IMPORTANT. MAKE SURE YOU READ.

i will no longer be posting updates for this story on this website. To continue getting updates you will need to follow it either on my tumblr blog shotgunsandstars where I post updates OR on archiveofourown where it is listed under the same pen name and story title. This is mainly because reader comments have been way down for this story and it's no longer worth my time to keep posting on this website.

See you guys on AO3 for future updates.

Altair wasn't worried when Desmond didn't text him Monday night. He knew Desmond was upset and knew it was stupid and he knew Desmond knew it was stupid too. So he just left it alone. On Tuesday Desmond was remarkably absent from the usual place he had lunch with his friends. They told him he was with Clay out talking with people about gossip. So he wasn't there. I'm chemistry he spent his period doing work with Catarina and when the bell rang didn't rush out or wait for Altair. He just got up and left. Altair followed after him and caught him before he got out of the pod.

"Hey, what's the matter?" he asked Desmond.

Desmond just turned and gave him a look. "You know, " he said.

"Desmond, I'm not apologizing for doing the right thing," Altair said.

"Then we don't have anything to talk about," and just like that he walked off and Altair stared after him. What had just happened? How was this such a big deal? He'd done the right thing! He knew he'd done the right thing, too. Why was Desmond mad at him? He just stared after Desmond in confusion. What was wrong?

In the class he had with Malik he asked him about it. Malik had nothing good to tell him. Leo used to get mad at him over stupid shit too and really the best thing was just to leave Desmond alone and let him get over it. Altair asked if that worked for Malik and yeah, it usually did. Also didn't help them not break up in the end. That part especially worried Altair. He didn't want to break up with Desmond. He'd done a lot to get Desmond to like him and now go out with him. The idea that Desmond would want to break up with him over this worried him.

After school he went and looked for Desmond at his bike. He couldn't find the bike. Had he left already? This entire day was just building into torture of anxiety. All Altair could think was that maybe Desmond didn't like him as much as he said he did. Of course neither of them really said how they felt. Altair had only told Yusuf and that didn't count because Desmond wasn't around to hear it. It only counted if Desmond heard it. He just decided to text Desmond to make sure he was okay.

'I'm home already' was the reply back. Already? That confused Altair but alright. He went to his own car and drove home.

'Wanna come over?' He texted Desmond when he got home. He realized he was just being anxious but he really wanted to see his boyfriend. He literally hadn't seen him all day. Which was weird for them.

It took a long time for Desmond to text back. 'Can't. Busy.'

Altair stared at the text message trying to figure out what the hell he was supposed to do with that. Was Desmond really that mad? Altair had just been trying to do the right thing. He distracted himself with doing his homework. Unfortunately he didn't have a lot and finished quickly. Once he was done with that he looked for more to do and ended up in the kitchen. If he was cooking he could focus on that and not that his boyfriend was mad at him. He put on sad music and cooked dinner. He was done when his gramps came home at around eight.

"Everything alright ibn?" Rashid asked him, looking at the food Altair had made.

"Hmm? Yeah, I'm fine," he lied.

"You sure? You made enough food to feed Ezio's family and all your friends."

Altair looked around at what he'd made. He'd made stuffed chicken cutlets, several types of roasted vegetables, scalloped potatoes arranged in a rose shape in the pan, a pasta salad with asparagus and tomatoes, a regular salad with a homemade dressing, turkey bacon wrapped scallops, and a key lime cheesecake he had chilling in the fridge. It was a feast and he'd made it just to keep his mind busy. He guessed this really did look like a cry for help.

"I think I made some of my friends mad," Altair said. Shit, he'd made a lot of food. Way more than he and his gramps could eat before it went bad. He'd pack it for lunch tomorrow and bring it for his friends to eat tomorrow. They'd eat it for sure. "I was just trying not to think about it…"

"Oh? Who is it? One of your new ones?" Rashid asked as they sat down to eat.

"Yeah…"

"Did you apologize?"

"I didn't do anything," Altair said almost reflexively.

"Then what are they upset with you about?"

Altair hunched over. "I… might have done something," he admitted. "Someone on the team was making fun of one of my friends so I went to confront them and make them apologize."

"Ah, yes," and Rashid eyed his busted face. He'd already given Altair a stern talking to about it.

"They're mad I stood up for them."

Rashid gave him another look. "Is that really why they're upset?"

Altair didn't answer right away. For him it was a loaded question. "They're mad I got in a fight," he consented.

"As they should be. And you blew off their concern, hmm?"

"I did the right thing!" Altair insisted. "I just wanted an apology. I wasn't going looking for a fight. They were bullying my b- friend," he caught himself before he outed himself. Thank Allah.

"Well they sound very worried about you and that you got into an altercation. Which one of those nice kids you went fishing with is it?"

"Desmond," Altair said without thinking. He felt even worse now. Desmond was just worried about him and he'd made Desmond worry. He hadn't meant to. He'd just been trying to help, and protect him.

"That was the one who had to run to work, right?" Rashid asked and Altair nodded. "He is a good friend if he's more worried about you than being bullied. You might have done the right thing but if that upset him you should still apologize."

Altair moved his food around on his plate. He wasn't hungry now. He just felt like an asshole. He didn't want Desmond to be mad at him. "I guess." But Desmond wouldn't talk to him. Would hardly even return his texts. It was stressful knowing your boyfriend was mad at you. "But I was doing the right thing," he said, practically pleading with his grandpa to agree with him.

"Maybe. But what's more important? Being right, or your friendship with this boy?"

Altair looked down at his plate. This sucked. This absolutely sucked and his gramps wasn't wrong. Rashid calmly ate his dinner knowing Altair needed quiet. He didn't have a good answer. He knew he was stubborn. And he wasn't wrong. Desmond didn't deserve to be bullied just because he was how he was. Not to mention it had never been about Desmond. Shay was just too scared of Altair and his friends to bully him. Desmond was an easy target. He'd admitted as much. He'd actually been happy Shay had picked that fight so Altair could enjoy beating the shit out of him. He wasn't actually injured. Some bruises, broken ego, needed some bandages for a split temple, nothing a week of easy going wouldn't cure. Just the fact that Shay was that spineless to go after his boyfriend, who didn't even know who Shay Cormac was, because he had a problem with Altair was beyond gross.

He wasn't wrong. He wasn't.

Desmond sure thought he was.

Altair had no appetite. He got up with his plate of half eaten food and went to finish cleaning up the kitchen. He packed the leftovers into tupperware and stacked them neatly in the fridge. By the time he was done Rashid was bringing his plate in and slotted it into the dish washer.

"You going to be alright, Altair?" Rashid asked him.

"Yeah," Altair sighed. "I got homework to do," he lied for an excuse to go to his room. He listened to more depressing music and aimlessly looked at his phone. He flicked through some of his photos of Desmond in folders behind other pictures. He had a lot of them of Desmond sleeping peacefully in his bed, both snuggled up against him and not. He had others of him at the beach from volleyball last semester. A lot of them were borderline stalker candids but he always looked happy in them at least.

He checked his social media and played a bit on his phone before getting ready for bed. He did try and get some sleep. Went through the entire ordeal of shower, brushing teeth, getting into bed. Wasn't working out. Altair couldn't sleep. Eventually he gave up around three and went into the kitchen and started baking. It was more complex than just cooking and Altair had to pay attention to mixtures and weights.

Rashid woke up before dawn, saw him, and didn't say anything. "You make coffee at least?" his gramps asked him, startling him since he'd been listening to music on his headphones to not disturb his gramps.

"Huh?"

"You make coffee?"

"Oh… yeah. Drank it already, sorry," he said.

Rashid made himself some coffee and watched Altair carefully fold pastry for breakfast. Maybe. Altair was concentrating so hard he didn't actually know what he was making. He just didn't want to think about Desmond or that they were fighting. Rashid leaned against the counter. "You going to school today?" he asked, folding his arms.

"Maybe," Altair said, hardly listening. He was zoned in on what he was doing.

The coffee pot bubbled and Rashid poured himself a cup as Altair put the pastry in the oven. The rest he was laying out on other sheet pans to put in the freezer to get hard for when he wanted to cook them later. Who knew when the hell that would be. Altair didn't really like breakfast pastry. As he finished Rashid came over to him. "Come perform Fajr with me," he said.

"Don't see the point."

"Not asking. C'mon," and he pulled Altair away from his pastries. Altair managed to grab a rag to wipe his hands a bit as Rashid pulled him into a room in the house he didn't visit very often.

There was a little altar in the room that faced Mecca and prayer rugs already laid out. Altair felt dumb. He still had dough on his hands. It felt wrong to pray when his hands were so dirty. Rashid didn't notice and just kneeled down in the direction of Mecca. Altair copied him. Rashid had a recording of an imam reciting the dawn prayer he had start playing from an ancient cassette player. It started with the call to prayer but wasn't very long before the recording of the prayer started. Altair just went through the motions of the rakaʿāt mostly. He didn't have the best relationship with Allah. He'd stolen Altair's parents when he was a little boy. He'd never really gotten over it.

Allah had come through, though. He'd helped Altair figure his shit out with Desmond. So sometimes the guy in the sky wasn't all bad. Match made in heaven. That's what Desmond had said because he jokingly asked God to give him a good boyfriend too.

Altair sat on his calves and stared at the decoration that pointed to Mecca when the prayer was over. That was really all he wanted to be; a good boyfriend. He was trying very hard even if he didn't know what he was doing most of the time. The recording of the imam was still going when Altair picked himself up off the prayer mat.

"Where are you going?" Rashid asked curiously.

"I need to get ready for school," Altair said and went back into the kitchen and took out the pastries that were done by now, putting the uncooked ones in the freezer. He left them out to cool and packed the cooler he usually brought out on the boat with leftovers before finally getting all the dough off his hands and going to get dressed. Rashid was making himself eggs and toast when he came back out.

"Altair," Rashid said as he grabbed the cooler, "If you want to come home early, you can."

He smiled a little at his gramps. "Thanks," he said. "I'll see you after school." Then before he could leave Rashid reached out and gave him a hug. He wasn't quite sure what to make of that. Rashid seemed content with what he'd done and went back to his breakfast. Altair went out to his car and drove to school.

He parked out in the back of the lot, where Desmond usually parked his bike so it was out of the way and he didn't have to be so stressed out about people touching it or it getting knocked over. Altair knew that that bike was Desmond's baby and that he sure as shit loved it more than he loved Altair. Not that Altair blamed him really. It was a very nice bike.

To his complete and utter surprise Desmond parked right next to his car. He arrived hardly before the bell rang and put the kickstand down. He didn't get off the bike but did take off his helmet and hang it on the handle bars. Holy shit. He looked so unbearably hot like that in his leather jacket and jeans on top of a black motorcycle. The pipes crinkled with heat after he turned the bike off and just looked at Altair through his driver's side window.

Altair opened the door and got out. "Hey," Desmond said, "You know if-

"I'm sorry," Altair blurted out.

Desmond's brows rose. "Huh?"

"I'm sorry I'm bad at respecting your wishes all the times. It just makes me mad watching people get taken advantage of so I do stupid shit and try and play hero. I'm sorry I didn't just drop the stupid sign thing. I want to try and be better at letting childish stuff like this go."

Desmond just kinda looked up at him in surprise. Like he hadn't actually expected Altair to pull his head out of his ass and apologize. It took more will power than he wanted to admit to not start to wring his hands when Desmond just looked up at him then away, down. He checked something on his motorcycle and then heaved himself off it. Altair knew enough about motorcycles to know that you basically had to get off on the right side so you didn't risk burning the shit out of yourself on the pipes so he didn't get upset when the bike separated them. Across the lot the first bell rang. Neither of them looked at the school as Desmond walked around the bike to Altair's side.

Altair's heart leapt up into his throat when Desmond came up in front of him and kissed him. He practically melted in relief half a second later and kissed Desmond back. "I forgive you," Desmond said quietly. "I might have… overreacted," he reached up and touched Altair's bad eye very delicately. "I just don't want you putting yourself into situations where you're going to get hurt," he frowned and dropped his hand.

"Sorry," Altair said. "I'm new to this boyfriend thing still."

Desmond grinned and his heart swelled. Allah, he looked so wonderful when he smiled. That was Altair's favorite look for him. Just a smile. "I am frightfully aware," Desmond teased him. "And I… do appreciate you trying to protect me from bullies." He did!? Altair felt his brows shoot up. "No one's ever… done that before. It's been easier to just develop a thick skin than deal with them. I was mostly just upset you got hurt. I don't like you seeing hurt," he frowned.

Altair felt warm all over. "I'm sorry I worried you. I'll try not to do it again."

"Okay," Desmond said and Altair's heart ached in a good way when Desmond reached over and gently threaded his fingers between Altair's. They both started when the late bell rang. "Shit. Well, there goes my perfect attendance," Desmond groaned.

"You already didn't have perfect attendance, you skipped a day," Altair reminded him.

"Shit, you're right," Desmond said. "Well, I don't wanna make it a habit. C'mon," he let go of Altair's hand and went to grab his helmet.

Altair quickly grabbed his backpack. "I brought lunch," he said.

"Awesome," Desmond said and Altair had to quickly go after him since he was already walking towards the school. At the front of the school Desmond paused before he went the other direction for class and leaned over to kiss Altair on the mouth. "See you at lunch, can't wait," he said with a smile and Altair managed to wave. When Desmond left all the air rush out of him and he deflated a little and felt like he could finally breathe and a dumb smile crossed his face as he stumbled towards his own class.

Looked like he wasn't always bad at this boyfriend thing.

If you like the story or excited about the update you should leave a comment. Even if to just say 'I love this story!' I appreciate all of them and let me know you appreciate me too. Please don't feel intimated by the long reviews on this story. I assure you I love them all.

ALSO you should def visit my writing blog shotgunsandstars on tumblr for previews, whining, and other sad (and sometimes gay) shit.