Tulio and Miguel seeing the wanted posters for Eugene and making there way to find their son.


Tulio knew that being a parent wasn't going to be easy, and it certainly wasn't. It was embarrassing but he got more grey hairs from that boy then he ever did adventuring with Miguel, and that was saying a lot.

Just keeping him fed was hard enough, it was always a huge fear of both men; as they both knew what it was like to go hungry. In the past, the two had had to do very... unfortunate things to just get the bare essentials.

When Eugene joined them, things only got harder. Both men would secretly lie about already eating to each other and Eugene so that the others could eat without a guilty conscious. But it was worth it, the two tried to never let Eugene in on how bad some times had been but the kid was too smart for his own good, he could see how hard his adoptive parents worked to not only feed him but themselves.

But the earliest years were the hardest but when Eugene grew older, he started to help out in secret. Going out and pickpocketing and stealing food from the market and slowing putting it into the small storage the small family had. It took a few months for Tulio and Miguel to realise that Eugene had been helping and they weren't very happy, at first. Eugene presented that he proved how much help he could be to them, that they didn't have to struggle to makes ends meet with him around.

He was part of the family too, and he wanted to help. It would be hypocritical of Tulio and Miguel to stop him from stealing when they did so without much of a guilty conscience. So they let him help, Tulio taught him how to make loaded dice and gave him his own pair and sometimes when Miguel played his mandolin in the street, Eugene and Tulio would pickpocket the audience while they were distracted.

But then issues arose when The Wanted posters started popping up, of not just Tulio and Miguel but Eugene as well. Wanted posters were always a problem, when they started popping up it meant that they had to leave and soon but now their child was wanted. They wanted to see that it was enough and that Eugene had to stop helping them, but the boy adamantly refused.

The two men fear that their child was ever cut he would be put in jail or worse, hanged. A lot of places didn't take kindly to thieves, Tulio and Miguel knew this personally.

So they bit their tongues and let him help.


This cycle went on until Eugene was 21.

And he got caught for the first time.

He was going to be hanged.

But luckily Tulio and Miguel were able to bribe the prison guards into letting him go but it took everything they had. And I mean everything.

They have been saving up for a couple of years, hoping that one day they can afford a house and settle down, and now all of that was gone and now they were back to square one.

But they didn't care, as long as Eugene was safe, it didn't matter.

Eugene, however, did not have the same as sentiments.

He was furious with his parents that they had given up everything that they all worked so hard for just for him, he insists that he could have made it out by himself, that he didn't need to be saved.

They argued that there was no way he could have gotten out, it was a high standard city jail, he would have been dead by morning. And how did he let himself get caught, he should have never been there in the first place.

They should have never let him help.

Eventually, it led to a huge argument in the old abandoned house that they have been occupying.

Eventually, Eugene stormed out, and once again his parents had to go looking for him.

They never managed to find him that night but then they figure he was old enough and went home to wait for him.

Eventually, they fell asleep, and when they woke up, they found a note.

It was from Eugen,e telling them that he was sorry but he had found some new partners. He said that he wasn't coming back until he had enough money to sustain all of them and to buy them that house they always wanted, and again that he was sorry, that he should have never yelled at them, that he loved them and that he would hopefully see them again soon.

This, of course, sent the two men into a frenzied panic.

They packed up everything they could and asked anyone who was around if they had seen him recently.

Some locals directed them into a direction and they followed it.

Eventually, they would find a town. They would ask about their son and then would be pointed somewhere.

The cycle when on for about 4 years.

A long 4 years.

They were about to give up...

Until they found something.


Tulio POV

I sigh and slide off Altivo, who was resting near a lake we found. I give him a pat on his neck before stalking forward and sitting by the edge of the water, I lean over and look at my reflection.

By Gods, I am a mess.

Then again I've barely slept in 4 years, I'm constantly stressed, and my girl and I just had a huge fight... again.

Time has not been kind to me. My grey hair and baggy eyes can tell you that.

Not Miguel though, that man has aged like wine and I wish I knew his secret. But still, he has his fair share of grey hair and his skin is starting to wrinkle but still, he looks a hell of a lot better than me.

Always has, always will.

That fight I mentioned earlier? God, now I think about it it's so stupid, I don't even remember what we were fighting about.

That's all we seem to do anymore.

I sigh once again and put my head on my knees. I just can't make him happy anymore, we've both tried so hard to keep our spirits up but with every year that passes, we lose more and more hope.

It's been 4 years, how could we miss him so much in 4 years? Are we even going in the right direction? All we have our locals who tell us that they might have seen him go this way, have we been going in the wrong direction this whole time?

Those are the questions that keep me up at night. Keep us both up at night.

I hear movement beside me so I look up, it's Miguel. Probably here to apologize.

That's our cycle, we fight over something stupid, we don't talk for a few days, then one of us apologizes and we pretend nothing happened.

"Hey..." He sighs as he sits down next to me.

"Hey," I reply, what else is there to say?

"... Do you even remember what we were fighting about?" He asks, looks like he's forgotten to.

"No."

"Well, whatever it was, I'm sorry."

"I'm sorry too." To be honest, I probably started it, but I don't remember.

It went quiet after that. The only things that can be heard are the slight noises of the forest and the water.

There never used to be silence.

Not when Eugene was around.

Before I can even think I feel tears rushing down my cheeks, I've cried more times these four years than I ever have in my whole life. I guess losing a child would do that to you.

"Oh darling don't, don't cry please..." It sounded more like a plie than anything, he's probably going to start crying if I don't stop.

But I can't. I just can't.

"I miss him so much, Miguel..." I choke out through my teeth, it made my throat burn. "So so much... and its all my fault..." I say that because it's true, I said some things that I wasn't proud of that night, that night where we all fought.

My last words to him were 'Don't you dare walk out that door!'

He may be dead right now and those were my last words to him.

What kind of parent am I?

What kind of Dad am I?

"No no Tulio, it's not your fault... It's mine." Miguel choked out as he starts to lean on me.

"Huh?," Wait, that didn't make any sense, how would it be his fault? He was a better parent to Eugene than I ever could have been. "What are you talking about? You were the best parent any kid could have hoped for, you were so much better at it than me and you always will be..."

"No! It's my fault because you were right! We should have never let him help us! You were so hesitant about it but I was the one who insisted, I insisted that everything would be ok that if we taught him well enough he would be ok! But I was wrong, I was so wrong and now he's gone in I even don't know if I'll ever see him again!" Miguel ended up screaming to the world, before immediately bursting into tears.

...Wow

God, what had this kid done to us?

All I can do is lead over to give Miguel a well-deserved hug.

"Maybe... maybe it's time we give up..." Migue eventually whispered out after a few minutes of desperate crying and hugging.

"W-what, no, no you can't be serious?!" I sputter out.

"Tulio, it's been 4 years! We've looked all over the damn country three times already, we can't have missed him all that time, he must be..." Miguel trails off but I don't need him to tell me what does last few words were going to be.

"No, no he's not dead. He can't be dead, and if he is then we're going to the spirit world ourselves and dragging him home." I've never seen Miguel like this before, it's heartbreaking. I gently put my hands on his cheeks and force him to look at me. "Please, don't give up on Miguel... I've already lost Eugene, don't make me lose you too..."

We stare at each other for a few seconds, before we simultaneously start crying again and all we can do is hold onto one another.

In my head I'm praying, something I never do, I'm praying to whoever will hear it.

'Please, please to anyone out there, literally anyone. Please... Just give us a sign, at least a sign that he's still alive. That's all I'm asking, just to know that he's alive and ok would mean everything. Please, just let me see our baby...'

Then I feel a sharp pain in the back of my head, I flinch in pain and quickly turn to see what had hit me. I turn to see Altivo standing right above us. I growl slightly as I rubbed the back of my head, what the heck is the horse what now?

"You better not be hungry, we just fed you," I said in a frustrated tone with slanted eyes.

Altivo rolls his eyes before trotting up to a tree, which seemed to have some kind of paper on it. As we stand up he, indicate his head towards the tree, as if asking us to come closer and look at it.

But as if he can do that, he's just a dumb horse.

Miguel and I walk over to the tree and as we get closer the paper becomes more clear, it's a wanted poster.

Well, 3 wanted posters.

Two for what seemed like twins who were big, buff and burly male's, one with an eyepatch.

And the third one was for...

A young man with an extremely weird nose.

I and Miguel both share a glance before looking back and Altivo.

The horse makes a sigh like noise, before lifting a Hoover and directing it to the bottom of the third poster.

It's a name.

Flynn Rider.

No...

It- It can't possibly be.

"Tulio... It's, it..."

"Eugene..." I whisper out.

"...They didn't quite get his nose right, did they?" Miguel laughed, as more tears started running down his face.

"Nope, not at all." I to start doing the same.

Our boy is alive, our baby boy is alive!

Quick as a flash, I grab Altivo's reins and directed him back onto the path. "Come on, if his posters here he can't be too far!"

"If we hurry we should be in the next town in a few hours."

Miguel thunders as he jumped on Altivio's back, picking me up in the process.

"Miguel... Do you really think we'll find him?"

"We have to darling, and if we don't, as you said will bring him back from the spirit world kicking and screaming if we have to."

Yeah, yes we will.

Because we'll never give up on Eugene.

Not now, not ever.