murtagh1, Thanks for commenting! c:. (I'll read your fic soon!) And nope, Isono wasn't in their orphanage, and he probably is much older than I'm making him here- but no one knows his actual age and he seems to have a good relationship with Kaiba so I couldn't let him out! (Plus I needed more orphans ^.^;). He's 18\17 while Seto is 9\8. Still a big age difference at least! (Thank you for reviewing again, I'm hoping that I'm not overloading you with new chaps! xD)

gracefulmiracle, Há, I guess you expected some more drama? It's because (i'm not so good with it) I couldn't have them separate in the orphanage, but I also couldn't have Yami being boundless! (Plus, I prefer fluff- cough cough). Glad you still like it!

Howl3, Omg, you spoil me way too much! (The fun thing is that Shaadi doesn't know who is the one chosen by the Puzzle! In the manga at least, but I'm sure that he'll freak out anyway, since the only thing that kept him from attacking Yugi himself was his innocent soul room, and I'm sure that Seto's will be... a little different. I wonder what he'll do...)Sadly no cookies in this chap ;-;. But yeah, that was based in my time in an orphanage. They used to give way too many of them! (My friend was an orphan, not me :). Sleepovers were fun but the blankets were way too thin!) There was honey cookies, chocolate cookies, vanilla cookies... yea, you get it! (Yami will definitely be suplied with a good and frequent amout of cookies, don't worry xD. I wish I could get some as well ;-;.) And I... wasn't planning into adding the 'Don't kill' thing. It just showed up and now I have a more complex plot that may or may not be better than the old one! xD. Hope you like this chap as well! (Even if it's mostly setting the stage for the next chaps ^.^;)

"S-sir ..."

The white-haired man was staring at the children's drawings on the classroom wall. Nervously, the teacher who took care of younger children like Mokie discreetly moved from one foot to the other. This visit was one of the most important of the entire event, and Gozaburo was one of the major cash donors for their orphanage. If he donated by kindness or obligation, no one knew, and no one needed to know. They chose the classroom that was in better condition of the whole building to start the tour, the 'two to six years children' room. Swallowing hard, she wondered again why she had been chosen for this role. God willing, the man will just stop looking at the drawings and quickly end this torture.

"Which child drawed this one?" The CEO asked, pointing to one of the drawings that were placed higher on the wall.

Looking up, the teacher saw a paper with two boys holding hands, one with neat brown hair and blue eyes, and a smaller one with spiky black hair and greyish eyes. Behind them was a black creature with bright yellow eyes and a golden, toothed mouth that ended where it's ears have should have been. There was a third darker eye on it's forehead, as if the drawing's author had forgotten to add it before and tried to erase the black skin to be able to put it on. Several dark tendrils came out of the creature's back and writhed across the page, wrapping the two boys, who were smiling in the midst of two long black arms ending in pointed fingers like long, sharp claws.

Red lines trickled from the comic creature's jaw.

"Uh ..." she muttered nervously, turning to the room of little kids looking up at her expectantly.

Scanning the small crowd, she found a head of frizzy black hair. "Mokie" She called gently, hoping that the usually hot tempered boy wouldn't do anything 'funny' in the presence of someone so important.

Slowly, the boy walked to the front of the room and looked into Gozaburo's eyes. With his dark eyes filled with confidence, he said: "Yes, Mr.?"

The man raised an eyebrow.

"This is a very interesting drawing you made here. Something happened to make you want to draw such a thing?"

Shuddering, the woman intervened: "It's just a weekly practical activity- 'draw your friends'. Mokie has this imaginary friend for a long time, it's nothing to-."

"I'm talking to the boy, m'lady."

Closing her mouth, the teacher looked away.

With narrowed eyes, Mokuba said. "It's not polite to interrupt people, Mr."

With a scorn-filled smile, the man shot back: "Neither is refusing to answer people, kid."

The two stared at each other until Mokie started to sweat, tears gathering in the back of his eyes. He really hated the effect that older people's gazes had on him. The other children began to murmur among themselves, much to the boy's and teacher's discomfort. Feeling a deep, cold look on him, Mokie looked at the door, making Gozaburo look as well.

"Mokuba!" Seto said reproachfully, running to him. The eyes of the older man followed every single movement from the minor.

"I didn't tell you to stay away from him ?!" The older brother whispered, stealing a look at the adults in the room. In the corner of his eyes, Mokie's drawing caught his attention. "Mokuba ! Did you-"

"Nii-sama ..." Murmured the smaller one, looking down. The teacher immediately pulled Seto's shoulder to get him out of the room, but Gozaburo stopped her.

"Let him go." After the teacher hesitantly dropped the kid, the old man looked in the narrow blue eyes and asked, "What's wrong with your brother's drawing?", raising an eyebrow.

Through gritted teeth, Seto said. "This ... ghost in the background. It should not be there." Looking Mokie with angry eyes, brown haired boy continued: "He promised me that he would stop drawing it. Mokuba treats it as a guardian or something, but it was only one of those stories that our parents used to told us to ward off nightmares. . "

The words felt bitter inside his mouth.

"Oh." The entrepreneur murmured, greyish eyes shining with sickly interest.

Mokie cowered behind his brother. This man gave him chills. It was really a good idea to be adopted by him?

"Mr ... let's continue the tour, we're wasting time."

"Hmm."

The white haired CEO turned to follow the woman when a shout stopped him in his tracks.

"I challenge you !"

The room was filled with silence. Not even the murmurs of children could be heard now that the tension was hot in the air, making Seto's heart beat faster. His whole body shivered as the man's cold eyes turned slowly to him, glaring furiously.

"What. Did you say?"

Seto had to use all his strength to avoid swallowing.

"I. Challenge. You !"

Something similar to a warped smile spreaded in the older man's face. It grew up as the man tried to hold his laughter, which soon was heard all over the room. The children cowered at the sound.

"You challenge me?"

"Seto!" The teacher cried in a furious and desperate rebuke.

Ignoring how fast his heart was beating, the boy replied, "Yes!"

With a dark smile, the business man prevented the teacher from approaching.

"And how you intend to challenge me, boy?"

With his shiny blue eyes narrowed and full of determination, the child pointed to the chess boards arranged in the room's corner. The man laughed again.

"I'll humor you, kid. Let's play."

"With a condition."

Making sure that Gozaburo was listening, Seto continued, "You're going to adopt me and my brother if you lose."

"Hmm. Of course." The CEO dimissed it with a snort.

A smile spreaded on the smaller's face.

"Game Start !" (1)

The sight of a mature man playing with a little boy was funny in a certain way. But ironically, the old man wasn't hogging the game. Seto was really good with chess, and he knew all of Gozaburo's strategies.

Yami never expected less from his partner.

"Aibou ..!" He murmured in his deep voice, floating between the children's legs excitedly, easily. "Aibou ..." He whispered tenderly, curling around his own gaseous body.

The children were so worried in following Seto's movements that they didn't notice the little creature crawling and wandering through their feet. Spotting Mokie, the ghost's body became more spiky and he whispered excitedly "... small Aibou ...! ... little Aibou ..." as he crawled closer with a golden smile.

Mokuba shuddered when he felt something slimy crawling up his legs. Looking down, he saw two small bright eyes blinking at him.

"Yami!" He whispered, pushing the small head back into his collar. How did he get over there?!

"You're very good at this game boy." Gozaburo huffed, his cold eyes analyzing Seto from top to bottom.

"And you're not bad at all, sir." Murmured the smaller one, a drop of sweat oozing down his face. He could have lost five times already. If he hadn't changed the pieces lightly from place or distracted the older man, he would have already lost all the chance he had to save himself and his brother, maybe forever.

Unconsciously, his hand wandered to his lap for comfort, and he almost sighed in surprise when he realized that Yami wasn't there. He had become so accustomed to let the spirit sleep in his lap that was totally shocking to not feel the warmth or the soft pulsar on his legs.

Biting his lip, he began to feel Gozaburo's withering glare with more intensity. When he took one of his hands to the chessmen, he saw that it was shaking. Swallowing hard, he wiped a few beads of sweat from his eyes and felt his heart fall into his stomach when the old man ended up one of his best pieces- Seto had made a stupid mistake.

Feeling the commotion inside the blue-eyed child, the ghost peeked over Mokie's neckband again. Before the small kid could push him back inside, he slid back down and fired towards of the older orphan, entering through his trouser's hem. Seto's eyes widened and he stood straight on his chair, making the old man smile in satisfaction.

Mokuba gasped in horror when Yami slipped right out of his hands and cringed seeing him arriving to his brother's chair. "Uhh ... ops?"

"Wha-ha ..." Seto whispered as he felt something warm settling on his collarbone.

Yami.

He almost sighed with relief. It was as if all the stress that was weighing on his shoulders had suddenly disappeared, and he could see the game more clearly now. With his bright blue eyes, he met Gozaburo's flaming eyes without fear -even though the man still got on his nerves. A defiant smile spread across his face, even if just to rip the smug look off his opponent's face.

It worked. The man made the scariest grimace, but it worked!

Taking a deep breath, he looked right into the menacing eyes and continued the game, trying to fix the stupid mistakes he had done. His eyes widened when he saw the pieces in different places than they used to be before, and some 'ressurected' chess pieces.

He realized with shock that the older man hadn't noticed the sudden and obvious change in the game board. His gray eyes were weird- unfocused.

Well, Seto wasn't going to complain.

Before he could make his move, he heard a faint dark whisper in his ear... it made him wince.

"B7 ..."

With a sigh, he recognized the voice he had heard so many months ago. He felt his whole body go cold, gulping. With a trembling hand, he followed the order.

And every single one that followed it.

Gozaburo's eyes finally returned to normal once Seto said "Checkmate."

He looked at the board with a full shock face, and stood up slowly as he continued to look, stumbling a little.

Everyone else who was in the room looked at them wide-eyed, including Mokie. Seto wasn't sure of twhat they had seen, but he was sure that it wasn't the same thing as him.

"Y-You ...!"

The little orphan cringed as he heard the poison in the old man's word.

Gozaburo slowly approached him with his eyes burning with fury, but as soon as he towered over the boy and reached out to grab him two glowing eyes appeared in a flash through his mind, disappearing as fast as they appeared but still being enough to make the employer take several steps back.

"I ..." He shook his head as if to clear it, but his eyes were still unfocused. "Come ... boy." He murmured with repressed hatred, turning to leave the room.

"But sir-" The teacher started and was interrupted with a single glance.

"Mokie." Seto said softly. The child trotted over to him, still looking down in shame for the drawing problem. His older brother guided him with a hand on his back, letting young one cling to his shirt.

Gozaburo didn't even finish his tour. He just signed the adoption papers with short and acidic sentences, definitely not happy to have lost that game. Both boys packed their few belongings in record time and entered their new father's limousine hesitantly, nervous about the tense atmosphere inside the car. Seto stroked the pulsing Puzzle inside his backpack, pondering how Yami was able to drag it to the room were he was without alerting anyone, and also how ... all that had happened. It was really the spirit that was talking to him?

"Nii-sama ..." Whispered Mokie, stealing a glance at the old man who was sitting a little farther away from them. "Do you ... do you really think this was a good idea?"

Looking Gozaburo, Seto wasn't so sure.

"Of course it was Mokie."

Something twisted inside his shirt, and he was quick to stop it from moving. Two bright eyes twinkled merrily to him before the little creature caressed his neck with his face.

The blue-eyed boy gave a small smile.

"Yami."

The brothers were distracted looking at the spirit until the car stopped at a large mansion, which should be a bit far from the city since the scenario had become an open place full of grass and well-pruned trees. The four left the luxury car, and the brothers had a good time to admire the beautiful and well maintained gardens, full of colorful and exotic plants. There were fountains and statues, gravel roads decorated with chic patterns throughout the entire yard extension and benches dotted near the most beautiful flowers. Seto thought about having seen one or two gardeners watering a giant bush of pink flowers but he didn't have time to confirm his theory as the hardwood doors of the mansion opened before him.

The hallways were magnific. Decorations everywhere, famous paintings with gold frames hanging from the salmon colored walls, expensive statues and detailed vases- everything was decorated. The ceiling, the 'bulbs', the furniture and even the doors had diversified designs. Seto was delighted with the place. It was even more ostentative than their parents' mansion and that was saying a lot. It had precious stones on doorknobs. The blinding white shag carpeting under his feet apparently was covering the floor of the entire mansion. And apparently the house had no end, as they were walking for what seemed like hours, and his feet were starting to hurt!

Silently Gozaburo stopped in front of one of the doors next to the gigantic dining room and waited for the children to enter it with their belongings. Before the boys had time to admire the place, they heard a click signaling that the door had been locked.

"HEY!" Seto screamed, indgnant, banging on the door.

"Nii-san! He'll let us out later! Calm down!" Mokie soothed, sure that Gozaburo just needed to digest what happened. Mokuba didn't care. Just the sight of the beautiful house had taken all his doubts about this plan not have been a good idea, and judging by the twinkle in his brother's eyes, Seto also thought the same.

That was so much better than the orphanage!

With joy, the smaller boy began to jump on the bed. "Haaa! It's so soft! Come, nii-sama!" The older one watched his little brother bounce in bed hesitantly, looking up and down. Still bitter about being locked in this room, he thought, "Why not?"

"But first ..." Seto put his hand under his shirt, sought Yami tail and pulled him out, seeing his now tiny body fall limply against his forearm, sleeping. A little guilty, the brown haired boy took all his belongings out of his bag except the Puzzle and put the spirit carefully back inside. Yami immediately curled around the golden artifact, sighing deeply.

Seto wanted to let the ghost sleep in the king-size bed, but it was too risky. Until things became stable there still was a chance of Gozaburo suddenly appearing in this room to talk to them. When this chance disappears, he will put the puzzle on one of the pillows. But while they were still at risk, Yami would have to stay in the backpack. Seto closed it, leaving a small space open for air and put it under the bed with Mokie's bag. They needed to find a way to feed him without arousing suspicion, too ...

"Nii-samaaaa!"

"I'm going!" He hurried to get on the bed with his little brother.

It was actually really soft! A big smile spread on the boy's face as he started jumping too, laughing a little. He didn't let himself have fun very often but...they just could jump so high! (2)

They barely had time to enjoy themselves a bit before a loud knock sounded through the door. "Stop that." Someone's voice scolded with pent-up frustration.

Mokie stopped first, sitting on the bed nervously. Seto scowled at the door before he sit down with force, still bouncing slightly.

"He locks us in a room alone, with nothing to do, in the middle of the day-" He began to complain before turning around and tucking his face into a pillow. (3)

"C'mon, Nii-san. I'm sure there's something interesting to the here." Mokuba said, getting up to scour the huge room. Seto remained motionless on the bed.

There were many things to look at and read, but apparently there was no TV or computer in any place nearby. With a sigh, Mokie began rummaging through the furniture drawers in search of a board game or similar, but there was only paper, paper and more paper. This must be a room that his new father only uses to store old wrinkly documents.

As he removed the documents, something caught his eye.

Some of the papers had the word 'game' being repeated over and over again. Grabbing them, Mokie read it and found out that a collectible card game had been released and was doing a great success in the Americas.

"Nii-san ...?" Mokuba told his brother before handing over the documents to him. Seto lazily accepted them and read slowly.

"Hmm. Looks like our father received a request for him to bring this game to Japan. He is a very influential man after all. Perhaps the most influential of the country, even if he doesn't work with games. The owner of that other company was pretty smart. "

Rummaging through the papers, he saw a large 'REFUSED' on the last of them. "Hm."

Without bothering to read the rest, he laid on his back, decided to count the decorations on the bed's ceiling. Mokuba preferred to continue to search the room, and a few hours passed without he finding nothing. With a weary sigh, he sat on the bed, seeing that the sun was already high in the sky. His stomach was growling, and he was just about to shake his brother awake when the door suddenly opened.

Seto jumped when two thick notebooks were thrown beside him, and Mokie started to salivate with the delicious smell that was coming through the door. A food cart was pushed towards them, and before closing the door, the woman who was pushing it spoke:

" Mr . Kaiba asked you two to take a look at your agendas and already begin to follow their schedules quickly. There will be visits of allies and clients tomorrow and he asked to not be bothered. On day two you will travel to America, so already take the necessary provisions. "

And the door closed with a click.

"WHAT?! We have to do all of this ?!"

While Seto freaked out about the size of the agendas, Mokie drooled on the chic dishes they received. "We can finish whatever it is later, Nii-san! Wake Yami and let's eat!"

With a frown, Seto nodded and pushed the gigantic books away. "You know what? You're right." And he pulled the bag from under the bed.

After waking up the spirit, the three expressed thanked for the food before devouring the expensive dishes. The blue-eyed boy felt the delicious taste with a smile. Oh yes, it was definitely better than the orphanage. Learning how to manage it all and how to follow that big-ass schedule would be difficult, but after all he, Mokie and Yami have gone through, he was sure that all the rest of their lives from now on will be easy as pie.

So innocent.

(1) 'Game Start!' Is a famous phrase in the Yu Gi Oh! Manga! (I really like it~)

(2) Kids.

(3) Kids.

And alright, things are all set up and ready to (burn) keep moving! ;D. I don't have much more to say other than a big, huge, Thank You! for reading, faving, following (and especially) reviewing! It really cheers me up in bad days and makes me update way faster! Looking at you, Howl3, Murtagh1!