#alpha lucerys

...When Lucerys and the riverlords took back King’s Landing from the “Three Kings” after the Shepherd stoked a moon of madness, the inevitable consequence of reinstating his mother back on the Iron Throne came with it. Luke was officially crowned heir, and for a short time, the realm had favored him. 

After the Battle by the Lakeshore, Luke hadn't admonished Ben Blackwood for his tears and both wept together that day by the God’s Eye. Sabitha Frey had been somewhat of a mother he was missing in the middle of a war, Lady Alysanne like another sister. Pate of Longleaf and Roddy the Ruin had been his sworn shields for the entire war until their deaths in Tumbleton. Kermit Tully had stood beside him and gripped Luke’s shoulder firm with one hand, his morning star in the other, lending Luke strength like a brother as they held the line against Borros Baratheon’s men on the muddy Kingsroad. Once, the lads had been his greatest supporters when they knelt and pledged him their swords, but after Lucerys bit and hastily married the omega that almost burned the entirety of their homeland, the riverlords now regarded him with open disdain and only spoke to Luke with forced civility since the war. Not even Oscar could be persuaded to see his choices weren’t such easy ones, and it still hurt whenever Luke remembered their last goodbye before Kermit’s brother left Westeros entirely to form the Stormchasers in Essos. 

The young Lord of Riverrun never forgave Luke after his little brother left but was now marrying Luke’s as some consolation for both his and Aemond’s mistakes. 

Egg had of course been upset. Luke's little brother had been late to present, but now six and ten, Aegon became an easy solution for their mother to curb the resentment the riverlords were holding against the crown. Rhaenyra first offered Kermit Tully a pact to betroth Lucerys and Aemond's first born with his own, giving House Tully a direct line to the throne some day. When his mother sent him Kermit's response, Lucerys quickly burned it before Aemond could see, but the words would never uncarve themselves from his conscience.

House Tully will never share blood with the Kinslayer.

It would appear his little brother, however, was distant enough to accept. 

Luke wishes now more than ever his mother hadn't shown the Rogares such mercy after they returned Viserys. It was abhorrent enough that they had wed his barely presented baby brother to an omega that was Luke’s age, but the only condition to get his little brother back without going to war with House Rogare had been to swear that the marriage would not be set aside. Baela urged his mother to let them take the royal fleet with Moondancer to Lys, and even Aemond had assured them they would have Vhagar if it came to that, but it was all still so soon after the Dance and the realm’s fleets had only just rebuilt strength after the Greyjoy rebellion. If they had chosen war, the Rogares could have easily outspent them three-to-one after Tyland Lannister refused to admit where he sent the royal treasury before his death, and it had been unbearable to imagine what they might have done to his brother still in their care after learning he was still alive all this time. Yet despite Aemond and Baela's encouragement to be rid of Lady Larra along with the rest of her family, Luke and his mother agreed that they couldn't hurt the Rogare omega or the babe swelling her belly, especially when Viserys cared so deeply for her. But what Lucerys didn't expect was for his mother to take her counselors advice over his own. 

Somehow, the woman who sent assassins to avenge her son when she thought Luke dead would rather facilitate Larra's father's trade with bills of exchange than actually punish them. Lucerys spent most of this last year not speaking to her when she also tied her eldest omega son to the heir of the Rogare bank. 

Joffrey was only three years younger and perhaps could have found more compatibility with Kermit Tully than Lysaro Rogare, a man almost a decade older and spoke with such a thick Lyseni accent it was difficult to decipher half of what he said. Luke assumed no marriage proposal would have ever pleased Joffrey, suspecting for years his visits to Rhaena in the Eyrie might have been so frequent not just to see their stepsister, but a lover he was keeping secret after returning home once reeking of another alpha he refused to name. So of course, Joffrey had been undoubtedly pissed, yet they were fortunate his brother didn’t run away when he finally met Lysaro to discover his intended was very pleasing to the young omega’s eye and heard no further complaints about his match. That is, until Joff soon learned plenty of other omegas also thought his alpha pleasing, as well. Ever since Luke moved to Dragonstone and officially transitioned Joffrey into High Tide, all they ever heard was how much the couple fought ceaselessly over Lysaro’s wandering eyes.  

Luke hasn’t visited the capital since Joffrey’s last wedding, when it stopped feeling like his mother’s decisions were for the benefit of her children and more for the crown’s treasury. Aemond wasn’t particularly sympathetic, but it killed Luke to see his brothers all arranged to appease the realm. Too heavy and temperamental to attend anything but the wedding they had come for anyway, Luke left his husband in their rooms and went on ahead to knock on the door of the brother that didn't regard Luke with resentment. 

When he entered his brother's rooms, he did not expect to see Daemon's sons both together. In front of a mirror, Egg was dressed in long Valyrian-styled robes of white brocade with red drip-dyed sleeves and a matching blood-red train, no doubt styled to look like the robes he should have worn to the Valyrian wedding he wanted. Behind him stood Viserys, trying to balance his infant son in one arm while attempting to latch together a gold chain. 

Hastily closing the door to take over, Viserys stepped aside and thanked Luke gratefully when he helped clip the chain around their brother’s neck.

“Where's your attendants?” Luke asked after he gathered Egg’s hair to neatly drape back down his back. 

“I thought we could manage.” Egg’s mouth tentatively twitched through the mirror. After the riots and the betrayal of Ser Alfred in Dragonstone, they all knew how distrustful their mother, Joffrey, and Egg were towards the servants and suspects if his brother had to pick between all the companions their Queen’s councilors tried to impress on him, Egg most likely preferred no company at all. Unless it was Viserys.

“Mother’s ladies did the heavy lifting. I just helped finish up,” Viserys replied upon while trying to get the pup in his arms to settle, bouncing Luke's nephew rather stiltedly on his shoulder. Lucerys smiled at the boy Viserys named after their brother he had always been closest to, even if they still struggled to ignore it reminded the rest of them of their uncle, the Elder. Viserys had been so young and disappeared early enough in the war, Aegon was still just the name of his big brother. 

It was still strange, watching his barely fifteen year old brother with a son of his own. Especially when Luke thought about how his own daughter would have been this boy’s playmate if she had lived.

Looking over the bride, Egg's hair was long and ran down his back like a river of molten silver where Luke arranged it. With only two small braids tying it all together, it was simple, but it suited Egg. It also reminded him much of their mother when they crowned her after Visenya's funeral; unextravagant, but bare in her grief and beautiful without all her intricate braids as silver tendrils danced uninhibited against Dragonstone's strong wind. 

Noticing the way his brother’s fingers trembled as they pulled at his high collar, Lucerys reached to still his hands. Stooping down, Luke laid his chin over his brother’s shoulder to smile back through the mirror. 

Not the most elaborate with words, Lucerys kissed Egg’s cheek. “Dearest Brother, you look lovely.”

“Mother's seamstress has done lovely work, you mean,” Aegon murmured, pale cheeks flushing an endearing pink as he picked at the gold beads threaded in his long sleeves.

Luke made a face and Viserys huffed from behind them. “Brother,” he sighed. 

“This is how he's been the entire time,” Viserys remarked while setting baby Aegon on the floor to crawl toward a small pile of scattered toy horses across a nearby rug. “Our brother makes it difficult for anyone to pay a compliment.”

Seeing how anxious Egg looked at himself through the mirror, Luke dropped his hands to softly squeeze his shoulders cloaked heavily in brocade and silk. 

“Kermit Tully is a good man,” he forced himself to say, meeting his brother’s wide, nervous eyes to meet him through their reflection. “He may have little love for our family, but I do not foresee him taking that out on you.”

“Am I not a part of our family that's torn apart his country and burned down his lands?” 

Stiffening, Lucerys almost pulled away. Egg’s dark, indigo eyes flicked to the ground, unable to meet Luke’s stare through the looking glass.

“Of course you are,” Luke replied, throat dry as he tried to continue like Egg had not picked at a scab on his honor. He was unsure if that was the answer his brother wanted to hear, but Lucerys would never say Egg was not a part of them all. Regardless, he swallowed and tightened his grip over his omega brother’s shoulder, willing Egg to hear him. “But you are entirely blameless for everything that happened. Especially in the riverlands. Kermit knows this.”