Disclaimer: I do not own Yuugiou.

For Better or For Worse

Bang!

The door slammed against the wall as a trio of men barreled into the room. They split up as they searched the it.

"Damn it! Where the hell is that brat? !" the largest one cried as he tore apart the closet..

"I don't think he's here, boss." the smallest of the group said, opening a door and entering the adjoined bathroom.

"Keep looking. We can't leave until we have the Kaiba brat. The client is willing to pay us three million for him." the last stated as he seated himself on the bed in the center of the room.

"Th-th-three mil-mil-million!" the large man stuttered.

"Yes, so unless you want to walk away from all that money, I'd keep looking."

"Yes, boss, right away." they both yelped in unison, as they returned to their hurried searching.

Suddenly the sound of shattering glass filled the room. The man on the bed snapped his eyes over to the bathroom and snarled.

"Be quiet you fool; do you want the whole mansion to come rushing in here?"

"But Nappa slammed the door; he was even yelling. Why hasn't he been reprimanded yet?"

"Because I'm docking his pay."

"That's right, he's docking my—wait what?" (1) The large man whipped around to stare at the man sitting on the bed.

The small man came out of the bathroom, a smug smile on his face. He opened his mouth to speak, but was silenced from the sharp glare the leader directed at him.

Raising his finger to his lips, the man listened carefully to the silence that engulfed the room. A steady tapping noise filled his ears and a slow smirk made its way on his lips, as he identified the sound.

Footsteps.

They were approaching the room.

Nodding his head to the closet, his smirk widened in approval as his henchmen swiftly but silently entered it. Carefully, he made his way to the open door, standing behind it to remain out of view.

"That's weird, I could have sworn I left it closed." he heard the unmistakable voice of a child say.

After a few more moments, the kid was in sight. Smirking he slid in behind him, and grabbed his long black hair, slapping a hand over his mouth to prevent him from crying out for help.

"You'll be coming with me, Kaiba Mokuba." he sneered into the boy's ear.

"I don't think so." A cold voice replied.

He recognized his mistake instantly, but before he could correct it he was unconscious.

Glaring at the heap on the floor, Seto dropped his suitcase on the ground. Pulling his cell phone out of his pocket, he kindly informed the head of security that if he didn't the mansion thoroughly checked for any intruders within the next hour, he'd be out of a job.

Gently grabbing Mokuba's hand, he began to guide his brother back the way they came.

"Where are we going, Seto?"

"Back to my room."

Seto glared at the pile of folders in front of him. It was obvious what needed to be done; situations like earlier shouldn't have occurred. It's not like he could guard Mokuba twenty-four seven; and this happened every time Kaiba Corp. was about to come out with a new product.

He quickly glanced up at the Mokuba to reassure himself that the boy was still there. In his sleep, Mokuba rolled over and stretched slightly, and so Seto returned to his list of possible candidates.

First he eliminated anyone who either had a job or went to school. They wouldn't be able to guard Mokuba at this time. A slight smirk fell on his lips as he gleefully, tossed Yuugi and his all his little friends out of the pile.

After hour of searching for people who were busy during the day, he only managed to remove a quarter of the pile.

Next he weeded out everyone with a permanent record. Mokuba would not be associating with criminals, not even for protection.

Another hour passed, and still, only a third of the original stack was removed.

Deciding to further raise his standards he began searching for people of high intelligence. By the time he had finished, Seto had only twenty files; though two of them caused him to narrow his eyes suspiciously.

"I like eating pie and playing with kids."

Seto's eye twitched slightly.

"That's not important. I asked you what qualifies you to guard Mokuba."

"The fact that I like eating pies and playing with kids."

'Murder is illegal. Murder is illegal. Murder is illegal.' Seto repeated the mantra in his head.

"How does eating pies and playing with kids qualify you to protect Mokuba?"

He received a blank stare.

'Murder is illegal. Murder is illegal. Murder is illegal. Murder is illeg—fuck it! I don't know how he got in here, but he won't be walking out!' (2)

Seto prepared to launch himself across the desk, but was interrupted by Mokuba excusing the man in front of him.

Obviously, he hadn't done a good job of weeding out the stupid ones.

One interview down, nineteen more to go.

As the nineteenth hopeful walked into the room, Seto sat up straighter and narrowed his eyes.

Wild white hair sprung up in devil horns, and red eyes chuckled cruelly at him.

Bakura.

Seto had been furious when he had realized that he couldn't screen Bakura from his tournaments because he had no real information on him. So he went and made his own file, obtained through means that would go unmentioned. It still didn't make any sense how there could be no information on him, unless you believed the crazy theory of him being an ancient Egyptian spirit who was granted a body.

Another reason why Yuugi and his lackeys weren't allowed to guard Mokuba, he didn't want them to turn Mokuba into a user of whatever drugs they were on.

Still, not having any information on him made Seto twitchy, but he was desperate. Bakura was one of the few decent candidates he had, so glaring at him, he asked him the question that had gotten at least thirteen other candidates canned.

"Why will you guard Mokuba?"

"Because, if he gets nabbed, I don't get paid."

Seto nodded his head in approval. Selfish reasons tended to be the most honest, and the best motivation.

"What qualifies you to guard him?"

"I don't make attachments to anyone, so nobody will interfere with my work."

That was two for two.

"Why do you want to guard Mokuba."

"Because you'll pay a hefty price for me to do so."

Seto's eyes narrowed, but he moved on to the next question.

"What do you want the money for?"

Mokuba's eyes rose slightly to look at him; but he was well aware that what he had asked Bakura wasn't one of their questions.

"That's none of your damn business."

Good. He could keep his personal and professional lives separate.

"Are you willing to work at any hours I choose?"

"Would I be here if I wasn't?"

Seto nodded his head.

"Fine, get out of my sight. Send the last person in on your way out."

Seto took one look at the next candidate and reminded himself that he was doing this for Mokuba.

The four of them stood together at a park, Mokuba bouncing eagerly on his toes. Before today, he had spent a few hours with each of the candidates (under Seto's supervision) and had deemed these two the best. Now, Seto stood with them, ready to hand him off and head back to his office (though he had left a few snipers in case these two got any ideas).

"Anything happens to him and I'll have your heads."

"Whatever, with what you're paying me, nothing will happen to him."

"Yup, it's true, Seto, Bakura likes money. So, we'll see you later." Mokuba hopped onto a bench table so he could better view the playground.

Seto glared at both of them a little longer.

"Oh man, Hojo is here. I hate him, he's so annoying."

"Why don't you fix him like you fix everything else?" Bakura suggested.

"What? You mean like this." Reaching over to the blond man who he now had within arms reach, and pretended to snap his neck.

The three of them lost it laughing.

"Damn, Bakura, you were right. This kid is a riot." Marik grinned widely, eyes flashing in excitement as he yanked Mokuba off the bench.

The trio walked away, leaving Seto to stare at their backs in thinly veiled horror.

Silently he wondered what the hell he had been thinking.

The end

(1) Did you know people actually do this... and by people I mean me. My advice, don't repeat everything just to be smug about it... the results can be humiliating.

(2) Here I had to resist the urge to make a "screw the rules" joke. It was soooo hard.

This fic was inspired by that last conversation which happened between my friends had... about a year ago. I was Seto, silently wondering why the fuck I hang out them. Hope you enjoyed it!