Chapter 1

"Mokuba, just get ready already!" Seto was already frustrated and it was only 8:00 am. Mokuba was not only late for school himself, but was making him late too.

"Haha, you said ready already!" The little furballish pre-teen was extremely hyper thanks to the immense spoonfuls of sugar in his cereal.

"This isn't funny! If I'm late, then you're grounded for an entire week with no video games or arcades."

"Fine!" said his little brother, folding his arms across his chest in anger and frustration. He reluctantly followed his big brother to the car where he wouldn't talk to him every time he tried to elicit a conversation.

"We're here," Seto announced, but Mokuba still wouldn't answer. This wasn't a good day. Not at all.

After he drove to Kaiba Corp. owned by yours truly, he saw that his parking spot was already occupied. Not only was he mad that he couldn't find a parking spot, but also that someone had dared to take his, the CEO's, parking spot. With the intention of firing at least one person hot on his mind, he entered the grandiose building and pressed the button for the elevator. As soon as he did, the machine dinged and the elevator turned off. Now, he was really pissed. He would have to climb 17 flights to get to his office. So our young CEO took of his jacket and braced himself for the trip upstairs. After 10 minutes, he finally reached his office, sweaty and exhausted.

"Hello Mr. Kaiba, I hope you're having a fine morning to-," Big mistake.

"I don't need you coming up here, preaching to me about what a fucking peachy morning it's been OK? It's been fucking awesome!! Now shut up and get me some freaking water!"

"Yes Mr. Kaiba, sir," the intern whimpered and ran away to get him some water ASAP.

He entered his office, where his desk, within a time period of 2 hours, had already been completely covered by stacks of paper.

This was going to be a very long day.

"I'm sorry sir. I promise he won't do it again."

"He had better not! It's only his second year here, and he's already committed 30 offenses."

"Look I said he won't do it again! What the hell do you want?!"

"Sorry Mr. Kaiba," the old teacher whimpered, "thank you. Umm, I'll go attend to the other parents now."

'Geez' thought Kaiba, 'old people were so annoying.' What did he think Seto hadn't heard him the first time? It was parent-teacher night at Domino Middle School, and so far from what Mokuba's teachers had told him, Seto should've grounded Mokuba for the next 5 years. In one class he would make fun of the nerds, in the other he would bother the teacher. He was a nuisance to the entire administrative branch of the school.

Seto was dressed in the same black pants and white shirt from work, but his coat was hung over his arm. He looked around at the projects the kids had made. Of course, Mokuba had forgotten to hand his project in on time. His brain was going down the drain with all the games that he played. Seto had to leave work early for the school meeting, and was now stuck finishing all his work at home. He knew he wasn't going to get any sleep with Mokuba moaning and groaning about how the teachers were horrible or that his friends were the reason he was doing bad. On top of the papers that he had to fill out, Seto was sure he'd be up until 3:00 am.

He drove home completely tired, and almost falling asleep twice behind the wheel. It was 8:00 pm and Mokuba still wasn't home. Seto had just decided to finish his work, drudging through every record of every sale and every worker and every product. It hadn't been fun when he was in high school, and it wasn't fun now, but he liked having work and he loved the authority that came with his position. Many businesses and foundations heavily depended on the funds and products of Kaiba Corp.

He decided to change into more comfortable clothes, so he put on some sky blue pajamas, and was about to put on his shirt when he heard the main door close loudly with a thud, followed by some loud cursing. Probably Mokuba cursing the door for closing so loudly.

He walked outside of his room, carrying his shirt in his hand, when he saw Mokuba stop and look up at him.

"Do you have any idea of what the time is?"

"I'm sorry Seto, I was just a little.........busy?"

"Don't play around Mokuba! I went to your school today to meet with your teachers. And what I heard wasn't exactly pleasing."

Mokuba knew he was in trouble now, so he said the first thing that came to his mind, to distract Seto and get out of there.

"Seto, there's a dead man outside!"

"Mokuba, don't be stupid! I'm not falling for this, and don't even think about trying to weasel your way out of here." He emphasized his point by wagging his finger at Mokuba. Seto had never been the parental type; he couldn't scold Mokuba for his life. He just had such a soft spot for him.

"Seto really! There's a dead man outside in the garden!" Mokuba knew that the one vulnerability his big brother had was him. Seto couldn't refuse anything that Mokuba said.

"Fine, I'll go outside, just to prove you wrong. You can be such a baby sometimes Mokuba."

So Kaiba stepped outside the house and walked around not seeing any dead people. "See Mokuba? What did I-oomph!" He tripped over something heavy and fell down. Turning around, a little fazed, to see what exactly had happened, he came face to face with the face of a dead man. But apparently he wasn't dead since Seto could hear the faint sound of the intake of air. The man had blood running down his jaw line and neck, and his arm had a slash across it. His white hair, which was matted with dirt and blood, was covering his face as if trying to protect the owner from being revealed. Seto slowly brushed away the hair only to widen his eyes in realization.

It was Yami Bakura, deeply unconscious on the doorstep of Seto Kaiba.

Bakura's arm had been bleeding profusely so Seto wrapped his shirt around it. He picked him up, smearing blood all over his chest in the process, and then took him inside. He had never expected this; never expected his past to come back with such vengeance.

He put Bakura in one of the guest rooms, bringing in extra blankets and pillows since they kept nothing in the guest rooms, probably because they never had any guests. Seto had Mokuba fetch him a wet cloth and some ointment for the wounds. He cleaned the blood of Bakura's face and neck then cleaned up the arm. He then rubbed the ointment on and wrapped the arm around with bandages, doing the same with the jaw. He left some painkillers and some water on the side-table in case Bakura woke up in extreme pain. He sent Mokuba to his room and then decided to finish the rest of his work.

Seto Kaiba had changed a lot since the days of high school. Back then, he had been a cold sneering rich snob, who would die before he should a hint of emotion to his fellow peers. To him, everyone was beneath him and his intelligence. Seto Kaiba ruled the whole school with authority and an iron hand. But that was before all the yamis had enrolled. With the addition of a pharaoh, who definitely would not bow down to any other authority, and a tomb robber and a tomb keeper who exemplified the disregard for authority, Kaiba's exterior had been broken. He found no use in terrorizing others anymore, after all Bakura and Marik did enough of that. He also began to regress into his own world, deciding to completely disregard everyone else.

During those days, there had been a controversy surrounding Yami Bakura and his hikari Ryou Bakura. It was clear that Bakura had been abusing Ryou, but Ryou refused to give any information. Seto himself had once happened upon a scene where he had seen the truth to these rumors. He had wanted to retrieve some files from his laptop, but he had left his laptop in his locker. When he was walking in the halls, about to turn the corner, he saw Bakura punch Ryou in his ribs and look down as his light collapsed from the pain.

From then on, Kaiba had developed a sort of interest in Bakura, seeing that both of them had a wild aggression, and a need to assert authority. Bakura had lost his with the reincarnation of the pharaoh and his outlet was his hikari. For Seto, it had been all his workers and everyone who couldn't compete with him for power. He had found himself falling deeply in love with this mysterious incarnate, which was miraculous only when you considered the fact that it was Seto Kaiba. He would have pursued him, if it hadn't been for the crushing revelation that Bakura was, in a weird twisted sort of a way, in love with is hikari. From then on, Kaiba combined both of his previous personalities to become a cold, lone student and CEO, who didn't bother caring about others but kept a distinct amount of control over them.

To find this elusive love on his doorstep 5 years later was a shock to say the least. But by the looks of those wounds, this wasn't an ordinary wound. Bakura shouldn't have been so deeply wounded, being the spirit that he was. But maybe, the yamis had undergone a transformation since he last saw them.

Seto had the feeling deep inside his heart that he didn't want to let himself get close to Bakura. He knew he would get hurt again. And Seto Kaiba was never one who let himself be hurt by others. So all he would have to do would be to turn his heart into ice in the face of Yami Bakura, to forget the notions of love. He would prove that there was no one more powerful, more in control than the great Seto Kaiba.