Author's Note: So this story was born out of my dissatisfaction with the way the Date of Birth episode from the original series handled Renton's relationship with his father, while the revelation that Eureka used to know Adroc lead to some sweet moments I feel it could wind up causing big problems down the line, this fic was created to try and address such problems.
This story also contains some elements from The Strange Boy from Bellforest which the author of said story has graciously allowed me to use, though reading that story isn't necessary to understand this one, on a completely unrelated note this story has no connection to AO whatsoever.
Anyway enough of my rambling, I'll let you get on with it.
"Wait a minute! You really knew my son?" Axel Thurston exclaimed loudly, his eyes wide with astonishment at the young girl sitting across from the kitchen table.
The ordeal at the Control Cluster had recently ended, and after falling back to Earth Eureka and Renton had conveniently found themselves at the rebuilt Thurston garage in Bellforest, where they met Axel and proceeded to tell him all about their adventures.
"Oh my yes, Adroc was always there for me, he was actually something of a father to me in fact." Answered Eureka with a bright smile, pleased that she had met someone that knew Adroc as well as her.
"Astonishing what was he like back then?" Axel queried while adjusting his glasses, strange as such a question to be asked by a father about his son might be, but Adroc hadn't spent much time with his family in his final years, a fact that the young boy sitting next to Eureka was painfully aware of.
Renton groaned inwardly at the inevitable change in discussion, he knew this was coming and he was dreading it even more than the story of how he completely abandoned Eureka when she was horribly injured (which the old man had soundly berated him for).
"He was a very kind man, he taught me all sorts of things like how to talk, walk and read." Eureka went on telling Axel everything she could remember about the scientist.
Renton silently stewed in his seat while the two continued to talk about his least favourite subject. It wasn't that he hated the man, well not since the whole families incident with Eureka anyway, but while learning why he was always away from his own family helped him respect the man a little more, it had only exacerbated another issue.
Growing up as the son of the hero who saved the world it was hard for anyone to see him as anything but that Adroc's son, with Eureka he thought he had finally met someone who saw him as just Renton and that just made him love her all the more.
And then the facade shattered when Eureka told him that not only did she know Adroc, he was the only reason she was speaking to him right now, it didn't bother him at the time after all they had much bigger problems but ever since then, during their quieter moments of which their were admittedly very few, he couldn't help but worry if the only reason Eureka loved him was just because he was the son of the man who effectively raised her.
Renton's inner thoughts were broken by Axel's response to one of Eureka's stories "Ha ha yes my boy always was a bit forgetful even when he was younger, oh how I miss him." Axel's tone took a dismal turn at that, all three of the rooms occupants bearing sad expressions, Renton never knew the man but given his worries over Eureka, it was quite easy to match the two.
Somehow the silence was even worse than the talking, he couldn't take any more of this. "Well sorry to bail on you two but I need to go do some lifting."
Axel stared at him oddly. "Its eleven at night." He stated flatly.
Thinking fast he came up with a good lie. "Well... you know even after everything that's happened, I've still got a lot of adrenaline left, if I keep lying about I probably won't be able to sleep tonight." before running off.
"Strange." Axel simply said looking suspiciously at the retreating boy, Eureka just looked perturbed.
The night was dark and cold, much colder than it had been in weeks past due to the disappearance of half the planet's landmass during the second summer of love, a boy on a plain white ref board cut through the chilled air, the board left green swirls of trappar as it arced gracefully through the air, but despite the grace of the display the figure on the board was deeply troubled.
Renton's thoughts were left in complete disarray from the anxiety he was feeling, was he just being paranoid over all this? He had no proof that she thought of him that way but then again he had no proof that she didn't either.
After all why did she show such interest in a dumb little kid from some hick town in the first place? It just didn't make any sense otherwise, it had to be the reason.
Sure maybe she seemed to care now but sooner or later she'd realize how little like Adroc he was and then she'll abandon him like everyone else did.
Too caught up in his dark thoughts, he became distracted, his foot inching too close to the nose of the board, gravity sending him crashing to the ground in a cloud of dust, the board followed clattering besides him.
He groaned loudly in pain writhing on the ground on his back, covered in dirt, the anger that had welling up inside him throughout the night finally reached breaking point.
Furious he scrambled to his feet ignoring the pain and picked up the cheap ref board.
"Stupid piece of..." he cursed cut off by the sound of the ref board getting smashed against the nearest tree.
He continued smashing the Ref board against the tree with every ounce of his rage, so much that the tree was shook with every hit. He didn't really care about the board it was this entire situation that cut him so deeply, She was the best thing that had ever happened to him and there was nothing he could do to stop her from slipping away.
"Renton!" at the sound of Eureka's voice yelling for him, he froze in shock, oh man he knew that lie was easy enough to see through.
He looked in the direction of the house and matched her gaze as she ran over towards him. He propped up the board and grinned trying to look as if nothing was wrong.
"Renton are you OK?" She looked at him worriedly. "I heard a loud noise, did you crash?"
"Uh just a little one, I'm just more used to my old board you know, but its fine." He replied trying to downplay the incident.
"Are you sure your not hurt? That wound in your arm could have been reopened."
"It's just a bruise that's all, and I think my arm was fixed at the same time your scars were." A farewell gift from Nirvash he supposed.
"Oh well that's good." Eureka sighed in relief as she turned to leave but after taking a few steps she looked back hesitantly "There's nothing else wrong is there Renton?"
"Why would anything be wrong? Dewey's gone, the world is saved, everything's cool now." He said nonchalantly, inwardly however he started to tense, why couldn't she just leave him alone.
"I was talking about you, you left pretty quickly after we started talking about Adroc."
"Well like I said before adrenaline, besides I didn't really know him so there wasn't much point in me being involved." He said thrusting his hands into his pockets and looking away from Eureka.
"You wanted to know about him before why not now?" asked Eureka with a raised eyebrow.
"That was before I..." He spouted out before realizing what he was about to say. "Never mind it's nothing."
Sensing an opening, she pressed on. "Before what?"
He started brusquely walking away in response. "I told you it's nothing, quit worrying." A speck of irritation began to creep into his voice.
She chased after him, ignoring the cold winds stabbing at her body barely covered by a thin white dress, desperate to get at the root of the problem. "I'm not as naïve as I used to be you know, whatever this is I know it isn't just nothing." She yelled towards his retreating form.
He kept walking on unwilling to reply to her cries, finally he stopped on a nearby cliff overlooking Bellforest Nowhere left to run. He thought cynically.
"Renton do you remember what you said month's ago after Ray and Charles died? ,that you wanted to know everything about me, well after everything I've shared maybe it's time for you to share something too, whatever wrong I can't promise I can fix it but I will try with everything I have to."
Eureka's words finally began to weaken his resolve.
With a heavy heart Renton turned back to look at her, he knew he couldn't keep lying to her any longer Leaving her in the dark like this isn't really fair on her. He thought to himself. Finally he prepared to face the inevitable.
"Well... uh the truth is..." He stopped himself, the onslaught of dread at what was coming next was unbearable, but one look at her pleading face forced him to continue "sometimes... ever since you told me about my father I can't help but wonder... am I just a replacement for him? Is he the only reason we wound up together?" he bared his fears out to the girl, his eyes starting to water.
Eureka was shocked and overcome with guilt at his confession. "Renton I'm so sorry I had no idea you felt that way, so that's why you ran out so suddenly."
Renton turned away in shame and then slumped to the ground on his knees. "Yeah pretty pathetic huh." His voice laced with bitterness,his still form beginning to silently shake.
Eureka's heart ached at the sight of the boy she loved in such a sad state.
The silence between them grew as Eureka spurned on by the young boy's sadness struggled to find the right words to quell his fears.
She placed her hand onto his trembling shoulder before beginning to speak. "No of course it isn't, but Renton you don't need to worry about anything like that, your the one I fell in love with, I won't deny that Adroc is important to me, he taught me many things after all but he never taught me the most important things like the meaning of love and family." She began to frown. "If he did then perhaps I wouldn't have done the terrible things I did in the SOF."
She sighed sadly. "Sometimes I wonder how much better my life could have been had I met you sooner."
Renton turned his tear streaked gaze towards her, in the moonlight, her wings seemed to appear iridescent. "T-that's really how you feel? Your not going to leave me?" He stuttered out not fully believing what he was hearing.
"Oh Renton, of course I'd never leave you but if you truly need proof of my feelings you need only look up." Eureka said reassuringly with a small smile, gesturing above to the shining moon now marked with two familiar names.
Renton gazed at the lunar surface in disbelief, his face starting to glow a bright shade of red "Wait that's actually real! So I haven't gone crazy!"
"It's a little embarrassing but when you came for me in the control cluster and first kissed me, I just wanted to shout my feelings to the heavens and I guess since we were with Nirvash at the time, he- I mean she took that literally." She explained remembering every carve of the rock she made less than a day ago.
Renton's heart began to soar at her words, as he took her hands with his "So you really do love me?"
She gazed into his eyes lovingly. "With all my heart." She declared without hesitation.
The boy and girl tentatively moved their heads close to each other, their lips finally connecting into a deep and passionate kiss. Renton felt all his anxiety begin to melt away at her touch.
The two reluctantly broke away from the kiss to take in more oxygen, Eureka spoke breathlessly. "That was even better than the last time!"
"Your telling me, though I hope your not going to deface anything else in the sky." He teased with a grin.
The girl giggled. "Don't give me any ideas, maybe next time the whole galaxy should know about us."
The two young lovers huddled closely together for warmth in the moonlight, quietly enjoying each other's company. Renton finally broke the silence. "I'm uh sorry for being such a big crybaby earlier." Still a little embarrassed at his earlier actions.
"Don't worry about it, it was nice being the shoulder to cry on for once." consoled the girl as she nuzzled into his chest.
"Um Eureka much as I'd like to stay like this all night, we should probably get back, gramps might think we're up to something." Renton pointed out, it was almost midnight after all.
"Oh okay well it was nice being alone while it lasted, you said the Gekko should be able to locate us via that thing by tomorrow right?, so we should get some rest." Replied Eureka referring to the tracking device Renton had took with him to the control cluster.
The two got to their feet. "Yeah we'll be able to see Holland, Tallho and the kids... again." Renton expression suddenly looked pensive, all this focus on Adroc tonight had made him wary of his own future as a father, he was barely more than a kid himself after all. "Hey Eureka... do you think I'd make... a good dad?"
Eureka was briefly startled at the question, but she quickly regained her composure. Grasping his hand with hers she replied. "I think you'll make a wonderful dad, a much better one than Adroc." Renton simply smiled in response.
So the two walked back hand in hand towards a new and better life.
Author's Note: And there we have it, I want to apologize for any flaws which exist, this was my first time writing a romance story and I have a feeling it may have showed, still you gotta start somewhere right? anyway I hope you found some enjoyment in spite of that and do feel free to review, any kind positive or negative would be greatly appreciated.