#tw:fertility issues

[artemis-red-hotd]

a lucemond a/b/o curse + arranged marriage concept

(mostly sfw. cw: loss of primary genders, loss of fertility, potential body dysphoria but non explicit)

A flip + exploration of the fics I've liked where someone from non-omegaverse finds themselves in omegaverse and suddenly presents & has to adapt to having an a/b/o gender. This is the reverse idea, where in an a/b/o universe, everyone loses their primary gender hormones and most people become an intersex beta essentially, with male/female reproductive capabilities becoming dominant. I had a world-building brainrot going but a chunk of it will be hand waved. ====

Westeros is in omegaverse. Lucemond have been married for a year and have been told to have a child to remove the still lingering tension between the two sides of the family due to the conflicted relationship between Lucerys and Aemond. It would be good for the realm if two of its princes' were not on the brink of murder at every turn. Queen Rhaenyra, as an alpha, took power mostly uncontested.

Then, one day, a magical curse sweeps over the land, and people lose their a/b/o gender. Those who were carrying a pregnancy make it to term, but have to watch the world change around them, knowing that a ticking clock will catch up to them once they give birth.

Lucerys and Aemond have been sharing the marriage bed, but have not had a child after a year as they have been taking moon tea in secret, not wanting to be parents so early into the marriage. But, following this curse upon the lands, they, and everyone else, finds themselves to be betas. Or something close.

Their mating bites no longer tingle, the heats and ruts no longer bond alpha and omega. Their primary gender hormones have stopped producing. There is no more slick to ease the way, and no more knots to keep mated pairs tightly bound together, murmuring to each other in the moonlight after their passions were consummated. The world shifts. Their second gender hormones kick in, bringing upon slight changes in their physiology. It is a struggle for all, but no one is going through it alone. The betas guide them through the change, being in the best position to lend their expertise.

It will take a while for people to understand that secondary genders now dominate and determine who can carry children. Female alphas find themselves unable to breed their female omega lovers. Male omegas find themselves able to impregnate others.

Lucerys and Aemond navigate this new world, in horror, knowing that a civil war between the Queen and Otto would be the last thing the realm needs right now, as Queen Rhaenyra’s reign goes on, formerly unquestioned as she was an alpha. What changes now that she's essentially a beta?

Since everyone is a beta, people thankfully look up to the Queen, as she goes through the same event as everyone else.

Lucerys, in secret, prays for his omega to return, so that his husband may feel the mating pull towards him again. So that he has a reason to spend the nights with him.

Aemond, in secret, misses the scenting most of all, misses the honey and ash scent of his omega. It's different, being around him, without their fated bond keeping them together. Sex doesn't feel the same. It requires lubrication now.

That is one industry that booms after this curse.

Its more than politics. They have mated. Quite happily, for the most part. They were compatible, as alpha and omega. Passionate.

But without their scents intermingling, without their bodies slotting together easily like puzzle pieces, without that mating bite chaining them to eachother, its just different.

They look at each other across the table, as they listen to their Queen talk about how things have changed across the Realm. The maesters have concluded that male pairs, regardless of their previous genders, cannot have children with each other. It is a shock to the system. No combination of former primary genders with the secondary male gender can have children?  How bizarre, to lose all of those pairing combinations. To have this one trait dominate.

Jace, a beta, is the only one unperturbed at the news. Aegon, his ex-omega, already has two children, so they may remain together for their family. Lucerys eyes his brother’s exhale of relief in jealousy, glancing across the table.

Aemond would surely want to be remarried to a female now, so that he may continue his line. It would make their alliance more tenuous, they were the biggest danger to the family, after all. Lucerys took his eye, earning his ire, and Aemond attacked him with Vhagar, killing Arrax. The pair was at each other's throats, unable to be in the same room together, before they were betrothed to marry to avoid war between their families.

But that was two years ago. Lucerys curses himself for taking moon tea in that first year now, before the thought of carrying Aemond’s child didn’t turn both of their stomachs in disgust. Things had been different, recently. But then the curse stole their alpha and omega.

But the Queen wants them both to be released from their forced marriage. They should have a chance at children, if they so wished, she says.

The Queen had never been opposed marriages between infertile pairs before the magic came of course. With so many combinations of genders, how could it matter, when the hormones and mating bites brought people together regardless?

Two beta males were always allowed to marry of course, though it was a rare match, almost unheard of. There weren't that many betas to begin with. Why marry if you have no inherent hormonal compatibility, no scents to attract each other, no mating bite pulling you together even against your will?

Marriage between female and male betas had been more common due to the chance of pregnancy. Lucerys had tried to imagine how different it must feel to be a beta. Definitely more free time, without the heats and ruts. But he enjoyed those moments of unending passion with his husband. Now, he knows.

What would be left, between them? Lucerys feels tears well in his eyes. He could still have children, if he remarried. As their alpha sire-… no. Their father. A strange thought. He could try. But he would have to separate from Aemond.

“No, sister,” says Aemond, cutting through the terse silence at the dining table. He hastily corrects himself. “Your Grace.”

“You do not wish to remarry, Aemond?” says Rhaenyra.

“What of the alliance, your Grace,” says Lucerys. He was never one to be quiet about politics, even with the omega hormones in his system, making him sweet and submissive to his alpha. Only for his alpha.

That was one of the biggest changes. He had argued with Aemond the night before, and they were not able to scent each other to calm down. They had slept in separate rooms instead. It had stung.

“I release you two from it. I trust our family has healed enough for this. That you are both wiser now. The realm does not need your marriage,” says the Queen. “Besides, keeping you together without the mating bond and the chance to sire children… it might make things worse.”

Lucerys swallows the lump in his throat, watching Aemond take in her words across from him, only an arm’s length away. He wants to grab him. Pull him close into a hold like a cage. Afraid, suddenly.

“It would set a bad precedent,” says Aemond carefully “to immediately disintegrate a marriage alliance just because our secondary genders have overtaken our primary ones. What of the stability of the realm? Of the lords? The curse might reverse itself yet. I believe it is best to keep our marriage alliance, as an example. When the realm is stable again, considerations may be made for future weddings.”

Lucerys exhales, in relief, watching Aemond’s eye as it stays fixed on his mother, not looking at him. The only tell is that Aemond’s hand is trembling, just a bit, on the table top. Lucerys feels his heart swell in hope.

“Lucerys,” says the Queen, eyeing her half brother in suspicion. “You should also have a chance to remarry and sire children if you so wish, as your secondary gender allows it. Your former alpha should not have the only say in the matter.”

Lucerys can feel Aemond’s eye, the one he had left him with, bore into the side of his neck, where his fading mating bites are imprinted. The hormonal possessiveness is taking longer to fade in the former alpha, it seems. Lucerys wonders why.

“What Aemond says is true. We need to set an example. Do you want all alphas to put away their omega spouses, when our society has afforded different roles to omegas and alphas their whole lives? Different expectations and opportunities? Even if you have fought against it, mother. It would be chaos. No, we must do this slowly. Aemond and I should remain married to show that stability and harmony can remain, even amongst former alpha and omega pairs,” says Luke.

Everyone at the table stares.

“We heard the shouting, last night,” says Jace, breaking the silence. “It generally devolves into mating, but this time wasn’t the case. We are worried that you two will kill each other some day. And we assumed you would prefer to separate, given the chance. You are both Targaryens. You may do as you wish.”

“I have made my wishes clear,” says Aemond, finality in his voice. He ignores the looks of disappointment from his mother and grand sire.

“And I, mine,” says Lucerys.

That is the end of it. Lucerys feels sick with relief, but he isn’t sure why.

He and Aemond's politics were in agreement. But Lucerys' motivations had been personal. He was no longer compatible with Aemond, in the way fated alpha and omega pairs were. Their pull was different. But…

But.

That night, they layed in their bedchambers, side by side, speaking softly to each other in the dark space between them, hands roaming over flesh, gently, as they had always done, back when they had to wait for Aemond’s knot to deflate.

Aemond presses his face into Lucerys’ chest, and Luke feels a tug on his heart, as if they were mated once again. But it wasn’t that same pull, it was a different one, present before but muted under the inferno of need that was their primary gender hormones.

Lucerys lets his fingers comb through Aemond’s hair, and whispers into the crook of his ear, telling him about the future they could still share together. A different one. They would have to adopt their children, but they could do that, they were not in line for the throne. Aemond tightens his hold around Lucerys’ waist, telling him that he would like that. He still wanted that one day. He just wanted Lucerys.

When they kiss in the darkness of the room that night, illuminated only by the soft moonlight dancing across their bare skin, they whisper reassuring words into the space between them. Some things were different. But they would make it work. They were meant to be together. They would fight for it, when the time came.

When their bodies meet and their hearts swell for each other, singing the same song that has always existed between them, they hear it clearly, even without the haze of heat or rut fueling the intimacy between them.

A song without words that they both know the melody of: no matter how much their world changes, in every universe, as long as its the two of them, some things will always be the same.

[missxrivera]

22: Do you want to have kids? How many?

"I would love kids. I was worried once that I wouldn't be able to get pregnant again, but I did look into it and I found out I'd be able to. I haven't found the right person to have a child with though. I had found someone once. But we aren't in a place to have kids together with the way things are with us. I still maintain he would have been an amazing dad though. @buddywellls