Chapter two: Dany

She stared up at the stucco ceiling, trying her hardest to find faces in its rough surface. Sometimes she'd see people she knew, but mostly deformed looking figures that were forgotten as soon as her eyes had abandoned them. Rivers of her long hair flowed across the bed, separating her floral duvet into lands she could only ever dream of. In her country there would be no wars, no slaves, no… Viserys. Yes, not even her brother could ruin her dreams. But she had a feeling he would try. And that was why it was absolutely important that he never should happen upon her diary. It was filled with her secrets and dreams; when she did not write about her ambitions, she wrote about her brother- and how she despised him.

The girl was so precautious, that she went as far as to only write in it early in the morning, and only on the roof. It had a leather cover- something she found at a thrift store, tearing from it the scrawled on pages and childish drawings left behind by its previous owner. Carved onto the front by her own hand were the words "Daenerys' Diary", so that if found thousands of years from then, maybe in a post-apocalyptic world, its purpose would be identified immediately.

She didn't enjoy her name, she preferred Dany- it was something less likely to result in teasing from other children, and ease the suffering for teachers who couldn't pronounce it. She especially didn't enjoy watching her name flutter out of her fingers, below and onto a passerby. Even now the girl is uncertain of what had startled her, maybe a cat or a sound from Viserys' room. But what was certain was that all of her secrets and dreams sat in a gutter, perched upon leaves and other bits of trash.

The person who was unfortunate enough to be in its path, rubbed his shoulder and reached downward for it. He didn't seem to be a friend of Viserys, but it was hard to distinguish when your brother literally had his claws buried deep into the city. Dany didn't waste any time trying to retrieve it; any second longer in the open air was a second too much for her. Her hand trembled for it, and her stomach lurched as the dark-haired boy began to recite its pages, only returning it to her when she had hissed through her teeth at him. He looked offended, but Dany tried not to care; it was her BOOK she was after, not his satisfaction.

'You'll break your neck', Dany didn't think about that sentence until after the incident. She didn't hear the concern in the boy's words until it was too late. Instead, she defended herself against being accused of physically throwing the BOOK, and clambered back indoors. The growing sunlight had lit up her room, and the crystal WIND CHIMES had produced breath-taking colors, dancing from wall to wall, bed to dresser to door, and the duvet she had around her shoulders. It felt good to be alive- maybe she won't go out on the roof again to write.

She should have thanked him.

Viserys was up, just as she had feared, sitting in the eating room of the duplex. An empty mug sat in his fingers while he drew his face towards the girl, smiling as he eyed her sleepwear. He greeted her with a 'good morning, sleeping beauty', but his grin showed that he was sure she had not just awoken from her slumber. Dany cautiously stepped off the stairs, and into the threshold, staring at the ceramic figures that lined the shelves rather than her sibling.

"What happened to your clothes?" Dany drew-back silently, confused by the question and immediately confused by another question: whether to lie or not? "They're dirty. What did you do to your nice clothes?"

"I know what happened to them." Viserys said after a moment of silence, "You see, I was on the lanai- having a smoke. And you know what I saw?"

Daenerys shook her head; not because she didn't know the answer, but because it was simply easier to play along with his little games. She was less likely to draw out his inner rage. "No… what did you see?"

"I saw a lad," his thin fingers tented together as his smile grew, "a lad, with pretty hair… retrieving a book you had thrown."

"I didn't throw it." Her voice rose in a shrill, defensive way. "It fell."

"From your window? It fell?" At this point, he leaned over the table, perching his crossed arms on its glossy surface. But now it became clear that it wasn't the book he had wanted to talk about. "You were on the roof again. After I asked you not to go up there- you were displaying your body for the boys to see, hm? Weren't you? Slut!"

"No, it's not-" Dany was cut off by the word 'slut', and it sat in the air like venom, flowing through her veins and poisoning her heart. It never feels right to hear your own family talk to you like that- strangers on the road may call you names, and you would only dwell on it for a couple days. But whatever your blood had called you- had said about you- that sticks for a lifetime.

Her brother was approaching her now, and stopped to where he was close enough to smell her shampoo, and she could smell the tobacco and remains of alcohol. She looked to her right, tears sat in her eyes while her lip trembled.

Dany hated being called things that she was not.

"You dropped that book, just so that boy would look at you." Viserys pinched her arm, hard. Hard enough to cause cries of pain; but he made no movement that would suggest stopping. "You will not live under my roof, and be fucking all the guys in the neighborhood! Do you understand? You are mine!"

Her hand flew towards his face, making a satisfying contact with his ear. She never meant it, it was her instinct kicking in, and she just wanted the pain to stop. But Viserys acted on instinct too, pushing her back onto the stairs in a desperate attempt to nurse his RINGING EAR. "You little bitch- get out of my sight!"

And she did. Fleeing up the stairs and hiding behind her door. Her breath came out in sobs, and she rubbed the tender spot on her arm, smiling slightly at her success in evading her brother's fury.

Dany's mother had died shortly after her birth, and Viserys loved to hold it over her. Saying that she was a monster, and now she will have to live with it. But Daenerys was a baby, and had found herself tangled up within their mother, born on a day when the storm ran fierce, forcing the doctors to perform an emergency C-section. They spared only the child.

And over the years, he became the monster he so often accused her of being, having fits of endless rage- something he liked to call 'waking the dragon'. It was better to just let him do what he pleased. Be it taunting her with names, destroying her belongings, or just groping her when he had too much to drink- Dany would never fight back. Because he was the only family she had left- and to her, that was everything.

"Dany, you better be getting ready up there!" Called Viserys, who seemed to have forgotten their earlier altercation, taking on a loving tone that had presented itself on occasions of high importance, "after you get out of school, I'm gonna need you to come home immediately- I've got a poker game tonight, and you know how much the guys adore your cooking."

"Oh… um…"Dany rubbed her eyes, cracking her door a tad, "okay… just put what you want on the list- I'll go shopping and-"

"Immediately, Dany. Do you you know what immediately means?"

"But there isn't any food in the pantry." It was silent; like the sickly silence before the storm. She fled to the corner beside her desk, for her brother now stomped up the steps and stood in the ajar doorway.

He tossed his debit card into the middle of the room, but appeared more annoyed than actually angry, "I am not made of money, you know. Make some of those cakes you made last time, they were pretty good… and get ready. You'll be late for class." He shut the door audibly, returning to the lanai for another cigarette.

She went over to the nightstand and retrieved her ipod, removing its head phones and placing it on the dock. The music flowed out quietly, and she gave herself a moment to feel it. Dancing, spinning, twirling. It was one of the only things she had to herself, turning so quickly that the pictures on the walls had melted. The rug below caught her toes, and she fell onto her bed breathlessly, smiling at the faces in the ceiling.

From her closet she had pulled out a maroon skirt and a wooly white sweater, laying it across her messy sheets and balled up duvet for a quicker inspection. It will do. Tights- she needed tights. It was freezing outside, and the only clean ones were a deep grey. That will do as well. Abandoning her baby pink pajamas, and standing nearly nude in front of her dresser. Should she wear a bra today? Would anyone notice? She better do it, just in case.

The girl bounced into the hallway at the tune of her music, and across into the small, neat bathroom. Dany applied her foundation onto several of the breakouts on her face, and gave special attention to her eye-liner.Perfect, you look like a million bucks. Reaching into the crowded drawer, she found a hair tie and began the menial task of making a perfectly rounded top-knot.

Her brother leaned in the doorway and watched, chewing loudly on a breakfast bar as he made a few suggestions. Some of them were good like 'blush' or 'boots', others ridiculous for he was a boy and never quite specialized in beauty. But Dany thanked him politely and danced into her room again. The music was powerful enough to put them both in a very good mood, and even Viserys didn't feel the need to scrutinize her as she left.

"Was he cute?" Asked Missandei, her only friend. A dark skinned goddess with curly hair and a body to die for- and she knew that she was hot. Those were the makings of a dangerous woman.

"Missie- that's hardly appropriate." Dany chuckled, biting into her banana with an embarrassed smile. Missie pressed her shoulder into the other girl's back, giving her signature laugh. "It doesn't matter. All that matters is that Viserys almost found my journal."

"That doesn't answer my question-"she cried out dramatically, clearly not taking in how serious the situation actually was. "He was probably sent down from the heavens to woo you out of that terrible life of yours!" Dany lifted an eyebrow and choked on what little food she had left.

"My life isn't terrible. I've got a house and food- and clothes. Nice things. It's just the people in it that are terrible."

Missie sat down on a dirty stone bench, scrapping whatever remnants of yogurt sat at the bottom of her cup, licking her plastic spoon like a child. She proceeded to point said spoon at Dany. "Listen, I've had a crappy life too, and boys make a nice distraction. Have you ever even kissed a boy?"

"Does-"

"No. Kissing your brother does not count."

"Then I guess not." She stated bashfully, taking her seat beside her friend. Missie straightened her printed shirt, flinging her arm around the silver haired girl like it was her duty to inform her. "Let's go to class. We'll be late."

"Boys. Girls. Whatever you want. Just please- give them a chance! It's for your own good, Dany! I mean it! There isn't anything in this world like true love!"

"Pfft." She recoiled away from her friend, her amethyst filled with uncertainty, "I don't think there's such a thing."

And if there was, Dany was surely missing out.