Author's note: Oh my God! Oh my God! It's here, it's done! It's an emotional roller coaster! IT'S SUPER FUCKING LONG!
Regular warnings in the end notes, as well as a bit of a rant. Please just take this before I die.
Yakko probably should have been more concerned about the fact that he'd most likely killed people when he'd been nothing but a small kid younger than nine, but honestly he just felt cold at the thought. Not scared, not horrified, just... cold. Detached. Maybe it was because he hadn't really seen any faces? He wasn't sure who he'd killed exactly. Who knew, maybe they'd deserved it. It certainly would fit, considering what he'd heard in the flashback.
'I have to kill them because I have to save those I love'… It sounded pretty heroic, if he was being honest. He figured he'd been in a situation similar to the one he was in now: forced to use violence for the greater good, or at least to protect good people. Besides, he trusted himself enough to know that even in the pieces of his life that he didn't remember he would never have hurt people just because.
… Right?
But regardless, he really didn't pay that much attention to it because he'd seen one of the voice's memories. He wasn't just shocked, he was also ecstatic and... relieved. The whole experience had to be proof enough that the voice was his own being, that he really existed... That Yakko hadn't just made him up in a fit of insanity and was just in denial about having done so. It had to prove that the voice was his very real friend who actually cared about him, who was truly there for him no matter what might happen. He didn't have to doubt any of this anymore, surely.
... Unless that hadn't really been a memory. Unless Yakko had hallucinated the whole thing and just thought he'd seen his friend's past. He wouldn't put it past his brain to pull such a nasty trick.
He'd almost allowed the thought to pull him into a panic attack, having gotten so dangerously close that the voice had needed to calm him down with soothing words for a whopping fifteen minutes. Luckily he was a pretty functional nutcase, so it wasn't too difficult to plaster a fake grin on his face and walk with the group while he slowly crumbled to pieces on the inside. No big deal, he'd had worse.
- C'mon, Yakko. Positive attitude, this is supposed to be a fun trip... -
It wasn't until they'd walked for another ten minutes that he managed to calm down enough (and repress the terrifying thoughts enough) to look at his surroundings. And honestly? It didn't look half bad. He followed the group down a narrow but nicely decorated street to Athena's shopping center, which... considering the condition most of WarnerStock was in he was surprised even existed. And it was pretty good looking too. He likened it to the outlets he'd seen on tv, filled with different clothing and entertainment stores. There were quite a few restaurants also, he realized as they walked through the "food court" and to the other side of the shopping centre, but almost all of them were closed and boarded up. Seemed like they'd been shut down because of the food shortage a while ago.
"Okay group," Rose finally turned to address everyone when they got to the center of the open mall, putting her palms together. A beautiful fountain with the statue of a warner cherub angel made a soothing noise of running water behind her "This could take a while since Yakko, Wakko and Dot basically only have one set of clothes to their name, so we'll split up to make this go by faster. I don't think I need to say who's going with who."
Yakko immediately walked to stand beside Rose, noting that Wakko stepped over to Marilyn and Dot bounced to StarDust fairly quickly as well. It was sort of funny when Elias was inevitably left alone in the center of the three pairs, raising his hands up with an incredulous look as if saying "what the hell guys". It was like they were in high school PE and about to play dodgeball, but nobody wanted to pick Elias so he was the loser left to be chosen last. Yakko couldn't help but snort at the thought of throwing several rubber balls at his face.
"Oh, right, we're not an even number anymore" Rose frowned in thought, clearly having completely forgotten that Elias was even there. Before too long, she shrugged "Eh, you can go with Marilyn. Makes the most sense to me."
"Yes" Marilyn hissed with an evil grin on her face, quickly grabbing an alarmed Elias by the wrist "I'm gonna make you try on all my potential buys. And that means dresses. Lots of dresses."
Elias immediately turned to look at Rose with wide eyes, his lip almost wobbling "Rose, please. You can't do this to me."
In response, Rose only chuckled "Sorry, man, my sister has already chosen you. You'll be a worthy sacrifice."
Yakko could barely hold in his giggles as Elias was promptly pulled away by a bouncing Marilyn, letting out a pitifully soft whine of "noooooooo" as his body was literally dragged through the dusty streets. An amused Wakko followed after them at a relaxed pace.
Smiling beside a snickering Dot, StarDust waved lazily at them "I suppose this means we should get going. We will see you later" she then gently took Dot's hand and they both walked away, chatting as they did.
Rose turned to him once they were alone "So."
There was a soft, but slightly concerned smile on her face. Yakko couldn't really blame her, considering how weird he'd been acting in the train, and he was sure he still looked a little pale from trying to recover from too many scary thoughts at once. But he was actually feeling slightly better, and he didn't want to worry her, so he smiled back. The sight of it made some tension leave her shoulders, her smile becoming more genuine.
"Where do you want to go first? You're the one who needs clothes, after all."
Huh, good question. He usually didn't think much of clothes, as he hadn't really been able to choose what he wanted to wear like, ever, but he did think he had some sort of preference. He also knew what he distinctly, specifically did not want to wear, so it shouldn't be too complicated. He just had to find what he liked first.
"I'm not really sure. I think I'll start by just trying on whatever catches my eye" he hummed, following Rose as she began walking towards the stores "What about you? You're not just gonna stand there while I try stuff on, are you?"
"'Course not" she smirked at him, gently elbowing him in the stomach. He returned the gesture, now with a less sad, more mischievous smile "I'm gonna be putting ridiculous stuff in your 'try on' pile so you'll look like a total dork... And I'll probably eye a few shops for myself, but I don't really need much. This is more an entertainment trip for me."
"Really? Trying to prank me? How childish" he grinned evilly as he spoke next, not unlike how Marilyn had looked a few moments prior "Maybe I'll prank you. We'll see who has the last laugh."
"A competition? I'm totally in" she laughed haughtily, brushing her hair off her shoulders "I'm gonna make you look so ridiculous you'll never be able to show your face in this town again."
"Savage" he grinned, hip-checking her "But I accept your challenge, you evil mastermind."
They then continued their childish war by attempting to trip each other as they walked, but neither actually fell. The way Yakko saw it, they were just training their reflexes. People stared, but where another time he would have felt uncomfortable and stop, somehow Yakko couldn't care less about it, laughing and bantering with Rose like he hadn't almost had a breakdown twenty minutes before.
The wonders of friendship. Truly a powerful weapon, if one knew how to use it.
- Hm. Something seems weird about all this, doesn't it? -
Yakko paused abruptly in front of a random store at the voice's comment, but before Rose could think that he'd stopped because he wanted to check out the store, he continued walking. He immediately felt his paranoia rising up, glancing around and feeling sweat gathering at the base of his neck.
- What do you mean? Did you see something suspicious? Is there something wrong? -
- Oh, no! Nothing like that, there's no need to freak out. -
The voice quickly reassured him, sounding a little worried himself, but it seemed like he was mostly concerned that he'd scared Yakko. Probably worried that he'd descend back into a meltdown.
Instead, the voice continued on with a sheepish grin.
- I mean this shopping place is weird. Where'd they even get the money to make something like this with the way things are right now? I dunno, it just does't make much sense to me.-
Well, now that he mentioned it… It was kind of weird, seeing all the different designs up on display. Somewhat because Yakko slowly realized that warner fashion and overall culture didn't seem all that different from the humans', but mostly because of the sheer abundance of items. The voice was right, it was completely out of place.
This was nothing like the food market. It almost felt as if he'd stepped into an alternate dimension where WarnerStock was actually thriving.
"Uh… Rose?" he started as they continued walking, the path never seeming to end. Dang, there really was a lot to choose from, huh? "Why exactly are there so many clothes shops when there's a food shortage? I mean… Priorities, right?"
Somehow Rose understood what he was getting at, snorting a little as she looked at him with an amused expression.
"Well you're not wrong, but there is a good reason for it" she said, shrugging and keeping her eyes opened as she looked at each store they passed "WarnerStock doesn't have much land to begin with, right? That's why the food shortage is happening in the first place. We can't waste any growing cotton or other plants to make fabric, so we make synthetic fabric instead."
"Synthetic?" huh. How did Rose know any of this anyway? Maybe Athena had forced her to take lessons about it "What's it made of exactly?"
"Petrol."
If he'd been in a cartoon, a giant exclamation point would have appeared over his head.
"Oil?" he questioned, confused "That's super valuable, and you're using it to make clothes?"
Rose only looked at him with confusion "What? We haven't found any other use for it, how is it valuable?"
"It makes cars run? It makes asphalt?"
"… You do know we have neither, right?"
Oh… Right. WarnerStock was still pretty behind the times when it came to vehicles, since it was such a small country to begin with. Anyone who wanted to get anywhere used a carriage, and if not, they used the coal-fueled train.
Well, that explained a lot.
"Huh… So are all clothes made of oil or…?"
"Nah," Rose reassured him, waving a hand as if to say 'don't worry' "They're not exactly good, not for us and not for the ecosystem, so they're only made and sold when there's no other choice. We usually use the decent amount of wool we get from the few sheep we keep, but they need grass and we also don't have much of that because we use most of the land to grow crops. We can't keep that many sheep. So, y'know, we don't have many choices."
"Oh!" she added, as if she'd suddenly remembered something "We did get a few weird bugs that make silk a few years back. We've been using those too."
"Silkworms? Where'd you even get those?"
"That's what they're called? Huh" Rose muttered distractedly, before smirking at him "Some humans that tried to trespass had them, so we 'confiscated' them. Finders, keepers."
Couldn't argue with that.
"So that's why this place is so big" he hummed, a little annoyed. To think that such a useless industry was thriving while people starved. Though, he guessed no one was really to blame in this case "That's a problem."
"You're telling me. We have little land, so we don't have much food to go around, but we have lots of, uh, "silkworms", lots of oil, and a bit of wool. That means lots of clothes and not many meals" Rose sighed as she finally concluded the history lesson, actually stopping at a shop to eye the window. She looked a little angry too "Can't really do much about it, y'know? You can't make food from oil."
- That sounds like a real shit economy to me. -
"Yeah, how has this species not gone extinct under these conditions?" he accidentally spoke aloud, unconsciously trying to respond both to the voice and to Rose.
She lifted an eyebrow at how weirdly worded his response was, but thankfully let it go. He was barely able to contain a sigh of relief.
"Well... It's not easy, but we make do. I won't lie, even before Athena, things were... hard" she frowned, biting her lip "I can tell you from personal experience that food has never been plentiful in WarnerStock. As a family of farmers, we Milers lived a pretty rough life. Crops would die often, and there wasn't much land we could even farm on. Since we had to give a big fraction of our work to the crown so the rest of the population could eat, we never had enough food for all of us, and even then a lot of people still went hungry."
Yakko frowned at the thought of Rose and her sisters going hungry. It sure sounded like they'd had a difficult life.
"So... things have never been 'good'."
"Not as far as I'm aware. A few decades back things went seriously downhill and every year there would be a food shortage. It's only now that it's bad enough to actually have people dying though, this is beyond anything we've ever faced before."
That was an... interesting bit of trivia about the country. As they walked past several more stores, Yakko came to a stunning realization.
If WarnerStock had always been in a bad spot, then Athena assuming power might not actually have anything to do with the country's current situation. At least, food-wise. He knew the Queen was keeping money away from the people as well as weapons, but was the hunger striking WarnerStock really her fault? Maybe the food shortage happening at the same time as Athena was a coincidence. Maybe there was an actual reasonable explanation for why Athena was doing what she was doing, a reason other than to cause misery. The Milers sisters couldn't exactly be objective about it, considering the woman was their mother.
- ... You think maybe the country is just falling apart? Maybe... Maybe we can't actually fix anything. -
The voice paused to think about it, humming.
- Can't really say. All we know for sure is what Blondie and her sisters told us, and that isn't much to begin with... But from where I'm sitting? I can't see this place getting out of the hole it's dug itself into. -
He had to agree that the situation looked pretty bleak. With a disheartened frown, Yakko followed Rose into the store and stared as she looked through the merchandise. Thankfully his mood hadn't plummeted completely, so he easily bounced back from the previously sad thoughts and focused on the clothes in front of him.
It was a new experience for him, picking out clothes. That fact would seem ridiculous to anyone else, but while on the studio they'd had a personal stylist for the show, and even the clothes they'd worn around when they hadn't been working had been specifically picked by the person in charge of 'looking after them'. If the fact that he'd managed to fall from the water tower while on their watch was any indication, they'd been terrible at their job. You can imagine how bad their fashion choices had been too. So, the fact that he actually got to choose what he would wear was pretty exciting, even if the process of shopping was not.
Luckily for him, Rose seemed to have the uncanny ability to find the weirdest clothes available.
"Oh my God, Yakko, look" she said, grinning as she turned around with a grey sweater in her hands, the sight of which immediately sent him into a giggle fit "It's you!"
"Christ, who the hell made this?" he questioned through his laughter as he grabbed the grey sweater. It was obvious that it was meant to say 'Don't worry, be happy' but the way it'd been designed made it look like it said 'Don't be happy, worry' instead. It was definitely him "This is too relatable, I think they've been stalking me."
"Honestly, I think they've been stalking both of us" she smiled at him with humor, pulling up something else for him to see "Because this is like, how I feel all the time."
In her hands was a grey tank top that said 'Chocolate is the answer, who cares what the question is'.
"Wow. How did they manage to cater specifically to your particular brand of chocolate addiction?"
"I dunno, but there's also this" she chuckled as she pulled up another piece of clothing, this one a white t-shirt that read 'I wish you were pizza', with the pizza being an actual doddle of a slice of pizza. Again, relatable "So I think this store has my style on point. Better try these on."
"Nice" he turned back to the shirt rack he'd previously been looking through as Rose grabbed the clothes and started walking to the fitting room "Hopefully I'll have something to show you for when you get out."
And boy did he ever.
By the time Rose got out of the fitting room he'd already looked through half the store in an excited whirlwind and had managed to find some funny things, some fashion disasters, and some legitimately cool pieces.
"Rose, for the love of all that is holy please explain to me how anyone is supposed to get to this flipping pocket" he immediately turned to her with a grey dress in his hands when she approached, the back of which had one of those useless, button-closed pockets stitched on "I don't get it, why would anyone put that there?"
"Pffft" she giggled, grabbing the item from him and looking it over "This thing is a disaster, like what is one meant to do with it. Is it supposed to be decoration? Because if so, bleh, zero out of ten."
"I got more."
She grinned "Do tell."
He proceeded to show her some real fashion head scratchers, like a black shirt with zippers on the shoulders, but instead of getting the sleeves off when he unzipped them, they just… unzipped part-way. Fashion statement? Another one was a combo of a t-shirt with several photos of Britney Spears printed on it paired with pizza leggings. Just. Why? Why would anyone wear that? He did not know.
"How on Earth is one supposed to wear this?" Rose muttered in confusion and frustration as she moved the 'shorts' he'd given her this way and that, attempting to understand with no results. For some reason the shorts had long sleeves attached, making it some sort of hybrid of a sweater and shorts "You can't wear it as a sweater because the hole's split for legs, but you can't wear them as shorts because it has sleeves! What the hell!"
"I know!" he said as he raised his hands to the heavens. They would never understand.
He did take pity on her poor eyes and showed her some actually cool clothes though, like a sweater depicting a skeleton wearing a scarf and knitted hat (metal as hell), a shirt that read 'I'm not an early bird, or a night owl. I'm some form of permanently exhausted pigeon' which she laughed at, and a cute Totoro-themed dress that Rose didn't seem to get the reference to but found cute all the same.
"There're also these ones I found for you" he smiled innocently as he handed them to her "I think they suit your personality."
"…'Gosh, being a princess is exhausting'" her voice was deadpan as she read through the first one, then looked at him with a blank expression "You're right, Yakko. It's exhausting putting up with your shit all the time."
As he cackled and a smile snuck onto her face, she looked at another one, her whole face lighting up.
"Oh hell yeah!" she grinned, laughing as she read the shirt "'Bonjour, bitches'! I'm gonna wear this all the time."
"Thought you'd like it" he chuckled, holding up the last one, a black shirt which read 'Drama Queen' "Was saving this one for last."
He thought she'd complain again, but instead, she just looked at him with amusement.
"Are you sure that shirt isn't for you? 'Cos I think it suits you perfectly. You're like, the embodiment of drama."
He only pouted at her, dropping his arms that had been holding the shirt up "You're such a meanie."
"You're a meanie" she said, shaking her head and going back to the racks "I'll find something to embarrass you with too, you fool."
It took her a while to find something. Surprisingly, they'd already looked through most of the 'interesting' side of the store, but Rose was not to be defeated. She insisted she was going to 'find something great, just you wait, you're gonna look so silly.'
Meanwhile, he showed her some pun shirts because he liked making her suffer.
"'Send noods'? Seriously?" she hissed, her face scrunched up in pain as she looked at the shirt that had a picture of a bowl of ramen in between the words. He thought that one was pretty clever, actually "Garbage. This is a garbage shirt, get it away from me."
"Awww, c'mon Rose it's not that bad" he said with a pout, immediately cracking a grin as he pulled up another shirt "At least it's not this."
It read 'It's a tea shirt' with a picture of a cute little tea bag in the corner.
"Ugh! No!" she threw her hands up and turned around, as if ready to walk out of the store "This is awful, I'm leaving."
"But Roooooose" he whined, quickly stepping in front of her with another shirt and an evil look in his eye "I think these puns are pretty… humorous."
The black shirt had a picture of a bone right next to the text 'I found this humerus'.
She screeched then, putting her hands over her eyes.
"Stop! Stop drowning me in puns!" it was obvious she was smiling though, so he laughed and gently tried prying her hands away from her face "No! You'll just make my eyes bleed with more puns!"
"Okay, okay. No more puns" he chuckled at the suspicious glare she threw at him once her hands left her face "Promise. I'll let you get back to searching, I think I'll have one last look around before we leave. Don't see much more to look through."
"'Kay" she seemed content with that, but there was a glint in her eye that he didn't like. What was she planning? "Aren't you going to try anything on though? Who knows when we'll be back, best not to chance having an ill-fitted shirt."
"… Right."
He made sure to pick a few pairs of pants before going near the fitting room though, wanting it to be a one-off thing. With that done, he went in.
Everything was going well at first. He tried on several of the shirts along with the pants, and found that he liked many of the combinations. He decided he'd buy the pun shirts just for the sake of annoying Rose whenever he wore one, along with the 'permanently exhausted pigeon' shirt and the skeleton one (he liked skeletons sue him).
This trip might not be a total waste after all. He even had fun during some of it!
Well, he had been having fun until he spaced out for a moment while in his underwear, and when he went to get his clothes back he froze. He found himself at a complete loss, eyes wide and unseeing as he stared at the only two pieces of clothing left in his fitting room.
How had she even…?
It… It couldn't be… She couldn't have actually-
But it was. And she had.
"Rose! What the fuck!"
He was gonna kill her-
"Why would you do this!" he couldn't help but yell as he was left staring with horror at the only clothes he'd been left with. He only got more stressed when he heard her guffawing on the other side of the fitting room, probably at the fact that he was so distressed he'd actually cursed "It's not funny, give me back my clothes!"
"Sorry, sorry," she giggled, but didn't sound the least bit remorseful "But the image of you in that dress is too cute."
'Cute'? Since when was he 'cute'? She needed to get her eyes checked.
"Besides, I warned you that I was gonna prank you! The blame falls on you for not being more careful."
That was true but... This was- he just hadn't realized she might prank him like this. He'd thought she might slip in the "Spooky" shorts and the "Bad Bitch" shirt in disgusting neon pink that he'd side-eyed, but not... Not this.
"Rose. If you don't give me my clothes back, I'm gonna kick your ass."
She snorted, and continued on with a smug drawl "Oh really? Like you kicked my ass the last fifty times we fought? Oh wait, I won all those. I kicked your ass."
This was not the time to fucking banter.
He could practically feel steam blowing out of his ears as he spoke slowly through his clenched teeth. Even though she couldn't see him, he had a menacing and furious fake grin on his face "Rose. There's gonna be. A print of my foot. On your hide. For years to come."
"... Yakko, please. It's just a dress."
Just a dress. Of course it was just a dress to her, she didn't get it. She probably thought it was funny to see him fumbling around and embarrassed because he had to wear a dress, like that somehow negated his masculinity. 'Let's break that stupidly fragile ego of his haha'.
Fun.
It didn't surprise him one bit when he heard the voice let out a furious snarl at the situation, practically scratching at the walls of his mind with pointed claws.
- There went all her fucking brownie points. She'll be enjoying the minus fifty spot for a while, if I don't scratch out her eyes first. -
Even with the added rage from the voice, Yakko forced himself to breathe in and out a few times, trying to calm down. Trying to think rationally.
Getting mad would solve nothing, especially when Rose had obviously not meant to hurt him. She clearly didn't realize she was crossing a line, because he knew she was careful with things he was uncomfortable with, made sure not to push too much. She just didn't know this was one of them because he hadn't told her, he hadn't really... wanted her to know. It was his fault, really. Like previously stated, Rose had actively warned him that she was going to prank him, and he didn't take the opportunity she'd given him to say "oh hey, actually, you can prank me with literally anything, just please don't use a dress or like, a skirt", and she would have been like "oh, okay, cool, I'll keep that in mind". This whole thing could have been avoided, because she was just trying to play a joke, she wasn't actually trying to be mean.
It wouldn't even be that bad of a prank if he weren't the one at the end of it. If she had done this to Elias for example, like Marilyn likely was, it wouldn't be a big deal. Probably. He wasn't entirely sure.
He clenched his hands into fists. Damn it, he was tougher than this. So what if he had to wear a dress? Wasn't the end of the world. He doubted Rose would make rude comments, aside from maybe teasing him a little by telling him how much of an "ugly girl" he made which... was the best insult she could throw at him in this instance, honestly. There were even matching foot-less leggings, so his ankles would be completely hidden from view.
He could do this.
Pushing out air through his nose like an angry bull, he grabbed the leggings with determination and put them on, frowning the whole time. As if he was going to let a stupid thing like this affect him, he'd show her!
- You aren't actually gonna...? You know you don't have to right? Like, I'm sure if you just talk to her- -
- Look. I'm pissed off. But I'll show her I can still look perfectly manly, and dignified, wearing this thing. I'm gonna totally rock her socks off, and then I'll tell her never to do it again because it makes me uncomfortable. And then we can put this whole thing behind us, because we're friends and she didn't mean to hurt me. -
The voice's tone immediately went from angry and worried to pleasantly surprised, apparently not having anticipated Yakko to actually be able to push through this. There was a lot of pride in his voice when he spoke next, his lips turned upward in a smile.
- ... Yeah, you can totally do it. Everything looks good on you. -
Some of the irritation left as Yakko brought the cursed cloth over himself, putting his head through the hole. He smiled a little as he pulled the straps up and over his shoulders.
- You know flattery will get you nowhere. -
- Damn, and here I was hoping for ice-cream. You're hard to please. -
- Like I'm gonna suffer through a stomachache just 'cos you said I look nice. I'm not nearly that cheap, dude. -
An amused hum.
- But you'd kill for nachos? -
- You know I would. -
- I'll bribe you with those next time then. -
- Shoot, you got me. Nachos will certainly get you somewhere. -
As the voice snickered, Yakko's smile slowly became more of a grimace. Now that he was in the stupid dress, the only thing left was... to see how he looked. It still kind of scared him, but he'd already told himself he was going to go through with this. He wasn't one for backing down.
Steeling himself, he slowly turned around to the mirror.
He'd been terrified of looking like a total sissy, of the dress hugging his soft curves and only making his wide hips more pronounced. Of looking at himself and seeing nothing but a laughing stock, of hating every single part of him that he saw.
He'd gotten used to that, even though he'd repeatedly told their temporary studio guardian that he hated dresses and that he was not a doll for her to dress up, no matter how cute she found him in them. He'd ripped each and every single one of them to shreds at the first chance he'd gotten. Eventually she learned her lesson but damn had that been a tiresome couple of weeks.
Instead of wanting to barf at his reflection though… While he couldn't say he looked like a total macho in the cute dress, he... didn't look half bad.
The dress was simplistic in its design, a thin, cream colored satin that almost reached his knees. The sleeves reached his elbows, with a hole in each shoulder and a simple flower pattern all over the dress. A thin stripe of pinkish cloth wrapped around his middle as if acting as a belt. And at his legs, long white leggings reached down to his ankles, completely hiding them from view but leaving his feet exposed.
- … You look cute. -
He… felt cute.
It shocked him. Why wasn't he upset at the sight? Had he really gotten over it? ... He didn't really feel any different. He still felt and looked like himself, only, you know, in a dress.
Maybe the clothes weren't the problem then, because he wasn't freaking out. Maybe… Maybe it'd been the way everyone at the studio had always acted whenever they'd see him in girly clothes, even when it'd been mandatory for some humorous segment of the show. They'd treated him differently, like somehow just because he was wearing something feminine he was fragile, someone that needed to be looked after. Someone that got extra scolded for being rambunctious and opinionated since he was just supposed to stand there and do as he was told-
… Anyway.
That'd certainly gone better than expected. Actually, depending on Rose's reaction... Well, he might not be that opposed to trying on a few more, since he hadn't reacted badly to it. Only if she complimented him though, because damn it, he actually looked cute for once.
Just as he was thinking of going out though, he heard the door to the store opening, and suddenly Rose's footsteps were rushing away from the fitting room and back to the front of the store. At first he worried that something had happened, but when he registered StarDust's and Marilyn's far-away voices speaking calmly he relaxed.
He didn't want to go out with her sisters right there, so he decided to sit down on the fitting room's bench for a little bit while they finished their chat. After all, he'd accepted letting Rose tease him a little, but if either of the other two Milers saw him like this? He was pretty sure he'd die on the spot. Luckily they didn't take long, and from what he gathered from what little he could hear they were leaving Wakko and Dot with her for a bit while they went to look at something. Phew, crisis adverted.
One of his siblings must have asked Rose where he was, because he then heard her say "Oh yeah, he's… still in the changing room. Actually, hold on-"
He heard a set of footsteps approaching, and couldn't help but jump a little when there was a soft knocking on the wooden part of the changing room.
"… Yakko?" Rose's voice was soft and filled with concern "Are you okay? You've been in there for a long time… If you really do hate it you don't have to wear it. I'll pass you your clothes, so…"
Aw.
Any left-over resentment for her putting him in this position immediately vanished at her words, an exasperated smile making its way on his face. As expected, Rose was fully ready to take the prank back when she thought he might be actually uncomfortable. What a sweetheart.
- Did she regain her brownie points? -
- Fine, fine… She's at two again. -
Instead of responding, he pulled the curtain back without any fanfare, smiling gently at Rose when she startled and took a step back at the suddenness. At first she looked ready to start apologizing, her brows furrowed in worry, but when she realized that he was actually wearing the dress, she paused. She blinked several times, and then her eyebrows rose.
"You… You actually wore it."
"Didn't think I had the guts, didja?" he smirked, playfully leaning with his back against the side of the dressing room and lifting a leg in some form of a ridiculous pose "If you think this is all it takes to humiliate me, then you've got another thing coming, buddy. I can make anything look good."
"I-I wasn't trying to humiliate you!" she stuttered, shaking her hands in a 'it's not what it looks like' manner "I just-I just wanted to prank you, I didn't mean to-"
But when she registered that he was only teasing her, she put down her hands and her whole demeanor relaxed. It didn't take her long to rake her eyes over the outfit and actually smile.
"… It does look good," she hummed, and he wasn't sure if she realized or not, but her cheeks gained some color. Score, he did look cute "Guess I'm the fool for thinking it wouldn't suit you."
She'd… thought it wouldn't suit him? Huh, and here he'd thought that she'd picked a dress because her thought process had been 'he already looks ridiculously girly, let's add to that'.
That… actually made him feel better.
He was about to respond when he heard footsteps approaching, and when he looked to the side he noticed his siblings looking a little worried.
"Hey, is everything-"
Then they noticed him. Their eyes widened.
And suddenly Wakko and Dot came down on Rose like the wrath of God, both sporting dark glares as they rushed to flank Yakko at either side as if they were his bodyguards. Rose could only blink in confusion and shock, taking a couple of steps back.
"Are you bullying our brother?" Dot said.
"Uh-"
"Because if you are you're gonna get it." Wakko said.
Welp. He really should have realized something like this was going to happen the moment he got out, what with his siblings being right there. Time to defuse the situation.
"Guys, guys" he put his hands up with the intent to calm them down "It's okay, no need to burn Rose at the stake."
"Really?" Dot frowned worriedly at him as Wakko crossed his arms and continued to glare at Rose, disbelieving. His mouth was a grimace as he spoke next "Because it looks to me like she was making fun of you."
"Nahhhh, it's okay! She was pranking me" he laughed a little uneasily, waving the hands he still had up to ask for peace "And I'm cool with it. Really!"
Wakko's glare diminished, and then he started looking up at him with worry like Dot was. Dot's eyes were wide and sad as she wrung her hands.
"… Really?"
They thought he was faking it. They thought he was plastering a smile on his face for the sake of pretending he was okay and that the moment he would be alone he would destroy himself over this. He could see it in their faces, in their eyes. It broke his heart to see them so worried for him, especially over something this stupid… Instead of letting it take over him though, he metaphorically spit in the face of his feelings and posed haughtily, a (mostly) fake grin on his face as he put his hands on his hips.
"Yeah! So anyway- What do you guys think? Do I look cute or do I look cute?"
It took them a moment, trying to figure out how genuine he was being. When they realized he was not only managing to fight through it, but actually not feeling that bad about it, their sad frowns slowly became huge smiles.
He practically saw stars in their eyes.
"Cute? You look beautiful, Yakko!" Dot squealed, immediately circling him so she could get a better look at the dress "You have to get it now, all it needs is an accessory like a- a flower pin in your hair! That'd make this look! Ooh! And then! Then we can get dresses too and we'd be a family match and-!"
"Woah sis, calm down" Wakko laughed lightly as he put his hands on her shoulders, stopping her from running out to raid the nearest accessory and dress rack in the store "He didn't say he was gonna buy it, y'know?"
"But, uh… You do look very nice, bro" he smiled, and seeing the 'message' Wakko was trying to convey, Dot did the same. It ended up with both of them giving him adoring looks that did things to his poor heart.
"Argh, stop! Too many mushy feelings!" Yakko pretended to be wounded by all the softness, a hand to his chest as they laughed. While their guard was down, Yakko swooped in and gathered his siblings in a bear hug, relishing in their giggles "You guys are gonna make my heart explode from love!"
"Ew" Dot stuck out her tongue with a playful expression "That's gross. We don't want your heart splattered all over the walls."
Wakko nodded sagely, with an amused smile still on his face "That'd be tragic."
"How dare you imply that my feelings wouldn't make an attractive wallpaper! Feel my wrath!" Yakko then proceeded to noogie them, laughing evilly.
"… Um" Rose interjected as Wakko and Dot protested and tried to escape Yakko's noogying playfully "Does this mean I'm safe from the Familial Glares?"
Immediately the younger Warners turned their glares back on Rose, but they slowly dissolved to unamused stares.
"… Fine. You get a pass this time" Dot narrowed her eyes at her.
"But we'll be watching you" Wakko then pointed two fingers at his eyes and turned them around so they pointed at Rose, looking very serious "Don't mess up again."
Thankfully that was all that was said about it, even though his siblings still kept suspicious eyes on Rose as she paid for their clothes. Meanwhile Yakko took a moment to go back to the dressing room. He meant to change out of the dress and back into his clothes, but as he was about to do so-
"You do know that just because you're not wearing girly clothes it doesn't make you look any less weak and useless, right?"
He paused.
So that was how it was going to be, huh? He was fine until he was by himself… Typical.
He sighed lightly, shaking his head to dispel the upsetting thoughts. It was fine, he was fine, and there was no reason for him to be upset. He focused on that as he started taking off the dress, feeling the dark cloud of fear and shame trying to crawl back over him. The Girl tried her best to upset him as he did so, whispering in his ear. Hissing about how stupid he was, about how much people would be better off without him.
Ignore, ignore, ignore.
- Yakko? You okay? -
- I'm… I'm fine. -
- Need me to step up? -
He stopped with the dress half-way off him, staring into it as he thought.
- No. I can work through it myself. -
- … Thanks though. -
The voice smiled at him, sounding worried as he spoke next.
- Okay … But if you need me, I'm here. -
Yakko tried to relax. Tried to allow himself to bask in the fact that the voice was concerned at all, that he cared enough to be concerned. And yet still-
"Now you went and made him worry. Why do you have to be such a whiny, sensitive bitch all the time?"
Taking in a sharp breath, he threw the dress away from himself and sat down, trying to calm down as the voice spoke up in worry.
- Yakko? Please, I can help if you need me to- -
- No. I'm fine. I can take her. -
- … -
- You can't fight all my battles for me. -
The voice sighed softly, sadly.
- I know… I wish I could, though. -
With that said, Yakko stubbornly put his elbows on his thighs and his head in his hands, letting his mind go blank. He counted to ten, then to twenty, and started whispering softly to himself.
"I'm loved. I deserve to be loved. I'm a good person. I deserve happiness."
"You're useless."
"I'm loved. I deserve to be loved. I'm a good person. I deserve happiness."
"Nobody loves you. They just think you're pitiful."
"I'm loved. I deserve to be loved."
"Remember all the awful things you did? Oh, wait, you don't. How are you so sure you haven't done even worse things than the ones you do remember?"
Pause.
- Yakko- -
- I'm fine. -
Deep breath.
"I'm a good person. I deserve happiness" he glared at his thighs with all the hate he could muster, gritting his teeth "And you don't get to define who's good and who isn't. Go sulk somewhere else."
It took him a moment, but after breathing deeply in and out for a few seconds he was finally okay enough to stand up. He stretched a little, looking at himself in the mirror.
He smiled weakly at his underwear-clad self, snapping his fingers into finger guns "Hey there, you sexy beast. Put on some clothes before someone faints from how hot you are."
He heard the voice giggling in his head, sounding relieved, and Yakko let the soft sound calm him down as he changed into his clothes.
He was fine. She only spoke lies, and she couldn't hurt him if he didn't listen to her.
Repeating that in his head a few more times for good measure, he walked out of the stall fully clothed, the dress over his arm. He went over to the rack where he figured Rose had gotten it, and as he put it back he heard footsteps approaching.
"Hey," Rose said as he turned around to look at her and his siblings, looking a little concerned "You took a while. Everything okay?"
"Yeah," he smiled tiredly at her "I was just busy admiring myself in the mirror. I mean, I'm just so hot."
"Har har" she rolled her eyes, smiling back at him "The only thing you're hotter than is a baked potato."
"Hey! I happen to think baked potatoes are super sexy."
As they walked out of the store and Rose laughed at his ridiculousness, Yakko spotted Elias leaning against the wall of a fancier store on the other side of the street. He looked bored, arms crossed and one foot pressed against the side of the wall in the 'classic douche look'.
Finally, someone to take his stress out on.
"Hey, Little Prince" Yakko called out, expression quickly morphing into a mocking one "You done spending Papa's money yet? Bet you swiped his credit card."
Elias grimaced at him, but got off the wall and walked over to them anyway "We use gold here, dumbass. Whatever stupid human currency 'credit card' is, we don't use it."
"No, I know we're using gold" Yakko smiled, again, mockingly "That insult was for my siblings' sake. They know what a credit card is."
Boom, instant rage. Good to know it still bothered Elias that Yakko had grown up on the Human Side with Wakko and Dot, it gave him plenty of ammunition. Aaaah winning over him was so cathartic.
Dot snorted, but tried to look as if she hadn't laughed and was merely coughing, while Wakko just smiled as he shook his head. It seemed like they enjoyed the little rivalry between Yakko and Elias, but still rushed to follow the prince when he started stomping away from them with a frown, trying to talk to him. Confused but unwilling to be left behind, Yakko started following them along with Rose, watching with a raised eyebrow as Elias' tense posture slowly dissolved and he started answering his siblings.
"… You've gotta lay off, Yakko. I think that one actually hurt him" Rose whispered to him as they walked, sending him a chiding look "Even Wakko and Dot can tell you're going a bit too far."
"Is that why they're walking with him?" he frowned "Huh… thought I'd just made him mad."
Looking back on it, he supposed that'd been… a little harsh. Shit, all these bad thoughts must have been really getting to him if he was purposefully provoking people like that. Sure he was still angry at Elias but he didn't actually want to hurt him.
"Look" Rose sighed, looking put off "If you're still mad at me and you need to take it out on someone then do it with me, not him. For once, he hasn't done anything."
"What? No, that's not-"
"It's not? You look majorly stressed out, Yakko. Don't pretend that's not at least partly my fault."
He stayed quiet, frowning softly at the backs of Elias and his siblings. He hadn't meant to upset her… Luckily, before The Girl could think to chime in, Rose smiled softly and elbowed him gently.
"I'll buy you a burger as an apology. That cool with you?"
It was incredibly cool with him and he was glad she wasn't dwelling on the whole prank thing, but he smiled and tried to banter with her like he always did.
"What? I'm not that cheap."
"Hm… Burger and nachos?"
"Now you're talking."
They grinned and tried to trip each other all the way to the food court, ignoring Elias' complaining that they were acting like children and Wakko and Dot's chant of "Fight! Fight! Fight!".
… Life could be good every once in a while, if he just let it be.
Warnings: Bullying (The Girl being a bitch to Yakko again), being uncomfortable with one's body and how it looks in certain types of clothes, mentions of panic attacks, calming down from an impending panic attack.
Author's note: Pls don't call anyone a "functional nutcase", Yakko is very mean to himself. He was also quite the champ this chapter, I thought for sure he was gonna have a total break down but he held up. You did great, baby *hands Yakko an 'I survived my shitty brain torturing me' badge*.
Ok so rant incoming; any of you writers know that moment where you're in a part of your story you haven't really planned out and nothing THAT exciting is happening and you just gotta get through it? This is that part. Actually, even after next chapter we won't be out of That Part. We have been in That Part since last chapter.
Sad face.
But actually I'm super pissed at my brain because like- I listen to music all the time right? And it's one of those things that just inspires the shit out of me. I often end up making little music videos about my stories inside my head as I listen, and HOLY FUCKING SHIT the SHEER HYPE that I always get for this story when I do it I can't even tell you. The bad part of this? The Hype is often for the Backstory tm. So I'm ALWAYS hyped for continuing this story, it's just that when I come to write and I realize I'm at That Part I'm like aughhhhhhhh whyyyyyyyyyy WHY COULDN'T I GET HELP WRITING THIS FUCKING PART RATHER THAN THE BACKSTORY? I ALREADY FUCKING KNOW WHAT HAPPENS IN THE BACKSTORY THANK. I KNOW IT'S FUCKING AWESOME BUT YOU'RE NOT HELPING ME, BRAIN.
Because of the Backstory Hype any backstory scenes that I ADORE but don't end up making it into the story for some reason or another will be in a separate ficlet. I'll probably make it once all the mysteries are revealed, which. Will take a while.
Anyway. Sorry for rambling, I'm just sad it took me almost five months to write this shit OTL This chapter also only got Actually Fun at the very end and while I was editing. I actually made myself smile and laugh a little at some parts, so it's not all bad. I don't hate this chapter! *throws confetti*
Fun fact, this chapter was practically entirely re-written and the events that happen are all completely different from the original version of this chapter! … That's also why I took so long. I'm so sorry.
ALSO! Because I took so long and Writer's Block was a big bitch to me I ended up drawing Rose in some of the clothes of this chapter! I'm planning on drawing her and Yakko in all the clothes in this chapter as well as a few others I saw that were cool. Find them at cramping-sugar-hands on tumblr! I'll put up the ones I already have done shortly after this chapter is up.
See you next chapter, I love you all!