I love romantic baekar but what goes just as hard is non-sexual fraternal baekar, like they both floated in the same womb just years apart, they have bled together, sparred together, knelt before their King Father, preserved the stability of the realm and protected their family from usurpers, dined together, laughed together, took lunch in the gardens with their wives together, mourned together with the passing of their spouses, held each other’s children as babes. Maekar loved and envied his older perfect golden child brother, the heir apparent. Baelor loved his youngest baby brother, a warrior as capable as any other, his other half, his complement, his twin on the battlefield. The mace to his spear. The anvil to his hammer. His beloved blood who was passed over and overlooked as a necessary second sword to protect the Targaryen house where Aerys and Rhaegel could not. Baelor could not hope to do it alone and so Maekar is a blessing, not simply for their parents but for him because here is a comrade, a fellow soldier who knows the ache of the sword swing, the burn of calluses, the sting of sweat and stench of blood and weight of armor. A man who may not understand the insurmountable weight of the crown held above his head and never would (ha) but when it is them, he is not the heir apparent, he is lousy big brother, Mama’s favorite, and don’t deny it, don’t fucking smile at me like that, Baelor, it’s true, Mom loves you best, now what is for supper, hopefully Father hasn’t ordered them to cook swan again, gods above.
Just that *love* that siblings who should be entirely worlds apart given the paths set before them (inheritance versus the afterthought spare’s spare’s spare) instead has them cleaved closer because the middle two brothers are such that the opposite poles must come together to support the family and make Mom and Dad proud and happy. The envy there, too, but mostly the fierce undeniable love that only a family life that is ever-threatened by usurpation and constantly securing alliances to lattice together guarantees of the dynasty’s continuation in the wake of a scaly trump card, that is as tenuous yet as proud as blood of the dragon and sun can be.
