If I Surrender

Interlude 4

The Assassin that we were expecting showed up later that night. Thankfully, I had already prepared a place for him in the room that Dante had once used by the time he arrived. Judging by the way the poor boy was drenched to the bone, the rain had gotten progressively worse as the night went on. A puddle of water surrounded his feet and dripped from his robe onto my tiled floor.

Ezio was closing the door behind the Assassin as I came down the stairs, carrying extra clothes and some cloths for him to dry off with. Nico trotted around the newcomer, sniffing him and checking him out. I guess he passed the test because Nico just collapsed at the mans feet and rolled onto his belly, waiting for a belly rub.

I smiled down at Nico briefly before looking back to the man as he said, "I appreciate you both for letting me stay here for the duration of my mission." He lowered his hood, showing his dark brown hair, chocolate colored eyes and pale skin. He looked pretty young, probably seventeen or eighteen. He smiled at Ezio and I warmly, "My name is Matthew."

"Trust me, Matthew. It is our pleasure." Ezio replied cheerfully as they shook hands. "La mia casa e la tua casa."

Matthew looked confused at our native language and I laughed, causing both of them to look toward me. "He means that our home is your home, Matthew." I held out the clothes and dry clothes. "I have brought you some dry clothes to change into." I looked to the pack that Nico had his nose stuffed in and stamped my foot, causing the dog to rapidly retreat from the bag. His little nose was damp from the soaked sack.

Matthew smiled gratefully and thanked me with a hint of a blush on his cheeks. Ezio smirked at the boy as Matthew gestured to the wet pack on the floor. "As you can see, all my things are positively soaked now. I had not expected the rain."

"No worries. When it rains here, it pours." I answered with a grin as I looked to Ezio. "I am going to go ahead and finish fixing dinner. Would you show Matthew where he will be staying, Ezio?"

Ezio nodded his head to me as he grabbed up Matthew's wet pack and showed him toward the guest rooms, talking about the designs of the home as he went. I watched after them for a moment before feeling a pull on the bottom of my pants. Nico was tugging my pants and stopped when he noticed that I was looking at him. He yipped and I laughed.

"You want to help me with dinner?" I asked, heading toward the kitchen with Nico circling around me excitedly. I walked into the kitchen, pleased to see that the stew was almost complete. Nico sat in the corner that he ordained as his own. I picked up the bag of flour that was sitting near the window and sat it on the table, intending to make some bread. I felt a pair of arms wrap around my waist and smiled, leaning back into his touch.

"What's for dinner, cara?" Ezio asked as he kissed my cheek. Nico barked and Ezio grabbed an old beef bone that was sitting on the table and threw it at Nico. The russet colored dog caught it in the air before laying down and chewing on it.

"Well, the vegetable stew I was making is almost done. I'm just going to try to make some bread to dip in the stew."

Ezio laughed and teased me, "I'm sure that you'll try very hard."

I rolled my eyes, ignoring him. My previous attempts at making bread had failed. I just didn't understand how bread could burn so quickly! Ezio had bravely tried my last batch of bread. He nodded with a half smile with the piece still in his mouth but when I turned, I saw him out of the corner of my eye spit it out. I started laughing and the look on Ezio's face when he realized he had been caught was priceless. I hadn't let him live it down yet.

Ezio was still chuckling away so I said, "Just shut up, idiota, and help me with this."

"Naturalmente, il mio amore." Ezio replied with a smirk across his face. I nudged him with my side and he laughed as he helped make the bread. After a few minutes, he obviously started to get bored and began to flick flour at me. I glared over at him, once or twice but generally ignored him while I finished up making the bread. After putting it over the fire on a thin metal sheet, I turned and Ezio touched the very tip of my nose.

I crossed my eyes to see that he put a tiny bit of flour there. I raised an annoyed, yet amused brow at him as he smiled and turned to wash his hands at the basin behind him. While his back was turned, I filled a small bowl full of flour and waited for my chance.

"Oh, Ezio? Help me with this. Hurry!" I said in my most helpless voice, trying to be like those helpless noblewomen that I saw in the marketplace from time to time. Ezio turned immediately and I tossed the flour out of the bowl all over him. He was pure white from head to toe. He gaped at me in shock for a moment as I doubled over in laughter. When I was finally able to stop laughing, I looked up at him to see him smirking at me with vengeance in his eyes. Nico, who had been sitting in his corner, stood and slowly backed out of the room. I guess he sensed the battle about to come.

"This," Ezio started and grabbed the bag of flour off the table as I stepped away from him. I intended to run. He shouted, "Is war!"

I tried to dodge the flour as it flew at me but failed as I got covered from head to toe. I ducked behind the corner and reach up to find something else to throw back. When I pulled my hand back, I found a tomato and grinned. I rolled out of my hiding place and launched it toward him. He caught the tomato but it caused it to splatter all over him. He looked down at it then back to me before dropping it and lunging toward me.

I laughed as he tackled me to the ground, tickling me relentlessly. We wrestled in the flour covered floor, both trying to gain the upper hand on the other. It was a fair bout at first, but Ezio began to use his strength against me and flipped me over. He hovered over me as we stared at one another before breaking out in laughter at how ridiculous we both looked covered in flour.

He leaned down, kissing me deeply. You'd think that kissing him would not be so delicious when all you tasted was dull flour but it was fantastic.

"Is something burning?" Matthews voice came from the doorway and he appeared there a second later. His eyes widened as he took in the state of the kitchen and Ezio and I laying on the floor. Nico was behind the man, looking around his legs with a playful gleam in his puppy eyes. His tail wagged slowly before he jetted into the room. Nico ran towards us but slipped on the flour and slid towards us instead. He hit my shoulder softly and I couldn't help but laugh at the dogs surprised expression.

Matthew laughed suddenly, causing both Ezio and I to look toward him. "I can tell that you three are going to be quite interesting to be around." He shook his head, still laughing as he turned to leave the kitchen. He stopped for a moment and called over his shoulder, "By the way, I think your bread is on fire."

Ezio and I looked at each other before scrambling to jump up to see that it was indeed on fire. Ezio and I laughed. I looked over at him and said, "Merda. This is impossible."

A/N: Hey everyone! Sorry that this was late in coming... classes started back. German is intense but I love it. Though, I would have rather taken Italian but my college doesn't offer it :( I hope you like this little installment. The interludes have like two more and then the real story will start back! YAY! I'm excited to share with you all what I have planned for the story. You'll either love it or hate it. I hope for the love but hey, I understand that everyone has their own opinions. I have a pretty heavy class load and I think I might be getting a promotion at work (fingers crossed) but I will try my best to update this as often as I can! I hope you like it. ALSO! over 200 reviews now! OMG. My goal for this story was like 50. Thanks for reading. I love you guys!

Translations:

La mia casa e la tua casa - My home is your home.

Naturalmente, il mio amore - Of course, my love.

Thanks to everyone that put my story in their favorites, or followed, or hell, even READ IT. Most of all, I would love to thank the eight that reviewed. So awesome!

xVentressx - Thanks! I hope you had a great one as well!

EMO-KID411 - Thanks so much :D

Guest - Their might be another character kinda like Nico in the story. I'm not sure yet! And I enjoy writing Ezio's soft side, especially with Aria :-3

Sup126 - You should totally write one! I love it. And I'm not really sure... haven't read some in awhile. Just beyond my reach, my assassin is a wonderful fic if you haven't read it yet. If you haven't, omg, go check it out! That goes for everyone!

Kayce Skywalker - haha, I love that, too! I was wondering if anyone else noticed :P

ibleedpink - I thought so, too! I'll try to update more often, sorry!

LadyParabellum - I thought it was him, spot on. haha. Thanks :)

froggylh - thanks! I did kinda die. It's the painful death called college. LOL. I'll try to update quicker :P