EZIO AUDITORE + LEONARDO DA VINCI
BASE PLOT - THEY GET SHRUNK (AND TROPE!BINGO)
PG | COMPLETE
The server room may have been more uncharted territory for Leonardo, but he had made himself at home in engineering. He had his own workspace here, and knew the whole area well… right up until he was tasked with going through old projects of people that had left Atlantis previously. An abandoned workspace, full of various half-built machines and projects. It was after hours, fitting in their standard base sweep after training and normal tasks had been completed. Half of the lights in the base were dimmed, leaving them alone in lighting that others would consider romantic. It just made Leonardo nervous.
He kept glancing over at Ezio, who was on the other side of the room using his special sight. He was still trying to decipher each and every conversation the pair had had since they returned, unable to come to any one conclusion. Which was maddening, for the artist.
So he was off his game when his searching commenced, and only half paying attention to the machine in front of him as he spoke. “Have you heard about the Halloween celebrations here? It is like Carnival, with full costumes and celebrations.” He poked his head up over the machine to grin at Ezio. “Only it is a holiday for Satan-” His words cut off as he had reached in, and suddenly “vanished”.
Leonardo’s body shrunk considerably, landing on the gear that had been directly in front of his hand. His vision was murky at first, as he sat up on the piece of metal that felt huge comparatively. A long look around confirmed his suspicions. “Oh. Fascinating!”
The shockingly cowardly part of Ezio Auditore liked to lose himself in busy work. Searching. Using his sight. Cataloging the floors of the base he’d been assigned to with efficiency and numbness. Because the weeks since Breckentale had been no less confusing than the first day back.
While the deep pang of loss had softened its edges and let Ezio breathe, his feelings for Leonardo had only gotten more complicated. He could admit there were feelings, at least. That there had been for some time even - smoldering beneath the surface but forcefully ignored. He couldn’t ignore them any longer.
He could stubbornly keep busy, while still somehow always revolving around Leonardo. Even now, as Leonardo’s grin brought a smile to his face, Ezio was drawn to other side of the room like the proverbial moth to a flame. He didn’t immediately recognize something was wrong, though, thinking only that Leonardo had ducked back behind some equipment.
“Satan? Do you mean to worship the devil now, maestro?” Ezio smirked and came around a tall cabinet to where he expected to find his friend only to find no one at all. He frowned. “Leonardo?” A tinny little voice brought his attention downwards. Had…had a mouse just squeaked fascinating? Was it going to be that kind of day? Ezio crouched down. “Leonardo, did you hear that?”
“This is because of Satan!” Leonardo squeaked out. Well, to his own self, he sounded normal, but no doubt the miniature version of him sounded like a squeak. He couldn’t see Ezio yet, lots of mechanics and metal blocking his path, but Leonardo started climbing over large tubing (that were likely miniscule, when he was normal sized), trying to push his way forward.
“Ezio!” A squeaky version of the name might at least help prevent his best friend from panicking, though he also worried that Ezio would touch something and find himself in the same position. Finally, he got to where he could stick his face through the holes in a few gears, and he stopped as soon as he saw his friend, overwhelmingly large and sticking his face around the project. “Ezio, don’t touch anything! You might-” Oof, he stumbled forward, feet tripping over a circuit and causing him to stumble to his knees.
All the squeaking certainly didn’t solve Ezio’s confusion. He started to stand when movement caught his eye and he instinctively used his eagle vision instead. Leonardo’s aura was instantly unmistakable. Not to mention shockingly small. Ezio startled, reaching out immediately.
“Leonardo, merda, what—Are you all right? What did you--“ Something Ezio touched (something in the air, who could’ve said) crackled with energy across his Sight, forcing his eyes shut. When he opened them back up again, he too was surrounded by things that were far, far too large. The one glimmer of positive news was that there was Leonardo, and he felt whole under the – possibly too familiar – searching grasp of Ezio’s hands.
“Fuck.” Leo knew his warning came too late, and his sigh was all too telling. He had hoped that he could be loud enough to talk Ezio into fixing him while large, but now it was likely going to be down to the two miniatures to figure it out. Oh, well. The pair always did love a challenge!
A flush of embarrassment went across Leo’s cheeks as he looked up, still down on a knee, with Ezio standing in front of him, hand reaching out and grasping his shoulder. It put him right in a … somewhat compromising position, kneeling in front of Ezio as he was. His cheeks aflamed, Leonardo cleared his throat while he made a move to stand in the large gears. “Uh- I” He had to gather his thoughts before he continued, and huffed quietly. “I was hoping you would hear me. Now we are going to have to find our way into the control panel and disable this thing at a smaller size.”
Ezio’s hands fell away quickly. The only sign of his own embarrassment was the way his eyes closed for a moment. He’d like to think he was a better man than the kind who looked at Leonardo on his knee and had impure thoughts under such insane circumstances, but that would be a lie. He took a step out of Leonardo’s space and investigated the equipment around them with a keen stare.
“I heard you, but not in words. I...should have taken a moment to take a better look at the situation.” Had it not have been Leonardo that disappeared in a blink, he might have. “You think it is the machine that did this?” Now that he looked, really looked, Ezio could see here was a glow to the equipment in his mind’s eye. Not that that clarified much. “We will have to take special care not to shrink even further if that is the case.”
Even with his face a little flushed, Leonardo reached out to pat Ezio on the shoulder reassuringly, to show he wasn’t annoyed. “Ah, well, this will just be more of a challenge, I suppose.”
The perspective of this place was so different now, shifted as it was. He took in everything around him, eyes fluttering closed as he mesmerized the layout of the level they were on. It was obviously different from Ezio’s special sight, his memory instead ran full speed ahead to map everything he’d seen without needing a second glance. Helpful, at least, when it came to this situation.
Tugging on Ezio’s sleeve, Leonardo looked around for a way up. “We need to go up… about three levels. The control panel is on the left side, we should be able to deactivate a few key wire components to render this thing useless. … Hopefully without shrinking ourselves further, yes.”
Ezio might stop being surprised by how Leonardo’s brain worked, but today wasn’t that day. He unconsciously smiled as he got lost for a moment, staring at Leonardo instead of thinking about their next move.
“I--” He shook his head and started looking around. “Your mind is forever impressive, Leonardo. Up three and to the left, it is.” Using his sight on the area around them, he reached towards Leonardo with his attention elsewhere.
“If it is something in the air, there is little to be done to protect us. But if it is something we touched...well, forgive me, maestro. I will make this up to you.” With that, he grimaced apologetically and took hold of Leonardo’s sleeve at the shoulder. There was a ripping sound as he tore the sleeve away without any further warning and quickly set to turning it into strips to wrap Leonardo’s hands.
“Here I thought if you were ripping off my clothing, it would be for decidedly different reasons.” Leonardo mumbled the words under his breath, a little edge of surprise there, and he had the grace to even blush a little at being so frank. But that was a shirt he liked. Even if it was for a good reason, it could have been for a better reason.
“But, yes- Up. Grazie.” Of course he did not want to sound ungrateful, since Ezio might have had a very good point. Leading the way, Leo mapped out the path of least-resistance to climbing up the gears to the next level. He braced himself with a long-suffering sigh before starting to climb, never having enjoyed this part - Ezio was so much better at being active.
Ezio froze for a long moment and then got back to work quickly. It helped that he stubbornly refused to look directly at Leonardo while he wrapped his hands, or while he tore off one of his own sleeves and repeated the procedure for himself. He couldn’t smother a helpless smile at Leonardo’s commentary, though, or the way his voice came out dry and barely there when he finally did speak.
“You would choose now, when we are as tiny as mice and possibly in very real trouble, to say such a thing…” He finally looked at Leonardo, or rather, up at his backside as he climbed on up ahead. Clearing his throat, Ezio grabbed a few handholds and started up behind him. It took no time at all to realize this was going to be special kind of torture and he risked making it worse by putting a hand against the back of Leonardo’s calf to halt his ascent. “Careful. There are sharp edges there, next to your knee.”
“Technically, we are still the same size, when compared to each other.” Leonardo shot back, with a stubborn-yet-amused look on his face. He dodged the sharp edges thanks to Ezio’s hand, which felt hot against his pant leg. Unbearably hot. Leonardo blew out a breath and finished the climb, before flopping down on the “floor” in front of him - which was really just copper plating, smooth and open in front of him. The exercise, plus the heat of the circuit, had him breathing a little harder than he would normally.
“I’m worried now that we’ll be cooked mice, if we don’t figure out how to turn this whole thing off and fix ourselves. Circuitry can heat very quickly, especially at this size.” The shirt was ruined anyway, so Leonardo just pulled it over his head and tucked the remnants out of his back pocket before taking everything in around him, mesmerizing the wiring and gears.
“Yes, well. Technically, you are a brat,” Ezio huffed out on a laugh. It was obnoxiously hot at the landing Leonardo laid out on, he agreed. Already his black button down clung to the sweat pooling at the base of his spine. He reached up to wipe at his hairline with his wrapped hands and froze there, as Leonardo solved his own overheating problem by ridding himself off his shirt. Ezio was sure it was a bad idea. If the equipment around them was as hot as it felt, Leonardo would only have to trip to burn himself now on all that exposed skin. But Ezio also knew he was hesitant to encourage the shirt be put back on. Worse, his instincts were to balance the scales.
With the seed planted in his mind about tearing Leonardo’s clothes off, his usual stubbornness was weakened. The same apparently couldn’t be said for his idiocy. Ezio unbuttoned his shirt and flapped the edges away from his bare chest as he stepped over Leonardo to peer up into the workings. “One problem at a time, maestro. The control panel is locked. And even if I had any lockpicks, they would be useless at this size.”
“Merda.” He thought he muttered the word under his breath, but no doubt it traveled more than Leonardo intended as he looked up at Ezio, shirt unbuttoned and sweaty, standing above him. God, how shameless he wanted to be, with that facing him. He had taken his shirt off half due to the warmth and half just to tease - a little, to see if it was even possible. And then there was Ezio looking like an Adonis, making Leonardo’s mouth water at just even a glimpse.
Fuck, he was doomed. It didn’t help that he was supposed to be paying attention to the situation. And to helping get them out of there. So it was a long minute before he finally clicked his tongue and pointed to a metal wire near Ezio. “Can you pull that free? It is useless here, I think. Two of them are large enough that we should be able to turn it into a pin and tumbler lock?” It would require both of them, pressed up against each other, manipulating the metal, which was enough to distract Leonardo again with a huff.
Ezio hummed, reaching for the wire in question. It may have been unnecessary, but that apparently didn’t stop it from being just hot enough to make Ezio quietly hiss, even with the wraps on his hands. He let go and quickly stripped off his shirt so he could use it to rip the wire free. Waving it through the air would hopefully cool it down.
“Are you going to help or just enjoy watching me struggle from down there?” he teased. Smirking, he tilted his head to look down at Leonardo for a little too long. Ezio had seen his friend a great many ways over the years, but not damp and shirtless and laid out underneath him. The image would likely haunt him forever now. The wire had cooled some, so he snapped it into two pieces and poked Leonardo in the hip with one. “Up.”
“Oh, my mistake.” Leonardo rolled with a laugh and stood up easily, as if he’d never been tired in his life. His grin was still wide and maddening. “I thought I told you what to do and you did it, given how strong you are.” It felt good to tease him again, without a shred of awkwardness. At least, besides the nudity. Which in itself, was not awkward for Leonardo. He had seen hundreds, perhaps a thousand naked bodies. He’d even seen Ezio in various states of undress. But never had he so fiercely wanted the Assassin to pin him against a gear and have his way with him.
But, he supposed they had a job to do. And that job was easier with his own help, he could admit that. Leonardo worked to bend the wire as they needed, so they could move it forward to the lock on the control panel. It was large, and required both of them to lift up and push in, bent as it was. Leonardo, never having been in the best shape, huffed and found himself leaning against the lock, arms over his head as they worked to insert it as if it were a lockpick. “I really should start working out.”
A cocky Leonardo was devastating in an entirely different way from an excited one, or a sweet one. It brought out the bravado in Ezio while making his pulse race. “How strong I am,” he laughed. “I can’t tell if you were feeling lazy or just wanted to ogle.”
Giving a teasing little squint of his eyes, he wedged in next to Leonardo. Since Leonardo was already stretching upwards, he inserted his wire into the lock from a lower angle. His eagle vision let him get a good look at the pins inside. “I can help you build muscle if you would like, maestro.” The distracted offer ended up sounded low and suggestive without any real effort on his part. He used his spare hand to physically move Leonardo’s into place. “In the meantime, up on your toes, yes? Angle the wire just a little more straight up and down and a tiny bit to the left.”
Oh, merda. Well, that was a whimper that just came out of his mouth, hopefully strangled enough so that it sounded as if he was expending a lot of energy and not because Ezio was offering to help him build muscle. His heart was beating much faster than normal, but he did as Ezio told, trusting the Assassin’s instincts as he always did.
He heard a click. And then another click. And another. With their breathing being audible and concentration at its peak, Leonardo found himself pushed even more against Ezio, straining on his toes to keep things moving where they needed to go. Finally he felt the lock give, and turn in place, control panel popping open.
“Eureka!” His excitement overtook him, but he was so keenly aware of Ezio being so close that Leonardo did not move away or wrangle out of the Assassin’s arms. Instead, he actually gave a small nudge back, almost as if he was asking for more. And then he probably ruined it with words. “Is that a hidden blade in your pocket or…?”
Ezio could compartmentalize with the best of them, but even his concentration was suspect with Leonardo making noises and pressing up against him. He grinned a little helplessly at Leonardo’s enthusiastic shout and then it turned into a choking laugh at the innuendo that followed.
“Leonardo. You of all people know…...exactly where all of my hidden blades are” Ezio opened the panel as he spoke, but his attention was still fixed on Leonardo. They were still entirely too close, of course. But something about the moment, the joy of working with Leonardo to solve a problem and flirting while they were at it - he let himself get lost in it and leaned in. One hand ended up propped against the workings behind the panel, carelessly, wire still clenched in his fingers. He used the other hand to swipe a bead of sweat from just under the curve of Leonardo’s earlobe with the pad of his thumb.
“But, if you don’t want to take my word for it…,” he murmured, letting the words hang there in the air as he tipped his head.
“Oh-” Just when he was wondering if he had gone too far, Ezio leaned just a little. And that made Leonardo lean a little himself. With all the leaning, still nothing had happened, as if time had stopped (oh, fuck, was that an option too?). But no, things were still moving, including them. His breath was caught in his throat and his hands were moving on their own accord, but his head was turned to Ezio and it was only a fraction before their lips came crashing together-
Just as one of their hands had pulled against the control panel, shutting down the power as things went back around them at the same time as there was a crash and rush of pain, throwing them to the floor and leaving behind a wake of destroyed gears and circuitry. Leonardo landed first, with Ezio on top of him, weighing him down, and just when his breath returned, he had a brief moment where the opportunity for kissing wasn’t off-the-table, his hand moved up Ezio’s arm at the same time as some unnamed intern yelped in surprise, ruining it all.
Ezio had given into the moment so completely that his eyes were closed when everything turned upside down. His hand stung from grasping the circuitry in anticipation of kissing Leonardo. The surge apparently powered down the equipment and they’d been returned to full size, but the violence of it left Ezio gasping for breath long before someone screeched nearby.
“Figlio di puttana</a>,” Ezio gritted out through his teeth. He could feel Leonardo against him from his chest down to his knees and now with someone watching, it suddenly felt like too much. Ezio moved his palms to opposite sides of Leonardo’s shoulders and pressed against the ground to lift himself away. “Are you...all in one piece, maestro?” he murmured.
Leonardo groaned and let his head drop back against the floor. This had not gone the way he had seen it going, but given his mind had already moved forward to full on kissing inside the machine, well.. He had an active imagination. So between that, the interruption, suddenly being full size and the pain from everything falling apart around him, Leonardo thought a groan was the least he could do.
“I.. believe so.” It took him a second to pause, take note of any injuries and when it seemed to be just soreness, he nodded again. “Nothing is broken.” Except his heart. Or something equally dramatic. He rolled out from under Ezio, shuffling to his feet so he could look back at the intern and the wreckage around them. “Well, it’s a good thing that machine was never going to get finished anyway. I… should clean things up.”
It was all so abrupt that Ezio felt unmoored. He eventually removed himself from the wreckage, but it was after a moment of just watching Leonardo from his sprawl on the ground. There was a certainty starting to settle in his gut. The knowledge that he was standing on a precipice and was nearly brave enough to take a leap of faith. Nearly.
He did at least have it in him to stand and put on his shirt without looking away from Leonardo. “I will clean up the mess with you,” he promised quietly. Hoping a joke and a crooked little smile would help ease the tension of the moment, Ezio reached to dust some debris from Leonardo's shoulder. “After all, I might have had a little something to do with it.”