A/N: I hope everyone's enjoying the new chapters. Things may be intermittent as the holidays continue on, but I will endeavour to keep posting as inspiration and time will allow!

Before he left to deal with the erstwhile problem that was my mother, I asked for Lord Tywin, and he arrived in my office shortly thereafter.

"You asked to see me, your Grace." And unlike most men, he said it as a statement more than a question.

"Indeed, grandfather," I replied before gesturing, "Please have a seat."

After we both sat down and I had poured some wine for the both of us, I spoke.

"If the stunt that Prince Doran pulled is of any indication, I think we may need to find a way to settle with Dorne before they become too rebellious."

He raised an eyebrow. "That won't be easy, given that they aren't especially fond of Baratheons or Lannisters."

I sighed. "I'm aware, but I believe that there is a way to at least sate them while we work on a long term solution."

"And that, your Grace?"

"All they've ever wanted is justice for the murder of Elia Martell and her children."

"Absolutely not," he said firmly.

"Lord Tywin," I paused here, "Grandfather, there is no reason I can think of not to give them to the Martells."

"There is plenty reason, your Grace. It was war, I did what was necessary to ensure peace within the Seven Kingdoms, to hand over Ser Gregor and Ser Armory would be to question the decision. It would bring the Lannister name into disrepute."

"Any more than my mother already has before I sent her to Casterly Rock?"

He glared. It wasn't nice being reminded of one your few failures, was it Tywin?

"Besides, war or not, the decision should be questioned. The deaths of Prince Aegon and Princess Phaenys were unnecessarily cruel, as was the death of Elia."

He stared me down. Normally the sheer displeasure of Tywin Lannister was enough to make mortal men reconsider their positions. And in most other decisions, I may have considered some form of mollification but in this case, I would brook no disagreement. Finally he offered, "Tell me, your Grace, what would your father have done if he had found the children?"

I shook my head, "What my father was irrelevant."

"Your father would have done exactly the same thing. He hated the Targaryens with every bone in his drunken body. They were a threat to his rule, and any who survived would have been a potential rally point for dissidents and rebels against the throne. I simply cut out a couple of steps."

"They were innocent children," I emphasised forcefully. "Regardless of whether they were a future threat or not. Gregory Clegane and Amory Lorch will be given to the Martells. You will bring them to King's Landing, they will be arrested, and I will take them to Dorne myself."

Channeling what I hoped was my own inner Tywin, I tried to make the orders as clear and firm as I could. Coming from what was considered a surly teenager by most to one of the toughest Lords in the Seven Kingdoms, it probably didn't seem like much.

Still, when it became apparent that his attempt at steering me down wasn't going to work he nodded and added a, "Yes, your Grace."

I could see that he was seething inside. It was going to kill him to hand over his two best trained attack dogs, but it needed to be done. Besides, if war ever did break out in the future, it would also hopefully minimise that amount of war crimes the Lannister forces would be responsible for.

Tywin stood, bowed his head stiffly and walked out the door. A sighed heavily as the door shut behind him. Why couldn't anything ever be bloody simple in this world?

The door opening to the Small Council chamber broke me from my deep contemplations. "Uncle," I offered by way of greeting Tyrion as he came waddling into the room. "I wasn't expecting anyone for at least a few more minutes…"

"Yes, well. Not all of us can be early birds, your Grace," he commented putting an amused emphasis on the title. If the rumour mill was to be believed, he'd made out like a bandit in the betting pools. Still, with the Hand of the King badge firmly in place, he took his seat at the table at my right hand.

"Well, now that the dust is settling, I have a realm to rule," was I comment. "And as it stands, I'm just trying to prove that I'm not my father at this point."

"Probably for the best," agreed Tyrion. "And nicely done on dealing with Stannis. I would've paid all the money I won from the Great Council to be in on that meeting."

I shrugged. "It wasn't pleasant, but he'll be heading north to the Wall soon enough. And once he's taken the Black, I'll breath a sigh of relief."

The Imp nodded. We both had known that Stannis would never kneel going into that particular discussion, and that it was either going to be the Black or the chopping block and I'd worked damn hard to avoid the latter. Mostly because I didn't want yet another orphan in the world and because I held some respect for one of the Westeros's last honourable men. And besides, beheading him now would've just cemented the reputation that Joffrey had built before I showed up. By showing lenience, both here and with Eddard Stark, I could buy back a little trust and build some breathing room.

It was the same reason I'd ordered the bringing of Ser Gregor Clegane and Ser Armory Lurch back here so that I could transport them to Dorne. If I could find a measure of peace with them, then hopefully future war could be avoided.

With weren't much more for talking before the rest of the Small Council began to shuffle in and take their respect seats. Such as my Council was. My interim Master of Coin, Hogarth Lastlyke, was the last to arrive. One of the few functionaries in the treasury who hadn't been appointed by Petyr Baelish, but by Jon Arryn, I thought he'd be mildly honest and not likely to continue Little Finger's rampant corruption.

The man looked flustered, as he'd been dealing with tying up the loose ends that came with kicking a bunch of assholes off the Iron Throne's teat. "Thank you for coming, Lord Lastlyke," I offered with a small smile.

"G-greetings, your Grace," he offered with a nod as he tried to organise the pile he'd brought with him so it didn't fall into chaos across the table. I had to stifle a grin.

"I assume all that paperwork are item's I'm going to need to sign and seal, yes?" I asked in a curious tone.

He gave a nervous nod. "Ya—yayes, your Grace."

Yup, I was going to need to replace his ass the first chance I got.

"Leave it with me, and I'll sort it out afterwards." And by that, I meant reading it all over while I had some other poor bastard apply my seal while keeping the documents I needed to sign to a bare minimum.

"With that being said, Lord Varys," I redirected turning to my Master of Whispers, "perhaps you could provide me with an answer or two to a concern I had."

"If I am able, your Grace," replied the Eunuch.

"Excellent," I declared with a grin. "Given how close the Arryn's were with my father, perhaps you have any intelligence on why Lady Lysa Arryen seems to have led so many of her sons lords in voting in favour of my Uncle?"

There was an imperceptible hint of a smile on Varys's lips. Apparently I'd passed some sort of test there by actually noticing a problem before it became one instead of reacting like my father. As it was, I pretended I didn't notice. "I noticed that too, your Grace, and had set my little birds onto that particular question. It would seem that Lady Lysa was of the opinion that her husband was assassinated by agents of House Lannister."

"Ridiculous," declared Tyrion beating me by only a few heartbeats. "Why is the seven hells would we do something like that?"

"From what I've been able to put together, Lord Jon Arryn had been working with Lord Stannis to investigate whether or not Joffrey was the legitimate heir to the Iron Throne," offered Varys. "And that Tywin, or more likely Cersei, Lannister had him murdered to hide the truth."

A sharp laugh escaped my lips. "And the fact that I tore that theory to shreds before the assembled lords of the realm did nothing to dissuade her of that notion?"

"It would appear not, your Grace."

"This is why you shouldn't involve women in government, your Grace," offered Pycelle from the end of the table. Probably taking offence at the fact that his sugar daddy, Tywin Lannister, was being accused of bad things. Bad things that were likely to get him yelled at.

"Lets just hope she doesn't decide to follow her husband's example and bring her banners south for a little objection party," I postulated. After a moments thought, I looked to Tyrion. "It might pay for you to have a word with Lord Edmure Tully about checking in on his sister while he's here before things have the chance to escalate."

"As your Grace commands," replied Tyrion with a nod.

Though though he voted for me, I doubted that I was one of Edmure's favourite people. And while Tyrion probably wasn't either, it was probably a better idea for him to have a word then me. Mostly because he might be a bit more receptive to what my uncle had to say than anything else.

Turning back to Varys, I asked, "And what of the Dornish houses? I can't have been the only one who was curious about Prince Doran's quick change of heart about his lords presence at the Great Council."

"From what my little birds were able to determine, your Grace, the original plan was for the Dornish Houses to vote for Lord Stannis. Mostly on the basis that they thought that the majority of the rest would vote for you, as a means of showing their continued nominal independence," explained Varys. "However, it would appear that at least one member of their company was communicating with Prince Doran via raven. One assumes that since Lord Stannis's arguments were proven to be so weak, he didn't want the Dornish to look foolish by voting in such a fashion and saw abstention as the more preferable option."

Really let out a laugh. "Bloody Dornish, it's like they revel in being such contentious sods." Which got a nod from both Ser Barristan and my uncle.

"One hopes that they'll be returning to swear fealty to me, yes?" I asked curiously. While the reason for wanting to abstain was understandable, not swearing fealty would cause quite the stir to be sure.

"They haven't left the capital yes, your Grace," commented Varys. "And one all indications suggest that Prince Doran doesn't wish to fight, just make a point. So, we should expect the Dornish to pledge their allegiance like the rest."

"Excellent," I declared with a smile. It was nice to see that things were slowly settling down. Sure things were probably going on behind the scenes, and I was probably missing a plot or two here somewhere. But war was slowly but surely being averted and that would hopefully allow things to settle back into peace…