#he craves fernando's praise and attention bcs it has to be won over rather than given freely and easily

[skitskatdacat63]

So in the boy king au, we know nando falling in love is a... process. but how long and why does seb fall in love with nando?

Aaaaaagh great question!!!!

Seb is pretty infatuated with Nando from the start, well at least the idea of him. His council does *not* want this marriage to work out(they'd rather get into a war and completely rule Spain, then having to barter for it through marriage like this.) Seb knows this, and he's a little brat who always gets anything he wants, right? So of course when he hears of this, he's now like, *I must have him,* and gets obsessed and fascinated with the idea of Fernando. And he also already remembers Fernando as this older boy he had a silly childish crush on when he was a kid, so that adds to his desire.

I think he definitely also takes to fall genuinely in love with him. That's why there's all that stuff about Fernando just being his "kept wife." Because I think they both have trouble viewing each other as real people, rather than just larger-than-life figures/caricatures. Seb originally just views Fernando as something to be won, something to gain, like obtaining a fancy horse or property, or new title(wink.) And Fernando can't help but just see Seb as a kid playing dress up and pretending to be a ruler, undeserving of everything he has.

I think the way they fall in love is gradually just understanding the humanity of the other. They realize they can both learn valuable things from the other. And that they're more similar than they think, and that they have a lot more in common then they ever would be comfortable admitting. It's hard to put an amount of time duration on it thought, its a gradual thing, y'know? I think though probably they have some outside opposition at some point, and end up defending each other unprompted. Ex:

Someone says Fernando shouldn't be the King of Spain. Seb gets *super* offended and lists a bunch of reasons about why Fernando is fit to be King. It's funny because he wouldn't admit this to Fernando even under duress, but then he willingly defends Fernando in front of the entire court, even though it undermines his own position(bcs he's basically admitting that he has no right to that throne and Fernando always was the rightful ruler.)

Someone accuses Seb of being an immature ruler and not being suited for the position of Emperor. Fernando gets sooooo pissed and is all like "you think my husband isn't suited?? You think I would agree to marry a man who isn't suited to be emperor?? You think I'd willingly demean myself in that way!?" Even though he constantly calls Seb immature and unsuitable to his face. But absolutely God forbid someone else imply that. It's so offense to him because he eventually considers Seb to be an extension of himself, so it's like he's being insulted as well.