"Are you fighting with Loras again, R?" Lyanna asked as he laid his head on her lap while she read yet another tedious book about architecture while reclining on her bed. She gets tired easily on account of the babe even if she has only been pregnant for two moons.

Lyanna also wanted to design a motherhouse that also sustained itself while looking like a seven-pointed star for the Tarlys, who were hosting them after they had left Highgarden. If she was not doing things like designing buildings for people that did not even like her, she was making clothes for the poor or with her rather select group of noblewomen who wore blue stockings* when they convened. Renly wondered what gift she has prepared for the Florents who wish to host them in three weeks.

"Do you think your cousin will bend the knee? " Renly asks her, avoiding her question. Although he was perfectly serious, Robb Stark had already come into the Riverlands and begun fighting the Lannisters after the River Lords were nearly defeated. If he sided with Stannis, they would lose the North and the Riverlands, but Lyanna had told him yesterday that the North had been planning to secede without the knowledge of Ned Stark for the past nineteen years. "I am worried about those rumors of Northern Independence now that he has gotten a betrothal to some Frey girl just to cross the bridge, L."

He called her L, he also called Loras L in those secret letters they have written to each other. After one vague yet specific erotic poem fell in the wrong hands while they were engaged, Loras had agreed that Renly should call Lyanna L as well just in case something like that happened again. After that it had stuck and she called him R -or Ren-Ren when she wanted to annoy him.

"You did not answer my question, Ren-Ren." she tuts like he were a child and he rolls his eyes. He knows that she knows just how much he hates being called that, the last person to call him Ren-Ren was Robert and always in a mocking tone when they sparred before he got fat and lazy. He did not need the reminder that he had killed his brother now that Loras is angry at him.

"Indulge me, and after that I may tell you what happened." he bargains and both know he may not follow through with his end of the deal. One of the reasons people did not immediately suspect Renly's preferences was due to the fact that they were friends first and foremost, something most married people are not. Renly liked this arrangement with her. Both did not wish to have anything more than friendship with each other, and while things like kissing and hugging seemed more romantic in nature to others for them it was just platonic. At least he hoped Loras knew it meant that, but given he is the jealous type, he probably has his doubts especially when it comes to the fucking part of the marriage.

Lyanna closes her book and sighs before answering his question. "With a Northern Queen, and one whom they know was brought up with a lord's education as well as that of a lady's, they would have someone who can guarantee they are being heard. I seriously doubt they would be in a hurry to side with Stannis given I have been singing my little song since we got married." She says so surely as if her letters to her friends up North could make their fathers and husbands turn their back on centuries of following whoever is next in birth. It was not like Ned cared that he could have another Aerys II given Stannis has given a long leash to his murderous witch.

"Ned knew that and still he adhered himself to that bullshit primogeniture law." he complains and she smirks as she takes out an old yet carefully cared for marriage certificate from her book. A certificate signed by a Maester, three witnesses and the couple, therefore authentic. He was intimately familiar with certificates like that. Often than naught some poor woman was left with a bastard child to care for and an angry father wanting to kill the bastard that did that to his daughter. Renly had assumed that had been the case with his goodmother.

This one was dated two and a half months before the Tourney of Harrenhal and named Barbrey Ryswell as the legal wife of Brandon Stark with Rodrick Ryswell, Lyanna Stark, and Roose Bolton as witnesses. From what Renly had come to know the marriage lasted exactly one fortnight and resulted in the late William Dustin marrying his cousin a month later to hide the fact that Lyanna was Brandon's get.

"My grandfather found the original marriage certificate that shows me as Brandon Stark's legitimate child six moons ago and gave it to me as a wedding gift. If the northern lords were stupid enough to declare Robb King in the North, we have proof that his father stole my inheritance -which is a serious crime in itself. This scrap of paper is the Key to the North." Lyanna explained as he left her lap and sat beside her.

"This makes you both Lord of the Barrows as well as Warden of the North given the rather specific wording in that decree Robert signed for William Dustin. Where was this when your grandfather petitioned my brother for your rightful inheritance seven and ten years ago?"

"It had been hidden in Rickard Stark's crypt which mysteriously broke after Ned Stark became Hand of the King." Lyanna smiles mischievously. "Discreet grave-robbing is just one of my grandfather's many talents."

"Do you think he would welcome a seat in the Small Council, he sounds like he would be great as Master of Whisperers." Renly muses. He needed to balance out the power in the Small Council and other Court positions, he would need one from each region, but that was impossible for now. While the Tyrells were the source of his power, he needed to appropriately represent the Storm Lands, the North, West, the Riverlands, Dorne and the Vale as well, but the small council only had space for seven people. Perhaps he could make a second larger council that took care of things like making sure taxes and laws were fair to each region, agree and draft a law for the King and the Small Council to vote on, things that the small council could barely handle with such few people in it*.

"He would, although grandfather would try to set himself up as Hand of the King even if it kills him." She answers as if she has forgotten what she had asked him when he interrupted her reading. She does not forget, only pretends to when it suits her. Now is not one of those moments. "But I do not want to talk about that, I wish to know why Loras has been angry with you since yesterday. I would ask Leo, but I would rather not let this become known." By Leo she meant Leonette and although Leo was not the gossiping kind, Desmera Redwyne had the ears of a fox and a tongue as quick as a hare.

"Mace agreed for a betrothal between Robb and Margaery, Loras said I was mad for sending his sister to a snow filled wasteland." he sighed. It had been the second row this week, the first one had been on Renly ordering a suit of black and gold armor for him to wear now that he is King. The new armor would take a while to make and it was very likely his green and gold armor would be the one to taste battle at the pace the smith is going. "We had words, he refuses to see my reasoning behind it and says that from now on he will be Lord Commander, but not my lover."

They had never had a row like this one, sure once or twice they have threatened each other with leaving, but it never came to that. Today, Loras had gone as far as calling him Your Grace with a cold yet civil tone he did not like at all.

"I would have responded the same if you said you were sending Roose or Beth to Dorne or the Vale without talking to me first." She assures him, "He just needs some time to cool off and perhaps some groveling from your part, R."

"Look at you, my lawfully wedded wife who does not care about romantic love giving me advice on how to fix things between me and longtime my male lover." he chuckles at the irony.

Speaking of his longtime male lover, Loras barges into Lyanna's tent with that thinly veiled anger directed at him. "Stannis has declared, my father has taken the liberty to call for a council session, your grace. It would be best if Lyanna attended as well."

"Ugh, he calls you by name ,but he will not even call me by mine." Renly complains.

"Lyanna did not manipulate my father into giving away his only daughter to some lord in the North." Loras throws back annoyed. Little does he know that Lyanna agreed it was a good idea.


Notes:

*the blue stockings that Lyanna and some of her ladies wear are a reference to the Bluestocking Society in which educated women (and some men) had a literary society in 1750 England and led by Elizabeth Montagu a young widow who found herself with the money and position to help educated women (and men) impact the world. Some people hated that as it was considered unbecoming for women to be as educated as a man. Here Lyanna and her inner circle of Ladies(Leonette, Desmera, Zelda Rogers, and Margaery) are forming the first bluestocking society in Westeros.

*yes Renly is trying to start a parliament because Westeros needs more than seven people in its central government.