-Simple Fiction-

-x-

Renge lay back on her bed, at her little cottage that she'd bought because it had reminded her of some fancomic she had read or made a couple of years before. She didn't even like the place; an otaku's gotta do, what s/he has to do...

She held her face in her hands, groaning at the fail that was her life. She had let herself be blackmailed by three small children and now she'd lost her job and any chance of having a social, platonic relationship with anyone her own age or more.

I've ruined everything. Why do I drive everyone away? I always do. It's not like I want to-

The phone rang, catching her off guard. She grabbed it off the hook and placed it to her ear, half-heartedly. "Hello?"

"Renge," came the crisp voice of the man she had been speaking to earlier that week. His voice sounded a lot calmer now than it did back then...

She sighed. Great. "Yeah yeah yeah, when's the court case against me going to be held?"

"We'll talk about that some other time, but right now I need you here, as my situation with this troublesome client still hasn't changed. So, six O'clock this evening?"

"Really? I didn't think you would hire me again!" she exclaimed, genuinely surprised.

"I'm not. You're volunteering to do this free of charge, unless you really do want to go to court."

She blanched. "Well...that is reasonable..."

"And I'm searching you before I let you anywhere near my children again."

"..."

"Well, Kaoru is..."

"..."

Hikaru sighed on the other end. "It's okay, he's gay anyways..."

A yell came from the other line. "I heard that!"

-x-

After one very awkward, thorough searching from the younger of the Hitachiin twins (the poor man had a flush on his face the whole time; Renge, seemingly unaffected, spent the time to question his love life, and if she could get pictures in return for her nonexistent trauma) Renge was once again left alone with three unruly, Hitachiin children.

"So..." she started, looking at their quiet faces curiously.

"So," they repeated, one after the other.

"Well, I haven't brought any manga with me today, and I've been prohibited from watching anime while in the building; so, it's really your choice what we do."

Cami shrugged. "I could read?" she offered.

"Oh, for your siblings?"

The girl blanched. "I don't read out loud," she muttered, earning a stuck out tongue from her sister.

Renge sighed. "Ami?"

A shrug. "Nope, nothin'"

Ryu glanced up at the babysitter, raising an eyebrow. "Hey, otaku?" Renge looked down, acknowledging his small frame. "Why are you trying? I mean, Uncle Kaoru plays with us and gets along with us because he's our uncle an' all; you're not a relation, so why aren't you being all mean and stuff like the ones on tv?"

"What do you watch; 'Fairly Odd Parents'?"

"Yeah, so?"

"Well, that explains it then."

Ryu gave her a confused look before stating, "Daddy banned me from the xbox because Uncle Kaoru said he watched some documentery about how stuff like that wrecks your brain; though I think Uncle Kaoru was only joking, but Daddy took it all seriously. What do you think?"

Renge blinked, before letting a smirk that bemused the children take over her features. The king of gaming and his similar monarchical standard brother thought it was going to melt the child's brain? Hypocrite wasn't really the word to describe it.

"Well, I can't undermine your father," she told the little boy, who huffed and folded his arms in defeat, "Well, is there anything else you'd like to do?"

They all shrugged.

"How about dress up? Little kids like dressing up, right?"

Ami looked up at her in bemusement. "We don't have any dress up costumes," she told the woman, her eyebrows raised.

Renge smirked. "Leave it to me."

-x-

Hikaru looked at his watch. Then back around the empty room.

Kaoru had jumped out of the limo in some vaguely familiar street, telling his big brother that he'd meet him at the meeting room, and still hadn't shown up. But then again, neither had the client they were supposed to be meeting, which made Hikaru wonder if he was insanely early, or everyone else was over two hours late.

He sighed, drumming his fingers on the desk.

-x-

"Miss?"

The client looked up from the café table, smiling knowingly at the younger Hitachiin twin. "I came, Kaoru-kun."

Kaoru smirked, pulling out a stool. "I know you did," he replied, "I have eyes."

The client didn't even bother with a pout, just again with the knowing smile. "I can see that. So, you wanted to talk about your brother? Behind his back? I find that awfully rude."

Kaoru's face hardened. "Yes. Why are you messing him around like this? Undercover and all. It's not right, and he'll be furious when he finds out."

"Who says he's going to find out?"

"He's not a complete idiot," Kaoru sighed, "Why are you doing this?"

The client smiled again. "Because, it's what she would have wanted."

And Kaoru then understood.