Let it be fear
The bells sound, signaling the surrender of the city, and yet it is her words that ring in his ears. He suddenly feels a surge of anger rising within him, and it takes him by surprise as it comes from the same place where he previously could feel Rhaegal. When he hears the dragon roar from its perch on the city walls, he realizes that anger inside of him is coming from Drogon - and by extension, from her. Although he had lost his own dragon, he somehow now has a connection to hers.
Drogon takes to the sky, and Jon knows what she intends to do. And though they have had their differences lately, he cannot let her do this - he cannot let her become what she had worked so hard not to be.
Ignoring the soldiers around him, he uses all of the strength he can muster to reach out to Drogon, encouraging him to gain altitude and keep out of firing range of the city below. He has little faith that he can take control of her dragon, not when she was his mother and his rider for so long; he is sure that his will cannot overpower her own. But gradually the black dragon rises higher into the sky and circles over the city.
He takes a moment to watch his success before turning and running back down the same city streets that he had just fought his way through. When he reaches the city walls and the destroyed gate from her previous attack, he calls Drogon to him, his heart racing in his chest at the wrath he will encounter.
The black dragon circles back around as he gets closer to the ground, and though a great distance still separates them, he can see the moment her face turns from confusion to understanding and finally settling on indignation.
Jon lets go of his control over Drogon, deciding that if he dies now, he has at least given her enough pause to reconsider the slaughter that she had been planning moments ago.
Drogon lands and barrels toward him, letting out a roar. He stands and faces it, just as he had when he first met the dragon, though he fully expects the flames to engulf him at any moment. Longclaw falls to his feet as he surrenders to her like the people of King's Landing.
"First you take my throne and now you take my dragon?" Daenerys yells, absolutely livid as she glares down at him.
"I know what you were going to do, Daenerys. I couldn't let it happen."
"I was doing what had to be done."
"Fear is not the way to win the loyalty of the people. I know that they don't love you right now, Daenerys, but if you give them time, they will come to love you just as your own people have. But if you burn that city with your dragon, they will never love you," Jon takes a timid step to the side of the dragon's head so that he can see her better.
"They will never respect me if they don't fear me. It was how Aegon and his sisters conquered Westeros, and I shall do the same."
"Cersei ruled with fear. And look where it got her - the people abandoned her at the earliest opportunity. The throne is yours."
"It isn't mine until she's dead."
"Then go after her if you must, not the smallfolk. Otherwise you'll be a queen with no subjects to rule."
"She's using them against me. I don't have a choice," she argues. "And they aren't exactly innocent, are they? Not when they abandoned the Targaryens all those years ago and let the Baratheons and Lannisters take over."
"They abandoned our family because your father wanted to do the exact thing that you are trying to do right now, Daenerys," he gestures to the smoke curling up toward the sky.
"I am not the Mad Queen," Dany replies vehemently, eyes flashing dangerously, and Drogon growls.
"I believed in you. I thought you would be different, that you didn't care about the throne because of the power it would give you but because you truly wanted to make a better world for your people. Now…" he shakes his head, certain he cannot support her claim if she insists on destroying the city. "This isn't you, Daenerys. You're better than your father and the Lannisters."
"I sacrificed everything for the North, Jon Snow. I lost so much by going to fight the army of the dead. And what have I gotten in return? Your people may be here fighting for me, but they love me even less than they did before. I've lost my right to the throne. My advisors are betraying me. My heart is…" she trails off, sadness washing away the anger on her face for a moment. Her eyes close and her voice is barely a whisper so that he must strain to hear her finish. "Drogon is the only thing I have left. Please don't take him from me, Jon."
His own heart aches at seeing the strong woman he had come to admire breaking in front of him. He holds a hand out to her and implores her to dismount, "Please come down from there, Dany."
She looks at the ruins of the gate to the city, at the burnt bodies of the Golden Company, and her violet eyes narrow at the sight of the Red Keep in the distance. He fully expects the dragon to take flight again, but she surprises him when she swings her leg over Drogon's shoulder and carefully climbs down his wing.
Once her feet are on the ground, she quickly crosses over to him, her hands coming up to his chest and shoving him. "I rather dislike you right now, Jon Snow."
Surprised at the force that the petite queen generated, he stumbles back a few steps before steadying himself. Jon doesn't have to ask why she dislikes him - there is no shortage of reasons for her to feel this way about him. Instead, he says, "Drogon is yours. I will not take him from you."
Shoving him seems to have been some sort of catharsis for her, and the anger is now gone from her face. In fact, she suddenly seems very uncertain of herself, something he has never before seen in the strong and confident Dragon Queen. "As I sat up there on his back and looked out over the city while the bells rang… I don't think that I even knew what I was going to do at that moment. How could you know?"
Jon lets out a shaky breath of relief that her anger has abated for now, "I felt it like I could feel Rhaegal before… Drogon, he reached out to me. Or maybe you did."
"Has it happened before?"
"Only with Rhaegal. But even with him, it was never as strong."
Dany looks up at the black dragon beside them for a long moment before she says, "Drogon let you control him. He wouldn't even listen to me the first time I rode him. Perhaps you are meant to be his rider, Aegon Targaryen."
He reaches out for her hand, surprised when she doesn't pull away from his touch, and he wraps her fingers in his, "Or perhaps he let me control him because he wanted to protect his mother. He didn't want one impulsive decision to ruin what she has worked so hard to achieve."
Her hand trembles in his for a brief second before it is pulled away from him as she takes a step back, her lilac eyes widening when she looks at the city once more, the implications of the decision she had made and fully intended to carry out now hitting her. "I - I almost… Oh Gods."
"It's alright, Dany. You didn't do it," he follows her, arms extended.
"Only because you stopped me!" she holds up her hands in an effort to keep him from touching her. "What if I really am mad?"
"If you were mad, you wouldn't be feeling guilty right now."
"The anger just… it took over, and I couldn't let it go. What if it happens again? How can I trust myself to rule if there is always the chance that I just snap and kill everyone?" her eyes are wide as they meet his, and he can see fear in them.
"Now that you are aware of it, you won't let it happen again. You surround yourself with people that you trust and listen to their advise. Give yourself time to make important decisions instead of acting on impulse."
Her face falls at his words, and she looks at the ground. "Ser Jorah is gone. Missandei is gone. Varys betrayed me. Tyrion has betrayed me. I only have Grey Worm. There is no one else that I can trust."
"What about me?" he places his hands on her upper arms.
"Even if I did trust you, you will be half a world away in the North while I am here in King's Landing."
"Sansa can take care of the North."
"You said you didn't want the throne," she counters, a spark of anger rising in her eyes once more at the thought that he could claim the throne as his own despite all of his previous assurances otherwise.
"I don't. You are my queen… and my family too. If you want me here as an advisor, I will stay and serve you, Your Grace."
She studies his face for a long moment before deciding on the sincerity of his words. "I am afraid Ghost will not enjoy the heat or the crowds of the city."
"Ghost will learn to deal with them," he replies, knowing full well that they are not actually talking about his wolf. "Do you trust me, Dany?"
She takes a step back from him and gives a gentle shake of her head as she whispers, "I can't."
"I am true to my word, Daenerys. You know that. I will not do anything that would hurt you."
"You already have," she answers sadly, her violet eyes shining with tears.
Not knowing what to say, he keeps silent.
Dany steels herself against her emotions and climbs back up onto Drogon. "We should get to the castle before Cersei escapes."
"I will gather the armies and meet you there," Jon turns to the city gate.
"Jon," she calls out, stopping him. When he looks back at her, she is holding a hand out to him, "I'm sure Grey Worm can handle getting the army to the Red Keep. Drogon let you control him; I'm sure he will let you come with us."
He hesitates for a moment before picking his sword up from the ground and sheathing it. Then he makes his way up the black dragon's wing and settles himself a couple feet behind her, grabbing ahold of a couple of spikes on the dragon's back between their bodies.
She turns her head to look back at him, "And this way it is easier for you to make sure I don't burn the city down along the way."
Drogon lifts off the ground before he can respond.
- Ice and Fire -
"Your Grace?" he approaches her from behind, taking in her silhouette against the setting sun as she stands on the balcony and looks out at the city.
"It does look better this way and not the piles of ash that I would have left," she replies in acknowledgement of his presence.
Jon moves to stand beside her, "I suppose it is beautiful in its own sort of way."
The corners of her mouth lift as she looks over at him, "It's only been a few hours, and you already hate it here."
"I don't hate it," he argues, though at her raised eyebrow, he hangs his head. "Aye, it is too hot and too crowded, as you had said."
"You do not have to stay here, Jon Snow."
"I promised that I would serve you. I gave you my word, and I intend to keep it."
"I cannot ask you to stay in a place that you despise when you didn't even want to be involved in the politics of the Seven Kingdoms to begin with," she turns toward him.
He takes a deep breath and then says, "Not everything about the city is unpleasant."
"And what could you possibly have found to like about King's Landing in such a short amount of time?"
"Well… you're here," he answers, his gray eyes searching her violet ones. "We can't be what we were before, Dany, but I have grown fond of your company. I was hoping that we could still be friends. If it is at all possible for you to trust me again, Your Grace."
She stares at him for so long that he is sure that he has made a mistake. But then she says, "I was going to ask you to be my king after we defeated the army of the dead."
"You would have married me?" he frowns slightly, never having thought that she would have wanted to form a marriage alliance with a bastard.
"Of course. You are honorable, liked by your people. It would have been a strategic alliance to gain the support of half of Westeros. But more than that, I had loved you, Jon Snow."
"I loved you as well," he admits, and though his feelings for her have somewhat changed now that he knows they are related, he does still deeply care about her.
"We could still get married," Daenerys proposes. "If you are serious about staying here in King's Landing and acting as an my advisor, you may as well be the king that you were born to be. You deserve the title more than any other man I could choose for my king and not just because it is your birthright."
"Dany -" he starts to protest, but she raises a hand up between them to stop him.
"We wouldn't have to be more than friends, as you had suggested. I can't have children; there would be no reason for us to share a bed."
"And you would be happy with this marriage?"
She smiles, "I have grown quite fond of you as well, Jon Snow. With the fight for the throne behind us, I believe that we can be open with and trust one another again. We could go back to the way things were before we knew the truth… just without the physical intimacy."
He takes a moment to think about her suggestion, his gaze turning to the city beneath them.
"If the idea of marrying me makes you uncomfortable, we can just be friends," she says quietly when he still hasn't said anything, her hand coming to rest over his on the balcony railing. "I have lost many close friends recently, and it would be nice to have a new one."
"So you would have me be the new Ser Jorah?" he asks with a laugh.
"Except it seems that instead of you pining over me, it would be the opposite," she remarks with a smirk.
"I do still love you, Daenerys. I am not able to show it to you in the same manner as I could before, but I do love you."
"I understand why that is, Jon, and I will not pressure you for more than you are comfortable with. I'm sorry if I didn't respect that before."
His hand comes to her neck, his thumb brushing the skin under her earlobe, "I would be honored to be your king, Dany."
"Even if I am crazy?" she leans into his touch.
"You haven't lost me. I am still here for you, and I will keep you sane."
Her arms embrace him, and she tucks her head beneath his chin.
His own arms wraps around her, and he allows his lips to brush the top of her head. "There is one thing I would ask of you in return."
"And what would that be?" she questions, remaining enveloped in his arms.
"With Rhaegal gone… I have no intention of taking Drogon from you, but I hope that you will allow me to fly with you occasionally."
"You want me to share my dragon?" she pulls back to look up at him.
"Flying has been the only positive thing to come of me being a Targaryen," he informs her.
Her eyes soften, "When you put it like that, how can I refuse?"