Disclaimer : me owns nothing. Tezuka and Fuji owns each other though XP

Warning : this is an AU fic, and no tennis included in this story. The setting is in a big city, which devided into 2 areas of lower and upper town. Upper town is where the rich is and the lower town.. well, you get the idea.

As for the age, go imagine Tezuka in his late 20, Inui and Oishi in their early 30. And Echizen is somewhere near 23.

Oh, a little potty mouth Inui and Echizen, I warn you. The characters are a bit OOC too.

It's the first fic I ever made.. Be gentle, please? And my deepest apology for my poor English.. It's not even my mother language, so.. (and this fic is un-beta'd)

Okay. Let the story begin…

Chapter 1

The Black Coffee

A pair of cold brown eyes of a bespectacled young man gazed trough the rain-soaked window. it was warm inside the coffee shop, but outside, the homeless peoples shivered in their thin clothes and torn blankets.

The tall young man sighed. With the dark clouds above, the pouring rain, and the dirty pavements out there, not to mention the gloomy looks of the homeless people, the lecherous grins of the thugs, and the dirty, dark alleys.. the lower town was certainly not a sight to behold at all. Even in the daylight, when the sky above looked stunningly blue and clear, the lower town always has a certain devastating atmosphere on it. Whether it's the mold covered wall of the old buildings or the equally moldy smell and looks of the occupants, it certainly is the picture of the lower town, if one ever mentions it.

"Hey Tezuka. Meeting Inui?" a young man with raven hair came out from the door near the counter of the coffee shop. A smile lightened his kind face. "Strong coffee, as usual?" he asked his last customer that night. Then again, the sign on the door clearly said 'closed', but this customer is a special case anyway. The man answered with a short "Hn".

So Oishi, the barista and the owner of the coffee shop ignore the faint sting in his left leg and made his way to the counter. A soft chuckle from Oishi and the creaking sound of the wooden floor ease the brown eyed man in a sense. "Always a man with so few words, aren't you, Tezuka?" Oishi said while dragging his left leg, preparing for the daily caffeine dose for Tezuka. "Where's your cane, Oishi?" Tezuka asked, noticing the obvious difficulty when Oishi walked here and there preparing his coffee. Oishi laughed. "inui 'repairs' it for me. Don't make me sound like an old man, Tezuka. If not for my shitty luck 3 years ago, I'd still be your partner in crime right now, you know."

"Partner in crime, indeed." Another voice joined their conversation. Surprised, Oishi almost drop the cup and the saucer in his hand. A relieved sigh escaped his lips when he saw a tall, black haired man with thick framed glasses in his right side.

"God, Inui, you scare me sometimes. How do you manage to do that?" Oishi said, pouring the freshly brewed coffee for Tezuka.

"Do what? Here, catch" Inui said as he throw a new, nicely polished cane for Oishi.

The barista caught it effortlessly. "Well, you know, you seem to just.. appeared from the air, coming without any sounds just like that," Oishi looked at the cane in his hand, observing it with keen eyes. "Oh, wow. Nicely carved, I see. Thanks Inui." Inui nods and took a seat beside Tezuka in the counter. " I put a small knife in the bottom part, as you wish. And I did not intend to come like I've just popped out anywhere I want, you see. It's just… a habit. A part of the job, you know. I need to save my ass first, cuz this Tezuka and another job seekers wont get any if their informant is killed, right? " Inui took off his glasses and wipe the water droplets in the lens with his handkerchief.

"Seriously though, if not for that stupid bullet shittin your left leg, you'd still be the one Tezuka working with right now. Not that little brat and his computer.."

"It's Echizen, Inui. He has a name, you know. And it's his job as a hacker to work with a computer, so get used to it. Here, Tezuka." Oishi handed Tezuka his coffee. "Anyway, giving Tezuka a new job, Inui?" Inui gave him a smug grin and Tezuka tried hard not to move his seat a little bit further from the sight. "Yeah. It's a one-man job this time, so the brat can say goodbye to the sweet bucks the employer offered." Inui handed Tezuka a brown envelope. "Here is the detail Tezuka."

Tezuka sipped his warm coffee, bracing himself for another job of assassination coming for him that night. 'Another dead body. Another list to the nightmare' Tezuka thought warily. His expression gave nothing away to the other two. The young assassin read the paper in his hand.

'Mission: annihilate the target.. Well, it's expected.. 3 months from now.. I still have a lot of time, then'.

Then a photograph came into his sight.

Oishi gasped beside him, and he could hear Inui's whistled at the image captured in the photograph. Tezuka took a sight of it, and a sudden strange flutter inside his stomach made him twitch in annoyance. A young man, probably 4 or 3 years younger than him, was walking in an elite part of the upper town, with a camera in his slender hand. While his figure clearly showed that he is indeed a man, there is something about the man that reminds him of paintings and the ethereal beauty they tried to capture.

A man for sure, but a beauty that caught both men and women attention is what the target has. The honey colored hair that ruffled by the wind and the slight smile is a mesmerizing sight, but his eyes, those striking blue eyes, is what caught Tezukas attention. He secretly wondered if this person is as beautiful as his candid photograph.

Inuis voice brought back Tezukas senses. "Target name is Fuji Shuusuke, A well known photographer and the heir to Fuji Corporation. Well, a man of fortune, isn't he? Young, rich, and talented". "And he's good looking too. It's such a pity that you have to kill him, ne, Tezuka?" Oishi said with a sad sigh, "This is the one of the things I hate about this job. The unwritten law that says we, as the man of work, shouldn't question who employed us and why they want to kill the target. It gets into my nightmare sometimes, whether our target is someone really worth to be killed or not". "'Get the papers, kill the target, and you get the fucking money', huh? Well, then it's a good thing that you retired, Oishi. Humanity and feelings are things that people in this side of world supposed to get rid of if they want to life without nightmare and the damn urges to commit suicide". Inui suppressed his yawn.

Tezuka rubbed his temple, his eyes once again scanning the papers and forcing his mind to concentrate. He finally let an almost non audible exasperated sigh escape his lips, finished his coffee in a single gulp and put on his coat. "I'm going home Inui. I'll call you later," Tezuka unlocked the door and without another word he went, leaving Inui with a rather dumbfounded look and Oishi chuckled in amusement. "Good, I really am sleepy anyway. Pay for his coffee, Inui". Inui sighed and reached for his wallet inside his coat, "Damn. Such an ass, isn't he?"

Outside, the down hard rain had turned into a calmer state of drizzle.

The smell of the narrow alley made Tezuka wrinkled his nose. 'Rotten corpse somewhere, maybe?' He thought while jumping a puddle of water, which suspiciously looked red. "Shit". Another unpleasant event to think of.

Tezuka never really like to kill, but it doesn't stop him from doing his job. Losing his parents and grandfather in a tragic massacre 10 years ago, Tezuka learnt that one could not always gave in to the things they like. His late family was killed by someone from the upper class for the murder they never did. The man who accused his family obviously has some power upon the police department, because in normal circumstances, no police officers want to associate themselves with the Tezuka family in the lower town. Not in any way, for they have no exact idea how wide is the network of the assassin family, and while it is quite obvious that the Tezukas are responsible for the murders, they have no evidence to drag them to jail.

But that was in the past. His grandfather might did some murders in his younger years, but he was already retired for years when the said murder happened. And his father was clean. His father lived from the coffee shop he owns, and his mother.. God. She was such a gentle, loving mother. There is no way she would kill anyone when she didn't even know how to use a gun or any weapon. His father knew how to use a gun, but he would only use it for self defense and protecting his family from the vile people of lower town.

Tezuka was the only one left of the Tezuka family, and the family left him nothing but the stealth technique his grandfather taught him and his fathers gun. And the coffee shop, which he gave to Oishis family, whom he trusts enough to keep his existence a secret.

The memories of his late family made Tezuka cringe in disgust. 'Damn those bastards of the upper town. I bet they make my family as the scapegoat for the murders they did themselves'. His fingers fumbled with the key in his pocket, suppressing the urge to punch something with his fists. 'That's why I never reject any mission to kill some of those rich bastards. They might have killed my family, but they have no idea that I'm still alive, the only survivor of massacre they did'.

Tezuka opened the door to his apartment. The light was turned off, but it doesn't always mean that there's no one inside. Echizen hates lights and he prefers to work in the dark, so he might be inside, working with his computer. Tezuka locked the door behind him and walked to the supposed to be living room. It's never been a living room, since nothing but a couch and a medium size table occupied the space there.

And there, he found his roommate.

Echizen slumped in the couch, his laptop turned on, and a can of beer in his right hand. Tezuka raised one of his brows. "Beer?" Tezuka muttered. Echizen isn't really a beer-fan. He always think beers are nothing but water with silly amount of alcohol, which will only makes his bladder suffer from the amount of water and do nothing to help him escapes from his problems. Echizen shrugged in his usual nonchalant fashion. "I'm thirsty, and I'm too lazy to grab some liquor from the bar since it's raining outside. Want some?" he offered Tezuka his beer, not once taking off his gaze from his laptop screen. "I'm going to bed" Tezuka said, walking to his bedroom. "But I think you'll want to clean yourself first, buchou. Someone was dumb enough to dump a corpse near the alley before the turn to this street. I can almost imagine how bad they torture the person before they manage no kill him. It smells like hell, don't you think? I know you must've passed the bloody thing on your way home".

"I told you not to call me that, Echizen".

"Call you what? Buchou? Nah. It suits you well. You always order me around anyway", Echizen then stretched in a cat-like grace. "Damn, now I'm starving".

Tezuka closed his bedroom door, took his clothes off and get himself a set of fresh clothes from his wardrobe. 'Black and grey' he thought solemnly while looking inside his wardrobe. 'The only colors I have, even for my boxers. Oishi's going to laugh at my fashion sense again once he saw this'.

That night, Tezuka dreamt of a blue-eyed angel.

A/N : Okay. Now I should go pack my luggage and hide in embarrassment for some good years. And maybe marry a good fireman to protect my hideaway spot from the flames.

Reviews will be my biggest energy to write another chapter. So pleaseeee do me tiny bit of favor and review, kay? *give you my best pleading look*