5. Guilty pleasures

Renato is a hopeless romantic. He adores romance novels, romcoms, dating sims, the works. He’ll never admit this though. He thinks liking the romance genre makes him too ‘soft’ so he keeps this passion a complete secret from all but his closest friends and family. Even then, they usually find out by accident and Renato makes them swear to keep the secret. He has many Harlequin novels downloaded on his PokéGear that he reads during idle time as well as a number of mobile dating sims to occupy his time. He’s even spent money on those apps to get the events faster. He hates when he’s travelling and can’t keep up with his shows. He also hates spoilers and will get really angry at people who talk about his favorite romance tv shows in his hearing, which usually confuses them considering Renato keeps his like for those things on the down low. 

Renato also loves bikes. Now, usually this wouldn’t fall under the guilty pleasure category for him, but he considers his level of love for motorcycles to be a bit ‘childish’. He wants to look cool by showing of his own bike and riding it around, but he wouldn’t be caught dead admiring bikes in a store or a magazine or making sound effects while fantasizing about being out on the road. While it’s to a lesser degree, Renato also likes all kinds of transportation – fancy cars, trains, etc. He considers this hobby to be even more childish than liking just motorcycles, so he refuses to tell anyone about it. He isn’t quite as passionate about cars and the like as he is about romances though, so it’s a bit easier for him to keep secret.

One of the only people Renato feels completely at ease around regarding his guilty pleasures is his boyfriend, Euphie. In fact, Renato and Euphie often watch romantic movies together and make a date of it. He knows Euphie won’t judge him for his passions and so feels totally at ease letting loose. Euphie is fine with Renato’s love of romance and finds it quite cute. He’s less enthusiastic about Renato making motorcycle noises in the bedroom, however.

6. Their vices (physical or emotional)

Renato has a tendency to act out against authority, or more accurately, to do what he wants regardless of it’s legality. While this is somewhat expected since he’s from a criminal family, it’s more of an issue in that his disregard for the rules can be dangerous to himself and others. Even as a child, if Renato wanted something or had a problem, he would try to solve things himself first before even considering going to an adult for help. This often led to him getting into trouble he couldn’t get out of, like the time he tried to walk to Ecruteak by himself to visit his friend Yuusuke and ended up getting lost. Renato tends to hate getting help, especially when it means getting the job done by himself, so his disregard for authority can lead to plenty of issues.  Renato doesn’t have any serious physical vices, but he does smoke occasionally. However, Euphie hates this, so Renato manages to quit once they start dating.

13. What gets them flustered

Renato might project the persona of the calm, collected, bad-boy, but the truth is he’s very easily flustered. It only takes a bit of flirting to get him to turn bright red, especially if the flirting is a bit dirtier in nature. Anything remotely suggestive will fluster Renato immensely, which Euphie loves to take advantage of to tease him in public. Even out of public, Renato’s reactions are just the same. He’s quite sensitive to touch, so one of the ways Euphie likes to tease him is whisper flirtily to him to fluster him, then gently touch his back or face and watch him jump at the contact and grow even more undone. While I won’t get to nsfw here, I’ll just say that Euphie takes that little game a lot further when the two get intimate. Renato is so embarrassed by his sensitivity and blames it on his romance obsession, not that it stops him from consuming the genre. Euphie just thinks it’s one of the many things that makes his boyfriend so adorable.

17. Regrets

While he usually is very confident in his decision to leave home, Renato does sometimes regret it. He left on a bad note with his family – after an argument with his father that he didn’t follow up on for a long while. He often feels like he ran away from his responsibilities and that he let down his family. He especially regrets not saying goodbye to Lyra and Celeste, since he always got along pretty well with them even when his relationship with Silvio was a bit strained. Renato enjoys his life with his grandfathers in Unova, especially since he got to meet Euphie there, but he misses Johto quite a bit – the food, the nature, and just the general vibes of the region. Once he gets in touch with his family and begins to reconcile with them, however, most of his regrets fade and he becomes more confident and at ease with his current situation.

20. What-ifs/Alternate Timelines

There was an alternate timeline (that might still be a thing) where Team Mythic makes themselves known much earlier than they do in the ‘canon’ AU. In this scenario, most of the parents die and the fankids have to live on the run as outcasts or criminals. It’s all very dark and rather based on Fire Emblem: Awakening (especially since there’s a timetravel subplot as well). In this timeline, Renato stays in Johto and takes over the Campanula family when his parents are killed. He starts wearing a mask all the time and is much more withdrawn and cold than his ‘canon’ self. This impacts his relationship with Celeste as well. In the ‘canon’ timeline, the two are a bit distant but get along well, but in this one, Renato alienates his sister just as much as he does everyone else. Eventually, the plan was for Celeste to die (protecting him or something) and for Renato to realize how much she meant to him and how he should have been there for her only after she’s gone. Like I said, the whole thing is very angsty and I’m glad it’s not canon – but this was a direction the AU could have gone when I was first conceptualizing it.