A/N: Hey leave a review please I enjoy them. Ages this ch are the same as last.

GROWING UP THE LANNISTERS .

Tyrion, a week shy of eighteen, had slept surprisingly well if he said so himself, it had been a long while since he had slept that good: no dreams, no nightmares, no nothing and he had slept a solid 8 hours in his freaking bed! If his alarm clock was to be believed, he took it as a good sign: the semester that would start in a fortnight will go well: he could feel it in his bones. The times he slept solid eight hours he usually woke up feeling like shit because he had fallen asleep on his couch or somewhere similar while reading, or someone had talked him into taking his sleeping pills and they didn't get along: they didn't always put him to sleep and even when they did he woke up feeling groggy and his mind felt heavy, his thoughts escaped him; he hated the feeling. He would rather function with less sleep.

His family had taken a rather extreme approach to his insomnia: if he fell asleep somewhere they would try to accommodate him carefully and leave him to rest no matter when or where he fell asleep. He had once fallen asleep in a conference room of LannisCorp after staying awake for over seventy hours and his father declared that the room wouldn't be used that day no matter what it was reserved for and the rooms around it had been cleared so as to not bother him. That had been a huge surprise, he had been aware of such things happening at home, he had just never expected his family to take it that far: least of all his father.

Tyrion savored a couple of more minutes on his bed wondering if he really wanted to get up, when he realized that yes he did: he wanted to spend all the time he could with his parents before leaving for UKL, he was finally old enough (in his parents eyes) to leave home to study in a University outside of the Westerlands.

Tyrion was excited to start his Business degree in KLU, although his excitement was not really for the degree or an opportunity to assist the University - done that and been there. He already had a couple of bachelor degrees under his belt: Linguistics, Media Studies, Marketing, Religious Studies and Philosophy, but he wasn't planning on getting a master degree in those. His parents and Jamie were proud of him. After finishing high school at twelve Tyrion had dived into the University with a healthy or unhealthy passion, so he started to accumulate the degrees, but until now his parents wanted him to stay home while he studied. He wasn't even allowed to follow Jamie to the Crownlands when he started his Business degree, so he had to stay inside the Westerlands for the past five years. But not for much longer - Tyrion was going to KLU just like Jamie, their Father, Uncles and Grandfather before him to study Business and Economy - the subjects in which he planned to get both his bachelors and his masters degree. He wanted to pace himself a little this time to get the whole experience and maybe he'll look into some of the classes for Liberal Arts... who knows what he'll do?

The family dynamics in this life did still surprise him: his parents were very protective of him, he had a feeling that this had more to do with him being marked and all that came with it than his dwarfism. And while it felt nice, it was also a bit strange to him: there was a voice in his head that would complain about his parents behavior because he was of age, dammit! At least he had been in his last life when he was twelve, he had even gone through a terrible, please forget about it, marriage at thirteen and killed his first man long before this age back then. But Tyrion didn't like that voice nor the majority of those memories, so he just bottled everything up and tried to forget about it. Something his therapist Dr. Creylen didn't seem to agree with him about: calling it self destructive.

So taking his time to sit up before standing up, he saw himself in the mirror next to his wardrobe and tried to comb his hair a little with his fingers before grumbling and giving up knowing that he'd need a shower and a real comb to tame his mane. He huffed before jumping into the shower to get ready for his day. He left his bathroom after about fifteen minutes in his boxer shorts before he started going though his wardrobe looking for a T-shirt he'd like to throw over his black swimming shorts: he was planning on staying home with his parents today, there was no need to get dressed to the nines.

He was going though his Lannister-Western themed shirts; it was meant to be a joke when he asked his parents to get him a red T-shirt with the Lannister sigil and their slogan on it as his sixteenth name day gift: a joke that his mother had believed to be highly profitable. Due to this he had been roped into the design of various unisex T-shirts that followed the same line of thought: the Lannister sigil with their slogan, just their sigil, just their slogan, one with their unofficial slogan, different styles of the lion on the sigil, and so on. The shirts came in different colors. Eventually the designs branched outside of the Westerlands theme; there were T-shirts with THE NORTH REMEMBERS in bold elegant gray-silver script depicting a dark night in a northern forest illuminated by a full moon, T-shirts that said KEEP CALM and DEMAND TRIAL BY COMBAT, some featuring the sigils and slogans of extinct houses, others that said Valar Morghulis or Valar Dohaeris or both (those three were very popular in Essos), there was also a design of a dragon spewing fire with the text DRACARYS that gave him the jibes, etc. Tyrion had only provided ideas for T-shirts and gave a suggestion of Jamie modeling them, but his mother went a little further creating a whole clothing line - a very profitable one at that, of which he owned a share because, in his mothers eyes, it had been his idea originally and those shirts were very much in demand.

Yawning, Tyrion decided to go with a red T-shirt with the Lannister sigil on it, before looking himself over in the mirror: his forearms caught his eyes; they both had the same mark on them, a crowned lion guarding a wolf, but the one on his left was smokey-ashy colored faded even if still very much present. While the one on his right was brightly colored: emerald green, solid orange, sky blue with a hint of purple and a silver glow overall. He was tracing the lines, almost hypnotized by them, while he remembered that night five years ago when he woke the household screaming as he held his arm close to his chest in pain: his mother had come running and had gathered him in her arms, prying his arm away from his chest. They both saw his skin an ugly red then while the mark in all its splendor had bloomed on his skin: going from faint scars darkening and taking color until it was there. He had looked at it with tears in his eyes (from both the agony he felt and the happiness at seeing that someone, not of his immediate family, believed him worthy of love, it didn't matter that it wasn't the romantic kind) before looking at his mother who was in a similar state: he remembers her kissing his forehead before he passed out and almost drowned in new dream-memories that painted an uglier picture than before in tandem with the previous ones started haunting him.

"You scared the bloody hell out of us, not waking for almost 40 hours after getting that thing." Jamie's voice startled Tyrion out of his journey down the memory lane and he turned to look at his older brother with a scowl, the older Lannister was leaning against his door frame leaving his door wide open, something he couldn't appreciate.

"You should knock and wait until you are given permission to enter, before entering someone's bedroom." Answered Tyrion, as he continued tracing the lines of his soulmark seeking strength and validation from it, and soon he felt a slight burn that always came before the feeling of getting a blanket draped over him, causing him to smile softly it was a fairly new development one he liked and kept close to his chest at this Jamie's narrowed eyes to follow his moves.

"I did, you didn't answer so I decided to see how you were doing." Grumbled Jamie, eyes still on his brother's soulmarks.

"What if I were asleep?" He asked slightly offended at the implication that he needed to be supervised.

" You and sleeping, seriously?" asked Jamie, raising an eyebrow.

"I could have been asleep! Or in the shower! Or what if I would have had company? What would you have done then?" At this Tyrion narrowed his own eyes while his brother walked into his room and laid down on his bed, which caused Tyrion to clench his jaw. Jaime seemed to be going all out annoying him today was all he could think about as he walked towards his door and closed it.

"Tion, first of all, you don't sleep like….well like ever," started answering Jamie.

"What you just said is statistically impossible, Brother dearest," interrupted Tyrion, unashamed, while he fixed his wristbands covering those parts of his soul that the gods cursed him with for the world to see: they were a part of his soul they bled through his bones, muscle, blood and skin… he preferred to keep his soul away from prying eyes.

"Yeah, yeah. Still, finding you asleep at this time of the day is statistically nil, so my argument stays, and if you had been asleep I would have left you to sleep and excused your absence from breakfast. Now onto the second point, if you were in the shower instead of in la-la-la land, I would have heard it from outside this lovely room and banged the door harder until either you answered or dad came to see why I was acting out: whatever happened first. And thirdly, if you had company I'd simply known beforehand." Explained Jaime rolling his eyes, at this Tyrion decided to throw a T-shirt at him, it landed on his face. "A T-Shirt that says: a Lannister always pays his debts, is that a joke or a threat?"

"It is what it is and it was either that or a textbook, I can still try the poor book." Said Tyrion to his brother with a smirk as he held a textbook in his hands, and the last one sat up while he gave an uncomfortable smile.

"I will take the shirt any day, Tion, thank you. Your aim is scary." Said Jamie knowing that if Tyrion trew a book he'd feel sorrier about the book than any bodily harm that could befall him from the book.

Jamie decided to pull back a little pushing his baby brother's buttons, seeing this fine morning that there was a real possibility of bodily harm to him. It didn't matter that Tyrion was all for human rights and ditching the feudal judicial system of his last life where it was defined by people's social standing: the listening to it or ignoring its existence. He was still the same boy that asked their father and Uncles at age six why thieves were allowed to keep all their fingers, why rapists weren't castrated and murderers not sent to the chopping block (after all, the Wall wasn't an option anymore and exile to Essos would just pawn the problem of to someone else)… His brother also said that if the problem was that the one responsible for the sentence should swing the sword, that he'd be more than happy to swing the sword in their father's name to do his duty as his heir. Jamie did reckon that that conversation had been an interesting one: a highly disturbing, but still interesting one.

Now, even if Tyrion had with an open heart ditched said judicial system, he still did struggle with the idea that non lethal and non crippling physical harm aren't socially acceptable: more so after waking some days. Not that his brother was aggressive by nature, but he was of the mind that minor scratches, small cuts that only needed a few stitches, bruises or bruised bones between close family was perfectly fine: as long as the victim wasn't female. Fun fact, it hadn't been Tyrion who had caused the bodily harm, but the one who received it in a 'small' scuffle that broke out between him and Gerion, who was three years his senior, over who would play what knight and rescue Cinthia.

"You can be a true cunt at times." Murmured Tyrion before walking to his shelves where he left the before mentioned book, causing Jamie to smile.

"Love you too, Tion." Was all that he said back, causing his brother to shake his head. "Are you coming to breakfast?"

"Go, I'll follow shortly after cleaning this mess: apologize to our parents in my name if the food has already been served." Was his brother's answer but he knew that his brother just needed a moment to compose himself.

"Will do, just don't start mooning over either of those two fucks again: they aren't worth your time." He said as he left the room only to be ignored, he knew that he'd be ignored.

Tyrion always ignored him when it came to his soulmates: he even went as far as claiming to love them! If the claim were about his platonic soulmate, he would be chill about it - his brother had explained that out there, there was someone he had loved in the same sense that Jamie loved him and that he had laid his life down in that boy's name…. But he also claimed to love his romantic soulmate and that pissed Jamie off. They had long decided to leave that conversation, as they always ended up frustrated and angrily shouting at each other. The worst part was that Tyrion didn't expect her to love him this time, nor did he expect any sort of apology or explanation; and that left a bitter taste in Jamie's mouth: his brother at least deserved to know why he had been rejected! It was only right that she apologized after all the heartbreak she put him through! Jamie signed deeply, sitting down at the breakfast table.

"I know that sigh, son. Did you get in another fight with Tyrion about his soulmates? And this early in the day?" Asked their father, disappointment evident in his voice, as he passed behind him squeezing his shoulder before taking his seat.

"We didn't fight about them," said Jamie clenching his fists. At his father's raised eyebrow he elaborated: "I just walked in on him as he stood there mooning about them." He explained bitterly.

"You walked in on him?... Did you enter his room again without his permission?" Tywin asked, feeling exasperated with his eldest behavior.

"And what if I did! He is the one that stubbornly keeps mooning over them: as if she deserves even a fraction of his love!" Spat Jamie bitterly.

"You shall stop this attitude this instant! You had no right to enter his room and disturb him, you have no right to say who is or isn't worthy of your brother and you have no right to raise your voice at me, young man." Threatened the older man seeing his eldest throw a tarantum worthy of his grandnephew. "You are a Lannister, so behave like one. And your brother loves you, he worships the ground you walk on, gods only know why. So instead of judging shadows on whether they deserve the love your brother has decided to bestow upon them, become the man your brother believes you can be, you are twenty-nine years old a few days away from your thirtieth birthday, not a child anymore: grow, mature, find a wife or husband." Even if he'd never admit it, his fathers words hurt like the seven hells: they hurt because they were true, a truth he didn't want to face.

"I still can't understand how Tion can claim to love her: she has only hurt him. And I know that you disapprove of it too."

"Be that as it may, I respect your brother's choice. He is dating and having fun like any boy while he finds his place: your mother believes that he'll learn to love the right girl when she comes along," Replied the man shrugging his shoulders.

"That I do, my love, morning, Jamie." Came Joanna's voice behind Jamie, and her husband rose to greet her and help her in her seat. "Your brother is far more capable of love than either of you two give him credit for and he understands that no two loves are the same." Said his mother, looking him in the eye, daring him to continue his bullheadedness; at that look all fight left his body.

"My dearest, you really need to teach me that trick, with you our sons always behave and see the error of their ways." Lamented Tywin.

"No, can't do, love: you aren't their mother." Joked Joanna, getting her husband to smile. "From what I gathered, our boys fought over Tyrion's stance with his soulmates again?" She half-stated as she put sugar in her coffee.

"No, dear, this hothead invaded Tyrion's privacy and found him thinking about them and took offense." Explained her husband, shaking his head.

"Jamie dear, we have spoken about this before." The disappointment was evident in Joanna's voice. "It isn't our place to judge whether your brother should love them or not, please be more sensitive to your brother's feelings… He loves them and even if it pains me to admit it, he has loved them far longer than he has loved us."

"He isn't even interested in finding out who they are! Why should I care what I say about them if he isn't interested in meeting them? He even avoids all sorts of social media to stay away from them."

"I stay away from social media and sycophants and I'm not hiding from anyone. I like my private life to stay that way: a thing Tyrion agrees with." Said Tywin trying to divert Jamie's attention from the whole soulmates thing.

"Even if it is so, it only shows us that he isn't ready to face them. Not that he will never want to." Said Joanna, knowing that her eldest was like a dog with a bone and wasn't ready to let the thing drop no matter her husband's attempts. "Jamie, I will tell you this, because you are my son and I love you: leave your brother alone in this case… or you might lose him."

"Tion would never!" Started Jamie only to be interrupted by his lady mother.

"He would, Jamie, he would. While he is the most loving and gentle soul I know and it makes me very proud to tell the world that he is mine, knowing that he is able to go to great pains for those he loves to protect them, I also know that he would be ruthless in his protection of them. You are one of those he loves, but if one day you pose a threat to his other loved ones, he'd cut you out of his life, no matter how painful, to protect them. He would see you as an infection that needs to be cleansed, and deep down you know it. So stop this thinking of Tion's loved ones as "us versus them": there is no them, not in Tyrion's mind, and there should be no them in ours if one day we want to stay in his life, should he decide to give her a chance…. And that goes for the both of you." Joanna also warned her husband, knowing where her eldest had gotten this mentality - at least partially.

"I hate it when you are right about these things, my love." Replied Tywin, seeing his wife's point. He also recalled his father in law telling him to remember that still waters run deep. He supposed this was a fair warning, keeping his youngest in mind: he'd smile and he'd forgive, but he would never forget. "But his ruthlessness is a good quality too, with it and his cunning he is terrifying in business." Stated the man proudly.

"And how do you know that?" Asked Jamie, curious.

"The same way I realized you didn't have much natural talent for it and could easily be fooled in the business world, Jamie: I gave Tyrion the test and he is thriving!" Said Tywin with pride evident in his voice. "Even if the route he took caught me a little by surprise…"

"Wait, you gave Tion the test! Have you gone mad dad! He isn't even eighteen yet and when you gave me the test at eighteen I was completely unprepared!" Complained Jamie while he remembered how miserably he had failed the test.

"Jamie dearest, Tion is different from you, as your father said, he is actually thriving taking his own unconventional way." Said Joanna with a smile. "And you shouldn't have been unprepared; if you only had listened more to your father and I when we told you the importance of acquiring actives instead of passives, we went over the household budget and spendings and your father's investments many times with the both of you."

"You agreed with this madness?" Jamie was starting to wonder if he was the only sane adult in the family.

"Gods no! I believed your father to have lost his mind, sending my baby into that cutthroat world, but Tion is doing great and is even thriving!" Beamed Joanna with motherly pride. "He started the test so young, just sixteen years old! No one expected his sharp mind and many believed him to be an easy target as you had been, only to be left without their worldly possessions."

"The boy was definitely smart, hiring the Iron Bank law firm to represent him in his business endeavors. The fact that he started on such a secure bet as real estate blindsided me: he seemed more adventurous. And while I was looking at his real estate activities, such as hiring Payne's Construction for remodeling - another smart move as it is owned by the father of his friend Podrick and now is growing nicely with all the work he sends their way - Tyrion suddenly started doing business with the Dothraki! He now owns a small horse ranch and a store that sells handmade Dothraki goods and other products that can usually only be found in the Dothraki Sea in Essos: who would have known that he'd get them to agree to work for him and so far from home! And now his horses are top notch and even the Tyrells in the Reach want to pay him for the service of his prize stallion… what did he call it?"

"His prize stallion is called Khal, dear," said Joanna to help her husband.

"Ahh, yes, Tyrion needs to work on how he names things. He called the company that controls the acquisition and leasing of his flats and office space Blackfire…" continued Tywin. "Why, the building he will move into in the Crownlands is the first one he bought and remodeled, it was a quick job that one: a good building in a good condition that had some historical value. It only needed a good interior remodeling and some exterior restoration due to the laws. The last part was the pricey one: it is something that made most believe it wasn't worth it. But he has been leasing it only for a year and somewhere between the end of this year and the middle of the next year he'll see his gold beginning to flow back to him."

"Good morning!" Greeted Tyrion from behind Jamie, causing him to almost jump out of his skin and his parents to smile: he entered the kitchen with a mischievous smile on his face. "Father, Mother, Jamie," Added the teen nodding at each family member as he went to his seat at the kitchen bar: between Jamie and Joanna. "How are we feeling? And what are we talking about this fine morning?"

"Good morning, Son. I'm doing well, thank you. We just mentioned to your brother how well you are doing in the test." Replied Tywin.

"Morning, sweety, i'm doing well, too thank you for asking. How was your sleep? And as your father said, we were telling your brother how the test is going for you," Said Joanna, standing up and giving her youngest a kiss on his dark strawberry blonde hair.

"I did rest very well, Mother, no need to worry," Replied Tyrion to his mother, with an impish smile and shining mismatched eyes: one emerald green like most Lannisters, the other dark as night like her father's. "As for the test: I'm enjoying it! Even if I still have two years to go before giving you my portfolio, Father," commented the youngest family member, knowing that aside from himself the only other person with access to the bank account was his father who must have been spying on his progress and gossiping with his mother about it.

"Are you economically independent?" asked Jamie, seeing his brother's smile. Tywin gave his eldest a pained look and Joanna, who had been playing with Tyrion's hair planted another kiss on his head to hide her smile.

"What!? Why do you ask that? Of course I'm not financially independent, at least not yet: unless we talk about the account I have where the money from my share of the mother's clothing line ends up…. But, seeing as it is mother's line, I do not count it as showing financial independence," answered Tyrion thoughtfully before he seemed to realize something, but before he could say something he was interrupted.

"But Mother and Father said you were doing so well on the test, that a year from now your first building would start bringing profit!" exclaimed the elder brother.

"Yes, Brother dearest. It's a test to see how one would invest the money given to us. If a Lannister of Casterly Rock fails the test, they are either spendthrifts without a thought about the money, didn't listen to their parents about active versus passive acquisitions, terribly naive or a mix of those three things," explained Tyrion. "In your case it was a mix of the last two, but that is the reason for the test: for us to not make the same mistakes once we have our own family."

"Tiooonnn! Why do you say it's easy!" lamented Jamie.

"Brother dearest, we are Lannisters of Casterly Rock: we pay our debts and we make our money work for us," explained Tyrion gently.

"Yeah, we are also known for our green eyes and golden locks; it's good to know I'm not the only imperfect lion of the rock," muttered Jamie bitterly, laying his head on the breakfast table. Before his parents could say something to him, Tyrion started laughing: he would have ended up on the floor if it weren't for his mother.

"How about we just start our day with breakfast?" asked Tywin standing up to make tea, ignoring his children's theatrics.

"I believe that toast, eggs and tea would be lovely for all, love," said Joanna with a smile keeping their youngest from falling on the floor. Tywin nodded and gave her a kiss.

"Oooh, Mother, there is this huge loophole in the test! If you move all the money from a regular account to an investment account and put a five year lock on it: you do as you were told without doing shit!" Said Tyrion happily and Tywin almost dropped the kettle realizing that his son was right.

"What? I could have done that and just be done with it?" Lamented Jamie.

"Well, with only five years you wouldn't have made much money that way, about 3% a year at most, but you wouldn't have lost any either because you are basically giving the bank a loan to be repaid in five years..."

A/N: Hope you guys enjoy this and why do I get the feeling that Jamie will be a pain in this story?