“Tell (him/her) what you feel.” Malik’s advice came abruptly at the dining table with a voice so toneless like it was the easiest thing in the world. Altair almost choked on his meal and scrunched his nose as an answer for the scratching feeling in his throat. Seconds passed before he fully regained his composure.
“What did you say again?” He asked still wheezing.
“That I know you love (him/her), therefore you should tell (him/her) what you feel.” The rafik said again nonchalantly as he dunked a piece of bread into his soup. Altair shuddered to the thought.
“No.”
“Your mind inside your skull is mangled like a lovesick boy’s would be. Are you a lovesick boy Altair?”
“No.”
“That’s debatable because I think you are.” Malik quickly became infuriating.
“Then I shall say you know nothing.” Altair grabbed his plate to take it out and got on his feet.
“Sad, I thought I heard (y/n) admitting (him/her) love for you to one of our fellow sisters…”
The master assassin stopped in mid-air, slightly leaning on the table to not lose his balance.
“Where and when?”
“I know not, you don’t like (him/her) anyway.” Malik shrugged but schemingly smiled while doing so. Altair contemplated seriously if he should send his fist into Malik’s face.
“Tell me, Malik, where and when or else I don’t believe you at all.”
“Maybe yesterday, at one of the main hallways leading to the sleeping chambers. What are you going to do with this information?”
The sullen face of Altair said it all.
“I don’t know.”
“Not a (gentleman’s/ladye’s) man arent you?” *
“Because you are, I’m still not sure to even believe in your words.” Scoffed at Malik the master assassin.
“I have my own charm, thank you.”
“If you speak the truth then you shall go and introduce me to (him/her), (he/she) will cling on every word you say, as long as you say them or your charm is not working well enough.”
“Alright.” Malik pushed his food tray aside, leaving it behind and stood up.
“Where are you going?” Altair followed him quickly.
“To (y/n).”
“No, no, no, I was just joking.”
“You are capable of joking?” They reached the big door of the castle of Masyaf, Altair didn’t answer. “(He/She) shall arrive around this time. I sent (him/her) to a mission.”
“To a dangerous one?”
The rafik dramatically rolled his eyes.
“(He/She) can handle (himself/herself) very well, I can assure you about that myself.”
Suddenly a guard yelled at the top of the gate, announcing the arrival of somebody.
“An assassin rider, injured!”
You rode up to the castle, slightly slumped forward, only holding the reins with your left hand, face ashen, a fresh, bleeding wound gaping on your right shoulder, soiling your robes. Lamely you stopped the horse just two steps ahead from the two assassins waiting for you.
“I don’t think I can get down without the help of one of you so…” Hoarsely you notified them about the problem. “Would you mind…”
“No, not at all.” Shuddered Altair, waking up from the trance your arrival pushed him in. He stepped to the horse’s side and gently hold onto your hips.
“If it’s not already degrading at all…” You slurred the words because of the blood loss.
“It is not.” Your helper reassured you, then your legs hit the ground. “Even standing is hard for you…”
“This is just a scratch, I can walk fine.” But after a few steps, you didn’t think like that anymore. Collapsing to the ground Altair made sure you don’t hit yourself badly, then the world started fading, dots danced before your eyes.
“Take (him/her) to her chambers, I’ll fetch a surgeon,” Malik instructed, but his voice barely reached your ears.
“What can I do for (him/her)?”
“Lay (him/her) down on a bed, that’s all. Go.”
As soon as the master assassin lifted your body up from the ground, you fainted.
With a sudden gasp, you woke up from a dreamless sleep, only to find Altair at the edge of your bed looking at you somewhat scared, holding an empty cup in his hand. Water dripped into your eyes from your brows.
“How long I have been out?” Your voice was unusually calm relative to the situation.
“Half an hour…”
“Then why did you have to wake me up? Can’t I rest after a long and tiresome mission?”
“I had to check on your well being, but you cant tell me if there is a problem while you sleeping.” Altair grew frustrated in one second. What a whimsical man, you thought.
“Oh, so the mighty ‘I do everything alone and nobody is important me because that’s a weakness’ Altair is now concerned enough for my health to wake me up in such nice ways. That’s what I call progress…” It was almost exhilarating to run down your anger about an imperfect mission, and an irritatingly shameful wound on Altair.
A tinge of sadness showed on the men’s face.
“This is what you think of me? That I don’t care about anybody?”
“Well, that’s what everybody is thinking about you. I tried to be nice around you, but that’s almost impossible!”
“So you don’t even like me… at all?”
“It’s hard to like someone like you.”
Altair’s shoulders slightly dropped, and he didn’t answer. You wondered if you hurt his feelings badly, then you slide next to him to hug his lean form awkwardly.
“Hey, you are not as bad as I said, I’m just a bit angry and frustrated, that’s all… Most of the time you don’t get this much emotional about comments like this.”
“I thought you liked me.” To your surprise, he hugged you back. “The way I like you.”
“You liked me?”
“I still do.”
“Why?”
“Why there has to be a reason? I love you, as simple as that and I believed you feel the same because Malik overheard you talking about it with somebody and…”
“Altair, hey!” You leaned back to look in his eyes. They were uncertain and ravaged. “Take a deep breath.”
“I feared that you won’t survive the wound you got, that it got infected on your way home…”
“I’m alright now, you made sure of that.”
Anxious silence fell on both of you.
“I love you too Altair.”
“What?”
“As much as it’s hard to love you we can find a way to do this. I want to find a way.”
Altair’s smile was more teeth than lips as he pulled you closer into is embrace. After all, Malik really said the truth…
*I don’t know how to make this sentence gender-neutral but feel free to change it to your liking.
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