Can you tell us the moment Nesta realizes she might have a crush on Tarquin pls? 🥺
So, there are two distinctive moments, the first of which happens off-page. I talked about it here, but to recap, their first meeting goes something like this: Nesta is called by Library business, there is an extremely tense, messy moment where Tarquin (and, importantly, Cresseida) realize the Librarian of the Ten Thousand, sacred knowledge walking, the salvation of their continent, is Feyre Archeron’s god damned sister.
Nesta has absolutely no time for this. She’s not Feyre, and she just wants to do her damned job.
Which leads them to Nesta in the surf, hands-on curse breaking, half-soaked and ruthless.
Tarquin, after a solid stunned moment of the sheer Nesta/Feyre dissonance, goes after her. He might leave some of his fancy clothes on the shore. He is ABSOLUTELY gleaming gorgeous beneath the sun, and he thinks, hmm, she’s not even looking at me.
Meanwhile, the claxons are sounding in Nesta’s head. Sirens wailing. She’s SO MAD Helion did not warn her. She’s SO MAD that Tarquin is..like that..right here...in front her! Sea water dripping from his dark, dark skin, silver hair shining, perfect white grin while Nesta saves his people, absolutely unafraid and willing to get his hands dirty.
All faeries are hot, so it’s rare that someone actually gets to Nesta? But Tarquin has landed without even trying.
That’s moment one. By the opening of Shoreless Sea, Nesta has already ceded to interest. Sexy, sexy, frustrated interest.
But what really shifts things from just attraction to something real is the moment Nesta realizes that Tarquin respects her. Not the Library- her, as a person.
It’s been sort of..trickling in? He’s kind. He likes talking to her and is actually enjoyable to speak with. Funny. Smart. The bullshit that surrounds most High Lords just doesn’t seem to exist beneath the summer sun.
Interest, that is clawing at Nesta: the thing with humans. the way Tarquin looks at sea monsters. His careful hands, steady power.
He keeps showing up. And it could have been merely flirty, could have been a High Lord keeping an eye on a foreign power, or even just friendship- but Nesta realizes by day fifteen or so, that he keep showing up because he wants to, but Tarquin is also actively trying to make sure he never interrupts her work.
Is just waiting for, looking out for, any signal she wants him to stop.
Sometimes, he brings her coffee. Once it was a suspiciously giant silk over shirt as the sun was setting. A hat, the day after her’s had blown away, freckles already turning to copper gold on her cheeks.
But sometimes, if Nesta is busy, or in the middle of something, or merely a rare moment of calm- Tarquin just stops. A smile, a nod, an acknowledgement across a room or a beach, sought out like it mattered so much to see her, but not so much he’d disturb her, demand anything as was his due.
Teal eyes find her, warmer than the sun, and Nesta realizes she doesn’t want him to stop at all.
