relationship: leo & kana

tags: post-fire emblem fates: birthright. father-son relationship. slice of life. family fluff.

chapters: 1/1

a/n: this is set on the birthright route for no other reason than @abejavatareada and i prefer post-birthright leokamu.

summary:

King Leo is having his most absurd and perfect afternoon: dragged to the library by his youngest son with a very serious mission.

Like with fem!Corrin, Leo can excuse their older siblings’ favoritism toward her a bit more, because “oh, this must just be how they treat little sisters.”  Because they also coddle Elise, it must be a gendered thing--little sisters just get treated differently than little brothers.

But with male!Corrin, it’s like “but he’s both a boy and older than me, so why is he getting treated so differently?”  I feel like Leo would resent him more than he would if Corrin was a sister.  He justifies it to himself by telling himself “I’m stronger than he is, so I’m capable of standing alone” but it still hurts, and he’s still jealous.

I’m just interested in the way their dynamics would differ--I feel like the secret envy/bitterness would have a slightly different flavor to it..  Obviously, Corrin’s persistent earnestness wears Leo down and he comes to care about Corrin just as much as his siblings do, but it’s very much against his will at first.

(He still decides to sneak Corrin out of the Northern Fortress to show him a bit of the outside world.  Corrin still disguises himself as a maid in this plan because, idk, that was the only uniform that Leo could get hold of, or that’s what he tells himself.  It’s definitely not because Corrin is just... very pretty.  Unfairly so.  What does he even need to be pretty for?  *grumble grumble*)

Niles definitely catches onto Leo’s little crush very quickly upon meeting him and hearing him talk about Corrin even once, and way before Leo himself has any idea. I feel like Leo is more oblivious to his own feelings for longer if it’s male!Corrin, just because... that’s not how things are done.  He’s royalty, he’s going to marry a woman someday for political reasons, so having a crush on a guy, much less his “brother”... It’s just not a possibility on his radar.  Niles throws him a lot of knowing smirks and teasing remarks that Leo does not understand, but also doesn’t directly tell Leo “hey, you’ve got feelings” because--

Camilla would also figure it out before Leo does, and also likes to smile knowingly and tease him about it.  She finds it fun, watching him puzzle over why Corrin keeps getting stuck in his head, so she told Niles not to tell Leo and just let him figure it out for himself.