return to paradisa

[secondchances]

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[assassino]

“Ah,” he laughs, though he could listen forever. “Women thinking I’m attractive is the only reason I am so good with women now! If they didn’t look have anything to look at while I said stupid nonsense, I would have never learned to be charming.”

[secondchances]

"You being handsome meant I let you get away with a lot of stuff I probably shouldn't have," she says, and because she assumes he'll ask, she goes on.

"The touching, the looks, the head on my lap or cuddling up somewhere..."

Not that she didn't thoroughly enjoy that, of course.

[assassino]

“What was so impermissible about those?” he replies, innocently. “In fact, we should have done that a whole lot more...”

[secondchances]

She noses about in some drawers she hadn't gone through upon her initial search.

"Regrets, Ezio?"

[assassino]

"Regrets are for old men," he informs her. "We have plenty of time."

He shoves some wood into the bottom of an iron stove. Fortunate that people fleeing the place couldn't bring that.

"Have you seen a firesteel anywhere, dolcezza?"

[secondchances]

"This thing?" She asks, handing over the bit of curved metal she'd just passed over. "Oh, guess this, too?"

Flint. Steel. Cool. The city girl is figuring it out.

"You know, we're lucky it's not the middle of winter."

[assassino]

"Perfetto!" Ezio replies, taking it. "Thank you. You are going to be good friends with this in no time, Stephanie."

He strikes it with his dagger and gets the sparks going on some scrap paper.

"I would be a lot more miserable then, I think. I don't like these deep winters."

[secondchances]

"Unfortunately, it's going to come sooner or later. Too bad we didn't end up in Italy, instead."

Modern day Italy would be nice. She's kind of done with old-timey times.

[assassino]

"It would be nice, to be in Italia," Ezio replies. "Reasonable weather, beautiful cities... we could live in Monteriggioni, if you wanted to live quietly, or in Venezia if you wanted a little more excitement."

[secondchances]

"No Florence?" She asks, digging around for what she thought looked like a pot, earlier. "I'm not one for living quietly, though."

[assassino]

"Not until the Borgia conspirators have all gone to their graves," Ezio remarks. It's not sharp, exactly, but it's to the point. There is no going back there, not formally, at least. "You'd enjoy Venezia, then."

[secondchances]

It's all hypothetical. She's assuming that with the castle's ghosts and magic being questionably absent, going home--to any home--isn't going to be easy, if not impossible.

"So eventually, one day, Firenze."

[assassino]

"One day," he promises her. "I'll show you where I spent all my time growing up, and the outside of my old villa."

Because, of course, there's no other Italy than the one in his own time.

[secondchances]

Loving someone means sometimes humoring them. Steph smiles as she finds something to put the rice and water into.

"Things aren't that different between us while being wildly different between us now, you know? It makes me cherish all the little things you shared before, either because the castle made you or because you wanted to. I'd like to see where you grew up."

Okay, maybe not humoring him so much. It's the truth.

[assassino]

"I know what you mean," he replies. He loves the idea of showing her those things, sharing those things with her. He leans against one of the tables to watch her set up dinner to cook. "We can carry on as before... but differently."

[secondchances]

"Better, I hope?"

Always room for improvement.

[assassino]

“Better,” he agrees. “With fewer distractions.”

[secondchances]

"If we were close with distractions, I can only imagine how close we'll be without."

And they're going to have food soon, as Steph puts the pot on to heat.

[assassino]

"Like peas in a pod," he muses. "You are going to be able to read my mind within a month."

[secondchances]

"Like I wasn't able to do that already?"

Apparently not to the point of knowing he was in love with her, but to an extent.

[assassino]

"Is that so?" he grins at her. "I will have to put you to the test on that, dolcezza."

[secondchances]

She rolls her eyes.

"If you ask what am I thinking right now? I am going to smack you."

[assassino]

He laughs loudly.

"You've passed the test, that is exactly what I was thinking," he replies.

[secondchances]

"What's my prize?"

Since they seem to be paying prices and all. Why not prizes? Stephanie grins expectantly at him.

[assassino]

"A prize, hmm?" he repeats, with that wolfish grin. "You're already insatiable. What are you desperate for me to do to you?"