night on the town -henrik-

It had been an eventful day, to say the least. After splitting off from the kids, Petra and Henri had spent some time together, then eventually the group reconvened and went to Pia's house once she was off work. As expected, Pia and Henri got along just fine, and Petra could tell Pia was relieved that Henri was (outwardly) normal and relatively nice.

It was fairly late now, and Petra and Henri had decided to go out and grab a drink somewhere. They managed to find one of the few bars that wasn't exclusively populated by annoying, drunk teenagers--a divey hole-in-the-wall called The Vineyard Lounge. Petra liked dive bars and there were actual fellow adults here, so they (well, mostly her) had decided to check it out.

"So what d'you think of this place?" she asked him as they waited at the bar for their drinks. "Something tells me this isn't your usual scene." She didn't get the impression that Henri got out much these days.

Henri laughed lightly, mostly at himself. "Yeah, I don't go out to--" Henri looked around, assessing what type of bar this probably was, "--dive bars? often. Or...ever." The bartender passed a whiskey and soda over to Henri, passing Petra her drink as well. "But this is nice, being out with someone...with you."

He took a sip of his drink before looking over to Petra. "I've had a lot of fun here," he said softly. He wasn't trying to be too cheesy, but he did want to let Petra know that this has been fun in a more-than-friendly way. He genuinely enjoyed being around her, and her sister and son. Even if his own son had been an absolute asshole, he seemed to be getting along fairly well with Axel which was promising. Henri wasn't about to plan out their lives together, but he was definitely interesting in spending more time with her.

"You're such a sap," Petra said, but she actually smiled a little bit. It was nice to be around a man who actually wanted her around, and who she actually held some level of mutual respect with. While she definitely wasn't the type who needed a man around for her self-esteem or any of that bullshit, it was just nice. A good feeling she wasn't used to having.

"But I am glad you came. This wasn't a bad idea," she said, because his sappiness was rubbing off on her, she guessed. She left it at that though, and took a drink. "C'mon, let's go sit somewhere. Unless you wanted to play pool or something."

Henrik smiled at Petra's kind words. Even back when they were young and innocent, Petra was tough and didn't open up very easily. Henri couldn't help but think about the time they spent together growing up, getting close, dating as teenagers. That seemed like a century ago, and yet here they were, grabbing drinks on some fancy island, both with their own teenage sons who never had to go through any of the horrors that they did. He was glad that fate had brought their lives some opportunity for normalcy, and had ultimately led them back to each other.

"C'mon, let's go sit somewhere. Unless you wanted to play pool or something."

Henrik nodded and grabbed his drink from the bar, scoping out the place and seeing that a pool table was free. "Think you could beat me at a game of pool?" he said with a sly smirk. He was almost positive that she could beat him at a game that he had played only a couple times in his life, but thought the competition might be fun. Both of them had spent so much of their lives fighting, sneaking around, facing real enemies...now they were preparing to poke some numbered balls around a green felt table with some long sticks. And he was perfectly alright with that.

"Please, I know I can beat you," Petra said haughtily, taking a pool stick from off the wall and picking up the ball rack from the table so they could play. "In fact, if you want to make this more interesting, I'd be willing to bet on it." Petra and some of her coworkers always had betting pools going on for various things, just for fun.

She went first, breaking the rack and managing to sink a striped ball. She got two more before missing. "So what do you say? You willing to put down some cash? Or we could bet something else." She looked at him mischievously.

Henri grabbed a pool stick from the wall after Petra, taking a few sips of his drink as she rocked her first few shots.

"'Something else?'" he asked with a smirk, setting his drink down on the pool table as he set up for his first shot. "What did you have in mind? Not strip pool, I hope," he said, chuckling.

He shot the pool stick forward and hit a couple balls into different pockets. Unfortunately, he didn't get any on the following turn. Woops.

He stood upright, sipping on more of his drink. "But maybe an...I-owe-you sort of situation could be fun."

Petra raised her eyebrows at his 'strip pool' comment. "Hey, I just meant you could buy me dinner or something when you lose," she said, taking a few more shots and sinking a few more balls before finally missing. She only had two left besides the eight ball. "Since you're pretty obviously going to."

Henri chuckled. "Yeah, I suppose I am," he said, taking a look at his bleak odds. He didn't mind losing, and he wouldn't mind taking Petra out for dinner either.

"I wonder if this was just a cheap ploy to get me to take you out," he said, knocking a few balls into pockets, though not enough to catch up even with the consecutive turn he earned.

He stood back up, finished his drink, and walked to another side of the pool table to aim at a few other balls. "I would have been down for strip poker, by the way. Maybe when we get back to your sister's place, we can sneak around like we used to as teenagers." He hit the ball, which bounced off a few others and knocked one measly ball into a pocket. He shot again, missing any others.

Petra smirked as Henri missed his last shot.

Henriko wrote:"I would have been down for strip poker, by the way. Maybe when we get back to your sister's place, we can sneak around like we used to as teenagers."

"What happened, Henri? You were so shy before," she said, referring to their disastrous "date" from the other night. She hoped her joking about it wouldn't make him uncomfortable or anything, he seemed way more bold and relaxed now compared to then. It reminded her more of their old days together. She took her next two turns and sunk her last two balls. All that was left was the eight ball. "I think this was just your cheap ploy to ask me to play strip poker with you. If you want to see me naked again, all you have to do is ask."

She aimed her pool stick. "Corner pocket," she called, before making the shot. The eight ball went right into the pocket. "Guess you owe me dinner."

Henri smiled mischievously at Petra's words and win, something that was admittedly a bit uncommon for him at this stage of his life. "Well yes, I may have lost this round, but..." he started, setting down his pool stick and coming quite close to Petra's body and definitely her face when continuing, "...how about one more drink? Maybe then I'll be bold enough to rightfully ask for that strip poker bit."

He had spoken the last bit into her ear, a surprisingly tiny bit tipsy from the dive bar drink he'd had. He was absolutely ready for another, and he eyed the bar expectedly at Petra. "What can I get you?" he offered with a smile.

Well it was about damn time. Where had this Henri been the other night? Well, better late than never, Petra supposed. She didn't give him an inch as he leaned into her. She had a strong feeling they wouldn't be going back to Pia's after this, and she was more than okay with that.

Since he was just standing there an inch from her face, Petra got impatient, leaned in and kissed him herself. She had been wanting this for a while now.

After a few seconds she pulled away. "I'll take a whiskey. Straight," she said.

Henri smiled dumbly and drunkenly when Petra just went for it and kissed him. He had just needed a bit more time to adjust to things, but was definitely ready for this night to move a bit faster.

"Whiskey straight, it is," he said with a nod as he quickly turned to hide his light blush. As confident as he was a second ago, he hadn't kissed anyone in...well, three or four years -- not since Estela had been taken. He had been so nervous this entire time that as soon as something happened, he'd retreat into a state of catatonic depression, something he'd been actively fighting against for years.

Instead, he felt a sense of happiness and relief that he hadn't felt in so long that he'd almost forgotten what it actually felt like, being intimate with someone. Henri still found it bizarre that the clio he'd connect with next would be someone from his past, but...it honestly just felt right.

He headed back over to Petra after ordering and receiving their drinks from the bartender, wondering what the hotel rooms looked like on Martha's Vineyard.

-- end. --