1 Prologue

The Rebellion was over but at great costs throughout the entire realm, the major houses, the minor houses, the smallfolk and even the land itself. King Aerys II Targaryen more commonly referred to as "The Mad King" had been removed from power by force and the realm was about to begin its road to recovery. Even with the late Robert Baratheon's attempts at getting revenge and justice for his assumed kidnapped betrothed, House Targaryen remained the ruling family of the seven kingdoms. King Rhaegar Targaryen, first of his name had been crowned shortly after his father's death along with his Queen Elia (Martell) Targaryen but both monarchs had hoped for a third to be crowned on that day alongside them.

Lyanna Stark was the breath of fresh air that their stagnant marriage had needed, both Rhaegar and Elia were good friends but romantically indifferent towards each other, which was not helped by the fact that the maesters had advised for Elia to not birth anymore children after the struggles of birthing her first child Rhaenys and the expected problems they predicted would occur when birthing her second, Aegon (with the later almost killing her). At the Tourney of Harrenhall both Rhaegar and his newly announced pregnant wife Elia along with their appointed Kingsguard for the day Ser Arthur Dayne and Ser Barristan Selmy had witnessed (without her knowledge) Lyanna chase off a group of Riverland squires with nothing but a stick and her wolf-blooded bark after she had caught them beating down one of her father's bannermen.

Lyanna would later go on to procure a mismatched set of armour and enter the lists with only one task in mind, unhorse the knights whose squires were responsible for the beating of her now good friend Howland Reed. She was dubbed "The Knight of the Laughing Tree" and would succeed in her task demanding that the fallen knights chastise their squires in order to ransom back their horses and armour. Shortly after, Lyanna would sneak away to remove her armour but would find that she had been followed by non-other than the crown prince himself Rhaegar and his sworn sword Ser Arthur Dayne.

Rhaegar and Elia had a pretty good idea on the identity of the mystery knight, so when the forever paranoid King had claimed and was whole heartedly convinced that the mystery knight was an enemy, Rhaegar on the advice of Elia had announced to his father that he would attempt to find this knight for him alongside Ser Arthur and would return with them if he was successful. Obviously Rhaegar and Elia just wanted to make sure nothing would happen to Lyanna but also wanted to meet this beautiful northern soul to hopefully get the ball rolling on Rhaegar and Elia's brand-new plan.

You see, from the moment the pair had seen Lyanna's protectiveness towards the vulnerable, the love she showed towards her family and friends, the aura of freedom she seemed to radiate whenever they saw her smiling whilst caring for or riding her mare, the happy tears she would shed when she heard Rhaegar's harp, her strength and sheer devotion to justice when knocking a grown man off his horse and her overall wild beauty had left both monarchs smitten. And with both of their feelings towards the northern beauty being mutual, they both decided to try and revive their relationship by proposing an addition to their marriage bed that not only helped with creating more heirs thus taking the pressure off of Elia but also introducing a beautiful soul into their lives that they were both slowly but surely starting to fall for.

They had come to the conclusion that they wanted her and the plan was to simply make her want them. It began when Rhaegar and Arthur discovered her removing her armour...

*The snap of a twig*

"Who goes there?" Lyanna spoke out.

"Just me and my sworn shadow my lady" Rhaegar japed as Arthur rolled his eyes.

Lyanna's eyes widened "Your Grace? I....I Heard your father had made me a wanted man, are you here to turn me in?" She tried to make light of the situation but she was already trying to conjure up an escape plan.

Rhaegar could already see she was spooked and looking for an out but he had to take control of the situation and hope their plan hadn't been ruined before it had even begun, Elia would kill him. "No, I'm not here to hand you in I'm afraid, I'm actually looking for a treasonous man who my father has claimed to be his greatest enemy, you haven't seen him come by this way have you?"

That earnt him a chuckle from the lady and he could already see some of the tension leave her body. "What about him?" nodding at Ser Arthur "Is he gonna turn me in? He is kingsguard after all, the job description is in the name".

"Unfortunately for my father Ser Arthur here is MY sworn shadow and unfortunately for Ser Arthur shadows aren't known for their power of speech or capturing enemies of the crown, your secret will never leave his lips even if he tried". Rhaegar japed receiving a look from Arthur who was trying to not give Rhaegar the credit of seeing him grin.

"Bit of a shit kingsguard aren't you then?" Lyanna boldly replied earning a stunned look from Arthur and Rhaegar with the later trying and failing not to grin at her reply.

"Well...that's...that's, look your lucky I'm his shadow" Arthur replied, completely caught off guard by her response.

"You're right, they really aren't known for their power of speech" Lyanna replied as she subtly admired the dashing smile the prince was currently blessing her with.

With that Ser Arthur huffed and looked away, Rhaegar burst out laughing and Lyanna began to giggle, it was one of the loveliest sounds Rhaegar had ever heard. They carried on with their conversation with Arthur contributing from time to time speaking about what they've been up to at the tourney, what their friends and family are like, what their homes are like and what their plans are for the future, that's where the conversation took a bitter turn for Lyanna.

"My father has decided to betroth me to an oaf a drunk and a whoremonger, a man I have no plans on marrying." Lyanna spoke shaking her head. "He can't marry me off to that Baratheon idiot if he can't find me can he now" Lyanna smirked.

This could be a problem, he and Elia were unaware there was a betrothed in the way and if this Baratheon turned out to be his brash, ill-tempered cousin Robert it could become an even bigger problem. "What do you plan if your father forces you to marry him?"

"I love my father, but if he thinks he can force me to marry that pig on the recommendation of my brother then he'll have to deal with the consequences. I won't marry Robert to just become some trophy wife of his as he leaves me to run his household singlehandedly as he whores himself around the seven kingdoms. He's already got a bastard and it wouldn't surprise me if there's more out there" Lyanna spoke passionately.

So, it was Robert...big problem indeed but what scared him more was how determined she sounded about avoiding this marriage. "You still haven't said what your plan is if you were forced by your father?". He dreaded her answer.

"I'll leave it all behind, whether I go into hiding here in Westeros, go east to Essos or see what is west of Westeros, I've always wanted to go on an adventure" She smiled. "I would rather sail into the unknown, high chance of death than spend the rest of my life with that man".

Rhaegar had believed every word she'd said and knew she would go through with those plans, he had to act and act fast for his, Elia's and by the sounds of it Lyanna's sake. He informed her of his wife's wish to meet her and get to know her as well and hoped he wasn't being too forward and scaring her away, but to his relief she seemed to be genuinely interested in personally meeting his wife.

He and Arthur had left after leaving an open invitation for Lyanna to speak with him, Elia or both whenever she wanted stating all she had to do was to let Ser Arthur or Ser Barristan know that she wished for a private audience with them. It hadn't taken long for Lyanna to take up that offer and the three of them were enjoying sweets, fruits and Dornish red along with relaxed conversation and even a bit of flirting between Elia and Lyanna that very night.

"I must say, it must have been something very controversial to get Arthur's tongue twisted Lyanna" Elia smirked behind her goblet of red.

"Lady Lyanna here has a sharp tongue which Arthur unfortunately for him found out about the hard way" Rhaegar smiled as he peeled his blood orange.

"I wonder what else that tongue can do" Elia mused as Lyanna blushed and Rhaegar fumbled with his orange.

"You'd be surprised" Lyanna returned as Elia grinned and Rhaegar tried to not combust.

And with that their budding relationship started to slowly grow, all three started to enjoy their nightly meets with each night becoming progressively flirtier than the last but keeping it innocent even though in their minds all three wanted to push the boundaries with touches and kisses. Rhaegar and Elia knew they had to keep it innocent, they couldn't force this plan of theirs, it needed to be mutual between the three of them. They also needed to consider a way to get Lyanna out of this betrothal she so vehemently hated the idea of.

The next day was the last day of the tourney, Rhaegar had successfully unhorsed man after man and earnt his place in the final of the joust. Elia had managed to pull Rhaegar away for a few moments to tell him of her idea...

"You want me to what? Wouldn't this just incite tension and anger Elia?" Rhaegar answered, worried that this plan of Elia's could come back to bite them.

"If you win you can split the garland between me and Lyanna, I'll be smiling throughout the whole spectacle so nobody will see that I'm displeased of your actions, blue roses are Lyanna's favourite as we found out last night, she would love it". Elia pleaded with Rhaegar, she was confident this act would get the plan moving a little quicker.