Just a random piece that I stuck here with some of the other odder one-shots.

"N-no…don't…please…"

The young woman sobbed hoarsely. Sniffling uncontrollably, the emotional wreck of a caretaker hurriedly lifted a sleeved arm to try to wipe away the tears welling up furiously in her eyes the instant she began to sense their all-too-familiar prickling warmth. As she tried to prevent her cheeks from becoming soaked in cascading proof of her absolute grief, the girl also began to take a few deep breaths in a last-ditch attempt to grasp onto whatever shred of self-composure she still managed to possess.

Alas, all of Frances "Frankie" Foster's efforts were doomed to complete and utter failure from the start. After all, how on earth could she deny the indescribable grief that currently dwelled within her, mercilessly wrenching her heart with such an agonizing sorrow no one could dream of even attempting to describe her horrific anguish? She was nothing more than a mere shipwreck survivor, helplessly lost in a harsh, unforgiving sea of emotion that threatened to tear her up from the inside out with sensations of excruciating heartache and deep, agonizing sorrow so intense she could barely endure the cruel torrent of anguish.

Having long given up her futile struggle, Frankie finally broke down completely, allowing the flood of misery to overtake her within a matter of moments. As if a dam had burst, the tears began to flow freely down the sides of her face, gushing unchecked in twin surging rivulets. Swiftly transforming into the paradigm of a grief-stricken soul, the young woman hunched over and buried her face in her hands in a futile attempt to muffle the hash, powerful sobs that continued to escape from her throat and wrack her body again and again. It was a harsh torrent of emotional agony the likes of which no decent human being should be forced to endure, the pain was more excruciating than the sensation of a thousand red-hot knives gouging at her from deep within.

Unable to bare it any longer, the girl finally opened her mouth to let loose with a pitiful cry of,

"ARIEL!"

Frankie nearly shrieked in her severe grief as the tears continued to surge down her cheeks. "Ariel, no! You c-can't! P-please, don't! It's not worth it! D-don't do it, please! Can't you see that sea witch is up to no good? Oh God, don't-"

"Frankie, they can't exactly hear you from inside the TV, you know!" someone suddenly interrupted her dirge with this rather cross reminder.

Her thoughts still atrociously scattered by her emotional agony, the heartbroken caretaker glanced about confusedly for a few seconds until she finally spotted the severely irked eight-year-old sitting beside her on the TV room couch.

"…Huh?" she grunted, gazing blankly through red, puffy eyeballs. Mac elicited a heavy groan of deep exasperation as her began to jab a finger at the particular film he was being forced to watch.

"C'mon, Frankie, it's just a movie!" he angrily repeated himself for what felt like the tenth time in the last half-hour alone. "Will you knock it off? They can't hear whatever you yell at them, you know how it ends, and why you insist on making me watch this with you every time, I have no-WAUGH!"

The child's tirade came to an abrupt halt when his guardian swiftly answered his last question. Without a word of warning, the whimpering girl suddenly reached out and nabbed the unsuspecting little boy with ease, wrapping him up in a firm squeeze like a distressed toddler hugging a teddy bear.

"Hey, hey, hey, whoa, WHOA!" Mac yelped in dismay, wriggling about wildly in a feeble attempt to break loose from her rapidly tightening hold. "Not cool! Not cool! Not cool!"

Despite his pathetic pleas, Frankie seemed to be absolutely deaf to all his protests as she coddled him close, sobbing pitifully all the while.

"It's n-not fair!" she croaked. "It's not f-f-fair, Mac, all s-she wants to d-do is be h-human a-a-and find t-true love…th-that's all Ariel wants, b-but she just can't realize-"

"Yechh!" Mac squealed in disgust as his face came in direct contact with her saturated cheeks.

"M-Mac," the girl only continued to weep, seemingly absolutely ignorant of the child's plight. "W-why can't she just s-see the truth and-"

"Frankie, this is why I hate it when you make me watch The Little Mermaid with you!" the repulsed eight-year-old suddenly blurted out in an outraged howl as his irk reached a record pinnacle.

"Huh?" she whined dumbly.

No longer able to restrain himself, the boy's severe displeasure instantly began to spew forth unchecked from his mouth like lava flowing forth from an erupting volcano.

"I hate it, Frankie! I hate it, I hate it, I hate it, I hate it, I hate it!" he ranted uncontrollably. "It's just a stupid Disney movie! That's it! And what's worse about it is that you've seen it like a million times over, but somehow you still can't keep yourself from launching into a sob-fest every time! Why? You've practically memorized the entire thing word-for-word, why do you-"

Before he could continue any further making absolutely no secret of how much he despised his current predicament. Mac suddenly felt the caretaker's tight hold suddenly loosen up, as likewise she removed her tear-streaked face from where she had buried it in his hair. Without so much as a sniffle, the redhead deposited the little boy neatly on her lap and managed to shoot him a cold stare with her puffy red eyes, nearly chilling the blood in his veins.

"Um…" he whined, cringing under her harsh gaze and realizing he may have said the wrong thing. "I…I didn't mean to-"

"Didn't what?" she asked with a low growl, forcing him to flinch involuntarily.

"I…I was just…. it's jus that you're seen this movie so many times, and… you always make me watch it with you once every-"

"Lemme just ask this, bucko; do I say anything whenever a certain "someone" is watching Bambi?" Frankie suddenly demanded flatly.

With this ingeniously simple inquiry, her point was made and victory was instantaneously hers. The instant the particular cinematic title had been brought up, Mac immediately struggled to draw himself up and try and remain composed, struggling to act as if her seemingly random question had no effect.

Unfortunately, the tears that had begun to well up in his eyes effectively betrayed him as they truthfully revealed the true extent of the damage wrought by the redhead's words.

"I don't…hey, I've never…" the child immediately tried to defend himself, but even then it was already far too late to save face. After struggling valiantly to conjure up some remotely believable excuse, Mac went dead silent for a few moments as he just glared stupidly into the teary-eyed redhead's gaze.

"No fair!" he suddenly burst out wailing, letting the tears stream freely down the sides of his face. Although she had been the cause of his sudden bout of grief, the eight-year-old nevertheless instinctively tossed his arms around Frankie in a tight hug and buried his head under the crook of her neck in his desperate need for comfort.

"N-no fair, Frankie, no f-f-fair!" he wept unashamedly. "Oh, that's low! Why'd y-you have to say that-"

"Well, you were the one who said that-" the girl tried to whimper in her defense.

"But they're different!" Mac objected flatly through his tears. "They're different, they're completely different! There's no comparison!"

"But Ariel-"

"Oh knock it off, Frankie, did she have to go through what Bambi did?" Mac sobbed. "Huh?"

"Well just look at her, all s-she wants to d-do is-"

"So what? Did she wander into a field only to…B-Bambi was just…he n-never did anything, why'd the hunter have to go and kill his m-"

"I know, I know!" Frankie couldn't help but agree as a fresh wave of tears began to streak down her cheeks. "The little guy didn't do anything wrong, all they were doing was-"

"B-but then the hunter-"

"He didn't even know w-what happened at f-first, he-"

"I know, j-just wandering around the w-woods, calling f-f-for his-"

"But Bambi's m-mom, she…sh-she was-"

Just thinking about one of cinema's most tragic moments was just too much for either eight-year-old or twenty-two-year-old to handle. For a few minutes, the pair just clung to each other grimly, sobbing uncontrollably and cutting so pitiful a spectacle one would think the end of the world was upon them. Whether they had been bawling for a few minutes or a few hours, neither of them could tell, but at least one thing was clear; they were really bringing down the mood for everyone else sitting on the same sofa.

For a few extraordinarily awkward moments, the four imaginary friends and the pigtailed little girl continued to gawk wordlessly in an incredibly awkward silence, as they had been doing for the last couple of minutes throughout the veritable min-drama.

"...Please stop." Bloo finally begged.

"Sh-shut up…" Frankie croaked hoarsely in reply. "I-I can't…"

"We know, we know, and I'm sorry, but seriously, if you keep this up Ed's going to -" Wilt tried to interject as he patted the weepy redhead's shoulder.

"Too late." Goo groaned as soon as the gruff sobs began to fill the room.

"It's okay to cry…" Eduardo sniffled bravely, dabbing furiously at his eyes with a small tissue.

"I didn't m-mean you!" the little girl squeaked, hastily burying her face in his thick violet fur in an attempt to stifle her bawling

"Oh, you guys are pansies!" Bloo sneered in disgust. "Look at you all, crying like babies over a stupid animated deer!"

"Coco co…" Coco protested with a gloomy squawk.

"I don't care that his mom got shot, you're all pathetic!" he scowled, glaring at everyone disdainfully. "It's like Mac was saying before! It's just a dumb Disney flick!"

"But…" Frankie whined.

"Oh knock it off! You can bawl like sissies all you want, but I'm a man!" Bloo proclaimed, thumping his chest proudly. "And real men don't just sit around and weep with a bunch of soggy-eyed wimps…"

Before anyone could say a word, the little blob suddenly hopped off the couch, nabbed the box of tissues and scampered out of the room, all the while trying to choke back the harsh sobs that overtook him.

"…Because real men cry alone!"

The End