"The latter," Ezio admitted. He glanced at the recruits. "They are sloppy, and seem not to care about improving themselves."

"They're lazy," Anna agreed. "But I think we can make them care about improvements. We just have to give them some better motivators."

"I find myself running out of ideas in that area," Ezio replied. "I doubt there is much more I have not tried."

"Hm." Anna looked at them before she grinned. "Offer them a vacation. Tell them that once they reach a certain level, they'll be allowed a few days' break. If that doesn't work, nothing will. Trust me, I fantasized about having a few days off when you were training me more than once."

"That would defeat the purpose of pushing them, la mia dolce," Ezio pointed out, giving her a bit of a sideways look.

"Well, you can try to flog them all the way uphill until they finally get to where you want, even though they seem to have little motivation to improve themselves. Or you can start offering rewards." Anna shrugged.

Ezio studied her for a moment.

"You're going to be entirely too smug about it," he said finally, relenting. "You are too crafty."

Anna grinned and leaned up, kissing him briefly. "That's part of why you love me," she sing-songed with a grin.

Ezio returned the kiss.

"Indeed," he said with a bit of a grin. He gestured towards the Americans. "Go on, then. Put your theory to work."

Anna grinned and went over to the group, looking at them all for a minute.

"Alright guys. I know you're all tired and sick of us bossing you around. So, to make things more interesting, we're going to have a contest of sorts. The person who improves the most in a week gets a long weekend off. No training, no being bothered, nothing."

Instantly all attention was on her. Clearly they all wanted a break.

"Then the second most improved will get two days off, third gets one day, so on and so forth. Anyone interested?"

There was a general murmur of assent from among the group. Anna turned back to Ezio and grinned.

Ezio just raised an eyebrow and motioned for her to continue. He would believe the results if and when he saw them, so for now, he would let Anna run with her experiment.

"Alright then. Let's work on sparring for now." Anna grinned and set up the pairs, watching the groups carefully to make sure nothing went horribly wrong.

Ezio, for the most part, let her take charge. He did adjust the pairs when he felt they could be a bit more balanced, but otherwise didn't interfere.

"We will see how well this works out," he said to Anna as they watched off to the side.

Anna nodded, watching the groups. "See, this almost makes me miss Italy. Italy in your time, I mean," she said quietly. "Things were so different."

"Indeed," Ezio replied quietly. Oh yes, he felt that disconnect very keenly. He definitely missed his own time, his own home. "For now, we must work with what we have."

"Agreed." Anna sighed a little. "At least we-re part-way through the day. We can head home in a little while."

Ezio nodded and turned his attention back to the trainees. Hopefully, he would see some progress soon.

Anna settled in next to him to keep track of the trainees. After a while, though, she called it a day.

"Ready to head home?"

"I'm ready," Ezio replied, nodding. It had been a long day. Slipping an arm around her waist, he pulled her close briefly and gave her a kiss.

Anna grinned briefly and kissed him before she headed back home. It would feel nice to be able to just relax for a while.

It took a while for the Americans to be trained up to Ezio's satisfaction. Anna's idea worked, for the most part, and there was steady improvement, but it still took far too long, in his opinion. So he was very glad when he declared them competent.

Iris was glad, too. As soon as she was recovered enough from the birth, she joined in the training with Altair; partially to get herself back in shape and partially to help him with his own group of Americans. It was just as bad as Anna had said, and she was glad to help whip them back into form. She was even more glad, though, when their training was done and she didn't have to figure out how to split her time anymore between the training and her little one.

The very first thing Anna did when the Americans were compitent was go home and flop herself bonelessly across the couch.

"That took way too long," she declared to no one in particular.

Altair was also very glad when the training was done. That meant he could spend more time with his girls. Although now he was starting to get an itchy feeling between his shoulder blades, although he wasn't sure why. Maybe he should check on the Apple...

"If I ever come across an American that bad again, I'll punch him," Iris agreed as she settled into a chair with Amaya in her arms. The baby was awake but calm, and looking around with big dark eyes.

Ezio noticed Altair getting a bit fidgety and gave the man a questioning look.

"Something the matter?" he asked quietly.

"No kidding." Anna stretched and groaned quietly. "I want a bath now."

"I am... uncertain," Altair said quietly. "I cannot say for certain why I feel uneasy, but I do." He looked over at Ezio.

"Go ahead, then," Iris replied. She leaned back and settled the baby against her. "I'm just going to relax right here."

"I cannot say I feel the same," Ezio said after a moment of thought. "But I will help you keep an eye on things. Perhaps it is nothing."