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Paul and Duncan had always been close, it was inevitable really. From the moment Paul had been old enough to begin training, Duncan had become the unofficial friend, confidante, and teacher of the boy.
This was encouraged by everyone involved in the boy’s care, especially the Duke. Leto could not have asked for a better outcome, Duncan was loyal in a way that was rare, it was a loyalty that surpassed all. He would never he bribed, never be turned, never be swayed.
He was Duke Leto’s man from the moment they’d met, and no one was truly surprised when that loyalty transferred to Paul, the boy would after all take his father’s place one day. Duncan served House Atreides, whether that be father or son. And that was that.
And so, no one noticed anything unusual about their relationship, the boundaries of student and teacher firmly in place even if perhaps the lines were occasionally blurred when a true, solid friendship bloomed between the pair.
Truly Leto was simply happy his son had found a friend, someone to confide in, someone who would keep his secrets. It was this happiness, combined with the refusal to believe his boy was in fact becoming a man that blinded Leto, and perhaps the entire Atreides court to the unusually close nature of the pair.
If Leto had to put a finger on the exact moment he knew things had gone too far it would have to be just after Paul’s eighteenth birthday. Duncan had been gone for just over seven months, away on a border patrol mission for one of the great houses, an old favour Leto had been called in to repay. It was the longest he’d been away from Caladan since he’d first arrived.
In that time a long belated growth spurt had been granted to Paul, causing him to shoot up like a weed making him now head shoulders taller than Leto himself. Even Gurney was now shorter than the young man. Although he hadn’t realised just how much his boy had changed until the call of Duncan’s return had been announced in the mid-morning.
Leto had headed down to the flight deck, wanting to greet his old friend personally. He’d arrived in the hanger just as Paul had jogged in, slightly out of breath and unkept. He was in a loose fine cotton shirt and comfortable brown pants, his training gear. And for the first time Leto was struck by the change in his son.
There had been more than a growth spurt at work in the last few months he realised. Paul panted, mouth slightly open as he caught his breath, and thin sheen of sweat visible on his collar bone. Gurney had been working him hard, making sure his training didn’t slip in the absence of Duncan. His hair curled, untamable and wild with dark eyes lidded under eyelashes that would make any woman jealous as they shone with excitement and something else, something Leto couldn’t place. His skin was dusted with freckles and a smile pulled at soft, pink lips.
The air was pushed out of Leto’s lungs as it hit him. Paul had grown to be beautiful. He suddenly had no doubt when the time came the daughters of the high houses would be smashing at the castle gates for a chance to marry Paul Atreides. His son had grown up.
No longer his boy, but a man. Leto was too busy reeling from his unwanted discovery that he missed the ship landing down in the hanger and Duncan climbing out. It was only with Paul’s yell that he pulled his attention back in time to see it.
Paul raced across the hanger floor, yelling the warrior’s name and Duncan opened his arms and hauled the younger man up into the air in a crushing hug.
He spun Paul around laughing out a “My boy! So good to see you.”
Paul returned the hug and buried his face in the older man’s neck and for the second time that morning, Duke Leto’s stomach dropped. He had seen the two greet each other the same way before, however with the recent changes in Paul the once warm gesture between student and teacher now looked - improper- was the word that came to mind.
Leto didn’t have to be a Bene Gesserit mind reader to know the sentiment was shared by everyone watching, he heard Gurney’s slight suck of air next to him and noticed three infantry men avert their eyes to avoid looking at the spectacle.
The only thing Leto could do, was hope things had not progressed passed the realm of intervention. And as he watched his son hang on to every word that came out of Duncan Idaho’s mouth the only thought running through his head was let it be a crush. Let it be unrequited. Let it be a passing fancy that will burn bright and quick before fading like all those first loves do.
He swallowed heavily, sharing a concerned side eye with Gurney and tried to breathe through the tightness in his chest as another truth scratched at the edges of his mind. Atreides’s do not love in half measures. They do not love easily or flippantly.
And as he watched Duncan gently push a stray curl out of Paul’s face, his son laughing loudly at something the older man had said, he had a feeling he’d lost this battle before he’d even knew it was being fought.