In which a mutant too famous to cull is dropped like a grenade into the midst of the peace process, a foolish monarch proves himself secretly shrewd, the power of friendship functions as a force multiplier, and it is discovered that in the Great Game of espionage, the dealer does not always win.

wherein rhaegar wins the war, and jaime manages to keep his head by taking a stark for a wife; or five times jaime lannister braved his marriage and the one time he was brave for its sake

"No, but answer me this, do you want to invalidate this whole farce of a legal and religious joining of blah-di-fucking-blah? Because I have looked at your laws and if we don't consummate the union it's not valid!" -- Anonymous asked: Davekat. Arranged marriage! The first time they are alone together is on their wedding night.

Twenty years after The Great Purge and the continuing effects of a High Priestess’s curse, Albion is a nation on the brink of collapse. Not even High Chancellor Uther Pendragon’s Compatibility Regime can curb the plummeting population. To add to his troubles, his wayward son, Arthur, makes no disguise of his unwillingness to wed. With good reason. Arthur is secretly leading the Movement, a covert organisation plotting to overthrow the government and return magic to Albion. Not to mention, it’s been foreseen that Arthur’s future, his destiny, is an indomitable union with a warlock—not marriage to the farm-boy matched to him by Uther’s Compatibility Machines.

They cannot see, but she does. Myrcella sees.

In which Robert Baratheon weds Catelyn Tully on the eve of rebellion while Cersei Lannister, the rising sun of Casterly Rock, is sent to the far North to marry Ned Stark and become Lady of Winterfell. In consequence, the fates of these two women, the people they love, and the game of thrones are changed forever. But winter is coming, as it always will.

At the age of thirty-seven, Dorian of House Pavus could now say that the worst day of his life was his wedding day... After a failed blood-magic ritual from his father, Dorian's body is forever changed. However Halward isn't about to let that get in the way as he offers his only son up as a bargaining chip for peace in Seheron. Dorian, son of one of the most powerful Magisters in the Imperium, is now being forced to marry a Qunari. And to add to the man's frustrations, he must be pregnant within a year.

“You want me to marry a Soporata?”

Female Cullen is married off to Hanar, an Avvar chief, in order to secure passage through the Frostback Basin. She struggles to come to grips with her new life as she become pregnant far earlier than expected, and struggles with the depression of being tossed aside as a pawn. Slowly, she and Hanar find their way together, and Cullen finds a home.

For a prompt on my Tumblr: omg Utakata and Haku making delicate icebubble art pieces in the winter and Zabuza scoffs at them but he still sits and watches them put the pieces together and even volunteers kubikiribocho sometimes because that hole at the end is a pretty good bubble ring.

His Grace the Archduke Yuri Plisetsky wins the Ballistic Grand Tournament in his debut year, at the age of fifteen. Things go downhill from there.

Nagato is in over his head, and getting deeper.

When Endeavor finishes delivering his ultimatum, All-Might uses one of his precious minutes in his hero form to punch Endeavor in the face. The force of it sends the number two hero staggering back and into an alley wall, leaving an Endeavor-sized imprint in the bricks. “THAT IS NOT HERO-LIKE BEHAVIOR!” All-Might roars. ~ Endeavor finds out some secrets, and the price of his silence is the marriage of Izuku Midoriya, the anonymous hero Deku, to his youngest son.

To keep the peace between the Shadowhunters and the Downworlders, a treaty designates an intermarriage between the two groups every seven years. Alec isn't exactly happy to be chosen, but then he finds out that his intended is nothing like what anyone expected.

Anders: So, there must be mages in Tevinter that don't use blood magic. Fenris: Of course. There are slaves. The magisters do not hesitate to collar their own kind. --- Or, the one where Danarius finds out about the blood magic ritual his long time enemy Halward Pavus is planning and things go even worse for Dorian.

The best revenge is living well. And maybe also spitefully staging a minor political coup to take over Konoha as payback for getting stuck in an arranged marriage.

Before he follows, Shisui takes one more look out the cold glass, and shivers. He can hear the floe grinding against the surrounding ice, an eerie, disconcerting sound, like a massive beast growling in the darkness. The howl of the wind is a high, lonely counterpoint, a forsaken sound, and Shisui grits his teeth and forces himself to ignore it. He’ll get used to the sound someday. He won't have a choice.

Ichigo's found his Sky. Things are just...a little turbulent while everyone adjusts.

In the wake of intracity warfare, Jiang Cheng finds himself engaged by proxy to Nie Huaisang in an effort to build ties between their sects. The fragile peace is short-lived, however, and with the strands of magic and the alliances that hold the city together fraying apart, Jiang Cheng must decide where he stands in order to save what he loves.

“Queen Miraj is going to betray you,” Feral says, and Cody practically jumps out of his own skin.

Shang Hua really lucked out being reborn as the much-coddled son of one of the most ferocious demon matriarchs of the north. There are only a few, minor, inconsequential downsides.

Sid is smitten. He was smitten from the start, he thinks. The first time he saw Zhenya's dark eyes and hair and smooth skin. The way his cheeks flush the same color as his mouth with exertion, or passion. Sid knows that people make comments about his own mouth, the way it would be more suited on a childbearing male, but he thinks that they can’t possibly have seen Zhenya's. The perfect, sweet cupid's bow of his upper lip and the plush, fat pout of the bottom one.

It’s actually his father who suggests it. “Take the rest of the summer for yourself,” he says. “Do something fun.” “Fun,” Sidney repeats blankly.

The Republic falls in the span of a day. Xanatos, desperate to keep his son out of the line of fire, makes a reckless deal with the new emperor, whose face he's never seen. But there are dark secrets behind the emperor's fury and prophecies that won't let themselves be thwarted, and Xanatos is nothing but a pawn in a far greater game.

The wedding’s going to be tonight, presumably so no one involved has time to get cold feet, which gives Geralt just enough time to clean up and get the dirt off his armor and overthink every tiny little detail of this arrangement.