nice to meet you :: nils

It had been a few days since Pia and Petra had first met, and today Pia was going back to see her older sister again. She still hadn't told her mother, but she just hadn't been able to come up with the words. She was supposed to have dinner with her this weekend though, so she thought maybe if she went to talk to Petra she'd be able to find a little inspiration.

So here she was, walking through the estate, looking for the rooms Petra occupied. The doorman had let her in, but hadn't offered to show her the way, so she was trying to remember where she'd been last time she was here.

Nils closed his notebook, having just filled the very last page. Now he needed a new one, so he figured he'd maybe wander into town and buy one. At this time of day there probably wouldn't be many clio there, which was just fine with him. And Paisley had given him some money.

You really should try to find a job of your own, you know, Tanith told him. Lately she'd been telling him more and more how he needed to start getting out into the world, learn how to support himself, stop hiding away inside the estate and letting Paisley do everything. He knew she was right, but that didn't mean actually doing it was any easier for him. He had no education, no skills...

I know, was all he said, just like every other time.

He got up and walked out the door, turning to lock it behind him. When he turned around again to head out, he saw an unfamiliar blonde girl standing there looking lost. At first he thought he could just avoid her, but then she looked right at him. "Um, hi," he said after a slight pause.

As Pia was nosily looking around she ran into a man. She felt awkward just walking around this giant estate, so she was going to try to duck out of sight, but as she looked upat him one last time, they locked eyes. Great.

He mumbled a greeting so it seemed like he didn't necessarily want to talk to her, either.

"Hi." That felt awkward, so she continued, "I'm not just snooping around-- I'm looking for Petra Lovison." More awkward. "Do you, uh, happen to know where she lives?" She hoped he couldn't tell that she was totally snooping around as she looked.

Nils was about to tell the girl that he didn't think she was snooping, when she caught him off-guard by asking to see Petra of all clio. A lot of clio came in and out of the estate for various reasons. Workers, important clio, Paisley's family...basically all clio here to see Paisley. No one had ever come looking for Petra before. He looked at the girl more wearily.

"Why are you looking for her?" he asked guardedly. The girl looked harmless enough, but looks could be deceiving. If she was looking for Petra for some kind of shady reason, he didn't want to point her in the right direction.

"She's my sister." Or, she was my sister. It's more like she's an acquaintance that I want to be my sister or something. Or something. Pia had spent the last few days trying to figure out what sort of relationship she and Petra would forge. It was one of the reasons she was here. She needed to spend more time with her.

"What?" Nils asked in surprise. He'd actually known that unlike most of their fellow kidnapping victims, Petra still had family alive out there. She'd talked about it back when they were all young, and Paisley had told him about her surprise when she found out about them. But he hadn't actually thought any of them would come out to meet her, or that she'd even want them to.

The girl did look a little bit like Petra. Like a younger, nicer version. "I know where she lives," he said. "But I don't think she's there right now. Um, I could show you and you could wait for her to come back?"

He knew the suggestion was stupid as soon as he said it. Sometimes Petra left and didn't come back for days. "Or--or not. I don't know. Whatever you want to do." He looked down at the floor.

For a moment it seemed like the man didn't believe her but then he offered to show her the way. Pia breathed a sigh of relief.

"That would be great, thanks." The man started leading the way and Pia followed. "I'm Pia, by the way," she said when she realized she still didn't have a name for the man. "Do you work in the estate, here?"

"Oh. I'm Nils," Nils said when she introduced herself as Pia. He shot a quick glance at her before returning to look straight ahead, thinking of how similar yet different Pia and Petra looked. Superficially they looked alike, but one look at their faces and you could tell that they had lived completely different lives. She's what Petra would look like if she'd never been kidnapped with us, he thought. How weird. He wondered what would have happened if Henri had gotten taken and not him, or vice versa. Maybe he'd write about that later.

They got to Petra's door. Nils was actually glad she was gone, even though Pia wanted to see her. For him, just seeing her was enough to get his heart hammering in anxiety. "Sooo. This is it," he said. "Just so you know, sometimes she doesn't come back for like a long time. Sorry about that."

He looked at her again. All of the sudden, about a million questions about her and Petra sprang up into his head. "Um, I was wondering..." he started to say, but then changed his mind and looked back down. "Never mind."

Didn't come back for a long time? Petra wondered how long she would have to wait. It was a long trip from Martha's Vineyard to Nadar, and it hadn't been cheap, either. It would be a shame to waste it all.

Nils started to ask her a question but then changed his mind and looked awkwardly at the floor. "What's up?" she asked, giving permission to ask whatever question he'd been nervous to ask.

Nils wasn't sure where to start. Pia and Petra's situations were so unique compared to most of the other kidnapped kids. He wondered what it was like for both of them, having to grow up apart from each other like that. And he wondered what the sisters thought of each other now, after having such different lives.

"I guess...I was just wondering what it was like, being reunited after everything," he said. When Paisley had started her search for the victims' families, she'd asked Nils if he and Henri had anyone out there to look for. They didn't, but even if they did, Nils wasn't sure he'd want to meet them again after everything that'd happened.

Pia considered for a moment. She hadn't had much time to get used to the situation, so all she could do was speak from the heart. "It's... it's difficult. For a lot of reasons, it's hard. But it's worth it, too, so that's what matters." She paused for a moment and then was suddenly glad Nils had asked the question. What she'd answered was true, and that meant it was time to tell her mom. On the way back she'd stop there--it wasn't fair to wait till the weekend.

She wondered how much Nils knew about the situation. Maybe he was on the Nadar task force that helped save all the kids or something. Nah, he looked a bit shy for that. But he had to be connected in another way or he wouldn't have asked.

"Do you work here?"

Nils thought about her answer. Yeah, he imagined it would be difficult. Everything about the situation was probably difficult. But the fact that Pia thought it was worth it was a nice surprise. He'd admittedly been skeptical when Paisley started searching out families, but if Petra's reunion with Pia was going okay, maybe the others would go okay too.

"Uh, no," he answered when she asked if he worked in the estate. I really should try to find work somewhere. "I just live here. Paisley lets me stay."

Pia raised her eyebrows. "She just lets you stay in the estate?" Pia didn't know any overloridians personally, but it seemed strange that they would just let random clio live in their estates. "Are you banging the overloridian?" she jokingly asked. Pia had only met Paisley the once, so she didn't know her or anything, but she didn't imagine that clio powerful enough to run countries would go for someone so shy and meek. Not that Nils wasn't nice of course, he just didn't seem the type.

Even though it was clearly just a joke, Nils' face flushed. "We're not--I mean, we're together, but we haven't--um..." he stammered out, all awkward and embarrassed. He was immediately irritated with himself for not being able to just react normally to the joke like a normal clio. He was so bad at talking to clio.

Pia had picked up on Nils' shyness, but she was caught off guard by the ferocity of his embarrassment from her joke. He tripped over his words and seemed horrified with himself.

"Hey, I was just kidding, that's cool," Pia said hurriedly, hoping to ease a bit of the awkward tension that had built up in just a few seconds. "It's nice that you get to stay with her here--it must be cool to be dating an overloridian!"

Nils nodded, his face still hot. "Yeah. Yeah, I guess it is," he mumbled, having a hard time looking Pia in the eye. Ugh, how could he ever hope to get a job when he couldn't even hold a normal conversation without making things weird? "I mean, I don't really care that she's the overloridian. She's just really great to be with."

"I only met her once, and she did seem nice. Petra doesn't seem to like her, though." She paused. "Not that that means much, honestly. It doesn't seem like she likes much of anyone," she said with a slight frown.

"No, she doesn't," Nils agreed quietly. He frowned and looked away guiltily, acutely aware that it was mostly his fault that Petra was so hateful and distrustful of everyone. If Pia ended up not being able to ever gain Petra's trust, it would be because of him. If he hadn't been so weak, Henri wouldn't have felt the need to leave her behind to save him. There was so much he should've done differently then. "I'm sorry. That she's like that."

Pia wasn't notably perceptive, but she did notice Nils' demeanor change. "I think it'll be okay, eventually," she said, even though she actually wasn't sure. "I mean, I don't ever think she'll be bubbly, but I'm holding out hope for, I don't know, something." She hadn't ever been religious, but over the last few days she'd found herself sending wishes resembling prayers to whatever gods were out there.

"Have you known her long?" Long wouldn't really be long, in this case. But the crime ring had been broken for a few months now, so Pia supposed it was a possibility that Nils could have known her for that long. She was curious to know if Petra's attitude had changed at all since coming to Nadar.

Nils knew that if he told Pia how long he'd known Petra, then she'd know he'd been part of the crime group too, and that was a conversation he really didn't want to have. But he also knew that the truth would come out eventually, and he didn't want to be caught in a lie later on. It was probably best just to say it and get it over with. "Um, yeah. A really long time, actually."

Pia paused. She wondered if that meant... If it was true, he'd certainly turned out differently than Petra. But it seemed like he didn't want to talk about it. So even though Pia was curious, and wanted to ask about her sister, she decided not to press. He looked extremely uncomfortable.

"I'm sorry," she said, a bit more softly. "I didn't mean to pry."

Nils waved his hand dismissively, trying and probably failing to look like he didn't care. "It's alright," he said, grateful that she wasn't asking more questions. A lot of other clio wouldn't be so tactful about it. "It's all over with now." Not that that made it any easier to get over. He wondered if Petra thought about it all as much as he did.