Parappa, age 4

In an unusually quiet and calm day in PaRappa Town, we see the steady calm silence break when the Rappa family is on the search for their energetic child that had just gone missing.

"Dear are you sure he ran this way?" Said a tall canine woman with blonde hair to her husband, an also moderately tall canine man with a small hat on his head, as they rush around town.

"Of course! ...granted that was about half an hour ago." Papa Rappa replied before being forced into an abrupt stop by his wife.

Both stared at each other, Papa Rappa could feel the burning gaze of his wife's annoyed demeanor burning a hole through his head. When he decided to try and break the silence he could see literal fumes coming from her head as she said. "You waited HALF AN HOUR to tell me where OUR OWN SON ran off to?"

He aloofly blinks at her anger as he replies "Yes?" to which she immediately adds on "Why?"

"Because my new project flat out spontaneously combusted on the spot! I had to fix or else it would be bugging me all day!" And upon uttering those words he could see he was about to get the earful of his life. At least he would if it weren't for a sudden voice calling out to the both of them.

"MAMA! PAPA!" A young puppy with an oversized orange beanie with a frog patch atop his head, a white shirt, blue shoes and green baggy pants said to the two as he ran towards them carrying a rather unique object in his hands. "Wook wat I fwound! A tedi bwear!" The parent's panic upon looking at said brown teddy bear dangling in his hands as he ran to them, realizing it was another child he was tugging about, sleeping as if nothing wrong was happening to him as evident by a bubble coming from his nose.

"Parappa! Leave the poor boy alone!" His mother shouted which prompted him to stop in his tracks "Wha-" he looks around to find the boy his mother alerted him to "Were is he?"

Mama Rappa rubs her forehead "Oh dear he doesn't realize what he's done. Hoo boy I hope the kids parents aren't freaking out about now…" She walks up to her child and plucks the bear from his hand gently "This is the other boy Parappa…" He immediately tries to grab him back "Mama! I fwound dat toy! Gimme it back!"

She stood up escaping his grabby paws "No sweetie this is another child! Excuse me dear, sorry to interrupt your sleep, but you need to wake up now." As she states this, the bubble on his nose pops and the small bear opens his eyes briefly "See sweetie? It's another boy like yourself!" As she points to the teddy bear, he immediately falls back to sleep.

"Wow that kids quite the sleeper if he managed to sleep through his abrupt kidnapping!" Papa Rappa states as he pokes the sleeping child "Parappa where did you take him from?"

Once asked the small puppy simply points "Dat way!" to which his parents simply stare at each other "But...that direction is just an empty grass patch. What was he doing there?"

"I dunno! By itself so I took it wif me! Now gimme him back!"

"Son he's not a toy! I mean yes he looks like one but he's another kid! One you unknowingly kidnapped! Wait...is it kidnapping if a kid is the culprit as well as the victim?" Papa Rappa just rubs his chin once he says this but is interrupted immediately by his wife "My son is not a kidnapper! Look Parappa we have to take him back, he is not a toy, and even if he was he doesn't belong to you!"

The small puppy just looks at them with sad eyes after hearing this "I'm sowwy…"

"It's alright sweetie, I know you didn't mean it, but you still need to be careful! Now lead us to where exactly you found him! We gotta get him back before his own parents start freaking out" Parappa follows his mother's orders instantaneously and rushes off with his parents on his tail until they reach the spot "Wight here!"

"Just as I thought, the place is completely void of people, so why would he be here?" Mama Rappa looks around briefly before turning towards her husband "You look that way for the boys parent's I'll search the other way!"

"Got it honey! And you Parappa, we'll be leaving you here with him, do not under any circumstances, run off with him again." The young pup nods at lightning speed "Good boy son! Now here, one of my latest invention that should keep you distracted enough to actually keep that promise! I call it the voice amplification device!"

"Honey that's a microphone." As she states this he retorts back with "Yeah I know but I wanted to take credit for SOMETHING that was sure to keep him still…you make it look so easy!" She just rolls her eyes at his response and with that they head off.

As they do, the young Parappa simply sits next to the sleeping bear until he decides to speak up "Hewwo? You awake? I'm sowwy for taking you by acciwent…" There is no response, only the inflating and deflating snot bubble. "Um...you ok?" He pokes the bear, but still no response aside from the bubble.

At at loss, the boy soon muttered something his mother told him "I gotta bewieve…" and then turned towards the teddy bear again "...Wanna be fwends?..." Silence was the poor boy's answer until he heard a tired reply "Sure…" Said the bear as he woke up rubbing his eyes.

"Weally?..." Parappa's tail started to wag gleefully "Yeah, my names PJ Berri, wats yours?" Parappa wasted no time in replying "Hi BeeWay! I'm Pawappa Wappa!"

PJ was about to comment on the mispronunciation of his name until he heard Parappa speak some more showing that Parappa couldn't properly speak fluently yet much like himself, although PJ's reason was that he couldn't be bother, as he'd rather sleep "Why were you sweeping here BeeWay?..."

"Because it's nice and comfy here, my mama and papa let me because I don't get in twouble by sleeping. Well, not until now wif you and your mama and papa"

"Sowwy bout that…" Parappa twiddles his thumbs until he asks "Wait, so youwr mama and papa awen't here?" PJ shakes his head "Nope" to which Parappa silently mutters "Wuh oh…" under his breath. And with that the boys are left in silence staring at the field until Parappa speaks again "Wanna pway wif my micwophone?" He says as he holds it out, but PJ shakes his head resulting in Parappa just tapping the microphone against his open hand awkwardly. PJ notices this and pulls out a donut from seemingly nowhere and hands it to Parappa "Wan it?" this time Parappa shook his head leaving him feeling awkward as well.

"How old are you Parappa?"

"Fouw, How bout you?"

"Five."

Parappa was shocked that the bear about his size, if not shorter, was older than him muttering out "Wow" after which silence came about again until they both said something in unison "Wanna talk bout music?" They both stare at each other astounded as the once silence filled field was now filled with giggly chatter between the two small boys, cementing the occasion as the start of their fun friendship for many years to come.

Parappa, age 6

It was a near dimly lit evening, Parappa was just hanging around the edge of the park along with PJ after experiencing a somewhat boring day that seem to be even dulling the two of them even now. "It's so boooooooooooooooooring…"

"Do what I do on occasions like this."

"Sleep?"

"Yeah." Parappa just stares at his friends who stares back and replies with "I'm serious"

"I know and that's what I find dumb about you, because you sleep for every occasion!"

"If it works for one thing it works for everything is what I usually say" Parappa immediately adds on "No you don't! You rarely speak at all because you're usually asleep!"

"Therefore my word is already true without having to say it." And with that, PJ is fast asleep while sitting up.

Parappa facepalms and just sighs before giving up and laying on his back attempting to follow his friends action, or rather lack thereof "What a dumb idea…" He closes his eyes and takes a deep breath before giving up and opening his eyes again, only to be looking directly at someone who is staring right back at him. "Wha!..." Parappa fumbles forward accidentally bumping heads with the other kid "Ouch!.." the girl who he just headbutted fumbles onto her bottom.

"OW!..." The girl rubs her head "Why the heck did you headbutt me!"

"Why were you above me like that anyway!" upon saying that he stops rubbing his head to look at the girl better, she was a blue cat with blonde hair with a purple shirt with a candy cane picture on the front, yellow boots and green pants.

"Why were YOU just sleeping out here in the open?"

"There wasn't anything else to do!"

"So you do that instead of playing at the playground you two clearly are at? Who does that…" She scoffs at the idea of sleeping rather than playing with anything at all to which Parappa responds "Already played with everything...got bored so we went here and that's that I guess…" The girl rolls her eyes "Look you wanna do something fun why not walk around with me? I've been wanting to go to a spot deeper in the park at night with someone, but nobody is ever up for it cuz they're to scared or chicken to be out at night because of their parent's or whatever. So if you want some fun, come with me!"

Parappa scratches his head from under his beanie "I dunno...you said the truth, it is getting late and my mom will be asking where I am…" She scoffs again and turns her back towards him "Fine…" after this she turns back around and snatches his beanie and hops away out of his reach "HEY!"

"Don't you know you're 'sposed to escort a lady when she asks?~" She places the beanie on her head watching Parappa's blonde hair unfurl over his eyes prompting him to shout "GIVE ME MY HAT BACK!"

The girl simply sticks her tongue out whilst stating "You want it? Come get it~ Bye bye~" She runs deeper into the park to which Parappa gives chase, leaving PJ alone until his snot bubble pops and he looks around dazed "Huh?...Parappa? Where'd ya go?" He then stares into the direction where he and the girl had ran off and mumbles slightly before getting up and leaving the park. Meanwhile Parappa was hot on the girl's tail, literally as he was about to grab her tail in order to get her to halt "You're pretty fast to keep up with a six year old ya little kid!"

"Im six to!"

"Oh guess you're just tiny. How funny~" her taunting made him go faster "Bet I'm older than you!"

"Oh really? I was born December 22! How about you?"

"December 6!" After Parappa said this she remained silent for a bit until she huffed out "Only by 16 days big whoop…" She was to annoyed to realize she had slowed down just enough to allow Parappa to finally close the gap, he grabs her tail causing her to panic and flick it upwards with him still holding on causing him to crash into her "WHOA" they fumble into each other as they tumble down the path they used to be running on before they plop off each other once they hit the clearing into what seemed to be a large pond and the once dimly glowing sun was now the dark sky with only the moon shining about. The girl shoves Parappa off and immediately sits up "What's wrong with you?!" the cat shouts at Parappa.

"What's wrong with me? What's wrong with YOU!" They both stare at each other angrily, electricity sparking between them before they both utter a loud "HMPH" and turn away from each other. Leaving them in silence.

The two spent the time staring at the pond seeing as they both have no idea how exactly they got here since neither paid attention to the path leaving nothing but silence, until Parappa started to hear soft sniffles "Huh?" he looks towards the girl who was wiping her face on her sleeves, noticing her tears. She quickly notices him and looks away. "Are...you crying?"

"N-No!...I'm not!"

Dumbfounded by the obviously lie, he decides to ask something else "...Why did you wanna come here anyway?"

"..." The cat girl sighs, turns toward him and begins explaining "My mom once told me a story that there was a beautiful big pond once in the center of PaRappa Town...she said it was a spot everyone came to because it was that great a spot...they'd hold parties here, people would play together...everyone would just be having a good time...there were a lot of people...to many people, so many that the place just started getting. I don't even remember what my mom told me...anyway then the trees started growing in and and it soon became a big blockade from the pond...and nobody could even return here...to a point that they just couldn't find it in general! Whenever someone went in...they just left from a different part of the mini forest of trees." She glances over to the pond again "People believed it was just gone...the water dried up and the hole was filled up with more trees...but I didn't...I wanted to see it for myself because i believed it was still here…"

"But then why force me along?" She didn't wanna answer that, but eventually after abit more tears she huffed up "I was scared...to go by myself...what if...I got lost in here? It had happened before, but they were adults so they could manage something...but I'm just a kid...what would I do? How would people easily find me? I'd end up getting lost...and in the process i'd probably get other people lost as they tried to find me. So I wanted a buddy to at least have my back and help keep a keen eye in finding a way around...two heads are better than one and all that...but...nobody wanted to go...and not because they were only scared as well, but because...they didn't want be around me in general...it made me sad...upset-"

"Lonely?" Parappa's add on just made her wipe away new tears "I was...never good at making friends so...it hurt...like I said, many people used to have fun together here...I thought I'd finally be able to make a few friends...I wanted to try something that had a better chance than all my old attempts...and even that failed, and it really really hurt...I don't like showing it though, but…"

"I was the last straw?"

"Yeah...I'm sorry...you seemed nice and I thought, if you could befriend and even listen to that bear's dumb idea...maybe you could with me to." She takes off the beanie "I guess I pushed the wrong buttons though...as I usually do...I'm sorry." She hands the beanie back to him, which he takes back slowly as to not be rude by just yanking it instead. They stay quiet again until she speaks up again. "But this was all for nothing...this ain't no beautiful big pond...it's just a sad empty, and lonely thing." She closes her eyes "Just like me.." Hearing her self demoralizing words made Parappa feel guilty for not even giving her a chance, but he was right that his mother would be wondering where he was, and even being upset if he were to be late or not show up at all. "Um…" He was at a complete and utter loss. What should he do at a moment like this? What COULD he do at a moment like this? He stared at the pond then back at her. "I mean...you did take my hat and were a bit rough, but-" He gets up and walks towards her and holds a paw out "I wouldn't mind being friends with you at all!" If her eyes weren't waterfalls already they certainly were now!

"You...You mean that?"

"Of course! You don't seem like a bad person, just a lonely one! I remember that feeling all to well about two years ago before I met PJ! And I almost forgot how bad it felt, I wouldn't wish that feeling on anyone! Not if I can help it!" Rather than accept his paw of friendship, she grabs his hand and brings him in for a rather tight hug, catching him off guard. "Wah! I-I take it you accept my friendship? H-Heh." She just nods, refusing to let go.

"U-Uh...I'm Parappa Rappa by the way!"

"I'm..k-katy.." she said this in such a low tone through her sniffles, that not even Parappa with his big ears could hear it or make the words out.

"K-Kitty?"

"N-No Katy...Katy Kat."

"Oooooh! That's a nice name for a great new friend!" As the hug carries on, his gaze drifts up to the sky and immediately prompts Katy to break the hug "Look! Up in the sky" She looks up through the small openings between the trees to the night sky and spots so many stars, and thanks to how the openings where organized made the patterns look all the more beautiful, and soon her eyes wandered back towards the pond causing her to call for Parappa "Better yet! Look here!"

The reflection of the stars in the rippling water among it's organized patterns looked beautiful causing the whole clearing to beam and glow with the shiny white light leaving the two kids starstrucked.

"It's just…like how my mom told me…" However a small problem came about, she soon began to notice trash and junk everywhere thanks to the white glow illuminating everything. "People left this place covered in trash…"

"Maybe we can clean it up?"

"It'd take days though Parappa…it's just us two kids. That's a tall order."

"I don't mind! I wanna see this place at its full beauty! If it looks this amazing like this, just imagine when fully cleaned up!" She was caught off guard by his enthusiasm, but with this said, they both nod to each other in agreement.

Their happy moment is soon cut short when what sounds like a fire truck siren starts blaring nearby. "Huh? Why are the firemen here?...There's no fire…" once Katy says this a distressed woman's voice can be heard, paralyzing Parappa in place.

"Parappa? What's wrong?"

"It's my mom...she...does not sound happy…"

"Uh oh...glad I can't hear her then…"

"Yeah lucky me and my good hearing...come on we gotta go! Before she and anyone else gets lost in here!" With that said they both book it through the clearing, her voice getting louder allowing them to use that as a pathfinder. And within a few moments, they were back at the park and soon face to face with not just Parappa's mom, dad and PJ, but also the police, the fire department, as well as Katy's own parent's causing her to quietly whimper out "Oh no…"

Everyone rushes towards the two kids and asks them where they were and what they were doing, but before any of them can get a reply of the kids, Mama Rappa immediately calls Katy out "You!...You're the one that got Parappa lost in there weren't you!" As she said this, rather than being helped out by her own parents, they instead follow Mama Rappa's course of action knowing their own daughters track record.

Being put on the spot certainly did not help the cat's current stress level. Until Parappa spoke up and shouted "NO!..." everyone turned their head to the small puppy causing him to gulp silently.

"This…This is all my fault...I was bored and...decided to go see what was beyond those trees, and she tried to stop me, but I wouldn't listen and got her dragged into my mess...and then I guess we lost track of time...and well...yeah…" Parappa look down guiltily, he never told a lie before, he was raised to well, yet here he felt he had to in order to defend his new friend. After seeing her pour her emotions out he could obviously tell she wasn't happy and that all this wasn't gonna help that! So he did what he had to. He believed in himself, so that he could make up a lie believable enough to get the heat off her back. And it almost failed to do so were it not for PJ walking up "It's true, he was complaining about how bored he was that he just had to do SOMETHING, so I offered sleeping." He shook his head "Guess that didn't really sit well with him." That allowed everyone to buy Parappa's bluff.

"Ugh...Parappa...I'm so disappointed in you...it's not like you to mix up others in your tomfoolery." She recalls the incident with PJ two years ago. "Actually scratch that...Look I have to go apologize to this young lady's family as well as explain to the police and my squad that my son wasn't permanently lost in that overgrown mess of trees…" She then turns to katy "I deeply apologize for accusing you as well as apologize for what my son nearly got you into."

"I-It's...ok." Katy could feel the guilt in her trying to burst through her chest as she saw Mama Rappa and her own mother and father walk away leaving the three children alone. Both her and Parappa look at PJ who simply looks at Parappa "You owe me a box of donuts for keeping that bluff Parappa."

"You got it and thanks so much for helping me help her!" after this PJ turns towards Katy "Next time you consider doing something hectic with my pal, consider sleeping and eating instead." He pulls out a box of donuts and hands it to her "That never gets anyone in trouble, at least from my experience."

"I'm PJ by the way" He holds out his paw, but katy hesitantly grabs it from past fear "I-I'm Katy...Nice to meet you…"

"Likewise, I just wish the moment could've been better." And with that he walks off to his own home.

After what felt like an eternity of silence with in two minutes, Katy speaks up again "...Parappa...I-I..."

"It's alright, alright? I don't mind being in trouble, if at least you'll be ok."

"R-Right…" She looks down, then back to him "I-I'm...gonna call it a night...see you next time Parappa…" She walks off to her parent's and gives a slight look over her shoulder only to see Parappa waving, with a smile that was basically beaming the words "It's ok" she then looked back forward and sighed.

The following day came in the blink of an eye with Parappa back with PJ back at the edge of the park, this time in the bright morning..

"That's four whole boxes of donuts...how does your belly not hate you?"

"Four? Four's nothing to me." as he says this his stomach rumbles again leaving Parappa with his jaw dropped.

Just before they could do anything else, Parappa heard someone approaching them and turned around "Hello? Oh hi Katy! Glad to see you again tod-" Parappa's greeting is cut short by Katy grabbing both PJ and Parappa by the hand and dragging them near the mini forest entrance. "Whoa ya wanna go back to the pond now?" She simply nodded "Last nights little moment let me get a good look at where we need to go to get there fast and get out fast so no more late or getting lost problems!" This relieved both Parappa and PJ who now walked alongside her without needing to be dragged. "And voila!" Katy kept her word, within mere moments they were there.

"So this is where you two went off to. Gotta say it's a real dump here."

"We know PJ, that's why me and Katy wanna clean it up! And you're gonna help us!" upon hearing this PJ's face turned blue as if he were ill.

"...Katy help me grab him." Before they could get a hold on him, PJ bolted out of their current area in the blink of an eye leaving a dust cloud in the shape of his body. "How can he eat so much and still run so fast?..."

"You know him more than me. Well this is ok to...I wanted to talk to you privately anyway."

"Oh?" Parappa tilts his head upon hearing that "Why?"

"I...came clean to my parents and yours…"

"W-What b-but-"

"I know...but...I couldn't keep that lie...you're to nice a friend Parappa…"

"I-I guess...but what about you now?..." She placed her hands together and deeply inhaled as if she was about to say a mouthful "Well my parents were shocked that I came clean over the whole thing since before I kinda...didn't do that so they left me off easy surprisingly, they said you're a good influence on me that I should be around you more. Heh. However...once I got to explaining things to you family-"

"Was there lots of yelling?"

"...um...actually no...rather...we sat down and your mom explained...and well." She taps her fingers together "Well to cut a super long story short she said that while she's glad you made another pal, she could only hope I didn't encourage him to lie like that, but then she sat back and thought for a bit and when she wanted to speak again, she looked like she had a hard time finding the words. That's when your dad took over. He said he was happy and proud that despite the rather sour outcome, was overall delighted that we could be fast friends. That I could teach you how to both deal with and handle situations like mine in the future and that you could help and teach back with other stuff. That even while it was a bad thing to lie, you did so in order to help someone in a frail emotional state! And then he went on for a bit more with words I couldn't understand. But once he was done your mom just looked at him with her mouth wide open. Then after about a minute or two she snapped out of it and said, yeah basically what he said."

"Wow...It's not like Papa to usually be the voice of reason…"

"Maybe that's what shocked your mom so much!"

"Well I guess things worked out for you!"

"Yeah!"

"And hey if what they say is true, maybe I'll rub off on you and you'll get many more friends! After all a little kindness never hurt nobody!" He said with a beaming smile that was literally to bright to look at.

"So...still friends?" She said rather shyly.

"Of course! Why would I ever take that back?"

"T-Thanks~..."

"And I'd be your friend a hundred times over if I could!"

"R-Really?"

"Yeah! It'd be more but I can't count past 400...I always get mixed up and have to start over." She giggles as he starts counting on his fingers "Thanks so much Parappa~..." She hugs him tightly for a bit before announcing "Well this place won't clean up itself!"

She pulls out a couple of trash bags and hands some to Parappa and they both begin their many day task, but are almost instantly interrupted " Hey Parappa?"

"Yeah?"

"Wanna look at the stars at night here again?" As she said this Parappa began panicking, but was quickly calmed down "I told our parents already where we'd be so no worries this time!" They both share a laugh before carrying on until night time.

"We did pretty good for the first day!"

"Yeah! This isn't so bad!"

"You say that now, but things will start piling up sooner or later!"

"Then we work harder! No cutting corners!"

"No cutting corners?" Katy tilts her head as Parappa says this to which he adds on "My dad started saying that once my baby sister was born. Mama was really worried about how they could handle both me and her! Neither of their jobs got a lot of money, so he motivated her and himself by saying that, it means that working hard can be rough, but sometimes the struggles teach ya valuable things. If you struggle now, you won't struggle later and may even handle it quickly in case the problem happens again! Hard work will always pay off!" He stands triumphantly. "That's been his catchphrase ever since, and along with Mom's 'you gotta believe' it's always been non stop support between the two of them! Even when it doesn't look like it. And I follow both of them! Mostly to keep on believing though…" He says with a nervous giggle as he scratches his head.

"Wow…" She just stares blankly at the pond, leaving Parappa at a loss for words due to the awkward air until he plucks off his beanie and places it atop her head "W-Wha! Hey!..."

"I think it looks good on you!" He smiles and wags his tail once again "R-Really? Are you sure?..."

"I am sure! I also have another one, so no worries there!...But please don't take that one to!" they both giggle as that's said until Katy places a hand on her head.

"No cutting corners…" she lays on her back and stares at the stars "Hard work will always pay off…"

"You ok there Katy?" Parappa lays down beside her staring at the sky as well.

"Yeah...Hey Parappa? Think we'll be friends forever?"

"I believe so!"

"Promise?"

"Promise!"

"Same here." says PJ alarming the two at his sudden reappearance before they all burst out laughing until Katy quietly turns away from the two and goes back to gazing at the stars as she silently whispers.

"Friends forever~"