I had this lying around from a while ago, and I decided it was about time I posted it. xD
DISCLAIMER: I don't own Ezio or Rosa or any of the characters represented in this fanficiton. So yeah.
"Forgive me, Signore. I tried," Ezio apologized as he watched the Doge, Giovanni Mocenigo, cough wretchedly and spit up blood all over his expensive robes. Knowing there was nothing he could do for the Doge, he ran after Carlo Grimaldi, Giovanni's killer. Weaving past sword-swinging guards, he desperately sprinted to catch Carlo. Realizing his fate was sealed, at the last second, the murderer spun around and swung a vial from up to down, causing its contents to spray in Ezio's face. He wrinkled his nose in disgust as the mysterious liquid entered his mouth and irritated his tongue with its bitterness. Not bothering to concern about it, he leapt upon Carlo and pressed his hidden blade deep into his abdomen. Time slowed down.
"It takes one Assassin to kill another, it seems," Ezio murmured as Carlo's life blood slowly drained out of him. Carlo responded weakly, "We kill thinking it's best for us, do we not, Messer Ezio?" Ezio clenched his jaw and spoke the last words that Carlo Grimaldi would ever hear. "I do this not for myself. Compio questo sacrificio per il bene superiore. Requiescat in Pace."
Avoiding the shocked and infuriated guards, Ezio returned to the Thieves Guild to tell Antonio and Rosa of his success. Antonio greeted him heartily and warmly with excitement at the death of the dreaded Carlo Grimaldi. The beautiful and sly Rosa cleverly teased him while also thanking him. As Ezio winked at her, he was overcome with a feeling of vertigo and nausea and collapsed on the floor, coughing up blood. Antonio gaped in shock and ran around the guild, searching for a remedy as he called for help and stuttered that the symptoms were similar to the effects of the poison used to kill Giovanni. Rosa was at his side on the floor in a moment, desperately trying to think of a way to help. "Dannazione, Antonio, where's that remedy?!" She screamed after the panicking thief. He appeared at her side presently with a bottle and hastily pulled the cork-cap off. He poured a bit into Ezio's mouth, but it only dribbled out as his eyes rolled around in his sockets and he slowly lost consciousness. His body twitched erratically, and it was obvious he would not swallow it on his own.
Antonio cried out in hysteria. "He'll be dead in a matter of minutes if he doesn't swallow it!" Rosa glanced at him in fright, her mind working frantically to come up with a plan. It formed in her mind through the fog of terror, and she grabbed the flask from Antonio. "What are you-?" Antonio began, before his eyes widened as Rosa poured the antitoxin into her mouth. She did not swallow, however, and instead leaned down and pressed her lips against Ezio's, forcing him to swallow it by stroking his throat and coaxing it down with her tongue. When she was sure he had swallowed it, she lifted her head and stared at his pale face in anticipation.
In Ezio's mind, his vision faded in and out, catching glimpses of the beautiful thief's face before being drowned in darkness then plunged into a world of dark crimson. He heard snippets of her angry screams and he realized he was probably going to die. 'Well...' he thought. 'If I must die...I'm glad the last thing I'll ever see is her face...'He felt a warm presence on his lips and his body jolted as it registered the kiss. He tried to move his arms and legs, to express the emotions coursing through his mind, but he was numb. His body was dead, he was nothing but a hopeless conscience in a corpse. But feeling began to return. Gradually, he could feel his fingers and toes, then his arms and legs. Finally, his body gave in to darkness in exhaustion.
Slowly, Ezio's spasms came to a stop and he fell into a deep sleep, his breath coming in ragged gasps. Rosa glanced at Antonio for confirmation, and he nodded. "He'll be fine," he said. "All Ezio needs is a long rest." He carried the assassin up to a guest bed and lay him there, watching his body breathe unevenly. He glanced at Rosa and asked, "Are you going to stay here until he wakes?" She nodded, her face showing she was deep in thought but was otherwise emotionless. He left the room as she took a seat next to his bed.
Twelve hours later, in the dead of night, Ezio awoke in a cold sweat and jostled Rosa's chair. She stirred awake and widened her eyes as she saw Ezio's handsome face looking around the room in confusion. He spoke, his voice raspy and hoarse, but she was still captivated by it and relieved to be hearing it again. "I remember...collapsing. And then..." He paused, not sure whether to ask about the kiss. She adopted her usual mischievous smile and said, her coice barely able to resist cracking from relief, "Glad to see your awake. Do you remember anything else?"
He shook his head, lying. His throat hurt to talk, but he absolutely had to ask. "Were you the one who...administered, the antidote?" Her eyes betrayed a hint of distress at the question, but she refused to blush. She wondered if he realized the method she used to get him to swallow the medicine and, if so, if he realized there were deeper feelings underneath trying to save her friend. She nodded, and saved herself by diverting the subject. "If you hadn't swallowed that remedy when you did, you'd be dead now. Count yourself lucky that you decided to cooperate." She smirked at him.
He chuckled, then said something that made the carefully undaunted thief turn bright crimson. "Believe what you want, but I don't think it was the medicine that saved me..."