A day in the life

Summary:

in which, Edward kidnaps Ezio. Ezio seduces Edward. Federico shows up and kills some people. Then everyone has sex again.

Notes:

i can't even explain this to you. but it was fun to write.

Work Text:

The last time Ezio had been properly kidnapped, he had only been ten years old. While his Mother had expressly told him not to wander off and most definitely not to lose the guards, his natural inclination to not listen to her had led him to sneaking away during an outing. He made it four blocks before a slowly thickening crowd of men with vicious sneers dragged him away. (They did not, as his Mother often warned him kidnappers would do, offer him sweets of any kind.) Ezio had spent four hours in a dark room with ropes around his chest and a stale rag shoved into his mouth, thinking viciously unkind things about what he’d like to do to the men.Fifteen years later, he was wholly unprepared to be accosted from behind by a foul-smelling potato sack. The bag directly preceded the sickening blow to the back of his head that rendered him completely unconscious.--Waking up was a nauseating affair. The combination of rotting-potatoes that seemed to saturate the sack around his face, the rocking of the entire world around him and the remnants of blunt head trauma left him with the very sincere urge to puke. He opened his eyes, if only to gauge the level of light visible through the tiny gaps in the burlap sack. There was a faint blow of sunlight through dirty windows. He grumbled as he tried to stand up and found that his hands had been securely shackled to the floor or wall (it was hard to tell) behind him.“For fucks sake,” he grumbled to himself. Once fully lucid (if he could consider his present situation lucid at all), he turned his head, trying to concentrate on the shifts and changes of the light through the sack to identify any man that might be nearby. When he found none, he tipped his head back so he could rest it against the wall at his back.The world kept rocking around him as tried very sincerely not to breathe. The stench of the potatoes was clouding out more important thoughts (such as where he was, who had taken him and how exactly he could be rescued). Feeling very peevish about the situation, he did what was the only logical thing he could do, he began shouting.“Cockless whore!” was not the best opening, he reflected a moment about how most prostitutes he had met did not have cocks. Then he gathered himself a bit before shouting, “if you release me now I will ask my brother not to torture you before you die!” That did not prompt anyone to show up. “YOU SON OF A BITCH, SHOW YOURSELF! I WON’T BE WORTH MUCH IF I VOMIT MYSELF TO DEATH BECAUSE YOU’VE CHOSEN A CHEAP, SMELLY SACK TO SUFFOCATE ME!”--It took the better part of ten minutes of shouting and kicking his legs, before his captor arrived with a great clatter of door parts and an impatient stomp of his feet. “Would you mind?” the unknown gentleman shouted back at him. “Unless you’d prefer to let every scoundrel on the ship know what I’ve got stowed in my cabin. I’ve heard you were stupid but I assure you, provoking a mutiny will not help you escape!”“Ship?” Ezio repeated. That explained the rocking and neatly took care of his concerns about rescue. He relaxed back against the wall and considered his far superior position. “Remove the sack and I will stop shouting.”“I’d rather stuff something in your mouth,” was the growled-reply. But regardless of the senseless protest, the man was coming closer to him. The drag of his footsteps matched the shifting of the light in front of Ezio’s face. “The man that hired me told me to keep a sack over your face. He said one look at you and I would do anything you asked.”“That is very complimentary.” It was also true in his experience. “However, if you don’t remove this bag I will start shouting again, or start vomiting. If you’re going to kidnap someone important, you should treat them nicely.”The man sat in a chair not so far away from him. His laugh was as heavy as his body when he finally stopped moving. Both of them sinking into place like long sighs. “I don’t think it matters how you treat them, mate. Once I give you to the man that hired me, I’ll have my money and be done with it.”“So this is a simple business transaction?” Ezio asked. “You should have chosen your business partners with more caution—do you have a name?”“I’m not stupid,” the man retorted, “I’m not giving you my name. I don’t have much taste for this sort of thing, you know. I don’t mind killing a man who earns it but I get a squeamish feeling in my gut when it comes to transporting live goods.” It was truly refreshing to know he’d been kidnapped by a man with a crippled conscious. “Quit shouting.”“I will,” Ezio agreed. The man made a noise like he was pleased by how easy that agreement had been to reach. “As soon as you take this sack off my head.”“No,” the man said.And so Ezio began shouting again.--Retrospectively, he should have remembered the gentleman that kidnapped him was fond of blunt head trauma. It might have spared him the throbbing headache he woke up with (for the second time). The foul-smelling potato sack was gone (at least) replaced by a much thicker but nicer sack that smelled sweet but made it harder to breath. “Ah, so you are simply going to suffocate me instead of killing me with stench.”“I don’t think you understand the position you’re in,” the man said.Ezio rolled his eyes under the sack. “I understand perfectly the position that I’m in. I do not think you understand the one that you’re in. If you had done even the slightest of research on who I am, you would have told the man that hired you to go fuck himself.”“I know who you are,” the man objected, “some rich type that thinks he’s royalty—”“I am royalty,” Ezio protested, “or I would be if I cared to be. It’s hard to have a reasonable conversation with a man when I can’t see his face.” That was true at least, and having woken up twice now with a terrible headache, Ezio was willing to rethink his strategy when dealing with this man. “How about we strike a deal—”“Unless you’ve got money in your pockets—and I know you don’t—I’m not interested in any deals from you.”Ezio sighed. “I did have money. Since you’ve obviously helped yourself to it, you must be aware that I have quite a lot of it.” All of his facial expressions were lost to the heaviness of the cloth. He huffed in annoyance. “You have seen my face, if that didn’t move you to obey me, I can’t imagine it’ll do so now. If you’re giving me to men that are going to kill me—which it seems like you are—then it shouldn’t trouble you that I see your face. Could you please remove this sack?”The amused sound the man made was promising. He moved like a great rolling weight, all sound and no sight. There were gruff hands at his neck pulling the string of the sack loose and then all at once the dull lights of the cabin’s interior flooded into Ezio’s vision. It left him blinking wildly to focus on any one thing so that the man was back in his seat again before Ezio could make him out. Clearly the captain of whatever vessel they found themselves on: tanned face scarred by poor choices, tattooed arms bare up to the elbows, scruffy hair in desperate need of a real wash and a crooked sort of smile that suggested he was fully aware of his many shortcomings.“Now we can talk like gentleman,” Ezio said.“I believe you were going to offer me money to let you go,” the captain said.Ezio considered that for a moment. He had been uncomfortably slouching before, but after getting a fairly good look at the Captain (and his impressive looking hands), he reconsidered his bargaining strategy. Rather than argue based solely on the amount of money he could offer (and it was considerable) or stall until his brother found them (which he would), Ezio smiled. He relaxed his body, shifted so the captain’s lazy stare was directed downward toward his crotch and did his best to look attractive and undisturbed to be tied up. “I was,” he conceded, “but as my brother will doubtlessly find you and feed you to sharks, there’s no reason for me to make promises we are both aware I won’t be keeping. How old are you?”“Twenty eight,” the man said.“Do you have any diseases?” If the question wasn’t direct enough, the way Ezio stared between the man’s lazily sprawled knees certainly was.“That’s hardly any of your business, but no.”Ezio smiled again. “I’d be interested in making it my business.”Oh and the captain laughed. It shook his whole body from the top to the bottom. Left him pink and loose and pliable even as he leaned forward to shake his head at Ezio in the most pitiable way imaginable. “Well, I’m not mate. If you’re trying to talk your way out of this, you’ll need a new angle.”“My mother fucked a mermaid—well whatever a male mermaid would like to be called. He was the king of the ocean, one of the most powerful and oldest creatures in the sea.” Ezio watched the Captain go from amused to dull disinterest so that he didn’t even prompt Ezio to continue. “She had a son with him, the baby was born with webbed fingers and gills and teeth like razors. The midwife that attended her fainted. My mother took the monster to the sea and threw it in.”“That’s ridiculous. I don’t spare pity for madmen.”“It’s not ridiculous. That was my brother, I met him when I was ten, when six men from the market kidnapped me and kept me in a little closet in their house. They lived by the docks. I could smell the sea through the walls. He came for me, my brother did, with his webbed fingers and his razor teeth. He came and he cut them to pieces that he fed to his fish and his shark pups.” There was no lie in the words and either the absolute certainty of them (conveyed in his tone) or the superstitious nature of seafaring men, made the Captain lean up a bit more. “He’ll find you. He’ll make chum of every man on this ship.” Then Ezio sat back and smiled (far less invitingly than he had before).“Your mother fucked a fish?” the man asked.“Oh don’t be so scandalized. We’re almost certain my baby sister is part harpy. I mean she doesn’t have the wings but she has claws and she eats men for supper.” Sometimes, literally, depending on how they had wronged her. Ezio shrugged, “I might have had another brother but Mother was crushed by the centaur she seduced.”The captain rolled his eyes. “I’ve got to go and check on the crew, be a good boy and keep your mouth shut, huh?” Then he got back to his feet and walked toward the door. Even in the low light of the cabin, even with the obstruction of his loose shirt, his ass was amazing. The whole of his body was the sort of impressive that only came through a hard life of constant physical labor.“I’ll pay you three times what the man who hired you offered, if you let me go, let me fuck you and then return me to the shore.” It wasn’t a desperate pitch but a calculated strike.“That doesn’t keep me safe from your razor-fish brother, does it?” the captain retorted.“If you’re good at fucking, we can renegotiate the terms. Otherwise, I guess you’ll just have to find a way to avoid him yourself.” Ezio was grinning as the door swung shut behind the Captain. Feeling very proud of himself (and the progress he’d made toward freeing himself), he shifted around to find a comfortable place to slouch in.& --Edward was not in the habit of kidnapping people. (At least not for profit.) He also wasn’t in the habit of giving in to ludicrous stories about fish-people either. Yet, he found himself leaning against the wheel while Ade went on about something or another, staring at the fading sun on the horizon and how it made the whole unknown depths of the ocean look like glass. There were things beneath the water that man could not conceive. (But apparently one horny woman could.)“I told you not to take the job,” Ade said to the side. “It’s bad business.”“I’ve just received an intriguing counteroffer,” Edward said. And when Ade raised his eyebrows and motioned to hear it, Edward said (with a grin), “all I’ve got to do is untie him, let him bugger me and take him back to shore. And I’ll get three times the gold.”Adewale laughed so hard it drew the attention of every snoozing sailor left on deck. Edward didn’t want to shush him (for fear it would draw more attention) but he leaned away from the wheel to glare at him nonetheless. When the laughing grew quieter, Ade stepped closer to him, raised a hand like he meant to put it on his shoulder and said, “you should take the deal, Edward. It’s a good one, everything you deserve. Except the money.”“Yes thank you for that, Ade, thank you.” Then he motioned at the wheel so his chuckling quartermaster could take it for him. “Remind me to always come to you for such good advice.”“No trouble, Captain,” Ade assured him.--Ezio, every bit as infuriatingly hard to keep from staring at as rumored, was still sitting in his place like an obedient dog waiting for his master to return. If he had any feelings at all about being kidnapped and held against his will (besides smugness) they didn’t show. Aside from the chaotic tangle of his hair falling around his face, every inch of the man was perfect. “Have you considered my offer?” he asked.“I’ve had a laugh at it,” Edward said. He sat back in his chair, and since they were playing a game of seduction, made a show of pulling his shirt off. While he wasn’t entirely familiar what sort of thing attracted men who liked men, he was reasonably certain it involved the same basics. Aside from the sunburn on his shoulders from one too many harpooning trips (and lazy drunken afternoons in the sun) he was a fine specimen of maleness.“I untied my hands,” Ezio said. He pulled both his arms around in front of him to show that he had (indeed) unwound the ropes that were around them. Then he tugged at his shirt to fix where it had risen up against his neck and rested his hands in his lap. “If you’ve only laughed at my offer, why are you taking your clothes off?”There were enough weapons hidden around the room to make Edward feel ill at ease with the knowledge the man had been left unattended (and apparently free) in his cabin. Every word Ezio had said to him seemed careless and heedless of the danger he was in, and his proposition was surprisingly insane but there was, nonetheless, a vicious violence that settled just behind his eyes. “I was hot,” Edward said.Ezio eyed him like a meal. “Yes,” he agreed. Then he moved forward, smooth as a snake, all distracting sinew and muscle, up onto his knees and then his feet. His hands gripped the arms of the chair that Edward sat in as his knees invited themselves into the tight space on either side of his thighs. The man was heavy in his lap, the touch of his hands deceptively smooth across his neck. Ezio’s thumbs were broad but baby-fine as he stroked across the scruff on Edward’s jaw.“What are you?” Edward asked. “Your brother’s a fish, your sister’s a bird.” He might have said more but Ezio was close enough to smell and (aside from the lingering potato stink) it was an intoxicating thing. His skin was smooth and warm, instantly magnetic under Edward’s rough hands. The sound of Ezio’s mouth party was tiny and damp, but his words were perfectly clear, he said,“You should hear me sing. Sailors love to hear me sing.”Edward had heard enough stories in his life to know the difference between truth and rubbish. His hands were shoved up the back of Ezio’s shirt and his fingernails were raking down his back. A man that bled was a man that could die. He sat forward in the chair, all at once lifting them up and toppling both of them back to the floor. Ezio stretched-under-him, lazy and fat on victory. “You pay me and my crew and I live,” Edward said. “You agree to that, we have a deal.”Ezio considered it. “Have you ever been fucked before?”“No.”“Let me see your cock then,” and Ezio looked down between their bodies with one elbow up under him and an air of absolute seriousness on his face. Absent the playful nature of his threats, the businesslike coolness of his words was an affront to the slow-building lust Edward was trying to hold on to. Ezio simply watched him, lips flat, while Edward worked to free his dick.There they were: Edward sitting back on his knees, Ezio spread out on the floor under him. Both with ducked heads and quietly opened mouths, staring at his dick valiantly trying to maintain its virile thickness under the intimidating circumstances.“Three times,” Ezio said when he looked up. Clearly anticipating that his deal would be agreeable to all parties, he dragged Edward down by the arms and rolled them over in a singularly deft move that left Edward flat on his back. The noticeable extent of his nakedness had seemed problematic before. But it was painfully obvious as he was divested of his boots and trousers. “When I say, how I say without objections and I won’t let my brother kill you or most of your crew. He’ll probably kill a few before we notice.”“Nowhere public,” Edward objected.Ezio rolled his eyes. “If you insist. We have sex three times when and how I say, you give me the name of the man who hired you and return me to shore and I’ll spare most of your crew and you, and I’ll pay you three times the ransom.” He waited, poised right above Edward (now perilously naked and somewhat confused by the turn of events and the fact that he was fully sober) with his eyebrows up in a way that conveyed he required an immediate answer.“Fine,” Edward said.--It wasn’t until after, when Edward’s whole body was one great blushing mess: sweat-crusted and exhausted, that it occurred to him: “you’ve turned me from a kidnapper to a hooker,” as he looked up at Ezio (completely naked) who was casually rifling through his papers.“You’re welcome,” Ezio said.“I didn’t thank you.”Ezio just shrugged at that. Then he sat in Edward’s seat and smiled down at him (still laying spent on the floor), “you were a good deal better than I expected.”There were many things about the experience that Edward hadn’t expected, beyond the fact that it was happening, of course. Rather than protest on the order that he deserved better estimation, Edward just sat up. It put him unfortunately level with Ezio’s lap and the easy, familiar, lazy way the man was stroking his dick. Edward glanced up at his face, “it’ll take us at least two days to get you back to shore.”“Patience is not a virtue I hold in high esteem,” Ezio said. “I do,” he countered, “have a sense of humor and it would amuse me very much to send you back to your crew with a sore ass.” And his smile was the most offensive thing that Edward had ever seen.Edward laugh at that sentiment, “you wouldn’t be the first. Though the others were not quite so intimately acquainted with my ass.” He grabbed the arm of the chair and pulled himself up to standing. The confession seemed to have stuttered out something in Ezio’s brain because his face was all pink and his smile wasgenuine.“I seem to have been remiss in not taking a closer study of your sexual interests,” Ezio said. “Is it too late to renegotiate our deal?”“Yes.”So Ezio sighed and stood up. “Bend over the table,” like they were back to all business. Edward might have done it himself (eventually) but he was feeling peevish and full of victory about it. Ezio put a hand at the back of his neck and pushed him over. There was nothing that annoyed him more than being pushed.He shook Ezio off and hit him in the chest with a stray elbow. It was accidental save for how he laughed at it. Ezio hit him back (not at all accidental) and the whole thing spiraled out of control in a matter of seconds. They made a brawl out of it, throwing fists and elbows through the cabin, knocking over things here and there with their dicks flopping about freely in the wind.Edward was furious-and-laughing when Ezio finally pinned him down to the stairs face-first into the rough wood of his cabin floor. There was an arm around his back and a mouth fastened securely onto the sunburnt skin of his shoulders. He was giggling when Ezio fucked into him, feeling high-and-pleased about the whole thing. His mouth (often disobedient) was running off without his brain again, saying, “what sort of siren can’t get a man to obey ‘im?”Ezio released the chunk of meat he had between his teeth as his hips slapped against Edward’s ass, he was fucking him with all the mad fury he should have the first time. He said, “you’re not a man.” All tight-and-hard-and-red.--“You finished now?” Edward asked when he got his breath back. He pushed Ezio off him (since the man seemed content to lay there, useless and heavy, on his back) and turned around to sit. The dirty, hard floor wasn’t entirely pleasant to sit on but it was still an improvement over being crushed.Ezio was laying on his back, all pinked grins, waving his hand, “yes, go. I’m saving the last one for something special.” Then he sat up and looked around the room, “before you go, I need something to eat and something to wash my face in.”Edward got back to his feet, “sorry mate, that wasn’t part of our deal.”& --None of this, in Federico’s estimation, would have happened if his Mother hadn’t decided to become a horsefucker. It had been insult enough when she ran off with the sirens and downright embarrassing when she showed up with a squawking bird-child. Still, neither of those unfortunate younger siblings were his responsibility (despite the code of conduct his father kept) except when Mother’s deformed corpse had been returned to his Father.They had held a fabulous funeral for her (with a closed casket) and quietly told nobody the manner of her death. It was hard to keep ‘crushed by a horse-man during sex’ a secret but Father was stoned faced about the whole affair. The only thing he said on the matter was: “well now you have to look after the other children. They’re basically helpless without her.”Claudia, the harpy-child, was not helpless in anyway.Ezio was not helpless but lazy and troublesome. That was how it came to be that Federico was (yet again) mounting a rescue for his poor stupid little brother. While most days, his sense of duty afforded him a minimal amount of care, this day he summoned up a small gathering of his favorite sharks, one or two whales that owed him a favor and took his best knife before dragging his fins through the water on his uninspired attempt to find Ezio.--An important thing to note about Sirens was that they all had a particular smell. The monsters, not content to be attractive visually and aurally also demanded complete and total olfactory dominance. In short, Ezio smelled and that smell could be easily found at great distances and followed with minimal effort.Federico tracked him across the ocean to a modest ship, humorously called the ‘Jackdaw’. While the sharks and the whales swam in lazy circles beneath the vessel, Federico climbed up onto the ship. It was late at night, dark in a way that made even the most stalwart of sailors sleepy. The perfect sort of night to sneak up to a few of the laziest sort and slit their throats. (Oh, but Federico did love the smell of man’s blood. Hot and delicious on his hands.)He padded across the deck of the ship, undetected despite his failure to disguise himself, steadied himself for a terrible fight and then kicked open the door of the captain’s cabin. While he expected the usual: Ezio in irons, possibly gagged, playfully winking at his captors; he was somewhat less prepared to be greeted with the sight of Ezio completely naked. In fact, the man was perilously undressed, with bruises on his perfect skin, smiling in a way that filled the whole room with a sort of suffocating smugness.The stench of sex was as thick as a fog. And the second occupant in the room was half-dressed in a great show of defiance to his brother’s increasingly nauseating release of chemicals meant to entice men into stupidity.“Ezio!” Federico shouted at him. “You whore.” There were not many words Federico had mastered in the human languages but those had been the most apt and useful ones he could have chosen. Almost as soon as he said them, the blond man (also bruised and bitten and very recently fucked) looked up at him with a lack of shock that could only have been caused by Ezio.His baby brother (naked) came over to slid an arm around his shoulders. “See?” Ezio said as he motioned up and down to him.Federico hated him. He despised him and everything he stood for. There was no way to convey this with the limitations of human language (except stabbing him repeatedly which he was not allowed to do) and so he shook his head and headed back out the door. A number of the corpses he’d left behind were still warm enough to eat, and he had promised his sharks a snack for their cooperation. His retreat was stopped by Ezio’s arm tightening around his neck.“Wait,” his brother said unnecessarily. He motioned significantly at the half-dressed human. It was clearly meant to be an invitation of some manner. In his current mood the only acceptable apology Federico could think of was a fresh meal and so he cocked up his eyebrows and raised his knife.“Hey,” the potential dinner said.“I promised him you wouldn’t kill him,” Ezio said. “Or most of his crew.” That was stupid. Federico would have to speak to his father about the rule that made him abide by the promises his stupid brother made in his name. “However,” Ezio said. He leaned in close-and-tight against Federico’s side. The rich smell that came off him was filthy with sex. His fingers were stroking down the soft scales that covered most of Federico’s neck. His other hand slid down over his naked belly, across the soft human skin his Mother had cursed him with. His fingers were tip-toeing their way—“Whore,” Federico said again. If not for the hand that was trying to coax his dick out than to the assumption that he’d want to share the human who had obviously traded himself for sex. For good measure, Federico looked over that human to add, “whore,” so that the entire assembly was aware of their obvious professions.Ezio pouted at him. Or he made some attempt to pout. While Federico’s royal blood made him immune the siren glimmer, his parentage could not make him immune to Ezio’s entirely human charm. Or the way he kissed, all sweet-tempered and longingly. Federico was pathetically weak against the persuasive warmth of Ezio’s whole body. The red-human-blood that was flowing all through his body, rich and dark beneath his skin.Federico kissed him back with one hand in his sweaty-tangled hair (another human oddity that delighted him) and his mouth pressed open from the insistence of his brother. Ezio liked to kiss him with their mouths open but his tongue was never brave enough to slid inside of Federico’s mouth. He’d tried it once, when they were young, and he’d cut himself on the rows of Federico’s teeth.“I suppose your Mother would be proud, at least,” the human said from the side. He was sitting in a chair looking entirely without judgment for the average human. If he meant to dress himself, he’d stopped and was instead sitting half-naked and sighing over the state of things. “If there’s bodies on the deck, we will be interrupted.”Ezio looked at Federico and he shrugged.--Cleaning up the bodies did not take long. In fact, it was a task he could have finished in seconds if not for how the Captain (I think his name is Edward, Ezio said) had to pause and make sad noises under his breath as they threw the men to the sharks beneath the boat.“I always liked this fellow. He was a good sort,” the man said as he pushed the lifeless body to the greedy great white, mouth-open and teeth bared, waiting for his meal.Once the evidence had been cleaned up (and the blood left to dry until it could be discovered in the morning), Ezio immediately pulled them back toward the seclusion of the captain’s cabin. He hooked an arm around each of them and said, as if it meant something, “this is three.”“I hadn’t guessed,” Edward said. “And how?”Ezio-just-smiled.--Federico liked the human. He was defiant in the very best possible way. Always wiggling and squirming, gasping out angry sounds when he was held down. Ezio did not always pick good human mates (if only because his brother was, first and foremost, lazy) but now and again he struck gold. This human, bronzed and salted by the sea, was strong. His legs were thick and heavy, they hurt a bit when he clenched them around Federico’s ribs.“Don’t you ever quit?” the human asked him. He was laid across a table, his back smearing his inaccurate maps, knocking this-and-that to the floor with every thrust of Federico’s hips driving his dick in as deep as he could go. Edward (the human), was scratching at his scales, sliding his broad hand up over Federico’s head all along the dark scales that grew there. His body was radiating heat like a fire, clenching and tight all around him.Ezio was laying at his side, resting his cheek against his hand as he watched with quiet enjoyment. It was obvious that he’d already had a turn (or two) and that might have been why he was so quick to give Federico the first chance. “You act like you don’t like it,” Ezio said.Edward’s eyes fluttered shut and his teeth bared. He must have been searching for the right words to convey his feelings on the matter, but a well-placed thrust of Federico’s hips reduced his words to noises. His shoulders were red with blood, suffuse with blushing and heat. When Edward opened his eyes he looked right at him. His confusing face was caught in a grin that was all at once endearing and annoying.Federico fucked him harder and the human moaned a laugh.--Ezio said, “I don’t think he’s entirely human,” after Federico was finished. Edward was soaked in sweat and laying very still with his legs hanging off the table and his arms over his head. The smell of him was the layers of sex he’d survived that night. The sort of thing that made the heavy thrum of his blood all the more appetizing. Federico considered sinking his teeth in (for a friendly nibble) somewhere on the outside of his thigh where the flesh would heal without being too ugly.But his baby brother was looking down at Edward like he’d found a new favorite pet. It was unlike Ezio to watch without demanding touches. Yet he had simply laid buy until Federico finished. (If the human achieved some climax, it was entirely without the usual milky-white-proof.)“You should tell me the name of the man that hired you,” Ezio said sweetly to the human. “Fucking makes Federico very hungry.” He stroked his fingers through the human’s hair while he said it, made himself very appealing and likeable when he spoke.“I can’t remember my own name,” Edward said. “You can’t expect me to remember anyone else’s.”Ezio hummed in agreement. “Well, in the morning.” Then he kissed the human and slid off the table. He had never bothered to put on clothes to throw the corpses overboard and was brilliantly naked when he stepped over to sit in Federico’s lap. His hands were warm across Federico’s skin and his voice all low and inviting when he said, “now me,” with all the perfectly petulant entitlement he was so well known for.--Federico had learned years ago not to put faith into Ezio’s theories regarding his pet humans. He’d once convinced Claudia that a particularly clever human was the son of a muse and the two of them had spread the delightful rumor to every corner of the globe. The human, in that case, was nearly struck dead for blasphemy from the real muses who were (this century, according to father) very particular about rumors involving them copulating with humans for sport.There was no good reason to suspect that this human Ezio had seduced was anything but another human (albeit a sturdy one) until the next morning. Many humans, after being fucked into unconsciousness, were not entirely energetic the following day. Rather than be crippled by lethargy (or wounded by a persistent pain in the ass, as Ezio liked to snicker about) Edward was undaunted in the chaotic crisis of his crew finding the blood stains and not finding the missing crew.Federico hung around the boat, floating lazily in the water, listening to the uproar of the day. He climbed the sides of the ship, peering through the cracks in the railing, watching the Captain work tirelessly to assure his men all was well. He watched him steering the ship.--When night came again, Federico crept back on the ship, across the planks and back into the Captain’s cabin where Ezio was dining on poor-man’s-food with obvious distaste. The Captain was sipping alcohol that made his skin hotter and his blood sweeter.As the words ‘Ezio’ and ‘you whore’ didn’t seem appropriate, Federico just stood, dripping, not far from the doorway of the cabin. He could not leave entirely until Ezio had been returned to his home (as was the rules he was forced to live by) but he was not needed to protect his brother.The human leaned forward and picked up another jug before holding it out to him. Federico considered the offering and looked over at Ezio who motioned at him to take it.“We were just discussing how to handle the man that hired Captain Kenway here.” Ezio pushed his plate away from him. “I believe were very near to discussing how good an idea it would be to have sex again.”“Whore,” Federico said.“What he said,” Edward intoned. Then he set his bottle against his knee and narrowed his eyes at Ezio. “By my calculations, you’re out of demands. Seems like, you’re due to be the one taking the beating this time.”Federico did not find the words terribly charming or seductive but Ezio did. He smiled like he was in love, “fair is fair,” Ezio agreed.