My thesis is close enough to being done that I’m granting myself some down time to write historical fic, so here is a preview.

“Am I, Micheletto?” he asked distantly.

“Are you what?”

“Am I your lord?” Cesare said, and turned on his heel until he was studying the line of Micheletto’s profile.  “Are you my servant?”

Micheletto tilted his head to observe Cesare out of the corner of his eye, the unobtrusive regard that had served him so well.  With no indication of hesitation, he said, “I am your instrument, my lord.”

It’s actually from Cesare’s POV which I somewhat regret because, A, it means that I do not get to deal with how intense Micheletto is about literally everything regarding Cesare and, B, I sadly do not get to talk about how hot Cesare is.  Much.  But also it had to be from Cesare’s POV because I had to be able to talk about Micheletto’s scars and Claiming and how Micheletto is Cesare’s favored weapon who wears the heraldic sigil of his lord’s house in his lash marks.