return to paradisa

[secondchances]

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[assassino]

He was going to have to come up eventually. Ezio just shakes his head.

"My lips are sealed, then."

[secondchances]

Oh, she knows. It's why Steph is quiet for a moment, the thought process practically audible.

"... and, you know. He's the past. Old news."

[assassino]

He glances her over during that silence. There's a lot of things he could say, or even argue, but they have other things to attend to first. Leave any skeletons in the closet until they've had some time for the shine to wear off.

What he does say is: "He isn't your future."

[secondchances]

"... you're literally the only guy who could pull that line off without making me pee myself with laughter."

Just a bit of honesty.

"You are right, though. It's you. Finally."

[assassino]

Ezio laughs, even if he's used to those sentiments. Women from America aren't used to blunt honesty, or earnest expressions of affection. It makes them all squirmy and nervous and embarrassed to enjoy it, like someone might be waiting around a corner to laugh at them for daring to feel adored.

"Finally," he agrees. "We've both come a long way."

[secondchances]

"Which is why I'm very determined not to waste away in some magical land that's maybe lost all the magic it had."

Her leading theory, thus far.

[assassino]

"Of course," he says. "Though, if the magic is gone... we don't have to waste away. I prefer to think of it as growing old together."

[secondchances]

She laughs.

"Marriage, growing old together... that eager to skip ahead, huh?"

[assassino]

Amused: "I intend to savour every minute."

(Except for the five minute crisis he'll have at some point when he realizes she's aging too and her breasts aren't as firm, or something. Then he'll be back to savouring.)

[secondchances]

"Even when we're breaking our backs, farming, and trying to scrounge up some sort of a comfortable life here?"

Or, you know. Something along those lines.

[assassino]

Ezio does not imagine labour terribly well, but he does imagine Stephanie in a field, hair artfully disheveled, her blouse opened at the top to stave off the heat, and a bead of sweat trickling down the valley of her perfect breasts. That is what will get him through.

"Even then," he swears. "And we can till the fields topless just to entertain each other."

[secondchances]

That gets a good laugh out of her.

"You can be topless. I'm not breaking my back in anything less than the bra I'm wearing today, and some sunscreen. Or a very fashionable hat."

She is a creature of the night, after all.

"Totally looking forward to you all hot and sweaty in the sun."

[assassino]

"I intent to," he says. Might as well, just to fluster her all day. He laughs, though. "Where do you think we will find sunscreen?"

Funny how he remembers what sunscreen is. Probably because he's rubbed it on enough women, and vice versa.

[secondchances]

"Might as well ask me where we'll find anything. We're at the mercy of what's here," she says, though she does remember that sunscreen has an expiry date. Clearly, she's not the outdoorsy-in-the-daytime type.

"Which is looking grim, seeing as no one and nothing has come out to greet us. Friendly or not."

[assassino]

"There could be a lot of that in the castle itself," he remarks. "But in the city..."

There really hasn't been anyone. It's a ghost town.

"We may truly be on our own."

[secondchances]

"Is it sinking in yet?"

Steph gives him a helpless smile.

[assassino]

He lets out a long sigh and then nods.

"I suppose it is."

[secondchances]

She gives his hand a squeeze.

"We'll be fine. It's us. We're almost to the shops, and we'll see what we have to work with."

[assassino]

"I have no doubt we'll have enough to last us until we can get started," Ezio says. "I doubt the castle would bring us back if it was that impossible..."

[secondchances]

"That's a good point," she says, clinging to that hope. "There had to be a reason, and I don't think it was see which one of us cracks and resorts to cannibalism first."

[assassino]

"No cannibalism," he says, firmly. He is not a terribly religious person, but that sure as fuck is not holy. "Whatever the reason... we will manage."

[secondchances]

"Works out in my favor. I have more fat on me, so." You know, it'd make sense for her to be the sacrificial lamb. But also, eww.

And yet the talk of food--even humans as food--reminds her belly that it is running on fumes. It growls loudly and pathetically.

"Ugh. Maybe we should have snacked in the castle."

Away from the smell.

[assassino]

"Perhaps so," he agrees. "Come. Let's help ourselves to whatever is in these stores."

Fingers crossed for dried pasta.

[secondchances]

Steph nods, quiet until they arrive to the main lane. The stalls that would dot the street before the proper brick and mortar shops are bare, but at least it looks more packed up than ransacked.

Deserted, but not destroyed.

"It's probably fine to split up, here." If something happened on the other side of the street, the other would hear a scuffle. "You take the left, I take the right? Hope for something edible?"

[assassino]

"Fine by me," he replies. "Shout if you need me."

Everything being packed up is unsettling in its own way. Packed up, in Ezio's mind, means people had time to exile themselves; they were not slaughtered or trapped or set upon by some hostile invasion, but rather they foresaw their own deaths if they stayed. That would mean stores being packed up and taken, and likely many of the tools too. He'd almost rather find corpses, but there's no sense in upsetting Stephanie by telling her that.

Off down the left he goes, slipping into the first store. The lock breaks with some well-applied leverage with his hidden blade.