Title: Change doesn't come easily
Beta: My best friend Ginger
Characters: Katashi (Tashi) & Takashi (Kashi) (3 ½ years old, Kakashi's Sons), Itoe (2 years old, Iruka's Daughter)
Couple(s): KakaIru, KakaRan (Past), IruSarana (Past)
Genre: Romance, Hurt/Comfort, Family, Humor
Rating: T (maybe M later)
Summary: Iruka had really loved Sarana, but it wasn't meant to be. Kakashi loved Ran, unfortunately not good enough as he was supposed to, because he loved somebody else for years already, but he had shut his eyes to the facts.
Disclaimer: I do not own Naruto…

A/N: I'm not the best writer, but I do my best. You will read some OC's. Don't like, don't read. OOC in some parts.

Kakashi's POV:
A vague bang, a clank and a loud shout!

Kakashi startled and jumped out of bed, then he lost his balance, hitting the ground face first. For a small moment he saw stars. While he touched his nose to make sure it still was there he groaned and cursed relentlessly.

He let it become a habit to fall out of his bed early in the morning. He had stopped counting how often he frightened in the early morning, too early to his liking, that he jumped out of bed. He frightened so much then and within seconds he then layed on his face sprawled down the floor. To his own surprise his nose wasn't getting injured seriously, although he landed on his face so often. He gave himself a leg-up sluggishly and complete drowsy.

He stood there only in his black boxers. His hair stuck out in all directions and his mask had slightly slipped, but it didn't bother him. He sighed heavily and runs his fingers through his tousled and uncontrollable hair, while he was rubbing the sleep out of his eyes. He yawned, plodded and lazily walked, step-by-step, through his bedroom to look after his sons and see what they had done this time.

Katashi and Takashi were two little devils who were very nerve-racking. He wondered whether he possibly was like this too, when he was their age. Kakashi asked himself how he did it all without losing his mind. He had never thought of being a single father one day. If someone had said it to him a few years ago, he would have declared all for absolutely insane. He and children…? No Way! In fact, he never could handle kids very well, but after he had own children now, everything was so much different. He would never have thought that it would feel so good to have own children and that it would feel so good to feel so much pride. He was so proud of his sons that he could burst out in loud joy. His sons were his pride and joy.

Takashi and Katashi were Twins and 3 ½ years old. They would turn soon 4 years old. Katashi was the first-born and was the older of them. Katashi has shoulder-length soft silver hair, sky-blue eyes and a pale skin. Takashi has short unruly silver hair, like him and just like his brother sky-blue eyes, only a little darker than that of his brother. It was surprising to see how much they looked like him. Actually, the girls come more after their father and boys more after their mother, but his sons are just like him, except their blue eyes which they have inherited from their mother. You look at them, and you see Kakashi.

Ran was slim, small and elegant. She had a pale skin colour like Kakashi himself, long soft dark brown hair, almost black and sky-blue eyes. She was a wonderful woman who was rather shy and very careful. She had a big warm heart and was honest, too honest, if one would ask him. She could read in him like in an open book and had confronted him with the pure truth and obviousness which he didn't want to see and has refused unwaveringly to agree with. He lacked the courage to do it.

And where did this direct face-off brought him finally? He was now a single father without having someone at his side. He was single and that for two years already. Ran had known that Kakashi loved her. Unfortunately not good enough as he was supposed to, because he loved somebody else for years already. Ran had noticed more and more that it got more and more difficult for him to fight these feelings and suppress this ardent longing and passion towards this other love. One day it became too much for her and she confronted him with it. She had loved him so much that she let him go. She let their sons stay with him, so that he wouldn't become an estrange father.

It was very hard for her to let him go, to leave him and their sons, but neither to her nor to him it wouldn't had been good to live on together. Especially since his true love belonged to someone else already. After she had laid it on the line she told him he doesn't have to fear that she will alienate his sons from him. She would have hated herself would never be able to forgive herself, in case she would take them away from him.

She wanted that her sons stay with him and that he raises them further. The only difference was he had to do it alone, without her. At that time she left with tears in her eyes, without turning around once again. She disappeared from his life and from the life of her sons. She had never shown up again. He knew precisely why she hadn't shown up again since this day. It already was hard enough for her to leave him and to let her sons with Kakashi. If she would have seen her sons further she had seen him too. She would never have been able to forget Kakashi once and for all, if she had seen him. And this was hurting him. It hurts to know, he was the reason for her big and unbearable pain, but what should he do?

Should they have lived on together though he loved someone else? Should he have hurt her even more than he had hurt her already? Should he have fooled himself furthermore? He just wasn't able to suppress this damned ardent longing to him any longer. Day-by-day his longing to him became stronger and more and more unbearable. The longing was so strong that it had hurt him already. In the end he always was thinking of him. No, it could not have gone on like this. If she wouldn't have left him, then they would have been together, presently and in that case no one would be happier. It would have been the opposite. He had been aware that he had to stay away from her, but he didn't want to separate from her because he really was afraid of losing his sons.

When Ran told him that he doesn't have to fear of losing his sons, who mean the world to him, he thought of having misheard. He was really terrified that he was left once again, but worst was for him to lose his sons. Never to see them again, not to take part in their education and not to see them growing up. It made his flesh creep and he trembled hard when he thought about it, to live a life without his sons, without having them in his life by his side.

He knew, if he lost his sons and had to live without them, he would become another person. He would return to his old self again, only much more badly and more darkly. He would cork up his feelings. Nobody would approach him again, his feelings would be pure ice and he would only go on missions in the hope that it was his last mission on which he went.

He shuddered once more about this awful thought and walked down the stairs which led into the living room. With cold sweat on the forehead he cautiously moved to the kitchen, where he expected the utter chaos.