Can you fall in love with your own alter?

Most everyone here seems to be talking about sexual love, but love itself is a much more nuanced emotion. It is going to be a touch hard for me to express this because my system collapsed (integrated) a few years ago into me, so my memory is almost super-narrative at this point. At this point, I'm going to name my former alters Mike and Tina.

I have no archaic memory of a time when I wasn't multiple, though I wasn't aware of being a system at that time. My old system's first memories include both Mike and Tina. (So from around the age of 5 or so, though a few cross-checks have shown memories that go back to maybe ~4). The upshot is that they grew up together very literally. As an imaginative child, no one really gave this much thought, and since they got along, it wasn't a real problem. They were, in a sense, siblings.

As Mike and Tina went through puberty, which was a strange time in general, they began to experience their own sexual awakenings, and there were many... issues related to that. However, while they might get irritated with each other, they still loved each other. As time went on, that love deepened until they became self-sufficient. While they both sort of wanted to be with other people, they could be content and happy with each other. Tina did eventually push Mike to start dating, since having a family was important to him, but it was difficult because she held most of the system's emotional depth.

Even after Mike married a woman, they still had a very strong bond. They literally told each other daily that they loved each other, and they meant it. Theirs was a strong, steady love, but it wasn't a sexual love. It was - unique. The more I think about it, the more I think they behaved like siblings throughout, really. When either of them was down or depressed, the other could usually snap them out of it by speaking life to them. By telling them how much they meant to them, how amazing/strong/beautiful/handsome/powerful they really were, etc. It was a powerful support system that made the overall system extremely resilient.

However, it came at a high price. Mike came to depend on Tina more than his own wife, and as Tina morphed into the "system mom" role, it allowed Mike to avoid maturity and growing up. It was only after the system collapsed that I realized just how much Tina had carried the system for so long, because I had access to both hers and Mike's memory. However, Tina had managed to avoid a lot of things herself by hiding behind Mike. (She rarely, if ever, came out)

As a singular personality, I have grown emotionally and become far more mature since their integration than either of them did as a system. I now look back on those days, a time when I/they thought everything was going fine, and realize just how far I have come. Still, the love they had was very real, very intimate, and in many ways, remarkable.