After all of Eraqus's attempts to intimately connect with Xehanort fail and Xehanort even rejects a marriage proposal that Eraqus was certain he would accept, despite Xehanort not knowing at all about the marriage customs of Eraqus's culture (or perhaps in spite of it-- wearing marks of betrothal with no way for Xehanort to know is a great way for him to continue to live in delusion), so Eraqus starts using drastic measures to force Xehanort to rely on him and be vulnerable with him, including inflicting various subtle illnesses and injuries that force Xehanort to let Eraqus take care of him. After they're left as the last of their class and Xehanort's mental health starts degrading, he attempts to leave Eraqus and see the world on his own, but Eraqus, traumatized in his own way by his friends deaths, pushes Xehanort on the rainy cobbles and breaks his back, leaving him with permanent damage and pain. While Xehanort healed, he became frightened that Eraqus would do something like that, and, scared of his friend becoming consumed the way Baldr did, began lying to him and going along with what he said to pacify him. Over time, Xehanort began to piece together that Eraqus had actually been doing this for years, and once his back healed, he confronted Eraqus and escaped. After that, every time they reunited, Xehanort was very aware of Eraqus's attempts to keep him in his grasp. Including this time.
