Meet The Parents, Round 2 (Josef)

[Damien Tremblay]

Damien had never been happier to touch down on the runway than he had been today. Flying didn’t come easy to him at the best of times, but this flight some idiot in front of him had been merrily watching Discovery’s Mayday, featuring what else but a plane crash.

Safe to say, it had taken a significant amount of jokes, hugs, and reassurance from Josef to get his mind off of the hundred different ways he could foresee the plane going down and killing them all. Once they were touched down, however, he had allowed himself to relax. He just had... forget about flying back. But that wasn’t for another week.

The trip had been a long time coming, but things had continued to get in the way. Cases Damien couldn’t get away from at work, other instructors either on holiday themselves or out sick and leaving Josef to take over for a while... but now there was no stopping it. After all their time together, Damien still found it strange that while he’d met Josef’s parents fairly quickly (albeit during a sort-of family emergency), it was only now that Josef was meeting his family. Part of it was that they were so far away, but now they were on their way, Damien was actually sort of excited over it. His sister he could do without, because he knew what she was like. The entire previous week before their departure had been peppered with numerous messages from Melissa reminding him not to leave Josef behind, and to please make way for her to throw herself at him. Despite the reminders that she was, in fact, married, and that Josef was most definitely taken, it hadn’t deterred her.

Yeah, he could do without Melissa.

The trip was also a small celebration, in a way, though Damien hadn’t actually said much to his parents about it. In May he had officially made it an entire year without picking up another cigarette. Though the road had been far from easy, but he’d made it. While he knew that it was good for him, he was more focused on the fact that he’d made Josef happy, and that... if he could keep it up... there was still the potential for further discussions about kids.

But first, they’d have to get through the trip.

From the airport it was a short cab ride to a boat dock, where his father was waiting for them. Tied to the dock was his sailboat, Libellule, which was oddly white. Funny. He must have given it a solid wash not long ago. The blue dragonfly that adored the bow also seemed to sparkle more. Definitely recently washed. Damien smirked, but he lifted his hand in greeting anyway. “Hey, Dad.”

“Damien!” Patrick grinned and waved his son closer, pulling him into a hug. “How was the trip?” Damien made a face and stepped out of the embrace.

“We didn’t crash, so... fine?” Glancing back, he held out his hand to Josef, eager to change the subject away from the flying death machine. “Dad, this is Josef. Josef, this is my Dad, Patrick.” Patrick was quick to offer a welcoming smile and extended his hand to him.

“Good to meet you at last, Josef. Damien’s told us lots about you. Welcome to Vancouver.” With that he stepped back and gestured at the boat. “This’ll take us the rest of the way home. Audrey’s waiting with Melissa and Roscoe. Rob got called into work, but he should be by around dinnertime to say hi. Everyone’s excited to meet you, though.” Damien hoped that Josef could follow that. He’d tried to give him as much information as he could about his parents, sister, and brother in law as well as his nephew. “Shall we? Here, what can I take?” Though Damien had spent a lot of his youth jumping in and out of the sailboat, he hadn’t done it for years and didn’t quite trust his former experience. After passing his bag to his father to load, he carefully hopped into the boat, then turned to wait for Josef. He had faith that this trip would go well.

[Josef Muller]

Damien had met Josef's parents very early in the game. But for some reason, it had taken a while to meet Damien's parents. The timing had just never worked out, he supposed. Damien had had cases. Josef'd had classes. Holidays, sicknesses…The way everything had played out, it had taken quite some time before they'd managed to even think about going. And then it had taken longer because Damien was afraid of flying.

There were perks to that, though. Damien's fear of flying meant he needed lots of hand-holding, hugs and teasing jokes. And it was always a good feeling when Josef managed to calm Damien down enough to handle things well. Reassuring, like he was doing his job well. Plus, it allowed him to keep his mind off of other things, like the fact that he'd overheard several conversations with and messages from Melissa where Damien seemed to be talking her out of eating him or something along those lines. Now even at 44 (yikes), Josef knew he was decently good looking. He'd flirted with men and women in the past and would continue to do so. But it was one thing to mildly flirt and another to hear over the phone that a woman, his boyfriend's sister nonetheless, wanted to throw herself at him. It was enough to make a man nervous. At least Damien was well aware that Josef didn't swing that way. That was reassuring.

In the meantime, there was good news. Damien wasn't smoking. Josef kept a quiet if careful eye on his boyfriend to ensure that there wasn't an issue there, and there hadn't been thus far. That was good. Josef reassured him almost every night that he was doing well--if not verbally, then other ways, like prolonged contact, nice dinners, and maybe some select clothing choices around the house.

When they landed, Josef let out a breath he didn't know he'd been holding and squeezed Damien's hand to try to get him to release the vice-grip. Then they hopped in a cab and went to the water. Josef, hiding behind his oh-so-cool aviators, scanned the horizon and the water. "Huh," he mused to himself, then turned his attention to the man who was standing by a white sailboat. Ah. Parent. Right. His smile became fixed with a slight edge of panic. He'd been good at parents, once. He could handle this. When was the last time he'd met a parent anyways? No idea. Not a clue. It would be okay. Totally okay, he promised himself. Yup. Definitely. When Patrick stepped forward to offer a hand, he stepped forward and shook it firmly.

"Good to meet you too. Hope it's been good things." He managed a faint laugh and stepped forward to eye the boat. Right. He'd never done this before.

Audrey, Melissa and Roscoe. Right. Right. He could do that. He just needed to…memorize that. Yup. He tried to help Patrick as best as he could, and then followed their actions to get into the boat--perhaps using his ability to help along.

"This is your…boat? Ship?" He cast Damien a pleading look before turning a cheerful smile to Patrick. "I'm sorry. I'm from the midwest. We don't get to do a lot of sailing there." And later he'd plumb Damien for the sibling details again.

[Damien Tremblay]

Damien loved his sister, he did. But he didn’t always like her. Especially when he was trying to pull off a smooth introduction to his family. His parents he didn’t worry about too much. They were reasonably casual when it came to meeting new people, but Melissa… nope. If he could find a way to keep her at an arms’ length, he would. Because if anyone was going to screw this up and send Josef packing, it was probably going to be her.

Which was why he was grateful there was still a bit of ocean between them and her.

He had to admit, Josef’s aviators were mighty distracting. It was hard to walk in a straight line when you were busy admiring your sexy as hell boyfriend. It was even harder to hold a decent conversation and handle introductions, but somehow he managed it without tripping all over himself.

Once the two younger men were in the boat, Patrick leaned over to slip the ropes off of the dock and tossed them onto the deck. Once that was done, they were free to set sail. … Or motor, rather. The short trip was made a lot quicker by using the motor on the boat instead. “Oh, it’s all been good things, Josef. Don’t worry.” Damien managed a semi-guilty smile at Josef before turning to look out over the water.

“Yes, it’s mine, and you’re right, it’s a boat. Bit small for a ship, much as I might like to think of it like one.” Patrick smiled and fondly touched the controls. “There was a time where Damien could probably captain it as well as I can, but I imagine his skills have fallen to the wayside living in Vermont. I’m sure he can teach you something by the end of the trip about boating, though.”

“Daaad.” Damien rolled his eyes and twisted back around, his hands resting on the rail of the boat as it pulled away from shore. Patrick chuckled and looked over his shoulder.

“Relax, Damien. I’m just teasing.” Damien just shook his head and shifted to stand closer to Josef.

“Ignore him. I do.” Now he figured he understood how Josef had felt when his own father had been teasing. Maybe it was just a thing fathers did. “It’ll take a bit to get to the island. You ever been on a boat like this?” He smiled fondly. “I grew up on this thing. I think I was probably sailing before I was walking.”

“Before you were crawling,” Patrick interjected loudly. Damien rolled his eyes again, pointedly not looking his way.

“Yeah. Thanks, Dad.” At least this wasn’t catastrophic. So far.

[Josef Muller]

"Ah." Josef was really rusty with this. Will's parents had been polite but wary of their charming son's boyfriend and then husband. He hadn't met Sam's parents. The whole thing was just strange. Not bad, just strange and a little bit worrying. But he could handle this. He was a grown man. He could totally meet Damien's parents and not wonder what good things his boyfriend had been saying about him, yup. "Yessir."

Josef chuckled. "I'd like that. We only have a couple of ponds where we are. Not really big enough for a--boat like this." He had been good at picking up the appropriate lingo for things when he was younger. He hoped it was a habit he could keep up. Or at least, remember while he was here. "Still, I'm sure he's not that rusty. Some things you don't forget. Like riding a bike, right?"

If Damien had looked over, he might have noticed Josef giving him a wry grin from under a day's worth of stubble (he hadn't had a chance to shave before the flight, and they'd been running late so he hadn't shaved in the airport. Luckily for him it came in even). It was good to see Damien suffer from some of the same treatment Josef had while seeing his father. "Oh no," he said, maintaining eye contact with Damien. "Please go on, Mr--Patrick." Yup. After all this time, he still wanted to call his boyfriend's fathers "Mr." Jeez. "I haven't," he admitted. "Not a lot of boats out in--" He stopped, eyed Patrick, and went with the safer "the Midwest. Now tractors I grew up on, and my dad showed me how to use a crane once. He was an architect." Then his mother had freaked out, even though Josef hadn't told her about the time he had managed to run a tractor into an old barn. Nothing had been hurt--well, except the barn. "Why don't you do boat stuff anymore?" he asked Damien, curious. "We're not a far drive from places you could take one--seems like a nice hobby." Josef said regularly that he should have more hobbies. But he also acknowledged that this came from the man who had made his hobby his life's work.

[Damien Tremblay]

Damien’s parents hadn’t met many of their son’s partners. Then again, the last time he’d been in a fairly serious relationship had been in college. Her, they had met, but since then he’d thrown himself more into work and less into dating. His mother had started to wonder if he was ever going to find someone, and then Josef had come along. Hearing about him long-distance had been nice, but now they were getting the chance to meet him face to face, both Patrick and Audrey were looking forward to the week.

Carefully steering the boat through the more open water now they were away from the dock, Patrick chuckled softly. “We can test that later in the week. See just how rusty he is. If he gets lost or crashes the boat, we’ll know.” Beside Josef, Damien shifted and shook his head, attempting not to make eye contact with his father.

“I’m not that bad,” he protested, though he wasn’t too sure about that himself. He hadn’t even attempted taking the boat out on his own for years. Maybe testing his skills was a terrible idea. … Then again, he could get himself and Josef marooned on an island, just the two of them…

Okay, there could be positives to that situation.

Peeking back at Josef, he gave him what he hoped came across as a pleading look, because seriously. Yes, Josef had had similar treatment from his own father when they had first visited, but this wasn’t fair. He couldn’t even really fight back because his boyfriend was a little too distracting for him to focus properly. In a surge of childishness, he stuck his tongue out at Josef as he encouraged his father to continue the light torment.

At least he could distract himself a little from defending himself to watch Josef. “Huh. I didn’t know that.” He could imagine Josef as a kid, or even a teenager getting a kick out of operating something so big. As to his question, he shrugged. “I don’t know. I got busy with work, and with Gypsy and Charlie, and then you.” Besides, boats were expensive, and it would spend a lot of time being tied to a dock, which didn’t seem all that fair. “We could always go away for a weekend and rent something on the water. If I don’t get us killed or something on this thing.” He hazarded a peek at his father, who was smirking, but thank everything didn’t’ say anything about it.

[Josef Muller]

Josef laughed. "I'll try to keep him company, at least. I might not be the best swimmer but another pair of hands never hurts, does it?" He offered Damien a smile, but the man had his head turned away and was looking distinctly embarrassed. Well, so much for that one. He did wonder why the embarrassment, though. Then again--had he really felt all that different when they'd been interacting with his family? Answer--not really. Hm. Maybe it was just a parents-and-partners thing. He wouldn't know. There'd never been a time when he'd brought a lot of partners back to his parents. William and Damien had been almost exclusively it and he hadn't even originally planned to take Damien there. It had just kind of…happened.

Then again, he noticed that there was an interesting glint in Damien's eyes. Perhaps it wasn't all embarrassment there. Josef would be interested in prying those ideas out of his head later. He hadn't regretting it yet. When Damien cast him the pleading look, he smiled back at him reassuringly. He didn't know how to help him otherwise. You couldn't just plead with your boyfriend's father to go easy on him.

Besides, he was kind of enjoying it. He didn't personally like teasing his boyfriend, but he had to admit, the man blushed very nicely.

"Yes," he said evenly, hiding his sarcasm, barely. But there was a slight upturn to the corners of his mouth. "I take up a lot of time. And the pets need lots of care, of course. Did Damien inherit his love of animals from you?" He was curious. He'd been surprised at how many animals Damien had, and how much he was enjoying having so many animals.

Josef looked back at Damien's father. "Maybe you could give us some pointers on sailing before we leave. That way he won't get us hurt when we try our own excursion. Do they have…competitions doing this or anything?"

He'd grown up doing martial arts tournaments. He'd never quite wrapped his head around a world where you didn't compete doing something.

[Damien Tremblay]

Josef’s enthusiasm seemed to resonate well with Damien’s father. Patrick chuckled as he guided the boat through the water. “An extra pair of hands might not be a bad idea. I’m sure he can teach you the ropes, at the very least. With two of you the chances of crashing are a little smaller.” Staring at the water, Damien just rolled his eyes and wondered how much trouble it would cause if he just… jumped the railing and swam back to shore. Surely Josef would understand…

No, he wasn’t going to pull that kind of stunt. But his knuckles on the railing momentarily turned somewhat transparent – a good sign he was stressed. He just wanted this to go well. He wanted his family to like Josef, and hopefully, Josef would like them, too. Though he’d get a free pass on not liking Melissa, if things came to that. She could be… trying.

And now Josef was joining in. Damien chanced a peek at him and resisted the urge to roll his eyes. He saw the smirk, and as sexy as it was, it was just getting Josef in trouble for the time being. “You take up a lot of time,” he reminded him. Which he actually enjoyed. Date nights, dinners at home, bad movie nights… he liked the time Josef took up. Even when they weren’t together, he was often thinking of the older man. Not that he was going to voice that right this second.

To the question, Patrick smiled and shook his head. “Not exactly. Audrey has dander allergies, so we didn’t have much in the way of animals when Damien and Melissa were growing up. He constantly asked for them, though. It didn’t surprise me that he got pets as soon as he landed in America.” Which wasn’t far from the truth. Damien hadn’t waited long after settling in Vermont before getting Gyps and Charlie. As for the rest, he chuckled again. “Oh, I can give you pointers, make sure nothing happens. Worst comes to worst, it’s got a GPS on it, so if you get hopelessly lost, we’ll rescue you. And there aren’t so much competitions as there are races, but this boat’s more for pleasure than racing.” It was one thing the Tremblay family could agree on – being on the water was something amazing.