So hello. It's been a while. A short explanation of things will follow, if you don't care you can just skip right ahead to the beginning of the story.
Okay so it's been, what, four years since I last wrote something for this fandom? Either way, a little while ago I showed a close friend the first fandom I was in which was YYY (if you consider actual fanhood to be fics, art and all that jazz). And somehow that led to me watching a few episodes again and checking back on this account. After years of abandonment of this account (yeah there were those two other fandoms, but I ignored the fics for those, too - woops) I saw that … well there were some people who were genuinely interested in my work. Of course this fandom grew thinner but where I had expected it to have dissolved completely there are still a few people there. Bit of a wow – effect really. So I figured I'm really liking this show again and since I didn't stop practicing my writing skills I might as well write another fic. If nothing else for old time's sake (also first otp's sake) and the few of you that are still there. If you go and read what I wrote when I was 11 (when I first joined, I think) you will notice the terrible English. But that is a thing of the past as I am now more fluent and don't need to look up every 3rd word. Okay so, without further ado, have fun with the fic, I hope it's good. And I still think reviews are appealing, just so you know ;)
Prologue: Years of Change
Stalking is the act of following a person around and observing them. Most of the time the victim is not aware of their stalker for a while. In Yuck's case, his victim has not noticed him in a long, long time. Years, really. He had never meant to develop a stalking behavior towards anyone. It was not that he really cared about morality or other people, it was simply that it had been an unintended act of creepiness.
He was sitting on one of the tall trees surrounding the WooFoo dojo. He was careful and focused and kept himself invisible. As he sat there on his lonely branch, he focused on a girl in her late teens and her brother fighting in the back yard. They yelled out their attacks as they had always done and charged at each other with might and magic.
Yuck was observing closely as Yin was trying to get the hang of a more or less new power to dodge Yang's attacks. Every once in a while he snickered when one of the twins was hit especially hard or in an especially amusing way. But he rolled his eyes just as often. It had become a thing, a habit for the green rabbit to just be there and watch. Sometimes more interested and sometimes less.
Yin was hit with one of Yang's blows and she fell onto the floor from her levitating position and muttered something under her breath and Yang snickered. "Well, I'm done!" Yang exclaimed, content with his own performance. He turned to walk into the building again. "You coming?"
"Nah I think I'm going to practice some more." Yin brushed some dust off her pants with her palms before beginning to levitate again. As Yang and Yin grew up their wardrobe changed at least somewhat. It now included pants. The blue rabbit simply shrugged and left to go inside. He had not exactly matured but at some point calling his sister a 'nerd' or something similar had probably gotten old.
Yuck only glanced at Yang as he left for a brief moment before turning his attention back to Yin and her training. He always watched her, not Yang. Yuck had never picked her out in particular. though. At first it had not been about her or watching her or anything like it. In the beginning the green rabbit had spied on Yin and Yang to stay informed about their training process and to maybe find a good moment or opportunity to strike again and, of course, succeed. But for some reason that moment never arrived. The last time he had ever really interacted with the twins was when he had switched their auras before getting his butt handed to him in the battle that followed. He had watched and observed a few times before – when he had actually been capable- but it had been different then. If Yuck really thought about it, he guessed that his own interest in the twins grew after he had tried so badly to become good. His precise motives were not clear to him. Probably something along the lines of revenge and taking over the city or more. But that never happened.
Ever since the incident with Yin and Yang's personality swap he had never really felt like attacking again or he found himself too busy or the twins too well prepared. There had been a few times when Yuck had considered taking his chances and going for it, but he had never gone through with it. Instead he simply observed.
And so it had become a habit. Watching the twins, taking an interest in their activities, being disgusted and amused and angry over things they did. And they never really noticed him. Sure, every once in a while one of them complained about feeling watched but Yuck only took that as a sign to hide himself with more effort.
The reason why he had limited his observations to Yin only was that -simply put- he found her to be more interesting. As all three rabbits grew and matured, Yin was likely to have changed the most. While Yang was still playing video games, enjoying violence and unhealthy food and made stupid and inappropriate comments, Yin got over her 'girly girl' lifestyle. She had also gone through different phases to become the rabbit she was. A rebellious phase, a manga and anime phase and more. She went through them and the green rabbit was there with her. Without her knowing about that, of course. Additionally Yang ended up spending a lot of time with that girlfriend of his, which was boring to Yuck. Whatever they talked about -Yuck didn't even want to think about what they actually did- it was good for blackmail at best, but nothing to waste his time on. Sure their relationship problems, fights and general disagreeing behavior that happened ever so often had their own value of entertainment, but it was not the green rabbit's cup of tea. So he focused on the girl.
The old panda came out of the front door of the dojo. He observed the girl for a brief moment before stepping closer and calling out to her. "Still practicing?" He asked.
"Yeah." She stopped for a moment. "Why? Is there something wrong with that?"
Yuck could still recall the awkwardness of Yin and Yang calling Yo 'dad' and words like it for the first weeks after they discovered the true nature of their relationship. It had been hilarious watching the twins struggle to spit out such simple words and then talk to each other about how weirded out and yet happy they were with the new circumstances.
"Not at all." The panda grinned. "If it keeps you busy. I simply thought you would want to -I dunno- hang out with your friends?"
Yin sighed. "'Friends' would mean Lena and 'Lena' would mean Yang, too. Or actually 'Lena' would mean neither of them since they go on dates and then into his room. Something like that."
They also got separate rooms at some point. The green rabbit did not recall the exact time when they begged Yo for individual bedrooms but he knew that this resulted in his interest shifting more and more towards Yin as he had to choose whom to watch unless they trained together, which was still a major part of both of their lives. Things had changed around the dojo. People had changed. They had grown.
Yuck himself matured too. He had worried about whether he would, at first, considering his not quite usual way of coming into existence. Fortunately he did not remain eleven forever. He grew as they did and practiced his WooFoo on his own. He probably got a little less aggressive, seeing as he lacked enough aggression or interest to attack the 'Woo Fools' even when he could catch them off guard. At times he felt a bit lonely although he wanted to brush it off as boredom and forget about it. Sometimes Yuck wondered whether his chosen isolation could in any way make him more vulnerable to emotions. But then he laughed that stupid thought off. Him and profound emotions? Nah. That was like something Yin would have assumed back when she was a child. She was not an adult, yet, but certainly closer to it than when she was eleven.
"Mhm." Yo nodded and looked aside as if unsure how to comment on that statement. How would one comment on that statement? Yin practically said that she had no other real friends and the one she had was busy dating her brother. Yuck recalled there being that chicken boyfriend, but that relationship had been doomed to fail since the beginning, since it was more infatuation than an actual desire for a relationship. On Yin's part at least. There had also been the WooFoo army, but as time passes friends lose touch and move on to other things and so Yin and Yang's friendships fell victim to that, too.
"Well, if you need me I'll be in town getting some batteries for the remote." He was about to head out when he turned around again. "Do you want to come along?"
"Nah, I'm good." Yin shrugged and got back to training.
"Fine by me." The panda smiled and left.
It wasn't long after then that Yin went into the dojo herself. Yuck had to maneuver around the building to find out where she was and what she was doing. He found her in the living room next to her brother, watching television. It was hard to pick up on their conversation from far away so Yuck got closer to the dojo to eavesdrop. They didn't exactly have quiet voices so hearing them from outside the window did not pose as a problem.
"So..." Yin started, obviously trying to spark some kind of conversation. Yuck had noticed that the twins had developed more independent and separate lives. It had been bound to happen, the green rabbit supposed, but it was still the reason for many awkward conversation starters. "How was your brunch date with Lena?"
Yang shrugged. "Who came up with that anyway? Brunch? It's like a terrible pun."
"Like something you would come up with?" Yin commented and smirked.
That didn't mean that they didn't like each other anymore or had become strangers to each other or anything like that. It simply meant that they spent less time of the day together and sometimes had to ask each other what they've been up to. It was still a normal brother-sister relationship with the exception of fighting evil together.
"Ha-ha-ha. Hear that? That is me not thinking you're funny." Yang replied. "Well, it was actually okay. We ran into Carl."
"Carl? At brunch?" Yin sat up. She had been lying on her stomach before.
"Why does that surprise you?" Yang asked. "Anyway, I kicked him out of the brunch-food-place-thing."
"Was he up to no good in there?"
"Who cares." Yang shrugged again.
Carl the evil cockroach wizard. In all these years he had not given up on evil and fighting the twins. Other villains disappeared. Like Yuck himself. Every once in a while he wondered whether Yin thought about him. Not in any specific way. Maybe a thought seasoned with hatred or something like it, he did not care. He thought that maybe she would wonder where he ran off to. Or she would simply remember old fights and enemies and he would pop into her head alongside many other villains. Did she hate him more than most of the others? Less? Or did she simply cease to care as soon as he vanished from her life?
"I don't if you don't, I suppose." Yin sounded hesitant. "But giving people unnecessary beatings has proven to be a bad idea in the past. Let's not make the same mistakes again." She looked at her brother intently, pressing him to understand and agree with her.
"Aw, come on, Yin. It's Carl."
"Who is far more powerful than he seems." She remarked.
"If he hasn't managed to defeat us until now there's no way he will still do it in the future." Yang changed the channel on the television.
Yin made an annoyed grunt. She used levitation to take the remote from him and into her own hand. "Don't take this lightly, bro. Underestimating your enemy can lead to big trouble."
"Is that from the scrolls?" The blue rabbit didn't seem interested.
"No. But it's still true." Yin sounded less annoyed. At some point she had started studying the old WooFoo wisdom and scrolls. As soon as Yo permitted it.
"Unnecessary beatings have bad consequences, huh." Yuck muttered to himself as he lurked outside the dojo, still listening. He somehow felt like that WooFoo wisdom was learned by example, him being the example. He didn't like to think about that time. When he tried so hard, maybe too hard, to be a goody-two-shoes and the twins didn't give him a chance. Remembering and pondering it gave him some weird feeling that he could not quite figure out.
Yang grabbed the remote from his sister's hand before she could do anything with it. "Don't worry your pretty pink head about it, Sis. This is why we learned WooFoo. To fight bad guys and otherwise hand out severe butt kickings."
Yuck growled a little. Yang should pay attention and learn his lesson. After what they did to him. All those years ago. Crushing his spirit and hopes, any good will inside of him. Yin, at least, had learned from it. For a very brief moment the green rabbit wondered whether she would trust him if he was to appear as a good person again. After all this time. Her twin surely wouldn't.
"Whatever." Yin sighed and got up from the floor. "If you need me, I'll be in my room. Reading."
Yang made a disgusted noise. "Yeah, sure."
She walked upstairs and into her room. Yuck, still outside, levitated to be close to her window. Her room was no longer dominated by the color pink or the inner desire to be feminine. It was more casual. At least that was what Yuck could tell from the three walls he could see from the window. The girl approached said window and opened it. Yuck quickly became invisible again. There was no telling how she would react if she suddenly found him outside her window. Probably with magic. Painful magic. And then they would battle and Yang would hear it and join her and one way or another they would defeat the green rabbit. His cover would be blown, they would be on their guard and the same game as years before would start again.
Yin went to her bed and took a book from the nightstand beside it. She lay on her back and read. Yuck couldn't tell the title from this far away but he was almost certain that it was nothing that would interest him.
The boy stayed for a few minutes before leaving. When she started reading she wouldn't stop for a while and by the time she did she would be tired enough to go to bed. Nothing interesting to see there anymore. He had watched her read and sleep before. And though observing it was somehow... appealing in a strange way, Yuck figured that eventually it was a waste of time. Besides, there was still a difference between simply watching someone and watching someone sleep. The latter was just odd. Maybe even disturbing. He left and went to a place he called home.
He'd return tomorrow.
