Sunlight poured into Red's room as the sun rose over the horizon. The knight was wrapped up in a bundle of blankets, snuggling his pillow and occasionally giggling in his sleep. As the sunlight made its way around the room, bathing everything it touched in a warm glow, Red continued to snore quietly. When the light finally passed over his eyelids, Red woke up with a gasp, escaped from his cocoon of blankets as quickly as he could, then threw open his door and ran into the hallway.

"Gotcha!" He singsonged as he pointed to Green, who had stumbled into the hallway half-asleep. The other boy laughed.

"I figured I would still try to beat you to waking up first, even if I'm still pretty sleepy," Green admitted before yawning and walking back into his room.

"Do you have any requests for breakfast?"

"No, not particularly. I know that it'll be great, no matter what you cook."

"Aw, Green!"

"What? It's a fact."

"Hehe, I guess. Thank you!"

Green gave Red a final nod, then closed the door to his room behind him. Red smiled. He was happy that Green was actually going back to sleep. Sometimes Green would insist on staying awake, even if he seemed ready to fall asleep on the spot. Knowing that everyone would be properly rested by the time he was done preparing breakfast made Red feel all the more relieved.

Well, it was about time he got to cooking! Red began to make his way to the castle kitchen, transitioning from a regular walk to a skip every now and then. As he reached the kitchen, he began listing out ingredients to himself without realizing it.

"Okay… sugar, eggs, milk… butter... "

Something was off. Red's left hand passed over the items in the cabinet he was looking for. Someone had either misplaced the flour, or there was none left. He checked every place in the kitchen that he could think of-in the cupboards, the other cabinets, and on the open shelves. Nothing. He shook his head. There was no way that he would be able to get any flour until the market opened, but it usually didn't open until later in the morning. For now, he would have to prepare something else.

Vio was the first to enter the dining room near the kitchen some time after Red had begun to cook. Red spotted him walking in, then ran to his side and gave him a small hug.

"Good morning, Vio!"

"Good morning."

"Did you sleep well?"

"Pretty well, yes. How about you?"

"Oh, well, I had a really nice dream!"

"Did you? I would love to hear about it."

"I'm going to wait until everyone else is here to hear about it!"

"Alright."

Red smiled, then walked back to where he had been working on the meal while Vio sat himself at the table. As Red cooked, he and Vio chatted across rooms.

"I'm really sorry that breakfast isn't ready yet! I couldn't find any flour for what I was planning on cooking."

"That's alright. Nobody else is awake yet, so you have time."

"You don't mind waiting, do you? I might take a while to finish what I'm preparing…"

"Not at all."

"Okay."

A few minutes passed before Red reentered the dining room. In his hands were two plates of eggs sprinkled with pepper, which he set down by two seats on the table. He then returned to the kitchen and came back with a similar set of plates, one of which he set in front of Vio.

"Feel free to eat whenever you want! I just need to get my plate and set it down, and then I'll join you!" Red commented before retrieving his own plate.

When he was in the dining room once more, he saw that Vio had taken out a book and begun reading it. About the same time, Blue trudged into the room, wiping his eyes before seating himself to Vio's left. Red beamed at his other teammate, then gave him a hug as well after setting his own plate on the table.

"Hi, Blue!"

"Heya, champ," Blue mumbled as he gave Red a small noogie. Red chuckled.

"You're still sleepy, Blue."

"Nothing some food can't fix! I'm starving," Blue declared as he grabbed for his fork, then licked his lips in anticipation of his meal. Before he could lift the first bite to his mouth, however, his face shifted from a hungry grin to a scowl. He glared at his plate.

"Red?"

Red flinched. "Yeah?"

"Where's the bread?"

"Oh, uh… we were out of flour. I couldn't make any."

Blue grumbled, then played with the yolk of one of the eggs on his plate.

"How am I going to collect the yolk if it spills onto the plate?"

"You could ask for a spoon," Vio chimed in.

"I'll get you one!" Red offered, then left for the kitchen as quickly as possible.

Blue gave a small, sleepy grunt as a sign of thanks, then poked at the egg yolk again. The two heroes sat in silence until it was broken by the entry of the remaining two heroes. Shadow entered with an energetic laugh, his left arm wrapped around Green. Green, on the other hand, still had visible bags under his eyes and hunched a little.

"Morning, team," Green greeted everyone before yawning.

"Morning," Blue and Vio replied in unison.

"Well, what do we have here? Is Vio reading?" Shadow asked jokingly, walking over to Vio's seat and grabbing for the book. Vio moved it just out of Shadow's reach every time, motivating the demon to only try harder. With a decisive stroke, Shadow's hand finally met the cover of the book, and he yanked it away from its owner.

Shadow grinned at Vio. "Thought you could outsmart me? Shame on you!"

He rapidly skimmed through the pages of the book, eyes moving furiously across the paper.

"Nothing interesting. Here."

Vio accepted the book back, then opened back to his spot and continued reading. Blue scoffed at Shadow.

"What were you expecting, Shadow? A fantasy novel?"

"Alright, you two," said Green. "Vio, you should pause your reading until you finish your breakfast."

"Can I wait until Red gets here before I stop reading?"

Green sighed, then shook his head. "I guess."

"Thank you."

Green and Shadow started eating while Vio read and Blue impatiently crossed his arms. It only took a few seconds for Red to return to the kitchen with a spoon for Blue.

"I'm sorry!" Red frantically apologized as he handed the spoon to Blue. "I made sure the spoon was clean for you, Blue! I know I took too long, but I thought about figuring out what else I need to get at the market today, so I made a list first before getting the spoon for you."

"Are you short on ingredients, Red?" Green inquired before taking a particularly messy bite of an egg. Some of the yolk dripped onto his chin, causing Blue to grimace as he caught sight of it.

Red sat down. "Yeah, I am! I was going to make some fresh bread for breakfast, but I'm out of flour. I found some other things I need, too, so I'm going out as soon as the market opens."

"Do you want anyone to come with you? I wouldn't mind going," Green offered.

"No, I think you should go back to sleep after breakfast, Green. You still need lots of rest. I'll go with someone else."

"I'll be fine…" Green's voice trailed off before his eyes closed, almost involuntarily. Within three seconds, he began to breathe slowly.

"Yeah, totally fine." Shadow snickered.

Blue got up from his seat, making his way to the other side of the table. When he got to Green's side, he breathed out in concentration, then pulled his fist back. Red gasped.

"Blue, wai-"

It was too late. Blue's fist had been launched into Green's right side, causing him to wake with stir. He turned to Blue, then gave him a light punch in his left side.

"Dude! What was that for?" He asked, frowning in frustration.

"I couldn't resist."

"I thought food was supposed to give people energy…"

"Well, your body does need time to work," Vio responded as he finished a bite of his food.

"I guess you're right."

Red stood up from his seat, then walked over to Green and put a hand on his left shoulder.

"See? You need to go back to sleep!"

"Okay, I hear you. Let me finish my breakfast first, okay?"

Red smiled at Green, then returned to his seat.

After a few more minutes of talking and eating, the five heroes had finished their meals. Blue set his fork and spoon down, then burped. Vio and Green both frowned at him in disgust.

"Now that's how you eat breakfast!" Shadow laughed.

"With a punch and a burp?" Vio asked flatly.

"Yeah!" Shadow replied, licking the last bit of yolk off of his plate.

"Blue! Shadow!" Red whined, seeing their vulgar behavior.

"It just means it was a good meal! Right, Blue?"

"You bet, Shads."

Green rolled his eyes. "Save it for dinner."

"Oh, so we have your permission to do that at dinner? Sweet!"

Shadow teleported to the other side of the table to give Blue a fist bump, which Blue returned.

"If you're in such a good mood, Shadow, how about you go spar with me? Green's too sleepy to train with me today," Blue winked at Shadow and then looked at Green as he delivered the question. The amount of annoyance on Green's face was priceless.

"Really?" Shadow's eyes lit up a bit.

"Sure! We haven't sparred one-on-one yet! I want to see what you can do."

"Then, let's get going! I have to warn you, though-I won't go easy on you!"

"Don't expect me to go easy on you, either!"

Sure enough, Blue and Shadow exited the room before anyone could tell what happened. Vio laughed.

"What's so funny, Vio?" Red asked, eyebrows arched.

"Shadow's been waiting for Blue to ask him to train with him for a long time. He was talking about it the other day."

"Aw, how nice! I hope they have fun!"

"Me too," Green added before getting out of his seat. He thanked Red for breakfast, gave him a sloppy hug, then yawned and left for his room. When Green was out of the room, Red began collecting dirty dishes off of the table and taking them to the kitchen to be cleaned. Vio stayed seated, reading his book again.

After Red had collected all of the dishes from the table, he walked to Vio's side and crouched down until the pages of the book were eye-level with him. He tried to read along, but the words didn't make much sense to him.

"Vio?"

"Oh, I didn't notice you there, Red. What is it?"

"I thought I'd try to read that book you're reading, but…"

Red didn't see it, but as the sentence left his mouth, Vio's face broke into an involuntary grin.

"Is there something that you don't understand in the book?"

"A little bit…" Red admitted, looking away in embarrassment.

"Don't worry. I wouldn't understand it either unless someone had explained it to me, too."

"I guess so."

"Do you want me to explain it to you?"

Red looked back to Vio. He noticed how much his face had changed. Vio's eyes were more alive than usual. Red tried to look as cheerful as Vio did to let him know he was interested.

"If you don't mind explaining, it would be nice!"

"It's no trouble at all."

The two of them sat there for about an hour, reading together and pausing whenever Red had a question. Vio would do his best to provide a thorough answer, and then it was back to reading in silence. When they had finished the current chapter of the book, Vio bookmarked his spot and got up from his seat. Red was amazed at how much time had passed. It had felt a lot longer than only an hour.

"Well, I think I'll head back to my room. If you ever want to read some more, you can always stop by."

"Okay!"

Red stood up as well, then began to walk towards the kitchen. Right as his hand met the kitchen door, he stopped. After he washed the dishes, he was going to need someone to accompany him on his trip to the market. He turned around, then called out.

"Vio!"

Vio turned around to face Red.

"Hm?"

"Do you mind going with me to the market in about twenty minutes? I can't ask Green because he's asleep, and Blue and Shadow will probably be sparring until lunchtime."

Vio put his hand to his chin for a second as he thought, then gave Red a response.

"I don't mind. Just let me know when you're ready to head out, okay?"

"Alrighty! Thank you!"

"You're welcome."