Full title of this chapter is: Curiosity Killed the Warners, Will There Be Enough Satisfaction to Bring Them Back? But it wouldn't fit
Hii~ Surprise?
So I know it's been a while, but I promise I'm not abandoning this story.
I've just been having a lotta trouble getting myself to start writing. And I'm not sure how to help it. It's like my brain is just constantly distracted by everything like a kid with ADHD on a sugar rush! (Well, I am autistic, so there might be some overlap...)
But I'm back!
A little trigger warning for this chapter. It deals with mentions of abuse and child death.
Not a very happy concept, I know, but I always had a reason behind Kassie being so determined to take the Warner siblings away from the studio. And this chapter will tell you why.
The door to the storage room opened as Kassie led her children into it. The Warners were ecstatic. A few days after Mother's Day they remembered to ask Kassie if Father's day was a thing. Turns out there was! Now with a bit more time to prepare for this holiday they were ready to get started. When they'd asked their mom about what to get Andy she wasn't sure either. Naturally Kassie knew that Andy wanted to add to his instrument collection, but she wasn't sure about having her kids buying him something as expensive as that. Especially considering Andy was currently the only breadwinner, and it felt wrong to buy him gifts with his own money, so she had to limit the budget to what she could afford with her money.
Which brings us to why they were in the storage room. Kassie flicked on the lights and turned to her kids. "Alright, so... Your father had a list of instruments he's bought and another with instruments he wants to try. He kept it in a filing cabinet that we moved up here last year." She clapped her paws together. "So lets go and find that list!".
The Warners cheered as they split up to look for the filing cabinet. With the four of them searching they found it within minutes, hidden behind several boxes and other junk. There were three cabinets, so each of the siblings took one. Dot looked through the lowest drawer, Wakko shuffled through the middle and Yakko searched the upper drawer with Kassie going between all three. It took a few minutes of shuffling through papers and documents that really should've been thrown away years ago, but they found it.
Kassie took the list Wakko was holding and skimmed through it. "Alright, I'm going to see if this is still accurate. Can you kids clean up here?" she asked, gesturing to the multiple papers and documents littering the floor.
The Warners saluted their mother. "Yes ma'am!" A little dramatic for a simple clean up request, but Kass was happy to see them crawling out of their shell a little more.
After Kassie had left to go downstairs, the siblings finished clean up in record speed. With nothing left to do until Kassie finished, they looked around the storage room. Their eyes fell on the locked chest they'd found in their first week here. They hadn't been able to open it then, but now with their toon-powers working better than before, courtesy of Andy teaching them, they might be able to open it.
Well, curiosity killed the cat, didn't it? But they were only part cat, so it would be fine, right?
Yakko reached into his hammerspace and pulled out some lock-picks to open the lock with. He'd picked up lockpicking about 25 years ago, leading to one successful escape before the studio switched to different methods of locking them up. Pushing away the thoughts of back then, Yakko shifted his focus on picking this stubborn lock.
With a click, the lock fell to the ground. The siblings let out a cheer and tried to open the chest. It still wouldn't budge though. Now it was Wakko's turn. He grabbed a crowbar from his hammerspace and pried it under the lid. With a little toon-powered strength added, the lid snapped open.
Now they could finally see what was inside! The kids barely kept themselves from diving into the chest. Inside they found multiple film reels, most likely Kassie and Andy's work, as well as some clothes which they could only guess were their 'work clothes'. There were also a few pieces of paper with drawings of a familiar cat and dog as well as an unknown character with both dog and cat features. Character sheets. They recognized their parents on two of them, in various poses and moods, but the third had them confused.
The lines on this one were all blurry, like it was dipped in water. Andy's and Kassie's were all clear, sharp lines. And the character themselves... A mix of cat and dog, like mom and dad. In one they were holding flowers, in another they looked angry and in the last they looked sad. There were also random references for the eyes, paws and teeth drawn here and there, and a name scribbled at the top.
Theodore 'Theo' Tenden.
Tenden... Wasn't that their parents last name? Who was this guy? Why have they never seen him around? And why did everything about their drawing look... wrong? Something about it made their fur stand on end.
"So... Who else wants to find out who this is?" Yakko asked his younger siblings.
Both of them waved their arms in the air. "Me! Me! Me! Me! Me!"
Yakko stood up from his crouched position, closing the chest while he was at it. "Then this seems like a case for detective Yakko and his trusty assistants!" he exclaimed. "First off, we'll need to gather information about this person. And who better than the very same people he shares a name with?" He pointed to the doorway. "To the music room!"
The trio ran downstairs to the music room where their mother should be. Keyword; should be. When they opened the door they noticed a suspicious lack of cats named Kassie. They were about to look under and inside the instruments to see if Kassie hid in there, when they remembered where they were. Right, neither Andy nor Kassie use their toon-powers at home or in their daily life, aside from their hammerspace that is. So she wouldn't hide in the instruments for no reason.
They were about to leave the music room to look for Kassie elsewhere, when Wakko saw her through the window. "Yakko! Dot! I found her!" he shouted, pointing outside in excitement.
Sure enough when the other two checked, they saw their mother sitting by the flowerbeds. More specifically the one Andy made.
"Alright then, now that she's been found, let's go ask her about this Theo person." Yakko declared, getting in character again. He made to walk to the door, but neither of his siblings followed. "Uhh... Sibs?"
Wakko and Dot were still by the window, staring at their mom outside. "Yakko? Is it just me or does mom look...sad?" Dot asked her oldest brother.
Yakko blinked. "Sad?" That didn't seem possible, but as he walked closer to the window he had to admit it did seem like she was.
"Why does she look sad? What's wrong with her? Yakko?" Dot looked to Yakko for answers, but the oldest Warner couldn't give them.
Wakko remembered something similar happening though. "I don't get it. She cried over there on Mother's Day too." he said, looking at his siblings. "Maybe something's wrong with the flowers?"
Yakko and Dot blinked at the middle Warner. "She cried?" they asked shocked.
"Yeah." Wakko confirmed. "Oh! And she said that it wasn't fair and someone should be there."
"Someone should..." Yakko looked down at the character sheet in his hands. For the first time noting how much this Theodore guy looked like Kassie and Andy. His ear drooped slightly in realization. "M-maybe we shouldn't ask mom... or Andy."
"Then how are we gonna find out who that is?" Wakko asked.
Dot had an idea. "Why don't we ask one of the others? Mom has a bunch of family, someone has to know, right?"
"Great idea, my clever little sister." Yakko patted Dot on the shoulder. "Just one problem. How are we gonna ask them anything if we don't know where they live?"
"Oh yeah..."
"What are you three doing in here?" Three tails puffed up in fright at the sound of their mother's voice. Kassie stepped into the room. "Were you looking for me? I was just outside for a minute."
Yakko quickly hid the paper in his hammerspace. "Who? Us? Uh- Yeah, yeah we were looking for you. We uuhh...-"
Seeing her usually smooth talking brother stumble, Dot decided to help out. "Did you find something on Andy's list?" she asked.
Mentally thanking his sister for the save, he too turned his attention to hearing what Kassie found.
"Hm? Oh yeah." Kassie took the list with instruments from her hammerspace, skimming through it as she spoke. "It looks like it was up-to-date, so we're good to pick something from the wish-list." She turned back to her kittens. "So, how would you feel about a trip to the music store with me? You'll get to see Anna again."
The trio's ears perked. "Anna?"
Kassie nodded. "She owns a music store downtown. It's a bit of a drive, but it's worth it."
Well, they did want to talk to any of Andy and Kassie's family members. Had there been any camera's around Yakko would've turned to them and said 'What a coincidence' sarcastically.
Of course they wanted to tag along with Kassie. As they prepared to leave, Andy came home. He stopped Kassie before she went out, saying that Ben had called and asked if she could come see them today, them being Ben, Luke and Lena.
Kassie agreed. She was headed that direction anyway, not that Andy had to know.
She went to the car, where the kids were already waiting for her, and got in. "Slight change of plans, kids. After Anna, were going to visit Ben, Luke and Lena at their workplace."
"Why?" Wakko asked.
"I asked them for a favor last Christmas and I think they want to tell me what they found. I'll tell you when I know more, okay?" Kassie told them.
"Okay!"
As Kassie had said, going downtown took a while. it took a good 20 minutes before they finally arrived at their destination, and then another few minutes to find a parking spot close by. But here they were; Bunny Beats Music Shop.
"Bunny Beats?" Dot asked.
Wakko tilted his head. "Who does she beat?"
Kassie's ears flattened back. "Pretty much every music store in terms of toon friendliness..." she mumbled. "It's not beats as in beating someone up, it's beats as in music." she explained to her middle child. "You should've heard what she wanted to call it originally."
"Well?" Yakko crossed his arms, looking at his mom. "Don't leave us hanging. Now I wanna know."
Kassie sighed. "RabBeat."
That was all it took for Yakko to burst out laughing. "Like... Rabbit and Beat? But still sounding like rabbit?" he asked through laughter. "That's the perfect name! It's a pun! Why change it?"
While he was laughing, Wakko and Dot just looked at their brother in disgust. They never understood why he liked horrible puns like that. As Yakko started to calm down, Kassie led them into the store. The door swung open with a ring, which intrigued the Warners. As Kassie stepped to the counter and asked the cashier for Anna, the bell rang multiple times one right after another. When the both of them turned to look at the door, they found Yakko, Wakko and Dot playing with it, opening and closing it repeatedly to ring the door chime.
"Kids, can you not do that, please?" Kassie asked the trio. The three of them looked at her, still holding the door open. "That bell is to let the shopkeepers who aren't able to see the door that a customer has come in. So you can't play with it, it'll be confusing to them."
Yakko, Wakko and Dot looked at each other with an unreadable expression before Wakko let the door fall closed. They walked over to their mother, ears drooped a little more with each step.
Kassie was about to ask what was wrong, when they made it clear themselves. "Are we in trouble?" Wakko asked.
In trouble? Why would they be- Oh...
Oh...
Kassie knelt down to eye level with her kids. "No, no. You're not in trouble, sweeties." she reassured them. "You didn't know you shouldn't play with the door and you stopped when I asked. You did good. You are not in trouble, okay?"
"And besides, it's not like it never happened before." another voice chimed in. It seemed that the cashier had gotten Anna already. "You're not the first kids to play with the door chime. We don't get mad at them unless they keep going after we ask them to stop." the bunny told them, which seemed to work.
"Anna!" Kassie stood up, giving her sister a hug.
Anna hugged her back. "Kass! It's been a while. How are you? How are the kids? Oh, you have to catch me up on things. What are you doing here? Does Andy need anything? What are you looki-"
"Whoa! Whoa! Calm down Ann." Kassie interrupted the long slew of questions. "I'm fine. The kids are good. We're just here to look for a Father's Day present for Andy."
The bunny's ears perked up. "Oohh! Father's Day! I think I have just the thing!" She stopped herself before getting too excited. "Eh-hem. Unless you already had something in mind?"
Kassie handed Anna the wish-list of instruments. "Whichever one's the least expensive?" she asked sheepishly.
Anna looked over the list, nodding along with what she read. "Okay, alright. I think Layla can help you with that. She knows more about string instruments. Oh! And Tino is an expert on brass and percussion. And of course I can help you with the woodwind instruments."
As on cue, a human woman and an arctic fox toon appeared to show Kassie to the string instruments.
Anna was about to follow when she noticed three pairs of eyes still staring at her. "Was there something you three needed?" she asked the Warners.
"Yeah, 2 things actually." Yakko answered. "First off, you said you had 'just the thing' for Father's Day and we wanna know. And second-" He pulled out the character sheet of Theo. "- do you know anything about this guy?"
Anna's heart sank. "Where did you get this?"
"We found it in a locked chest." Wakko told her cheerfully.
Yakko's eyes narrowed in suspicion. "You know him, don't you?"
Anna took a deep breath to calm herself, then called for another employee. "Jesse, can you take over helping Kass with the woodwind instruments? Tell... Tell her the kids asked about the Father's Day gift I mentioned and I'm showing them, okay?" The Capuchin monkey toon nodded and left to join his colleagues.
While Kassie was distracted with them, Anna took the Warners to the employee room in the back. After locking the door to make sure they wouldn't be interrupted, she turned to the siblings.
The Warners were looking at her in anticipation, wondering when they were gonna get their answers.
"Well?" Yakko asked after a minute of silence passed. "Are you gonna tell us?"
Anna blinked, shaking herself out of her spiraling thoughts. "Right, right. So..." She pointed to the paper Yakko was still holding. "That is Theodore. And he's – or well... he was... Uhmm..." Anna sighed. There was no easy way to say this. "He was Andy and Kassie's son."
The Warners tilted their heads, looking back at the sheet. Sure they noticed the name and similarities, but if he was Andy and Kassie's kid... Shouldn't they have met him.
Then Dot keyed in on the choice of words. "Wait... Was?" She looked up at Anna. "What do you mean was?"
They watched as Anna's ears drooped. "Oh sweetie... I mean he's gone..." She swallowed thickly. "He died."
"What? How?!" This came as a shock to all three. Toons couldn't die! Could they? Well, apparently so if Anna was telling the truth.
Anna stepped away from the door, getting the children sat down at the table. "I know it's impossible to imagine toons can die. We can get squashed with anvils, have saw-blades cut us in slices and be completely fine. Our bodies can take a lot of damage because we're toons, but there is one thing we can't come back from." Anna looked them in the eyes as she told them. "Having your origin sheet destroyed."
"What's that?" Wakko asked.
"Your origin sheet is the character sheet you were created on. The one used to bring you to life, so to say." Anna informed them. "There's a lot of thought that goes into making toons. As such our first design might not be our final one. Only when our creators are satisfied with how we look, they use a special ink to bring us to life. That sheet of paper becomes our origin sheet, because we originally jumped out of it. And if it becomes damaged, so will we, and if it's destroyed..."
"...So are we?" Yakko, Wakko and Dot realized with horror.
Dot swallowed thickly. "But I don't understand. Why did no one draw him again? Just draw him and use that ink and he'll be fine again, right?"
"It's not that easy." Anna told her. "Frank tried. When he learned Theo's sheet was destroyed the first thing he did was remake Theo, but it didn't work. The second Theo was redrawn, his lines became a blur, and any ink that touched the blurred lines disappeared."
The group was silent. Stunned silent. Yakko looked down to Theo's sheet on the table. Now he knew why it unsettled him. He was basically looking at a corpse. The white hands of Anna came into view, grabbing the paper from in front of Yakko.
Anna looked down at it, her ears falling to the back of her head. "I remember how happy they were when Theo was shown to them. Kassie hugged his origin sheet to her chest, purring to her baby. Andy would growl at anyone who came close, overprotective of his puppy. ...Then Thorn had to destroy it..." Claws almost dug holes in the paper she was holding. "If I ever see him again... Jail will be the least horrible thing to happen to him." She growled and grunted, stomping her feet where she sat.
"A-Anna?"
The bunny blinked, realizing she forgot that the kids were still there. "I-I'm sorry." she whispered tiredly, putting the piece of paper down and away from her claws. "I'm sorry if I scared you. Thinking back to our old studio just...upsets me."
Yakko took back the paper with his could-have-been-brother and put it back in his hammerspace. "Why? And who's Thorn? Some guy we need to make our 'special friend'?" If he made Andy and Kassie as upset as Anna implied, he would happily give him the 'special friend' treatment.
"While I don't know what 'special friend' means, please don't. Besides, he's in prison for life, so no one has to worry about him." Anna informed them. "As for who Thorn is. Tristan Thorn was the co-creator of our shows, and he was Frank's best friend. At some point during the production of our show, he changed. He became hateful, money-obsessed. He stopped seeing us as people, instead seeing us as 'ink blots' to exploit and abuse." She shuddered. "At some point he managed to get Frank kicked out of the studio, so he couldn't protect us anymore. I don't know a lot of what happened, Helena, Grayson and your parents protected the rest of us from a lot of it, sending us away when they knew something was about to go down. Lena and Gray kept coming back with scars, Andy was often not seen for days. I don't even know what they did to Kass, but she couldn't be separated from Lena, Gray or Andy for days, maybe weeks if those days happened." Anna sighed, looking at the Warner siblings. "I'm sorry, I didn't mean to dump all of this on you. You just wanted to know about Theo and I just dumped half our abuse story on you three." She stood up from her seat. "I-I should get those gifts you wanted to know about."
Anna had barely taken one step before a weight slammed into her waist. The three Warners clamped themselves around Anna with tears barely visible as their faces were pressed into her fur. Without another word she hugged the horrified, crying children as tightly as she could.
Kassie was getting worried. Sure, thanks to Jesse she knew that her kittens were with Anna, and she knew they were looking at the gift Anna mentioned. It's just... It shouldn't take this long just to look at something, right? Layla, Tino and Jesse already helped her find what she needed, and that was no short look-around. They went into a lot of detail about each of the instruments on Andy's wish-list. She'd already chosen between the 18 instruments on the list and paid for it, but Anna, Yakko, Wakko and Dot were still in the back.
Something was wrong, there had to be. There was no reason for something as simple as this would take so long. She marched up to the employee room when, from a distance, she saw it swing open. Letting out a sigh of relief, she continued walking until she reached them. The Warners noticed her first and sprinted over to catch her in a hug.
Anna also came closer, since her sister couldn't move anymore. "Sorry it took so long, Kass. We just got talking and you know me, yapping up a storm and losing track of time." she giggled sheepishly. "I got them the gifts though."
The three clingers took this as their cue to show off their books with completely white covers. "We can decorate them ourselves, and then Andy can write his songs in them!" Dot explained.
Kassie had to admit it was a clever idea. To have a book with pages where all you have to do it fill in which notes to play could save Andy a lot of time to try and find the correct notes again when he forgets them.
With these last purchases made, the family had to leave to get to their next location.
At the door the Warners turned back and waved at Anna. "Bye auntie Anna!" And then they left with their mom, not seeing Anna tear up at being called that.
The next location was so...boring! Kassie had taken them to some building where all they saw were desks and chairs. She'd told the leopard lady at the desk that she was there to talk to Ben, who apparently worked here? Then auntie Lena came hopping in, took Yakko, Wakko and Dot to another room, while Kassie went with uncle Ben.
The room auntie Lena took them to was a little better. There was a comfortable couch and some toys to play with, also a corner with tables with paper and colored pencils that Wakko was glued to. It was alright, but all Lena was doing was sitting behind the desk doing paperwork, as she called it.
At some point Wakko ran over to her desk with his drawing. "For you, auntie Lena!" he said, proudly showing her his drawing. "I drew our family. Look, this is you!" He pointed to a brown shape that vaguely resembled a kangaroo.
"Thank you, Wakko. It's beautiful." she said. She pointed to a figure that was 'flying' above others. "Is this Rachel?"
Wakko shook his head, pointing to a black figure on the 'ground'. "No, this is Rae." Then he pointed to the 'flying' figure. "That is Theo. I didn't have orange for his face, so I made him gray."
Helena froze. "You know about Theo?" She didn't expect Kassie to tell them about him.
"Oh yeah. We found this in a chest." Yakko pulled out the character sheet to show her. "And we asked auntie Anna about him. She told us he died and that your old studio was more abusive than ours."
Dot also chimed in. "Yeah, but she said she didn't know much. She didn't even tell us how exactly he died."
"Sweetheart, that's not something you should want to know." Helena kindly scolded her. "Also, Yakko, just because our studio may have been worse than yours is doesn't negate the bad things that happened to you. The abuse and neglect you went through is just as bad as any abuse."
Helena gently took the paper from Yakko's hands and looked at it. Her ears folded back when she saw her would-be-nephew. She sighed and handed it back to Yakko, who put it back in his hammerspace.
"I don't know all the details. Ben, Andy and Kassie are the only ones who were there when Theo's origin sheet was destroyed." she eventually told them. "Theo hadn't even jumped out of the paper yet. He wasn't ready being inked yet. I remember watching Oliver tracing Theo's lines with the ink, then Thorn storming in and ripping Theo's sheet off the desk. He'd said something about 'teaching that dumb cat who's the boss around here' and just left. When I tried to follow, Grayson and Lucas were holding me back." Her eyes went distant as she remembered the events that unfolded.
~Flashback~
She heard screaming. Kassie's screaming. Her paws dug into Grayson's feathers in fright. Kassie was yowling. Why was she yowling? What did Thorn do?! Then there were growls. The most feral growls she ever heard Andy make, combined with Kassie's most heartbreaking yowls. What was happening?!
Yowls and growls became two pairs of growls. And smug silence became terrified screams. She heard Oliver, or maybe some other employee, on the phone with the cops. She couldn't tell, all she was focused on was her brother and sister, Thorn's screams and the banging happening in that office.
Luke eventually left to try and help the situation. He must have succeeded at some point, because the banging stopped. But the screaming and the growls didn't change.
Then she heard it. The reason her siblings were so enraged.
"LET ME GO! HE KILLED THEO! HE'S A MURDERER!" Kassie's heartbreaking screams were heard throughout the studio. "HE KILLED MY BABY! LUCAS LET ME GO! HE DESERVED TO DIE! LET ME GO!" The screams became weaker as the sobbing started. "Let me go... Let me go! He killed... He killed him..."
~End flashback~
"Next thing I know the police is there. They arrested Thorn, sure, but not because of the murder." Her ears lowered in anger. "No. That bastard was arrested only for abuse of his human employees. Not for scarring us toons. Not for mentally, emotionally and physically abusing us. Not for literally murdering one of us. A child no less! No. Because of bad work ethics and abuse of humans." She growled softly. Even 28 years later she was still livid about the entire situation. "That's why Luke, Ben and I started the TPS. So the abuse of toons will actually face consequences. So our pain and trauma won't be brushed off and ignored just because we're drawings." She turned back to the Warners, still stunned silent, and knelt down to eye level with them. "That's why we're looking into your situation too. To make sure your CEO and anyone else guilty for your abuse and neglect will face consequences."
A low growl came from Yakko. "And Thorn? What happened to him?"
"Life in prison for child murder." Helena told him. "Luckily for our case, we had a judge who was grandfather to several toons, due to his animator daughter. Any other judge and it would've probably been a misdemeanor. Or a slap on the wrist."
"But that's not fair!" Dot's fur bristled. "We are living, breathing beings with feelings and- and-! Why would killing us just get you a slap on the wrist?!"
Helena put a hand on Dot's shoulder to try and calm the growling girl down. "That's why we're working on it. The abuse of toons is already against the law thanks to our organization and our supporters. So if it does happen, it can now be punished."
That did seem to calm Dot down a little, her brothers too for that matter. It wasn't perfect yet, but with abuse outlawed equal rights was next on the list. With the support from toons and humans alike, she could only hope it wouldn't take too long.
A knock came from the door as Ben walked in. "Kass and I finished, so the kids can go with her now." he informed his colleague/sister.
The only trace of the kids were the dust-clouds they left after running out to see their mom. They were really starting to regret asking about Theo and their family's horrible studio. Curiosity really does kill the cat, but this time there's no satisfaction to bring it back.
Okay, maybe a bit of satisfaction.
What they learned about Theo was... bad. But they also learned about a sibling they could've had. They wanted to know more about who he could have been. Would he have liked puns? Whacking people with mallets? Maybe he would've liked reading books, or learning music? Maybe they could've taught each other all sorts of things. He could've been an honorary Warner Brother.
It saddened them they would never get to meet him.
Kassie looked at her kittens as they hugged her again. This was becoming a pattern. She hoped they weren't developing something like separation anxiety, with how clingy they were after she leaves them.
Helena and Bennett watched the four of them leave, and only spoke once they were out of hearing range. "So there's nothing we can do?" Helena guessed from the downed expression on Ben's face.
The buck shook his head. "As long as the studio is making money from the Warners, they're at a stand-still. Pursuing legal actions against the studio now will make it seem like we're after the money they're making. They don't have physical scars, so abuse will be hard to prove. There's too much working against us." Ben sighed. "We need to wait until the money stops coming in, so we can prove we're doing it for the protection of those kids."
Helena nodded solemnly. "They know about Theo..." she told him. "Found a character sheet and were asking about him."
Bennett's eyes widened. He would never be able to forget that horrible day. Getting punished for talking back and shoving Thorn out of his face wasn't the worst. Sure, the knife hurt, and suddenly not being able to see out of his left eye was terrifying. But nothing, absolutely nothing would hurt more than watching your nephew be torn into pieces and burned in the fireplace. And nothing would be more terrifying than watching your eldest siblings clawing, biting and tearing into Thorn in a feral rage.
He wasn't able to help then, but he's able to help others now. Without another word, Bennett turned and went back to his office. There was still a lot of work to do.
Back with the Warners and Kassie, who were driving home after a long day, it was completely silent. It was out of character for the siblings, who'd grown more comfortable being outgoing and talkative, but in the events of what they'd learned... They weren't sure how to process the information or how to deal with it.
Kassie looked back at them through her rear-view mirror, worried about the uncharacteristic silence. Did something happen? What happened that caused her kittens to look so...solemn? Maybe she should give Anna and Lena a call once they got home. See if they noticed anything off with them.
While staring aimlessly out the window, Dot spotted something in the distance that caught her attention. "Mom, wait!" she called out. "Can we go to that store? Pretty please?"
Yakko and Wakko tripped over each other to see out the window to what their sister was referring to. The moment they saw it Yakko's ears perked up while Wakko just tilted his head. He didn't understand why Dot wanted to go there, or why Yakko seemed to like the idea, but he'd go with it.
Kassie didn't understand either, but parked as close to the store as she could. Why her kids wanted to look at picture frames, but it seemed to bring them out of whatever dump they were in. Maybe they could get some more frames to hang up family photos.
The Warners sat in their room, having rushed up there with their purchase the second they arrived him. They'd pulled out the paper and scissors from their designated arts and crafts drawer and pulled out all the stops to decorate the plain black frame. Dot was cutting butterflies from the purple and yellow paper, she'd draw some details later. Wakko was nearly finished with his fish treat and dog biscuit. Yakko decided to take inspiration from the flower garden, picking 2 from the flowerbed Kassie was at this morning, a gardenia and a daisy. They were turning out pretty good if he did say do himself.
After gluing the paper decorations on the frame, all that was left to do was add the picture.
And done! Now to give it to Andy and Kassie. Dot held onto the picture frame as Yakko and Wakko grabbed Andy and Kassie respectively. After the couple had been sat down, the brothers took their spot at either side of Dot. Dot's heart was pounding. This may have been her idea, but right now she could only hope this wouldn't mess things up.
Taking a deep breath, the youngest Warner stepped forward, handing her parents the gift. "We made you something."
Surprised, Andy took the gift from Dot's shaking hands. "Before you look!" Yakko quickly jumped in before they got a look. "We're sorry for breaking into the chest."
The chest? With even more confusion the couple turned the frame around and looked at the picture inside. Their breaths caught as they lay eyes on their deceased son. Kassie covered her mouth in shock, while Andy absentmindedly stroked the glass covered snout of his boy.
"Where did you find this." Kassie asked in a whisper.
All three of the Warners ears drooped. "The locked chest in the storage room?" Yakko confessed. "We uhm... We opened it...with a crowbar...?"
"And lock-picks." Wakko added.
Letting out a sigh, Andy put the gift in his lap. "Why did you open it if it was locked?"
The Warners flinched ever so slightly, not used to the tone Andy used. He sounded mad. "I'm sorry! We were just curious." Dot cried.
"We saw his name and wanted to ask you about it, but then Wakko saw you crying in the garden, so we asked Anna and Lena and they told us who he was and what happened to him, and about your studio and about Tho- that guy. We didn't mean to snoop behind your back, we just wanted to know about him." Yakko spilled in a single breath, nearly incomprehensible at the speed he talked.
Wakko fiddled with his sleeves in worry. "Please don't be mad."
"I'm not mad." Andy told them. "But I'm not happy you decided to break into that chest. If you wanted to know what was inside, you should have asked." he scolded them. "Maybe we would've told you, maybe not. But that doesn't mean you can take matters into your own hands and find out anyway."
The Warners ears were nearly flat on their heads. This was a bad idea after all. Kassie beckoned them closer, which they did hesitantly. The trio was pulled onto the couch between their parents or on their lap.
"However." Kassie said. "That doesn't mean we don't appreciate your gift."
"But you're crying." Wakko pointed out.
Wiping away her tears, Kassie smiled at him. "I know. It's just..." She reached out to the picture frame on Andy's lap. "I haven't seen my little boy in 20 years. It was a shock when you gave us this."
"Kass?" Andy asked, looking at his love carefully.
Kassie nodded. "I know. I'm okay."
Yakko looked between his parents. "Uuuhh... Are we missing something?"
Andy and Kassie looked each other in the eyes, a silent conversation happening. Eventually Kass nodded.
"After Theo's death 28 years ago we were given back to Frank. None of us were okay. Scarred, traumatized and terrified of anything and everything, but most of us tried to hide it. Kassie, though..." Andy sighed as he remembered. "Kassie wouldn't leave her bed. She wouldn't eat, or drink, or speak to anyone. All she did was lay in bed and hug Theo's pictures to her chest. Not even I could get her to do anything."
Kassie took his paw in her own. "That wasn't on you and you know that." she told him firmly. "Andy thought that because he and I were the firsts ones created that he should take care of all of us, all the while pushing down his own problems."
Andy laughed humorlessly at the reminder. "Thank the heavens for Eleanor."
Kassie couldn't agree more. "Absolute godsend that woman."
Seeing the confused looks on the kids' faces, Andy elaborated. "Eleanor was the one helping each of us to get over our trauma. It didn't matter how long it took, how often we lashed out or yelled at her, she was always there to help us." He let out a happy sigh. "When Kassie wasn't getting better after 3 years, she was the one who intervened. She decided to take away Theo's pictures and have Kassie focus on living in the present, rather than clutch to the past. She wouldn't keep him from us forever, just so Kassie could get better."
"I did eventually, very slowly." Kassie told them. "But every time I felt happy, I felt bad for feeling good when my baby was dead, so I'd break into Eleanor's office to look at him. Punish myself for feeling happy when I wasn't even able to keep him safe."
"I caught her one day and confronted her." Andy continued. "I won't go into detail, but we screamed at each other, arguing and calling each other names until we both broke down in tears." He still felt bad for the things he told her that day, Kassie most likely did too. "We eventually decided to lock all reminders of the old studio in a chest, and Theo along with it. We wanted to focus on recovering, on trying to be happy again. We could never forget about Theo of course, but at the time we couldn't actively keep reminding ourselves of him."
"We promised ourselves that once we were ready to give it a place, we'd get him out of the chest." Kassie's ears drooped. "But it never came to that point. I think at that point we were too afraid to be set back to the beginning. With me laying in bed and Andy running himself ragged to take care of me and himself." She sighed. "And to be honest, I still have bad days like that." It was probably not something they wanted to hear from their mom, but they deserved to know why she might be stuck in bed some days.
The Warners just sat there absorbing all the information. They couldn't imagine the people they met having been so bad off, much less their parents. Wakko made the decision to climb on Kassie's lap and start purring up a storm. She told them once that cats purred to either show happiness or comfort someone, be it herself or someone else.
Dot caught onto his idea and climbed on Andy's lap to do the same. Yakko planted himself in the middle, pressed up to both his parents and followed his siblings. Kassie followed their example and purred to them, with Andy doing his best to join them with an unpracticed rumble.
Wakko grabbed the picture, looking at it again for the nth time that day. "Can you tell us about him?" he asked. "We only heard bad things. Do you have good stories?"
Kassie blinked, looking at Andy who just smiled fondly. "You wanna know about him?"
"Well, yeah." Yakko answered. "I mean, he would've kinda been like our brother if that all didn't happen, right?"
Kassie's breath caught. Would he? If he hadn't been- that... Would the police have ever been called on Thorn? Would they have ever escaped and reunited with Frank? Would Kassie have ever gone to Warner Brothers Studios for a job? Most importantly, would she have ever discovered the kids and taken them home?
…
...Yes.
Yes there was no doubt in her mind that if she'd discovered the Warners in that what-if reality that she would've taken them with her just the same. That her son and these children would have become siblings.
It's just too bad that reality doesn't exist.
The mother smiled softly at her kids. Sharing a glance with Andy, she knew they were in agreement on this.
Andy pointed at the orange splotch covering Theo's right eye. "Well, I remember Frank always joking that this spot here wasn't orange fur. He'd always tell us it was mud, but he'd run out of brown and had to use orange." He laughed softly. " 'Your kid is gonna be a messy boy, always jumping in puddles and rolling in mud.' he'd say."
Kassie laughed. "Yeah, and remember how he was going to be more cat-like in appearance, but more dog-like in personality? And how he was going to be a chewer? We were gonna have to keep chew toys in our hammerspace for him."
"And we were constantly placing bets on if he was going to make dog noises or cat noises first." Andy recalled.
They shared stories with their puppykittens for as long as they could, recalling everything they could so they could learn about their would-have-been-brother. Afterwards the picture of Theo found a nice spot on a cabinet that was cleared out just for him. They placed down some candles too, as well as a pot with daisies and a chew toy Andy had never been able to get rid off.
The physical reminder of their child made them feel lighter. They should have gotten his picture out that chest earlier.
I don't claim I know how parents deal with loss.
I hope my take on how Andy and Kassie dealt with it isn't horribly inaccuracy, I tried my best.
I wish I could add a drawing of Theo here, but a description will have to do. (I added a drawing of him on my AO3 story)
He has a cat-like face, with dog ears identical to Andy's (check cover art to see that)
His fur is like a calico cat, grey around the right eye, orange around the left and white almost anywhere else on his face. There are some splotches of grey and orange here and there. He has messy brown hair, blue eyes, and freckles on his snout.
I only drew him from the torso up, so that's all the description I have for right now.
I'm trying to get the next chapter out on Sunday~!