Stress

Seto does not know his limits. Well… He knows them. But he pushes them. In Duel Monsters. In business. And in drinking. Ren was more than amused to find that she could drink her boss under the table, until she had the misfortune of dealing with his hangover the next morning. From then on she learned that Seto Kaiba and alcohol were a volatile combination that was to be avoided at all costs.

He was fine when it was just a glass of wine at dinner, or a cocktail before bed. He was a Manhattan kind of guy, she had found. But when he decided that he was in the frame of mind for eleven of them, or that shots were a brilliant idea, he was absolutely impossible to deal with. Seto could handle five. Hell, Ren could even admit, he was fun with five drinks under his belt. At six, he started getting a bit more incoherent. At eight, he began slurring. At ten, he would fight his nausea by staring intently into his cell phone, and had once sent a wildly inappropriate text message to Yugi Moto's landline, and Ren had thanked every god she could think of that they had never received it. This was the stage they were at tonight.

"I have a penis" was the beautifully eloquent text message that had interrupted War of the Worlds, and Ren soon found herself driving the Genesis down to the company to fetch the CEO. She found him facedown on his desk loosely gripping a highball glass that reeked of cognac, the menu screen of the movie Iron Man replaying on his dimming monitor.

"Fuckin' A, Kaiba…" Ren shook her head and dumped her bag by the door, striding across the office to pick things up. She shifted the empty glass aside, careful not to jostle the sleeping dragon. She straightened a stack of paperwork, picked his tie up off the floor, and moved to shut the computer off. As the movie went silent, Seto seized her wrist, finally lifting his head from the desk.

"-was watching that."

She raised an eyebrow, an amused smirk touching her lips. "Uh huh."

"'m basically Tony Stark." He slurred, sitting up and shaking his head. "Except I don't have a fuckin' super suit, or a fuckin' ginger secretary. Just a goddamn you."

Ren rolled her eyes. "You're drunk as shit."

"You are vulgar as shit." As Ren opened her mouth to spit back a reply, Kaiba's face went pale. He balled a fist over his mouth and Ren's stomach flipped as she went into damage control mode. She nearly tripped over herself helping him to his feet, and praised the lord that he didn't vomit on the white carpet. She stood politely against the opposite wall of the executive bathroom, arms crossed as he violently purged the alcohol from his system.

As the sound of retching faded to the flush of the toilet, Ren approached the CEO, a warm washcloth in her hand. A smirk played across her lips as she squatted down next to him, "Feel any better, bossman?"

With his head resting on the porcelain seat, he blindly slapped her away, failing to land a hit. She swatted his hand with the warm cloth, extending it to him. "Don't be a dick. You'd have probably drowned in your own vomit if I hadn't come along."

Lifting his head, Seto sent a scathing glare in her direction, but took the cloth all the same, wiping his face clean. "I'm fine," he mumbled, "How did you know to come?"

Ren smirked. "You have a dick." She shrugged. "Been there, done that. Thought you'd need someone to clean you up."

He groaned, sitting back onto his backside, resting his head in his hands. "God dammit," he grumbled.

"Bad day?"

"The worst," he replied without thought. He lifted his head; the cogs turning slowly even behind the red in his eyes. "… Why the hell are you here?"

She smiled, leaning her back against the wall and sliding to the floor. "You know how when Mokuba is sick, he likes to have fresh linens, and he gets pissy if his orange juice isn't ice cold at all times?"

"Mm."

"I'm an expert at knowing what Kaibas need." Ren grinned. "And you needed a sober driver."

Seto paused, slowly working their conversation over in his alcohol-induced haze. Eventually he scoffed, stumbled to his feet, and shuffled back into the office, Ren hot on his heels. He collapsed onto the sofa in the corner of the room, and Ren followed him, fetching a glass of ice water from the mini fridge. "Come on, dick." She sighed, taking a seat on the couch, extending him the glass of water. "You're gonna have a wicked hangover if you don't drink this. And then you're gonna be even moodier than usual and you're probably gonna take it out on me." She thrust the glass at him, a bit of water slopping onto her hand. "Drink it."

He lifted his head for a brief moment, meeting her with a skeptical gaze before taking the glass, downing half of it in one go. He let it rest against the foot of the sofa as he lay back down, letting his head rest atop her thigh. His eyes flickered open again, peering through sweat-damp bangs. "Why're you doing this…? Nobody does this for me… This's so stupid, I haven't done this shit since I was a teenager."

A smile tugged at the corner of Ren's mouth. He was still slurring. She let her hand settle into his hair. It was soft, and warm, and she soon found a slow rhythm of pulling her fingers through the chestnut locks. It was something that she had often done for her sisters when they were stressed, and she was pleased to find that it had an equally calming effect on the millionaire. She was surprised at just how happy it made her to see him in such a peaceful state.

"I'm here because you needed it," She finally spoke. "And because no one did it for me."

Seto's eyes slid shut and he hummed his approval. He let his legs slip up and over the arm of the couch, and he crossed his arms over his stomach, settling in for a long nap. "D'you want me to take you home?"

He shook his head. "Here's fine."

Ren sighed, fingers still moving as she let her eyes close, her head lolling back against the sofa. Her neck would be sore in the morning, but as long as he was happy she supposed it would be just fine after all. And though she would never admit it, even to herself, she found that she was a little bit happy here too.