Mikau: Hello everyone! Thank you so, so much for taking a look at this! I've got another new pairing for you that I hope you enjoy. I call it AmuAzu! Cute, right? I'm actually having a lot of fun with my interpretations of Amuro and Azusa, so I hope you like them too. I want to thank Laurel Wreath for introducing me to the pairing. Oh! And before we get started: WARNING: Obviously if you don't know about Amuro's multiple identities, this will be spoilery, but not really more than the Amuro character tag on this site is. I swear, ff dot net. That and the Akai one got me before I was caught up on the anime, and…it really didn't bother me too much. But I digress. Enjoy!

Disclaimer: If I owned it and had such a big cast, I would be doing special arcs for all of my favorite characters like crazy…and it would be another fifty years before the Organization ever got around to being defeated.

….

Chapter One: The Shoes and the Storm

Alarm clocks in his apartment had a high mortality rate.

Every morning without fail, the device jarred him awake, and his first instinct was to grab the gun from under his pillow and defend himself from whatever assassin had finally come for him…whether that was someone from the Organization or someone against the Organization.

He'd moved the daily nuisance across the room for its own safety—it was easier to destroy it without thinking if it was within arms' reach. Generally he took a split second to confirm his target before actually pulling the trigger, so the clock was safer on the desk than the nightstand.

The distance, unfortunately, served to compound the annoyance that the alarm clock brought to his life. In order to turn it off, he had to get out from under the nice, warm, soft covers and actually cross the room to turn it off. And he had to do this quickly so as not to bother the neighbors since the alarm was set for three in the morning.

Back when the clock was on the nightstand, he could throw it against a wall and go back to sleep without ever having to leave his cozy bed. Sometimes he thought it was worth having to buy a new alarm clock every few days.

But I digress.

This morning was like all the rest. The alarm clock on the desk did not end up with a bullet in it, and he got up and proceeded to do his sit-ups, push-ups, planks, pull-ups, and even some lunges and squats for kicks. He debated only doing one hundred of each—he was feeling sluggish this morning—but then decided to go ahead and do the full routine. If he muscled through it, maybe he'd start feeling better.

No such luck.

Halfway through the yoga portion of his morning workout, the haze started to lift as he balanced in Firefly.

At four thirty he hopped in the shower and spent a full five minutes just standing there, letting the steam rise around him, the heat envelope him as the water droplets pounded on his back.

And then he had to wipe the fog off of the mirror as he styled his hair and smiled at himself.

"Hello! I'm Amuro Toru—your friendly neighborhood barista and private eye!"

His cheerful grin morphed into a rakish smirk, and he pointed his finger in the shape of a gun at his reflection.

"The name's Bond. James Bond—secret agent."

The playboy smile turned maniacal as a not quite sane look came into his eyes.

"They call me Bourbon…and you're going to die."

Once he had cycled through his range of multiple personas, his expression went back to carefully blank, and he studied his face in the mirror. Somehow it didn't seem like his own anymore. None of the three men he had portrayed felt like "him", his true self. He'd spent so much time working undercover, living in another person's skin that…he didn't quite know who "he" was anymore.

"I'm…" he whispered, reaching out to touch his cheek in the glass.

Fake.

He frowned, nibbling subconsciously at his lip.

"…lonely." He let the word escape with a sigh.

Amuro Toru…or Furuya Rei—whatever his name was; it was hard to remember the real one among all of the aliases—had to give up all of his connections when he'd accepted his most dangerous undercover mission yet. To keep the people he loved safe, he had to keep them at arms' length. He'd cut ties with friends, leaving the people he cared about behind…letting go of that piece of himself, giving it up for the greater good. He was a soldier who had pledged his life to his country. He'd sacrificed everything, the things that made him him, in service to Japan.

Now wasn't the time to be having regrets.

He was lonely? So what? Wouldn't it be worse to get close to someone only to lose them?

He winced at the memory of his mentor and friend.

Yes. It would be just like when Scotch was killed…only worse. If he got close to someone and they got killed because of that, it would be his fault…and he would have to go on knowing that, carrying that weight on his shoulders…until it sank him.

He closed his eyes and shook his head.

He had work. He was opening up the shop today. Focus. Now was not the time to be falling apart. His job—his real job, his mission—was far more important than the pangs of loneliness he was feeling right now. He needed to put his selfishness aside and concentrate. Because people had died. Innocents were dying. More would die in the future unless he got himself together and dismantled this Organization with his own hands.

He opened his eyes, and Amuro Toru smiled back at him in the mirror.

…

"Don't you think Amuro-niichan is really attractive?" Ayumi cooed precociously to Azusa with the aim of making one Edogawa Conan jealous.

She only succeeded in riling up Mitsuhiko and Genta, disturbing the object of her affections, and making the poor waitress blush and fumble her tray.

Three milkshakes—strawberry, vanilla, and chocolate—as well as an iced coffee were sent crashing to the floor, splattering everywhere, ruining Azusa's cute new pair of shoes—the first pair she'd splurged on in a long time—and scattering jagged shards of glass all over the floor.

And now Azusa had a dilemma: she couldn't very well go get supplies to clean up the mess what with milkshake all over her shoes—it would track up the floor behind her—but she couldn't really take off the shoes to go get the cleaning supplies either because of the glass littering the floor.

Thankfully, Conan-kun came to her rescue. "Just stay there, Azusa-neechan," he instructed kindly as he hopped down from his chair. He threw a "You guys stay put so you don't step in the glass" over his shoulder at his compatriots as he hustled towards the door in the back leading to the kitchen.

"Amuro-san!" he called. "Azusa-neechan needs your help cleaning up a wet glass spill! Hurry!"

Sure enough, Amuro dropped what he was doing to dutifully lend his coworker a hand with that Prince Charming smile of his, never begrudging her clumsiness for a moment.

And his kindness only made Azusa feel all the more self-conscious. Her cheeks burned in mortification as he crouched at her feet, cleaning up the mess.

She bent down to help pick up glass shards, careful to keep her legs together and her skirt tight against her legs.

He'd been trying really hard not to look as he knelt down in front of her, but her movement caught his attention, and he had to fight not to notice her milky white thighs.

He was a disciplined soldier…and yet still but a weak mortal man. Usually the fairer sex didn't faze him. He didn't allow it to, isolating his heart as he had the rest of himself. Usually he kept himself in check, but sometimes a graceful display of femininity, a brief glimpse of something sensual would catch his attention and make him waver momentarily.

"I wonder what it'd be like to touch her," would flit through his head before he could quash it, slam closed the fire doors before that spark that had set him off had the chance to ignite the rest of his body, his mind.

Amuro Toru…or Furuya Rei for that matter…had never had any experience in love. He'd never had a girlfriend when he was young, and once he got into the police academy he'd never had the time. He'd started undercover work, and it had been too dangerous for romance. Like many other things, he'd sacrificed his right to fall in love for the greater good of his country.

He had, however, gone undercover at a host club, and he'd often had to seduce women—heck, even other men—in order to carry out his missions, but those sham flirtations encompassed the whole of his foray into the world of romance…and his heart had never been in it.

But…Enomoto Azusa was cute.

He acknowledged that. He accepted it. He moved on.

Because she wouldn't be so cute when he found her dead on his account.

No. There would be no romance for him. Focus. The mission took precedence over his longing for companionship. He needed to uproot this weakness in his heart.

"I'm so sorry, Amuro-san," Azusa whimpered as she picked up the remnants of the four glasses. "I'm such a klutz."

He snapped out of his reverie with a gentle smile. Voice full of warmth, he assured her, "No you're not, Azusa-san, and it's no trouble. You're just having an off day, and that's okay. It happens to the best of us."

She smiled bashfully, trying to use the back of her hand to sweep a loose bang back behind her ear. "Not to you. You never seem to have an off day, Amuro-san."

"Of course I do," he lied. "You've just never seen it. I tell you, I can be a real mess sometimes."

People died when he made mistakes. He couldn't afford to have an off day.

"Thank you, Amuro-san," she replied, voice delicate and soft like the lace on a lady's gown. "You're always so nice." And she very much felt his kindness.

"Oh!" she yelped like an injured pup, flying to her feet and dropping the piece of glass she had just picked up.

Blood dripped from her fingers, and, looking down at it in horror, her face lost all color.

Amuro was up to standing in an instant and analyzing the situation before Azusa could really process what had happened.

"Let me see," he urged gently yet firmly, reaching out and taking her hand.

That put some color back into her cheeks.

"It should be okay," he reported as he studied the wounds, oblivious to the sensations he was inspiring in his coworker. "It didn't cut too deep, but we should still disinfect and get it bandaged up."

He frowned as he took note of their situation: There was still the mess on the floor, glass everywhere, and she couldn't go anywhere without making an even bigger mess, tracking milkshake throughout the restaurant while trailing blood as she went. As it were, she was dripping blood onto the milkshake/glass mess as they spoke.

He bit the inside of his cheek and paused for a second before making his decision.

Fluidly, effortlessly, and without ceremony, Amuro swept Azusa off of her feet, picking her up bridal style and letting her shoes drop to the floor as he carried her into the back.

"Wow," Ayumi gushed. "Isn't Amuro-niichan dreamy? I told you he was attractive," she giggled. "How manly!"

Mitsuhiko and Genta silently fumed at their insufficiency while Conan set about picking up where Amuro had left off with the cleanup.

Meanwhile, Amuro set a very flustered Azusa down in the break room. With neither pomp nor circumstance, he grabbed the first aid kit and immediately set about treating the cuts.

Azusa tried not to look at him as he knelt before her, gingerly wrapping her fingers with such care.

His hands were rough and callused and big…or at least bigger than hers. They didn't dwarf her own. They weren't gigantic like her brother's, but Amuro-san's hands were definitely a man's hands, and it was…odd…for them to be handling her own with such attention and consideration.

"I am so sorry about this, Amuro-san," Azusa mumbled, feeling her shame as fully as her gratitude.

He looked up at her with that soothing smile. "It's fine, Azusa-san. I'm glad to help. Besides, I wouldn't want anything bad to happen to you like the wounds getting infected, so…"

She gulped and nodded, watching him work.

They had been in there just under ten minutes when Conan-kun stuck his head in to inform them that the mess had been taken care of, but Azusa's shoes wouldn't be usable despite the effort one of the other waitresses, Misa, had put into attempting to clean them.

"Do you have a spare pair? Or…what size are you? I'm sure Ran-neechan would be happy to lend you a pair so you can get home. You use public transit, don't you?" The bespectacled boy shot her a concerned look.

It turned out that Ran's shoes would be much too big and Azusa had a long commute ahead of her that evening.

She pursed her lips and tried to come up with another solution. "I don't even have enough money on me buy a new pair," she lamented under her breath.

"I'll take you home tonight," Amuro offered, seeing his coworker's distress. "I usually just walk since I live so close, but today I drove because of the rain."

She was about to protest that she lived too far, it would be out of his way, a waste of petrol what with gasoline prices so high lately, but he cut her off before she could even begin.

"It's no trouble at all, Azusa-san. A gentleman would never let a lady go home barefoot. I'd be appalled with myself," he insisted…even as he mentally chided himself.

"You're no gentleman. You'd push a nice lady down a flight of stairs if it were necessary to further your mission. You are a wolf."

"Thank you so much, Amuro-san." Her eyes shone with grateful tears as she smiled brilliantly at him.

She was cute.

And he was a wolf. Bad doggie.

"Focus. Mission."

…

He carried her out to the car (amid the catcalls and immense teasing of their coworker Misa) as Azusa held the umbrella over them. This necessitated some awkward fumbling when he transitioned her into the vehicle, and he ended up getting a little wet in the process, but he assured her again and again that it was fine. He was happy to help.

He turned on the car, and music started blaring. Amuro surged forward to turn it off before her ears could be offended by the sound of his rock and metal radio station. She probably only listened to popular boy bands and cutesy girl groups. She seemed the type—delicate, graceful, poised, feminine.

"S-Sorry about tha—" he started to say but was interrupted by her grabbing his arm and exclaiming with much enthusiasm: "—Was that Dir En Grey?! Turn it back on!"

Her sense of propriety returned moments later as she noticed the astonishment evident in his features. She released his arm immediately, shrinking back as she grimaced, laughing nervously. "Sorry. I mean 'please'. Can we turn it back on, please?"

"You know Dir En Grey?" He couldn't help gawking. More surprising, though: "You like Dir En Grey?"

She nodded sheepishly, hesitating to look up at him through her long, beautiful lashes. "I'm a big fan…ever since I was younger. And I just love Die. I used to cosplay him in high school when I went to conventions with my online friends."

It was like getting hit in the gut with a crowbar—an experience that Amuro had been lucky enough to have firsthand. Who would have ever thought that cute little Enomoto Azusa listened to metal? And cosplayed at conventions, for that matter?

"Who else do you like?" he prompted, turning the radio back on, the volume low enough to give them some background noise without interrupting their conversation.

She shrugged, giggling bashfully and tucking a bang behind her ear in a nervous gesture. "I don't know. I mean…right now I'm really into the GazettE, and I listen to some SID, a little bit of Babymetal. My iPod has a hodgepodge of everything from Enka to screamo, but…mostly I like rock and metal."

"Hn," he hummed to himself as he backed the car out of the parking space.

"What?" She bit her lip and started to squirm a little in the seat, afraid she had said something strange.

He smirked, shaking his head. "Nothing. It's just amazing. I would have pegged you for the type to listen to AKB48 and Arashi."

Her face contorted in distress. "What?! No offense; they're good singers, but their songs are so shallow, so manufactured. …You really thought that that's what I'd like to listen to? Are you kidding?!"

"Sorry," he offered shamefacedly. "But no, I'm not. Who would have ever thought that friendly, pretty, bubbly Azusa-san would listen to heavy metal? It doesn't really suit your image."

"People aren't always what they appear to be, you know," she mumbled sullenly, turning to look out the window at the passing shops as the rain on the pane turned everything into a mundane blur.

"You're right," he quickly agreed, trying to make amends and keep the peace. "I'm sorry. It's just…very unique."

She nodded, but she didn't look back at him.

Amuro pursed his lips, brow furrowing into a troubled frown. "…I've liked Dir En Grey for a long time too." He attempted to fix the damage done with the bridge of common interests. "I even got to go to a concert recently. Have you ever been to one of their concerts?"

That perked her right up, and she spent the next twenty-three minutes swapping stories about the shows she'd been able to go to when she'd saved up, the times he'd been lucky enough to get off work to go.

And Amuro actually found himself having a great deal of fun being with her, sharing his thoughts on a subject that interested him with another human being for once. He'd never had anyone to share these things with before.

He was revealing information about himself, being honest and unguarded for once in he wasn't sure how many years. It was sort of freeing to talk and laugh and not have to lie about anything for half an hour.

As they drew near her house, the rain slammed harder against the vehicle, like a jilted lover pounding at the door.

A natural lull came in the conversation, and he chewed on his lip, studying her out of the corner of his eye.

He wanted her to talk more. He liked this. He didn't want it to stop. It brought an end to that aching in his chest, that loneliness that was threatening to take over and sabotage his all-important work.

"Hey," he called softly. "You said that you liked rock too. What's your favorite rock band?"

"UVERworld," she whispered decidedly with a fond giggle and a wistful expression—the face of a young woman remembering her first love.

Shock washed over his own countenance as they came to a stop in front of her apartment complex.

"R-Really?" He gulped, feeling a tightness in his chest. "M-Mine too. I've always…They've always been…" It was then he realized that he was keeping her waiting, holding her up.

"Sorry," he chuckled with a rosy blush. "We can talk about this some other time. You must be tired and anxious to get in out of this rain."

Azusa didn't move. She was just as eager to keep talking as he was. She too lived alone without anyone in her life whom she could really open up her heart and talk to.

She held her bottom lip between her teeth for a moment as she thought.

"You know…" She pushed that same errant bang back into place for a third time that day by Amuro's count. "You could always come inside for a bit, and we could continue our conversation now. I have some cookies that my brother sent me, and I could make some tea. J-Just for a little bit, though. If…If you don't mind," she added hastily in case he thought her too forward.

Amuro faltered.

He should have politely excused himself immediately. He should have left her alone, but… He wanted to go in, keep talking, spend time with her.

"Bad wolf. Bad. Focus. The mission. Don't get attached. Do you want to see her dead?"

His mental protestations all went mute as her lips pressed into a thin, pale line. "I'm sorry. I'm imposing on you so much today. I shouldn't have asked…but I'm having fun talking to you. I don't really have anyone else I can discuss this stuff with, so…and the rain is so heavy, it might not be safe to try to make it back now, so I thought…"

"I'm having fun too," he confessed.

She looked up at him, her eyelids fluttering, lips slowly parting in surprise which quickly blossomed into delight. She smiled at him and giggled, stormy eyes twinkling in the dim light.

Her joy was quickly checked by embarrassed modesty as her cheeks colored and she cast her eyes down. Still her smile persisted as she laughed nervously, "I'm really glad to hear that."

Dammit.

She was cute.

He mentally acknowledged this fact, accepted the feelings it dredged up within him, and then set them aside with some difficulty.

He was lonely, and it was clouding his judgment.

…

Her room was pretty much what he had expected it to be before he'd discovered that she listened to bands like Dir En Grey—clean, neat, quaint, and cute. It was small, like most apartments, but she made the most of the space she had. It came equipped with all of the universal necessities: a small table, shelving, a TV, washer, shower, toilet, sink, stove, fridge, microwave, and bed (in the western style).

It wasn't much different from his own…besides the differing levels of cleanliness and the personal touches her apartment had. Hers actually looked like someone lived in it, like she'd made a life for herself there. His…was temporary and bare. He could pick up and leave at a moment's notice. He lived there only as long as "Amuro Toru" was needed to further the mission and not a second longer.

It filled him with a momentary twinge of regret. He wished he could settle down somewhere, have a "home". But he wasn't a pretty flower like Azusa that could put down roots somewhere. He was a tumbleweed, blowing here and there as the wind dictated.

He pushed these thoughts away as he knelt at the table, mentally berating himself. He'd been having a lot of bouts of the "what if"s recently. It was weakness, weakness that he needed to flush out of his system. He'd come too far to have regrets now. People's lives were depending on him. Comrades before him had made the ultimate sacrifice so that he might succeed. It was selfish to start throwing himself a pity party now. Being half-hearted wasn't an option.

"I'll be right back after I start the tea," Azusa assured him with the same serene smile she used at work on the customers. It was unassuming and utterly genuine. It brought a warmth to his heart that he hadn't felt in a long time.

It reminded him of Akemi.

And that was a thought he needed to quash if ever there were one.

Subject change.

"So how did you get into UVERworld?" he called down the hall to her as she put the kettle on in the little kitchenette.

She came back into the main room and shrugged, going over to fetch the cookie tin from the shelf. "They've done the theme songs for a game or two and couple anime that I've watched."

That automatically set Amuro off wondering which anime. Bleach? Ao no Exorcist? D. Gray-man? Blood+? And she played video games? Hn. He was learning all kinds of new and unexpected things about her.

"So how long have you been listening to them?" He took a proffered shortbread cookie from the tin as she sat down across from him, putting an elbow on the table and resting her cheek in her hand.

"Hmm," she hummed like a honeybee, looking off to the side as she tried to remember. "It's been about…seven years? Maybe eight. It was at the beginning of high school right before…" She winced but continued. "…my parents died in an accident."

His eyes widened and his jaw dropped. He scrambled to think of the appropriate thing to say. If he were on a job right now, acting for the sake of his mission, he would have had no problem feigning the right emotion, delivering the right line…but…for some reason, he wanted to be real with her…at least as real as he could be. Just this once.

But she didn't stop to give him the opportunity. "I didn't like UVERworld a whole lot at first, but then after that…" She closed her eyes, feeling the pain once more before the suffering on her face changed into a serene smile of peace. It still hurt, but she was okay now. She'd stayed strong and gotten through it. She could look back on that dark time without falling to pieces.

"After losing my parents, it was really hard. It was just me and my big brother, and…he's so great, but…he was still young himself, just a couple of years older than I am. He couldn't be what I needed during that time. He was going through his own stuff, and…" She shook her head and smiled, gratitude coming off of her like sunbeams. "I can't explain to you what UVERworld was to me back then. I can't tell you how much it meant to me to have someone there whispering that it was all right, that I would get through it and tomorrow would come if I just held on…even if it was only an audio recording, but…"

She blushed, feeling silly for baring her heart to him like that.

He reached across the table, resting his hand on top of hers and taking her by surprise. "You don't have to explain it to me. I already know because I've been there myself," he couldn't help but share.

The way that she talked about how the music had saved her gave him goosebumps. It was just so much like his own struggles. When a job went bad or he made a mistake and a comrade got hurt…when a friend died…he too had turned to his headphones for comfort and support. He didn't have anyone else. Completely isolated, the music was his comforter and confidante.

Her misty blue eyes widened at his words. "You too?"

He nodded with a sigh. "In my line of work, you lose people—friends, mentors…people that you've come to think of as brothers and fathers. And I've never actually had a real family of my own, so…"

He frowned, drawing back when he realized what he was doing. He'd forgotten himself for a moment there. Hopefully Azusa didn't stop to question him. He wasn't sure what he was going to say if she asked him, "Do you really lose a lot of people in the barista profession? Oh! You mean like when they quit?"

This was bad. He was letting his guard down around this girl, and that simply wouldn't do. He should leave before he said anything else that might compromise his identity, jeopardize the mission.

But she was looking at him with such a lovely expression of…not pity, but commiseration. Her eyes were filled with an understanding that he hadn't seen in a long time.

There was Akemi again.

But Azusa understood how he felt. She got him.

"I'm glad that there's someone else who feels the same way," she laughed softly, smiling gently at him. "For the longest time, I thought that I was the only person who got so emotional over music. I felt really silly when you asked me about how long I'd liked UVERworld and then I went into this overdramatic, overly-personal speech about my parents and my bout with depression and everything. I'm really, really glad that you get that way too. It makes me feel like less of an idiot."

His heart throbbed. It had been a bad month. He was feeling really vulnerable lately. That was the only reason why she was having such an effect on him. He'd go home, take a hot bath, sleep, and then go do an Olympic triathlon tomorrow to get his head back in order. Something was seriously wrong with him if he were slipping this badly. He'd have to beat all of the weakness out of himself tomorrow. No more regrets. No more getting caught up in what a great smile or pretty eyes Azusa had. Tomorrow there would be training and discipline.

But for the moment:

"You're not an idiot, Azusa-san," he replied immediately. "You're a really awesome young woman who's been through a lot and survived. You should be proud of that."

She blushed and smiled. She was about to say something in response when the tea kettle started screaming in the kitchen. Instead, she replied with an earnest "Thank you so much, Amuro-san" and excused herself to go get the tea.

When she came back, they had a much lighter discussion about which songs they liked best and which lyrics had become their favorites.

They decided that the most ridiculous lyric was "Get. Get out. Notorious Baby. Ga-ga-ga-ga sexy garbage." from the GazettE's Inside Beast. The most meaningful song was a tie between UVERworld's Just Melody and Colors of the Heart. Complication by Rookiez is Punk'd won an honorable mention.

An hour passed rapidly, and it was quite some time before they realized that the rain had abated.

….

Mikau: And that's the first chapter. What do you think? Did you like it? How were my characterizations of Amuro and Azusa? Did you like them? Were they interesting? I'm seriously dying to know what you thought. If you could pretty please send me in some feedback, that would be awesome. I really hope you liked it, but if there's not a lot of interest, I really need to drop this and get back to working on my other stories before my KaiShin fans flay me alive. So if you want to read more, please let me know! Thanks a bunch in advance, and thank you again for reading this!