The Unyielding Stag (Game of Thrones AU/Invincible)
Chapter 4: Revelations

A/N: Jon gets to meet our man once more as he comes in from his ranging~

-x-X-x-

Having learned that Axel was out on a ranging somewhere in the Mountains of the Moon, Jon expected to wait at least a day or so before the lad finally returned. He's therefore quite surprised when word of Axel's arrival reaches him and Lord Royce in his solar just an hour after the High Steward blew that horn.

"He's back already? He must not have gone very far…"

But Nestor just shakes his head as he sends the servant to bring Axel directly to them.

"I wouldn't count on that Lord Arryn. I've had men try to follow him before, mostly just to try and keep him safe and out of trouble. Not even my best knights have been able to keep track of him or see exactly where he goes or how far he ranges."

Jon's brow furrows incredulously, causing his steward to grin sheepishly in response.

"You'll recall how fast he was as a boy, I'm sure? He's even faster now, Lord Arryn. Faster… and far more cunning."

Whatever he might have said in response to that never gets a chance to leave his lips, because the next thing Jon knows, the door to the solar is opening once more to admit the very man they're speaking of.

… And a man he is. It's not until Jon lays eyes on Axel for the first time in several years that he truly realizes he's been away from the Eyrie for far, far too long. It hits him then, as he finds himself staring, that Robert's son is no boy anymore… not even a lad, really. He's over twenty years old at this point, and he looks it too.

Standing as tall as his father did at that age, with broad shoulders and a broad chest that out his Baratheon Blood like nothing else, Axel has a full head of Baratheon black hair and stark Baratheon blue eyes.

Truly, the only thing missing to make him a perfect copy of Robert from back in his twenties is the facial hair. By the time he was Axel's age, Robert already had a full beard. Axel, meanwhile, is completely clean faced. That isn't to say he's baby faced, however, because anyone who dared to try and call him that would have to willfully ignore the chiseled square shape of his jaw and the sheer presence he gives off just standing there in the doorway.

Axel's eyes light up at seeing him and he quickly steps forward before dropping to a knee and bowing his head low.

"Lord Arryn! It is a pleasure to see you again. I only wish it were under better circumstances."

Letting out a sigh, Jon stands up and beckons with his hands.

"Rise, Axel, please rise. And so do I… so do I."

Slowly, the future King of the Seven Kingdoms stands up. He gives Nestor a respectful nod before once again giving Jon his full attention. For a long moment, Jon doesn't know what to say if he's being honest. Where do you even start with something like this?

"… Come. Sit with us, Axel."

Axel blinks and hesitates for a moment before doing as he's told. Even as Jon retakes his seat and Axel joins them, the younger man's size is in no way diminished. He's big… very big. So much like his father back in the day.

Of course, unlike Robert Baratheon, Axel has been raised as a Stone, a bastard of the Vale. He's never known his true parentage, nor had any expectations of inheriting or becoming a Lord one day like Robert did.

As they all sit quietly for a moment, Jon finds himself realizing that this disparity has caused a key difference between Axel and Robert to develop… Robert would have already demanded to know what this was about. As he'd done in this very Solar so many years ago when Jon had to tell him and Ned what the Mad King had done to Ned's father and brother.

Axel, by comparison, is respectful and quiet to a fault, sitting oddly still and not fidgeting a bit, but also keeping his eyes down as someone of his standing should when in a room with men like Jon and Nestor. He seemed able to hold his tongue in a way Robert never could… but given he was about to become King, Jon wasn't sure if that was truly a good thing or not. Only time would tell.

"Axel… I'm sure by now you've heard the news and know why I'm here. The King and both of his trueborn sons are dead."

A jolt runs through the mountain of a young man and his eyes widen as he chokes a little.

"Ah… apologies Lord Arryn. I'd heard about the King, but I didn't know about his sons. That's… that's horrible."

Jon shoots Nestor a look, but the other man just shrugs. After a moment, he thinks he understands it. Nestor wouldn't have personally delivered the news to the young man… that would have been too suspicious. Nor did the High Steward know that Axel was going to be the new King of Westeros before Jon arrived. And the news… no doubt it would take months for all of Westeros to learn that it wasn't just the King who had died, but also both of the Princes as well.

… In the end, he couldn't rightly blame his second for Axel's lack of knowledge.

"Who's going to be King now then? It'll be… Lord Stannis, won't it?"

A smile flits across Jon's face and he finds himself chuckling a little.

"That would be the order of things under normal circumstances. Well thought, Axel."

Robert's son straightens up proudly at Jon's praise, beaming as though Jon had just given him the greatest compliment he'd ever received.

"… However, there are extenuating circumstances at play."

The smile drops and Axel's brow furrows in confusion.

"What do you mean, milord?"

Jon can't quite hide his flinch at that. 'Milord' was a smallfolk term of address. And it just passed through the lips of Robert's heir and the Crown Prince of the Seven Kingdoms. He truly had his work cut out for him.

"Axel… for the rest of this conversation, and possibly into the future… you can call me Jon, alright?"

Axel's eyes nearly bulge out of his skull at that, the younger man looking absolutely flummoxed by such an offer. Before he can respond, Jon holds up a hand and cuts him off.

"Getting back to before… what I mean is that Robert didn't die at the same time as his sons. He survived a few hours more. I was with him at his side in his final moments where he gave me his last edicts as King. He told me he wished to legitimize one of his bastards… and name him Crown Prince, making him Heir to the Iron Throne."

Jon watches Axel carefully for his reaction to these words. What he gets is… not quite what he's expecting. A small shudder runs through the giant of a young man and Axel looks confused… but with a hint of something in his eyes. Like he knows what's coming but finds it impossible to believe.

"I don't… I don't quite understand what this all has to do with me."

Letting out an explosive breath, Jon leans forward, using the table in front of him as he looks Axel in the eye.

"Robert legitimized his firstborn bastard son. A young man who had to be set aside back at the end of the Rebellion more than twenty years ago. A young man who was raised far from the King and his trueborn family all these years. Axel… did you never wonder who your father truly was?"

-x-X-x-

The blood pounds in Axel's ears as he sits there, absolutely still. Despite that, he hears everything that Lord Arryn says with stark clarity. And he understands it all with perfect clarity too, as much as he doesn't want to. He would love to play dumb. He would love to act like he didn't get it. Maybe if they thought him stupid, they wouldn't go through with it.

… But no. It's all so obvious now, isn't it? Almost petulantly, quietly, Axel finds himself muttering something he never thought he would admit under his breath.

"I suppose… I suppose I'd hoped it was you."

He flushes so hotly that the blood rushes down his neck immediately after he says that, while Lord Arryn sits back in his chair for a moment, clearly stunned. Then, after a long moment, the Lord of the Vale smiles sadly and shakes his head.

"If only, lad. If only. No… your father was Robert Baratheon, First of His Name, King of the Andals, the Rhoynar, and the First Men, Lord of the Seven Kingdoms, and Protector of the Realm. And you, Axel Baratheon, are now his Heir. You're the Crown Prince of the Realm and Heir to the Iron Throne, lad."

Fuck. Old Dolf had been right, that fucker. Letting out a sigh, Lord Arryn continues on.

"You're right that without you in the picture; Stannis Baratheon would be next in line for the Iron Throne as the eldest brother to the King. However, Robert survived a little longer than his sons and was able to legitimize you with his last breaths. This was his dying breath, Axel, to-"

"How did they die?"

He can hardly believe his own impudence. Interrupting a Lord of the Seven Kingdoms? And yet, Axel finds himself with a burning need to know. The King dying before was… well, it was a tragedy, but a distant one for a bastard like Axel. And then learning that both Princes had died as well, that too was disastrous, but in the same distant way.

Not anymore. Robert Baratheon was his father and he was dead. His sons were Axel's half-brothers and they were dead. A family he hadn't even known he had, wiped out before he could ever even meet them. It… hurt more than he would have expected, truth be told.

Lord Arryn pauses and then quietly explains the grisly events that had taken place in King's Landing. It's both complex and simple at the same time.

In the end, they died because an unknown cache of wildfire had been uncovered by the youngest Prince and his father had been curious enough to see what he'd found. But the complexity lay in how far back that wildfire had been placed down there, having apparently been put there all the way back during the reign of the Mad King, only to never be used.

"When I left King's Landing to come retrieve you, a citywide effort to find and remove all of the remaining wildfire caches left behind by the Mad King's machinations was well underway. Hopefully, by the time we return to King's Landing, they'll have made good progress in dealing with the problem."

Retrieve you. Return to King's Landing. Fuck. This was really happening, wasn't it? Lord Arryn had come all the way to the Eyrie for him. To take him back to King's Landing and crown him King. Axel's mouth opens and closes for a long moment as he's left uncertain of what to say. Finally… he says the obvious. He says what's on his mind.

"Surely it can't be me though, right? I mean… I'm not even properly trained for it. I've been nothing but a bastard my whole life. They can't possibly want me on the Iron Throne, can they?"

In this case, 'they' is… everyone. All the nobility. Especially the Lord Paramounts and their Great Noble Houses. Axel can't imagine they'd be very accepting of him. He's not exactly King material, after all.

But Lord Arryn just shakes his head.

"They will, Axel. They don't have any better options. Robert's final decree was clear and as his Hand, it is my duty to carry out his last orders. But more than that… there is nobody else. Even if you were to turn down the throne, it would pass to Stannis, and nobody wants that. It would likely lead to war."

Axel's eyes widen. What?! War? But Stannis Baratheon would be the next in line at that point! He would be the rightful Heir to the Iron Throne! How could it possibly lead to war?!

Seeing the look on his face, Lord Arryn offers a wan smile.

"Stannis is… not well-liked among the other Lords of Westeros, Axel. He has a reputation for being cold and unfeeling to the point that even the nobility of the Seven Kingdoms finds him largely unlikable and therefore intolerable. To make matters worse, the younger Baratheon brother, Renly, is far more charismatic and personable."

Lord Arryn shakes his head.

"Even in the short time before the King was recovered and I was able to hear his final words, I had courtiers trying to feel me out, seeing if I would side with Stannis or Renly for the throne. Lord Stannis was away from the city and still is, but Lord Renly is in King's Landing, fulfilling his duties as the Master of Laws on the King's Small Council. He himself did not approach me, but I would not be surprised if some of those courtiers came from him all the same."

Leaning forward again, Lord Arryn looks Axel right in the eyes, sending a shiver down his spine. The Lord of the Vale's voice drops to a whisper, as if he's confiding some great secret to Axel.

"The Seven Kingdoms may be able to accept Stannis as their King, but not if Renly throws his name into the mix. If the younger brother stands against the elder, then the Seven Kingdoms will fracture and war will be inevitable. You aren't perfect by any means Axel… but you're the best option we have all the same. You're a compromise that might just keep the Realm from going to war."

… He appreciates Lord Arryn's honesty. More than a little floored by the sudden lesson in the cutthroat politics that apparently surround his uncles, Axel has to take a moment just to chew on all of it and then swallow thickly. Once he's done so though… he straightens up.

"It has to be me then? I… will you stay on as my Hand at least?"

Lord Arryn blinks in surprise before smiling warmly.

"Of course I will, my Prince. I'm only getting older admittedly, but I have some good years left in me to help you find your footing if nothing else. With you as King and the peace kept, we'll have all the time in the world to make sure your reign is a successful one."

… Right. Axel lets out an explosive breath and nods.

"Then… I'll do it. I'll become King. I'll go to King's Landing with you."

Those damn mountain clans better not make a mess of things while he's gone though. He won't hesitate to flat out run all the way back to the Vale if he hears that they're making trouble at any point!

"Wonderful. We'll throw a feast tonight and then depart in the morning… if that's alright with you, Prince Axel. King's Landing and indeed the whole of the Seven Kingdoms will be better off as soon as you are sat upon the Iron Throne."

Axel blows out an explosive breath, part of him wanting to ask for a day more to get his affairs in order. But the only thing he would even do is go and find the mountain clans again… and really, he'd already said his goodbyes to them, technically.

Nodding, he just grunts.

"That's fine by me."

The High Steward rises from his seat then and heads off to make preparations for the feast, belatedly reminding Axel of his presence in the first place. Strange how a man who had seemed like such a large presence in Axel's life suddenly felt tiny in comparison to everything else.

As Lord Arryn… no, as Jon begins to tell him more about what he can expect in King's Landing, Axel feels himself finding his resolve.

If they really wanted him to be King… then King he would be.

-x-X-x-

A/N: Yeah Axel, they all totally want you to be King. One hundo P. Aaaanyways… next time we check in on a certain grieving mother over in King's Landing~

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