Jon didn't want to have this conversation again. He just wanted to leave so why wouldn't she let him.
"No it's not." Daenerys finally admitted to herself, "That's what Viserys wanted, to restore house Targeryan to its proper place and to take vengeance against the people who took it from us but it was never what I wanted. Not really."
"What do you want Dany?" Jon no longer saw the fearsome Dragon Queen before him but his Dany so he let his defences down.
Dany saw this and breathed a sigh in relief that Jon was going to hear her out. "I want a home. A place where I feel safe and happy. Where I feel loved. I've been to so many places but I have never felt like that anywhere except…"
Jon sensed Dany's hesitation, "Go on."
"On the boat going to White Harbour." Daenery spoke quietly embarrassed by her confession, "With you. I didn't think about thrones or politics. It was one of the few moments in my life where I didn't feel so alone anymore."
"A Targaryen alone in the world is a terrible thing." Jon thought of the old maester. Aemon who didn't know that one of his relatives was close by him the entire time. The poor man had died before he had the chance to be properly reunited with his family like he had always wanted.
"What?" Daenerys was confused by the statement but in a way he was right. She had been alone for so long now that she had almost forgotten what it was like to have a family and what she had experienced with Viserys wasn't exactly the best.
"It doesn't matter." Jon shook his head with a smile. "Let's just leave this place." He took Daenerys' hand and made his way to Drogon.
"Where will we go?" Daenerys settle on Drogon with Jon behind her. It was the closest they had been for a while.
"First I need to pick up an old friend from beyond the wall." Jon thought of Ghost. The wolf had bled for Jon during the Great War. Jon had no intention of risking Ghost on the war for the Iron Throne. In hindsight Jon should have shown the same consideration for Rhaegal but things had been so difficult with Daenerys back then that he didn't want her to feel threatened by forcing Rhaegal to stay at Winterfell for a little while longer. Maybe if Jon had done this his dragon would have still been alive but there was no point on looking back on that now. They had a chance to make things right and he wasn't going to waste it.
As soon as they landed beyond the wall Ghost had raced up to greet them practically knocking Jon over. Daenerys watched as Ghost licked Jon's face with Jon wrapping his arms around Ghost with a carefree smile. She hadn't seen Jon so happy in a long time and it had made her smile. Drogon watched curiously as Jon played with Ghost. Daenerys petted Drogon and said "Don't mind them. They're you're family after all."
"Yes we are." Jon approached with Ghost at his side pulling Dany close. "We'll be each other's home." This time he kissed her without any doubt or any hesitation. Dany felt safe and happy because this is where she belonged in Jon's arms with Ghost and Drogon at their side.
NOTE: I do realise that this fic seems cheesy but I needed something to cheer me up after that nightmare I had witnessed. I'm not going to go into the problems with Dany's character as it has already been mentioned several times but Jon Snow got absolutely abused by everyone during season 8. I was waiting for Jon to finally snap at somebody but it never happened and it probably won't happen till it's too late to help Dany. I know Jon is passive sometimes but he does know how to stick up for himself when he needs to.
For fans of my other fic "Sanctuary" I haven't given up on it. I actually took time out to catch up on some Game of Throne's episodes in preparation for Season 8 which I now realise was a complete waste of time. I will definitely go back to it in the near future and I'm sorry for the delay. For those of you who liked this fic I do have an idea for another Game of Thrones oneshot and depending on how I'm feeling I may write it if this one generates interest.