Random prompt idea. Desmond/Kadar soulmate au, where Kadar is instantly gone on Desmond, and Desmond and Malik both think it's because of Kadar's admiration of Altair and Desmond looks suspiciously like him. So Kadar has to defend his feelings from his brother and prove to Desmond that's his feelings for him aren't based around Altair. (And Altair has to watch this mess going on around him as he's trying to live his life. And Malik tries to blame him for this for some reason.)
So, for this Soulmate AU, I was trying to think on why Desmond would assume Kadar likes him because of his admiration for Altaïr and I thought… what if, in this soulmate AU, people only know they’re soulmates after they fall in love? Like a mark/name would appear on their body after they realize that they love their soulmate. It’s not the most optimal way to have soulmates, that’s for damn sure, but maybe it was an ongoing genetic modification project of the Isu Inanna that got pushed aside because of the war then the solar flare.
In this case, the mark is a confirmation that ‘yes, you found them’ rather than a ping of ‘yeah, you’re meant to fall in love with that one’.
And not everyone has a soulmate.
In this scenario, regardless if it’s set in a ‘verse where Desmond time-traveled or a full-blown Modern AU, we’ll get the following:
Kadar has a crush on Altaïr and he doesn’t really understand why until he met Desmond. That’s when he realized that the parts that made him like Altaïr (his skills, the kindness he tries to hide, his dry humor) are the parts he shared or are heavily similar to Desmond’s own.
Kadar believes that having a crush on Altaïr had been his ‘soulmark’ trying to give him a clue.
Malik would think that Kadar is trying to find a reason to why he’s suddenly crushing hard on Desmond after carrying a torch for Altaïr for so long. Malik would think that Kadar just transferred his crush to Desmond because Desmond is a better choice (as far as Malik is concerned) and Kadar is trying to find an excuse so he doesn’t feel like a dick for throwing his feelings for Altaïr out (which he shouldn’t since Altaïr never reciprocated it anyway)
Altaïr tries his very best to ignore Kadar’s obvious infatuation with Desmond but it becomes hard when Kadar flat out tells Desmond that he’s falling in love with him and Desmond runs to Altaïr to tell him everything. Altaïr has no idea why Desmond is telling him all of this. At this point in their life, Desmond would have a better chance of getting support from that damn female Templar he insists on befriending than him.
Of course, Kadar tells Malik everything and Malik has to suffer through listening to his brother recount the entire thing and getting a migraine just trying to help his brother court Desmond which, really, is just Malik telling Kadar to slow down and to edit his most outlandish plans to a more… nicer (won't get you arrested) ones.
Of course, this ends up with Malik needing to vent with someone about all of these and Altaïr is the perfect target. He looks a lot like Desmond and Kadar’s more than worrying plans spawned from the fact that Kadar’s subtle flirting with Altaïr had no effect so he believes being clear about his intentions means being obnoxious in his gestures of affection would win Desmond over.
Altaïr does not approve of this and he tells Malik that Kadar never flirted with him which, in turn, made Malik realize that Altaïr was absolutely oblivious to Kadar’s infatuation the entire time. This only served to make Malik mock his observation skills.
Altaïr doesn’t even get a respite because running away from Malik only meant he had to deal with Desmond having complicated feelings over Kadar’s courtship and Altaïr. Is. Just. So. Done.
Desmond, on the other hand, does think Kadar is cute and he does like him but Kadar has his work cut out for him because Desmond is comparing himself to Altaïr who, in his eyes, will always be better than him so, for Desmond, he believes Kadar is simply settling for him.
But Kadar is nothing but stubborn and persistent.
Malik and Altaïr would have to suffer through it all.
While Maria just watches from the sideline, sipping tea while listening to Desmond, and wondering “These people are the ones giving us such a hard time???”
