Sunlight seeped into the nearly silent bedroom. The only thing disturbing the silent atmosphere was quiet snoring from the two men sleeping, each on opposite sides of the bed. The warm blanket was being hogged by Ronin, but Dareth still slept soundly even without the blanket. He, instead of the blanket, got the whole right side of the bed to himself as Ronin was squished and curled up, wrapped in the blanket like a burrito on the left.

It was nice and peaceful until Dareth finally woke up. His mind was completely against being up this early, but Dareth knew he wasn't getting back to sleep anytime soon. He sighed.

'I was having a nice dream as well...' he thought to himself as he turned to his other side to face the blanket burrito next to him. He just noticed how he had none of the blanket, and couldn't help but quietly chuckle. He began to shake his head, scooting closer to Ronin and moved a bit of the blanket so he could see his face. He looked so peaceful and Dareth couldn't dare wake him up. He decided to sneak out of the room and try to cook some breakfast to return the favor of Ronin letting him stay over. He tried to tiptoe over to the door, which fortunately worked. With a silent sigh, Dareth exited the room and tiptoed to the kitchen. He searched all the cabinets and the fridge for things to make for breakfast. Finding only eggo waffles and a carton of eggs to use, he began to make some breakfast. He started with the scrambled eggs. He has seen Zane cook breakfast before, so Dareth tried to recreate what the best chef on the ninja team did, failing to do so. After retrying twice, Dareth finally was successful in making somewhat good eggs. When he was finishing up the eggs, he heard small footsteps making their way to te kitchen.

"Papa, I smell food! Whatcha ma-" Jasmine came skipping in and stopped immediately when seeing who was in the kitchen, looking surprised to see that it wasn't her father. Her face turned red as she rubbed the back of neck, giggling nervously.

"Sorry, thought you were Papa..." Jasmine apologized, slowly backing up into the hallway. Dareth chuckled a bit.

"It's fine kid." Jasmine began to smile a bit before skipping into the dining room to wait for the breakfast to be served. Eddie and Aaron soon joined her when Dareth started putting the eggo waffles into the toaster. Once they were done and breakfast was served at the table, a tired looking Ronin dragged himself out of his room and to the table. Ronin remained silent as the kids shared their dreams. Dareth listened closely to their adventure packed stories. Some was more bizarre than the others, but all of them sounded interesting.

"Hey Dareth, what you dream about?" Jasmine asked curiously, leaning forward in her seat. Dareth almost completely forgot his dream at this point, but the dream soon came back to him.

"Well... it wasn't as awesome as yours, but it had a man with his family. He would do anything for them. He would make all the mistakes in the world to make sure his family was happy once again." Ronin stopped eating and started to pick at his food, interested to hear the rest of the conversation.

"Did the family stay happy in the end?" Jasmine asked, leaning even more forward. Dareth slowly nodded.

"The family was happy all the way through. Even with all the cr- I mean, stuff going on around them. They were just happy have him around to care for them and all that."

"Wow, sounds a bit cheesy..." Aaron uttered, getting elbowed by Jasmine.

"Quiet! It sounds like a nice dream..." Jasmine sighed happily, making Aaron roll his eyes. Eddie nodded in agreement.

"Yeah, sounds like a cute lil' dream." Eddie added before eyeing Ronin's food, which Ronin was still picking at.

"You gonna eat that?" Ronin slid his plate over to Eddie, who immediately dug right in. Ronin got up from the table and disappeared into the kitchen. Dareth watched him leave the table, soon following him. Ronin was found at the old coffee maker, making some coffee. He didn't show any sign of knowing Dareth was there in the room. Dareth stood there awkwardly, kicking at the tiled floor. He sighed and finally broke the silence.

"Sorry if that made you uncomfortable..." Ronin turned his head slightly, sighing.

"It's fine... no need to apologize..." he muttered in a monotone voice. He turned his head away again, then spoke again. "You know... when I laid there next to her... her hand in mine as she laid there dead... the only thought in my mind was just to join her. I didn't care if the flames engulfed me and killed me. I wanted to be with her... But I wasn't killed... I was given another chance to live..." he took the now filled coffee pot and poured himself a cup of coffee.

"I was saved. I was taken out of the house by firefighters before I could see the light. I thought it was a mistake throughout the years... they should've just left me... I thought the kids would've been better off with all I have done... but now..." Ronin bit his lip and hid his face with his right arm, taking a deep breath. "I'm glad they came. I'm glad I lived." A small smile appeared on Dareth's face as he went over and wrapped an arm around Ronin.

"That's good to hear." Ronin began to smile a bit as well, removing his arm from his face. He nodded in agreement before he began to drink his coffee. Silence fell between the two adults. Dareth stood there with an arm around Ronin, meanwhile Ronin continued to silently drink his coffee.

"By the way..." Dareth turned his attention to Ronin quickly, glad that the silence was finally broken. "Don't tell anybody about anything I told ya... especially the ninja. I don't need their pity." Ronin said coldly, taking his final sip of the coffee. Dareth nodded, showing that he understood.

"Of course." Ronin smiled slightly, putting his cup in the sink.

"Well... you better get going soon... you probably got stuff to do..." Ronin told Dareth. Dareth slowly nodded.

"Yeah... I guess." Dareth shrugged, before hugging Ronin once again before whispering "Thanks for letting me stay over... and telling me about her...". Ronin hesitantly and awkwardly hugged back before pulling away.

"Anytime..." he said, now a sad tone in his voice. "Well, see ya" he added.

"Bye." Dareth shot Ronin one last smile before leaving. Ronin stood there silently, watching Dareth leave the kitchen and out of the house. With a the door closing, he knew Dareth was out and heading back to the city. It wasn't their final goodbye and he knew they would run into each other again, probably when the ninja have another mission... but this goodbye seemed to be different then any others they had...

Ronin didn't want to think about it at the moment. He was going to leave everything that happened where it happened. Now, the only thing that he should be worried about is what should him and the kids do today. He left the kitchen, and went over to Eddie and Aaron, setting his hands on both of their shoulders.

"Alright kiddos, what you guys wanna do?" All the kids looked at each other before answering in unison.

"Go to the city!" Ronin sighed and laughed a bit.

"Alright, get yourselfs ready." The kids obeyed, rushing to their rooms to get chaned and to the bathroom to brush their teeth and take of other business. Meanwhile, Ronin waited in the living room. He stood at the fireplace, staring at the picture frames. For once, when looking at the pictures, he didn't feel like the world was pushing him down. He finally felt free. He finally let everything off his mind. It felt nice...

"Thanks Dareth..."

A/N: Oof, so sorry for the last two chapters being shorter than the first. But hey, we're at the end of the story. I hope you guys enjoyed this short story. I enjoyed writing it. Now, just need to spead some time on other stories...