Head-cannon: Martin was attracted to Jon from long before the archives, but didnât fall for him until Jon, unprompted, gave him practical and kind solutions to his Prentice fears. The fact that he did it in pretty much the same tone he always speaks with to Martin, made Martin scrutinise everything Jon has ever said to him, looking for hopeful signs.
i really like the idea of the at a distance crush and then once jon calmed down for five minutes and actually helped him martin started agonizingly paying attention to every single word out of jonâs mouth for the rest of time. martin probably had a whole He Knows I Exist?? moment when jon brought him on as one of his assistants. additionally, jon letting him stay in the archives was probably another big oh my god does he actually care about me moment for him










