Adrian disliked being anywhere early, but he was used to it. Businesses always needed their s**t fixed in the off hours, whenever there were still employees rattling around inside but not enough customers to complain about the work. But this job was easy — just time-consuming.

Adrian finished his cigarette while he leaned against the scuffed fender of a white Ford beater. Ramón's best girl, they called it. The wife to outlast all wives. Now he was on Wife Number Four and Adrian gave up trying to learn their names. But this one? This dependable old bitty with an a** heavier than a cement mixer? Her name was Sheila. Named after the 60's record that his dad played over and over in his childhood. Now they were long past turntables, but Ramón had a voice on him enough to make up for it. Especially when he was on his fifth beer.

"Yo, ese!" Came the call from the building that was loaded for bear with music notes. Out came a stocky grease monkey of a man, well-cooked to a bronzed crisp from years of summers in the sun, his skin a leathery hide and perpetually covered in some smear of structure-guts that got away from him. This time, it was a smudge of black grit on his face, just below his left eye. Matched his filigreed bandana, though.

"I got it all set up for you. Go work your magic while I take a nap, man." As Ramón passed, he gave Adrian a hearty pat on the shoulder that always felt like an attempt at dislocation. He ducked into his truck and Adrian felt old Sheila shudder under him as the door clapped shut.

Tossing the remains of his cigarette butt, Adrian watched its smolder shiver and die in the street gutter. Then he breathed out, let the thin blue smoke coil and sway in the stagnant air.


He was an hour in and the HVAC isolator left him slicker than a sardine in oil. While he kept himself clean, kept his blonde hair corralled into a short ponytail for the job, he couldn't shake the feeling that this self-imposed little oven was going to bake him to death if he didn't grab some water. Normally, Adrian and the rest of the crew were hands-off with the 'locals' – it was always easier to be part of the scenery than to have to make nice over drilling racket and sledgehammers – but sometimes? A man needed a damn drink.

After unzipping his way out of the isolation chamber, Adrian wiped the sweat from his brow with the back of his hand. Spotted a girl at the bar looking like she'd rather be anywhere than here – he recognized that thousand-yard stare out the window in half his coworkers, from a mile away – so he held up a hand in greeting. Flashed a winning smile. Laid a hand on the surface of the bar like he wasn't in the most beautiful joint that he had no business in.

Her hair looked good, warm chestnut neatly pulled back and out of the way. Real tall for a girl, too, with eyes like top-shelf whiskey.

"Morning," he said, still smiling. It was ******** 8AM. "Name's Adrian. Sorry 'bout the sweat, it's hot as an oven in there." A hitchhiker's thumb and a jerk of his head indicated the isolator. "Spare me some ice water, would ya?"


lena roze
Sakura was still mildly out of sorts as she pulled herself into work. She was the only one there so early, the venue being popular at night time, but things had to be done and she offered to ‘stand guard’ as it were. They certainly didn't need the entire staff on hand for HVAC maintenance, and she wasn't about to bother Aloy by saying she still felt like crawling in a hole and dying. So there she was, leaned against the bar, chin in hand as she zoned out.

As a man approached her, she instinctively turned on her customer service smile, plastering the fake cherry mood on her face out of habit. Despite having had to literally drag herself out of bed, she still made sure to be neat and put together, looking as flawless as possible for presentation.

“It's no problem, you're working hard. Sit and I'll grab that for you.” She gestured at the barstool and grabbed the biggest chilled glass she could find, filled it with ice water, and set it down in front of him. “I'm Sakura.”



Working hard. Yep, sure. More like taking his time and sweating his a** off for it, but he wasn't one to turn down compliments.

He eased into the barstool with a sigh more becoming of someone who'd worked outside all day, but there was no one else around to judge him for it. Out of habit, he grabbed the red rag from the back pocket of his work jeans and ground it under his nails, abrading away the ever-present collection of dirt.

Would've been nice if he could get a cushy job in a place like this. All golds and brass and rich walnut woods and high rollers so loaded it was a wonder they never went off. Would've been a dream! But too bad for him, most places like this — with good reputations and no mob ownership — wanted a clean record. Something that said he'd keep his head down and his ears clean.

The treble clef pin didn't escape him, though. May as well have been under mob ownership. Adrian didn't like to share in his other coworkers' plans.

"Nice meetin' you." He offered a hand — clean — in case she was the type of person who liked a firm handshake. "You pour a mean glass of water," he added, predicating his sentence with an easy sip.

Cold. Fresh. Good enough to press to his forehead for a minute.

"How long you been with the company?" A dip of his head, a flicker of opal eyes at the pin on her dress.



lena roze
Taking his hand, her grip was firm but friendly. “The pleasure is mine.” And truly, she wasn't lying. While he wasn't her usual type, whatever that even meant anymore, there was definitely an appeal to the man on the other side of the bar.

“Ah, good to hear my years and years of practicing how to pour water haven't gone to waste.” She laughed and grinned at him. “Been with them since opening. The owner is a close friend of mine so when he offered me a job, I was more than happy to take it.” A genuine smile graced her features as she spoke of Aloysius, feeling real fondness for the man who had offered her everything and asked nothing in return. “And you? How long have you been with your work?” A question for a question was fair, right? This was how one was supposed to talk to me, wasn't it? God she was rusty.



She didn't try to break his hand off or suplex him into the bar, so that was green flags all around. There was nothing Adrian loved more than a cold glass of water and enough conversation that he didn't have to go crawling back to the job straight away. Even if it was a little sweltering inside.

Friend of the owner was sometimes code for back off and sometimes code for I'm ******** the owner behind his wife's back. Since she was a bar maid and not in some cushy upper-level position, Adrian figured it was the former. Or she was just telling the truth, but he felt like no one did that s**t anymore. People weren't after truth, they were after what you could do for them.

Adrian clicked his tongue. "Eh, this gig's been a couple years. Met Ramón's brother at a bar and we hit it off pretty good, so he put in a word for me and got me the job." It paid well, but he'd rather be doing something else.

"Other job's been about…" He sucked a breath between his teeth. "Ten years? No, more'n that. Surprised we haven't run into each other there," he added with a wink.



lena roze
Sakura arched a brow at him. Other job huh? It wasn't hard to figure out what that meant. “That is…a bit more murky on my end. I've been on this side of things since December, but in general…. Just shy of ten years? I think? Memory is patchy at best.” She hoped that was clear enough without her having to outright state that she was a fairly fresh corruption. “To be fair, I keep to myself a lot out there. Intel branch is easier to work solo.”

She refilled his water when it was about half full, not wanting the conversation to end quite yet. “Gotta say, it really is a shame we haven't met before.” She hoped she wasn't laying it on too thick, that it wouldn't be shut down faster than she could blink. Sometimes a good flirt could make everything feel better, but good lord she was so rusty. So out of practice. How did she even manage to do this before?



"Same here. Too many ambitious types tryna draw you into somethin' and make it theirs, you know?" She probably didn't have the same exact reason for going it alone, but it was probably something to that effect. People were nosy, they tried to steer others around, or trick them into playing lackey long enough to get accolades out of it. Hell, she could've been someone's trophy turn. Get 'em over to the right side and ditch 'em once the medal's handed down. He'd seen enough of those types.

"We could fix that," Adrian added, bracing his chin with the heel of his hand as he watched her pour. "Tuesdays, Thursdays, n' Saturdays're when I'm out n' about. Doin' the grind. Usually in the classless parts of town." Or the parts of town where he'd played before and lost, or there was someone around that cheated or accused him of cheating. Nothing like avenging his own scores and leaving those rivals none the wiser — if they lived, anyway.

"Always open for a change of territory if you've got somewhere else in mind, though." Could be refreshing, stepping away from his life for a minute. Everybody he talked to regularly knew Adrian the Construction Worker who was easygoing and good-spirited, if pretty damn private. Maybe it was time Adrian could mean something else.



lena roze
“I'm game for that. Though the where depends on if you mean to meet off work or while we're on our other job.” She leaned forward just a bit, hair falling over her shoulder just a little. “Because I would be game for either option, I think.”

At this point she didn't mind who on their side knew Sakura Gojo was Sailor Ako. Perhaps it was lack of caring about herself, maybe it was false confidence, maybe it was having lost what she held dear. She couldn't say which, but she knew it didn't ultimately matter right then.

“How about this. I'll give you my number and you can let me know the when, where, and attire. Deal?” She grabbed a coaster and scrawled her name and number on it before sliding it to him. Her fingers brushed against his hand slightly as she met his eyes, playing into that fake confidence of hers beautifully.