A/N: This is a little something I wrote and tossed on to my Deviant Art account at three in the morning. Basic rules for the meme:

a character, pairing, or fandom you like.

2. Turn on your music player and put it on random/shuffle.

3. Write a drabble related to each song that plays. You only have the time frame of the song to finish the drabble; you start when the song starts, and stop when it's over. No lingering afterwards!

4. Do ten of these, then post them.

This is what was born of that prompt: 10 music-fueled Altair/Malik drabbles. As it stands, I'm leaving this as a WIP (work in progress) because I know that I'll eventually end up doing more of these or just tossing out more oneshots later and needing a place to collect them all. :3

DISCLAIMER: The songs referenced herein do not belong to me. I wish they did because I love all ten of them. Assassin's Creed and the associated characters are similarly borrowed from Ubisoft. That's probably a good thing because I would edit the first game so there would be a "Press Y to sexually assault Malik" glitch in the Jerusalem bureau. There would also be more opprotunities to hug Leonardo in the second one. But! That matters not.

1) "21st Century Cure" by The Repo: The Genetic Opera Cast

Altair walked quickly through the busy streets. It was market day. People were milling around, getting in his way, despite the fact that it was getting closer to sunset. He'd spent the entire day working on creating armor and weapons from the metal he'd managed to create using knowledge from the damnable Apple…

But despite everything that he learned from the Apple, it didn't change the fact that he missed the time when things were simpler… The days when there were lazy days with Malik, kissing in their rooms when no one was looking… Now he had a position of power, they both did, and their meetings were forced to be more rushed… Before all the technology… Altair sighed to himself. Just as well… He walked a little faster to get to his beloved.

2) "Legal Assassin" By Repo: The Genetic Opera Cast
There were some days where it was all he could do to keep from screaming. He thought he'd found stability once with Adha. The Templars had taken her, beaten her, raped her, killed her. Then there was the Templar woman, Maria. She had done nothing more than offer him a son. And now look what had happened. She'd been discovered "fraternizing with the enemy" and she had died. Because of him. Because it was his job as the Eagle of Masyaf to kill those who threatened the fundamentals of human nature.

Altair leaned against the wall near the window, watching the sun rise. He heard a slight noise from behind him and he glanced over his shoulder at the bed where Malik lay. He didn't have to tell Malik that he was terrified of the future, scared for his son and a future overrun by Templar bastards. Just like he didn't have to tell Malik that without him, he was lost. He smiled to himself, glad he didn't have to lie to himself, lie to a wife about what he really did. Malik didn't make him the villain. Malik didn't make him the monster in the horror show. And that's all Altair could ever hope for.

3) "Nineveh" By E.S. Posthumus

It was something that Malik had always admired about Altair, the way he walked. It was caught somewhere between an indignant slouch and the smooth predatory walk of a cat trailing after an unsuspecting mouse. Truth be told, he loved everything about Altair. The way he walked, the little noises he made when something surprised him, the way he would pout using only his eyes (though how he managed that, Malik didn't know), but he especially loved the way Altair would whisper his name in the dead of night when the rest of the world slept.

They were usually quiet moments, and usually after heated words that lead to heated sex and ended with Malik listening to the rhythmic thump of his lover's heart. Even in those quiet moments, those moments when Altair bared everything, there was still that predatory edge, that possessiveness to his words. But Malik couldn't claim to be bothered by it.

4) "The Bird and the Worm" by Owl City

It didn't matter that it was the middle of the night and that Malik hadn't slept well the past few nights. Altair was screaming in his sleep again. Someone had to stop him civilly before someone lost their head and stabbed him to make it cease.

Altair would always snap out of it with wild and frightened eyes that would calm only when they settled on Malik. But that was fine.

They were always seen bickering and arguing over something during the daylight hours. That was just the way that things had been between them for far too long. They knew what to say and do to make each other blush in the private moments they stole together. They were opposites in every way and they clashed regularly, but it was perfect for them, in a dysfunctional way that only they could ever hope to understand.

5) "Distance" by Karsh Kale

It was a very dangerous dance. Tangling with an angry mother wildcat would have been safer than threatening Malik, even if it was just the angry words of a scorned student.

The dark gleam in Altair's eyes could never be mistaken for anything other than an angry promise that there would be no next time. Malik insisted that he needed no protection, but it changed nothing. Altair insisted that if the novice were so efficient with his sword, then a match between the two of them would pose no challenge.

Malik threw his hand in the air in a gesture of surrender to Altair's stubbornness and he left the practice ring. Altair had never forgiven himself for the loss of his lover's arm. He'd be damned if he'd let someone else bring it up and use it as ammunition against him.

Malik didn't mind watching Altair lash out as much as he thought he would. He watched Altair concentrate solely on the feeling of the sword in his hand, the position of his feet, the moves of his opponents… It was like living poetry, or moving art. Watching Altair fight the way he did in the practice ring… It made him question the presence of some of the scars that littered the other man's body, the scars he had memorized, every single one, despite their number.

6) "The End of Heartache" by Killswitch Engage

The war was the worst thing to not only happen to the world, but to Malik personally. It had taken his father, his brother, his arm, and now it was threatening to take the only other person he'd found the courage to love.

If the Templars weren't so insistent on creating a "new world order" where the people were mindless sheep, Altair wouldn't resort to spending so much time staring into the Apple, wouldn't put his sanity on the line every time the Templars did something that threatened them and their way of life.

It took him months to convince Altair that the Apple was not the answer to everything. It took him almost two years and angry, biting kisses to convince him that there was still something worth living for in the world. But after the first time, it wasn't so difficult to wrench him away from the Piece of Eden.

It had been a violent kiss, full of clicking teeth and clawing hands, a kiss that conveyed all of the anger and desperation and sheer loneliness that Malik had bottled up since Al-Mualim's betrayal. That was what it had taken to bring Altair from his self-imposed stupor. After that, all it took was the promise of such heart-felt kisses and subsequent activities to snap Altair out of whatever odd mood he was currently in.

7) "Lonely Soul" by UNKLE

Altair rather enjoyed entertaining an air of doom and gloom. It tended to force people away, tended to give him more space. After he'd killed Kaddar, taken Malik's arm, murdered his master, it was no longer an air. He flitted through the halls of the fortress like a specter. A very solid, very deadly specter, but a ghost none the less.

He spoke often, when he spoke at all, of leaving, of going to a Bureau somewhere in Europe and fighting the Templars on their own ground. He didn't tell the whole truth. He said it was an attempt to end the war as soon as he could. The whole truth was that he was afraid of staying in any one place long enough to get attached to anyone. He'd come to the conclusion that he had the worst luck, especially when it came to love.

Adha, dead. Malik, handicapped. Maria, even, was sent into hiding somewhere in a country whose name he couldn't remember. The Assassins didn't trust her and the Templars called her a traitor.

Altair resigned himself to being forced to live as a drifter, never staying in one place… Until Malik had thrown him against a wall and demanded he stop sulking. Altair hadn't bothered pushing him away. He had stood there silently, listening to Malik scream and berate him like a novice who had botched an elementary mission. He felt he owed the one-armed man that much.

"You think only from your own perspective even now. I see in your eyes that you pity me. You are the only one. I do not even feel pity for myself, and yet there you are." Malik spat.

"I'm sorry." Altair mumbled.

"Stop being sorry. Stop being so…So withdrawn! God strike me where I stand for saying this, but I believe I am almost beginning to miss that cocky smirk of yours. There's no other here with a wit quick enough to come close to yours in an argument, and given how stupid you are, it's a feat to be proud of!"

Altair smiled at the joke. It was one they'd shared for years. It was one he hoped they'd continue to share until the end…

8) "Tikal" by E.S. Posthumus

Altair ran, his feet hardly touching the rooftops as he went. There were yelling guards, scrambling archers and screaming arrows all around him. He'd already been injured twice, once by an archer who very nearly managed a solid shot, and another time by one of his pursuers who got lucky with a scimitar.

He could hear only the pounding of his heart and his own ragged breaths as he waited for the guards to overlook his hiding spot. He was close to the bureau, but he knew Malik would refuse to open the door, even for him, if the guards were looking… Once the heard of people thundered past, Altair slipped out of the rooftop garden and hurried in the opposite direction. Malik was just sliding the entrance open when Altair arrived, dropping into the room with as much grace as he could muster, given the blood loss and the exhaustion.

"Another mess you've gotten into." Malik muttered as he gathered the medical supplies. He sat down to tend to Altair and the bleeding man grabbed his chin and forced a kiss to his lips.

"Another excuse to see you."

9) "Label" by Render

They hurled names and insults like impetuous children, but there was more venom and more bitter promises behind every word they spoke. At any given time, both one of them could explode and it would all be over. They called each other every name they could think of and worse.

But when the screams died down, they promised not to use such harsh words. They whispered what the other wanted to hear. It didn't matter what they called each other when they yelled, which was rather often, especially with stress levels so high. What mattered was that they knew the names were meaningless names that would never stick. Except for Malik's loving use of the term "Idiot" when describing his lover and Altair's pet-name of "Cynic" when talking to the only person he'd ever truly loved.

10) "Drunken Lullabies" by Flogging Molly

Altair, on principle, tried to avoid drinking. But it was his twentieth birthday, he was allowed to celebrate. There had been strong wine and many other alcohols passed around. Songs were sung far too loudly and off-key. There were harem girls dancing and giggling and rich food was all around. It was no secret that Altair was the favorite of Al-Mualim. It was also generally well-known that, despite his prickish attitude, Altair wasn't one to be stingy with the favors, especially when the favor was a party such as this.

He'd stumbled off into some corner, looking for enough quiet to push away his headache and he'd bumped into a very intoxicated Malik.

"You know, I have quite the present for you." Malik slurred.

"Oh yeah?" Altair asked.

Malik grinned, nodded, leaned forward, and planted a sloppy, drunken kiss on Altair's scarred lips. Altair was shocked at first, but he decided to go along with it. It was, by far, the best birthday present he could remember (not that he could remember much beyond his own name at the moment), and, he hoped, the beginning of something beautiful. Behind the kissing duo, the party raged on, their drinking songs rising ever louder.

A/N2: Hope these weren't too painful to read. I have teeny-tiny little favor to ask, and I only ask because I had (have?) this problem with my other AC fic: I LOVE that you favorite the story, but please, please, please leave a review. I don't care if it's just "OMGZ! LURVE!" I'm not Altair. My ego is fragile. X3 Beyond that, I really hope you enjoyed it.