Ezio Auditore, former Mentor of the Assassin Brotherhood and current head assassin of the Tower, was struggling with a child.

To be fair, he hadn't expected to walk into his room to find no less than a five-year-old human child seated on his bed, staring wondrously at a certain object in her hands. Namely, one of his knives, all of which he made sure to keep extra sharp. A sharp blade was painless, a quick slit at the throat leaving a target with a quick and easy death.

"Don't touch that, piccolo, you'll hurt yourself."

She looked up towards him with wide chocolate eyes before saying something in a language he didn't understand. He stared at her blankly, his hand still outstretched towards her for his knife. How had she gotten in here, anyways? He brushed the thought aside. She was here now, so he might as well deal with it. He could turn her over to Eldewhin later, since she seemed to know everyone in the City, anyways.

"Я тебя знаю."

He blinked.

"She's speaking Russian, Ezio," his Ghost, Rico, whispered to him. Ezio grimaced.

"That's helpful."

He gestured towards the knife in her small hands, then made a motion towards himself. "You give it to me, piccolo?"

Her gaze didn't waver for a moment, not even bothering to look towards the blade clutched in her hands.

"Che cavolo, why is this so difficult?" he grumbled. He never was particularly 'good' with children, but this...this was just straight up annoying, if not infuriating. Rico twirled in annoyance as Ezio sat himself down on his bed.

"Maybe Ikora would help," the Ghost suggested.

"She's even worse with kids than I am, what makes you think that'd help?" he drawled.

"She speaks Russian."

Oh.

He sighed and ran his hand through unruly dark hair. "I suppose, but…"

"But?"

"Ikora is...slightly intimidating."

"You don't say."

Ezio chuckled to himself before looking back down towards the small girl. She looked back up to him for a moment, before placing the blade on his lap and sliding off his bed.

He nodded slowly towards the blade in his lap, then towards the dark-haired girl in thanks as he slipped it into an empty sheath.

"Ты помнишь меня?"

"What?"

"Don't you think it's a bit strange to have a little girl like her in here, anyways?" Rico asked. Ezio shrugged before breaking his gaze away from the child as he fished around his pouch. It was, he had to admit, but whatever had happened had happened, and now she was here. True, he was curious to know how, exactly, she had managed to get in without triggering any of his alarms. But it didn't seem entirely possible to ask such a young child such a question, especially with the language barrier between them. So, he ultimately decided to shrug it off and roll with the punches thrown.

He eventually dug out a lollipop from his pouch before handing it to her as thanks for the knife. She took it eagerly and pulled the wrapper off, revealing a (slightly cracked) orb of blue candy. She seemed to hesitate, though, examining the treat and looking up to him for confirmation before sticking it in her mouth with a smile.

Ezio couldn't help but grin in return. "What's your name?" he asked. She cocked her head at him, still sucking the candy. He sighed.

"Ezio," he said, gesturing towards himself. "I...am...Ezio."

She seemed to catch on rather quickly, if her response was any proof. "Ezio," she repeated with a blue-stained tongue, pointing to him as she spoke. He nodded and smiled.

"Ezio," he said again, gesturing towards himself. Then he pointed towards the girl.

"Ezio," she repeated , before turning her finger towards herself. "Elsie," she replied, before she winked out of existence.

~o:O:o~

piccolo - little one

che cavolo - literally translated, 'what cabbage'. italian equivalent of 'what the hell'

feel free to translate the russian, but i'll leave it out for plot purposes

and ig chapters will be vv short, lol

but yes! the importance of this scene will become relevant later onbut for now, have some 'daddy' ezio