Author's Note: A small contribution to the amazing Meet the Robinsons archive. Let's not be too sad that Meet the Robinsons is one of the most underrated movies ever, because sometimes one doesn't need to be popular to be the greatest. Keep Moving Forward guys! ;)

Disclaimer: I don't own Meet the Robinsons, nor its characters. I only own the name mentioned below, but even then I'm not the one who created the name itself, so basically I only own the story idea. :P

Cornelius was happily enjoying a short moment of relaxation with a cup of soothing jasmine tea in the wee hours of the morning.

He figured it would be a while before his brain racked up another random idea for an invention, which would lead to long nights dedicated to that said invention. Nevertheless, he looked forward to it; revolutionizing the world yet again with another one of his brilliant inventions. He smiled to himself as he thought back to when he was a child, desperately longing for a place in this world. He thanked God that that stage of his life was over.

"Dad!" An urgent call from his son snapped him out of his musings. Cornelius stood up and turned to see a frantic and troubled expression on Wilbur's face.

"What's wrong—"

"I need to use the time machine." Wilbur demanded, cutting off his father's sentence. Cornelius raised an eyebrow.

"I thought I told you that you were only supposed to use the time machine for the most dire, world-ending situations? Do you want a repeat of the incident again?" He asked. Wilbur shuddered.

Even though his leaving the garage door open gave him a new kinder (and frankly, more handsome) uncle Goob, that was definitely too close to his being non-existent. It was a wonder actually, why only he and Cornelius had remembered the whole time travel incident—although, Cornelius remembered it because that was, in a way, his new sort of past—but Wilbur figured it would be better that way. The less his family knew about it, the less punishment he got.

"No, not ever." Wilbur answered after a long moment of silence. He bit his lip nervously as he thought of the right words to say to convince his father to let him use the time machine. "It's just that...I had a little accident with...Kiara, and..." Wilbur trailed off, tapping his foot nervously.

Cornelius took note that Wilbur flinched when he mentioned the name, 'Kiara', who was his best friend since the first grade. He honestly appreciated Kiara very much. She was usually the one who got Wilbur out of messy situations he couldn't clean up, and just over-all preventing Wilbur from doing anything stupid—it was merely an incredibly horrible coincidence that she had been out of the country when the whole time traveling accident occurred.

If he remembered correctly, Kiara had just come back to America early this morning, so Cornelius had to think a long while as to what Wilbur had done that was so horrible that he needed the time machine to fix it.

The said fourteen year old stared at the floor, knowing that his father's mind was buzzing with possible explanations to Wilbur's sudden demand.

After a while, Cornelius gave up on thinking of possibilities.

"What exactly did you do this time?" Cornelius asked. Wilbur avoided his gaze.

"Wilbur Framagucci Robinson, answer me right now." He said, tone strict. Wilbur sighed.

"I...I-I, um..." Wilbur looked up at his father, who was still waiting for his answer. Finally, he broke under his father's angry stare.

"I kinda...kissed her."

Cornelius's face fell in shock as he noticed a red blush creeping up to his son's face. Apparently, his talkative son didn't stop there.

"I-I swear it was an accident! I-I didn't...I mean I was caught up in the moment and...I-I never remembered her being that pretty, and—Wait, why did I just say that? What is wrong with me?" He groaned and took a seat in the dining table, placing his head in his hands.

All the while, Cornelius had watched his son's breakdown in confusion. He never imagined he'd see Wilbur, his best friend and son, drama simply because of a girl. He knew it would happen some time—after all, nobody, not even Cornelius himself, can escape the clutches of teenage hormones—but he didn't expect it to be this soon, and at that age. What words of comfort can he possibly say to his son at this dilemma? Cornelius seriously wished he had done this to Franny, since she was better at words than him.

After a moment's hesitation, he sat down on the chair beside Wilbur and placed a comforting hand on Wilbur's shoulder. Wilbur looked up at his father, a wide mixture of emotions shown in his face, but there was one that was clearly shown: confusion. Cornelius let in a big breath before proceeding to speak.

"These things happen in life, Wilbur."

"Not to your best friend though." Wilbur said, placing his head in his hands again. Cornelius forced a reassuring smile.

"Hey, it's not that bad—"

"She ran away from me." Wilbur said plainly, further shocking Cornelius. He never expected that kind of reaction from Kiara. Wilbur stared at his father and sighed.

"I know, right?" He said. He supposedly wanted it to sound like a joke, but failed miserably. Cornelius clucked his tongue, obviously having a hard time in comforting his son. Wilbur would have felt sorry for him if he weren't too caught up in his current problem.

"You know, I had a similar dilemma back then with your mother." Cornelius said suddenly. Wilbur raised his eyebrows, surprised.

"Really?"

"Well, in a way, yeah." Cornelius said, glad that he was finally going somewhere with Wilbur. "I believe I was about the same age as you back then—when your mother and I were the best of friends." He narrated.

"I was...surprised, to say the least—to have developed uncertain feelings for her, and one day I suddenly found myself planting a kiss on her cheek. She was surprised at first, yeah, but eventually she returned the kiss, and things kept moving forward since."

Wilbur slumped a bit at his father's story. His experience was definitely worse than that of his father's.

"But mom reacted differently!" Wilbur argued. "Kiara's never gonna talk to me again." Cornelius frowned.

"Now, you don't know that."

"She ran away from me, dad." Wilbur said. "I obviously freaked her out."

"Maybe she was just overwhelmed. After all, she just came back from Australia, she couldn't have expected anything like that to happen."

"Not helping, dad."

"Anyway," Cornelius said through gritted teeth, obviously annoyed at his son's disability to shut his mouth. "If Kiara shares the same feelings for you, she's bound to come back to you someday."

"What if she doesn't?" Wilbur asked miserably. Cornelius smiled.

"Then you'll just have to settle with being friends with her. After all, if she really is a true friend—and I'm pretty sure she is—than she'll just forget about this whole incident and move on with your friendship." Cornelius said, and for the first time since he saw him again, Wilbur put on a tentative, but clearly visible smile.

"Alright, thanks—" Wilbur's sentence was cut short when an abrupt ring resonated through the air. He gulped the saliva forming in his mouth as he slowly pulled his phone out. Unsurprisingly, it was Kiara calling. He took a tentative look at his father, who was smiling reassuringly at him.

"Uh, I gotta take this." Wilbur said, before scuffling out of the room. Cornelius quickly got out of his chair to eavesdrop on their conversation.

"—feel the same?" He heard his son say. He had a huge grin on his face. Cornelius fought the urge to congratulate his son, and bit his lip. "So, it's official then? Yes! I mean, I'll see you later.—Okay?—Bye!"

Cornelius widened his eyes as he saw his son turn around. He ducked behind the wall, and frantically went to sit back on his chair.

"Hey dad," Wilbur called, looking to see his father smiling up at him, casually drinking his cup of tea. "I'm going out...uh," His eyes wandered to the small teacup on his father's hands. "...to buy more jasmine tea. I think I'll be gone a while." Cornelius's smile widened.

"Alright...t-take us much time as you want." He said, shakily, trying hard not to laugh at how ridiculous he was acting. Wilbur smiled.

"Great," He said, walking away. Cornelius started to sigh in relief, but it was short-lived, for Wilbur's head poked out from the door.

"Uh, dad?"

"Yeah, Wilbur?"

"Thanks...for everything." Wilbur said, smiling. Cornelius returned the smile.

"You're welcome."

"...And I borrowed fifty dollars from your wallet." Wilbur added, before disappearing into who-knows-where. Cornelius took a moment to process what his son said, before narrowing his eyes and getting out of his chair.

"Wilbur! Young man, come back here this second!"

A. N.: Review please! ^-^