It has been a few years, but now I've decided to try and return to this site again. After college, I felt like any ability I may have ever had to write had been vanquished by all those assignments that required boring scientific writing, and then it was time to work for a living. I'm still struggling as I try to return to my roots, but finally I feel that I've written something semi-decent - namely, what you are about to read.

Perhaps some of you remember one of my old fics, "Sun, fun and nothing to do". Even back in the day, I toyed with the thought of writing its prequel, and now it's finally happening after I've returned to the YGO fandom and my OTP (puppyshipping) after... geez, so many years :') This is the story of how Seto and Katsuya got together and formed the Kaiba family as portrayed in that particular fic. I hope you will enjoy it!

Note: I cannot promise 100% IC-ness. I can try, yes, but I still feel like one should be able to take certain liberties when writing fanfiction if they choose to do so. I dunno, maybe I've looked up one too many sporkings or come across too many blogs where people insist that everything be 100% IC or according to canon. Therefore, I only have one request: please only use constructive criticism, and if you're looking for a 100% accurate fic as previously described, hit the back button or close this tab.

Now... storytime, go!

EDIT: Forgot the disclaimer. Damn, I feel stupid XD Yeah, I don't own any of these characters, they all belong to Kazuki Takahashi!

When Mokuba Kaiba opened his grey eyes to the insistent ringing of his alarm clock, it took him but a moment to snap out of the sleepiness that clung to him. With a noise of excitement, he hopped out of bed, hastily donned some casual clothes, then dashed downstairs. He had long since memorized the morning routine within these walls; at this hour, his destination was the kitchen, where he would barge in to happen upon –

"Nii-sama, I'm ready! Let's –" he cried, but stopped mid-cry when he noticed the empty table. On it laid a folded newspaper and a used coffee mug. "…go," he finally finished in a small and disappointed voice. Then: "Nii-sama?" he called loudly, leaving the kitchen.

His steps took him to the foyer, and he was about to go back upstairs and check his brother's study when Isono appeared.

"Can I help you, Master Mokuba?" their most faithful servant asked.

"Yeah; where's Seto? He said he'd go to the carnival with me today!"

Isono blinked. "Master Kaiba left two hours ago for work."

Mokuba's face fell, now looking a far cry from when he had woken up. "But… but he promised…!"

"I'm sure he didn't forget on purpose, Master Mokuba," Isono said helpfully.

The boy's face hardened and turned into a frown. "Yeah right! Why can't he ever keep these promises?!"

Isono said nothing; he doubted there were any disarming words for this situation, since he had become accustomed to them.

Mokuba briefly stared a hole into the floor as he pondered his next steps. When he drew a spontaneous conclusion, he whirled around and headed for the door. "I'm going out," he simply said.

"When will you be back?" Isono asked.

"I don't know," Mokuba said as he wrenched open the door.

"But Master Mokuba –" the man wearing sunglasses began, knowing it was bad for him if he couldn't provide information on the youngster's whereabouts, should Seto Kaiba happen to call or ask about this matter upon coming home.

"Later," was the curt response before the mansion doors slammed shut.

Outside, Mokuba broke into a run as he crossed the grand area complete with a fountain that formed their majestic driveway and exited through the front gate. He didn't look back once and hoped he wasn't being followed. Just to be safe, he quickly fished out his cell phone and selected Flight Mode.

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He altered between a run and a brisk trot until he had reached Domino City Plaza, where he stuck to the outskirts to avoid drawing attention to himself. Even at a quick glance around, he spotted the tall glass building that towered above all others in Domino, and he scowled as his disappointment returned full-force.

"Thanks a lot, Seto," he muttered sullenly as he headed west, aiming for the Kame Game Shop where he was bound to find Yugi and perhaps some of his friends too.

Just as he passed Domino City Market, a familiar voice called out to him:

"Hey Mokuba! What's up?"

He turned to look and spotted a blond teen who had just exited the supermarket, sipping a jumbo-sized soft drink. The light green jacket, worn jeans and hazel eyes left no doubt about it: his paths had crossed with Katsuya Jounouchi, Yugi's best friend.

"Hi Jou!" he exclaimed and hurried over to the older teen. His older brother didn't have a terribly favorable opinion on the blond, but over the course of the adventures they had been through, Mokuba had decided that Katsuya was quite fun to hang around with – it helped that his and Seto's take on "fun" was light years apart, with Katsuya ranging more along Mokuba's lines.

"Whatcha doing?" Katsuya asked casually, sipping his Coke.

"I want to go to the carnival. Seto was supposed to go with me today, but… he forgot," he answered, bowing his head.

The youngster's obvious disappointment elicited sympathy from Katsuya.

"Ah, that's a bummer. Isn't it leaving town again soon?"

"Tomorrow," Mokuba confirmed sadly.

Katsuya thought briefly about the whole ordeal, then snapped his fingers and said with a grin: "Hey, how about if I go with you instead?"

Seto's brother looked up, surprise and hopefulness alike shining in his eyes. "Really, Jou? You'd go with me?"

"Sure! Technically I'm on my way to work, but," he said quickly, noticing how the happiness already began to fade, "I'm sure it's no problem. Hang on a sec…"

Katsuya plucked his cell phone out of his jeans and quickly dialed the number of the Kame Game Shop. Yugi answered the phone. Katsuya worked part-time at the Game Shop, and fortunately for him, not only was he himself quite flexible in terms of availability, but so were the Mutous. After a brief discussion, he focused on Mokuba again.

"Yug' says it's okay if I don't come today. Let's go, sport!"

"Really? Thanks, Jou! You're awesome!" Mokuba cheered and glomped the older teen out of sheer excitement.

Katsuya laughed at this, then the two of them made tracks for the carnival.

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Along the way, Katsuya learned of Mokuba's plight when it came to spending quality time with Seto. The brunet was deeply engrossed with his work on expanding Kaibaland, and Mokuba's problem was that even though the CEO was well within his own set schedule, he still kept breaking many promises about going places with Mokuba. Still; getting dumped like this with no explanation at all was something Mokuba hadn't often experienced yet, and he hated it. He hated feeling so disappointed in his older brother, and he hated that try as he might, he couldn't accept the fact that Seto's work was taking up 24 hours a day, 7 days a week in the young CEO's life… again. After Duelist Kingdom, things had improved for a while, but then Battle City had come along – and yet even that had been different from now. Mokuba was feeling more distant to his honorable older brother than he had in years, and it both worried and hurt him.

But at the carnival, his worries were quickly swept away: Katsuya allowed him to lead the way, happily agreeing to any activity. No ride was too high or wild for him, he never worried about safety issues and wasn't beneath trying his luck at the various stands that offered cute prizes – and to top it off, he was all too eager to get sugary drinks, cotton candy and the likes. Mokuba was certain that even if Seto had kept his promise, he would have drawn the line at this. Sweet foods and drinks were rarely found on the brunet's list of things he consumed.

With all the fun they were having, time practically flew by, and all too soon, it was closing time. The pair headed for the exit, carrying more than they had upon coming here: a photo from one of the rollercoasters on which both of them were yelling delightedly amidst an adrenaline rush, a maxi-sized panda plushie Mokuba had won in an amazing game of darts, and a medium-sized Blue-Eyes White Dragon plushie for Katsuya, who had flawlessly shot a series of baskets.

"Darn it, too bad they don't have a Red-Eyes," he had grumbled upon receiving his prize. Mokuba had only grinned, and it hadn't been long before it had dawned on the older teen's face too.

He agreed to accompany Mokuba home, and all the way there, they reminisced about their day and what they had liked best about it.

At the gates, Mokuba hugged Katsuya gratefully. "Thank you so much for coming with me, Jou; I had so much fun!"

"Aww, don't mention it," Katsuya replied, returning the embrace, "I had a great time too. If you ever wanna hang out again, just gimme a ring, okay?"

"Right! What's your number?" Mokuba asked, whipping out his cell phone. Then his face fell a bit. "Oh no, looks like it died sometime today…"

"No problem; got a pen?"

"No, but you could quickly come inside, then we–"

"Mokuba! Where have you been?!" a stern voice interrupted their conversation.

They both spun around, just in time to see a very tall brunet with cold blue eyes wrench open the front gate. He didn't look like a happy camper at all.

Katsuya whistled softly. "Oh shit…"

"Seto! I… um… well…" At first, Mokuba was caught off-guard by the sudden presence of his obviously agitated brother, but he quickly got over it and squared his shoulders. "Funny you should ask: where were you?"

Seto raised an elegant eyebrow. "At work, of course. Why do you ask such a silly question?"

"Because you apparently forgot what today was!" the boy replied, and Seto was somewhat taken aback to see disappointment in his brother's features.

He thought for a moment, but couldn't even invite Mokuba to prompt him before the boy continued:

"We were supposed to go to the carnival today, Seto! You promised! And you forgot! So I went with Jou instead!"

Carnival? And suddenly Seto remembered: oh God, yes, he had made that promise after much begging from Mokuba!

"I'm sorry, Mokuba –" he began.

"– but I forgot, I know," his sibling finished disdainfully. "Whatever."

"But why with him?" Seto asked, gesturing to Katsuya yet not sparing the other duelist a glance, "You could have asked Isono!"

Mokuba rolled his eyes. "I wanted to have fun, Seto. Isono is good for keeping an eye on people, not for having fun. Jou is, though," he added, happily smiling at the other teen, who sheepishly rubbed the back of his head as Seto's piercing gaze set upon him.

"If anything had happened to Mokuba…" the brunet said, lowering his voice to a venomous tone.

"Hey, chill out, okay? We were fine; we can look out for ourselves!" Katsuya protested, raising his hands defensively. "Kid, I think I'll split before he tears me apart or something," he muttered to Mokuba. Seto scowled at this.

The youngster looked rueful. "I'm sorry, Jou…"

"Nah, you've got nothing to be sorry about. Everything went fine, didn't it? Listen, you know where to find me next time you need company, 'kay?"

Looking hopeful and perhaps already looking forward to the next time, Mokuba nodded. "Okay!"

They high-fived each other, then Katsuya stepped up to Seto. "Hey Rich Boy, perhaps you'd like this more than me." With that, he thrust the Blue-Eyes plushie into Seto's unsuspecting arms, taking the CEO completely by surprise. "That's your monster, after all. Well, see ya!" he bade goodbye to both Kaiba brothers, then trotted off, leaving a happily waving Mokuba and a flabbergasted Seto behind.

"What the hell…?!" the brunet finally exclaimed, holding up the plushie as if it were a piece of filth.

"Jou won it by shooting baskets. And I won this," Mokuba explained matter-of-factly, holding up his panda.

"That's nice," Seto responded absently. "I have no use for this…!" he continued, narrowing his eyes at the innocent plushie.

"Aw, come on, Seto, it's a present! And it is a Blue-Eyes, after all," Mokuba told him, knowing how fond Seto was of the powerful monster.

Grimacing, Seto clutched the dragon by its neck before heading back across the mansion grounds. Mokuba hurried to follow.

"Mokuba, why didn't you at least call me? Do you have any idea how worried I was when I came home and you weren't anywhere to be found?" Seto scolded.

"My phone died during the day. Then I was having so much fun… I guess I forgot," Mokuba said not without some snarkiness in his voice as the two brothers entered the mansion again.

"Look, I said I'm sorry, alright?" Seto asked impatiently, facing him in the foyer, "But this is about your safety. If something had happened to you…"

"Jou would have protected me," Mokuba argued.

"But if he hadn't been with you…!" Seto sighed and ran one hand through his hair in exasperation. "Listen, little brother, just please tell me where you're off to next time. I only want you to be safe or at least have a means by which to contact me in case of an emergency. …Or contact me at all," he added pointedly.

Mokuba averted his gaze and shuffled his feet a bit. "Sorry, Seto… but I really wanted to go…"

"Just promise me, okay?"

"Okay. But I'd like it if you kept your promise next time."

"I'll try," Seto told him.

Mokuba frowned, but said nothing. He knew that given how much of a workaholic Seto was, this was the best one could get out of him. He wished it were otherwise, though.

"And by the way, I do hope you'll choose more favorable company next time, should this situation ever occur again," Seto said.

"What's wrong with Jou?" Mokuba asked defiantly, clutching his panda.

"Kaibas don't associate with mutts. You just end up spending a lot of money on them for nothing, as you undoubtedly did today too," Seto huffed.

Mokuba stuck up his nose and marched off to the stairs – he had heard enough from his brother. And after breaking a promise, even! "For your information, Seto: Jou paid for everything today. I didn't have any money with me. And I will pay him back because he made me happy."

"Mokuba!"

But the young teen didn't listen anymore as he made a beeline for his room, locking the door behind him. He didn't approve of his brother's condescending attitude toward Katsuya; then again, this was nothing new. When they weren't literally at each other's throats, though, Katsuya seemed to take it in stride; after all, Mokuba thought as he parked the panda on his big bed, Katsuya had plenty of friends from whom he could expect better treatment. Seto, on the other hand… he had nobody, even if he claimed to not need it. Sometimes, Mokuba caught himself wondering if that statement was true. But so far, all his attempts to find out more about this had been smartly cut off the CEO, who lived in his world of work, work and more work.

Yes, sometimes Mokuba worried about his brother. Recently, more often, in fact…

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One Saturday later found Mokuba and Katsuya in each other's company again. Having exchanged phone numbers in the meantime, it had been easy for them to meet up at the game arcade. This time, Seto had flat-out refused to "go out and have fun", but the disappointment hadn't been so great for Mokuba now that he knew he could call upon Katsuya instead. It marked the beginning of a new trend, as Seto concluded roughly a month later…

It hit him on the way home one Saturday evening. Something had seemed amiss in his daily life, and after carefully recapping the last two or so weeks in his mind, he realized what it was: ordinarily, Mokuba would ask him at least once a week if they could hang out together. But in these past two weeks, any such requests had been completely absent from his life – along with any complaints about Seto being too obsessed with his work.

The elder Kaiba hummed thoughtfully; this was highly unusual, and he decided to see if everything was alright with Mokuba, even though the youngster seemed as cheerful as usual. The limousine drove him right up to the front door, but that was where normality ended for Seto: when he entered the mansion, no one came running to say hello and give him a hug that tended to be the unspoken highlight of his day. Furrowing his brow, Seto discarded his briefcase just as Isono appeared.

"Good evening, Master Kaiba."

"Evening, Isono. Where is Mokuba?" Seto asked, getting straight to the point.

"Master Mokuba is in the living room doing his homework."

The CEO's blue eyes widened a bit. His little brother? Doing his homework before being asked if he had finished it (which he usually didn't)? Something was not right…

"Thanks," he said curtly before he swept off.

In said living room, a sight greeted him that halted him in his tracks: Mokuba was indeed sitting at the generous table of their spacious sofa corner, his math textbooks spread out in front of him. And he wasn't alone. Sitting next to him was Katsuya, who – incredibly enough, considering how the blond openly hated math and tended not to be too good at it – was helping him finish the assigned problems. Or trying to, Seto reasoned. This was merely a peripheral thought, though, seeing as he was still preoccupied with processing the undeniable fact that the "mutt" was in their living room.

"Mokuba?" a single word finally left his mouth. He felt as if he were operating on auto-pilot.

The raven-haired boy peered over the sofa lean and beamed. "Hi Seto! Welcome home!"

Katsuya mimicked him with a carefree grin and a mock salute. "Yo, Moneybags!"

"What the hell are you doing here?" Seto asked, his voice abruptly acquiring a dark tone.

"Mokuba here asked me if I'd hang out with him after we went to the arcade, so I figured what the hey, why not. And somehow we ended up doing math, right?" he asked, ruffling the younger one's hair. The sight triggered a violent emotional response in Seto, especially when Mokuba gave the blond a smile that said 'this means the world to me'.

"You had better be house-broken!" Seto hissed.

Irritation flitted across Katsuya's face, though it couldn't quite vanquish his grin. "Geez, would it kill you to chill out every once in a while? No need to get so personal!"

"Yeah, stop picking on Jou!" Mokuba chimed in, clearly displeased by his brother's scathing comment.

"Mokuba, don't you remember what I told you about favorable company? Besides, everyone knows Jounouchi is terrible at math. Surely you don't actively wish for your grades to drop?"

Katsuya knew that to an extent, Seto was speaking the truth, but the second accusation had him fuming. "Kaiba, shut your trap; you're starting to piss me off!"

"Good," was the flat retort.

"I don't think we've gotten any of the problems wrong," Mokuba told him.

"That's beside the point. Mutt, leave my property this instant, or I'll sic the hounds on you."

"But Seto, he's our guest!" Mokuba protested.

"Correction: he's your guest. But I don't want him in here, and that's final."

"But Seto –"

"Easy there, kiddo. I can tell when I'm not wanted," Katsuya interrupted as he rose from the couch. "Maybe some other time?" He pointedly ignored the indignant huff from Seto in the background.

"Or maybe I could come to your place next time?" Mokuba suggested.

Katsuya opened his mouth, but Seto beat him to the response: "Mokuba, I forbid it. There is no way I'm allowing you to set foot in that dump!"

"How do you know it's a dump? Have you ever been there before?"

"Of course not, but I have my ways of knowing these things."

It was true that he had never seen how Katsuya lived, but he knew the blond lived in one of the dingier parts of town. Also, the state of the other teen's limited wardrobe and the slight smell that lingered in those clothes spoke a tale in itself.

Katsuya surprised both of them when he finally spoke up:

"Listen to Rich Boy, Mokuba. I don't think it'd be a good idea if you came to my place." His lowered voice indicated his embarrassment over this particular topic.

"Jou…"

A somewhat forced-looking smile was offered. "I'll be going now. But… remember what I said just now. And our deal still stands, right?"

"Alright," Mokuba agreed glumly, "Thanks for your help."

"No problem." Katsuya gave his shoulder an encouraging pat before seeking to exit the room. When he was nearly shoulder-to-shoulder with Seto, he stopped. Hazel eyes met blue ones as he muttered:

"You're a bastard, Kaiba, but I gotta agree with you: don't let him come to my place."

"You're crazy if you think I ever would. Now scram," Seto said coldly.

Katsuya snorted, then marched off. Shortly thereafter, the sound of the front door opening and closing again could be heard. Mokuba had ventured over to the window and watched him leave the grounds.

"Why'd you have to be so mean to him, Seto?" he asked unhappily.

In the window, his brother's reflection appeared behind him. "It's his own fault for making himself such an easy target. Besides, I encounter plenty of useless idiots every day at work – I shouldn't have to deal with them in my own home too." Noticing the somewhat accusing stare his brother directed at his reflection, the brunet settled for the smallest of compromises: "Alright; he may have made some slight improvements as a duelist, but he's useless in every other way. To me, at least."

Mokuba averted his gaze again. "I'm glad he still wants to be my friend."

Seto just hummed indifferently before leaving the living room. Before he did so, however, he made a brief pit stop at the sofa, where he peered at the open textbooks, sampling the gathered solutions. Mokuba stayed at the window, pretending he didn't notice, but he noted with a slight note of smugness that there were indeed no mistakes to be found – because if they had existed, Seto surely would have pointed them out.

As for Seto, he expertly hid his surprise that all the solutions were indeed correct, but figured it could be nothing more than a coincidence. He decided to go to his own personal bathroom before retiring to his home-office, and on the way, he casually draped his trench coat over the chair standing guard next to the bathroom. The coat buried a Blue-Eyes White Dragon plushie, which had taken up residence square in the middle of the chair's cushion.

Little did Seto know that his presumption about Katsuya's uselessness would soon be questioned…

Feel free to review, especially if you liked it! :)

Have a nice day!