You were never my friend, and all I can hope is that I never see you again.

Ren leaned back into the lush chaise in the sitting room at the Kaiba estate and buried her face in her hands. She needed to get her head straight. A clear mind was all that she wanted, just five minutes of silence and calm, but with all that had happened in the past ten days, her mind just couldn't quit.

In ten short days, Ren had lost her apartment to Emi's carelessness, lost her belongings to the dank of a storage center, and lost eight hundred dollars to the hotel she had been staying in. None of her friends from high school had the means to take her in, and her search for a new apartment had so far been fruitless. She was quickly running out of money, and with payday more than two weeks away, she was running out of places to stay. The hotel that she was holed up in, while cheap, had hemorrhaged an unbelievable amount of money from her, and was not cheap enough to accommodate her for any more than two or three weeks. And the more time she spent in the hotel, the smaller her security deposit on a potential new apartment became. If she couldn't find something soon, she would have to move back in with her parents. Or starve. She couldn't decide which was worse.

In short, Ren was royally screwed.

"Ren?" She let her fingers drag from her cheeks, down her neck, to pull at her shoulders. After a brief pause, she glanced up at Mokuba, who she had completely forgotten about. The teen was perched in a chair at the opposite end of the room, a textbook in his lap and a pencil in his teeth. She had been slipping up with Mokuba lately, too. Adding more fuel to the tire fire that was her life. "Are you feeling okay?"

What made matters worse was that the kid was just too perceptive for his own good. He had side-eyed her pretty hard when she showed up to pick him up for school with eyeliner in her ear and her helmet buckled to her hair instead of beneath her chin, but he hadn't said anything about it. It didn't look like she would be so lucky today.

"Iiiiiiii'm fine." She gave an unconvincing smile, sitting up and crossing her legs beneath her. "Totally cool. I just didn't sleep that great last night."

Mokuba raised an eyebrow. Shit. "You've just been kind of out of it lately. Is something wrong? My brother didn't say anything to you, did he?"

Ren smiled despite herself, and held in a chuckle. "No, surprisingly enough, Master Kaiba has been behaving himself lately. I've just…" Her smile faded. "Things have just been rough, Mokuba."

He shrugged his shoulders. "Penny for your thoughts?"

"You really want to know?" Mokuba leveled her with a deadpan stare and she heaved a sigh, lifting her hands before dropping them into her lap, defeated. "I—fuck. I lost my apartment last week."

"You what?"

"Don't tell anybody!" She exclaimed, holding up a finger to silence him. "I'm not kidding. It's embarrassing enough as it is; I don't need anyone else knowing that I got booted out of my apartment because I was too stupid to see that Emi was an awful person to room with. I lost my security deposit, all of my shit is in this storage facility that smells like fucking fish, I'm living in this hotel that's sucking all of my money away… I don't have anyone I can live with because all of my friends are living in dorms and are just as broke as I am… And I have two more weeks until payday and I don't fuckin' know what I'm going to eat in between now and then, but it's probably gonna either be nasty ramen or dicks!"

Mokuba didn't speak for a minute or so, and Ren bit her bottom lip, averting his eyes. "Sorry." She said, studying the wallpaper carefully. "It just all sort of…"

"Why didn't you tell me? I can ask Seto to advance you the hours—"

"I don't want his help." Ren snapped, a scowl pulling at her upper lip. The last thing she wanted to do was ask her parents for help, but coming in at a close second was asking Kaiba for a favor. She was already pressed hard beneath his thumb; she didn't need for his grip on her to be any tighter than it was. "I'm not gonna take anything from him that I haven't earned. He's just my boss. He signs the paychecks for the hours that I've worked. That's all."

Mokuba frowned, his eyebrows furrowing. "Aren't we friends, though?"

"God dammit, Mokuba."

"And don't friends help out friends when they need it?"

"Mokuba, I'm supposed to be your nanny."

"So we're not friends, then?"

Ren cursed, her face flushing madly. Though she loved the kid dearly, he was stupidly persuasive, to a point that almost made her hate his guts. He cocked an eyebrow, a smirk pulling at his lips. He knew exactly how to twist her arm and get his way. The little dick.

"Why don't I talk to Seto and—"

"No." She said firmly. "I don't want it. I don't need it. He doesn't care. And I'll figure something out."

Mokuba sighed, and slumped his shoulders. "Are you sure you've got everything under control? Because it doesn't sound like you do."

"I don't, but I will. Sooner or later." He cast her a skeptical gaze, and she grinned back. "Don't worry about me. I'll figure it out."

He frowned, his eyebrows furrowed like he didn't believe her. She grinned her biggest, fakest, 'trust me' grin, and his frown gradually faded. "Would you eat dinner with us more often, then? So you don't have to starve."

"That, I will do." She grinned broadly, never a woman to turn down a free meal. Especially not one made by the Kaiba estate cooks.

"Awesome! I'll let the cooks know you're staying tonight then." Mokuba chirped, snatching up his phone and firing off a quick text message. Ren sputtered, words stumbling over her tongue as she tried to stop him, but it was to no avail. She hadn't exactly meant tonight. But she sighed, accepting her fate. Free food was free food. And though she wasn't exactly in the frame of mind to have dinner with Mokuba and his older brother, she couldn't complain. She could deal with Kaiba if it meant a hot meal.

"Thanks, Mokuba."

The following two hours were the most intense of her entire year, spent psyching herself up for the upcoming dinner with the Kaibas. Most of her interactions with the eldest Kaiba had been fleeting and enraging, and the prolonged exposure was bound to cause Ren to have a brain aneurism if she didn't properly prepare herself. She only wished she'd had the time to run to the hotel and change. She was dressed in yesterday's jeans and a plain white tank top, and had haphazardly thrown on an ill-fitting cardigan when the weather had taken a turn for the cool. She could see Kaiba now, scrutinizing every tiny wrinkle, and the thought of her appearance under his gaze was enough to make her skin crawl.

It wasn't long before there was a rustling at the front door, and a wave of dread swept over the nanny. A scowl began to pull at the corner of her mouth, but she squeezed her lips into a tight line, gritting her teeth. She turned from where she was perched on the arm of the couch, and there he was in the doorframe, frazzled from a day of work, an equally agitated look on his face. "Evening, Kaiba."

His eyes shifted to hers and a scowl crossed his face. "Kuroki." He said, turning away from her to hang his coat. "You can leave now."

As Ren opened her mouth to protest, Mokuba cut in front of her, a broad grin on his face as he greeted his brother. "Actually, Seto, I invited Ren to have dinner with us. If that's okay by you."

Seto glanced back at Ren, just as put off as she was to dine together. The closest they had ever come to sharing a meal was back in high school, when Kaiba would read in the classroom Ren slept through lunch in. That had been an unpleasant enough experience, and he hadn't changed much since then. This was bound to be bad.

"I thought we could treat her. You know? For a job well done?" Mokuba grinned, and Seto cast Ren a skeptical gaze.

"Must have been a pretty damn good job, then."

"Oh, you know, just getting to school on time. Microwaving snacks. Slaying dragons." Ren smirked. "Above and beyond, right?"

Seto remained silent as he led the way to the dining room, where the table was set for three. There was a full dinner spread out for them; a seared tuna, garlic bread, a bottle of what looked like red wine, and the most colorful salad Ren had ever seen. She had to fight to keep herself from drooling. She hadn't seen a meal so delicious in years.

Seto and Mokuba took their places at the respective heads of the table, and Ren sat herself awkwardly between them, right in Seto's line of vision. Shit. But before long, the tense silence folded and the brothers were chatting freely about their days. Which weirded Ren right out. Kaiba speaking candidly, a faint smile tugging at his lips as he listened to Mokuba talk about Mathletes practice. It was no different fron the way she talked with her sisters, but it was just strange to see it from Kaiba. Just when she had convinced herself that he was a robot, too.

"Oh! So, Seto, Ren has had a pretty interesting week too, y'know."

Ren coughed, choking on a cherry tomato. No. He was not. Seto raised an eyebrow, glancing her way. "Oh?"

"Yeah!" Mokuba continued, ignoring Ren's sputtering. "It's really kind of awful, actually. She's sorta homeless."

"Shut up, Mokuba." She finally choked out, sucking down half of her glass of wine to clear her throat. "That's not anybody's business but mine."

"What?" He asked, an innocent smile on his face. "I just thought Seto might be interested."

Ren's face burned with hatred. Never had she wanted to punt someone into a wall so badly. "I don't think Kaiba wants to hear about—"

"Why are you homeless?"

Ren stopped, stunned into silence. "Uh…" she mumbled. "My old roommate was a liability and… caused my eviction."

"Where are you living, then?"

"In a hotel downtown. It's just temporary. The renting market is just rough right now. I'll have a new place soon."

"But you told me that you're losing money faster than you can keep a security deposit, and that—"

"Mokuba, shut up."

"Why don't you just stay with your parents?"

"Because I can't stand to live with them, Kaiba!" She snapped. She exhaled angrily, shaking her head. "I moved out at eighteen and I'm not going back. I don't need them telling me that I failed."

The table fell silent, and Ren couldn't have been more embarrassed. This was something that she didn't want to tell Mokuba, let alone Kaiba. And now she had snapped at him, and given him another reason to judge her. Fantastic.

"You should move into one of our spare rooms, then."

"WHAT?" Ren's mouth fell open, halfway between shock and disgust. "Mokuba, no! I didn't ask for this, Kaiba, I'm fine." She said, holding a hand up to keep Kaiba from laughing in her face.

"It's just a good idea, isn't it Seto?" Mokuba asked, grinning widely at his brother, whose brows were knit in confusion. "That was Ren doesn't have to drive back and forth from the city all day! It'll be like when we had that Governess!"

"Mokuba, shut the fuck up. I don't need you to do this."

"But wouldn't it be so convenient? What if there's an emergency at the company and we need you to look after me in a punch? You'd just be right here! You could eat with us and move all your stuff in so you wouldn't have to pay that storage center every month. It'd be so easy!"

"I'm not gonna freeload and burden you like that. I'm doing just fine."

"No, but Ren, you really aren't!" Mokuba exclaimed, effectively silencing her. He was absolutely right. She was screwed if she couldn't find an apartment in the next week. And though she appreciated his generosity, she hadn't the slightest idea how to accept it. "You need our help. Seto, tell her she needs our help."

Kaiba, who had been watching quietly, sat up and unlaced his fingers. Ren bit her lip, bracing for impact. Though Mokuba was all for this idea of her living on the estate, she knew that Seto would shut that right down. "I'm not going to let you freeload."

"Good." She said. "Cuz I'm not going to."

"How much was rent at your last apartment?"

She paused, raising an eyebrow. "…Why?"

"Because I'm not going to let you freeload. How much was it?"

"Seven-fifty."

Seto glanced back at Mokuba. "This is what you want?" The younger Kaiba grinned broadly, and Seto turned to Ren. "We'll do six, and I'll take it out of your paycheck."

"Wait." Ren held up a hand, taking a moment to let everything sink in. "You're going to let me live here?"

"You can either starve in a flea-bitten hotel or pay rent and be a live-in nanny. Obvious choice to me. Do you not wan—"

"NO! I mean, yes, duh, of course I'll take it!" And incredulous grin spread across Ren's face. She couldn't help her delight. Though this would mean spending every waking day with Kaiba, and would mean that she was no even more indebted to him, those were things she could get over. She had a place to live.

"Thank you so much, Kaiba. You're…" Her tongue had a hard time forming the words, "a life saver."

He 'hmm'ed in response, taking a long sip of wine. "You can move your things in Friday."

But Ren hardly heard him over the sound of her shrieking laughter. She threw herself from the table and grabbed Mokuba, yanking him from his chair and crushing him in a tight hug. "Mokuba, you little shit! I'd hit you if I didn't love you so much right now!" She grinned broadly as he laughed, mussing his hair. "I'm not gonna be poor!"

Though she was a bit trepidatious of what her future with the Kaibas would be, she couldn't help but feel uplifted. The clouds were parting. She could finally see the sun.