A/N- An idea for an amusing one-shot that stems from an experience I had with some friends when I was out for a few drinks one night in Argentina. Boys will be boys, don't ask which part I played in the event ;)
I Don't own Alpha Force, never have. The same goes for Bernard Fanning's 'Songbird'
Enjoy.
-Grey.
"Are you sure about this Paulo?" Hex asked hesitantly for what was probably the fourth time during their short walk from the hotel.
The large Argentinean shrugged off his concern with a casual grin.
"Amigo, You can't come to Buenos Aires without taking in a Tango show." Paulo insisted once more, emphasising the word 'amigo'.
"Is that all we are going for?" the third person in their party, Alex asked, wrinkling his nose against the wafting smog and second hand smoke of the large capital city.
His eyes were already starting to ring red from the constant exposure to the noxious fumes; he noticed that almost every Argentinean they passed seemed to smoke. He was glad to notice that Paulo however did not partake in the filthy habit.
Understanding the value of being able to decompress after a high-pressure situation,
Alpha Force always took time off together after a mission. In this informal setting the group conducted a lax debrief of sorts and were able to freely discuss issues they may have encountered on the job. Problems and lessons were brought up in this time, but more importantly it gave the teens the chance to unwind and distress.
Tonight though, it was just the boys out together.
"Well, you go for the show, but have dinner and a drink while you watch." Paulo admitted coolly, not looking back at his two friends and pushing open the door to a bright two-story building.
"Well that is reassuring," Hex muttered to Alex in some relief, as he held the door open for the blonde haired teen. "The girls were sure he was going to take us to a strip club."
The pair followed Paulo in and found their friend already at the bar ordering for the trio.
"Buenos Noches Senorita," He greeted the girl behind the counter, giving her his dazzling ladykiller smile.
"Tres Quilmes Por Favor," Paulo smoothly ordered in fluent Spanish.
The young barmaid returned his electric grin and quickly formed a capital 'T' shape with her hands, before turning to get his drinks.
"What does that mean?" Hex asked, mimicking the gesture he had just seen performed.
Paulo gave a confident cowboy grin to his friend and returned the gesture back.
"Un Momento; it means 'one moment'" He explained pleasantly, always happy to be able to introduce his friend's to some of the local culture of his country.
The waitress slid over the three light-blue labelled bottles of beer and gladly accepted Paulo's ten Peso note.
The Latin teen scooped up the three large drinks and passed on to each of his mates, holding his own out for the others to toast.
Alex hesitated, nervously eyeing the alcoholic drink. At sixteen, sure he had drunken the occasional beer before with his father on the occasion, but this seemed a bit different.
We are in a foreign country and it is just us guys, he mulled over the thought.
"Are we allowed to drink here Paulo?" Alex lowered his voice to ask, hoping the nearby bar staff didn't speak much English.
Paulo chuckled at the fretful response.
"Sure Amigo, the drinking age here is eighteen, but it is not really enforced at all." He disregarded, giving his large beer a bit of a shake to entice the toast from his friends.
Hex gave Alex an indifferent shrug and tapped the neck of his frosty beer against Paulo's. Alex caved to Paulo's blasé attitude about it and Hex's acceptance, so he followed suit. The three drinks clinking harmoniously and the boys chorused a quiet call of cheers.
The hacker took a deep sip of the rich liquid and struggled not to grimace.
Drinking from quite a young age, while technically illegal, was a founding part of the culture where he had grown up. Or at least it had been if you were the kind of young guy to spend every minute of the day loitering in public areas with your buddies and generally being a menace. Shunning this lifestyle, the hacker was a bit of a recluse in that sense and before Alpha Force, he had preferred his social interaction to be carried out online.
Hex had never been a big drinker by nature though, probably a result of what his father had been like around the bottle, but he still relished the occasional beer after a hard days work.
The trio found themselves a secluded table in a corner of the establishment that overlooked both the bar and the spacious dance floor.
They sat amiably for a few minutes just enjoying the lively atmosphere of the restaurant and sipping at their cervesa.
Hex of course, reached for his cellphone almost immediately to check his messages and to send one of his own. Paulo was already thinking of his stomach and contemplatively perused the handsome leather-bound menu in front of him.
Alex took the opportunity to check out his surroundings; the place was lavishly decorated in bright hues of scarlet and crimson, seemingly a testament of the exotic nature of the nightspot. Lush plants sprouted from the intricately decorated pots that bordered the dining area. Silky South-American guitars tinkled in the background, creating a soothing, mellow undertone to the buzz of light conversation from the other sparse patrons.
Alex thought it felt like they were seated in the middle of a particularly pleasant piece of the rainforest.
The rustic looking bar did not seem out of place in the lush environment and with a start of shock he noticed a large live snake slowly coiling and uncoiling around a branch inside a huge glass case. The glass display case sat just behind the bar and was surrounded by the dozens of colourful bottles of spirit.
"Dude check out the snake." Alex nudged Hex, and gestured with his head back towards the bar.
The hacker looked up from his message and craned his neck to a side to spot the large, yellow-splotched serpent twining in its enclosure.
"That is pretty cool." Hex admitted, pocketing his phone and joining him in taking in the aesthetics of the place.
"Amber would hate that thing." The hacker declared with a smarmy expression, taking another drag on his beer.
Alex shared his expression at the idea and also that Hex was the one to point it out.
The waitress came and took their meal orders. It was steak all round on Paulo's insistence that his country produced the best beef in the world.
"The next show starts in about fifteen minutes," The native translated for his non-Spanish speaking comrades
"Buenos Aires is pretty awesome mate." Hex decided, reflecting on their experience so far and nodding admirably to Paulo. The cheap, slightly less then legal, electronic gear he had purchased was just one of the many selling points for him.
"Yeah man, great idea to come here." Alex concurred, eagerly awaiting what promised to be a mouth-watering steak.
Paulo looked pleased and drained the last of his beer in an extended gulp and sent the pair a cocky wink.
"Ah you think the city is good, you should meet the chicas," He promised them, raising a hand to attract the attention of their waitress as if to prove his point.
The young woman sauntered back over, all grace and beauty with an eager to please expression, as she focused on the teen that had summoned her.
Turning on all his natural charm, Paulo ordered three more drinks for the boys and thanked her overly graciously for her service.
Alex gave an approving nod of their shapely attendant to Paulo as the girl left to get their order, Hex also reluctantly looked like he agreed, albeit a lot more uncomfortable about the topic. He averted his gaze a lot quicker then the other two and swiftly withdrew his phone to swiftly send a text instead.
Paulo's confident smile stretched further at the Hex's sudden distraction, he had a pretty good idea who the hacker was texting.
The meals arrived and were as good as promised, but overshadowed by the performance that started as they were served.
A curvaceous Argentine beauty took the stage in an amazing dress crimson dress, her partner, a suave looking Latin man wore an elaborate costume of black with gold tassels, the look completed by a fancy Gaucho hat.
The pair started moving together in perfect synchronisation in what was a heated dance, encouraged by the coursing music.
Their grace and coordination was outstanding, leading the audience to clap along in time to the dancing music.
The boys, now three or four large beers down, thoroughly enjoyed the show and were beginning to further loosen up. The social lubrication of alcohol did its work and the three teens relaxed lower in their chairs, as their laughter and conversation got louder.
The three had different reactions upon inebriation.
Paulo became steadily more rambunctious, with more grandiose hand gestures and enthusiasm accompanying his words. His English also seemed to get worse; he more frequently seemed to use the wrong word and injected more Spanish into his dialogue.
The usually extroverted teen truly became life of the party as he was emboldened by the alcohol.
If Paulo was the extrovert, Hex was the introvert and went the complete opposite hacker seemed to clam up even more then usual and paid more and more attention to his phone and the steady stream of texts he was sending. He spoke slower then usual with carefully considered words, his general tone seemed a lot deeper and philosophic; probing more into the deeper nature of their varied topics.
While he was obviously enjoying his current company, his grin always grew when he retrieved his phone from the table to read another text.
Alex's mood was more organic, his happiness bolstered slightly by the chemicals invading his brain. The more lightly built of the three and the less frequent patron, his tolerance for alcohol was lower and accordingly he was quite buzzed. He was thoroughly enjoying himself, as he relaxed and laughed more freely with his two mates.
As many a male's does when the drink is applied, Alex's gaze began to wander and consider the females in the room.
A petite olive-skinned girl who had arrived with a group of other girls halfway through the show had caught his eye more then once. With the luscious black hair and flawless skin that only the Latin girls seemed to possess, she was quite the beauty.
Alex's observations did not go unnoticed by his friends either.
"If you keep staring at her, you are going to creep her out." Hex mildly noted with a grin as he finished a flicking off another text message on his smart phone.
"Not a bad choice though, hombre." Paulo commented approvingly, as Alex blushed and quickly moved his gaze back to their own table, as she shyly smiled at the attention. The native noticed the fair physique of his friend's infatuation and couldn't help being impressed with Alex's taste.
"She's decent looking, go talk to her." Hex encouraged with a sly grin, knowing how much discomfort the suggestion would create.
Still pink in the face, Alex managed to laugh down the suggestion with good grace.
"Yeah like I'm going to take advice from you, Casanova!" Alex snapped back at him sarcastically, with a smarmy grin.
"Had that sort of talk with Amber yet?" He followed up mockingly, going in with all guns loaded.
The hacker was lost for words and found a shade to match Alex's as his two friends enjoyed a laugh at his expense.
With the joke run its course and Hex guiltily replacing his phone on the table, Paulo wiped his eyes and brought a hand down on Alex's shoulder. It was probably a slightly harder clap then he had intended and was likely over-exaggerated with minor inebriation, but it was a friendly gesture.
"I hate to admit it amigo," The local teen seriously addressed him, "but I'm with Casanova over there; go talk to her."
Alex eyed both his friends suspiciously, on the account of the recent conspiracy that had seemed to develop between the pair. After his assessment of those two, he subtly turned his head to look over at the pretty female in question, who was now up at the bar by herself. She furtively peeked back at her admirer and gave the smallest of cute little smiles.
"Ya think so?" He seriously checked with his mates, a bit uncertain. Alex was no ladies man by any stretch of the imagination.
"Go for it." Paulo encouraged with gusto.
"Who dares, wins." Hex reminded him, using an SAS motto to tug at the teen's sense of adventure.
"Hold up a second, what if she doesn't even speak English?" Alex blurted, the logical part of his brain finding immediate flaws with the plan.
Paulo treated him to his patent pending 'Cocky Cowboy Grin'.
"Don't sweat it hombre," The Argentinean teen reassured him, accentuating his lilting accent. "Love Dr. Paulo, will translate and 'wingman' for you."
Hex nodded approvingly to let Paulo know that he had used the term correctly.
Whether by the combination of a couple of drinks or his friend's encouragement, the idea was suddenly not seeming so crazy to the Northumbrian teen anymore.
"Bugger it, why not?" Alex finally relented, downing the last mouthful of his beer and pushing his chair out to stand.
"What have I got to lose?" He justified aloud, as the other two boys cheered and followed suit.
"Your dignity?" Hex suggested, with a smartass grin at the fact that he could just sit back and watch the show.
"Don't listen to him Alex," Paulo smoothly disregarded the hacker's comment and standing to put an arm around Alex's shoulder.
"It is a sure thing," He promised confidently, before turning to address Hex.
"And maybe while we are gone this miedica here can find his huesos and send a long overdue text to Amber huh?" Paulo shot as a parting crack, before leading a nervous Alex off towards the bar.
Hex sent the pair a dirty look as they left and eyed his phone on the table like it is strapped to twenty kilos of explosives.
The closer he got to the bar, the more nervous Alex became and he found himself wishing he had drank one more beer before doing something so reckless. His mouth felt as dry as the plains, while he began to sweat like they were back in the jungle.
With nothing at all to do with the relatively minor amount he had consumed, his legs felt heavy and sluggish. The large arm across his shoulder forced him to keep his momentum and current heading though.
The senorita at the bar turned at the movement at her flank and found a very pale looking Alex and a confident looking Paulo.
"Hola Senorita," The more confident of the two belted out fluently and waited until Alex did the same.
"Hola," The darkhaired beauty responded with an amused expression at the unusual pair that stood before her.
Paulo barely gave her a chance to evaluate the pair before he was racing into an enthusiastic introduction. Unable to speak much Spanish, Alex was left a little bit in the dark as to what exactly his friend was including in title, but he heard his own name in the mix of gibberish at least.
He quickly extended his hand forward, as Paulo had done to take up the girl's hand in a light handshake.
"Maria." She replied, her smile sweetening just for Alex as he gently gripped her hand.
Once more, his wingman was right back into things, speaking rapid fire Spanish with a confident flourish. His extravagant hand gestures seemed to imply many grandiose things were being told to the girl and she laughed delightedly at whatever amusing thing he had just said.
Alex couldn't help but be a little envious of his friend, but at the same time he was somewhat in awe of his skill. In bare minutes Paulo was speaking jovially with her, indicating Alex with a flattering sort of point and a light encouraging hand on her arm. To the British boy's surprise, she seemed to be responding to his magic too; replying animatedly and eying him favourably.
Paulo's last sentence seemed to be a question as he stopped talking and waited for an answer, all the while looking very casual about it all.
She spoke in sweet tones, but whatever her answer was, Alex could see it completely threw Paulo for six.
The local almost slipped off the bar he was lazily leaning on, in shock and his face seemed to lose a good deal of colour. Suddenly he was the one sweating profusely and rubbing the back of his neck nervously. Alex observed all this in concern and was disappointed, but not overly surprised when his friend quickly made his apologies and hustled the both of them away at top speed.
The girl openly laughed at his reaction and waved goodbye in a cheery manner.
They made a straight beeline for their table and the amused looking Hex, who was seated there still. His smug expression seemed to say it all.
Paulo on the other hand still wore his unusual expression from earlier.
No way.. Alex suddenly realised, could this be Paulo actually… embarrassed?!
"So how did that go, Romeo?" Hex rhymed, relishing the awkward pair in front of him. The phone in his hand flipped tensely between his thumbs and fingers.
"Ah well, Alex certainly has the good taste in woman…" Paulo started, having broken his expression from before and finding his old carefree smile.
"Oh yeah?" Hex prompted him, increasing Alex's sense of foreboding.
"Great taste in fact," Paulo amended, before pausing as he searched for the right words. "She is a.. how do you say? Woman of the night?"
Hex burst out laughing as he realised what Paulo meant, knowing that he had clearly expressed himself correctly, the Argentinean joined him.
The look on Alex's face was simply priceless. His dropped jaw could have been used to collect the stray corn chips from the table.
"She was a.. a.." He stuttered, further increasing the laughter at his table.
"A Prostitute!" Hex snorted out in a giggle before falling backwards off his chair in amusement. Paulo dropped his head into his hands, tears of mirth forming at the corner of his eyes.
Seeing the funny side of things and imagining what his expression must look like, Alex couldn't help cracking up along with them.
"So much for meeting the Chicas, thanks Paulo," He gasped out to his friends, before descending into another fit of hysterics with them.
Paulo pounded the table loudly with a fist and Hex was holding his sides when he managed to return to his seat. Their combined sounds of amusement turned the heads of other diners and the three teens quickly attracted quite a bit of attention to themselves.
The laughter dried to a few abashed chuckles as the manager came over and very politely asked them to keep the noise down or leave.
The trio decided it was as good a time as any to leave. After paying the check and leaving a generous tip to their host, the three teens hastened back out onto the street.
Alex very deliberately averted his gaze from the figure still seated at the bar as he did so.
Out on the quiet streets of Buenos Aires once more, the sound of laughter started up once more before descending into a solemn silence.
"So we can NEVER mention this to the girls." Alex declared firmly, already cringing at the amount of ribbing he would receive from the females.
"Which part Alex?" Hex innocently inquired. "The Tango show or the part about us getting kicked out after you tried to pick up a Hooker?"
Paulo shoved a giant fist into his mouth to stifle the chuckling that racked his chest.
Alex stopped in front of the pair and raised his hands to block their passage and stifle their giggles.
"I'll remind you both that the two of you checked her out and commented that she was hot too." He warned the pair, with a threatening raised eyebrow that begged them to consider the point.
Hex and Paulo simultaneously swallowed as the implications of that revelation getting out along with the rest of the story.
"The girls never need to find out." Hex seriously decreed, receiving a grave nod of agreement from the other two.
Paulo raised a fist up and the other teens mimicked his action so that they were touching knuckles in a triangle of solemn guy oath.
"Never."
"Never."
"Never."
The three males swore.
The out of place sound of Western-sounding, acoustic guitars, suddenly broke the intense mood of the important guy pact.
"I wish I knew which button to push, then I'd know how to please you.." The distinctly harmonic voice of Bernard Fanning forlornly sung, somehow managing to convey hope in his sad serenade.
Hex frantically tore into the pocket of his jeans to retrieve his melodiously ringing phone. In his haste to answer it he didn't even have time to be mildly embarrassed about his mellow choice of ringtone in front of his mates. Nor did he bother to check the caller ID; he had a pretty good idea who it was.
"Speaking of the girls…" Paulo insinuated, sharing a knowing look with Alex when the hacker answered in a soft, hushed tone, while he got some distance from his friends so he could talk freely.
Alex grinned right back, having finally seen an indication that maybe Hex had sent a frank text or too while they were busy up at the bar with a callgirl.
With a wary glance over at the pacing teen on the phone, Alex looked back to Paulo with a disgusted expression and nodded his head in Hex's direction.
"I betcha he spills about our evening before we are halfway home…."