I have had this idea in my head for a while now, and simply could not let it go. I know that the Aegon/Arya ship is at best a ship that passes in the night, but I have found that I like it not due to any canon material, but due to the stories on fanfiction.

Enjoy!

Three facets of a marriage

Rolly Duckfield
Rolly Duckfield, commonly known as Duck, was not usually afraid of much that went on within the Red Keep. He was a knight in the Kingsguard, and therefore among the best and most loyal in the Seven Kingdoms.

Nevertheless, Duck felt a cold fear run down his spine, as he talked to one of the queen's chambermaids. According to her, the king had requested supplies to be prepared for a long trip into the countryside, which could only mean one thing; there was to be another Hunt soon.

Duck thanked the chambermaid and watched as she hurried off, probably to gossip to her friends about the news, before he turned around and headed to the White Sword Tower. Along the way, he managed to flag down a few pages to alert the rest of the Kingsguard that a meeting was to be held.

It had been many years since Aegon had ascended the Iron Throne and married then Lady Arya Stark, now Queen Arya Targaryen, and Duck still remembered the first meeting between the two like it was only yesterday.

They had taken Dragonstone not long before and had barely had time to catch their breaths when the future queen had arrived on the island along with someone, whose face and name Duck no longer remembered.

It had been that someone that had requested an audience, but upon entering the throne room, Jon Connington, the Seven bless his soul, had immediately recognized Arya Stark due to her resemblance to her aunt.

There had been a commotion for a short while before order had been restored, though with weapons now pointed at the two in attendance. It had been Lady Arya that had broken the awkward silence that had followed.

"Young prince", she had said directly to Aegon, "neither I, nor my House, have quarrel with your ascension of the Iron Throne, and though I know that your Hand no doubt wishes to execute my sister, whom I know not where hides, and I, I beg for your pardon".

"And why should we pardon your House for its past betrayal?", Aegon had asked dignified, though with badly concealed anger brimming beneath the surface.

"In exchange for removing two names from your list, I shall give you the lives of another two", the young girl had said with a small nod, "two names get to live, two names get to die and everyone will be happy".

Duck remembered that her companion had tried to argue at that point, but he had been quickly silenced.

"What guarantee do we have that a young girl such as yourself will not simply run, let alone succeed in such a task?", Aegon had asked full of mistrust to the young girl's words, though still slightly intrigued by them.

"Should I fail, there would be no change from before we met, would there?", Lady Arya had pointed out.

Aegon and Jon had discussed the matter privately for a little while after that, but Duck had not heard what had been said between the two. Finally, Aegon had once again turned to the little girl standing before him and had asked with more than a little intrigue evident in his voice, "and we can name any two names?"

"Give two names and this girl will take care of the rest", the young girl had repeated with a dark undertone.

"Stannis Baratheon", Aegon had named his first name in what would later become known as the defining turning point in the war, "and Cersei Lannister".

"Two names have been given", Lady Arya had spoken with the smallest of smiles on her little lips, before she had curtsied and left the throne room and her companion behind.

They had not been able to find hair nor trace of her after that incident, and many had thought that she had left for good to go hide with her sister. It was not until news had reached them a few moons later that Stannis Baratheon had died of a stroke that the gossip at court began.

There had still been many sceptics, especially as a stroke was hardly evidence of any wrongdoing, but when news had reached them that Queen Cersei had choked on a chicken bone nearly five moons after Lady Arya had firstly and lastly been seen, the whispers had intensified.

Two weeks had passed from Cersei's death before Lady Arya returned to their new campsite to announce that two names had been taken, so that two names might be saved. By then though, the Starks had begun coming out of the woodworks seemingly everywhere, and when news of the survival of Rickon and Brandon Stark had reached them, Lady Arya had given Aegon two new names in exchange for sparing their lives as well.

Duck remembered that Aegon had been quick to name Tommen Baratheon as his third name, as though the boy was king in name only, he had still been a contender to the Iron Throne. The fourth name had taken days for Aegon to decide upon, and when he had finally decided, he had whispered it to this Lady of Death that had stood before them. To this day, only the two of them knew the identity of the fourth name.

Lady Arya had disappeared once again, only to return a moon later with news of Tommen Baratheon's death. No mention had been made of the fourth name, and it had not been inquired upon by Aegon, leaving many to wonder what exactly had been said between the two of them.

With no other contenders left, save for Myrcella Baratheon, whom had since been wedded to Trystane Martell and no longer wished to press her claim, Aegon had ascended the Iron Throne not long after, and he had taken Lady Arya to be his queen shortly thereafter.

Duck reached the White Sword Tower and the empty meeting room shortly after finishing his reminiscence. Once there, he took his seat at the end of the shield shaped weirwood table, as befitted the Lord Commander of the Kingsguard.

His brothers trickled in one after another until five of the seven members were present, and after starting the meeting by the assurance that the king and his heir were guarded by the missing two, Duck got straight to the point.

"Another Hunt has been ordered", he announced to his brothers.

Looks were shared between the brothers, and for a while, no one spoke. It was Duck that broke the silence, "we will have to double the guard around the king until the Hunt has ended".

It had been no secret amongst the Kingsguard or the royal court that the Targaryen rule had been tenuous the first few years of their new reign. Many still remembered Aerys' madness, and the fact that Robert's Rebellion had succeeded proved that their reign was not indisputable.

There had been more than a few assassination attempts, and though the Kingsguard was good at picking up on most of them, a few still slipped through their net. They did not however slip through the queen's net. Whenever one was caught in her net, a head would appear on one of the Red Keep's spikes the next morning without anyone having seen who put it there.

It could be weeks or moons after the incident, but once a head had been placed on a spike, the entire court had quickly come to realize that the life of a noble would eventually be lost in an accident that could not have been predicted or blamed on any one particular person.

It would have been different if Daenerys Stormborn had safely made it to Westeros with her dragons, but according to the reports that they had gathered, she had fallen from Drogon's back as she tried to cross the Narrow Sea in a manner akin to Aegon the Conqueror and his sisters, though they had only actually flown from Dragonstone.

Without their mother, the dragons had gone wild, and though two of them had been lost to the waves of the sea and the weapons of brave men, the third still roamed the Dothraki sea. No civilized nations were particularly eager to initiate a hunt for it. Besides, as long as it kept the Dotraki hordes occupied, it mattered little that it still lived.

"We must also try to contain the rumours as much as possible", one of his brothers said, "during the last Hunt, there was an attempt on His Grace's life that got far too close to succeeding".

"I am afraid that the rumours will have already spread outside the Red Keep before this meeting has ended", Duck said sadly.

The separation of the king and the queen always meant overtime for the Kingsguard, and a Hunt almost always entailed a long period of overtime. Assassins feared the queen, and with good reason, because it was her own skill as one that had endeared her to the king back when the two had first met.

Petyr Baelish
Petyr had many agents in King's Landing to supply him with rumours. In fact, he was only rivalled in that regard by the spymaster Varys, but neither of them needed their extensive networks to find out the latest gossip from the king and queen.

A new Hunt has been ordered, Petyr mused, as he stroked his beard, an opportunity for some, but a perilous one with a poisoned reward at the end. It will be interesting to see whether anyone is foolish enough to try and bite.

Though Petyr thrived in chaos, he knew that even should a plot against the king succeed during a Hunt, the queen would hunt down the plotters one by one until there was no one left to threaten the rule of her children. She had a knack for that sort of work.

In any case, it would be best if things remained stable for the moment, Petyr mused, as he walked through the halls of the Red Keep, a new monarch may see differently upon my station and decide to do something about it.

When Aegon had first landed on the shores of the Stormlands, Petyr had purposely left the Vale undeclared, as he had had enough to consider with Sansa's wedding to Harold Hardyng and the poisoning of Robert Arryn.

When they had taken Dragonstone, Petyr had still not paid the events much mind. Dragonstone was mostly a symbolic conquest for the young Targaryen, and it would hardly do much difference in the war, but when news had reached him from his spies there of Arya Stark's reoccurrence, he had had to act fast.

Peytr had travelled there in secret to make sure that he would be on top, and while he had been gone, Sansa, the sweet child that had no longer been a child by then, had convinced her lord husband to gather the knights of the Vale and ride out to reclaim the North from Roose Bolton, now that both Ramsay Bolton and Stannis Baratheon lay dead.

The expedition to reconquer the North had received an unexpected ally in White Harbour, which had secretly harboured the youngest Stark child and now declared him as their liege lord. None of that had been a part of Petyr's plans, so he had had to act fast upon arriving at Dragonstone, and had had to declare for Aegon Targaryen in his act as Lord Paramount of the Trident.

Petyr had known that if Aegon accepted his support, then his lordship over Harrenhal and the Trident would be cemented, just in case the Tullys thought to reclaim it afterwards, and the young prince would have been a fool to not accept one of the seven kingdoms when it was handed to him just like that. He had not been a fool, and Petyr had remained Lord Paramount of the Trident.

Though the station was a good prize, it had not been the prize that Petyr had been after, but with Sansa's sudden transformation from an innocent sweet child to a conniving lady taking him by surprise, he had had to settle.

And just to further ensure his family's future rule over the Trident, Petyr had agreed to betroth his firstborn son to the daughter of Edmure Tully, thereby gaining the support of many of the nobles and much of the smallfolk that still supported House Tully.

After Aegon had ascended the Iron Throne and found himself needing a queen, it had been Petyr that had suggested Arya Stark to him. The match had made political sense, and though Margaery Tyrell would have secured the Reach's support, with all its fields and soldiers, her reputation for losing husbands was not exactly in her favour.

Petyr had argued that marrying Arya Stark would not only gain them the support of the Vale through her sister, but also allow for a way to once again include the North in the Seven Kingdoms without the Northmen seeing it as a blow to their damn pride.

Without the support of the dragons, it would have been most difficult, if not impossible, for Aegon's forces to move past Moat Cailin, so conquering the North by force would not have worked with their depleted forces. And then there was the fact that Arya Stark might have just added Aegon's name to the pile of kings and queens that she had killed, if such an approach had been pursued.

Then Hand of the King, Jon Connington, had been the hardest to convince that the match had made the most political sense, but Petyr had been too invested in Aegon's future rule by then to accept defeat lightly, and the Hand had eventually been convinced.

Besides, Petyr had hoped that given enough time, the future queen might be as easily manipulated as her father had been, because after all, this one had not had the opportunity to study court intrigue and diplomacy like her sister had.

Unfortunately, he had eventually had to drop that line of thought as well. Though the girl was only slightly better at dealing with the court than her father had been, she had turned out to be a quite adept lie detector, which combined with her lord husband, who was far better versed in the political scene, made it rather difficult to manipulate either of them.

The match had provided Petyr with a short-term bonus due to the increased stability of his vested interests, but had disabled him from much of the scheming that had allowed him to move further upwards. Overall, it could have gone better, but it could also have gone quite a lot worse.

"Nervous about the Hunt?", the voice of the spider caught him off guard and stopped him in his steps.

"What would I have to be nervous about?", Petyr turned and smiled innocently at the perfumed spymaster.

"Ah, but if someone should succeed this time, your position in court might not be as stable as you think", the spymaster chuckled with his silk sleeves hiding his powdered face.

"Should such an awful event happen, I am sure that the queen will see fit to look upon my many years of service before making such a rash decision", Petyr said confidently, "and besides, someone whispered in my ear that should such an event happen, your head might not remain attached, considering that your network should have warned them beforehand of any such attempts".

"Yes, it seems that both of us would benefit from nothing happening this time", the spider surmised, before the two of them continued down the hall.

"So, old friend, what does your network of little birds have to say about the situation as it is?", Petyr asked, though his own informers had likely already told him what news there was to be heard.

"The smallfolk loves their king, especially in the North, where they have not yet forgotten that he is the only king still alive that decided to help them in the War of the Others", Varys reported.

"And the nobles?", Petyr asked amused.

"They still fear the queen", the spider answered with a chuckle, "though news of a new Hunt may spook a few of them to act without thinking first. The eastern Reach lords seem particularly likely to do so, considering they lost a fair bit of land after their failed attempt to encroach upon the western Stormlords' lands".

"I see, then perhaps this news should be shared with the Hand", Petyr suggested, "for the good of the realm, of course".

The eunuch merely giggled and nodded in response, before they continued discussing the events of the coming small council meeting. It was true that the smallfolk loved their Targaryen king, whom had brought them peace and security after so long of 'pretender reign', but it was the queen that the nobles feared, and neither Petyr nor Varys were exceptions to this rule.

Aegon Targaryen
Aegon was quite happy at the recent turn of events. Arya had conceived again, which unfortunately also meant yet another Hunt. The first time that she had been with child, he had tried the hardest to talk her out of going on a Hunt, but she had been adamant and told him that their deal still stood.

A new name was to be given in exchange for this one, and despite his numerous attempts to brush the matter off, and the pardon of the entire House Stark that had long since been given, he had eventually relinquished and told her a name.

The name had been Emmon Frey of Riverrun, whom had managed to escape the destruction of House Frey of the Crossing that the knights of the Vale had wrought on their way north, by declaring against his own father and family.

Such a man was not to be trusted, and his continued presence spread discontent amongst the smallfolk and lesser nobles of the Riverlands, so it had been as good a name as any of their many adversaries. Emmon Frey's body had later been found drowned in the portcullis of the Water Gate, but since no one had seen anyone come near his quarters, it had been assumed that he had fallen from a window and hit the water.

The second time, he had once again tried to argue, but not as ardently as the first time, and this time, Aegon had named Aurane Waters, whose piracy had proved to be too much of a nuisance at the time. The pirate king had later drunk himself to death.

At her third pregnancy, Aegon had had no political rivals or other nuisances that he could afford to get rid of in such a manner, as their ritual had by then become well-known even amongst the smallfolk. Instead, he had had to name a wanted criminal to sate his queen's appetite for blood.

This time, he had named the current lord of House Meadows, whose domain bordered on the Stormlands and whom had, according to Varys, been the ringleader behind the border skirmish between the Stormlands and the Reach.

It was high time that they were disciplined for breaking the King's peace, and doing it this way would also show them that the Targaryens were still in full control of their lives. Aegon had not yet forgotten that it had been the Reach that had been the last of the kingdoms to surrender, and only after heavy fighting and a one-year long siege of Highgarden.

"Your Grace, would it not be wise to call off the Hunt this year?", one of his advisors said, "you must understand that though the Seven Kingdoms rejoice in yet another child to be born to your family, the Hunt upsets the nobles".

"The Hunt has been called, and only those nobles that may have wronged my House should feel the need to cower during such an event", Aegon spoke sternly, though the truth of the matter was that he also did not wish for the tradition to continue, but it was best not to let the court find out about his powerlessness to stop them.

Over the years, there had been many of his advisors and other court officials that had requested that he tear out his queen's claws and make her into more of a lady. He had always refused any such attempts, no matter who had posed them.

Though he would never admit it to anyone, his queen's claws terrified even him at times, but it had been those same claws that had earned her family's pardon and his easy ascension to the Iron Throne. Arya was a wolf at heart, and after becoming his wife and having their first child together, he had come to be firmly included in her pack.

The wolf never used her claws on her own pack, but she would use them on any that tried to threaten it, which multiple assassins and their employers could have testified to. That is, if any of them had been left alive.

Besides, Aegon had found that his queen could also be quite…passionate…with those claws. Just the thought of them almost made him growl, which earned him a confused look from the advisor that had not stopped advocating that he rip out her claws for 'the good of the realm'.

"I will hear no more of how the queen ought to behave", Aegon declared in his kingly voice, before he broke the meeting to head for lunch in his solar.

When he got there, he discovered that food had already been brought to his chambers, and upon looking at his bed, he found the reason why. Arya had apparently wished to dine with him, but had since fallen asleep while waiting for him, likely as a result of her pregnancy.

She was sleeping atop the covers of his bed, all curled up like a cat and with her long brown hair splayed out over the covers. Aegon quickly excused his Kingsguard and asked that he not be disturbed for the next while.

After the Kingsguard had left, Aegon sighed at the lovely meal waiting on the patio table, before he snuggled up next to his wife on the bed. She gave a contented hum as he moved his arms around her.

"I rather like this", he said as he nuzzled her hair.

"I can feel", Arya hummed, "and if you ask nicely, I might even let you stay".

"I would hope so. They are my chambers after all", Aegon laughed.

"Only part-time", his queen quipped, as their breathing started to synchronize.

It was not long before both of them were fast asleep.

So, how was it? I might be a little rusty in regards to writing romance stories that...well...end happily, but I thought that it turned out quite nice without tasting like diabetes.