So here's the fic that tells Cuccilio's story. He gets paired with Ezio, so deal with it v:

Cuccilio tread carefully through the forest. He'd heard of the Assassins reassembling their brotherhood, and he didn't want to get caught up with them. He possessed a lot of Templar knowledge, but wanted nothing to do with the fight between the two groups. He smiled and reached into his hood, seemingly rubbing his neck, then continued on.

"Is that him...?" Ezio remained silent in the trees. La Volpe equally as silent. "Si. He possesses enough knowledge of the Templars to bring them to their knees." Ezio grinned. He liked the sound of that. All he'd have to do then was locate the apple and keep it out of the wrong hands. Cuccilio continued through the forest, blissful as ever. "This is your mission, Ezio," La Volpe said. "don't mess it up." Ezio nodded and continued along after Cuccilio, leaving La Volpe behind.

Cuccilio sighed before stopping at a clearing to rest. "Too much walking...Stupid boots." He glared at the boots he was wearing, making Ezio chuckle. "This child carries abundant information about the Templars? How comical...~" When Cuccilio got back up and began to make his way to his home, Ezio followed once more.

Cuccilio sang a small tune before he reached the outskirts of Rome. A small home on the side of a hill facing the city is where he went. He unlocked the door and went inside with a soft expression. "If you hurt him, Ezio, then we may loose any chance we have of getting a grip on the Templars..." Niccolo's words rang over and over in his head. His target was small enough, surely he could overpower him with ease. Ezio's hard head took over and he bolted in without a concrete plan.

He eased the door open slowly, peering in to see if his target was within sight or hearing range. He must have been in another room, so Ezio made a quick slip inside and began to investigate. This certainly didn't seem like the kind of house someone like him would live in, but he pushed the thought away and continued looking.

"Damn...I forgot my book..." Cuccilio opened the door to leave his bedroom. He never expected to be pinned to his own wall by a stranger. A stranger wearing...The Assassin's insignia...? Cuccilio looked up to the strange man with fear in his eyes.

"Don't worry, I'm not going to hurt you. Just come with me." Cuccilio suddenly began to struggle. "No! Assassin! Assassi-" He was trying to alert the guards that normally patrolled the area, but Ezio muffled him with his gloved hand. "Come on now, don't do that. I'm really not going to hurt you. We just need the information about the Templars that you posses." Cuccilio struggled in Ezio's grip. "Mmph!" He managed to get his lower jaw free and sunk his teeth into Ezio's hand. "Ah!" Ezio grit his teeth and kept his hold on the smaller man, manhandling him to the door and back through the woods to an entrance to one of the Assassins' Bureaus.

"Ah...used your hand as bait...?" Ezio walked into the hideout, Cuccilio still holding a tight grip on Ezio's hand. "Not much by choice, but I got him here in one piece..." Niccolo's mouth formed a firm, straight line as he walked over to the pair. "Hold him still for me would you?" Ezio nodded and kept a firm grip on Cuccilio. Niccolo positioned his hand at the back of Cuccilio's neck. He knew what the assassin was up to and immediately released his captor's hand. "No-!" He was too late. Niccolo had knocked him unconscious.

Cuccilio woke with a stir. Everything smelled different. He wasn't wearing the clothes he normally wore. He was in a bed he didn't recognize. "Ah, so you're awake finally. Sorry about Niccolo, Cuccilio. He can be as brash as me sometimes." Cuccilio rubbed his eyes. "Who are you...? How do you know me...?" Ezio looked over to his bed where Cuccilio lay. "You were a target of mine. Is it not an assassin's job to know everything he or she can about their targets? And I am Ezio Auditore." Cuccilio's face had fear written all over it. "You're that wanted man...wanted for murdering-" "Murdering Templar agents. You of all people should know of their intentions. Though they're good, they seek it in all the wrong possible ways."

Cuccilio relaxed a little for some reason. He looked over to the door and noted that it was possibly locked, considering there was a key on the desk next to Ezio. His eyes immediately moved to his bandaged left hand. "I'm sorry..." Ezio looked over slightly confused but realized what he meant by following his gaze. "Oh, this is nothing. All you were doing was trying to escape in what you believed to be a life or death situation. If I were you, I'd have probably done the same to be honest." Cuccilio smiled a little, moving his legs to the side of the bed. "So I suppose I'm a prisoner now...right?" Ezio nodded. "Yes, and your little friend too~" Cuccilio went wide eyed. Where is he? Ezio reached over to the side of his desk that Cuccilio couldn't see. "Here he is, you can stop freaking out...~" Cuccilio's cat had been sitting in Ezio's lap. He let out a sigh of relief and walked over to retrieve his fuzzy friend.

"So...If I'm your prisoner, does that mean you're going to torture me for information or something...?" Ezio laughed lightly and shook his head. "You are a neutral party, that's the very last thing we'd do. But I do want the information you possess about the Templars." Cuccilio sighed and sat back down on what he presumed to be Ezio's bed. "I want nothing to do with your little feud. That's why I stayed away from the city. So I could stay away from you..." Ezio was still scribbling things in his journal. He said nothing for a little while.

"Well, I'm not going to put you down in one of the cells down below. Niccolo wanted me to, but I insisted that it was wrong because you had done nothing to deserve this." Cuccilio was laying on his side, his back facing Ezio. "I was simply following orders when I had come after you...Really, I am sorry." Cuccilio remained silent. Maybe he's asleep? Ezio stood from his chair and walked to his bed where Cuccilio and his cat lay. They were asleep. Ezio smiled softly before pulling the heavy blanket over the odd pair. "Silly child...~"

"Ezio, have you interrogated the boy yet?" He shook his head to Niccolo, flipping through some of the Codex pages he had gathered. "Ezio...We need the information he carries! Beat it out of him if you must!" Ezio's eyes snapped up to meet Niccolo's. "That is not how my father would have done it. Nor Uncle Mario." Niccolo sighed. "You're right, Ezio. We don't need to get this information at all. Even though we know the boy won't tell us willingly." Ezio closed the book he was flipping through. "I don't care how you would like to do it, but we are not breaking any of the tenets, one being the easiest of all to remember. Never harm the innocent." Ezio left with that statement hanging in the air.

Ezio returned to his room, slid the key into the lock, and turned it. But there was no resistance of bolts unlocking. They were already unlocked. Ezio opened the door, expecting to see an empty room. "Cuccilio?" His cat came bounding out from under the bed. "There's the cat. Now where's my prisoner?" Ezio barely finished the sentence when something bumped into his back. "Hm? Ah, there he is. Not much of a prisoner if he escapes then comes back." Cuccilio looked up to the taller man and smiled awkwardly, munching on a thick slice of bread. "Bonjiourno Ezio...~" Ezio smiled and stepped to the side to let him in. "Bonjiourno~" Cuccilio walked in and flopped onto the bed, followed by his cat.

"So, you never told me his name," Ezio said, gesturing to the cat. "What is it?" Cuccilio's soft expression turned into a pained, hurt expression. "He was my sister's..." Ezio immediately knew what happened and walked over. Cuccilio sighed and let himself be held by the older man, the cat pawing at the two for attention. "I didn't even have time to say good-bye to her...They just came into our home and killed her...for no good reason..." Ezio held Cuccilio closer. He knew the pain Cuccilio felt.

Ezio left Cuccilio to rest on his bed, leaving his door unlocked while he went to attend to some business. The two lay sleeping, unaware of the danger coming his way. Unaware of the danger coming to the assassins. No one saw the Templar soldiers coming until it was too late.

They stormed the entrance to the Assassin's Bureau. Cuccilio was too far in to hear the commotion, so he didn't wake until they got close enough. "Ezio...?" They bust down the door. "There he is! Seize him!" Cuccilio went wide eyed and picked up one of Ezio's extra throwing knives. "Merde..." There were far too many for him to handle. He was still groggy with sleep. He fought as best as he could, but was beaten into submission before being bound and dragged outside, through the bureau. All of the other assassins...This is my fault...

Word reached Ezio. He raced back as quickly as he could only to find the place in shambles and one of his throwing knives covered in blood. "Cuccilio must know how to fight..." Niccolo walked in. "It seems your prisoner was taken by the enemy. I know you don't want him hurt and especially not killed. The information he carries is vital to our success. You need to go get him back from Templar hands." Ezio nodded and was off in an instant.

"Come on...~ Don't make me use this again...~" The guard captain brandished a bludgeon with blood and quite a few strands of golden blonde hair. Cuccilio spat at the man, who frowned in return. "Hold him." Two of the other guards moved to hold his shoulders and one held his head up. "This will hurt you more than it will hurt me, Assassini...~" The captain swung the bludgeon down hard, opening another cut and inflicting more bruises. Still, Cuccilio did not yell or scream. He didn't even mumble his irritation or pain. He sat and took it.

"Make sure not to kill the boy or injure him fatally will you?" An officer of higher rank walked by the cell. The three guards inside torturing Cuccilio saluted and went back to their 'fun'. "Sir, maybe we should get his legs now? In case he tries to escape." The captain grinned evilly. "Of course...~ Break the legs of a prize horse and he's no more than a useless hunk of meat unworthy of even the lowliest dog...~" Cuccilio looked up to the man, showing his full discontent. "I'll teach you to look at me like that..." The Templar brought the bludgeon back up, striking down hard, bringing it up again, and striking him again. He did this until his arm tired out. Cuccilio's lip was bleeding profusely. He wasn't going to give them the gratification of hearing him cry out. Instead, he'd been biting his lip and holding the tears and cries back. "This one just won't budge." The captain inhaled deeply. "It seems not. Maybe starvation will make him speak...Come on." The two guards released Cuccilio's shoulders and followed the captain, closing and locking the heavy gate.

I'm too weak right now...even if I could escape these ropes, I wouldn't be able to get to the gate to pick it nor would I be able to escape... Cuccilio sat in the chair, his head lolling down onto his chest. He wasn't going to die, he knew that much. But if living like this hurt so much, he wondered how it would feel to actually die. Painful? Soft? He didn't ponder those questions. He knew he wasn't going to die until he leaked information he knew about them and that he knew about the assassins in the time spent with them. And he was never going to speak. Ezio refused to lay a finger on me to get the information. He comforted me instead when he learned about my sister's death...The Templars are beating me over and over even starving me...Maybe I was wrong about the assassins... Cuccilio begged and pleaded in his mind for Ezio to come in at some point to save him. Surely he knew what had happened...

A guard was making his way to Cuccilio's cell. He was dressed in a captain's uniform. Sporting a bludgeon flecked with blonde hair and fresh blood. He opened the cell door to see a lolled over prisoner. "Just...just kill me...I'm not telling...you anything..." The guard grinned. "Oh really now? I should think otherwise..." He walked over to Cuccilio, who shuddered at the disturbance in the air. "What happened...to starving me...into talking..." The guard grinned again. "I was thinking something more along the lines of a nice hot meal, being reunited with your cat, sleeping in my nice, soft bed...~" Cuccilio's head shot up. "Ezio...?" The guard smirked this time and nodded slightly. "Just follow my lead."

Ezio walked through the halls unnoticed. Anyone that stopped and asked were told that the prisoner was being moved elsewhere for further interrogation. Everyone bought it. Cuccilio couldn't walk, so Ezio had carried him the entire way, although, he had to remain bound in order for Ezio's story to be bought, but the restraints were loosened greatly. Cuccilio struggled every now and then against his restraints. Sometimes when they were passing other guards. Ezio had to bark at him to, "Be still or suffer the consequences." Cuccilio stifled his smile until they were out of sight of the guards.

Once they were out, Cuccilio got out of his restraints and held on to the bits of cloth poking from under the armor he wore. "Ezio..." Ezio blushed slightly, thankful that it was dark and Cuccilio couldn't see it. "Yes?" Cuccilio looked up and met Ezio's eyes. "I...I lo-" he looked down immediately. "Thanks for saving me..." Ezio grinned. "Come on~ You can say it...~" He knew what I was going to say...?

Cuccilio looked back up to him, surprise filling his eyes. "Just say it chicken." Ezio was being firm now. "Uhm..." Cuccilio buried his face into Ezio's arm. How the kid manages to twist his body like that, I'll never know...but I guess its a plus for me...~ Ezio smirked, waiting for they shy child in his arms to say it. "Just say it child...~" Cuccilio looked up immediately. "Child? I'll have you know, I'm 21 imbeccilo..." Ezio's eyebrows shot up. "Jerk? Look who's talking. You can call a man that could rip you to shreds in seconds a jerk, but you can't say you love him?" Cuccilio's eyes went wide and he clung to Ezio tightly all of a sudden. "Imbeccilo..." Ezio smiled and carried him the rest of the way to the bureau to have their doctor take a look at him.

Months passed and, eventually, Cuccilio's legs healed. "Ezio~!" Cuccilio stumbled into Niccolo's study where the two were having a casual conversation. "Can I have a mission~?" Ezio and Niccolo both looked over to him at the same time. "But your legs just recently healed. And you being like this makes you an even more perfect target for Templars. This time, I doubt they'll allow you to escape." Cuccilio's smile turned into a frown, and eventually he slumped off, limping and favoring his left leg. "That injury will cost him dearly in the future." Ezio folded his hands and propped his head up on them. "Si...Perhaps we should continue later. I need to speak with Cuccilio." Niccolo nodded and waved him off.

Cuccilio still stayed in Ezio's room. Neither of the men wanted to have him leave, so he remained there. "Cuccilio," Ezio said as he looked around the room. "where are you?" Cuccilio made a noise that meant he must be munching on something. Ezio walked around the corner and saw him occupied with a pear. "Mmph...Ezio, want some~?" he said, beaming. Ezio smirked and walked over just as Cuccilio had taken another bite. "Of course, mi amico...~" he said, before lowering himself to face Cuccilio and kissing him to steal the bite he had just taken. "Mmph?" Cuccilio struggled slightly, but was weak against the master assassin. Ezio held him still until he relaxed and went with it.

They finally broke the kiss after quite some time. "Ezio...~ I've never met anyone in my life that takes ten minutes to eat a piece of fruit as small as that...~"