By the time Malik staggered through the door of his apartment, his face was covered in blood, his legs ached and stung and his clothes were atrocious.

"Altair!" he shouted, holding his jacket against his face as he struggled to get his shoes off. He was feeling light headed from the amount of blood loss and was praying that Altair was home. Luckily for him, Altair came out of the bathroom, hair wet with only a towel around his waist. His golden eyes widened upon seeing the sate Malik was in.

"Mal, what happened? Are you okay?" Altair said franticly, rushing over to him and helping Malik to sit on the kitchen floor.

"No I'm not okay, a templar assassin just tried to fucking kill me in the middle of the road and you think I'm okay?" Altair was wishing he hadn't said anything as Malik shouted at him. "Stop asking stupid questions Altair and get me my medical kit. Just shut up and do as you're told for a change."

Altair shot to his feet and ran into their room to get Malik's medical bag from under the bed. by the time he came back, Malik had replaced the scratchy jacket that was pressed against his face with a wet towel which was quickly soaking up the blood.

"Help me out of these clothes please; my arms and legs are cut too." Malik said quietly, slowly calming down as he rummaged his hand around his bag. Altair nodded, wordlessly unfastening Malik's belt and tugging his ripped up jeans off. Sure enough his knees and shins were gashed and covered in slowly appearing bruises.

Altair unbuttoned the buttons of Malik's shirt and pushed it away. His arms were not to heavily damaged as his legs, just a bit cut and bruised, but not torn to bits

"Can I see your face?" Altair asked gently, covering one of Malik's hands with his own. Malik's eyes were closed as he nodded, allowing Altair to gently pull the towel away. Altair's brow creased. There was a nasty looking gash on Malik's temple and across his cheek and chin. Both had been bleeding heavily, his eyebrows were matted together and the fluid stained his face. Malik shut his eye to avoid getting blood and sweat in it.

"Oh Mal, I'm sorry." Altair said touching the pad of his fingers to the shell of Malik's ear.

"Just clean away the blood, pour some whiskey on it and patch it up." Malik mumbled, his eyes still closed tiredly as he leaned his back against the cupboard. Altair did as he was told, leaning over to get the whiskey from the cabinet under the sink. He dabbed the blood away with the towel. Luckily the bleeding had stopped and pooled in the gashes. Unscrewing the cap, Altair pressed the towel to the bottle and allowed it to soak the alcohol up.

He pressed it against Malik's wounds. Malik hissed, eyes scrunching up tight as his nails dug into his grazed palms. Altair patched Malik's face up with bandage strips. Altair's brow creased as he gently stroked Malik's good cheek. Malik leaned into the touch, feeling drowsy.

Altair leaned forward and kissed Malik's neck. Malik let out a low, shuddering breath as he head thunked back against the cabinet. His face was stinging and felt tight and sticky. His limbs were sore and slowly turning purple with bruises. Altair's arm wrapped around his waist as the other gently touched his chest. Altair gently kissed the wounds on Malik's arms and face. He wasn't looking for sex, Malik was tired and in need of rest, he just wanted to offer comfort for his mistakes.

"I'm sorry Mal, I'm sorry I got you into this." Altair whispered hold Malik tighter as if someone was going to swoop down and snatch him away. Malik opened one charcoal eye and regarded Altair softly.

"It's not your fault; you have nothing to apologize for."

"But Malik, they're after me and they're going after you because I... I." Altair stopped himself. The 'L' word was on the tip of his tongue.

"Because I have never been without you, you've always been there." An odd look fluttered across Malik's face before his shoulders sloughed. Malik weaved his fingers into Altair's hair.

"And it will stay that way Altair, now if you don't mind I would like to sleep." Altair nodded and helped Malik to his feet. He had almost told Malik he loved him; why? He didn't love Malik did him, yes he was attracted to him and felt affection and a deep friendship but he didn't love him! And what was that look of Malik's face... had he thought Altair was going to say he loved him? No Malik wouldn't expect that because he didn't love him either... did he?

Altair swallowed and did the one thing he was best at doing, suppressing his feelings into a tiny cabinet in the deepest depths of his mind.

A/N: if you thought there was going to be sex then you thought wrong, sorry. Just some fluffy fluff. I don't know how long you'll have to wait until I post again, probably not long. I just had a bit of a depressing conversation with my mum after I said that all I wanted to do when I was older was fiction writing , basically I got told to 'get a proper, high earning job and stop living with my head in the clouds'. Oh well, does it look like I care? So yeah, next update will either be tomorrow or the day after, I really want to get another chapter out before English assessment on Thursday.