Disclaimer: I do not own Assassin's Creed or ots characters. Everything (except the idea for this fanfiction) belongs to Ubisoft.
Shaun was utterly annoyed by everybody and everything. Not only did the technology not work like he wanted, Rebecca had been a pest today and William was of no help either. Desmond, who had been in the Animus for the whole day now, had not done anything, but somehow Shaun was even annoyed at him. It was just one of these days when everything you do would go wrong and you just got angry for nothing. On top of it all there was the shocking revelation that the Haytham Kenway, the man Desmond had followed through the Animus, was in fact a dirty templar.
Beside this, Shaun hadn't had a decent night rest for the last few months. Either it was a nightmare keeping him up, work or Desmond who had one of his fits. Technically it wasn't Desmond fault for seeing things from his long dead ancestors nor the affect the Animus had on him, but Shaun blamed him nonetheless, because there simply was nobody else to blame. Shaun also blamed William for his bad sleeping habits, because the man was more of a slave driver than anything else. Sometimes Shaun even felt pity for Desmond, but definitely not now. At least that was what he thought, especially when Desmond began shouting at his father and insulting him. Shaun was just about to jump in and shout at both Miles himself, when William did something shocking and completely unexpected and by the way Desmond looked and moved he hadn't expected his own father to punch him either.
Somehow almost all of Shaun's anger had subsided then and when it looked as if the both Miles were going to kill each other, he quickly stepped between them.
"Right. That was unusual. Well I'm just going to pretend that this never happened and get back to bringing everyone to speed on where we stand.", he hesitated and only when he got the attention of all, he continued: "the news isn't good. It appears this Temple is powered by a collection of um… well, I guess they're batteries. You found one on your way in. But there aren't anymore. At least… not down here."
"Any idea on where we can find replacements?", Desmond asked, but his voice sounded strained.
"Not yet. So I intend to tiptoe into the Abstergo database. Now, if I can cross reference these particular devices with their database, then maybe we'll get lucky.", Shaun answered while stepping closer to Desmond and more or less between the two Miles.
"See what you can do."
Shaun could barely stop himself from rolling his eyes and snapping at the older man. Instead he said rather calm and collected: "Obviously. Anyways, Desmond, you can either take a look around here or we can head back to the Animus."
It seemed as if Desmond didn't want to go back into the Animus, at least not for now. Instead he chose to wander through the temple. After a while when they neither heard from him nor seen him, Shaun started to worry. He didn't doubt Desmond's safety, this place is undetectable, but for the man himself. So he silently got up from his workplace when William wasn't looking. Rebecca watched him stand up, but remained quiet and nodded encouragingly.
It took some time for Shaun to find Desmond, but he eventually did and when he saw the assassin hunched over, Shaun was glad that he, as well as Desmond, had turned off their communicators.
"Hey, Desmond.", Shaun greeted lamely.
Desmond didn't even look up. "Mmh. What do you want?"
"It would be easier for me to understand, would you put away your hand from your face."
Desmond remained silent this time and Shaun sighed. He slowly made his way towards his comrade and carefully sat down beside him. He could see Desmond tense as he did so, but that didn't stop Shaun from laying a hand on the distraught man's shoulder.
"Want to talk about it?"
"There is nothing to talk about, you saw everything with your own eyes.", Desmond sighed and sat up a little straighter.
Shaun could see that Desmond's eyes were red, probably from crying, but he chose to ignore that for now. Instead he started to rub comforting circles with his hand on the other man's back, since Desmond looked as if he was on the verge of crying once more.
"It's alright."
"It isn't!", snapped Desmond, which caused Shaun to shortly stop in his movements.
"Everybody had a bad day once in a while. Or even a bad week.", Desmond looked sceptically at him, "For example, I haven't properly slept for the last few months and I am totally annoyed with and by everything and everyone. Actually I was thinking on punching something as well…"
"That's not helping.", Desmond groaned and hid his head once more in his hands.
"You're father is… difficult. Sometimes he reminds me more of a slave driver than anything else, but even he has his good moments… Hey, don't let his word get to you. Rebecca and I know what a great job you are doing, even if we don't show this too often. Otherwise this little brain of yours would get the wrong ideas.", Shaun joked.
Desmond actually gave him a small smile. "Thank you, Shaun."
"That's what Rebecca and I are here for. Somebody has to look after you since you are not doing a good job at it!"
"You sound like an older brother."
"That's just because you are my stupid little brother, who has absolutely no taste in clothes and art."
Desmond huffed at that and friendly pushed at Shaun's shoulder, who just let it happen. Shaun knew that this was Desmond's way of showing affection and Shaun also knew that William could be a real asshole sometimes. That however, didn't stop him from laying his arms around the other man's shoulder who, to Shaun's surprise, returned the hug.
"I want one too!", sounded suddenly a voice behind them.
Desmond and Shaun turned around to see Rebecca standing there; arms wide open in an invitation. The two men shared a look before they shrugged in unison, got up and hugged the woman as well.
"Is everything alright again, Desmond?", she asked.
"Yeah, thanks to my real family.", his grin was immediately returned by the other two.
"Come on then. Let's head back before Mr. I-have-a-stick-up-my-ass has one of his fits again!", Rebecca eventually said.
This earned her a laugh from both of her comrades and together they returned to the main hall…
I hope you liked this little one-shot.
Please leave a comment and tell me what you think!^^
C Ya
