This is definitely making it into my fic, but I really like the idea that Nicky and Joe both dreamed about each other before they met. Like they were both living in these restrictive highly religious societies controlled by layers and layers of dogma and just falling asleep at night dreaming of this other man who is not only your foreign enemy but also the other piece of your soul? Your lover?
Can you imagine how much internalized hatred you’d have for that part of yourself because of the religious upbringing and then to meet that part of yourself on a battlefield, a part of you you’d thought was a devil or a demon playing some cruel sick joke with your head. There’d be fucking rage. You’d want to kill this part of yourself. This thing that every facet of your society has told you is wrong.
And when you realize you can’t kill this man... suppose all that’s left is to love him for the rest of eternity.
