Chapter Text
“Leonardo, you’re a genius!” Ezio exclaimed, rather stating the obvious, Leonardo thought, before his brain short-circuited. The assassin had just kissed him.
Not much of a kiss, true — barely a peck, an expression of excitement. But it knocked Leonardo completely off kilter, as hard as he was trying to hide not only his inclinations towards men in general, but his specific inclination towards the young man in front of him.
The young man who had just kissed him.
“Ezio, um…”
“I will take this to the villa to add to the other pages as soon as I can.” And with that he was out the door in a whirl of white cloth, leaving his poor dazed friend standing alone In the middle of his workshop.
It didn’t happen the next time Leonardo translated a codex page, and he was half disappointed, half relieved. Ezio stayed for supper on that occasion rather than rushing out the door, and he didn’t know if he’d have been able to eat a bite had there been a repeat performance.
But the next time it did. Soon it became a common thing between them. Not every time, but enough to become a comfortable part of their interactions, though always instigated by Ezio.
But whether it happened or not, Leonardo was certain of one thing — it meant nothing. Well, it meant something. It was always full of friendly affection. But friendly was all it was or ever could be, he reminded himself. Frequently. Because the more Ezio visited, the more he stayed beyond what was necessary — beyond waiting for Leonardo to decode a page or make a modification to his equipment — and the more the artist’s heart ached for what could never be his. Not with Ezio, and likely not with anyone. His brush with the law had taught him that.
Especially not with Ezio, though. A born ladies’ man, that one.
Leonardo was sitting and thinking upon that very subject when the man his mind was occupied with stopped by with his customary polite knock followed by barging in.
“Ezio!” He sprang up from where he had been sitting with his chin on his hands. “What brings you to me today? Another codex page?”
“Do I need a reason to visit you, amico mio?” The endearment made Leonardo smile.
“Of course not, but you are a busy man, and truth be told you usually do have a reason.”
“Just the desire for good company tonight, I’m afraid.”
“Ah, well…” Leonardo was a bit stumped. “Make yourself at home, of course.” He spread his arms in a gesture of welcome. The assassin looked at where his friend had been sitting when he had entered (the only clear seating in the place, and even then he had been sitting on a few papers). No desk, no easel…
“It’s unusual for me to find you not busy, my friend. Run out of things to do?” Leonardo laughed.
“Hardly. I was merely… giving my brain a rest.”
“I didn’t know you ever did such a thing.”
“Very rarely.”
“So, what have you been working on lately?” And with those magic words, Leonardo launched into an explanation of his latest project, while Ezio managed to clear himself a place to sit and listen.
—
“And it should be working perfectly, but there’s just one little bit — here, let me show you…” Leonardo jumped up and beckoned Ezio to one of his workbenches to show him his latest invention. “It’s just this one piece, it won’t seem to fit properly, I must have measured it a hundred times…” Ezio looked the contraption over — he’d already forgotten what it was meant to do, assuming that he’d ever understood it at all. But he seemed to see something his friend didn’t, and before Leonardo could finish his sentence he flicked out his hidden blade and made the slightest adjustment. Something clicked into place and the inventor’s eyes went wide.
“Ezio! You’re a genius!” And without putting enough thought into the matter to think better of it, Leonardo did what Ezio had done to him what must have been a dozen times by now — grabbed him by the shoulders and kissed him.
It was different, though — how could it not be, the amount of pent up emotion Leonardo had within him? It would still be called a peck by an outside observer, but he lingered just a bit too long, moved his lips against Ezio’s just a fraction too much. It was a tender kiss, not a quick, friendly one, and as soon as he pulled away and saw the startled look in the assassin’s eyes Leonardo knew he’d fucked up.
“Leonardo, you kissed me?”
“I… yes? You have done it many times when I have helped you with a problem.”
“That felt… different.” He paused, almost seeming like he didn’t want to say what he was about to. “Like when I kiss a woman.” Leonardo felt heat rising to his face. Could he play this off like it was a mistake? Pretend he didn’t know what Ezio was talking about? He released his friend.
“It- that- I wasn't- it wasn’t- I…” He fumbled over his words. This was not going well. Leonardo gave up and sighed heavily. “I’m sorry, Ezio. I didn’t… I didn’t mean to kiss you like that. Scusami. Please, forgive me.”
“But… why? Why would you kiss me in that way?”
“Ezio.” Leonardo smiled thinly. “Surely you are not so naive?” Ezio thought for a moment before widening his eyes.
“Oh! So you are…” He was answered with a nod.
“You had not heard the rumors?” Ezio shook his head. Damn, he shouldn’t have brought them up; he was sure to ask someone about them now. “If you no longer wish to be my friend, I understand, but know that I am still committed to helping the cause of the Assassins.” Ezio shook his head.
“No, no, I just… have never met someone like you before.” Ezio was looking at him strangely and Leonardo smiled a bit bitterly.
“And how would you know?”
“Ah. Good point.” Ezio paused then, hand on his chin, looking thoughtful. Leonardo had run out of things to say. Finally, at the same time, they both spoke:
“Perhaps you should—“
“Could you do it again?”
There was a pause where Leonardo’s eyes went wide, then they narrowed as he tried to read Ezio’s face. Unfortunately for him the light outside was waning and he hadn’t lit any candles yet.
“Excuse me?” The assassin stepped closer, getting into the artist’s personal space.
“I find myself… curious.” He smiled. Leonardo scanned his face — he could see it better now for the proximity — for any sign that he was being mocked and found none. He took a deep breath (and oh, Ezio was close enough to smell now, sweat and leather and a scent all his own).
“No, Ezio. I’m not going to be your experiment.”
“I thought you liked experiments.” The smile turned into a smirk.
“Not with my heart.” Ezio’s face fell and he took a step back.
“Oh, I… I’m sorry…”
“It’s alright. Just… let’s forget this ever happened. It’s getting late, perhaps you should be going.” It wasn’t very late at all, the sun was just barely going down over the roofs of Venezia, but Ezio nodded and saw himself out — forgoing, Leonardo noticed sadly, their customary parting hug.
—
Ezio visited several times in the next few weeks — always for a reason, but he sometimes stayed to pass the time and Leonardo was relieved to feel things going back to normal. They treated each other no differently, and their conversations were easy.
—
A knock on the door, then the sound of it opening: Ezio, then. Leonardo turned around to greet his friend.
“Ezio! What do you have for me now?”
“Nothing this time, my friend.” He smiled, but there was a distracted look in his eyes and he couldn’t seem to keep them on Leonardo.
“Ah, well, you’re always welcome. Here, let me clear a…” He looked around the room for a space he could clear for Ezio to sit. His friend laughed and gingerly moved a… something… off of a couch and onto a table.
“Would you like a glass of wine? I was about to have one myself, but it tastes better with company.”
“I would love one, Leonardo, grazie.” Two glasses were poured and the conversation flowed easily, Ezio losing the distracted look he had when he entered. As Leonardo was finishing up telling his friend all about his troubles with his latest patron, Ezio drank the last of his wine and spoke:
“You know, I haven’t slept with a woman for a month.” Leonardo raised an eyebrow.
“You? A dry spell, amico mio?” Ezio shook his head.
“No. Well, yes, I suppose, but…” Leonardo motioned for him to continue, and he did, moving his gaze from the floor into his friend’s eyes. “It’s been exactly that long since we…” he gestured between the two of them, eyes flitting to the painter’s mouth.
“Oh!” Leonardo sat up a bit straighter in his chair, unsure of what to say.
“I haven’t been able to stop thinking about you.” Leonardo stared. The assassin looked… vulnerable.
“Ezio, I already told you—“
“I know, Leonardo, you don’t want to be my experiment. But what if it wasn’t?”
“What if it wasn’t what?”
“An experiment. What if it was more?” Leonardo searched his face once again for any sign that he wasn’t serious, that it was an ill-advised joke, and found none.
“‘More’ like…”
“I wouldn’t be with anyone else. Just you.” This was just met with a stare.
“But you… you and, and women, you…” Ezio smiled.
“May one not enjoy multiple things in one category?”
“I… I suppose so…” The assassin stood and walked over to his friend, holding his hands out. Leonardo took them automatically, unthinkingly, and was pulled to his feet.
“Well?” Ezio put a hand to the painter’s cheek. “What do you say?”
“You know this is dangerous, right?”
“My whole life is filled with danger. What’s a little more?” Leonardo smiled and, when Ezio leaned forward, he closed the gap. After a few sweet moments they separated, Ezio running his thumb along his friend’s jawline.
“Hmm… this is different,” he said, brushing fingers against beard.
“Good different or bad different?”
“Hmm…” Ezio kissed him again, experimentally, then nuzzled along Leonardo’s jaw and neck. “I think I like it,” he said, burying his face in the side of his neck and wrapping his arms around him. The other man did the same, but soon pulled back.
“What’s wrong?”
“This,” Leonardo said, tapping at the assassin’s armor, “does not make for a comfortable embrace. He laughed and unbuckled his spaulders, chestguard, and vambraces (and, after a moment’s hesitation, even his hidden blade) before pulling the other man back into his arms. They stayed like that, holding on tightly to one another, for a good minute before Leonardo pulled back just enough to kiss his to-be-lover. The kiss quickly became deeper than the ones they had shared before, leaving Ezio slightly breathless when they finally parted.
“You’re a very good kisser.”
“You sound surprised,” teased Leonardo.
“No! Well, maybe a little. Sorry.” He kissed him again, moving down from his mouth to his neck and nipping at the skin there.
“Ah! You will leave marks!” Ezio pulled away.
“Well… can I leave marks where no one will see them?” He fingered at the collar of Leonardo’s tunic.
“Ezio!” The artist blushed slightly and swatted Ezio on the arm, but also grinned. The assassin took the grin as a positive sign and began to undo his friends tunic, just enough to reveal his collarbone which he quickly turned his attention to. Leonardo gasped and clutched at his robes. Suddenly the white cloth seemed far too thick, even without the armor. He moved his hands to the clasps and began to undo them, pulling the assassin’s robes up off the man’s shoulders and letting them drop to the floor.
“Hey!” Ezio’s protest at the handling of his clothing was silenced by a rough kiss as Leonardo’s hands went roaming over his chest and back, at first on top of the rough undershirt he wore but soon searching beneath it. Ezio did the man a favor and pulled it off, breaking their kiss.
“You… you are a work of art,” Leonardo said breathlessly, looking over Ezio’s torso and admiring scars and muscles both. The younger man smiled, unable to resist feeling a bit of pride.
“Your turn,” he said, working to divest his friend of his own top garments.
“It is nothing in comparison to you, I fear,” Leonardo laughed, helping him. Ezio threw the clothing to the floor to join his robes and admired the other man in the lamplight — paler and with less hair than Ezio, his body, while trim, had a certain softness to it born of long days and nights sitting in one place.
“You are beautiful.” He pressed his mouth to a pale shoulder and ran his hands down his sides, marking the other man in several places before moving back up to kiss him soundly on the mouth. Skin was against skin now, and both men felt heat coursing through their veins. Leonardo insinuated a thigh between Ezio’s legs, mostly out of curiosity, and was gratified to elicit a moan and find him already partially hard. He put his hands on the assassin’s broad chest and pushed him backwards a few steps, until he was backed up against a workbench covered in discarded sketches. Before Ezio knew what was happening, his friend was pushing him up onto it and leaning down to take his boots off. Or at least to try to.
“How the hell do you get these off?” he complained, tugging at the armored boots. Ezio laughed and undid a few buckles. “A-ha!” It was almost as if he had witnessed the completion of a puzzle, Ezio thought, as Leonardo grinned and pulled them off. Then he stopped thinking as his friend grabbed his belt buckle and pulled him upright again to begin to undo it.
“Is this alright?” He paused, glancing up. Ezio nodded, slightly dazed but very sure of that one thing, and in one smooth movement Leonardo divested him of both breeches and undergarments and pushed him back up onto the worktable to pull them entirely off. Ezio, now fully nude, gasped at the rush of cool air. He was still processing the situation when Leonardo went down on his knees, lifted the other man’s legs over his bare shoulders, and took him in both hand and mouth simultaneously.
“Dio mio!” Leonardo flicked his eyes upwards, a smile in them if not on his otherwise occupied lips. Ezio’s eyes were wide and he was clutching the edge of the worktable with both hands. “You… you…”
“Mm,” was the hummed response, just eliciting a wordless groan. An expert tongue swirled several times around the head of Ezio’s cock before Leonardo took a deep breath in through his nose and took his lover deeper inside his mouth, almost to the hilt. He moved slowly, at least at first, giving loving attention to the not insignificant cock. Ezio reached down to bury a hand in Leonardo’s hair. Not to guide him — he needed no guidance — but just to have contact and an anchor to hold onto. If he was holding on a little too hard, well, Leonardo wasn’t complaining. He repeated his motions, drawing out to swirl his tongue before plunging back in and taking Ezio to almost the back of his throat. It didn’t take much of this to bring him close to the edge. He tugged slightly at the blonde hair he was holding onto for dear life.
“Leonardo, I… I’m going to…” The artist’s eyes just flicked up again and gave wordless encouragement as he took Ezio deep into his mouth and the man came with a moan, echoed by his lover as he swallowed down every bit of the other man’s cum. When he was sure he was finished, Leonardo stood up and planted his hands on the workbench of either side of Ezio, leaning forward and smiling at his somewhat dazed expression.
“You… that was… not even the courtesans… where did you learn to do that?” he demanded, finding his voice.
“Do you really want to know?” Ezio thought only a moment before shaking his head and Leonardo laughed — such a bright, beautiful sound, he thought, pulling his friend down for a kiss and swiping his tongue to taste himself in the other man’s mouth, something he had never done with any woman he’d done this act with. After they broke apart they rested their foreheads against each other, Ezio only just recovering his wits. He looked down at the tent in the artist’s breeches and smiled.
“Can I try?” he asked, making eye contact then pointedly looking downwards.
“Oh! You don’t have to, Ezio, I—“ His mouth snapped shut as Ezio stood up and twirled them around so that they had switched places, Leonardo backed up against the workbench.
“I want to.” He did the same as his friend had done to him, removing the other man’s boots and unbuttoning his breeches. They both blushed slightly as the other man’s cock came free, then Ezio smirked and went down to his knees.
“Ah, wait!” Leonardo nudged his lover out of the way and went to grab a nearby pillow, which he dropped to the floor. “I regret not doing that myself.” Ezio tutted and kissed his lover’s reddened knees as he knelt upon the cushion. He began less boldly than Leonardo had, by kissing and nipping at his inner thighs, working himself up to the act. The older man smiled and ran his hand through dark hair that had, at some point that night, come undone from the ribbon usually tying it back.
Leonardo was beginning to leak precum by the time Ezio finally took him in hand, stroking experimentally and getting a groan out of his lover. Then, just as experimentally, he took the head of the artist’s cock into his mouth, tasting him and hearing his name exhaled as fingers tightened ever so slightly in his hair. Emboldened, he tried to take more in… then choked and pulled away.
“Ezio!” Blue eyes went from heavily lidded in pleasure to widened with concern, though there was the hint of a laugh in his voice. “Are you alright?”
“Yes, I just…” He held his hand to his throat and Leonardo’s hint of a laugh turned into a full one.
“Go slower,” he advised. “Do not take it all in at once, use both your hand and your mouth and only do as much as you can,” he advised.
“But you—“
“Ah, that takes… practice.” He cleared his throat, slightly embarrassed.
Ezio nodded and went back in, taking a much more reasonable amount of cock into his mouth. Leonardo sighed and his lids drooped again as he was pleasured by the inexperienced but eager mouth and hand of the young assassin. It was messy and unpracticed, true, but that in itself was somehow charming. He gazed down at the man he had pined after for so many years giving his all, and suddenly realized he was close to his relief.
“Ezio, I’m getting close. You don’t have to do what I did, you can stop now if you want and—“ but at his first few words Ezio had started redoubling his efforts and Leonardo was powerless to stop himself: he came into the mouth of his lover, who made the effort to swallow everything he gave. When it was over and done with, he rested his head against Leonardo’s inner thigh and smiled up at him, looking surprisingly innocent.
“Was that alright?” Leonardo smiled, affection surging through him.
“Very. Come kiss me.” Ezio stood up to comply and the older man wrapped his arms around his neck while they kissed. “Hmm,” he muttered thoughtfully as they parted.
“What is it?” Leonardo grinned and took Ezio’s hands, inclining his head towards the door to the small room where he slept.
“Would you like to see what else I’m surprisingly good at?”
“I didn’t mean to imply — oh. Oh.” Ezio grinned back as Leonardo stood and led him backwards towards the door.