Author's Note: I'm sorry this took so long, but school's just restarted, and I just had my birthday, so I haven't been presented with many occasions to write anything. Anyway, here's the next chapter for you. Sorry if I get some of the stuff on Milan wrong, I get my Italian cities mixed up all the time.

I blinked blearily in the early morning light. Looks like I slept all the way through the night…I sat up, confused. I thought Vaughn was going to wake me. I looked around. Aha. That's why he didn't. He was sitting in the armchair, the top few buttons of his shirt undone, dead to the world. He looked so peaceful, slumped there with his mouth hanging open slightly, that I didn't want to wake him. I started to get out of bed when my headache returned. Not full force, but not completely gone either. I whimpered quietly. It was loud enough for Vaughn to hear though, he woke up with a start and sat up straighter. He looked around, confused, and then his eyes fell on me. He grinned.

"I guess I fell asleep," he said, his voice slightly slurred. I nodded, briefly worsening my headache. Note to self: don't do that again.

"Sorry. How long have you been up for?" he asked as he rubbed his face.

"Couple of minutes, not long," I reassured him. He stopped rubbing and peeked at me between his fingers.

"How's your head? I'm sorry about what I said last night, I wasn't feeling so good. I meant to wake you up, but you looked so peaceful that I decided to just watch you sleep, and then I must have dozed off and…" he trailed off, and grinned in embarrassment. "I babble when I just get up," he explained. I giggled.

"I'd noticed."

He stood up and started to stretch. I massaged my temples, hoping it would help my headache a bit. Vaughn noticed and stopped in mid-stretch.

"Oh, your headache, I'm sorry!" he exclaimed. He grabbed a glass off the table and pulled a package of aspirin out of his pocket. He ducked into the bathroom, filled the glass with some water and handed them both to me. I stared at them. Aspirin. Pain relief…good stuff. I popped two tablets out of the little seals and swallowed them with some water. I turned to give the glass back to Vaughn and caught him swallowing some tablets of his own. I frowned at him, confused.

"Antibiotics," he said, holding up the bottle as explanation. He shook it a bit, making the contents rattle merrily.

"Remember, I was sick before?" Okay, I feel slightly rude. I'm all complaining about my head, and he's still sick. Rude, Sydney, what are you? I waited until he was finished taking his meds, then handed him my glass. He put it on the table as I swung my legs over the edge of the bed.

"So what are the plans for today?" I asked, swinging my feet back and forth.

"Well, Weiss is taking the papers down to the regional headquarters to be tested, so we have the day off. What do you want to do?" he asked cautiously. What do I want to do? I'm spending the entire day with Vaughn and not have to worry about being seen, and I don't know what to do? God I am a loser.

"Maybe we could go sight-seeing," I suggested vaguely. Vaughn's face lit up. Okay, that was obviously the right thing to say.

"Perfect! That's just what I wanted to do. I'll just go get cleaned up," he said, gesturing down at his rumpled suit and the disarray that was his hair. "Meet you in the lobby in half an hour." With that, he stumbled out the door, leaving me to my thoughts. What was that all about? He said he didn't like me that way, but that was totally suss. Oh yeah, maybe I should get dressed…

*

After a long hot shower, I dug through my suitcase for some fresh clothes. There they were, my favourite jeans. I pulled them on, followed by a white turtleneck jumper. Perfect. I felt much better. I had clean hair, and I had 'borrowed' some sheets and towels from the hotel. So sue me, everyone does it. You're meant to. Anyway, I quickly combed my hair and checked my watch. Time to go. I grabbed my coat, purse and keys and set off.

Vaughn was waiting for me in the lobby. He looked really good- casual clothes suited him. In fact, he looked so good that I (being the moron that I am) dropped my keys with a clatter on the floor. I quickly bent down to pick them up, cursing my stupidity. I know I was bright red when I stood back up. Vaughn was chuckling quietly. I sent him a death stare, which he blatantly ignored.

"So where are we off to?" I asked when I reached him. He shrugged carelessly.

"I don't know. We could sight-see around Milan, or we could catch a train somewhere," he suggested. Hmm…Milan? Or maybe we could go to Venice? Or Rome? Or Florence? Maybe we should just go wherever. I shrugged.

"Let's just get a taxi and see where we end up," I suggested brightly. He grinned.

"Sounds good."

*

After a bit of cruising around (and laughing at what some people will do to get a bargain…) we ended up at the markets. The piazza (square) was full of people, peddlers and nice little shops. I spotted a gelateria (ice-cream store) and dragged Vaughn over to get some gelati. Then we browsed through the items, trying stuff on and laughing at each other. Vaughn fought with a little old lady over who spotted a pair of sunglasses first, while I just stood back and cracked up. At first it was just words, but it started to get physical when the lady began whacking Vaughn over the head with her handbag. At that, he gave up, backing away with his hands outstretched.

"You should really learn to stick up for yourself," I commented as we walked away.

"Hey, that lady was scary!" he replied. I sniggered, and then dragged him over to another stall.

After awhile my feet were sore, so Vaughn dragged me over to a bar (not the English version, more like a restaurant). It was nearly empty, a novelty in Italy. We sat down, and the camiera (waiter) came over to us nearly immediately.

"Buon giorno. Desidera?" he asked for our orders.

"Vorrei un conolli ed un caffe per favore." Vaughn ordered a pastry and a black coffee. The waiter scribbled it down and turned to me.

"E Lei?" he asked for my order. I thought for a minute.

"Dunque…vorrei un caffe con latte e una dolce." I ordered a white coffee and a sweet. The waiter scribbled that down too.

"Quanto costano?" Vaughn asked for the price. The waiter did some quick calculations.

"Diciasette euro. Va bene così?"

"Sì."

Once our food arrived, there was silence for a few minutes. The pastry was delicious- I couldn't get enough of it. It probably had more fat than a sumo wrestler, but I was beyond caring. I was in taste heaven, and my jeans were stretchy, so it didn't matter if I bloated up. I looked up from the crumbs that remained on my plate at Vaughn. He was laughing quietly at me. I shot him a questioning look.

"Never had Italian sweets before?" he asked. I grinned sheepishly.

"Am I that transparent?" I asked, embarrassed. He grinned, green eyes crinkling.

"Well, yeah. Try this," he said, shoving a fork with some conolli speared on it. I looked at it dubiously. It looked like someone had taken goopy brown crap and rolled it in soggy paper. Vaughn wiggled it in my face, so I just had to try it. I closed my eyes and bit it off. Okay, I thought I was in heaven before. I was wrong, NOW I was in heaven. Yummy…

"You like it?" he asked. I nodded, my mouth too full to answer properly. He grinned and checked the time.

"Ooh, time to go," he said. I gestured at my unfinished coffee. He shook his head.

"No time, we only have one day remember…" he said. That got me moving.

*

"I've always wanted to visit Verona," Vaughn confided to me while we were in the taxi. He was staring out the window, a pensive look on his face.

"Why's that?" I asked, curious.

"I've always wanted to see Juliet's house, but I've never been able to get to it," he explained, turning to face me. I stared at him.

"Juliet's house?" I asked, incredulously. Vaughn wanted to see JULIET's house? Riiiiiiiiight.

"Well, yeah, ever since we studied it at school, I've always wanted to go there and see it for myself. Don't you?" he asked.

"Well…now that you mention it, I wouldn't mind seeing it. I just didn't know you could…" I said thoughtfully.

"Yeah…hey look!" he exclaimed, pointing out the window. I followed his finger and saw a fete. Cool. Fete's rock. I looked at Vaughn, a devious look on my face.

"You wanna?" I asked.

"Sure. Hey, pull over!"

And so it was decided that we would attend the fete.

"C'mon, look, a Ferris wheel," I called, dragging Vaughn behind me. We made it to the man running the Ferris wheel, who lifted the bar of the seat and let us on. I yanked the bar down and waited impatiently. Vaughn was examining the bar dubiously. The ride started with a jerk that made Vaughn jumped. I glanced over at him. He was fidgeting nervously in seat.

"I hope this doesn't undermine my position as your handler, but I have a fear of heights," he said. Where had I heard that line before? Oh yeah…

"I take it you've seen 'Never Been Kissed,'" I said. He smiled nervously over at me.

"Yup," he said. "Love Drew Barrymore movies."

"You know what? You look just like that guy. You know, the teacher guy," I said. Vaughn grinned.

"You think so?"

"Totally."

"…cool."

We grinned at each other, and then I turned to check out the view. The rest of the ride passed in silence.

*

After some more childish fun at the fete (in which Vaughn won me a giant panda bear, and I won him…well, nothing. But I tried!) it was getting late. Vaughn quickly glanced at his watch. He looked up and grinned at me.

"Better get going, wouldn't want to be late," he said cryptically. I looked at him curiously, but he refused to explain. He simply hailed a taxi and whispered into the tassista's ear. They both grinned at me secretively. Great, just what I needed, a secret men's only club. Wonderful.

After about the fifth time Vaughn looked over at me on the car ride I finally broke.

"What?" I asked. He shook his head hurriedly. I glared at him, then pulled a hair chopstick out of my bag. I wound it around my ponytail and pinned it up. Vaughn was staring, a look of enlightenment on his face.

"I'd always wondered how to do that," he said, gesturing to my hair.

"Well, now you know," I replied, pulling the other chopstick out and stuffing it haphazardly into my hair. Vaughn reached out and gently tucked some loose hair behind my ear. I stared at him, and he pulled his hand away, turning back to the window. I turned to look out mine.

After a relatively short ride, the taxi stopped. I looked around, baffled. This wasn't the hotel. I frowned at Vaughn, who smiled reassuringly. He paid the driver and helped me out of the car. Then he led me away to…oh my god!! We were at one of the most exclusive restaurants in Milan! I looked down at my clothes, panicked. There was no way I could go in there wearing jeans and a jumper.

"Don't worry about it, they'll just put it down to eccentric rich," Vaughn whispered in my ear. I looked up at him, not wanting reassurance. I wanted something to wear!

"I'm telling you, it doesn't matter," he whispered, leading me up to the counter.

A dark haired woman in her early twenties was at the counter. I looked at her name badge. "Mi chiamo Aura. My name is Aura. Je m'appelle Aura." Ah, considerate restaurant, writing the name badge in three languages. I smiled at her, and she smiled back.

"Buonasera e benvenuto a 'Tracciatore'. Posso aiutare?" She welcomed us and asked if she could help us. Vaughn answered my unspoken question.

"Ho prenotato una tavola per due. Mi chiamo Michael Vaughn." Vaughn told her that he had booked a table for two.

"Può ripetere il cognome lettera per lettera per favore?" She asked Vaughn to spell his name, a mildly embarrassed look on her face. Vaughn grinned.

"Vi, a, u, g, acca, enne," he spelt for her. She ran her carefully manicured finger down the register and tapped it on Vaughn's name.

"Ah, sì, ecco. È la tavola 19, vicino alla finestra." Looks like we had table. And, even better, it was near a window- we get a view!!

"La prendo. Grazie," Vaughn told her we'd take it and thanked her. She grinned shyly at him and waved for a waiter to take us to our seats.

Vaughn, being not only the Master of the Lock Pick, but the Master of Chivalry; pulled my chair out for me, and pushed me in. I smiled graciously at him and he looked away quickly, embarrassed. He seated himself, and the waiter handed us our menus, saying he'd come back when we were ready to order. With that he left us alone. I studied the menu intently, deciding what to eat. I'd just settled on an antipasto when I noticed Vaughn studying me over the top of his menu. I put mine down and waited patiently. He cleared his throat nervously.

"I was just thinking…maybe we should talk before we order," he said.

"Yeah, sounds good. What do you want to talk about?" I asked. He fiddled with his napkin. He seems to do that a lot when he's nervous- fiddle with stuff. I wonder if he does that at work…

"I had fun today," he started. I smiled, beckoning him to continue. He took a deep breath.

"And I was thinking…since you were comfortable enough to do it yesterday…maybe you could call me by my first name?" he asked, ducking his head. I stared at him.

"I mean, not in front of Weiss and stuff, but at our meetings and stuff," he continued hurriedly, his green eyes studying my every reaction intently. Finally I answered.

"I would be honoured…Michael."

Vau…I mean, Michael's face lit up. I smiled in amusement. We held eye contact for a minute, broken by the shrill ringing of Michael's phone. He jumped, then pulled it out of his pocket, examining the little screen.

"It's Weiss…I should take it," he said apologetically. I nodded, sitting back. He answered the phone. After a few minutes of encouraging noises and long pauses he hung up.

"The analysis is done," he said. "We're going to have to leave."

I sighed. Too good to be true. Looks like my romantic dinner in Italy was just going to have to wait.

That's it for this chapter peoples! One more to go, and then it's finished…oh, and feedback rocks! Keep the responses coming!