The Stag Prince

Of a world where Cersei gives Robert a true born heir to his new Dynasty and kingdom for duty and a hope for affection , where Shireen Baratheon and Edric storm's fates are switched and nothing stays the same; fates are changed and the game pieces play out differently but atlas the game still stays the same..

...

I have pushed Robert's rebellion back by a year as well as all name days/birth years for all the major players past and future by a few years back or forward to better facilitate the Plot.

There are going to be changes to canon due to the true born heir's birth,so for all intents and purposes this should be treated as an AU story.

Chapter I

Cersei Baratheon

282AL

Kings Landing: The Red Keep

Morning after the royal bedding

"Lyanna ..."

Noble, handsome ,courageous Robert Baratheon was meant to be hers, she was tired of playing second fiddle to other women when it came to the Iron throne; first to frail and noble Elia Martell and then to the hot-blooded and witless Lyanna stark who bulked at her duty to her house to the death and ruin of many.

She had waited through Aerys and Rhaegar's madness, the blood and ruin of many in the realm, Rhaegar's death and the fall and ruin of House Targaryen, Robert's eventual crowning and lastly ...Lyanna stark's death to finally be Queen.

Robert was meant to be her king and she alone his Queen; a queen as her father had always wanted, she would have been a dutiful wife and Queen to him and in time ,she would have also given him; beautiful daughters who would have been the envy of many in the seven kingdoms and sons ;handsome and fearsome princes as fearsome as the Lions of Castelyrock but now...

Now ...she wished him the foulest of ills, after all...no man deserved any better for slighting and scorning her during her own bedding, how dare he mutter that insipid girl's name as he spilled his seed in her belly.

She would be rid of his seed by the morrow, she would not let it quicken. She would only have Jaime's children; how could she have forgotten it so easily for that oaf of a king; Jaime was the only one she loved and the only one who loved her in return unquestioningly.

"Cersei...Cersei?" Jaime's worried voice called out and lured her thoughts away from moon tea.

"What is it?" She looked up and asked with a tired, sombre barbed voice. Jaime looked a little taken back but his face soon became amused with a smirk on it, like he knew something she didn't. Why was he amused?

"You have hardly broken your fast sweet sister"; He said. "What is occupying your thoughts more than eating our decidedly humble fast?"

Their fast, she looked down at her plates of hot bread, pomegranates,grapes, tender slices of Auroch meat, two wedges of cheese and a plate of thick sweet soup made with pumpkins and a glass of summer wine and found she had hardly touched it. She looked around the oak wooden table set for five; Jaime, uncle Kevan and her Lord father had finished their tender Auroch slices, grapes, cheese wedges and hot bread and were starting on their soups with glasses of wine half the little beast had declined breaking fast with them for exploring...something a bout Drago-

"Well...Cersei", inquired Jaime after judging he had given her ample time to gather her wits.

"I seem to have lost my... appetite", she replied too hesitantly but Jaime and uncle Kevan didn't look to have accepted her words.

"Is something on your mind Cersei," her uncle asked. He looked a man weighed down by too many worries. She did not want to add to those with her womanly and marriage worries not that she was inclined to; Robert was hers to deal with. Father had spared her a look and continued on his fast; Jaime had given her a look promising they talk in lesser company.

"Are you unhappy with your fast, Cersei; we could have a servant girl fetch you, something else mayhaps", Uncle Kevan continued asking when she didn't look up to answer him. He was always the considerate one between the two brothers. As children he would spare the time to indulge them in their fancies...Especially after mother died; even Tyrion wasn't...spared from his affections unlike father.

"Thank you but there is no need uncle"; she took two spoonfuls of her pumpkin soup to placate him but by the looks of his creased brow, he remained unconvinced; so she left him to his pondering after all he wouldn't manage to guess at her womanly thoughts and worries.

"Is...Is it Robert? "A hesitant quiet voice from her uncle's side of the table asked

That got her to up at him startled like a deer hearing the crunch of leaf and wooden leavings in the Kingswood. It was always thought her Lord uncle was the brother in the shadow; the small folk even went as far as saying that Lord Kevan Lannister never had a thought that his Lord Brother, Tywin Lannister didn't have first. That was...a lie if the looks on her Lord father and Jaime's faces, had anything to say about it. Jaime was most likely surprised by uncle Kevan's guess of her troubled thoughts, father was surprised, startled but all too soon his face and eyes became once more that expressionless, intent and unflinching look.

That look on her Lord Fathers face and his tense demeanor made her mind up for her on whether to tell them, at least some part of the truth, no man or woman dared to refuse Lord Tywin Lannister, anything if it concerned his family's name, honor and legacy even his own flesh and blood. Yes that and the fact that she was the sole focus of those unflinching, dead eyes. Quickly she marshaled her courage, composed her mind and...

"Does Robert find you unsatis- ...?" In a voice so demanding and serious, her father began his inquiry but...

In a sure composed sombre voice, she began her response at the exact same moment as her father, interrupting and halting him; "Robert... is melancholy, he is a man lost and void of ways forward, father". She pressed on, "the war seems to have taken much from Robert and its toll too great on him leaving no room for anything else..." her father looked vexed for her interruption but kept quiet and began mulling and pondering over her words.

"Give him time Cersei, he will... " uncle Kevan began soothingly.

"Time..? What for", an amused Jaime asked while interrupting their Lord uncle and continued on, annoying their uncle if his an unamused eyes, set jaw and tight lips were anything to go by, "what has he got to be melancholy about sweet sister; he won his dammed rebellion, the iron throne and gotten you for a wife and queen", he said all of these in an amused sneering voice though it didn't seem to reach his eyes.

"War twists men, takes much from them and takes longer to heal and forget" reprimanded her uncle.

"Don't forget Rhaegar and the Mad king's folly and why King Robert began his damned rebellion, nephew. He might have carved in Rhaegar's breast plate and won his crown but in the end he lost the only thing...",the clang of knife and fork ,stopped his explanation to Jaime abruptly, his eyes a fraction wider, Mayhaps finally remembering his Lord Brother was in the same room ,breaking fast with them.

"That girl", her Lord father intoned, his voice unbelievably cold. That had her, Jaime and uncle Kevan looking at Lord Tywin in astonishment and weariness. His fast was long forgotten, his eyes were not set on any of them but she could see that they were dark pits of golden flaked emeralds, his jaw was set, his body unmoving and arms at rest on the oaken table; her Lord father continued uninterrupted," that girl is of no ..."

"Lyanna Stark", supplied her fool of a brother.

Bham...Her father's right hand smashed the table, startling them in their seats. Jaime really needed to learn how to measure and keep his words in father's presence.

"Yes Jaime, the stark girl" her father replied his voice a mix of anger and sarcasm and his eyes intent on his heir. That had Jaime fidgeting in his seat, wanting to be away from there. Uncle Kevan was also shooting Jaime an annoyed, scolding look.

"My apologies father", Jaime meekly apologized eyes set on his plates. That had father tensing his eyes and jaw in direct disapproval of Jaime's meek apology and failure to meet his eyes.

"Father..." she began, hoping to divert her father's anger from...

"Cersei ", her uncle interrupted; his voice and eyes scolding and imploring her to keep quiet and let her father say his piece.

Her Lord father continued glaring at Jaime for a few more seconds but when Jaime didn't look up, he finally glanced way disappointed and continued saying what he had wanted said unperturbed before Jaime's interruption, "the stark girl is of no concern to us, she is long dead with her bones on their way to the cold crypts in Winterfel, she is of no threat to you Cersei unless it is of your own making".

That had her scowling in potent anger, what did he know of Lyanna Starks's memory following Robert into their marriage, she almost sneered in anger, remembering Robert uttering the stark girl's name during their bedding and was almost tempted to divulge that titbit of information but she wasn't as foolish as to utter such a thing in her father's presence or anyone's.

Her father looked at her challengingly, daring her to utter a word. She wisely kept her thoughts to herself and any words she could have dare uttered in Jaime's presence to herself too.

"Cersei, you would do well to prevent her ghost impinging your marriage bed and preventing you from fulfilling your duty to Houses Lannister and Baratheon," continued father looking her right in the eye and unperturbed by her anger, back comfortably ridged in his chair, arms and hands resting on the arm rest.

"An heir would alleviate and smoothen some of the tension in the realm especially among Robert's allies; there are those who begrudge House Lannister entering the war...late, loath Jaime for committing regicide and protest the fates of Elia Martell and her children".

That startled Jaime out of his morose thoughts; no doubt thinking of the whispers that had been following him of late in Kings Landing..."King slayer ,Oath breaker".

Her Lord father's words had her thinking of the closest of friends Eddard Stark and her Lord...Husband king Robert furiously arguing over the fate of Elia Martell and her children before Lord Stark went on to lift the siege at Storm's End three moons ago alone.

Some Paramount Lords and minor Lordlings wanted Jaime removed from the kingsguard and banished to the wall to take the black. Thankfully their fear of Lord Tywin Lannister stayed their words and hands. The Lord Hand Jon Arryn's reluctant cooperation with house Lannister, Dorne's continued hostility and the remaining royalist forces also weighed heavy on her mind.

"You must give Robert an heir to secure your own position and power as queen that can also be said for house Lannister as well, house Lannister is in a tenuous position with Robert's allies and the other Paramount houses that fought alongside him during his rebellion", her father continued sensing she would not interrupt him and that she was grudgingly listening.

"Jaime, a retinue of Lannister men and I will remain here as you sworn shields until the remaining Targaryens and Loyalists at Dragon stone are dealt with; you either quicken with child or give birth to one". Jaime looked startled and lost by father's words, so it fell to her to remind their Lord father of Jaime's vows to the kingsguard and remind herself as well that Jaime couldn't be taken from her.

"Father, Jaime is sworn to the kingsguard's service for life..." her father interrupted her desperate plea with a chilling look that quieted her and implored her to never remind him of Mad Aerys's spite and ploy to shame and rob him of his son and heir.

"I will be speaking to King Robert and Lord Arryn on releasing Jaime from his ...vows and oaths", her father mockingly spat those two last words at the end as he answered their unspoken question. Defeated, she signed and as an afterthought asked, "What of Uncle Kevan?" That earned her an amused, pitting look from her uncle.

"Your Lord Uncle, will be returning to Castelyrock in my stead while I remain at court", with those closing words her Lord father stood up his chair scratching the flagstones in the queens ballroom, he was soon followed by her uncle at his kneels towards the black iron banded oak door.

Near the door, her father looked back and called for Jaime to follow; leaving her behind with thoughts of duty, on how much she had gained, could possibly lose and her fast all but forgotten.

There was some truth to what her lord father and uncle had said and mayhaps a child and time would soften Robert's heart enough to help her make him forget and rid themselves of Lyanna Stark's ghost and mayhaps win his heart for herself.

She would not forgive or forget Robert's slight but she would do her duty in their marriage bed.