Author's Note:-

Summary - Coming home from school Katsuya never expected to see Seto Kaiba in his home, but what's this? A contract tying Katsuya and Seto together? And an agreement to join the companies? Katsuya has to learn to get along with Seto if he's going to survive the marriage. Seto has got to learn to accept Katsuya otherwise everything is going to go up in smoke.

Disclaimer - With the amount of stories I am writing I think you will understand by now that I don't own Yu-Gi-Oh, never have and unfortunately never will.

Rated - T Just to be on the safe side since I don't really know how this story is going to progress, I just wrote and wrote and then stopped and I had a new story.


Betrothed

Chapter 04 - Memories

Kaiba sighed as he leaned his head against the back of his limousine seat, he hadn't been able to speak with the blond all day, every attempt at contact Jou had either snapped at him or avoided him full stop.

Closing his eyes Kaiba thought back.

"Seto, wait up" young Jou called trying to catch up to the brunet but failing miserably.

"Come on Katsu" young Seto replied running ahead and out of Jou's way.

"This isn't fair, you have longer legs than I have" young Jou complained as he reached Seto who was now sat down near a swing set, his head resting on the trunk of a blooming blossom tree.

"Stop whining, you asked me to play" young Seto responded closing his eyes and letting the breeze muss his short brunet hair.

"I thought you'd play fair" young Jou pouted as he sat down beside young Seto.

"I said I'd play, not play fair" young Seto smirked, his eyes mischievous.

"You're mean" Jou folded his arms and looked away from Seto.

"You know that's not true" young Seto stated as he grabbed young Jou by the waist and brought him in for an awkward hug.

A tint of pink started to show itself on young Jou's cheeks "L-lets go play on the swings"

"Okay" young Seto chuckled as he released young Jou and climbed from the ground. "Only if you let me push you on them"

"You push too high though" young Jou whined as he sat on the swing and swung his legs back and forth.

"I promise you I won't" young Seto murmured as he stood right behind young Jou.

"Um, okay. If you promise" young Jou relented with a beaming smile.

"I do" young Jou's feet swung in the air as young Seto pushed him on the swings.

"Look Seto I can fly" young Jou laughed.

"Mr. Kaiba, sir"

"What?" Kaiba snapped, he didn't appreciate being pulled out of his fond memories.

"We're here. Sir."

"Fine" climbing out of the limousine Kaiba made his way into the mansion to immediately be hugged by his younger brother Mokuba.

"Welcome home, Seto"

"I'm home Mokuba" Kaiba sighed hugging his little brother back.

"Did you have a good day?" Mokuba questioned stepping away from his brother so he could breathe.

"Nothing special" Kaiba removed his shoes and jacket.

"Oh, I have something to ask you, big brother" Mokuba suddenly jumped up excited, his violet eyes sparkling.

Kaiba raised an eyebrow at the other's display "what would that be?"

"Do you have the hots for Jou?"

If Kaiba had been drinking his usual cup of coffee he would have sprayed and spat it out everywhere as undignified as it would be, instead he just stared back blankly at his younger brother "excuse me?"

"You know, do you love Jou, Seto?" Mokuba blinked his eyes.

Kaiba frowned, his eye beginning to twitch slightly "do you have an issue with your eyes, Mokuba?"

"Huh, no why?" Mokuba cocked his head in confusion.

"Why do you insist on blinking up at me then? And as for even liking Jou, you are way off the mark. Now I'm sure you have some homework so go and do it. I have work to do." Kaiba instructed, intent on getting his brother to drop the questions.

Mokuba slumped his shoulders as he slid along the floor "fine" although he didn't look happy, he was ecstatic on the inside 'he never gave me a proper answer, avoidance must mean he does like Jou' Mokuba barely held off from punching the air in happiness.

Instead of doing what his brother had asked of him, he grabbed his mobile phone and dialled Shizuka, they had swapped numbers earlier on in the day. After a few rings, she picked up.

"Hi Mokuba, what's up?" Shizuka questioned over the phone.

"I think you could be right, Seto likes Jou" Mokuba practically shouted, good job the mansion was pretty much soundproof.

"Really? That's great. I just have to work on Katsuya. They'll love each other yet" Shizuka squealed.

"Ha-ha, okay well I best do my homework. I don't think Seto is in a very good mood" Mokuba sighed.

"I wonder why, Katsuya also wasn't in a good mood when he arrived home. Do you think something could have happened between the two of them?"

"Who knows, but we have our work cut out for us here." Mokuba grabbed a notepad from his desk.

"I know, we need to make a plan on how to get our brothers together and we only have two month in which to do that and they have been fighting for absolute years" Shizuka tried no to groan, it wasn't going to be easy for the two of them.

"Well I have started writing down plans to put into action, if you write your ideas down we can discuss them tomorrow at school, sound good?"

"Sounds perfect"

"I'll see you tomorrow then"

"Bye Mokuba"

"See you, Shizu"

Mokuba placed his phone down on his bed and looked at the notes he had made during the conversation with a grin, his brother would get his crush if he and Shizuka had anything to say about it.


Kaiba sighed and shut his laptop, he hadn't gotten a whole lot of work done, the mutt had taken up a good amount of his thoughts and although he reluctantly admitted he had a soft spot for the blond it was unacceptable for him to take up so much of his time especially when he wasn't even around.

He had only been at Kaiba Corporation for a few hours and in that time hardly anything productive had been done. The paperwork hadn't been lessened much, the stats hadn't been checked, he hadn't even fired any employees or produced any new prototypes for duel monsters.

Rubbing the bridge of his nose, Kaiba tried to hold back a headache he knew was coming. Turning his chair around Kaiba glanced briefly out of the big glass window located behind his chair, watching the people below idly go about their daily business.

The sun was setting slowly painting the sky beautiful oranges, purples and reds, it was now Kaiba noticed how late it was getting, he should have been home with his younger brother ages ago.

Grabbing his briefcase Kaiba swiftly left his office, ignoring his secretary who called out to him as he was striding to the elevator. Waiting a few moments the elevator soon arrived and took him down to the first floor where a limousine was waiting for him just outside the door.

Climbing in Kaiba once again got lost in his younger memories of happier times.


"Katsuya?" Shizuka called standing behind Jou who was watching a random show on the television.

"What is it, sis?" Jou replied as he grabbed a hand full of crisps and chucked them into his mouth before taking a gulp of his drink.

"Do you think you could ever learn to like Kaiba?" she questioned hesitantly.

"I would have happily been friends with him if he wasn't so stuck up his self" Jou grabbed another hand full of crisps, chomping on them noisily.

Shizuka bit her lip for a moment, she wasn't going to mention that they had been friends once upon a time "If he changed the way he acts with you could you like him then?" she wringed her hands in hope and nervousness.

"Sis, to be honest I like him, I just don't like his 'holy than thou' type of attitude, he looks down on just about everyone apart from his little brother, he thinks he's so superior and really take away his money he's just an average teenager like the rest of us."

Hiding a smile, Shizuka let her brother continue as the possibility that she could get her brother with Kaiba became more likely.

"I feel sorry for him really" Jou muttered as an afterthought.

"Why's that?"

"I know his attitude is because he doesn't feel like he can trust anyone, which means he's been hurt a lot in the past and has just closed down his emotions but that means that he isn't living the life of a normal teenager, he works himself to death practically, he just needs to get out and be a teenager with some friends and have fun, although the concept is probably foreign to him" Jou took a breather.

"You sound concerned for him"

"Concerned? Yeah I guess I am" Jou smiled slightly before his amber eyes widened "wait, that doesn't mean anything though, I still hate his guts"

"You just said you liked him" she sniggered.

"Well I do" Jou nodded.

"But you hate him as well?" Shizuka raised an eyebrow.

"Yeah"

"Katsuya that's-" Shizuka shook her head.

"It's just how I feel all right, let's just drop it" Jou continued to watch his show whilst Shizuka left him to it and returned to her room, grabbing a piece of paper she wrote her plans and the conversation that they'd just had down.

Shizuka shook her head 'Katsuya, you're just in denial'


Author's Note:

Another update, so soon? You must be in luck, I'm on my tenth chapter and still going strong so look out for more chapter coming soon. I sound like an advert. I must admit I love young Seto and Katsuya, they are just so cute. More memories will be popping up so you can get what happened in the past.

Anyhow I hope you enjoyed this chapter, reviews are appreciated but it is up to you :)

x- Casondrah Kiku -x