I know I should be writing a fic a bit more chronologically, but I've now decided to commit to the Dunk is collecting all the soulmates' angles. So, I wanted to write a few later scenes in the fic.
Maekar is also going to be one of Dunk's soulmates. Their scene takes place after the trial & after Valarr has retrieved Dunk to put him in a room where the rest of the Targaryens are staying.
While curled up next to Dunk, Egg is tracing Dunk's soulmarks. Baelor's navy hand on Dunk's face, Egg's own smaller forest green handprint on Dunk's neck, Raymun's pale (apple) green on Dunk's shoulder, Daeron's Periwinkle hand on his arm, Lyonel's storm grey covering Dunk's whole palm. That's when Egg notices Aerion's black & red scaled pattern underneath the fading bruising on Dunk's knuckles (from punching Aerion as first contact in the puppet tent.
Egg's stomach drops, and he stares at where his gentle, honourable soulchosen older brother is sleeping off his injuries that AERION gave him & he makes a decision. Dunk doesn't know about this bond yet, and Egg can make sure he never has to, he can make the mark fade away. Egg can keep Duncan The Tall out of Aerion's clutches forever. After all, not all soulbonds work out or are free from abuse, Egg's bond with his brother is proof enough of that fact, and Dunk has already been hurt enough & has more than enough Targaryen soulmates to soothe that pain.
Egg leaves with a knife clutched in his hand. The scene plays out almost exactly as it does in the show. Except after Maekar picks up his son & holds his baby in his arms while he cries everything out & ends up asleep. He ends up tucking little Aegon into bed & storming to the Hedge Knight's room.
Dunk by this point is awake & having one of his wounds wrapped by a Maester. Maekar dismisses the Maester & they talk.
This version of Maekar can't blame Duncan for what happened at the trial because Baelor survived only because of the Hedge Knight. Seven above, Baelor's heart actually stopped for a few seconds & his mark momentarily faded completely from Maekar's skin, horrific moments that felt like years that Maekar thought he'd truly killed his brother. But he hadn't, only because of this young Knight was Baelor's soulmate. And now, he owes this man more than his life, and he's also his young son's soulmate, his baby who'd he just stopped from murdering his second eldest, his boy. And, Maekar knows truly he failed as a father, he promised his wife on her deathbed, when Aegon was just an infant that he'd protect them. But he'd clearly failed & he needs to be angry, but Duncan saved his brother, so he can't blame him, so there's all this Fury that he needs to direct but there's nowhere for it to go but to tear Maekar apart. The Maestors, hesitant of his rage, had tried to avoid the truth, that without Duncan, Maekar would have been a kinslayer. He can't stop thinking about a funeral pyre that almost had to burn and poor Valaar, still a year younger than the Hedge knight, not ready to be heir, and because of Maekar and Aerion, which Maekar knew was still his fault as well, he almost had to be. And he hasn't been able to sleep since the trial, not without reliving over and over the moments he almost lost those dearest to his ("MY BOY" on a field on blood & mud, the ringing his mace smashing a helm, Daeron's groan as his horse trampled his leg after being thrown, the awful fading his a mark Maekar has had since birth).
And Maekar just can't, and at this point, Duncan is staring up at him from where he is sat at the edge of his bed, all earnest & concerned with his big blue eyes. Hands outstretched as Maekar is swaying on his feet at this point, having gotten closer and closer to Duncan as he spoke, and he collapses into the knight, making a broken sound. And, Oh, he should have predicted this, as sunset blooms across his skin where Duncan's hand catches him on his hip, pinks and oranges with the faintest outline of an elm tree leaf. Maekar steadied himself however he could, his hand on the other side of Dunk's neck from Egg's mark & Burgandy blooms where it landed. And as they are still pressed to their marks, he can FEEL Dunk's concern and sweetness and insecurity and love for Aegon and his own grief over all that has transpired. Maekar understands fully now why Baelor would risk himself for a mere hedge knight.
Dunk himself has buried his face in Maekar's neck as he feels through Maekar's bond, his heartwrenching love for his children, the sea of grief and anger so tangled that one cannot exist without the other, his incredibly strong bond with (& guilt over) his brother and the protectiveness he doesn't quite know how to express. Dunk the last week has found multiple soumates, but not yet gotten to sit in a bond as it forms.
(They stay wrapped in each other until Daeron comes to check on Dunk, also his soumate, only to find his DAD cuddling & ALSO havung bonded with Dunk??? First, Daeron's uncle, now his father???)
