return to paradisa

[secondchances]

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[secondchances]

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.

[assassino]

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.

[secondchances]

"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."

[assassino]

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."

[secondchances]

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

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

[assassino]

"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."

[secondchances]

"... 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.

[assassino]

"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."

[secondchances]

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."

[assassino]

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."

[secondchances]

"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.

[assassino]

Ezio chuckles.

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

He tucks a lock of her hair behind her ear.

[secondchances]

"Which is totally not happening just because I'm the last one left, by the way," she says with a frown. While sitting on his lap. "I might have some gaps in my memory, but I do remember some things, you know."

Wait, this was supposed to be comforting. Oh, well.

[assassino]

He hangs his head for an instant, but comes right back up with a smile.

"I have respected your choice for years, Steph," he says. "I will continue to do so... for as long as you can resist my charms, anyway. And I have a good memory, too!"

[secondchances]

"Oh, yeah? I'm sure you have plenty of good memories with half the women that came through here, not so sure about good memory," she sighs, and dramatically pushes against his chest so that she can slide fall off his knee and onto the seat beside him on the stairs.

[assassino]

He makes a good show of holding onto her, but fine! She can go.

"It was not nearly close to half!" he protests. "Not even close to a quarter."

(Especially after you cut out the little girls and the ugly ones.)

"I do remember one thing very, very clearly, at least."

[secondchances]

"Yeah? What's that?"

She's bracing herself for something that's going to make her roll her eyes.

[assassino]

He gives her a look. It's almost cautious -- it makes him wish he had a hood up or something.

"Just a conversation I had with Molotov," he says, casually, and then he stands up. "But perhaps now is not the time. We have a kitchen to inspect."

[secondchances]

"What? No, you don't get to say that and then change the subject! Sit back down," she says, and it's not very commanding, but she's not getting up. He'll have to inspect the kitchen himself if he keeps going.

[assassino]

Ezio pauses mid-step. She's stubborn. She's famously stubborn, and he knows that, and he shouldn't have said it, but admittedly, it's a little fun to push her buttons, too. He leans back towards her, but he doesn't sit.

"It isn't very romantic right now."

[secondchances]

"It's not gonna be any more romantic when I kick you down the stairs," she points out.

[assassino]

Just like him to be in this situation, isn’t it? With Cristina, it was always push and pull, push and pull, getting berated for little things and teased and prodded at, and he liked it until he realized he couldn’t go back to her — couldn’t go back to being who he was with her, anyway. And then there was Caterina, capricious but tenacious, a deep well of inspiration for him, but she wouldn’t want him. Maybe in a decade or two, if he was even there to see it. He couldn’t be sure that she’d ever be his equal, or that she’d permit it.

He ponders Stephanie’s lovely face, amused that he is about to get his memories smacked into him.

She could be his partner.

He says, offhand: “I told her that I am in love with you.”

[secondchances]

Love wasn't surprising between close friends. She loved him, sure. She knew he loved her. He most definitely liked how she looked, and while she didn't always comment on his appearance, she'd have to be blind not to notice him.

He's charming, hot, and funny. He'd become her friend despite some glaring moral differences, and she loved him. Not so much as a brother--you don't flirt with your brother unless you're a Borgia, right?

God, what a weird thought. Moving on.

Every time he was with someone else, she didn't like it. That, she remembers. It was jealousy, plain and simple. Yet they still spent inappropriate amounts of time together, being far too handsy, far too intimate, but never that intimate. Yet still, she was never entirely happy when there was another woman in the picture.

"Uhh. In love?"

Just to be sure she heard that right. No need to spiral into her thoughts if she misheard.

[assassino]

He nods, real curt. Still waiting for the smack, a little. But daring to hope a little, too.

“I do not mean to upset you by saying that, but it’s true.”

[secondchances]

While her expression might be sufficiently blank, her face is turning redder by the second.

"Right. So... was that a recent development or...?"