Chapter 1:

Seto Kaiba was bored. This was a rare occurrence since his graduation as Kaiba Corp found a way of keeping him constantly busy. Sadly, social gatherings and networking events were still the bane of his existence and they were still as dull as he remembered. He would never admit it to Yugi and his groupies but the amount of bootlicking and posturing that happened at these events had him dreaming of the days when the worst he had to put up with was the dweebs. At least Wheeler was fun to rile up. Here, everyone was stiff and formal as they mingled around with expensive liquor and even more expensive suits.

It was a business meet and greet, something the mayor of Domino had arranged to 'build up the economic prospects for their growing city' or some other bullshit. As much as Kaiba hated coming to these it was necessary for his company's reputation. Besides, it was as good an excuse as any to gauge the men that would no doubt be coming after his company now or the future. For the most part, Kaiba would find a corner to sit in and sip scotch while he watched the political games play out, occasionally someone from the crowd would muster up the courage to talk to him and Kaiba would grit his teeth and make small talk.

It wasn't the pandering party-goers that caught his eye though. No. Out on the edge of the floor was a small figure that couldn't have looked more out of place.

The boy was in a tuxedo and had spiky black hair that looked like someone had viciously taken hair gel and a comb to with little effect. He had dark grey eyes. He reminded Kaiba of Mokuba when he was younger.

Who let a six-year-old attend? There were no other children around in the sea of suits and there was clearly no one watching him. Kaiba felt his hackles rise. He remembered being sixteen and the leering looks some of the men would give him, who in their right mind would bring a child into this pit of vipers. Mokuba was sixteen and Kaiba still wouldn't bring him to this type of event if he could help it.

The boy had something in his hand and was chattering animatedly at it while no one even seemed aware of his presence. Kaiba stood, set his drink down, and swept across the room.

The kid didn't even seem to be aware someone was now standing next to him. He was off in his own world, playing with whatever was in his hands. Kaiba glanced down and saw the familiar brown and black spiral of Duel Monster cards.

"Stop being mean to Ojama Yellow, Light, it's not his fault he's such a weak and useless monster. That's why I have you in my deck."

The boy was talking to his cards. Well, he looked about six, and kids did weird things, there were stranger things out there than talking to duel monster cards. Something unsettled Kaiba though, he couldn't quite put his finger on it but something at the edge of his instincts was prickling. He waved the feeling away. There were more pressing matters like where this kid's parents were. Besides, issues involving duel monster cards and 'magic' seemed to work themselves out or at least make themselves apparent if given enough time.

"Hello, who are you here with?"

The boy's turned around and his eyes widened like saucers, "You're Seto Kaiba! Your deck is the best!"

Kaiba blinked, that was not a reaction he was prepared for. He'd been out of the professional dueling leagues for ten years, most kids only knew him as the host of tournaments, they certainly didn't ask about his deck. Interesting.

"What's your name?"

The boy blushed, embarrassed about his outburst as he bowed his head and held his hand out politely, "I'm Chazz Princeton. It's nice to meet you, sir."

Kaiba knelt down and gently shook his hand. Chazz beamed at him.

"So, where are your parents?"

The boy froze up and his smile vanished, "They're around, so are my brothers." Chazz said vaguely, refusing to meet his eyes. Princeton, that name sounded familiar but Kaiba couldn't quite place it at the moment.

"So what cards do you have there?" The boy visibly lit up again and was immediately shoving two cards in his face.

"This is Ojama Yellow. He's not very strong but he's pretty friendly. And this is Light and Darkness Dragon!" Chazz said with a flourish as he flipped the card over. It was a decent card, impressive attack and defense, and pretty rare too. Kaiba nodded along, as Chazz lowered his voice to a conspiratory whisper as he looked around, "But I call him Light. He's my friend. He likes to pick on Yellow though, "

"Does he now?" Kaiba said, amused, remembering that Mokuba had imaginary friends when he was younger too.

"Yeah, but it's mostly for fun. He's never really mean, not like my brothers."

Kaiba processed that bit of information, after all, it wasn't unusual for siblings to not get along. He knew that in most circles Mokuba and him were the odd ones out for their close relationship. Still, if the boy had brothers, and he had mentioned they were here, there ought to be someone he could shuffle the boy off to. His eyes began scanning the crowd looking for anyone who resembled Chazz.

"Mister Kaiba do you have your Blue Eyes? Light really wants to meet her!" The boy was tugging on his sleeve excitedly again demanding attention, Kaiba resisted the urge to shake the child off.

He didn't want to make a scene, and who knew what onlookers were thinking about him talking to a child without his parents present. He had no doubts that one of the vipers was watching and whispering even if they were being discreet. Still, he didn't trust any of these wealthy ingrates as far as he could throw them and he wasn't about to leave Chazz alone without supervision. He cast one more look at the crowd but amidst their small talk and cocktails, no one was looking their way.

Kaiba stood up from his crouch, "Have you eaten Chazz?"

The boy scowled and shook his head, "I can't see over the table to get the things I like and they don't have any apple juice."

"Come on, I'm sure we can find you some apple juice and after I'll show you Blue Eyes."

Chazz was right, he really couldn't see over the table the food was resting on. In fact, he could barely reach it. Kaiba sighed and reached over for a plate. He began scooping various things onto the plate with various input from Chazz. Chazz of course immediately asked for cake. Kaiba gave him a long look and deliberately scooped carrots onto the plate. Children were supposed to eat vegetables.

When Kaiba was satisfied that all the food groups were more or less represented he handed Chazz the plate. The corner of his mouth twitched up when the kid made an outraged face at the carrots. Kaiba kept the slice of cake firmly in his hands.

Out of the corner of his eye, he could see Chazz trailing after him with a scowl. Kaiba approached the bar.

"Sir, can I get you something?"

"Apple juice."

"Sir, this is a bar. We only have alcohol. We don't have any-" Kaiba glowered at the bartender and cocked his head towards Chazz who was standing shyly behind him.

The barkeeper did a double-take and his mouth snapped open. "Apple juice, of course. Yes, I'm sure we can find you something."

"Good." Kaiba slammed a fifty dollar bill on the table and the man's eyes widened, "And hurry up."

A few minutes later a glass of what looked and smelled like apple juice was slid over to Kaiba. He took it with one last glare and the threat of, "If this isn't apple juice I'll have your liquor license."

Kaiba settled down at one of the tables on the edge of the room. Chazz followed him like a puppy and sat down across from him popping his half-finished plate on the table. It took less than ten minutes for the kid to finish scarfing down the food, everything except the untouched carrots. He must have been hungry.

"Can I see your Blue Eyes now?" Chazz said as he sat down his now finished glass of apple juice.

Kaiba looked pointedly at his plate, "Finish the carrots."

Chazz stuck his chin out stubbornly and crossed his arms over his chest, "I don't like carrots."

"And I don't like just showing anyone my Blue Eyes. Finish the carrots."

The kid curled his lip up and Kaiba was certain Chazz was about to throw a tantrum. If he did Kaiba would leave. This wasn't even his kid, he had no obligation to have to deal with a screaming, crying child. Maybe if the kid threw a big enough of a fit, then his parents would finally come out of hiding.

Instead, Chazz reached down and began aggressively shoving carrots in his mouth as he chewed vigorously gulping down bite after bite. He had his eyes screwed shut like he was being tortured.

Kaiba chuckled. What did it say about him that apparently he enjoyed playing the bully that forced children to eat their vegetables?

"Done!" Chazz proclaimed as he shoved the offending plate away from him. Kaiba shoved the plate of cake he'd been guarding over and pulled his deck case out of his blazer pocket.

He flipped open the snap top on the case and took his deck out. He instinctively reached in pulling out a Blue Eyes White Dragon. He felt the familiar faint tingle of electricity that accompanied his sixth sense when it came to Blue Eyes. He flipped the card over and laid it face up on the table.

"Wow! She's so pretty!" Chazz said, his eyes sparkled as he looked over the dragon.

"How do you know Blue Eyes is female?" Most people didn't, they saw a powerful dragon and automatically assumed it was male. Kaiba never had, even before he'd learned about reincarnations and Kisara, he'd always known Blue Eyes was female.

"Light told me," Chazz said, holding up his own dragon as he looked over Kaiba's shoulder. Kaiba turned his head following the kid's gaze and felt his eyebrows rise as the pale outline of Blue Eyes hovered over him. It wasn't a hologram which meant it was the duel spirit. She'd never come out when he wasn't dueling before. He looked back at Chazz who was still staring his mouth open like a fish.

"You see her." It was a statement nor a question, from the look of awe in the kid's eyes he obviously saw her. "Is this the way you see your other cards too?"

The boy nodded. Words seemed beyond him at the moment. Interesting. That was very interesting, not many duelists could see the spirits he could count on one hand those that could, and most of them had a connection to the millennium items or Ancient Egypt. What did it mean that an otherwise random boy could do it? Kaiba didn't believe in coincidences, he would need to keep a close eye on Chazz Princeton, the last thing Kaiba wanted was another Levithan situation.

"Chazz!" A sharp male voice called across the room. Chazz sat up straight at the voice and immediately stood looking around for someone.

Kaiba took the moment of distraction for him to safely tuck his Blue Eyes back in with the rest of his deck and then into his pocket. He didn't like to advertise that he kept some of the most expensive cards in the world on his person.

"Chazz, it's time to go."

Kaiba's eyes looked around for the voice and came across two medium height men stepping through the crowd. The information clicked into place. Slade and Jagger of the Princeton Group.

No wonder the name sounded familiar. Chazz's brothers weren't children at all. In fact, Kaiba would bet the older one was around his age.

So, it hadn't been an accident. They'd intentionally left a six-year-old unsupervised in a room of over a hundred strangers where anything could have happened. Kaiba felt his temper bubbling up.

The Princetons came from a dynasty of wealthy elites and focused their company on a variety of business sectors. They had their hands in everything from medicine manufacturing to law and weapons. The arrogant bastards had even tried to put their nose in the Duel Monsters market but Kaiba had quickly put a stop to that.

Looking between the three of them it was easy to see the resemblance. They all had the same colored eyes and hair, but where Chazz's hair seemed to defy gravity and expectation his brothers' were carefully manicured, not a hair out of place or so much as a scuff on their shoes.

Chazz chewed his lower lip and quickly hid his cards behind his back and out of view.

"Now, Chazz!" snapped Slade, a look of irritation flashing over his face as the boy literally jumped and quickly stepped forward and moved to their side, his eyes finding something very interesting to gaze at on the floor.

Slade, the eldest if Kaiba remembered correctly, finally seemed to realize someone else was watching this play out.

"Ah, Mister Kaiba I hope Chazz wasn't bothering you. Really he should have better manners than that." The tone was even but Chazz clearly didn't miss the pointed criticism as he flinched back and mumbled an apology.

"It's fine." Kaiba said waving off the shallow pleasantry, "He was far from the worst company this evening though I do have to wonder what it says about a family when a six-year-old is their best conversationalist." With one last smirk and a wink at Chazz, Kaiba was sweeping out of the room.

Chazz Princeton would certainly be one to watch.

Author's Note: I honestly don't know how this story happened but here we go again with a WIP! I can proudly say I have four chapters already qued up so I'll be updating one chapter a week for at least the next month. Comments and constructive criticism are all welcomed here, prepare for fluff and angst! Strap in!