[personal profile] tactician
Fandom: Assassin's Creed
Characters: Yusuf Tazim, Ezio Auditore
Rating: G
Warnings: An expansion of the Like Pillars Four (HP Crossover) universe. A short introduction to a Revelations character within this verse.

He would trust Leonardo with this, but Leonardo has always been a pacifist at heart, gentle in mind and in soul. This isn't a world he wants to pull his dear friend into, not if he can help it. The most he will let Leonardo help in this secret quest for revenge is to let him exercise his unique brand of genius with crafting new spells for Ezio to use when undercover. It is all, if not already more, than Ezio can ask of him, and Leonardo rests a little easier knowing that if he cannot fight with Ezio, he is at least making sure Ezio can fight well enough not to need it.

So, Ezio asks Yusuf instead.

“You must be careful with revenge, my friend,” says Yusuf, flipping the collapsible wand (a local invention from Yusuf's hometown, as he was proud to explain on the first day of their acquaintance) deftly between the crevices of his fingers, making it bend between them as if carried by the ebb and flow of waves. With an expression of vague disapproval, he lifts his eyes to Ezio. “You still haven't told your brothers yet of this mission, arkadaşim?”

“Desmond is still in school,” says Ezio, pulling up his hood. “And Altair...Altair has moved on.”

“As you should,” comments Yusuf, with a small smile that suggests he knows exactly what sort of reaction that will garner.

As expected, Ezio shakes his head so violently his entire upper body seems to shake with the movement. He does not disagree with the prognosis – he has tried, but whereas Altair has learned to leave his past behind him, has started to build his life past whatever shadow his history has cast, Ezio finds that he has based his entire self on it; he cannot free himself of it. In order to properly proceed, he has to resolve the issue that has been haunting him since childhood. He needs to know who it was that ordered his parents killed.

“No, I have tried, amico, but I cannot. Even when I am instructing my trainees during the day, I keep on thinking about it, and that is unfair to them, especially when they might come to count on the information I'm teaching them one day. This is something I must do. So please, Yusuf, watch over them while I am gone. Leonardo gets so involved in his work that he forgets to eat, and sometimes, Sofia is no better with her books.” He chuckles dryly. “I do not want to return victoriously only to find that they have both wasted away in their studies.”

Yusuf laughs, a deep, belly-deep sound that bursts out from his lungs and makes the room echo with his amusement. Ezio has always liked that about him – Yusuf is the most unreserved of his friends, proud and brotherly, just like Altair, and he makes the pang of homesickness ease a little when he is near. Ezio makes friends easily, but keeps them with greater difficulty. Yusuf makes camaraderie easy, like he knows no other way to deal with a person (even if that is not true – Ezio has seen Yusuf on the battlefield before).

“All right, all right,” Yusuf accedes finally, clapping Ezio soundly on the shoulder. “I will make sure that your girlfriends stay healthy and well-fed while you are away on this wild goose chase of yours. But if you are late, I cannot make the promise that I will stand in for your classes. My students give me enough trouble already.”

Ezio smiles, accepting the clap with good grace and returning the gesture with a hug of his own, an embrace not unlike the ones he shares with Leonardo, because Yusuf, too, is one of his dearest of friends, and this favor is no small one in the grand scheme of things. As Auror partners, they have learned each other, learned to cover and protect. This may only be an extension of that, but it is no small feat nonetheless. Yusuf cannot join him because this is and must be a solo mission, but this is all Ezio needs to carry it out. “Thank you, my friend,” he says with sincerity, slipping his wand into the sleeve of his robe. “I will be back shortly.”

Yusuf sees him to the Floo station, where they will part ways. “See that you do,” he says.
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