#fbskrjfbrjfjekfnrjrj
Explore tagged Tumblr posts
Text
You know what I want?
For Crusade!Era Joe x Nicky to just magically show up in 2020. But this is, like, the Yusuf and Nicolo who had just started travelling together a couple of years ago, because they had nowhere to go.
Anyway so cue them watching with all levels of shock as their modern counterparts turn out to be a fucking couple?? Like??
And THEN we get scenes like the following:
-Yusuf calling Nicky all names under the sun, and saying Joe is disgusting for laying with that filthy invader. Sprinkle that with insults towards Nicolo, with little details of things Joe remember Nicky used to do. Cue Joe shoving Yusuf against a wall at some point, âYou are a child. Nicky is a better man that you could ever dream to be. And if you insult him in my presence again, Iâll dump your body in bottom of the Thames.â
-Yusuf realizing that Nicky can understand him and speaks Arabic fluently, when heâs in the middle of muttering curses under his breath and Nicky casually replies to him.
-Nicolo, who had spent the past year filled with guilt re: the crusades, goes to Joe and they have a heart to heart and Nicolo cries and begs for forgiveness. Joe just holds him and says he understands. That he forgave him a long time ago. Nicky, who had come to fetch Joe for dinner, looks at them with a mixture of sadness and relief; he remembers going through that.
-Nicolo going to Nicky and talking about all his catholic guilt. Nicky telling him âI canât tell you what to believe. But I believe in nothing but the love I feel for my family, and the love I have for Joe.â
-Yusuf telling Joe he has a weird accent. Joe saying âIâm speaking your language to you out of courtesy.â And then he just immediately switches to the Arabic/Ligurian dialect that he and Nicky use for each other, and refuses to switch back for the rest of the night. This leaves Nicolo and Yusuf to talk to each other, instead.
-Nicky cooks one of Joeâs favourite foods, which is Yusufâs favourite. Yusuf admits, only to himself and in his head, that that is the best heâs ever had. He eats seconds and thirds. Joe eyes him with a smug smile and he just walks away in a huff.
-Joe and Nicky are in bed, talking. Joe tells him that he canât stand Yusuf. âHeâs so righteous. He thinks he knows everything. I remember that rage, I remember how cruel I was to you for so many years. Long after you stopped being cruel to me. Long after you tried your best to offer olive branch after olive branch. I just- I hate him. I hate that I hurt you so much, for so long.â And they cry and hold each other and thank the universe for who they are now. Nicky asks him to have some empathy for the man he used to be. Yusuf had lost his brothers, his family, everything heâd ever known, because of men like Nicolo. Nicolo had chosen to take up the cross and go and invade a foreign land. Yusufâs hate was justified, and it would eventually come to an end. They cannot undo the past.
-Yusuf feels- resentment? Anger? Jealousy? Because he seems to be the odd man out. Because Joe is so kind to Nicolo, and Nicolo acts like heâs trying so hard to please Joe in return. Nicolo did that sometimes, with him. Tried to offer a truce. But Yusuf had no interest in taking Frank scum as a friend. He doesnât know why it bothers him to see them like that. He doesnât know why it bothers him that Nicky doesnât try to engage him. He wishes he would, so he could yell back. Nicoloâs Arabic rivals that of a child. Itâs hard to argue and yell at someone who canât understand you. Nicky would understand him, though. He could tell Nicky in fine detail, exactly why he hates him so much.
-Nicky is cooking again, and Yusuf quietly sits and watches. Nicky doesnât comment on it, but asks him to pass the salt, if you could.
-They read in the same room, all four of them. Joe and Nicky have no shame in lying piled on top of each other. Yusuf engages in some nice hate watching, and Nicolo is just overall uncomfortable. They leave the couple alone and share a few words in the kitchen, bonding over the strangeness of it all.
-Sparring turns into a blood bath. Itâs just a lesson in sword fighting at first. With Yusuf and Nicolo genuinely interested in learning from men of such skill. And then it turns into Joe going way too hard on Yusuf after he (maybe) accidentally hurts Nicolo. After a snide comment or two (bc Yusuf has a death wish aparently) Joe loses his patience and attacks him. Nicky is the one that gets in between the two and gets hurt defending Yusuf, which Joe feels terrible about. But afterwards, itâs Yusuf who comes to Nicky and offers a begrudging apology.
-Donât ask me how, but Yusuf or Nicolo or both get a glimpse of Joe and Nicky either having sex or starting to. If itâs on purpose or not, only I and god will ever know.
-After the sparring chaos, Yusuf and Nicky have a quiet truce where they cook together. One day, Yusuf speaks up. âI hate you,â he says and then he doesnât stop. He gets it all out. All his feelings and his anger and how dare you come to my people and slaughter them like animals and then ask me to sit by your side, eating dinner as if weâre brothers. And once heâs done, Nicky says âYouâre right.â And Yusuf deflates. Nicky tells him that the crusades were wrong, and that Yusuf is allowed his anger, and that Nicolo already knows he was wrong. It changes nothing, and yet it changes everything.
-Yusuf starts seeing Nicolo through the colours of Nickyâs words. He sees the guilt and the pain and the reluctance. He also sees the resignation. Nicolo expects nothing from Yusuf but harsh words; not only that but deep inside he feels they are deserved. And they are! But Yusuf didnât think he knew that. But he does. He does. And maybe-
-Itâs easier, somehow, to not be so cruel all the time. But it feels like betrayal in way. A betrayal to his people and his brothers. That heâd forget what the enemyâs done. That heâd see the enemy as anything other than the monsters who took what was not theirs. But itâs easier. Itâs easier to ask Nicky what that spice is called. And to correct Nicolo when he pronounces a word wrong. And to get him a glass of water when heâs gotten one for himself.
-Joe doesnât forgive him. Forgive him-? Joe doesnât like him, is the thing. But one day, Yusuf goes to him and they sit outside, and they drink wine, and Yusuf asks him how he could look his mother in her eyes, knowing that he was walking the earth arm in arm with one of the men who killed her sons. And Joe remembers thinking that. Joe thinks of Booker and betrayal and lying in bed with oneâs enemies. What Joe says is, âYou cannot change whatâs happened. You cannot die. Nicolo cannot die. You are bound to him, and he to you.â He pauses and looks directly at Yusuf. âAre you the same man you were yesterday? Have you never made mistakes? No one feels the guilt of the crusades as deeply as Nicolo does. You do not have to forgive him. But you need to let him show you that he can change. That he already has.â
-That night, Joe calls Booker. Itâs the first time theyâve spoken in a decade.
-Months go by, and Yusuf asks Nicky to teach him some Ligurian words. Nicky doesnât comment on the significance of it. He sits down, grabs a book, and reads to him.
-Itâs about s year since they had landed in the 21st century, and Yusuf comes to Joe with a request. And thatâs how Joe sits between the two of them, playing interpreter. Itâs the first real conversation that Nicolo and Yusuf have ever had. Their voices raise and at one point Yusuf gets up in anger, but he comes back and sits down and tries again.
-Nicoloâs Arabic becomes passable. He speaks to Joe extensively every day. Yusuf has to admit, itâs impressive. Yusuf knows all but a couple dozen phrases in Ligurian, but every time he speaks them, Nicolo stares at him with something quiet, intense.
-They donât mind the affections between Joe and Nicky anymore. Itâs become common place. If tension grows between Nicolo and Yusuf, neither speak of it. When Yusuf and Joe are alone, Joe is unbearably smug about it. He never says it, but Yusuf can read the expression on his own face.
-Joe and Nicky leave for a mission. Theyâll be gone a week. Nicolo and Yusuf now have the words to speak to each other and, without an audience, they do so freely. They argue a lot. Nicolo cries and Yusuf cries and they drink themselves into peace again. But like magnets, they find each other much as their counterparts have. Itâs messy and confusing, but it just- fits.
-Itâs almost as if Joe and Nicky had to be there to say goodbye. Because they come back, and they notice the shorter space between Yusuf and Nicolo. Nickyâs mouth twitches in one of his small smiles, but Joe just huffs a laugh and says something in his dialect that Yusuf cannot understand. And if they wait for Joe and Nicky to retire before they allow themselves to sit close to one another again, no one needs to know. And if they bring their cots together in the night, no one needs to know. But thatâs how they rise again, back to their home. And itâs bright out and itâs quiet, and thereâs no tv and no electric lights and no radio. And Yusuf and Nicolo know that the hard work starts now, but theyâre gonna be ok.
Ok fuck I accidental turned this into a compete fic outline and now IM ACTUALLY CONSIDERING WRITING IT fuck it was just suppose to be a head canon. Fuuuuuck.
#kaysanova#joe x nicky#immortal husbands#the old guard#tog#my fics#Jesus fuck#now I wanna write this#also I fucking love time travel#and amnesia fics#and multiverse fics#for this exact reason#I just love chars confronting their own future#fbskrjfbrjfjekfnrjrj
121 notes
¡
View notes