Esperwen- This is a fill for a prompt I found on the first part of the kink meme. Nobody there is going to read it, because the prompt is so old (we're preparing for a 3rd part. That is a testament to how many posts accumulate on these things. (O_O)), but I'm not an angst writer, so I know this thing needs work, and that is why I am posting it here. Constructive criticism, please!
Disclaimer: Ubisoft, while their game endings are horrendous and I'm pretty sure the final game's ending will not satisfy, is the legal owner of Assassin's Creed and anything affiliated.
Prompt: So, I was listening to this song .com/watch?v=rOV6I4fYnvQ&ob=av3e and then I thought about it from Rebecca's point of view.
What if Desmond and Rebecca were best friends, but were both in love with Lucy? Only Lucy has no idea about any of this, and Desmond doesn't know how Rebecca feels.
And then one day, Rebecca secretly catches Desmond dancing with Lucy and she can only stand by and watch...
But these are just rough guidelines... Filling anon can take just take it how they will and run with it.
Dancing With the Girl
I should've known that day would come.
Well...I did. I just didn't want it to. It was one of those inevitable things that you really, really don't want to happen, but you know that it has to happen, so if you're not some spoiled kid you let it happen, and then when it does happen...yeah, you look lost. Lemme explain.
...:...
I guess it started a couple days after we busted Desmond out. We can't keep Desmond connected to my Baby for too long because of the Bleeding Effect, and there's only so much coding, analysis and research work that you can do in a day before your brain shuts down. So, our evenings were when we got to just chill and hang out with each other. It was that evening when I realized that someone had been fooling around with my game console.
"Ok, what the hell?"
I was nice and settled in front of the little TV set that we all had in our safehouse, and had just finished a round of my favourite first-person shooter game. The mission I had just done was tricky, but I was still satisfied when I completed my objectives...until I noticed that some creep had done something unforgivable.
"Who the hell messed up my game?" I yelled, throwing my controller down, "Someone hacked it!"
First, I glared at Shaun, who was reading some thick, German novel in a corner. We were pals, but he did enjoy screwing with me.
"I did not touch your flipping game," he said sternly, glancing up from his book when he felt my stare, "I could not make it more horrendous than it already is if I tried. The preposterous inaccuracies in that idiotic sham of a historically-based game are appalling!"
"Yeah, I stopped listening at 'flipping'," I muttered, then looked around the room.
I raised an eyebrow at Lucy, but when she shook her head and continued her crossword, I believed her. In all the years that I'd known her, she'd always asked permission before using my things. That only left one person.
"You there! The one in the hoodie!" I snapped, pointing at Desmond, who was hovering over Lucy's shoulder, trying to help her, "What do you have to say for yourself?"
"What? I didn't hack anything!" Desmond protested, raising his hands on front of him, palms toward me like he was trying to push me away.
"Liar! Nobody could beat my high score without hacking! And yet..." I exclaimed, motioning to the screen, "...this!"
Desmond rolled his eyes at me, "I didn't hack. Your score just wasn't that high."
Upon hearing that obscene claim, I gave him my "GO DIE" stare.
"Good GOD, don't do that!" Desmond exclaimed, quailing back a little when he saw my look.
"First rule with Rebecca: Do not mock her 1337 5K1LLZ, or you will get the "GO DIE" stare," both Lucy and Shaun said in unison, not even looking up from whatever they were doing.
"...How did you do that with your voices?" Desmond wondered, glancing between the two of them before looking back at me, then flinched when he saw my face hadn't changed, "GAH! All right already! I'll show you how I did it! Just...stop looking at me like that!"
I chuckled a little at his expression and grinned at the kid.
"Fine. And then you owe me a couple rounds of PvP."
He smirked back, "You're on."
...:...
After correcting his initial heresy, we ended up bonding over video games and junk while we were at that safehouse. Those were some good times. I mean, I love them and all, but Lucy can be way too serious about work, and Shaun's got this big stick of protocol shoved up his ass. Desmond's a lot more easy-going, and I finally had a friend to goof off with, in the evenings. And he's a great guy to talk to. Probably because bartenders to a lot of listening. He must've been a cool bartender.
I guess you could say he became my best friend, over the next few weeks. Something about hiding from Templars and sifting through genetic memories really brings people together. I was the one who always watched Desmond's vitals, while he was hooked up to Baby. I took care of him, making sure the code was good and he stayed safe, and he kept me from going insane with boredom.
I was the first one to realize that technology might help keep most of his hallucinations at bay, you know. He never had any episodes while we played games or when we listened to my techno music. And once, when we were all listening to some of Shaun's classical crap, I caught him staring at his left ring finger, like he was confused with it. He had a look on his face, like, "How did that get there?" ...That seriously freaked me out. I hurried across the room and shoved my headphones over his ears and turned up some rap, so fast it was like I was trying to save his life, or something. Maybe I was. Desmond looked surprised when I did that, not because he didn't know what I was doing, but because...well...because it was like he didn't recognize me, for a second. I held my breath when he did that, hoping what I did would work, but I didn't have to worry. A couple bars of busted rhymes, and Desmond was Desmond again, grinning at me and bobbing his head.
I still noticed the way he squeezed my hand for a second, though, when he started nodding to the beat. Like a thank you. Lucy and Shaun didn't notice, but we both knew. That was the first time the Bleeding Effect made someone else take over his mind, even if it was just for a second. We decided to keep that day to ourselves; no need to scare the others, right? Our scary, little secret.
He started to open up to me more, after that. I guess I earned his trust. He told me a little about The Farm and his life hiding from the Order. And there was something about the way he listened, 'cuz I opened up to him, too. A little. Like, about how I missed my family, my dog...that opened up a fun argument about how he thought cats were better. Which is stupid, of course. Dogs are far superior.
It got a little awkward, though, for a little while after Desmond confessed something to me. Not that he noticed.
...:...
"...Wanna hear a deep, dark secret?" Desmond asked, one night.
It was the last night we'd be spending at our safehouse, though we didn't know it, at the time. Lucy and Shaun were out doing inventory, or something, and we were just leaning on one of the few windowsills we had, looking out at the world we were hiding from. We would've been playing 'Never have I ever', but after that first incident, Lucy banned alcohol until Sundays, our R&R day. But that's another story.
"Will I have to testify in court if I hear it?" I asked, glaring at my iced tea and wishing it was scotch, or something.
"Do you even care?" Desmond smirked.
"Nah," I laughed, nudging him with my elbow, "What's up?"
"Well...I think I'm falling for Lucy," he said softly, staring out the window as he spoke, then glancing at me for my reaction in the corner of his eye.
Time froze. I froze. My mind went blank. It was like I was in the Animus loading screen, for a moment.
You see...I had already fallen for Lucy, by then.
Lucy. Smart, caring, beautiful Lucy. She'd been the only one I'd cared about forever! Her dorky laugh, her witty sense of humour, that way her easy smile just melted my heart...I loved her. She didn't know. She thought we were just friends...but I really, truly loved her.
Time started again. I blinked, and noticed that Desmond was looking at me, this vulnerable expression on his face. Which made sense. He had just shared something that was really important to him, and I just blanked out. Of course he looked like a cornered puppy.
I was so tempted. So tempted to laugh at him. To shoot him down. To tell him he never had a chance. Tell him she was gay. Tell him anything! So tempted to just crush his heart right there and then, so that Lucy would only ever be mine.
But then I remembered the way his eyes lit up when she entered the room.
"Really?" I rubbed my bottom lip thoughtfully, playing dumb.
"Y-yeah! I think I am!" Desmond stammered with his stupid puppy eyes.
I remembered the way Desmond always leaned in when Lucy was talking to him. Like he wanted to make sure he heard every little word that came from her mouth.
"You and Lucy...?"
I realized that whenever Desmond woke up after each session, he didn't...no, couldn't sit still until he saw Lucy was nearby.
Desmond was looking at me worriedly, wondering if I, both he and Lucy's best friend, approved of them being together.
I remembered the way he made Lucy laugh. The way I could never make her laugh.
...Shit.
I gave him my biggest, most reassuring smile.
"Cute," I grinned, punching him lightly on the shoulder, "I'm cheering you on, dude."
The big dolt gave this big sigh of relief. I'd let the cornered puppy free.
"Thanks, Becks," he smiled, gently punching me back, "You don't know what that means to me."
Neither do you, pal. Neither do you...
...:...
And then that day came.
We'd been holed up underneath the Monteriggioni Villa for almost two weeks. Shaun had told me that it was getting late, or early; it was almost light out, and Lucy and Desmond still hadn't come back from a run. He was obviously hinting that I should go find them, and, being too lazy to turn the whole thing into one big snarkfest, I just shrugged and left the Sanctuary.
I didn't have to go far. Shaun should've just waited for them. In fact, I should have known that Lucy, being the responsible person that she was, would make sure they would get back before sunrise. If I had remembered that, then I wouldn't have gone outside, and I wouldn't have had to see what happened next.
The two of them were in the little courtyard behind the villa. There were no electric lights behind the building, but the moon was still more than half full, and starlight helped illuminate their little scene.
They were dancing together, in the moonlight. Desmond was singing some old Italian tune, probably from Ezio's younger years, as he and Lucy swayed together, their arms around each other. She was smiling at him, this gooey look in her eyes...and he couldn't take his eyes off of her, his normally horrible singing voice somehow sounding pitch-perfect in the night.
This guy...I can't believe Lucy's falling for this! He sucks at dancing, I thought, feeling sicker as every second passed but somehow unable to tear my eyes away, Swaying to a waltz? Ugh. He isn't even holding her right!
"Y'know, this isn't how you dance to a waltz," Lucy teased softly, interrupting his song, "I'm pretty sure there's more than just shifting our weight around."
"Oh, come on. The point of this was to get you to relax," Desmond pouted a little, earning himself a laugh.
"Ok, ok, I'm sorry I ruined the moment," Lucy smiled apologetically, and they continued their awkward shuffle until a thought occurred to her, "Hey, maybe we can ask Rebecca to teach us!"
"Yeah? Becks can dance?" Desmond seemed a little surprised.
"Totally! She knows all the moves. When we were younger, we'd dance to her music all the time," Lucy nodded, grinning at him, "Wanna ask her for lessons when we go back inside?"
"What, more work for me to do?" he joked.
"Desmond!"
"All right!" Desmond sighed, then did that little smirk of his that I knew Lucy loved and leaned in closer, "If that would make you happy."
I felt a painful twist in my chest, at that. I'd heard enough.
Screw that! I thought, turning on my heel and rushing back into the hideout, They can figure out it's getting late on their own! If they get caught by Templars because they're too busy making out to notice the sun, that's their problem! Screw them!
"...Did you find them?" Shaun asked once he saw me walk in.
"Yup," I made a bee-line for my computer.
"...and?" the historian prompted after a moment, raising an eyebrow at me when I didn't answer, "Are they coming?"
"Mm-hm," I nodded, pulling up some programming windows to re-check Baby's code.
"...when?" Shaun asked sharply, frowning at me.
"Not now Shaun. Busy," I said shortly, pulling on my headphones and turning my music up, hoping he could take a hint.
I winced. The first song that played was a rap song. The pain twisted tighter.
I hit 'Next' as hard as I could.
A song by The Black Kids started playing. A little better.
I knew that day would come. I knew it, but I hated that it had. And, as hard as I tried to focus on Baby's code, I couldn't.
Programming just doesn't work when your vision is hot and blurry.
-fin-
Esperwen- I don't actually like the Rebecca/Lucy pairing, but I get where Becks is coming from. =/
Ok, aaaaand constructive criticism! GO!