secondchances | return to paradisa

He's thinking. If the people aren't here or they're all dead, and there aren't stores of things to eat, they will very quickly run into issues feeding themselves. Are there animals to hunt? Would they be able to grow anything before they would starve?

He let out a long breath.

"We'd best pray they are, Stephanie," he replies, a little sternly. "Or else time will be running short."

"Even if there aren't people, there has to be... something. Let me tell you, after all the crap we've both been through, going out because we starved to death is just too freakin' stupid. I refuse."

She's trying not to wonder if that's not what exactly happened to their upstairs neighbor.

Ezio doesn't relish starving. He thinks, idly, that he'd end it on his own terms first. He has no recollection of the world beyond Paradisa -- he thinks the could starve just trying to march away, but he supposes, too, that things were always different out there.

He levels her with a serious look.

"I will not let you starve. I promise that."

Stephanie gives him yet another variation of a worried look.

"Hey. I'm not going to agree to eat you if you go first," he says, half joking. And then a little more seriously: "And we're not taking a long walk off a short rooftop, either."

He pulls her right to a stop.

"Under no circumstances will any of that happen," he says, firmly. There is no joking there at all. "I am telling you that I will not allow you to come to harm."

He's being serious. It's touching, and she stops to put her hands on his arms.

"We're partners. We're going to look out for eachother, okay? You know I trust you. Whatever's going on, that for sure hasn't changed."

He nods. They're partners; they've been through a lot together, things neither of them would have ever imagined, and no matter how long it has or hasn't been, that means something. He presses a swift kiss to her temple.

"We look out for each other," he agrees. "I am certain we will see this through together."

"Of course. We don't have any other option." She gives him a bright smile, and graces him with a kiss on the cheek in return for the one on her temple. Go team. "I'm Batgirl and you're an Assassin." Big A.

"We were always good as long as we stuck together."

As far as she recalls, anyway.

Despite the gravity of the moment, he chuckles under his breath when she kisses him.

"Yes -– I believe you never wanted for amusement with me in your life, either," he replies. "And I never lacked for good advice."

"Which is a good combo now, I guess. We're gonna need a lot of amusement and a lot of wisdom." This time, she takes his whole arm to go down more stairs.

"We can figure out food, and then... figure out what to figure out."

Off they go. With all the mention of food, he is feeling a little hungry, but he's far from running on empty. Though it doesn't seem likely, hopefully the kitchen has something worth taking. Dried goods, grain, flour -- he'd even take those tins of food, the ones that must be cut open.

"Just you and I, for an eternity?"

It occurs to him that if the castle is dead, it may not be able to send them back. That it could bring them here keeps it hopeful, but he won't say anything, regardless.

Stephanie's had the same thought. Maybe the castle, for whatever reason, felt it necessary to bring them back before giving up the ghost.

For whatever reason.

"... what if it is?"

If he’s being honest, that’s a hard thought. He loves this girl. He knows it, even if the details feel foggy. That’s powerful — he’s spent more time with her than any other woman in his life, and that means something, for a man who wanders as he does.

But he loves his family, too. His Brotherhood. His need for revenge, too, and the change it might bring to his home if he succeeds in it.

He doesn’t get a choice in the trade, but it feels like a hard one. One he isn’t certain he would make carelessly, either.

He runs his thumb over the back of her hand.

“Steph,” he murmurs. “That troubles me too.”

It's such a serious turn, even considering what they've been finding out since they woke up here, that her chest tightens so hard it's a real physical pain. It's her turn to stop them on a landing. This place was only ever temporary. She missed her mom all the time, and while her belief in how much a nonlethal approach could actually work was incredibly shaken, she was eager to get back to Gotham. Home. To be in a place where she finally felt okay, and a place she had dragged herself up out of the mud into, and had finally gotten some freakin' respect.

They don't have any control, but the prospect of being here for good is dizzying in the way that's not too good. And it's nothing to do with Ezio. Of all the people, she's glad it's him, but...

"I mean, we don't know for certain yet."

Nevermind that literally everything they're encountering is pointing towards that being the truth.

Nothing is certain. Nothing will ever be certain, not in Paradisa. Ezio lets out a long breath.

"Come. Sit for a moment. We should just take a moment to have our worries, and then get to work."

Ezio takes her by the hands and leads her a step over to the stairs, where he sits, and he opens his arms to her -- kind of intending on her sitting his knee, because he wants to hold her, but it's no insult to him if she'd rather sit next to him. He'll hold her just the same.

"We did kinda skip that part..."

So used to the castle doing things, maybe. It's second nature to fret as they go, but this is turning out to be much more than what they've come to expect.

If it's the two of them, she really doesn't give a damn about where she sits, so she plops herself down on his knee and proceeds to give a hug that's slightly less than rib-cracking.

"Ugh."

Ezio sighs as she settles on his knee, and he wraps his arms around her and groans as she squeezes the ever-loving shit out of him. He rests his cheek against the top of her head and he just... appreciates, for the moment, that it's her with him. This might be a very different scene with Lucrezia, or with Lana, or with Katniss, or Molotov, or pretty much anyone else.

She'd be his first pick, every time.

"Ugh," he repeats. "That sounds about right."

It's always been easy to make her laugh, and she huffs one out.

"I was waiting for something more eloquent from you."

"Come now, I've always been a man of action rather than pretty words," he replies, and he ducks his head to nuzzle his nose against her temple. "And you know I'd sooner have you by my side here than anyone else from any world, dolcezza."

"... do you think that's why it might just be us here?"

She's just grasping at straws, trying to figure this out when there often wasn't any rhyme or reason why things happened the way they did in the castle.

"Why? Our bonds are too strong, and so it has cursed us?"

Maybe. Stranger things have happened.

"I do not think so. A great many people loved Paradisa far more than we did. They had no homes or futures to return to -- I would think their bonds would be stronger."

She shakes her head, leaning back.

"Nonono. Like--our bond. You and me. Which sounds really freaking cheesy now that I'm saying it aloud," she says, willing her cheeks to not turn pink with little success. "One of the reasons I wouldn't want to leave the castle was--is, I guess, you."

Oh.

All the times she's turned him down, and right here, she's blushing in his lap and talking like that. Ezio finds himself chuckling; if it were any other situation, he might have never let her get away with that and see how far he could get with that flush in her cheeks. He cups her face in one hand.

"I think that is the most romantic thing you have ever said to me," he tells her, fondly, and then he grins: "I feel the same, dolcezza. I would never want to be here without you. Not for even one moment."

"I wasn't trying to be romantic!" She says, hitting his arm, somehow a fondness in it. "Only sincere. And, see?"

The smile fades a bit.

"Maybe because we... uh, wanted to be together. The castle did that, and then--I don't know. It's stupid and I shouldn't be trying to rationalize this crap."

It could just be bad luck. She has a lot of that.

Ezio chuckles.

"Not romantic? Because we wanted to be together, hmm?"

He tucks a lock of her hair behind her ear.

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