"I'm told I can be persuasive," Ezio replied, grinning a bit. He set the wineglass down, and closed the door behind him, just in case.

Anna just grinned and let him prove that to her.

The next morning she was up early, determined to go check on Iris and Altair and Amaya. She wanted to make sure her favorite new honorary-niece was doing well, after all.

As much as Ezio wanted to go with her, he had trainees to resume tormenting. He could give them a break for one afternoon, but he didn't dare give these Americans more than that.

Anna left him in charge of the trainees, heading inside to check on the little family.

Altair wasn't quite asleep, but he was very relaxed, Amaya draped across his chest with one of his arms holding her there. At least Iris had managed a full night's sleep.

That full night's sleep was about to end, however. Amaya finally decided that she was hungry and started to whimper, which quickly grew into a full-on wail. The sound startled Iris awake, and she sat up before she even realized she wasn't asleep anymore.

Altair woke up quickly as well, shifting Amaya to see what was wrong before he shifted her over to Iris, after making sure Iris was actually awake. He figured she'd be demanding to see Amaya in a minute anyway.

Iris blinked a couple of times as she woke up, but she reached over to take Amaya. She winced slightly as she did, her own body telling her what needed to be done just as clearly as Amaya was. She glanced at Altair.

"Turn around?" she asked. He'd seen all of her more than once before, but somehow, this was different.

Without a word, Altair did as she asked, instead keeping his focus on the door, listening to what was going on outside.

Once he was turned around, Iris set about trying to feed Amaya. After the first few clumsy attempts, she finally got the newborn to start nursing, and Amaya stopped crying at once. Breakfast was definitely what she wanted. Carefully, Iris covered what bare skin she could without disturbing the baby.

"Alright, it's safe again," she said to Altair.

Altair leaned back, looking at her briefly before he smiled faintly and closed his eyes. Now he was tired. He'd been up all night keeping track of his two girls, after all.

Iris smiled slightly and let him doze off. She knew him well enough to know he'd been up all night, so he deserved some rest.

Altair didn't sleep much, just dozed for a bit. He woke up the instant Anna approached, about half an hour later, and was on his feet before she even knocked.

"Iris? You awake?" Anna called through the door, though she kept her voice down in case Iris was asleep.

"I'm awake," Iris called back. Now that Amaya had nursed for a while, the newborn was content to go back to sleep and Iris had been busy cuddling her. "You can come in."

Anna moved inside and smiled when she saw the three. "I just wanted to check up and see how you're all doing so far." She glanced at Altair. "I figured I'd take your group for a while."

Altair nodded, eyeing a bruise near the corner of her eye. Whoops. He'd gotten a little carried away. Oh well, he'd find some way to make it up to her sometime eventually in the future.

"We're fine," Iris said. She looked down at the baby and smiled a bit. "Amaya seems to be doing well." She looked up again with a wry expression. "Although I've been warned to expect to feed her every few hours round-the-clock."

Anna snorted. "Yeah, that sounds about right. Just catch as many naps in between as you can." She grinned. "And pretty soon I'm sure you'll be investing in bottles for her."

"Oh I'm sure," Iris agreed with a bit of a grin. She cuddled Amaya a bit closer, and then glanced at Anna. "Do you want to hold her?"

Anna blinked, shooting Altair a furtive glance. But he'd gone back to laying on the bed, relaxed, though he kept his eyes open. Clearly not threatening.

"Um. You sure?" But she looked at Amaya again. Clearly she wanted to, even if she was nervous.

"Yeah," Iris replied. She grinned a bit. "I'll be right here. Come on, you put up with me being pregnant too, you should at least get to hold the baby." And she would be able to keep Altair from getting rabidly overprotective.

Anna nodded and took the baby carefully, holding her a little awkwardly at first before she adjusted. Okay, this wasn't so bad.

Amaya stirred a bit when she was handed over, but didn't wake completely. One little hand grabbed on to Anna's shirt as the newborn settled in.

Anna bit her lower lip at that. Okay, newborn was officially adorable. She settled down in a chair, still holding her carefully but securely.

"Okay, yeah, she's pretty damn cute."

"She's got her dad wrapped around her finger already," Iris replied, glancing at Altair with a small grin.

Altair's lips just twitched and he moved to drape an arm over Iris.

"I'm not surprised." Anna grinned, examining Amaya a little more closely. The shape of her eyes looked more like Altair's than Iris's, so far anyway, and it was impossible to tell about the rest of her features.

"You realize you're going to have to beat her admirers off with a stick once she hits her teens?"

"I'm more than capable of that." Altair still sounded faintly amused, rather than annoyed.

"You're not allowed to kill every boy who looks at her," Iris said to Altair. "Scare them, maybe, but no killing."