Author Notes: You guys, new comers or people that have been there from the beginning, are a continued fountain of motivation. I hope you're all having a wonderful day. And if you're not, hopefully this chapter might make you smile.
X: Birds of a Feather
As fast as the romance struck, Aemilia found it was gone. The male assassin didn't utter a word or even spare a passing glance at his female counterpart the rest of night even when they reached the bureau to an eager Dai. She briefly wondered if perhaps he regretted his actions. It surely wasn't her fault if he did, she didn't rebuke his advance although she had very important reasons to.
"Finally! You two are back! Are you trying to kill me with worry?" The one-armed Dai fretted like a den mother but he stopped when he realized the air between them thick with silence. He sensed something must have happened but what mattered not to the Dai as the contract was complete, the assassin was saved and they were both back alive.
Aemilia blushed, "I apologize for the wait, I.. fell asleep after the mission."
The Dai raised a brow at her words, thinking over a whole manner of what it could imply or didn't before shrugging, "That is fine. The assassin you saved returned back unharmed. I heard many great things of you both from my men. They're calling you the demon assassin, Aemilia."
"Demon?" Aemilia asked with bafflement.
He nodded, "They say you fought with an inhuman speed, and where your blade went enemy blood spilled. The evidence is clearly all over the both of you."
Aemilia and Altair looked over their once-white robes to find it had blotches of brown, dried blood caked on it. Remnants of their epic battle today.
"I will have them cleaned tomorrow by the novices that report to me," The Dai said shaking his hand, shooing them out of sight, "There's food on the table. Eat and retire for the night. Your job here is done. I'm going to sleep."
Aemilia muttered a quiet thanks and watched as he disappeared to the back room where she remembered she once slept. Grabbing one of the small loofs of bread, she collected bits of the assortment left out for them. Cheese and fruits of all kinds, some that weren't recognizable to her eye so she stayed away from them. Even in their privacy, Altair had still not said a word. Just eat his share in silence before retiring on some of the pillows in the other room. It was beginning to irritate Aemilia.
Frustrated, Aemilia ate her food angrily before storming to her side for the night, lying on her side facing away from him. After a few minutes in silence, Aemilia couldn't just lay there and ignore what happened like he was doing.
"I'm going for a walk," she announced, not caring if he heard or not before getting up and running up the wall out the entrance in the ceiling. She needed some way to vent if she was going to sleep.
She was happy to see the moon was out and shinning brightly, as if welcoming her to the night.
"What are you doing!? Get back in the bureau," she heard Altair hiss, trying to keep his voice down.
She narrowed her eyes at him, "No, you're being a jerk." With that she bolted off to the nearest building, jumping over the gap only to briefly stop to look back at him.
Altair had his fists clenched tightly at her disobedience, "Aemilia, I'm not kidding. Now!"
Feeling sassy, Aemilia flipped him the bird, knowing he wouldn't understand its meaning before turning around and kept running in the direction she was heading. She didn't know where, she just wanted to get away for a bit.
Altair stood there bewildered at what she could have meant by sticking her middle finger up at him. He reckoned it wasn't anything good by the fact she continued to disobey his order of coming back into the safety of the bureau. There was still guards out patrolling that would be looking for them. It wasn't safe for a stroll in the night. Running to catch up with the woman, it wouldn't exactly be a peaceful walk under the moonlight for the two assassins.
When Aemilia realized that Altair was running after her instead of just letting her be, she decided to at least give the man a good run for his money if he persisted in bringing her back. She picked up the pace and made bigger jumps across buildings than they were use to put more distance between them. Seeing a tall tower ahead of them, she smirked with a good idea of doing the Leap of Faith off the tower once Altair had followed her all the way to the top.
Arriving the bottom, Aemilia quickly scaled the tall tower as fast as she could til she finally reached the top. It was spacious lookout with straw all over the floor. Aemilia concluded it was from the birds nest that had accumulated over time by whatever choose this as its home. Looking over the edge, Aemilia was pleased to see Altair was no where in sight, probably gave up and returned back to the bureau in defeat.
Aemilia shrieked in surprise as a hand reached up and grabbed her by the collar as he pulled himself up over the edge.
"Jesus Christ, Altair! You nearly scared me to death!" Aemilia exclaimed pushing away from his grasp once he was safely on the tower.
Altair raised his brow in confusion, wondering if Jesus was that important figure in the English religion he had heard about. But he was far too angry to continue to spectate the woman's stance on religion at the moment. She made him chase after her a considerable distance like a common cat after a mouse.
"Good, now if you're done playing childish games we need to go back to the bureau," Altair demanded, slightly out of breathe from the chase.
Aemilia crossed her arms, "No. You go back. I just want to stay out here."
"All night!?" Altair began rising his voice out in frustration but at this height, no one would hear them, "It's dangerous. There could be guards looking for us still."
"Down there!" she quipped pointing towards the ground, "I'm all the way up here and it doesn't even look like anyone has been here in a long time."
Altair huffed, throwing his hands in the air exasperatedly knowing he wouldn't win with the infuriating woman and he couldn't force her down the tower.
"Fine, you want to act like a child, so be it." Altair was beginning to get ready to do a Leap of Faith into a hay cart at the bottom.
"I'm acting like a child? You are since that.. whatever happened!" she quipped making him slowly turn at her words. Slightly intimidating her but she wouldn't show it.
He came down from the ledge storming right up to her face, "You want to know why I was acting like that?"
Aemilia wouldn't back up although he was standing far too close, she didn't want to show defeat in any form. She narrowed her eyes, placing her hands on her hips to push her chest back against him in a challenge, "Yeah. If you regretted it, it would've just been easier to say so."
"I didn't say I regretted it cause I don't," Altair grounded out, "I just.. realized to myself you won't be here forever... You'll go home soon.. and leave me. So getting close to you would be for nothing."
Aemilia's heart and stomach sank at his words.. He was right.. Her stay here won't be for long. And it wasn't as simple as a trip across the seas to ever see him again. She's from the 21st century and he, the Middle Ages. The fact also remained that he must fall in love with a woman named Maria for the chain of events to take place that would eventually lead to Desmond. If she tampered with the events in this time, she could inadvertently change history. Something that could not happen. But she couldn't leave things as it was now, she needed to at least tell him the truth about her..
"Altair," Aemilia gently reached up, pushing back his hood to look him in the eyes to find it held a whirlwind of emotions, "I need to tell you the truth.. even if you may not believe me."
His brows furrowed together in a mix of worry and confusion. Aemilia moved to sit down on the ledge of the tower, "You may need to sit down for this.. Gods know I need to."
Altair moved cautiously, sitting next to her, eager to hear what she had to say.
"I know you had felt something was off about me for a long time now, probably since the beginning," Altair nodded his head, urging her to continue, "I'm.. not from here.. I'm not from this time." She looked at his face to gauge his reaction: confusion.
"What do you mean?"
Aemilia sighed thinking to herself how she could explain it, "Remember the Piece of Eden? The item Al Mualim sent for you to get in Soloman's Temple and it was so important you didn't fail?"
Altair was slightly weary of her knowing but concluded she must have talked with other assassin's about him, "Yes..?"
"That item, the Apple.. I use to collect them in my time, where I'm from.. Like, what I told Al Mualim, when I held it last, I woke up here in Jerusalem."
He sat there in silence, trying to understand her words, "How am I to believe this? What proof do you have?"
Hell, if her not knowing how to ride a horse in these times wasn't good enough she might need to be more obvious.
"Altair Ibn-La'Ahad, syrian-born member of the Levantine brotherhood of Assassins. You were eleven when you were brought into the Order, after your father, Umar, was executed.. your mother died in childbirth with you.. She was christian.. Need more proof?"
Although he was uneasy by her knowledge, he nodded for her to continue. When it came down to it, she still could have heard that information from someone well informed in the brotherhood.
"A man named Abbas used to be a very best friend of yours growing up in the Order but the day his father came into your chambers to apologize for being the cause of your father's execution and committed suicide for all the grief he was going through, everything changed. Al Mualim instructed you not to tell anyone what you two discussed but you still had told Abbas of what his father's true disappearance was and he called you a liar.. from then on, hate you."
Altair got up to back away from Aemilia, "How.. how do you know that?" Altair knew she could have heard about the liar part from someone like Abbas, spreading his hate to other people, especially those close to Altair. But she knew the fact Al Mualim had told him not to disclose any information. They had been the only two that night, he was sure of it!
"I'm from the future," she hoped he wouldn't stone her for being some kind of witch.
"Then that is how you knew me this whole time? You know everything that will happen in my life?" Aemilia nodded to confirm his questions.
Altair paced around, running his hands through his hair trying to let everything sink in. He stopped and turned to her, "If what you say is so, tell me everything that is going on! The nine men I have been killing for Al Mualim. I know something more sinister is going on here, they speak cryptically with their dying breathe and Al Mualim speaks nothing to tell me the truth!"
Aemilia sighed, "Altair.. I.. I can't tell you."
"Damn you!" Altair shouted in frustration, grabbing her and lifting her up by her collar, "Tell me! Tell me if you want me to believe you!"
"I can't!" Aemilia shouted back, "I can't or else it could change the future! If you don't kill all nine of those men, who knows what could happen in my time! They were the nine Templar leaders in the Holy Land of this time! You killing them, although you don't know why, actually did a lot of good!"
"Then tell me what Al Mualim is hiding," He demanded letting go of her.
"I can't but what I can is, all answers lie with the Apple.. the Piece of Eden. That's what it's all about. Even for me."
"Don't speak cryptically.. you're sounding like one of them," Altair grounded out, taking a moment to slipped his sight into Eagle Vision to double-check her color. It was still that strange green color like he first saw in the alley.
"I need the Apple to return to my time.. I have a war against Templars to continue fighting there too," her words punched Altair in the stomach.
Not only did his quest for redemption was steadily bringing Aemilia closer back home and uncover deceit where he tried to tell himself that wasn't there but there was still a war between Templars and Assassins in the future from where she came from. It would never end.
Altair remembered something she had asked him that was strange at the time, "Why did you ask me if Al Mualim would kill you? Is something going to happen?"
She nodded grimly, "Al Mualim had.. sort of, tried to deliver a letter in secret to you instructing to get the Piece of Eden I had and.. kill me once you had it.. but I kinda.. ripped it up."
"What?!" Aemilia wasn't sure if he was more livid at the fact she had intercepted the letter or Al Mualim's secret deceit.
"When did this happen?! When were you going to tell me?!"
"I didn't know if I should!" Aemilia threw her hands up exasperatedly, "I was scared you'd kill me to follow his order to get your rank back!"
"Dammit, Aemilia," Altair cursed, pacing around faster, "When was this letter suppose to be delivered to me?"
"I found it when I went through your bags the night we stopped before we got to Jerusalem," Aemilia flinched at his dark stare, knowing he was giving her the dirty look for going through his belongings.
"I'm sorry! I was just being nosy! I wanted to tell you everything that night when I read it but I still wasn't sure if you'd believe me."
"And you think I believe you now?" Altair asked to see her reaction.
"Well.. you kissed me.. and.. you're sad I need to leave.. so, I think I can say you have feelings for me and would hear me out if I tell you truth that is probably crazy to believe," Altair looked away wishing his hood was up to hide the blush he sure was showing as his face was warm all the way to the ears.
"A man would have to be insane to believe you," Aemilia's shoulder sagged in disappointment, "but I am no normal man. I am an assassin. I was brought up to believe 'Nothing is true, everything is permitted'.. If I didn't even give your words a chance than I'd be turning my back on the very fundamentals I lived by."
Aemilia's heart nearly flew out her chest, she ran and threw her arms around Altair in gratitude, "Thank you so much." She tried hiding her face in his chest so he wouldn't see the tears that were forming in her eyes in happiness.
He was shocked by her actions, being that he hasn't been hugged for a very long time but he wrapped his arms around her small frame and took the moment to secretly smell the light floral scent of her hair being sure to remember it forever.
After a moment, they pulled back from the embrace, Aemilia quickly wiping the tears from her eyes, "What are we going to do about Al Mualim? You're suppose to return back to him with the Apple and my death."
Altair pulled Aemilia back into his arms, holding her closer and tighter than before to give her security, "I won't let him harm you. I knew he was hiding something from me.. and if your death brings him closer to his ambitions, than I guess we can't let that happen, now can we?"
Aemilia smiled. It seemed birds of the same feather truly did fly together, no matter what.
"I will tell him I had to torture you for any sort of information out of you, being that you had none, I killed you as he instructed," he informed her.
"Geez, torture? Isn't that a bit much?" Aemilia asked looking up at him incredulously.
It was scary how serious he looked, "I would have done so, not too long ago.. I use to be so devoted to him.. He was like a father to me."
Aemilia nodded in understanding and was glad she waited to gain his trust before telling him everything.
"Tomorrow I'll travel to Masyaf to deal with-"
"No!" Aemilia cut him off, "I want to go with you.. but I won't go in Masyaf."
Altair sighed, "It's too risky, just stay here in Jerusalem where you'll be safe. You can keep Malik busy.. Maybe even brighten his mood."
"But Altair," Aemilia whined only to be quieted by his lips like once before this time she didn't waste any time in deepening, making Altair slowly lose control.
Before it got out of hand, Altair pulled his face away, "Just please, for once do as I say, Aemilia.."
Aemilia smirked evilly, fine, if he wanted her to do as he said she wanted to torture him. Altair nearly flinched feeling his neck being under attacked from the intoxicating woman's lips and teeth.
'Allah,' Altair pleaded in his mind, 'please give me strength to not do what I want to her.'
Feeling the sensitive spot behind his ear licked and his ear lobe nibbled on, he lost it.
'Fuck it, just forgive me later' Altair thought grabbing Aemilia and lifting her up to let her wrap her legs around his waist as he laid her down on the straw that would be their makeshift bed for the rest of the night.