writeranon hopes that everyone's days get better soon, and that tomorrow won't be so bad. I myself couldn't sleep last night because ideas for this prompt kept on begging me to be written down!
“You are pining.” It was a statement of truth, not a question, and it erupted from Ezio's sister's lips as she sat next to him, arranging her skirts. In reply she received a grunt and her eyes rolled in a wide arc at her brother's antics in response.
“It is nothing.” Finally spilled from Ezio's lips, and his hands, clasped before his face, tightened their grip momentarily before falling away and between his parted legs. He pushed himself out of his slouch to sit upright and let his sister tug his hood from his head. She observed his profile momentarily before sighing and leaning back.
“You should wash and shave, Ezio. You look haggard.” Her fingers swept back some of the hair that fell forwards into his face and allowed it to fall back into place, mattered.
He thinned his lips. “I know. I have not had the time.”
“You have been too busy?”
“Sí,”
“Pining?”
“No,”
“Then what?”
There was a pause. Claudia smirked.
“Let us take this somewhere a little more private.”
Claudia glanced to the couple her brother was staring at, the male of the couple staring drunkenly right back at them as one of her girls kissed at his neck, no doubt attempting to coax him and his purse into bed. “The balcony?”
Ezio was gone before she could even stand.
Outside the air was clearer and did not hold the cloying smell of perfume, sex and wine, but the smell of the river and of life, the hum of people milling about the court in front of the Rosa In Fíore. Ezio rested his forearms on the balcony's masonry as his sister ushered the girls who stood outside back in and then closed the door behind them. The step of her shoes was audible until she stopped on his right side and also leant forwards, looking out over the river to the land on the other side.
“I have been thinking,” Ezio said at last and sighed, rubbing his brow. “I have been thinking about danger.”
“Danger?” Claudia prompted, her interest rubbing the sleep from it's eyes, sniffing the air.
“Yes, and how dangerous it is to...to want something.” Ezio's speech was slurred; a long drawl. Sleepless nights caused it no doubt, not wine.
“...The Apple?” She leant in closer now, worry and curiosity framing her face, a ringlet of dark hair falling across her features.
“No. No, a person.”
Claudia leant back. She had not been expecting that. She had thought it was something much more grave. But lust?
“A person I should not want. A person who is vulnerable.” With a blunt fingernail, Ezio scratched at the stone beneath his hand and sighed in an attempt to calm the sea storming in his gut.
“Ezio, as your sister who has known you almost all of my life, I have never seen you hesitate to take what you want.” And it was true. Whether it was through light fingers or hard work, a wink and smile or the money in his purse, Ezio took. Ezio got.
“This is different.” His brow drew into a deeper frown, harsh lines appeared around his mouth. He looked tired, worn.
Claudia sighed with frustration. Why was it now that her brother was being awkward? She had customers to attend to, girls to protect, money to collect.
“It is...It's...” Ezio twisted his fingers together again, shut his eyes and took a deep breath. For his whole life Ezio had enjoyed the pleasures of women, from the innocent inhalation of perfume during his childhood to the lusty and passionate touches of his adolescence and adulthood. To admit the love of another man in the open was not only the breaking of a law (not that that had stopped him before, mind you) but also a change. Inside of him there was this great fear that this would be the last straw. That this...admission would be the thing to push his relationship with Claudia too far. Over the long absence, the ruined birthdays, the loss of contact from that awful night in which he changed from Auditore to Assassino; that this could be the final act before the curtain fell.
FILL [2.b/?]
“You are pining.” It was a statement of truth, not a question, and it erupted from Ezio's sister's lips as she sat next to him, arranging her skirts. In reply she received a grunt and her eyes rolled in a wide arc at her brother's antics in response.
“It is nothing.” Finally spilled from Ezio's lips, and his hands, clasped before his face, tightened their grip momentarily before falling away and between his parted legs. He pushed himself out of his slouch to sit upright and let his sister tug his hood from his head. She observed his profile momentarily before sighing and leaning back.
“You should wash and shave, Ezio. You look haggard.” Her fingers swept back some of the hair that fell forwards into his face and allowed it to fall back into place, mattered.
He thinned his lips. “I know. I have not had the time.”
“You have been too busy?”
“Sí,”
“Pining?”
“No,”
“Then what?”
There was a pause. Claudia smirked.
“Let us take this somewhere a little more private.”
Claudia glanced to the couple her brother was staring at, the male of the couple staring drunkenly right back at them as one of her girls kissed at his neck, no doubt attempting to coax him and his purse into bed. “The balcony?”
Ezio was gone before she could even stand.
Outside the air was clearer and did not hold the cloying smell of perfume, sex and wine, but the smell of the river and of life, the hum of people milling about the court in front of the Rosa In Fíore. Ezio rested his forearms on the balcony's masonry as his sister ushered the girls who stood outside back in and then closed the door behind them. The step of her shoes was audible until she stopped on his right side and also leant forwards, looking out over the river to the land on the other side.
“I have been thinking,” Ezio said at last and sighed, rubbing his brow. “I have been thinking about danger.”
“Danger?” Claudia prompted, her interest rubbing the sleep from it's eyes, sniffing the air.
“Yes, and how dangerous it is to...to want something.” Ezio's speech was slurred; a long drawl. Sleepless nights caused it no doubt, not wine.
“...The Apple?” She leant in closer now, worry and curiosity framing her face, a ringlet of dark hair falling across her features.
“No. No, a person.”
Claudia leant back. She had not been expecting that. She had thought it was something much more grave. But lust?
“A person I should not want. A person who is vulnerable.” With a blunt fingernail, Ezio scratched at the stone beneath his hand and sighed in an attempt to calm the sea storming in his gut.
“Ezio, as your sister who has known you almost all of my life, I have never seen you hesitate to take what you want.” And it was true. Whether it was through light fingers or hard work, a wink and smile or the money in his purse, Ezio took. Ezio got.
“This is different.” His brow drew into a deeper frown, harsh lines appeared around his mouth. He looked tired, worn.
Claudia sighed with frustration. Why was it now that her brother was being awkward? She had customers to attend to, girls to protect, money to collect.
“It is...It's...” Ezio twisted his fingers together again, shut his eyes and took a deep breath. For his whole life Ezio had enjoyed the pleasures of women, from the innocent inhalation of perfume during his childhood to the lusty and passionate touches of his adolescence and adulthood. To admit the love of another man in the open was not only the breaking of a law (not that that had stopped him before, mind you) but also a change. Inside of him there was this great fear that this would be the last straw. That this...admission would be the thing to push his relationship with Claudia too far. Over the long absence, the ruined birthdays, the loss of contact from that awful night in which he changed from Auditore to Assassino; that this could be the final act before the curtain fell.