Keeping an eye on little Maria, at least as well as he could when the pair of them were close enough together that she could see him doing it – which would bring him no end of good-natured teasing on the subject of his being a mother hen if little Maria were to catch him at it, he knew – Ezio looked over to Aeon. Once there was no need for him for him to remain in the guise of what seemed to be a younger version of himself, Aeon had naturally returned to the black-cloaked, long-haired form that seemed to be the one he favored.
Ezio found himself wondering if such a preference was simply because that was indeed the way he'd looked during his life, or if there was another reason for the comfort that Aeon clearly took in wearing that form. However, the knowledge of just how unlikely he was to find any kind of answers to even the most innocuous of his questions went as far as anything could to dissuade him from giving voice to them.
Still, the knowledge that he and his were safe from yet another of Cesare Borgia's lackeys made him feel a great deal better about the situation than he otherwise would have,
As their group made their way steadily back through the tunnels to the Brotherhood's headquarters at Isola Tiberina, after having parted company with Bartolomeo and Pantasilea at the barracks where the pair of them had been staying for so long, Ezio found himself called upon by Leonardo once more. He'd the feeling he knew just what the determinedly eccentric inventor had in mind to ask him, but he also knew just what kind of a danger that the war machines that he had been pressed into designing for the Borgia would cause if they were allowed to remain in the world.
It was with that in mind that Ezio bid a fond farewell to his littlest sister – though anyone with eyes could see that she wasn't truly little anymore – and made his way into the room that Leonardo had claimed for himself within the Brotherhood's headquarters in Roma.
"Ezio, so good to see you again," his old friend said, standing up so that the pair of them could embrace and say a proper hello.
"It's good to see you again, too, amico mio," he said, smiling as the pair of them settled down once more at the little table that seemed to be Leonardo's favorite to hold meetings with when someone or other would come to pay him a visit. "However, it seems as though you have need of more than just my company."
"Sí," the inventor said, nodding sharply as he pulled out another map, this one just as elegantly drawn as any of the others Ezio had been given. "I've finally managed to uncover the location of the naval warship that they had me designing," Leonardo sighed, a relieved cast to his face as he looked back up from the finishing touches that he'd clearly been putting on the map. "It's the last of the devices that they managed to get out of me, so once you finish with it it'll be a great weight off of my mind."
"Sí, and mine as well," he said, taking the completed map from his old friend with a flash of the same kind of relief that the inventor himself seemed to be feeling.
Making his way back up and out of the Brotherhood's headquarters, after stopping for a moment to speak with little Maria about the young woman that she had recruited, Ezio paused for a moment to gather his thoughts. Truly, this was the first time that he would be calling upon Aeon in what – he hoped – wouldn't end up becoming the kind of pitched battle wherein he needed the assistance of the man in black. Still, the enigmatic Guardian had long since proven himself to be an invaluable part of the Brotherhood, no matter the strange circumstances that had brought him to them.
In the end, that was what truly mattered.