Hello! Just a few disclaimers and sidenotes before we get to the good stuff.

1) This fic does not account for any events from Kronk's New Groove or the spin—off television series, The Emperor's New School. Everything aside from headcanons are pulled from the original feature film.

2) Not a lot of action in this fic, if that's your cup of tea. It focuses more on character dynamics and development. My apologies if that's not what you're into!

3) Annnd the usual. I do not own the characters, I do not own the Disney franchise.

Also, my writing may be a bit rusty—it's been a while since I've typed up anything that hasn't been an essay on comparing and contrasting rhetorical devices in classical literature. Thanks for reading nevertheless! I think we're good now, here we go :)

Long ago, somewhere deep in the jungle...

...there was nothing much to look at. A squirrel, maybe. A chimp. A few bugs. This particular story takes place in a palace, and it begins with a young boy by the name of Yaku.

Yaku was sitting in his royal bedroom, fiercely clutching his pillow, trying to regain composure. Today had been a particularly humiliating day for him.

He needed someone, something, to blame. He whipped his head around to glare at the crown on his nightstand, as if it was the royal headdress's fault that he broke down crying in front of the royal council, in front of his future subjects, in front of Killa, his most favorite person in the whole wide world.

...Well, technically, it was the crown's fault.

He clutched the pillow tighter, but it didn't give him any sense of comfort whatsoever. After a moment of hesitation, he checked to see if anyone had entered his room without him noticing. The coast seemed clear, so he quickly discarded his pillow and grabbed his stuffed manatee, Peppy, out from under his bed. He buried his face into the soft gray animal. He might have looked stupid. He might have looked childish. Everything an emperor shouldn't be. But he didn't care. The faded grey fabric smelled faintly of mint and chilies, just the right balance to calm him yet keep him awake. More importantly, he could hold onto it. It was tangible, it was there.

Yaku sat there on his bed, his face smothered in stuffed manatee until he heard the unmistakable creak of his bedroom door opening. He looked up and saw the tall, graceful figure of Killa enter his room, still clad in the green robes she had worn that morning, worry lines etched around her dark brown eyes.

"Hey, Yaku, you oka—oh," she said, glancing down at the pathetic sight of the young boy and his manatee. She bit her lip. "Okay, if you need to have Peppy out, then I know something's wrong."

"Shut up," squeaked Yaku.

Killa raised an eyebrow. "Excuse me? That is no way to talk to your advisor—to—be."

"Ugh, don't remind me."

Killa made her way toward Yaku's bed and took a seat, putting a hand around his shoulder. They sat in a comfortable silence as the woman decided how to figure out what Yaku's problem was. Killa was always good at that.

"Do you...want to be emperor?" she started off.

"Well—yes! Of course, but—I mean no! I—I mean—I don't know—! Rrrghhh!" Yaku buried his face into Peppy once again.

The two of them sat together in silence while Yaku recalled what had happened. His coronation was in two days, and as expected, the royal staff was causing quite a commotion in the palace. There were so many things to do. The little boy had never been so busy in his entire eleven years of life. His whole life, his whole sense of security...it had all come down with a crash when his parents had been proclaimed dead.

They just had to decide to get themselves drowned by attacking some enemies overseas. Sure, they might have saved the whole empire, but it had cost them their lives. Now Yaku was the one with the crown, and that in itself wasn't that bad...in fact, Yaku had always wanted to be emperor.

Just...not like this. Not in this way.

He thought his parents would be there, with him, while he received the crown that was rightfully his, but now that would never happen. Yaku was scared. Confused. Frustrated. But most of all, he was angry. Jealous. Angry that mom and dad had to leave him like this. Jealous that everyone else—the royal record keeper, the emperor's advisor, even the maids and butler—because they all knew where they belonged. They all knew what they did why they did what they did. They all had—Yaku did his best to ignore the pressure building up behind his eyes as he thought this—they all had family.

He didn't know his parents much anyways though, why did he want a family all of a sudden? Stupid parents had never paid attention to him anyways...

And so at the council meeting that took place earlier that day, Yaku's emotions got the best of him. It had all been one big, embarrassing string of events. The head of the council was announcing the duties of being emperor when Yaku decided to have an emotional breakdown, abruptly bursting into tears in front of the entirety of the council.

The small boy and the tall woman both sat on the end in silence until Yaku got out of his manatee decided to speak up. He just needed to get some of the pain he was feeling out of him, and what better choice than Killa, the woman who practically raised him?

"I...I guess it just—the coronation, well...it just makes everything seem so real."

Killa stared at him, digesting the information he just gave her. "Real. You mean..." she looked down at the floor. "Emperor Kanan and Empress Tulpa...?"

Yaku could feel his eyes sting. He didn't respond.

Killa opened her mouth to say something, but Yaku cut her short, as all of the feelings bubbling inside of him— his anger, his confusion, his sorrow— took over his little body.

"Why did they have to leave me here?! Why did they have to go on some stupid sea trip and drown?! And now I don't have a family and I don't belong anywhere and the coronation's in two days and I have to rule the entire empire and I'm only eleven!" he cried, heaving his chest. "I can't do this!" He clutched Peppy the manatee so hard he was afraid he might make the toy's seams pop.

Silence once more.

"It's all their fault," he muttered bitterly to no one in particular.

Killa sighed. "Yaku. Don't say that. They were good people. Great leaders. And...Yaku, I know you're feeling upset, but don't say things like that, okay? You do have a family. You do belong."

"What are you talking about?! I never even knew my parents! They were always too busy. The empire always came first," he said. He didn't even care if he sounded selfish. Perhaps the villagers and townspeople he spied on through the palace windows didn't have gold and servants and the extravagant lap of luxury, but they had something the prince didn't have. He was merely eleven and had much more to learn; but he was wise enough to know that the smile shared by a mother and son as they held hands and spoke of the dinner they'd make while shopping at the marketplace was something that could not be bought.

"And that's their loss," Killa said softly, "to not take part in raising someone as wonderful as you."

Soft, warm hands grasped Yaku's shoulders as he pondered. Perhaps Killa didn't give birth to him, but she may as well have. In a palace full of aloof servants who saw him godlike, she was the only one who nurtured him (and reprimanded him. And argued with him).

"Thanks," Yaku finally muttered. "But it won't change the fact that I'll be a terrible emperor."

Killa scoffed. "Yaku, you are not going to be a terrible emperor. And just because you're not your parents doesn't mean that you aren't a good person. I know that you can be a great leader. You have it in you," she said, poking him in the stomach.

Yaku giggled, arms covering his stomach to prevent a second attack. "I...I guess," he said, finally smiling a little. Then he looked down at Peppy the manatee and frowned once more. "I'm being really immature, though. Emperors don't need stuffed animals!"

"Really?" mused Killa. "Because I have a story to tell you, and it has to do with your great—great—great—great grandfather."

"Well, what does that have to do with anything?"

She grinned. "I know for a fact that he loved his Wompy."

"Woah, what?" Yaku got up and stared at her in disbelief. "He had a stuffed animal?"

"Hm...well, I'm not so sure as to whether it was a animal, exactly. I think it was more of a doll. Its name was Wompy."

Yaku snickered. "Wompy? What kind of name is that?"

"Oh, like Peppy is a normal name."

"Oh, whatever," the young boy said, shrugging. "But...wow. Wompy." Yaku pondered in silence for a minute. "Wait...great—great—great—great grandfather..? I know this—hold on! You taught me about my family tree a week ago! Great—great—great—great...hey! Wasn't that the one who turned into a llama?"

Killa smiled and nodded, her curly locks of dark hair bobbing up and down as she did so. "Yep. Emperor Kuzco."

"Oh." Yaku's shoulders slumped in disappointment as he recognized the name. "So that's your story? The llama one? You already told me about Kuzco!" he said.

"Not everything about him, though."

"But I know the whole story! He was a brat, his advisor turned him into a llama, he teamed up with a peasant—your great—great—something—something grandfather, right? And then he changed back and he was a good guy after that. What else is there to know?"

"A lot more, actually," Killa replied. "Because believe it or not, Emperor Kuzco was a lot like you."

Yaku considered this for a moment. "...A lot like me—hey wait! Are you calling me a brat?" Yaku puffed his tiny chest out indignantly.

Killa giggled. "No, silly. You see, Kuzco's parents—his 'real' parents, as you put it—" she said, quoting the air, "...Well, he didn't really know them either. In fact, he took the throne at eight!"

Yaku's eyes widened. "Eight?!"

Killa nodded. "Yep. And after the whole llama incident that happened ten years afterwards, Kuzco wasn't really sure about his family and where he belonged and who he was. So you see? Kuzco was like you...although he didn't have that great of an advisor. That woman practically raised him," she said, frowning. "You think he would've turned out better, huh?"

"Mmm." Yaku looked around his bedroom, suddenly very aware that it was the same one that his ancestor used about a hundred years ago. It was hard to believe that he, scared little emperor-to-be Yaku, had descended from the great, confident Kuzco. According to the royal records, Kuzco was a generous monarch, always sure of himself (Yaku even managed to get a glimpse at one of the poems written about him back when he was alive— something about how he was "the sovereign lord of the nation" and the "hippest cat in creation." Personally, Yaku thought that would work better as a theme song than a poem. Weird). All of the stories about Emperor Kuzco made him seem like a hero. A leader. Well, except for the llama story. But even then, the story had a happy ending. The summer home had been built without destroying the village on the hill, the evil advisor got turned into a cat, the emperor was a nice guy now, and they all lived happily ever after. A perfect world. Perhaps he was a bit eccentric and oddly compatible with the peasants, but it was understandable considering how his life was saved by one in the first place. How in the world could Kuzco, of all people, be like Yaku? He wondered just what story Killa wanted to tell him. He looked up at her anxiously.

"So...you gonna tell me the story or what?"

"Stories, actually. Sit tight, this is gonna take a while,"she said, as Yaku proceeded to wrap himself in his blanket and get settled. Killa cleared her throat. "Alright," she said, glancing to the side. "Enough of boring you with exposition. You ready to hear about Kuzco?"

"Uh-huh!" Yaku leaned in a bit, ready to listen.

"Okay," Killa said. "It all started up in the village on the hill..."

I've decided to post Chapter 1 alongside the prologue, as OCs are usually appealing only to a certain extent, especially when they're the ones who start a fic off. Plus, creating child characters can be quite difficult—it's hard getting that right balance between whiny and overly edgy and precocious. I'm not quite sure what little Yaku would measure on that scale. So I'm posting a double-feature now, but from now on it'll just be one chapter at a time. Thanks for reading! :)