The map held in front of his face muddles his voice causing his question to become lost amongst the chatter of the crowded limo. The little boy drops the map to his lap with a sigh and tugs at the crinkled piece of paper so it lays neatly in his lap before repeating his question a little louder, a little more forceful this time. He earns not just the attention of the one he wants to talk to but also the attention of every occupant of his daddy's limo as those gathered twist in their seats to listen to what he has to say.
"Uncle Nate, do you like snakes?"
Nate shifts in his seat as he considers the question and fails to avoid bumping his long legs into Serena's or his shoulder into Henry's carseat as he moves around. He had planned to ride in the town car with Serena and Dan from their apartment, but his nephew threw a fit demanding that everyone ride in the limo because this is his special outing and he makes the rules.
"Uh, they're okay," Nate replies as he traces his thumb around the rim of his disposable coffee cup. "A little creepy, don't you think, Henry?"
Henry's features crinkle in confusion over the question, and then he emphatically shakes his head in a rejection of Nate's words because, no, snakes are not creepy. Slithering and stealthy, they are nature's best schemers. At least, that's what his daddy says, and Henry passes along Chuck's words to Nate as though they are the indisputable truth.
"My mommy likes snakes, too," Henry informs Nate, and the older man's eyes slide down the crowded limo to glance at Blair, took at the women sitting with perfect posture and nary a hair out of place. But the faltering of Henry's smile catches Nate's attention, and the little boy corrects his statement in a low voice almost like he's divulging a secret.
"Well, only one kind a snake. A special snake that daddy got her that I'm not allowed to play with," Henry adds with a pout as he folds his arm across his chest. "And Mommy screams with she plays with it so I don't think she actually likes snakes like Daddy does."
"Ugh, Blair," Serena says with a crinkle of her noise and a roll of her eyes. The rest of the limo's occupants shift uncomfortably at the innuendos Henry innocently passed along, and Nate's eyes immediately snap towards the couple seated at the far end of the limo against the door, snap to see Chuck's small smirk fall off his face as his wife elbows him in the chest.
Hard.
Blair tries to look aghast at Henry's words as her husband grimaces; tries to hide that devious sparkle behind her eye as her husband chuckles darkly in her ear and whispers about the reptile house being a must see attraction. Henry, however, seems unfazed by the reaction his words garnished having become accustomed to this over the years. His daddy loves his mommy's pie and his mommy loves his daddy's limo, and Henry doesn't understand why the adults in his life act like there is something so wrong about that.
"What's your favorite animal, Uncle Nate?"
"Uh, giraffes, I guess," Nate replies before taking a drink from his coffee cup, and Henry beams at his reply as he races to point out on the map just where the giraffes live. He excitedly explains how he and his mommy printed out the map last night, how they decided the order in which they would visit the animals, and then in a sadder, quieter tone about how the map is wrong because there's a picture of an elephant but no elephants actually live at the zoo.
"Mommy and I called, and the zoo people said that ellie-pants need big families to be happy," Henry informs his uncle. "No lonely boy ellie-pants."
"Blair," the soon-to-be Mister and Mrs. Humphrey chastise in unison.
"Out of the mouth of babes," Blair scoffs in reply before turning her attention to her son and correcting his pronunciation. "It's elephants, Henry. Not ellie-pants."
"That's what I said," Henry huffs sinking into his seat and raising the map to hide his face. The little boy abhors being wrong almost as much as he hates being corrected, and he would have continued sulking where it not for Arthur lowering the partition and announcing their arrival.
Henry undoes the buckle of his carseat all by himself and scrambles over Nate's legs to be the first one out of the car. He bounces excitedly on the curb as his father helps his mother out of the car, as his mother adjusts the lacrosse t-shirt his Uncle Nate gave him that he chose to wear today.
(Originally, Henry picked out the same suit he is set to wear to Aunt Serena and Dan's wedding for his special outing, but the little boy changed his mind before their departure this morning when he discovered his father wearing a sweater over his button up shirt and his mother wearing pants. Casual wear in the world of Mister and Mrs. Bass.)
Henry tugs excitedly on his parents' hands when everyone is out of the limo, when his father finishes telling Arthur to return for them promptly at three o'clock. The first stop on their visit is the sea lions, and Henry is not about to miss the feeding just because Aunt Serena is perpetually running behind.
"Wait," Dan calls out. He holds up his phone motioning for the Basses to stand together for a picture, and the little boy sighs in frustration as he moves to stand with his parents to stand in front of the big sign announcing the entrance to the zoo. "I need photographic proof that Chuck and Blair were spotted in the Bronx."
"It's the zoo not the housing projects," Chuck replies, although it is not entirely clear if he offers up the reminder to Dan or to his wife. The couple walks towards the entrance of the zoo leaving the rest of their party to trail behind them. Henry walks between Chuck and Blair holding his parents' hands and animatedly reminding them of the plan for the day.
They head straight to the sea lions; Henry admonishing his aunt and uncles to hurry up or else they will miss the feeding. A small crowd as already formed around the railings, and Henry stands on his tiptoes to try and peer over an older child's head. And he starts to contemplate telling the kid to move because he's Henry Bass when his father scoops him up and places Henry on his shoulders. His daddy isn't as tall as his Uncle Nate, but from up here Henry feels like he is King of the World because no one is more powerful than his daddy.
(Except for his mommy, but Daddy says he isn't allowed to tell Mommy that because it will go to her head and she's already enough of a Queen B. Henry isn't quite sure what that means, although Aunt Serena calls his mommy Queen B when she is particularly upset so there's probably a reason why Daddy swore him to secrecy.)
The sea lions make funny noises when the zookeepers come out to feed them, and some of the children gathered around the railings copy their noises. Croaking and arfing so loudly and obnoxiously that Henry rolls his eyes and wishes they would all head to the children's zoo because he's much too mature for their antics.
But then one of sea lions nose dives off the highest rock into the water below and his eyes widen and he laughs in the amazement only a child seems to possess. And his parents' eyes connect and gleam as they smile over his wonderment, as they relish in how they are experiencing the childhood they never had through their little boy.
Their trip through the Madagascar enclosure is spent with Henry's face and hands pressed against the dirty glass as he watches the myriad of lemurs swing from tree limb to vine while Dan regales them all with a lecture on the causal effect of consumerism on deforestation. His wife manages to silence him halfway through his rant by flouncing happily through the exhibit and distracting him with her smiles dripping in sunshine.
And Serena being Serena, the blonde doesn't mind clutching Henry's now dirty hands as she leads him down the path to the tiger exhibit to see her favorite animal. She doesn't mind bending down on one jean-clad knee and trying to cajole the little boy into telling her what tigers say. And Henry gives in because his Aunt Serena is silly and fun, because she makes him laugh and loosen up just like she does for his mommy.
"Rawr!" Henry exclaims as he makes pouncing paws with this hands, and he erupts into a series of giggles when his Aunt Serena roars back at him, when she tickles him mercilessly with her hands as she too pretends to be a tiger.
And even Blair pretends to be a tiger for a moment; roaring so vociferously that the other families standing near the glass separating them from the tigers eye her as though she has completely lost her mind. But the poised young mother wearing expensive high heels to the zoo could care less in the moment because her son laughs boisterously as he roars back at her and attacks her with his pretend tiger paws.
The rest of the morning is spent watching the polar bear chase a ball across his enclosure, splashing in and out of the pool before he finally tucks the ball under his stomach and curls up to sleep with it. Dan is the one who suggests they break for lunch, but if he expected to see Chuck and Blair eat animal-shaped chicken nuggets and French fries, he is sorely disappointed to arrive at the picnic area and see Dorota spreading out a pressed tablecloth and preparing plates of food freshly prepared by the Basses' chef.
The astonishment in his voice as he questions Blair for having Dorota bring them lunch all the way from the Upper East Side is met with a peculiar look from Chuck because there aren't any appropriate restaurants within walking distance and from Blair because, of course, she is not going to subject her son to the horrors of processed food. And Dan – convinced that there is something wrong with a child who happily munches on spinach quiche when he could be eating French fries – leans over to his wife-to-be and makes her promise that should they ever have kids, the Humphrey clan will go to the zoo and eat animal-shaped, fried chicken nuggets.
"Can we start now?" Serena replies with a laugh, and Dan doesn't have to be told twice before he pulls his fiancée from the table and walks with her to the small food court. Nate tags along, dismissed by friends who know he would rather eat fries than quiche with them and who don't mind having a private moment with just their small family.
"We're going to see the butterflies while you eat," Henry announces when his aunt and uncles return with their food as his mother wipes down his hands with a wet wipe and Dorota gathers up their picnic lunch. "It's Mommy's favorite animal. It's sacred. Only for Basses."
Chuck and Blair's eyes connect over their son's head and maybe their son's rejection of his aunt and uncles is a little harsh, but they cannot help but smile over his insistence that butterflies are special. Because butterflies gave them Chuck and Blair, Blair and Chuck. Because butterflies beat their wings and never died, continued to flutter until they metamorphosed in the little boy standing before them.
The same little boy who watches in awe as a butterfly lands on his hand, as it beats its delicate wings against his skin. Who is far to enthralled to care that his father stands behind his mother, sweeps her brunette hair aside, and feathers kisses against her neck until he reaches her ear and can whisper in her ear.
"Still want to murder those butterflies?"
"Not a chance, Bass," Blair retorts as she spins around, and she smiles as she touches her fingers to Chuck's cheek to hold his gaze. "You know how much I adore all God's creatures."
The injection of happiness provided by the butterflies, however, dissipates over the course of the afternoon. The Humphreys and Nate join the Basses on a ride through Asia on the monorail and a walk through the African Plains portion of the zoo, but the extensive walking and excitement begins to take its toll on the little boy. Henry drags his feet, becomes nearly inconsolable by the time they head towards the giraffes.
"I think it's time we head home," Chuck announces when the giraffe enclosure is just in sight.
"No!" Henry shrieks ripping his hand out his father's and shying away from his father's grasp.
"Yes," Chuck replies in a firm voice before his wife steps in, before Blair announces that Henry didn't sleep well last night with the excitement of his special outing and probably needs a nap. The comment sets the little boy off, sends him collapsing the ground in an angry sob that he's not tired.
His aunt and uncles shift uncomfortably at the temptation to step in and console Henry yet know better than to undermine Chuck and Blair's parenting. Chuck reaches down, scoops a screaming and kicking Henry off the ground into his arms. He is about to tell Henry to knock it off, to tell Blair to call for Arthur to pick them up a little early when Henry wraps his arms around his father's neck and cries pitifully in his ear that the sun is too bright and his eyes hurt.
"Your eyes hurt?" Chuck echoes as he looks to his wife for backup.
With Blair as his mother and Chuck as his father, the little boy is quickly becoming a master schemer and manipulator. Of course, with Blair as his mother and Chuck as his father, he rarely gets away with his manipulation when it is directed at his parents. And while his parents have already had the conversation about how you don't manipulate those you respect and love with the little boy, Chuck isn't entirely sure if Henry is trying to pull one over on his parents.
But Blair seems genuinely concerned as she reaches out to pat Henry's back, reaches out to sweep the hair from his eyes and peer into his tear-filled eyes. Because some days when the sun is particularly bright her eyes will ache so badly that she finds herself rummaging through her purse for her sunglasses before a migraine can bloom. And she wonders if maybe this is hereditary, if Henry's eyes hurt because her eyes started to hurt halfway through the monorail ride until she slipped on her own sunglasses.
Her gazes moves to Dan and Nate prepared to send Nate to the gift shop and Dan out into the Bronx – having assumed that Dan would be able to fare better in the Bronx given his Brooklyn upbringing, of course – in search of sunglasses when her gaze lands on the sunglasses perched on the top of Nate's head. She's not entirely sure where he got them, figures they are left over from some visit to the outer boroughs to "explore" running for major.
But motherhood outweighs fashion today, and she very well demands Nate hand them over right now. She slips the sunglasses onto Henry's face, sweeps his unruly hair aside with a mental reminder to book him an appointment at the salon tomorrow, and watches as Henry's cries subside into small hiccups.
"Is that better, baby?"
"Yeah," Henry replies softly as his father rubs his back and tries to soothe him. The piercing glare of the sun is filtered, subdued just enough for him to be able to open his eyes wide again. The pounding in his head begins to recede, and Henry peers over his father's shoulder and past his mother to see the giraffe's head peeking around a tree at him.
"Can we go see the giraffes now?" Henry asks with a hiccup. "They're Uncle Nate's favorite."
His parents agree, and Chuck carries him over to the wooden bench arranged in front of the giraffe enclosure. Henry stands on the bench to watch and laughs at the giraffe's long tongue as it reaches to eat leaves off the top of this tree. He points out the giraffe to his Uncle Nate, asks innocently if that's why Uncle Nate likes giraffes so much.
"Who doesn't like a woman who knows how to use her tongue?"
Henry frowns at his father's comment because he doesn't understand what he means, but Aunt Serena just grimaces as she pulls her phone out of her bag and tells the little boy to sit so she can take his picture. He clambers down to sit on the wooden viewing platform, sits up a little straighter, and elongates his neck as he adjusts the sunglasses perched on his nose.
"Henry," Serena asks with a laugh, "what are you doing?"
"I'm being a giraffe for Uncle Nate, but it's hard. They don't roar like lions do."
Blair interjects into the conversation, suggests that Henry be Henry Bass for Mommy and Daddy. The little boy ponders the suggestion for a moment, and his eyes slide to look up at his father as he weights the pros and cons of being a giraffe or being Henry Bass.
"You're special enough on your own," Chuck reminds him, and sinks back to his natural posture and smiles up at the camera at his father's words. "You don't need to be a lion or a giraffe for Mommy and Daddy to love you."