Yakko was lounging out on the couch one evening. The remote control in one hand, and a cold glass of ice tea in the other(tea was good for his throat, and helped him maintain that sweet, sweet tanner voice of his). He figured that he would find a movie to watch before he went to bed. It sounded like a peaceful way to end another long day of he and his siblings getting up to their usual shenanigans on the lot. His siblings, Wakko and Dot, had already been put to bed, despite their stubborn refusal, claiming that they were "too old" to have a bedtime.
Yakko scoffed to himself. Perhaps if they acted more mature about it, then I would allow them to stay up later. But that doesn't seem to be the case right now.
Earlier that same day, Yakko had to settle another argument between his two siblings. Dot claimed that Wakko had called her new dress ugly, but Wakko denied that he said anything at all. It was perhaps one of the stupidest things they had fought over in a while. He, personally, was starting to get fed up with the constant petty arguing between his younger siblings. True, they were still children, children tend to fight over silly things like this. But still, Yakko was done with it.
He put his fingers up to the bridge of his nose, giving out an agitated sigh. Just thinking about it gave him a headache. He sipped his tea, holding his cup with a pinky out. Tomorrow, they will be filming another episode of their show, so it was important that he felt calm and well rested the night before so he would be ready to go tomorrow morning. From previous experiences, Plotz wasn't too keen on him and his siblings showing up late to a recording session.
As he was pondering this, Yakko saw something out of the corner of his eye. A black, shadowy figure appeared out of the hallway. Glancing toward the direction of this shadow, he soon realized what, in this case who, it was.
"Dorothy? What are you doing?"
His sister, dressed in pink unicorn pajamas, stood before him, rubbing her tired eyes.
"I can't sleep." She told him, groggy. "I don't know what it is, but I'm having these…thoughts."
"Come here."
Dot made her way over to him and sat on top of his lap. She rested her head against his shoulder. Yakko smiled at his sister, as he leaned over to her and planted a kiss on her cheek.
"I don't know what's wrong with me. I'm going through so many emotions right now." Dot told him, on the brink of tears.
Yakko pulled Dot closer to him, stroking her hair gently. He gave her a kiss on the cheek, telling her that it was going to be ok, and that he was here for her. His thoughtful words and comforting seemed to calm her down a little bit, but he could tell there was sadness within her. There was a certain look on his sister's face that told him that there was something deeply wrong. Something was going on inside her…
Perhaps I should ask her.
"You're upset about what I said earlier, aren't you?"
"No, I…i-it's not that."
"What's the matter then?" Yakko asked, growing concerned. "It's ok, Dorothy, I'm here for you. You can tell me what's wrong. I won't be mad at you, I promise."
Dot sighed, wiping a tear from her eye. "It's not that I think you'll be mad, it's just that I feel sort of embarrassed about it."
"About what?"
Dot wiped tears from her eyes. "Do you think that I'm…immature?" She asked him.
Yakko cocked an eyebrow. "In what way?"
"Immature for my age," she clarified, sounding irritated by his question. "All the fighting between me and Wakko. You have to resolve all of our issues, we can't do it on our own. I keep thinking about what you said to me earlier. I'm sorry, Yakko. Really, I am."
He put his hand up to his chin, having to think real hard about the question his sister had asked. To be honest, he was conflicted about this one. For one thing, Yakko was glad that Dot was owning up to her actions, something that she struggled with sometimes. It seemed like she was finally listening to his advice and trying to improve herself, which was a good thing.
But at the same time, he had to admit that he had been a bit harsh on her earlier in the day. He remembered the conversation they had earlier vividly. He caught his siblings in their room, both in the middle of an intense argument. Yakko broke the fight between the two and asked them what had happened. Dot explained to him the whole spiel about the dress, Wakko denying what he did, and Dot accusing him of what he supposedly said to her that caused the fight to happen in the first place. The two then snapped at each other, both accusing one another of lying, and calling each other crude names such as "Buttface" and "Crapsack."
The argument got to the point where Wakko and Dot were standing face to face, firing out insults and shoving each other aggressively. It was only when his brother attempted to punch Dot smack in the face when Yakko stepped in to prevent anyone from getting hurt. He was beyond furious with them, but he was more in disbelief than he was angry. How such a petty argument had led to a violent fight, and near assault. Now that he thought about it, he wasn't so surprised that Dot felt bad about the situation; that was pretty embarrassing on her part.
And also unbelievable, and frustrating!
He had grounded both of them for the next week. No TV, no video games, no special treats, and the punishment would be extended by another week if the two were to fight again. He forced both of them to apologize to each other and work out the situation. Neither his brother or sister even dared to try and object to these punishments; both siblings looked to understand what they had done and were going to take the L. Yakko was honestly surprised that his siblings took the whole thing with such maturity, he half expected at least Dot to sulk over it.
But, after all of this had happened and everything was settled between Wakko and Dot, Yakko started to feel slightly guilty for being so harsh about the whole thing. Dot looked to be devastated over how she acted and was questioning whether or not she was mature or not. A quick glance at his sister and Yakko could see that his sister had covered her hands over her face, sobbing into them. As deserving as it was, he started to wonder if he had been a little too mean to his siblings regarding punishment.
"Dorothy, please don't cry," he soothed. "It's ok. It's over now. You've learned your lesson and you know better now, right?"
Dot moved her hands from in front of her head, revealing her tear drenched face. She was still sobbing, and sobbing hard.
"Yeah, I guess so," she said, sniffling and wiping her eyes.
"I know you're upset over this, but you have to be strong for me, ok? You're grounded right now, but that isn't the end of the world. A week doesn't last that long, does it?"
She nodded sadly, refusing to make any eye contact with him. Yakko put a hand under her chin, forcing her head to look up at him. He wasn't trying to scare her, and he wanted to let her know that this was the case.
"You should know that I don't hate you because of what you did. True, I was very disappointed in you when you and your brother started hitting each other; I'm not afraid to admit that. But know that I will still love you no matter what, even if you have a tendency to act immature from time to time."
Dot gave him an annoyed look. "Thanks a lot for reminding me of my faults," she told him with heavy sarcasm in her voice.
"Look, I'm not trying to make you feel bad, Dorothy," Yakko tried to reason with her. "Like I said, I will love you no matter what you do, and no matter what you say. I forgive you for what you did earlier, and I'm sorry that I made you feel the way you did. But at the end of the day, you're still grounded."
Dot sighed. "If it wasn't for what that bozo said, then.."
"Watch your mouth," he warned her.
"If it wasn't for what…Wakko said, then I wouldn't have said what I said. I feel bad for what I said to him, don't you understand that?
"And what are you doing right now? Arguing with your elder brother, aren't we?" Yakko retorted, quickly becoming aggravated by his sister's snarky remarks.
"I'm not trying to start another argument! Don't you understand that!?" Dot exclaimed, sounding offended by Yakko's statement. "I apologized to Wakko earlier. We had a deep, meaningful discussion about what had happened. We made a truce to try and not banter with each other anymore. Or at least try our best not to do it often."
Yakko cocked an eyebrow, inquisitive to the new information his younger sister was sharing with him. Frankly, he was surprised by what she had told him.
"You and Wakko made a truce?" He asked.
"Of course we did! What, did you think we would just hold onto that grudge until the end of time? We argue, yes, but we forgive each other. I wasn't even that upset about it anymore. Really, all I wanted to do was make amends with you. I wanted you to forgive me. Turns out that you're still mad at me, and you haven't forgiven me for what I did. You and your grudge."
Yakko opened his mouth to retort, but quickly stopped himself. He tried to think up a clever reply to prove his sister wrong, but he couldn't. He, the talkative of the trio, couldn't say a word as to the words spoken by his young sibling. He thought about what Dot said, and soon realized why he wasn't blowing his top off for what she said; he was in the wrong.
He had quite literally shoved himself into a corner with all the claims and remarks he had been making for the past five minutes. Not knowing it at the time, Dot had already forgiven Wakko for what happened earlier, and had longed to move on from it. But most importantly, she forgave herself. Meanwhile, he hadn't forgiven Dot or Wakko yet. He had been looking at the situation in the lens that it was still going on, when it really wasn't. He thought that Dot and Wakko were still separated, when really, they had united again as siblings. He was the reason why this argument was still going on; he was making it that way.
How could I be so Goddamn stupid!
Yakko noticed Dot glaring at him with her hands on her hips. She was staring at him as if he were a dog who pissed on her carpet. She raised one eyebrow, awaiting his reply. He stuttered, struggling to think of something to say. He supposed he should just come out clean, admitting to his fault.
"Dorothy..I-I mean Dot?"
"What is it now? I already know that it's my fault. No need to keep blaming me for what I did last afternoon."
"That's what I wanted to talk about," Yakko said slowly. "Look, I never meant to make you so upset Dor..Dot. I didn't know that you had let go of that already. I was wrong to have yelled at you so harshly."
Dot looked baffled. "What? Do you really mean that?"
"Yes. Yes I do," he replied, lowering his head in shame. "I was so caught up in trying to make myself look like the smart one in this scenario when I was only making the situation worse for both me and you. I'm so sorry, Dot, for holding that grudge. I feel like such an idiot right now."
"Don't say that about yourself."
Yakko glanced up at his sister, who finally wore a small grin on her face.
"But…but it's true," Yakko managed to spit out before Dot went in for a hug, startling him a little.
"Yakko, you're the best big brother that a girl like me could ask for," she said kindly. "I understand, Yakko, no need to repeat yourself. I forgive you for what you said."
He was flabbergasted. After all the harsh things he said to her, his sister was still willing to forgive him. Yakko was bewildered by Dot's ability to forgive someone for doing wrong, even if that someone was your own family. Now that was a trait that Yakko wished he had. In fact, he thought he could start practicing it right now.
"I forgive you too, Dot," Yakko told his sister, embracing his arms around her shoulders. "And I love you from the bottom of my heart."
"Me too," Dot happily agreed.
The two hugged each other embracingly, their problems and differences slipping away from their minds and focusing on the warm, fuzzy feeling of the situation. Looking on the bright side instead of focusing on the negatives. Deep down, Yakko loved his sister with all he had in him. Despite the conflicts they faced on a day to day basis, he knew that the love for both his siblings was something that would never change.
As the siblings snuggled with each other, Yakko noticed that Dot was looking at something that's behind them. Yakko glanced back to see his brother standing in the corner. He was wearing his nighttime attire: A white stained tank top and loose blue shorts.
"Wakko? What are you doing up, bud?" Yakko asked his brother.
"I dunno," the boy said, looking slightly embarrassed. "I heard you guys out in the living room hugging each other. I thought I could join you."
Yakko smiled. "Oh, Wak, come here you!"
Wakko looked delighted as he ran up to him and plopped onto the couch. He wrapped his arm around Yakko, and Dot wrapped her arm around her brother. The three siblings snuggled as they bonded, united as a trio once more.