Closed Looking For Infinity

[Archie Renner]

Archie's search for his biological father had been on the back burner for, well, almost a decade. Subsequently, metaphorically and also literally locked tightly in a box behind his feelings and eagerness to resume his regular life after the heartbreak of meeting his biological mother, and needing to feel like himself again lest he would rot in a state of sadness forever. He had been so scared to open that box again, and it had spent so long quite literally collecting dust and cobwebs in the back of his closet however Archie knew the idea of picking it back up was one he needed to address sooner or later. It was just an idea hadn't been ready to until recently, one that he had been going back and forth on to himself for almost as long as it had been locked away thus he hadn't dared to talk about it, hadn't wanted to make the possibility of picking up the search again a reality. It played all too much of a risk in reliving the feeling of heartbreak after meeting his biological mother, and Archie hadn't known whether he was strong enough to handle it all over again. The ensuing insecurity, fear, and uncertainty of his own worth when his birth mother rejected him had nearly broken him entirely, and it had been months before he had been able to pick up the pieces again. The last thing Archie had wanted to do was put himself through such overwhelming sadness again when he had a daughter to raise, a family to take care of. He felt he needed to be strong for them and not the broken mess he had been all those years ago.

Archie hadn't noticed at first, but after so many years of working on himself and building himself the life he had always dreamed, it started to become obvious to him that things had changed in himself and his heart over the last few months, and he felt different. It had happened almost too gradually for him to notice as well, feeling his heart begin to mend itself from his heartbreak as he opened himself up to new relationships, as he grew up and grew to be stronger than he had never been before and even later welcoming a child into his life. But it had been a clear change in his soul, that he was finally ready to search for his father again, after putting the search off for so long, after closing the pieces of the search away. In the present Archie had a partner, a brother, a child, and of course Orwell to support him and was as a result more sure of himself than he had ever been, and in much the same way there had been no better time to adopt Dash into his life, there wouldn't be a better time than to try and find his father again. His fear of heartbreak and sadness over his circumstances had blossomed into confidence and reassurance, and if heartbreak was his destiny and the result of searching for his biological father after all, Archie knew now he was more equipped than ever to handle it, realised he was more worthy of knowing and worthy of the people around him that he loved even if his father might be too caught up in himself to see it.

Archie's newfound confidence in himself and ensuing energy added to his already excessive amount of said confidence as he searched in the back of his closet for the box he had hidden away. He spent the following hours sitting on the floor of his bedroom, with the contents of the box scattered around him as he sifted through the unorganized pieces of parchment in in an attempt to categorize the search for his father into piles. He had asked Orwell to help him in his search that day, both for emotional support and for organizing the piles themselves as he had never been particularly good at sorting things logically at the best of times, let alone when the task of it was so emotionally draining for him. It didn't help that he had thrown all the pieces together in such an emotional state all those years ago as well, a result of Archie thinking of first the moment and never the future ordeal of handling the mess he had created. In a state of brain overload Archie rubbed one of his eyes with his hand, finding the longer he spent going through the various pieces of parchment and papers the more his mind was having trouble focusing. He hoped Orwell would arrive soon to help relieve him of the task of reading everything and trying to piece both his thoughts in his mind together and the papers in front of him, as he had begun to feel stir crazy and frustrated with himself.​

 

[Orwell Brocken]

Orwell was enjoying adulthood, though he had always known that he would. There was just something to being able to spend time with Pia, do his work and begin to build a family of his own. The family had grown anyway since Archie and Asher had gotten together. He liked him a lot, and thought it was good for Archie. Little Dash too. He was very pleased that they were both growing up and moving forward. Orwell was a little sceptical about why Archie wanted to find his biological father, since the last foray into it hadn't exactly gone well. Orwell didn't understand the desire for it, but no matter what he did and didn't understand, if it was what Archie wanted, then he wasn't going to say no, or be against it.

Orwell arrived at Archie's place a little tired from the day, but had said he would be there. He would help it. He had brought a coffee for himself and a favourite drink of Archie too and walked through his home to the bedroom where he found Archie with all the notes and papers around him. Orwell moved to archie's side and began glancing at the different stuff. "I brought refreshments," he said, "Find anything yet?" he asked.

 

[Archie Renner]

The words on parchment and images he only partially recognized had begun to blur together in Archie's state of emotional disarray, his previous confidence in continuing his search well and truly dissolved into nothing as he found himself too overwhelmed with his attempt at organization and going through the copious amounts of information he and Orwell had gathered. He couldn't focus enough to continue for more than a few minutes without Orwell by his side to help him and sighed, feeling his heart sink in his chest. Thankfully, it wasn't much longer before Orwell did walk through his bedroom door with his usual air of comfort and familiarity and Archie felt his lips turn into a slight smile, only for a moment before he noticed tears had begin to run down his face at how relieved he was to see his best friend, his kindred spirit. Archie couldn't imagine going through the documents in front of him with anyone else that the person that knew him best, and of course Orwell had been such a big part of their original search in the first place. There was no better person who could nor would understand how difficult both emotionally and mentally it was for Archie to open both the box in the closet again, and the box in his heart to resume what had been such a difficult search so many years ago.

He quickly wiped his tears away, accepting the lemonade Orwell had brought him with his free hand and sniffling before he answered Orwell's question. "No, I'm just trying to sort everything into piles." He began. "When I put it away I just kind of shoved it all into a box, you know? So I don't know what paper is where and I need to go through it and stuff." Archie explained, sipping from the lemonade before throwing the parchment in his other hand back into the barely organized pile of mess in front of them. "Can you go through it instead? It's too much for me." He tried to explain, knowing Orwell was infinitely better at putting information together logically in a way Archie never could, and thinking that Orwell could piece his mind together enough in that moment to cast a spell to categorize the parchment for them as Archie was too emotional to focus on any charm to do so himself.​

 

[Orwell Brocken]

Orwell noticed when Archie looked at him, that his friend had been crying perhaps a little. He gave him the lemonade, and then nodded. He looked at the mishmash pile in front of them, and just nodded. It wouldn't bit that hard to fix. "You doing okay?" he asked, probing gently, as he looked at the pile and with a little wave of his hand, charmed the mess to get into neatly organised piles. He knew this would make it easier to find the information that they had, and what they needed to find to find Archie's father. "This page here, seems to talk about occupation, there's no name, but there is a year of employment, we could get a list of possible employees from that time, and then cross reference those with people it could be," He suggested, looking at a different sheet to see if there were any other clues that would help them find him.

 

[Archie Renner]

Archie moved to rest his head on Orwell's shoulder and sniffled, moving his free hand to wipe another tear that had fallen down his face as he watched Orwell manage to organize everything with a wave of his hand. As clueless as Archie was about most things and especially the details of the search in front of him, he had always known the comfort of the way Orwell could make everything seem so easy and simple, how his best friend could make things so easy for Archie that in every other way would be difficult or impossible for him if he was alone. It was one of the few things amongst the midst of the ups and downs of Archie's life that he had always been certain of. That day was another example of why Orwell was in every way his best friend and closest companion, and Archie felt some of the overwhelming heaviness and fear in his heart melt away knowing Orwell was there for him, in that moment of course but also in every other way if Archie ever needed it. "Yeah, and no." Archie answered Orwell's question honestly, as while he had felt a weight begin to lift off of his shoulders with Orwell's presence he was still entirely overwhelmed with the task at hand. He sighed softly and closed his eyes for a moment, idly listening and sipping from his lemonade as Orwell picked up a piece of paper and began explaining they had a possible occupation, although not a name to go along with it.

Archie opened his eyes, looking to the paper Orwell had picked up and attempting to read the messy handwriting. What they had was a small facet of information that could help in their search, however one that may not help at all if they didn't have other information to go by. Archie almost wished for a moment they had managed to get more information from Knox's mother, even if she had ultimately refused it as it would help them narrow things down, understand the context and time and place of his biological father's life when he had been born to see if they could find him. He considered asking Knox later if he could try and contact his mum on Archie's behalf and get more information than they had previously been given, but no sooner dismissed the thought as he didn't want to tread in already choppy waters, nor did he want to cause more strain on Knox's relationship with his family. "Is there anything else?" Archie asked softly, trusting Orwell's judgement in looking through the documents he had more than his own.​