This is my one-shot fic for Seto Kaiba, my favorite Yu-Gi-Oh! character. I was inspired to write this when a friend of mine (you know who you are!) asked me stuff about Kaiba and the other members of the Yu-Gi-Oh! cast, so it might not make complete sense or follow the order of the anime, but as it's a one-shot, it doesn't really matter, ne?

DISCLAIMER STUFF: Seto Kaiba and all things Yu-Gi-Oh! do not belong to me, they belong to Kazuki Takashi, their creator.

It was one of those days again. Countless documents were sorted into different piles on the desk, each pile looking like a paperwork mountain in the making. Kaiba abhorred it. The prospect of having to spend hours on end reading each and every document on his desk caused him to frown in frustration. He'd sooner be stuck in Noa's virtual computer program again than have to do the inevitable, if not impossible task of sifting through and signing every sheet of paper set in front of him. But this was a price he had to pay for being the owner of a successful company.

His Empire, KaibaCorp, was constantly evolving with each new invention thought up, designed and created. As long as the latest Duel Monsters trend continued to grow, so did his seemingly limitless wealth. For a young man yet to graduate from high school, his future was set.

Seto Kaiba had it made.

Everyone envied him. They envied his power, they envied his amazing intellect and they envied his bank account. He'd already lost count of the number of zero digits shown in his account. Seven? Ten? Or was it fifteen after the first three numbers? He remembered laughing when he raised Mokuba's allowance to a six-figure amount a few months back.

Mokuba in his innocent naïve way had looked to him worriedly. "But Big Brother, this is too much..." he had said in protest. True, no normal kid his age would be given such a vast sum of money every weekend, but Seto wanted to give his brother the best he could. He wanted to make up for all those previous times in the past when Mokuba needed him, but he was unavailable to be by his side.

There was always a reason or an excuse.

"I'm sorry Mokuba, but the company needs me" and "Mokuba, don't bother me right now, can't you see I'm working?" were just two of the things he often said to his younger brother. It was pathetic to say the least, but somehow it had become second nature to the KaibaCorp CEO and life as it was seemed to go on and on in an endless, repetitive cycle with Mokuba being the only link he had with the world outside of his Empire.

But even that remaining link was greatly ignored. He always shoved his brother aside without so much as a second thought. Work first, pleasure later. Truly a workaholic in both body and mind, Seto hadn't even realised it until now that he spent almost every waking moment of his life either behind the closed doors of his computer lab, or in a business meeting with other members of the KaibaCorp management circle. And when he had time to spare, which was rare if ever, he would organise Duel Monsters Tournaments.

Duel Monsters, his one true passion and another foolproof way of raking in money by the millions.

Money was all he desired next to the fourth legendary Blue Eyes White Dragon card.

That was what the public thought about him, but how far from the truth were they? He pondered this question himself. He felt that even he did not have a definite answer in mind, but it was a comforting thought to deem them all as being wrong about him.

While he was happy that money was constantly flowing inwards, and the word 'bankruptcy' was redundant except when referring to rival companies that dared to invade upon his market niche, Seto wasn't as happy as he thought he would be. He wasn't happy at all.

He wasn't happy because he couldn't make Mokuba happy. Something was missing; something that money could not buy or be used as a substitute for. No matter how much money he could give to his younger brother, or what new toys, video games or even inventions he could create for him, Seto knew it wasn't enough.

And lately, whenever his thoughts chanced upon Mokuba, he actually felt like hanging his head down in shame.

Ever since their parents died in an accident years ago, Seto swore he would protect Mokuba at all cost. He wouldn't let a single soul harm him and he would always be there whenever Mokuba needed him. Yet he had broken that promise so many times already!

First Maximillian Pegasus kidnapped his brother, and then Noa Kaiba did the same. Both kidnappings happened right under his nose and he was helpless to stop either of them from taking Mokuba away.

"What kind of person lets complete strangers kidnap their own brother? One who is too proud to allow for his emotions to show and won't act upon his true feelings? Or one who has forgotten what it means to be human? That cheerleading friend of Yugi's was right when she said I have no heart..." Seto cursed himself recalling the moment Tea Gardner had condemned him a cold-hearted monster. Slamming an angry fist on the desk, he toppled over towers of files and documents and sheets of paper so neatly organised before were soon scattered all over the floor.

Dark Prussian blue eyes closed themselves tightly as he heard Mokuba's voice speak out to him in his mind. Months had passed since this particular conversation between them had taken place, but Seto remembered every word that was spoken and they repeated themselves now, painfully clear and with much vehemence towards the young man.

'Seto! Noa's right! From the day you bet Gozaburo at the orphanage, you stopped calling me Mogi! I can't even remember the last time you smiled!'

"Smile..?" Kaiba opened his eyes as the last of Mokuba's words echoed in his mind and died away into silence. Subconsciously his hand reached to the small locket laced onto a leather cord worn around his neck. With a quiet click, the locket opened to reveal a picture of Mokuba smiling back at him.

It was strange, but despite losing their parents and being flung into an orphanage, the time he spent there with Mokuba and the other kids were some of the happiest days of his life.

Seeing the smile upon Mokuba's face was evidence enough. It was enough to cause his chest to tighten painfully in a strange yet vaguely familiar way, his senses bombarded by a rare moment of guilt as a peculiar thought came to mind.

"A smile..." He shook his head before lowering it down into his hands. "I can't remember the last time you smiled at me in such a way, Mokuba..."

How very sad to admit that to himself.

While he accepted the fact that he had long since forgotten how to smile himself, he knew Mokuba had not. His younger brother was still capable of expressing his happiness in the form of a smile, but like everything else about the boy, his smile and his laughter were few and rare these days. And his absence now became all that more apparent to Seto. It struck him deeply in a place he thought did not exist.

He felt his heart wrench and contort with pain.

So he had a heart after all.

But what good was a heart that was filled with hatred and knew nothing of love? What did he have to do to smile again? To have Mokuba smile back at him the way he used to?

He asked himself so many questions and just as many answers returned in his thoughts, but all of them pointed towards the means to an end for all this self-pitying and suffering.

Seto knew what had to be done, but loathed the thought of doing it. To let go of the hatred that had been consuming him all his life, he would have to give up everything that he had worked so hard to achieve.

KaibaCorp would have to go, along with anything else that reminded him of Gozaburo Kaiba, their manipulative, evil foster parent who was the root cause of all this hatred he had bottled up inside of him.

"No, I can't. Not yet..." Kaiba wished he could give it all up, but he knew things were never that simple. He promised to take care of Mokuba and he didn't care what he had to put himself through in order to keep that promise. And he knew that he needed KaibaCorp and his wealth if he was to give his brother everything he could possibly want and more. So for now he understood there was no other choice but to become that cold-hearted young man again. The Champion Duelist who showed no fear, no remorse nor regret. He would not allow for any error, his pride being his greatest ally alongside his three Blue Eyes White Dragons.

Kaiba refused to allow his dragons or his pride to be broken by another.

Closing the locket with a dismal sigh, Seto pushed his chair back from his desk and got to his feet. He shoved his hands into his long coat pockets and headed for the door, taking no notice of the important documents that his boots trampled on while he walked away from his Presidential throne.

As he approached the office entrance, the electronic doors opened to the side, allowing Seto to take his leave.

"President Kaiba! About those papers that needed signing? Sir? Sir, please! Where are you going?" A middle-aged man wearing gaudy looking glasses and a beige colored business suit called after him, trying to get him to stop. But Seto ignored him and proceeded to step inside the glass elevator.

"Sir! Please, you can't do this! Those contracts are with Industrial Illusions! They need your immediate attention!!" The man followed closely after Kaiba, so close that when the CEO suddenly turned around to face him, he faltered back a step in surprise.

"Get out"

Dark blue eyes glared at the man who was momentarily frozen in fear and unable to act. "I said, get out" Seto reiterated calmly, but his voice took on a threatening tone.

"Y-yes, Sir!" The employee having found his voice again managed to drag himself out of the elevator. The second he did, Seto pressed a button on the control panel and the door to the elevator closed shut and the elevator began its descent.

"Incompetent fool!" Kaiba grumbled as he leaned back against the elevator wall. He folded his arms against his chest and lowered his head, preferring not to think about the comments that man had just made, but finding it impossible to think of anything else.

Unfortunately, the more he thought about it, the more it irked him.

By the time the elevator reached the lobby, he was in an extremely foul mood. The kind of mood that nothing short of a miracle could lighten up. He wondered then as the elevator door opened, whether that idiot Kemo was still around. He had a sudden urge to knock that behemoth right through the roof just to vent out his anger on something. But the second he stepped out of the elevator, a familiar voice called out his name.

"Seto!!"

Seto looked ahead, his eyes widened in surprise as he saw Mokuba standing by the main reception desk, waving at him with a smile on his face. He hastened his pace then, stopping in front of his brother and peering down with a most concerned expression on his face.

"Mokuba? What are you doing here at this hour?" Kaiba inquired. It was passed the boy's curfew by almost three hours! What was Mokuba thinking coming out to KaibaCorp headquarters at such a late time of the night? Didn't he know it was dangerous to be out by himself?

Obviously he didn't. And even if he did, Seto couldn't tell because of the smile on Mokuba's face.

"I'm sorry, big brother, but you were late coming home and I got worried..." Mokuba tried to explain, but it really wasn't necessary. Raising a hand up to silence the boy, Kaiba looked about the lobby suspiciously and only when he was satisfied that no one was watching did he kneel down and hug Mokuba tightly.

"No, Mokuba. It's all right. I should be the one apologising for being late", he said as he drew back from his younger brother.

Then, much to Mokuba and his own surprise, Kaiba smiled at his brother before getting to his feet again and ruffling the boy's hair. "Come on, let's go home. I think I promised you some Duel Monsters lessons, didn't I, Mogi?"

Seto watched, mildly amused as Mokuba's eyes widened considerably when he called him by his nickname. But the surprised expression was quickly replaced as the boy smiled back happily.

With a gesture of his hand, Kaiba indicated to the main entrance. Mokuba gave a nod and raced ahead of him, calling his name once when he reached the doors.

"Hurry up, Big Brother!!" Mokuba shouted back and then continued to run out of the building and to the limo parked outside waiting for them.

As Seto watched his brother's retreating figure, the smile on his face that had appeared so briefly before came back once more when he realised that life wasn't that bad after all. Even though he'd done some unspeakably evil things in the past, he knew that Mokuba still looked up to him, admired him and understood him. And no matter what others might say about him, Kaiba didn't care.

Regardless of the way he acted, he was very much human. And if ever he forgot that one truth about himself, he was reminded every time Mokuba called out his name and looked his way with a smile on his face...