Remus set his cards down. This was a discussion they'd had more than once. Sirius' flat was much nicer than Remus could afford to pay fair rent for and he wasn't about to accept a smaller share of the lease.
"Pads, you know how I feel about that. It'd be good fun, but I can't afford it. The rent on this place is nearly twice what I pay for my bachelor and I can barely make that payment."
It was frustrating. He liked his job at the bookshop and he felt like he was doing good by working on petitioning for legal issues, but it wasn't paying the bills. He was scraping by, and while he was happy and fed and clothed, it wasn't ideal and he was lonely without the hustle and bustle of others in the house.
Scotch and poker night wasn't the place for such an argument, but Remus knew they'd have it anyway. Sirius didn't understand why Remus wouldn't accept a decreased rent payment and Remus didn't understand why Sirius couldn't accept that it was a question of pride. All in all, they'd run circles around this many times and it looked like they'd run circles again.