The world might have been a confusing place, but Harpo Warner knew one thing for sure: he didn't like being known as "Wakko Warner's little boy."

For one thing, at twelve years old, Harpo didn't consider himself a "little boy." Secondly, if he was going to be known as anyone's "little boy," he preferred to be "Yakko Warner's little boy." It was a logical to anyone who didn't know the Warner's past; Harpo looked like his uncle, except that his face was rounder like his father's and he wore round wire-framed glasses, and he lived with his uncle. So why shouldn't people think he was Yakko's son?

The reason was simple: if Harpo took off his glasses and put on a hat, he was absolutely, undeniably and unquestioningly of Wakko Warner descent.

This had only been proved once, albeit once was more than enough for Harpo. While asleep at a friend's house, his friend's siblings had taken off Harpo's glasses and stuck a red baseball hat on his head. The siblings, knowing enough of Toontown gossip, knew exactly who Harpo's father was and made sure to snap enough pictures to prove it. Harpo awoke to a room littered with hundreds of duplicate copies of the picture, taped up in every inch of the room. He was too stunned to do anything. It was the closest to tears he'd been in seven years.

But for the most part, no one gave Harpo a hard time about his real father if for no other reason than this: people liked Harpo. Since Harpo had seen and been through much more than most of his peers, he was able to relate to everyone on their own level and able to see past the superfluous fronts that people put up. He was unique among his peers in that he was a thinker and a friend to everyone, no matter their place in the social hierarchy of junior high school. Harpo was one of the few twelve year olds who didn't give a hoot for social labels placed on a person and didn't much care for gossip or for pettiness, preferring instead to think with his own mind, coming to his own conclusions about people, things and places. Harpo wasn't popular in the junior high sense of the word, but he had many friends and many hobbies that left him fulfilled. Everyone knew that if you had a problem and you couldn't count on anyone else to help, Harpo Warner was the guy you went to.

It wasn't just other toons at Toontown Junior High school who thought he was a special kid, either. Yakko and Babs' parties were still as frequent as they always had been, and Harpo enjoyed the company of people older than he was and found their conversations and stories far more interesting than those of his age group. He could listen for hours to toons like Bugs Bunny or Mickey Mouse. He loved hearing about the early days of movies and animation, and marveled that the toons sitting in front of them had actually lived it. For someone who didn't talk at all the first five years of his life, Harpo had a way with words that astounded people three and four times his age.

Yakko marveled at the difference between Harpo from any of the other Warner siblings. Whereas Yakko was the talker, Wakko was the eccentric one and Dot was the independent one, Harpo was the philosophical one. He still had a habit of listening more than talking, thereby learning much about life from listening to other people. When Harpo was six they'd all moved to a house on the nice side of Toontown and knew almost at once that they could never live anywhere else. The little sidewalk cafés, eclectic stores, and plenty of artists shops combined with motion picture museums, theatres, parks and libraries made the small village seem like a paradise to Yakko, Babs and Harpo. There was plenty of room for Harpo to run and skate with his friends, plenty of clients for Yakko and Babs, and enough of everything in between to never warrant a dull moment. The search for Dot had ended shortly after Harpo had arrived, both for the fact that Harpo filled the emotional hole that had been in Yakko and Babs' lives and because it had been impossible to trace her whereabouts. All Yakko had been able to discover was that she had abandoned ship in Mexico the night after her first gig on a cruise ship and was never seen again. Of course, as a lawyer, the words "was never seen again" struck terror into his heart, but he comforted himself with the knowledge that Dot was the sharpest and most clever Warner in the trio, and she knew how to use this to her advantage.

As per Harpo's request, Yakko and Babs hadn't mentioned Wakko in seven years. Sometimes Yakko would spontaneously remember a story involving Wakko when Harpo did something reminiscent of his absentee father, but Yakko managed to keep quiet. Harpo would sometimes get a look in his eye or a crooked smile on his face that was distinctly Wakko's. In those moments, Yakko's heart would skip a beat to see how close his brother was, and yet have him be so far away at the same time. He had many feelings about the present state of the torn family of Warner, but he never felt sorrowful about it unless he caught the face of Wakko staring out at him from Harpo's young expressions. In these times, he wished more than anything that Harpo would consent and let Yakko teach him who his father truly was; he felt if Harpo had this knowledge, Harpo wouldn't be so hard on Wakko's memory. Or on himself.

Yakko and Babs knew Harpo was extremely sensitive to his parentage and he had asked his aunt and uncle on numerous occasions if they would legally adopt him as their son. Knowing that Wakko would, presumably, be back someday, Yakko and Babs always changed the subject quickly so as not to have to answer. It wasn't because they didn't want to adopt Harpo – in their eyes, he had been their son for seven years – but respect for Wakko had kept them from going through with it. Both Yakko and Babs knew it would break Wakko's heart to come back and find his son was no longer his son. Although Harpo called them "Yakko" and "Babs," in his mind they were as good as "Dad" and "Mom."

The teacher was droning on again. Harpo had long since stopped listening, since there was something else in the classroom that demanded his undivided attention: Jessica Hertford. Her long brunette hair and flashing green eyes had long been a source of fascination for Harpo, who usually spent a good portion of the day sneaking glances across the room at her. So far as he knew, she had no idea he even existed, which bothered him some but at the same time comforted him; if she didn't know he existed, he wouldn't have the awkward duty of chatting her up. He sighed and looked to his right for seemingly the millionth time that day. The clock was right above Jessica, which always gave him an alibi for looking in that direction. He glanced quickly up at the clock - fifteen minutes to go - and then stole a look at Jessica, who was yawning loudly as most of the students were at this time of day. Suddenly, without any warning at all, she looked over at him too. He froze as their eyes met. Then, to his surprise, a small smile appeared on Jessica's lips, and almost playful expression crossed her face. Harpo immediately blushed full red, which made Jessica giggle quietly. He looked away, trying to get absorbed in the teacher's lecture, but naturally he couldn't - Jessica had looked at him and smiled! Suddenly Harpo's heart felt weightless, as if it wasn't even there any more, as if it belonged to Jessica entirely. He fiddled with the pencil in his hands until the bell finally rang. As he looked up after shoving all his books in his bag, Jessica was standing near his desk, much to his surprise.

"Hi Harpo," she said.

"H-Hi," Harpo stammered, clumsily trying to put his book bag on. "Hi Jessica."

"Do you want to walk me home?" she said easily with a smile. Harpo grinned.

"Sure!"

The two ambled side by side through town, making the kind of awkward small talk born out of inexperience with the opposite sex.

"Why do they call you Harpo?" Jessica asked, flicking a strand of hair out of her face.

"Oh…well, it's because I didn't talk too much when I was little. So my fath – my family just started to call me Harpo."

"Oh. It's cute," she said with a smile. Harpo through his heart might melt. "You know, you still don't talk to much," she said as if she were the first one that had ever noticed it.

"I do when I have something to say," Harpo said quickly, not wanting her to think he wasn't interested in her. "I'm just…a little shy, I guess." He could have hit himself. Shy? He didn't know much about girls, but he did know most girls didn't go for the strong silent type anymore. He quickly added, "But only a little bit."

"Right," Jessica said slowly, giving him a long look and a knowing smile. "It's nothing to be ashamed of, Harpo. Some girls like it."

"No they don't," Harpo said dejectedly.

"Oh, come on. You have friends who are girls."

"Yeah, friends who are girls. But trying to get a girl to, you know, like you – " He stopped short because this was fast becoming a conversation he'd rather not have with someone like Jessica. It must have sounded a little strange, but when he looked up at Jessica she was still smiling at him.

"I like you, Harpo. You're different, somehow." She looked away, feeling a little shy herself. "You don't try to be something you're not. I think that's really cool."

"Thanks," Harpo said quietly, adjusting his glasses. "I – I like you too."

They both stopped in front of a white house with black shutters. "This is my place," Jessica said, looking up at the house as though she'd never seen it before. "Thanks for walking with me, Harpo."

"My pleasure." Harpo smiled nervously. "Uh…can we do it again sometime?"

Something in the honesty of Harpo's voice made Jessica grin broadly. "Sure." Before she could think better of it, she leaned over and planted a soft kiss on Harpo's cheek. He froze in place. She smiled, blushing pink. "Bye, Harpo. See you in school!" Jessica ran up the walk, leaving Harpo glued to the spot. It was a full minute before he could tear himself away from his place on the sidewalk and resume his walk home. He felt light-headed as he replayed the feeling of the kiss again and again – Jessica Hertford had kissed him!

Harpo ran the rest of the way home and found his uncle in the backyard, trying to coax plants to grow out of the garden that had refused to grow since they'd moved in. Harpo silently dropped his bookbag and his books, hid behind a bush until Yakko got close enough to pounce on, then leapt from the bushes, tackling his uncle to the ground. This had been a ritual with the two of them for years; as Harpo got bigger and stronger, he got to be more of a challenge to Yakko, but Harpo loved testing out his new strength stemming from oncoming adolescence and Yakko loved to wrestle his nephew. They tousled for a good ten minutes until they both collapsed, exhausted, next to each other on the lawn.

"How was your day?" Harpo panted.

"Not bad. Yours?" Yakko panted back.

"It was great!" Harpo cried, sitting up and grinning broadly.

"Wow. You haven't been this excited since they decided to start celebrating Bloomsbury Day in school," Yakko noted as he rolled to his side, facing Harpo. "What's up?"

"Jessica Hertford kissed me!" Harpo burst happily. "She kissed me, Yakko! We were walking home together, and she said she liked me and that I was different, and then when we stopped in front of her house, she kissed me! Right here!" He pointed to the spot on his cheek that was still slightly tingly.

Yakko laughed. "That's great, buddy! Since when have you been a ladies' man?"

Harpo blushed. "I'm not."

Yakko got up and Harpo followed him into the kitchen. "Don't be so self-deprecating, my man! Don't forgot your uncle was quite a lady killer until I met Babs."

"If you call getting drenched in more martinis by ill-tempered women than anyone else in Toontown lady-killing," Babs said with a smirk as she emerged, still in her work clothes, from the entry hall. "Harpo, he could hook 'em, but reelin' 'em in was quite another matter."

"Obviously I wasn't too bad at it, because you, my dear, are quite a catch," Yakko said, giving Babs a quick hello kiss. "Our boy just got his first kiss this afternoon."

"Harpo, that's great! Your uncle and I are going to have to start beating off the pretty girls with a stick now, hm?"

"I doubt it," Harpo said, blushing again. "But man, oh man, she's pretty."

"I bet she is. I always said you had taste, kid," Yakko said, tousling Harpo's hair. "Why don't you invite her to the barbeque tonight? There's a whole bunch of people coming over, so if you two get nervous together, you can just blend in with everyone else."

After toying nervously with the phone for an hour, Harpo did eventually work up the courage to call Jessica and ask her, very haltingly, if she wanted to come to a dinner party. To his immense relief, she happily said she'd love to and Harpo had run up to his room, and for the first time in his entire life, agonized over his hair in the mirror. Yakko and Babs watched all of this with a sentimental amusement.

"It was like yesterday he was just a little guy in his too-big overalls who used to dance with us in the kitchen to 'No Woman, No Cry,'" Yakko said, helping Babs prepare the meat to be barbequed. "And now he's had his first kiss." Yakko paused. "Wonder what Wakko would think of all this."

The name "Wakko" had come to only be spoken in hushed tones between Yakko and Babs, like some kind of contraband. Babs shrugged. "He would have found the nearest party, shouted it proudly to everyone, then would have bought drinks all 'round."

Yakko smiled. "Yeah. That's what he would have done. He and Buster could be some wild animals when they chose to be."

Babs laughed quietly. "Buster. God. I haven't thought of him in years." She sighed. "I wonder where he is and what he's up to."

"Honey, Buster's probably in New York writing bestsellers. I always said that guy had a million stories in him. He had the creative energy of a hundred toon legends when he chose to harness it. He could have been bigger than Bugs if he'd just applied himself."

"True," Babs said. "He was more talented than the whole cast of both our shows combined. I hope to hell he's put it to good use."

They were silent a moment, then Yakko said something he could never make himself bring up before then. "Babs…why didn't you and Buster…you know."

"He was just too much," Babs said quickly, knowing exactly what Yakko was getting at and wondering why it had taken this many years for him to say it. "You remember how he and your brother were. I abandoned Buster for the same reason you abandoned Wakko. We did our best, baby. I truly believe that we have nothing to feel guilty about."

"Yeah, but – "

"Look, you're the one I want for the exact reason that Buster was the one I didn't want. He was opposite from you in every way that counts to me. If he had just – " Babs cut off, knowing she'd already said too much.

"What? What were you going to say?" Yakko put the bowl of sauce down and looked at his partner seriously.

"I can't."

"What? Whatever it is, it's – "

"No. Not right now. Look, people are coming over soon…"

"So what? Tell me."

Babs closed her eyes. "All right. Look, if Buster had been the Buster I know he could have been if he'd tried hard, I would have fallen for him. When he wanted to be, he could be smart, and charming and funny. And talented! God, he could blow me away with some of the stuff he could do. When I first met him, I wanted to fall for him. He used to stay up all night just to write me songs or poems. And none of spineless, spiritless shit that men usually try to win you over with. No, this stuff was Art. Sometimes I'd go to his apartment and we'd just sit up all night talking. Just talking. He was…he was perfect, Yakko.

Was being the key word here. It was the same stuff that happened with your brother. Fame started taking over. Money. Wakko and he found kindred spirits in one another because they both had the same irreverent outlook on life. They pushed any limit they could find just to see what was on the other side. In each other, they found someone else who was willing to break every rule and not bat an eye. So that's what they did. But you know as well as I that it did things to both of them. Things that destroy toons so easily in this town. I hated it. I hated whatever motivation made he and your brother do the kinds of things they did.

When I met you, you reminded me of the Buster I used to know. But you had one big difference that more and more became very important to me in those times of uncertainty: reliance. I knew you weren't going to blow all our money at a gambling table. I knew that you weren't going to sleep with other girls. You were everything that he was – smart, funny and charming – without all that stupid toon fame shit that went along with Buster's personality. I know I'm making my love for you sound like a substitute for not having any love for Buster, but it's not that. There's so much more to you than there ever was to Buster. Who can say where I'd be and who I'd be with if Buster hadn't gone down the road he did? But you came along at exactly the right moment and I was crazy about you. Don't you see? Their tragedy bonded us together because we went through it at the same time. We're the survivors. We're the survivors of all that."

Yakko looked confused and hurt at the end of her speech. "We're more than that, aren't we?" he said quietly.

Just as Babs opened her mouth to speak, the doorbell rang and the first of the guests began to arrive. Yakko and Babs tried their best to act as though nothing had happened in the kitchen, and chatted as charismatically as they always did with their guests. They told funny stories, did impressions and spoke about issues in Toontown with the fluidity of those who were on the inside track. Whatever awkwardness had existed between Harpo and Jessica in the first half hour of dinner dissipated when a steak that Harpo had dropped and put back on the tray was eaten vivaciously by Yakko's boss, Louis Van Buren, causing both Harpo and Jessica to erupt into shoulder-shaking laughter. Being too young to fully grasp the suggestive nature of inviting a girl up to his bedroom, Harpo was laying lazily on his bed while Jessica read through the titles on his bookshelf.

"Wow, you like Emerson? And Wilde?" Jessica said, amazed.

Harpo, fully aware of himself as a bibliophile, nodded in a semi-embarrassed way. "Yeah. Teachers always tell me not to bother reading books like that because I won't understand, but I do." He paused thoughtfully. "You know Jessica, I know I'm only twelve, but I think I'm smarter than some of those teachers."

"I wouldn't doubt it," Jessica said, pulling a volume off the shelf because the cover was pretty. "I swear, some of those teachers need to sit in our seats for a few days and see what it's like being a kid nowadays. But really, Harpo, there's a reason you're in all those advanced placement classes."

Ignoring her comment and not wanting to get into a conversation about his intelligence, Harpo pointed to the book in her hand. "What's that you've got there?"

"T-Tayo Tee Ging," Jessica said laboriously. "By Lay-o Tizzie."

"Oh, Tao Te Jing. That's a good one. One of Yakko's friends gave it to me last year. I don't understand a lot of it, but it sounds beautiful."

"The what?"

"It's pronounced Dow Day Jing. It's ancient Chinese philosophy." Jessica gave him an are you serious? look which made Harpo laugh. "Come on up here," he said, patting the bed and sitting up straight. He took the book from Jessica as she sat down. "By Lao Tzu. It describes the nature of the Tao, or the Way. The Tao is everything, Jessica. It's the stars and the moon and the sun and the water. It's you and me and everyone in school. We're all made of the same stuff as this bed here, and of star systems that are hundreds of billions of miles away."

"What's a twelve year old doing reading ancient Chinese philosophy?" Jessica said, somewhat confused and looking Harpo straight in the eye.

Harpo continued the gaze for a few seconds more, then said, "It helps me to understand things. It helps me to understand myself and my life."

"How?" Jessica read a few of the poems silently in her head. "I don't understand them at all. Am I dumb or something?"

"You're not supposed to understand them right away, Jessica. You're supposed to savor them, a little bit at a time, like a good music album or the last glass of eggnog of the season. I don't understand them completely either. I probably never will. Some of the wisest men and women in the world have spent a lifetime meditating on the Tao and still can't completely comprehend It. That's okay. The journey is the important part."

Jessica giggled. "You sound like one of those motivational posters in the health room."

Harpo smiled. "But it's true. Isn't it always kind of a letdown on Christmas morning after you've opened all your gifts?"

"Yeah. It's almost more fun to shake them and guess what they are in the two weeks before Christmas. It's never as much fun once you actually have whatever's in the box."

"See? It's the same thing."

"Ancient Chinese philosophy is like Christmas presents?" Jessica said with a playful smirk that made Harpo's heart jump. He smiled, knowing she understood, but appreciating that she had a sense of humor, something he knew he needed to work on.

"Well, maybe not exactly," he said, smiling back. "But it's the same general idea."

Jessica put her hand on Harpo's cheek. "You're a good guy, Harpo Warner," she said softly.

Down on the back deck, Yakko had just finished telling a particularly witty lawyer joke that had left Van Buren in hysterics when the doorbell ring. Yakko patted Babs' hand. "I'll get it," he said.

"Whoever it is, make them go away! We haven't got anymore food!" Babs called as Yakko exited.

Yakko smiled and made his way through the kitchen and living room to the front door. He threw a glance up at Harpo's room, cocked an eyebrow at the fact that there was a girl up there, but tried to remind himself that they were only twelve. "Not a ladies' man, my ass," Yakko muttered to himself as he threw open the door. The face on the other side didn't register for a moment. The two brothers stared at each other for a long moment before Yakko managed to croak, "Wakko?"

Wakko gave him a pained smile. "Hey, bro. Been a long time."