Author's Note: Actually had something else planned to write, but I just had this story idea during a bout of insomnia, so you get this instead. This is the tale of what would have happened if Kaiba hadn't become the resident snobby rich-boy of Yu-Gi-Oh! Enjoy.

**

The Path Not Taken

**

"Checkmate." The smirk accompanying the word was just as sickeningly smug as the man's smile. That one word brought all the hopes of a little boy to a crashing death. He had lost.

Seto, a young orphaned boy, stared in utter denial and mounting horror at the chessboard in front of him. His king was cornered, there was absolutely no possible move for him to make. But it wasn't possible! He had studied every one of Gozaburo Kaiba's chess matches. He knew every move, every strategy! And… he'd still lost?

"It was a nice try," sneered the CEO of KaibaCorp as he stood up, watching the young boy with amusement laced with contempt. "Better luck next time, kid. But next time, you may want to try challenging someone closer to your level of skill."

To think, that little kid had thought he could beat him at chess… all so he would adopt the little brat and his snot-nosed brother. Still, the boy was clever, and played a good game… probably would have won even, if Gozaburo hadn't cheated. But the CEO of a multi-million dollar company couldn't lose a game to a kid, now could he? Besides, Gozaburo already had a son and heir… Noa may be a little spoiled and lazy, but proper schooling, the boy would make a fine CEO. Gozaburo certainly didn't need two more kids to babysit.

Seto hardly took notice as Gozaburo Kaiba left the room. His stare was fixed on the chessboard. It just didn't make sense. He should have won! In a fit of frustration, he swept all the pieces off the board in a swift move, knocking over the chair as he leapt to his feet, chasing after the man that should have meant salvation for himself and Mokuba.

"Seto!" Mokuba yelled, chasing after his older brother. "Wait! Where are you going?"

Paying no heed to his brother's calls, Seto ran out onto the orphanage playground as Gozaburo Kaiba got into his fancy car. "Coward!" Seto yelled after the man. "Dirty cheater! Don't you dare walk away from me!"

Gozaburo ignored the boy's yells as he got into the car. Still seething, Seto snatched up a small rock from the ground and hurled it with every ounce of his young boy's strength. With a loud crash, it left a beautiful spider-web of splintery cracks all over the fancy car's front window. There was pure fury in the KaibaCorp CEO's eyes as he got out of the car.

Seto took a quick step back, realizing what damage he'd done and to whom. "Run, Mokuba." He grabbed his brother's hand, taking off running back to the orphanage before the furious adults could catch him. "Run!"  

**

Seto lay on his stomach on his little cot that night, trying to sleep. Normally he liked sleeping on his back, but he'd been spanked pretty hard for breaking Mr. Kaiba's window. It wasn't the pain keeping him awake, though. Something inside him still screamed at the unfairness of his loss.

Sure, he was just a kid, and according to all the adults he knew, his young age was supposed to make him inferior to them. But he was smart, and he knew it. He could have beaten that man at chess, and given his brother a better life, far away from this place. But Gozaburo had cheated… he must have. But who would believe a little kid's word against that of the most powerful man in the country?

"Seto?" Mokuba's soft voice called out to him in the dark.

"Mokie?" Seto whispered, rolling over, ignoring the pain that caused on his tender bottom. "What are you doing up?"

Mokuba sneaked into the room, crawling into his big brother's bed. "I couldn't sleep."

"Me neither." Seto hugged his little brother, the only person in the world that mattered to him.

"Do you think that man really would have adopted us… if you'd won?" Mokuba whispered.

Seto frowned. "No… he's a bad man, Mokie. I think he cheated… there's no way he could have beaten me fairly! A man like that wouldn't have kept his word, even if I had won."

Mokube hugged Seto closely. "You're still the best chess player in the world, Seto. I wouldn't want that mean ol' man to be our father anyway."

Seto laughed. "You're right, Mokuba. Can you imagine his house? Probably full of nothing but huge books with no pictures, and furniture we wouldn't be allowed on because we'd get it dirty…"

"And we couldn't jump on the beds!" Mokuba chimed in.

"Right! And there wouldn't be anything fun to do at all. No, we certainly wouldn't want to go there," Seto agreed.

Mokuba nodded emphatically. "We'll go somewhere nice, instead. With games and candy, and a mom and a dad… and it'll be much better than going with that mean man. Besides… if he became our father, your name would have been Seto Kaiba."

Seto smiled a little, repeating the name, just to see how it sounded. "Seto Kaiba… what's wrong with that? It has a nice ring to it."

Mokuba poked him in the side. "It sounds silly. You're certainly not someone who looks like they should be called Seto Kaiba. It's all wrong for you."

"Okay, okay," Seto agreed with a soft laugh. He poked his brother in the side, just to hear Mokuba muffle his giggle. "Alright, go to sleep before we get in trouble."

Mokuba grinned, cuddling up to Seto. "Mmkay. G'night, Seto."

"Goodnight, Mokie."

**

"Seto!" Mokuba hissed, shaking his brother a little. "Seto, wake up!"

"Nuhhh…" Seto groaned, pulling the blanket over his head, doing his very best to ignore Mokuba. The day could just go on and start without him.

Five months after Seto had lost the chess game to Gozaburo Kaiba, the two brothers still hadn't been adopted. And it wasn't that there weren't plenty of parents who wanted to adopt Seto. Seto was clearly a very intelligent- and rather cute- child, and plenty of couples envisioned a "Parent of an Honor Roll Student" bumper sticker on their car when considering adopting him. The problem was, Seto refused to go anywhere without his little brother. And Mokuba, though clearly as cute as his brother, was rather… average. And nobody really cared to pick up a stowaway along with the genius.

"But Seto!" Mokuba said again, trying to drag Seto out of bed. "There's another couple downstairs! They want to adopt you. You gotta come downstairs."

"Forget it, Mokie, there's no point. I'm not leaving without you. Just go back downstairs and tell them that…" Seto yawned, stretching as he sat up, glaring at the room blearily.

"I have a good feeling about these two," Mokuba said with excitement. "Please? Just meet them."

"Well, if you like them…" Seto muttered, climbing out of bed. Mokuba didn't give him the chance to change out of his pajamas, simply grabbing his big brother's hand and dragging him downstairs.

As he came down the stairs, Seto studied the couple waiting with the orphanage staff. He couldn't fault their appearance. A nice looking man and woman, dressed in clean clothes, well groomed… Worth interrogating, at least, instead of his usual immediate dismissal of all potential candidates.

"Seto," said the social worker that helped to run the orphanage. "This is Mr. and Mrs. Nishimura. They've been very anxious to meet you."

Seto looked up at the two people sullenly, examining their faces. The woman had a young, pleasant face, with a nice smile. The man had creases at the corners of his mouth, indicating that he smiled wide and laughed often, and he had kind eyes. Seto found himself relaxing. They'd earned themselves at least a polite handshake.

"My brother Mokuba said you wanted to adopt me," Seto started out after the introductions were taken care of. "But I'm not leaving here without him. So if you want to adopt me, you gotta take him too." There was no way in Hell that he would be separated from Mokie.

Mrs. Nishimura nodded at him. "Of course, Mokuba said much the same thing earlier. We would be delighted to have both of you."

Seto was impressed, though determined not to show it. "Alright. Well, I want to see your credentials. Where do you work? How much money do you make? What kind of place do you live in?" These things were important to know before he gave his approval to go live with these people.

Instead of being offended by Seto's forward questions, the two were happy to answer them. Mr. Nishimura worked at a software company, and his wife was a schoolteacher. They made enough to afford a pleasant little house, just big enough for them and a pair of growing boys. It was certainly a far cry from whatever luxurious surroundings Gozaburo Kaiba had, but… it sounded nice.

A real home, and a family. A mother and a father, for both him and Mokuba. Seto couldn't find any fault with it. He looked to his little brother, to gauge his reaction.

The excited, hopeful shine in Mokuba's eyes decided it for him as well as anything. Seto turned back to the couple, nodding his approval. "Alright. That sounds fine."

And so the papers were signed, and Seto and Mokuba packed up their meager belongings, to move into their new home, ready to begin a new life.

**

"Seto Nishimura!" called his mother from downstairs. "Are you awake? You're going to be late for school!"

Seto sat up so fast it made him dizzy, rubbing his eyes and trying to wake up. "Yeah mom, I'm up!" he called back to her, even though he wasn't exactly up yet. He'd learned long ago that it was no use to ignore his mother's call when she tried to rouse him. She had nothing against marching upstairs and dumping a bucket of cold dish-water over his head.

Life at the Nishimura residence had been blissfully normal ever since the two boys had been adopted. Seto had excelled through all of his classes with ease, and tended to spend his free time studying huge books that were almost large enough to squash his little brother. Seto had entered high school in pretty much the same way he did everything else; with a perfectly calm, unassuming attitude. Mokuba was an active child, immersing himself in pretty much any sort of sport involving a ball that could break a window… as many of the parents of the neighborhood would attest to.

That morning, the sun shone through the curtains, casting pretty hazy patterns on the floor. After a moment of admiring them, Seto thought he heard his mother coming up the stairs with a fresh bucket of water to dump on him, and he quickly scrambled out of bed to pull on his school uniform, dashing down the stairs and into the kitchen to grab breakfast.

"Oh, and could you give your brother a ride to school on your way, Seto?" his mother asked, as Seto grabbed a piece of fresh toast and stuck it in his mouth.

"Sure thing," Seto mumbled around his breakfast. After swallowing his bite, he yelled back up the stairs. "Mokie! Move your ass, you'll miss breakfast!"

"Seto!" his mother scolded. "Don't use such language in this house."

"Right, right," he muttered as he always did, tromping back upstairs to his brother's room. "Mokuba! You'd better not make me late again."

"I'm up!" Mokuba announced, opening the door with one hand, trying to pull on his other sock with his other. Seto barely caught him before he lost his balance and fell over.

"C'mon, Mokie, I'm giving you a ride today."

Mokuba raced down to grab his breakfast, and Seto returned to his room to grab his school bag. Mornings were always like this in his house. And it wasn't as if he didn't greatly enjoy it. It was a great life here. And still… if ever Seto was to sit down long enough to think about it, it always felt all wrong. Even now, so many years later, he still thought… he should have won that game. Just to show-up that rich bastard Kaiba. One day, maybe…

After gathering his stuff, Seto brought his bicycle out to the front of his house. Mokuba called his goodbyes to their parents, running out to meet his brother. This had become something of a ritual for the two boys. After tying their bags to the back of the bike, Seto would climb on, and Mokuba would scramble up to cling to his brother's back like a monkey. With the proper balance, Seto could carry his brother this way as they rode.

Despite the crowds, it was always quickest to ride through the downtown area. Mokuba would crouch low, hanging onto his brother all the while, until they came to a certain intersection. Then he would straighten, calling out and pointing as he always did. "Look! There it is!"

Seto slowed the bike to a halt as always, pausing to look. The massive KaibaCorp building loomed above all the rest, a shining monolith among all the other buildings. Seto glowered at it.

"One day, that'll be mine," Seto announced. "The whole KaibaCorp empire. And Gozaburo Kaiba will never know what hit him."

Mokuba laughed, nodding. "Yeah, that'll show him. You'd be a much better CEO than him or that Noa kid. You really could."

Seto knew he could. For some reason, he'd always felt like he was made to do it. If only he'd had that chance, so many years ago…  

They started off again, as Seto let his brother off at Mokuba's school. Mokuba waved goodbye as he ran into the building, and Seto turned his bike around, heading for Domino High School.

He was just despairing about how late he was going to be to his first class, when he heard sounds of some sort of fight going on in one of the alleyways. Curious, Seto halted and got off his bike. He was already late, what harm would a few minutes be? Besides, it sounded like someone was really hurt…

"Quit it! Please, stop!"

"Come on, get up! Quit crying like a little baby!"

"Hey!" The two bullies looked up as Seto yelled at them. Seto was known for being one of the resident bookworms of the school, but he could also be a tough bastard if provoked. Deciding that fighting with Seto wasn't as much fun as pounding their current target, the two boys shrugged and made an exit.

Watching the two with some contempt, Seto went to examine what they'd left behind. A small boy, probably little bigger than Mokuba, seemed to be taking temporary respite on top of a bag of garbage. The boy had rather wildly colored hair, styled in all kinds of crazy spikes, and he had the brightest violet eyes Seto had ever seen.

"Hey there…" Seto said, holding out a hand to help the boy up. "You alright?"

"Yeah, fine…" the boy muttered, taking Seto's hand and climbing to his feet. "Thanks for coming by. Those two aren't the meanest bullies of the school, but… it's still no fun getting beat up by them."

"I can imagine," Seto said. He smiled and introduced himself. "I'm Seto Nishimura."

"Yugi Motou," the boy introduced with a bright smile in return. His smile faded as he noticed all of his possessions scattered around the alleyway. Among the papers were quite a few Duel Monsters Cards. "Oh no… quick, help me get them before they blow away!" Yugi scrambled to pick up all the cards.

Seto stooped to help him, glancing at some of the cards as he picked them up. He was rather fond of the game himself, though he rarely had anyone to play against besides Mokuba. Glancing at one of the cards, his eyes widened in shock. "You have a Blue Eyes White Dragon card?"

Yugi nodded, beaming as Seto handed him back the cards he'd picked up. "Yep! These were my grandfather's cards, he gave them to me as a gift. That's his favorite card."

Seto nodded, eyes still a little wide. "They're really rare, aren't they? I've always wanted one…"

"Oh, you play?" Yugi asked, as he repacked his backpack.

"Yeah, a little. I'm not great, mostly I just play against my little brother."

"Thanks for helping," Yugi said again, as the two headed toward the high school, with Seto walking his bike. "We should play Duel Monsters together sometime. I could teach you some tricks and stuff! My grandfather owns a game store, and he knows all about the game…"

"Yeah, I'd like that," Seto answered, smiling at his new friend. It was developing into an interesting sort of morning.

**

Author's Note: (yeah, another one) Now, don't think that because this ended on a happy note means that I'm finished. There's more to this story, just you wait…