Ciao~! Long time no see eh? I'll explain my sudden absence at the bottom! For now, have a kind of depressing chapter of Noia!

Chapter 13: Filling in the Holes

"Home, sweet home," Adel stated happily as her and Niccolo descended the stairs into the Isola Tiberina Hideout.

"It's good to be back," Niccolo agreed.

The two recruits had just returned from a contract in Constantinopli. It was Adel's third time in the city and Niccolo's first. That was the reason why Ezio had paired them together for their mission. It had been a long and difficult process, but the duo had managed to successfully complete it and they were glad to be back in Roma.

Zaccaria, who had been sitting and writing in the Brotherhood's record book, look up at the sound of his fellow recruits' voices. He smiled when Adel and Niccolo entered the main room and said, "Salute, you two!"

"Zaccaria!" Adel exclaimed with an enthusiastic wave.

"Salute," Niccolo greeted back, grinning.

Zaccaria dropped the quill he was holding into an inkpot and pushed his chair back.

"How did your mission go? Did you like Constantinople?"

Adel set her bag down and said, "It went well. There were a few bumps here and there, but Niccolo always had a plan if something went wrong. It seemed like he had spent his entire time plotting all the possible outcomes."

"You give me too much credit, cara," Niccolo chuckled. "I was in awe of the city the whole time. Constantinople is a beautiful place, not to mention the variety of people that are there. They don't call it the 'crossroads of the world' for nothing. I would love to go back."

"Hmm… now that I think about it, you did spend a fair amount of time chatting up some of the local donne," Adel said, smirking.

Niccolo laughed and rubbed his neck. "Si, the Romanies were particularly interesting."

"I hope you didn't make my cousin do all the work while you were messing around with a bunch of courtesans."

The three recruits looked around as Beatrice walked into the room, Raffaele and Guido trailing behind her with their arms full of groceries.

"Of course not," Niccolo said, feigning offence. He slung an arm around the blonde woman and pulled her close. "I will always pick Madonna Adel if I have the choice."

Beatrice scowled and unsheathed her hidden blade. "Hands off her, Ciccone."

Adel laughed and ducked out from under Niccolo's arm. She walked over to the brunette and they exchanged a quick hug before Adel stepped back and said, "Don't worry, Niccolo is not my type. Besides, men are the last things on my mind at the moment."

"You say that, but you spend ample amount of time stalking either the Maestro or Zaccaria and I," Raffaele muttered under his breath.

Guido, being the only one to hear him, gave the younger man a weird look out of the corner of his eye.

"So when did you get back?" Beatrice asked.

"We arrived in Roma about an hour ago," Adel said. "I would love to relax and take a bath, but my robes are in desperate need of mending."

Beatrice motioned to her cousin's bags and said, "Puah, give them here; I'll take them to the tailor's. I have to go back out anyways."

"My robes are a little worse for wear as well," Niccolo stated. "I'll come with you."

Beatrice grumbled something, but motioned for him to follow as she walked out of the hideout. The rest of the recruits exchanged a few more words before Adel stretched and announced that she was going for a bath.

As she walked away, Zaccaria exchanged a glance with Guido. The older man gave him a pointed look then nodded towards Adel's retreating figure.

"Adel?"

The blonde stopped and turned. "Si?"

"Ehm, can I… ask you something?"

"Sure?"

"A-actually, it's a question from all of us," Zaccaria hastily said, motioning to the two other men standing with him. "Do you mind telling us why you joined the Brotherhood?"

Adel smiled brightly and said, "Si, of course! Just let me take a quick bath first; I probably stink to high heaven and back!"

Zaccaria nodded and watched Adel's retreating figure until she disappeared from view. He turned back to the others and followed Guido into the armory. The youngest recruit sat in his favourite spot, on a red, plush couch, while Guido took the chair Niccolo usually sat in, and Raffaele opted to sit on the floor like always.

"That wasn't really the question we were going for," Guido commented. "But I suppose hearing Adel's story would not hurt."

Zaccaria shrugged and looked away. "Sorry, I didn't want to ask something too personal."

After about forty-five minutes of silence and bits of awkward small talk, Guido stood and wandered over to a nearby bookcase. Raffaele had been nodding off occasionally and Zaccaria watched in amusement as his partner's head slowly lower before the man roused himself only to repeat the pattern a few minutes later.

It had almost been an hour before Adel announced her return by waltzing into the armory with her lute and plunking herself down on a chair. Zaccaria snickered when Raffaele jolted awake and almost tipped over to the side. Guido looked up from the book he was reading at the commotion and set it aside before rejoining the group in front of the fire.

"Now," Adel said, strumming a random chord. "Is there any specific reason you want to know my story?"

Zaccaria and Guido immediately exchanged an embarrassed glance.

"Actually, there is," Guido said slowly, not wanting to upset the woman.

Adel only looked at them expectantly with a smile. Either she did not mind or was oblivious to their motives.

"When you and Niccolo were gone, Beatrice told us about her childhood and why she joined the Brotherhood," Zaccaria explained. "There were quite a few holes in her story and, well…"

Zaccaria trailed off and Guido rolled his eyes.

This kid needs to grow a pair, he thought.

"We thought you might be able to fill in the missing parts since she said you two were close when you were younger," the older man finished.

Adel hummed and plucked the strings of her lute in thought. The three other recruits waited in anticipation. Adel was definitely not someone who would react like Beatrice had, but everyone had their limits. Were they being too nosy? Yes. Would Adel mind? They hoped not.

"I suppose I could tell you some things," the blonde finally said.

The others let out sighs of relief.

"Listen closely, and I will tell you a tale about a girl and her dream to become a world famous artist!" Adel giggled. "Once upon a time there was a girl named Adel Sozzi. Adel grew up on a farm with her mamma, papà, and three fratelli. Her cousin lived on the farm next to her and they spent their days working and playing."

"Beatrice probably already mentioned this, but while we were kids, she refused to wear dresses; however, I still wore them when I wasn't doing something that would get it dirty. It was actually quite funny. When Beatrice's mother still thought there was a chance to change her daughter's mind, she used to force Beatrice to wear dresses, but the silly girl would have none of it! Beatrice would throw the thing off and run around in her undergarments until her mother agreed to let her wear what she wanted!"

Adel had to pause her story as she began giggling uncontrollably. Zaccaria and Raffaele chuckled from the mental image and Guido only snorted.

After her fit, Adel wiped her eye and continued, "Unfortunately, those good times could not last forever and Beatrice's father uprooted their family and moved them to Spain. It seemed to come as a surprise to all of my family, but after finding out the things I did years later, my father's reaction was particularly suspicious. He pushed for our lives to return to the exact same way as it was before, just without his brother's family."

"We never got anything from Beatrice or her family and it seemed as if their existence was wiped from everyone's memories. The people in town avoided talking about them at all costs; not even a whisper of them on the streets. I think every member of my family questioned my father at least once about Beatrice and her family, but he would just brush it off. Eventually, I think everyone just kind of… forgot about them."

Adel smiled sadly. "I love my family very much, but I can't help but feel some bitterness towards them for forgetting."

"Do you still have contact with them?" Zaccaria asked.

"Of course," the blonde said. "My papà died about five years ago, but my momma and two of my brothers live just outside of Milan. They're twins and the oldest out of all of us so I was not as close to them as I was my twin. He's somewhere in-"

"Wait, you have a twin?" Guido asked in surprise.

"Si! Hopefully you'll be able to meet him some day! He looks just like me!" Adel exclaimed excitedly. "He's a bit hard to pin down though; he really enjoys travelling. The last time I received a letter from him was when he was in Germania!"

"He sounds well-travelled," Raffaele said.

"Very much so! I think he and you would get along great!"

Cheered up from the brief discussion about her brother, Adel moved back to her story.

"As my older brothers grew older, they took over the farm and my momma and papà moved to Firenze to open up a permanent trading post in order to sell our produce. Matteo –that's my brother's name— and I were 17 so we were free to do what we pleased. I knew he was itching to travel, but he insisted that he stay with me for at least a year to make sure I was doing alright. We moved to Roma where we found this nice, small place being rented out by an elderly couple. We moved in and we both got jobs to support ourselves. I became an errand girl for a local architect."

"Wait, don't you want to become an artista? How come you didn't become an apprentice or something?" Guido asked.

Adel laughed. "Silly, all the reputable artists were and are still in Florence, except for Maestro Da Vinci of course. Besides, most people don't like my style of art. Painting is more of a hobby than anything else."

"Ah, OK," Guido said, nodding in understanding even though he still did not know why Adel had not tried harder to get an apprenticeship. Keep in mind that he had yet to see one of Adel's paintings, nor was he very knowledgeable about the arts business in general.

"Anyways, two years later my father, despite living a healthy life, became bedridden because of a horse riding incident. His health quickly decreased and I moved to Firenze to help my mamma take care of him. My brother had left a year earlier and fortunately he was in Italia. He got to be there for my papà's funeral."

Adel's mouth twisted into a bittersweet smile. "I am glad he was not there for his death," she said. "I am glad that… that none of the others, even my mamma, were not there. You see, before he passed away, he revealed what had happened to Beatrice and her family."

The room fell into silence and the male recruits shifted uncomfortably. Adel's face was passive and she looked to be in deep though as she plucked absentmindedly at the strings of her lute.

Guido cleared his throat and said, somewhat awkwardly, "You don't have to talk about it if you don't want to."

"No," Adel gave him a smile. "I do. It's something I think you should know and I have not talked about it to anyone before, not even my family."

Raffaele, who had been silent for the entire time, asked, "Are you sure?"

"Si, I am. I think it will be easier to talk to you about it anyways."

Taking a deep breath, Adel continued her story.

"Our families were certainly not rich, but we got by. We were better off than most of the other people around us though. My family was happy the way things were, but my uncle wanted more. He never had ill intentions, but he wanted the best for his family because he loved them more than anything in the world. He ended up getting involved with the wrong people and he could not repay a loan because the harvest that year was bad. The reason why he had moved his family was because the people wanting the money threatened to take Beatrice and my aunt."

"While they were in Spagna, my uncle did not want to risk writing to anyone in case the letters got intercepted; however, once every six months my papà got a shipment of supplies from Spagna. Apparently there were letters hidden in the order forms. That was how my papà knew the wellbeing of his brother."

"Wouldn't getting shipments all the way from Spagna be a little suspicious? I mean, you said your family ran a farm? What kind of supplies would you need from there?" Guido asked.

"Well, it was more of a travelling caravan of merchants than just a few people coming to our farm with the sole purpose of delivering things. Anyways, my papà always bought things from them before they moved on to other places in Italia," Adel explained. "I'm getting off topic though."

Guido nodded. "So did you end up finding out about Beatrice?"

"Si and no," Adel said slowly. "I am not certain of anything, but… some very bad things happened during the time she was away and I have an idea. Because my uncle took very little of their belongings when they moved, they did not have much to live off of. They were poor, but, they were alive. One of the only things Beatrice had to wear was unfortunately, a dress. I know she could have stolen some other clothes, but I think the dress was a gift from her mother so she wore it to make her happier. My guess is that Beatrice was probably harassed by bad men, among other things, when she was in Spagna. Her resolve had changed so much when I saw her again, I think she-"

Adel cut herself off when she heard loud voices float in from the main room of the headquarters. The others jumped in surprise, so wrapped up in the story and forgetting Beatrice and Niccolo were due to come back.

"And," Adel suddenly declared, regaining the male recruits' attentions. "After Beatrice joined the Brotherhood, I decided to join as well."

The group exchanged looks and saw that Adel would rather Beatrice and Niccolo not find out what they had been talking about.

"Oi, cugino," Beatrice said as she walked into the armory. "How come you didn't wait for us to tell your Brotherhood story?"

Adel giggled. "Sorry, but it's not even that exciting, especially compared to yours and Niccolo's."

"Si, I suppose," Beatrice admitted, sitting on the arm of Adel's chair. "You didn't even know what you would be useful for. I think even Maestro Ezio was reluctant to let you join."

The women shared a laugh.

"Now look at her though; a master of reconnaissance and crossbows!" Niccolo exclaimed as he leaned on the back of Guido's chair, much to the older man's chagrin.

Zaccaria laughed. He watched with a smile as his friends poked fun at each other. Despite knowing about Beatrice's past, his opinion of her did not change, and he guessed that none of the others' did as well.

Hello again, sorry for the sudden absence. I'm in charge of my school's Remembrance Day ceremony presentation so my life has basically been school and video making for the past month. UmU; ANYWAYS~ Unfortunately, I'm still on hiatus until after RD (November 11th), but I felt really bad about not updating!

ALSO! I have a very important question for you guys. There's a poll up on my profile about it, but you can also let me know of your opinion on a review. I'm thinking about making an ask-blog for the cast of this series! Have ever wanted to know the recruits' thoughts and opinions of one of the chapter's events? Do you have unanswered questions about them? This blog could answer all of 'em! (Unless they're a spoiler of course)

Please let me know what you think of this idea! The answers could either be drawn or written depending on how much time and motivation I have while answering~

Aaaand, I think this author's note is long enough, so, thanks for all the favs and follows! I'll see you next time!

CMilklol out!