A/N: Special thanks to Falzyker for reviewing last chapter, and for those who have favorited/followed it. I appreciate the support, and hope you continue to enjoy and may leave your thoughts in the reviews below!

Before Saji's arrival home, some ground rules needed to be established...namely, what Garma could and could not do during his stay. Showing him around the house, Kinue started off with their relatively small kitchen within the apartment.

"Dinner's at seven most nights, unless I'm working late. If I'm not around, eat whatever is in the fridge. I doubt you'll be able to go out for food after all."

Garma took a look around and found himself actually impressed by the well furnished kitchen with a stove, fridge, and row of cabinets which Kinue showed off to him in short order. He didn't know what to expect, but it was even more orderly than the one Kycilia kept some time ago...though they would likely have been about even he guessed if not for Dozle's careless nature causing Kycilia to always have to redo her hard work.

"Until I can see that you can cook well, no cooking. I will cook for you, since I enjoy doing that...a lot, actually."

Hanging off a hook on the wall was a cute little apron, and since Garma doubted it was for her brother, a good sign that Kinue did seem to take her cooking seriously enough. An older sister cooking for herself and a younger brother was a familiar concept to him, and so just being shown the kitchen actually brought to him a sense of ease he hadn't felt in quite some time. Spending months away from home fighting a war and barely seeing one's family could perhaps make seeing a cute little domestic scene quite welcome, or so he reasons to himself.

It takes Garma a moment to catch up with Kinue as she moves on to show him more of the apartment...though not a particularly interesting part of the house as she shows him two closed doors.

"This is my room," she says while pointing to one of the doors, her face completely straight laced and her voice earnest, "You are not allowed in my room or Saji's room unless otherwise invited. Chances are you won't be, so get comfortable in the living room."

Garma nods to that, accepting her privacy and not wanting to dare do anything inappropriate...not only for his self-image, but for the fact that he was of a certain type of "old-fashioned" person and would never dare trespass in a situation he found to be scandalous. What's more, it would be rude to go beyond the boundaries allowed of him from someone who was doing so much for him.

"My brother Saji goes to school in the mornings after I leave for work, so you had better not keep him up late by making noise."

Garma bows his head respectfully, understanding well the plight of a student, being a fairly recent graduate himself, "Of course."

Next to be shown off is the living room, where Kinue highlights a fixture atop a small table...their phone, actually, Garma realizes after looking at it a few moments. There were so many different shapes and sizes for them, so it took him a bit to actually recognize this old school phone.

Kinue's explanation of the telephone mirrored that of her others...namely, that Garma was prohibited from actually interacting with it, "This is our telephone. You may not use our telephone, because the Federation already isn't a fan of me and I don't need them hearing Space Nazi secrets being told over my phone. If you want a phone, go get your own to use elsewhere."

While Garma could understand her reasoning, he still was growing a bit exasperated by the whole "you can't do anything" bit he was being told.

"If you don't mind me asking...what can I do?"

That brought a pause to Kinue's tour, the hostess bringing a hand up to her chin to think about it more, "You can watch the TV when no-one's sleeping, I suppose," she shrugs and frowns, eventually placing her arms over her chest, "Sorry, I don't want to take unnecessary risks right now..."

After all, what was there to lose but one's life or freedom? Because of that, Garma chose to let go on the idea of having much of his own freedom within this place, since someone was risking so much for him out of basic compassion. It was better to be a good guest in an apartment than one in a jail cell or a morgue.

"I understand completely. I'm just grateful that you..."

Kinue looks away and comes to slightly blush out of embarrassment, "Stop making me feel bad for you. It's...conflicting."

"My apologies."

To move past her own awkwardness at not knowing how to properly accept praise or thanks, Kinue decided to go over and show the next area of the house to Garma...the bathroom.

"The bathroom. It doesn't have a lock, so knock before you go in. I don't want to see you looking at my brother in there. He's barely an adult."

While on the surface it didn't sound like a big deal, Garma went from silently nodding along to having his eyes widen at the implication of her statement.

"Wait...do you think I..."

"All anyone can talk about with you is how much you love that friend of yours, Char, so I'm just being cautious. Doesn't matter to me. If he was a girl and you liked them instead I'd have the same concern."

"...I like women."

"Sure you do."

"I mean it."

"Uh huh."

Garma did not know how to accept the fact that Kinue obviously thought he was gay for his former best friend, so he decided to just drop the issue and let her continue on with the misconception...after all, it shouldn't change anything, but it was a personal sore spot for Garma that people assumed so much about him and Char...especially after Char tried murdering him.

After talking about the whole bathroom situation Kinue brought Garma back to the living room, where she took to sitting against the back of a couch there, leaning as she spoke to Garma, "My brother is out working tonight, so you won't have to deal with him until later fortunately," pausing, she seemed to realize a special complication, "Come to think of it, I have to figure out how I'm going to explain all of this to him..."

That got Garma to actually worry: while Kinue might be okay with letting him stay, her brother was presently a wild card to him. For all he knew, Saji could turn him in near instantly, and that would be all she wrote.

"He...he doesn't support the Federation, does he?"

Kinue dispels the thought with a shake of her head no, "Not particularly...but he dislikes Zeon even more though. Something about your brother dropping a colony on Australia because Spacenoid independence or something like that."

While not the most comforting news, it was at least not the worst case scenario for Garma, "Wonderful..."

Taking another look at Garma, Kinue takes note that he's particularly skinny, especially compared to the times she had seen him on broadcasts and in print at her job. Since she had been working on the whole food situation prior to his arrival, she decided that it was about time she helped fix his physical condition a bit. He had to be starving, and talking about how he could or couldn't do things wouldn't fix that.

Entering the kitchen again, Kinue pulled out a freshly baked loaf of bread to present to a quite eager Garma, "Anyways, you look like you need some meat on your bones, so eat up."

Sitting down at a small dining table she brought him to, Garma let Kinue show off the small feast of food she had prepared that night. While the rest of the house appeared fairly frugal and almost sparse, there appeared to be no skimping on the food, something which suited Garma just fine.

Before he and Kinue could begin to dine on the first meal of this...odd arrangement, Garma bowed his head once again to thank her.

"Thank you...this means a lot, Miss Crossroad."

"You're welcome," she says through a smile, though it soon shifted to a small frown, "But don't make me regret this...I'm not mean enough to turn you in to the Federation and get you killed, but my brother and I come first, understood?"

Serious, authoritarian...Garma recognized that voice. That was 'Kycilia Mother Bear Mode', just coming out of the mouth of someone else this time. There was no arguing with it, just acceptance or refusal, and so Garma did what he always had: accept it.

"Yes ma'am."

His acceptance seemed to put her back in a good mood, and she came to lean down against one hand and palm as she witnessed Garma devour the food she provided, "Good. You seem nice enough, so pay the rent and I'll let you stay here awhile," watching the prince eat as fast as he could while trying to maintain some level of composure was a source of amusement to Kinue, "We'll talk more details tomorrow, but you really look like you could use some food and rest first."

Pausing his assault upon the food, Garma looks up with some embarrassment, "Is my appearance truly that poor?"

Ever one to be blunt, Kinue nodded and continue to grin, "You look worse than Saji during Finals. You might even need to take a shower before I let you sleep on my couch."

It was some fortune that Kinue had just happened to be cooking a large meal to celebrate a long and hard day at work when Garma showed up, more than she'd have been able to eat on her own and with her original goal having been to have leftovers to give Saji. Instead, she was able to feed Garma as well as herself, and there was a certain good feeling she got from helping someone in need...even if he was a part of the opposing faction and actually one of their royalty. Truthfully, he didn't seem as stuck up as she first expected, though he did carry himself with some pretense.

"Thank you again...I apologize if my manners were lacking."

"You're welcome, and don't worry about it. Have you ever tried eating with a ten year old? I'm used to it," Kinue laughs as she notices that there was not a speck on the plate Garma had before him, the Zabi prince having played the part of vacuum, "Either you were really hungry, or my cooking is better than I think it is."

"While I was quite hungry, I have to say that was the best meal I have had in quite some time. You are quite the chef, so I am even more grateful than I would be."

The fact that she was facing near constant praise and thanks was putting Kinue on the backfoot, for her only social contact was with her submissive and meek brother, her boss, and a couple coworkers, all of whom she thought of as nice, but none of whom she received this degree of kindness from.

"T-thank you, but you don't have to try and be nice. It's nothing special, especially with what you must be used to."

Garma...he really didn't seem all that bad. Sure, he could be playing the part of kind guest now, but he was coming off as quite genuine. While Kinue didn't trust or believe everything the Federation said, she still hadn't expected to be able to really meet a Zabi and like them as a person off the bat.

As a dictator? No, of course not, but a person? He was a nice guy, and the more she spoke with him the less hesitant she became about this arrangement.

Garma comes to look down at his empty plate, as if he were contemplating something, "I grew up on soup, bread, and pseudo-meats..." he closes his eyes and grins to himself as he reminisces of the past, "Kycilia used to cook for everyone before she went out to work at night, so I've always been quite the fan of homecooked meals."

The surprise was all too evident on her face, Kinue not having expected to hear that the prince and his family had humble origins.

Grinning, Garma responds to her surprise with amusement rather than admonishment, "What? I did have a life before my father became Zeon's leader you know."

The conversation dies down a bit awkwardly as Kinue fails to find something to say back, instead using the empty plates on the table as a way of excusing herself. Garma offers to help her bring them up, but Kinue says that he should just take it easy for now: he can worry about being a productive member of the apartment tomorrow after he's recovered a bit. Since she said this all with both seriousness and kindness in her tone Garma decided to accept the hospitality, sitting down on the couch in the living room briefly as Kinue cleaned things up...only for the apartment's door to open and someone to come in.

"Sis, I'm home. Sorry I'm late, Louise wanted..."

...

"Why is there a dictator on the couch?"

That could certainly have gone better, Garma thinks to himself as he awkwardly gets up to try and respond to the brother of his hostess.

Kinue reacts more 'naturally', in that she greets Saji and casually introduces him to Garma, "Saji, meet Garma. Garma, Saji."

Saji holds out a hand awkwardly as Garma does the same to shake, "Uh...hello?" Saji turns to his sister sheepishly as he and Garma awkwardly shake hands, "I'm dreaming, right?"

For his part, Garma found himself at a loss for words, not having really been in such a situation before, "I..."

"Garma is going to be living here with us for awhile," Kinue explains without actually explaining much to her brother.

"May I ask the simple question of why?"

Kinue grins at her brother while keeping a somewhat chiding tone, "He needs a place to stay, if I turn him in he will be killed, and he's willing to pay rent while he's here. If you have more questions, may I remind you that your scholarship doesn't cover all your bills, Saji, and neither does your part-time job."

To try and take the blame in a sense, Garma pulls Saji's attention back to himself, "You probably hate me and my family, don't you? I'm sorry if I am imposing..."

Like his sister, Saji was a bit caught off guard by the fact that Garma wasn't literally Hitler like what the Federation liked to say, so his own attitude softened as looked back at Garma, "Uhh, hate may be a strong word, but after everything I can't say I'm much of a fan, no."

"I...I don't really blame you, but I do request that we keep things civil. I don't want to cause any problems, but I don't have many options at the moment."

"I guess it would be wrong to just let you die..." Saji admits before crossing his arms and looking away, "But I'm still not really okay with this."

Kinue chimes in cheerfully, glad that the two were at least willing to get along on some level, "So long as you keep your mouth shut, not being okay with it is fine. Just treat Garma with the respect you would any other guest, and everything should be fine."

Saji finds complaints with her statement, looking at his older sister warily, "Well, one, we never have guests so there isn't much of an example for me to follow, and two, are we going to ignore the fact he tried taking over the Earth?"

Authoritative Kinue returned as she sensed her brother approaching 'do not talk about that' territory, "Saji..."

Revealing himself to have nearly no backbone, Saji steps back and holds his hands up in surrender, "Okay, okay, shutting up now."

As the totally not awkward introduction dies down Kinue ends up yawning, it already being nighttime and a long day of work now wearing down on her mind and body. She stretches her arms out and yawns before grabbing a spare blanket and pillow and tossing it onto the couch for Garma's sake, "I already set the ground rules with Garma, but if there's anything you want to add, feel free to talk to him. I'm going to bed now, so place nice, okay?"

"Goodnight, sis."

"Goodnight, Miss Crossroad."

With her going to her room and shutting the door for the night, Garma found himself awkwardly standing beside Saji in the living room. Neither said anything at first, though a thought seems to eventually worm its way into Saji's mind which makes him anxious until he verbalizes it.

"So, uhh, you're sleeping on the couch, right?"

Garma blinks, thinking that the question's answer was obvious, "Of course. Where else would I sleep?"

It seems like a large weight is lifted from the college student's shoulders as he lets his body relax, "Okay, thank god, that's a huge relief. I was worried we were going to have to share mine, or that you were sleeping with Kinue. Man that's a huge relief."

The mere suggestion of impropriety prompts Garma to turn his nose up, "That would be highly inappropriate in either case, so of course not."

"Wow you really are a prince," Saji remarks amusedly before growing a bit more serious, "Anyways, if Kinue's letting you stay here, I won't make much of a fuss. I...I just ask that you try not to get us into any trouble, okay?"

Garma bows his head humbly, glad to have found this safe harbor and not about to take it for granted, "If any does, I will take full responsibility. I am a man of my word, and I do not wish to cause either you or your sister any trouble...I just want to live."

Saji was not exactly okay with this all really, but he trusted his sister and her judgment and so he'd go along with this...for now.

"Well, have a good night Mister Zabi. Let's hope you can go home soon, alright?"

Nodding back, Garma could agree with that sentiment, "That would be for the best, yes."

To go home...the possibility existed that he never would be able to, but the thought of one day returning to his father, Kycilia, Dozle, and even Gihren was a comforting one to Garma...though, in the meantime, he was more than grateful just for a couch, blanket, and pillow to rest upon.

Tomorrow would be a new day...and his first in a new life.

A/N: The stage has been set! Let the slice-of-life/family fluff begin!

Thank you for reading, and I hope to hear your thoughts in the reviews below!