My problem. With Niccolo/Yusuf content is this. I want good enemies to friends to lovers (or enemies to enemies who fuck to lovers) slow-burn fic. But in much of the fic I've encountered thus far, the burn is way too fast. Like, a decade or two. A handful of years, even. /Under/ a year. Thing is... Guys, they are immortals. They are canonically hundreds of years old. /Do you realize how slow you can make that burn/!? How much you can truly delve into the nitty-gritty of relationship development? If it takes anything less than 50 years for them to get together, don't @ me
ok so first off you’re absolutely right. also, there’s the whole nature of their meeting which. was less than ideal, to say the least and the amount of missed opportunity for exploration into the actual crusades instead of random marketplaces just left of jerusalem is honestly criminal in my opinion
personally one of my biggest problems with crusade-era fics is that a lot of people write yusuf as a sort of way to relieve nicolò’s guilt? ya know, giving him a big ol’ bear hug and telling him that he couldn’t have known (he absolutely did) and that the crusades weren’t his fault (okay fine they weren’t but still), which really bothers me. because nicky’s a fucking crusader! which entails more than h/c fuel and an anecdote for the new immortal over dinner!
(not saying writing yusuf as nice is wrong, or that he absolutely has to be an asshole, because he doesn’t—especially if people are going off the comics where he reached out first. just a personal gripe of mine)
but, yeah. the slow, slow, SLOW burn potential. . . lads. 80 years or nothing 😤
on the other hand though enemies-to-lovers speedrun is the funniest shit i’ve heard all year so
