Posted originally on the Archive_of_Our_Own at https://archiveofourown.org/
works/4209663.
  Rating:
      Explicit
  Archive Warning:
      Graphic_Depictions_Of_Violence, Major_Character_Death, Underage
  Category:
      F/M, M/M, Multi
  Fandom:
      Game_of_Thrones_(TV), A_Song_of_Ice_and_Fire_-_George_R._R._Martin, A
      Song_of_Ice_and_Fire_&_Related_Fandoms
  Relationship:
      Jaime_Lannister/Arya_Stark, Past_Jaime_Lannister/Cersei_Lannister,
      Original_Male_Character(s)/Original_Male_Character(s), Tommen_Baratheon/
      Original_Character(s)
  Character:
      Arya_Stark, Jaime_Lannister, Tommen_Baratheon, Original_House_Lannister
      Character(s), Tywin_Lannister, Cersei_Lannister, Tyrion_Lannister,
      Daenerys_Targaryen, Joffrey_Baratheon, Daven_Lannister
  Additional Tags:
      Implied/Referenced_Incest, Canon-Typical_Violence, Magic-Users, Alternate
      Universe_-_Canon_Divergence, Aged-Up_Character(s), Alternate_Universe_-
      Age_Changes, Arya_is_Pro-Lannister
  Stats:
      Published: 2015-06-26 Chapters: 1/? Words: 1499
****** Queen's Gambit ******
by Aelara_Vayne
Summary
     Sequel to "For Love and Legacy".
     Almost sixteen years from the death of Daenerys Targaryen's dragon,
     the long winter is thawing along with the ambition of all the false
     Kings and Queens of Westeros. War comes quickly to the warming world
     and House Lannister is ready.
Notes
     Temp Warning: Slow updates as FL&L gets revised.
     Alright so let's detail the changes in style between 'For Love and
     Legacy' that may make you want to stop here:
     1. This is not purely Het anymore, as it has some (mostly implied) M/
     M, which should be par for the course for most people in this fandom,
     but if that bothers you stop at the end of the last story. It was a
     perfectly good ending that kept within the bounds of what I warned
     people they were getting into.
     2. Now, incest will feature in a greater measure (and you can
     probably guess between who pretty quickly), and it's not "pseudo"
     anymore. So be prepared for that, but it shouldn't send any fans of
     Jaime running for the hills.
     3. This is much darker than the last story, but should maintain the
     same style of writing. It's just I don't have a baby Tommen to rely
     on to lighten the mood anymore.
     Now, if you read everything through the epilogue of the last story,
     you'll be able to jump in easy. It starts fifteen years later, and
     adds some new PoVs. But it's still almost entirely Arya and Jaime,
     despite their missing presence in the first chapter which serves as a
     prologue.
     Same as before, I'll be adding in songs in the chapter notes.
     Song for this Chapter: Alexithymia by Anberlin
Adrian Lannister wanted nothing to do with the events surrounding the day. They
barely concerned him; why would he want to celebrate his great uncle's
birthday? And, even worse, there were dozens of girls there looking to make a
husband of him. His father had been almost unbearably excited for the chance to
try and pawn Adrian off on some girl.
"Come on, Adrian," his father had needled. "I thought I didn't want a wife,
until I met your mother. Now look: we're happy. Trust me on this." Adrian
snorted at the memory; his father couldn't see that his desire to avoid a wife
was exactly why they managed to find each other and become happy.
Adrian was fifteen and the only things that appealed to him were: fighting,
spending time with Tommen and Damian, and annoying his father or grandfather.
Women fit perfectly into the last category as long as he ignored their
advances, and nowhere else. His brothers were much better sons than he was, and
they would be making polite talk with blushing girls all day long, even though
Adrian knew they were equally as opposed to the whole affair.
The winter was lifting, and everyone was in excellent spirits. The fifteen year
winter, nearing sixteen soon, had been hard on the Seven Kingdoms, but Adrian
had never known anything but this. The talk of summer made him both nervous and
excited. He had been born and grown up in winter, but summer meant the war
would likely resume. Adrian was very excited for that, because he was old
enough to fight in it.
His father wouldn't like it, but his mother would almost demand it of him. She
was far more stern and a lot like his grandfather, but it was only because she
was in charge of ruling the West. And, as everyone was always so quick to
remind him, ruling a Kingdom that had been in winter five years longer than
they had prepared for was no easy task. It was only her bannermen's unflinching
loyalty that kept everyone in line as hunger set in across the West. His mother
had seen to it that everyone had enough to eat, even the small folk, but it had
cost House Lannister mountains of gold to have it shipped in from across the
Narrow Sea, where the Targaryen Queen ruled, in secret.
Adrian was no fool, though he acted like one often, and he knew what it took to
rule. Most people assumed him to be 'his father's son', and he was happy to let
them keep that assumption. So he japed and grinned through life with a devil
may care attitude. But only Tommen and Damian knew his true nature, which
better aligned with their mother. He was an ambitious boy, with a taste for
bloodshed and power, but he liked to let others underestimate his cunning. Even
his father did that, but not even close to Adrian's scale.
Adrian didn't reveal his true feelings and thoughts to anyone but his brothers.
He could tell his parents, but he figured out quickly in his youth that they
preferred the happy, carefree version of him to what he would be if he was to
act on his heart. They liked to think of him as something of a child still,
even as grandfather and mother drilled into his head how to lead.
He was meant to have Winterfell one day, and rule as Warden of the North. He
didn't want it. It was a place he had never seen, in a Kingdom he didn't
particularly like, and the South suited him fine. The Rock was going to be
Tommen's, he knew and had no issue with, but Adrian wanted to stay with his
brothers. They were his closest companions, as Lannisters often trusted no one
but each other.
Tommen shied away from him sometimes lately though, and it drove Adrian to
anger to know why. His brother had recently been very sensitive to the words
'bastard' and 'incest', especially when they concerned their cousin, half
brother to Adrian and full sibling by blood to Tommen, Joffrey. Myrcella was
dead by some plot down in Dorne, and Joffrey was as much a monster now as he
ever had been.
He was Maegor the Cruel and the Mad King all wrapped up into one, and most
blamed it on his incestuous birth. Their father even sometimes failed to deny
it. But what most forgot, was that Tommen was their mother's son by love, not
blood, and as much born of incest as Joffrey. There was nothingwrong his with
brother. But now Tommen seemed weary of his siblings, and Adrian could only
suspect that it was because his recent identity crisis.
His brother was eighteen now, and as handsome as their father. They looked more
akin to brothers than father and son, due to his father's seemingly ageless
face. Before Adrian was born, his mother had accidentally managed to make his
father as young as she was, and, by extension, froze their aging to an almost
standstill. His mother looked every inch a young woman of twenty and his father
was the same. They aged, but it was apparently very slowly and no one quite
knew if that meant their lifespans were going to be longer than an average man
or woman's either.
It made things increasingly awkward as people called Tommen and Adrian 'Jaime'
often, and the reverse was true when people were looking for them. Damian was
lucky as he looked nothing like anyone else at the Rock, except partially their
mother, and Adrian thought that made his twin delightfully unique.
He had slipped out of the feast and was walking along the walls of the castle
aimlessly. His lion, Lann, for the founder of their House, and his wolf,
Daeron, named for the Young Dragon who conquered Dorne, were following him
slowly. The snow melted under his feet as he heated himself to keep warm. His
magic was strong, stronger than both his brothers, so it came naturally to him.
His mother said that he had been performing magic since he was in the womb.
Tommen had magic too, but it was an extension of their mother's and not his
own, so he controlled it clumsily, but he was happy to have what he did. Damian
had as much as Adrian, but tended not to use it, as his twin was a much more
quiet soul. His twin liked many of the same things that Adrian did, fighting
and riding and knighthood, but he liked them in silence. Damian didn't talk
often unless spoken to, which was far from Adrian's nature of 'never shutting
up' as their father put it.
"Adrian," his older brother's voice called from behind him as he sprinted along
the wall to catch up. He was red at the cheeks and breathless when he got
there, and Adrian had to smile at how adorable it made him look. Tommen was
sweet at his heart, unlike Adrian who's heart beat in a dark shade of grey most
of the time. For as equally as they resembled their father, Tommen had gotten
the better half of him. Adrian often felt like he had gotten the half that his
father had thrown away after meeting their mother; the half that spawned a
monster like Joffrey and took his horrible sister to bed.
"Why are you out here? You could slip and fall to your death," Tommen said in a
slightly annoyed voice. "Mother and father are looking for you in the great
hall. They've got--."
"A hundred different fucking girls for me to pick from, I know," he drawled
though his snide tone wasn't meant for his brother. "I think I'll take my
chances with the walls. Our late uncle, Brandon, seemed to survive alright." He
turned away and added, "Until the Greyjoy burned him alive."
"Don't talk like that," Tommen sighed though it was clear he knew it was no
use. Adrian was a difficult person to deal with on the best days, and he knew
it. It wasn't his intention to drive his brothers away, but sometimes the
darker parts of him slipped out. His brother stood up straight and tried to
force a smile while he said, "The girls are lovely. There has to be one that
you'll like."
"I'm fairly sure I prefer the company of men," Adrian said simply as he leaned
against the frozen wall. "And you know that."
"You can't mean it," his brother hissed. "That's a hard life, Adrian. No one
accepts it anywhere outside of Dorne and it won't further our family line.
Besides, we don't need any more scandal about Lannister bedmates. So, please,
come see the girls? Just talk to them and maybe you'll find one you like."
"If that worked, sweet brother," Adrian muttered even as he moved towards the
great hall in silent acceptance. "You would have married years ago."
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