#homewell

The Stormfront crush was a little different. But I can see him being giddy about seeing her, too — we know he was pathetic about her, after all. Sending flowers and being embarrassed about it when he has time to overthink it. Awesome. You know he’s standing next to her and trying to subtly shift so their arms are brushing while pretending to look somewhere else and secretly hoping she’ll return the touch for some secret pda. (the cute part is that she DID indulge him. Patting his thigh during the interview, you know he was sweating with excitement)

I struggle to imagine what he was like with Maeve, but if we take his moments with Stormfront, I could imagine it being similar. Except the smooth little “shuffling closer” probably did NOT work because she would’ve ignored it. I do think that this could explain his controlling behaviour. We (again) see it with Stormfront: he’s vulnerable, realises that that’s failed (her not being around all day, IGNORING his flowers!), and tightening his grip on her in the process (the fear of looking like a fool, having been too soft etc turning into possessiveness and aggression until she soothes him. We can do a hen/egg discussion here since this comes after he’s been ‘betrayed’ by Madelyn and Maeve, but I could imagine him acting like that from the start). With all of that being said, my point is that him being like this with Maeve could point to the fact that he WAS similarly vulnerable with her. But also - Getting to hold her hand for the camera and being so giddy about it, getting a little too hyped with the crowd, "HeheHEY it's so GREAT to see you all here, here with my WONDERFUL- Isn't she just awesome, guys? Queen Maeve!" etc. While she's smiling through it.. Tom Cruise Katie Holmes behaviour.

as for non-canon ships

Sage is fun because he'd have this whole thing of We have to be cool. It's fine. She'll NOTICE we have to be cool. There's nothing to be uncool about, she's nobody, we MADE her, we, oh, oh God. -- I could actually see him overcompensating and being deliberately professional with her, not touching her at all, treating her like he doesn't care at alllll, she's just his smart little advisor, and he's so tense by the end of it that he has to go to his suite and crawl right under his blanket, flag and all, and hide his face for a bit. Oh god she did smell nice again. Did she notice? No. We were so subtle. She's not THAT smart.

I think he could be pissed about it with Annie. Getting angry at himself and her because he can't get at her (Hughie Campbell!!!! growl!). So for her I could actually see him twisting that feeling until he gets satisfaction out of hurting her. But it's still kind of there, simmering in the pit of his stomach. They're playing big happy family on the red carpet, she stumbles little (maybe A-Train nudged her out of the way) and he gets to put his arm! around her! to steady her. Warm soft little star, her hair close to his face. He chews her out for it later (biting her plush lip, shoulders tense) and promptly forces her to stumble himself, next time around. Both of their hearts pounding, almost in time with each other.