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The two of them remember it as if it were yesterday.
In the back of their father's car they sat, parked at some random gas station in the middle of one of their road trips. Jace remembers it as such: they were going to visit Rhaenys and Corlys. Mom had already flown in.
The digital clock was seven minutes off, Jace, again, explicitly recalls. It read 2:20 when it should have been 2:13.
They had been to the toy store in the evening. Both brothers remember that detail, as it was pretty important.
"What are you going to name yours?" A seven-year-old Jacaerys asked his six-year-old brother, Lucerys, referring to their matching teddy bears.
Okay, well, they weren't technically matching. Luke's was a cat. But they were both white. Luke's sure his mom still has both of those somewhere...
"Mmm... maybe... Aera...?" Luke pet the stuffed cat so gentle, like it was real. "What about yours?"
Jace answered swiftly and with pride. "Daemon Targaryen Junior. Just like Papa."
"Oh, that's a good one..." Luke murmured softly, yawning.
Just outside, there their father was, glancing at his two boys occasionally to make sure they were alright. This, he recalls as he looks back on it, is why Luke grew up liking the smell of gasoline. It, combined with the scent of sticky hard candy filled his nose as he blinked up at his big brother, his favorite person in the whole world.
"What's your one's last name?" Jace scooted closer, curious.
Luke shrugged. "Targaryen?"
Jace giggled genuinely. "Like they're married?"
"Um..." Luke hid his little face behind white, fluffy synthetic fur. "No."
Jace and Luke each took a second to gaze down at their stuffed toys, each other, then the toys again.
Luke looked through the window which was still wet with yesterday's rain. His father had just looked away, and Daemon was almost done pumping gas into the car. This was his chance.
To this day, Luke doesn't fully know why, but he... He leaned over and kissed his big brother. On the lips. Their half eaten candy necklaces clinked together before he pulled away, it wasn't a very long kiss. Rather, the short and sweet kind that a normal, non-Targaryen brother and brother might share.
It wasn't like Luke was hiding some shy little elementary school crush on Jace, at least not yet. He didn't have any feelings for his brother, nor anyone else, at the time.
But it felt good. Jace even told him so, before his curious brain took over and he asked, "Why'd you kiss me?"
Luke shrugged again, speechless. He could taste it on his brother's lips, the grape and strawberry blurring together in his mouth. "I..."
"I don't know."
Suddenly their father was in with them, and they were back on the road to Corlys'. Daemon looked knowingly at his boys, his precious, coy boys through the rearview mirror when he pulled off. They were too short to see, both already dozing off when the car began moving.