Assassin's Creed: Phoenix

III. past

William and Connor didn't need words to communicate.

He went right next to a familiar place later that night, where they'd always sit when they wanted to just pass time talking about pretty much anything. Almost every single night on a rooftop, watching the lights of the old city linger from above, growing up together. Those carefree years of being teenage boys, only worried about ditching their Assassin training.

Though it brought him memories he craved to forget, William remembered the day he met Connor - it was the first time in a while he felt like his loneliness wasn't there to haunt him, an eleven year old child in a wheelchair who had just lost his mother. It was his first time being in London, though the flight was a bit blurry because of the grief. It was Izar who escorted him to his new home from his hometown, New Orleans. William could remember how hard it was for Izar to push the wheelchair, he didn't have much knowledge about achondroplasia as an eleven year old.

"Uncle Izar." He'd say to the man. "I remember you. You are my mom's friend."

"It's been a long time, my boy." The man reached forward, attempting to shake the boy's hand but he didn't respond right away. Instead, he had a curious stare. "I will keep you safe from now on. You got so much bigger since the last time I saw you."

"Uncle Izar, how am I taller than you?" Izar gently smiled to the boy.

"I was born like this. Sometimes it can be hard for me to do certain things, but I've made my peace with it." He winked, his voice getting more friendly. "It can even be better, I can do many other fun things."

William didn't speak, but a grieving expression was all over his face in the blink of an eye. He grabbed the wheels of the wheelchair and sighed. "I can't."

Izar approached to him and held the boy's hand. "I will do everything I can to get you to stand up again, I promise, my boy."

That night Izar packed William's stuff and had a flight booked to London immediately, where he'd take him to learn the Assassin ways. William stayed up all night with him, helping him to get some of his mother's personal stuff as well. It felt comfortable how Izar wasn't pushing him to talk about his mother or showing fake sympathy over her death - instead he would briefly talk about other things, like how rainy London was at this time of the year or that time when he had a free ride in a carousel because the employee thought he was a child.

They left New Orleans in the morning, Izar was so tired that couldn't help but yawn every other minute. He looked at the boy sitting right next to him, playing with some cards in a quirky way. "Aren't you tired, William? You haven't slept all night." He watched him cutting the cards slowly, seemed like he was trying to learn it.

"I can't really sleep, anyway." That answer wasn't a shock for Izar, as he guessed there would be some consequences related to the trauma he had been through.

"What are you playing with those cards?" He asked, trying to communicate with him.

"I had a book. There were some tricks in it." William put the cards down. "They're really hard to learn."

"Oh, look at you, little magician." Izar smiled but his eyes were about to close any second now. That's when he saw the bags under the boy's eyes, he must have been avoiding sleep for a while. "Teach me if you learn it, will you?" He fell asleep right after and didn't wake up until shortly before the landing, only to find the boy still with cards in his hands.