[A/N]: Thanks for reading! Feedback is always welcome!

Chapter 24

Another couple of months passed, and July brought with it short but warm summer nights. The heat was a bit drier than that to which Rosa was accustomed in Venezia, which necessitated a few complaints. Still, everyone, including the thief, was glad to be able to enjoy the night outdoors without the heavy garments required to keep warm in the colder months.

On a particularly clear night, Ezio took an opportunity to climb to the roof of the villa and gaze at a few of the stars, as Leonardo had recommended to him on countless occasions. He wasn't particularly interested in what he saw above him, but the tranquility of it all provided a much needed relaxant. As was the case in most situations for Ezio, however, the tranquility didn't last.

"What the hell are you doing up there?" came Rosa's voice from below.

"Trying to meditate a bit," was Ezio's reply.

"The hell you are. I'm coming up," came the reply. As was to be expected from a thief, Rosa scaled the building almost instantaneously.

"It's beautiful up here," she remarked as she looked around the horizon.

"Si," Ezio agreed.

"Are you only up here to look at the sky?" the thief asked.

"Not exactly," he answered as he sat up. "It's my thinking spot."

"Thinking spot?"

"It is a spot where I like to think."

"I know what you meant, stronzo," she rolled her eyes. "Since when?"

"The night I arrived here from Firenze," he began, "I did not sleep. My mind was filled with hundreds of questions, and few answers. So I came up here to think. I thought about what I would do next, where I would take my family, who I could trust, what I would need to take with me, what I would need to leave behind, wh-"

"And still no answers came," she sat with him. "I understand. This is a place where everything is simple, so the only problems you have are in your own head."

"Si, esatto."

"What are you thinking about now?"

Ezio sighed. "I'm thinking about you, to be honest."

"No, idiota, I meant before I came up here."

"Si, so did I," he explained.

"Oh," she said. "Why were you thinking about me?"

"I'm wondering why you're still here," he chuckled. "In Monteriggioni, I mean, not on this rooftop."

"Well, maybe it is the same reason I'm on the rooftop," she shrugged. "I never enjoy myself this much around most other people."

"That's because you kick them senseless before you have the chance."

"Hey, that's not true! Besides, you've taken more of a beating from me than anyone else has, and you're still around."

"I wonder why that is," he thought aloud.

"I don't know," she sighed with a slight smile.

"Do you suppose I am special in some way, then?"

She turned to him, suddenly serious. "What kind of question is that? How many families do you think I've left Venezia to meet? Of course you're special!" She stood up. "How far is your head up your culo that that hasn't occurred to you?"

"It has occurred to me," Ezio corrected her. "That is why I've been here thinking."

"Well what the hell is so confusing about it?"

"I don't exactly know how to…" Ezio started, "I mean…I'm not sure."

"Then how am I supposed to help?" she threw her hands in the air.

They stayed silent for a good twenty seconds before Ezio took a deep breath and began to speak.

"Antonio gave me a request when I spoke with him once," he began, "and I've been thinking about it lately." Ezio paused. "He said to keep your feelings in mind."

"That sounds like him," Rosa scoffed.

"But it is difficult to tell what your feelings are at times…especially in this instance," he continued, "which is my problem. When Antonio made that request, he seemed to know your feelings more clearly than I did…and more clearly than I do now."

They remained quiet for a few more seconds as Ezio fumbled for words, but Rosa, who had been troubled by the conversation up until this point, suddenly changed the tone with which she addressed her companion as she began to understand his meaning. Ezio had, after all, recounted this conversation with Antonio to her before.

"What about your own feelings, Ezio?" she asked quietly as she sat back down with him. "Are they clear?"

It was a gentle and sincere tone that Rosa rarely used. Consequently, Ezio was taken aback, so his response was not well planned.

"Clear enough," he replied.

"Clear enough?" she challenged. "Maybe I should have expected an answer like that. You are always a disappointment."

He chuckled. "Va bene. What would you have me say?"

"I don't know," she admitted as she rolled her eyes. "What is not clear?"

"Nulla è reale, tutto è lecito," he mumbled with a sigh.

"What?"

"Nothing is true, everything is permitted," he repeated.

"What the hell is that supposed to mean?"

"I don't know," he confessed. "Zio Mario says it sometimes. It is written in many of his books." He paused once again. "I believe it means that things are not always as they appear, and that one should never expect anything to remain simple or right." He turned to her. "Perhaps I am not interpreting it correctly, but I feel as if I've spent the past nine years learning this. Things seem simple now, but they never really are. My feelings are not entirely clear because I am nervous about what will come next and what I cannot predict or control. We do not lead normal lives, Rosa."

"Fair enough," she told him. "I suppose that is a better answer."

"Sì, and I would like one in return," he replied. "I asked you first."

She raised an eyebrow at him. "I have been told by someone who will remain anonymous that I am not the romantic type," she rotated slightly to rest her hand on his as she leaned into him, "so perhaps you are nervous for nothing."

"Am I? It is difficult to tell when you-"

His thought was cut off when she pushed him onto his back and kissed him on the lips.

It was a quick kiss, although it was longer than the one she planted on his cheek in Venezia after drinking excess quantities of Leonardo's wine.

When she released him, she finished her thought.

"Or perhaps this someone is wrong, and I am the romantic type," she told him, "and you are nervous because I enjoy making you nervous."

"Merda, I can never tell if you are serious or not," he complained.

She scowled at him and gave him a light smack on the face for his remark, and then brought his lips to hers again.

[A/N]: This one took a while to write, so I hope it paid off (and if not, there's obviously more to go).

Of course, Ezio has a slight misunderstanding of the creed here, but he's not even a true Assassin at this point, so please forgive his simplified interpretation for now.