A/N: This chapter may read weirdly because I had to censor parts of it. Just go to my AO3 account for the uncensored story. It is posted there under the penname Sorsa

The long warm Italian summer turned into wet autumn finally ending Malik's punishment. Unfortunately as the temperature cooled down the feud between Malik and Ezio did not. The Italian persisted in his contempt towards Malik every time they saw each other which in turn served to make him even angrier.

The situation escalated from verbal insults into open warfare between the two of them. Once even Kadar had been caught between the two of them, earning himself a black eye in the process of trying to tear the two enraged hunters from each other's throats.

But not all was bad as Giovanni Auditore had seen Malik fit to take on more challenging monsters once again. The decision had irked Ezio even more because apparently everything Malik ever did these days was an open insult to the other hunter's abilities.

Unfortunately he had not been able to shake off Kadar's insistence on him socialising more and countless arguments had risen from the subject. Somehow his brother had gotten into his head that he needed desperately new friends and a woman. He found himself being on the verge of accidentally admitting he had never had any interest in women just to silence Kadar and avoiding his brother all together.

He was brought out of his thoughts as he heard a high-pitched screech echo in the empty graveyard in Florence. He had been sent to kill a cockatrice that had taken to living in the graveyard, making all the locals afraid to approach the place.

He moved among the tombstones and overgrown dead grass as he attempted to locate the cockatrice among the graves. It was pouring rain, forcing him to have his hood up, and the ground was soggy with mud. Malik frowned in disgust as the mud stained the hems of his cloak along with his boots.

He stalked around a corner of a mausoleum while running his hand on the cool slippery surface of it. He drew his sword as he heard another screech the cockatrice made this time closer to him than before. The rain had made the handle slippery even though the sword had been under his cloak away from direct downpour.

He took careful steps towards the noise as he did not want to alert the cockatrice to his approach. But before he found the monster, it had found him. The cockatrice ran over him making him slip on the slippery stones as he tried to avoid the attack. His sword clattered out of his hand.

Malik cursed as he scrambled for his sword but the monster had different ideas. The cockatrice jumped between him and the sword, shrieking while attempting to slash Malik with its clawed hind legs. Malik rolled out of reach straight into mud.

The cockatrice followed. He reached for a bomb and threw it into the monster's face where it exploded with a bang. The cockatrice cawed in pain giving Malik time to get his dagger. He jumped on the monster and sunk his dagger into one of its wing.

The blinded beast snapped its beak close to his shoulder effectively ripping a piece of his cloak in the process. Malik jumped off, landed on the mud and picked his sword up once again. He charged at the cockatrice and unceremoniously sliced its head off with his sword two-handed.

Blood sprayed from the creature's neck, covering him in blood in addition to the mud already on him. The body fell off to the muddy ground. He stood there dazed looking at the cockatrice's severed head, holding his sword attempting to catch his breath for a long time. He moved only when he heard a familiar voice speaking to him.

"And here I thought I would have the chance to rescue you a second time," said the cocky voice belonging to no other than a white-robed, annoying bastard who leaned oh-so-casually against the mausoleum. Malik moved swiftly.

Altair continued, "What is it with you and we –" but Malik cut Altaïr short with a punch to the man's face with his non-sword hand.

"Shut up," Malik hissed, and then yanked the surprised Altaïr to a kiss. Altaïr wrapped his arms around Malik as he responded to the kiss after the initial surprise of Malik's actions had worn off. They stood there kissing in the middle of a night in a graveyard with a terrible downpour, Malik covered in mud and blood still holding his sword while a cockatrice's corpse bled out a few metres away from them, and Malik thought the moment could not be any more perfect.

As they separated Altaïr's white robes had horrible mud smears on them. Malik grinned in the satisfaction the whole situation brought him. Altaïr still looked horribly smug with his lopsided grin.

"Not exactly the greeting I was expecting," Altaïr said while complacency practically radiated from the man. Malik attempted to scowl but failed miserably as he was just too happy to see the other hunter.

"I do not know what you were expecting," Malik answered nonchalantly as he moved to pick his dagger up from the corpse.

"A kiss before the punch?" Altaïr suggested. Malik laughed. Altaïr grinned. For a while everything was just as it should be.

"Come. Let us move this discussion elsewhere," Malik said while already moving away from the scene.

"I have a room in an inn not very far away from here. You are welcome to join me," Malik conversed while they walked through the empty streets. All the citizens were either sleep or indoors away from the bad weather. The water ran in streams on the streets carrying all sorts garbage along.

They made it to the inn where the unfortunate innkeeper was still awake as he was waiting for Malik to return so he could lock the place up for the night. The man gave Malik a disapproving glare but did not say anything. The innkeeper probably was not very impressed in the way he was leaving a muddy trail behind him.

"He is a fellow hunter of mine. He will stay the day with me. Is that good with you?" Malik asked the innkeeper out of politeness even though he had made his mind about Altaïr. The innkeeper nodded in response as the man probably did not want the ire of a monster hunter directed towards his person. Having a perpetual angry frown did have its perks occasionally. Malik smirked in satisfaction.

They made it to the small room Malik had in the inn. He locked the door behind himself as he did not want to be disturbed. He wanted to be rid of the wet muddy clothes as soon as he could and wash out the grime covering his face and hands.

Altaïr seemed to have similar ideas as the hunter had already stripped down to his breeches. Malik took off his cloak and inspected the gash in it briefly before hanging it to dry. He shook off his robes and boots until he too was wearing his breeches only.

As Malik was cleaning his face a pair of arms circled him from behind. Altaïr leaned against him while attempting to sneak one of his hands into his breeches. Malik gave the man sideways glare.

"No," Malik said sternly. Altaïr looked as if he did not understand what he was saying.

"I am just helping you to get rid of these dirty clothes," Altaïr whispered in to Malik's ear. Malik snorted as he turned around to face Altaïr, still holding a rag in his hand. It wasn't like Malik didn't want to ravage the man right there and then – his body most certainly agreed with the notion – but his rationale told him they were in grave danger. He could not control the environment the way he could in Monteriggioni.

"We cannot be doing this here. If we are caught it will be the end for the both of us," Malik lectured in a low voice. Altaïr was still grinning smugly as Malik directed a hard glare at the man.

"The door is locked, there are no windows, and it's the middle of the night. We just need to be quiet." Altaïr smirked lopsided. Malik sighed. Altaïr did have logic behind his statement.

They collapsed in silent agreement on the wooden floor. Their limbs were dangled with each other as they cuddled. Altaïr looked like a lazy cat content on lying in its favourite resting place forever, which apparently was partially on top of Malik.

"That's how one has sex silently," Altaïr said sleepily while wrapping his arms around Malik as if he was a big teddy bear. Malik rolled his eyes and cuffed Altaïr half-heartedly on the head before settling to run his fingers through the man's hair.

"Novice."

"Only for you. Only for you, Malik," came the tired reply. Malik could not help smiling. He had been missing Altaïr so badly even if he was not ever going to admit it aloud.

He would have to leave for Monteriggioni the next evening. He was hoping Altaïr would follow him back home but these were things he needed to worry when the time came; currently he was content on lying on a floor of some inn in Florence with Altaïr. Even if he was bound to have his back hurting when he woke up. He frowned.

"Get up. I want to go to the bed," Malik demanded and shook Altaïr who had fallen asleep.

"What?" came the unintelligible response.

"Get up, Altaïr. I do not want my back hurting come morning."

Altaïr did follow him back to Monteriggioni. The journey back took them the entire night because they had to ride through roads which had turned into sludge from the constant rainfall. The horses struggled to keep their balance, constantly slipping or having their feet stuck in the mud.

The rain kept falling obscuring the sky and stars. They had to keep their hoods on to avoid being soaked to the bones but the water would still breach through their breeches from the front where their legs were unprotected.

When they finally arrived in Monteriggioni their horses had mud reaching half way through their flanks and they themselves were in a similar condition with mud caking up to their knees. Malik felt tired and cranky from the whole ordeal and judging from the frown on Altaïr's face the other hunter was not faring much better.

Malik waded through the town with Altaïr in tow. The morning was almost upon them, making Malik have his mind set solely on giving his report as quickly as possible, throwing his wet dirty clothes off and hitting the bed.

He entered Giovanni Auditore's office. Altaïr followed him inside and leant on the wall next to the door. Malik noted how they had both left muddy footprints behind them. He sighed tiredly.

"Malik, you are back from Florence and you've brought Altaïr with you it would seem," Giovanni Auditore greeted him looking like he had just woken up, which considering the time of day was more than likely.

"Yes. I ran into him during my assignment in the city. He followed me back after I was done with the cockatrice," Malik responded trying to keep his voice from showing any emotions.

"That's fine. I don't mind him here. Now give me the report," Giovanni said. Malik frowned and glanced at Altaïr who had schooled his face into showing no emotion. He had thought there would have been more discussion on why Altaïr was back since the situation was vastly different than it had been in Venice. The whole thing made him suspicious and he decided he would interrogate Altaïr about it as soon as they were out of the room.

"I found the cockatrice on the graveyard like the locals had described. It had taken into living there permanently and attacked anyone if they dared to enter the place. I killed the creature by cutting its head off," and made out with Altaïr afterwards but he was not going to tell that in his report. Giovanni Auditore nodded in response.

"You are dismissed. I won't have need for you for a few days," Giovanni said and then directed his words towards Altaïr before continuing,

"And you may stay in the same guest room as before." Altaïr nodded and made it out of the room with Malik.

Malik stopped and turned to face Altaïr as they had made further away from the office. He crossed his arms and scowled as he attempted to think for his next words.

"What have you done to warrant a permanent invitation to the Auditore villa?" he asked in whispers as he was sure the answer was something not meant to be heard by common folk though he doubted anybody could understand them talking in Arabic. Altaïr smirked.

"An ancestor of mine made a pact with the Italian hunters where they would provide food and shelter among other things if need be. In exchange the Syrian hunters would do the same," Altaïr said nonchalantly while shrugging his shoulders as if to accentuate how much of a non-issue the thing was. Malik was couldn't decide whether he should be amused, frustrated or what. He settled on sarcastic.

"Do you even have an ancestor?" he asked.

"No," Altaïr answered simply.

"You made the pact, did you not?" Malik asked rhetorically already knowing the answer.

"Yes."

Malik groaned in frustration and rolled his eyes. Why everything in his life had to be so convoluted these days? He wanted to go back to the days, where he pretended everything he had ever known and cared for was killing monsters but then he took a good look at Altaïr and he could not decide whether he wanted to punch or fuck the man which for reasons that belied any reason made him want to stay in the present situation forever. Absolutely everything was so difficult.

"You are frowning again," Altaïr said smugly. Malik rolled his eyes.

"Thank you captain obvious."

Malik was in the middle of pulling his boots on when his door opened. The rain had stopped during the day judging from the lack noise the water made as it hit the ground. Why he could hear the rain through thick stonewalls was something he did not want to delve too much into but the fact remained he had heard the person entering his chambers already long before his door was opened.

The intruder was Kadar. This was nothing new as his brother tended to make rude uninvited visits to him where he just barged through the door without any regard towards Malik. He could lock the door to keep his brother away but he rarely did so because despite his annoyance at his brother he never wanted Kadar to feel unwelcome.

What was different about his brother this time was the sling on his right arm and the black eye he sported. Malik scowled hard as worry shot him. He sprung on his feet with the left boot still unfastened on his feet.

"Hello brother," Kadar greeted as if nothing had happened.

"What happened?" Malik asked, voice laced with worry. Somebody had clearly hurt his brother while he had been gone which was unacceptable.

"I, uh. No, never mind," Kadar stuttered in his speech. Malik narrowed his eyes to examine his brother closely.

"I – I kind of sparred with Ezio and –"

But before Kadar could finish his sentence, something snapped inside Malik's head. It must have shown on his face too because Kadar's eyes widened in shock.

"Don't hurt Ezio. We sparred in mutual understanding," Kadar blurted out in defence of Ezio, but Malik had put two and two together already. Ezio had knowingly asked Kadar to spar while he had been gone because the Italian knew how to get to him. Ezio had broken his brother's arm because of the feud between him and Malik. This was unacceptable.

"No," Malik said sternly. Kadar looked at him in disbelief.

"No? You will leave him alone?" Kadar asked him surprised.

"No. I will break him apart and feed the pieces to the nearest monster I find. And then I will leave him alone!" Malik growled before running out of the room.

He ran through the villa in search of the idiot who had dared to break his brother's arm. Everything passed through his eyes in a flurry with his mind set on only one purpose. The white-hot rage blinded him to his surroundings.

He found Ezio in the training yard with Altaïr. The bastard did have the decency to drop his smug smirk in favour of clear disdain. In the end there was only surprise written on Ezio's features as Malik's fist connected with the Italian's face probably breaking his nose in the process.

Ezio landed on his ass with the practice sword clattering out of his hand while the other went for his now bleeding nose. Malik was about to jump after the man so he could instill more injury on the hunter but Altaïr blocked his way and his brother seemed to materialise somewhere next to him.

"Move!" he shouted in anger as he saw Ezio scramble on his feet.

"No," Altaïr answered.

"Move it, you dimwitted novice!" he growled and charged to go around the man, but Altaïr blocked him once again. He was consumed with the need to beat Ezio's face in, making it the only thought in his mind.

"No, I won't," Altaïr responded with surprising calmness.

"Move! He hurt Kadar!" Malik shouted and attempted to force Altaïr out of his way. Altaïr did not budge but took hold of him, effectively rooting Malik in place against his will. He tried to squirm his way out.

"What you are doing here is avenging a person who does not want to be avenged. I will not move," Altaïr said sternly. Malik stopped his struggling since it was futile anyway.

"Kadar's arm will heal. He is not dead and beating Ezio won't help his arm heal any faster," Altaïr continued. Malik sighed, counted to ten in his mind and gave Altaïr a pleading look.

"Please, release me," he asked as calmly as he could. Altaïr seemed to be judging him whether or not he would lunge at Ezio once again. After a while the arms holding him in place loosened. Malik took few steps backwards before turning around to head somewhere where he could cool his head. He took a quick glance over his shoulder where Altaïr stood his arms crossed, Kadar looked uncomfortable and Ezio seemed confused.

"You are still a shit, Ezio," Malik snapped in a farewell.

"Why does my brother have a broken nose?" Claudia demanded while looking very agitated.

Kadar stopped his journey towards Leonardo's workshop as he heard the words of his best friend. He had known Claudia would appear to demand answers from him but he had tried to avoid the situation as best he could. But he was not exactly inconspicuous walking around with his broken arm on the sling so detection was unavoidable.

"Because my brother is an idiot?" he suggested. He was angry at his brother's action even though he had known Malik would react violently as soon as he found out what had happened. This was not even about his broken arm but about the stupid row Ezio and Malik had going on between them for months. Kadar just happened to be a convenient excuse for Malik to use violence against Ezio, as he was sure his brother had been itching to find any reason to attack the hunter.

Sometimes he just didn't get his brother at all and one of those times had been yesterday, when he had been sure Malik would have even hit him just to get to Ezio. Luckily Altaïr had happened to be there because he had been too afraid of his own brother to intervene. The way Altaïr had calmly taken on his brother's rage was something to admire as he had barely been able to stand in the sidelines without succumbing to his base desire of running away from the situation.

"Yes. That is not new and it does not answer why he attacked my brother out of the blue," Claudia kept pressing while rolling her eyes. Kadar sighed. He didn't want to fight his friend over the matter that was between their elder brothers.

"If you asked Malik he would say it was because of my broken arm, but I think it's all about the stupid griffin feud," Kadar answered sincerely. Claudia looked at him funnily as if she could not decide if he was crazy or ignorant.

"That was months ago, Kadar. How could they still be fighting over it?" Claudia asked with disbelief. The question was one he kept asking himself over and over because no matter how many times he had asked his brother about it the answer had never made any sense. The situation had reached a ridiculous point which was far over-blown considering the original argument had been basically a glorified cock fight. Kadar sighed.

"I don't know. I've tried to take Malik's mind away from it but he persists on keeping the fight going," Kadar admitted, defeated. But it was true; he had tried his hardest to make his brother socialise more to take his mind off the argument and his grounding in Monteriggioni. It had not worked in the slightest.

"It's just that it's horrible to be around when they are fighting like that," Claudia uttered in frustration. Kadar could not do anything but agree with her. The atmosphere had been horrible as of late. Ezio and Malik had both so much presence over Monteriggioni that even normal citizen were feeling the tension in the air. To make them stop their ridiculous feud would be in everyone's interest but so far nobody had been successful.

"Yeah," he answered because he could not think anything better to say.

"I wish they would already make up and kiss," Claudia said before realising what she had just said, "though it would be kind of gross," she continued with her nose wrinkled up. Kadar burst into laughter at the mental image. She looked infinitely more amused as well.

Malik could not decide whether he wanted to kiss or strangle Altaïr as he found himself sitting on top the villa with the said man. At the moment he was leaning slightly towards the choice of strangling. He was angry at Altaïr blocking him from beating Ezio into a bloody pulp for the harm the Italian had cause for his brother.

The night was cold but it was not raining and the stars could be easily seen. In any other time it would have been sickeningly romantic to just curl up to each other for warmth but Malik was boiling with anger even after a few days had passed since the incident, making him unable to enjoy anything but rough sex where he could simply sate one part of his base desires.

"You are a horrible human being," Altaïr said with a hint of amusement in his voice. Malik rolled his eyes.

"Well it turns out, apparently I am not a human being," he retorted irritated. Altaïr chuckled. He had not grown accustomed to the idea of being something other than a human but he trusted Leonardo to know better. The man was a genius, artist, inventor, and a witch so the chances were he knew what he was talking about. He didn't have to like it though.

"You should solve your argument with Ezio," Altaïr said. Malik frowned at the thought. He had thought about it before, but had not reached any conclusion which did not involve him embarrassing himself and then Ezio had gone and hurt his brother, making any kind of solution impossible.

"He hurt Kadar. He knew Kadar was off-limits but he went and broke his arm anyway," Malik growled. The flames of anger ignited in him once again with renewed vigour.

"Why?"

"What do you mean 'Why'?" Malik deflected the question back angrier than before.

"Why is Kadar off-limits?" Altaïr inquired calmly and even the tone the man used was starting to annoy Malik.

"He is off-limits because he is my brother, because Ezio cannot pull his punches as is evident, because I do not want him hurt, and because he is not involved in this quarrel," Malik answered with his voice rising in volume along with the speed he spoke.

"Those are shit arguments," Altaïr countered. Malik looked at the man in disbelief. How could Altaïr not understand?

"What?!" were the words that left his mouth before his mind could catch up.

"You should allow Kadar to make his own choices or he won't ever know the extent of his abilities," Altaïr replied still calmly.

"But Ka –"

"No. He's an adult and needs to learn fighting Ezio results in broken arms. You can't keep on beating up people who look at your brother funnily forever and he doesn't want you to do so. You should respect him for it," Altaïr lectured him.

"Besides, you are just using him as an excuse to hate Ezio. You need to resolve this thing you have going on because it's clearly hurting you," Altaïr continued with a softer tone.

Malik did not want to think about any of this as it was starting to make his head hurt. Altaïr did have a point he admitted to himself but it was so hard to let go after spending his whole life attempting to shelter Kadar from anything harmful, and he was not used to solving quarrels with anything but his fists. Logical argumentation did not apply when emotions were involved in the equation making him unable to solve the puzzle.

He could admit of being tired of arguing with Ezio but the Italian really did not make it easy to forgive because every time they met a new fight would break out. Then there was the deliberate way Ezio had taunted him with beating Kadar and no matter how much he tried to convince himself it was Kadar's decision to deal with the situation, he could not bring himself to forgive the intentions behind Ezio's doings.

The thoughts repeated in endless loops inside his head making him feel almost physically disoriented. He tilted his head upwards and started counting the stars as an attempt to clear his head. Since he could not find a solution to his problems he decided to ignore them. He didn't know how long he had been counting when Altaïr nudged him in the side.

"Stop counting the stars," Altaïr commanded. Malik was startled out of his counting and looked at the man surprised. Altaïr was smirking smugly.

"How do you know I was counting them?" Malik asked disbelieving.

"I just know," was the annoyingly pointed reply. Malik frowned but did not say anything.

"Stop counting the stars and solve your problem with Ezio," Altaïr continued. Malik cringed.

"I do not know how," Malik admitted in defeat. He ran his fingers through his hair in frustration.

"Try apologising," Altaïr said while shrugging. Clearly Altaïr was an authority in relationships, seeing how they had become friends by arguing, then fist fighting, then fucking each other. Malik rolled his eyes.

"Why?" Malik demanded an explanation because as far as he knew Ezio was the one who should be apologising seeing how the Italian was the reason for all this.

"Because somebody should," Altaïr answered casually.

"I was not the one who started all this," he argued and crossed his arms pulling his cloak closer to himself for warmth.

"Maybe, but you were the one to break someone's nose over it," Altaïr said amused. The jerk found the situation funny. Malik could feel his heat warming up from the anger he was feeling.

"He broke my brother's arm over it!" he snapped. Altaïr gave him a sideways glance at that.

"Solve your problem with Ezio. No matter how amusing I think it is to see you boiling furious every second of the day, the sex is infinitely better when I have your undivided attention," Altaïr said without any hint of embarrassment in his voice. The arrogant bastard had some nerve thinking everything revolved around his dick.

Malik might have erupted like a volcano if not for Altaïr's lips that were suddenly doing wicked things to him making him unable to resist the temptation. For a while he was annoyed that he was proving Altaïr right about his dick but thinking was much harder when being on the receiving end of a blow-job.

Ezio was convinced his sister was the devil-incarnate. There was no other explanation as he rubbed the bump in his head courtesy of Claudia throwing a shoe at him among various other objects. She had screamed at him how he was ruining everything. Everything being her odd friendship with Kadar which was apparently now under a threat because his feud with Malik.

Of how these things were connected Ezio was not sure but it had resulted in Claudia screaming at him as soon as he had woken up and wandered to get something to eat. She had been waiting for him just for the chance to shriek like a madman at him. He had no idea what he should do to her so he had tried to smooth the whole thing over. It had been unsuccessful.

He knew how to handle women very well, which was evident from all the female admirers he had all over Italy but clearly Claudia was not a woman. He could only look on flabbergasted as she berated him for being 'a shit head' and his favourite 'useless peacock without a brain'. What a lovely and charming woman his sister was; no wonder nobody wanted to marry the imp.

Then he had been thrown out of the brothel. The madame had told him to fix his shit and come back only once the dust had settled. He had been denied peace at his home, the pleasure of women outside of his home, and there was not even anyone to beat up.

It was then he decided drinking would solve all of his problems. He snatched two bottles of wine from the wine cellar and with a sip, which might have emptied one of the bottles halfway through, he set out on his task with a determination.

He wandered through the halls of the villa in search of his target. It was raining outside once again, so it was likely he would find his prey inside. He checked the normal lodgings of his target but found them empty. Then he made his way to the guest rooms as it was likely he would find who he was looking for there arguing with a certain arrogant foreigner.

He knocked on the door careful to avoid hitting the bottle against the wood. The liquid sloshed in the bottle from the motion. Then he pushed the door open before being invited in as he had little patience for standing still looking like a fool outside of a closed door.

Sure enough his target was there looking slightly ruffled and visibly surprised to see him and Altaïr was with him with his usual stony expression set firmly in place along with the hood. Ezio slammed down the bottles he was holding on top of the table in the middle of the room.

"Malik. Now we sit and drink," he commanded. His plan was foolproof. Malik eyed both the bottle and him suspiciously.

"I don't drink. I'm a muslim," Altaïr butted in. Well his plan was almost fool proof, except for this tiny little detail. Malik seemed to be considering whether to snap or accept his proposal with his face set somewhere in between.

"Fine," Malik sighed and dragged one of the chairs away from the table. Ezio triumphed silently before taking a chair for himself and Altaïr followed the suit even if he was not going to participate.

"Did you bring glasses?" Malik asked with an evil glint in his eyes.

"No," he answered with embarrassment and alcohol tinting his cheeks red. He had not thought about it at all when the plan had formed in his head.

"I guess it is fine like this," Malik responded while shrugging his shoulders. Ezio smiled as Malik reached for the bottle and opened it.

They drank in turns from the bottles, the tension leaving them as the liquid disappeared from the bottles, and it didn't take long for Malik to get drunk. The man had never been good at holding his alcohol as he did not indulge much. Soon they were both laughing at the most inane things and telling the most stupid jokes to each other.

"You know what, Ezio?" Malik slurred.

"What?" he managed back.

"I am sorry," Malik drawled with difficulty. Ezio wobbled as quickly as he could in his unsteady legs to hug Malik.

"No, I am sorry," he said with his voice breaking in the end. They found both themselves crying against each others shoulders endlessly telling each other how sorry they were. Somewhere in the room he was sure Altaïr must have been watching on amused but he just did not care.

The next evening he did care though when he woke up with a terrible hangover and with his mouth feeling like he had eaten a bucket of sand. The thrumming headache he was feeling was something to behold. He realised he was lying on the stone floor of the guest room where Altaïr was staying and he was not entirely sure how he had ended up sleeping there.

He took a quick look at his surroundings and he had to take a double take because he had entered the room with two bottles but there were several more lying all around the floor. Somewhere on his right Malik was stirring looking just as sick as he did. Altaïr was nowhere to be seen.

Then Malik scrambled on his feet as if on fire and made a beeline towards the chamber pot where he emptied his stomach. Ezio laughed at the sight until his head started hurting too much and he just wanted to curl up and die.

Who said alcohol was not a solution to things?