Disclaimer: I do not own any Yu Gi Oh characters. Nor do I own any Linkin Park songs. I was just coming home from a Baseball game and I was listening to this song and it just fit all to well.

Summery: This is a fic involving a younger Kaiba and his father.

Numb

An eight-year-old Seto Kaiba walked in the front door coming home from school with his five-year-old brother Mokuba. He quietly set his school bag down and tried to sneak upstairs to his room in hopes of avoiding Gozaburo, his adoptive father.

"SETO!!!" came a scream from the other room. Kaiba cringed but Mokuba continued making his way upstairs, Mokuba didn't know what was going to happen. Seto stopped and hurriedly went back downstairs and into his father's office.

"Yes father.?" he gulped.

"We need to talk."

I'm tired of being what you want me to be

Feeling so faithless

Lost under the surface

I don't know what you're expecting of me

Put under the pressure

Of walking in your shoes.

Seto nodded and sat down, he felt sick. His head hung low, staring at his shoes.

"Already a mistake, never look down Seto! Seto, You are the oldest of my children and you are to take over Kaiba Corp," his father stood and leaned over his desk to get closer to Seto. "You are my heir." Seto looked up, shocked at his father. No. He didn't want the company, he didn't want to be like his father.No, that was the last thing he wanted.

[Caught in the undertow, just caught in the undertow]

Every step that I take is another mistake to you

"Another mistake, when I tell you something you are to RESPOND. Do you understand?" Seto shook his head.

"Father, I don't want this.I don't want the company when I'm older. Give it to Mokuba, he would enjoy it more." His father stood now, towering over the small boy.

"You will do as I say, Seto." His father said in a voice so cold that Seto couldn't help but shudder.

I've

Become so numb

I can't feel you there

Become so tired

So much more aware

I'm becoming this

All I want to do

Is be more like me

And be less like you.

Seto swallowed. He had to get out of here before something bad happened. "Father, let me take Mokuba outside to play. It's so beautiful outside, and it's a Friday so I don't' have homework." His father responded in that same cold voice.

"No Seto. You are now my official heir, though not a satisfactory one but that will all change in time, I cannot risk losing you. An escort will bring you to and from school. Other then that, you will not be permitted outside." Again, Seto wore that shocked expression. Not go outside.? Ever.? The small boy felt like crying, he was only eight and he might as well have been told that he could never have fun again.

Can't you see that you're smothering me

Holding too tightly

Afraid to lose control

'Cause everything that you thought I would be

Has fallen apart right in front of you.

Seto tried to take in what he had just been told. "It won't be as bad as it sounds Seto. Besides, tonight your training begins." a cruel smile played over his father's face.

[Caught in the undertow, just caught in the undertow]

Every step that I take is

Another mistake to you

[Caught in the undertow, just caught in the undertow]

And every second I waste

Is more than I can take.

He hit the boy. Again. And Again. And Again. Seto was a weeping heap on the floor.

Mokuba was upstairs playing in his room. Hearing his brother's cries, he became worried, what was going on? He ran downstairs and into his father's office where the sounds were strongest. He stopped dead at what his innocent five year old eyes were seeing.

Seto didn't understand. His father had always been harsh but this? What had he done wrong? At least it didn't hurt much anymore. "Mokuba.run." he muttered before blacking out.

I've

Become so numb

I can't feel you there

Become so tired

So much more aware

I'm becoming this

All I want to do

Is be more like me

And be less like you.

The current Seto Kaiba, now fifteen, held his head in his hands. Why had that memory just come back to him? None of this was right, he wasn't himself anymore. He wasn't supposed to be running this company at fifteen, he was supposed to be a freshman in high school, worrying about grades and getting dates. He was supposed to be kind, and funny not.not this. What had he become?

The now twelve Mokuba ran in. "Seto, I'm going to go for a walk now." It was about 4:30 in the afternoon on a brisk fall day.

"Silence, you idiot," the still memory engulfed Seto snapped. Mokuba took a step back, had he said something wrong?

Seto's eyes widened as he realized he had just answered his own question. "Mokuba, I'm sorry." he said before dashing out of the room with only one thing on his mind.

But I know

I may end up failing too

But I know

You were just like me

With someone disappointed in you.

Seto had become his father.

END