As loved as Leo was, and between his father and his mother, such a statement can be disputed, there is a dark side to him. There is something evil and foul that had been nurtured in the cutthroat environment of the court of Nohr and the dispute for the throne against his brother.
A dispute that he lost, but there is no bitterness in his heart over that fact, at least not for itself. Obviously, there was no doubt the love and loyalty he had for his brother, and that fact was plain for anyone to see. He served as a minister and a general, and he has done his job in those positions to the best of his abilities, as well as being quick into suppressing any dissent that might have looked upon him as a favourable alternative.
His loyalty and service to King Xander's court was well-known and obvious all over the realm. What did not have the same degree of transparency and respectable nobility, however, were the shame and regret he felt in yearning for Lady Corrin, his brother's wife.
When his brother dies, Leo mourned. He never truly recovers from it, nor would any of his sisters, even as the kingdom moves on and things return to a state of normality, just with a different head under the crown. His.
However, amongst his bereavement, in the corner of his eyes, standing in a dark corner of the castle, he sees her. The object of his desire finally in the grasp of his hands.
As per agreement, Siegbert and Kana, her children, were passed over to the new king as his heirs. He was unmarried and had no intention on having descendancy, so for him, it was very convenient that Xander managed to take his duty off of him before his untimely passing. He has also pledged to take care of the Queen Dowager, not in the way his forebearers usually handled it, but granting her a stipend and allowing her to remain in the castle.
Perhaps allowing is too generous of a word. He prefers it to be so, but intellectual honesty compels him to correct it to command, but solely in the privacy of his own thoughts. He would not allow her to retire from courtly life, in any case, and the fact he remains unmarried and shall be so for the foreseeable future makes it easy to argue that she must remain in her old role.
On the night after the day the appropriate mourning period ends, a knock is heard at the Dowager Queen's bedchamber.
Left with a diminutive staff, Corrin tries to hide her surprise by opening her own chamber doors to see King Leo at the step. She welcomes him as he takes a seat and she serves him tea. A single cup, as she has no more boiled water and no-one to fetch it from the kitchens.
He just wants to talk, he says. As the people and the nobles shed their mourning whites, things take another significance, and he does not know if he is ready just yet to face their new reality. It feels too fresh, too foreign still, even if it has been the better part of a year in this state of affairs.
The two of them rekindle a bond that has been severed due to their diverging schedules, and soon enough his visits become quite frequent. Servants flood the chambers once again, and every other night, after dinner, dessert is had in that small coffee table.
It started with the two of them bonding over the fond memories with Xander. Soon, the topics starts to change. With that, new activities are proposed, and she is seen with the king by the court often. Tongues loosen and conjectures are made, but, again, dissent is quickly and swiftly supressed, with much more brutality than they were in years past.
Corrin tries to not raise a brow when Leo offers to walk alongside her to and from the dining hall. When his touches start to linger. The way he looks at her, with so much intensity that leaves you with a warm and nauseating feeling. It was wrong, to start to long for your husband's brother, dead he may be.
The lines of familiarity and amity began to blur when, in the privacy of her chambers, always her chambers, the king gifted her a beautiful necklace for her second birthday after widowhood. Turning her back to him as he places it around her neck, she does not miss the brief touches as he does so.
It becomes impossible to ignore all that she graciously pretended not to be there, and she throws herself to the profanity of it all.
When Corrin turns back to face him, her stomach flutters under his gaze. Her deceased husband loved her, she loved him, and it is hard to deny that the Royal Blood of Nohr is not strong, because Leo looks just like his brother, and he gazes at her just like his brother did. She misses it, she misses it too much.
Then, the regret seeps in when the man closes the distance. She melts under his touch. Feeling the kiss become more and more passionate, she finally finds the strength and moral fibre to pull away.
This was wrong, she told him. His hand gently cradled her face, lips brushing close to hers, yet not quite fully touching. He is letting her make the choice. Deny him, the voice in the back of her head tells her, but, in desperation for touch, to feel loved once again, it was her who closed the gap this time.
His hand reach for the back of her dress and the widow lets him. She pushes aside all the guilt and shame, allowing herself to indulge in the pleasure overtaking her.
Marry me, he utters under his breath, mouth pressed to her bare skin.
Unfortunately, she never had the heart to tell this to her children, in fear of their rejection. She forces them to find out when the king announced the union between himself and Corrin. She tries to tell them it was all done under an agreement. Leo had no choice in the matter, the marriage is all for political reasons. At least that is what he told her.
How can her look them in the eye ever again, when the king hosts a feast for the newly-wedded couple, when the seers predict a fruitful match?
When Leo, at the feast, proudly announces Corrin as the expecting mother of his heir?