It was amazing, Renton thought to himself. The old storeroom he was in didn't look anything like it had been a week ago. Before it had been cleaned up, this was the room where Axel had been keeping all sorts of parts that he needed for his work.
But over the first few days since they had come back Renton and Axel, with some occasional help from Maurice, had built a large shed where Renton's old room had used to have been. After the shed was completed the whole family moved all the old boxes and dusty parts from the storeroom to the new shed.
Eureka even took the time to clean all the parts herself and made them shine like new, much to Axels' praise.
After that they put in a large green rug that covered the whole floor of the room and painted the walls a light blue.
"Now we can put in the furniture." thought Renton to himself, looking into what was to become his and Eureka's room. 'His and Eureka's room…' it sounded strange to him, even in his mind.
Over the last week Eureka had been sleeping in Maurice's bed while Maurice used Maeter's and the two younger children slept together in Linke's. He meanwhile had to camp in the garage under his old tent, not that he minded, he was used to it.
"Anyway", he thought as he finished with the last coat of paint for the wall, "I think I can hear Eureka calling lunch so I guess I timed finishing this pretty well." He then went out of the room into the garage where Axel was working on someone's car.
The children came from outside the garage one after the other and dashed into the kitchen laughing. Before he could follow the children Axel spoke up, "Hey Renton, come here for a second."
Confused, Renton walked over to his grandfather through the mess of tools on the floor, "Yea gramps what's up? Need some help?"
"No, I'm fine. Just finished up here." he said as he stood up and closed the hood of the truck shut. "No, you see I've been meaning to ask you something since you had gotten here." he continued while starting to wipe his grim covered hands on a cloth, but not looking at Renton directly.
"What is it gramps?" Renton said impatiently, he could smell Eureka's cooking from all the way over here and he really wanted some.
Axel turned and looked at Renton while put a hand down on his shoulder, "So… how far… have you gotten with Eureka?" Axel asked while looking directly into Renton's eyes.
But before Axel could tighten his grip to keep the young man from moving Renton had jumped back about six feet and had tripped over some tools leaving him on his back in the middle of the floor. With his face heating up Renton asked, "What's with this all of sudden?!"
"…O I see…" Axel said grinning at his grandson and still wiping his hands.
"What are you talking about you crazy old man?!" Renton shot back, not wanting to be laughed at.
"O I was just making sure I had ordered enough beds for your room." replied Axel still grinning and starting to walk away to the kitchen. "Don't worry; two beds should be delivered here sometime in the afternoon." And he was gone.
Renton just sat there on the floor, embarrassed in multiple ways he didn't even know how to describe. After a couple of minutes his hunger woke him from his slump and he finally got up and slowly made his way to the kitchen.
Ruri was feeling a lot better now. She had been sitting next to Sumner who was still lying asleep in a hospital bed.
Of what had happened after the battle she remembered very little, save for a moment where she thought she could remember Sumner standing over her saying something softly to her.
She shook her head, "Best to not worry about it too much." she said to herself. But then she looked back down at Sumner's bandaged head, "But it was my fault… being so selfish." she thought to herself.
Sumner woke up in the hospital bed an hour or so later and looked around but couldn't see anyone in the empty hospital room. He decided, after redressing, to get up and walked to the front desk of the hospital down at the end of the hallway.
As he walked he faintly remembered that when he had gotten to the hospital his head had been so muddled that once he had told the doctors what had happened and saw them take Ruri away he had passed out.
The nurse that was behind the desk looked up at him and exclaimed, "What are you doing up!? You had a concussion! You should be laying down." she said standing up and reaching for him over the counter.
"I'm fine now Miss. Really I am. But could you please tell me what has happened to Ruri, the girl I brought in?" Sumner said back, raising his arms to keep himself from being dragged back to his bed by the nurse.
"Her? O she's fine. She was just having a little…" the nurse started to reply.
But she was interrupted when Ruri yelled from across the hospital lobby, "Hey Sumner you're finally up!" She ran over to Sumner and gave him a big hug that nearly collapsed his lungs.
When he was able to get enough breath Sumner asked, "Ruri you're all right! What's going on? I thought you were in real trouble."
She let go. "I was just having a little cold is all. Should have let you take care of those guys, huh?" she kissed him on the cheek and started for the door. When she got to the automated doors she turned around and called to him as they opened, "Well come on! I paid them already so let's go!" She turned again and went outside.
Sumner waved a 'thank you' to the nurse and followed Ruri. As he went outside he suddenly recognized the familiar sights and sounds of the city of Bester. They were coupled together with many memories, some good, some bad, and some sad.
Ruri ran up to him as he was looking around and tugged on his sleeve, "Hey, Sumner their trying to tow the truck!"
He jumped as he looked down the street to see the truck start to roll away. They started running down the road with all their might as their mobile home slowly sped up and got away.
With all the work done in the room for time being, Renton soon realized why he had hated living here; there was nothing fun to do in this town. He had tried reading one of the books on mechanics his grandfather had given to him, but that hadn't kept him occupied for long.
So he was just napping on a couch upside down in the garage with nothing to do. He couldn't even spend time with Eureka because of what his grandfather had asked him earlier, he was too embarrassed.
But unknown to him three people had walked into the shop and were now standing behind the couch. "Hey Axel, it isn't good for an old man to be sitting like that." a young voice said.
Renton thought he recognized that voice, a voice he thought he had forgotten about.
"Hey Axel are you alive?" said another voice.
Renton turned himself around and sat up looking over the back of the couch. Before him were three of his old female classmates. "Hey aren't ya'll…?" Renton started, but a shriek from the three girls muffled the rest of his words.
"O My Gosh! Its Renton!" they all yelled and ran up to grab him.
Still half asleep, Renton couldn't react in time to keep himself from being swarmed by the girls, and soon he was fighting to keep them from pulling him apart.
They started all asking various questions at him. "What was the Gekko like?" "Where have you been?" "What's your relationship with Talhoe?"
He broke free, but then fell backwards off the couch. Before he could get up and get some space the girls had gone around the couch and were standing over him.
Hearing all the noise, Eureka came out from the children's bedroom. "What is making so much noise?" she thought to herself. She looked around and stopped halfway through door when she saw the three girls pick up Renton from the floor and start to huddle around him.
She suddenly felt uncomfortable, like the girls and Renton shouldn't be standing to close together and she didn't know why she felt that way. She had never felt like this before.
She moved quickly over to the group, "Hey, what's going on here!?" she said as she broke into the group.
The girls jumped back quickly and stared at her, while Renton fell back onto the couch.
Renton sat up and finally got his bearings. He looked up to see Eureka, red in the face with her wings spread wide out, looking at him with what looked like anger. "Eureka? Are you OK?" Renton asked standing up.
"Renton who are these girls?" she asked him looking at each of them.
"O these are, well they used to be…" he started to explain but then he realized the girls were still staring at Eureka and now pointing to her back. He then realized they couldn't have known about Eureka's wings.
They were sitting in the backroom of Emil and Karen's refboard shop. It was sort of like a living room and an office rolled into one, with a fan running lazily above them.
After they had gotten their truck back from the DMV they had realized that they were now completely out of money. "So now what are we going to do about money?" Sumner asked Ruri as he came back from the bathroom.
"Sumner can you stop worrying?!" shot Ruri back as she looked up from a refboard magazine she was reading.
"But we were attacked by the military! We need to get out of town ASAP or we could be in real trouble!" Sumner replied back.
Ruri ignored him, returning to her book, "If we leave out into the wastes we'd be a lot worse off if we got caught, especially with my Flestnia gone."
Sumner remembered that the Flestnia had been destroyed in the last battle, and understood that they were less likely to be found in the middle of a big city rather than the empty plains that separated the towers. "Well then we should just lay low for awhile and not go outside till we can figure out what they would want to go after us for." Sumner decided out loud.
"Did you forget the reason why we've been driving all the way here for the last month?!" Ruri said slamming down the magazine on the coffee table in front of her. She then pulled a folded paper from under her shirt and placed it down on the table.
It was a flyer, showing people lifting together high in the sky with the words, 'BESTER LIFTING TOURNAMATE' flowing boldly above them.
Sumner knew the reopening of the lifting tournament was the reason why they had come here, but he also knew that in such an event they could be easily spotted. He was about to explain this to Ruri, but before he could he saw that she was now pointing down at the bottom of the page, expecting his response.
He looked and saw why they had to compete now. On the bottom of the page in bold letters read 'FIRST PRISE: 4,000,000 YEN' and he knew he had no choice in the matter anymore.
"Wow, that's so cool!" the three girls all exclaimed.
Renton had moved the girls into the kitchen and had explained to Eureka how he knew the girls. At first she had been tense with a grumpy, but to him cute, look. But as she started to understand that they were old friends she slowly relaxed.
After that he explained to the girls the highlights of his Gekkostate adventures and Eureka. They knew from Ray-Out that she was a coralian, but they had no clue about her ability to grow wings.
He had just finished explaining to them about how Eureka was able to fly with them as well, "Course she hasn't had a chance to fly in awhile, cuz we've been so busy building a room for us to sleep in." he laughed a little before putting his arm around Eureka as she leaned on him a little.
The girls looked at each other and then at the couple, causing Renton to start to feel a little awkward. Heather, the tallest girl, with the glasses and dark hair, started to ask shyly, "Does… does that mean…"
But Dawn, the short girl with the curly hair, finished excitedly, "Are you two, doing it?" Renton practically turned to stone right there.
"Doing what?" Eureka asked cocking her head to the side confused.
The girls looked at her like she was crazy. "You mean you've been together this long and you're going to be sleeping in the same room and you don't know about…" said Laura, the last girl.
But Renton broke her off. "Hey do you guys want some soup? Eureka makes the best soup in the world!" he said quickly walking over to the refrigerator and looking inside for some leftover lunch.
But as he opened the refrigerator a large banging sound came from the front of the garage, and Axel could also be heard yelling, "Watch where you park that buddy! I got a lot of equipment set up in there!"
They all looked out the window to see Axel trying to signal a truck as it backed up into the shop. "I should go help him quick." Renton said closing the refrigerator and heading to the door.
But as he opened the door Eureka had put her hand on his shoulder. She had noticed that he was acting funny and even though she didn't understand why he was so uncomfortable she tried to comfort him with a quick kiss on the cheek. But afterward Renton seemed to be even more troubled, and the girls behind them started to giggle. "What is going on?" she thought to herself.
"Thanks Eureka…" Renton said weakly before leaving out the door.
Renton helped Axel get the truck into the garage and then they opened it up and started to move the furniture. Sure enough, there were two beds that Axel had ordered along with two dressers and a lamp.
As they hauled the beds over to the room Renton could see that the girls were still in the kitchen with Eureka. They pointed at the two beds and seemed to be telling Eureka something.
"O I hope they aren't corrupting Eureka's mind." Renton thought to himself.
But Axel on the other side of the bed yelled at him "Hey stop daydreaming and move! I can't hold this thing up on my own!" And so they continued to work till all the furniture had been placed in the room.
The dressers were placed on opposite sides of the room with the beds separately placed near the middle of the room against the back wall.
Axel said he was going to go get the children and left soon after they were done.
Renton walked back to the kitchen to see what the girls had done with Eureka. But when he went into the kitchen he saw that Eureka was alone and was just starting on dinner.
"O Renton is it done? Is our room finished?" Eureka asked, looking halfway from the stove.
He looked around to be sure the girls were gone and then answered, "Well we could touch it up a bit, but yea we can use it starting tonight."
"Well it at least sounds like they didn't tell her anything bad while I was gone." He thought
"That's great!" Eureka said and turned back to her work. to himself.
"Here let me help you." said Renton walking next to her and putting an apron on.
They worked together till Axel and the children came up in the car and entered the kitchen. As they sat down and started eating their meal Eureka spoke up, "I want to go into town tomorrow Renton."
"Why's that Eureka?" Renton asked back after he got the bread he was eating down his throat.
"Well at first I didn't know if I liked those girls, but when we started to talk I really started to enjoy their company. I want to go into town and meet new people Renton. I want to experience more of the human world and make more interesting friends." she said to him.
He thought about how hard it would be to keep her secret safe in town. They didn't want people finding out about them and coming to harass them at their own home. Her skin hadn't turned green again since they had lived at Lotte's so they would only have to worry about her wings.
But he realized it wasn't like they could keep her from trying to live a normal life. No, he thought to himself, he could never do that to her. "That's a great idea! I can show you the places I used to go back before we met." he responded.
Eureka smiled, "Thank you Renton!"
Sumner was sitting on the armchair with his head back, trying to figure out a way they could earn money without endangering themselves to military detection.
"Never thought I would have to worry about the military again seeing how I'm technically KIA." he thought to himself with a little chuckle.
Ruri looked up from her magazine, shrugged and went back to her reading.
"Guess we'll just have to wait till next week and win that prize." he said out loud, despite Ruri already knowing that. In fact she didn't even bother replying or acknowledging his statement.
The room was silent and still, but not tense, just empty. But the silence was broken when I familiar voice rang out through the back door, "Well Sumner, never thought you would be in it for the money!"
"Wes! Hey man what's going on?" Sumner said recognizing his friend. Wes was the same height as Sumner, but with short blond hair and a big blue 'Ice Lips' jacket.
"I heard you were in town! I wanted to see what you were up to." Wes replied, while swinging himself around to sit on a stool next to the door and waving at Ruri. She waved back but didn't look up from her book.
"Well we were here for the reopening of the lift tournament. But because of some recent events we kind of need money fast." Sumner replied.
"Well, I was afraid of that. I was hoping I wouldn't have to go against a former Bester Cup Champion." Wes replied back. "Plus, people from all over are coming to this tournament. So the rosters are going to be bigger than any previous tournament."
Ruri's expression suddenly turned bright, and she put down her book, "Well now this is what I came here for!" she said, with what sounded like glee.
The two guys looked at her, confused by her sudden enthusiasm, as she walked to the front of the store. They then looked at each other and shrugged as the door to the front of the store closed behind Ruri.
Renton was just finishing dressing for bed in his new room. "Well at least no more sleeping in a tent or a closet for me anymore." he thought to himself.
As he closed the dresser he heard a noise from the kid's room next door; Eureka was probably tucking them in. He decided to go and help her out. He left the room to the garage and went over to the door for the children's room.
But as he tried to open it Eureka opened it from the other side. "O Renton why are you here?" Eureka asked.
"I wanted to help you put the kids to bed, but it looks like I'm too late." Renton replied.
The children heard him and Maeter sat up in her bed, "It's OK Pukey, you can still tell us good night with Mama."
Eureka let Renton through the door, they put an arm around each other and together said, "Good night, Linke, Maeter, Maurice."
The children replied the same to their parents and then curled into their beds.
And after one more look at their children Eureka and Renton left the room together. As they went back to their room they leaned their heads together as they walked.
When they entered their room Eureka spoke up. "Renton, the girls asked me something earlier. But I didn't know how to answer."
Renton wondered what she was talking about. He looked at her as they stood closely together in front of the door.
"They asked me why we were going to be sleeping apart from one another despite us being in the same room. I thought it was normal for people to share a bed if they were in the same room so I didn't know what to say."
Renton got a little hot under his collar, he knew he didn't have the nerve to explain something like this to her, but the day had tired him and he couldn't keep running away. "Well you see to some people sharing a bed means different things. Mostly I think they were asking how close we are as a couple."
Eureka thought for a moment before she asked, "So you don't want to be close to me Renton?" Eureka asked, visibly hurt.
"O no it's not that. It's just… well there's a different level of being close that I don't think we're ready for yet." He replied trying to comfort her.
She still looked hurt, "What do you mean Renton? I don't understand." Eureka replied looking away from him.
"Damn it! Didn't Talhoe or Hilda explain this to her? Or Gidget?" he thought to himself.
"Look Eureka, it's because I'm so close to you that's it's hard to explain this. But I promise I will as soon as I can bring up the courage." He said to her while holding up her chin so he could look into her eyes.
"Thank you. But Renton you are courageous." she said back. She then gave him a light kiss to comfort them both.
Renton let her go and walked over to his bed and started to push. "Renton what are you doing?" Eureka asked.
"I need to at least try and be as courageous as you think I am." He said as he got his bed about half way the other.
Eureka walked over to her bed and Renton joined her. "I love you." Eureka said, and together they pushed the other bed together with its counterpart.
Renton noticed a clicking sound. "These beds were meant to be put together? Grandpa must have anticipated this. Crazy old man was just messing with me." he thought to himself.
Renton turned off the lights and then he laid down together with Eureka, on their separate sides. They looked into each other's eyes as the glow from Eureka's wings filled the room with a dim green light.
They wiggled closer to each other and put their arms around each other. They slowly fell asleep, their shared body heat making their heads feel foggy and their stomachs feel as if they were full of fluttering butterflies.