A/N: Now the story begins! Nahahaha! This chapter contains some mild spoilers to the end of the series, but because this isn't a story about that they aren't major or anything. I also realized on itty-bitty but very annoying mistake. Kaiba and Mokuba are supposed to be in America hits head against wall. However, it seems that the animators forgot this detail to when they did the Bakura VS Kaiba duel in the AE arc so…I'm going to pretend they came back to Japan for some reason.

Title: Love a Nightingale

Chapter 1: Chance Encounters

"A person often meets his destiny on the road he took to avoid it." -Jean de La Fontaine

Seto Kaiba sat in his limo waiting not so patiently for his little brother to emerge from school. Mokuba was delaying…again. Seto was sure his little brother thought that if he took long enough to come out he would be left behind, and then be forced to walk with his friends.

That, of course, would never happen. Leave his little brother to walk the city alone when he was oh so kidnappable? The CEO didn't think so. Especially not today when it was raining like someone had poked a hole in the sky. No, Seto would sit there until Mokuba came out if it meant he would be waiting clear into tomorrow.

Usually Kaiba used this time to work on either his homework or his company, but today he couldn't seem to focus on it. He could blame the late March air if he wanted to, but that wasn't logical and Seto Kaiba was a man of logic. No, he would just have accept the fact that it was not his day for concentrating. Instead he sat and watched the water slide down the very expensive tinting on his windows.

The day had been wet from the beginning, but other than that nothing of notice had really happened. He'd gone to school as usual. He had pestered Yuugi and his friends, as usual. Nothing out of the ordinary or worth his wasting brainpower on.

He noticed that Mokuba had now left the building, and his cobalt eyes followed him somewhat listlessly. His younger brother was a walking, arm over his head to protect them from the rain, to the light he would have to use to cross the busy street in front of his school. Seto also noticed, for no particular reason that some boys were walking up behind him.

He became much more concerned, however, when one of the boys began to push his younger brother toward the bridge the school was next to. On a normal day the water below was shallow and calm, but today it was a raging torrent. He barked something at his driver, he wasn't sure what, as he climbed out of the car. He would go help his brother and see what it was that those boys wanted.

Even he, however, could not magically make the light change. All his power and money couldn't stop the traffic, and even he realized he'd be very little use to Mokuba if he were dead. Momentarily out of options, the teenage CEO could only watch as the boys circled his brother so they were on three sides and the barrier of the bridge was on the remaining one. He couldn't hear what they were saying over the wind, but he was sure they were taunting him because of the angry tears that had now sprang into his younger brother's eyes.

Anger boiled within in him, and Seto took a step toward the edge of the street, ready to stride across in all his intimidating glory the moment the light changed. Then everything began to happen at once. Someone Seto thought he should know, but couldn't quite place, began to move toward the boys. The light changed just as they took a step, and as Seto stepped out into the street what he had feared happened. One of the boys gave his brother a shove that was hard enough to send him stumbling backward. The railing was low enough for him to tumble over but high enough for him to hit his head on as he tumbled over. The dark haired young boy tumbled into the water and, with panicked looks, the young boys scattered.

Seto, to angry and to worried to care how dignified he looked now, began to run across the street. "Mokuba!"

The person already over there, the one Seto felt he should know, was faster. There was a flash of brown, black, and white before whoever it was jumped over the railing and into the swirling cold water in a perfect dive. The brunette millionaire reached the edge of the bridge just in time to see black shoes disappear under the water.

"Mokuba!" He yelled again though he was not really sure why; it made him feel better anyway. Blue eyes searched frantically for a way down, as jumping in had obviously been taken care off, when two heads appeared above the water slightly to the left of where the shoes had disappeared.

One he recognized instantly as his brother's being held up by whom he now recognized, dimly in some dark corner of his mind, as one of Yuugi's friends. Honda he believed his name to be, though he wasn't sure. He knew that he, or his body anyway, had once kidnapped Mokuba but on an earlier occasion he had saved Mokuba, or Mokuba's body, from the dark Bakura. Funny how he still couldn't remember his name after all that.

He followed their progress toward the bank, where the other teenager pulled Mokuba from the water with him and carried him up to where his brother was waiting. Seto eyed him up and down as walked the last few steps. The soaking clothes revealed his muscular frame, and he was shivering with the cold. He was also panting, having had to swim against the current in order to bring Mokuba to safety.

"Here," he said, placing Mokuba in Seto's arm. Seto felt he should thank him, but he'd never thanked anyone of anything in his life. He didn't really know how to do it, even if he'd wanted to.

Instead he opted for a grunt followed by, "how much do you want for your troubles?"

"What?" Hazel eyes stared at him as one arced eyebrow raised. Seto got the distinct impression this friend of Yuugi's thought him nuts.

"You had to do this for a reason, and I will gladly reward you for it. How much do you want?" The CEO spoke as if speaking to a stupid person.

Honda growled almost imperceptibly at being spoken to as such before stating, "I don't want your money."

"What do you want then? Name it, it's yours."

"I didn't do it for a reward," the hazel eyed teen growled, "or for fame. And I especially didn't do it for you."

"What did you do it for then?" Seto shot back. He knew people. He knew they always had selfish motives behind what they did. He would just have to find this boy's. This protector of the Duel Monster's Champion. His own blue eyes narrowed at the boy as he ignored cries of 'Kaiba-sama' from his driver who was making his way over with the limo.

"I did it because it was the right thing to do, Kaiba. I couldn't just let him drown while you tried to get your rich ass across the street in time. I don't want your money. You can keep it. I just did it because someone had to."

Kaiba looked him in the face, eyes narrowed to almost slits. He seemed sincere enough, but there was always a selfish motive behind everything anyone did. Always. It was then that Seto noticed something that made his blood boil. There was pity in the hazel irises that were looking so coolly at him now. This nobody pitied him, and if there was emotion Seto could not stand to have directed at him it was pity. He could deal with hate, with anger, with envy. He could not handle pity.

"You will accept a ride home." He deliberately didn't word it as a question, because it wasn't. He hated having a debt almost as much as he hated being pitied, and he would not have one person get both those victories over him. Seeing no reason or way to object, Honda shrugged and followed him into the limo.

Hazel eyes followed the other teen, even as he gave directions to his home to the driver, as Seto lay his brother down on the seat across from the one they would be occupying. He watched him strip off his customary trench coat and lay it on top of his brother to stifle the cold, before he came and sat down next to him.

The rest of the ride was a silent and awkward one. Honda wasn't naturally a conversationalist, and he had a feeling Kaiba wouldn't have talked to him even if he'd wanted to. For his part, Seto felt he was repaying his debt plenty by giving this follower of Yuugi a ride home. There was no need for him to stretch his social boundaries with mere conversation.

Honda's directions led them to an apartment complex that was somewhere between middle and lower class. It was simple enough, white walls with a red tile roof, and looked to good to be for those who lived in poverty but to shabby to be for those who lived comfortably either.

"Thanks for the ride. Tell Mokuba to be more careful next time," was all that was said by way of parting. Kaiba simply grunted in response. The door shut and he walked into the building, pushing open the sliding glass door of the bottom apartment. Seto was sure that would be the end of it.

He could not, however, get the look out of his head. The look of pity. Not the hatred of his friend Jounouchi, not the anger of Anzu when he had once again belittled their friendship. It was open, unabashed, pity and it was aimed at him. This person who had so recently lost a friend pitied him. This boy with no name, no glory, and certainly nothing that Seto could think of that made him special pitied him.

The CEO was so angry that if the driver had looked in his rear view mirror he might have seen steam coming out of his ears. What gave that nobody the right to pity him, Seto Kaiba? He was everything that boy wasn't. Everyone knew his name; he had money, a company, and worldwide fame. Seto was willing to bet that if he asked everyone in his grade that seventy five percent of them wouldn't be able to tell him that boy's name.

So what gave him the right to pity him? That was the question that was driving Seto insane, plaguing him in a way that nothing had since Yuugi had defeated him that first time. He watched without really seeing Mokuba roll over, obviously alive and fine other than a nasty bump on the head. He was going to have to find out where this boy got the idea that he had the right to pity him. He had to.