My vacation was awesome, thanks for asking. I went to the top of both the Castel Sant Angelo and Basilica Sant Pietro :3
This chapter: Ezio dealing with feelings, omega hormones and alpha stupidity, Leonardo’s adorable self, and Cesare being an evil bastard. Like always. Even though he doesn’t actually appear.
Ezio actually wasn't meant to behave the way he does in this chapter, but it sort of just happened XD I'm satisfied with it though.
-
Pregnant.
He was pregnant.
With La Volpe’s child.
Ezio could not wrap his mind around that fact and was completely at a loss as to what to feel about it. Perhaps he should hate all this because he was no longer allowed to go out on missions. In fact, he wasn’t even allowed to go out alone at all. Which was why he was taking a walk throughout Rome with an escort of two of his best alpha recruits, Flavio and Alessandro, who kept glaring at everyone who approached. Machiavelli had ordered it, concerned and worried, and Ezio would be angry – because he could take care of himself, thank you very much – but he was too troubled to care about alpha stupidity. Plus, he had seen the glare Lovina had given Machiavelli. The alpha wasn’t going to get out of this unscathed.
His mother had been a kind of scary, the scariest kind of scary because she had been smiling a smile that promised death. She obviously thought he had been taken advantage of, but was trying to protect whoever had done it.
He hadn’t been taken advantage of though. No, he had taken advantage of La Volpe. He scowled at the ground. He was terrible; he should be apologizing to the alpha for doing that to him. And now he was with child.
Ezio stopped so abruptly that his two recruits almost walked into him and he placed his hands on his still-flat stomach. La Volpe… he didn’t think that the thief wanted children; Ezio wasn’t sure if he himself wanted children. But he had brought this life into being through his own mistakes. He wasn’t sure if he should tell La Volpe about it. That would be the right thing to do… but he didn’t want La Volpe to feel obligated to him. To force the other man to tie himself to Ezio through this would be beyond selfish, especially when it was Ezio who had used his heat to seduce the older man in a moment of weakness in the first place.
He bit his lip in indecision. To tell or not to tell…
He sighed and shook his head. Whatever La Volpe wanted to do, it was best to tell him about the whole pregnancy. Keeping the other in the dark was wrong. It would be taking away the thief’s freedom in a way chains never could. La Volpe deserved to know from him. After he had done that, he would begin looking for Leonardo. He was sure the Papal guards would be much more willing to give information to harmless-looking pregnant omega than an alpha assassin.
“Maestro?” Flavio sounded worried at his behaviour.
Ezio smiled at his recruit in assurance. “I’m fine.”
The Omega master assassin then took a deep breath and began walking with a renewed sense of determination in the direction of La Volpe Addormenta. He would run if he could, but with his current omega-style clothing, he would only succeed in tripping and falling.
-
“Ezio.”
The thief was cautious in his greeting, a hesitant sort of smile at his lips. His next action was to glance at Ezio’s choice of clothing with a hint of surprise. Ezio found the sight strangely endearing. La Volpe had appeared from seemingly nowhere, as always, when Ezio had wandered in with his escorts. Said escorts were currently glaring at a couple of alphas who were looking at Ezio a little too intently for their liking.
La Volpe glanced towards them, his smile becoming a little tighter.
“I have something to tell you,” Ezio informed the other. “Do you have somewhere we can converse in private?”
“Of course. We can use one of the rooms upstairs,” the thief inclined his head in a motion for Ezio to follow before turning towards the stairs. Ezio followed, along with Flavio and Alessandro.
The two alpha recruits agreed to stand guard outside the room. Not two seconds after the door had shut behind them, Ezio blurted out, “I’m pregnant,” without any preamble whatsoever.
It was almost comical to see La Volpe stiffen and turn around slowly, eyes wide in shock, but Ezio was a little too nervous to feel anything other than, well, nervousness.
He was, however, shocked when La Volpe’s expression contorted into one of guilt and pain. “I’m sorry, Ezio.”
“Sorry?” Ezio echoed in confusion. What did Volpe have to be sorry for? The old thief had done nothing wrong.
“I took advantage of you, Ezio. I should’ve had more self-control. I-“
“No, La Volpe,” Ezio cut in firmly. That was wrong, all wrong. The blame lay with Ezio. Had Volpe been harbouring this guilt all this time? Ezio suddenly felt extremely bad about avoiding the old fox. “You have nothing to apologize for. I brought this one us.”
“You were in heat,” the thief argued, “you could not control yourself.”
“Neither could you, thanks to me! I practically forced myself on you,” the assassin looked away, ashamed. He wished he had his hood on right then, if only to just hide his face.
A pair of gentle hands fell onto his shoulders and he looked up into concerned violet eyes. “Ezio, you don’t understand,” the thief’s voice was gentle, almost patronizing, and Ezio felt a hot flash of anger go through him at the tone, “You’re an Omega, you-“
That anger crested inside Ezio and he cut Volpe off by pushing away from the alpha’s embrace roughly, eyes narrowed in indignation. “I’m an omega so I’m what? Weak? Harmless? Pathetic? What don’t I understand, La Volpe, because I’m an omega? Just because I’m an omega you have to protect me? Because I’m an omega I’m too weak to bear the burden of guilt? I’m too harmless to be anything but innocent? I’m an assassin, La Volpe,” Ezio’s voice grew increasingly louder and he jabbed his finger harshly at the thief’s chest, “I have killed, my hands are stained with blood. I assure you, I’m far from some vapid, spineless omega. I thought better of you, that you would show me the same respect despite knowing what I am, but it seems as if you alphas are all the same!” He spread his arms out in the heat of his speech and glared when the other opened his mouth to interrupt. “You, Machiavelli, even my recruits! All of sudden, I’m some helpless, fragile little creature in need of your protection and sheltering! Just because I’m an omega? Does that somehow negate all my achievements, all my sins and mistakes all in one?” He turned on his heel and slammed the door open. “Stay away from me, Volpe! I don’t need your patronizing attitude, you pazzo di merda!”
“Maestro!”
Ezio whirled around and gestured for his recruits to stay where they were. “Don’t follow me.” He then stalked off again.
“But Maestro Machiavelli said-“
“Screw Machiavelli! I am done being treated as if I were a helpless child!”
Ezio made sure to slam the tavern door as hard as possible on his way out, still burning with rage.
-
La Volpe stared after Ezio’s retreating figure from the top of the staircase amidst a shocked silence. After a moment or two, the chatter started up again and Ezio’s two alpha recruits looked to him for help.
“Maestro, what should we do?”
La Volpe sighed with a heavy heart, looking down guiltily. “Nothing. Ezio is right, we are wrong for treating him that way,” he informed the two younger alphas. They looked at each other and then back at him. He had not meant to imply what he had, but the damage was done. The best thing to do now was probably to wait until Ezio had cooled off and then go and apologize. He now understood that what Ezio had wanted was a reconciliation, not necessarily to take the blame, but to share it. To reach an understanding so that they might come together once more. And he had managed to destroy that with a surge of protectiveness.
“Are you sure?” One of the recruits asked, worried.
“Ezio is very capable, I doubt anyone would pose much of a threat to him,” the thief assured them.
“It’s not that we don’t believe in the Maestro’s strength, but…” the other recruit glanced at his companion before continuing, “He’s both pregnant and unarmed right now. He didn’t take any of his weapons with him this morning.”
La Volpe stiffened upon hearing that. Ezio wasn’t helpless, but he wouldn’t be nearly as capable with what he was wearing, especially without his weapons. “I… I will send a few of my Beta thieves to watch over him. Go back and rest.”
-
Ezio’s anger did not putter out very quickly. Instead, he stormed through the streets of Rome with a countenance so dark, not even the guards dared to bother him. It was only when he realized he had traversed a considerable distance without his own awareness that he snapped out of his anger fuelled haze in favour of exhaustion. With a sigh, he sat down on a nearby bench, cursing his pregnancy for making him so tired.
Now that he reflected on it, he may have overreacted. Just a little. He fiddled with the long, delicately patterned sleeves of his robe and frowned. He had not thought to equip any weaponry this morning, being so lost in thought. With a groan, he realized he shouldn’t have left his alpha escorts. He couldn’t even fight in this blasted omega gown his mother had given him for the purposes of blending in. It was too restrictive.
Sighing again, Ezio cast his gaze to the streets and watched the people come and go and… That was a large platoon of guards. Eight in total, two of them papal guards, seemed to be in formation surrounding something. Letting his natural curiosity get the better of him, Ezio stood up and wandered inconspicuously closer to the formation.
They seemed to be guarding someone. A very familiar someone.
Ezio’s breath caught as his eyes recognized Leonardo amidst the guards. The painter looked positively downtrodden, his gaze cast downwards submissively and his face weary. His usual clothing was nowhere to be seen. Instead, he was fitted in the same style of clothing Ezio was wearing.
But, no-
That would mean-
An omega gown of reds and blues. The omega even had a gleaming golden collar fastened around his neck..
The longer Ezio watched the procession, the further his heart dropped. Judging by his dress and collar, Cesare had found out about Leonardo’s true gender, and Ezio’s anger made a reappearance at the blatant claim the Borgia bastard was making. The disappearance of Leonardo’s usual cheer had Ezio’s mind spinning out of control, imagining horrific scenarios of what Leonardo could have gone through. His throat tightened in fear for his old friend.
He carefully crept through the crowd, following the formation of soldiers as they approached a shop, allowing Leonardo some personal space to browse.
He had to free Leonardo. Somehow.
-
He wasn’t exactly sure why Cesare had allowed him into Rome to shop for his own suppliers, but he wasn’t a genius for nothing. He had listened in whenever he could, and he knew that it had something to do with Ezio.
While he was glad for the degree of freedom his shopping trip would give him, he was too worried to enjoy it. Cesare had dolled him up in a colourful omega gown of fine silk and placed a beautiful golden collar around his neck.
Like Leonardo belonged to the alpha.
In a sense, he supposed he did. Fighting back would yield no results and, while Cesare was not as depraved as to force himself upon Leonardo when discovering his gender, the fact that he was an omega seemed to automatically make him a possession. Leonardo had refused the alpha’s advances and he was just glad that Cesare seemed to respect his abilities enough to let it go. He had a feeling that had he not been who he was, the younger man would have not been as accommodating.
Throughout his entire shopping trip, his joy at his sort-of-freedom was overshadowed by worry for Ezio. He had a sinking feeling that Cesare was using him as bait for the loyal assassin, but he couldn’t do much about it except to end this trip as fast as he could. Loathe as he was to return to the cage the castel was, he had no other choice. Knowing Ezio, the assassin would probably rush in trying to save Leonardo.
“I think this is enough, Messer. We should be heading back,” he politely addressed the papal guard next to him.
“Are you certain?” The guard seemed reluctant to let him return so soon, but relented at Leonardo’s nod. It helped that the man was an alpha.
As they departed for the Castel Sant Angelo, Leonardo did not see the shadow tailing them.
Fill: Desperation [10/?]
This chapter: Ezio dealing with feelings, omega hormones and alpha stupidity, Leonardo’s adorable self, and Cesare being an evil bastard. Like always. Even though he doesn’t actually appear.
Ezio actually wasn't meant to behave the way he does in this chapter, but it sort of just happened XD I'm satisfied with it though.
-
Pregnant.
He was pregnant.
With La Volpe’s child.
Ezio could not wrap his mind around that fact and was completely at a loss as to what to feel about it. Perhaps he should hate all this because he was no longer allowed to go out on missions. In fact, he wasn’t even allowed to go out alone at all. Which was why he was taking a walk throughout Rome with an escort of two of his best alpha recruits, Flavio and Alessandro, who kept glaring at everyone who approached. Machiavelli had ordered it, concerned and worried, and Ezio would be angry – because he could take care of himself, thank you very much – but he was too troubled to care about alpha stupidity. Plus, he had seen the glare Lovina had given Machiavelli. The alpha wasn’t going to get out of this unscathed.
His mother had been a kind of scary, the scariest kind of scary because she had been smiling a smile that promised death. She obviously thought he had been taken advantage of, but was trying to protect whoever had done it.
He hadn’t been taken advantage of though. No, he had taken advantage of La Volpe. He scowled at the ground. He was terrible; he should be apologizing to the alpha for doing that to him. And now he was with child.
Ezio stopped so abruptly that his two recruits almost walked into him and he placed his hands on his still-flat stomach. La Volpe… he didn’t think that the thief wanted children; Ezio wasn’t sure if he himself wanted children. But he had brought this life into being through his own mistakes. He wasn’t sure if he should tell La Volpe about it. That would be the right thing to do… but he didn’t want La Volpe to feel obligated to him. To force the other man to tie himself to Ezio through this would be beyond selfish, especially when it was Ezio who had used his heat to seduce the older man in a moment of weakness in the first place.
He bit his lip in indecision. To tell or not to tell…
He sighed and shook his head. Whatever La Volpe wanted to do, it was best to tell him about the whole pregnancy. Keeping the other in the dark was wrong. It would be taking away the thief’s freedom in a way chains never could. La Volpe deserved to know from him. After he had done that, he would begin looking for Leonardo. He was sure the Papal guards would be much more willing to give information to harmless-looking pregnant omega than an alpha assassin.
“Maestro?” Flavio sounded worried at his behaviour.
Ezio smiled at his recruit in assurance. “I’m fine.”
The Omega master assassin then took a deep breath and began walking with a renewed sense of determination in the direction of La Volpe Addormenta. He would run if he could, but with his current omega-style clothing, he would only succeed in tripping and falling.
-
“Ezio.”
The thief was cautious in his greeting, a hesitant sort of smile at his lips. His next action was to glance at Ezio’s choice of clothing with a hint of surprise. Ezio found the sight strangely endearing. La Volpe had appeared from seemingly nowhere, as always, when Ezio had wandered in with his escorts. Said escorts were currently glaring at a couple of alphas who were looking at Ezio a little too intently for their liking.
La Volpe glanced towards them, his smile becoming a little tighter.
“I have something to tell you,” Ezio informed the other. “Do you have somewhere we can converse in private?”
“Of course. We can use one of the rooms upstairs,” the thief inclined his head in a motion for Ezio to follow before turning towards the stairs. Ezio followed, along with Flavio and Alessandro.
The two alpha recruits agreed to stand guard outside the room. Not two seconds after the door had shut behind them, Ezio blurted out, “I’m pregnant,” without any preamble whatsoever.
It was almost comical to see La Volpe stiffen and turn around slowly, eyes wide in shock, but Ezio was a little too nervous to feel anything other than, well, nervousness.
He was, however, shocked when La Volpe’s expression contorted into one of guilt and pain. “I’m sorry, Ezio.”
“Sorry?” Ezio echoed in confusion. What did Volpe have to be sorry for? The old thief had done nothing wrong.
“I took advantage of you, Ezio. I should’ve had more self-control. I-“
“No, La Volpe,” Ezio cut in firmly. That was wrong, all wrong. The blame lay with Ezio. Had Volpe been harbouring this guilt all this time? Ezio suddenly felt extremely bad about avoiding the old fox. “You have nothing to apologize for. I brought this one us.”
“You were in heat,” the thief argued, “you could not control yourself.”
“Neither could you, thanks to me! I practically forced myself on you,” the assassin looked away, ashamed. He wished he had his hood on right then, if only to just hide his face.
A pair of gentle hands fell onto his shoulders and he looked up into concerned violet eyes. “Ezio, you don’t understand,” the thief’s voice was gentle, almost patronizing, and Ezio felt a hot flash of anger go through him at the tone, “You’re an Omega, you-“
That anger crested inside Ezio and he cut Volpe off by pushing away from the alpha’s embrace roughly, eyes narrowed in indignation. “I’m an omega so I’m what? Weak? Harmless? Pathetic? What don’t I understand, La Volpe, because I’m an omega? Just because I’m an omega you have to protect me? Because I’m an omega I’m too weak to bear the burden of guilt? I’m too harmless to be anything but innocent? I’m an assassin, La Volpe,” Ezio’s voice grew increasingly louder and he jabbed his finger harshly at the thief’s chest, “I have killed, my hands are stained with blood. I assure you, I’m far from some vapid, spineless omega. I thought better of you, that you would show me the same respect despite knowing what I am, but it seems as if you alphas are all the same!” He spread his arms out in the heat of his speech and glared when the other opened his mouth to interrupt. “You, Machiavelli, even my recruits! All of sudden, I’m some helpless, fragile little creature in need of your protection and sheltering! Just because I’m an omega? Does that somehow negate all my achievements, all my sins and mistakes all in one?” He turned on his heel and slammed the door open. “Stay away from me, Volpe! I don’t need your patronizing attitude, you pazzo di merda!”
“Maestro!”
Ezio whirled around and gestured for his recruits to stay where they were. “Don’t follow me.” He then stalked off again.
“But Maestro Machiavelli said-“
“Screw Machiavelli! I am done being treated as if I were a helpless child!”
Ezio made sure to slam the tavern door as hard as possible on his way out, still burning with rage.
-
La Volpe stared after Ezio’s retreating figure from the top of the staircase amidst a shocked silence. After a moment or two, the chatter started up again and Ezio’s two alpha recruits looked to him for help.
“Maestro, what should we do?”
La Volpe sighed with a heavy heart, looking down guiltily. “Nothing. Ezio is right, we are wrong for treating him that way,” he informed the two younger alphas. They looked at each other and then back at him. He had not meant to imply what he had, but the damage was done. The best thing to do now was probably to wait until Ezio had cooled off and then go and apologize. He now understood that what Ezio had wanted was a reconciliation, not necessarily to take the blame, but to share it. To reach an understanding so that they might come together once more. And he had managed to destroy that with a surge of protectiveness.
“Are you sure?” One of the recruits asked, worried.
“Ezio is very capable, I doubt anyone would pose much of a threat to him,” the thief assured them.
“It’s not that we don’t believe in the Maestro’s strength, but…” the other recruit glanced at his companion before continuing, “He’s both pregnant and unarmed right now. He didn’t take any of his weapons with him this morning.”
La Volpe stiffened upon hearing that. Ezio wasn’t helpless, but he wouldn’t be nearly as capable with what he was wearing, especially without his weapons. “I… I will send a few of my Beta thieves to watch over him. Go back and rest.”
-
Ezio’s anger did not putter out very quickly. Instead, he stormed through the streets of Rome with a countenance so dark, not even the guards dared to bother him. It was only when he realized he had traversed a considerable distance without his own awareness that he snapped out of his anger fuelled haze in favour of exhaustion. With a sigh, he sat down on a nearby bench, cursing his pregnancy for making him so tired.
Now that he reflected on it, he may have overreacted. Just a little. He fiddled with the long, delicately patterned sleeves of his robe and frowned. He had not thought to equip any weaponry this morning, being so lost in thought. With a groan, he realized he shouldn’t have left his alpha escorts. He couldn’t even fight in this blasted omega gown his mother had given him for the purposes of blending in. It was too restrictive.
Sighing again, Ezio cast his gaze to the streets and watched the people come and go and… That was a large platoon of guards. Eight in total, two of them papal guards, seemed to be in formation surrounding something. Letting his natural curiosity get the better of him, Ezio stood up and wandered inconspicuously closer to the formation.
They seemed to be guarding someone. A very familiar someone.
Ezio’s breath caught as his eyes recognized Leonardo amidst the guards. The painter looked positively downtrodden, his gaze cast downwards submissively and his face weary. His usual clothing was nowhere to be seen. Instead, he was fitted in the same style of clothing Ezio was wearing.
But, no-
That would mean-
An omega gown of reds and blues. The omega even had a gleaming golden collar fastened around his neck..
The longer Ezio watched the procession, the further his heart dropped. Judging by his dress and collar, Cesare had found out about Leonardo’s true gender, and Ezio’s anger made a reappearance at the blatant claim the Borgia bastard was making. The disappearance of Leonardo’s usual cheer had Ezio’s mind spinning out of control, imagining horrific scenarios of what Leonardo could have gone through. His throat tightened in fear for his old friend.
He carefully crept through the crowd, following the formation of soldiers as they approached a shop, allowing Leonardo some personal space to browse.
He had to free Leonardo. Somehow.
-
He wasn’t exactly sure why Cesare had allowed him into Rome to shop for his own suppliers, but he wasn’t a genius for nothing. He had listened in whenever he could, and he knew that it had something to do with Ezio.
While he was glad for the degree of freedom his shopping trip would give him, he was too worried to enjoy it. Cesare had dolled him up in a colourful omega gown of fine silk and placed a beautiful golden collar around his neck.
Like Leonardo belonged to the alpha.
In a sense, he supposed he did. Fighting back would yield no results and, while Cesare was not as depraved as to force himself upon Leonardo when discovering his gender, the fact that he was an omega seemed to automatically make him a possession. Leonardo had refused the alpha’s advances and he was just glad that Cesare seemed to respect his abilities enough to let it go. He had a feeling that had he not been who he was, the younger man would have not been as accommodating.
Throughout his entire shopping trip, his joy at his sort-of-freedom was overshadowed by worry for Ezio. He had a sinking feeling that Cesare was using him as bait for the loyal assassin, but he couldn’t do much about it except to end this trip as fast as he could. Loathe as he was to return to the cage the castel was, he had no other choice. Knowing Ezio, the assassin would probably rush in trying to save Leonardo.
“I think this is enough, Messer. We should be heading back,” he politely addressed the papal guard next to him.
“Are you certain?” The guard seemed reluctant to let him return so soon, but relented at Leonardo’s nod. It helped that the man was an alpha.
As they departed for the Castel Sant Angelo, Leonardo did not see the shadow tailing them.