It was a harsh winter again this year in AcmeFalls, and those who were lucky enough to make a small amount of money to continue living were hiding deep in their somewhat warm homes, afraid to get sick since nobody could afford a doctor. The snow covered streets were empty, except for the occasional alley cat or dog that had managed to live in the cold until now, and perhaps the mostly unseen passerby's, who were trekking down the white ground.
Two furry figures were walking to their home, exhausted after chasing after the one rabbit they had managed to find in the forest, which the tallest was now holding by its small legs. The creature wasn't alive anymore, no thanks to them since they had used traps and other devises to catch and kill the animal, but both boys still felt guilty about hurting another being for their own survival. Of course, they knew that the world had turned extremely cruel, and that now it was 'survival of the fittest' as they called it, so it seemed irrational for them to feel sorry for a bunny when people were almost literally dying in the middle of the street, but it still felt wrong, as it was against their nature.
"Are we almost there? I'm getting cold..." the younger of the two muttered.
He didn't like complaining in front of his brother, who was effectively taking care of both him and their sister with barely sixteen years of age, but he couldn't help it. Not that the older boy would resent him for it, just when the younger was feeling down about bothering him more his brother reassured him that it was okay to voice what he felt, even if it wasn't pleasant. He said that he needed to know how he was if he was to make him better, and that couldn't be truer at this very moment, since when the little boy spoke up about his condition, the teen took out his jacket and placed it on his brother's shoulders, giving him a small smile.
"Just a few more minutes. Think you can make it?" he asked quietly, unknowingly moving his feet faster before him. If his younger brother was cold then they better get to the tower soon, though, he would admit, he was cold too.
"Yeah..." the boy replied, looking to the side with a small frown. The oldest wanted to sigh, because he knew his brother was worried over something silly again. This thought only intensified when the younger looked back at him and added, "You didn't need to give me your jacket, you know. You're probably just as cold as I am" He tried taking the piece of clothing and giving it back to its owner, but said boy just wouldn't put it on himself knowing his little sib was cold.
The teen shook his head, putting the jacket over the younger's shoulders again "Doesn't matter. You're younger, and we don't need you getting sick"
"Well, you're older and the one taking care of us. I think it's worse if you get sick instead of me"
"No, because if you get sick I'll be the one taking care of you and worrying my ass off because I'll have two sick siblings instead of one. Therefore, I'll ask you to please put the jacket on, Wakko" the older said, a little harsher toward the end than he would have liked, but apparently not enough to upset the younger. Wakko sighed, doing as he was asked which earned him a nod and a 'thank you' from his brother.
They continued walking, noticing their home was just a few feet away, but the ten year old stopped abruptly in the middle of the walkway. The oldest stopped just two feet ahead of him, looking back with a curious glance.
"You know, Yakko, I've been thinking about something..." he murmured just loud enough for his brother to hear, but before he could continue, they heard a sound from the broken down tower in front of him.
"You're back!" a girlish squeal of happiness resounded as the girl that had spoken jumped up and down under the doorway of the front 'door', which was really just an opening with a rag to cover the entrance. "What did you get? Anything good? You're covered in snow and- wow, what's that thing in your hand?" She sounded extremely enthusiastic, but the moment she stopped speaking a harsh cough made its way out of her throat, ceasing all attempts at bouncing and making the girl pet her throat slightly.
"Dot, you're not supposed to be outside" Yakko sighed, carefully hiding the dead rabbit behind his back; their sister was squeamish when she saw what she was going to eat before it was cooked, especially if it had blood on it.
"But I'm not, I'm inside. See?" she replied with a grin, gesturing to the frame of the door, and he noted that her feet were placed on the wooden floor of the tower.
The oldest rolled his eyes, but smiled and he heard his brother's chuckle from behind him. He couldn't argue that she was saying the truth (technically) but she still was under the risk of making her sickness worse from being exposed to the cold outside.
"Ok, you're inside, but the wind can still get you. Besides, you know you shouldn't be out of bed either. I don't see a bed under you" he replied with a knowing smile and his famous eyebrow raise, almost laughing when his sister huffed in annoyance.
"I know that, but I'm sick and tired of being bedridden all the time! I want to live the life and go outside-"
"It's dangerous for you-"
"Oh come on Yakko, it's not going to kill me"
It seemed the girl regretted her words the moment they left her mouth, because she knew this was a fear of his, even if he didn't voice it. They stayed quiet for a moment, Wakko, who was next to his brother by this point, looking from Yakko to Dot like they were having a tennis match. It wasn't like they didn't know this was a possibility, her dying of this if they didn't find a cure, but there really was no need to bring it up. The youngest hadn't been thinking, but she was the one who treated it the most off-handedly, like it had nothing to do with her. Maybe she was just too scared to admit that it had everything to do with her.
"Um... Listen, I- ... Sorry, I didn't mean to" she muttered, her ears drooping down in shame and looking down at her feet.
The teen took a deep breath and let it out, as if getting his frustration onto the air, before walking to the tower fully, his brother close behind him. When he got to his sister, who barely reached his chest in high, he simply ruffled her hair with his right hand (the one that wasn't full of rabbit) and gave her a sad smile.
"I know you didn't. Just... don't say it so lightly, 'kay?" he replied quietly, brushing past the nine year old and into their house. The younger Warners looked at each other before following their brother, who had made it to the kitchen at this point, and they lingered in the sort of living room, speaking to each other quietly. Not noticing their murmuring, he discreetly put the rabbit away, hiding it in one of the cabinets that should have been full of food (he thought with a grimace), and started a fire under the large pot they used for cooking.
The kitchen was nothing special, a rickety table on one end, a furniture that held the cabinets with a wooden board that he personally used as a cutting board, and the pot by the wall opposite from the door. They had long ran out of money to buy better furniture, and at some point their beds broke; the wood caved in from humidity and their mattresses had been used to the point that the springs ragged the cloth, making them unusable. Wakko, in an artistic attack, had taken his broken mattress and made a sort of harp with it, and now he often used it when they were either stuck inside the tower or he simply wanted to play. He had even started composing his own tunes.
It really was a wonder how he had been able to make an instrument with a broken part of a bed, but it was a nice distraction for all three of them. Yakko had to say he liked listening to his brother play, and their sister did too, if the way she swayed with her eyes closed and a smile on her face at the tunes was any indication. It was no amazing concert, but it was certainly good, and the younger boy had been practicing a lot as of late. He had once thought that, had they had any money, maybe his sibling could have been a musician, with a proper instrument of course. His older brother personally thought a violin might suit him, and that they might have been able to make a band, all three of them.
Shaking his head off to get back to the real world, and leaving those nice thoughts behind, he smiled amusedly at how his siblings were trying to tackle each other so that one of them could get to the kitchen first. Wakko was clearly letting Dot win, but nobody needed to tell her that, since her victorious smirk as she got to the door (his brother on the floor a few feet from her) was one of happiness, one that was appearing less and less frequently on her face.
He chuckled when his sister passed the wooden frame, proclaiming loudly "I win!" Yakko didn't think the game was very safe with their sister sick, but she had never complained she felt bad after it, so he decided that he should hold back a bit on the protectiveness and let her have fun. Maybe playing games made her happier, and he had the suspicion that the feeling could help her somehow.
"Good job sis" he smirked, ruffling her hair a bit and hearing her giggle "You've been winning every round, I'm starting to think you're stronger than Wakko" They both looked at their brother, who had gotten up and had been in the middle of brushing his clothes off when the comment had come his way.
"I'm stronger than her" he replied with a huff of annoyance, but the effect was completely ruined by the smile he was trying to suppress.
"No you're not~" Dot sang, giggling as she ran back over and poked her smaller brother's red nose "I'm always beating you!" she protested, throwing her hands in the air in a grin as if it were the biggest feat imaginable.
"Yeah, yeah. Do you want a trophy for that?" he laughed in return, poking her nose back.
Apparently, this was a challenge to the youngest sibling, because she looked in thought for a moment before declaring the weirdest game imaginable.
"Nose poking battle!" she screamed, tackling her brother until they were a mess of limbs, the game quickly turning to tickling.
Yakko laughed quietly at his weird as hell siblings, going back to the pot and deeming the water to be almost ready, so he had to start with the rabbit soon if they wanted supper.
Having skinned the animal just after catching it (with a queasy stomach, if he might add), he started to cut it in small pieces on the 'cutting board' with one of the only knives they had. After finishing, he put them all in the pot with the water, making sure the fire was still going since the sun was going down and it was starting to feel colder.
He shivered slightly, it really was getting colder and he had seen that the sky when they had been coming back meant snow storm. Sighing, he left the food to boil, walking out of the kitchen and past his still playing siblings (who looked like they were about to collapse from laughter), looking out the frame of the main door and spotting something moving swiftly through the snow.
He frowned; that was weird. What was someone doing outside when a snow storm was about to appear? He heard horses nearby, and he stared outside with a risen eyebrow, wondering what was happening to make such a ruckus.
Apparently it had something to do with the constable, since those were the healthy horses you only saw when he was coming to take a payment.
His heart suddenly stopped; he hadn't come to take what little money they had, right?
However, to his relief, the group of horses was running past their home. Officers were riding them, and at the front was Ralph the constable himself, using the golden horn he had with a loud noise before proclaiming "Thief!"
Thieves? Here, in AcmeFalls? Yakko couldn't wrap his mind around it. They were all poor and had nothing left to steal, everyone in the village knew that, and anyone from a neighboring village would probably go somewhere a little richer.
He shrugged, not really caring what was going on, and turned down the rag that protected them from the cold just as the last of the horses disappeared from view. As long as no thief came to bother them, he had no part in the matter.
When he turned, he saw his siblings no longer laughing, right in front of him and with wondrous looks on their faces.
"What was all that noise?" Wakko asked, trying to look past his older brother to the outside, but he couldn't see with the rag in the way.
"Ralph was chasing some thief outside" he replied, glancing back at the kitchen. Maybe the rabbit was already boiling.
"But we're all poor! Who would want to steal from here?" Dot asked, clearly confused. Her brother started thinking of something, and he looked like he might have an answer.
"Well, maybe that person stole from Plotz" Wakko reasoned, and Yakko berated himself for not having thought of that.
"Do you think he'll give it to some of us?" the youngest wondered, eyes shining.
Her brother quickly got her train of thought "He might be like Robin Hood or something!" he exclaimed with a smile, and the younger children started bouncing around excitedly.
"It's like one of my fairy tail books! Then he'll steal all the gold from that nasty king and give it to the people of the villages!" Dot exclaimed happily, still jumping around until she looked at her oldest brother "Yakko, do you think we'll get some of that?" she gasped at a thought "Then we'll be able to buy a castle and a pony and-!"
Yakko sighed, putting his hand on her head to silence her "I wouldn't get my hopes up, Dot. We don't even know who this person is, nor if he is really taking from Plotz, or even if he'll share it" Her smile fell and she looked at the ground with a small nod.
He looked skeptically at her; he really wanted to let her believe that everything would be like in her book, and that they would live in a castle with a pony. Hell, he'd love to be able to buy these things for her, but as they were they didn't even have money to buy sufficient food, hence why they had resorted to catching bunnies and other animals. Winter had gotten here already though, and that meant that there wouldn't be any critters around to catch, so what would he do about that...? This year had been even worse than the previous one, either Salazar wanted to suck them dry or Plotz was just getting greedy. He felt it was a mixture of both.
Not wanting to upset her but unwilling to give her false hope, he smiled gently at her, looking back to Wakko for a moment. He looked crestfallen too, but not as much as their sister, as he had probably thought rationally a little before his brother had spoken, so he smiled at him too and received a half-hearted smile from him.
"I don't know what is going to happen, sibs" he stated truthfully "But remember that song we made together? The one about never giving up?" Yakko looked at both his brother and sister, and they nodded before they both sang the line together.
"You gotta cheer up and never give up hope" they sang quietly, looking up at him with wide eyes, almost as if they didn't believe in the words they themselves had written.
"Yeah, that. We can't just give up when tomorrow could bring promise. Don't think a miracle will happen, but you should look at the bright side of things every now and then" he continued, smiling when the children first looked at each other with wonder and then smiled back at him.
The boy laughed quietly and ruffled both their heads, looking out the door "Who knows? Our opportunity could be coming right from behind that door-"
Just as he was saying that, a huge wind picked up from outside that made the rag flutter, and had them covering their faces. The teen looked around, quickly finding a book he himself was reading and walking against the wind to use it to keep the only thing between them and the outside somewhat shut. However, just as he was about to pull the rag down, he noticed a figure was making its way through the snow with a tired walk, and finally fell on the snow face first.
Surprised, and worried for the stranger, he looked back at his siblings, telling them to keep the rag from fluttering until he came back.
"Where are you going?" Wakko yelled over the roar of the wind, holding his sister so she wasn't so cold.
"I'm just going to see something. I think someone out there collapsed!" he replied just as loudly, putting a hand over his eyes so that he could see.
The road was quickly gaining more snow, and he vaguely thought that he should hurry, or whoever that was would be buried in all the white. Yakko trekked as well as he could under the circumstances, only stumbling a few times over the wind and the heavy snow, and finally getting to where the figure was laying. Running over the short distance there still was between them, the boy looked at the person through his snow filled eyes. They didn't seem that big or heavy; maybe he could carry them back to the tower. However, that would mean another mouth to feed- Wait, what was that it this person's hand?
A big loaf of fresh baked bread was lying just in front of him, half lying in the figure's hand and half on the snow. With that they could eat for some days if he rationed well...
However, he shook his head, he couldn't take this, it wasn't his obviously, but this person probably needed it too and-
He could take the person in and think about this later, he reasoned, and picked the stranger up, along with the loaf of bread, throwing the figure over his shoulder and carrying him (or her?) back.
The wind was starting to calm down a bit, and he was able to get to his home without too many problems, putting the figure down on his straw bed. There weren't many comfortable places for him to put someone, really. His siblings quickly crowded around him, looking at the stranger covered in a big jacket with a hood that covered his or her face. Deciding he would find out who this was, he gently pulled on the hood, revealing almost glowing blond hair.
It was definitely a girl, he could see it now, but to his surprise, she wasn't a human, she was one of them. Her white muzzle was moving slightly which caused her red nose to twitch, and her eyelashes fluttered against her white skin.
The Warner girl (Yakko decided that their surname could be the species; why not?) groaned, and her eyelids moved a bit before they opened slowly, revealing two shocking emerald irises.
The moment her eyes were open they widened slightly, and the next thing he knew, he was thrown off his feet and to the floor, one of the girl's hands around his throat and the other in the air, as if ready to punch him should he move.
"Eheh... Hello dangerous nurse" he laughed nervously, his voice slightly strangled as her hold tightened. He could hear worried sounds coming from his siblings, but maybe they understood that if they moved they would only make it worse.
"Who are you and where am I?" her steady and soft voice asked, no, commanded, that he tell her.
"Is this how you're supposed to treat people that help you? Must be a new trend"
"Help me...?" she asked slowly, as if this was something foreign to her. Frowning, she glanced around the room with narrowed eyes and noticed Wakko and Dot, who looked at her with an expression that was a mixture of wonder and anger. Apparently, she reasoned that she better get off of him before they got the book he left and started beating her with it, because she quickly slid her hand off his neck and stood up, leaving him to stand up too.
He lightly gripped his neck and rubbed it "Wow, you got a good grip. You move fast too. Are you a spy or something?" he asked with a light joking voice, but honestly, he was curious. People from AcmeFalls certainly did not have the reflexes she did right there.
"Is this how you're supposed to treat people that attack you? Must be a new trend" she repeated his joke at him, smiling mockingly.
He almost felt insulted. Almost. It was a good thing he had the patience of a saint.
"I just didn't get a dangerous vibe from you" Yakko shrugged, regarding the curious gaze of the girl with his own.
They simply stared at each other for a few moments, both trying to understand why the other acted like they did, but the blond looked away in favor of searching for the piece of bread she had when she had collapsed, quickly spotting it on top of the straw bed where she had been sleeping. Picking it up, she studied it carefully, as if wondering if a piece had been taken off the baguette and been eaten by someone.
"It's curious you didn't make use of this bread" she mumbled thoughtfully once she was pleased with seeing it was whole "Why did you help me? You could have easily taken the food and left me there to freeze"
"Our brother would never do that" Dot protested, a frown and grimace being directed at the blond, but her venomous gaze was ruined by the cough she let out a moment later "You look more like the type of person who would"
The girl scoffed, smiling sarcastically at the younger female, "These are dark times sweetie, you have to take what you can. Besides, were you all in the right mindset I have no doubt you would"
"We aren't desperate enough to steal from other people, especially if they're in the same condition we are" Wakko almost growled, inching closer to the teen as if to pounce, but his older brother quickly put a hand on his shoulder to stop him.
-I have to be the adult in this situation...-
"Not desperate enough...?" she laughed, holding her thin stomach before she shook her head, almost as if something comical had been uttered "Please, we're all desperate here. Don't you think I see your condition? You're all skinnier than sticks, and it looks like the girl's sick. You'll never win anything by playing 'good guys'; sometimes you have to fight for what you-"
"Alright, that's enough" Yakko interrupted, the limit to his goof faith reached, as he let go of his brother to walk calmly to the blond, but with obvious anger in his face "We didn't steal anything of yours and the blizzard is gone now. Get out"
"Oh? Am I a bad guest?" she asked with a taunting smile, looking at the oldest Warner with a raised eyebrow "I was merely teaching your family how to survive"
"You were teaching them how to get themselves killed by the king's guards" he threw back, gritting his teeth "What you're saying is dangerous, and whether or not you are using that method to survive doesn't mean we have to as well. Now, I want you out of my house. Go back to your den of thieves or something"
"Den of..?" she repeated quietly, her face one of insult.
Obviously, Yakko took the opportunity to get the blond out and at the same time insult her, just like she'd been mocking them earlier.
"I know you're the one who stole from Plotz, I could easily call the guards here and have you arrested" he said with a smile, almost laughing at the sudden look of terror in the girl's face "I wonder how much money I would get for catching a thief."
"Fine, I'm leaving!" she shouted with a frown, angered that he was playing with her fears "It's not like I have anything to do with you three anyway" mumbling this, she grabbed hold of the bread again and walked out of the room, being followed by the three Warners.
Once they had reached the main door (or lack thereof), she looked back at them for a moment, studying each of them individually until she got to Wakko. It looked like she saw something in his gaze, because she smiled and said, before walking out to the cold of AcmeFalls again, "You have a brave feeling there, young man. I hope you pursue this adventurous thought of yours"
Then she was gone, leaving the other two siblings to look at the middle child who was simply staring at where the girl had gone, dumbfounded.
"What was that crazy girl talking about?" Yakko wondered with a chuckle, turning to look at his brother but pausing when he noticed the younger boy had a thoughtful frown on his face.
"Wakko...?" Dot questioned, turning to look to her brother as well.
"Uh... Yakko there's actually something I wanted to talk about..." Wakko started saying, chewing on his bottom lip mindlessly before he sighed, turning to his older brother so, hopefully, their sister didn't hear them "I want to do something about Dot" he whispered the last part, his worried gaze turning to look at the confused girl.
"... But what is there to do? It's not like we wouldn't take her to a doctor if we had the money, we just don't have the sufficient funds for that" the oldest replied, confused but equally quiet.
"That's what I want to change. I... want to leave Acme Falls to raise money for her operation"