Exodus

The Date; Part 2

Lancelot:

"Well, we are in Italy." I say to Elizabeth. "Let's do some market shopping!"

I hold my date's hand and we walk the cobblestone streets to the markets in the town square of Verona.
This is... going even better than I expected, actually. Elizabeth looks damn fine in her little skirt and she's a joy to be around. Plus, seeing her threaten that jackass that insulted her just turned me on so much. I love a girl that's strong willed and vocal. I had to stop myself from making out with her right then and there.

Elizabeth picked a really good day to go out. It was sunny and warm, but with little humidity- a welcome change from how it's been every other day I've been in Verona. I got her these really pretty red roses, we shopped at an actual Italian deli, and I also saw this beautiful necklace at one of the vendors. It's an antique gold necklace with a nebula pendant. I remember her telling me she loves anything involving a galaxy design, so I buy it for her. I'll give it to her before she leaves as a nice surprise for her to remember me by when we're apart.

I find myself looking at her more and more while we're out. Not just because she's cute, and oh my fucking lord she is so cute, but I really feel myself drawn to her as a person. The conversation between us just seems to flow so naturally. We like a lot of the same things and she makes me laugh every few seconds. She laughs at a lot of my idiotic jokes too, which to me definitely signals that she's a keeper. I almost forget she's a Templar until I bring her hand up to my lips to kiss it, and then notice the Templar tattoo on her wrist. The sight causes me to instinctively flinch, and she definitely noticed it.

"Are you ok?" Elizabeth asks me with a concerned voice.

"Y-yes" I respond, attempting to keep a poker face. "I mean yeah. Yeah, I'm great! I'm here with you, after all."
"You noticed the tattoo..." she states meekly.

Shit.

I take both her hands in mine and tilt my head down to look directly into her beautiful blue eyes, the window to her pure yet probably conflicted soul.

"I don't care that you're one of them." I tell her with the most sincerity I can put in my voice. "In fact, I'm wrong even on that. You're not one of them, Elizabeth. Not to me. You couldn't control being born into this, but you are your own person in spite of it. I really respect that, I do. To me, you're Elizabeth. That's it. That's all you ever need to be, because Elizabeth is an amazing person."

Clearly this small sample of me spilling my heart has the right effect, since Elizabeth kisses my cheek and brings her head directly into my chest so I can hug her. I oblige and she smells amazing. The girl's gonna make me crazy about her pretty soon if I'm not careful.

After about an hour in the market, Elizabeth spots a small but cozy-looking coffee shop that she wants to go into. She leads me by my hand and we sit down at a table by the door. We both order sandwiches and Elizabeth orders a coffee while I, not being much of a coffee guy, get a hot chocolate instead. We talk and giggle and flirt for a while, and I decide to ask something I definitely should've thought of earlier.

"Is your dad not looking for you at all? Not that I'm complaining, of course, but I'm surprised that he hasn't busted in here with a team of agents yet."

"Oh, I turned off the tracker he put in my phone and muted his calls and texts" Elizabeth responds. "He must be so worried by now." She then smirks and takes the proudest sip of coffee I've ever seen. When she looks at me over her cup of coffee, I notice that just that little action will turn me on every time.

"A question, if I may?" I ask, picking up my hot chocolate.

"Sure". She answers.

"Why do you hate your dad so much? I mean, of course you know that I have millions of reasons to hate him and people like him. After all, I've been trained to fight them since I was born.

"You're his daughter, though. Child of Lord Capulet, one of the of highest ranking members of the American Rite. From an Assassin's perspective, that doesn't sound like a terrible gig."

Elizabeth's face turns stern and her eyes narrow.

"It's more terrible than the Assassins could imagine." She pauses for a minute seemingly to contemplate, then continues.

"My father cares about one thing in this world: power. Power through money, through manipulation, intimidation, anything. If I obey his every word like a good little girl, he pretends like he cares. He thinks has power over me, when he actually doesn't.

"He wants me to be just like him. He wants control over everything and everyone around him. I sometimes think he cares about his own personal power even more than he cares about the Templars. The two most important things in his life are his bank account and his authority. I can't help the first thing, and I disobey him far too often to help his authority. He cheated on my mom because he thinks his power lets him get away with anything.

"I've hated him as long as I can remember for those exact reasons. He doesn't know that, though, because his ignorance towards me means bliss for both parties in the twisted relationship that I have with him."

"Well...shit..." is all I can muster after Elizabeth's commentary.

I knew Capulet was an asshole already. Not all Templars are terrible people, but he's definitely one of the worst. I had heard the stories of his cruelty towards us and his arrogance towards his own colleagues. However, there's something vindicating and unsettling about listening to a man's child verbally eviscerate him while having all the cause in the world to do so.

"So yes," Elizabeth concludes, "I am his daughter. I've got a lot of wealth because of it, as you probably already knew. But there's not enough money in the world that could make dealing with him even remotely pleasurable."

She takes another sip of her coffee and sighs. I sense a feeling of liberation and also sadness from her exhale.

It seems like she'd been wanting to say all of that for a while... yet I can also see that she knows that it doesn't change who her father is.