demente

((Part 1))

It begins like this: Baelor lives! And by virtue of Dunk swearing himself to Baelor before he keels over, he is extremely attached to Dunk now. Practically begs Dunk to come back to Kings Landing as his sworn sword.

Dunk is very good at his job! If you are a Targaryen within his sight, you are the safest person on the planet. Matarys attaches himself to the hedgeknight Egg style (because he's only a year or so older than Egg in my dululu land) and now Dunk has two princelings following him around like ducklings.

Maekar (who has followed them to KL instead of going to Summerhall, he just can't let Baelor out of his sight rn) has BIG FEELINGS about all of this. His favorite brother (the brother he has not-brotherly feelings for that he is trying desperately to ignore but just Can't) is now never without this stupid fucking hedgeknight. The same knight that beat the tar out of his own son. And it was deserved!! He's grappling with the reality that Aerion is a little fucking Monster and will not stop trying to hurt others. He raised that! MAEKAR made that monster. And Baelor (and Egg he discovers later ((trigger warning, child SA))) paid the price.

And the one who is protecting his family from Aerion (from Maekar) and the vipers of the court is both competent and kind, like his beloved brother is. They're two peas in a pod, Baelor and Dunk. Ser Duncan may not have the silver tongue Baelor has (quite the opposite most times), but he's honorable, righteous and ferociously protective.

And Dunk's so so soft with the young ones. (Headcannon that Maekar turns into the gooiest, most dotting softy around babies/young children)

And that kindness, that chivalry, it extends to Maekar too! Dunk DEFENDS him, saying of course you fought for your child. That's what a good father does. And it tears strips off of him every time, because if he was a good father, Aerion wouldn't be the way he is, and Aegon wouldn't have attached himself so thoroughly to Dunk. Baelor wouldn't have had to fight and almost die for a hedgeknight's (for their family's) honor.

So Maekars extra prickly, trying simultaneously to watch over and keep his distance from Baelor, and finding himself to be loathsome in comparison to a hedgeknight. While also developing feelings for said hedgeknight and trying (failing) to squash feelings for his brother.

Now here comes the inciting incident of the would-be fic that I can't quite figure out, and don't really want to because I'm tired and this is for fun. Somehow, someway, by conspiracy and treachery, Maekar is lured out of the keep to be assassinated. To undermine Baelor somehow, throw the Targs into chaos or something. Dunk shows up and saves him, because he's got a pretty vast network of informants by now, sweet personable man that he is, and he's the only knight/guard who even wanted to save Maekar (he's been extra lately, no one but family wants to deal with him rn).

So it's like 7 vs 1, Dunk vs Traitors, with Maekar a little roughed up already trying to figure out how to help Dunk, but he's half slumped against a wall or some shit.

Stage one is the initial fuck: which is them arguing about Eggs squiring, and getting more and more wound out and in each others faces, until Dunk grabs Maekar by the front of his tunic and walks backwards until he's up against a tree, and he pulls Maekar against him, and they get off grinding against each others thighs, spilling into their clothes like green boys.

It is important to me that you know that they are too busy arguing to kiss at all during the whole things. They are full on insulting eachother the whole time, it only stops once they've orgasmed, and they have to slink back to camp very much not looking at eachother.

Stage 2 is the "well this might as well happen" stage. Any time one of them pisses off the other, they'll drag them out of camp at the earliest opportunity. This is not at all suspicious, no sir, I'm sure nobody has notices, not at all. Pitty the pour kingsgaurd that follows them.

Stage three: a bandit attack or something happens on the road, and everyone gets to see Dunk when he's not holding back. It's some time around the 6th dead body and second bone broken by bare hands, that Maekar realised that Aerion is alive because Dunk decided he would live. He starts feeling emotions™ about this, but chooses to focus on horny. He climbs Dunk like a tree that night, let's Dunk fuck him rather than the other way around, and this marks the beginning of the not-angry-fucking. Now they fuck just because.

Final stage: they stop by a river one evening to make camp, and Maekar watches Dunk teaching Egg how to catch fish and crayfish and forage for their supper, which Maekar has a lot of feeling™ about. He decides to have a bitch about it at Dunk later that evening (because they're still arguing. The fucking hasn't stopped the arguing) and during the argument Maekar slips and falls in the river. Dunk is pissing himself laughing, so Maekar pulls him in after him as retribution. This leads to a lot of splashing, and laughing, and later kissing. And suddenly they're looking into each others eyes and simultaneously having the realisation that they might be in love with this annoying fucker in front of them. Which Dunk would agonise about, but in true Maekar fashion he decides that they might as well keep kissing about it. Still in the river I might add.

Based on the wikis, Prince Duncan The Small (Egg's kid) was born somewhere between 220–224 AC while Maekar died 233 AC. Meaning that he had ample time to get to know his grandson as well as watching him grow a little.

So how do you think he reacted to Egg naming his child after DUNK of all people??? Especially since usually Targaryens name their kids either after ancestors or with a very specific sound to it, something that Prince Duncan obviously doesn't have. Add to that the parallel of Maekar naming his firstborn son (Daeron) after his own father while Egg named his after his father/brother figure....Do you think he'd ever be jealous over the fact? Or do you think he'd somehow come to understand or accept it?

I think that Maekar stopped being jealous of Dunk over the years of being around him. He and Dunk literally coparented and he trusted Egg with him for years. I think he might’ve even cared for him eventually. I think when Maekar first meets his grandchild from Egg he is more shocked/nostalgic by how he looks than his name. Maekar accepted a long time ago that where he failed as a father or just couldn’t be there that Ser Duncan the Talk would be and wouldn’t replace him completely. I think Maekar kinda expected little Duncan to be named after Dunk and Dunk as the one that was shocked instead.

Because I think it's entirely plausible that Dunk proved his loyalty not only to Egg but to House Targaryen generally by the time Egg was ready to be knighted, and while in the novellas Dunk ruminates on having a family, there's very little evidence (other than the shield on Tarth) to suggest he did. And if that's the case — perhaps it was Maekar, not Egg, who first saw the benefits in having a hedge knight from Flea Bottom as one of his Kingsguard, sworn to not only his house but the Iron Throne itself?

Inspired by Ch 7 of ‘especially built for you’ by @itellyouthisisnottheend, a must-read for all Dunkbaelorists.

Full under cut with the relevant passage