I totally agree with this! I also firmly believe that Brett has unknowingly been in love with Hayden for a long time he just doesn't recognize the emotion. He noticed him first, approached him first, usually reaches out first (especially at the beginning). He (Brett) doesn't think he can give Hayden what he wants and I think he's internally panicking that Hayden will just give up like you said and leave him for good. Brett's doing whatever he can (or what he thinks he can do) to keep Hayden within his grasp.
And I agree with the dominance thing. They're both Alphas after all. Though Hayden hides his alpha-ness, I'm sure he wants to get his way too so he's going to do what he can as well to get Brett to buckle. I don't think Hayden will do any underhanded tricks like Brett does, but he will for sure constantly challenge Brett and remind him of "hey, dude, you came to me first, I'm just trying to get a bit more from you (without all this transactional BS)".
Ultimately, I think the author's plan is to have them both win, in a way. Brett will have to have his come to Jesus moment and realize it is indeed love and not just lust he's feeling towards Hayden while Hayden just needs to realize that Brett didn't come from an environment of natural love so he needs a little compromise too on his side to ease Brett into what will be essentially, I think, Brett's first true relationship with anyone.
Both of you are so geniuses I couldn’t have said it better myself! This was fun to read
This was an amazing breakdown tysm
Thank you for breaking down their dynamics into a more understandable way!
Folks like you who give their time writing down analysis of the story are one of the reasons why I keep reading this story.
Keep seeing comments about how Brett is playing with Hayden but I think that’s a misunderstanding of their conversation. Maybe it’s easier for most of us to identify with Hayden - similar to Hayden, we feel like Brett has all the power right now (we’re also probably more emotional like Hayden lmao)
but imo, Brett IS taking his relationship with Hayden super seriously and is trying to treat Hayden as equally as possible - ie putting tons of effort into thinking about Hayden’s preferences, making sure Hayden’s “career” benefits from associating with him, etc. that’s the main reason why he feels like Hayden is insulting him the whole time in this convo and their prior ones: (1) Hayden claiming that Brett ISN’T taking the relationship seriously when in fact, Brett feels like he’s been putting a lot of effort into it; saying that (2) Brett is using him as a toy as escapism from his boring, high class life, when Brett has been trying hard to treat Hayden as an equal (Brett: “This relationship started only because I tricked you into it. Since then, I’ve tried my best not to be dishonest with you about anything.”)
From Brett’s pov, he knows Hayden wants his love, but as a hyper-rational person, love feels just too abstract for him. It’s not something he feels like he can promise concretely or even fully understand - and for Brett, not delivering on a promise means he’s failed his end of the bargain. So for Brett, being the MOST honest about what he feels like he can give Hayden concretely is his way of respecting Hayden as an equal. It’s also how he’s been taught since young: giving tangible, concrete gifts (““I can’t promise that kind of intangible emotion from my end, nor do I want to”)
Brett doesn’t have that love to give to Hayden, and he’s not sure if he ever will. he thinks that Hayden will be inevitably be disappointed even if he waits for it, and then will leave the relationship, WHICH BRETT DOESN’T WANT!! so Brett is basically like - I know that I can’t give you what you want and that you’ll leave eventually. But I’d like this to last as long as it can, so what can I give you instead? He’s seeing this as a negotiation between two ppl and views Hayden issuing love ultimatums as one-sided, like he’s browbeating Brett over the head and deciding things on his own.
Basically it breaks down to:
For Hayden: I want your (Brett’s) love
For Brett: I don’t want our relationship to end.
In some ways, both are related to dominance. Hayden wants Brett to give his feelings because Brett would actually be giving up something ie. making himself vulnerable and risking himself. Brett doesn’t want Hayden to one-sidedly end the relationship and leave no room for negotiation/prolonging the relationship based on other terms; he doesn’t want to give Hayden the power to set the terms of when the relationship ends.
DELICIOUS DELICIOUS stuff from the author as usual I’m utterly obsessed