Disclaimer: As much as I would love to say that I own Assassin's Creed, sadly I don't. So STOP BOTHERING ME.

Warning: Rated K+ for one swear word and implied violence.

Leonardo da Vinci quietly hummed to himself as he poured his mind over a sketch in his workshop. It was the middle of another Venetian morning; the sunlight flowed into his studio window over his painting like warm honey. He could hear the chatter of the merchants selling their goods at the marketplace nearby and the soft flapping of the gray-blue water in the canal behind his house. The artist could even pinpoint birds chirping cheerfully amongst themselves in the trees. At least out there than in those horrid cages, Leo thought approvingly. It was a perfect day for him.

A small bird the size of Leonardo's hand flew into the studio and perched itself on the window ledge. It stared at the artist curiously and squeaked innocently. Leonardo slowly approached the winged animal, eyes glittering with curiosity.

"Ah!" he exclaimed. "Hello there, little bird!" He gingerly offered his hand to the tiny creature, to which the bird responded by hopping onto the soft flesh. Leonardo brought the hand up to his face without shaking it to examine the bird. A pure white coat of feathers gleamed in the morning sun. Leonardo turned around his hand even more to find a scarlet-red oval on its belly as well as a small black tuft on the top of its head.

"You are a peculiar little fellow," the artist remarked. "I'm surprised you're not afraid of me." It gave a few curious peeks around the inside of the cluttered studio and peeped again.

"I know, I know," Leonardo said, as if replying to the bird. "My workshop is a little bit cluttered, but that's how I can co—" He was suddenly interrupted by the sound of papers crinkling under human touch. The bird flew out the window in an instant.

Leonardo's breath hitched. He would concentrate on the anger of the bird flying away later; right now, there was an uninvited guest in his house. The engineer grabbed the first thing that he found without paying much attention to the object and ran towards the source of the noise.

"Hey!" he shouted, trying to sound as menacingly as possible. "I don't know who you are, but I am armed, and if you do not get out of my workshop, then I will be more than happy to harm you!" Sure enough, it worked; the burglar ran off. A trail of brown flew out behind him as he fled into the streets. Leonardo was shocked for a second; he swore that he sounded like Ezio when he was threatening the thief. After he recovered from his brief pause, Leonardo rummaged through whatever papers the robber nosed his way through. All his notes were taken accounted for, and Leonardo smiled with accomplishment at the messy organization. However, he then realized a horrid theory and began throwing his papers everywhere to search for it. After resulting with nothing, Leonardo concluded his search with an aching conclusion.

His painting supplies were missing.

His painting supplies were missing.

His painting supplies were missing.

His painting supplies were missing!

His latest commission is due in three days!

"Cazzo!" Leonardo swore loudly, kicking the canvas with his foot harshly. The wooden planks clashed against his toe in a very disagreeing way, and the angry painter yelped again, grabbing his injured foot with tense hands. He then threw his hat onto the ground like a rock and pulled at his light-brown hair in clumps. Leonardo brought his hands up to his face when he realized that he was still grasping the supposed weapon in his hand. He composed himself for a few minutes and opened his fist to analyze it.

It was a paintbrush.

~*~*~*~

The next day, Leonardo found himself trapped in his own workshop, still frustrated from the incident. From the moment that his paint supplies went missing, he found himself to be bored out of his mind. He was also speechless as to what to tell his disappointed customer when he showed up without the painting…that is, if he found the paintbrushes and cans in time.

The deprived painter stared out the window with dull eyes, hands placed on his chin. It was now raining heavily; an unexpected flash flood from the northern borders of Italia. Thick raindrops showered the entire surface of the floating city and crackled like millions of infinitesimal beads against marble. That meant that none of the birds were able to fly in this dreaded weather, Leonardo thought grimly. He gave out a heavy sigh; he hated rainy days.

"Leonardo!" a familiar voice called out to him.

Leonardo gave out a startled jump in both eagerness and unexpected surprise. He spun around to find a bone-soaked Ezio standing at the door of his studio, a grin plastered across his face. At once, Leonardo's energy was revived.

"Ezio!" he replied happily. "You're completely drenched," he added, chuckling as he eyed his heavy, grey cloak.

"Si, but it was all worth it, amico mio," Ezio said. He removed his damp glove from his left hand and fetched a surprisingly dry scroll from one of his belts. It was another one of the Codex pages.

"Ahh!" Leonardo snatched it from the Assassin and carefully opened it, inspecting it for water damage. "You found another one! How exciting!" He approached the workshop table, shoved some of the books and papers aside with his free hand, and unfurled it even further so he could decode the page.

"Guess what?" Leonardo asked in a childlike manner.

"What?" Ezio replied back.

"It's my birthday tomorrow!" he sang happily.

Ezio's eyes widened as he snapped himself out of the daydream. "Really?" he asked.

"Si," the brown-headed said eagerly. Ezio is probably the only company he would have until he at least got his supplies back; he might as well take full advantage of it. "Anyway, you would not believe what happened to me yesterday," Leonardo chattered as he read over the symbols on the page. "Someone had entered my house yesterday uninvited and stole my art supplies!"

He turned back from his work to make eye contact with the Assassin, but the engineer had caught a peculiar look on Ezio's face: one of apprehension, guilt, and remorse. However, Ezio's expression reverted back to indifferent but slight interest within less than a split second. Leonardo turned back and set his eyes on the wrinkled scroll.

"Really?" Ezio replied again. His voice was now at a way less eager tone than when he had walked into the door.

"Yes," the painter replied. "I really don't know anyone that would steal something that is not important to them like paint supplies. Then again," Leonardo's eyes reverted back to Ezio, "I'm not sure if it's any of the thieves though."

"…I see… I'll go consult Antonio later on."

"Like I said, I don't know," the oblivious artist prattled on. "Maybe someone is trying to play a joke on me." If Leonardo had looked at Ezio sometime before that point, he would find the Assassin's expression shocking.

However, Leonardo decided to keep quiet and glanced at the Codex page, which somehow got decoded during his conversation with Ezio. "Anyway," he concluded, wrapping up the scroll and handing it to the Assassin, "here's your Codex page back."

"Grazie, Leo, I'd love to stay and chat some more, but I really have to go," Ezio sputtered out, stumbling on his words as he stuffed the Codex page into one of his belts. "Ciao!" he shouted back as he flipped his hood over his head and sprinted out the studio door into the pelting rain. His mahogany-brown cape fluttered out behind him as he flew out into the street and hopped up onto the wall of a building.

Wait, brown?

That's strange, Leonardo thought to himself.

~*~*~*~

The next day had arrived, and Leonardo decided that he wasn't going to sit around for any longer. As soon as mid-day had peaked, the artist set off from his workshop to retrieve new supplies with determination written all over his face. Leonardo didn't have a lot of money with him – 50 florins to be exact – but he hoped to Dio that some of the decent paint that merchants sold didn't cost that much.

The rain had stopped the night before, but the clouds still lingered and covered every inch of the sky with a dull ocean of grey. Despite the neutral weather, however, the merchants were still running their stands with confidence, waving their products that anyone who walked by. The engineer didn't walk a very long distance before he found himself at the heart of the marketplace. He was shocked to still find the usual swarms of people who were browsing the stands and bazaars.

Leonardo inhaled a deep breath, almost as if to go underwater, and began to push himself within the waves of the customers. He surely was not used to the crowd; he often would summon his assistants to fetch his stuff. It's wasn't a matter of time before he felt elbows and hands from different people replying back as well.

There was this one particular bump that was especially felt more than the other shoves that Leonardo was handed too, and it was also aimed at his belt area. Leonardo abruptly stopped and whirled around a full 180 degrees, causing more complaints among those near him. But it wasn't that he was paying attention to.

Standing a good 20 feet away from him, a masked man in ripped and soiled clothing stood in complete view of the artist, smiling and laughing rather devilishly. Leonardo's eyes widened and bolted downward as he patted his belt area for his money. Surprisingly, it was intact. If he didn't go for my wallet, then what—

Leonardo's eyes shot back upward to find the man spinning around a red cloth like a flattened dough circle. The artist's hands then sped back up to pat his head, but before he could realize that his hat was stolen, the thief was already sprinting away from the scene.

"Hey!" Leonardo shouted at the robber, taking a running leap towards his offender. "Come back here with my hat!" The thief only chuckled more as he continued his running, carelessly shoving people who got into his way. Leonardo apologized to those same people as he whizzed by. He was getting pretty tired of people invading his space and taking his things!

Leonardo could only think of the frustration that consumed his mind and the stealer running from him during the whole chase. Soon enough, the frustration died down, followed by a slow increase of curiosity. He stopped for one second to analyze the area around him, which was distinguished by rotting wood on buildings and residents in shambled clothing. Was he near the Thieves' Guild?

"Better hurry up, old man!" the thief teased, stopping in front of him to dance obscenely. Once again, he began to dart through the crowds of people before disappearing at a corner.

"Get back here, you little--!" Leonardo started as he ran, clinging on to the trail that the robber left behind. He turned at the exact same corner that the thief cut through and managed to catch one last glimpse of him disappearing behind a door.

The artist grabbed at the doorknob and yanked it open. "Okay," Leonardo began, "what is the meaning of—"

"HAPPY BIRTHDAY!"

The yell shocked Leonardo out of his anger, and he blinked at the scene that was before him. Ezio was standing in front of him, and the thief with the clouded face ripped off his mask to reveal a fiery-grinning Rosa.

"E-Ezio?" Leonardo sputtered. "And Rosa? What are you guys doing here?"

"Wishing you a happy birthday, of course," Rosa replied, throwing the mask into a corner of the room. "Ezio wanted to make something special for you, so he had to grab the necessary materials needed to do so."

"Y-You stole my art supplies?" Leonardo laughed, still shocked and confused as to what he walked into.

"Si," Ezio replied sheepishly. "I didn't want you to get suspicious, so I was the one who went into your workshop and took them."

"Ezio!" Leonardo cried, chuckling some more. "If you only needed to borrow my paint supplies, then you only needed to ask! I would have let you use them anytime!"

"But look at what he had used them for," Rosa whispered, inching in towards Leonardo's ear and putting a hand up as if to tell a big secret. "Go ahead, Ezio!" Rosa said at normal volume. "Show him your painting!"

Ezio blinked embarrassingly as he anxiously shuffled to the side, revealing a canvas of a rather childish-looking drawing of two stick people. One of them sported a red blob and brown spikes on its head while another wore a white afro on its head. Both of them spurted out messy lines of red from their backs, and the words "LEONARDO AND EZIO" were written in chicken scratch with heavy black paint. Meanwhile, several blots of different colors were splashed on random places of the canvas. Hanging up on one of the speckled corners of the canvas was his hat.

"Mi dispiace," Ezio said. A few blobs of paint also dotted Ezio's face as well. "I'm not quite as good at painting as you, but I did my best…"

"Ezio," Leonardo began as he stepped closer towards the messy canvas, "I absolutely love it!" He took his hat, fitted it with care around his head, and turned towards the blushing Assassin with a wide grin across his face.

Ezio's eyes widened. "Y-You do?" he stuttered. "G-Grazie." His blush grew a deeper hue as he looked at the ground.

Leonardo chuckled at the Assassin's childish behavior and cupped his cheek with a soft hand. "You don't need to worry about criticism," he whispered at Ezio. "I will be the only one who would see it." Ezio's chocolate eyes met Leonardo's sea blue eyes and he gave a tiny smile. Beneath the center of Ezio's eyes, Leonardo could see the seventeen-year-old that he never lived to full potential.

"Happy birthday, Leonardo," Ezio whispered.

"Come on!" Rosa's voice cut through the moment like a hot knife through soft butter. The two lovers glanced towards the female thief, who was beckoning them with a slender hand. "I'm going to eat the whole entire cake without you guys!"

As Ezio followed Rosa to another room while caressing Leonardo's waist, Leonardo could not help but think to himself that this was the best birthday that he's ever celebrated.

Translations

Cazzo! – Fuck!

Amico mio – my friend

Grazie – thanks

Ciao – See you!

Dio – God

Mi dispiace – I'm sorry

Yay, it's done! ^_^ Today is Leonardo da Vinci's birthday, people! –takes out birthday party supplies- So celebrate! :D Today is also Filippo Brunelleschi and Abraham Lincoln's deathday, which is kinda ironic lol

I now have a deviantART page, so go check it out! The link is (without the spaces) http:// l-artista-brilliante. deviantart. com

Reviews count as birthday presents in this one :3 So give plenty of reviews to make Leonardo happy, please! ^_^

BTW I got that "His painting supplies were missing" idea from Atlas Rain's How to be Dominant fanfic. I hope no one minds D: