A/N: This will be my little dumping ground for these drabbles, and they might not appear so often, so don't expect too much from me on this, but I promise anything I do put up will be of reasonable quality, and most likely linked together in some way, though mostly not cronological xD

So anyway, have fun and Enjoy :)

Maria watched with interest as Altair scaled the wall of the tower, his fingers finding grips in the bricks and windows. He moved with what some would have called feline grace, but with what she personally preferred to call Monkey Movement. She could never help herself from wondering exactly how long it had taken him to learn to climb like that – it would have taken her years if she'd tried – but never wanted to ask, just in case it was something ridiculous like a week.

He did this a lot when they were travelling together, finding the highest, most dangerous point around, and then climbing it. She could never see what he was doing up there, but he never took long, and soon enough he would come plummeting earthwards to land in a pile of conveniently placed hay. She didn't even want to consider what Altair might look like if there wasn't a pile of hay exactly where he needed one, and this little hobby of his seemed to once again raise the question of how long he had spent perfecting it – and how many limbs he had broken in the process.

Maria herself had never bothered to learn building climbing and had stoutly refused when he had offered to teach her. As enticing as it was, using windows and ledges and bricks and shaun-off wooden beams to climb some ridiculously high building for no apparent reason only to then take the aptly named 'leap of faith' and basically through yourself to your possible death, it didn't really appeal to the Ex-Templar. Altair hadn't really understood why, but then again when you've spent your entire life running around on a roof with a bunch of assassins, why would you fear a 500ft drop to a predictably sticky end?

It would not have seemed so odd if the building climbing fiasco was an occasional thing, the spur of the moment as it were, but it wasn't. Altair would whip out his map; stare at it for a little while, squinting at the page, before tucking it back into his robe and wandering off. They would walk for miles just to get to a building, so he could climb it, jump off it, land, get up and he would walk away again, completely straight faced as though nothing had happened. She had an urge to ask, but didn't really know how to phrase it.

It was after a particularly high drop to a thankfully large pile of hay that she decided enough was enough, she was tired of being dragged for miles every day just to wait at the bottom of a tower for him to do his thing and then not tell her anything! She was going to ask him.

She caught hold of his sleeve, trying to ignore the fact that his hidden knife had just shot out of his bracer, and said firmly, "What are you doing up there?"

He frowned, sliding the knife back into place, "Up where?"

"On the tops of the buildings. You always climb them and then just jump off. I was wondering whether that was it or not?"

"No, I'm scouting the area."

"For a grant total of 3 seconds?"

"Yes."

The low timbre of his voice told her he wasn't joking and that this conversation was now adjourned. She let his sleeve slip through her fingers and he started to walk away. She didn't follow, she just stood there and watched him walk away. It took him a couple of seconds to realise she wasn't behind him anymore and when he turned around, he found she was still standing where he'd left her. He frowned, his head turning on the side in confusion.

Confident that he was watching, Maria turned and headed back down the way they'd come, stopping when she reached the tower he'd just thrown himself off. Checking over her shoulder to see he had indeed followed her, Maria jumped, grabbing onto the top of the window and fitting her feet onto the sill. She was just preparing to jump and reach for a brick that was sticking out a little further up when a pair of hands clamped firmly round her hips and pulled her off the building.

She squeaked as Altair spun her around roughly and slammed her back into the wall, gaining a few curious looks from passersby, but their searching eyes were quickly redirected by a glare from the assassin.

"What're you doing?" He hissed, their faces mere centimetres away from each other, blocking out Maria's view of the street or even the sky, his hood was brushing against her hair, in much the same way his knees were brushing against hers.

"You wouldn't tell me what you were doing, so I was finding out by myself, Assassin." She hissed back, blushing when she tried to push him backwards, but only succeeded in pushing her chest up against his. She was using the excuse that his hands were holding her to the wall by the elbows and she had very limited movement.

"I already told you," he replied a little softer, either not noticing Maria's change in complexion or choosing to ignore it, "I was scouting the area."

"If that's all you're doing," She glared, deciding against trying to force him off again lest he notice the contact this time, "Then why won't you let me go and look?"

"You'll hurt yourself."

The reply was blunt and to the point and that might have been part of the reason it caught her, and any comments she might have had about him being selfish or a view-hugger were quickly shelved. She sighed and nodded, feeling the pressure releasing from her elbows and the blood beginning to rush back into her fingertips – it was only then she realised how hard he had been pinning her. But he was right, she would only hurt herself and that would cause problems for him, having to lug around an invalid. But then again he might as well finish her off himself and save himself the trouble, he was an assassin before all else after all.

So the next time Altair attempted to climb something, which just happened to be the wall outside her bedroom window in the inn they were staying at, to tell her they had been discovered and would have to leave via the window immediately, she didn't bother asking him any questions, just followed his orders. And when his hands came around her waist again to help her down the last little bit of the building, she found that maybe she would leave him and his monkey business to him, no questions asked. Although...

"How long did it take you to learn to climb buildings?"

"A week."

"(Mumble mumble)"...