For the next couple of days, they set about clearing the room on the middle floor. Billy was convinced that the Italian immortal would be happier in this room than in their shared bedroom and Machiavelli wasn't quite sure how to convince him otherwise, so there they were boxing up a myriad of stuff. Still, he deftly delayed the process by asking Billy about all the times in the room. Luckily for him, the outlaw had amassed a whole bevy of possessions.

"Guess you won't want to sleep on the futon indefinitely," Billy suggested cheerfully.

"There's a futon in here?" Machiavelli asked incredulously. He could just barely see the outlaw behind a stack of boxes. "Where?"

"I'm standing on it, it's just under a lot of Star Trek stuff. Look at this, Mac, it's all the original Star Wars and Star Trek movies on VHS." He hefted a huge box onto the pile. "And here's the same on beta tapes." He caught the glance the warlock sent him. "We thought beta tapes were going to be big," he said defensively.

Machiavelli chose to ignore that. "Billy, this box appears to be full of video tapes of The Guiding Light from 1960 and 1963."

"Yeah, me and Black Hawk watched a lot of soap operas in the sixties. Everything seemed better when you were just a little stoned. We can get rid of that box."

"You did drugs in the sixties?"

Billy held up his hand, thumb and pointer finger an inch apart. "Just a little bit," he said with a terrible Russian accent and he laughed. Machiavelli had to laugh too, shaking his head. "Nothing hard. Just a little marijuana here and there to expand my thought processes."

"And did it?"

"It expanded my creativity regarding food," Billy said thoughtfully.

"Ah. This is a uh, very naked woman, Billy," Machiavelli said, unrolling a poster and letting it snap shut again.

"Yeah, you'll come across a few of those." Billy unrolled the poster himself. "You don't recognize Uschi Obermaier?"

"I've tried very hard to stay out of the realm of pornography over the years."

"Not me," Billy admitted without a trace of shame. "If there's one thing I enjoy in life, it's sex. You really don't watch any porn?" Machiavelli blushed and shook his head, pulling a egg crate full of posters out of the corner and passing it to the American. "Well, I don't watch tons of porn, but I will watch the occasional adult movie."

"I suppose there's nothing inherently wrong with that," Machiavelli admitted.

"Look at this," Billy said, pulling an old video recorder from a box. "I forgot I bought one of these. God these were heavy."

"That's a vintage Paillard Bolex recorder, isn't it?" the Italian asked, intrigued.

"Uh huh. And I've got a Polaroid around here somewhere. I wonder where that went…" The Kid looked around the room. "Maybe I should sell some of this stuff."

"We immortals do have the advantage when it comes to antiques.

And so their conversations progressed. Some of Billy's possession sparked inane conversations and some were more intriguing. For instance, under one pile of records, they unearthed a small box that Billy would not let the Italian look out at, scooping it up and mumbling something before he went upstairs with it, presumably putting it in the attic. Machiavelli was dying to ask Billy what was in the box, but figured he'd better glean that information when he could catch the outlaw off guard. He instead continued to needle Billy about the other items.

Billy, in turn, either didn't notice what Machiavelli was doing, or didn't mind his efforts. In fact, Machiavelli got the feeling that while Billie Holiday's reaction to their unique situation had propelled the Kid into action, this sudden desire to have separate bedrooms wasn't a desire that the outlaw felt whole-heartedly. The Italian felt he could capitalize on this; close proximity perhaps being the force that would change their situation. He harbored the secret hope that Billy would develop the same feelings for him that he couldn't deny he felt towards the American immortal.

~MB~

In between their work with the storage room, Machiavelli and Billy spent many cozy evenings in their living room, enamored with their individual interests. The September days were turning chilly as the month progressed into October and though it was nice to head out on the town with the outlaw, Machiavelli found that he almost preferred the nights they stayed inside. He found it strange that Billie didn't show up again, but his Billy explained that she often came and went inexplicably.

Amidst all of this, the Italian immortal was waging an internal war. He had finally admitted to himself that he was indeed in love with Billy and sealed his fate, so to speak, by confiding the same to Scathach. It was a calculated move, telling her. He knew that she was probably already aware of his feelings, had in fact, known long before even he had; making her his confidante gave him the freedom to share his feelings and frustrations with someone else. Still, sharing his secret with the Shadow meant accepting the potential ramifications that the future might bring.

He'd been thinking a lot lately of his son. While they boxed up Billy's old LPs and pushed them to the back of the room's closet (they both refused to put them up in the attic, where they could be potentially destroyed), he was remembering a fact about his second oldest son that he'd previously tried very hard to forget about. Now though, he was ready to admit to himself that Ludovico had had a male lover; previously, it had seemed so difficult to accept, but now, as he questioned his own sexuality, it seemed a lot easier somehow.

"Earth to Mac. Come in, Mac."

"What did you say?" he blurted out, looking over at Billy after realizing the American had been trying to get his attention.

"I asked what you were thinking about," Billy repeated. He waved a hand in the air. "Never mind though, that's probably personal now that I think of it. You just had that look in your eyes."

Machiavelli held up his book. "I've been trying to read, but I guess I got distracted by my thoughts. I was thinking about my son." He closed the book and tossed it on the coffee table. "I like to reread books as it gives me a chance to reflect."

Billy settled into the overstuffed armchair, causing poofs of stuffing to fly through the air. He pulled off his socks with the air of a man getting incredibly comfortable. "Which son were you thinking of?" he asked, pressing his hands together as if deep in contemplation.

"Ludovico." Machiavelli blinked, then smiled. "Every time I came home from a long trip Ludo would throw his arms around my neck and he'd kiss me on the lips. He used to tell me he loved me more than anything in the world."

Billy grinned. "That's sweet, Mac."

"I miss it," Niccolò admitted openly. "He stopped giving me hugs when he was a teenager, but then he started doing it again later in life. Even when he grew up. I'd love to be able to hold my boys again."

Billy smiled slightly. Machiavelli couldn't read the expression on his face. "Children are great. I loved having you in my life."

"Are you ever going to have children?" Machiavelli asked curiously. All indications he'd seen so far said that Billy would have actually been a good father, if a somewhat goofy one. Still, he knew the answer before he was even through asking his question.

The outlaw shook his head. "Doesn't seem fair, does it?" The double meaning behind what he said was not lost on Machiavelli.

"It isn't really, no."

"Did I ever tell you about my daughters, Mac?"

"You had children?" The Italian immortal sat up.

Billy shrank back. "Guess I didn't tell you. I think I told the others about it early on when you were very little. I sort of had daughters."

"How do you sort of have children?" Machiavelli asked suspiciously.

"I fathered three daughters with three different women because… because I'm not a great person, but I was never around to raise them," Billy spoke rapidly, the words seemingly highly unpleasant to him. He looked rather ashamed and Niccolò felt bad, wanting to save Billy from any pain and knowing this was something Billy would probably bear his whole life through. "Technically, one of my daughters was born after I 'died'." He traced quotation marks around the word. "I couldn't very well go to see her, though I really wanted to."

"That's how I felt about Guido," Machiavelli agreed. "Aten didn't tell me until after he granted me immortality that I would have to fake my death. I don't think I would have agreed if he had."

"I wish I had been a better man. Now I'll never have the chance to have children."

"Well, I know it probably doesn't mean much to you now, but you are a better man now. You were really just a child yourself when you first had children. And I think you would have made a really good father." He paused. "So does this mean you have descendants? Why didn't you mention this before?"

Billy shook his head. "I don't have any descendants." His mouth twitched. "None of my daughters lived to adulthood. I kept track of them while they were alive. Left money for their mothers. Consumption got them all. Just like my mother. I wonder sometimes if they got passed down some bad gene through me." He mumbled the last part.

Machiavelli shook his head violently. "Tuberculosis is caused by an infection. It was nothing they got from you."

Billy was quiet, turned in the chair so that he could look out the front windows. Machiavelli glanced out too, looking to see what Billy saw. "Well, thanks Mac. Sorry I got really deep on you like this."

"It's okay. Friends should be able to confide in each other." Billy looked at him with a small smile on his face. The tactician felt that he owed him a confession of his own. "The reason I was thinking of Ludovico was because I never fully accepted an important part of him when he was alive. Now I regret that. Parents make poor decisions all the time."

"You loved Ludovico, all of your children really," the Kid said, sounding confused. "What didn't you accept?"

"I'm pretty sure Ludo was gay," Machiavelli said bluntly. "I turned a blind eye to it. Homosexuality wasn't viewed as a big deal in medieval Italy, at least not during the 15th century. During the 16th century, the Holy Roman Empire made sodomy punishable by death, but still these 'crimes' were usually ignored in general townships. I know my son had a male lover. Knowing what we do now, about sexuality, I feel that I should have supported him more. Looked out for him."

"You did what you did. We can't really change who we were, just who we become." Billy said bracingly. He smiled for real this time. "Hey, Mac, you knew you could teach me a lesson by tricking me, didn't you?"

"I prefer to think of it as guiding you through a similar experience."

"You really think I would have been a good daddy?"

"I do."

Billy smiled so that his face lit up. "Thanks, Mac. That means the world to me."