"Remind me again why I agreed to this?"
The assassin huffed at his friend, his outstretched arms beginning to ache where he held them. A soft giggle came as a reply from the man sitting opposite him, the artist twirling a pencil between his fingers; inspecting his muse as he posed awkwardly.
They were together in Leonardo's workshop again, the darkness of the impending night banished by the soft flickering light emanating from the candles dotted around the room. Ezio was backed up against a wall, his arms splayed out to each side as Leonardo directed him. He was bare chested, all clothing gone save his trousers, discarded upon the floor in a pool of red and white. His body was stretched out on display for Leonardo, the artist's sharp eyes taking all of him in, his keen hands already in the process of laying out the basis of the sketch upon the page.
The blonde smiled quietly as he outlined the base of Ezio's arms, the pencil leaving light marks upon the thick paper.
"This sketch is based on Vitruvius' correlations of ideal human proportions." He explained. Ezio's brow furrowed, his memory coming up blank on information about ancient Roman architects. "You have those proportions, or at least as close to them as I have ever seen."
Ezio raised an eyebrow at the softness of the artist's voice, surprised and confused by the yearning in his expression. Leonardo coughed softly to cover his embarrassment and turned his gaze away. He switched his attention back to the copy of Vitruvius' De architectura which lay open on the table beside him. The assassin's eyes flicked to his friend, and he noticed a soft blush painting the artist's cheeks. It occurred to him that, though it was hard to tell in the dim light of the candlelit room, he was sure that the flush of Leonardo's pale skin had been present from the moment he had slipped off his first item of clothing.
"That sounded suspiciously like a compliment artista." A wicked smirk tugged at the corner of his lips, brown eyes smouldering in the candlelight.
"Don't let it go to your head assassino." Leonardo parried the tease back at him without looking up from his work. Ezio laughed.
"Yeah well, you can use someone else's head for your perfect body." Leonardo held his soft smile without looking up, but couldn't help but feel saddened at the thought of another's head adorning the assassin's body. "I don't want the whole of Florence knowing who your model was."
Due to the nature of his life's work Ezio's face was one best kept in the shadows, beneath a hood. Leonardo privately liked it that way, the interplay of light and dark against the clean cut lines of his face was astounding to watch. He longed to sketch it, but was always too shy to ask. Sketching a naked, exposed body was one thing but a face was somehow more personal. The constant contact of the eyes was always there, those enigmatic windows to the soul betraying something delicate about the model. Sketching the face was capturing the soul within the body, trapped behind brown eyes. It was tricky and it was intimate. Leonardo wasn't sure that he could gaze into that soul without losing some of himself to it, and feared the repercussions that such a deep revelation would bring to the surface.
They fell into silence for a while as Leonardo worked, still laying out the basics of the body sketch. Ezio watched him work, saw the way his eyes flicked across his exposed body and shivered beneath the intensity of his gaze. The smaller man was always so flighty and gentle, but that changed when he was at work. A sharp seriousness took hold of his body, and Ezio found that he liked the way the artist held that edge. He used it when he directed the assassin to move his arms, and he held them as still as possible despite the tremors that shook his arms as even his strong muscles protested. After a while Leonardo's keen eyes noticed the trembling and he shook his head softly. It was so like Ezio to pretend that he wasn't in discomfort and the artist was almost tempted to see how long it took for the proud man to ask for a break. But his cruel streak was tiny compared to his compassion, partially when it came to Ezio, and so he relented.
"That'll do for now." He lay his pencil down next to the page and stretched out his fingers. "Let's take a rest for a bit."
Ezio tried not to look too pleased as he relaxed, flexing his fingers and feeling the blood flow back into his extremities. He stretched out every part of his trembling body, long limbs flexing in the candlelight. Leonardo suddenly became very interested by the stack of papers on his desk when he started doing stretches and handstands, straining muscles beneath taught skin as he whirled upon his hands. Really it was almost obscene, Leonardo thought, that one person could possess such strength and dexterity and wield them in a way that resembled an art form all of its own. The flickering light washed over the curves and outlines of his muscles in a way that he could not keep himself from admiring and he shook himself, suddenly feeling like this whole thing may have been a bad idea.
"Okay!" Ezio flicked his body nimbly back to his feet, huffing out a small breath and looking altogether too pleased with himself. He shook out his limbs and smiled, seemingly satisfied. "Ready for round two?"
Leonardo just nodded in response, his mouth dry. Up until now had been a cakewalk compared to the next leg of the drawing and he was suddenly hesitant to ask.
"What?" Ezio regarded him with a raised eyebrow. "I know that look."
"I need you to, ah…" Leonardo coughed lightly, covering his mouth as though he could contain his embarrassment within his mouth.
"What?" Ezio wiggled his eyebrows, knowing full well what the artist was asking but enjoying the warm colour that painted his cheeks like one of his own canvases.
"Can you… Take off your trousers?" He blushed deeper than he thought possible, wishing that he could just sink into his sketchpad and disappear amongst the graphite base lines etched there. Ezio laughed.
"I'm starting to feel like a real life-drawing model here." He quipped as he made short work of the remaining cloth. He showed no shame when he stripped completely bare before the artist, and why would he? Leonard thought. Not when he was in possession of such a beautiful form. A body that could've been carved from marble by Michelangelo himself.
His eyes flicked up to meet Ezio's and the grin that was plastered across his face told him that the assassin was finding the whole thing very amusing. He scowled softly, not liking being made a fool of so easily. Especially by his dearest friend. Especially when his cheeks seemed so determined to betray his inner thoughts to anyone who may care to look upon them.
He turned his attention back to the paper with a sudden fierce determination, shielding his eyes from the truth laid so painfully bare before him.
The room was silent for a while save for the soft scratching of graphite against parchment. The soft hiss and flicker of candles in the night. First he would lay out the sketch in pencil, then he would fill it in with ink. Pencil and parchment. Ink and paper. Focus on the things that kept him grounded. Safe things, familiar things. Not the curve of Ezio's pectorals as they jutted outwards from his chest, nor the defined lines of muscles that decorated his body beneath taut tanned skin. Not the curl of dark hair that crept upwards from below his waist, dipping just below the hollow of his hipbones. Not the organ that hung below that hair, that was…
'Oh, merda.'
Leonardo's mind went blank.
"Ah, Ezio?"
His voice hung hesitantly in the air, vibrating through the atmosphere like a knife in the sudden tense warmth of the room.
"Hmm?" Ezio's voice hummed softly, an amused question.
"You, ah…"
"What?"
Ezio followed Leonardo's gaze down, grinning unabashedly when he realised why his friend had suddenly gotten so flustered. Beneath the curve of his hips he was standing at full arousal, entirely unashamed by the whole thing.
"Ah." Ezio laughed. "How can I not get excited when you look at me like that?" He smirked wickedly as he raised an eyebrow, shooting Leonardo a dark, dangerous gesture that he usually reserved for the young Venetian ladies.
"Don't…" The bitterness in Leonardo's voice was so unlike his usual gentle tones that it took the assassin by surprise.
"Don't what?" His brow furrowed as the sultry expression slipped from the lines of his face.
"Don't mock me." Leonardo looked back down at his drawing, purposely avoiding Ezio's eyes. He stabbed the pencil into the paper with more force than was entirely necessary, muttering "You have no idea…"
"Of what?"
"Of what I have been put through as a result of my affections!" Leonardo looked up and Ezio was taken aback by the hurt shining in his eyes. "Sodomia is a sin, and one which everyone is all too happy to throw the first stone over."
"Leonardo…" Ezio's expression softened as he left his position, approaching the artist. Leonardo avoided his gaze when he spoke and he could tell that he was in a fragile state of flux right then, so he chose his words carefully. "People fear that which they do not understand and are unable to control."
Ezio knew all too well what it felt like to be persecuted out of fear and hatred. Leonardo knew this, and he also knew that his friend had meant no harm by his actions. It was just the way he was.
"I'm sorry," he sighed softly as he bit at his lip, his gaze still fixed firmly upon his drawing, refusing to look up again at Ezio. "I know you were only joking."
"What makes you think that?" The rough tone in his voice made Leonardo look up again. He felt his breath catch rough in his throat as he saw Ezio standing there in the candlelight, stark naked and still hard and suddenly far too close for comfort.
"Ezio?" Leonardo almost whispered his name as the assassin leant down over him, his eyes smouldering in the light of the candles. He felt a rough hand close over his own and he let his pencil drop down upon the desk with a soft clatter. The feeling of Ezio's skin against his own made it hard to breathe, and he did not resist when the assassin pulled him to his feet and against his exposed chest.
"What are you doing?" He murmured softly, feeling the beating of Ezio's heart pressed against him as insistently as his erection. His own body twitched in response and he bit his bottom lip, hard.
"Nobody should have to suffer for their affections." Ezio murmured into his hair as he held him close. "And I must admit that I have caught myself having… unusual thoughts as of late."
"What do you mean?" Leonardo shivered ever so slightly in the assassin's grasp, the feeling of warm breath on his neck was quickly driving all coherent thoughts from his mind.
"You know what I mean." Ezio curled his fingers in the cloth at the artist's back, feeling the skin tremble beneath his fingers.
"Ezio…"
Ezio silenced Leonardo with a kiss, lips pressing suddenly and insistently against the artist's. They were softer than he had expected, Leonardo thought almost absentmindedly as they moved against his own. He felt a tongue sweep the line of his lower lip and gasped gently as they pulled apart, Ezio holding him close and regarding him with a mischievous light dancing in his eyes.
"What are you doing?" He asked again even as Ezio's mouth dropped to the curve of his neck.
"You talk too much artista." Ezio smiled against his skin and felt the shudder pass into his lips as he kissed him. "Not that I don't enjoy listening to the sound of your voice but, I have something else in mind at the moment."
"What exact- argh!" Leonardo hissed in surprise as Ezio bit down, teeth scraping the curve of his neck and sending shivers up and down his spine.
"That's right." Ezio purred as he ran his tongue over the mark he had left upon the artist's pale skin. Like paint upon a canvas, he could see the appeal of that now. "I've long wondered how you'd sound, coming undone in my hands."
Leonard's breath caught in his chest as Ezio's hands slid lower, running along the curve of his back, slipping under the hem of his tunic to caress the skin of his lower back. Ezio's hands were even rougher than he had imagined, marked and calloused from years of climbing and fighting. He had drawn those hands before, marked every line and scar upon them, but never had he truly hoped to feel them upon his skin. It was like a fever dream that he couldn't quite believe to be true.
Ezio's mouth moved to nip at his ear.
"S-stop." It took all the self-control that he possessed to whisper that one word, something inside him breaking as he did so.
"What's wrong?" The concern in Ezio's voice was damped somewhat by the heat curling around the edge of his tone, making Leonardo shiver even as he protested the touch.
"You don't know what you're doing." The artist bit his lip hard when Ezio's tongue flicked along the shell of his ear. "You don't know what you ask of me by doing this."
"I'm not asking for anything, my friend." Ezio pulled back to look into Leonardo's eyes as he spoke, a terrible sincerity burning within them, "I want to give you everything. Everything that you have denied yourself all these years. If you don't want me, all you have to do is say so."
"I… I do want you." Leonardo would've blushed harder if not for the fact that all the blood in his body seemed to have rushed suddenly downwards at Ezio's ministrations. His voice was soft and quiet as he admitted, "I always have."
A familiar grin split the assassins' face, like he had just won a secret battle. In one fluid movement he swept Leonardo from his feet, holding him in his arms like a new bride.
"Let's go upstairs." He hummed softly as he buried his face in Leonardo's neck again.
"Ezio!" Leonardo practically spluttered as he fought against the strong grasp, "Put me down! I am not a woman!"
Ezio laughed, vibrations passing from his chest into Leonardo's, humming from one man to the other.
"Well," He purred as he ran his nose along the curve of Leonardo's jaw, his voice a deep silk suggestiveness as his tongue returned to flick against the artist's sensitive ears, "Maybe tonight I'll be the woman."
It was then that Leonardo discovered that he did indeed still possess enough blood to blush.
This was a request written for Flufferz. If anyone else has any interesting requests/prompts for any of my fandoms (see my page for fandoms & pairings) just shoot me a PM and I'll see what I can do. (Disclaimer, it will probably take a while. Like seriously I'm pretty sure I got this prompt years ago. Whoops.)
This was going to be smut but, I dunno, it didn't feel right to me, so short and sweet it is. I might do a follow up later if there is demand for it.
Enjoy. As always reviews would be very helpful.
K.