Continuing their eventful Saturday, this chapter picks up with Yakko's POV. He has another surprise for Nori, which ends up leading to a deep discussion between them and an interesting story on Yakko's part. For some context, I'm taking the Warners' story from "The Warners' 65th Anniversary Special" and expanding on it, because I've always had a suspicion that there were a few facts the studio left out. Again, stay tuned for an author note at the end.

P.S. Can anyone guess the song that Nori sings to Wakko and Dot? The hint is in there.

Soundtrack: "How" by Lisa Loeb

By the time the sun was taking its daily dive toward the Pacific, painting the sky in reds and pinks (show-off that it was), Yakko was feeling pretty darn good about the day's events. They'd definitely made the right call holding a dance for Nori – they'd done every swing and toe-tapper cooked up during World War II and the Eisenhower years until they were all breathless and starving. Nori, God bless her, had already prepped peanut butter and banana sandwiches for them, plus one with bacon for his Elvis-obsessed brother. After that, they'd watched Grease (and sung along, naturally), taken a ride on the roller coaster Wakko had built in the tower attic-slash-rec room, and returned to the kitchen to get dinner ready. Italian this time. Dot had been craving pasta that didn't come out of a can, so they all had fun cooking spaghetti, tossing salad, and throwing some garlic bread in the oven… complete with appropriate renditions of "That's Amore" (his own contribution; eat your heart out, Deano), "Funiculì, Funiculà" (belched by the Great Wakkorotti), and "Mambo Italiano" (Dot did a dandy Rosemary Clooney).

Now, he was doing the dishes while Nori got his sibs off to bed. He had another surprise for her and called in a favor with their temporary CEO. Not much longer, he thought, stealing a look at the wall clock, which read quarter to 9:00. Here's hoping Heloise can work some magic for me. He spent a few more minutes putting the dishes away until a sweet song filtered through his ears. Yakko followed the voice to Dot's room and peeked inside – and felt his insides melt at what he saw.

Nori was sitting on Dot's bed, Dot nestled in the crook of her right arm and Wakko snuggled into her left, and she was singing a pretty ballad to them. Yakko recognized the song – it was from the movie about King Arthur that Warner Bros. released last year. He rested his head against the doorframe with a smile, warmed beyond words by how much Nori loved his siblings. They deserve it.

Halfway through the song, the kids nodded off. Nori, still singing, tucked Dot under her blankets and gathered the snoozing Wakko into her arms. She rose from the bed, caught sight of Yakko, and smiled. He mouthed don't mind me and followed her to Wakko's room, where she tucked his brother in for his trip to Dreamland. Once she was sure Wakko was down, she made the shh sign to Yakko and they both tiptoed out, closing the door behind them.

"Great job gettin' 'em to sleep," he said quietly. "I've had to sing to them a time or two. I even cooked up a ballad version of 'Love Shack' for Dot once."

"Are you kidding?"

"Nope. If it's sung slowly and softly enough, any song is a lullaby." Yakko walked with her back down the hall. "If you don't mind me askin', did your dad sing you anything like that?"

To his relief, Nori smiled. "No, I don't mind. Dad raised me on country music, so I didn't get 'Rock-a-Bye Baby' or anything like that. I got 'Sweet Dreams,' 'Rocky Mountain High,' and 'Wildfire,' among other songs."

A wistful sigh escaped her, and Yakko reached for her hand. Squeezing it, he asked, "You've been homesick, huh?"

"For the last two years." She turned to him with a smile. "But since I met y'all, I don't feel so homesick anymore."

Yakko's heart lifted. As they passed the living room clock, he saw the hands pointing to nine P.M. It's time. "Nori? Do you have to go home right away?"

Nori looked surprised by the question, but shook her head. "No, I can stay for a while. Why?"

Yakko grinned. "I've got another surprise for you. Follow me." He led her down another hallway to a ladder – the one that led to their escape hatch through the roof of the water tower. "Up here." He shimmied up and popped the hatch door open, peeking out to see if Heloise had followed through. A grin crossed his face when he saw she had, and he hauled himself through the hatch. "Come on, up we go," he said, taking Nori's hand and pulling her up through the opening. Once she was on the roof, she looked around with wide eyes and let out a gasp of delight.

Yakko's phone call to Heloise had paid off. The nurse had made sure that all of the external studio lights were turned off, which plunged the huge lot into darkness. He couldn't do much about the rest of Burbank and Los Angeles, unless he caused a citywide blackout. As fun as that would be, he really didn't need the whole of LA County PO'd with him. Still, this little bit was all he needed. The area was dark enough to bring out a sky full of sparkling stars.

"Wow!" Nori breathed, a smile lighting up her face.

Yakko smiled. "I know it's probably not what you're used to seeing, but…"

"Are you kidding? It's more stars than I've seen in two years," Nori said, her eyes riveted on the night sky. She pointed up at a constellation. "There's Orion! Dad and I always used to look for him when fall settled in. Seeing him now, it's like… like Dad's saying hi to me."

Yakko gave her a soft smile. "Maybe he is."

"Maybe." Nori sniffled and quickly wiped away a tear. "I'm sorry."

"Don't be. No shame in crying."

"I know, it's just…" Nori cleared her throat. "I learned a long time ago never to cry in front of Mama. If I did, she'd get on my back so hard. Not to mention she always had this smug look on her face, like she enjoyed knowing she'd gotten to me. So, it… kinda bled into the rest of my life."

Yakko nudged a little closer to her. "Listen, forget what Mommy Dearest told you. If you want to cry, you go right ahead and do it." He rubbed the back of his neck awkwardly. "But just bein' real here, I'm probably the last person who oughta be tellin' you that."

Nori turned to him, comprehension on her face. "You've felt the same way, haven't you?"

Yakko fidgeted for a moment. "Yeah."

Silence fell for a good minute until Nori spoke. "You don't have to tell me anything. Not if it hurts you."

"No, I… I think it's time," Yakko said, feeling the knot in his stomach uncoil a little. A nudge to his spirit was telling him it was indeed the right time, and the pain he'd expected hadn't come. He breathed in deeply. "I haven't told anyone this story except Scratchy and Heloise. Nobody else would've gotten it until now." He looked at his gloves for a moment. "You've probably heard the gist of our story. Our escape and what led up to us being under house arrest, right?" Nori nodded, and he asked, "How much do you know about our cartoons? Our careers with the studio?"

"A little. All I know is that y'all were drawn in the 30s and locked up not long after. The tabloids didn't really say much else, other than a lot of bull about why you got thrown in the water tower."

"I figured. Okay, here goes." Yakko inhaled and let it out slowly. "Basically, we were created out of desperation and a fit of insanity. Lon Borax, the guy who drew us, either had too much coffee or he popped a handful of MGM's candy. Either way, the studio believed that's why we ended up zany to the max. But, they needed new toon stars, so old man Thad, who wasn't so old back then and had a lot more hair, signed us up for a bunch of shorts. At first, we weren't doin' much, just poundin' our costar Buddy into the ground with our mallets. Then we got our own shorts." He sighed and Nori raised an eyebrow. "Didn't work out?" she asked.

"'Bout as well as Custer's last stand. To be fair, we did a lot of goofin' around, but Mr. Plotz also didn't pair us up with directors who got our sense of humor. And Weed Memlo was the worst one for it. He wanted us to be professional all the time, and his definition was 'seen and not heard between takes.'" Yakko gave Nori a wry smile. "Stuffiness and zaniness does not a happy marriage make. He kept yellin' about us giving him an ulcer, so we decided to help him. He drank milk to soothe the ulcer, and we started having it sent to him in a baby bottle, not a glass."

Nori laughed. "Did he get the message?"

Yakko made the over-the-head motion. "Like I said, no sense of humor. Then he tried telling us if we were late to work, he'd fine us $50 each. I was pretty stoked by that, 'cause Wakko would eat a marathon breakfast and Dot spent more time in front of a mirror than Narcissus himself. They got one over on me the next day, 'cause they nailed my bedroom door shut and welded the water tower closed. I was the first one slapped with a fifty-buck fine, but then we all got the idea to turn it into a game. We tried to outdo each other and make each other late to the set, until Mr. Plotz told Memlo to axe the fines. The money was coming out of our paychecks, and T.P. wasn't about to give Memlo a hike in pay at our expense."

Nori caught her breath, having laughed hard enough to get a stitch in her side. "Was that it? Just some goofing around and teasing your director?"

"Oh, it gets better. Yes, our shorts were nutty, but that's what happens when you get writers who think they know you better than you do. News flash, they didn't. And if you don't know your characters or your cartoons, the magic ain't gonna happen. Foster, Pierce, Maltese? They knew the Looney Tunes inside and out; that's why they were so great at their jobs. Our writers thought we were the dumb brats the studio got stuck with, so they wrote accordingly. And we acted accordingly. Heck, we thought they were dumbing us down so much, we decided to exaggerate the stupidity. We even ad-libbed sometimes, and when we did, we poked fun at the material we were given. It was so we didn't go totally nuts."

"So that's why your shorts were so crazy."

"Yup. And then Wakko got the chance to direct." Yakko held up his hands. "I love my little brother. He's an engineering genius and he can crack a one-liner like a whip, but his butt does not belong in the director's chair. Our last short was Fourth of July-themed, so we thought we'd go out with a bang. Wrong. We went out with a pfft instead," he said, blowing a raspberry. "As in –" He mimed an armpit noise.

Despite the glum tone in Yakko's voice, Nori couldn't help smiling. "Sounds like him. I guess Mr. Plotz wasn't happy with the result?"

"Ding-dong. Our contracts weren't renewed and we were free to terrorize the lot. We ran around and pranked a lot of people, humans and toons both, but it never got destructive. We're a lot of things, but arson and murder? Yeah, not in our repertoire."

"So what happened to get y'all locked up?"

Yakko stared at his gloves again. "It was my fault," he said quietly, closing his eyes.

"What?"

"Let me explain. I was already in a bad mood 'cause I'd been given the shaft by my girlfriend at the time. Basically, she took one look at the human guys like Clark Gable and Doug Fairbanks getting rich off their movies and dumped me like a bad habit," Yakko said bitterly, the rejection still stinging after all those years. "She didn't want an unemployed toon with nothin' to his name but his sibs and a water tower for a home, so she chased after money and human handsomeness." Nori didn't respond right away, which he was grateful for. He had to take a breath to calm himself before continuing.

"So yeah, I was already sore. What sent me from sore to hoppin' mad was hearing that Mr. Plotz's secretary then had gotten physical with Wakko." Nori sucked in a breath and Yakko nodded grimly. "We'd heard that MGM was thinking about including some toon characters in their live-action movies, so we went up to Mr. Plotz's office to ask if he could loan us out – that's how it worked back then. We needed the dough and he wanted us out of what hair he had, so we thought he'd say yes. He might have, if his secretary hadn't started in on my sibs."

"What happened?"

Yakko huffed. "I was out when it started, getting some water for Wakko and Dot. It was mid-August and hotter than Satan's armpit, so I was down the hall at the water cooler. Wakko and Dot filled me in on the details. Miss Eckhart was the name of Mr. Plotz's secretary. We used to call her Miss Ickheart because she looked like she'd been weaned on a sour pickle, and she had the personality to match. Had The Wizard of Oz been made before '39, she'd have been commandin' the flying monkeys. Anyway, this old bat had tried to make it as an actress before and none of the studios would hire her."

"Let me guess: too ugly?"

"Actually, no. Back then, ugly would get you a string of characters in B-flicks. Her problem was having the charm of an iceberg. She thought the world owed her a living and she couldn't figure out why no one would pick her for any starring role. Get the picture?"

"Get it? I live with it."

"So, she was stuck being Mr. Plotz's go-fer and it was really ticking her off. Think about it: she saw plenty of stars go in and out of the office every single day. We're talkin' Garbo, Gable, and Davis, not to mention Bugs, Daffy, and Porky. Seeing the toons everyone hated coming in and asking to be loaned to another studio must've been the last straw. She started ranting about us being failures, why would we dare ask for jobs at another studio when she couldn't even get hired as an extra, and then the real stick of dynamite: calling us ugly." Yakko shrugged. "I can take it and Wakko can take it, but you know Dot. The one thing that makes her cry is being called ugly."

Nori winced. "Did you get back to the office by then?"

"Perfect timing. As I'm comin' up to the office door, water in hand, I hear Dot crying and Wakko telling Miss Ickheart she had no right calling Dot ugly when she was uglier than a mud fence – inside and out. I got in there just in time to see this witch backhand my brother across his face."

Nori's eyes went wide and she covered her mouth with her hands. "Good night," she breathed, horrified. "What did you do?"

Yakko's eyes burned. "Lost my temper, that's what I did. I didn't use my powers on her, but I threw the water in her face, jumped on her, pinned her to the ground, and chewed her out good for putting her hands on my brother and calling my sister ugly." He shuffled uncomfortably. "I might've pulled her hair once or twice, too. Tweaked her nose. Pulled her ears. Threatened to swing her from one of the chandeliers in the prop department. I didn't get that far before Mr. Plotz yanked me off her and hauled me in front of his desk. He read me the riot act about my temper and how this made the studio look bad, and I came right back at him with how he oughta keep his guard dog on a leash, 'specially if she's gonna be a –" He paused. "Rhymes with itch. Do the math."

Nori's eyebrows arched. "Yakko, you actually cussed Mr. Plotz?"

"I told ya I lost my temper! It was say one swearword or explode like Krakatoa. And as if that wasn't enough, I had to go and tell the money-lovin' midget that if he cared about us half as much as he cared about his image and dollar signs, we wouldn't be in this mess in the first place." Yakko massaged his temples. "The rest is history. Thad told me we could kiss our jobs and our freedom goodbye, and we got slapped with a one-way ticket to the water tower. And he cooked up some crock of bull about us being so destructive and wild, we had to be locked up. Had to save face for the newsreels."

Yakko looked up at Nori with a sad smile. "There ya have it. The whole, ugly truth. I'm the reason we got locked up, 'cause I couldn't keep my mouth shut." Pain finally struck his heart even as the feeling of a heavy burden fell from his shoulders. Would Nori see it that way, or would she think him weak for letting his temper get the best of him?

Nori sat still, her mind spinning with the tale Yakko had just confessed to her. Somehow, she had suspected that the studio's official story about the Warners' imprisonment didn't have all the facts. Yes, they'd been wild. Yes, they'd poked fun at their directors and the nonsensical scripts they were given. Yes, they'd run around the lot and annoyed people. But, they'd also not been given a chance to let their talents shine, or for people to see them, really see them, for who they were. And the story about the final straw? Nori couldn't blame Yakko for losing his temper. "Yakko, you stood up for your siblings," she said. "You were defending their honor!"

"Yeah, and look what it got 'em. Sixty years under house arrest and a rotten reputation," Yakko groused. "They're kids, for frick's sake. They needed to be free to play and have fun, not shut up under lock and key for decades on end."

"That was Mr. Plotz's doing, not yours. If you hadn't stood up for them, Wakko and Dot would've thought you didn't care about them. They both love you with all their hearts, and it's not because you share the same ink. It's because you're their big brother who protects them and looks out for them. And they know you love them, too." Nori put her fingers under Yakko's chin and turned his face to hers. "If they haven't blamed you in all this time, then you need to quit blaming yourself."

Yakko gazed at her. "You sure about that?"

"Yes." Nori took his hands in hers. "Would you have let your siblings be abused just for the sake of money?"

"Heck no! If it ever came down to my sibs or a million bucks, I'd burn the money myself, for real. Wakko and Dot are worth more to me than all the gold in this state."

"There you go. What more proof do you need that you did the right thing?" When silence was the only response she got, Nori tried a different tack. "Let me ask you something. What happened to Miss Ickheart?"

"The official story was she quit because of the stress from us attacking her. However, we heard it through the grapevine that Mr. Plotz let her go with a fat wad of hush money, and nobody ever breathed a word about the truth."

Nori nodded. She'd guessed as much. "I figured. Y'all got punished for defending yourselves while your bully walked free, and the studio covered it up to save face, 'cause it was easier to blame you."

Yakko nodded once. "Welcome to Hollywood, sister. And old Thad's been toasting with champagne whenever we've been locked up since. If I'd have had a brain in my head, I'd have given Miss Ickheart the same treatment I gave your mom."

"You mean a swan dive into her cleavage?"

"No, the 'Mirror, mirror on the wall' trick. When I turned your mom to the wall earlier, she wasn't seeing what she looked like on the outside. She was seeing what she'd look like if her soul really had an effect on her looks: ugly, rotten, like death warmed over. You know, the Dorian Gray thing."

"Wow," Nori said, blown away. She'd wondered why her mother had screamed at the sight of her reflection; hearing this, it was no wonder Jodi had been so frightened. "But you know something? When we get really angry, it's hard to think straight. And sometimes, we just lose it."

"You don't," Yakko countered. "I've never seen you lose your temper."

"I have before, when I was six. Mama was starting in on me about not being the perfect little peach she wanted, and I yelled at her to stop it. She whaled the tar out of me for it. I had to learn to control it after that."

Yakko grimaced. "I'm sorry that happened to you. But look how strong you got. You probably think I'm weak 'cause I lost it."

"No." Nori took Yakko by the shoulders and stared him in the eyes. "Yakko, three things. One, stop blaming yourself, and get it through your head that you did right by your siblings. Two, you're not weak just because you lost your temper. You're normal. Third, if you really want to spite Mr. Plotz, just be happy. You've been running around this lot happier than a pig in mud since you busted out, so keep that up! If you let guilt over a 60-year-old scuffle eat you up Mr. Plotz wins. And you don't want that, do you?"

Yakko gaped at her. "Boy, you sure don't pull any punches." He suddenly smiled. "And you know what? You're right. We made our own happiness for sixty years; we've just gotta keep doin' it! And you're right about Wakko and Dot, too. They've never blamed me. Heck, the first thing they did when we got locked up was hug me." He raised his eyes to hers. "I guess seein' your mom treat you so bad and all that stuff she was sayin' about us brought it all back." He squeezed her hands. "Thanks for helpin' heal me."

Nori smiled, her heart giving her a nudge. He was being so sweet, just keeping his touch to her hands, but she knew he needed some more comfort. And after what he'd done for her today, he'd more than earned her trust. "Come here," she said softly, holding her arms open. Yakko's eyes widened in surprise, but then that beautiful sparkle appeared in them and a smile tugged at his mouth. He threw his arms around her, and Nori could feel gratitude pouring out of his hug.

Moreover, it wasn't just the gratitude that felt nice. It amazed Nori how good Yakko himself felt: his silky-soft fur, the warmth of his body, the arms that held her tightly yet tenderly. Her heartbeat was thrumming and a sweet warmth pooled in her stomach – and a brief shock went through her mind. What in the world am I feeling?

Her conscience was laughing again. You know. You're getting the warm and fuzzies for him.

Friend! He's my friend!

Yeah, keep telling yourself that. It's not like he isn't used to being rejected.

Muttering I hate you to her conscience, Nori was taken back to Yakko's story about his girlfriend dumping him, and another puzzle piece snapped into place. The hug ended right then, and she couldn't help noticing a blush coloring Yakko's cheek fur. He looked so adorable that Nori almost forgot to ask him the question on her mind. "Yakko, may I ask you something?"

"Anything," he said, sounding a little drunk.

"All the flirting you did, the one-liners, making yourself out to be a hottie… is that because your ex hurt you way back then?"

Yakko's blush deepened and he quickly looked away. "The way you're battin' tonight, you could win the World Series," he said, but there was no sign of offense behind the words. "Everyone deals in their own way. Me, it was tellin' myself I was irresistible to girls. Made me feel like I was worth something, you know?"

Nori waited until he looked her way again. "You know what I think? I think your ex was a moron. As my dad used to say, she went for glass when she could've had a diamond."

Yakko looked like he wanted to cry. "Okay, now you're just tryin' to give me a big head."

"I mean it. If she couldn't see what a great guy she had, she was dumber than a doorknob."

Yakko chortled, probably to cover a sob. "This comin' from the girl who thought I was a frog."

"People change… and I was wrong about you." Nori smiled at him. "I'm proud to call you my friend."

Yakko shook his head. "Well, how do you like them apples." He suddenly grinned. "You actually said you were wrong!"

"Shut up!" Nori jibed, playfully smacking his shoulder.

Yakko chuckled. "Seriously, though? Thanks. That's pretty high praise comin' from you. I mean, you've probably got guys beating down your door."

Nori rolled her eyes. "As if. Most guys at my school go for plastic fantastic, not a hick from the Blue Ridge. I quit going to school dances for that reason, the homecoming dance next week included. No sense in going just to sit."

"Bummer." Yakko suddenly made sense of what she'd said. "Wait a sec. Your homecoming dance is next week? And you ain't going?"

"That's what I said. No date, no dance."

"I'll be your date!"

"What?" Nori almost slid off the water tower roof in shock. That, she hadn't seen coming.

Yakko threw up his hands. "Not a date-date, I swear. I know we've still got a bet. But you deserve a night out doing what you love, and I know you love dancing. And as the man upstairs is my witness, I'll be a perfect gentleman. So…" Yakko grinned hopefully. "Whattaya say, Nori? Will you let me be your date for homecoming?"

Nori was beginning to think the surprises would never end. Yakko had just offered to be her plus-one for homecoming. Jeez, did this violate their bet? For the first time, she hoped not. If the warm-and-fuzzies were really churning inside her, and she was loving his hugs, it might not be so bad to kiss him. Get a grip, girl! Think! Well, he'd made it clear this wasn't a date-date, and that he still had every intention of honoring their wager. His vow to be a perfect gentleman went without saying – for the last few weeks, he'd been amazing, proving he was a good friend as well as a decent guy. Combine all of this with everything he'd done for her today, and her answer had to be… "Yes," she said, giving her friend a smile.

The Hollywood hills rang with a multi-decibel yeehaw that would have done Butch and Sundance proud, followed by laughter from the cowboy's amused, yet excited, date. Golden State High School wasn't going to know what hit them.

Author note: The Warners' feud with Weed Memlo as I've described it here was inspired by real-life events between the Marx Brothers and their director Sam Wood on the set of their film A Night at the Opera. Wood was apparently a very stuffy man, which clashed with the zaniness of the Marx Brothers, and he did indeed have an ulcer that he drank milk for. Groucho, Harpo, and Chico were so fed up with his stuffy attitude and his whining about them that they started having his milk delivered in baby bottles, and of course he didn't get the joke. Wood also tried the $50 fine for tardiness to the set, and Groucho agreed with this until Harpo and Chico nailed his garage door shut, making him the first to be fined. The brothers made a game out of it until Wood ended the fines altogether. I thought it was fitting for the Warners, since they were modeled after the Marx Brothers!