Slow Burn

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A/N- this is as close as I get to "action" scenes. I know it sucks, i'm sorry, but I don't write action scenes too well. Just deal with it, ok? If you're still searching for a plot in this fic, (why oh why? I already told you there wasn't one, lol!) this chapter represents my pathetic excuse for one. So if it seems like I just threw it in for no apparent reason, well, it's true. I had to provide a logical motivation for things to change between Amon and Robin so the story would make sense, so here it is. Not a great chapter, but necessary. They will get better later- if you like lemons that is!

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3- Awakening


Whatever she'd been about to say was cut off by Michael. Amon didn't know if he was relieved or disappointed, he saw Robin had a confused look in her eyes that probably mirrored his own.

"Got him!" the hacker yelled triumphantly, abruptly shattering the tense silence between them.

All business again, Amon's long practiced mask dropped back into place, schooling his features as always. He approached Michael at his computer. "What is it?"

"Police just spotted Kodachi going into his girlfriend's apartment building, on Sakura Street, and passed it on to us."

*(A/N- I know, not a very clever name, sorry! I'm not good with Japanese names! I beg thy forgiveness, gentle reader!)

Kodachi was a powerful witch they had been hunting for the last three months. His craft was telekinesis; the ability to move objects with his mind. It was a relatively common craft among witches but Kodachi had it unusually strong. He was wanted for killing five people, three of which were former coworkers of his, the other two being police officers. Kodachi had been fired from his job, and snapped under the stress- the next day he had gone back to his former workplace with an automatic and started shooting up the place. Already mentally unstable, the upheaval in his life had contributed to the awakening of Kodachi's powers. When the police showed up the witch killed two of them by flinging them against a building with his Craft, crushing every bone in their bodies along with their skulls, and then managed to get away. As a result, the police had several of his haunts under surveillance- his mother's house, his favorite bar, and his girlfriend's apartment.

Amon clicked a full magazine of rune bullets into his gun, the other hunters did the same. He turned to Robin, who already had her glasses perched on the end of her nose. He absently wondered if he'd ever seen any other girl wearing glasses who looked as cute as she did. He quickly shoved the thought away for later, now they had work to do. An almost undetectable lift of one of his dark brows served as a silent inquiry, one which Robin immediately understood as "Are you ready to go?" In the years of being Amon's partner she had learned to read his veiled expressions as clearly as a book. She replied with a barely perceptible nod- her weapon was always ready.

They were so close as partners they barely had to speak anymore- they could communicate volumes without saying a word. "Partners' ESP", their friends jokingly called it.

"Let's go," Amon said in his usual stoic way, taking his place in the lead as the others fell in behind him. Robin assumed her proper place right alongside him.

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Kodachi was on the run. He had spotted them coming and now he was leading them on a chase through a maze of alleys. They ended up in a nearby abandoned warehouse.

Amon readied his gun as he and Robin approached the building. Sakaki, Karasuma, and Doujima all did the same. With their dark clothes, intent expressions, and careful, alert movements, the witch hunters bore an uncanny resemblance to a pack of black wolves in human form. The five hunters entered the building and split up, each going in different directions, keeping in touch with their headphone mics. It was a quiet, stealthy search for a few minutes until a voice boomed throughout the empty building.

"MURDERERS!"

They all spun around at the sound of the voice. Amon felt his heart sink into his stomach when he saw Robin, dangling high in the air like a puppet on a string, her dark golden head lolling forward, her chin resting limply against her chest. She was unconscious, held in the grip of the witch's Craft. She didn't appear to be seriously hurt- yet.

"Drop your guns!!" Kodachi shouted, wide-eyed, his hair blowing wildly about his face. "Drop them now or she's dead!!" The man was about to lose it, they could all tell. His voice was high and cracking, his eyes had a crazed light in them. They had to keep him calm until they could get Robin away from him. A fall from that height could kill her, or Kodachi could just squeeze the life out of her with his craft.

Amon stood rooted to the spot, his already pale face several shades whiter. He could have sworn that liquid terror poured through his veins instead of blood. He'd never been so afraid in his life, not even when his mother had awakened to her Craft and been slaughtered right before his eyes when he was only seven. He didn't even trust his ability to speak.

Slowly, gingerly, they all did as they were told, placing their weapons on the ground.

Karasuma took the job of trying to talk him down. "Now, just relax. Hurting her isn't going to help you. If you let her go and come quietly, we will be lenient- but if anything happens to her we will be forced to shoot you." She kept trying to reason with the suspect, carefully keeping her voice as soothing as possible. This man was like a pipe bomb, she sensed his emotions were extremely volatile. He could go off at any moment. And the vibrations of frightened concern coming from her fellow Hunters, especially Amon, weren't helping her concentration. "You're out of options, Kodachi. Just release her and come peacefully, and you will not be harmed."

Amon let Karasuma do the talking. Normally it would be his job, but right now he was too worried for Robin to think straight.

For a moment it looked like the witch was going to surrender, but it was not to be.

"LIAR!!" he shrieked madly, and Robin was hurled through the air toward the wall as if by an invisible hand.

Amon's reaction was instinctive... he didn't hear his own roar of fury, but everyone else did. Responding to a deep complusion within his blood, Amon reached out his arm as if he could catch Robin in his hand like a baseball, even standing fifty feet away from her.

Amon's long coat and ebony hair swirled around him in an invisible cyclone. They all knew what that meant.

A sudden disturbance of the natural energies around the dark hunter. A sharp spike in magical power over a small concentrated area.

A sign of the Craft.

They all stared in awe as Robin's fatal flight was abruptly halted just before she hit the wall. Her body hovered for a second or two and then was safely lowered to the floor. Kodachi screamed again and loosed a blast of power directly at them- Karasuma, Sakaki, and Doujima all were knocked to the ground, their enemy's telekinesis was too potent to be stopped by their Orbo amulets. But Amon remained unmoved, a Seed no longer.

The craft winds continued to howl around Amon's imposing figure like a miniature hurricane as his power level rose. The increase in kinetic energy whipped his coat and clothes and toyed with his long hair. The Orbo in his pendant boiled fiercely in response; the industrial-grade polyurethane tube containing it visibly vibrating and about to shatter. His blood was awake and humming, so much so that even his dark eyes now glowed with piercing blue lights. Amon's craft was the same as Kodachi's- telekinesis. It was also a lot stronger.

How ironic, that the one thing he had feared all his life- the awakening of his Craft and the loss of control he'd imagined would go along with it- had turned out to be so anticlimactic. He wasn't even surprised. When he'd reached out his arm to save Robin there wasn't a single doubt in Amon's mind that he could pull it off. Somewhere inside he'd always known Robin would be the one to to jumpstart his witch power. That was why he'd tried so hard to push her away in the beginning, even then he had sensed she was capable of stirring his long-buried emotions, emotions intense enough to awaken his Craft. The sight of Robin in mortal danger prompted him to act quickly and instinctively, out of love for her, and it worked just as he'd always known it would.

Now that his awakening had finally happened, Amon felt more than a little foolish for having feared and loathed it for so long. He had been in full control the whole time, and he'd been able to save Robin- even while still wearing the Orbo cross during the initial burst. It was easy, he hadn't lost his mind doing it like his mother had. Practicing such rigid self-control for so long must have enabled him to control his power as well.

"What the fuck is this?! I'll KILL YOU!" Kodachi screeched in rage, and fired a stronger burst of energy at his enemy, but it never touched him. Needing deeper access to his own power, Amon yanked off his Orbo cross and put up both hands, creating a barrier against Kodachi's Craft with a blast of his own. The witch's power doubled back on him, along with Amon's. The combined blow sent Kodachi flying across the huge warehouse from one side to the other, at impossible, bullet-like speed. The only thing that stopped him was the opposite wall.

CRRRAAACK! the demented witch slammed into the unforgiving concrete wall with a hideous sound, with all the destructive force of a freight train. His corpse landed in a ruined heap on the floor.

With his body pummeled and oozing blood all over, and the remains of his head a pulpy mess, the power-mad Kodachi was dead long before he hit the ground. Amon loomed over the broken body as an angry storm god, looking down with contempt at the fallen witch. That's what you get for messing with my little Robin, he thought harshly. Now that the fight was over, his eyes returned to their normal color and the winds stopped as Amon's craft settled back into himself.

Amon immediately returned to his beloved partner's side. He dropped to his knees beside Robin and protectively gathered her to him. As he did so he heard a feminine groan, and the fire angel in his arms stirred and tried to right herself.

"Take it easy, Robin," he said gently, easing her up to a sitting position, still holding her close to keep her steady. Or that's what he told himself anyway. He'd take any excuse to hold her. "Are you all right?"

Robin tried to raise her hand to touch the back of her sore head, only to have it caught in Amon's bigger one, and lowered back to her side to keep her from aggravating the tender goose egg forming on her scalp. Even through the leather of his glove she could feel the warmth of Amon's touch. She opened her crystal-green eyes and tried to focus on his face, but the dizziness made her close them again. "My head hurts, but that's about it," she said. "I can't believe I let him sneak up on me," Robin muttered, angry with herself. Here she was, an experienced hunter, and she'd gotten beaned on the head from behind by a suspect. It was embarrassing, the kind of mistake a rookie- or rather, a really dumb rookie, would make.

But she had to admit, she'd let it happen a lot more often if it meant being snuggled in Amon's strong arms afterward. She wished she could just nuzzle into his chest and stay there for a few hours, maybe open the first few buttons of his shirt so she could place her hand against his warm skin, and trace the hard ridges of muscle underneath with her fingertips... and maybe her lips too... Robin tried not to blush at the thought- oh boy, I have to stop doing this to myself.

Amon just chuckled at her annoyed comment, no criticism at all in his voice. He remembered with a pang of guilt the cruelty he'd lavished on her when she first came to the STN-J all those years ago. It was a credit to her character that she hadn't let his scorn faze her. It had taken awhile for him to treat Robin with the respect she deserved as his partner, but she eventually won him over. He still felt bad about that, even now. But Robin was much harder on herself than anyone else could ever be.

"It happens to the best of us, even you, little Eve," he teased warmly. To Robin's surprise, she felt his fingers delicately grazing the back of her head, checking her for injury, until he found the painful lump where Kodachi had knocked her out. He never touched anyone, always shunned any kind of physical contact unless absolutely necessary- but apparently not at this particular moment.

A hiss of pain escaped Robin's lips when his fingers brushed the sore spot, she involuntarily winced at his soft touch. "Sorry," he apologized quietly for causing her discomfort. "You seem all right, but you should see the doctor just in case," he advised, reluctantly letting her go and helping her to her feet.

Even though she felt okay now, Robin faked a dizzy spell as she stood up, just to be in Amon's embrace one more time. He quickly caught her and she forcibly repressed her dreamy sigh, savoring the feel of his hard body against hers for a few glorious seconds. When she "recovered" he released her again.

Amon noticed his other three comrades all standing up, but they didn't approach him. They looked at him strangely, almost fearfully. He didn't understand why- until he remembered what had just happened.

No wonder they were a little spooked- he was still a bit unnerved himself. After all, they had just witnessed the emergence of his Craft.

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Doujima grabbed Robin's arm and dragged her aside as the group waited for Amon to finish up with the police officers who had shown up to take away the body.

"Oh my God, Robin, you should have seen Amon!! He was so awesome! He took out that little punk witch with one single blast of his craft! I've never seen a telekinetic that strong," Doujima chattered excitedly about what she'd seen Amon do.

Robin was actually sorry she had been out cold on the ground at the time and had missed seeing that. She just bet Amon looked all sexy and dangerous when he was in the throes of his powerful Craft- more so than usual anyway. Yummy, she thought, trying very hard not to sigh again like a lovestruck fool. "It was the coolest, most kick-ass thing I've ever seen! Too bad you missed it- he looked so heroic!" Yurika dropped her voice to a secretive whisper, with a conspiratorial nudge of Robin's ribs, "..and pretty damn hot too!"

Robin's cheeks started to burn, much to her dismay. She hated that she was already almost 20, a young, but nevertheless still grown woman, and yet she'd never outgrown the mortifying tendency to blush cherry-red like an awkward schoolgirl. "Yurika!!" she squeaked in acute embarrassment, especially since she had just been thinking exactly the same thing that her mouthy friend was now carelessly broadcasting to anyone within earshot. At least nobody else could hear the tactless blonde's commentary... thankfully that included Amon, who was still talking to the police sergeant at a nice safe distance across the room. God was merciful.

Doujima kept going as if she hadn't noticed Robin's sudden urge to flee her presence. Robin jerked her arm a couple times in a fruitless attempt to escape, but Yurika's hold on her was stronger than a black hole's gravitational pull. She kept right on prattling in that stage whisper Robin was afraid everyone could hear, "No, seriously, I mean he looked even more gorgeous than usual- who knew that was possible, huh? You probably would've fainted dead away at the sight," she winked at Robin and added with an impish smile, "Amon must really care about you, a whole lot, for his craft to flare up like that, just to play the knight in shining armor and rescue you, ne?"

"Lay off, Yurika!" Robin hissed a desperate warning, seeing that Amon was finished with the police and was headed their way. Robin was sure that even her ears were red by now with the spreading blush she fought to subdue. Oh, God, this is so embarrassing- damn Doujima and her big flapping mouth! I hope nobody else can hear this... especially not Amon... oh please Lord, anyone but Amon!

Doujima giggled and finally decided she had pestered poor Robin enough for today. After all, she didn't want to end up barbecued if Robin got angry! She had accomplished her mission for now. She smiled to herself once she saw the young witch's cheeks were still vividly pink; Robin looked so adorable that way. Yurika knew that men went wild for that innocent blush. Amon definitely would! He might seem cold all the time, but he was still just a guy after all. She didn't have to have Miho's scrying ability to see Robin's continuing feelings for Amon. And Amon's interest in her- he was good at hiding it but she had been watching them both a lot lately and had seen identical signs in him. The attraction was definitely mutual. Yurika was in full matchmaker mode. This was one match that was already set- it just needed a little nudge to get it rolling.

She'll thank me for this later, Yurika thought as she smirked knowingly at Robin one last time. "See ya, Robin," she said, blue eyes twinkling with mischief, walking away as Amon came up to Robin's side.

"Let's go," Amon told her in his regular unruffled manner. Robin just nodded quickly, too self-conscious to say a word. She looked away from his piercing silver stare to keep him from seeing her overheated face.

Amon saw Robin was flushed- quite attractively, he thought- and wondered why. He had seen Doujima talking to her just now, that must be it. Doujima was a lot more worldly than Robin, and she was also bluntly honest. Yurika didn't have a filter between her brain and her mouth like most people did- she'd start talking, and whatever she was thinking tended to spout right out. Mentally he chuckled, Doujima had probably told Robin some story about her and Sakaki's bedroom activities that was WAY too personal for Robin's comfort. The two young hunters were all over each other. He couldn't help but admire the result of his shy partner's discomfiture- he'd always thought Robin was so cute when she blushed. I could give her something to really blush about!- he thought wickedly before he could stop himself.

But of course Amon didn't say or show a hint of what he was thinking as he stalked off to his car, hearing Robin's hurrying steps behind him. His own "filter" was in perfect working order, thank you very much. It worked a little TOO well at times.

Amon slowed his long strides so Robin could keep pace with him.

The hunters left in their cars to return to the STN-J, while Robin rode with Amon to Dr. Nuri's office.

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Author's Note- Amon is NOT a wind/aerokinetic here, I don't have a problem with that but it seems to be one of the more commonly used craft in fics when Amon is shown to have one. I get the reasons, fire + wind is a great combo, but it's been done almost to death. I will NEVER make him a wind-craft; chalk it up to my rebellious streak. Here he has telekinesis, which is the ability to move objects- basically he can move anything that has physical mass, including human bodies, through direct force of will. A lot of times the wind-craft is written by other people as being able to do the same thing, kinda like a REALLY strong wind (i.e. a tornado) which picks stuff up and blows it around, but that never quite made sense to me. Wind just doesn't seem substantial enough for that to me- I'd see it being used more as complete control over all surrounding air/oxygen than as a way to move things- like maybe sucking all the air out of a person's lungs to kill them, or changing the air pressure around your enemy, or something interesting like that.

And considering Amon's forceful personality, (yes he does have a personality, ha ha! although he would have us believe otherwise, LOL) the wind thing doesn't seem to match him. It's not enough brute force and doesn't really explain why he is so afraid of it coming out. Direct telekinesis just seems more forceful and thus easier to lose control of- like that witch in one of the early eps who was throwing those church pews around and smashing them into walls- yeah, that's what I'm going for. But with more power of course.

The "craft winds" are something completely different. That seems to happen with just about all the witches in the anime when they use their powers, its not a craft just what happens when their powers kick in. It happens a lot in the series, when the witch's hair suddenly starts blowing around their face, right before they strike. I'm thinking, some kind of energy surge that disturbs things right around it? I thought Amon would look even more badass than he always does with that working for him! The idea is that since its his Awakening, the craft-winds are more intense than they would be normally because it's his first time using it. But its NOT the wind-craft. Hopefully nobody was confused by that, sorry.