Chapter I - Part II

A few minutes later, the former and soon-to-be-again assassin held his breath for a moment, then he took a deep one. Slowly, he pushed in. He could hear a low sigh from the British man. Somehow it sounded relieved. They were still in their hideout in Italy. It was dark outside and the lamps were out now, leaving them into full darkness. Desmonds head spun. How had he managed to get into this situation anyway? He remembered that Shaun told him that he'd like to talk about something with him.. And now he was right on his hands and knees.

"Am I doing it right that way?", Desmond asked lowly, looking over his shoulder though he couldn't see that much anyway.
"Yes. Move a little closer to me." Shauns voice sounded strangely soft now.

He moved backwards a little.

"Ready?"
"Ready."

And after the confirmation of the American had followed, Shaun moved again, too - and the lamps lit the room again.

"About bloody time."

Desmond got up again and brushed the dust off his clothes, then he turned around towards Shaun, who was now moving away from his laptop again. Somehow, he waited for some acknowledgement. It didn't come.

"What? Oh, come on, Desmond, you can't expect me to thank you for finally doing something useful in here by replacing the bulbs and switching two cables to make them lighten the room better!"
"It.. took some time to get up to those, you know? And.. there are many cables down there."
"Of course, now that is a reason."

Shaun rolled his eyes a little and moved back to his desk, then he sat down and leaned back in his chair.

"Why the fuck do you always do that?"
"Actually, you have no right to say that I would do something 'always' since we don't know each other for longer than four hours and twenty-three minutes now, but let us just pretend that I would not care for that - Do
what?"
"Just.. Just going away and letting me stand there alone without any comment like I'd be a complete idiot!"

A smirk crept up Shauns lips which parted now to comment this, but Desmond interrupted him before he could even start.

"You - You know what? Forget that I asked, man. Seriously. What is the deal with you!"

It amused the Briton, this behaviour of that twit who managed to at least execute simple tasks. He turned towards his screen again and started to type on his keyboard. Still, Desmond just stood there like he'd be stuck in some wrong movie. His eyes wandered to Shaun for a moment, then he sighed himself and shook his head.

"Great. So. Uh, other question.. Where do we sleep anyway?"
"What an inexpressible observation skill you seem to have again, Desmond. Obviously you did not look around properly. Right there, the little stairs up, is a bed."
"Seriously?
All of us are sleeping in that bed at the same time?"
Shaun let go of his computer again and turned towards the American now. "I knew you aren't the brightest button that ever shone, but I assumed that you would have at least some intelligence left for realising that someone always has to watch and stay awake in case we would have visitors. So, no, obviously we are not sleeping in that bed together at once. Indeed we do have a second bedroom, a bathroom and even a kitchen we can use. Now you want me to show you around, I assume. Of course, of course, it's not like the world would fall apart now, is it? There is no need to assist those on the fields. No. Go ahead, let us just stroll around and leave them to die."
"It can't be THAT dramatic."
, Desmond murmured, then he shrugged. "But, alright, I will just look around myself. Maybe I'd even find some reason for you being such an asshole, Shaun."

He turned towards the door and walked through it, murmuring something like 'I hope the girls will be back soon, finally having some nice people around again', while Shaun resumed his work, letting his words and leave pass without a comment. It was unbelievable for the barkeeper that a man could be that frustrated - that was what he called it - to act just like the Brit did. Maybe the answer to the question why was already in this sentence, he thought. Brit. That could be it.

On his search for the bathroom, he found the other doors first. There was a small storeroom where some cleaning supplies got stored - a green bucket made of plastic, two mops, some sponges, quite a selection of cleaning agents, somehow they were ordered, but Desmond didn't get how - as well as a ladder. Great. So they had a ladder! Shaun had told him they had none and that would be the reason why Desmond had to climb and jump around to reach the bulbs. Again, great.

After the storeroom, he found the small, though fully furnished kitchen. Besides the red fitted kitchen including a stove and fridge, there was a table made of oak wood - the only wood in the kitchen that was visible now - with four chairs that matched the red of the kitchen unit, having a slight verve at the backrest and metallic legs. Though he would be interested in what food Lucy might have bought and somehow felt a tiny bit hungry now, he left the kitchen behind too and found the bathroom - finally.

It was all black - and he was glad it was. After all, the whole rooms in Abstergo had been plain white and that gave them the usual clinical touch of a hospital. Something he didn't want to spend time in ever again. Besides the sink and toilet, there was a washing machine and a shower. At least.

"Shaun! Where's Desmond!", Rebecca yelled while she entered.

The girls had come back just when Desmond had gotten under the shower. Obviously she wasn't able to hear it in the main room.

"How am I supposed to know where that bloody twit has gone? I am no bloody manny!"
"But, Shaun-!"
"Spare me, Rebecca, I know he went off to explore the other rooms, he won't be leaving anyway. Where is Lucy?"
"Downstairs. Move your lazy ass and get some of the bags upstairs now! We wanted to ask Dez, but since you're the only one left, move."

Shaun sighed a little and moved downstairs then and helped Lucy with the bags. When he came back upstairs, Desmond was done with showering and just passed the Brit without even saying a word. He had found some of the clothes Lucy had provided him with in the bathroom - one set to be precise. The rest he had put into the washing machine.

"Bloody twit!"
"Shut up you geek."

Rebecca was at the Animus 2.0 again already, taking care of her baby, when Desmond entered the hall.

"Hey."
"Ahh, Desmond!"
"Good you're back - but, why did you run off so quickly before?"
"I found Lucys earpiece. She forgot to take it with her. But we need to stay in touch when we're outside. What happened to the bulbs anyway?"

"Ah, Shaun said he'd 'need to request my help' because 'our female companions' wouldn't want the light to be brighter again for they would 'think of the dim light as romantic' and told me to exchange the bulbs and change some cables."
Rebecca rolled her eyes and patted Desmonds shoulder. "Oh, man, those Brits, huh?", she said and flashed him a grin again, making the barkeeper grin himself before she took care of Baby again.

When Lucy entered again, she smiled happily at Desmond. "Desmond! Come, eat something. I have bought some instant meals."
"Uh, yeah, sure, thanks."

He left for the kitchen and found Shaun again, leaning against the kitchens counter while he read some e-book on his reader. There was a water kettle doing its work in his back, white steam ascending from it.

"Hey."

Desmond moved to his side as he could see some instant meal right next to the water boiler. He reached for the package, but Shaun grabbed his wrist before he could reach it and shot him a glance over the glasses.

"That's mine.", he said then in a calm though warning voice, making Desmond blink at him a little.

Where did that come from all of a sudden?

"Uh, sure. Wouldn't want to keep ya from eating something, alright? Jus' tell me where you store these."

He tried to pull back his hand but didn't succeed right away. That was impressive! Desmond never would have thought that he'd need to spend energy to loosen the grip of a geek! Maybe he wasn't as much in shape as he believed he'd be.

Shaun let go of him finally and pointed towards one of the lower cupboards.

"I assume Lucy put them in there. She did last time."

The water boiler stopped then and Shaun didn't turn around though, now that Desmond presented him his back, bending down again. Actually, this twit had his charms, he thought while he now got a good look at the bottom of that American. When he found something and got up again, Shaun turned his own back on him though and took care of his own food - and tea. As soon as Desmond saw the little tea bag labeled with 'Earl Grey', he looked around again.

"Uh, do we have some coke or anything drinkable in the first place besides dyed water with, eh, gross flavor?"
"Excuse me?"
"That tea. It's nothing but dyed and flavored water."
"Bloody American. No taste. But, let us assume that you would be right - what difference is there to your coke? Oh! I know. It's the flavour enhancer and the sugar, isn't it? No. We sure do not have bloody coke."

Desmond grimaced a little and used the rest of the water for his own noodles he had put into a bowl now.

"Fine, so, do we have anything besides fucking tea?"
"You can have soda."
"What flavor?"
"What?"
"What flavors do we have?"
"You-"
Shaun sighed and muttered then "Bloody Americans" before he answered: "I am talking about mineral water. Not lemonade."

Desmond was almost a little disappointed now when he heard that, but shrugged then. It wasn't like it'd be apocalypse to drink something like that. Better than dyed water anyway. While Shaun moved to the table and sat down to have his soup, - well, in a few minutes of course - Desmond found the bottles of water and took one of them to drink right out of the bottle, not even asking for a glass now. There'd just be some bitchy response anyway.

With his own bowl, some spoon inside of it in the one and the bottle in his other hand, he walked over to the table himself and sat down at the long side, so quite around the corner from Shauns point of view, who was noticing but not commenting on it since he already read again.

"What are you reading anyway?"
"It is a biography of Leonardo da Vinci."
"Who?"

Shaun was stunned for a moment and stared at Desmond with a blank expression.

"You are kidding me, aren't you?"
"Uh, no?"
"Da Vinci. Leonardo Da Vinci."

Still no reaction.

"The Mona Lisa? Leonardo Da Vinci? Codes? A genius?"
"Oooh! Wasn't that some movie? The Da Vinci Code?"

Shaun gaped. He did not know Da Vinci? And now he was talking about a bloody movie messing with him! The genius himself? The most clever man that ever existed?

"You are such a lucky sod and are too dumb to realize how lucky you really are! You bloody twit! This is unbelievable!"
"What? Wait, why? Why am I- Wait. Did you just insult me?"
"Your ancestors, the Auditore family - especially Ezio Auditore - was very close friends with Leonardo Da Vinci. And for your information, this man just happened to be the most intelligent man in many fields. To name only a few, we are talking about paintings - some of the most expensive paintings are made by him - and designs, weapon designs to be more precise, just as well as the first flying machine he built! How can you not have heard of Leonardo Da Vinci!"

A moment of silence passed, then there was Lucys voice. After all it was rare that Shaun shouted.

"Are you guys alright over there?"
"Oh, of course we are, Lucy - You just brought the most infantile bloody American without any general knowledge or historical knowledge anyway into our operation! He didn't even know LEONARDO DA VINCI!"
"I am not infantile - and stop insulting me!"
"Belt up and eat!"

Desmond growled a little, but took the spoon then and with it some noodles.

"Desmond, don't-"

But too late. He already had put the now thanks to the hot water hot spoon with the hot noodles into his mouth and burned his tongue with that, yelping for a second and throwing the spoon away. Shaun instantly pushed the milk to him he had placed onto the table for his tea earlier.

"Here, drink this, that might help."

Desmond did so and felt that the milk really soothed it a little. He almost whined a bit when he said:

"Don't tell me that I'm stupid now.. just.. just shut up."

The Brit had to smile and really said nothing but pulled the teabag out of his tea and put it on the saucer. Somehow that was almost cute if it wouldn't be that sad to have someone with the intelligence of a dog at their side.