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“You know, Tesoro, you can pretend all you want, but you can’t lie to me. Ever”.
You don’t look at him, you simply keep looking at your boots, or your arms circling your knees, or the city stretching ahead.
Anything except him.
And he knows it and he starts being the stubborn ass he is, because next thing you know, he is sitting next to you in the tiles.
You don’t say anything, not while the wind blows in your face or when you feel like you will cry at any moment now.
“What’s wrong, amore?”
It feels unexpected for a second or two, the fact that he stretches his hand to put it on your back, but then he starts to rub it and you don’t feel uncomfortable.
Your heart soothes a little. But it's not enough.
“I don’t want to talk about it”.
“Even when it will make you better?”
You sigh. You shouldn’t be surprised, not at all.
Your body betrays you then, just for a moment, when it decides to move closer to Ezio.
He surrounds you with an arm and a few tears escape without your permission.
You’re so close to breaking, as a Chinese vase.
“It has to do with the distribution of missions? I noticed that they have been giving you easy ones for a while now”.
You close your eyes tight, hiding your face from him.
Shame, that’s what you feel.
“Ehi”, he pronounces, trying to move you so he can see your face.
You resist yourself, and he doesn’t push you, instead, he pulls you to a hug.
And you break.
The moment you have been avoiding all these days finally comes.
You break and instead of a Chinese vase, you feel like a river after a great rain.
“Am I that bad as an Assassin?”, you suddenly ask, with a broken voice, sniffing and tears all over you.
“No”.
“Don’t lie to me!”, you say, pushing him away, looking at him in his old brown eyes.
“I’m not lying”, he answers, calmly, softly, getting the tears out of your face.
You sniff, more tears come out.
“I don’t know why they are giving you easy missions when it's clear that you’re capable of more, but that doesn’t mean that you’re a terrible Assassin or that you don’t know how to do your work, Tesoro”.
“Then what it means? I heard them talking. They think I’m a terrible Assassin, that I always fail, that I don’t know how to do the simplest things, that I let emotions ruin my missions, that –“.
“Stop”, he says, firmly. “You’re none of that. Do you understand? You are none of that. We all fail missions, we all let our emotions take the best of us at some certain point. The perfect Assassin doesn’t exist, but you can be a good one by following your heart, the Creed, and your Siblings until the end”.
His expression is serious, his tone firm, he is pointing at you with a finger while he holds you with the other hand.
“You’re a good person, amore. One of the best. Don’t let them get to you. Not even your siblings in the Creed. They can’t see what I can, and it’s a total shame, but that doesn’t mean they are right. Now, you’ll do the mission they gave you, and you make them regret not even trusting you with something bigger. Understood?”
He is being the insufferable Ezio that always gets offended when you don’t see how words can’t describe you. Because you’re everything, in your way. And he is always there to make you see it, to remind you of it, even if they're several years of difference.
“Capire?”, he repeats, and you nod once, then several times.
“Sì”, you finally say, drying your tears.
“Bene”, he makes a pause, where you collect yourself. “Now come here. Hug your old man”, and without a warning, he pulls you for a hug again, this time tighter.
You don’t know why but you chuckle in his arms and that makes you feel whole again.
“Calling yourself my old man feels strange”.
“Yes, but I’m an old man and I’m yours. There is no other way to put it”.
He squeezes you; planting a kiss on your head, you smile.
Ezio has always made you feel whole.
Why have you discovered it now?