return to paradisa

[secondchances]

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[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?"

[secondchances]

"That's not fair because the thing I want I can't currently have, soooo. Dealer's choice. You're the oh-so-experienced one. We've got the face sitting in the queue, once we've eaten..."

And there's a good ten or fifteen minutes until then.

[assassino]

He chuckles, making his way over to her to gently crowd her, careful getting too close to the cooking fire.

"You can have it whenever you want," he reminds her. "You're just being stubborn."

[secondchances]

It's hardly crowding when she grins, resting her hands on his arms.

Then, the grin fades a bit, and she rolls her eyes.

"Yeah, I can have it and then have a little Ezio baby, too. No, thank you. We don't know what's going on with the magic here."

[assassino]

He rolls his eyes, but it's good-natured enough.

"It takes some effort to get pregnant, mia cara, it is not that much of a risk if we are careful."

[secondchances]

"Oh, yeah? Tell that to sixteen year old Stephanie Brown, knocked up by a walking garbage can, and report your findings."

This is her being careful, and while the thump she gives his chest is entirely gentle, it's a warning to tread lightly, too.