Disclaimer: I do not own Yu-Gi-Oh!

*Rated T for Teen*

Author's Note:

Hello there, everyone! First off, I'd like to say that it's insane how this fic is the first fic I've written in seven years, and I hope you all like it and find the need to review afterwards. I also just started re-watching Yu-Gi-Oh! (almost done with Battle City), and I had finished the series a while ago, so please bear with me and inform me of any mistakes if I bring up anything from the original story.

P.S.

I just looove this couple! I remember thinking they were cute together when I was younger. Now, many years later, I'm just a creeper who wants them to do more than just be cute together. *wink, wink* *nudge, nudge* ;D

Summary:

Kaiba finds himself living with Jounouichi after a unanimous vote by his board members and Mokuba, forcing him to learn how to empathize with-or walk in the shoes of-other people and even the "lowest of duelists" for the sake of his new Dueling Academy. SetoxKatsuya.

Chapter 1:

Just Business

On a chilly November afternoon, browning autumn leaves snapped from the frail limbs of aging trees, scattering across Domino City as the winds grew harsher. People hurried on to find shelter in cemented walls, holding on to their hats, scarves, skirts-anything light enough to be swept away. The violent winds continued on with their rampage, battering against the glass windows of small shops and restaurants-relentless to even what seemed to be the strongest and largest of settlements.

Of these structures was Kaiba Corp, looming over the city with a mighty height that reached the clouds. Gusts of winds attacked the tall windows of Kaiba Corp's meeting room, but the glass was formidable in its' defense. Even more formidable was the tension wafting in the large room as several higher workers scanned through documents containing Kaiba's latest ideas for his new academy for duelists.

The young man himself took his seat at the end of the table as he motioned his clicker to turn off the projector, never taking his cobalt eyes off of his workers. He had a sudden urge to start fidgeting or twiddling his thumbs, but immediately destroyed it as Kaiba's do not fidget nor do they twiddle.

No, there would be no twiddling of thumbs here; Kaiba was sure his ideas were gold, and he had the utmost confidence that his workers would love them. He let a small smirk grace his face and thought, 'they're going to love-'

"I hate these," a rude voice interrupted.

The CEO took a quick, sharp breath as his grip on the seat handles tightened in surprise. Due to years of training, his usual poker face remained until he turned his head to grace his insulter with a fierce glare and the intention to relieve the person of his duties.

Too bad that person was his little brother.

"Mokuba…," the brunette called out to his brother through gritted teeth, "what do you think you're doing here?"

Mokuba glared back with an intensity that nearly matched Seto's, proving that they were indeed blood brothers, and replied, "I am the Vice President, y'know. I do have a right to be here, niisama."

The brunette let out a small sigh. He was irritated by his sibling's behavior, but, in a certain way, proud; Mokuba would make a fine replacement for him.

When he was long gone and dead, of course.

"Alright," Seto began, "would you like to explain to me and my board what exactly it is that you 'hate', Vice President?"

At this, the workers looked flustered; they were already overwhelmed when dealing with one Kaiba, and getting caught between two of them could lead to terrible, destructive-even nuclear-things. Even so, they remained silent and listened intently.

The younger Kaiba gave a little pout, but courageously took up the offer and began his explanation. "Well, first off, what's with this super hard placement test to get into the school? With a test like this, everyone applying would fail!"

"Of course this test was created so that only the finest of duelists would be able to attend the academy," Kaiba sneered. "Would you all agree that we do not need any lowly, second-rate duelists plaguing the school?"

Despite whatever disagreements they had in their minds, the poor workers frantically nodded, fearful of their CEO's possible reaction to rejection.

Mokuba rolled his eyes, but continued. "By the finest of duelists, you pretty much mean you and Yami." Kaiba frowned at the use of his rival's name, but remained silent. "And besides, this is an academy for duelists; people will be there to learn how to duel better so obviously they won't be as great as you want them to be at first."

With this statement, the workers genuinely nodded, which was a huge contrast to how frantically they had nodded to Seto's claim earlier. Brows furrowing, Seto began to get a little anxious as Mokuba carried on in his assault on the concepts.

"Oh, and I'm reading this one directly from the report." The boy looked down at the papers in his hands and cleared his throat, "as a requisite for graduation, all students attending the dueling academy will be required to defeat Seto Kaiba in a duel before any documents of completion are granted."

"Again, only the finest of duelists will be able to get in, and the finest of duelists will be able to leave," Seto replied arrogantly.

Mokuba looked up at Seto, frowning. "Nobody would graduate then!"

"Hn, that would be true, since they wouldn't be able to defeat me. Good point. I'll make sure to take that one out. Carry on."

"Plus, with all of the new equipment and what these blue prints look like, the cost of this place would be insane!"

"I will only settle for the best, Mokuba."

"Does the best really have to include a twelve foot, granite statue of yourself and a Blue Eyes White Dragon!?" Mokuba cried out, slapping the papers with the back of his free hand.

Seto shrugged his little brother's retort off and dryly replied, "yes."

Mokuba rolled his eyes and Seto gave him a look that urged him to go on. "Anyway, because of the costs, the tuition would almost be double the tuition of Tokyo U and any of the top universities around here! Just who do you think, excluding yourself niisama, would be able to afford this?" (1)

"Yes, but—"

Mokuba halted his comeback. "And who do you think would be working on all of this new equipment to meet your deadline by the end of this year?"

Seto rolled his eyes as if the question was stupid. "My employees of course." He averted his gaze to his board and asked, "we have plenty of competent men such as Sahara and Takashi down in the tech department who are efficient enough to get this done in time, correct?"

The room was silent until one brave soul was able to gulp and reply, "t-they are no longer with the c-company, s-sir."

The brunette's brow furrowed into a questioning look. "And why is that?"

"Y-you fired them, sir."

"You're fired," the CEO replied curtly, obviously annoyed and finding the need to lash out on the worker's honesty.

The poor employee jumped at this and became teary eyed, frantically gathering up his papers and belongings.

"No-no-no-no-NO! Oh NO, you are NOT firing him Seto!" Mokuba cried out as he stomped over to the worker and slapped the briefcase out of his hands. "You." He pointed at the worker.

Sweat dripped down the worker's forehead as he stared at the younger Kaiba.

"Sit back down," Mokuba ordered, very obvious in his attitude that he was not backing down.

The older brother abruptly stood up, his tall figure stretching up to a menacing height as he sent his brother a glare. "Enough, Mokuba! I am attempting to have a meeting with my board and you are disturbing us! If you have any more input or ridiculous things to say, I would advise you to speak up now or leave us be. Do you understand?"

Mokuba looked as if he was about to jump at his big brother's throat; he hadn't been this furious at his brother since he had taken his video games and much beloved Pocky treats away from him as punishment that one time.

"Oh I do understand, niisama. I DO." Mokuba stamped over to his brother after he grabbed one of the workers' expensive tablets off of the table. "I understand that—" he paused, violently swiping his fingers across the device, "these ideas are ridiculous and unreasonable, and your tech department is completely EMPTY!"

Huffing, he shoved the tablet in front of Seto's face to reveal the live camera footage that displayed Kaiba Corps' tech department. To the CEO's surprise, the room was indeed empty. The only things that remained to be seen were sharp glares of computer lights and the occasional tumbleweed to add to the pathetically barren scene.

"Just where the hell are those fools!?" Kaiba yelled out, mostly to himself, but Mokuba answered:

"Well, niisama, you either fired them for stupid reasons or you scared them away because of the monster that you've become!"

Seto's heart sank at the words that had just spilled out of Mokuba's mouth. Sure, it was true that he had not been the most kind and understanding of bosses, but he was efficient and needed to do what needed to be done. His successful, multi-billion dollar company was more than enough to prove that, and he had been able to give Mokuba whatever he may want or need. Even so, somewhere deep down in his heart, he knew that the many years of running his company had made him into the 'monster' that Mokuba—the only person in the world that meant something to him—had come to hate. Not yet, but surely enough, that hate would come to fruition and he would lose his most precious person.

The brunette was absolutely terrified of this thought, and as he glimpsed at his board members who were hanging their heads down in what could be viewed as shame or fear, he realized his brother was right to say those things.

Seto sat down, resting his forehead in the palm of his hand as he let out an exasperated sigh. "Alright, Mokuba…," he began, "what do you want from me?"

Mokuba walked over to his big brother and placed his hand on the elder's shoulder. "It's not just me, niisama; it's everyone."

Seto looked up, a curious look on his face as he glanced at his brother and then his workers, softly asking, "everyone…?"

The eyes of his board members quickly averted, too frightened to meet with the intensity of the CEO's deep, cerulean eyes.

Mokuba let out a sigh. "Yes, everyone." Seto looked up at him from his seat, and the younger could see the tiniest glint of emotion dancing in his brother's eyes before it quickly escaped to an unknown place. "People are scared of you, niisama. Your workers, especially. You've been firing people left and right, and sometimes I think you don't really fully understand the impact of your attitude on other peoples' lives…."

He continued on. "I know that you care about this company. And you care about me, Seto…." He took a deep breath. "But you need to start caring for more than that if you want this company to keep going, and especially if you want this duelists' academy to be successful."

Kaiba felt cornered at this point; it wasn't everyday that he had his "imperfections" put on blast in front of people nor was it everyday that people were willing to stand up to him. He was fully aware that he wasn't very well liked amongst his company, and it was obvious that he couldn't be the 'Mr. Happy-Go-Lucky-Fuck-Work-Let's-Party-Guys!' type of boss. Instead, he had opted for the complete opposite: overly-strict and firing anyone who dared to get in his way.

But the brunette had felt right in his behavior. There were plenty of people whom he could hire—people even more competent than stupid Sahara or Takashi or whomever the fuck had worked in the tech department. His company was flourishing and would continue to do so with or without the people he had threatened or crushed along his destructive journey to the top. So why did he have to change now? What benefit would he have from listening to these people?

"I have an idea," Mokuba chimed in, disrupting the elder's deep reflections.

Kaiba straightened himself up, regaining his mighty CEO posture and charging his defensive wall back up. "And what would that be, Mokuba?" He asked with a little bit of impatience laced in his voice.

"Now, before I bring it up, it has to be something that is voted on by us and the board before anything happens," the younger explained.

"Fine," Kaiba complied, not willing to back down.

The board members glanced at each other, confused, but relieved that the brothers had stopped arguing, and eventually nodded in agreement.

Mokuba stood straight, a smile on his face as he held out three fingers to his audience. "Three weeks," he began triumphantly. "My big brother, Seto Kaiba and also CEO of Kaiba Corp, will be temporarily relieved of his duties for three weeks as I, Vice President, take over to hire or rehire workers for the production of the duelists' academy and continue with its' preparations."

Kaiba leaped up from his chair and slammed his hands on the table, causing everyone to jump. "And what exactly is it that you want me to do when relieved of my duties, Mokuba!? How could you even think you could do this without me!?"

Mokuba remained calm. "Niisama will be assigned a project to learn about the lives of others—specifically the 'lowly', 'second-rate', 'poor' people whom you wouldn't even give a chance to attend your academy."

"This is ridiculous Moku—"

"And I can do the hiring and preparations. Without you, niisama."

Kaiba looked amused by this. "Oh, really now?"

Mokuba smirked a typical Kaiba family smirk and answered, "Yes. I can. So let's just vote on this now."

The brunette's throat moved with a small gulp as he had completely forgotten that this matter would be voted on.

"Everyone in favor of the CEO temporarily relinquishing his duties to me, Vice President, to pursue this three week project, please raise your hands!"

Seconds dragged on as the workers kept their arms down, causing Seto to smirk in preemptive victory. 'Of course they wouldn't agree to this nonsense! I don't need to learn how to empathize or whatever Mokuba wants me to—'

A shaky hand was raised.

And then another.

And another.

Soon enough, all hands were raised in a unanimous vote against the CEO of Kaiba Corp.

A smug look was plastered on Mokuba's face as he turned to his older brother and sarcastically asked, "And all against the idea?"

Seto smacked his forehead in defeat and half-heartedly raised his hand.

"Urgh…."

(1) I really don't know how much tuition is at Tokyo U, but I'm a poor student so I can empathize, ha-ha.

Well, hope you guys liked it! Please review. Positive or negative, I won't cry! (maybe ._.) Oh, and I promise our beloved puppy, Katsuya, will be in the next chapter! ^_^"