Notes:

This is the first chapter of, hopefully, quite a few. I don't really know how this idea came to me but if you know either Fandom or story you can see how it actually fits really well. I don't own the characters or the general atmosphere of the plot but I have added some...extras of my own. This chapter is just setting the scene before the Tyrells turn up.

Enjoy!

Chapter 1

Tywin Lannister regarded his children over the dinner table, counting them off one by one. The brains, the beauty and the … and Jasper.

The Lannister children. Heirs of the wealthiest family in Westros.

And no babies.

Tywin sighed as he thought of the coming conflict with the Dornes. Now seemed as good a time as any to broach the subject of marriage to unite the houses of Westros. And he'd start with the easiest of his children.

"Carlisle," Tywin said.

Carlisle was a true Lannister. Tall, and golden-haired with an air of dignity that he carried on every plane of his symmetrical face. And yes, he would always have paid his depts…if he had ever been foolish enough to be indebted to anyone.

In early life, Tywin's first-born had been a bit of a disappointment next to his younger brother who wore his savagery with pride but, in time, Tywin saw the benefit in Carlisle's quick mind. He knew that he could die peacefully in the knowledge that the gold mines would keep running and the people of Westros would keep eating under Carlisle's careful instruction. He was a good man and deserved a good wife.

"Yes father?" he answered with his calm voice and easy smile.

"A wedding, Carlisle," said his father, eyeing him sternly. "How do you feel about that?"

"…My…wedding, father?" asked Carlisle, not missing the point of the question.

"A wedding for all my children," Lord Lannister said, beaming at the metallic lustre of their hair.

Rosalie sat up straighter. A wedding! But Jasper's face was unreadable as usual, though a slight frown appeared.

"Who have you chosen for me, father?" asked Rosalie eagerly.

As the most beautiful girl in Westros, she was always destined for great things. And when I say great things, I mean an important husband, but even so, she had been planning her perfect family for years now with great purpose.

"It…has not yet been decided. I am still negotiating," said Tywin, thinking it would be best to break the news gently that beautiful Rose would be heading North. Perhaps with a new dress at the same time would soften the blow…

"And…" began Carlisle carefully, trying to disguise his worry. "Who am I…?"

"Esme Tyrell," said his father proudly.

There was nobody to combat Carlisle's apparent lack of sexuality better than the Tyrell girl. She'd been practically selectively bred to enhance her family's status by marriage and she really was rather pretty.

"She's a good age to be wed," continued Lord Lannister briskly.

"How old?" asked Carlisle, remembering Esme fondly, though slightly alarmingly, as the caramel-haired six-year-old that used to tear around the Tyrell garden climbing the trees.

"Fifteen," his father replied and Carlisle nodded.

A good age to be wed indeed.

"When will the ceremony take place?" continued Carlisle, always the pragmatist.

"Soon," replied his father curtly. "You are nearly in your thirtieth year. Books don't produce grandchildren, you know."

"Depends upon the book," shot back Carlisle and Tywin chuckled appreciatively at his son's quick wit.

Yes, Carlisle and the Tyrell girl. A good match.

"But," began Carlisle, thinking of the most diplomatic way to probe the issue. "If I am not betrothed to the princess…?"

His eyes flicked to the stony form of his brother for a fraction of a second. And yes, he was correct.

After no tantrums, Carlisle accepted his younger brother as his next king. Tywin gave a shadow of a nod and Jasper, who missed nothing, stiffened even more. Rosalie, who was less in-tune with her siblings, was left behind.

"Who is marrying Alice Baratheon then?" she asked impatiently.

"Rosalie," said Carlisle, trying to keep his voice even. "Jasper is."

"What, now?" she asked with a frown on her perfect brow.

Her father nodded.

"With the King's health declining and only a daughter," began Lord Lannister. "He would like to see a successor in place before he dies."

She raised her eyebrows.

"I thought Emmett Stark would marry her," she said carelessly.

Tywin's sudden look of discomfort told Carlisle and Jasper exactly why Lord Stark was not available to wed the princess.

"Yes, well…" tailed off Tywin evasively. "Then the North would have the throne, and we can't have that, can we?"

Rosalie agreed with a sneer. Her distain for the North was well known.

Oh dear.

The North was something discussed either with a bitter smile or a sigh of defeat. A cold stretch of moorland with nothing but the scandal of the Stark family to keep anyone entertained. But to give the story it's dues, it was extremely juicy.

It started after William Martell of Dorne, had tragically lost his wife, mother of his eight children: Jacob, Sam, Quil, Embry, Paul, Jared, Leah and Seth. He was so transformed with grief that he decided to journey North to the wall and take up the Black, earning him the nickname 'Billy Black'. However, he never made it to the wall as during his stay at Winterfell before beginning the last leg of his long journey, he found comfort in Renée Stark, Lady of Winterfell.

Renée Stark ran away with Billy Black but she too died, of fever. To ease Billy's loss, it was alleged that she promised the hand of her only daughter, Isabella, to Billy's eldest son, Jacob Martell, known now as Jacob Black, while she died in the Dornish's arms. However, Charlie Stark, Warden of the North and husband of Renée was having none of it and after refusing Jacob Isabella, he declared war on the Dornish.

And he had every right to do so, but, logistically, this was undesirable, with the North in the…well, in the north and Dorne in the south. Two armies treading a continent to mush. Not good. So that was when King Baratheon, Tywyn Lannister and Olenna Tyrell stepped in. The agreement reached between all parties was that instead of Isabella, Jacob of Dorne would get her first-born daughter as soon as she was old enough to be without her mother and she would be brought up in Dorne as a symbol of Billy Black and Renée Stark's love. And of peace between Dorne and the rest of Westros.

But the agreement wouldn't last. And with this fabled Targaryan girl across the narrow sea, Westros must be united. And hence the coming weddings.

"So we will be royal?" asked Rosalie hopefully, unaware of the pressure on all houses to unite in strength.

"Yes, I suppose," said Carlisle, feeling sorry for his brother.

Rosalie smiled her happy golden smile.

"But not yet," said Tywin. "The weddings will take place in one month, allowing for the journey from Winterfell to King's Landing … though the Tyrells should be there any day now. The royals will arrive in the capital the day before the wedding. We will begin our journey to the capital either tomorrow or the day after."

"So soon," said Carlisle, looking around the walls of Casterly Rock's dining hall.

It was his childhood home and he was a man of sentiment.

Jasper ignored his brother's pang of sadness and focused on the casually suggested idea that he would meet his bride for the first time at the altar. His silence grew even more silent.

Rosalie, as usual, ignored both of them.

"And why will there be a party from Winterfell?" she asked.

Carlisle winced at the slip of his father's tongue, one that he would have been too careful to make himself.

"Isabella will marry Edward Tyrell," said Tywin quickly.

Rosalie gave a little huff. That was a good suitor going to waste. Although…you know what people said about the Tyrell boy…

While the going was good, Tywin nodded a goodnight and excused himself to his study, leaving the three siblings to quietly ponder, or in Rosalie's case, loudly discuss their fates.