Now Hiring [Kaiden, Open]

Locksmith...nope.  Could he be a mechanic?  Not unless it was repairing a .44 magnum that was jamming due to a corroded materia chamber.  Man, where was the job listings for badass, gun-wielding, legally dead, former Turk?  Alessandro felt like he'd been skipping the wanted ads for hours, partially due to his impatience.  In reality, he'd been there just twenty minutes and had only finished his first cocktail.

Alessandro was so focused into his task that he hardly even noticed the young woman seat next to him with...AN ENTIRE COCONUT FULL OF TEQUILA?!  Even his beat-em-up female martial artist co-worker wouldn't order an entire coconut full of tequila.  He quietly pulled the pink umbrella from his drink.  No sense in this woman looking manlier than he was in this moment, even though Alex liked the way the Mojito tasted.  He quietly finished his drink and nodded to the bartender, shoving his glass forward.  As he did, the woman next to him said something about his hair.

"Wow..that is...bad."

On a scale of one to ten that was a solid negative two.  That was not the smoothest introduction he'd heard. His mind went back to that time at the Honeybee Inn a 'dancer' came up to him as he was wasted.  Of course his mind went to "You wanna get a pizza and (@*%?"   He learned a valuable lesson that day, don't drink and try to pick up an exotic dancer.

"I'll let ya try that one over."

Alessandro scrolled over another entry on his phone until he came up on bodyguard.  Now, there was something he could do.  He tapped the link and it opened up a page for a pop icon who was to be performing in Edge.  He'd done security for Corneo for ages, so this could be the perfect oppor- They required a background check.  Great, that meant his fake ID would be scanned and come and red flag in their system.  That was out.

"...I guess I can try to be a locksmith..."

He looked back over at the woman drinking a vat of freakin' tequila.

"Corel is only a couple hours drive from here, right?"

Alessandro was still intent on reading through the job posting.  He wasn't really paying a whole lot of attention to the woman next to him, but it wasn't her fault at all.  He desperately needed a new source of Gil.  However, he slammed his drink down on the table, making a huge mess of things and he read the last line: "submit your application for a background check."

"Ah, what the hell?  Can't a man get a job these days without a freaking scan?  I swear I'm about to go see Tseng myself."

Oh yeah, the woman next to him had said something... She gave her name but he couldn't recall it to save his life.  Oh, this was going to be bad.

"Uh, hey Tina...Name's Aless-Um...Alex Smith."

And in his short tempered outburst he nearly gave out the name of a Turk who should rightly be dead.  He really needed to stop almost spilling the beans to random strangers.  Eventually, he would figure it out or the beings running ShinRa now would figure it out.  If the latter happened, Alessandro would be executed before he could even defend himself.

"So..uh...sorry about that.  Did I get any on you?"

Alex looked down to see he'd splashed alcohol everywhere.  He'd heard the bartender mumble something about cutting him off, to which Two Guns could easily say he deserved it.  Alex leaned across the bar and grabbed a damp towel from the bartender's shoulder and began to wipe up his own mess, waiting for the woman to either slap him upside the face or laugh it off.  He probably deserved the slap, to be honest.

Alessandro had really done it now.  In his carelessness he had spilled the name of Tseng and it could potentially cost him dearly.  Unfortunately, she recalled the name of the big shot Turk.  This was bad.  At hearing her recognition he sprayed the sweet and sour drink all over the bar.  Without saying anything, he began wiping down the bar again.

"Oh...&$!%.."

The color had completely drained from his face and, for the first time in a while, he could actually say he was afraid.  Shin-Ra was the kind of group that had ears everywhere.  It was highly possible that they even had ears on this tiny little shack of a bar in Costa del Sol.  They were kinda like Big Brother like that.  

"So..you know Tseng?  Um.."

He didn't really know what to say.  He had already let the cat out of the bag so he might as well spill the beans in an attempt to get her to shut up about it.  If he told her 'hey wait I'm supposed to be dead' then there was a chance she would understand and drop it completely.

"So..yeah..I was a Turk.  Things went south during the Wutai thing and my team cleaned things up.  However, Tseng kinda had orders to see to it that a few less Turks returned after we took down Zirconaide.  You probably heard something about that...media can't really cover up something that huge too well."

Alessandro was rambling on, and he should really start shutting up.  If she remained ignorant on some details, then Rina could remain innocent if she were interrogated.  

"Anyway, I'm not who I say I am, and its better if that's all you know.  Now, keep that to yourself or we're both probably on the Turks' hit list."

Alessandro took the bar towel and quietly finished wiping up the remainder of his mess.  It also gave him a brief moment to reflect on things.  Rina would be fine, most likely, as long as she kept her mouth shut.  However, Alex couldn't live like this anymore.  He was tired of always living under the radar.  He did it for years under Corneo, but he left that life behind.

"I'm just gonna go see Tseng myself.  Its about time for me to step out of the shadows again."

Alessandro took a brief glimpse at his phone before he turned to the young woman.

"I've got about an hour before the next ferry to Junon takes off.  I need some liquid courage."

Alessandro motioned to the bartender, pointing at both his and Rina's drinks.  After a brief moment, the bartender sat down two drinks identical to the ones they'd had before.  Alessandro quickly grabbed his and drained the glass of all but the ice left over.

"I never asked, what brings you here?  Business or a vacation?"

The former turk had a little time to kill, so he might as well get to know this woman some more.  She obviously knew of Tseng, so she could very well be in a similar line of work to what he had spent his whole life doing.  If so, he might be able to bring her to the Turks as well.

The second coconut..full of straight tequila...was quickly passed back to Alessandro.  The young maiden, Rina, had quickly giggled something about the former Turk needing the liquid courage more than she did.  She was right, he had a daunting task ahead of him, and it could quickly go wrong with disastrous results. Alessandro quickly drained the coconut with a grin, and immediately felt the burn of the alcohol throughout his chest and throat.  With a quick shake of his head, as if it provided some sort of relief, he finally opened his mouth.

"Uh..WOW!  That's strong!"

She then went on about how she'd come here looking for housing, but the steep housing market of the area had her strapped for cash, so she was hunting for a job.  Alessandro grinned, as he knew plenty that would hire a woman with a great body like hers and a pretty smile to boot, but he knew that she wouldn't want to work for any of those scumbags.

"I doubt I know of any openings you'd want to fill, but I could always put in a word to Tseng while I'm over there if that's the line of work you're looking for."

Then, Two Guns was caught completely off guard.  She'd been talking of taking on the sights around town, and he was certain he saw her give him a once over while talking of how much she liked what she was seeing.  It made Alessandro do a double take for a moment.  She was gorgeous, he had no doubts about that, and she already knew the basics of his situation.  That was a plus.

"You know, as often as I've been here, the sights have never really impressed me...until about fifteen minutes ago."

With that, Alessandro kept his eyes forward, with a sly grin pointing on one side of his face.  If she took the bait, he'd pony up some gil for a second ticket on the ship.  Hell, he was feeling pretty confident at the moment that Tseng would help get him some kind of a job, even if it wasn't with the Turks.

Alessandro's mood had improved in these last few minutes.  Thanks to the company sitting next to him, he had resolve to seek out Tseng and return to the Turks.  It wasn't an easy thing to do, quite the contrary.  He would have to be legally brought back to life.  However, now seemed to be the right time for that.  He'd heard the rumors: Shin-Ra was all but gone and the majority of the people behind the major electric company had gone with it.  The WRO had become the new power on the Planet, and Tseng had become a major figurehead.  Still, it was dangerous.  Rufus Shinra hadn't been seen in some time, and most people have him pegged as dead.  If that was the case, Alessandro shouldn't have any issues being reinstated.

"Of course, Tseng and I go all the way back to that nasty stuff that went down in Wutai.  I'm sure he'd at least give you a good interview."

This was, of course, all banking on him NOT being shot on sight.  He smiled at Rina, a warm, inviting smile.  She had a lovely figure, and a very lovely personality.  He found himself throwing a few 'what if' scenarios in his head, which widened his smile a little more as he took her in, really took in who he was sitting with.  She had a beautiful physique, very athletic, but not overly so.  If nothing else, he'd set sail and see where the waters took him, so to speak.

"You know, the cabins on these cruises across the sea aren't really meant for a person to take in solo.  You might as well tag along, and take a trip to Junon with me.  Ain't nothin' like the smell of the warm salty air when you're with great company."

And now nerves took hold of him.  Alessandro found it funny that he could stare down the edge of his pistol without skipping a beat, but, right now, he wouldn't be able to hit a target at 100 meters with the way the old ticker was skipping around.  His breathing was a little abnormal and he actually had a couple small beads of sweat on his brow, despite the cool ocean breeze.  This was one of those few moments that he didn't know if he'd 'hit the mark.'