The second of my WIPs I will share. This one is older than the other one, but I've found myself adjusting detail after detail in the first few chapter. As this won't help the story to progress at all, I've decided to post it.

Cross posted on AO3 under the same name, if you want all the tags for the story, go there.

Tags: sporadic updates, GOT level of violence possible, alternate universe, non-straight characters

Edited: 20.01.2019

I.

One never forgot one's past. But humans were always fast to adapt. That was the conclusion Robert had after living almost twenty-one – one-and-twenty as the locals say – years in Westeros. He had adapted (mostly) to being an heir to a Great House, then lord paramount, then being named King. He had adapted to the language and the power his station brought. And soon he would sit on the Iron Throne and rule the Seven Kingdoms, which meant having even more power.

Fate, he thought, followed the plans laid out by GRRM, or else Rhaegar would be King. And Elia, Rhaenys and Aegon would not lie dead before Robert. Damn that wound he received in the last battle to the Seven Hells. He looked at Tywin Lannister, who looked smug in a very understated way - of course. Robert made an effort to look calm, he could not show the fury coursing through him, not yet.

Who was here? Tywin, Jaime and a small group of Lannister soldiers. None of them big enough to be the Mountain. Robert himself obviously and eight of his best men, Jon Arryn and less than ten of his guards, and Ned, looking rather furious, with his men - more than twenty. Good, very good.
"Could someone please explain this situation to me?"

Both Ned and Tywin opened their mouths, but Ned spoke faster.

"The Lannisters sacked King's Landing. Ser Jaime killed the Mad King and some bannermen of Lord Tywin killed the princess and her babes." Ah, that didn't change then. „He said..." Ned needed to take some deep breaths at this point, he seemed to shake from rage.

"I'm sure Lord Tywin can speak for himself Ned. Lord Tywin?" Robert looked Tywin directly in the eyes, would he dare?

"A gift for you, my King." He would. He just said that. A gift, and that small self-satisfied smirk. What had ridden this man to make that gamble? Robert knew he was very different from the Robert Baratheon that GRRM had written and Tywin still presented him with the corpses of small children.

The terrible fury inside Robert reared its head. He restrained himself. Walked slowly towards Tywin. The smirk did not disappear, Tywin did not know yet what a horrible decision he just made.

As soon as Robert was near enough to Tywin he drew his dagger, quick as always. In a flash he had the dagger to Tywin's throat. The smirk was finally gone. He heard and saw many swords being drawn. Jaime, who was nearest to Robert, had drawn his sword as well.

"Ser Jaime, not a move or your father will be dead, and you soon after. Jon, Ned please arrest all the Lannisters." Ned looked relieved, Jon, on the other hand, confused and - if Robert had to categorize the emotion - lightly unhappy. This was concerning, hopefully it would nor bite him in the ass. (It would, Robert knew from experience.)

The arrest went better than Robert had ever dared to hope. And soon Tywin and Jaime were confined in the Maidenvault, unarmed and under heavy guard (none of them being from the Vale). After inquiring who had killed Elia and her children Robert sent many men to arrest or kill them. Both the Mountain and Loch were killed after resisting the arrest, and three men of Robert were killed and four more injured while trying to kill the Mountain.


After that was done and he had sent some men to sort out the Lannister army Robert signed Ned, who stayed with Robert the whole time, to follow him and sent someone to fetch Jon, who had disappeared at some point, and someone to organise some food and drink for them.

"You will go and search for Lyanna soon?" He asked Ned.

"Yes, I plan to in the next few days, there are some hints as to where she is held."

"Good, I will send some of my men with you, good fighters who can ride fast, and Maester Corlys and a chest."

"I see." Ned had at least an inkling of what Robert tried to imply, that Robert saw.

"We will need to talk about it more, but not here." Robert made a gesture in the direction of the servants bringing in drink and food, Ned would understand.

They were eating silently as Jon appeared. Who talked even before he was seated.

"Have your wits left you, Robert, what were you thinking. You have arrested a Lord Paramount, and without reason, even."

What? Without reason? Robert had many reasons for what he did, it was exactly what he had planned for, in the case exactly this situation would ever come to pass. But Jon was not done yet.

"They were only the wife and children of your rival. Let them go. Sure, there will be a disagreement with Dorne that way, but better an angry Dorne than Westerlands."

Robert raises his hand and Jon stops. Only the wife and children of his cousin? No! They were his blood, his family!

"Jon stop, do you not hear what hogwash you talk? They were royalty, of royal blood and Tywin is a mere lord paramount. A lord paramount cannot judge royalty, and a lord paramount harming someone of royal blood with intent and malice outside of a duel or battlefield… That will always be a crime. Always, Jon. And besides I have told everyone, several times and with great emphasis, that my quarrel was with Aerys and only Aerys."

At this point Jon interrupted him. "Robert, you fought against the Targaryens, it does not matter what pretty worlds you use. It has always been clear to everyone."

"That is what you think, but my words were and are true. If Rhaegar would have declared against Aerys I would have joined him. He knew that, Rhaegar made it very clear that he acted in Aerys stead which was why I duelled him. And now even more of my family is dead, and all because some upstart lord paramount and his treacherous son who abandoned not only his King but the whole royal family."

They were his family, he did not speak in jest, and it really was a huge mistake on Tywin's part. Something that Robert planned to capitalize to get rid of that too dangerous lion.

"And besides it robbed me of the opportunity to wed them to my future children."

That left Jon aghast. And Ned looked a little flabbergasted too.

Jon spoke again: "Robert, you cannot mean that, you would not have married them to your own children."

Oh Jon, of course Robert would have, well mayhaps not if they proved to be insane as some Targaryens are wont to be, but if they would have been sane? Of course he would have joined his blood to Rhaegar's in that instance.

"Jon, I know I did not tell you of this plan, it was not safe to do so in letters. But this is exactly what I was going to do if they had lived. In fact, if Rhaegar had had a sister-wife I would have wed her, if Rhaella was a little younger and more fertile I would wed her. Gods, if there was one woman close to my age with more Targaryen blood than me, I would wed her. Sadly, there is no one, mayhaps I should adopt my grandmothers name and flag – Robert Targaryen – that sounds not bad... Or mayhaps I marry just a woman of Valyrian get. Or both."

The Iron Throne was a concept that was deeply entrenched to Targaryen rule, if Robert wanted his descendants to have any legitimacy to rule, they needed as much Targaryen blood as possible.

"Ah. Jon, Ned, you know I am only a candidate for King because my grandmother was a Targaryen and because the Baratheons are a cadet branch to the Targaryens. And well, I have even more Targaryen blood, just as the rumours say..."

Robert even had the documents to prove his last two statements, the archives of Storms End were very good and informative.

"Without that none of the Seven Kingdoms would have named me King after Rhaegar died."

Ned looked thoughtful but accepting of Roberts reasoning. The Starks had ruled the North not that differently than the Targaryens, than Valyrians, would. Which was probably one reason why they were able to bend the knee to them, if he thought about it. But like when Robert ordered the arrest of Tywin and Jaime, it was Jon who gave Robert pause. Jon looked shocked and pale, which wasn't in character at all – both from what Robert knew of the books and what he had observed himself while being a ward at the Eyrie. Robert needed some time to think about it, but he feared that Jon could not become his Hand. Robert could not trust a man who did not believe his word, and who thought it was acceptable to kill of parts of Robert's family just because they seemed to be a little in the way. And it was not just Robert, Ned too looked at Jon like, well, like he had never seen him before.

After some time, Jon spoke anew. "I see. I thank you for your time and the meal, Robert, but I fear that the day has been a bit much, I will need to lie down. I hope you will understand that." After he spoke he stood up and went.

"This was strange, do you think so too?" Robert asked Ned.

"Yes, very strange. And I really should have foreseen your plans, it is the way your house has been founded aft all. And the way my forefathers conquered new territories. Kill the males and marry the females."

Robert chuckled, nothing better than being with friends to lift one's spirits. "Valyrians do it only a little bit differently. Kill as much as needed until they submit, then marry as many as you can. But I fear that this is not the way to do things in Westeros. Hmm, or this way is at least the way to do things if the enemy is not considered family. If the enemy is family… Well, then you only kill one person ideally. Which in our cause would have meant a duel between me and Aerys. And to cement the victory the winner would need to marry at least one person as closely related to the looser... Not that any of our branches have many people to marry at the moment." And now Robert was sad and furious again, what a truly marvellous day.

They stayed silent for the rest of the meal, then they walked from the room they dined in towards their current quarters. While they crossed a courtyard big enough that all eavesdropping would be more than obvious, Robert stopped.

"This is about the Maester and the chest you want to send with me when I go." Ned said to Robert, having clearly waited to say it until they were alone, and it was safe to talk about secrets.

"Yes, you and I both know that Rhaegar and Lyanna were long enough together in one place for Lyanna to be pregnant by now."

"She could have already delivered a child, I know."

"We don't know, but I would feel better if there was a Maester nearby, just in case. He is trustworthy, he cared for me after Rhaegar wounded me."

"It is probably for the best to have a Maester at hand. The additional men are for fighting the King's Guard, but what is so special about this chest?"

"The chest is not special, but it is less risky to talk about a chest than the letters I locked inside. Those letters will prove that I never meant harm to anyone other than Aerys, I hope it will convince the King's Guard to listen and survive. There is one sealed letter by my hand which offers them my terms for their surrender and my intent to protect my little cousin – your niece or nephew – like they are my own child."

"I will talk to them and they will surely listen to me." Ned was young, but everyone knew of his honour, they would hopefully trust his word. Ned looked intently at Robert, the next part must be important.

"Why did you never mention my sister when you talked about marriage for yourself?"

Oh, yes, that... 'Because she won't survive the birthing bed and I know that because I'm a reincarnation' did not sound good. Luckily Robert had some sound reasons.

"If Lyanna loved Rhaegar and went willingly, then I'm the man who killed her love. If she was forcefully taken, then I don't want to be the second man to take her away from home and family. If she would want to marry me still, I would take her, but only if it was her wish."

He did not want to marry and bed a woman who had been raped if she didn't gave her free consent (which was another reason why he would not marry Rhaella), nor did he want to force himself on a woman whose husband or lover he had killed.

"As a brother, I am relieved to hear that. She is my sister and I want her as happy as possible."

"Something which I was never able to do."

"You tried to do it, my friend."

And Robert had, truly he did, GRRM's Robert had sired several bastards by this point in time. He had not, nor was he known for sleeping around, and he tried to get to know Lyanna. They had become friendly before the tourney at Harrenhall, but Lyanna still went with Rhaegar. And Robert did think she went willingly, he had seen her crushing on the prince and knew her enough to know how much the wolf's blood affected her.

Or mayhaps she had seen how attracted Robert was to other men. Which was a ludicrous idea, he was very, very careful to not let anyone know that the men interested him more than the women – what had he been on the Kinsey scale? Four point five or five? Well, about there. Life in Westeros was certainly more than a little difficult, but he was constantly adapting and coping.