The work day was over and Altair, Ezio, and Leonardo were gathered in the parking lot carrying on a conversation that had little to do with anything when they heard a familiar voice call from behind them, "Altair, may I have a word with you?" asked Malik as he approached the three other men.

Altair audibly groaned and the other two bid a hasty goodbye as they retreated to their own cars, "What is it now?"

Malik shied slightly before his face returned to its usual scowl, "I'll need those new designs by tomorrow."

"But it's the weekend. I have better things to do than sit in a dark office and doodle as you put it." Altair all but growled. It had been two weeks since they met and all the older man had done was ride his ass up and down the wall. This week had been especially bad because Altair retaliated on a few occasions, the initial shock of someone as ill tempered as he was wearing off.

"Sorry I'm actually making you do your job."

"Don't you have things to do on the weekend? Like take a girlfriend out to dinner or just, oh, I don't know, relax?"

"No and no. Just finish the damn design by tomorrow and drop it off at my address."

"Can't you get Ezio or Leo to do it?"

"They ran off before I could get to them," Malik gave an almost playful smirk, "Besides, I happen to think your doodles are better."

Before Altair could recover from that little surprise, Malik was shoving a piece of paper into his hand and walking away. The other man still standing in the parking lot like an idiot wanted nothing more than to tackle the infuriating man and tell him to shove it. He didn't need this kind of crap right now. But he held his tongue and drove home defeated.

When he walked in his apartment he was greeted by his girlfriend (rather enthusiastically), "Welcome home, honey." She cooed oh so sweetly. Altair hated being called honey and dear and all the other ridiculously sweet and corny pet names she gave him. But he put up with it. She was currently unemployed and was evicted from her apartment just recently. Altair was too nice for his own good and let her stay with him until she got back on her feet. He liked his space and had refused her previous offers to start living together because of it… at least that's what he told his self. But he was beginning to think that losing her job and getting kicked out of her apartment had all been a cunning plan hacked deep within her dark, evil mind of feminine aspirations.

"So…why don't we pick up where we left off this morning, hmm?" She said, pulling Altair's hips closer to her own.

"I can't, Maria. I'm too busy. These designs need to be done by tomorrow." At least Malik had given him an excuse to avoid sleeping in his bed with her tonight.

"On the weekend? What an ass. C'mon, baby," there was another name he hated, "can't you just take one little hour or two to take care of me?" she pouted those full lips in a seductive manner.

"Not now." Altair blew her off coldly.

"Why not? …Are you seeing someone else?"

"What? Where'd that come from?"

"You are! I knew it! That's why you won't have sex with me! You're already spent after fucking your little hussy on the side!" she yelled, big blue eyes filling up with dramatic tears.

Altair sighed. He wasn't going to get out of this one, "I'm not seeing anyone else. It's just you. I promise." He soothed, forcing a small smile as he leaned in close to her and kissed her lightly. And the trap snapped shut. She wasn't letting him go now, literally. She wrapped her arms around his neck and deepened the kiss.

She was the one to make the first move by pulling Altair's messenger bag off his shoulder and undoing his jeans. Altair slowly worked on unbuttoning her blouse and moving them into the bed room where they tumbled to the bed.

It was always difficult for him to get it up whenever they had sex but Maria never seemed to notice. As long as he kept her occupied in some way, he could take all the time he needed. He nipped at her throat and slowly moved down to her breasts all the while rubbing his groin against her, focusing on the friction and heat rather than what it was he was fucking.

"Talk to me, baby. You know what I like." She whispered in his ear.

Oh, he knew what she liked. It was no secret that his native tongue was Arabic (though he had lived long enough in the united states that he could easily hide his accent and being only half Arabic made his skin a much lighter tone). He began whispering nonsense in her ear. Just random things like "Your goat ate my baby's watermelon," but she didn't know that. The sound of it was all she liked.

He rolled his eyes as she sighed in ecstasy and found his mind wandering back to his work. He knew he wasn't going to be feeling much like working after this. Damn Malik and his ridiculous schedule. Why did he only seem to pick on Altair? Why couldn't he ride Ezio or Leo or anyone else for a change?

"I happen to like your doodles better."

For some reason or another Altair became fixated on that one moment, that one sentence. In his mind's eye he watched Malik say it over and over again. He watched those oddly full lips twitch up into a smile, watched them slowly form the words. He could even hear that smooth, deep voice of his. Suddenly, he became very enthusiastic about his physical activity. The person moaning and writhing beneath him was no longer Maria, but his co-worker.

Everything he said was in Arabic at this point and it was probably a good thing too because if Maria understood what all he was saying that would be the end of it. Altair was now saying things that he would never in a million years say to Maria. But he wasn't saying them to her. He was saying them to Malik. He felt a heat build in his gut and soon climaxed shortly after his girlfriend.

Surprisingly enough he was out of breathe and rolled off to her side and just lay there rather than getting up almost immediately like he normally did, "What does Malik mean?" Maria asked as she cuddled up against him.

Altair's face paled as the lust hazed memory rose to the front of his mind. He had called out Malik's name when he came. It was after so many other foreign words so Maria didn't recognize it was a name but he did. And, oh god why that name? He thought quickly about what the word could mean without sounding off, "It…uh…it means…angel…" Yeah that worked. His blushing face even helped with the lie. She knew he hated showing too much emotion (though it never stopped her from trying to pry every one of his feelings out into the open). She giggled and curled up to sleep.

Altair didn't feel like sleeping though. He got up and went to the bathroom to take a shower. He felt disgusting every time he slept with her. He was living a lie and he knew it. But he just…he just couldn't bring himself to see the truth.

He scrubbed maybe just a little too hard as he tried to wash away the sickening smell of perfume. Why did she where it if she wasn't going out most of the time? His mind drifted to who he had thought of during the act. Why did he think of him of all people? Now he was never going to be able to look the man in the eyes again… actually, now that he thought about it, Malik did have the most beautiful deep brown eyes… No! He could think such thoughts. He was with Maria now. No matter how annoying she could be at times they still cared for each other…didn't they?

Altair finished his shower, dressed in comfortable sweat pants and didn't really bother with a shirt before he entered the spare room he had converted into a home office. His bag had somehow ended up in there and he emptied its contents on to the desk that sat in the center of the far wall. He stayed up half the night putting on the finishing touches and tried to find something else to do so he wouldn't have to rejoin Maria in his bed. Unfortunately, he was unsuccessful.

. . .

"I don't see why you have to go right now. All he said was 'by tomorrow' right? No specific time?"

"Trust me, the sooner I get this over with, the better." Altair shrugged on his usual white jacket and headed out the door, leaving Maria in a bit of a sour mood. He swore that woman wanted more sex than every man in the world could give her. He jumped on his motorcycle and drove in the general direction of the address he was given.

It turned out that the man only lived a few miles from him and Altair was there in less than twenty minutes. He knocked on the door and heard a rustling fallowed by a thump and a small curse before Malik answered the door in nothing but a pair of loose fitting sweat pants and looking particularly annoyed.

"What do you want?" he said tiredly.

Altair blushed ever so slightly and avoided eye contact, "You told me to have this to you by today. Here." he handed Malik an envelope containing the newly finished design.

"Oh, right. Thanks." Malik said as he took the envelope.

"I thought you said you didn't have anything to do with your girlfriend." Altair said, pointing to a fresh love bite the showed proudly on his neck. In fact their where quite a few of them.

"I don't have a girlfriend." Malik said casually, as if it were common knowledge.

"Well, a hooker counts as relaxing at your house then, smart ass."

"I did not get a hooker, you idiot." Malik was starting to get a bit frustrated with the other man.

It took Altair a second to connect the dots but what really brought it all together for him was a distinctly male voice calling Malik's name from the back of the apartment, asking who was at the door, "Uh…oh, sorry…I…didn't know I was interrupting…?"

Malik gave him an odd look, "You didn't seem to care when you thought I was with a woman."

"Yeah, well, I thought-"

"Malik!" called the voice again, this time sound more irritated and louder.

"Goodbye, Altair." Malik said in a finalizing tone, all but slamming the door in the other man's face.

Altair felt a surge of anger rise up in his belly. But the anger was nothing to the more terrifying emotion that made its self all to known. Altair felt jealous. He wanted what Malik had. He wanted to feel comfortable in his own skin. He wanted to be happy with the one he was with. He wanted…but it didn't matter. Altair knew he would never be strong enough to face himself let alone the stares of judging eyes. He hated excess attention and really the only attention he could tolerate was the kind people gave him when they were afraid of him. They left him alone then.

He didn't feel like going home just yet. He pulled out his cell phone and dialed Ezio's number, "Hey, what are you up to? Good, I'm coming over." And before the Italian could protest he clicked his phone shut and started up his bike.

AN: Aw poor Altair. Well, there you are my lovelies. Chapter two! I just want to take the time to say sorry for the misspelling in chapter one. It was supposed to be Abstergo. Oh dear, that was an embarrassing mistake on my part. Welp, feel free to come up with witty insults for Maria, the slut. They'll make me giggle and I might even use a few when things heat up with her and our favorite couple of this story! :D