Chapter Text
Dareth was doing some spring cleaning in his apartment. It's been a while since he's done a deep clean of the place, so he was thinking it was about time to clear some things out.
He’s been cleaning a different room each day. Monday was the kitchen, Tuesday was the dining room, Wednesday was the living room, Thursday was the guest room(which was really easy).
Today is Friday, the office. His office was one of the messiest rooms in his humble home. Filled with papers, craft supplies, boxes full of junk etc. He was dreading cleaning up the office, it was too much for him alone. So he called Ronin to come help him out and then maybe when they were done they could go out. ‘Ronin is going to be here any minute now,’ Dareth thought to himself. Then the doorbell rang. Dareth went to open the door, and when he opened it he saw Ronin holding a pizza box.
“Hey there De, I was thinking since we’re going to be doing a lot and since it's around lunch time, we could eat first then start working?” Ronin said while walking into the apartment.
“Oh yeah, that sounds good.” Dareth walked over to grab some plates and then went to the table and placed the plates down. Ronin opened the pizza box to reveal one large pizza, half cheese and half pepperoni.
“I got half n’ half, since you don't like pepperoni.”
“Aw, you remembered!”
“Of course I did, you complain about it anytime pizza is mentioned.”
They ate in a comfortable silence for a while. They both finished eating and started to clean up after themselves. Ronin was observing the work Dareth has done over the week so far. The places where he had cleaned up looked like those Ikea display rooms. The place was relatively spotless, except for some boxes near the front door, but he was pretty sure those were boxes he was going to get rid of.
“Wow Dareth, I just got to say I love what you have done with the place. I'm not going to lie, I thought you called me over because you didn't know how to clean.”
“Oh well thank you. I had to clean up after the kids at the dojo a lot so I picked a lot of cleaning skills then, plus I clean up at the bar often.”
“So if you needed to call me that means the next room must be really overwhelming.”
“Yeah, I've been trying to clean that room for a while but there's just so much in it I can never get past the mental barrier to clean it,” Dareth started to look at the ground scratching the back of his head.
Ronin was noticing his shift in his mood. They understood the struggle cleaning can have. They try to keep Rex clean as possible but sometimes messes can build up overtime.
“Well, I think you have done great so far. Let's get started on that office of yours” Ronin said while giving Dareth a smile. That seemed to bring up his mood. They walked into Dareth's office, The second Ronin walked into that room, they finally understood what exactly Dareth had meant when he told them he needed help with cleaning. IT WAS A MESS. It was nothing they couldn't handle though.
“Okay, so let's Start with getting all the boxes and moving those to the living room, once thoughts are out we can start with clearing out papers and files. Can you grab a trash bag?” Dareth nodded in response and left the room. When Dareth left the room Ronin started to grab boxes moving them to the living room placing them on the ground. They could sort Them later when the office was more organized.
---------------time skip-------------------
They finally got the office clean enough that they could walk through without bumping into something. It was a major difference. It definitely looked a lot better than before. The desk was cleared, all the trash was gone, the file cabinets were in alphabet order. The last thing they had to do was go through the boxes. They were currently in the living room sitting on the couch. Dareth was just staring at the boxes. It was like he was scared of what was in them.
“Oi, quit looking at that box like a clown is going to pop out. Why do you look so afraid of it? It can't be any worse than what I put in boxes.”
“I'm just scared of what kind of memories could be in the box, there could be a cringy scrapbook I made in high school but you’re right,” Dareth sighed. It was time to open the box. Dareth Carefully ripped the tape off the box, then slowly opened the box. The first thing he saw in the box was a hat? A brown fedora to be specific.
“Dareth is that the lame hat you wore in high school?” Ronin said perplexed
“Yeah, I didn't want to relive that,” Dareth was placing the hat on his head. It still fits. It's not like his head got much bigger from high school.
"Okay, let's see what else is in here," Ronin laughed.
---------------time skip-------------------
They were down to the last box of junk they had to look through. Unlike the other boxes this one was labeled. The label read "Memories” which could possibly be in this box Ronin thought to themself sarcastically. Now since this box is labeled memoires it makes sense that Dareth wouldn't want to get rid of the contents of the box, However there could be bad memories in the box as well.
“Are you ready to open this up?” Ronin asked
“Ready as I'll ever be,” The man in brown signed as he opened the box with a box cutter.
The first thing in this box was a photobook. One the size of a Norcom spiral notebook.
“OMG. I almost forgot about this,” Dareth exclaimed
“It's a photobook.”
“Yeah but a photo book of some of my favorite memories, like the time I helped the ninja or when I went to see gale gossip and the time when I first opened the dojo,” screamed excitedly. So maybe Ronin was wrong about the box holding bad juju. It makes sense, Dareth isn't the kind of person to keep mentally damaging items around. They looked into the rest of the box while Dareth was flipping through the book, it was just a bunch of items that probably held sentimental value. For example Pictures of Dareth’s family, old CDs, pictures probably drawn by the kids at the dojo.
“Oh hey, look at this one, It's a picture from our first date.” The picture was the both of them at Stiixs at a small food stand near Ronins old pawn shop.
“I’m not sure you could call that a “date ''.It was a few days after the cursed realm was destroyed and you were only in the area because of the ninja” Ronin sighed while pinching the bridge of his nose. The image was blurry too, at this point Ronin is wondering how high Dareth’s standards are.
“Then on top of that, the food wasn't even that good. You deserve a moment better than that to call a first date. Like the time we went to eat at Skylor's restaurant,” Ronin concluded.
“Yeah maybe you’re right but this was still a happy moment in my life with you, I don’t Care about where it is, or what we’re doing. All I care about is that I'm with you.” Ronin smiled. Dareth really was special. Dareth didn't care about Ronins past or their status. He loved them, just the way they were.
“We should try adding more to this photo book so don't put it back in the box.”
“Don't worry, I think I got the perfect place for it.”