A/N: This story will show up as a chapter in Integration at some point, probably with some slight alterations to the framing.

"Nine hundred years and going strong," Nile said, settling onto the opposite end of the couch with a basket of freshly cleaned laundry. Joe sat at the other end, tugging shirts out of his own basket and sorting them through some obscure metric of his own. She hadn't been able to tell what was Nicky's and what was Joe's and since she'd seen them wearing each other's clothes, she wasn't sure it mattered. "How do you show Nicky you love him?"

"Hm?"

"How do you keep the love alive?"

"Oh!" His brows rose and a naughty grin appeared.

"Nothing explicit, please."

"Ah, such a disappointment. But I cannot answer the question without at least mentioning that we do please each other in that way. As well as in many related ways, of touching and fulfilling. We are sensual with one another and the bodily delights of another person should never be discounted."

He pulled out a t-shirt and shook the wrinkles from it. "But aside from that. I do his laundry. I pick up after him and straighten his things. He is not slovenly, but he is orderly and disciplined only on certain subjects. I leave those to him and help with the others. Of course, I tell him I love him often and I know he sees that. I sketch him and I have written poems about him and I will tell anyone who cares to know how much he means to me. I think he likes to hear that. He always kisses me more after it."

He smiled softly. "I buy his clothes for him and the sorts he likes to wear instead of the ones I would like to see him in. This is our compromise, for otherwise he would go about in rags. He tells me he would not, but this way I am the one choosing which rags he is in and he doesn't object when I throw out the old ones.

"We spend time together. It is a great comfort to me to know that he is with me and wishes to be with me, and I think it is a great comfort to him in turn to know I am here for him. We like each other. I know there are some things that are very important to him and on those things I submit to his will or else, I know, we would not be together."

"Wait, what kind of things?" That sounded like an ultimatum, which was out of place with the rest of it.

"Well, moral things. They usually involve danger and killing people who are doing ill. You see, if I were left to my own devices – and don't tell Andy this – I would not be too different from Booker in that I would not seek out conflict or violence. There are so many fine things in the world and more subtle ways to achieve one's ends than by direct action. Though I certainly do not shrink from direct action. It is just … eh. It bores me.

"But my Nicolò, Nicky, believes there is virtue in being direct. He is a very patient man, but he has no patience for roundabout means or subterfuge. So on these matters, I do as he says. That is how it has always been. It is how I fell in love with him, because of his gallantry and willingness to endanger himself on behalf of others. I would be a poor man for him if I begrudged that trait of his when it was inconvenient for me, wouldn't I?"

She nodded. No-nonsense bravery was sexy, sure, but she could imagine how it would get tiring after so many years to see the one you loved putting himself in harm's way. Obviously, Joe had made peace with it. "What does Nicky do for you that makes you feel loved?"

Joe chuckled. "Oh? He tolerates my embrace and listens to me talk. He is a good man."

When he didn't continue, she said, "Give me some details, here. I want to understand."

"Ah, you would be a student of the greatest ongoing love affair the world has ever known? You should ask Andy about her and Quynh. They have Nicky and I beat by a millennia or more."

"I will. But I'm talking to you now."

"Hm. Nicky sleeps with me. He lets me hold him. I do not lie to say he tolerates my affection and that means a great deal to me. Not all … not all do, you know? And after so many years, that he still does not tire of my touch means so much to me. He seeks it out, even. Ah! This makes it sound all physical and it is not. He does so many other things for me.

"When we are on missions, he is always carrying my weapons or handing me new ones. He keeps track of how many bullets I have fired and when I need to reload. He's very helpful in that. I never remember. I just take whatever gun or blade he hands me and continue on with it.

"He does the same in our more peaceful life. He makes sure the bills are paid and the car has gas and has been serviced. He used to care for the horses and oil the leathers, but that was years ago. He would bring in coal or firewood, but he wouldn't actually put it in the stove or the furnace."

Joe laughed. "He would leave that to me and it took me some time to realize he thought he was doing me an honor by letting me control the house, I think. I never told him otherwise once I figured it out. He likes doing the heavy lifting, or at least, I think he enjoys doing it to spare me the effort. I love him for that. It makes me feel loved.

"He also listens to me. No matter what I am saying – ridiculous or serious. He lets me talk. I love the sound of my own voice as I'm sure you have noticed and I gather he likes it as well. Or at least he doesn't mind indulging me. He is very kind to me. He is very kind to everyone, but especially to me."

Joe paused long enough that she wondered if he was done, but then he added, "If you knew the way he was raised and the thoughts in his head, then it would be clearer how much of an effort he makes to be a better man." Joe smiled softly and looked up at her with his soulful eyes. "He makes it look easy. It is not, and it has not always been."

"And now we let the dough rest for a few minutes," Nicky said. He started putting away the ingredients they wouldn't use again.

Nile helped. She asked, "How do you show Joe that you love him?"

"Joe?"

"Yes. What do you do that makes him feel loved?"

"I spend time with him. Why do you ask?"

She rolled her eyes. "I know you spend time with him. You've spent nine hundred years with him and from what I can tell, you're both still madly in love. That doesn't happen by accident. What do you do, intentionally, to keep love alive?"

Nicky stopped and stared off into the distance, considering that. "I protect him when I can, though he makes it difficult at times. I love him dearly, more than my own life and he would say the same in turn. I cook for him. I bring him flowers and sweets and the teas that he likes. Sometimes soaps and scents. He has told me not to get him things we have to keep track of, so these are expendable things." Nicky smiled. "That makes it even easier, for they get used up and I have the opportunity to get him more of them."

She smiled in response. Gift-giving hadn't been something Joe had mentioned. She wondered if he realized?

Nicky continued, "I make time in our schedule for us to be alone. Without him, I would work all the time. It would be quite … emotionally empty." He swallowed tensely, silent for a longer moment than necessary before continuing, "I cherish what he does for me in that regard and so we take breaks together. That is what I meant by spending time with him. He is important to me, and I show this by making him a priority.

"He has fears and concerns. I reassure him. We are a joy to one another and not only in the sense of the carnal, but also in the intimate. He gentles me. Does that make sense?"

"I think so."

He nodded. "He makes me a better person. I appreciate that from him. I would be with no other."

"What does Joe do that makes you feel loved?"

Nicky's face changed – brows rising, eyes widening like he'd never considered this. "What?"

"You know he loves you. What does he do that lets you know that?"

"Well, he- He …" Nicky looked lost. "I am with him."

Nile chuckled. "I know. But … specifics."

He breathed out heavily and looked at the dough. It was not ready yet, but he prodded it anyway. "He reads me poetry. He writes it sometimes. He seems obsessed with me. In a good way. With my body. And with talking to me. He likes me, which … well. I don't always understand that, but he does and I think love has twisted his reason. He tells me it has, that he loves me without sanity or reason, passionately and …" Nicky waved a helpless hand in the air. "He loves me. Is that not the greatest treasure anyone can give another?"

She nodded slowly in agreement. "It is. I think it is. Are there things he does that tell you, 'This man must love me, to have done this'?"

Nicky stared at her blankly again, trying to find the answers she was looking for. He was very aware of their love and unashamed of it, but putting it into words in this way seemed new to him. "He … he lets me win arguments. Sometimes he is sarcastic about it, but he lets me win. He's all 'Yes, sweetheart, you are right. Why would I have ever thought otherwise?' and he goes on. And I leave it at that and I have won. Then we talk about something else and I do him a favor or get him a drink or rub his neck and all is well between us. No one who didn't love me would put up with me as he does." He shook his head ruefully.

Nile grinned. "Okay, that is sweet and I've seen him do that so … yeah."

Nicky breathed out slowly, gazing into the distance. "He must love me. He cannot stand to see me hurt. When we go into battle, he goes first. He insists, for he could not live with himself if I were harmed when he could prevent it. He has arranged his life, the whole length of it, to spend it with me." Nicky swallowed, his voice trembling slightly on that.

He focused on her finally, blinking a bit. "I am so honored. He does not have to be with me, he never did, but he has chosen to be. I know God meant he and I to be together. Every day I am thankful for that, but it makes my love for him easy, because I know it is destiny. It is fate." He shrugged slightly. "I need not question, for God wills this." In a smaller voice, he said, "Yusuf does not know this. He does not feel that certainty within his heart. That … predestination. That makes it so much harder for him, yet he loves me anyway, though all this time and despite my many faults. He has my every loyalty."

Nile blinked back tears of her own and sniffled. She hugged him. "You two are so beautiful."