[1215 Words]
—Westeros, King's Landing, within the Yard of the Red Keep, 291 AC—
The late evening sun bore down on the Red Keep, casting long shadows across the yard. As Axel and Joffrey stood facing one another in the middle of a circle.
The people in the circle, being some gold cloaks and white cloaks, still as statues, guarding against anything unwanted, and servants in the distance, while some of the braver ones moved closer to see the fight, while King Robert Baratheon and Queen Cersei looked on.
"Ok, after this fight, make sure this won't happen again, am I clear?" As he spoke, his voice sounded throughout the yard like a warhorn.
A few guards flinched at the volume of his voice.
"Yes, Father," he answered quickly and without hesitation, his two-toned eyes locked on Joffrey, waiting for him to agree so they could start.
Joffrey waited a moment longer. His knuckles whitened as he clenched his fist before his gaze moved toward Cersei, who just shook her head. The prince's pride fell like an anchor. He looked down at the grass beneath his boots and murmured, "Yes, Father."
"So begin," Robert said as he chopped his hand down, thus marking the start of the fight.
Axel ran forward right when Robert said, begin. He drew his fist back for a hard strike, turning his shoulder into the blow as he closed the distance between them. Joffrey, who hadn't been in a fight his entire life, flinched and threw up his arms to cover his face, bracing for the hit.
Yet Axel did not throw the punch.
He pulled back his fist a few seconds away from its mark and shifted his weight. In the same motion, he pulled back his boot-clad foot, driving it into Joffrey's leg. The strike landed cleanly.
"AAAAAAAHHH!!!!" Joffrey cried out in pain as his stance broke and his knee buckled beneath him.
Joffrey was the weaker and less trained of the two. When lessons were given in, he had hardly paid them proper attention.
While the master-at-arms instructed and the guards drilled with spear and sword, his mind had wandered. Axel had done the exact opposite. He had listened without distraction and watched the guards train.
Yet Joffrey was not a weakling completely. As he fell to the ground with a cry, he acted quickly, seizing the arm Axel had drawn back to strike. With a pull, he drew Axel down with him, both men hitting the grassy ground together in a tumble.
While Axel was startled and dazed by the fall and the sharp pain that shot through his body from striking the grassy ground, he recovered with startling speed. He rolled over onto Joffrey, forcing him down into the ground while he tried to get back up.
Joffrey, still dazed and blinking against the brightness of the late sun, felt Axel's weight on his waist. He caught a blurred glimpse of Axel's fist rising toward him and, panicked, brought his hands up to shield his face.
"Wai… wai..." he began to shout, voice cracking in surprise, but Axel's fist swung. A right hook, then a left, then right again, each blow landing with all the force he could muster in his small child's body; the hits echoed throughout the yard.
The onlookers froze, watching what could barely be called a fight. It was less of a fight and more like a one-sided beating.
Some spectators looked on with open disgust, murmuring among themselves about a child hitting another so mercilessly. Others looked away, unable to bear the scene, one of them being Cersei, while Robert and Jaime moved swiftly toward Axel.
"Enough, Axel! Get off him, now!" Robert barked, stepping into the fight, his voice booming.
"It's not done yet!" Axel roared, his voice raw and wild. "Let me, ARRRRGGG!!!"
His blue eye seemed to shimmer with a blazing fury, while his green eye dimmed it held a flicker of contempt for Joffrey, like that of a lion facing a challenger, though one clearly unworthy.
Joffrey struggled beneath him, gasping, "Axel… stop… you'll—"
"I said it's not done!" Axel snapped, teeth clenched, body trembling with rage. "You think this ends, no, no, no!"
The witnesses, standing among the gold cloaks and servants, looked on with a mixture of shock, fear, and revulsion. Whispers spread like wildfire: what would this boy become when fully grown, if this was what he could do now?
Cersei's gaze roamed from Axel being dragged away by Robert, to Joffrey, who was supported by Jaime, then back to Axel again.
Her eyes were a storm of emotion, hatred, love, disdain, fear, shame, disgust, all tangled together as she looked at the aftermath of 'Letting them fight it out'.
Robert gritted his teeth. "Axel! Calm down, boy! You're a fool if you think this will help anything!"
Axel twisted, straining against the hold, his voice loud as he shouted. "You don't understand, Father, he deserves this! He..."
"Enough of your words! I will not stand for this either," Cersei said, her voice sharp and ringing through the Red Keep yard, cutting Axel off.
There was pain and disappointment in her voice, and her eyes looked into his, steady and unyielding.
"Bu…" Axel began, the sound barely leaving his lips, but the look in her eyes froze him in place. He lowered his head, his chest tightening, as his blue and green eyes brimmed with unshed tears.
He saw in his mother's eyes not just disappointment, but a quiet anguish, and it hurt much more than any blow he had landed on Joffrey.
"Take him to his apartment, Axel," Cersei said, her voice firmer and commanding. "Stay there, and reflect on your actions."
Normally, Robert might have waved off such reprimands with a laugh or a grunt, but this time Robert said nothing.
Ser Barristan Selmy, in his white cloak, and Ser Janos Slynt, in his gold cloak, stepped forward, bowing slightly to Robert, then gesturing for Axel to follow. Axel's chest heaved with ragged breaths. He closed his eyes, letting the last of his tears slip free before he forced them back.
He sent one last glance at Joffrey, still being supported and steadied by Jaime, eyes swollen and bloodied from the blows. In that moment, Axel's gaze held a flicker of contempt, a spark of lingering anger at his brother. Then, slowly, he turned and followed the white cloak and the gold cloak.
Jaime crouched by Joffrey, brushing dirt and blood from his face and matted hair. "You'll live, little prince," he said softly, voice steady and reassuring.
"That's all that matters." He checked Joffrey's injuries: a busted lip, a swollen jaw, a cut above the eyebrow, and two black eyes already.
Across the yard, Axel walked steadily toward his chambers, escorted by Ser Barristan Selmy and Ser Janos Slynt. His chest rose and fell in deep breaths. A faint spark of hate lingered in his gaze as he considered Joffrey, but then memory flitted across his mind.
Cersei, as a child, when she was hurt by someone, the pain he gave back tenfold. His lips pressed into a thin line, and he shook his head. He would not have brought such brutality to loved ones. Family would never suffer at his hands.
[Author's Note: If you're confused about anything, stick with me, I'm making this as we go! I will most likely have 5-10 chapters ahead of this one saved up on Patreon for those who want to read ahead. Did you like the changes I made? Yes, no leave a comment and tell me I will do what I can, so leave a review and tell me what you may want to see, and as you know, this is a harem, so who would you want in it?
Disclaimer: I have a rough idea of where this is going, but I haven't mapped out every single detail or an overarching idea. So if you have suggestions to make the story better or who you might want to see, please leave a comment and review! Oh, I will be posting 2 chapters a week, Tuesday and Thursday, until I have ten or more chapters saved up, so something like my other fanfics won't happen. I hope you like the story. While I do use AI, I don't think it is slop, and if there is any, I will try to change it and or add humanity into it, but just give me a chance.
Next time: So the next chapters will start right after this, showing the consequences and the reactions of Cersei and others; so I suggest you wait to read it until all chapters are out, and it will be between 3-5. See you then!
Ending Note: Thank you for the support. Have a great( if you're not religious) and or blessed day, and check out my other account where I publish Og novels. It's called Fiction_Dragon! :)]