Chapter 7! I told you guys I would update again soon! This chapter doesn't have much action; it's more of a recap (for Leonardo) and a better look into Ezio.

Dedicated to Nostalgic-Romance for the name she gave me.

Disclaimer: I forgot to put a disclaimer in the last chapter so now I'm on Ubisoft's Most Wanted List. I do not own Assassin's Creed, Ezio, or Leonardo. Everything else I do own.

Special thanks to Hedwig the MilleniumOwl for your amazing reviews! Keep 'em coming!

"So let me get this straight: you didn't kill him?"

Ezio sighed, "No, Leonardo, for the fifth time I did not kill him."

Leonardo looked offended at the hint of irritation on Ezio's voice, "I'm just checking," he replied, miffed, "It's never a bad thing to be too cautious."

The assassin rolled his eyes and wondered why God had seen fit to give him this man as his partner. Not that Leonardo wasn't a good friend and helper, but it would be nice to only have to say something once. Was he asking too much?

The two men were sitting in the same bar that Ezio had changed his clothes in only three days before. They had arrived in the afternoon so not too many people were around. Despite this, the air still stank heavily of ale, and Ezio grimaced as he saw one drinker empty his stomach on the floor. Disgusting. This place was obviously a middle class bar – no one made any effort to clean up the mess on the floor, and there weren't any girls around. Even if there had been girls Ezio wouldn't have been interested. He was too busy filling in da Vinci about his mission. Besides, there was Clara to think about.

"If you didn't kill him, then what happened?" Leonardo asked, for once asking for details he had not already heard.

They were sitting at a table towards the back of the bar, away from the few drunken sots at the front. Even though there was no way the men could hear him over the noise they themselves were making, Ezio leaned in closer to his friend.

"I got into the house by climbing into the window you told me about," he said in a low voice, barely loud enough for Leo to hear, "but I heard some servants and hid in a broom closet. I was caught by one of the head servants, but he was too old to realize that I wasn't part of the staff."

"Must have been Fabrizio." Leonardo said, folding his hands in front of him. He glanced up at Ezio with a slight look of annoyance in his eyes, "If it had been anyone else, you would have been in a lot of trouble."

Ezio held up one hand in defense, "I know, I know. But I'm still getting used to this whole assassin thing. I learn from my mistakes; it will never happen again. Back to the mission. I convinced the old man that I was a servant and he was kind enough to let me go."

Ezio paused, distracted by a fight that had broken out between two men. The shorter of the two, a fiery redhead with badly shaped teeth, shoved the other's shoulders hard. The man stumbled into one of the tables, knocking over a glass of beer. He cursed in an unfamiliar language, and then threw himself at the red head. The two wrestled on the floor, knocking into chairs and tables and the occasional idiot who was too slow to move out of the way.

Leonardo noticed the brawl shortly after Ezio did. He bit his lip and sank down in his chair, "Maybe we should find somewhere else to talk," he suggested.

For a half second Ezio thought of refusing – this could get interesting – but a glance at his friend's quickly paling face had him say, "All right."

The Italian practically ran out of the tavern, dragging Ezio behind him. The stifling heat stopped them when they got outside, and Leonardo looked at Ezio expectantly, "Where to?" he asked.

"Isn't it your job to find us a new meeting place?" Ezio questioned, "After all, you did make us leave the one we were just at."

"You're the assassin! You decide!"

Ezio thought for a minute, "How about your-"

"No." Leonardo said immediately.

"You didn't even let me finish!"

"I know what your were going to say. You want to go to my place! No way! Not after what happened last time. Nope, not even if St. Mary begged me!"

"You're exaggerating! It wasn't that bad."

Leonardo looked at Ezio incredulously, "You threw a knife that knocked over a lamp and started a small fire."

"Be thankful it wasn't a big fire."

"It destroyed some of my best sketches!"

"Okay, okay, fine!" Ezio couldn't come up with anything else, "Why don't we just talk on the way back to the bakery. I have to get back there anyway. Clara's little sister, Erminia, is coming back from her aunt's house today.

"Please don't go chasing after her too," Leonardo begged.

Ezio looked insulted, "The idea never even crossed my mind. I have Clara. Besides, Erminia is only fifteen."

Just checking. Anyway, let's go," Leonardo started marching down the street. Ezio sighed and put his hand on the artist's thin shoulder. "It's this way, Leo." he pointed in the opposite direction.

"Er, right. I knew that."

The two men began to walk down the street, weaving in and out of people's way. It was actually rather difficult. Ezio had to duck twice to avoid being whacked in the head with a piece of wood carried by construction workers. By the time six minutes had passed, Leonardo was starting to look a little red in the face.

"Please continue about your mission," he said, panting a little.

Ezio shook his head at his friend's unhealthy condition, then launched back into the details, "I got to the library without mishap, and when I entered, Victor was so startled to see me that he tripped over something, banged his head on the edge of the desk, and blacked out."

One of Leonardo's eyebrows rose, "Seriously?" he asked.

"Seriously," Ezio repeated, "I obviously wasn't able to get any information out of him, so I couldn't kill him. We'll have to try again."

A frown was on Leonardo's face, "He's probably paranoid right now. He'll have doubled the guard on his house and has someone tasting his food. Who knows what other precautions he will take? It won't be so easy this time, Ezio."

"I know." Ezio's jaw set. Leonardo had voiced the fears that Ezio had been feeling since two days ago. Things were going to be even more difficult since he botched up the first try. That meant that he would need to be stealthier even though he hadn't been an assassin for very long. He'd definitely have to make sure that Clara didn't end up with him next time.

"I do have one question," Leonardo's voice snapped Ezio out of his thoughts; "I would have thought that you would have waited for the Medici brat to wake up and then question him. But you just left. Why?"

Ezio hesitated. Because I was worried about a beautiful girl, who by the way followed me throughout the entire mission, waiting, alone and frightened in a dark hallway didn't seem like the best thing to say if he wanted Leonardo to remain conscious. Ezio could just picture his friend falling to the floor, dead as a doornail.

"He made a loud crash when he fell," Ezio lied. In truth, Ezio had caught the body and gently lowered it to the ground just avoid that. "I – I didn't want to stick around to see if someone heard or not. So I left."

If Leonardo doubted his words, he did a good job of hiding it. "I see," was all he said.

The friends continued on in silence. Only when they were six blocks from the bakery did Leonardo bring up conversation about a new machine he was building. It was supposed to let the user fly in the sky via heat. The inventor babbled on about large bonfires would be necessary to keep to "bird machine" aloft in the sky ("Because heat always rises, Ezio").

Ezio tried to keep up, bit all of the scientific facts were complicated. Besides, he had a still living Victor Medici to worry about. Ezio hadn't had time in the past few days to scout out the new security that the noble had more than likely set up. Normally, Ezio could occupy himself by thinking of different ways to bypass the guards, but without the information he was currently missing, there was nothing he could do.

No, things were not looking good right now. Tales of an assassin who killed with a grudge were starting to spread through the city. He often passed a street corner and heard whispers of "the killer in white." Guards were constantly arresting men (sometimes even women and children) who looked suspicious. Maybe it was time to lay low for a while, just until things calmed down. It might even help to get out of Venice.

"Ezio!"

The voice that called his name was sweetly familiar to the assassin's ears. He looked up to see Clara standing in the door of the bakery, beckoning to him. Ezio took an eager step forward but stopped when he remembered he was with someone. He looked back at Leonardo as if asking for permission. His friend gave him a warm smile, fully aware of Ezio's soft spot for the girl; "Go on," he told him, "I can walk back to my place by myself."

Grateful for Leo's understanding, Ezio jogged the last few meters to the bakery. He stopped in front of Clara and smiled down at her, "Hello, angel," He said with a grand bow.

Clara gave him a small but real smile and leaned against the doorpost, "I see you got your clothes back from the bar," she observed, looking him up and down.

"Yep," Ezio felt a sliver of satisfaction as her eyes rested for a few seconds on his muscular chest.

"That's good," Clara nodded to herself, "I would not be happy if I had to make you new clothes."

"Yes, you would. You would jump on the chance to make them tighter." Ezio teased, gently pulling on one of her curls.

The brunette blushed but, surprisingly, didn't hit him. Instead she said, "Come on, there's a lot of work to do. I'm going to need you to chop more wood for the oven, please."

"Whatever you say," Ezio murmured before following her into the shop.

Ya, the plans to take care of the Medici boy weren't going as well as they should, but right now, Ezio wouldn't trade this time for anything.

As a note, Ubisoft gave us no information about Ezio's past except that he was a noble, so I'm making it up for my story. You might have noticed that Ezio said he hasn't been as assassin for very long. Here's the reason why: I seriously doubt that three hundred years worth of Altair's descendants all became assassins. Ezio's grandfather or great-grandfather might have been assassin, but I suspect that Ezio's father wasn't. Because of this, Ezio grew up in a family free of their ancestors' killing reputation. My guess is that Ezio's family was killed by either a more powerful family or the Templar. Ezio somehow survives and swears revenge. He starts training as an assassin to kill the people who murdered his family. But, I'm probably wasy off. It works for the fic though.

Do me a favor and press that little button that say submit review, would ya?