Ticket to Verona

twenty two

~Leo

"And if anything is wrong, you call one of us, okay?"  I reiterated to Aria for the 15th time.

"Yes, yes I understand." She mumbled with a smile on her face.

"What?"

"You're cute when you worry."

I sighed,placing a kiss on her forehead.

Today was the day that we were going to kill Dmitri. Aria was discharged from hospital this morning and she has not been happier. She's mastered her crutches and loves to dead-leg people with them.

She's already done it twice to me.

"Come with me, amore." I whispered, leading her to our room. I helped her sit down and then kneeled in front of her.

"What are you"

"Don't panic, amore, I'm not proposing, yet."

At that, she blushed. I pulled the ring box out of my pocket.

"I forgot to give this to you yesterday on your birthday, but I knew I had to give it to you before I left."

I passed her the box and she opened it hesitantly, a small gasp escaping her mouth.

"I bought this the day after we met in the library. I knew it was meant for you."

"It's beautiful, Leo."

"This is a promise ring, Aria. I promise to you that this will be replaced with an engagement and then wedding ring. I promise that I will never leave you and I will never hurt you."

She already had tears in her eyes and a bright smile was on her face.

"I love you, Aria."

She smiled even wider at my confession.

"I love you too, Leonardo." She whispered before kissing me gently.

I am officially the happiest man in the world.

"Now I really don't want to leave you." I groaned, wrapping my arm around waist and pulling her onto my lap, bringing her lips to mine again.

She pulled away, grabbed her crutches and hobbled out of the door. I followed her, carrying her down the stairs much to her disapproval.

Everyone was downstairs getting ready to leave. We planned to leave in 30 minutes, so that by the time we got there it would already be dark.

One by one, Aria would go up to every soldier to thank them, wish them luck and tell them to be safe.

She's too pure.

She finally came to Enzo who pulled her into a tight hug. She whispered something into his ear and looked towards Killian which made Enzo laugh and put her down. I saw her straighten his gun in its holster and she gave him a high five.

Theo walked up to her and kissed her forehead and gave her a hug before letting her go again.

She then went up to Nikolai who was talking to Astrid and she wished them both luck before hobbling over to me, stopping to talk to Gio and Killian as well as Bria and Seb on the way.

She came towards me and I picked her up, spinning her around and placing a kiss onto her prefect lips.

"Be safe, yeah?"

"Always am, amore mio."

She fixed my hair and placed a kiss on my cheek, a stray tear falling down her face.

"I love you." She whispered, a happy smile on her face.

"I love you too, amore." I whispered back.

I carefully sat her down on a kitchen stool and turned to the 4 guards that were assigned to protect her while we were gone. They were the same 4 that were in the hospital. Samuel and Nero were there after she practically begged me to reinstate them as her bodyguards, saying that she didn't want to hurt their feelings. The other two were some other caporegimes that I had assigned for extra security.