Doing my own version of this post explaining why Mhoirbheinn is so doggone obsessed with Balmoral.
There has always been a rumor mill in regards to the king and his Royal Protector. They appear to be on good terms despite their positions, even bantering and addressing each other in a casual manner. This doesn’t interrupt their business and it’s not as though they are together all the time. So, professionally, no one has any reason to question it.
Most only have a general idea of Balmoral and Mhoirbheinn prior to their current status. They both had served in the military when they were teenagers and by their own skill had worked up to where they are currently. It is difficult recalling a time they weren’t in each other’s company. Some would assume that they were childhood friends but those that have survived long enough could say that it was in through the military that they met and had gotten to know each other.
And that seems…odd in some respects. Because there is unspoken devotion that is carried by both. And because neither speak of it to anyone else, no one truly knows their dynamic. Whether they are simply a chatty royal and their more stoic watchman. They are long time friends that simply continue their shenanigans to this day. If they are dating or simply fucking…no one knows. But there are many bombastic side eyes in regards to the times that they are pointedly alone.
Mhoirbheinn, likewise, had had very few close relationships before meeting Balmoral. Namely only one-- his glamoured mother. Even with the love and care she showed Mhoirbheinn up until her death, even then the years spent together retroactively took on a different tone in Mhoirbheinn's mind after the incident where he removed her glamour and subsequently realized she would, if allowed her own mind again, truthfully always view him as a monster and hate him. He lost her that day in a way far before she was actually cruelly taken from him by his brother.
After that and the following massacre, Mhoirbheinn had nothing. His mother dead, everything and everyone he had ever known all gone. He had never set foot much farther than the manor, and his only purpose in life-- being a potential spare heir-- had been burned to ashes by his own hands. So Mhoirbheinn, in the course of his confinement in the dungeons for the murders, was completely aimless and alone in life. No one to care for him, no one to notice if he even died. But then he met another soldier, one who he'd end up chatting with whenever it was his shift to watch the prisoner.
Mhoirbheinn had never had any friends, much less interacted with anyone his age, but here was this person who was witty and interesting and actually enjoyable to talk to. Mhoirbheinn began to look forward to his visits. Mhoirbheinn would also attempt 'break outs', more exercises in seeing if he could manage it against the soldier more than anything. It was during one of these though, where Balmoral had Mhoirbheinn pinned, weapon to his neck, that the other could have easily slit Mhoirbheinn's throat and be done with it. It'd be the easiest thing, wouldn't it? If Mhoirbheinn actually escaped on his watch, Balmoral would undoubtedly pay for it with his commanders. It was the logical, albeit cold-blooded thing to do, but logical and cold-blooded was Mhoirbheinn always came to expect. It was what he was used to.
That single act of mercy, of a kindness with no obvious benefit from it, some of the first that Mhoirbheinn had ever experienced, was kind of the true start of it all for Mhoirbheinn. Even after his release he found himself gravitating towards Balmoral and staying around him because he had no place else to go in the world. The only, albeit tenuous, tether he had was to this soldier that he was somewhat friendly with and who had been nice to him.
Balmoral came into Mhoirbheinn's life during a time where Mhoirbheinn had lost everything and had nothing else to cling to. Balmoral then became that thing. Regarding the healthiness of Mhoirbheinn so closely attaching himself so wholly to someone this close after a traumatic event while not having had the time to travel and/or grow his experiences and expand his horizons? Wellllll yeahhhhh, not great. There's a definite unhealthy co-dependency that had developed at that time as a result of both of their respective pasts and traumas. Even if neither knew it about the other, they both needed someone who they could be close with and trust him. Mhoirbheinn feels like he owes Balmoral immensely for the support and strength that the other had, even unknowingly, granted him during a very turbulent time in his life.
And whenever Bal looked at him with love in his eyes, his sight was clear and focused-- for the first time in his entire life, eyes that looked at him lovingly without a single trace of glamour within them.
