vacay time -henrik, petra-

"Why'd you invite this guy again?" Axel asked his mom as the two of them waited at the docks. His mom's latest man was apparently joining them on their trip to visit Aunt Pia, for some reason. He wasn't super enthused about the idea. His mom didn't have the best track record with men, and the fact that this guy was apparently from her messed up past made him wearier still.

"I didn't, he asked to go," his mom replied. She pulled a pack of cigarettes out of her pocket and pulled out two, passing him one. He used his eilemaiden to conjure up a little flame at the tip of his thumb, lighting it, while his mom used a normal lighter for hers. "His son goes to Redfern."

"So for the third date you guys are gonna be picking out furniture together, I'm guessing?"

She smacked him lightly on the back of the head. "Quit being a smartass. He's an old friend."

"Yeah, yeah." My dad was "an old friend" too, so forgive me for not being all excited about that. He knew better than to say that, though.

Henri and Rian made their way through Ughdarras, finding their way to the docks to meet Petra and Axel. Henri was a little nervous, but not overwhelmingly so -- he was always pretty comfortable interacting and connecting with younger guys (except his son, apparently). He knew that Petra raised a good kid, and just hoped that he wouldn't be as sarcastic and passive aggressive as his son.

He finally reached the docks, spotting Petra and someone who he assumed was her son, Axel. He approached them with a smile, Rian trotting up next to him. "Hey," he said simply with a smile. "Ughdarras is so big! I'm glad I was able to track you down." He chuckled, well aware of the not-so-funny sort-of joke. He looked to Axel, putting his hand out for a handshake. "I'm Henrik -- you can call me Henri," he said sweetly.

Oh. Huh. Well, okay. This guy was definitely not what Axel was expecting when his mom said she had reconnected with a guy from her past with that criminal group. This guy seemed pretty...normal. Like your typical middle-aged dad type laughing at his own not-jokes.

"Hey," he said, shaking Henrik--Henri's--hand. "I'm Axel."

He glanced at his mom, as if double-checking that this was the right guy.

---

Petra sort of rolled her eyes at Henri's dumb comment. "Well since you finally decided to show up, we can take the next boat to Martha's Vineyard," she said. Deep down she was glad he was coming, though. Maybe this actually would be a "fun thing" like he had said.

The three of them made their way to the passenger boat destined for Martha's Vineyard and boarded.

"Great to meet you," Henri said to Axel, putting his hands in his pockets as they headed toward the boat.

"Well since you finally decided to show up, we can take the next boat to Martha's Vineyard."

"There's the Petra I know," he said with a chuckle. As they boarded the boat, Henri headed to the railing and leaned against it, looking out at the water. "It's been a while since I've been to Martha's Vineyard," he said, wondering what it would be like to visit Elias. He hoped his son would at least try to be nice to Petra and Axel -- maybe the kids could even connect a bit and talk about...their parents' criminal histories...or something.

As the boat took off, Petra stood next to Henri by the railing and watched Ughdarras slowly get smaller and smaller. She found being out on the ocean relaxing, maybe because of her eilemaiden. "It's not my favorite place," she said in reply to Henri's comment about Martha's Vineyard. "When we lived there, it was full of rich, snobby assholes."

"Except for Aunt Pia," Axel said. Living with his aunt was probably the one thing he missed about MV.

"Yeah, she's not like that," Petra agreed. She wondered how Pia stood it, living with all those rich assholes. She had a feeling that Henri and Pia would get along pretty decently. Pia would probably be glad that for once Petra was bringing around a man who wasn't a complete and total piece of shit.

"I'm excited to meet her!" Henri exclaimed. He couldn't imagine what it must have been like for both Petra and Pia, being separated from a sibling in such a horrific way. Having each other was the only way Henri could see Nils and himself making it out alive.

"I have brother," Henri said to Axel. "We were inseparable growing up, and we raised our kids together like they were siblings. He probably would have liked to come visit his kids -- they're at Redfern now, too -- but that would have turned into a huge family reunion and you and your mom did not sign up for that." He smiled, looking over at Petra. He had a feeling she wouldn't be attending any Selway/Sommers family get-togethers with him.

"Oh yeah, I think Mom told me some stories about you guys," Axel said. His mom had never been shy about her past, which had been both a source of horror and fascination to Axel growing up. Now that he was thinking about it, he remembered her talking about the Selway brothers, and the overloridian who had helped them. "Is your brother the one who married the overloridian?"

He wondered how someone managed that, to go from a kidnapping victim/unwilling criminal to an overloridian's spouse. What a step up in life.

---

Petra returned Henri's smile with a smirk, as if to say "you're damn right we didn't." She had thought about that a little bit, how getting back involved in Henri's life meant she would probably, unfortunately, have a run in with Paisley and Nils at some point. While they hadn't exactly parted on the worst terms, she had never been friendly with them, and she couldn't imagine Paisley had grown any less annoying over the years.

Henri wondered what sort of stories Axel had heard about him and Nils. There could have been some decent ones...but probably mostly bad ones. He nodded to Axel's question, a bit relieved that Petra hadn't only told the stories about them in the criminal underground.

"Yep, Nils is married to Paisley now, Nadar's overloridian. And her half-brother, Max, is married to the Solas overloridian, Amerie. Amelia can be a really small place sometimes," he said as he looked out over the water.

He was glad that he was able to raise his son in an environment that fostered family, belonging, care, and love. Henri and Nils had seen the opposite while growing up, but the fact that they made it through and were able to live normal and happy lives gave him hope for his relationship with Elias. He knew they'd make it through this.

"Who could have ever guessed that this is how we'd all end up," he said to Petra lightheartedly.

Axel looked at his mom. "See, why couldn't you have married an overloridian?" he asked. When it came to his mom's past and other uncomfortable topics, he usually just dealt with it with humor, because that was easier than actually thinking or talking about it seriously.

"Shut the hell up," she replied, as she usually did to his sarcastic comments.

---

Henri wrote:"Who could have ever guessed that this is how we'd all end up."

"Yeah, who'd have guessed I'd end up with such an annoying brat," Petra said. Axel just responded with a cheerful 'who, me?' smile. "But seriously though...of all of us to end up rich, happy and successful, who would have thought it'd be Nils." She was really just assuming about the 'happy' part, but from the way Henri talked about it, it sounded like his little brother had made quite the life for himself. Good for him, she supposed.

"I'm just glad it could be any of us," Henri responded thoughtfully, still looking out over the vast body of water they were traveling across.

The three of them continued to talk, reminisce, and joke around for the rest of the ride to Martha's Vineyard. Henrik enjoyed getting to know a bit about Petra's son and was both impressed and surprised that such a good kid could come from Petra and Cillian, two of the most intimidating clio Henri had personally known.

He could tell that Petra had definitely changed over the years, and it was obvious that Axel and Cillian didn't have any sort of positive relationship -- which Henri considered to be a good thing, though growing up with such a ruthless father couldn't have been easy as a kid. Regardless, Axel seemed to be doing pretty well for himself and got along well with Petra...maybe he could rub some of that off on Elias.