Disclaimer: I don t own the Ronin Warriors. This was a request romance fic between Sage and Mia for Charley Lover. Thank you Firestorm for being my beta on this fic.
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Romance With Loneliness By: Rogue Ronin

The fire had been lit. Mia s eyes became entranced by the flames as they danced closer to her tear-stained face. Her eyes cast lower into the fire as she drooped her head further down. She slowly reached inside of her pocket and drew out a picture.

Without even a second thought, Mia reached over the barrel above the fire, the heat weakened her hold on the picture at the same time it erupted into flames. She screamed when the heat burned her hand, and yanked it back towards her body.

Mia turned away from the barrel and started towards the manor, entering through the back in order to have made sure no one saw her. She walked up the back stairs, and slumped into her bedroom. Locking the door, she walked over to the dresser and picked up the first aide kit; she took it to her bathroom and tended to her burnt hand. The scorching affliction upon her hand seized her like frozen knives, incinerating through her skin, awakening her physical and mental anguish she carried.

Mia tended to the burn by placing burn cream on the scorched skin. She seethed from the contact of the cream. Reaching for the wrapping with her good hand, she slowly encased the wound. Lowering herself to the floor, she leaned back against the tub. Her arms wrapped around her torso and in the end, hugged herself tight. Her eyes brimmed as her tears threatened to fall once again, her body shaking from the grief she held in her heart.

Mia s eyes slowly closed as she embraced the darkness creeping inside her. She wondered if the fight for his love was worth all of this pain. She blocked out everyone and everything she knew as she encased herself within her own prison of pain and suffering. How could he just forget about everything she has done for not only him but the others as well during their battles with Tulpa? She offered them her home, and comfort from their nightmares, and now he totally dismissed her, and everything she sacrificed for some other girl? How dare he be so heartless, so cold?

Mia was so enclosed within herself that she didn't hear him ask as he knocked on her bedroom door. When he knocked a second time and called her name, a sense of urgency resonated in his voice as he asked why she wouldn't answer him. Everything to her now seemed nothing more than an illusion to what she truly wanted, real happiness in her life.

Placing her feet under her body, Mia forced herself to stand and stared herself in the mirror. Closing her eyes and taking a few deep breaths she steadied herself and walked out of her bathroom to her bedroom door. She unlocked it and walked past him in the hall and down the stairs to the main floor.

The squeaking of the stairs announced Mia s descent, Nari glanced over to her rival s direction. Her eyes morphed from chocolate brown to emerald green and back to their normal color. She had picked up on Mia s bandaged hand, internally she smirked from the satisfaction of the wound.

Acknowledging a familiar hand upon her shoulder, for which Nari s attention to the one who stood beside her. She focused her attention towards him and gave a small smile. "I m sorry Sage, did you say something?"

The green Ronin pulled his hand aside and interlaced his hand with hers. With his other hand, Sage brushed back his bangs and smiled back in his usual flirtatious manner. "I was asking you if you wanted to go on a balloon ride for our next date. You and me, alone looking down on the world."

A warm sensation encased her from head to toe, as a tinge of red graced her cheeks. Nari raised her free hand to her face and brushed a few loose strands of hair from her eyes as she gave a small nod. "Yes, but on one condition."

Sage gazed deep into her eyes as he tried to see where she was coming from on this. All the while they ve been dating, she never gave him a condition, so, why was now any different? "Nari..."

Alternating back to her emerald green eyes, she burrowed into his mind and implanted her power even further. She concentrated on his visible eye as it flickered green and back to violet. "I want you to ask Mia to drive us there, and to pick us up when we are done."

He leaned forward and gave her a small kiss on her cheek, and then unlaced his hand from hers. Sage walked into the kitchen where Mia was cooking and asked his request. When he wasn t able to get an answer from her, he tried again.

Nari had become aware her rage as it consume her while she focused on them in the kitchen. Her hands clenched as they trembled at her sides. Her eyes phased into a darker emerald shade, and attempted to gain control over Mia. Just as she was about to try, the temperature in both rooms dropped and another presence made itself known. 'No, it can t be. Not him! Anyone else other than that little...'

The temperature went back to normal, and Nari calmed once the other spirit left. She snapped out of her trance when she felt Sage s arm intertwined with hers. Focusing her attention fully upon him, she leaned in closer to him and gazed into his eye. She read his thoughts and knew his answer.