I wonder if Maekar cried next to Daeron's deathbed. Holding Daeron's weak hand, pressing his knuckles against his own forehead, silently begging for his boy to stay
The last thing Daeron felt before dying was the cold wet feeling of his dad's tears against his weak hand
And it was too late for anything else. For any words to change anything between them, to make it better, to mend the broken pieces of their relationship
Just remembered Ashford must've been the first time Baelor and Maekar saw each other in a while because Baelor lived in King's Landing and Maekar lived in Summerhall and now I'm thinking maybe the King had only wanted to send Baelor and Valarr to Ashford but Baelor convinced him to send word to Summerhall and tell Maekar he should go too because he missed his baby brother and wanted to see him but he knew Maekar's grumpy ass wouldn't want to go to some peasant lord's tourney so he told his father to say that it was an order from the King so Maekar would be forced to come
Baelor and Maekar wanting each other from a young age but they live in a time where Targaryen marriages aren't needed nor wanted anymore so they both just suffer in silence about it and resign themselves to forever yearning
Baelor feeling guilty about the whole thing. Maekar is his brother. His little brother. His youngest brother! He's a child! Baelor is supposed to protect him and take care of him not daydream about bending him over the table and biting his neck and shoulders bloody and making him moan and groan and beg for Baelor's cock-
Maekar feeling bitter and angry. Why would the gods curse them like this? Why couldn't they be born a hundred years earlier? Why couldn't they be born as regular people and not Princes so at least he could live somewhere in peace with Baelor and not worry about being forced into an unwanted marriage to form alliances with other houses? Why can't Baelor just take him and run away?
And they get married to other people and have kids and grow up and just have to watch each other. Always watching. Doomed to never have. To never touch. Just watching
And then as soon as Aerion and Valarr come of age Aerion demands they marry... Valarr, not shy, but quiet and reserved, also agrees with him and says he wants to marry Aerion
They spend months, months, fighting over it and how they're cousins and they can't marry and it's wrong and Aerion is just not having it. He wants Valarr. He's gonna get Valarr
And he does. Of course he does
And then at their wedding, as Baelor and Maekar are watching their sons marry each other, they both suddenly realize
The only people who argued against Aerion and Valarr marrying were the two of them... literally no one else gave a fuck...
The realization that they could've had what they wanted all along fucks them up so bad they spend a whole other year apart just absolutely seething. So so so angry
And then they fuck nasty obviously
Also. Imagining Aerion or Valarr catching them...
"What do you mean you kept me from marrying my cousin for months because we're related and you're fucking your brother?????"
Thinking about a time travel fic where everything happens the same except when Maekar dies at the old age of (however old he was when he died I'm too lazy to check right now) he wakes back up in Ashford Meadow. On his horse.
He blinks in shock because that's not where he was just a minute ago. And then he hears that dude that was dressed up like an orange clown welcoming Baelor and yelling all his titles and shit. And he looks around him, unbelieving, and spots a head of short silver hair.
Aerion. His son. His dumbass baby boy that got himself killed just a year ago(Aerion dies a year before Maekar) and then sees Valarr, alive and healthy, on his horse next to Aerion.
Finally, he sees Baelor when he gets off his horse, tall and clad in dark clothing and royal and honorable and kind and alive.
Maekar is standing behind him. And he can't take his eyes off the back of Baelor's perfect head. His intact, not bashed in, perfectly fine head.
He spends their entire stay at Ashford Meadow trailing behind Aerion and making sure he doesn't do anything stupid.
And then drags his brother, his nephew, his three sons, and Egg's newly acquired knight, Ser Duncan, to Summerhall with them.