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Jameel awoke with his face on the floor and a stiff neck. Oh, well, wasn't the first time he rolled out of bed. This was usually how he woke up when he was sleeping by himself.

But I wasn't sleeping by myself. He blinked the sleep from his eyes and looked at the arm in front of him, following it back to the head resting between his shoulder blades. Had Lex tried to catch him in his sleep? Well, seems he didn't succeed.

"My love," he cooed, "I want to get up sometime today. Little Sparrow." A soft sigh was his answer. Rolling his eyes, he shifted onto an elbow and pecked the rumpled head of hair atop his back. "Hey, sexy Lexy. Get up."

"Hnn?"

"Get up."

"Why?" Lex slurred, wrapping an arm around his neck, the other hand grasping at his chest as he worked his face into his back. "You're the only warm thing on this floor."

"Yes, yes, remind me to install the heated flooring like I planned to before you came and distracted me."

"You need to install guardrails on your bed or something."

"And you need to get off my back. Literally." Lex moved onto his knees, allowing Jameel to turn over and pop his neck. "Agh...Sparrow, you're so heavy..."

"Yeah, I decided to cart around a bunch of coconuts for a swallow friend of mine."

"African or European?" The two looked at each other and chuckled before helping each other up.

"You sure you're all right?"

"Yeah, I'm fine. That's been happening to me a lot more lately. Not sure why."

"What, having a crick in your neck?" Jameel looked at him flatly. "Oh, the rolling thing."

"Yes, Lex, the rolling thing." He moved to a wardrobe and opened the doors, grabbing a pair of drawers from one of the drawers and slipping into a pair of socks, entering the dark closet beside it. He came out dressed in red jeans and a white shirt and headed into the living room.

The ancient Red Owl scratched an ear as he watched his lover enter the room in the same clothes he'd worn the previous day.

"You know," he said suddenly, "this quiet life really isn't for me. The Templars think me dead for decades."

"I'm surprised they haven't found you yet. Your pants are the same color as the infamous red in the Red Light district." Jameel lifted a brow and gestured to his pants, to which Lex spread his arms. "Red jeans, Jameel? They're friggin' fire-truck red. C'mon. What's your disguise, flamboyantly gay young adult male?"

"What's your disguise, little bird? Broke college student?" He reached out and took Lex gently by the shirt, drawing him onto his lap, their foreheads pressed together.

"You know," the two began in one voice, stopped, and started again, "I was..."

"I was thinking last night--"

"--that I'll stay young while--"

"Yeah... I don't..."

"I know." He sat up and held his face between his hands. "I won't let eight hundred years be in vain, little bird."

"Then maybe we can shake off some of that quiet." The Sparrow smiled. "You got a computer around here? I wanna check something out." Jameel chuckled as if the question was absurd and set him on his feet before standing and motioning for him to follow. He moved to the staircase and opened what looked like an old fashioned cupboard, moving into the dark confines.

There he opened one of the small walls of the cupboard and stepped into a square of light. Lex blinked at the seamless door suddenly opening, apparently without a latch of any sort, but followed him inside and down a flight of steps. The steps led down into an underground, white hall with linoleum flooring and florescent lighting. Lex peered into the first room on the left. It was a training area, a blue matt on the floor and a set on each of the walls. On the closest and opposite walls were wracks of weaponry of all kinds: pikes, swords, axes, bows, arrows.

Jameel, however, had moved past the training area and ran his hand along the wall. Stopping, he let Lex catch up with him before opening another seamless door in the wall. Down the passage was a faint blue light. Taking Lex's hand, he led the younger man toward the light. The source of the light looked to Lex like something out of a Batman cartoon: a giant computer, floor to ceiling.

"I built my own satelite and computer when I figured out how," explained Jameel as he took a seat in the leather chair and began tapping at keys on the keyboard. "This is to detect Templars in the vicinity as well as around the world. Plus, I had to do something with my time." He stood. "There, it's started up for you."

"Jameel, I know you've had almost nine-hundred-years to get this stuff down, but you've just redefined having too much time on your hands. I think Steve Jobs just turned over in his grave."

"I'll miss that man." The Sparrow looked over at him. The Owl shrugged. "Well, I went out and bought an iPod the first chance I got because of you."

"You're weird." Lex laughed softly as he brought up Google on the gigantic screen and searched for ankhs, museums, new exhibits, and New York City. He skimmed through the articles before clicking on a promising one. Closing the window, he stood and kissed Jameel, who'd bent over the chair to read along with him. "C'mon, let's shake off the quietude." The two moved out into the light of the hall beyond. "Bet you haven't done a double Leap in a while."

Jameel finished putting on a watch and fixing the time before he shut the cupboard door and exited the house with Lex.

"Let's do the jump before leaving then."

"Isn't that what I just suggested?"

"Yes. Seems you developed psychic powers in the last eight hundred years."

"Oh, yeah?" He smiled and followed the Red Owl up to the top of the tower. Lex gulped as he looked at the flat surface below his feet, then over the edge at the mattress below. The Sparrow looked up at Jameel, the smell of an oncoming storm reaching his nose, standing his hair on end. "I'm ready. You?"

"Been ready." He grabbed Lex and and dove off the tower, planting their lips together. Lex clung to him, the breath leaving his lungs as he kissed him hard. Then they were both on the mattress. He sat up, expecting the sweet smell of hay and only receiving the sharp tang of rain and grass and wet earth. Wet earth? He blinked, looking up at Jameel through the water that decided to plop into his face. It came down faster. He kissed him again, grinning as his hair was plastered into his eyes.

Well, it's raining. Fantastic. It's not all bad, though. I'm kissing Lex. He held the smaller man close. At least I'm not alone in the rain like centuries before. Jameel pulled away and swiped the hair from his face, then Lex's. "Let's go find that ankh."

They moved to the car. Lex jogged in place until Jameel popped the locks. He dove inside, shutting the door and shivering as he looked at the Owl. A blush dusted his cheeks as he caught himself scanning over his chest, the white shirt soaked to his dark skin. It was then his stomach decided to voice its opinions on the matter of the day's activities.

"Don't suppose breakfast's on the menu?"

"Of course." Jameel switched on the heater to stall Lex's shivering. "I'm getting hungry myself." The drive into the city was relatively short with Jameel locating the nearest Denny's at which to stuff their faces. The order was placed and the Assassins sat in silence, waiting on the food as they got their drinks.

"Are you gonna have some coffee with your sugar?" Jameel asked, watching as Lex put four packets in, thought a moment, and added a fifth. The younger man grinned.

"In a minute." He added in the coffee and a few creams. Once the food was delivered, they ate in silence until, "So, after we get there and scope out the place, how the hell are we gonna get the thing out?" Lex forked another chunk of egg into his mouth and folded the piece of toast he'd gotten himself in half, biting into it. "Needs za'atar."

Jameel shraped the last of his food into his mouth before answering, "Let's not talk about it here. Eavesdroppers, remember?" He waved for the check and paid it with cash, heading out to the car with Lex.

"No eavesdroppers in the car, unless they bugged it while we were eating." Jameel looked over at him as he unlocked the car and opened his door for him.

"Nobody touches the car."

They started off down toward the museum. "We'll do it Mission Impossible style, except with class." Lex looked over at him slowly. Jameel gave him a nod as they stopped for some pedestrians crossing the street. "Indeed, Lex, it's the only thing I can come up with. I don't have a plan. I'm good at killing people with theft as a hobby, not stealing priceless relics. Any ideas yourself?"

"Can we throw in a little National Treasure with the classy MI?"

"Was that a Nicholas Cage movie?"

"Yup, two of 'em."

"Ah." No wonder I don't remember it.



The museum's insides were a press of bodies, jostling elbows and legs. Using the crowd, the Sparrow slipped under the red velvet ropes cordoning the exhibit and stared at the ankh inside the glass case. It didn't look anything special. Just an old stone Egyptian cross with some hieroglyphics carved into it.

Jameel stood back from the throng, keeping a sharp eye on the case, the Journeyman, and the guards milling about, trying to press people into a semblance of order. The Red Owl fixed his gaze on the ankh. What did I ever do to you? Oh, wait, I touched you. Stupid, stupid, stupid... That has to be the dumbest thing I've ever done. And Lex wants to take you from this place. He sighed. I'll have to work behind the scenes for this one.

Lex looked up from the ankh as a whistle reached him through the crowd, slipping back under the ropes. Two men were coming toward him. One walked with hands on his hips, a bulge protruding over his belt, which held keys and a nightstick, jowls quivering. The other was lean, hands resting at his sides in loose fists. He held up his hands.

"Don't worry, officers. I didn't breathe on the case," he said. The one who looked like he did all the running narrowed his eyes at him; his colleague said something or other loudly that was lost in the hubbub around them. Lex moved to Jameel's side. The taller man grasped his hand tightly as they walked out. I don't want to look at that thing a minute longer. That thing... No. Just no. Do not want. "You okay?" The question brought him out of his reverie.

"Yeah...I'm fine." Jameel shook his head, face ashen. "I don't want to look at that thing again." They entered the car once more. "So, do you have a plan?"

"MI with National Treasure."

"Sounds like a good plan. A great plan. I like that plan."

"That's sarcasm, isn't it?"

"Dripping in every word. Know that I'm not getting anywhere near that thing, though. Who knows what it could do to me?" Jameel drove them back home to further elaborate their scheme on how to steal the ankh.



Jameel's fingers clacked away on the keyboard as Lex finished suiting up. Kevlar vest? Check. Black clothing? Check. Bluetooth headset? Check.

"So, what're you going to do while I'm Tom Cruising it up in there?"

"What I'm going to do is make sure you go undetected ahead of time by using that nifty little satellite I told you about." Jameel tapped a few more keys.

"...Did you just say 'nifty'?" Lex asked, lifting a brow. Jameel turned to him, sighing.

"Basically, I'm going to make sure you're not tailed or waited on by some trap. If the Templars get wind of this thing, they'll be all over it." Hitting a final key, he stood and exited the house with Lex. "I'll alert you if there are any Templars anyway, with or without knowledge of the ankh."

"Yeah." Lex gripped at the armrests as they drove down the streets once more. He nodded and swallowed, drumming his foot on the floor. The Sparrow ran a hand through his hair, chuckling, "God, I'm on edge."

"This isn't your first time infiltrating a heavily guarded area." Jameel settled a black canvas bag on his lap, then wrapped an arm around him, drawing him close briefly. "You'll be fine, little bird. This is only slightly harder than getting into Damas."

"Yeah, you're right." He grinned. "Besides, what's the fat guy gonna do? Roll on me?" Jameel smirked at the jab, then nodded, returning Lex's kiss when he gave him one as he exited the car. Lex mounted the steps to the museum halfway before turning and looking back over his shoulder. Jameel made a shooing motion before driving off a ways to monitor the situation from the safety of his iPad. His eyes were glued to the little dot that was the Sparrow and the other little dots patrolling the corridors.

Picking the lock to the side entrance, he made his way inside. The Sparrow pressed himself back into a sidehall as a door opened in front of him. He peered around the corner. A guard headed down the hall toward the main rooms. The Journeyman lowered the bag and looked into it, scanning over the items quickly.

"Front side pocket," said a voice in his ear that almost made him yelp with surprise. Taking what he needed from the pocket, he slung the bag over his shoulders, and padded over behind the guard. Arms looped, a hand closed over mouth and nose. The guard struggled briefly before sinking to the floor.

Treading lightly over the floor, Lex glanced one way and the other before scurrying to the case that held the ankh. Slipping a hand into the bag, he brought out a small glass cutter and made a rough ankh-shaped cut, lifting the old piece of stole out inch by inch into his hands.

The Sparrow turned slowly, not even daring to breathe as he put the instrument and the artifact into the bag and shut it.

"Hey!" s**t! The little thief bolted, heels beating a heavy tattoo as he slammed open the door he'd come through and raced out into the street. Alarms sounded. He raced down the sidewalk, tripped on the edge of a slightly higher piece of paving, righted himself and kept running. Lex ducked into an alley and quickly began to strip down, shedding his clothing until he was in a hoodie and black jeans and stuffing it all in the bag.

That done, he climbed the nearest fire escape, ran the roof, and dropped down onto the other fire escape, gathering his strength to leap to the ledge on the other side of the alleyway before scurrying up and moving to the next side. Dropping down here was harder and came at the expense of his clothing: he landed in a Dumpster.

"Oww." Lex climbed out of the smelly bin and looked over at car idling there. Jameel reached over and opened the door.

"Hurry up and get in." Lex obeyed. Jameel backed onto the street and drove toward home. "Don't worry about the clothes. They've got these wonderful inventions called air freshners these days."

Once they'd returned home, Jameel descended to the computer room and set the satellite back to its default objective, moving back out into the living room to find Lex seated on the sofa and holding the ankh between his hands tightly. "Is it doing anything odd, Lex?"

"Nah, not yet." Lex turned the cross over and over, running his fingers along the carvings on its face. "Don't think it has since I--Oh my God, it's glowing." The Sparrow shivered as the glow brightened, standing the hairs on his arm on end.

Jameel ran around the corner and ducked for cover as the glow in the room brightened. Despite his fear, or because of it, he peered around the corner to watch. The glow was almost blinding white now, the faint smell of pork reaching his nose as the skin on Lex's hands was no doubt singed. He knew what was happening. It was doing it again.

Then it was gone. Completely gone, glow and all. Then...

The two men looked up at the sound of tinkling. The only thought Lex had at the sight that awaited him above his head was, [********] Jameel winced as crystalline white sand was dumped squarely on top of Lex from where it hung above him on the ceiling.

Lex found himself digging upward from the bottom of a sandbox. He gasped as his head came free, shaking the sand from his hair and just about everywhere else. Grit was in his mouth. He pulled off his shoes and dumped sand out of them, looking at Jameel. "I can take a shower now, right?"

Jameel nodded and pointed in the direction of the shower.

"And while you're showering off," he said to himself, "I'll..." He gestured toward the mound of sand on the floor. "Yes, I'm going to sweep this out of my house."



Lex looked the Red Owl up and down quickly as he stepped out of the bathroom and moved down the stairs to the living room. The man was sprawled on the now-clean couch, a large tie-dye pillow beneath his head.The clothes he'd worn were drip-drying in the shower he'd washed them in. A tower was wrapped around his waist, another around his shoulders. Jameel smirked at the sight of Lex standing there in the towels, arms folded across his little chest.

"What?"

"Some pants would be nice." Lex shrugged and sprawled on the couch next to him. "Ah, well." He shut his eyes and relaxed. Jameel combed his fingers through Lex's damp hair, thoughts thinking thoughts of their little escapade.

Their trail couldn't be traced. Besides, the bag was in the car and the car was in the garage. They couldn't possibly be tracked, could they? I'm sure the security cameras aren't capable of zooming in to get a look at Lex's face with any kind of clarity. But what about enhancement technology? He sighed and passed the hand that had been petting the other man over his eyes. I'll just have to call in a favor with my friends in the precinct. He sighed again, lamenting his own folly. I should've invested in that signal jammer.