Leonardo was curled up by his side, sleeping fitfully, muttering random scientific nonsense under his breath.

Ezio couldn't sleep a wink though.

It was pitch black outside.

Had Jacob found somewhere to sleep for the night?

Carefully, he extracted himself from Leonardo's grasp, getting out of the bed and heading to the window.

How often had Jacob climbed up the side of this building, looking for a safe place to stay the night?

How often had Ezio opened this very window to let him in and let him spend the night?

How often had he been woken in the middle of the night to one of Jacob's nightmares?

***Flashback***

Ezio stirred awake, frowning when he realised that it was two in the morning.

Why was he awake at two in the morning?

And then he heard the whimpering, prompting him to sit up properly and look over at his friend, knowing that Jacob was the source of the whimpering. His first instinct was to leave him be, knowing that Jacob would be mortified that Ezio was there, watching this.

But Ezio couldn't do that.

Jacob shifted under the covers, hearing a distressed murmur.

"… Jacob?" He whispered.

Jacob was asleep, but as Ezio leaned in a little closer, he could see that his face was twisted in a grimace, and he was moving restlessly in his sleep.

"Jacob." Ezio tried to shake his friend awake, "Jacob, wake up."

He completely forgot that Jacob had been trained in self-defence, just like him, and when you've just been woken from sleep, anybody could be an enemy.

Jacob's eyes suddenly flew open and Ezio's wrist was grabbed in a death grip, ripping Ezio's hand from his shoulder as he lunged upright.

Ezio wasn't ashamed to admit that he squealed, scrambling back, falling off the bed and landing heavily on his backside, pulling Jacob with him so that his friend was almost hanging over the side of the bed.

"Jacob! Hey!" He whispered, trying his best to keep his volume down, "Stop squeezing my wrist!"

Jacob just stared at him for a few seconds, breathing heavily but the words seemed to finally sink in when he jerked his own hand away like it was burning.

"Ezio?" His voice was a little shaky, probably from the rude awakening, but his voice got a little steadier as he continued, "What- what's going on?"

"You- you were having a nightmare, right?" Ezio kept his voice soothing.

Jacob stiffened, eyes widening at his claim, before he turned away, "No… why would you think that?"

"It wasn't exactly hard to figure out dude." Ezio rolled his eyes, "You were grimacing and whimpering and stuff."

"You were watching me sleep, weirdo!" Jacob turned away, clearly trying to play the whole thing off as a joke.

Ezio wasn't fooled, but before he could speak up, Jacob cut him off.

"I'm going back to sleep..." he pulled the covers over his head, "... try not to stare at me all night."

"Hey! No, no, no!" Ezio pulled the covers away from him, "Hey, I'm worried about you!"

Jacob rolled over to stare at him, "Huh?"

"Look, I really don't care that you have nightmares... how many times did you help after… what happened to Dad and my brothers? But you… you looked like whatever you were dreaming about, was seriously terrifying."

Jacob just shrugged, "Just your bog-standard, family abandoning you, father saying you're worth less than your sister… the usual."

There was nothing Ezio could say to that.

"Just forget it." Jacob then muttered, "I can deal with it."

"You shouldn't have to though." Ezio sighed, "I could… beat up your dad for you, if you want?"

That startled a laugh out of Jacob's throat, as Ezio sighed in relief.

"Thanks for the offer, but you and I both know that he would kick your ass."

"Hey!"

Jacob was smiling properly now, and Ezio felt slightly more at ease.

"Alright, scoot over." He got back to his feet, climbing back into the bed, shoving Jacob over to one side, making his friend cackle as he was almost pushed over the edge.

Then they were lying in the bed in silence, Jacob turned away from Ezio in the obvious hope that the conversation was over.

"I know we're not exactly in the same situation." Ezio whispered, the only issue he had with his family being his mother's exasperation with how much trouble he could get into in a short space of time, "But you have friends you know…you don't have to do this all alone."

There was a moment of silence, before Jacob rolled over, giving him a pensive look, "Are you trying to be comforting?"

"Stronzo!" Ezio pushed at him, "Just go to sleep, ungrateful bastard."

"Ezio?"

"Yeah?"

"…. Thanks."

"No problem."

***End Flashback***

"Ezio?"

Ezio was pulled out of his thoughts by Leo's sleepy murmur.

"Can't sleep?"

"… I can't stop thinking about Jacob."

He knew Leo was giving him a concerned look, he didn't even need to look over at him.

"I can't stop wondering if he's safe."

"He will be." Leo whispered, "He had the same training as you, remember? He'll be fine… he probably just needs some time to cool off."

Ezio hoped that his love was right.

But he knew that he wasn't