Hello everyone!
I began writing this fic about two years ago, but I eventually stopped. Having my inspiration back again, I have decided to revise it and re-publish it.
It is mostly a comedy, even though there are moments of reflection and serious conversations... it improves gradually as the relationship between Haytham, Connor and Achilles improves... I promise!
Let me know if you enjoy! :)
It was a rather cold evening, and Connor and his Father were walking side by side through the narrow streets of Boston. It was later than they had planned; to worsen their already dark mood, there had been no meeting point in the ferocious argument that had inflamed their tempers shortly before. The day felt darker than ever. The truth was that neither of two men had got used yet to their new truce –now permanent, it seemed, since Charles Lee was finally dead. The choice of the Green Dragon as place where to spend the night had not helped them since the place oozed with Templar memories...
"Connor? For God's sake, what are you doing?!" Haytham asked, noticing that his son was kneeling down in a corner for no apparent reason. The boy mumbled something and then he went on with his silent whispering.
"Answer me, boy!" he exclaimed, this time louder.
"I will not leave you here, I promise. I will carry you with me, and we will be together forever and ever. Nothing and no-one will ever divide us".
"Connor? What is it, a love declaration to a stone? Or have you-" the Former Templar's words were trounced by what he saw.
"Ooh" was all he managed to say.
A small puppy dog, the tiniest he had ever seen, was looked up at his son with big, hungry eyes.
Haytham man kneeled down, his most ferocious grin on,with his eyes as cold as stone. His hands, which were still bloodstained from the last fight, now stretched out towards the animal in a slow and threatening way. Connor looked at his father, fearing that he could injure his new friend. In the end, after a seemingly endless pause, the older man opened slowly his mouth to pronounce himself on the matter.
"Pucci pucci pucci pucci... look at this little puppy... smoshy-wooshy mushy-gushy..."
Connor dropped his mouth open. That was not the reaction he had expected.
"What are we going to do?"
"We're taking him home, of course, to the Old Man, and we'll nurture him. He will be our little one. What are you waiting for, boy? Take off your jacket and let me wrap him in it! Do you have the courage to leave this sweetie-sugar here, shivering and starving in the cold?"
The Native boy nodded gravely, fully understanding the matter.
"About the name..."
"He will be called Bubba-Bo, Connor, and there will be no further talking about it! Come here, darling, your brother does not understand you..."
If anyone walking by had listed to them, he would have thought that they were both in urgent need for medical care; there was no other explanation to the fact that two feared grown-up men would be so involved with such an ugly half-breed dog.
It was around four o'clock in the night on the following day when the Old Man woke up, hearing noises from the outside. He jumped out of bed and he lit a candle. In the light of dawn, he could see two blurred figures appearing slowly.
'Connor and his father, no doubt' he thought, and he had almost convinced himself to go back to sleep when he saw something: a little white burden in Haytham's arms. He startled, jumping higher than his legs could support him and almost losing his balance. Haytham or Connor must have had a son, or absconded someone else's one, and surely they were planning to take him there and leave the baby to the elder man's care while working. He saw himself changing dirty napkins and felt close to fainting, or having a stroke. He could almost see himself, side by side with his former enemy, taking care of their shared grandson.
His suspects were denied by the fact that, as soon as the two men stepped in the house, the little bundle revealed a dog, 'Bubba-Bo'. This matter reassured him because it meant that he was not in for a precocious grandfather role, and that the ferocious Templar had completely lost his reason, hence not being a threat any longer.
Soon after the dog was revealed in all his pathetic cuteness, a new kind of fight began. Before the puppy's arrival the Old Man quarrelled with Haytham on matters such as their former alliances and their very different philosophies; now both him and Haytham began to argue about the dog. At first, the Assassin Mentor did not want to keep him inside the house, especially in the living room. Later, he and Haytham fought over which one of them could bring him on the bed. Haytham felt no shame in shouting and waving his big hands in order to gain the right to share his bed with his Bubba-Bo, and Connor felt a bit envious sometimes. He could not stop himself from smiling, though.