EZIO AUDITORE + LEONARDO DA VINCI
STUCK IN A CORN MAZE AND BINGO!
PG | COMPLETE
Ezio had woken up in surprise places before. Beds, mostly, and usually feeling good about it. There was the once when he’d been shot and not feeling so good about it, but that was a one shot. Waking up surrounded by walls made of hay was something entirely different. He didn’t feel injured at least. And there didn’t seem to be any danger lurking.
Eagle vision showed him an assortment of people through multiple walls. A maze, then. He could’ve just climbed a few walls and escaped, but an aura he knew well flickered in the distance and his mind was made up instantly. Ever since the shrinking incident, he’d been unable to resist Leonardo’s magnetic pull. Not that he’d been particularly good at it before then, either, but now he rarely fought it at all. He meandered through the maze in Leonardo’s direction and then shouted as he neared, two walls still separating them.
“Maestro! Are you lost?” he called out, teasingly. “Do you need a rescue?”
“Who, me?” Leonardo shouted back, chuckling a little to himself. Of course Ezio was also here. Whenever one was in trouble, the other somehow was around. Or, at least, it was true with Leonardo, as Ezio was so often his Knight in Shining Armor.
And he could not complain about it. There was just something about seeing Ezio come to his rescue that had always got his blood kicked up. He couldn’t see Ezio right now, but hearing his deep voice was just as soothing. Or exciting. Either one.
Looking up at the sky, Leonardo shrugged to no one in particular. “I suppose, but I was going to take it as a challenge and find my way out by night sky later. Though I may get hungry if I wait that long.”
“The stars?” Hearing the smile in Leonardo’s voice made Ezio impatient to see it for himself. He could’ve hurried through the maze, but he scaled the wall instead, leaping over to the last one that separated them. Crouching there, he peered down at Leonardo.
“I don’t know if you have noticed the clouds building, but I think your stars will be hidden very soon.” He sat down and dangled his legs over the edge with a taunting smirk forming. “If you are determined, I can leave…bring you back a snack…”
Leonardo wrinkled his nose at the weather overhead, agreeing that Ezio might just be correct. The clouds were darker than he had originally hoped, and a faint rumble from far away confirmed that rain was probably on the way. But there was Ezio, taunting him from above, and he couldn't help but laugh at his friend.
“Show off,” Leonardo was as friendly as ever, even if his eyes were lit up at Ezio looking so like he did at home. All he needed was a hood and the look would be complete. “I would be surprised if it lets you cheat, you know. To put us here, something will happen if you try to sneak out over the top.” Leonardo’s voice dropped to something more brooding and dark. “Atlantis knows.”
Ezio rolled his eyes affectionately and hopped down from the wall with a smile. Leonardo was probably right. Sneaking out might earn him something worse than the sounding like a donkey annoyance. He wondered when he’d have a new marker for most upsetting thing to happen here. And when he’d stopped listing the memory incident as a bad thing at all.
“Atlantis will have to find some other way to torture me. I would never leave you behind.” A louder boom of thunder punctuated the statement and Ezio forced his lingering gaze from Leonardo’s face to the sky above. “It worries me a little, how we have started to roll with these things so much easier.”
“It’s just a maze, Ezio.” He didn’t hesitate when wrapping a hand around Ezio’s bicep to get them walking towards… wherever the exit was. It was at least easier between the two of them, with Ezio’s sight and Leonardo’s memory. No doubt they would be out before they knew it. Unless, of course, the maze was magic and moved on them. The thunder was closer now, but it didn’t move Leonardo any faster.
“I think it is nice that you are finally starting to roll with these things,” he replied brightly, still looking as chipper as ever. “I, of course, have always been very calm and collected. As I always am-” He pointed to a turn in the maze. “I am memorizing this in my mind, so hopefully we do not get turned around.”
“You have always been too trusting, you mean,” Ezio countered, chin down and eyebrows up. His eyes fell to Leonardo’s hand on him then lifted slowly back to Leonardo’s face, getting a little lost along the way. To be fair, he was fond of Leonardo’s unguarded nature, and hopelessly so. It just brought out his own more paranoid one from time to time.
“If it is just a maze…” He covered Leonardo’s hand on his arm with his own, nearly threading their fingers together. “…It wouldn’t be so terrible to get lost, would it? It’s a nice ni—“ The sky decided to object, with a flash of lightning, one deceptively quiet clap of thunder, and then a sudden furious downpour. “Right. My mistake,” Ezio sighed.
Leonardo barked out a laugh, even if water was now pouring down on top of them both, he couldn’t help it. That was just their luck. If there was not rain, there would be, around the two of them. He squeezed Ezio’s hand instead of clapping a hand on his friend’s shoulder, preferring for the more intimate touch if he was allowed. “You should have known not to curse the Gods like that, Ezio. It is a nice night is just asking for rain.”
It wasn’t as if Leonardo hated weather, though, and Ezio was the best company someone could ask for, which left him not-as-much in a rush as he might’ve been alone. He glanced over, blinking through the rain and eternally grateful that it was probably not possible to see his blush through the drops. “We could still get lost. I don’t mind getting wet with you.”
“You charmed me into distraction!” Ezio laughed too, helpless to do otherwise. His hair already hung in his face in a matter of seconds, so he shook it playfully in Leonardo’s face before pushing it back over the top his head with one hand. His pulse had already taken note of Leonardo keeping his hand where it was, so he tried to ignore its embarrassing gallop.
“You say you don’t mind the wetness now...” He scooted closer so his voice stayed at an intimate and amused murmur. “Just wait until your shoes are full of water and your unmentionables start to travel.”
After the engineering mishap, and the two hours of wine tasting with flirting and innuendo and questions, Leonardo was permanently pink around Ezio these days. He always thought too much, always let his brain wander. But with Ezio it was a thousand times worse. He found himself distracted by day, thinking of the Assassin, and drawing Ezio in intimate sketches more than normal.
And now he found himself speaking without thinking, a laugh rising up without his control. “That is assuming I am wearing them.” He wiggled a foot to show he was, in fact, wearing shoes. Merda, he was always so charming with men in Rome, and here they were, being rained on and acting as if he was a school aged virgin.
Ezio’s eyebrows shot upwards, his eyes going a little wide. Then his gaze traveled down over Leonardo without his say so. Special sight or not, it wasn’t as if he could see through the man’s clothes, so God even knew what he was hoping to verify with a glance. He snapped his eyes back to Leonardo’s and swept water off of his forehead.
“Maestro…” Ezio’s smile grew and a laugh tumbled from his lips. “Did you just imply that you are not wearing any underwear?” His head felt back and he squinted up into the rain. Too much of his restraint seemed to have melted away under the downpour, because what came next sounded all too sexually frustrated. “How is anyone meant to concentrate with you around, saying such things?”
Leonardo was guiding them through the maze, not even entirely sure he was going the right way, but reasoning the twists and turns in his head while watching their path. It didn’t stop him from laughing again, but if he kept a little ahead of Ezio - still holding hands - and if he didn’t look too much at the Assassin, he might get out of this without just throwing Ezio against one of the corn walls and ravishing him.
He did glance a few times, though, and just at the time Ezio was giving him a once-over. Out came a strangled sound, and he tried to force a fake gasp. “Ezio Auditore, did you just use your sight to check? I am scandalized.” He forced his chin up, nose in the air. “And it is not my fault if I am irresistible. You will just have to follow me.”
Ezio had the grace to look ashamed, even though he hadn’t committed the crime to the letter. Still, his face burned in a way it never had with the long line of women he’d flirted with over the years. “It—It does not work like that, maestro,” he huffed. “I could, perhaps, see your underwear if they were especially crucial to a mission…”
Merda, the burning in his face increased exponentially, but at least he was still laughing. Luckily, a distraction came in the shape of a bale of hay, hanging out of position in the wall on his side and noticed nearly too late. Ezio pushed over into Leonardo’s side of the path to avoid it. It meant he let go of Leonardo’s hand, but it gave him the flimsiest of excuses to put his hands on Leonardo’s hips and move him closer to the opposite wall.
Both clearly enjoying themselves, Leonardo was still chuckling - at this point it was borderline giggling - his hair completely soaking around his shoulders and face only half visible. And still enjoying every moment of this torture. “Or a lack of, you mean. I am sure it is important to a mission somewhere.” It wasn’t often he saw Ezio lose his charm, and Leonardo had seen Ezio through a great deal of charm.
“Oh-” Close quarters, hands on his hips, being smushed into a corn wall- Leo’s breath caught in his throat, and he had to steady himself by grabbing Ezio’s biceps, just so he didn’t fall over. The rain making the ground wet and slippery did not help, as the sudden movement had him grasping a little tighter as his heel went out under him, but he did not fall. “I do not know if you just saved me or I saved you, amico.”
There were other people in the maze; Ezio could hear them. But in the moment, it may as well have been only the two of them in all of the world. When Leonardo nearly slipped, Ezio tightened his grip to keep him steady. Of course, that meant that he could feel Leonardo’s hips shift under the curl of his fingers.
“Forgive me. I was only--” The words came out a whisper. He cleared his throat and smiled, slow and self-deprecating. There was a misleading lie on the tip of his tongue, obviously. But God, he was tired of fighting this pull. He wanted to leap. His heart demanded it. He took one last step closer, close enough now to see the droplets clinging to Leonardo’s eyelashes. “You can have this one. You have saved me in so many ways, Leonardo…I lost count years ago.”
Leonardo wasn’t sure if he was even breathing anymore, because this was like the engineering debacle. He could only wait for the other shoe to drop, or for lightning to strike them. Lightning did that to those who were sinning, right? Not that he ever truly believed he was a sinner, even if the church had said it so. It was so common behind doors, and had nothing to do with God-- But Ezio had never been the type, until Breck and it made Leonardo tense up a little.
“Here I thought you were always saving me, Ezio.” His voice was quiet, and even with his worries, his hands did not move from where they clutched Ezio’s arms. He looked up, through those misty eyelashes, and gave a wry smile. “You are not confused, I hope, between me and Lee Addams?”
Ezio could see the tension in Leonardo. It might have stopped him, before. But he could also see something else in Leonardo’s eyes. Not even the gloom and rain could hide the emotion there. The question bolstered this feeling. Ezio decided it was now or never and he shifted his hands up to cradle Leonardo’s jaw, running his thumb under the curve his mouth.
“I am not confused, Leonardo. I know who you are,” he murmured. His ribcage ached with the hammering of his heartbeat. “My heart knows you very well.” He gave Leonardo plenty of time to flee as he lowered his mouth for a kiss, and he only closed his eyes at the last possible second.
Oh. If Ezio expected Leonardo to be the voice of reason in all of this, he would be sorely disappointed, as the artist had been picturing this in dozens of ways for years now. Since, shamefully, their first meeting. He had always been too cowardly to ever say anything, and Ezio’s friendship had been important - too important for him to risk on something fleeting. Plus there had been Cristina and Caterina and-- It didn’t matter. Leonardo might have thought their time had passed, but was clearly wrong.
And not shy about it, as his body moved into Ezio’s personal space. He was thankful he was not much shorter than Ezio, not having to lean or tilt too much to meet the Assassin more than halfway. Rain had them soaked through, and the wet on his face didn’t detract as their lips finally touched - and it was like remembering Breck so vividly and a merging of years of want that Leonardo got carried away almost instantly.
Ezio had thought about Leonardo pressed against him like this too often since Breck, but this…this was different. This was more. This was as exhilarating as a first kiss should be, but felt like coming home too. Leonardo was not the only one to get carried away. Ezio ignored two flashes of lightning and the claps of thunder that accompanied them just to kiss Leonardo as thoroughly as his experience allowed. Well, his experience with women anyway. He was going to have whisker burn on his chin later.
“Leonardo,” he murmured heatedly, as he broke away finally. His fingers were still in Leonardo's hair. “I need you to say something. Tell me this all right…”
Leo wasn’t aware of the noise he made when they broke apart, even if he didn’t go far. They were thoroughly soaked now, rain still pelting down over them, but he was warm enough from the kiss that he barely noticed. Lightning could have struck them dead on and he probably wouldn’t have noticed anything but Ezio, to be perfectly honest.
“Ezio,” Leonardo echoed, a smile playing at his swollen lips. “I believe this might be the most right thing we have done in years?” He naturally had a moment of second guessing, his face flushing even more. “Unless- no- yes, this is good. Something I have thought of for…” He paused, and his eyes darted to the side. “A long time.”
“Oh?” Ezio hummed teasingly. Having scuttled across slippery rooftops in worse weather than this, he ignored it thoroughly. It didn’t ignore him, of course. But his dark hair look charmingly mussed and his growing smirk showed no signs of washing away. “How long I wonder?” he said, fingers tightening in Leonardo’s hair and moving his head just so. He needed access to the spot just under Leonardo’s ear and pressed his mouth there.
“Actually, don’t answer that,” he murmured against Leonardo’s skin. “I will just start thinking about all the time I have missed being an oblivious fool.”
Leonardo seemingly had no control over his voice, any longer, or his knees. Thankfully, Ezio was strong and capable of holding him up without likely even noticing it, as Leonardo’s legs threatened to give out under him. In some ways, he almost expected to wake up from a very nice (and familiar) dream, but even if it was just that, he had never shied away from Ezio even in fantasy-land.
“Ha- Well-” Of course, he rarely listened to good advice when it was given. “There were a few times. But nothing I would hold against you.” He pressed himself a little closer in, “not when I can hold other things against you instead?” Another crack of thunder and lighting above them, closer now, brought his eyes upward to the sky for a moment. “Though we may want to continue this elsewhere, before we catch our deaths.”
There was still a hundred worries in Ezio’s heart, but that was hardly abnormal even at his happiest moments. They were buried under warmth and hope for the time being, either way, and those only grew with every detail of Leonardo’s excitement - the tone of his voice, the way he crowded in. Ezio pulled back enough to squint up at the sky, getting a face full of rain for the effort
“I miss my hood,” he sighed, jokingly melodramatic. His eyes caught Leonardo’s again though, and filled with a fiery curiosity. He wanted to sate that curiosity very much. “There are benefits though, I suppose, to being forced in doors.” With a glance around to verify they were still alone - completely unnecessary but instinctual anyway (one did not kidnap without checking for witnesses after all) - Ezio cupped his hands around the back of Leonardo’s neck and took a number of steps backward, pulling Leonardo along with him.
“All right, maestro. Put that mind of yours to work quickly, please. My impatience will have you thrown over a shoulder and carried over these walls before long.”
Being willingly pulled along was at least easy enough, even if Leonardo was finding it hard to concentrate on anything but Ezio. On his best days, the Assassin took up a good portion of his thoughts, but he was still able to function outside of that. Having this now? It would be a miracle if he could find his way through the maze without distraction.
But it didn’t stop him from laughing, and grabbing one of Ezio’s hands from his body so he could thread his fingers through it and pull the other man along. “I do not know if I can concentrate on anything, with you being so… you, but I will most definitely attempt. I would hate for Atlantis to incapacitate us by cheating now.” He looked at Ezio warmly, almost getting distracted again. “I have incentive, at least.”