Summary: Altair can't forget what he was forced to do to his master and he can't cope with it, who will come to save him. Rated M for Angst, self harming, attempted suicide. Eventually Altair/Malik
Disclaimer: I only own a copy of Assassin's creed not the rights to it. I make no money from this story so I can't lend any to anyone.
To the bitter end
Bold: Peoples thought
Altair shuddered as Malik's breath ghosted over his lips. He closed his eyes in pleasure and involuntarily arched his back.
"Tell me Altair."
Malik's face was close, very close. Altairs eyes sprung open as Malik released his hands and touched his neck gently. Altair looked up at Malik who had a teasing but affectionate look on his face.
Altair heard a door opening and footsteps. Suddenly Malik was no long above him; he looked over at Malik who was grinning. He leaned in and whispered in Altairs ear.
"We'll continue this later."
He gave Altairs ear a quick lick, making the young man gasp again and then Malik leant back. Altair felt his face flushing hot again and he frowned. Whoever it was had a lousy sense of timing.
He looked at the door with a glare and smirked dangerously when the doctor come in. He could see him looking between the grinning Malik and the pouting, angry looking Altair and it made Altair madder to see him trying to suppress a grin.
"Am I interrupting something?"
Malik answered;
"No of course not, we were just talking."
Malik flashed the doctor a small grin and Altair could feel his heart break slightly. They were mocking him, Malik must have known what he felt all along and he was toying with him. His master was right, Malik didn't care. Tears welled up in his eyes and he stood up. Without looking at either of them, just staring at the floor, he pushed past the doctor and ran though the front door.
---
Malik blinked;
What the hell?
He stood up to follow him and it hit him.
Oh crap, I should have known better than to tease Altair, he has no sense of humour.
He ran past the doctor and followed Altair out of the door. He looked around and cursed, if Altair didn't want to be found then he wouldn't. He saw an assassin passing and grabbed his arm.
"Have you seen Altair?"
The assassin nodded and pointed back up towards the fortress.
"Yeah, he just ran past me, nearly knocked me over…hey wha…"
Malik didn't listen anymore he just free ran up the hill, bowling over anyone who got in his path. Every so often he grabbed an assassin and asked if they saw Altair until finally he was outside Altair's door. He sighed, shook his head and tentatively knocked on the younger assassin's door.
"Go away!"
Malik shook his head.
"Listen Altair, I didn't mean it."
"I know that you didn't, GO AWAY!!"
Malik couldn't understand if Altair knew he didn't mean it then why was he so upset. Then it dawned on him, he wasn't upset by the teasing, he was upset because he thought Malik hadn't meant IT. Right, time to prove the master assassin wrong. He braced himself and took a few steps back.
"ALTAIR! If you don't open the door then I'm breaking it down!"
One the other side of the door there was a self-pitying chuckle. Malik knew that Altair probably thought he didn't mean it and that made an exceptionally wide grin grace his features. He rolled his shoulder and took a deep breath, massaging the point where his neck met his shoulder with his one hand.
"Alright I'm coming in"
"No! You wouldn't dare!"
It was too late; a crash echoed though the corridor as Malik broke down Altairs door again. Malik looked in and saw Altair with his back to him, he looked down at the sheets and saw little red spots on it, which was unusual since the other assassins had fixed his door and changed his sheets a day after his suicide attempt. Malik groaned in incredulity;
"Oh not again, Altair what's wrong with you?"
Altair stood up and walked towards the window with his back still to Malik.
"Are you fucking joking? You don't care what happens to me so don't start getting all fucking sentimental on me now."
Malik leant against the door and groaned. He knew he was in trouble if Altair was swearing at him. The younger assassin didn't like swearing unless he was really angry or hurt. He stalked up to Altair and spun him around and his heart sunk into his stomach. There were fresh cuts all over his forearms and his bandages were lying in a bloody heap on the other side of the bed.
"Oh god Altair what have you done?"
Altair pushed him away.
"What are you king of the bleeding hearts or something? Don't come to me with your fucking fake sympathy? Get out of my room or I'll shove my blade between your legs and cut your balls off."
"And that's stage two of the psychosis, anger."
They both looked at the door and saw the doctor there with another assassin. Malik glared.
"I can handle this."
The other assassin stepped forward and pushed past Malik.
"I can handle it better."
Malik saw red and grabbed the man on the arm. If this guy thought he was going to leave Altair without explaining what happened then he had another thing coming.
"Who do you think you are? Do you think you're better than me or something. Storming in here, pushing past me and saying you can deal with Altair better than me. I'm his best friend, we have a connection, I know what he's going through and can help him better than you."
The unknown assassin rolled his eyes.
"Oh please, don't give me a friendship speech. Altair is obviously distressed, the doctor called me in because I have experience dealing with assassins who are suffering from this condition. I'm an expert in the field and have suffered with it myself, now listen I'm not insulting your ability to help Altair I'm just saying that I can deal better with this since it's my job."
Malik nodded in silence but Altair wasn't having any of it.
"GET THE FUCK OUT OF MY ROOM!"
The unnamed man glared at him and for once in his life Altair was silenced. The assassin turned to Malik and smiled.
"It might be better if you left him alone for a while, give him time to cool off. I'll leave the room, let you say your goodbyes."
Malik nodded up at the man and shook his hand. The doctor and the assassin left the room and walked down the corridor until Malik couldn't hear their feet. He sat by his friend and waited for Altair to say something.
"I'm sorry."
Malik looked up at him and smiled.
"For what? The doctor said this was the next stage so you're forgiven."
Altair shook his head.
"No not for that, I mean for responding to you earlier. I should have known that you didn't feel anything and you were just teasing me but I guess I was craving any type of affection that I responded. Again I'm sorry, I guess it's another part of my mental illness."
Altair looked up at Malik and smiled, trying to convince Malik that inside his heart wasn't shattering. So naturally he was shocked at the look of supreme anger on Malik's face.
"Altair you really shouldn't lie to me about something like this. I know you've felt something for me for some time, it was in the master's journal."
As soon as those words left Malik's lips he wished he could take them back. Altair stood up and pointed to the door with one bloody finger.
"Get out."
Malik blinked up at the man.
"What? What did I do?"
Altairs eyes were practically glowing red with suppressed anger.
"You teased me knowing that I loved you, made a mockery of my feelings. That's unforgivable. GET OUT BEFORE I RUN YOU THROUGH MALIK!"
Malik shook his head and tried to reason with the raging man before him, he could hear running coming down the corridor and he knew the doctor and the assassin were returning.
"Altair please I wasn't teasing you I meant it, all of it"
"GET OUT!"
Altair activated his hidden blade and Malik was unsurprised to see it was covered with Altairs own blood. He'd thought that the assassins had removed all the blade from Altairs room but he supposed that Altair had kept one stashed away in case of emergencies. Altair stalked up to Malik like an angry panther and Malik stumbled back, trying to put as much distance between him and the angry dark haired man as possible. The assassin accompanying the doctor ran in and tackled Altair. Malik was shocked to see he had rope in his hands. The assassin wrestled Altair to the floor, using his greater weight to pin him down and ripped the hidden blade off his arm. Altair screamed in anger and began to punch the man in the face. Malik joined in the fray and held down Altairs arms, being extra careful to avoid the bloody wounds. The other assassin heaved Altair up, threw him on the bed and tied his wrists to the bedposts, what Malik had previously thought was rope was infact bandages, even if Altair did try to rip them off it wouldn't work and they wouldn't hurt him as much as rope would.
"There that should hold him until we get you out of the room."
Malik nodded sombrely, look at the bucking Altair and walked out. When he left the room he felt a hand on his shoulder and looked over at the doctor who was looking as sad as he felt.
"Don't worry Malik, me and Ralim will help Altair. He'll be back soon."
Malik shook his head and began to walk away, saying one thing quietly as he left.
"Not soon enough."
Please R and R, no flames thank you.