Altair's new job smelled like shit. Giraffe shit to be precise. Malik had come through as promised and landed him a job, a temp job at least, only it wasn't exactly what Altair had hoped for. He now worked at the local zoo as a pooper scooper. Not a glamorous job but it actually paid surprisingly well, so all in all, Altair couldn't really complain. But that didn't stop him from vocalizing his distaste as he shoveled another load full. Luckily for Altair, this was just a filler job until he found a better one with a more pleasing work environment. But until then, he was stuck here. At the zoo.
As he worked, Altair's mind turned to more important things than giraffe droppings. Like the visit from his social worker tomorrow. Once he got home he would have to do a lot of cleaning to get the house into an acceptable state. Altair cringed at the thought of the mountains of dirty dishes that needed washing, baskets full of laundry that needed to be cleaned and folded, sweeping, mopping, scrubbing, and that was just the inside. The outside was strewn with toys and garbage and some foul substance Altair didn't even know the origin of that one of the boys, none would fess up to it, had splattered on the side of the house.
Couldn't Altair ever get a break from work? No matter where he went, there was never peace for him.
For half a second, a scary thought cross Altair's mind. What if Sofian did take the boys away? Would that really be so bad? Altair could go back to a life of being a normal young adult with normal responsibilities, which was to say hardly any at all. He wouldn't have to worry about feeding four hungry mouths or cleaning up after the little devils or making sure they were safe. The boys might be better off anyway with an actual family that had actual parents and means to take care of children.
Altair shook his head vigorously, frantically pushing away those thoughts. It frightened him that he had even considered giving the boys up. No way would he abandon them. He was their big brother and the only family they had left, they were counting on him to keep them together. Altair promised himself that he wouldn't fail them.
When Altair walked through the door after a long day at work he was immediately greeted by Clay, who flung himself around Altair's legs, hugging tightly and nearly knocking the brunette over.
"Well hello to you too." he said after he caught himself on the door.
Clay looked up at him, very serious with those crystal blue eyes, and whispered, "I didn't do it." Then he shot off in the blink of an eye, most likely to go hide somewhere from whatever evil deed he had almost certainly committed.
Highly suspicious now, Altair dropped his coat and keys by the door, stopping briefly to take off his shoes.
"Maria?" he called.
"Agh! You little brat!" came an answering scream.
A moment later a livid Maria came storming out of the boys' room, a clump of hair clutched in her hand.
"Where did that little bastard go?" she demanded upon seeing Altair.
Altair liked to think he was a pretty tough guy and not a lot of things scared him, but seeing Maria angry was one of the things that did. He quickly ratted out his young brother and pointed to the direction the blonde had run off to. Maria stalked after the child, looking like she might wring his neck when she found him. Altair noted, as he stared at her back, that the back of her hair seemed a bit uneven.
Just then the sliding glass door that led to the backyard opened and Connor came in slightly limping with a grinning Ezio right behind, whom Altair had dropped off at home hours ago after he got off his first job.
"What did you do?" Altair said in an accusatory tone.
"He was trying to climb a tree and fell and scrapped his knee." Ezio answered readily, looking thrilled that it had happened.
"My God, can't you two idiots stop hurting yourself for one day?" he demanded, stalking over to Connor and kneeling down to examine the wound. It was a pretty good scrape, it covered the entire surface of Connor's knee and was slowly oozing blood.
"C'mon, let's get you cleaned up." Altair said, taking the lead to the kitchen.
Once all three were in the kitchen, Altair set Connor down on a chair and opened the medication cabinet. Altair pulled out giant band-aids that he had to buy special for the little boys and then got a wet washcloth. With the needed things gathered, Altair dropped to his knees and started cleaning Connor's knee.
"What tree was it?" he asked as he wiped up blood.
"The big one on the corner of the house." he answered.
"How high did you get?"
"Almost to the top." Connor spoke with a note of pride, his chest puffing up a bit.
Altair gave him an impressed look. "That's higher than anyone else has been able to climb, even me." he complimented. Connor grinned broadly.
After the job was done, Altair stood and put away the remains of the materials.
"That should do it. Stop falling." he ordered.
Connor gave a nod as he experimentally bent his knee back and forth. Deciding to take it easy, he hobbled off and took a seat at the couch. Altair shook his head after the boy. He knew it wouldn't be anytime soon that the boys stopped injuring themselves, but it never ceased to worry him like a parent when one came in bleeding. Altair suddenly felt much older than he actually was, or probably should feel.
Maria soon walked into the kitchen, dragging Clay by his arm. Clay dug his feet in and tried his best to be dead weight, but it was no use.
"What did he do?" Altair asked.
"This little shit cut off my hair!" Maria exclaimed, brandishing the lump of hair still in her hand. "He got behind me with a pair of scissors when I was helping Des and he just clipped it right off!" She shot a glare at Clay, who only whined in return and tried to twist out of her grip.
Altair crossed his arms and frowned at the blonde. "Go to your room." he ordered curtly.
"No!" Clay defied him.
Altair raised his eyebrows at the shout and turned his head slightly in a questioning manner. "Sorry, was that a question? Go to your room." He restated, firmer than before.
"No! You're not mom and you're not dad so you can't tell me what to do!" he shouted angrily.
Clay finally managed to escape Maria's grip, that had loosened in shock, and sprinted off outside. Altair was left stiff in surprise at the unexpected insult, his golden eyes wide.
"Altair..." Maria started uncertainly. Altair had often relieved his worries on Maria's ears, and one of the many, and one of the strongest, was that Altair couldn't live up to their parents.
"You better go." he said quietly. "I have a lot of work to do to prepare for Sofian tomorrow. Sorry about your hair."
Altair paid Maria, who was reluctant to leave her friend. It took several more insistences that Altair was fine and would be fine before she finally agreed to leave, bidding him good luck. When Maria was finally gone, Altair let out a long sigh. He had a lot of work to do and only the rest of today and half of tomorrow to do it. Better get to it.
In the summers when I was younger, my mom would always have to buy these huge bandaids because I'd always end up scraping my knees or elbows or stomach. An my little brother is always getting scraped up, so I figured it was about time my sassy little boys got a little roughed up ;)
