"Oh– Megan and I were just discussing some matter." Steve said, shifting his weight.
"…What kind of matter?" Tobias pressed.
"Just… How you and I can spend time together to rebuild that lost father-son bond–"
He sighed. "There's a reason why I don't know who you are," Tobias frowned.
"Well–" Steve stammered, and Megan got a little uneasy. "I did make a grave mistake that forced me to give you up…." He writhed his hands. "And since that altercation has passed by and has been gone for some time now, it would be nice to have you back in my life."
Tobias' eyes narrowed. Just that look… "You're lying," He growled.
Steve got a bit flustered. "Look– you wouldn't understand the real reason! You wouldn't know!"
Rio listened to the conversation and sighed, he knew they didn't want Tobias to know the truth, and they probably had a good reason. But this definitely wasn't going well.
Suddenly he felt a burning heat in his pocket. Pulling out Skye's amulet he saw that it was glowing, heading over to Skye he could immediately sense the auras going wild. Great… one wrong move in there… could set this off…. he thought as he felt the aura's mix and mingle, packed with unused & uncontrolled power. I should really suppress these.. but I can't just use my aura right now… It'll have to wait until later… he sighed, I just hope nothing goes wrong before then…
Megan motioned Tobias to come to her. She didn't want to do what she was about to, but she didn't like the way the conversation was going.
Tobias came to her, and she pressed two fingers into the back of his neck– the secret, unharming shut down sequence. He flinched before instantly "falling asleep" right in her arms.
"I knew you had to do that to him…." Steve said quietly. "This conversation was gonna get very dirty…" I had to lie. I just had to.
Megan went upstairs and put him in his bed for the night. It shouldn't hurt him… And like Dad had said… I had to do it to him or things would've gotten a bit nasty…
"You need to get better at lying to him" said Rio flatly, coming back into the kitchen, "I'm not sure what the kid is, and I don't care, what I do know is that your claim of parentage to him is going to mess him up cause he's been living with Megan for as long as he can remember. This kind of situation messes a kid up, a lot. I know this cause me and my brother went through the same thing at that age. Neither of us had met our mom, and the two of us had been raised by our brother, when she did turn up and try to stick herself in our lives as if nothing had happened…. that didn't work well…. not only did it not work, she also assumed things about us, things that were no longer true." he sighed, "I'm no parent, but you can't do that to a kid, and you can't lie to their face like that, especially not when you're a bad liar."
Steve let out a deep sigh. "I realize that… I always meant for Tobias to seek out lying… Maybe it's for my own good to let my own creation go. It was my fault I pushed him away…" He wiped a tear from his eye. "And maybe it'd be better for it to be that way… Yet… I guess it's different for someone who can no longer biologically have children…" Steve stood up. "I suppose I'll be on my way." And he left without another word.
Rio watched him go, That's even worse, he thought hurrying after him, and stopping out on the street. "You can't just leave!" said Rio hurrying up to the man, "Look, the only reason I'm telling you all this is so you don't make the mistakes my mom did! You've made yourself known in Tobias' life, and you can't just leave again," Rio sighed, "My mom disappeared a few years after she appeared, and there were a LOT of questions she never answered, questions that my brother and I needed answers to. And even if you can't give those answers to Tobias just yet, doesn't mean he won't need them eventually. And if you stick around, then he will always have the hope of finding those answers. Leaving now will cause issues, it'll rip him up asking why you left now, and why you left in the first place. He won't stop asking questions, and weather or not he finds answers is up to you.
But what I know from experience is this, If my mom had stuck around long enough I know we could've come to terms, answers or not. And I also know that her appearance changed our lives, and her disappearance left a lot of holes, ones that still cause problems for us today."
"….You're definitely right…" Steve stopped and wiped his face with a dry hand. "It's just… I don't know how to come back in after being totally absent from both Tobias and Megan for over ten years." He felt a rubberiness settle in his throat. "And…" He had a long thought about Tobias' secret. "I don't even know why I refuse to tell him… Maybe it was because he would set himself so far apart from other people… But enough of that."
"Tell him when you think he's ready" said Rio. "That's about all I can say."
"That's…. Good…. But I'm not sure if he'll ever be ready… Maybe once I'm gone and Megan's on her death bed he'll wonder why he's not getting any older-looking then…" His question might go unanswered. "Or maybe he's already figured it out on his own. Who knows… But I need to head home, unfortunately…" He scratched his hand awkwardly.
"Just make sure you come back…" said Rio firmly. "You need to own up to coming here, they both deserve it" said Rio turning to head back to the house.
…I really do… Steve turned back and headed home on foot. I just… I don't know… I'm the one who put myself in this hot seat… He let out a chilled breath. Maybe I'll pay a visit after work tomorrow and go on a run with the kid, if he has energy build-up, anyways. They don't keep kids up on their physical activity these days…
Megan was back in the kitchen when Rio came back in the house. Good…. He didn't leave… "Do you happen to know where Steve went?" She asked, a tad worried.
"He had to go home and mull things over" said Rio. " and no I did not chase him off." Rio reeled a but from the amount of aura in the room. "No offense but I'm kinda glad he's gone cause now I can deal with another minor problem…"
"Wait– another problem???" Megan was a bit concerned. "….What's that?" …Chase him off??? Why would he do that?…
(Rio said he didnt chase Steve off…)
"Skye's aura is going a bit crazy" said Rio careful summoning his blue aura, which lit up the silvery violet mist in the room which represented Skye's aura.
(I know– maybe I meant that rio would never do that. I just worded it weird for some reason)
Megan cocked her head, taking a gander at the mist floating in the room. "Is there… Some reason as to why it's like this besides that he's been restless for the past few days?"
"This is new" said Rio flatly "and it's because Skye hasnt slept for three days now…."
Megan sighed. "Well, at least he's sleeping now, right?" She pulled the stuff from.the oven and put it on the table. And just as she thought, Tobias came downstairs a short time after, rubbing his eyes.
"I see you just woke up from your nap…" She said half jokingly.
He sighed, but didn't say anything.
"Yes.." said Rio.. "but he did something that weakened his shields… and since he was already physically tired… now his aura wants to go crazy and he cant stop it."
(For a sec I thought he was talking about Steve for some reason and I was like “wot”)
I’m guessing there’s things that I don’t really need to know about…. Megan headed to the dinner table and sat down, with Tobias next to her. “I hope he feels better by the time he wakes up… whenever that will be.”
Tobias set his elbows on the table and rubbed at his face, but, again, kept his words to himself. Steve….. He thought for a moment. ….Where was he all this time?
Rio summoned his blue aura. Gathering the violet mist around Skye's amulet. "Right.. first we need to contain this before we really have issues" he began concentrating it around the amulet.
Megan nodded and began to eat, some fear enveloping her the longer Tobias stayed quiet. What on earth is he doing…? He doesn’t stay this quiet for this long…. “Tobias….” She rose her voice. “Please say something….”
He glanced at her. “I’m just tired. That’s all… I just want to go back to bed…..” He ate very slowly, something extremely rare to see him as.
Maybe I should put him to bed early tonight…
Rio finished with Skye's half dormant auras he only barely made it to one of the kitchen chairs as his knees buckled.
Tobias jumped.
"Are you alright?" Megan gasped. This whole aura thing is really taking its toll…. "I mean…. I hope this issue doesn't get worse from here on out."
(Oh well I thought he just crashed into a chair, lol)
Rio began to swear quite colorfully in his home language as his legs felt like they were on fire. "I'll be alright…" he said after a few minutes ignoring the pain "I just need to stay away from water for a bit.
It seemed quite redundant for someone who was born for the water, yet she didn't bother to question it. "Whatever it takes to keep you alive…" Megan said quietly under her breath.
Tobias finished his food a tad early and sat there, staring blankly into space. Where has he been all these years? He's…. He is – or was – my father for Pete's sake. I thought they were supposed to take care of their children.