Joe and Nicky were both in their 30s when they met/died and from societies where sex with people of the same gender was, though not usually life goals, a reasonably acceptable pastime (Joe maybe slightly more than Nicky but there’s plenty of evidence people were engaging in non-heterosexual sex in medieval Europe without significant censure). So it’s easy to imagine that they might have started having sex fairly casually. But marriage/long-term sexual relationships might be in a different mental bucket for both of them.
So imagine they’ve both fully bought into the idea of destiny having brought them together, being immortal brothers-in-arms, meant to wander the world together, etc. But the fact that they occasionally sleep together? That’s not part of their relationship, that’s just a low-risk, low-effort way to get their rocks off. The fact that they’ll sometimes spend three days in bed together when they have the opportunity is neither here nor there. It’s recreation, not romance.
And then...tell us what happens when one or both of them realises that it’s not just convenience, or because immortality has cut them off from normal relationship arcs as expected in their societies. Their relationship, including their sexual relationship, is what they both want, and would choose over anything and anyone else. They’ve invented gay marriage BY ACCIDENT.
Not keen on jealousy or internalized homophobia as major plot points - just their journey to intentionally having a kind of relationship they didn’t initially realise could exist.
Joe/Nicky, realizing they’ve invented gay marriage
So imagine they’ve both fully bought into the idea of destiny having brought them together, being immortal brothers-in-arms, meant to wander the world together, etc. But the fact that they occasionally sleep together? That’s not part of their relationship, that’s just a low-risk, low-effort way to get their rocks off. The fact that they’ll sometimes spend three days in bed together when they have the opportunity is neither here nor there. It’s recreation, not romance.
And then...tell us what happens when one or both of them realises that it’s not just convenience, or because immortality has cut them off from normal relationship arcs as expected in their societies. Their relationship, including their sexual relationship, is what they both want, and would choose over anything and anyone else. They’ve invented gay marriage BY ACCIDENT.
Not keen on jealousy or internalized homophobia as major plot points - just their journey to intentionally having a kind of relationship they didn’t initially realise could exist.