Confessions

In which Leonardo is apprehended for indecency

Night is falling over Venice when Ezio makes his way to Leonardo's workshop. It's been a long time since their last meeting, his duty as an Assassin and as a man coming in between them more than Ezio would have liked. Yet he believes sacrifice is part of being an Assassin. If all he has to sacrifice is a little bit of time with his favourite artist, he can still take it. Leonardo never chastises him for not checking in longer periods of time, never even seems to mind how easily months or years come between them. Leonardo understands, and that's part of why Ezio loves his friend so. He looks forwards to the smile on the artist's lips and the sweetness in his embrace. He's even brought him a gift, an apology of sorts to make up for the time he's been away. Leonardo might understand, but Ezio still feels the sting of guilt. Or maybe it's just that he always misses Leonardo's company more than anything else when he's away.

When he tries the door to the artist's workshop, he finds it open, but the workshop deserted except for the half-finished paintings and the sketches and the inventions. The ashes in the fireplace are cold. Ezio hesitates but calls out for Leonardo or his assistants anyway, his urge to see his friend unharmed greater than his caution. He goes up the stairs and finds Leonardo's bedroom as empty as the workshop below. The bed is unmade and Leonardo's clothes are still neatly in a wardrobe, his hat a painful eyecatcher on a hook beside it. Leonardo rarely goes out without it.

Ezio hurries back down, suddenly gripped with panic. Leonardo is gone, and he has no idea what happened, or where to find him. Despite all his training and his experience as an Assassin, Ezio cannot bring himself to look at Leonardo's disappearance calmly. He feels angry and fearful, his throat feels tight and his heart would make a good object of study for the missing artist because it seems to have stopped working.

Ezio listens in on conversations in the streets, in tabernas, pays courtesans for a sliver of information and finally, he learns that Leonardo has been arrested on account of indecency and worse, rape.

His head spins. The thought makes his anger flare up; it simply cannot be true. His peaceful, selfless, brilliant artist cannot have commited such crimes.

The courtesan tells him where they're keeping him and that his trial was supposed to be held tonight. He might be too late. If Leonardo is found guilty, which is inevitable as the trial simply serves as a formality, he will be executed at cock-crow.

Ezio rushes through the streets until he feels his lungs burn. The building where the trial is being held looms up before him after far too long, faint in the moonlight. He scales the wall as nimbly and quickly as he can, climbs through a window and follows the echo of voices portraying a farce of justice until he reaches the room where the trial is being held. It's not hard to find the accused, but Ezio has a hard time recognising Leonardo. It's dark inside, the flicker of candlelight hiding the full extent of what he sees and yet it feels like a blow to the stomach. The man who fidgets in the stand looks nothing like the artist he knows. His usually well kempt hair is too long and so dirty and tangled it has lost all of its illustrous golden shine. His soiled clothes are fraying along the edges and ripped in some places. They do nothing to hide the scrawny figure underneath them. Leonardo's hands are restless to the extent Ezio can see them twitch and move irregularly even from his hiding spot on a small platform that looks out over the hall. Everything about the artist screams nervousness and desperation.

It hurts to see Leonardo - his beautiful, ever-smiling Leonardo - like that and it takes strength to stop the rage inside of him from sweeping in and massacring everyone in the room to save his friend. Ezio has to remind himself it would be an unnecessary risk that could well jeopardize their safety. He reminds himself Leonardo would scold him for taking so many lives – innocent lives. It could be one of the few things Leonardo would hold against him for the rest of their lives. No, he has to wait until it's over, tail the guards to the cells.

At least he doesn't have to wait long.

"Since this is your second offence, Messer da Vinci, I have no choice."

"The charges in Firenze were dropped!" Leonardo pleads desperately, his voice a little higher than Ezio is used to. It breaks him a little to hear him so uncomposed. "And I did not do what you're accusing me of!"

"Take him away."

"No!" There was a pause and then a more quiet 'please' that fell from Leonardo's lips.

Leonardo's plea fell on deaf ears, but to Ezio that last quiet word is shattering, more than a cry could ever have been. Leonardo struggles to stay on his feet as guards drag him away and Ezio hears a sob. Leonardo is frightened. The arnger flares up inside him again, strong and temporarily blinding to his senses. Ezio has always known Leonardo to be brave, maybe braver than Ezio has ever been. His Leonardo risks his life for hI'm and the Order regularly, without asking anything in return, and always with his head held high. This Leonardo is a broken, terrified man and though Ezio does not blame him, it angers him to see his best friend and the rock in his life reduced to such a mess.

He tails the two guards to Leonardo's cell, fists balled at his sides as he holds back the desire to strike already, waits until they've opened the cell and pushed Leonardo inside. He trips over his own feet and falls to the floor, where one of the guards kicks him. Cowards, Ezio thinks and grits his teeth.

"Careful, might catch something," the other guard laughs and his partner curses and attempts to clean his boot on the stone floor, as if he's just stepped in horse droppings. Their laughter is cut short when Ezio gladly steps up behind them from the shadows and buries his blades to the hilt in their necks. Blood lands on his sleeves and he feels a sick satisfaction - one he rarely feels when taking a life. His victims fall down almost without a sound, grasping at their throats as if their fingers can still fix the ruined tendons and vocal chords in the moments before the life vanishes from their eyes. Ezio wishes to his slight horror that he would have liked to have given them a slow and painful death, to see them struggle for breath a while longer, to see their fingers grasping uselessly as they slip from the slick skin of their throat. These men don't deserve any pity or mercy. He takes the keys to Leonardo's cell and lets himelf in when Leonardo doesn't move from his spot on the dirty floor. Although he's sitting up now, his eyes are unfocussed and shine strangely.

He's crying, Ezio realises.

He falls to one knee in front of Leonardo and wraps his arms around his friend. He smells as bad as he looks, but Ezio holds him tight until Leonardo's arms come up and hold him in return.

"We have to go. Can you walk?"

When Leonardo nods a little, he all but drags him to his feet. Ezio supports his weight as often as as best he can when he stumbles more than he walks and miraculously, with the help of a smoke bomb, they make it out without too much fuss.

Ezio takes Leonardo in the direction of the brothel, where he knows they'll be safe and have a room and hot bath. The road there is long and tough. Ezio hates the slow pace, wishing he could see Leonardo safe and out of the public eye in the blink of an eye instead. He thinks of stealing a horse in a fit of desperation, but can't take the risk of going around Venice in such a high-profile manner. They endure, needing to rest too often to Ezio's liking.

When they finally arrive, he leaves Leonardo in the dark with a heavy heart as he seeks the mistress of the house and asks for safe passage to the attic room Ezio uses as a safe house from time to time. The brothel is still in full business so they can't just stumble through the front door. Instead, they stumble through a back door as courtesans skillfully steer clients away from their vicinity. He doubts they'll make much out of it and assume they're just two men who had too much to drink in a popular brothel. They are ushered to the attic and as Ezio closes the door behind them, Leonardo falls down on the makeshift bed against the far wall, obviously exhausted from all events and no less from the trip here. He kneels in front of him, takes off his boots for him. Leonardo looks at him and brings a trembling hand to Ezio's cheek.

"You're here."

Ezio leans into the touch, relief flooding him that they've made it out safe, that Leonardo is safe now. He will be alright. Ezio will be alright. He takes Leonardo's hand with his own and squeezes comfortingly.

"Of course."