Second chapter!

(KIND OF) IMPORTANT NOTE:

I changed something in the last chapter. It's kind of minor, but I felt it needed to be done. Basically, I changed Yakko's job slightly. He's a toon tutor, but he doesn't work for WB studio. That is all.

So yeah. I was slightly disappointed with the lack of reviews on this fic, but eh. Kind of expected it. Maybe if I change the summary people will be more interested. I'll wait until this fic gets further in before I decide to write a different summary though. I was hoping that the lack of information about the story would get people interested, but I guess I was wrong. Oh well.

Enough talking! On to Chapter 2!

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Chapter 2: Hate?

The sun shined brightly through the windows, waking him up. As he rubbed the sleep out of his eyes, he looked over to the clock on the nightstand, which read 8:35. He sighed as he threw himself back onto the pillows. He was hoping to sleep in today. He had quite an emotionally taxing day yesterday. Understandable considering what day it was. After failing to fall back asleep, he finally sat up. He started to get out of bed, when he heard a knocking at his door.

"Come in," he said. The door opened revealing a twenty year old Dot.

"Didn't think you'd be awake this early," Dot commented. Wakko frowned slightly.

"Just because I'm lazy doesn't mean I can't wake up early." Dot chuckled at that. "So what is it?"

"Well, I'll be leaving in an hour, and since you love me so much, I thought you'd cook me some breakfast!" Dot smiled innocently. Wakko laughed.

"You thought wrong sis."

"Aw, come on. Please?" Crap. She was doing it again. The look. Just don't look into her eyes. If he couldn't see her, it couldn't affect him. Even after fifteen years of her doing it, it still worked on him. He took a look at her to see if she still had that look on her face.

Unfortunately, she did.

Wakko sighed and said, "Oh, alright. C'mon." Dot smiled at her brother.

"I knew you would cave," she said.

"Y'know, you shouldn't be allowed to do that. It's like, cheating." Dot grinned. Wakko walked into the kitchen, followed by Dot. He was quite skilled at cooking, and it had even landed him a job as a head cook of a restaurant. Between that and Dot's job, they were able to live quite comfortable lives. Their house wasn't anything special, but it was cozy, and had just enough room for both him and Dot. Wakko headed into the kitchen to prepare breakfast.

Dot nodded him a thanks as he handed her a plate of french toast. He took his own plate and sat down.

"You said you had to leave soon," Wakko told his sister. "Where are you going?" Dot looked up from her food.

"Another photo shoot, this time for a magazine ad." Wakko smiled at his sister. For some reason, he wasn't at all surprised when Dot had told him a few months ago that she wanted to become a model. It was no secret that Dot loved attention, and modeling seemed like the perfect job for her.

"Any idea when that other photo will show up?" he asked. Dot shook her head.

"No idea. It's been a few weeks since that happened. You'd figure that it would be released in just a few days."

"It's supposed to be on the front page of a magazine right?" Dot nodded. Wakko could tell she was excited for that, even though Dot tried her hardest to cover it up. To be honest, Wakko was fairly excited too. It had been quite a while since the Warners were in any kinds of papers, besides the occasional tabloid article every so often.

For a split second, Wakko scowled. He hated tabloids. Probably because he himself was a star once, and knows what it's like to be in tabloids. Whether or not the stories were true, it was clear to Wakko that the magazine companies did not care about the star. They cared about magazine sales. He was still trying to forget some of the more anger inducing articles. But there was one article that no matter how hard he tried, he would never forget about it. Hell, he could still remember the headline.

HATE BREWS IN THE WARNER FAMILY

Wakko had long since trashed his copy of the article, but he had read it enough times to memorize what it said. His brother didn't really hate him, did he?

After some thought, Wakko concluded that after what he and Dot did, his brother probably did hate them. Maybe that's a bit of a harsh assumption, and Wakko tried to push that thought out of his head. But no matter how hard he tried, he couldn't shake that worry out of him. The thought that his own brother could very well hate him...

"Wakko! You awake?"

Dot snapped Wakko out of his thoughts.

"Huh? Oh, sorry. Zoned out there for a sec."

"Typical Wakko," Dot commented as she rolled her eyes. "What's wrong anyways? You don't look very cheerful." Wakko sighed. They hadn't mentioned their brother at all yesterday. In fact, they didn't say much of anything yesterday. They were pretty reserved to themselves.

"Well... You know what yesterday was... right?" Dot's optimistic face immediately changed. She frowned and looked intently at her empty plate.

"Yeah..." she answered quietly. She chuckled in spite of the topic. "Amazing how we haven't brought it up until just now." Wakko looked at Dot.

"Well it wasn't like it was hard to avoid the subject," he explained. "We barely talked to each other at all."

"Yeah I know." Dot continued to look at her plate. "How do you think he's doing?" Wakko scratched his head in thought.

"I dunno. Probably still teaching kids how to use their toon powers. Hope he's doing alright."

"You think he still lives in Burbank?" Wakko grinned.

"Wouldn't doubt it. He wasn't really into big changes." Dot snorted.

"Until he changed himself." Wakko opened his mouth to say something, but could not find the right words. Dot looked at him with a serious expression on her face. "Have you ever thought about going back?"

The room went silent for a moment before Wakko answered her question.

"I've been thinking of going back since the day we left. But..." Wakko trailed off. He didn't know how to say it. Would Dot understand? Would he understand it himself? "Well... I guess I'm... kinda scared to go back.." Dot widened her eyes.

"Why?" Wakko took in a deep breath.

"Because I'm afraid I'll find out that he hates me." After seeing the look on Dot's face, he felt that he should explain it to her. "I'm not going to lie. I miss him. Terribly. I've missed him ever since he changed. But, that note I wrote him... How do you think that affected him?" Dot shrugged. "For some reason, I keep thinking that the note caused him to hate us for what we did. He loved us, and he did everything for us. I feel like I stabbed him in the back by leaving." Wakko said no more. He brought his hand up to the bridge of his nose, breathing heavily. No one said anything for a few minutes.

"The way I look at it," Dot finally said, "is that while we may not have seen him in five years, he's still our brother. We spent almost our whole lives together, and somehow I doubt that one little spat is going to make him hate us."

"You call that a little spat?" Dot shrugged once again.

"Either way, I know that he could never hate us." Wakko shook his head, unsure of Dot's words.

"Maybe the old Yakko could never hate us but..." Wakko brought his hands to his face. "I'd just like to know what happened to him all those years ago. I mean, it was like it happened overnight. One day he was Yakko, and the next... I dunno. He just wasn't the same. And he treated us differently."

"I know Wakko, but whatever it was, it's probably passed now."

"Even if it has, that doesn't mean he's changed back into the old Yakko. We left, remember? I'm sure that had a huge effect on him." Dot had no rebuttal. Instead of continuing the conversation, she got up and placed her plate in the sink. She yawned and looked at her watch.

"Well," she began. "I should probably go now. Can't be late for this." Wakko nodded. She grabbed her keys off of the counter and headed out the door. "See ya when I get back!" she shouted towards Wakko. He waved his hand goodbye, and placed his plate in the sink on top of Dot's. He walked into the living room and threw himself down on the couch.

Maybe Dot was right. Maybe he was being too hard on himself. Sure, Yakko most likely missed him and Dot, but that didn't mean he didn't hate them for what they did. Wakko knew he would give anything to see his brother again. He just didn't know if Yakko would want him to.

-

Ngh... head. Shit.

Those were Yakko's first thoughts as he woke up. He opened his eyes, only to close them tightly as the sun shone through his window. He pulled the covers over his head and groaned.

The hangover. One of the many disadvantages to drinking, and one of the many reasons that Yakko desperately wanted to stop. Some people get them worse than others, and apparently Yakko was one of them. His head throbbed, each pulse bringing extreme pain. He nearly gagged at the taste in his mouth, and his stomach made him feel like he had food poisoning.

Finally, Yakko pulled off the covers and slowly sat up in the bed. He held his head, hoping that it would somehow dull the pain. He hoped he had some aspirin in the kitchen somewhere. He stood up, rubbing his eyes and groaning in pain. He made his way over to the kitchen and looked through the cabinet by the fridge.

Come on, where is it?

After a bit of searching, he found what he was looking for. He grabbed the bottle and opened it, taking out 4 pills. Hoping it wasn't overkill, he took them. He glanced over to the clock, telling him that it was past noon. Yakko shook his head. He needed to start getting up earlier on the weekends. He had enough trouble doing it on the weekdays.

As he sat down on his armchair in the living room, he started to piece together what had happened last night. His memories were a bit hazy, as he was fairly drunk, but he remembered the conversation he had with Buster and Babs. He sighed.

He had been a prick to them, and he knew it. They didn't deserve it either. All they wanted was to know what had happened with his brother and sister. However, that wasn't what Yakko was worried about. He was more worried that they would ask what happened to cause him to change.

That phone call...

Yakko shook his head. That was five years ago. Nothing had happened yet, at least he hoped. He figured that it had blown over and whoever was on the phone was just some crazy guy trying to get a few laughs.

But it wasn't funny. Not one bit.

He didn't want to think about that. At least, not right now. His thoughts went back to Buster and Babs. They had a right to know. They were good friends with Wakko and Dot, and they missed them almost as much as Yakko did. He remembered what Buster had said to him before he left. Yakko finally decided what he was going to do.

He pulled out his cell phone and went through his contacts until he hit Buster's name. He hesitated before pressing the send button. He didn't want to go into too much detail, but he figured that telling them why they left would stop the questions. If they asked what had happened to Yakko, well, a little white lie wouldn't hurt. After a few seconds, a raspy voice came through the phone.

"Hey Yakko!" Buster said.

"Hey Buster."

"You don't sound too good man. You okay?"

"A little hungover, but I'll be alright. Listen... do you think you and Babs could come over for a bit? I wanna talk to you guys personally."

"Sure man, we'll be over in a few minutes. What's it about?"

"I'll tell you when you get here."

"Okay. See you soon."

Yakko closed the phone and put it back into his pocket. He squinted his eyes in pain as the throbbing in his head continued. He looked over at his pack of cigarettes on the coffee table and took one out.

Even while hungover, there was just no taste like the first cigarette of the day.

-

"So, is this about what I think it's about?" Babs asked.

They all sat down in the living room. Yakko hesitated. Damn, they were perceptive. He started having second thoughts about telling them, but it was too late now. He still didn't want to talk about it, but they had a right to know.

"Yeah. Just, try not to interrupt me please. It'll be easier for me." The two bunnies nodded. With a deep breath, he began. "When the show ended, not much changed between us. We were still the Warner Brothers, and the Warner Sister. We were close, and we always screwed around and caused trouble. After the studio had kicked us out of the tower, we got this apartment. We all got jobs to help pay the rent. Nothing too big, but enough to keep us going. And even with all of that going on, we never changed. We still had the same bond for 5 or 6 years. Then, something happened."

"What do you mean?" Babs asked. This was it. This was what Yakko was waiting for. He had already practiced what he was going to tell him. He wouldn't be lying, he just wouldn't go into detail.

"I changed. I started to get more protective of them. I worried about them more than I should have. It got to the point where I stopped them from leaving the house as often as they used to. Every time they would come home, I'd ask where they've been, what they've been doing, who they've been hanging out with. I was worried that something would happen to them."

"Why though?" Babs interrupted. "I mean, you know they can handle themselves. Where did all that worry spawn from?" Yakko grew silent. Crap, maybe he would have to lie.

"Well... I'm not really sure. Maturity? Experience? Whatever it was, it was a change that Wakko and Dot did not like. Slowly, we began to grow apart. We would constantly argue or fight about something. Not even big things, just stupid little arguments over nothing. They would try to talk to me about the way I was acting, and I would avoid those conversations. Wakko wanted to be a cook. I never showed him any encouragement. It went on for a month." Yakko took in a deep breath before continuing. "Then, I got home from work one day. They weren't here." He reached into his pocket and pulled out a folded piece of lined paper. "They left me this note." He handed it to Buster. He and Babs quickly read over it, looking sympathetic as they did so.

"They never told you where they went?" Babs asked quietly. Yakko shook his head. She looked at the note, going over it again. "I'm sorry Yakko," she said sadly. Yakko looked over to the Animaniacs DVDs, still laying on the floor of his living room. He stared at them before speaking.

"I am too," he replied.

"Have you ever tried to look for them?" Buster asked.

"No. I don't think they would want to see me anyways."

"And how do you know that?" Yakko didn't answer Buster. True, he didn't know if his siblings still hated him, but it was a safe assumption. "Hell, even if that was true, it couldn't hurt to see them again." Yakko shook his head. Bullshit. It could hurt quite a lot. It just depends on what his sibs said to him.

"How the hell would I be able to find them? I don't even know if they're still in California." Buster said nothing. How would he be able to find them? It wasn't like they were high profile stars anymore, and that made it kind of hard to keep track of them. Babs ended the silence.

"Something will come up eventually Yakko. You can't just go on with your life thinking you're never going to see them again. Just keep hoping. You'll find them." Yakko smiled at her.

"Thanks Babs."

After Buster and Babs had left, Yakko was alone in his thoughts. He thought about what Buster had said. He was right. Even if Wakko and Dot chewed Yakko out, nothing would make him happier than if he saw them again. He wanted to talk to them. He wanted to tell them what had happened to him. It's been long enough, and he wanted them to know why he was being so protective and strict. Even if it turned out to be nothing in the long run, assuming that nothing had happened to them. Yakko shuddered at that thought. He had to stop thinking like that. It was thoughts like those that brought him to this situation. Yakko eyed the DVDs on the ground. He had forgotten about them the night before. He picked up the first volume, placed the first disc into the DVD player, and hit play on the remote.

It's time for Animaniacs…

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Phew! Chapter 2 is done!

A lot longer than I anticipated. Overall, I'm fairly pleased with how it came out. I think it could have been a bit better though. Ah well. I'm just glad it's finally done.

I'm really hoping that this story gets more traffic. I've got some really good ideas for this story, and I'm hoping they turn out to be important plot points. I know there's a lot that isn't explained in this so far, but rest assured that everything WILL be explained. Assuming I don't forget to explain it. :D

Until next chapter folks!

-eaglefan101