return to paradisa

[secondchances]

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[assassino]

"Impossible?" he grins. "Dolcezza, is marriage merely a legal arrangement for you? Is it not enough for me to call up to your window, and for you to put flowers in your hair and meet me in some pretty place so we can swear ourselves to each other for eternity?"

[secondchances]

Aaand there's the blush, but she laughs.

"Seriously? That's it?"

[assassino]

Victory!

"You want more than eternity, mia cara?" he teases again.

[secondchances]

"Oh my god, leave me alone," she says, still laughing, and shaking her head. "Maybe an eternity and a half. Sounds good to me."

[assassino]

"What happened to being right where you want to be?" he asks, but he'll leave it there; he knows where she wants to be. Hell, he tugs her gently to walk a little closer to his side.

[secondchances]

She's more than happy to do so.

"Keep teasing me, and maybe you'll change my mind."

Except that's unlikely, given that she likes the teasing. She's got a sense of humor, after all.

[assassino]

"I'm going to keep at you until you want two eternities," he replies. "Perhaps three."

Her sense of humour is one of his favourite things about her.

[secondchances]

"Or, maybe, I don't want to scare you off by saying all of them."

She's been known to come on a little strong.

[assassino]

"It takes more than that to scare me," he murmurs, giving her a squeeze.

[secondchances]

She looks over at him, smiling, and maybe forgetting that they're in what could be a scary situation.

"What would scare you?"

[assassino]

That's a good question. It has an immediate answer: you dying. He doesn't say it out loud, but he's not made of stone. His smile flickers.

"I'm fearless," he says, pleasantly. "It's a man's job to be fearless for his woman."

[secondchances]

"Okay, for one, that's not gonna fly," she says, nudging him. "Secondly, everyone has something they're afraid of.

[assassino]

He smiles even as nudged.

"Too chauvinist for you, bella?" he teases.

[secondchances]

"Yep. Got it in one. You don't need to be fearless for your woman." Steph rolls her eyes.

"Besides, you've always been able to talk to me. Now we can get into the really deep and personal stuff."

[assassino]

In some way, he will never understand why future-women respond so poorly to what sounds lovely to him, being safe and protected by a capable man. It is what it is.

"Well," he says, pausing to shrug. Lightly: "The only thing worse than not having a family of my own would be to lose more of what family I have."

[secondchances]

"Was that so hard to admit?" She asks, kindly. He lost his brothers and his father. Of course he'd be afraid of loss.

[assassino]

Yes, he could say. And then he decides to say something else anyway:

"No girl wants to hear that mere hours after hearing a love confession," he says.

[secondchances]

"Guess I'm no girl, then." She gives him a look, but it's a warm one. "C'mon. We've known one another forever, practically. You could tell me you were afraid of spiders and I wouldn't think less of you."

Because same.

"I, for one, value a little vulnerability."

[assassino]

He supposes he's been broody with her a great number of times, gotten himself liquored up and curled up in her bed or his and wasted some days away being sad about this or that. That brutal week after Lana's departure, or when he'd fucked it up with Cristina again, or something-something-something with Lucrezia. She knows the broad strokes of his life, which seems superficial and yet is still vastly more than most people are privy to.

"I know you do," he says, a little amused. "I love that about you, too."

[secondchances]

Sneaking in a quick kiss around that hood is a challenge, but she manages.

"And I love you. Honest you, not overly-manly you. If you think I like that sort of crap, you haven't been paying attention."

[assassino]

"I have been," he replies, warmly, just away from her lips. But he likes it, that being a man stuff; it's duty, it's direction. "I just forget sometimes, that's all."

[secondchances]

"You do have permission to carry me over puddles. Or in general, when the mood strikes. Don't really need you to lift heavy things, or defend my honor, but I'll make you a list of all the manly-man things you can do without annoying me next time I find a pen and paper."

Compromise! An important part of a relationship.

[assassino]

That’s the girl he adores so much. He snakes an arm around her waist just to lift her up against him as he kisses her again.

“I will carry you over every puddle I see,” he promises. “And I won’t be offended when you tell me I am being a pig.”

[secondchances]

He really is the best and worst distraction. Steph goes for a third kiss, grinning.

"I know you need to get it out of your system, now and then."

[assassino]

“You do not want to see me all pent up,” he murmurs, teasing.