A/N: My first Covert Affairs fic is this incredibly AU one... Hm. This idea came to me, as most of my ideas do, in the middle of the night. Clearly inspired by Moonlit Masterpiece's wonderful AU fic Bottled Chaos (check it out, cough cough). I think the next chapter will be in Auggie's perspective. Also, I know I am so horrible at multichap fics and I don't know why I don't stick to oneshots (especially with another multichap recently started). Oh well. Please review.

Annie trudged through the streets, a backpack thrown over one shoulder. She shuffled her feet, kicking her heels on the asphalt. There wasn't much to do here, that was for sure - but she felt like walking today and so she was walking. She squinted through the mild wind, looking at shops but there was just the usual roundup: convenience stores, laundromats, post offices, all that was not interesting to her. She stifled a yawn with one gloved hand, hauling her backpack higher up her shoulder. She stopped before a sign that said "Bobby's Books". A bookstore.

She really loved books. Rather nerdy of her, she knew, but she was kind of a dork - albeit one that a lot of guys crushed on. It was awkward sometimes. She peered into the store window, cupping a hand so she could see through the reflective glass. It seemed to be open, but there was no one there and only the smallest of lights illuminating the place. She stood back, noticing a printed sheet of paper that read "Help (always) wanted." Shrugging to herself, she pulled the door open. A gust of warm air and the scent of worn books greeted her. Annie had to contain her glee at the wonderfulness of it all. She looked around. Still she could not see anyone there besides herself. It felt a little eerie but also very lovely, to be standing amongst all the books.

She took off her gloves and looked around. Were it not for the imposing bookshelves, Annie would be able to see all four walls of the store. It was quite small - smaller than her bathroom at home, even - yet packed to the brim with all sorts of books, practically touching the (admittedly lowish) ceiling. They were mostly used books with frayed pages but it all looked so welcoming.

She approached the counter, noticing a tiny concierge type bell. Leaning over, she tapped it once; the clear ring rang briefly before being muffled. She stood back a little, looking around, waiting. Suddenly there was a small sound and a man rose from underneath the counter. Annie's heart jumped rapidly in surprise.

"Oh, hi," the guy said, "I don't know how I didn't hear you come in, there's usually a chime thing by the door but I guess I was concentrating on my book or something. Anyway, I'm tired and I'm rambling. Hi."

"Hi..." she started to say, eyes flicking up to look at the guy who stood before her.

"Hi..." he said again, smirking a little. "Can I... help you?"

Annie noticed his eyes flitting around and was confused for a moment until she realized. She didn't speak for a few seconds, thrilled inexplicably by the sight of the man's eyes alighting by her shoulder. "Uh... yeah..." she said, her mouth going a little dry. She shook her head slightly, clearing her clouded thoughts. "Oh, yeah. Um, there's this sign by the door, it says you guys want help or something?"

The guy nodded slowly in response, and Annie saw that there were a pair of sunglasses hanging on the collar of his pale blue shirt. "Is there? Um, okay. Yeah, sure. So you want to work here?"

Annie shrugged, "Yeah, I guess?"

The guy nodded again. "Sure, you're in."

"What?" She could only gape in response.

"You're... hired I guess. If you want. I mean, you can start whenever. Just come in when you have time and help out, you know. You can um, I don't know, sign in and out somehow and we can pay you. Well- yeah, I can pay you. I mean, if you want the job."

She noted the change in pronouns but couldn't dwell on it because she was still in a partial state of shock. She was working here? Already? "You... don't need a resumé or anything?"

"Uhhh... no... not really. I mean, if you want you could hand it in, but I don't think... yeah, you're fine."

"I just come in at any time?"

"Yeah, basically."

She was too lost in this confusion to be mesmerized by the considerably peculiar guy before her. One weird thing at a time. "Like... now?"

"Sure? If you don't have anything better to do, I guess."

"Umm, okay..." Still severely stunned, she slid her backpack off her shoulder. It fell to the ground with a loud thump.

"Oh, wait-" the guy said, who had turned back and around again. "What time is it?" He pulled up his shirt sleeve to reveal a bare wrist. "Forgot my watch," he explained.

"Oh. I have no idea. 5-ish, I guess?"

"5-ish, or 5:30-ish?"

"I think it's more 5:30-ish, yeah," she said.

"Damn. Well, sorry, but I've got to go close up. I'm so sorry. I'll see you later, maybe?"

Annie sort of raised an eyebrow at the expression, though he didn't seem to mean anything by it. "Yeah, sure," she said, pulling her backpack up again. "See ya."

She slid her other arm into the strap and watched him for another second before whirling around. She slowly walked out, the door chiming a goodbye as she went. That was very interesting. Turns out she was wrong.

She pushed through the door, the chimes ringing a hello, and catching the guy whose name she did not know (Bobby?). He looked up, and as she approached, he said, "Hey... you... girl whose name I do not know."

She briefly wondered at how he knew who she was (and noticed he was wearing the sunglasses this time), but laughed in response. "Annie," she said. "Annie Walker. I assume you're... Bobby?"

"No," he said, laughing. "God, no. I'm Auggie. Or August. Whatever you like. Even 'gust' if you like cool nicknames, even though I've never ever heard anyone call me that before. Surname Anderson. Nice to meet you." He bowed slightly, his mouth tilted slightly in a grin.

"Wow, that's an awesome name. I mean, August. Gust, too," she said, trying to stifle her laughter. "So if you're not Bobby... who is?"

"Oh, that's my uncle. He kind of runs the place. In theory, at least." he said, smirking more.

"So it's just you here, mostly?"

"Yeah, mostly. I mean, I have brothers who are supposed to help out too, but it's usually me. Sometimes one of my brothers pops in to soothe his guilty conscience, but usually he's just making out with his girlfriend. Sorry, too much information?"

Annie grinned. "No, it's fine. I love hearing wacky stories about families."

"Yeah, but anyway, it's usually just me. Which I just realized I said already. Still tired, sorry. So did you just come from school or something?"

"Yep," she said, remembering her backpack to drop by the side of the counter.

"What grade are you in? Just so I know I'm not being a creepy old guy with a 13 year old girl. I think they have laws against that."

"No, I'm in Grade 12. Perfectly legal."

"Ah, good," he said, deadpan.

"You?"

"I was in Grade 12 last year but now I'm just taking a gap year to do things, you know. I mean, including taking care of this place, because I think I'm the only one who really doesn't want this place to shut down. Argh, sorry, rambling again. What university are you thinking of?"

"Um. I don't know. Maybe Stanford or something?"

"Wow. That's pretty good."

She blushed a little and changed the subject. "Can I ask you a kind of personal question?" she asked, a little shyly.

Instantly his smile faded. "Don't really want to talk about it," he said in a cold voice.

"Oh. Sorry," she said, extremely embarrassed. Then, because she really couldn't keep her mouth shut, she asked, "So you just live with your uncle, then?"

"Yeah." Then he paused. "Wait, what?"

Her face was bright red at that point. "Never mind, forget I said anything." This was really mortifying.

"No, I mean, what were you going to ask? I mean, your first question."

"I..." she said, uncertainly. "Just where your parents were."

"Oh," he said, his eyebrows raising. "Oh... Never mind what I said before. Um, yeah. Uh, well, my dad's kind of in Iraq right now."

"Is he in the army?" she interrupted, then felt like kicking herself a second later. As if she didn't ask enough stupid questions.

"Yeah."

"Oh, same!" said Annie in an excited tone. "I mean, I'm an army brat."

"Really? That's awesome. That's really cool. I mean, not- well, anyway. Coincidence, yeah. Anyway, my mom-"

He was cut off by a telltale jingle and Annie turned to see a middle-aged man (Bobby?) striding towards them. "Hello, Auggie!"

"Hey Charlie," said Auggie, smiling. "How are you doing?"

Feeling in the way, Annie moved to the side while the man, Charlie, stepped to the counter.

"I think your books came in yesterday," Auggie continued, ducking down and grabbing a package under the counter. He slid it across. "This it?"

"Yes, yes it is. Thank you!" Charlie took the box, handed over some money, and left the store with yet another chime.

"Aren't you worried someone's going to steal your money or try to rip you off? Or that I'm going to steal your money?" blurted out Annie.

"Uh, no, not really. I trust them. Anyway, if a book or some money goes missing, no big deal. I'm sure they had a good reason to steal. Or not. But, whatever. Don't worry, I make, like, 500 dollars a day anyway."

She looked at him in surprise. "Seriously?"

"No, not really. Right, well, anyway. Where were we? Oh yeah parents. My mom just basically works for the government. Late hours and things. So it's just me and my uncle."

"Oh," said Annie.

"Sorry, I must be boring you."

"No, it's really interesting, I swear. Remember, I love hearing wacky family stories."

"Right, yeah." He laughed. "Basically I just live at his place, though he's practically never there. He pays the rent and I live there. Supposedly he makes a lot of money or something, but he gambles and drinks and stuff so... Anyway. Oversharing."

"No, really, it's fine."

"Seriously, if I'm talking too much about random things, just interrupt me and tell me to shut up, okay? I think it's best for both of us that I'm not allowed to go off on a ramble. There I go again. Damn it."

"Oh," she said suddenly. "I just remembered I forgot to sign in."

"Oh yeah. Um, well, it doesn't really matter. Hold on." He pulled back his sleeve. "Remembered my watch this time," he said while Annie laughed. He did some things and it blared out in a robotic voice "four-thirty-seven PM".

"That's awesome," she said, referring to the watch.

"I know right? So yeah. I'll just say you came in at 4. It's all good. Anyway. I should probably actually get you to do something, huh? But I feel really bad ordering someone around. You're kind of the only real employee. And the only girl. And the only person who's not family. Rambling again. You really should shut me up. Okay, umm... I guess you can sweep around and stuff because I'm really, really bad at sweeping."

"Sure," she said, smiling.

"Geez, I feel like I'm an evil stepmother. I think there's a broom in the back closet. One sec." He slid out from behind the counter and made his way to the back, where he opened some door. He slipped inside and Annie was left to wonder about him. Didn't blind people have canes or something? Maybe he wasn't really blind. This was all really confusing. Maybe he just didn't need one. Or maybe he knew the shop well or something.

Soon after, Auggie came back with a broom brandished like a staff, smirking widely. "Here you go. You know, I think it's my turn to ask personal questions," he said lightheartedly while she blushed red. "What does your mom do?"

"Umm... She died a while back," said Annie awkwardly.

"Oh." he said in response, frowning. "Sorry. I really shouldn't do that."

"No, it's all right. I definitely asked too many awkward questions myself," she said with a sort of forced laugh. With that, she walked over with the broom to the far corner (which was not very far at all), and started to sweep the dust away. She felt really cool (she had a job!), there was the smell of old books surrounding her and she felt nice and warm and comforting and all other things. She did that for a while but it was really hard to see since there was only one big light where the center desk was. She put the broom down on the floor and walked back over.

Auggie was sitting hunched over a laptop to one side of the counter, his fingers flying while headphones encased his ears. Code was running through the screen like a raging river and Annie just stood there watching, amazed. A minute later she felt guilty for watching so much and not working, so she snapped out of it. Walking closer, she tapped him on the shoulder. "Auggie?"

He lifted his head and put a finger up to signal "hold on". She waited a few more seconds before he did some things to his fancy keyboard (she may be a nerd and a dork but she was definitely not a computer geek), then pulled his equally fancy headphones down. "Hm?"

She shifted a little. "Um... where are the lights? I mean- can you turn on the back lights? It's a little dark, sorry."

"Oh! Crap, I'm so sorry. I completely forgot that not everyone can see through the dark. I mean, I had no idea you couldn't, Miss Walker," he teased. "Yeah, sure, hold on a moment." He got up and his fingers slid underneath the counter. There were a few clicks and the lights shone. "Yeah, usually I'm just by myself as I've apparently said a million times before so I like to save energy. But before you say anything, don't worry about it, I just forgot and it's totally fine to have them on. Now, keep sweeping, Cinderella! Oh, and if you want to leave or need to leave, just tell me, seriously."

She grinned and said, "Will do." She walked away a few paces and watched while she sat back down, pulling his headphones back on. Keys were pressed once more and the code was flying all over again. Annie watched, in a trance, before she realized how creepy and rude she was being. She hurried back to the corner, picked up the broom, and began sweeping again. There really wasn't that much dust since the store didn't have many visitors in general, but it was something to do besides stare at that enigma (by which she meant Auggie). She wished she had a cool name like that - Annie was kind of boring. She liked it alright and it suited her but sometimes (like now) she wished she was more interesting. She swept up a bit more then put the broom gently against the bookshelf.

She squinted at the titles. Most of the books she had never heard before, which was saying something. They all looked really interesting and Annie dearly wished she could just grab them all, sit down, and read them for the rest of time. But she was working, after all. She had a feeling Auggie wouldn't mind if she did that, but she just felt bad. Maybe she would ask to borrow them later. Could she do that? That would be amazing, but it was a bookstore not a library. Again Annie didn't think Auggie would mind but she really felt nervous around him. He was different and interesting while she wasn't really. She sighed. Last night after their meeting she had been thinking about it and him for a long time. In terms of what she was feeling in that respect... she didn't know. Annie had no idea what to think. He was just so far off. He was so awesome and older and funny and great and cool and smart. He seemed so great but she had to remind herself she only knew him for about an hour or two. Definitely not the right time to be thinking of romance. She let out a small cry of frustration, then picked up the broom and resumed her 'job'. Stop it, she told herself.