Author's note: So this chapter introduces what I call "Dream/Flashback Sequences". These are parts of the story that are either dreams or flashbacks, and you'll recognize them because they'll be entirely in italics. That said, I give you a new character: The Girl. You won't see much of her, but what happens with her is directly connected to the story, so don't write off what you see her in as delusional dreams.
This chapter isn't particularly intriguing as previously stated. Yakko, Wakko and Dot basically tell you the routine they've been doing during the last two months with the Milers and give you an insight on what they think of each individual sister. Oh, but there are a few tidbits of information about Yakko before the story began, so don't even think of skipping it. It's important.
Also the voice is super cute and charming so why would you want to skip its dialogue.
Hope this chapter isn't too bad, especially since I tried to fix it as soon as possible to get it out of the way. Next chapter should be interesting, because we get a lot of info even if not much happens, so look forward to that. Don't get used to this quick upload schedule though lol
I don't think the sequence at the beginning needs a warning, but uhhhhhh just in case there's a bit of blood, nothing too scary.
As a side note, I wanted to talk to you guys about the romance thing again. I previously stated in chapter 4 that there wouldn't be romance, but that was because I thought people wouldn't want to see an OC paired romantically with a main character (ie Yakko). I was worried it would push people away, and since it isn't an essential part of the story I figured it wouldn't be difficult to cut it out. However... It's come to my attention that some of you wouldn't mind, and some actually want there to be romance! That makes me happy, because it makes me feel like you like my characters, since I figure you wouldn't want a bad OC romancing a pre-existing character.
Before I let you give me opinions though, I'll clarify things so we're all on the same page. The romance would be between Yakko and two OCs. Yes, you heard me right, TWO. And this wouldn't be a love triangle, but rather the three of them would end up together as the story progresses. And just so everyone knows exactly where this would go, the two OCs that are romantic interests are Rose and The Voice (I think this is pretty obvious with how much these two like to flirt with Yakko, but you never know). You may ask how the voice can be a love interest but shhhhhhhhh don't question it I won't give you spoilers, I just want you to know that the love interests are a girl and a boy and who the characters are. And yes, I know I have been referring to the voice as an it in the story so far, but in the next two chapters I basically tell you he's a boy so there's no point in keeping it a secret.
Now, I'll ask you guys this time. Until I say in a new chapter that I've decided what I'm going to do you have the chance to vote FOR or AGAINST romance! You can include your vote in your review of a chapter or just send me a pm telling me what you want if you don't feel like reviewing. I would suggest just putting your vote as a review on its own but I think that's against fanfiction's rules, and even if it isn't it would sound like a scummy way of trying to get the number next to the story reviews to be higher, which is not my intention at all. Every vote counts, and of course, people who start reading after I put up this notice can vote too! It'll be no problem if you end up voting after I already made a decision, it's just not going to count. You shouldn't worry too much about that though, seeing as we probably have a loooong way to go until I find myself in another situation in which the characters are getting a little too close and I have to decide whether to push them away from each other or have them kiss and confess.
Of course, if I don't get any votes I'll just see where my characters take me and let them do whatever the heck they want. You wanna interrupt the story to have a heart-felt moment and confess your love to each other? Okay, sure. The only thing I won't budge on is smut. There won't be smut in this story. I uh, dunno if I'll EVER write smut about these guys, but if I do (unlikely) it'll be an aside. NO SIN HERE FOLKS.
The choice is yours!
The room is dark, utter blackness. He's sitting with his knees against his chest, his arms wrapped around himself.
He's cold.
He hears a door opening, but there's no light coming in from anywhere.
He's hungry.
The door closes, and he hears footsteps coming toward him.
"Hey..."
The voice of a young girl resounds through the space. Her voice is high pitched. Scratchy, as if she isn't used to speaking much. Emotionless. Hopeless.
Practically dead.
"What are you afraid of?"
"..."
He doesn't answer her. She doesn't deserve an answer.
He's so tired.
"Is it death?"
He can't see her, but that's okay with him. He has a feeling her face is scary anyway.
"Is it suffering?"
His form shakes. He doesn't know why he's shaking.
He's scared.
He won't admit that he's scared.
He'll pretend he's fine.
EVERYTHING'S FINE.
"Is it losing those you love?"
There's a beeping sound resounding loudly in the distance, and suddenly, the presence of the girl disappears.
But her voice continues talking from the endless darkness.
"What do you fear? Come on, tell me."
He stands up on his bony ankles, looks around despite the lack of light.
He can still hear the beeping, and he attempts to walk towards it.
"Do you fear the dark?"
He stumbles and scrapes his arms.
It hurts.
"Do you fear the light, then?"
It hurts so much.
"Do you fear heights?"
His arms are bleeding. BLOOD trickles from millions of tiny holes on the inside of his forearms, dripping onto the floor.
"Do you fear the sight of blood?"
It hurts... Stop it.
"Do you fear enclosed spaces?"
Stop it.
Deformed black arms slink toward him from the darkness. The beeping is so loud.
Stop it stop it stop it stOP IT!
"Ah."
The voice of the girl giggles as he starts running toward the source of the beeping, dodging arms that try to grab him.
Why is he trying to go to the beeping? He knows what awaits him if he reaches it.
It was exactly what he'd been trying to get away from.
To run from.
To escape the unbearable GUILT.
"So you are afraid."
Of course he's afraid. She's always known that.
It's the reason why she hates him. She thinks he's a COWARD.
But it's fine.
He hates her too. He thinks she's a MONSTER.
"Why are you so afraid?"
The beeping sounds louder than ever.
"Isn't this what you wanted?"
The beeping is ringing in his eardrums, a steady, chilling sound that he wishes would stop.
"Not surprised you're regretting your decision already."
All he has to do is walk away, and everything will be fine for once.
The suffering would END.
"He told you not to, but you didn't listen."
He only takes one step back. He doesn't move any further than that.
"If he could have cried tears he would have."
The ground is shaking. This is his last chance to walk away.
"Now you want to make his suffering double by breaking your promise. You really are the worst."
He can't ignore the sobs he hears in a corner of his mind, echoing throughout the empty space.
… He's not going to run this time.
That would only make the wailing continue forever.
"Figures. If it had been me, I would have found another way around it."
The floor collapses underneath him.
He falls.
He screams.
No one hears him.
There's no one here.
"At least you won't be the end of us."
He's alone.
He's so ALONE.
"I hope I don't have to see you ever again."
"Don't slack off."
An attempted kick to his face, one that he caught with the hand he'd been holding a pen with, brought him back from his writing. He looked up from the paper to Rose, who was staring at him with an impressed expression as her foot was kept caught in the air.
"Wasn't slacking off" was Yakko's deadpan reply as he let go of her and she situated her foot back on the floor, taking the pen he'd dropped back into his hand "I was just trying to write what I learned so far. You know, so I don't forget."
Rose only raised an eyebrow at him.
"Oh really?" came the sarcastic question.
He, in turn, coughed discretely.
Okay, so maybe he was lying a little bit. His mind had been wandering, remembering the happenings of just two months before, back when this whole mess had started. Back when he and his siblings had been running through the forest, when they had met the Milers, when they had agreed to join them.
More specifically, he had been thinking back to the first nightmare he'd had in a while.
"I hope I don't have to see you ever again."
He didn't know where it'd come from. It was rather odd, because he couldn't think of any event that had happened that could possibly have made him dream that. Granted, the things that had actually appeared in the nightmare were things he was aware he was afraid of. Darkness, being alone, being hurt. Hands reaching for him. It was certainly possible that the sudden change in environment had been responsible for his bad dream, but something told him there was more to it than that. If that wasn't enough, the voice had also expressed a lot of concern for him during that time, always asking him if his head hurt or if he felt tired in any way.
Either something weird was happening or Yakko's subconscious just knew that he wanted someone to worry about him, so it sent the voice to make up for it. Thankfully, during the second, third, and fourth week, Rose had worked them to death, so he hadn't had too much time to worry about the strange nightmare or how weird the voice was acting.
They'd had classes almost every day, learning the basics first, true to the three sisters' word, and then getting a few tests to figure out what branch they would be working in. Wakko and Dot were both too inexperienced to fight, Yakko and Dot couldn't fix a toy let alone an important machine, and neither Yakko nor Wakko could even inject someone without flinching (though Yakko did know how to disinfect and bandage simple wounds from all the times his siblings had scrapped their knees playing). Therefore, as expected, Wakko got paired up with Marilyn, Dot with StarDust, and Yakko with Rose.
It was kind of fun, despite the fact that they weren't used to such demanding exercises and thus got very tired very quickly, so they were in their best spirits. When Rose had first said "Let's get down to business", neither of the three Warners had been able to contain their gleeful response of "To defeat the Huns!" StarDust had tilted her head in confusion, Marilyn had squealed and asked what they were singing so she could sing too, and Rose had just rolled her eyes (mostly because he'd already told her about a few famous human movies). They were practically in a "Make a Man out of You" montage, only there was no singing. Only pain and suffering.
They even had their own rooms. Okay, maybe not their own, since they had to share, but it was still pretty cool.
There were plenty of rooms in HQ, but for safety purposes, they all slept in pairs. Of course, the teachers slept in the same room as their pupils; Rose with Yakko, Marilyn with Wakko, and StarDust with Dot. An extra bed was added to every single room so that they wouldn't have to sleep in the same bed (that first day had been awkward as hell for everyone). In particular, when it'd come to changes to his and Rose's bedroom, he'd managed to get her to agree to redecorate it.
The room had been so barren and empty that it'd made the white of the walls more obvious which, in turn, made him more nauseous. He didn't know what it was about white walls that made him sick, but, since he couldn't get Rose to agree to paint the walls another color, he'd settled for getting furniture that could distract him from it.
The only problem (for Wakko and Dot, at least) was that they had to get up at 6 am every morning; his siblings weren't exactly morning people, especially Dot. StarDust, who was the one who woke Dot up and therefore was her verbal punching bag in the mornings, didn't seem to mind though. He was convinced she was the only one of the three of them that StarDust actually liked. Yakko had even caught her smiling, yes, smiling, at Dot a few times. Truly incredible.
Marilyn had had a hard time waking Wakko up because, as previously stated, he slept like a rock. Shaking him, pushing him off the bed, even using a whistle to try to blow his eardrums up, just didn't work. In the end, Yakko had taken pity on her and told her his secret technique for waking up his brother. This secret technique, of course, consisted of whispering "Breakfast is ready" into his ear and Wakko would get up like a lightning bolt and wag his tail with glowing eyes. She seemed to be getting used to it at least.
Rose seemed to be the one with the least trouble. Well, Yakko usually woke up easily, but there'd been quite a few times where he had almost accidentally punched her when she'd tried to wake him up while he was in the middle of the nightmare, which had been repeating every few nights since the first time he'd had it with slight variations. She always caught his hand in her palm though, so he never actually hurt her, thankfully. It was hard to still be mad at her when he had to see her every single day.
After the (in his case literal) nightmare of waking up, they all had breakfast at the dinner table he'd seen before. It usually consisted of a simple two toasts, some eggs and a few sausages, along with a glass of milk and an additional glass of orange juice. Wakko was bummed that there was no bacon, and Dot absolutely hated milk, but they made it work. Rose could be pretty persuasive when she threatened to make them run extra laps for every misdemeanor.
Then came warming up exercises, which usually involved them running around the Godforsaken Field for a while (as he'd dubbed the field they had to cross from base to Artemis), and stretching for a bit. Then came running, jumping, parkour (or at least that's what Wakko had called climbing trees and jumping from them), and finally going to their respective classes. They would later meet for joint classes in which the three of them would learn things of the two other branches they wouldn't be joining.
The second month consisted mainly on getting them used to their surroundings. The three Milers had made sure to take each of them out individually every day and showing them where the most important buildings were, so they could use them as landmarks if they ever got lost. The three of them knew Artemis like the back of their hands, but Athena and Aphrodite were a whole other story. Aphrodite was too wealthy and full of enemies to just go strolling around every day without a real purpose, and Athena was half and half. The least known to them was Aphrodite, but StarDust had reassured them that if they ever had to go to Aphrodite, they would definitely have a map with them. Yakko had gotten comfortable enough with the sisters to accept them going out with his siblings alone at this point, thankfully.
Everything became a routine.
Now, two months later, Yakko could tell they were making progress. Nothing incredible yet obviously, but the three of them knew how to do everything normal they needed to do, and were becoming better at their specifics. Marilyn had praised them extensively for their quick learning skills.
Anyway, his mind had indeed been wandering, and the paper he'd claimed to have been writing in was almost entirely blank. Rose could clearly see this because she'd snatched it from his hand the moment he'd begun to space out again.
"This doesn't look like fighting tactics to me" she hummed as she turned the page over in her hands a few times, mocking him "Unless you're trying to illustrate how much you know. If so, good job! You learned absolutely nothing."
"Ha-ha, very funny, Rose" he gave her a wry smile, snatching back the paper despite her narrowed eyes "I just got a bit distracted."
"Getting distracted in the middle of the battlefield means death, Yakko."
"I blocked your kick well enough while being distracted, didn't I?" his smiled became a grin. Try to win against that miss Smarty Pants.
She only clicked her tongue at him, crossing her arms in annoyance "That's because your reflexes are ridiculous, it's got nothing to do with actual skill."
"Says you."
"Says someone who knows what they're talking about."
- Well. It seems to me like you two are hitting it off wonderfully. -
He almost snorted, thinking back to the voice in a deadpan drawl.
- Yup, we're best friends already. Who would I even be without Rose. Oh Woe is me. -
- Why, I'm hurt Yakko, I thought I was your best friend. I'm sobbing as we speak. How could you betray me like this. -
The voice snickered with every word. What an absolute dork.
- I'm sorry voice, our friendship can just never be! We're doomed to befriend other people.-
He fought back a laugh as he heard the voice gasp exaggeratedly, like in a melodrama. This was the best part about having a body-buddy.
- I hope you can forgive me one day. -
- No! So tragic! I don't think I will ever recover. -
Yakko couldn't contain the laugh that escaped him, even if he slapped a hand over his mouth to stop it. Oops, too late.
"Uh… I fail to see the humor here."
"Eh- What?" he snapped out of his conversation with the voice, the smile dropping. Had he laughed outside his head? Shit, no wonder Rose looked confused.
"You spaced out again, and then I assume you remembered something funny because you laughed" she actually looked worried now, her brow furrowed as she inspected his face from a few angles "Have you been sleeping well lately?"
The reason why he'd looked spaced out this time was because he'd been talking to the voice, but her worries made sense anyway. Still, Yakko was reluctant to tell her he'd been having a looped nightmare every so often. She might start thinking that he was useless if he couldn't pay attention after a few restless nights.
"You better tell me the truth" her eyes apparently saw all, because she was already predicting that he would lie to her, lifting an eyebrow at him "I need to properly know your status. If you aren't well I can't send you on missions, so if there's a problem you better report it."
With a shrug, Yakko gave up. The voice had actually put him in a fairly good mood "No, I actually haven't been sleeping well."
"Reason?"
"Nightmares."
"Figured" Rose nodded, seemingly thankful that he hadn't tried to lie "We can work something out in the next few days then. Star knows a good remedy for those."
"You figured?"
"The last few times you almost kicked me in the face gave you away."
She was smirking at him, but he still felt a bit guilty for almost hurting her, so his ears lowered a bit. Rose instantly noticed though and she elbowed him lightly.
"C'mon, don't feel too bad" her smirk turned into a smile that made him feel a bit better. She really wasn't that bad, just a bit more intense than he was used to "It's not like it was your fault. Everyone gets nightmares every once in a while."
He was about to retort that his had been pretty consistent, like, once every week, but he wasn't sure if that was wise so he shut his mouth again. Instead, he began thinking of how to bring up a matter he'd been wondering about for a while.
"Hey, I was thinking..." he shuffled in his chair slightly. He wanted to ask her when their first mission would happen, but he knew that Rose wasn't about to send them into the battlefield just yet. They still had much to learn, but they wouldn't be stuck with training forever... Would they?
As if reading his mind, Rose snorted "You want to know when you'll start doing missions, don't you?"
His wagging tail was her only response, and she reacted to it with a laugh, her head shaking slightly "I was actually thinking of bringing you three on a real mission with us next month..."
She had a thoughtful expression, tapping her index finger against her other hand "But maybe I can send you on an errand. Would that satisfy you for now?"
An errand wasn't the same as a mission, but hey, he'd take what he could get.
He shrugged "Sounds good to me."
"Great," she clapped her hands together "I'll tell you all the details later in the day. For now, I'd advise you start actually working on your exercises, and not having your head in the clouds."
She sent him a meaningful look, and he only huffed in response.
"Fine, mom, I'm going" he complained, standing up from the chair. He was thinking of maybe spending a bit of time working at the gym. The voice could probably entertain him with conversation while he ran on a treadmill for a bit.
With a pleased grin, Rose pat him on the back "Go and become a man, my son."
Yakko could only laugh, waving her away as he turned into the hallway and walked over to the door that lead to the gym.
He would admit that he was getting used to Rose's attitude after two months of basically following her around like a lost puppy- Not that that was something he wanted to do, but she was his personal teacher and he couldn't exactly learn without her there.
After the shit fest that had been their first meeting and their second and third days together, he'd managed to relax around her. She could be rather rough at times... especially when he messed up (he thought his ears would never stop ringing from the intensity of her shouts when he hadn't managed to hit her a single time during training once) but she wasn't bad at all. They were amicable with each other.
Marilyn and StarDust were another matter, but from the time he'd spent together with them, they didn't seem like people he'd have problems with.
StarDust was more reserved than Marilyn, so it was harder to get to know her. However, contrary to what he'd originally believed, she was very gentle, and almost never got angry at them when they got something wrong. Her disinterest could be somewhat off-putting at times, though. Not to say he disliked her, she was just too stoic for him to know what she was thinking, and that worried him a bit.
Marilyn, on the other hand, was even more energetic than Rose, more cheery too. It was like she had an endless supply of sugar running through her veins, and he'd admit he was a bit jealous of how she could run for hours on end and not get tired at all. She and Wakko got along perfectly in that sense; God knew that when Wakko was excited, he couldn't be stopped, and Marilyn seemed to fit that description to a T.
The three sisters were rather nice people to be around, and he thought that if he and his siblings had to be stuck with some people working to overthrow a monarchy, he was glad it was with the Milers.
Yakko just wondered if Wakko and Dot felt the same.
Dot was just about ready to throw the roll of bandages in her hand out of a window.
How dare the dumb strips of cloth fight her when she just wanted to wrap them around the arm of the dummy Star had brought her? They were either too tight, or too loose, or she had left spaces in between them, and Dot was sick and tired of getting reprimanded by StarDust.
... Alright, maybe she was exaggerating a bit. Star was being nice to her, she wasn't even yelling, but her frustration wouldn't go away just like that. She always got upset when she didn't do something as well as she was expected to do, and she expected a lot from herself. She had pride to maintain. Yakko had always told her she put too much expectation on herself and that it would make her get wrinkles. He knew she really didn't want to get wrinkles.
What does he know, right? If someone should be saying "stop stressing yourself out over stupid stuff", it was her to him.
... Not that everything he worried about was stupid. Honestly, she and Wakko were worried about him. He looked better than the first few days they'd been at HQ, but he didn't look great by any means. Seemed like he'd been getting nightmares again...
Yakko had been having nightmares ever since she could remember. A few years before they had gone away almost completely, but it looked like they were back in full force. He would never really tell them what the nightmares were about, but they had been able to uncover a few details from his mumblings while he slept. The ones that they were usually able to hear were strings of numbers, him saying that he was cold or hungry or scared, and whimpers saying that there was blood. So much blood.
The nightmares worried them, because neither of them could remember having had such specific ones before. If they did have a nightmare, they were usually about monsters chasing them, or... being left alone.
That particular fear came from the fact that they didn't know their parents, and they didn't know where they'd gone. They had to have come from somewhere but the only one of them who had a chance to remember was Wakko, and he'd admitted he didn't remember much more than a few blurry faces.
They knew Yakko wasn't like their parents, but it didn't stop the fear of him leaving from paralyzing them. Yakko was... He was their big brother, their guardian, their protector, their hero, and she didn't think either of them would be able to handle him disappearing.
The fact that Yakko could have died before they had been old enough to really know him had only hit them once they'd been much older. He'd fallen from the water tower for Christ's sake! She'd looked down more than enough times when she'd been by the railing to know that falling from that height was not something someone came out of with broken bones and amnesia. More like, it was something someone didn't come back from at all. They'd been too young to remember that, and it was only when Yakko had mentioned it in passing that it had actually sunk in.
They could have lost their brother, and then they would have been all alone. They'd been so young when they got to the studio, Dot often wondered how Yakko had managed to take care of them, being a kid himself. Let alone a kid with amnesia who had probably not even known who they were, considering he'd had trouble remembering his own name at the time. With the amount of things that put him on edge and the sheer panic he showed whenever one of them got so much as a skinned knee, it was a wonder he hadn't imploded from stress by now.
... Hopefully now that they were around their own kind, he could get better. He could make friends, and be distracted enough that he wouldn't always worry about his siblings. Rose seemed to be becoming something of the sort, but she had a long way to go if she really wanted to see who their brother was. Yakko was still very pointedly keeping her at a distance.
Dot grabbed the item she had let go of again, trying to get her mind back on track. Now instead of wanting to throw the bandages out the window, she kind of wanted to hug them in her sadness. Maybe she could sneak off for just a little bit to go chat with Yakko. And maybe hug him lots.
"Are you finished yet, Dot?"
She looked up from the soft plush arm she had been attempting to bandage to stare at StarDust's face. "No", she wanted to say, "I haven't finished yet because these stupid bandages have a vendetta against me".
Instead of saying that though, she groaned quietly and handed the bandages to her "I just can't get it right."
As she'd expected, instead of getting frustrated along with her, StarDust smiled and patiently showed her how to use them again. For the fifth time.
"You have only been doing this for two months, of course you aren't an expert yet. Stop expecting so much out of yourself, you'll just get frustrated that way."
See? StarDust was so kind to her. Unlike Rose, who would always yell at them at any opportunity.
... Fine, she was exaggerating again. She only ever really yelled at Yakko, and that only happened when he really messed up, or wasn't taking the exercises seriously (she'd admit that the reason he considered them a joke sometimes was because she and Wakko liked to distract him with ridiculous dances). Still, Rose liked bossing them around, and Dot would admit she held a small grudge against her for that.
Besides, she'd pointed a gun at Yakko's head. Even if she was becoming his friend, that was unforgivable.
Then you had Marilyn. She wasn't sure what she thought about her. Dot guessed that her perpetual happiness was a bit annoying, but she seemed nice, and Wakko liked her well enough. She wasn't sure if that was a point in Marilyn's favor or not though.
All in all, Dot thought the three sisters were okay. She still wasn't keen on the fact that they were still kinda homeless and that they would have to fight with guns and knives and all those other icky things she disliked, but StarDust had told her that she was the Medic Apprentice, and as such, she wouldn't have to fight as much. That made her feel a bit happier.
Besides, Yakko had already told them that he would protect them no matter what. That made her feel happier too, even if she'd already known that. Hearing it was always nice.
"But it's so annoying!" she finally responded, a pout on her face "Wakko already knows how to fix a radio, and I can't even bandage a stupid wound right."
Wakko was not allowed to be better than her. Yakko being better? That she could take, because he was the big brother. Wakko though? No. She was supposed to be the talented one in this family.
StarDust, again, only patiently smiled at her "You shouldn't compare yourself to your brother. He showed interest in machinery since before getting here, right? He already has some experience."
Dot kept pouting, but she listened nonetheless "Besides, medicine and machinery are two completely different things. You should be proud of your accomplishments. Don't you remember how you used a syringe perfectly while neither of your brothers could do it?"
"Yeah, but... I wasn't good at fighting or fixing things either... It isn't their fault that they didn't know how to do this."
StarDust shook her head "That's not what I meant. What I'm trying to say is that you all have different abilities and different levels of knowledge on them. You just have to go little by little, and eventually, you'll be a professional. Who knows, you might get to be better than me."
The teen winked at her and Dot giggled "I'll end up saving their butts one day and they'll have to kneel before me."
"Indeed. You'll be a little princess with a degree in medicine" with a grin, Star ruffled her hair and Dot smiled up at her "Now, what do you say you try again?"
"Okay!"
"Now, get the radio working again."
"Why would I fix it when you're just going to break it again?"
"It's called practice, Wakko" Marilyn grinned at him, but Wakko only stared at her in exasperation.
He had been fixing the same stupid radio all day and he wanted to learn something new. This was the eighth time he'd fixed it.
Yakko had been learning evading techniques, Dot was learning how to bandage a wound, but him? He's still here, doing nothing, just fixing the dumb radio that probably nobody had ever used. What was the point in fixing a radio anyway? He'd understand if Marilyn taught him how to fix a gun... Now that'd be cool.
"Don't you think those were enough radios?" Wakko sent her a hopeful look, but his Puppy Eyes were only effective on Yakko and Marilyn merely gave him a smirk and lifted an eyebrow.
"Not a chance, kiddo."
Damn.
With a sigh, he went back to the radio. He was sure that Dot and Yakko had to be having a lot more fun than he was. Well, at least Yakko had to be having more fun. Medical stuff was kind of boring.
He loved fixing things, really, but this was ridiculous.
Marilyn seemed to sense his imminent shout of frustration, so she spoke calmly "The exercise isn't about you fixing radios, by the way."
"Huh?" he temporarily stopped trying to unscrew the bottom of the radio, looking up at a smiling Marilyn.
"It's about perseverance. Some things just keep getting broken over and over again, or people may come to sabotage something. If you just give up because fixing the same thing many times is boring, a whole operation could collapse."
He hummed at her answer, thinking about it.
Perseverance... Yakko had said something like that once. All that "never give up" stuff, right?
No, wait... It'd been that other guy, hadn't it?
Wakko was pretty sure Yakko had no idea he and Dot had actually met "The Voice" before, even if he did know they were aware that the voice existed. He'd told them himself after all.
Back when they'd been at the WB lot, when they'd been little, some nights Yakko would get up at midnight and go outside to stare at the distance from the balcony of the tower, presumably to get some fresh air. One day, he and Dot had decided to finally follow him outside and ask him why he kept doing that, especially since he'd always seemed a bit nervous about standing there after, you know, actually falling from the damn water tower.
Surprise, surprise! The person standing there hadn't been Yakko at all.
They'd been scared at first, because whoa, why did Yakko suddenly have red eyes with thin black pupils? But this, "other person", had presented themselves as "The Voice". Why didn't they have a name? The voice had said that that was just what Yakko thought they were, so that was their identity for now.
The voice was a complete mystery. They wouldn't tell the siblings where they'd come from, and Yakko apparently had as much of a clue as Wakko and Dot did. Though, neither he nor Dot had dared to ask Yakko who the hell the voice was and why they were in his body. It would be kind of awkward, and Yakko didn't really like talking about it.
Despite being God knows what, the voice was actually really cool. After Wakko and Dot had told them they were worried about Yakko's incessant nightmares one night, they'd smiled softly and told them to leave it to them. Imagine their surprise when, slowly, Yakko ended up not having any nightmares from then on. Well, until they reached HQ, that is, because Wakko could tell that Yakko wasn't sleeping well. The bags under his eyes were tell-tale signs.
Wakko didn't know what the voice had done to stop Yakko's nightmares, but he wanted them to start doing it again. Unfortunately, now there was no balcony, and he couldn't go to Rose's room to wake Yakko up and hope that the voice would be the one to answer him. That'd just be weird.
The voice had always been kind to them. Because they didn't know what they were, he and Dot had always theorized that they could be a supernatural being. They could be a... Well, by seeing their eyes, he would say demon, but despite their color and shape, their eyes were gentle and their tone of voice even more so. The other thing they'd thought of was that they were an angel, who looked after their brother. It sounded ridiculous, but it was a nice thought, and they couldn't explain what the voice was anyway.
The voice had laughed when they'd asked if they were one though, so that probably wasn't the case.
Curious, they had thrown the names of different supernatural beings at the voice every time they could catch them, trying to get them to tell the siblings which one they were. The voice would always smile and shake their head though, telling them they would never guess, because what they were hadn't been written in any books.
Despite their answer, Wakko and Dot had still asked every night they went to the balcony to stare at the stars.
"You kids sure are persistent" the voice had laughed once, ruffling their hair and giving them worse bedhair than they'd had before. They'd even allowed the two of them to tackle them playfully as a greeting (uh, so long as they were away from the edge) further proving that they were not a malevolent being. "But I think perseverance is a good thing. You shouldn't give up after you made the effort to start, right?"
Then, they had put a finger to their chin in thought and given them a smile "Tell you what, if you do end up figuring out what I am, I'll give you a present. Think of it as a medal for never giving up."
They'd never gotten that present, because they'd never guessed right. But they still had time to figure it out, didn't they?
Man… he missed the voice. They were like the cool uncle they'd never had.
"It looks like someone went to Memory Lane."
"Eh?" Wakko shook his head to look back at Marilyn, stopping his automatic fixing of the radio, which he'd done without even thinking because he'd done it so many times.
She shrugged "Just thought that you got your spacing out from your brother. Rose gets so mad at him for not paying attention."
Wakko didn't want to tell her that Yakko's spacing out usually made sense because he was probably talking with the voice, so he kept his mouth shut. Neither Wakko nor Dot had disclosed the secret of the voice to either of the three Milers, since they were sure Yakko hadn't. If Yakko wanted to tell the three about that guy, then by all means, but they weren't going to say anything until they knew Yakko was comfortable with it.
"I just got so bored of the radio I couldn't help but start thinking of other things" it was partly true anyway "I still fixed it."
"Okay" she nodded, abruptly taking the radio from his hands "But the question is: Does it work?"
He wasn't sure, really. He'd been so distracted that he might have made a few mistakes here and there, and radios aren't very benevolent. If you fucked up, it won't work.
Wakko was a bit worried. What if Marilyn got mad at him if it didn't work? Marilyn hadn't gotten mad at him yet... and he didn't want to know how she was when she was mad if she was anything like Rose when she got mad. He really didn't.
Rose could get rather violent at times, but only with Yakko, who she knew was prepared to counter her strikes with his rather fast reflexes. Even if he didn't hit back, he could usually avoid her own punches. They both took it as part of training, since apparently Yakko had to be prepared to fight at any given moment, so nobody really questioned it. She wasn't that bad though, she acted like a leader and knew what to do at the right times.
Still, she'd pointed a gun at Yakko's head. He didn't think he'd ever be able to forgive her for that.
StarDust... didn't seem to like him very much. Actually, he was convinced that she only liked Dot. The reason? Well, Dot was just cute, he guessed, though annoying at times. But hey, she was his sister, so of course she was. StarDust appeared to be rather quiet, only speaking when it was absolutely necessary (at least, that's the way she was with anyone other than Dot).
He thought they could trust them. He believed in this feeling that, as weird as they were, the three Milers were good people. Yakko had been obviously distrustful of them for a while, but he was paranoid so it didn't really count.
With a smile, Marilyn easily closed the radio and screwed it back into place. Then, she put it up on the table and turned the button.
A song came out of the radio, and Wakko breathed a sigh of relief.
Marilyn hummed, happy "So you managed to fix the radio perfectly without even thinking" she laughed and punched his arm softly, her usual way of telling him he'd done a good job "I'm impressed. I think you've fixed enough of these things to last you a lifetime."
He felt himself practically vibrating in excitement at her words. He would get to look at the inside of other machines? Maybe something more advanced?
"Mary! Star!"
They both heard Rose's voice calling her sisters from the hallway, and Marilyn stood up to look out the door "Yeah?" Wakko saw StarDust poking her head out of the infirmary just as Marilyn was doing, though she didn't say anything.
"Remember that errand we were talking about?" Rose asked rhetorically, giving them a big smile "Well guess what. It'll be the Warner Siblings' first ever mission."
"An errand is not a mission, Rose" StarDust's sigh could be heard from the infirmary, but it was drowned out by Marilyn's happy shrieks as she and Wakko both started jumping up and down excitedly.
"Did you hear that, Wakko? You guys are going on an errand!" She sounded even more pumped than he was.
"Hell yeah! We're actually doing something!" he exclaimed rather loudly, and to his embarrassment, he heard Yakko's yell from the gym telling him "Wakko! Language!"
"Sorry!" he shouted back at his brother, but he was too excited to care too much about the reprimand.
"When's that going to be?" Dot's voice drifted out of the infirmary, less excited but still interested.
"Tomorrow" Rose answered, nodding in satisfaction at everyone's excitement "We'll be telling you what you need to do and where to go tomorrow morning, so prepare yourselves."
- It's finally time for adventure -
With a laugh, because Yakko couldn't tell him off if he was swearing inside his head, he pumped a fist at the air.
- Hell yeah. -
Author's note: As always, thanks so much to those who reviewed! Special thanks to pokemaster101 for reviewing on every chapter so far! You guys are awesome ^^