You know, even if I said at the beginning of this that I'd be slow to update, I didn't think I'd be this slow...
Staring up at the collapsed roof, charred walls, and absolutely wrecked innards of the house, sun beating down on his back, Altair saw not a demolished home, but an opportunity. For the wreck in front of him, was Nasira's home. Even as he thought about it, he could feel guilt growing in his chest, however, he could use this chance to spend more time with her. Obviously, she would need a place to stay while her house was being rebuilt, and the castle would be housing any individuals who's homes were in poor condition as the assassin's helped the villagers to repair them. It wasn't much, but the extra time she would spend in the castle would allow more chances to 'accidently' run into each other.
Of course, even beyond staying in the castle, Altair would be helping to rebuild homes alongside the other assassins and he saw no reason he shouldn't work on Nasira's. He had seen the inside once, if only briefly, and would be at least slightly more qualified to recreate the rooms than just anyone. Which would only allow him more opportunities to seek her out, for the purpose of fixing her home, of course.
"Listen, Nasira. I don't approve of your choice, at all. I want that to be perfectly clear. But I also know it isn't up to me. So, as much as it hurts me to see you choose someone else, I won't try to hold you back." Despite the words he was saying, and the way he puffed his chest out just slightly, Kaaf's eyes were glistening with moisture, seemingly on the verge of tears. Yet even as he said all this, completely unprompted, Nasira was utterly baffled. There had been no prior conversation, he simply walked up to her, the first time she'd even seen him since he ran off, and told her to listen. "If it doesn't work out with him, I'll still be here, okay?
Not giving her a chance to respond, to question what in the world he was talking about, he left. Trying, and failing, to be discreet, he wiped at his eyes as he hurried off. "Kaaf, wait! what are you..." However, he was already too far away to hear her. Nasira really had no idea what he could be talking about. She was fairly certain that she, of all people, would know about it if she had gotten into a relationship with anyone. "what could have given him that idea?"
"Do you think he's talking about me? We had quite the day together after all?" No doubt purposefully startling her, as evidenced by his increasingly cheeky grin at her twitching, Malik responded to the question she had mumbled to no one in particular. And he had the audacity to joke about her friends bewildering misconceptions as well.
"Sure, the greatest day ever. You practically kidnapped me and forced me to play games with you for hours till I lost my temper. That sure gives a girl butterflies." Grumbling mostly to herself, still not over the events of that morning and afternoon. Of all people, Malik was probably the last one Nasira wanted to chat with right now. Raising her voice some, she continued with a promise, though more to herself than to him. "I will beat you one day, just you wait!"
Before she could proudly storm off at her proclamation as she'd intended, malik's grin shifted, crooking slyly upwards on one side, . "I can't wait to crush that silly dream of yours when next we play." Ths man... during their first interaction he had almost seemed a wise man, but she knew now he was anything but. How she longed to wipe that smug face in the dirt just then, but she had never been very good at verbal sparring, and she certainly wasn't any good at physical sparring either.
For seemingly no reason that nasira could see, Malik's lips dropped into a frown, his eyes widening more than she thought his eyelids capable of. Suddenly, without warning, Malik dashed off into the crowd of villagers, she only barely heard him muttering a curse to himself as he left. Only a few moments later, it became clear why he'd been in such a rush.
Altair was approaching Nasira, all the while glaring off in the direction Malik had disappeared. Stopping near Nasira, rather than following Malik, as she had expected , Altair sighed "He's supposed to be assisting the villagers, not harassing them." Finally, he stopped glaring into the crowd, but only to shake his head in exasperation. "While I'm here, I have some bad news about your home"
interjecting, Nasira looked as though she'd expected as much. "Of course, happens every time the village is raided, my parents really picked a poor plot of land to build on." The whole village knew it, the sudden destruction of all their possessions could, and occasionally would, happen at any moment. It was just another part of life in Masayaf. Even so, perhaps Nasira was taking it just a little too well. At the very least she could look a tiny bit disappointed, but from her expression Altair could've believed he had merely told her it would rain later, not that her house was little more than a pile of rubble.
Before either of them could say anything more, weaving between the crowd, heading in a zigzag pattern toward them, was a woman who Altair didn't recognize. "It's so hard to find anyone in this mess. I saw your house Nasira." Briefly glancing over at the mentor, she paused only a moment. "Sorry to interrupt. Anyway, our house is basically untouched, you and Amali can stay with us for now " At the mention of Amali, Altair instinctively scanned the crowd with his eyes, just to be sure she wasn't on her way over as well. Not seeing her, he silently chastised himself for being so uneasy.
The two women had continued speaking as he had searched, something about what furniture to move to make space for her and Amali, he hadn't payed them much mind. Until this new woman gave him a sidelong glance as she mockingly said. "but you know, I can't believe you're over here chatting with Altair of all people, I thought you-"
Panic clear in her widened eyes, Nasira threw her hands out as if to cover the women's mouth, but she stopped speaking on her own before Nasira's hands could reach her. "You promised you wouldn't tell anyone about that!" Almost as if realizing that the person standing next to them was also the subject of her secret, Nasira turned to face him, likely trying to think of some way to cover up her outburst. "It's not... don't... there's really nothing. I just... Zaina just likes to tease! just forget she said anything!"
Turning away from both of them, Nasira called out something about checking her house for anything salvageable, she wasn't paying much attention to what she said anymore, as she scurried off. She hadn't felt the need to run and hide just from seeing Altair in some time, and she couldn't say she liked having that feeling return. Even if She Knew Zaina was simply teasing her and wouldn't actually have finished her sentence, Zaina was a better friend than that, but she'd panicked. If Altair knew she used to be irrationally terrified of him, and was still nervous just from the thought of him... with how often they ran into each other it'd be unbearably awkward.
Nasira continued on, she supposed she should actually go see about salvaging anything from her home, she didn't have much else to do after all. Zaina wouldn't tell him why she'd panicked while she wasn't there, as she often said when making fun of Kaaf "it just isn't the same if he isn't here to hear it"
"Is there something I should know?" Altair questioned the woman he now knew as Zaina. He hadn't seen Nasira bolt off like that in awhile, and while her hurry was mildly amusing, her keeping some secret about what she thought of him, as well as running away from him, left him more than a little confused. He couldn't really understand everything he was feeling, but his chest was tightening, and his mouth and throat were suddenly dry.
Zaina looked almost as if she'd forgotten he was there, or as if he was the least interesting thing in the room. "Huh? Oh, no, I only like to make fun of people who are around to hear it." turning her head every which way, as if searching the distance around them, she continued. "Well, I'm sure you're busy, and I'm super swamped with all sorts of stuff to do, you know? I'm definitely not leaving just because I have no idea what to talk about with you. Another time then." And with that, she was off into the crowd once again.