might be a dunkaerion drabble blog idk

or is it called masterlist? nevermind, moving on.

alrighty this post is just here for the sake of drabble organization. there’s not really any particular order that this is in, aside from chronology and vibes.

several things of note:

all of these stories/drabbles/etc. are primarily dunkaerion unless otherwise noted, only with varying twists and aus put to them.

these are all pg, pg-13 tops, or at least SFW. i don't write smut, i don't write targcest, and i'll avoid using swear words. please let me know if you see them, though, i might not be cognizant of all the things i write when i'm in flow mode.

interactions are always welcomed and much appreciated but not required. if you liked it, that's grand! i'm glad to have brought you joy in some form.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ omegaverse - canon!au (mostly feral!omega aerion)

(first post!) feral omega aerion in heat

pregnant feral omega aerion

feral omega aerion, but with pack-building

pack-building part 2

pack dynamics - pregnancy edition

omegaverse - modern!au

kid fic

babies-centered

road trip!

bedroom stuff

college/uni greek life omegaverse au

part 1 - dunk is introduced to aerion "knotcrusher" targaryen

part 2 - aerion is THE president Of All Time

part 3 - three scenarios where dunk Learns Things

part 4?

merfolk targaryen au

part 1 - aerion gets stuck in a net bc egg wanted to play ariel

part 2 - aerion's scissors shenanigans

part 3 - dunk and aerion get closer, aerion gets presents

part 4?

avian au

part 1 - kingfisher!aerion, eagle!dunk?

part 2 - dunk and aerion actually meet, yay

part 3?

twin!targ!oc mayhem

part 1 - aerion's twin sister is very proud of her matchmaking skills

part 2 - more canon-aligned, with a bit of a twist

part 3 - thematic expansion on post 2, the canon!au

part 4?

cat dad aerion & dog dad dunk

part 1 - introducing maegor and maester

part 2 - more about maegor!

dance!au

part 1 - dance monster aerion & desperately-needs-a-partner dunk

part 2 - they meet

plot bunny & alternate universe posts

assorted mix 1 - mostly omegaverse musings

actor au - newbie dunk, acting dynasty targs, villain role aerion

assorted mix 2 - lots of different aus

cat hybrid au - kemonomimi style feat. runaway hybrids aerion & egg

bodyguard au - where aerion is dunk's bodyguard

crackship - dunk x aerion x lyonel omegaverse musings

hybrid au - dunk and aerion are hybrids. guard dog and purebred cat.

pirates au - aerion gets kidnapped by pirates, dunk goes after him

akotsk x umamusume au

part 1 - the start of a crackpot crossover

part 2 - breakdown of umamusuko (horse boy) aerion

part 3 - breakdown of trainer/torena dunk

non-dunkaerion things

maekar angst

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

but yeah ultimately i write the kinds of things i want to read, things that make me happy, or otherwise things that help me unburden my overtaxed brain of rampant dunkaerion plot bunnies. which is an explanation as to why these are all pretty rough and definitely unbeta'ed. i will make small edits here and there as i catch mistakes on rereads, though, so dw if you think there's been a change here or there! there likely has been!

thanks for reading!

genuinely trying to unfry my brain after past few weeks so here i am, dipping a stick back into the dunkaerion plot bunny pen to see who bites.

it'll be aerion biting, lbr, but let's see which plot bunny bites.

alright, concept of "alpine divorce," only dunk is a guy who regularly hikes the mountains and finds aerion stranded after his awful dating app match ditched him.

well. "stranded" is a strong word - aerion looks the part of a wilting flower, but dunk can clock the broken-in boots and light layers and emergency pockets and the well-made, "no brand" luxury pack of someone who's more experienced at this than he lets on.

turns out, aerion knows the local hiking trails like the back of his own hand, only he's very good at baiting stupid men into having the idea to hike up there as a date. and once on the trails, aerion's taking his sweet, sweet time so the awful dates rush on ahead while he takes the nicer routes down, crying until they get out of earshot. then it's off to posting in "is this your man" forums about another dude ditching pretty people on the mountains.

also turns out, aerion likes to wear gopros on his solo hikes to post in those forums, pointing out which paths are safe, which are not, which ones are red flag indicators.

maybe he's a hiking streamer, only on a delay. or he makes maps of his hikes later at home, idk how these things work.

anyway, dunk is pretty curious about this pretty blond guy who's shushing him to be quiet with one hand, rapid typing on his phone with the other, all the while leaned against a good-sized tree sobbing and wailing about being lost with an entirely straight (and dry) face.

the drama goes on for about two minutes before the blond guy sniffles, dabs delicately at his still-dry eyelashes, and blinks big purple eyes up at dunk. "pretty sure he won't expect his tire stems to be hypothetically snipped when he gets back to the parking lot," he hums, adjusting his wide-brimmed hat. "which probably means I should get a move on. he'll probably get back down in about an hour. assuming he even knows how to get down."

dunk's mouth hangs open, and at a little smirk from the blond, he snaps his jaw shut with a practically audible click. "w-why are you telling me this?" he queries. the blond is already moving, trotting along down the trail with all the grace of a deer while dunk stumbles along behind him. "i could call the cops? well, if i knew your name, but-"

"it's aerion," the blond calls back, not even turning his head. "and i'm telling you because i like involving people in my mess, especially people who won't tell for the price of a drink at the inn out past the park a little."

a sharpish gaze over his shoulder, and aerion hums. "maybe two. you're a big guy, two ought to do." something about them getting back down to the parking lot and lo and behold, aerion is right about the guy not being there. he doesn't snip the tire stuff, but he does reach into his pocket to pull out a baggy of rusty nails. and it's really only when aerion's carefully positioning them around two tires for maximum puncture effect that dunk even notices aerion's black rubberized gloves. then some mysterious stuff from a spray bottle, squirted under the doorhandles and around the keyhole, and through the inch-cracked windows as well.

"that's-"

"poison ivy AND poison oak extract, with some chili pepper action," aerion hums, packing everything away and stripping his gloves off to toss into the trash. "just for you, big guy."

the wink should not have made dunk's heart skip a beat.

followup to this post

it would be incredibly funny if aerion's kitty maegor was the kind who hates strangers in the house.

dunk is one thing, dunk is the vet, she knows dunk. dunk is nice. dunk helped with her babies. maester is nice too, she supposes.

but everyone else? she's a hater.

if dunk moves in with aerion, maester's a good boy, he'll probably check out what the odd plumber or electrician is up to and get good-boy pets, but maegor? the princess is passing loud judgment from atop the fridge or the cabinets where she cannot be reached by most mortals. and as dunk may usually be the person to let them in, talk to them, she thinks dunk is the greatest traitor of all time and'll either hiss and spit at him for the audacity, or ignore him completely - at least until he gives her churu treats.

mind you, miss maegor is a little deaf and her loss of hearing is eventually going to progress into total loss, but she still knows when the energy of the place changes and there's strangers in the house. aerion might try to train her to swipe at people's ankles and bite them, especially strangers, but she's too prim for that, and he allows that perhaps maegor, as a pretty girl cat, should not have to do that, get messy like that. that's what maester is for.

maester is just the most lovey dog ever. wouldn't bother nobody or hurt a fly. unless, perhaps, one is breaking into the house with ill intent.

aside from that, i think her favorite resting place is aerion's chest when he's lying down and reading things. the guy's a yapper, and so is she, but he'll read his documents out loud, or articles, or books he finds interesting, and he'll have discussions with her about them. maegor just sprawls on his chest and purrs loudly. somehow she knows when he's asking her questions or asking for input and she'll answer with chirrups and meows and other kitty sounds.

she'll go use dunk as a mattress sometimes too, but he's nowhere near as comfortable/comforting as her papa. also he smells mostly of dog and other animals, whereas aerion only smells like himself and maegor, as he should.

might be that with maegor's kittens dispersed amongst aerion's family, they might come over for visits and bring the growing kitties with them. not all at once, mind, just so maegor can know her babies again - and so people can also check up on aerion.

they still do hang out in the backyard, aerion and maegor. stretching, yapping, moving around. aerion's made sure the fencing and all that is super secure so she can't escape and nothing can get in.

also her playroom, he's very on top of mixing things up at time, give her variety in her environment, plenty of puzzle toys in rotation, lots of climbing trees and hidey-holes. aerion might also have built things into the walls for her to move around on and in.

please do picture aerion sitting in his home office with maegor on his lap, spinning in his fancy chair and petting her. looking very much like an evil mastermind villain.

also, might be that in certain lights, maegor and aerion very much match the "pets twinning with their owners" deal. the comments on aerion's pet influencer page, if he shows his face, generally run along the lines of "did you birth her yourself" and things of that nature. that is aerion's pretty girl, his princess. if he's looking his best, she is too. outrageous amounts of accessorizing for princess maeggie. harnesses in all colors, and of course it's gonna be that primo full-grain leather and silk lining and everything. her leash matches aerion's belt and shoes. if aerion's got a massive walk-in close the size of regular bedrooms, best believe that he's got a whole full-sized dresser dedicated to maegor's accessories and leashes and collars.

maegor is a nosy princess. there's spots all over the house that have her specific cushions there where she can look out the windows and see what all is going on. she is also the type to start screaming at the stove until she's picked up so she can see what's going on - though that was before aerion just started carrying her around on his shoulders like a lovely fluffy scarf. now she knows that's her spot!

for fun, i'll give aerion (and maegor!) a kitten to look after. maybe an abandoned litter by his workplace, or he only was able to find the solo little one. less than a month old, so it's bottle feeds and whatnot. dunk helps, of course, but aerion wants to do this, help save the baby. maegor's already taken a liking to the baby too.

maybe aerion, instead of being a businessman/office worker, is a model? does social media for the company, nothing public-facing, he's not got the personality to be a public rep. but what he does offers him work-from-home capabilities and a private office if he ever has to go in. and so i wouldn't put it past him to smuggle maegor and/or the baby in for feedings. very particular about amount and temperature and ratios and brands, he is.

aerion calls the new baby aemond! this one's sure to be a boy!

baby kitten aemond is not a boy.

and aerion is very much on top of getting miss aemond fixed as soon as is healthy so she doesn't go having teen pregnancies like her big sister maegor did.

of course, he's very up-to-date on their vaccinations and shots and medications and such.

if maegor is a fluffy cloud, aemond is a sleek little void. personalities are very different too - maegor is a more sedentary madam, happy to just watch and judge. aemond gets into everything - the puzzles are no match for her, and dunk's even taught her to fetch things. aemond keeps maester on his toes, too, pouncing him and his tail, getting underfoot when the big dog goes to drink water or move from one spot to another. aemond's the one to get very into workmen's business if they come around looking at stuff and fixing things - she's the supervisor, the boss lady.

aemond is also very loud when she's nosy. aerion might get one of those clip-in high chairs to put aemond in when she wants to see what he's doing around the kitchen. if aerion's trying to do yoga or pilates from home or any kind of floor exercise, she's all up in that too, climbing on him, weaving around his feet, meowing the whole time.

i imagine that if maegor is the one to enjoy fine cuisine, aemond's the one who has to be held back from eating maester's food or people food or digging in the trash. miss aemond has a very broad appetite. prefers fresh food, but isn't above eating store-brand cat food either. only thing is that she does not like kibble.

aemond prefers napping with dunk. might be she prefers how he's a little heavier-handed with the petting. she'll curl up next to aerion sometimes but she seems to get bored of him reading things and will wander off.

still, aemond's favorite sleeping spot of all time is next to maegor, or curled up with maegor.

aemond takes very well to accessorizing too - so that's a whole other dresser for aemond's pretties. her hiking experience is more of her running alongside on a leash while maegor is carried around. lots of metal detail/accents to go with aerion's jewelry. mostly gold, match her eyes.

i want pet!dads dunkaerion, is all. i've never owned cat or dog before, so don't mind discrepancies.

dunk would be the type of guy who might get a dog. a mutt, nothing purebred or pedigreed. big dog, one of those working, guard types, maybe like a rottweiler or something like that. i imagine dunk is very much the kind of guy who would be able to train something like those high-intensity belgian malinois dogs, if he had the time. as it is, he might have gotten a would-be service/police dog, only it failed out of training for something. maybe the police dog wasn't as aggro as it should have been, or the service dog had a little too much energy, something like that. nothing that makes the dog unsafe to be around other people or animals.

maybe dunk's a vet? vet tech? something in that field.

which is good, because as much as aerion has had a checkered past with family pets as a kid, somehow the cat distribution system found him. man's got a boring job working for the family business, desk job, keep him busy and out of trouble, maybe he's into IT/tech stuff. but he goes home one day and there's a cat in his backyard. and he doesn't truck with cats, so he ignores it and it's gone the next day. but every other time he goes out to do yoga or just enjoy having a backyard, kitty comes around.

gotta be a young one, not super big. but he's a chatterbox, this cat is. aerion starts talking to it, something like "hey." and the cat actually chirrups back at him. and aerion goes from one-word conversation to then complaining about work, how incompetent some people are, some of his passion projects.

and somehow, the cat's gotten close enough to aerion to just loaf politely at his side, chirping and meeping during breaks in aerion's rants. aerion once went on a long tear just eviscerating some poorly thought-out project, and the cat was silent until the end, then it just meowed very long and very loud.

and of course, aerion can't sit out there all night. and the cat's good company, so yeah, maybe it can come in. help him eat some of this food, the raw stuff anyway. keep him from having leftovers. aerion might not like private chefs, wants to make his own stuff. but now he's got a friend to chat with, might have a little more variety in his food.

gotta clean off the friend first, and the cat, though apprehensive at first, takes well enough to the bathtimes. and of course, aerion's gonna name him after prominent people in his family tree. maegor sounds like an excellent name for the fine gentleman. destroyer of vermin.

aerion is going to be the most spoiling cat dad. mr. maegor may have gone from eating scraps and trash and the odd squirrel or bird, to now eating fresh-caught sushi-grade fish, prime cuts of meat. aerion does nothing halfway, so he actually researches the safe pet foods, how they ought to get their fiber and whatnot. maegor gets a nice shiny coat. pretty fluffy white coat to go with pretty summer-sky-blue eyes.

takes maegor to the vet. the full name on the listing is "maegor targaryen the cruel." fortunately for aerion, maegor didn't have an owner or a microchip, and the vet, dunk? - duncan? aerion doesn't care, whatever, big man like that - offers to have that done, aerion's address on file, and to have maegor fixed. might have to set another appointment for that.

oh, and mr. maegor is a miss maegor - and miss maegor is quite pregnant. miss maegor is also a little deaf - white cats with blue eyes tend toward deafness at any rate. aerion doesn't care, that's his princess now.

and if aerion was an insufferable cat dad before, he gets about ten times worse now. actively goes through his massive closet to throw all the stuff he doesn't want on the floor, to let his princess maeg pick what she wants for her nest if she's gonna make one. at any rate, he's just eyeballing all the stuff that might have been like promotional clothes or whatnot, things he wore for branding or for a show or something and never again. for the cat and her nest!

aerion might be the kind of cat parent who's new enough and just neurotic enough that dunk offers his personal number since aerion had so many questions about maegor's health, something dunk never does. and it's kinda good because dunk's phone might have been a little dry before, and now he's got the sharp-tongued, soft-voiced - only for his cat - pretty blond guy with the pretty cat named after a war criminal blowing up his phone between the hours of 6-10 pm. all kinds of questions like what supplements should he get maegor, what brands are good, what's the proper ratio of protein to fiber, is there a particular brand of water he should avoid for her, how can he help her with her deafness, should he make the house safer for her, how safe is his house, what should he do about the house -

and between all the pictures aerion is sending of maegor and her living space - she's got a whole playroom to herself that's bigger than dunk's living room - and aerion's increasing franticness over how safe her home needs to be for the incoming babies, dunk makes the impulsive decision to invite himself over, for a home inspection sort of deal. only without the risk of aerion "losing custody" of miss maegor at the end of it, which aerion was about to go nuclear over. just. dunk going over, making sure maeggie's okay, her home is okay, aerion's okay - aerion bristles very much over text, he doesn't need to be checked on - and just be that professional calming person to keep aerion from spiraling any more so than he already is.

maybe when dunk gets there, aerion's shushing him and leading him inside because maeggie's had her babies. they're ever so small, the little things. aerion had woken up that morning to discover that maegor had given birth right on his bed, curled up in the covers. and as indecorous as it was, he handfed his princess the nicest bits of fish and beef and lamb for a job well done. aerion's named them all too, and he's very proud as he goes down the list of alarming targaryen names for little creatures no bigger than the palm of his hand. seven babies! a good number, a lucky number, matches the gods.

i'm not trying to go angsty, so all the babies and maegor make it! aerion's gotta take them and miss maegor in for more checkups though, and he's happy to do so if it means his cat and kittens are gonna be okay.

i see aerion being the type to post pictures of his cat to the family group chat. if it wasn't every single cute thing maegor was doing, now it's all about the babies, and they're a multicolored crew - orange, tabby, calico, black, grey, beige, tuxedo, etc. might be that his family is immediately asking if they could foster or have a kitten of their own. and loathe as aerion is to do them any kind of favors, especially where his cat's kittens are involved, at least he'll be sure they're going to have excellent quality of living - plus, they're starting to open their eyes and move around more now, and aerion is going spare trying to keep them safe, especially when maegor moves them to the floor of his walk-in closet only to come and drop them off in his lap every other day or so.

so maybe - his parents, his uncle and aunt, his two sisters, valarr, daeron, and very grudgingly, egg - that's all seven of the kittens that have homes. aerion may just demand compensation for the pain and suffering of having to part with the kittens that he practically raised.

dunk's the go-to vet, of course. he's getting a lot of business from the targaryens, especially with aerion's recommendation.

as for the dunkaerion part, that may have happened in between texts and house calls. checking up on the cats turned into checking up on aerion, and then it was swapping pictures of pets. maybe maegor and dunk's dog meet - maybe dog is named maester. similar sounding names! but the cat and dog get along pretty well. after the kittens are gone, if dunk brings the dog over, it's not too long before maegor is curling up on maester in a sunbeam.

would aerion accidentally turn into a pet influencer? he just might. if only to show off maegor. alarming name aside, she's very pretty and very chatty and very cute. and she can wear a cat leash and harness and go out and about with aerion on walks! well, if not on walks, then she has a little cart that aerion pushes her around in so she can get fresh air and see the sights.

might be a cute date idea for dunkaerion, going on a little hike with their pets. maegor is a shoulder cat, aerion's choice of backpack is heavily dependent on whether or not she's comfortable and he's comfortable. aerion might start seriously going to the gym with dunk so he can get stronger to carry her longer distances.

man. just cat dad aerion who spoils his girl cat rotten.

i have had very little motivation to write anything but outlining original work stuff this week but!

an idea struck, out of the blue!

so walk with me, if you will.

will involve minor character death, kidnapping, human trafficking, etc.

the unpretty parts of piracy, plus aerion being a menace in general

can be omegaverse, probably not, though some dynamics may still be there, idk, moving on.

say aerion gets shipped off to lys, right? or say it's like the "golden age of piracy," which in real world terms was between something like 1650-1730 or so - so that'd be like him getting shipped off to the tropics somewhere - though to fit the specific "golden age of piracy" that would likely be the caribbean from virginia or something, idk.

anyway! maekar is expecting updates from the guards when aerion gets to lys - maybe updates from the ship, updates from the people who are supposed to meet them at landing, etc. - but he never gets them. instead, what he gets is a somber notice that the prince's ship was attacked by pirates and a number of the younger, prettier servants were snatched along with the prince himself.

now, i'm not sure if aerion was traveling under disguise - he probably should have been, but even if he was, his attitude is what'll give him away as someone important or someone crazy enough to think he's important real quick.

and as much as maekar knows his son is a little rat and was supposed to be exiled as punishment anyway, that's still his baby that's been kidnapped. so he sends dunk with some kingsguard and the navy to try to bring aerion back, alive. please, gods, let him be brought back alive and well.

now.

aerion, for all that he's a privileged, violent creature, might realize sooner rather than later that there's not much of a hierarchy amongst people kidnapped, meant for the slave markets. mostly pleasure houses and brothels and whatnot, but still, slavery.

and as much as he thinks himself above the servants and all, it starts turning into an "us vs. them" thing in his head.

and as much as him hurting other people was fine and dandy and justifiable, it is suddenly not very fun to see someone be hurt when he knows he could very well be next.

might be that one of the younger servants, trying very hard to defend the prince or at least keep aerion from getting manhandled, gets knocked clean out by one of the pirates, a big hammer-fist smashing into the boy's face and sending his head cracking against the floor. sobering enough. but aerion doesn't care, truly he doesn't, he's only moving the boy into the dryer part of the hold they're in, most amount of light there for all it's worth, just for convenience. as much as he's castigating the boy the whole time for his stupidity and why would he stand in the way of a dragon, aerion's keeping his voice from trembling when the boy starts having fits.

and when the poor boy passes in the middle of the night, aerion was certainly not awake the whole time, trying to fix things, somehow. trying to clean up all the blood that kept leaking slowly through makeshift bandages. the prince certainly couldn't tell you what the servant's last words were. or recall the feeling of a small, rough hand in his, giving one last little squeeze before going limp.

the other servants give aerion a wide berth after the pirates come and drag the body out, laughing all the while, cracking jokes about how they couldn't get any use out of the boy now he's dead but maybe the sharks would.

if the pirates are nasty enough, they might just drag aerion and some of the others up to force them to watch. most need the pirates to force their heads around to see the fins cutting through the water, the frothing turning red with the boy's blood. aerion needs no such guidance, his eyes are on that feeding frenzy as long as it lasts.

when they are led back down, aerion is silent, he's no longer raving about being a dragon, ranting about going back home. he's just. quiet. and still. all that frenetic energy is now... not gone, but compressed somewhere, that fire in his eyes has gone from being wild and aimless to razor sharp focus.

now, it may not be just aerion and what remains of his crew down in the hold - might be some other ships had also been ravaged and their comelier people held for sale. these pirates don't deal in slaves going to plantations, going for hard labor, is what aerion learns. which may explain the great number of women, girls, young boys. awful lot of children.

which naturally means that the pirates are not likely to expect any trouble from them, especially if there's been violence already, been attacks.

somewhere along the way, the pirates might realize that they do have prince aerion on board their ship, and they do intend to ransom him for a great deal of money, but he's gotta stay unharmed and healthy, and he's likely to be given some more privileges.

and i'm getting bored, so essentially what happens is aerion bides his time a little, gets to know the general layout - most of the menial, uncomfortable work has been given to some of the kidnapped victims, perhaps. understanding that they can't do anything or go anywhere. but aerion plots and plans.

and he keeps plotting and planning up until he gets a hostile takeover of the ship. and now aerion has a pirate ship all his own, crewed by some good sailors and carrying a lot of women and children and people who haven't sailed seriously before.

well. no time like the present to learn. and there's certainly no time at all for aerion to start dragging the pirates one by one on ropes behind the ship, having poked their legs full of little holes with his sword beforehand. all the better to feed the sharks with.

men's screams have never sounded so satisfying before. even if they're mostly gurgle gurgle and underwater.

aerion thinks he might have found a nice new hobby, actually.

dunk, meanwhile, has been trying to chase leads all up and down those shipping lanes, been checking all the major ports and having to check all the minor ones besides. there was a ransom notice sent once, with a lock of aerion's hair - silver closer to the roots with brown dye - and a note in the prince's own handwriting, but nothing since.

it also doesn't bode well that there had been massive storm not long after aerion had been kidnapped - wiped out a good number of ships, caused a great deal of damage to the coastal areas.

but there is a rumor of a ship crewed by beautiful women and men.

ah i'm bored now, essentially what aerion's done is that through a lot of shenanigans, he's got himself a small fleet of ships, and the prettiest one is pretty much bait for pirates to come and get, only they got cannons and whatnot and know how to use them too.

if this universe has owners, they don't particularly matter, not to aerion, who lives about as precisely as you'd expect a purebred show cat with a very very good pedigree to act, and that is ✨s p o i l e d✨.

dunk might be the big mutt guard dog that was hired/bought to protect aerion.

i think aerion should have stayed with his main family, with the original breeders, but he kept biting his little brother egg and fighting him when egg was too small to fight back properly, so that couldn't fly, and he was sold off as a favor between owners.

aerion doesn't much care, even if he misses his family, biting and fighting aside. but he does still live in the lap of luxury, even if he can't stand dunk the guard dog.

he'd be like one of those cats with very fluffy, very glossy, very clean white fur, the pink little toebeans, pink little nose and mouth, deep blue eyes. just targaryen colored - so silvery hair and ears and tail, purple eyes, healthy nailbeds and claws, not a mark or blemish on him.

aerion just can't stand dunk when there's people around. otherwise, the kitty's cuddling up to dunk or purring and swiping at the guard dog with his tail "accidentally."

just imagining a scene where someone comes home, calling for dunk and aerion. dunk looks up from where he's lying down in the bay window cushions, then aerion's head pokes up from around his bulk with a low growl.

perhaps somewhere along the way, aerion has decided that like many of the things around the house, dunk must belong to him as well, at least once that initial "i hate new things and new people and i want them all gone" phase is over.

eventually aerion's napping on dunk. not by, not next to, fully on top of dunk. curled up all pretty on dunk's back while dunk might also nap, or is resigned to reading or watching things on tv or his phone because he can't move. or aerion's laid out on dunk's chest, head tucked into dunk's shoulder, ears flicking a little when dunk's absentmindedly petting down his back.

now, aerion is not a particularly well-behaved kitty. many many breakable things have been anchored down with special museum-grade glue. the less important portraits and wall hangings have been left up for aerion to shred at with his claws to his heart's content - really, it's a way for the owner to justify getting rid of one art piece or another, or buying new ones. disposal via temperamental kitty hybrid.

i don't know if aerion would be the type of cat where he's offered practically fresh sashimi, got a whole private chef, caviar for snacks, but he's happy to dig in the pantry for junk food. might just be to cause trouble, but he does like doing things he ought not be doing, so if he's not supposed to go eating culinary trash, as it were, he's gonna go eat junk.

which, incidentally, is how they're able to trick aerion into taking his medication - wrap some cheap store-brand sliced packaged cheese around some tablets, hide them in the back of the fridge. aerion smells the "poor" off the cheese and decides that it's forbidden! which means he will eat it!

mind you, he will eat proper food, regular food, but it's the forbidden junk food treats that he will happily munch on specifically because it's forbidden.

they've probably also pulled the "oh these? not for you, not for you at all" and just left the precise dosage of syrup or pills out where aerion could reach. and he will guzzle that down too, regardless of taste, because he was told he couldn't have it.

kitty!aerion is also very good at pretending he can't hear when people are talking to him. will pretend to nap or be super focused at something outside the windows if he's being scolded for one thing or another. his hearing is absolutely peak if dunk opens up a bag of cheap crisps three floors up, a whole wing over, and in a closet, though. it's a walk-in closet, but still. dunk might get three whole minutes of snacking peace before there's footsteps pattering up to the door and aerion starting to fuss.

his hearing is also peak when it comes time to shop for new clothes and new collars and jewelry. he will be extra good, practically angelic, for a whole fortnight just so he gets rewarded with a shopping trip. dunk comes along too, of course, only aerion gets real possessive over him on trips, because dunk draws all kinds of attention. and also admiration. and that's not at all acceptable to aerion. he would absolutely be scrapping with every person who made eyes at dunk if he had his way, and if dunk wasn't willing to scoop him up and cart him off to the nearest high-end jewelry store - shiny things are a great distraction.

might be a scenario where aerion's always sneaking out of the house to go to cat hybrid fights. sometimes he even participates. he wins, but he fights dirty and picks the fights he knows he can win. leaves his expensive collars and things at home, of course, but he still smells rich, and that means there are some enterprising tomcat hybrids who might want a piece of the purebred pie. unfortunately for them, dunk always manages to find aerion's trail and show up before aerion gets into too much trouble, and dunk's big enough that he's an immediate threat.

aerion is very good at patching himself up after fights and using the primo creams and potions so the scratches won't scar. can't do much about the bruising, but those fade eventually. dunk helps with the places aerion can't reach.

they're not supposed to share the same bed, but after enough times of dunk refusing to go sleep in aerion's plush, luxe bed, only to wake up with aerion curled up against him in his cheap and kinda ratty bed, then aerion being in a bad mood the rest of the day because he didn't sleep well the night before, dunk agrees to keep aerion company in bed. and he has to admit, it is very comfy and he does feel better rested the next morning.

mostly because i can't imagine having to watch them grow up from infancy to whatever they become by the time of the ashford tourney.

do you think he sat by their bedsides at night watching them sleep? listened to them breathing in their cradles?

do you think he held daeron as long as he could when that baby was first born? at least when dyanna was sleeping, anyway, or when she wasn't holding him. how protective do you think he was over this tiny little guy, not much bigger than a loaf of bread? do you think he marveled over those little fingers closing around one of his own, gently traced over the tiny button nose, the chubby cheeks, the barely-there eyebrows? do you think he apologized when baby daeron scrunched his face up?

and when aerion was born, i'm sure aerion was loud where daeron was quiet, up all hours of the night. maybe not even crying, but making baby noises in his crib to himself. do you think maekar got up then to carry his second-born son, take him to the window to look out at the moon and the stars, tell him of the constellations, see those violet eyes and silver lashes catch the moonbeams?

when did daeron's dreams start, i wonder? when did they start turning into nightmares and horrors?

and when did aerion turn from a sweet boy, a sweet brother who liked to fish, into a little monster? how did that happen?

when did he stop crouching over to hold their hands? when did they stop chasing after papa to hold hands with him? was there ever an instinct to want to catch a teenage aerion's hand to hold him back from foolhardiness and danger?

how many bumps and bruises do you reckon that maekar kissed better when they were small? did his heart stop in his chest when he saw daeron in his green-feathered helmet lying in the mud at the trial of seven?

somewhere along the way, he's failed his eldest boys. where could he have started looking closer? where could he have stopped being too busy for their self-destructive habits?

where would he go if he could go back in time to fix things? could he even pinpoint where to start?

maybe aerion's obsession with turning into a dragon started with all those dragon stories, picking him up in the air and flying him around, maybe that could have been it.

maybe daeron could be swayed away from the bottle if someone listened to him better or gave him other things to help him sleep better so the dreams didn't plague him so - and why would they plague him? what would have happened? what could maekar have possibly done to fix that, make things better?

i'm just a sucker for the concept of looking at someone you've watched grow up and seeing the younger version of them, the tiny version of them. they used to cry because they missed their papa, and now they're avoiding him and running away and causing problems.

be even worse if aerion had been a sweet little kid towards animals when he was younger. went from a toddler lying on his tummy carefully petting the stable kittens to now? well, the ashford debacle is pretty much indicative of what he's like now.

i wonder if maekar wanted his sons to be as close as he and baelor were, to love each other and fight with each other and look out for each other and grow old together and support each other.

only now, after ashford-

now maekar is leaving without a brother.

did he know how proud baelor was of him, before he fell?

on top of all that grief, having lost a brother and by his own hand, even if it wasn't intentional, maekar's the youngest brother who's lost his biggest brother.

how would he see his sons? brothers, not at all getting along?

i'm worn out from today, so here's a little bit of writing. maybe about 10 minutes? or just writing until i can't think anymore? either way, let's gooooo

alright, continuation of the last dance!au post.

aerion's probably one of those guys who sees a challenge and decides he's going to be the one to beat it, no matter how insurmountable. so when aerion's tasked with being a guest instructor or judge or dancer at some backwater dance studio as punishment for wrecking all his prior partners, he's not well pleased but he does as he's told.

he meets dunk there, naturally. and dunk is trying so hard to dance well, bless him, but some of those dances just require a partner and everyone avoids him like the plague. so up goes aerion, staring dunk up and down to figure out what it is about this mountain of a man that makes people nervous.

after all, aerion's a dragon. dragons aren't known for their delicate nerves.

and after some hard staring, aerion can't quite figure out what is wrong with dunk's dancing per se, at least not until aerion claims dunk as his dance partner and they get going.

turns out, dunk being big meant he was also incredibly strong. which meant that certain tosses or lifts had aerion swearing he could dust the ceiling rafters with his hair if dunk kept going.

and is aerion scared at all of this? even while dunk is stumbling over himself trying to apologize? absolutely not.

if this is omegaverse, this would be about the time where aerion's scent goes from being sour and bitter to going rich and sweet, very smug of him, very very much a superiority complex building now, because he's going to absolutely fly during the dances because everyone else was too much of a coward to know what they're doing with someone like dunk.

mind you, aerion's excellent body sense and proprioception are what's giving him this confidence. dunk has no such confidence, having been shunned for weeks if not months, then along comes this little dancer, someone from the famous targaryen family, and this bright flame chose dunk of all people. flea bottom dunk. dunk the lunk, thick as a wall, some called him, not just for his size, either.

one of the things they need to start working on is trust. aerion trusts himself and his ability to orient to whatever hold dunk's trying. that does not mean he trusts dunk as a person - he's treating dunk as a prop, the best one he's gotten so far, because this one won't argue with him so much. dunk, however, is gaining confidence in himself and in his dance skills, and he's realizing that he's not actually doing the holds right, it's aerion that's constantly moving to fix what dunk's messing up. or dunk's starting to get lax and he notices - because aerion's just autocorrecting.

and that can't stand, for dunk, the laziness he feels.

and that starts their fighting.

lemme add another fluffy thought friend to the modern omegaverse pen, just because. sfw, ofc.

and also bc it's been on my mind, just a little bit.

let's see what happens in 3 10 minute stretches of writing.

=====

let's explore the concept of two separate bedrooms vs. 1 shared bedroom.

on the one hand, two separate bedrooms means they get their own private spaces to decorate how they wish, as they please. dunk's may be a little more plain, but he's got some knickknacks from different shows and media he enjoys, sports team stuff.

aerion's room is lush and luxurious. screams money from the wallpaper to the lighting to the flooring and the rugs. heavy on the dragon motif, but understated - subtle scale patterning in the wallpaper, flame-edged carpeting, that kind of thing.

if they share a room, or if they've designated a room for their shared room, it's a little mix of both their comforts. the bed's gotta be huge, if it's gonna fit dunk. and for aerion as well - he moves around a lot in his sleep. he used to sleep curled up in a tight little ball no matter how big the bed was, but once he and dunk started sharing a bed, or at least mixed scents, or maybe he was on medication long enough, he uncurled. and then started rolling around like a bit of a rotisserie chicken. dunk sleeps like the dead, though he is a heat-seeking chronic cuddler, so at some point, even if aerion's tossing and turning, dunk can inevitably get a hold of him and they're resting and still for some time before something kicks off aerion's night-wiggles again.

if they have those smartwatches on for sleep recording, there's always some marked measure of activity in aerion's every 45 minutes or so, or however long it takes for his body to decide to want to move.

maybe he sleepwalks, even. could be funny, could be angsty. funny is dunk waking up at 2:52 am because there's clattering going on in the kitchen. he's grabbed the baseball bat that rests by his nightstand to see what's going on downstairs. heads down, can't see anything, then a white-blond head pops up out of nowhere around the kitchen island and grabs the pots hanging on the hooks above the range.

when dunk goes around to see what's happening, a good number of their pots and pans have been arranged on the floor-

and aerion's mumbling to himself as he puts one pot inside another, decides against it, and puts it back on the ground.

if dunk asks him, fondly, what he's up to, aerion's going to shush him because his boyfriend's asleep. but it comes out more like "shhhhhhhh... 's s'eepin'."

"who's sleeping?" dunk whispers, taking a seat on one of the island stools.

"mmmm." aerion picks up another pan and moves with exaggerated slowness to clatter it into a pot. "shhh!"

"aer', who's sleeping?"

the omega looks up in dunk's general direction, eyes open but sort of hazed over. "du-nk. su'p-rise him."

"think he'll like the surprise?" dunk can't help but smile as aerion nods once, decisively. "what's the surprise, dragon?"

aerion looks a little pleased from where he's crouched surrounded by pots and pans. "i. cook."

and as fun as it would be to drag out the conversation further, dunk knows that it's probably best to get aerion back upstairs to bed before he actually tries to cook something. the pots and pans, dunk'll put them up in the morning when he goes on his run. and have breakfast ready for when aerion gets up and starts his morning yoga routine.

but anyway, dunk's gonna ask quietly if aerion can give him a hug, aerion's going to be very agreeable to that, and to being picked up out of the sea of cast iron and stainless steel to be carted off back to their shared bed.

maybe they share a bed on aerion's more restless nights, when he knows going in that his brain is kicking off and may need dunk's settling scent. sometimes aerion does fine in his own room at night, other times they're in their shared room.

as much as their workout routines differ in the morning, they have a good nighttime stretching routine, maybe some pilates video on youtube that dunk likes. -

helps settle them down.

sleepwear! dunk tends to sleep in an old set of t-shirt and shorts, maybe goes shirtless on particularly warm nights if they want to leave the windows open, let the breeze in through the screen. aerion's a little more finicky, but he also likes dunk's old t-shirts, even if they swamp his smaller frame and have a tendency to slide off one slim shoulder or the other. otherwise, aerion likes wearing silk pajamas. coverage may vary - depending on what they've got planned for the night and the next morning, aerion's full getup may involve him being fully covered from wrists to neck to ankles in silk, with his shoulder-length hair being tucked up inside a silk sleeping cap.

other variants may involve short sleeves, shorts that sit pretty neatly on his thighs. on special occasions or as the mood takes him, the silk is accompanied with lace, and aerion looks more like a present for dunk to unwrap than anything else, sheerness and ribbons and lace and bows. pretty omega wrapped in pretty silks and laces for an alpha to pet over.

they both like reading books before bed! might even like the same style of books. dunk's gotten aerion to read manga, and aerion's favorite genre is the sports ones, mostly because he can eyeball his alpha and say "well, you could probably do better."

which works well for some sports. but things like figure skating or tennis, maybe not, but dunk still feels that ego swell up in his chest anyway.

wanna add to the modern omegaverse au, though it doesn't have to be omegaverse or doesn't have to read as such.

same writing challenge deal! the tap is turned on, minimal editing, 20 minutes, lesgo

anyway, aerion's a richy rich boy, can afford some flashy things, right? and people assume he'd buy sports cars, the little fast ones.

nope. aerion's pride and joy is a massive black and red suv that he's called balerion of all things. not that anyone expected him to be the type to name his cars, but his family knows him well enough that this is very on-brand for aerion. buy the biggest suv. name it after the biggest dragon.

and aerion does like driving in it. very soccer mom of him, tiny little blond thing sipping smoothies in sportswear, wrangling that beast through traffic, dwarfing just about every other car in sight. it's intimidation tactics and it works, particularly if he's got it fitted out with dragon-like decals and decorative grill and whatnot. he probably would.

what aerion likes most of all, though, above driving his car, is having dunk drive it. dunk, his very patient boyfriend, his very sweet mechanic boyfriend who may or may not have mentioned offhand one time that he'd always wanted to work on a certain suv. and what do you know, aerion disappears for half a week and shows up with the deluxe version.

-

it's all aerion's! he's very quick to point that out! that is not dunk's car! but he allows that he'd rather let dunk work on it than some random mechanic at the dealership. someone he doesn't know and doesn't trust? absolutely not. what if they put cameras and trackers in his car? no. dunk's gotta be it.

back to dunk driving it, though. that was one of the main reasons aerion got a car that big. he likes being a passenger princess. he likes turning the passenger seat of the car into a comfy little nest, with plenty of cupholders and clips and side pockets and storage and room for him to maneuver around. and he likes dunk being comfortable driving. dunk is an inch short of seven foot tall, after all - if aerion had gone with a little compact car or a sports car, it'd be fun, sure, but dunk would be miserable trying to fit into the little vehicles.

not that aerion would ever admit that he cares for dunk's comfort, absolutely not. he just got that suv because it's the biggest car they had and he deserves something big and intimidating that's not an ugly truck. plus, there's plenty of storage in the back. since aerion barely allows anyone else in the car - and it sits six people comfortably, the last row of seats gets taken out on their road trips, and sometimes a nice memory foam mattress cover/pad can get laid down for sleeping or napping when they're on the road and don't want to check into a motel.

although usually, with dunk's size, that might mean all the seats except for the driver and passenger seats get taken out so he can stretch out comfortably.

might have a sunroof over the rear passenger areas too, so they can see the stars when they're lying down to sleep. got their bags secured around them, tied/strapped down to the insides of the car. plenty of snacks, most of it is comfort items like blankets, pillows. dunk and aerion really just like driving for a while in one direction and then stopping when they get tired. pull into some overnight parking lot, or some place where they have access - the targaryens may own a lot of land and that's where they go - and just pass the night there.

would be cool if they've seen some neat things on their travels - packs of nocturnal animals passing by, meteor showers, astronomical phenomena. they do all the little schlocky touristy things - going to see the biggest rubber band ball, going to see-

-

anyway, i think roadtripping is a combination of multiple "love languages" for the two of them, even if aerion likes to pretend that he doesn't care at all actually! he didn't do all this for dunk! he didn't harangue and fluster and stress out the dealership people for hours on end to make sure, make very very sure that his balerion could in fact comfortably house someone of dunk's size, driver or passenger, or the back. and that the seats were made of primo material for comfort and longevity. and that the steering wheel and gearstick were comfortable sizes.

and aerion certainly didn't stay up late at night, reading glasses perched on his nose, researching all the little kitschy things that dunk might enjoy seeing. dunk, who'd never really been away from home until that one trip where he met the targaryen family. aerion really didn't map out where to go, figure out good restaurants to eat at, the nicer gas stations, the state of roadwork in the area. no, as far as dunk needs to know, all aerion contributed was a time of departure and a general direction of travel.

(dunk knows all the work aerion's put into the car and the trips for them. he just doesn't say anything because letting aerion feel like he's done nothing important somehow makes his boyfriend happy, the little weirdo - but it's a very fond weirdo, isn't it.)

anyway, dunk makes sure aerion's efforts are appreciated by buying him his favorite junk food, getting him keychains from tourist sites, making sure his blankets and pillows are all in order in the car. and by always holding aerion's hand, or having his non-driving hand on aerion somewhere. helps his boyfriend sleep better, really. settles him a little when he's awake and getting skittery in the brain.

more specifically

the concept of a modern au with alpha!dunk, omega!aerion, and alpha!lyonel, only aerion is a bit of a brat and his alphas handle it in different ways.

because i've realized that i've written a couple different iterations of dunkaerion but never leaned into the brat aspect of it all.

like... dunk is the kind of alpha who tanks aerion's tempers and pretty much lets the omega wear himself down and cuddles him up until he's gone soft and boneless and purring.

lyonel's the type of alpha who'll snap back and actually tussle with a bratty omega. if they're not hurling insults and screaming at each other, they're wrestling, tussling, trying to get the upper hand. there is a lot of sharp omega teeth and claws involved, but lyonel has gear to help out. looks a lot like old-school armor, but hey, when you've got an omega who pouts in private about having to pull punches, you gotta do what you gotta do to get that omega happy again even if he won't admit that that's why he's sulky.

there's probably days when aerion flits between the two alphas trying to get a reaction out of them - and the longer their relationship goes, the more obvious it becomes that certain behaviors, while directed at one alpha, might be best suited for the other to handle. or both! both is also good!

that's not to say that aerion can't be sweet. he really can be, all cozy and purring and scenting his alphas and curling up over their laps and letting himself be petted. he's not even really partial to one over the other when he's sweet - he'll cuddle up with lyonel just as easily as dunk.

might be a bit funny if aerion's scent is what gives him away for which alpha he needs. he always smells a little like a campfire - smoke and fragrant wood and all - and a little like lush fruits and furs. but when there starts being a gingery sharp scent, that's lyonel's business to handle even if aerion is snipping at dunk. and if the omega's scent goes more sea fog, salt and damp and heavy, that's for dunk.

and usually if aerion is curled up in a corner somewhere, upset, that's also dunk to coax him out, get him out to the shared space before lyonel gauges the vibe before he steps in to help console their omega.

started watching 10dance and remembered I read like 3 volumes of the manga and loved it. let's include my youngling obsessions with dance movies like take the lead, maybe step up (one of them) as partial inspo for this.

in general, i have a vision where unstoppable force aerion meets immovable object dunk and they both eventually yield to each other in different ways and it's all about trust and teamwork and art and passion and all that jazz.

alrighty! let's get this dance!au show on the road! dunk's trying to compete in some dance competition but all his prospective partners have dropped out or don't want to dance with him. (i know nothing about the dance industry, i'm just going off vibes).

anyway, dunk's a scholarship student but incredibly promising, idk if there's age limits to get into prestigious dance schools, but since i don't wanna write high schoolers, say there's adult learners programs or whatever. maybe not from the big prestigious places but dunk could certainly dance for a company sometime, I guess, do music videos, concerts, backup dancing, etc. dance squad for sports, but i don't see dunk doing that, mostly stage work, i think. that and modelling, being those movement/mocap actors for movies and such. like pyramid head from the silent hill movie, i think that guy was a dancer. anyways moving on.

enter aerion, from an old-money style family of art patrons and artistes, those high-level arts schools are their alma maters for generations. aerion's been busted down to the less prestigious schools because of his attitude and pure unwillingness to work with anyone. he essentially breaks prodigies and future hopefuls - not physically, he doesn't do anything physical to them or ask them to do too much, he's more about verbal and emotional abuse.

it would probably be a lot easier for the family to bear with cutting him out if aerion was simply untalented and cruel. no, aerion's got incredible dance sense, both of the space he occupies and of how his body and the elements around him move, including other people. so that means he's super picky about lighting and costumes, he's sensitive to how the floor feels under him, even down to the kind of varnish used and the wood grain, the sound has to go a certain way. it becomes a "thing" where locations/stages are honored to have aerion targaryen dance there, since he's so notoriously selective about where he chooses to showcase his art.

aerion is probably given the nicknames "monster" and "brightflame" for his personality and skill. he really is a dance monster - he will cannibalize and consume anything and everything for the sake of furthering his art. excellent student at least in terms of intelligence and translating instructions into performance. he's thrown himself into learning languages and cultures and history specifically so he can train under instructors of all different dance styles.

idk if it's a cliche thing or some overexaggeration for dance, but for the sake of the au, aerion views himself simply as a vessel through which the dance can move, the universe can flow, the music can resonate. which leads to a whole lot of issues down the road, both with him arguing with himself and from people criticizing him. he cares a lot more about one over the other, naturally.

now, that's not to say the rest of the "maekarlings" aren't artistic, no. daeron is an accomplished choreographer, might have won a good award when he was still in his early teens. he might not dance, but he has a good sense of how other people should move and occupy their space. that'd mean that the two eldest sons either get along very very well, or they're constantly at odds. more of the second, though they do respect each other. aerion wants the freedom to dance, to make adjustments as he feels, and a choreographer who'll let him do that. daeron wants the ability to control the space, the people, each movement. i think daeron might have a rough choreo for aerion to do, like a skeleton to build off and adjust, but nothing to the extent of him choreographing other shows.

let's see. egg is less involved in dance and dance-related arts - he's more into sculpture maybe. or he sings, he's a singer. not really one that does stage shows and concerts and such, he's part of a prestigious choir, sings on soundtracks and things all the time.

daella and rhae... eh... idk, i don't know them too well. maybe daella is super into sfx (special effects) hair and make-up, like that tv show face-off. and rhae is a very accomplished mixologist - her early experimentations with making potions will eventually lead to her winning competitions for mixing drinks. she's particularly well-known for her non-alcoholic/low-alcohol drinks that also have great taste and presentation.

aemon would be much more comfortable behind the camera than in front of it, so something like director, photographer, music producer, something still artsy that could be tied in with his siblings' careers.

all the kids are award-winning in their fields, prestigious awards, even.

moving on! getting back to the dunkaerion!

because the dunkaerion plot bunnies won't leave me alone ayyyyy

same deal, timed writing challenge for march, so if things look/read as rough, or as more punchy than rambly, that's why

y'all know the drill, omegaverse, dunkaerion, canon!au, alpha!dunk, alpha!lyonel, alpha!tanselle, alpha!daeron, pup!egg, potentially including beta!valarr, beta!raymun, beta!red, mpreg, food things, pregnancy things, etc. etc. etc.

let's goooooo

=====================

let's pretend that aerion's pack gets moved back to the red keep for the most part. sure, lyonel's got baratheon business to run and raymun is still part of house fossoway, but as far as things go, the trial of seven never happened, baelor's alive, everyone's pretty much fine except maekar, who's about two beats away from having a heart attack.

because what do you mean his unmanageable omega son has somehow gotten tangled up in the kind of alpha/beta/omega relationships that hadn't been seen since old valyria or at least when their ancestors had dragons. what do you mean that if things keep going on like this, the maestars at oldtown project that this was how the kingdoms were united, lords of the great houses coming together around their omegas, the royal omegas, because omegas just inspire that kind of protection and loyalty. what do you mean that makes omegas viable for the throne over alphas.

politics aside, class and social differences aside, maekar can't deny that his son is happy, his son is content. aerion hasn't flown into any kind of rage since ashford, and the whole red keep seems to be breathing easier now that aerion's been tempered a little bit, even with the previously tumultuous heats.

------

and then aerion misses a heat cycle.

normally, that's no cause for alarm. aerion never had consistent cycles anyway, sometimes it'd be once a month, sometimes it was 3 months before one hit and then it was just awful all around, sometimes it was twice a month, and if it wasn't for the fact that aerion was pure misery and tears during that time, it would be a lucky thing for everyone that his temper wasn't high.

but ever since he moved in with his pack, ever since they started living in the old quarters in the red keep that got aired out and cleared out for proper pack living, aerion had had a respectable singular heat per month for over a year, practically predictable on the calendars that it would fall on, say, the third week of each month. predictable.

and the arrangement had been going well, hadn't it, even with how new everything was seeming and how everyone was still learning to get along whilst orbiting aerion like the center of their pack.

and then aerion misses a heat.

now, it wasn't a secret that aerion and dunk had been close, very close. after all, dunk was the first one to help aerion manage that surprise heat at ashford, and as such, aerion trusted him greatly.

-----

so it's not really surprising to anyone when aerion and dunk become proper mates. asked maekar's blessing and everything, marks and all. mostly because dunk refused to properly mark and mate aerion before things are done properly, but what even is proper anymore in these situations. the maesters seemed all for it if only for the fact that they get to see pack dynamics in action. and in the end, maekar just wants to see his children happy, so he approves it.

also not surprising - aerion gets pregnant practically within a month of him and dunk officially being mated and married and all. and you'd think that would change the dynamic a bit but no.

lyonel still lets aerion bite at him, but their whole deal had evolved into sparring for however long it took for aerion to get his energy out before going to dunk to be held.

tanselle is still pretty much the only person allowed to muss with aerion's hair, and she takes full advantage - scratching his scalp, braiding his hair when it gets long enough, introducing new oils and soaps for his hair - and then it gets picked up by the rest of the pack, and somehow extends to the red keep at large - tanselle accidentally becomes a merchant for early hair care in her own right.

daeron still rubs aerion's belly and sings or hums to him. sometimes he's reading a book and will read passages aloud while aerion's curled up against him, maybe paying attention, mostly dozing away. daeron may be the first one to notice something about aerion's belly. something about his little brother's scent, something about how aerion's reactions to someone touching his belly changed just a little. between that and his dreams of aerion carrying little flames in his belly, daeron goes and gets the maesters to check things out. and he's right!

nobody gets particularly possessive over the omega once the pregnancy is announced, not really. maybe egg, since he's the pack's pup and has gotten quite attached to aerion. even before the pregnancy started showing, egg's designated himself as aerion's protector, baring his fangs at people moving too quickly around his brother.

----------

wanna get to the active pregnancy part so here we go!

aerion is thoroughly spoiled by his pack from the moment they find out. dunk, of course, is by turns over the moon with joy and terrified at what this means for him and aerion, but his heavy cuddling and handfeeding doesn't stop.

now, if there is one good thing about having a variety of alphas and betas from different parts of the realm, it's that they can introduce a variety of foods and dishes and spices into the red keep.

at first, the widened menu was very popular during feast times and such, lots of new dishes being experimented with, lots of culinary innovations being made.

and then aerion's cravings hit, and it's not so fun anymore.

because aerion likes dornish spiced meats, only mixed with pulped sweet apples from raymun's family's orchards.

does house fossoway actually have apple orchards? i'm gonna make 'em have apple orchards.

aerion also likes saltfish and pickled beets, sprinkled with sugar.

aerion likes boiled eggs served with onions on the side, along with sweetened nuts and dried fruits.

the cooks have never been more at a loss when it comes to their pregnant prince. if it wasn't for the fact that they'd been assured by the king and the crown prince and maekar himself that they wouldn't be punished for serving whatever they needed to serve or for letting aerion into the kitchens, the cooks may well have been terrified every time the omega trotted into the kitchens to poke around and ask for food.

fear generally gave way to doting, eventually - if aerion was going to be found anyplace, it would be the kitchens. there happened to be a spot where the sun would beam in through the windows, and anyone watching could see aerion instinctively follow that sunbeam around the kitchen, and the staff kind of flows around him as he moves. he's always getting some treat or another, as they're figuring out what he likes to eat, what makes his stomach turn - it varies almost week by week. something he enjoyed two days before may make him sick the next time he eats it. and then a week passes and he wants to eat that same combination again.

aerion also spends time in the studies or in the gardens.

----------

i don't know that there are many responsibilities for a pregnant omega royal besides the regular holding court. even an pregnant omega royal prince.

his sparring practice with lyonel has shifted into the easier forms and warmup exercises instead, to protect the babes.

tanselle's business is going well, and aerion offers his opinions on scents and textures of things when he's not feeling ill.

daeron's dreams haven't been a plague of late, not after aerion and egg had asked him if they couldn't be interpreted in different ways, and what different ways they could be interpreted. scary, sure, but with the understanding that dreams and visions aren't black-and-white in their meanings, that may have helped a lot.

and dunk? if dunk's not busy getting trained in royal knighthood, he's getting dragged to the studies with aerion so he can learn with his mate. or learn to read and write if he hasn't done so already, along with some basic ciphering (math).

the betas... i don't know, they're vibing, i suppose? red and raymun do get married, valarr is pretty much fielding questions about his cousin from everyone.

-----

aerion gets a lot more teary now too. at first, people were afraid that his emotions would turn back to anger, but no. he's in tears more often than not when the emotions start shifting.

if it's not because his favorite clothes didn't fit, it's because the food wasn't good or made him ill. or it was that dunk is so busy now. or a sad note that daeron sang, or that lyonel wouldn't spar with him anymore, or that egg has to go off to do prince things and studies. or that the hair oils didn't feel right in his hair, or that egg's scent is shifting too, or that he saw a mother cat with her kittens, or that valarr seems "off" somehow, or that he's so happy for raymun and red, even if he barely knows them, and then he's crying because he doesn't know them, and it's going to be too late to get to know them, and so on and so forth.

hormones aside, there are a lot of hidden fears and anxieties that aerion holds that are now coming to light, or at least are more easily brought forward with how sensitive he is now. lots of reassurances! lots of talking through things! dunk especially has to remind aerion that just because he's away, it doesn't mean he doesn't love aerion, doesn't love their babies. he's madly in love with aerion, in fact, and does not think that aerion's changing body makes him less beautiful. a changing kind of beautiful, sure, but no less beautiful than the day they met.

perhaps what aerion fears most of all is that old abandonment. the insecurity that he won't be enough, he never was enough, he never will be enough to keep his mate and his new pack around him. he's never enough and he's too much all at once.

-----

in the latter weeks or months of the pregnancy, the pack may feel the need to close ranks around their most vulnerable members. which means that more and more time is being spent in the pack quarters, cleaning things up, freshening things, rearranging things.

the fact that there may need to be a birthing chamber sends the alphas into a tizzy, but the betas manage to keep things level-headed.

maybe the alphas are excused from their duties for the imminent birth of their omega's pups? something, idk, moving on.

in the weeks leading up to the birth, aerion's usually seen with no fewer than two of his alphas at any given point, holding him up, helping him waddle around the red keep or the gardens. and it's slow going - aerion's belly has gotten quite large, and there are at least two little ones in there, and he's slowly turned a little more feral or instinctive in demanding his pack pat his belly and praise the pups. even egg is included, though egg's role is more "be a kid."

-----

won't get into details about the birth, but it was rough going. maesters in the birthing chamber, the knives carried in, the screaming and crying. i don't know who all would have been there with aerion, or if the maesters said he had to go it alone without his pack.

if that was how the first birthing experience went, aerion being alone, they all collectively decide as a pack that their omega will not be alone for the next birth. or any birth thereafter. as it was, dunk practically broke down the door to the birthing chambers when aerion started crying for him, and the maesters were not about to argue with a massive alpha over his pregnant mate.

anyway! there are twins! two little girls! neither one came out screaming, but they were crying and making healthy baby noises, and the maesters gave them a clean bill of health, so things are good!

the pack is eventually allowed in to see aerion and the babies, and it's a lovely thing, having everyone around to celebrate.

-----

continuing on with aerion "knotcrusher" targaryen!

giving myself the challenge to write for 30 minutes and then post what I got bc I do be rambling sometimes. might do this for all of march, who knows

anyway, college/uni shenanigans, greek life shenanigans, nightclub shenanigans, author hates writing dialogue, rumors about aerion & how he got the nickname "knotcrusher," aerion being aerion, sa implications, technically??? genital mutilation??? see: "knotcrusher"

let's hit all three scenarios from the previous post:

dunk meets raymun fossoway - tea is spilled (10 minutes)

dunk's made friends in the rugby team, of course he has. one of them is raymun fossoway, one of the second- or third- stringers and cousins to steffron(?) fossoway. dunk doesn't much know about steffron, only that he's not real nice to raymun. maybe it's because steffron gets put into games more often, but dunk doesn't see what that has to do with anything.

moving on. raymun is the kind of person who knows everything about everyone. in the cafeteria, in the quad, in the frat house, raymun can always be counted on to point out someone and have a fun little tidbit about them, nothing ever too scandalous.

at least, until aerion targaryen walks by.

walking by was generous, really, the omega delta psi president is a good 50 meters away, briskly walking down the pavement on the far end of the quad, when raymun sucks in a huge breath, which makes dunk look up at him from where he'd been sitting under a tree and studying.

cliche, sure, but it was nice out.

"that one's dangerous," says raymun. "the knotcrusher."

and dunk is curious now - he's not seen aerion since that disastrous night at the last party, when the odp president had smacked the omega across the face and hauled her out. dunk makes a questioning noise, and raymun leaps at the chance to share gossip.

"he's gotten people kicked out of the university of dragonstone, that's why he's here. that's what I've heard."

and that's rare, that raymun doesn't have the solid intel and is willing to admit it so.

"no, something about academic dishonesty? or did he get that nickname there... no, actually, he got it here, after he transferred."

dunk stays quiet, lets raymun ramble. "no, yeah, because he was living at the odp house before he staged that coup and took over presidency, and the dean and all of them just let him. and his omegas have been vicious ever since."

raymun looks a little uncomfortable, face scrunching up. "i don't blame them, though, they'd been going through some really rough times. i don't care how they're supposed to act, i'm glad they're meaner now, truly. they really didn't deserve how they were treated before."

and dunk feels the sounds bleed out from around him, save for his pulse in his head and raymun's voice getting quiet. "word has it that aerion found some frat bro attacking one of the omegas. stomped his knot in. broke it, literally."

[time end]

2. dunk overhears the presidents having a conversation (10 minutes)

of all the friendships that dunk's seen so far, perhaps the one that surprised him most was the one between lyonel baratheon and aerion targaryen.

and then when dunk thinks about it a little more, things do start to make sense. for as much as atk is an alpha-dominated frat house, home to much of the rugby team, lyonel is a very non-stereotypical alpha president. for one, he's made it very clear that denigration of their omega brothers and sisters would not be tolerated under any circumstances, whether publicly, privately, or any other combination thereof. dunk's actually seen lyonel run a small group of badly behaving alphas into the dirt during practices to the point of them having to be carried off the fields. and lyonel's commitment to protecting the omegas of the campus is shown in how popular the atk house is for parties - and how many omegas show up there.

and again, dunk's barely been able to catch sight of aerion except for seeing him from the second floor windows, walking across the campus - removed. but he hears hushed voices in the kitchen when he stops by the atk house one day to study, familiar voices.

and it's lyonel and aerion, talking quietly but seeming no less urgent. their postures are relaxed - lyonel's leaning back against the sink with his arms out bracing himself while aerion's perched on the kitchen island, posture ramrod straight and one leg crossed neatly over the other.

dunk can't hear much of what they're saying, something along the lines of future party logistics, but they look comfortable. or at ease, at least.

one of their phones goes off, aerion's, and he sighs and makes to hop down from the counter. only lyonel's there, offering a hand down, and aerion takes it with no small amount of grace. their smiles are easy and comfortable, again. they share a laugh.

and for some reason, that puts a little bit of a pain or a pang in dunk's chest.

[time end]

3. dunk runs into aerion at a nightclub (10 minutes)

say this is after klu's first rugby game of the season. they won, many points were scored, dunk was incredibly instrumental in getting those points, lyonel ran the team like an old school general, things were great, everyone's going into the city to party.

dunk's been out to bars and stuff, maybe the one little nightclub back home, but it's nothing like the glamor and the grime of big city nightclubs, particularly those around a big university, heavy on sports. there are multi-level clubs, basement clubs, clubs with velvet ropes. lyonel leads his whooping team down the street with practiced navigation to their destination. the music is already blasting, bass vibrating the aboveground windows a little as everyone pulls out their id cards to get stamps on their hands and herded down the stairs to meet the wall of music and lights and humanity.

it's a lot, for dunk, a lot, but it's fun. people are buying him drinks, he's finding out what he likes, what he doesn't, there's shots going around, lyonel's gotten up on a table or speaker system or something and is dancing and getting cheered on by the people around him.

then dunk spots a flash of silver hair, the tones of a familiar, caustic laugh, and he can't help it, his head just whips around.

and there he is. aerion targaryen, firebrand president of the only omega sorority at klu whose omegas are more akin to a pack of wolves than lambs. aerion, who's dressed in something metallic and mesh and sheer that shows more skin than dunk's ever seen him show despite being technically covered up. aerion, who was dunk's friend, he thought, and helped him with his schedules and his classes and his tutoring before disappearing.

aerion, who spots him off to the side, lined eyes going wide before a smile spreads like black honey across his face.

aerion, who slips through the crowd like water to meet dunk halfway as the bigger man stumbles through.

aerion, who takes dunk's hands, puts them on his body, and yells at dunk to dance with him.

(time end)

the urge to make a lyonel/dunk/aerion non-platonic ship for this specific au (or an alternate version of this au) is strong.

less strong but still present is the inkling to make a lyonel/dunk/aerion/tanselle ship. but i will resist.

anyway! moving on! more pack-building shenanigans!

if maekar was losing his mind over the arrangement between his second son and that hedge knight before, he's practically blowing his lid at the prospect of there being a proto-pack forming, including his eldest son and vaguely his youngest by way of being the "omega's pup."

i mean, can you imagine, this man was struggling so hard to wrangle his three boys on the way there, and then come to find out they're now all entangled in pack dynamics that haven't been a thing since the dragonriders were around.

(perhaps there is a connection between those pack dynamics and the ability to ride dragons/the existence of dragons.

perhaps.

perhaps the maesters may know something of it.

perhaps aemon would know something of it if he was asked to look into the citadel's knowledge stores.

perhaps.)

highly unconventional pack dynamics aside, maekar wants to seek baelor's help but his big brother? absolutely useless in this whole thing. usually a very helpful guy, but the crown prince is just like :) i think it's great that aerion has people around him to settle him :) and he's not throwing a fit or misusing his privilege :) he really is a good omega boy under all that temper :) maybe the gods are telling us something! :D

maekar would like a drink. maekar would like many drinks.

the one thing i can't sort out just yet is the betas. i was thinking valarr for sure.

maybe raymun fossoway.

maybe maybe red.

what would betas do? they're more diplomatic and neutral, I feel, but I don't know that they'd take as active a part in soothing aerion. and having them be the ones to make sure the logistics of everything go well seems a little wonky to me. maybe at first it's rough trying to figure out how the betas fit into their pack, but once aerion evens out and stays evened out, then the betas fit in a little easier - they help provide stability and level-headedness, maybe, and solve disputes? idk, i want to give them more agency than that, i'll figure it out.

if egg happens to present as an omega, that's fine too, since he's still the pack pup. no one's crossing boundaries there noways, it's all about taking care of each other.

idk what their little pack is called yet, so the "tourney pack" is the placeholder name for now. including the prospective betas, got three princes, a hedge knight, a great lord, a dornish puppeteer, a squire (maybe) and his new lady (maybe maybe).

alternate names include the following:

ashford pack (not fond of it, it's really only the place the pack was made)

targaryen pack (much closer but takes away from the other pack members)

ditto with dragon pack

maybe just go with aerion's pack? he's the center of it, after all.

aerion's pack it is.

so i love that horse girl game and i love the akotsk universe, specifically, the potential for so many dunkaerion stories/scenarios/aus.

i just reread my copy of the akotsk book and i just watched the umamusume: pretty derby - beginning of a new era movie.

i am essentially throwing two wholly unrelated ips into a stewpot. idk what i'm cooking, but it's gonna be fun. for me anyway. and you, if you see the vision!

so! i had to look it up bc i'm an amateur word nerd:

uma = horse

musume = daughter

musuko = son

which makes aerion an umamusuko, if he's a horseboy racing for the cup. p sure the major racing series in the game is for the girlies only but hey, he can race in the westerosi equivalent that's open to all, why not

his racewear is heavily dragon-inspired - thigh-high socks with scale patterning running up the back of the legs, boots that look like they're made of dragonhide, shorts-and-garter-belt combo to hold up the socks. as much as i'm a fan of keeping the belly warm, aerion would probably go for a crop top 'cause dragons never get cold. idk about the rest of it but he's probably got a design that looks like wings attached to his back and sleeves, 'cause if t. m. opera o can have a whole cape and still run and be the overlord, why not give the dragon boy wings, aerodynamics begone. his ear decoration (left ear, of course) is probably an earring/earcuff in the design of a dragon spitting fire. would he rep the targ house symbol... why not. according to the asoiaf wiki, his personal arms were "a dragon of three heads, orange, yellow and red, breathing golden flames on black [background]," so the three-headed sigil and the red/yellow/orange/black motif would have to show up in his outfit.

i want him also to have one of those cyberpunk metal facemasks, the ones that are pretty open but go over your lower jaw and might frame your mouth. idk i think it'd look cool, even if it is impractical. give him waist beading too, same color motifs, or a harness. a necklace/choker that looks like a dragon curling on itself, not an ouroboros.

moving on! next post is dunk as trainer/torena!

P.S. GAME SPECIFIC NERDING OUT HERE

distances, i think aerion would do more miles and mediums, and maybe a c in long races. could get up to an a in long races depending on training and inspiration and sparks. sprints are over too quick for someone with his personality, that's like g or f level skill he's got there.

high on guts and power, lowest stat is stam. wit and speed are middling.

if i had the brainpower for it, i'd come up with a list of stats for him, but for now, i think his unique skill is one of those red ones, the intimidate/slow ones. i'm gonna make it so he's an end closer, he's gonna slow down everyone ahead of him lol his personal skills with his potential levels are also a bunch red skills. man's going to be the worst uma to run but he's a ragebaiter on every single level so he'd be great for them zodiac races. slow everybody else down so the rest of your team can win lol

i am inspired.

i present to you - akotsk (or asoiaf at large) x umamusume

wherein the targaryens are an established racing family like the gold dynasty for the racehorses/umas

and dunk is aerion's trainer.

and aerion is pretty and temperamental, but unfortunately a great racer if he puts his mind to it.