A Step Bacl and to the Side

A Word: Ibid.

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Being with Altair is strange. It is both different and not at the same time in a way that throws her off a little.

Nothing changes in that they still fight. Physically and verbally though Altair, as always, does not show well in the last type of sparring. Much to his obvious frustration. What is different is the new way Altair has taken to fighting back.

Malik bites at his lip and Altair pulls back with a poorly smothered laugh. His smirk is enough to get her blood heating up all over again. "Do you plan to silence me this way all the time?"

"If I thought I could get away with it," Altair says unrepentantly and only the precarious pile of paper between them keeps her from going over the table and strangling him. They're arranged perfectly in order of importance and she doesn't want to have to go through the tedious work of sorting all over again. "But I have no doubt you would find some way of making my life miserable and short if I tried."

"So there's some sense in you after all," Malik sits and pushes the chair a little further away to face the infuriating man more fully. "Miracles do happen."

"When the lessons get beaten into my thick head, yes," Altair says with a faint smile, and this here is new as well. The littlest insult no longer stings the man's pride, and Malik thinks this change has been coming for a while. She is only truly noticing it now.

She is only truly noticing a lot of things now, and it's not something that she likes acknowledging. Not when she thought she had always known Altair so well. It's glaringly obvious how wrong that thought was now.

Altair is still smirking at her, daring her to keep up the verbal sparing they'd started when the paperwork started getting light enough to not keep all of their attention. It's hours before either of them can even think about begging off to make use of the practice ring. The insults, their usual pre-sparring routine, are light for all their bite which is why Altair's smirk wavers over into a genuine smile every few minutes.

"I know many elders who would disagree with that," Malik says because it's true. As a child and young man, lessons had to be more than beat into his head to be learned if he disagreed with them. She glances over the missive she was reading before and catches the tail of the sentence she left off of. There's nothing more urgent in it than the request for resupply, but she scans through the whole thing to be sure before setting it aside for the appropriate Rafiq to work on filling.

"They just weren't stubborn enough," Altair dismisses and Malik takes it for the dig he no doubt intended it to be. He frowns a bit before laying two letters he's been reading side by side in the same pile. Malik watches him until he picks up a report and starts to read it.

"Obviously, no one alive can match your hardheadedness," Malik moves deftly to the left to dodge the kick she knew would come for that. "Trust me, it has long been a source of-"

Dodging the kick forced her to move right, and the table they are using is small. Malik should have seen Altair's next move beforehand, but she did not and only has herself to blame when the man snakes around the corner of it and grabs a handful of clothing to pull her into a kiss.

He still tastes like the sweet grapes they'd finished a while back, and it's unfair. Completely unfair that this is all it takes for Altair to make her completely forget herself. Forget that there's still a rather significant pile of reports to read through, and a training schedule to approve before they can leave the study. Forget that she's more than a little irritated at him, and that she'd planned to say something pointed about his poor aiming with his foot.

Altair is not Dima. His lips do not make her feel like she can float, and the hint of his teeth over her lips does not make her stupid with want. Malik likes that though, she's far too old now to allow herself that kind of foolishness. For as new to them as his tongue sliding into her mouth is still, it's familiar. Everything with Altair is familiar and Malik feels comfortable pulling him down to his knees next to her. Content return the scrape of teeth and to suck on his tongue until he moans low in his throat.

His eyes are dazed when she pulls back, his lips puffy from her ministrations, and Malik feels more than a bit smug at the way he leans forward towards her -just the tiniest bit- before catching himself.

"Nice try, but we still have a schedule to look over, and you," Malik plants a boot firmly in his gut, and he lets her push him back, "have missions to approve. Nothing good comes out of an entire city of bored Assassins."

"Not under your watch," Altair stops moving when her leg is fully extended. He's bent nearly parallel to the ground and grabs her around the ankle before she can pull back. He stops using his own muscles to keep himself up and Malik grunts as his weight pulls on her knee. "All of the younger Assassin's and most of the older set fear the sharp side of your tongue. They can spare us a few moments."

"A few?" Malik asks scornfully even as she lets herself get pulled to the floor. Her legs going over Altair's as he sits back up. "A few moments isn't worth wasting my time, Altair. I have weapons I can sharpen instead."

"Fine, more than a few moments," Altair retorts but the irritation bleeds out of his voice as soon as it enters. His attention firmly elsewhere as his lips turn up in that smug grin he wears when he gets what he wants. "A few hours, at the least."

It's a bad idea, and horribly irresponsible. Malik bites back her own grin and twists it into a smirk as she works her right hand under the straps of the weapons Altair will never give up willingly no matter how often others tell him it's not customary for a Grandmaster to wear them. "Hours? I don't think you are capable of that kind of activity."

It's a blatant challenge, and they are both well aware of how capable Altair is. It's worth it though to see Altair's eyes narrow and set. Grim and determined because now he has to prove himself, and Malik gets a brief moment to admire the look before she's on her back and Altair starts to prove her words very wrong.

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