"Is it done?" Paola is the one who finally asks the question as Ezio enters La Rosa Colta.
"It is done."
The rush of relief, or satisfaction, or something that Claudia expected to feel does not appear. Instead all she finds is the distant realization that her sister has now murdered someone and their silent mother still hasn't spoken.
"What will you do now?" Annetta asks Ezio.
"We will head to Monteriggioni. We have an uncle out there who will be willing to take us in."
Ezio's reply is enough to shake Claudia from her stunned state.
"What?!" No discussion, she never even asked for Claudia's opinion— her sister didn't even look at her when she spoke! Ezio's words are the frosting on an extremely bitter cake.
"They will be searching for us all through town. We must leave now, Claudia. Get Mother ready." With those parting words, Ezio sweeps towards Paola and begins talking in low tones that Claudia cannot hear.
The younger sister is not remotely accepting of all this, and she will have her say later, but her sister is right about the guards and they must leave the city. . . At least for a little while.
Ezio leads them through the winding dirt roads towards Monterrigioni with an urgent pace and minimal responses to all of her Claudia's questions. Eventually, the younger sister finally stops.
"Claudia," Ezio utters, irritation seeping into her tone as she also stops. Her older sibling seems to automatically know what Claudia is going to fight against, and that fact pisses her off. Ezio knows she doesn't want to go, and she's still trying to make them leave anyway.
"We need to go to Monteriggioni," Ezio says.
"I'm not going there!" Claudia shouts.
"We are leaving!"
"You aren't the man of the house, Ezio! You can't make me!"
"But I am the eldest!" Ezio screeches back. It's rare for her sister's voice to go so high, but Claudia can perhaps understand, because a week ago, Ezio wasn't the eldest.
"I am the eldest, and we will do as I say." Ezio's voice is suddenly hard to decipher, emotions tucked away.
Claudia bites her tongue.
"We are going to Monteriggioni."
Since arriving at Monteriggioni, Claudia's life has been an endless chain of decisions made without her consent. Her sister and Mario bicker back and forth about where Ezio will take them. Like Ezio is suddenly the head of their family. She shouldn't be. Well, she shouldn't be without at least taking Claudia's opinion into account. All Claudia's pleas to return to Firenze are rebuffed by Ezio before she can even finish her sentence. Mario completely agrees, and in the face of Ezio and Mario ganging up on her, she finds it hard to argue. If only Madre would wake, then things would be different—
Mario's outlook is severely skewed in Claudia's opinion. He has this daft idea in his head that Ezio will join him in a fight against what she understands is a veritable spider web of conspiracies and political corruption. Claudia wishes her sister had more sense than to listen to Mario's stories, but it appears she does not. Ezio seems to believe him, and more than that, when Mario vanishes to Firenze to finish Vieri de Pazzi, Ezio goes after him. There's blood on the edges of her sister's sleeves when she returns, and a look of both ambivalence and determination rest in her eyes. Claudia immediately knows that they will not be going to Spain like Ezio originally proposed.
While Claudia doesn't approve of Ezio throwing herself into her work, she can perhaps understand. Although she was initially reluctant to take on the financial banking, when Claudia does the ledger and rearranges their investments, reality leaves her alone. Bit by bit she understands the nuances of the business, and every now and then, she thinks she might feel her father standing behind her, coaching her gently when she forgets a detail about banking. Work is the best thing for her. If she didn't plow through the books, she would be upstairs all day with their mother— and she can't do it anymore. She still spends three or four hours sitting and talking to her mother, (talking at her mother,) but the sudden job of banking is a wonderful excuse to get away from the painfully silent room. She feels guilty, because her mother is in such a state— but doing something feels good. Over the two years they stay while Ezio trains, she's able to see some of her hard work pay off as she repairs the brothel and armory and the people of the town walk through the streets a little happier and the villa's pitiful income doubles. What really giver her satisfaction is knowing that she can do so much more.
It's Ezio that works the hardest though, physically and emotionally. Physical in how their uncle slams her into the ground trying to teach her how to duck a tackle, and emotional in the things he says while teaching her—
"If you want to pretend to be a man you need to take a punch like one!"
Even Claudia, who has no fondness for Ezio's phase, knows better than to say anything in such a callous, dismissive way.
At first, the hurt in her sister's eyes was clear to see, painfully obvious. But as time stretched on, she stopped reacting, stopped letting her eyes show her emotions so clearly, and stopped having Mario thrash her so thoroughly. Claudia . . . doesn't like it. But she comprehends why. Ezio is in a different kind of business than Claudia, one that deals in the trading of lives. It still makes Claudia pause every now and then as she realizes her father was doing both the entire time. Claudia wishes her sister didn't have to do such work, but she doesn't think that Ezio will rest until she can decisively say their father, Petruccio, and Federico have finally been avenged.
There isn't really anything she can do to change Ezio's mind, she soon realizes, and Claudia feels a cloak of weariness settle around her, making her feel much older than her seventeen years.
She now stands in the entry hall with Mario and Ezio. The two are talking, leaving her as an audience member. Ezio is going on another solo assassination, which should only take about two months, but Claudia knows how this will go, how Ezio will catch another lead and chase it into Forli, or Venezia, and the next time Claudia will see Ezio will likely be when she's twenty. Claudia wonders if she'll still be able to make out something from her sister's eyes when she returns.
Claudia looks at her sister, noting the changes. Ezio's body has filled out considerably. Her sister never grew buff despite the months of excruciating training, but gained lean, hard muscle that Claudia only sees when they bathe in the public bathhouse in the dead of night where they can be alone. Those moments Claudia enjoys most, because they talk about nothing, and it's the only time she ever sees Ezio as she truly is— no bindings or leggings. Although these days it's robes she wears.
When Ezio pulls her white hood up, the only thing visible to the world is the hint of dark brown bangs that shift into view every now and then. Her sibling's eyes have always been dark— bedroom eyes, Federico once joked to Claudia. Hidden under the shadow of white cloth, they look more threatening and mysterious. There's still that odd sensuality that has followed her sister around all her life, but the steel in her gaze tempers it considerably. Claudia imagines that many of the females her sister will inevitably come across will find it sultry and intriguing— much to Ezio's delight, she figures. Her interest in the same sex doesn't upset Claudia as the sheer denial of the truth does.
Claudia wants an older sister. Well, she has an older sister, but not in any way she can claim. She's seen the relationships the other girls in Firenze had with their big sisters, and Claudia wants to feel the same sensation badly. Ezio refuses though. Refuses to go dress shopping, refuses to talk about who's the most attractive in town (even when Claudia offers to add women to their scouting), and refuses to accept the title of sister. Sometimes Claudia just wants to wrestle her sister to the ground and throw a corset on her and make her go shopping, and gossiping, and call Ezio her older sister—But to the outside world, Claudia is the only daughter in the Auditore family, and Ezio is a man.
Claudia doesn't get it. She hates— hated how readily Federico went along with it, but of course he would. She would wager he wanted a little brother as much as she wanted an older sister. If only Ezio would stop being so stubborn and just accept who she is and stop playing all these games. But it appears that it is possibly too late. Because the world Ezio has stepped into is no place for a woman, Claudia thinks. Her sister is safer pretending to be a man. Claudia just wishes there was something she could do to prove Ezio hasn't lost her womanhood. She pauses in her thoughts.
Ezio's chocolate colored hair is cut a little shorter than normal, held back with a dark brown hair tie. She suddenly dashes upstairs towards her bureau, digging through the limited amount of pretty things she allowed herself to purchase after an especially trying day. Finding what she was looking for, she runs back downstairs, hoping her sister hasn't left yet.
She's relieved and exasperated to see them both standing in exactly the same place. Claudia would wager they didn't even realize she left.
When Ezio gives a nod and steps away, Claudia knows she must act fast.
"Sorella," Claudia calls. Ezio frowns, but comes towards her.
"Si?"
"Turn around," Claudia demands.
"Why?"
"I'm going to put a ribbon in your hair."
"Claudia." An exasperated growl comes from Ezio.
"Shut up and do this for me," Claudia replies sharply.
Maybe she senses the seriousness of her sister's tone, because Ezio reluctantly obeys.
Pulling the thin red ribbon that she was planning to make a thin choker or bracelet out of, Claudia carefully wraps it around her sister's thick hair. The moment is inexplicably honeyed for some reason, until Claudia realizes that the last time she touched and played with Ezio's hair she had been nine.
She takes her time, though Ezio fidgets and Mario crosses his arms.
"Don't forget who you are, Ezio," Claudia says, and feels her sister still beneath her fingers. She wishes that Ezio could accept such words without tensing her muscles, and without clicking her teeth shut suddenly. But this world isn't that one, so Claudia must make compromises.
"You are an Auditore." She releases the neat bow and her sister turns around with a wide smile.
"I will never forget, Claudia."
Maybe one day things could be different, but for the moment, Claudia will try being what her sister needs; a sibling. Like Federico had been before he—
Since he was gone, Claudia would have to be that source of comfort and assurance, despite her personal feelings.
Although she may never find a sister in Ezio, so long as she could see something in her sister's eyes when she returns from her assassinations, Claudia figures her sibling will never truly be lost from her.
.
.
.
Sorella = Sister.
This bit was borne out of the fact that canon Ezio has this awesome red ribbon in his hair. I like symmetry.
Another wave of thanks towards Chalybeous~
