Chapter Text
May 2000- Ottawa
Canada has been nothing but welcoming to both Irina and Ilya, these 4 years have felt like everything kept changing but they managed to stay calm, Ilya just turned 16 and as much as Irina told him to stop growing so that he could be her baby forever, although he was always going to, the kid was starting to have a haughty personality.
She loves her kid, but she kinda hates when Ilya starts to be difficult to talk to, they have had a lot of complicated conversations, but it always end up with him apologizing to his mom, and Irina telling him that they can talk to everything that keeps bothering Ilya in some ways.
Irina have finished college it was an incredible evening, his kid was there in the front line next to the Hollanders that always promised her that they would the loudest of the graduation ceremony, and true to their word the 4 of the cheer the loudest when Irina walk in the stage to pick up her degree, after that they went out to eat and celebrate and her boss and now her new partner Dmitri was there for the dinner. That was a tough conversation to Irina after Mr.Orlov, or well now Dmitri told Irina that he have feelings for her after working together for several years now, she always emphasizes that her son was her priority and Dmitri respected that, he knew Ilya too so he saw how Irina would burn the world if something happened to Ilya, he also through the 2 years they been dating notice how protective was Irina with Shane too.
Irina remebered the conversation she had with Ilya when she consider to date Dmitri, but the only thing Ilya told her was "Good, you deserve to be happy too, although it took you time. I'm still glad, but if he hurts you I'll punch him." Which was both sweet and funny, because Ilya being 14 telling her he was going to punch her 35 year old boyfriend.
Both Yuna and David meet Dmitri the moment he took her out to their first date, they made Irina felt like a teenager again when the Hollanders started to ask him about her intentions with her, and as they walked to the car she heard Yuna yelling "Curfew is 9:30, don't be late" very motherly of her, and she may or may not blushed after that, that also reminded her why Yuna was her best friend.
But today was different, now they were about to be officially citizens of Canada, Canadians, felt weird a part of her was sad because it felt that she was giving up to the Russian side of her, despite the "hate" she felt towards Russia it was they're home, but that was long ago. They were both happy to be in Canada, more specifically in Ottawa, about to be Canadians instead of honorary Canadians.
The ceremony itself was small and casual, the person that made them Canadians told a few words about how it felt to be part of these great nation and something else about the queen. They took their oath, and in less than two seconds, all the witnesses started making noise; naturally, their family was there—the Hollanders never missed an event. Everyone was excited about it, especially Shane, who was wearing a T-shirt featuring a maple leaf and a cap with "Canada" in red letters across the front—a heartwarming sight, if you asked Irina, and you would likely get the same answer if you had asked Ilya.
Somehow picnics became their thing, after a hockey win, and achievement or sometimes just because they would have a picnic, and today was no different, so they went out to the park to have one. Shane started talking about how they were both going to play for Canada in the juniors league and at the world game, Ilya only smiled and told Shane that the team they played for didn't matter, the only thing that matter was that they're going to be together, lovely answer really it made her heart rushed.
They were to young to see whatever was happening between them but it was clear to Irina that those two were/are different and that the way they treated each other was nothing casual, she didn't mind really, her kids were happy, and sue her if she wants to keep them safe in bubble wrap and inside of the bubble of safety they created over the years. They were going to have a rough time figuring what was happening or what they felt she only hoped that they talked about it and didn't hurt each other.
That was for another time, now she was enjoying the company of her family and boyfriend, everything felt so bright, welcoming and overwhelming in a good way obviously. Everyone was smiling and telling memories of the past years, laughs were the main sound of the conversation, she wanted to keep these moments in a safe place, Yuna was talking about hockey, David and Dmitri were talking about politics and economy, Ilya and Shane were talking about a lot of thing, school, hockey, a TV show they started and music she had no idea what it was. She only smiled welcoming the new memories that were being created at the moment.
Yuna find her gaze and smiled "You ok?" she was feeling a lot so the obvious answer was "Yes, everything is so fine", Yuna seemed to understand the feeling too she grab one of Irina's hand and gave her a wilde smile.
At the end of the day everything felt so normal, so ordinary, the way they sit around the Hollander's living room to watch a movie, the kids were sitting at the floor while the two couples were on the couch, arguing about what they were going to see. She only have an odd feeling in the chest when she remembered that one of her kids were missing, Alexei, they kept in contact through the years, what took her by surprise was when he told her that Grigori was diagnosed with dementia, she would never told anyone that she kind of hoped that something awful might happed to him, at the end of the day was the Karma he deserved for being the horrible person that he is. That night after the call with Alexei she thanked God for doing that to him and she never felt sorry for being grateful for his dementia.
Putting that aside everything felt so good, she found herself mentally thanking God for giving her the strength to leave Russia, if were being honest it was Ilya who gave her that last push of power to leave and never come back. For now she was going to enjoy this, her family, her boyfriend and closing one of the hardest chapter of her life.
Life is good because courage is always a decision you made and fear is a reaction of the decisions you make.