Her pride wouldn't allow her to see that the answer to her loneliness stood right before her.

Ambrosia blinked back the tears forming her large green eyes, her head still resting on her knees. A small gust of wind ruffled her fur and skirt, making her shiver and hug her knees closer to herself. She was cold. She was lonely. She was truly miserable.

Happy Birthday, Ambrosia...

The sound of a sad song being played on the violin caught her attention. Ambrosia raised her head, looking confused before she saw Yakko sitting on the curb next to her, playing Ave Maria on a violin with an over exaggerated, teary eyed expression. He looked over at the bunny, responding to her piercing glare with a grin.

"You don't like Beethoven?" He asked innocently.

"It's Bach."

"Huh. That's funny." Yakko paused for a moment, before shrugging. "I didn't even know it left!"

Ambrosia rolled her eyes and clicked her tongue in irritation as she turned away to glare out at the street. Yakko didn't acknowledge the fact she obviously wanted nothing to do with his presence. "Hmmm. Come to think of it, this situation calls for more of a pick-me-up, don't you think?"

Yakko began to play Caprice for Solo Violin, a much faster tune. Ambrosia's annoyed frown deepened. She grabbed the violin from Yakko and threw it into the street. Yakko winced as it got smashed by an oncoming truck.

"Someone doesn't appreciate the classics..."

"What did you not understand about leaving me alone?" Ambrosia asked, allowing her annoyance to coat her voice. She had already had the worst day imaginable and listening to Yakko's smart aleck chatter was not the way she wanted to end it. Yakko blinked, before his face broke out into a grin.

"All of it." He said simply.

"Well, let me define it for you." Ambrosia said, leaning into Yakko's face and poking him in the chest. "It means I don't want you around and you should go away." She huffed and plopped her head back down onto her knees. Yakko gave a bored expression to no one.

"Gee. Where have I heard that one before?" He asked aloud. He glanced back down at Ambrosia, who began to sniffle again. An uncomfortable look passed over his face. It wasn't like he wasn't used to dealing with someone being sad. He cheered up his silblings all the time. They just would have at least cracked a smile at the Bach joke...

Yakko decided to change his approach a little and strike up a conversation, hoping to get some information out of the toon.

"Look. I saw you sitting here looking like you could use a pal and-"

"Well you must be in need of an eye exam because I don't." Ambrosia snapped back, lifting her head up again. She had quickly gone from annoyed to just plain angry. Yakko was taken aback by her attitude. He frowned a bit, fixing her with a stern look with his arms crossed.

"Mind telling me who spit in your spaghetti, Ambrosia the Grouch?" He asked. "Cause I've seen some sour grapes in my day but at least they were a bit more fun to talk to."

"Well if I'm no fun why don't you buzz off?"

Yakko was about to fire back with a snarky responce, but he was cut off by an angry yell.

"Found you, you little miscreant!"

Yakko and Ambrosia jumped, and looked to see that the store owner the Warner's had given the slip had caught up.

"Someone's persistent..." Yakko mused in an almost bored tone before heaving a sigh. As if this whole chase was becoming a chore at this point. "I think it's time we split!" He said to Ambrosia, his grin returning. Ambrosia narrowed her eyes at him. "What's this "we" thing? He's after you, not me..."

Just then a car screeched to a stop. The driver's door opened and the barista from earlier, sporting some bumps, got out of the car with pure fury in his eyes.

"You!" He spat at Ambrosia, who was at a loss for words.

"How does that even-"

"Plot convenience." Yakko stated, putting a finger to Ambrosia's lips. "Let's scram."

With that, Yakko had popped smoke, quickly running down the block. Ambrosia took off after him, but her lack of Toonspeed made it impossible to keep up with the eldest Warner sibling. She stole a terrified glance behind her as she saw the barista and store owner both quickly gaining on her. She kicked over a trash can as she ran by, buying her a very brief moment to get ahead.

As she ran, she squeezed her eyes shut. She tried with all her might to summon even a little bit of an extra boost.

Come ON! Just a little bit of speed...

Nothing. If anything, Ambrosia was starting to get tired. She felt her pace slowing as the angry humans began to close the gap between them.

Up ahead, Yakko was zooming off with a superior look on his face. Running from people was so easy it almost wasn't fun. He turned to voice this to Ambrosia, only to find she wasn't there.

"Huh?"

He glanced behind him, slidding to a stop as he saw her a good distance away running at a normal speed. The barista and store owner were almost within arms reach of her. Why wasn't she zooming?

Rolling his eyes, he went back to her rescue. Yakko quickly backtracked to the nearest allyway and, whistling casually while he worked at lightining speed, pulled an arrow sign from his hammerspace, placing it to point down the ally. He then painted the wall at the end to look like it emptied out onto another sidewalk. He took a second to admire his handiwork before positioning himself on the streetlight.

Down the street, Ambrosia had kicked more obstacles between her and her pursuers. She had gained a reasonable distance, advancing towards the ally that Yakko had set up his trap in. As Ambrosia ran under the street light, Yakko reached down, his arms extending cartoonishly, and plucked her from the ground and covered her mouth to stifle her yelp of suprise.

The men soon caught up and looked around in confusion, trying to figure out where the pair had gone. Suddenly, the barista pointed to the sign. Ambrosia watched, amazed at the sheer stupidity of the human men as they sprinted down the ally, only to collide with a loud crash right into the wall. They topled unconscious to the ground.

Yakko grinned at the stunned bunny toon. "Harvard grade intellect, aren't they?" He quiped. Ambrosia looked at Yakko almost sternly. "They could have brain damage now, you know."

"I assumed they ready did considering how easy that was."

Ambrosia wasn't amused. Yakko rolled his eyes. "Oh come on now. How was that not even a little bit funny to you?" Gee wiz, this toon was a tough crowd.

Ambrosia climbed down from the street light. When she reached the bottom, Yakko was already there leaning against it with his palm. Ambrosia squeaked in surprise.

"Can you stop with the Toonspeed?" She snaps. Yakko raises a brow. "Can you start?" He countered. "Why didn't you zoom off back there? Those bozos almost got ya."

Ambrosia felt her cheeks grow warm with embarrassment. She quickly hid it, placing her hands on her hips and fixing Yakko with another hard look.

"I didn't need it. I could have outrun them just fine by myself."

Yakko just stared at her with a raised brow and a smirk that said he highly doubted that, which caused Ambrosia to become even more frustrated. She knew deep down that she didn't at all have that situation covered; but she wasn't about to let Yakko know that.

"Don't you have other things to do outside being an annoying jerk?" She fired back. Yakko held his superior looking expression, crossing his arms. "Nope. My schedule is pretty booked solid with being an annoying jerk. Except for my 5 minute block where I'm the annoying jerk that just saved your butt for the second time today, that is."

"I didn't need you to save me!"

"That's not what it looked like to me."

Ambrosia was about to fire back, but realized he was right. The bunny fumed for a moment, her cheeks turning an embarrassed shade of red. "You know what. Forget it!" She yelled. "I don't have time to sit here and debate with some cocky little jerk! I have a creator to find." She turned on her heel to walk away.

"That's another thing." Yakko said, grabbing her by the shoulder and turning her around aagin. "It's going to be sundown in a few hours and you don't even know who it is you're looking for. What are you going to do on the streets at night? In case you haven't noticed, toons don't tend to go out all that much."

"You and your siblings seem to get around just fine." The bunny argued.

"Sure, during the day. The nightlife here is a different story." Yakko said, crinkling his nose a bit. "You don't want to spend your night in a dark, moldy ally. Why don't you just come back with me to Warner?" Normally Yakko wouldn't be too concerned with what was going on in the life of someone he had just met; but it didn't take much to see that Ambrosia wasn't very good at fending for herself. Besides...she was a toon. Toons help toons.

Ambrosia didn't seem excited by the offer. "Thanks but no thanks. I can take care of myself just fine. Besides. I'll find my creator before nightfall easy." She was bluffing and she knew it. She hadn't had any luck all day; and was fairly certain it wasn't going to change over the next few hours. However just like the fact she had no toon powers...she had no intention on letting Yakko know she had been abandoned. It was just so pitiful.

Yakko rolled his eyes, clearly frustrated with her stubbornness. "Fine. If you're so sure." He replied, placing his hands behind his back with a casual shrug. "But don't say I didn't warn you." He turned and started walking down the block. He paused after a moment or two, looking back at Ambrosia over his shoulder. "After all. It's only has a super large animation team...and I'm sure none of them would be worth crossing off the list..." he added sarcastically with a knowing smirk. Ambrosia crinkled her nose at him in annoyance as he turned and walked away, leaving her alone on the sidewalk.

A few hours later, at the Blakeman residence, Cindy sat on her bed sketching and listing to her discman. She had a hard look on her face, almost zoning out and she worked on her piece. She had always found her art as a brilliant means of escape. She was able to pour all of her feelings onto paper. At the present moment, she was drawing a girl standing alone in a dark hallway, a sea of people going about their business. The other people were all drawn in detail, but the girl was faceless and blurred.

As she drew, she tried to ignore the hunger pains in her stomach. There wasn't any food in the house, at least not any with nutritional value; and skipping lunch had proved to be a costly mistake. Cindy closed her eyes as her stomach growled and a wave of nausea washed over her. She set down her drawing and went to stand up, figuring a second glance at the fridge wouldn't hurt.

Before she made it to the door, the muffled sound of yelling rose over her music. Her parents were in the living room fighting. Cindy stood there, her eyes on her closed bedroom door, as she turned her music down a little in order to listen.

She hadn't caught enough to know what exactly today's argument was about; but it hardly mattered. If Cindy took the time to sit down and make a list about what her mom and dad DIDN'T fight about...she most likely wouldn't come up with more than three. However from what she could deduce, it had to do with money. Their bills had been late again.

Cindy mentally rolled her eyes. Why was anyone suprised that they didn't have money to pay for any of the important things? With how much time her father spends out every night, the teenager was suprised there was a single cent left in the bank. Not to mention her mother being a lover of the finer things in life. Honestly. Cindy could make fifty bucks last longer than they could a thousand.

A sudden crash and the sound of breaking glass made Cindy jump. Her father had angrily thrown something. Then again. Then again. All the teenage girl could hear other than the sound of her dad raging was the sound of glass repeatedly being shattered. Cindy backed up and, discarding her discman, lay down on her bed, wrapping her pillow around her head in an attempt to block out the ugly noise of the fight as it grew steadily worse, and closed her eyes.

It went on like that for several more minutes until her father said something along the lines of not wasting his time and she heard him stomp towards the door. Not long after, she heard her parents' bedroom door slam as well.

As soon as Cindy could no longer hear any movement, she quietly crept out of her room to review the damage. Plates, cups and other dishes were in remains all over the already dirty floor. Shards practically covered the tile and there was nowhere the barefoot teen could even think to step that wouldnt cause her to be cut.

Sighing, Cindy quietly moved towards the closet and grabbed a broom. Knowing full well she was the only one who was going to do anything about the mess.

After clearing away the broken glass, she quietly moved to the fridge. As suspected, she found nothing. Cindy sighed in frustration, leaning back on the counter. She checked the clock. 6:45pm. The pizza man could be her saving grace.

Cindy went back to her room and grabbed a jar of money from her closet, cash saved up from babysitting and other odd jobs she had done over the summer. She took out enough for her dinner and hid the jar back in her closet. She hadn't told her parents about her stash. She knew if she had told them about her emergency money, they'd demand it from her.

As she quietly placed the order for dinner, she stole a glance at the broken glass filling the trash can. She hoped her father stayed out until at least after she had gone to bed...