Umm… Can't recall where I got this idea from. Oh well. Um… Darn. Nothing to say and it is such a nice story opening too.

Disclaimer: Seto, Mokuba, and anything Yu-Gi-Oh is not owned by me. I honestly don't know why people keep asking. DO I LOOK FAMOUS? No!

:-:oOo:-:

Once upon a time, there was family consisting of a father, a mother, and their baby boy. This little humble family was not rich nor were they famous, but they were a happy one nonetheless. Well, at least as happy as a family could be. Life, as we all know, isn't chockfull of candy treats and butterflies. There are the stresses of work, other people, and staying on the track of your goals. However, despite the small bumps that life brings, this family was still a content one through and through. The teacher and his wife loved each other greatly, but both made sure that their affection was shared with their darling son. He was their prized treasure, and like any other couple blessed with a child, he was more valuable to them than all the treasures the world could hold. They were not afraid to die if it assured them they're child would grow up happy and live an honorable life.

Of course, the parents were confident that they would have a long-lived family, so on that basis, they made merry predictions of where life would take them. They formed guesses to where their child would be as he grew up. They decided he could maybe take up a career as a teacher to follow in his father's footsteps, or maybe he would be the brave sheriff that made sure dirty deeds didn't go unpunished. Wherever he ended up in life, they were convinced he would make the right choices. That was their plan and their hopes.

But plans, no matter how much hope they are backed up with, do not always come out right…

:-:oOo:-:

It was a snowy morning to say the least. Any window surface that revealed itself to the winter air provided a canvas on which nature etched its frost. However, if nature had given care to look through these canvases before leaving its crystalline motifs, it would have probably been struck with awe. On the inside surface of four particular windows, there was a luxurious room. It was decorated richly in expense from handcrafted silk rugs to intricate lampshades. As for the room itself, it was surprisingly large. Even a corner of the room proved useful as a small personal library, holding a large display of neatly arranged books and a cushioned chair to sit in. The pride of this bedroom however, came from a king sized bed centered between the four windows. The sheets and pillows were equivalent with the rest of room's wealth, shaded artfully with tones of blue, white, and silver, but the one thing that set them aside was their concealment of a young man. He lied peacefully in his bed, almost dead-like with only the raising and lowering of his stomach to prove he was still alive. For now he was protected from the cold outside and having to meddle his daily life. Unfortunately, that bliss was going to end with two seconds.

Beep-beep-beep-beep-beep! Beep-beep-beep-beep-beep!

It had come. The day had come. A hand roughly shut off the alarm clock with a rather harsh hit, and the sheets rippled. Only for a minute did they stop, because of the teenager's own reluctance to greet the day. However, unlike many other people his age, the pull of his schedule was something he embraced, and could not delay for long. His feet slid off the side of his bed, and brought cue to let the annoyances begin.

He prepared for the day like any normal teenager: Shower, hair, clothes, teeth, breakfast, and greeting his younger sibling… Then checking stocks, wondering why Ms. Ito hadn't brought him his coffee yet, checking more stocks, checking his business calendar, getting his own coffee, rebuking Ms. Ito, threatening to fire Ms. Ito, commanding Ms. Ito to clean the living room rug, drinking his coffee, putting down the coffee half-finished, and finally getting his brother to come down for school. When the two finally set out into the snowy abyss outside, a sleek black vehicle was already waiting for them. Upon the duo's sight the back door was opened by a slightly shivering chauffer for them to enter. It was quick transfer and once they were inside, the driver was eager to get in the warm vehicle himself.

As for the drive to school, it was a smooth one like always and quick too. Then again, that's the reason this driver hadn't been fired yet. He made the vehicle's first stop in front of an elementary school where the younger of the two was supposed to depart. When he opened the back door for him however, he found a bit of concern between the two brothers.

"You're positive that I won't have to waste my time as a substitute for this one will I?" the eldest asked, his usually calm voice stained with a slight sense of exhaustion.

"Huh? For wh…? Oh… Don't worry, I'm sure everybody will understand," was what he got as a reply. It was clear that answer didn't satisfy him, but he didn't care much for interrogating further. There really was no reason to get involved in something that irked him when it could just as easily be ignored.

"Hmph…"

"Seeya Seto," the boy chimed. He ran out with no further response from his brother, the chauffer retook his place back in the driver's seat, and the limousine sped off again on course for Domino High.

The now lonely passenger gave himself nonchalant confidence about this day. It was all going to blow over, just like any other day as long as his younger sibling held his breath about what happened during school. Leaving the subject on that, he moved to more important items to think about. Before he knew it, the vehicle was in sight of his own stop. He gripped the hold of his schoolbag, and prepared himself to exit.

TH-THUMP!

"What the hell?"

The chauffer slammed on the brakes, immediately parking the car next to the sidewalk. Like always, he got out and made sure to open the back door of the vehicle for the teenager. Seto stepped out, and to his horror, he heard the distraught cries of a female. "Oh my god! My baby! My precious baby!"

'Shit!' Seto thought. He rigidly looked upon the others, mostly fellow classmates, who had witnessed the accident, before turning to the driver. The man backed up, pale as a ghost.

"S-sir, I didn't see…" he stuttered pathetically, but this situation was beyond the redress of excuses. The boy, although fear for his wealth nipped at him, slowly began to creep toward the rear of the limousine. He watched in dread as the panicking girl threw herself onto the icy street. She dropped to her knees, and held up her injured child, who now was a gruesomely crushed, red… wooden reindeer mask?

"There, there.. We'll fix you up… good as new… O-okay?"

The teenager had to stand there and raise an eyebrow to register the idiocy of the moment, and he wasn't even going to begin making sense of what a mask was doing in the middle of the road. He sneered and turned his back. All that tension and care he so kindly offered had been given to a failure, but at least he was safe as far as a lawsuit went. That was all that mattered.

The other witnesses began to mobilize once again, chatting and heading to class, as they lost interest in the event. The girl and her mask left to get some emergency supplies from the art room, and the chauffer, relieved of murder charges, drove off. Seto was still around though, and even if the students were back to their lively selves, they knew better than to cross paths with him. The smart ones made sure to define a direct path to the school entrance for the guy where only the defiant or naïve held their places. He wasn't about to deal with insignificant specks like them though. As a matter of fact, Seto already had a victim on his mind.

He traveled the labyrinth of the school hallways, and landed himself at the open door of his first period classroom. His left foot fell halfway through the passageway of the door when he heard the voice he had planned to search for.

"Ah man, I can't believe this! What am I going to do?"

"We warned you not to agree to it, Joey."

"But I only missed ONE problem, and we didn't even go over court cases!"

"I'm sorry to say it, but I think Kaiba may have already known that question was going to be on the test so he made the bet on that particular one."

"That dirty cheat! Grr… Dang it!" A deviant smile curled Seto's lips. So Wheeler decided to get his test results early, huh? Right now it's not looking too good for the unfortunate blonde. He should have learned by now not to question Seto Kaiba's supreme authority. Especially, when he declared that unwise challenge against him. It was a simple test; Joey only needed to score a 100 on their latest government quiz to prove he wasn't, as Seto so bluntly put it, the failure of the class. Of course, no challenge is exciting without a wager, and the ante for this bet was not money, but self-esteem. The loser had to audition for an upcoming winter-themed comedy play, in costume and all. Maybe that didn't sound so bad. However, on Seto's win, Joey would have no choice but to try for the part of a stray dog who lost its master. As for the opposite result, Joey's win, Seto would have to try for the part of a mediocre penguin villain who bumbled with every mischievous plan. This morning though, had decided the winner.

Taking pride in his easy win, Seto stepped the rest of the way into the room. On the way to his desk, he shot Joey a condescending glance out of the corner of his eye. "I hope you brought your flea collar…" he mocked, using his rights of winning, and before Joey could even clench his teeth at the jerk, he had already passed and sat down.

"He was there the whole time!?" Joey yelled. Eventually the poor loser of the bet, clenched his fist, charring Seto to ashes with his eyes. "Grah! I can't believe it…"

:-:oOo:-:

Now for the younger of the two siblings, the one set to take the worst of what this day had in store. He looked around the hallways at the other kids his age, chatting and bubbly. Occasionally a teacher walked by to deliver something or whatnot, making the place feel comforting as ever. So far he didn't see any adults that did not look like they worked at the school, but even then, he did he was pretty confident it would be no big deal. His life was at the top, alongside his big brother. He was as happy as a kid could be.

"Hey Mokuba!" a boy called out. He and an admirable amount of other kids came charging up behind the young brother. To allow them to catch up, Mokuba halted and turned around to greet the group with a somewhat cocky smile. Being vice-president of a large gaming really did wonders for his popularity in school. It was no wonder kids would always swarm to his table during lunch hour. They would challenge him to games, nag him to let out sneak previews of future Kaiba Corp attractions, and beg him to tell how his big brother won his latest duel. Unfortunately, it was sad to say, that most of these groupies were only his friend for those reasons. Few seemed to pry into his life, and what he liked and disliked. Nevertheless, it set in as the norm for Mokuba so he truly had no problems with it.

"Hey, is your brother going to be here since its Parent Career day?" the kid excitedly asked, seeming to bounce as he talked. Yep, Mokuba knew that was coming.

"It would be sooo cool if we could meet him!"

"Yeah!"

"I want to see his blue eyes!"

Mokuba sighed and waved his hand in front of him to grab the attention of the excited crowd. Once they quieted down, he spat out the harsh truth. "Sorry guys, but my brother's not coming. He's just way too busy."

"Aww… But I want to see him!"

"You said he'd be coming!"

"I said I would ask him. I didn't say he'd come," Mokuba corrected, with an undertone of annoyance.

"What is he so busy with?"

"He has school," he answered, "Besides this is Parent Career day."

"Oh come on, we all know you don't have any parents, and your step-dad kicked the bucket two years ago."

Now this statement annoyed Mokuba quite a bit. Then again, maybe annoyance was an understatement. "HEY! Who said that?" he snapped. What insolent person thought it would be okay to speak of his orphaning in that kind of manner? He scanned the crowd, but his snap definitely sent that one cowering because nobody stood out. After a while of scared silence, nothing seemed to happen so the offended gave up. Now slightly set off in a bad mood, he decided to leave for class. The bell should be ringing soon anyway. A few kid's naively attempted to follow their great 'leader' in his escape, but were shoved back by the testy glances he shot over his shoulder.

Sadly, once their center of attention had went of sight, they turned to chat among themselves. Nobody truly cared enough to go after their idol, and most worked on the assumption he would be over it by lunchtime.

:-:oOo:-:

Today was Parent Career Day; It was a chance for students' moms and daddies to come over and share their work experiences with the budding generation. Students sat at their desks, either sticking up their nose in pride, or shrinking in embarrassment as their parents took turns covering everything from flipping hamburgers to bringing down an escaped convict. The range of jobs covered was simply amazing, but the range of parents were even more amazing. Even the step-parents of children who lost their biological ones, whether through death or divorce, joined in on speaking.

To this, poor Mokuba felt painfully singled out. The only reason a few other kids didn't have parents present was because they couldn't make time out of their schedules for it. To take his mind off it though, he doodled on a sheet of notebook paper. Although they were far from professional, Blue Eyes roared and flew within the boundaries of the page. Other kinds of monsters found their image sketched on the paper as well. As he did this, he failed to realize the learning opportunity in front of him. At least this was so until, the learning opportunity went searching for him.

"How about you?"

"Huh?" Mokuba raised his head from his escapade, sensing the finger pointed at him. He hadn't been paying attention to make a fair comparison, but this father was dressed pretty nicely. A dove had its perch on his other hand and cooed with mutual interest.

"Can you name one famous magician in our history?"

"Harry Houdini…?" Mokuba asked, feeling rather awkward for answering.

"Ah yes, Harry Houdini…" As the person went on about the named magician, Mokuba felt rather sick to his stomach. He wished Seto was there. Not that he was dependant on him or anything, but it would have made him a lot more comfortable. He started drawing the ear of an angry feral imp when something dreadful happened. The point to his pencil snapped. Now the preteen was without the ability to draw, and forced to do something else to keep his mind occupied. He looked at the clock, he looked at the ceiling. Even the least menial would do, as long as it wasn't the stage in front of him. Despite his efforts however, the front of the classroom kept stealing his attention. After a while, he decided to give in, and watch like all the other kids.

The father that had asked him the magician question made his closing statements, and squeezed his way down the aisle, accompanied by an applause. It died down once the name of the next parent was called, and the man had took a seat. Although most everybody's attention was now on the new speaker, Mokuba kept his focus on the magician out of sheer curiosity. The person knelt down next to his daughter, and held his dove out for her to pet, which she did. After a few light strokes on the dove's head however, her dad raised a finger to say 'wait a minute'. Once the girl withdrew her petting finger, he fully covered the dove with his hands. Upon their reopening, the dove was no longer but a plush toy. The toy was held out for her, and eagerly she snatched it, rotated it to marvel at the gift, and lunged forward to hug him. The small corporate vice-president steered his attention away, and laid his chin on his arms. This was going to be a long afternoon.

:-:oOo:-:

"Hey Seto, what were our parents like…?" he asked, finally breaking the silence of the limousine ride home.

"Mokuba?" Seto asked, a bit taken back.

Mokuba hesitated a bit, somewhat afraid where it would get him, but proceeded onward. "Mom… Dad… You know."

Seto tried to face his glare at something else while thinking of a reply. It was clear he didn't want to answer this question let alone hear it, even though he knew it was bound to happen. Eventually he came to reply, "Why?"

"Just curious…" his little brother answered, although with an air of disappointment.

"Hmph… Don't ask about them again," Seto warned, showing a bit of his anger towards the questioner.

"Sorry, it's just with Parent-"

"I know… Look, just because the other snot-twerps at school still had time to show theirs off doesn't mean you have to bring them up…" Seto said harshly, before turning his head to look out the window. Thus, the boy was really regretting what he tried to get into. He lowered his head, feeling even more singled out than he felt at school, but his big brother wasn't an entirely bad person. Calmly he redressed the anger in his own way of comfort, "Don't think about them, kid…"

"Sorry…" Mokuba said again, ending. Now that the conversation was dead and the lesson was learned, he had to find something else to focus his thoughts; something other than that forbidden subject. He stared out the window and into the white abyss outside it's boundaries. After the blizzard died down, the snow looked like it would be fun to play in. As a matter of fact, normal kids would probably be out there, throwing snowball fights, building snowmen. Thoughts wandered around how much fun it would be to join them, but better yet was the dream to do such activities with his brother. Ever since Gozaboro, they rarely did anything special together, unless you counted the dozen times they had to save their behinds from Seto's surprising amount of enemies. If only there was a special week where could just have fun like old times. This dream was a seemingly vain dream sadly. His dear brother had already practically sold himself to his company. It's always business meeting that, duel monsters this, money, complaints, yelling, etc.

Mokuba had a job too though. Being Seto's little brother, he was vice-president of the corporation. People with questions, complaints, suggestions, came to him almost as much as Seto if Mr. CEO wasn't around. It wasn't that he disliked this rank and duty, it was just… some times he wanted to break away from it all. He wished to just be a normal, broken, but happy kid with a normal, broken, but happy family for maybe at least day or so.

He finally turned away from the window to look at Seto. While he had been busy staring off into his thoughts, his brother had received a call on his cell. He talked rather calmly to who was no doubt one of his more trusted employees until…

"WHAT!? What do you mean the offer didn't go through!?"

'Well…' Mokuba thought, 'At least we have the broken part down…'

:-:oOo:-:

Umm…. That's that. Heh, you won't believe that I hesitated on uploading this because I couldn't think of what to say about it. I hoped you liked it.

Next chapter…

Welcome to Kaiba-Corp, how may we help you today? … … … Oh no, I'm sorry, right now Mr. Kaiba is busy yelling at people because his offer didn't go through. However, we may be able to schedule you in for 2 'o clock sometime in the next year…. …. …. Hmm… What's that? Resurrecting the dead? I'm sorry. Although we offer many services, I don't believe that's one of them… … … Okay, I wish you luck with that. :3