Hi everyone! Here is my new story! It's set in the same world as all my genderbending stories but you don't have to read those first to get this one.

Hope you enjoy guys. I own nothing!

Chapter 1: The Beginning and Italy

Seri Awashima stared at her boss and silently apologized for every time she'd ever been a hardass with her subordinates.

She now understood the dismayed look Akiyama and Domyoji had shared when she'd ordered them to go undercover as a married couple, the slump of Enomoto's shoulders as Seri ordered the other woman to go back through her life and examine every inch of it. Heck, she even sympathised with Fushimi rolling his eyes and clicking his tongue every time she asked him to do anything. Awashima wanted nothing more than to whine 'but I don't want to!' Like a petulant child and have that be the end of it.

But she would be drawn and quartered before she actually said that, least of all to her King.

Instead she pressed her heels together and bowed, hoping this didn't make the trembling in her legs too obvious, "I understand ma'am, we'll leave immediately."

Reisi Munakata smiled, "thank you lieutenant Awashima. I feel very relieved now. You're the only one I trust with this mission."

Seri's cheeks pinked and inwardly she was very pleased. It was almost enough to make up for how much she so did not want to do this assignment.

Almost, but not quite.

Seri was already at the airport by the time he arrived.

"You're late," she said curtly by way of greeting.

He wasn't actually, she was just early, but no way he was going to try and tell her that, instead, he just smiled, "sorry Seri, wrapping things up at HOMRA took a little longer than I expected," that was the truth.

Seri had no way of knowing if he meant the bar or the Clan so she assumed he meant both, "you ran into trouble?"

Izumo Kusanagi had no way of knowing if she meant trouble with the bar or the Clan so he assumed she meant both, "a little. Yata and the others weren't happy with me leaving again so soon after last time, especially since I was gone so long. But they agreed, I guess it helps that HOMRA's back together and I told them what was going on this time."

Seri mulled over this information, she hadn't considered how his other Clansmen would feel about him leaving, this time or the time he was in Germany, they were all such permanent fixtures in each other's lives, it must be hard on them.

"And your King? What does she think?"

"Anna?" Izumo smiled, looking like a proud parent, "Anna understands, better than the others I think actually, Rikio and Yata are going to be looking after her and the bar together for the most part. Should be... interesting." His precious bar was going to be in smithereens by the time he got back, he just knew it. He had cheated fate last time, coming back to find the place untouched, this time he was sure he would not be so lucky.

"And what about you?" Izumo asked as they sat down together to wait to board the plane, "is Scepter 4 going to explode without you there to take care of it?"

His words were in his usual slow, drawl but Seri recognized the tease in them, she scowled and her lips pressed into a firm line, "Scepter 4 is a respected organization dedicated to peace and justice. Everyone in there is the best at what we do! As such, they are perfectly capable of continuing on without me!" ...Although, she liked to think that things ran a little more smoothly with her there.

Izumo smiled, she always told him off, she always responded, even when she knew he was poking fun at her. He reached out and tucked a lock of her wavy blonde hair behind one ear, "I'm sure it runs more smoothly when you're there though." He said.

Seri glared at his hand until it retracted, if Izumo noticed it didn't show on his face.

It wasn't that she minded being close with him, actually, she wanted to be closer. But the job came first. They had work to do and she would not be distracted. Least of all by her companion, regardless of whether he was as hot as Hell or not.

It wasn't really the fact that Izumo was very good looking that bothered her. He was, sure, but Seri knew men who were very, very good looking and then some. It was something about Izumo, something about his personality and the way he carried himself that enhanced his looks tenfold. He was breathtaking, a more sophisticated gentleman she had yet to meet.

And the arrogant bastard knew it too.

But he didn't lord his looks, charm and personality over others.

Except for her. He knew he drove her crazy, in more ways than one.

Well, at least Seri assumed he did, he had to, no man as intelligent as Izumo Kusanagi (and he was intelligent) could play such havoc with her heart and not know what he was doing. He had to know.

Which made him an arrogant bastard.

The call for their plane came and Izumo stood, he offered her a hand, "shall we?"

Oh yes, goodness-knows how long together, travelling to Italy together, where they would be staying together, working together, and generally being together for an unspecified period of time in one of the most romantic places on Earth. And they needed to work.

What could possibly go wrong here?

Seri took his hand and allowed herself to be pulled to her feet, just as quickly she reached for the handle on her suitcase but Izumo beat her to it. He wrapped the hand she had just let go of around the handle of her suitcase and grabbed his with his free hand.

"It's this one, right?" He nodded at the nearest terminal and began to walk towards it.

"Hey," Seri protested, following after him, "I can handle my own stuff."

"I can handle your stuff too," said Izumo, completely straight-faced. Seri glared at him suspiciously but his bland expression did not change, if there were any innuendos on his part they were obviously accidental. If he had said that on purpose he would have cracked a smile at his own joke by now.

She grumbled a thank you and followed him, there was no point arguing, she knew, he was stubborn like that. Seri didn't believe in always giving in but, despite her bossy nature, she wasn't the type who always had to have things her own way either. She simply believed in getting things done as quickly and efficiently as possible.

If Izumo wanted to carry her luggage for her (much better wording) then why should she stop him? It wasn't like it was a misfortune on her part in any way.

But if he got in her way while he was on the job he would find himself on the receiving end of a swift ass-kicking. Awashima thought she might actually enjoy that.

When they had settled into their luxurious first-class seats (courtesy of Scepter 4), Seri settled in for a gruelling flight full of trying to hammer the importance of this mission into Izumo I-take-absolutely-nothing-seriously Kusanagi's head.

Instead, the moment they were alone he asked, "so, what do we know about this guy?"

'This guy,' as Izumo referred to him, was Shouukou Matsunaga, a Strain who had been eluding the Gold Clan, Usagi, for over five years now. Truly a force to be reckoned with, the Usagi were not to be taken lightly.

His Strain ability was nothing strictly amazing, but was nothing to be coughed at either. He could control people who looked into his eyes, make them do or say things against their will. The mind-control didn't last too long after eye contact was broken but always long enough for Matsunaga to get away. This, coupled with the man's natural brains and street smart personality had kept him out of prison for going on six years.

Knowing that the entirety of the Gold Clan hadn't been able to capture this man, for five and a half years had Seri occasionally doubting if she and Izumo would stand a chance. But most of the time she doubted nothing. Izumo was the best of the best, she...

Well Seri was well aware of her unfortunate habit of freezing up at absolutely the worst moments but she was working on that. And normally she was good in a fight.

And she was good at tracking Strains, she knew how to work with what she had. She was good at her job.

They would find this man; she would not let her Captain down.

Seri straightened slightly, she pulled out her work PDA and brought up the information they needed.

"What we know about him and what we think we know are two different things, but this much is certain." She handed over her PDA and Izumo's eyes quickly flicked from left to right as he read.

While she waited Seri drew her legs up under her and stared out the window. She knew it would be fully night by the time they touched down in Florence but for now she could enjoy staring at the changing scenery on the ground far below.

"Huh," Izumo said after a while, "interesting."

Seri, who had actually begun to doze off, cracked one eye open, "the only thing that's interesting about Matsunaga is why he decided to go to Italy. He's not Italian, we have nothing to indicate he speaks the language and he'll stick out. Why would he go there when his main goal is to blend in as much as possible? Did he think the Usagi would simply stop chasing him if he managed to leave Japan?"

Izumo shrugged, "maybe he thought with the loss of their King they'd be too busy to chase him that far."

If he'd thought that, then he had been right. The Usagi couldn't chase him when they were so busy recovering from the loss of their King and the blow dealt to them, their building and the security of the nation by jungle.

But unfortunately for him, the Usagi had some powerful allies. The Gold and Blue Kings had been close, professionally, and the new Red King was eager to bridge the gap between her Clan and the others, she was very willing to allow her Clansmen to work with the other Clans, Awashima knew.

"Maybe," she agreed.

Izumo handed her PDA back, "we'll know more later," she continued, "the Usagi are trying to get us the information now but, as you can imagine, things are a bit of a mess over there."

Izumo nodded, "let's just deal with the information we have."

Seri nodded back, "I've already contacted all the airports. Of course it won't make it impossible for someone like him to leave the country but it should make it more difficult. The same can be said for inside Italy. I've talked with the local police, they're on the lookout should he try and leave Florence by traditional methods. Of course, not knowing the whole story it's hard for them to appropriately judge the danger of the situation, but I think I managed to impress the need for extreme caution and vigilance on them."

"I'm sure you did," said Izumo with a smile, he knew how scary Seri could be once she put her foot down.

But wait? She'd talked with the local police? She had? Huh, he hadn't known.

"Seri? Can you speak Italian?" Izumo asked.

Seri blushed, not her usual pink, but a bright red of embarrassment, "not really," she admitted, "I was very lucky the head policeman spoke Japanese."

Well that explained it. It wasn't as though Izumo knew every single detail of Seri's life but he was sure that if she had spoken Italian it would have come up in at least one of their conversations somewhere.

"I could teach you?" He offered.

Seri stared at him for a long second, she wasn't really surprised about him knowing how to speak Italian, it had come up in one of their conversations a while ago, and even if it hadn't, she still wouldn't have been surprised.

French, Italian and he probably spoke German too, after spending so long in Germany.

Was there anything this man couldn't do?

There were probably plenty of things, but nothing Seri could think of right now. That was most annoying.

But as tweaked as her pride was Seri knew this would be the quickest and most efficient way to fully grasp the language.

She knew the basics, of course, enough to get by, but she could converse neither quickly nor fluently, she wanted to change that. As quickly as possible.

When Seri awoke it was the to the sensation of being carried in someone's arms like a bride. The last thing she remembered Izumo had been teaching her Italian on the plane.

She immediately started squirming but whoever it was had obviously anticipated this and held her closely to their hard chest to limit her movements.

"Relax, it's me," a familiar voice said.

Seri briefly considered maiming him anyway, quick and efficient, she reminded herself. There was no way they were going to catch this Strain quickly and efficiently if she disabled, whether permanently or temporarily, her travelling companion.

Well... she could always leave him behind.

But then she would have to explain that to the Red and Blue Kings.

Seri stifled a sigh; Kings always had to suck the fun out of everything.

"I mean it," she stifled a yawn, "put me down."

Seri didn't know how Izumo managed to get the door open while still holding her but he managed it, he crossed the room into a second, slightly smaller one, "as you wish." He deposited her gently on the think white blanket.

Seri yawned again before sitting upright, "the bags-"

Izumo rested a gentle hand on her shoulder, "I've got them, go back to sleep."

That sounded like a brilliant idea so Seri did that.

Consequently Seri was awake hours before Izumo the next day, she stretched and went about her morning routine before wandering into the front room.

It was a large open space with a huge white couch in the middle and a large flatscreen TV. One wall was entirely made of glass that looked out over the pretty scenery but they were up high enough that Seri didn't worry about someone else seeing in.

Sitting on the large couch Seri pulled her PDA back out and began going over the maps of the city she wanted to know where everything was. The police force had already highlighted the most likely and least likely places of escape but they didn't have Seri's expertise or knowledge of this man's powers.

After about an hour or so Seri had breakfast and then glanced at Izumo's shut door.

He was still asleep but that wasn't all that inconceivable, her internal alarm had been thrown off by jetlag and different time zones and thus she'd awoken later than usual, but it was still only about nine in the morning.

However he was going to have to get up sooner or later.

Seri hesitated, she was perfectly capable of hog-tying Izumo and throwing him into the nearest river if he annoyed her but walking into his bedroom and hitting him with a pillow until he woke up just seemed rude. Maybe she should just knock?

Actually... she had a better idea.

Seri knocked on Izumo's door with her free hand, "I'm coming in, you had better sleep with clothes on," she warned.

She heard a sleepy chuckle from the other side of the door, "I sleep with clothes on, just give me a sec and I'll-"

Seri opened the door as Izumo sat up, he was bare-chested but as the sheets pooled around his hips she saw that he was wearing a pair of sweatpants. Damn.

Wait. Seri blinked. NO! Not 'damn!' Good! That was a good thing. Ugh, it was far too early in the morning for this, who the Hell had thought this assignment was a good idea anyway? Because it certainly hadn't been her!

She moved into the room, supporting the tray with both hands now that the door was open.

She placed the tray across Izumo's knees, for some reason she was trying hard not to blush, "here. Hurry up and eat. We have work to do."

Izumo looked charmed, "did you just bring me breakfast in bed?"

Seri beat a hasty retreat, she was definitely blushing now. But it was either breakfast in bed or tipping a bucket of ice cold water over him as he slept, and she had a feeling Izumo would prefer breakfast. She wasn't sure why, just a hunch she had.

"Thank you Seri!" Izumo called after her, yeah, he should be thankful. He had no idea how closely he'd avoided being drenched in freezing water.

Half an hour later Seri and Izumo, both fully dressed and ready to start work, exited their hotel. Seri looked out at the bustling city. It certainly was beautiful, very different from Japan. But she doubted its beauty was what had drawn Shouukou Matsunaga here. And now she and Izumo had to find him. Her, who didn't even speak fluent Italian and Izumo Kusanagi of HOMRA.

Seri winced, this mission wasn't a bad idea! It was a nightmare! Then she shook herself and squared her shoulders.

"Come on. We have a job to do."

Done! There's the first chapter. Hope you enjoyed guys. Bye!