1 - 20 of 33 Bookmarks by thewanderingmind
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His plans are derailed when he sees Nicky heading into the fitness suite, already wrapping his knuckles as he walks. The stretch of his shoulders is obscene in his compression shirt. Joe tries to ignore the sense memory of all that skin and strength under his hands.
The gentle way Nicky handled him still rankles at Joe, still sticks out in his mind like a thorn, and there’s no better way to show him that he doesn’t need it than to give him a proper demonstration.
Joe tries to understand his relationship with Nicky.
A mission gets in the way.
Series
- Part 5 of it's such an almighty sound
- Language:
- English
- Words:
- 52,746
- Chapters:
- 7/7
- Comments:
- 447
- Kudos:
- 1,183
- Bookmarks:
- 156
- Hits:
- 20,164
Bookmarked by thewanderingmind
18 Apr 2026
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It’s unfortunate that Nicky was at the same nightclub as him tonight, that Joe spotted him across the room throwing back shots, that Joe was unable to look away from the long line of his throat. It’s even more unfortunate that Nicky caught his eye and smiled so fucking widely before coming over to greet him; there was no polite way to escape the interaction, and all Joe could do was match Nicky shot for shot.
Nicky’s hand was clumsy on his arm, Nicky’s breath was mostly vodka ghosting over his face, when he leaned close and asked Joe if maybe he’d like to get out of there.
Joe was drunk as fuck and unable to say anything besides, “Sorry, I don’t fuck Christian missionaries.”
(In which Nicky thinks the mission trips he went on as a teen are a net positive for the world and Joe has a problem with that. (Un)Fortunately, it's not enough to stop him from hooking up with Nicky.)
- Language:
- English
- Words:
- 11,963
- Chapters:
- 1/1
- Collections:
- 1
- Comments:
- 111
- Kudos:
- 870
- Bookmarks:
- 183
- Hits:
- 8,434
Bookmarked by thewanderingmind
29 Dec 2025
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Nicky has not been particularly successful in life: unlucky in love, a struggling small business owner, something of a doormat. But perhaps that luck will change after internationally-renowned movie star, Yusuf al-Kaysani, walks into his used bookshop.
Bookmarked by thewanderingmind
12 Dec 2025
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There, in black ink, stood a name in clean, tall Latin letters.
Nicolò.
Yusuf swallowed. The name felt heavy on his tongue, and his heart skipped a beat.
“Ah,” Yusuf’s baba said solemnly. “I think it is safe to assume that your worst enemy goes by the name of Nicolò. I will pray to Allah that he may merely be someone you meet on a trade trip across the sea, and that this name does not forebode anything more sinister.”
Yusuf nodded, and he let his baba turn over his right arm carefully towards the light, so they could read the name written there.
“Now, my son,” Yusuf’s baba said in a joyful tone, “let us see if we know your beautiful soulmate already, or if you will have to be patient a little longer.”
The rosy light of dawn crept through the windows, and neither his baba nor Yusuf had any trouble reading his Mark. For on Yusuf’s right arm, in the same bold black letters, stood the name again.
Nicolò.
***
Or, Yusuf is confused by the soulmarks on his arm. He is even more confused when he notices Nicolò's arms.
- Language:
- English
- Words:
- 10,229
- Chapters:
- 1/1
- Comments:
- 157
- Kudos:
- 1,498
- Bookmarks:
- 274
- Hits:
- 10,715
Bookmarked by thewanderingmind
25 Nov 2025
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The Perpetual Motion Machine by GrinAndBearIt, paperstorm
Fandoms: The Old Guard (Movie 2020), The Old Guard (Comics)
28 Feb 2021
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In 1099, Yusuf and Nicolò meet during the siege of Jerusalem, as they drive their swords through each other and awaken when they shouldn't. In 2020, Joe and Nicky snuggle happily on a beach in Genoa, ignored by the strangers surrounding them and the sun setting across the water. In between, they see the passing of eleven centuries. They live through wars, earthquakes, pandemics, art movements, the age of explorers, devastating loss, political revolution, new family members, and gay nightclubs. With them all along is a love that transcends time and space; that settles heavily into their souls and exists regardless of when or where they are. Years pass, one era fades into another, and no matter what happens they always, always choose each other. Perpetually.
- Language:
- English
- Words:
- 53,487
- Chapters:
- 11/11
- Collections:
- 1
- Comments:
- 143
- Kudos:
- 336
- Bookmarks:
- 112
- Hits:
- 8,636
Bookmarked by thewanderingmind
17 Oct 2025
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When Nicolò spots the late-night visitor and his human care package at the edge of the swamp, he knows he's being called upon as a healer. He doesn't know that Yusuf is immortal and that the elderly woman he carries is actually his granddaughter.
- Language:
- English
- Words:
- 24,138
- Chapters:
- 4/4
- Collections:
- 1
- Comments:
- 53
- Kudos:
- 260
- Bookmarks:
- 52
- Hits:
- 2,636
Bookmarked by thewanderingmind
10 Oct 2025
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"Do you think we'll dream of each other, now?" Nicolò asks unexpectedly. "Like we do those two women?"
It startles a real laugh out of Yusuf. "Who knows? Sometimes, Nicolò, I think I must have dreamed you entirely."
After escaping the fall of Jerusalem together, Yusuf walks away from Nicolò in order to return home and move on with his life. It works for a while. Fifteen years later, Nicolò shows up in his dreams of the two immortal women.
(In which Yusuf needs time to come to terms with destiny, and Nicolò to make peace with himself, before they can meet on equal ground.)
- Language:
- English
- Words:
- 42,968
- Chapters:
- 9/9
- Collections:
- 3
- Comments:
- 457
- Kudos:
- 1,863
- Bookmarks:
- 693
- Hits:
- 23,971
Bookmarked by thewanderingmind
30 Sep 2025
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Nicolo dies for the first time outside the gates of Jerusalem.
Bookmarked by thewanderingmind
28 Sep 2025
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Crusade!Era Nicky and Joe are transported into the 21st century, and they meet their modern day counterparts.
Yusuf struggles with the reality that his older self grew up to marry not only a man, but one of the invaders that killed his people.
Joe can't stand how much of an asshole his past self is, and gets to be protective and coo over twice as many Nicolos.
Nicky has the patience of an absolute saint.
And after two years travelling through the deserts with a man who won't speak to him, Nicolo is a quiet, shadow of a person.- Language:
- English
- Words:
- 24,215
- Chapters:
- 2/2
- Comments:
- 229
- Kudos:
- 1,607
- Bookmarks:
- 460
- Hits:
- 16,803
Bookmarked by thewanderingmind
24 Sep 2025
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fight 'til the day that i die by incurableromancer
Fandoms: The Old Guard (Movie 2020), The Old Guard (Comics)
16 Dec 2020
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It’s this vulnerability, the look of concentration on Nicky’s face as he rips alcohol wipes open with his teeth and uses them to clean up Joe’s swollen hands. Gentle, in a way he rarely flaunts. The humanity of it all. That’s what started all this. Seeing someone in pain, and for better or for worse, trying to do something, anything, to help.
Or: The hero and the thief. Some comic tropes, some sword fighting, and a whole lot of falling in love.
Series
- Part 1 of fight 'til the day that i die 'verse
Bookmarked by thewanderingmind
22 Sep 2025
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The crusaders find a demon in their ranks, an unnatural monster in human guise that cannot be killed by any man.
Desperate, they throw their captive to another demon, one said to obey the command of whoever rubs a certain lamp in the desert.
And Nicolò meets Yusuf.
Bookmarked by thewanderingmind
22 Sep 2025
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An AU in which none of the immortals ever dreamt of each other and never met. Each of them was left to their own devices, completely alone for all this time.
Is it finally destiny that they meet now? Or is it an elaborate plan by someone else?
Bookmarked by thewanderingmind
21 Sep 2025
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Come down slowly, Joe thinks hysterically as he descends the ladder right into the arms of this man who, very unfortunately, smells incredibly good, just a hint of sandalwood on his skin, and feels incredibly firm and comforting against Joe as he makes sure the ladder doesn’t break while Joe’s still on it. Come down slowly, he thinks, and imagines, against his better judgment, coming down slowly next to this man in bed.
If only his opinions on literature weren’t so wrong.
(In which Joe is accidentally seduced into happiness by Schrödinger's hipster.)
Bookmarked by thewanderingmind
21 Sep 2025
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A sense of overwhelming dread and confusion hung in the pit of his gut. He covered Andy’s hand with his own, leaning forward to catch her gaze. Andy finally looked up at him and swore at whatever she saw there.
“You really don’t know,” she said finally.
“Know what? I know that I got blown up yesterday, and that everything hurts. I know you’re acting weird; what I don’t know is where my husband is,” Joe answered, trying to keep his voice even.
“He’s somewhere at the bottom of the ocean,” Andy said with an explosive, shaky breath, “where he’s been for the last few hundred years.”
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Joe dies on a mission, and wakes up in a different reality. And then he wakes up in another one, and then another, and he really just wants to go home, okay?
Series
- Part 1 of Beyond Measure and Reason
- Language:
- English
- Words:
- 17,457
- Chapters:
- 8/8
- Comments:
- 526
- Kudos:
- 1,467
- Bookmarks:
- 264
- Hits:
- 17,916
Bookmarked by thewanderingmind
19 Sep 2025
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Joe awakens after being shot in the head. But the life he wakes to is not the one he knows.
Bookmarked by thewanderingmind
19 Sep 2025
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“You did not leave me?” Nicolo said.
“What?” Yusuf’s head snapped up, taking a good look at Nicolo for the first time this morning. Whatever he saw made him rush over.
“Nicolo, what’s wrong?” he said. “You’re crying. Why would you think such a thing?”
“You said—” Nicolo started and every word was like gravel. He would suffer a thousand more deaths before he wished more of this pain upon himself. “You said we would part when we came to the sea.”
He waved a hand at the open balcony and the seagulls beyond, the glittering pearl that was the Mediterranean, how it would carry him to the festering forested heartbreak of Europe in a matter of a few short weeks.
“There it is.”
(Or the first time, complete with pining)
Bookmarked by thewanderingmind
19 Sep 2025
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Nick was unarmed but the stranger wasn’t. He brandished a knife. Nick couldn’t stop himself from cussing as the door closed and locked behind the unfamiliar man. “The door!”
”Who are you?” The guy was tall, decently muscled. He held his tanto knife in a sure grip.
”Who the hell are you?!” Nick shot back. “If you don’t know who I am, why are you even here?”
The stranger’s face morphed into one of shock as he blurted out, “You’re an omega!”
Nick sprung into action to take advantage of the man’s surprise. “And you just locked yourself in my goddamn safe room!”
- Language:
- English
- Words:
- 30,391
- Chapters:
- 4/4
- Comments:
- 217
- Kudos:
- 1,653
- Bookmarks:
- 356
- Hits:
- 24,214
Bookmarked by thewanderingmind
17 Sep 2025
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"He shouldn’t want Yusuf’s cock in his mouth, shouldn’t want to take Yusuf’s knot, to bury his face into Yusuf’s neck and take him apart.
But the sweet scent of omega never appealed to him. He only found himself rousing at night, thinking of brawling with another alpha, of their cocks rubbing up against each other, marking each other with their release. More recently, he dreams of Yusuf’s smile, his canines sinking into Nicolò’s neck, murmuring praise into his ear while he fucks him-"
- Language:
- English
- Words:
- 15,787
- Chapters:
- 4/4
- Comments:
- 133
- Kudos:
- 1,262
- Bookmarks:
- 217
- Hits:
- 16,167
Bookmarked by thewanderingmind
16 Sep 2025
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Basic office rule: Do not fall for your boss.
For Nicky, that is easier said than done, no matter how much he would like to pretend it's not happening.Bookmarked by thewanderingmind
16 Sep 2025
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This work is based on the AU created by Highsmith (quimtessence) where Joe and Nicky never stop trying to kill each other but are banging boots on the side. I love, love, love this idea but the incurable romantic in me just had to bring these idiots together!
Bookmarked by thewanderingmind
05 Sep 2025