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There were times when Yakko especially appreciated that there were two versions of the tower; one for filming, and the actual structure itself.
In reality, the lot’s actual water tower had a hollowed out upper portion, initially meant as a kind of emergency overflow space, accessed by a hatch more the size and shape of a typical door. With some modifications, the Warners had been able to fit the hollow section out as a living space, including erecting walls to create a few separate rooms. That said, the living room and kitchen had a pretty strong resemblance to what was seen on TV.
It felt good to Yakko, that the three of them had a place to retreat to that felt like a home and not a set. As much as he loved acting, even he needed a night’s rest.
He imagined his stress levels would be off the charts if he always felt like he was being filmed.
Yakko was also extremely thankful they’d been able to keep the place.
This was courtesy of the three of them getting into freelance careers after their 90’s show had ended-Dot in fashion design, Yakko and Wakko in the domains of voice acting and music. Yakko had been able to negotiate what he considered a reasonable monthly fee to pay the studio in exchange to keep living there, a reasonable compromise.
Even with having a show again, Yakko had kept taking some freelance work and had urged his two siblings to do the same. No show lasted forever, so having that to fall back on greatly helped his peace of mind.
This particular night started out in a very cozy manner that reminded Yakko of the many reasons he was thankful for all of this, though it wouldn’t end that way.
Dot had wanted to have a friend she’d recently made, the Disney toon Webby Vanderquack, over for a sleepover. Yakko had given his permission easily, glad that his sister was making new friends, and had decided to extend an offer out to one of his own friends, Max Goof, to join them for an overnight stay.
In fact, Max was probably his best friend, being one of the people he had known the longest. What had perhaps solidified that friendship was years of exchanging acting advice and mutual support for each other’s endeavors outside of on screen acting; in Max’s case, delving into the world of professional extreme sports.
Presently, the three boys were all engaged in a veritable Mario Kart war. The two girls had started the night with a sort of fashion contest, before erecting a makeshift obstacle course and semi-competing over who could be the most acrobatic.
"Hah!" Wakko pointed at the screen, lording that he had won over the two of them. "I told you I'd catch up, Yakko!"
“Don’t get ahead of yourself, Wak,” Yakko replied wryly. “Night’s still young.”
"So," Max interjected, pointing with the controller and leaning back at the same time. "How about we make this round all or nothing, guys?"
"You mean, whoever wins this one is king of the mountain." Yakko smirked and raised a confident eyebrow. "Sure. Both of you prepare to bow to your new king."
"In your dreams," Max jokingly elbowed him. Yakko grinned and lightly shoved back.
"Nuh uh. I'm gonna win." Wakko scooted forward at the end of the couch, donning a look of fierce concentration; a look somewhat foiled by him letting his tongue hang from his mouth. Combined with how he was sitting, he looked more like a cute, pudgy puppy than a serious threat.
Yakko rolled his eyes. "Think again, little bro."
As the three of them set about preparing for their showdown by changing options on the carts, Yakko found himself blinking more than usual.
While he had sounded confident, he had been fighting to stay awake for the last hour. Yakko had a somewhat bad habit of sometimes staying up until well around four in the morning, working.
He had no one but himself to blame, really. Yakko had good time management skills, good enough that he had never actually fallen behind on any songwriting gig he'd taken. He was also an excellent negotiator when it came to deadlines…both of which meant staying up well into the morning was always very much unnecessary.
But it managed to happen sometimes, sneaking up on him like a thief in the night.
He narrowed his eyes at the screen as the three boys started the new race, determined to claim victory.
He started out well enough, pulling ahead of both his friend and brother, just managing to concentrate.
That was until it occurred to Yakko just how much his eyes wanted to close, and how comfortably warm he was.
He was able to resist a little longer, until his thoughts began to wander farther and farther away from what he was doing, scattering to the wind.
Finally Yakko decided it wouldn't hurt to rest his eyes for just a second.
Taken up in their game, neither Max or Wakko noticed Yakko going conspicuously quiet until the race ended, Max coming in first by a hair. He dropped the controller and pumped both fists with a whoop, while Wakko churlishly crossed his arms.
"I almost had you," he pouted.
"Almost doesn't win the race…" here Max paused, realizing someone was missing from their banter.
They both looked in Yakko's direction and saw him slumped back against the couch, head tilted back, eyes closed. It was immediately apparent from the slow rise and fall of his chest that he was asleep.
"Huh." Max was not entirely surprised by this sight. "Yakko went and accidentally sleep deprived himself again?"
Wakko barely reacted to this statement beyond a shrug. "Apparently."
There was a crash from behind them, causing Max to jump and Wakko to frown.
“We didn’t break anything, I swear!” Dot hastily tried to nudge the broken jar out of sight behind the counter with her foot. “It was already like that.”
Being the resident cook and essentially the dad in the family, her older brother didn’t particularly like it when their kitchen things got broken.
After bracing for a response and not getting one, Dot moved over to the couch and saw Yakko passed out.
“Aw.” Webby had followed her, grinning at the sight of the sleeping eldest Warner. “He’s so peaceful. But,” she glanced at the clock with a mildly puzzled look. “It’s not that late…”
“Yakko does this a lot,” Dot pointed at Yakko. “He stays up all night doing who knows what instead of sleeping. And when it catches up with him, he passes out at six or seven at night, like an old lady.”
Webby let out an amused giggle.
“Hey…” A devious smile appeared on Dot’s face. “That gives me an idea. I’ve always wanted a picture of Yakko in a dress…he’s got the figure for it.”
Webby leaned forward and looked at Yakko with a more critical eye. “Really?”
“Yeah…I’ve been keeping one in my hammerspace just for this occasion.” Dot smirked and rubbed her hands together. “I’ve never been able to convince him…but with help, I bet I can do it right now without Yakko waking up. What would be even better would be if someone could pose for a pretend ‘sleeping beauty’ shot.”
Feeling her eyes on him, Max raised his hands and leaned back, edging away from Yakko for good measure. “Uh, no. I’m not game for that.”
“Spoilsport,” Dot grumbled. “Wakko?”
She aimed a pleading smile at the middle brother.
Wakko averted his eyes and didn’t get up from his end of the couch. “Um…I don’t know about that. I think I won’t.”
“Aw.” Dot pouted. “But I thought you’d find this idea funny too.”
“Well…the more I’ve thought about it, Yakko’s probably against it for a reason. I’m not sure this is a good idea.”
“Fine, if you are gonna be a spoilsport too-”
“I’ll help you!” Webby enthusiastically offered.
“Guys,” Wakko tried again. “I really don’t think you should do this.”
“He’s right,” Max tried, “You don’t know if he’d find this funny. It’s not too late to stop this-”
“Nope.” Dot replied, rubbing her hands together. “It’s full steam ahead, boys.”
Max leaned back and sighed. The Warner sister’s eyes held a look of determination that couldn’t be argued away.
With a smirk, Dot withdrew a plain yellow dress from her hammerspace, one that she’d clearly fished up with Yakko in mind given how long it was.
“I don’t like this.” Wakko had inched closer to Max, most likely because he was the only other person in the room who seemed to be on his side.
The two of them watched with trepidation as Dot sneakily pulled the dress over Yakko’s head, before the two girls carefully lifted his arms to slide them through the straps of the dress. Yakko grunted but didn’t wake up.
“I somehow doubt you can talk your sister outta this,” Max replied. “Not that I don’t agree with you that this is a bad idea…”
“Yakko’s never liked us teasing him about his figure,” Wakko mumbled, twisting the hem of his sweater in his hands. “He’s never gotten mad at us…but lately, I’ve really started to notice that he doesn’t seem to find it funny…”
Dot and Webby had by now finished the first half of their stunt, having fit the dress onto Yakko’s torso and draping the front of the long skirt over his legs, though they had not gone as far as to take his pants off. Now the pair were giggling, clearly thinking this sight was hilarious. Yakko had still not shown much sign he’d noticed anything, his brow merely furrowing in his sleep.
Despite himself, Max couldn’t help but find this sight slightly funny…though he couldn’t quite openly laugh at it, still unsure how Yakko would take this if he woke up.
Wakko, on the other hand, was increasing his grip on his sweater. Yes, this was mildly amusing…sort of, but the middle child spent a lot of time observing people. Often, when he was quiet around others, he was trying to figure out what they might be feeling.
Which had set Wakko on the path of really studying Yakko’s reactions to being teased about having a feminine figure for a boy, eventually noticing that his older brother seemed distinctly uncomfortable with it. Which by extension led to him finding Dot’s scheme to get Yakko to wear a dress less and less funny over time.
Additionally, Wakko vividly recalled that the very few times a script had called for Yakko to wear anything close to a dress, he had adamantly refused. This had resulted in having to insert overlays of him in the requested outfits in post.
Considering Yakko very rarely made a fuss about any aspect of filming, his aversion to wearing dresses or skirts had always stood out to Wakko.
Especially now.
Wakko yelped as Webby grabbed his hat from his head. “Gonna borrow this for a bit!”
Blinking, Wakko watched as the duck collected her hair and bunched it under his red cap, having put it on with the visor set forward over her face. The middle child felt at his hatless head, pondering if he should try to snatch his hat back.
Webby had now climbed up onto the couch, leaning forward over Yakko in a mocking imitation of a prince about to kiss a sleeping princess. Dot had taken out her phone, angling it in different directions, clearly being picky about what angle to use.
In the process of leaning over him, Webby had braced a foot on Yakko’s leg, leading to an unintended consequence; namely, Yakko starting to wake up.
What followed was a reaction that Wakko would frequently remember for how disturbing it was.
Yakko drew a sharp breath, then his eyelids flickered a few times before he opened them completely.
Immediately, his gaze flickered downward; then widened in what Wakko swore was fear. Stiffening, Yakko shoved Webby away and he surged to his feet with a strangled yelp.
The duck acrobatically rolled and came up on her feet.
Meanwhile, Yakko had frozen up, standing ramrod straight. Expression one of pure shock, he was staring down at the dress he was wearing. Dot had broken into hysterics, even as she snapped a picture. Webby was laughing into her hand.
Wakko still had his gaze fixed on Yakko’s face, as the flash of Dot’s phone seemed to snap him out of the stunned state he’d been in. The raw fear from earlier now seemed joined by sheer panic; something he found scarily out of place on his older brother’s features.
“I-it-what-how-” Stuttering, Yakko picked at the straps of the garment. Then he began to frantically scrabble at his back and shoulders, grasping for a handhold to pull the dress off. He seemed to be having an unusual amount of trouble doing so, movements hampered by his panicked state.
Wakko winced watching this, faintly wondering if he should try to help. Max was frowning now and seemed to be starting to stand up, maybe thinking along the same lines.
Ultimately neither of them had to make a decision, as Yakko finally managed to grasp the straps of the dress. Then he pulled it off with a kind of frantic energy, as if his life depended on it. He stood there rigidly, staring down at the dress like it was some kind of poisonous animal.
Wakko observed that the fur along Yakko’s spine was spiking, and his tail had joined the act, puffing up like a bottlebrush. Fuming with disapproval, Wakko stomped over and snatched his hat back from Webby as both her and Dot’s laughter faded into faint chortling.
Meanwhile, Yakko seemed to be going from horror to acute anger; a rare thing to see on him, and a little frightening. Wakko gulped upon seeing that his long tail was starting to thrash.
It was moments like this that really brought out how much Yakko tended to resemble a cat. At this moment, an angry one.
“Heh!” Dot chortled, her fingers moving across the phone. “That was great!”
“I’ve never laughed so hard!” Webby giggled. “Especially because you were right about it actually looking really good on him-”
These comments brought out an instant response from Yakko. His narrow shoulders tensed and he whirled to face the giggling duck, lobbing the bunched up dress right at her. Webby yelped and stumbled a bit, pulling the garment off her face.
“That wasn’t funny!” he hissed furiously, and Wakko noted his claws were out, too. Combined with the thrashing tail, this was all adding up to what he’d thought…that this stunt had been a really bad idea.
Yakko was also breathing hard, glaring at both girls.
“Gotta say…” Max had stood up, hands in pockets. “I’m with him. These kinda jokes don’t work if it actually hurts someone’s-”
“Come on, Goof,” Dot interjected, interrupting the toon dog, who promptly made a face at her. “This was hilarious! And honestly, Yakko, you should be thanking me, cause your childbearing hips made you look great in this pic. I can’t wait to see people’s reactions-”
She broke off as upon hearing the latter half of her sentence, Yakko’s eyes had widened and he had lunged at her phone. He snatched it from her hands and held it in the air, leveraging his superior height.
“I am not letting you-”
“Distraction!” Yakko grunted as a pillow was thrown in his face, Webby jumping and grabbing the phone from him. She attempted to lob it back to Dot, only for Yakko to promptly intercept it again.
Wakko watched as the situation rapidly turned into a full out scuffle, both girls clambering around Yakko, trying to grab the cell phone from him.
“Only child here…” Max eyed the situation. “Should we do something about this?”
“I dunno,” Wakko said uncertainly. “It’s Yakko who usually decides if me an’ Dot are gonna go too far.”
What ultimately ended the impromptu brawl for the phone was the chime of a notification. Yakko’s arm went slack and he looked at the device in abject dismay. Dot instantly took advantage of his lapse of focus and grabbed it back.
“Kinda posted it already when you weren’t looking, Yaks.”
“Don’t call me that,” Yakko said through his visibly grit teeth. He’d curled his fingers into partial fists, still having his claws out. His tail had stopped thrashing, but his hackles were still slightly up.”You know I-”
“Hate it, yeah, yeah,” Dot waved a lackadaisical hand at him.
Webby, still with an amused smile, had leaned over Dot’s shoulder to observe the state of the posted picture along with her. Yakko kept staring at both of them, still visibly tense, his eyes narrowed.
“You okay?” Max had walked up to him. He seemed to consider putting a hand on Yakko’s shoulder, but then backtracked. “Tried to talk these two out of it, man, but…”
His expression turning to a sort of dull resignation, Yakko released his tension, letting his shoulders slump and his tail drop practically to the ground. “But…talking Dot out of anything she’s set her mind to doesn’t work,” he said, heavily sitting back down on the couch. “Yeah…let’s just move on."
The remainder of the night wasn't particularly fun for Yakko.
It was probably a good thing the two girls had gone off into Dot’s room to continue their sleepover.
Because Yakko wasn't sure how he would fare if he had to keep hearing them giggle over that picture.
The three boys decided to fill the last hour with a cheesy Scifi Channel movie they could all make fun of.
While Yakko put his acting skills to work in an attempt to seem normal, haranguing the movie along with the other two, he could feel worried glances being shot his way.
He expertly hid that he had noticed.
Yakko could levy a guess as to why he was getting these looks behind his back. He had been too shaken to properly modulate his anger, like he normally could when something made him mad.
Typically Yakko was an expert at hiding when he felt hurt, sad…or really anything negative. He’d had decades of practice, but waking up in that particular scenario-
In the back of his mind, he repeated the same thing to himself, over and over.
You're not back there.
///////////////////////
For a time after going into Dot’s room, the two girls contented themselves with doing stuff with their hair.
At the same time, the two passed time by reading the couple of comments that had cropped up on the picture.
One or two were mocking, but to Dot’s amusement a lot of them were complimentary. Not that she was super surprised, because she had always thought Yakko could pull a dress off.
It was when the two decided to go to sleep that doubts started to crop up.
Dot found that as much as she’d tried, the concerns Wakko had presented earlier were starting to get to her. As Webby swiftly fell asleep in a sleeping bag she’d set up on Dot’s rug, the Warner sister found herself staring at her wall.
Gradually she started to actually think over what had happened. In the moment, her brother’s reactions had seemed funny, and that had been all Dot had cared about at the time.
Now, actually analyzing what had happened, she was reluctantly starting to wonder if Wakko was right that her prank had been a bad idea. While not as sensitive to emotions as him, portions of Yakko’s behavior did seem a bit weird in hindsight.
Now too disturbed to just lie there anymore, Dot carefully sat up and slid out of bed. Not wanting to wake her sleepover partner, she tiptoed to her door and cracked it open. She slid through it and padded past the bathroom and Wakko’s room, reaching Yakko’s.
Once there, Dot bit her lip and hesitantly knocked on his bedroom door, wondering if she would even get a response. For all she knew, Yakko was already asleep.
Inside his room, Yakko hadn't fallen asleep. Instead he found himself laying on his bed for the last hour and a half, staring at nothing.
He couldn't seem to think about anything except what had happened earlier, about how his chest had tightened in panic. About how fragile he had felt in the moment, how his mind had blanked, how the shame had come back…
All of this reminded Yakko of PTSD symptoms, which hardly made him feel any better.
And he was still angry. Except now his anger had died down into a dull, simmering feeling that sat in his gut like a stone.
Logically, he knew that he shouldn’t be mad about this, because it wasn’t as though Dot had known just how badly the prank would affect him. She couldn’t have, when Yakko had never breathed a word about his issues to her or Wakko.
But the anger lingered anyway.
All he could do was hope that by the time morning came, it would go away.
Then Yakko heard the knock on his door.
Dot was starting to consider giving up on her endeavor to talk to Yakko when his door opened. She beheld her brother staring down at her, face carefully blank, now dressed in his green bathrobe and a pair of pinstriped pajama pants.
With a furtive glance over her shoulder, thankful that Max was a heavy sleeper, Dot nervously asked her question in a quiet whisper. “Um…are you okay?”
At first she didn't get a response.
Yakko gestured for her to step just inside his room. Dot did, at the same time trying and failing to read his blank expression. He closed the door behind her, and the two of them stood there in a kind of tense silence.
Then Yakko drew a ragged, irate breath, and Dot saw him bunch a fistful of the robe in his hand.
“You had to post that picture online.”
Instantly, Dot noted he was talking very quietly, and probably not just because of their sleeping houseguests. What bothered her more was how carefully flat his tone was.
But still, she couldn’t help but want to prove Wakko’s concerns baseless and salvage her pride; she didn’t like admitting when she had made a mistake.
“It was just a joke. And it’s not like there hasn’t been fanart of you in a dress, or as a girl-”
The immediate tensing of Yakko’s shoulders told her this had been the wrong thing to say.
“A photo ,” he hissed, clearly fighting to keep his voice low, “Is a very different thing from fanart! It’s a lot more personal than a drawing .”
Now feeling a flicker of guilt, Dot averted her gaze.
“Sometimes I hate how I look.”
At this abrupt statement, Dot was startled into making full eye contact with her brother. As unobservant as she could be when it came to feelings, there was clear hurt there. Strangely, it seemed Yakko wasn’t even trying to hide it.
“You think it helped me feel any better,” he continued in a strained whisper, “that stunt you pulled? I don’t like that I could easily be mistaken for a girl. I never have! It’s why I avoid wearing anything skintight as much as I can, because that shows off just how feminine my build actually is. It’s why I’ve never wanted to give Bug’s crossdressing gag a shot, because all I’m missing is long hair and a rack!”
“You’ve worn skintight stuff on the show.” Stunned by these raw confessions, it was the only response Dot could come up with. Because this kind of emotional honesty wasn’t common with her oldest brother; she wasn’t used to it at all.
“And I hated every second of it.” Yakko bit back. “But, at least that didn’t remind me of-”
Breaking off, Yakko flinched and looked away from her.
“Remind you of…” Dot stammered. “Of what?”
“Nothing,” Yakko muttered dully, his gaze dropping to the floor.
That did it. Dot now officially felt awful about what she’d done tonight. “I’ll take it down.”
“Hardly matters.” Yakko had cracked his bedroom door open again, his tone flat. “I’m sure it’s been circulated everywhere by now. The internet’s forever.”
“I’m still gonna delete it.”
Yakko merely stared at her some more, now with a look of pained resignation. Dot hugged her sides.
Finally Yakko let out a soft sigh, rubbing at the back of his neck with one hand. “What’s done is done. It’s…fine. I’m fine,” he concluded.
"I'm sorry," Dot blurted, desperately. "Really."
Her older brother remained silent for a moment, before issuing an emotionless response. "Okay. Go to bed. I’ll see you tomorrow morning."
With that, Yakko ushered his sister outside and closed his bedroom door, turning and walking slowly back to his bed. He lay back down, rolling onto his side and pulling his sheets back up. Squeezing his eyes shut, Yakko let out a long breath and went back to attempting to fall asleep.
Outside the door, Dot bowed her head, her stomach roiling a bit with guilt.
Rather than immediately returning to her room, she instead went to Wakko’s door. She thought of knocking, then recalled how heavy a sleeper Wakko was.
She cracked the door open and put her ear to it. Hearing loud snoring-a surefire sign the room’s occupant was asleep-Dot impulsively fully entered Wakko’s messy bedroom. She wrinkled her nose a bit at the mess, grateful that she had her own space to retreat to.
Navigating a floor strewn with shirts and food wrappers, she approached the bed. Wakko was laying there, flat on his back with his limbs akimbo amid a tousled blanket and strewn pillows. He had changed into a large t-shirt stamped with a band logo, his hat hung on one of his bedposts. A lit tablet, flashing a game over screen, was laying by Wakko’s left hand. His mouth was open, and Dot winced in mild disgust, seeing a string of drool hanging from his lower jaw.
“Wakko.” She shoved at his shoulder, well aware some jostling would be required to actually wake him up. “Wakko!”
Wakko grunted, then blearily opened his eyes and blinked at her in confusion. “Huh? Dot?” he slurred, sleepily sitting up. “What is it?”
“You were right.” She sat down next to him, bundling up in her nightshirt, suddenly finding one of the wrappers on the floor very interesting. She had to restrain a distressed sniff. “I..think Yakko’s actually mad at me now…I think I did hurt his feelings.”
She felt the bed move and registered Wakko shifting to sit next to her. Then he hugged her, and Dot responded by burying her nose in his stout neck.
The touch of his coarse fur was comforting, though as usual he smelled somewhat musky; a lot like a pet dog that hadn't had a bath in a few weeks. If Dot hadn’t been feeling so sad and guilty, she might have teased Wakko about never bathing beyond an occasional rinse in plain water.
Instead, she allowed herself to fully collapse against his stocky torso, choosing to ignore his lackluster hygiene in favor of comfort. Wakko kept hugging her, soothingly patting her on the back.
Wakko had always seemed to operate at a fairly high body temperature, and that was just fine by her. Because she suddenly felt very cold, and her immediate older brother felt like a cozy hearth fire.
The worst thing about all this was that it reminded Dot of the darker times in the Warner’s shared past, after their creator had died and they had ended up needing to live with his former business partner…who had done his best to turn the younger siblings against their brother. Dot had vowed to never seriously hurt Yakko’s feelings again, because of how mean she had been to him back then.
But it felt like she had accidentally done just that, if unintentionally.
“What if he doesn’t forgive me?”
“I’m sure he will…” Wakko pulled back slightly, and Dot felt his eyes on her. She looked up and met them, seeing a genuine look of comfort. “Yakko would never hate you.” He paused. “What exactly did he say?”
“That…sometimes he hates how he has a girl’s figure,” Dot muttered, guiltily looking away again. “So…I guess what I did tonight was pretty bad.”
Wakko nodded, in a surprisingly solemn manner that contrasted with his usual goofy attitude.
“Oh. Yeah…that’s kinda what I thought. But-look at it this way. We all make mistakes. As long as you show Yakko you’re sorry, I’m sure it’ll be fine.”
Briefly Wakko thought of mentioning how Yakko hadn’t just seemed embarrassed, but scared, especially right when he’d woken up.
He decided against it, not wanting to upset Dot any more.
“You’re sure?” Dot whispered, snuggling up against him some more.
“Yep,” Wakko mumbled, pressing his nose to hers. “I’m sure.”
They sat like that for a little while, before Dot stirred and slipped off Wakko’s bed. “...Thanks, Wakko.”
“No problem. Goodnight,” Wakko said softly.
He watched his sister leave his room, before yawning and flopping back onto his bed.
//////////////////////////
Her talk with Wakko hadn’t made Dot feel completely better, but it had eased her enough to fall asleep.
The next morning, she made an unconscious decision to wake up earlier than everyone else.
A lot earlier, actually.
Then Dot stealthily set about her plan to-hopefully-show Yakko she really was sorry.
Later on, Yakko wandered into their kitchen, still dressed in his sleepwear.
He had ended up eventually falling asleep. Thankfully, he hadn’t had any dreams, or worse, nightmares.
As was usual for him each morning, he had brushed his long furred pelt, a regular ritual to keep it from matting. This in itself often felt relaxing, and had helped to ease what nerves were left over from yesterday. As such, Yakko was fully ready for a lazy Saturday morning.
Most of the time he was an early riser, though today was on the later side for him; around nine A.M.
Yakko hadn’t expected to find anyone else awake. He blinked at the surprising sight of Dot, who was sitting at the kitchen table.
Dot perked up the second she saw him, and Yakko realized she was holding something. Then she held it out, and he saw the object was a belt-slightly more decorative than what he tended to wear on the show. The leather part was embroidered with a stitched pattern, and it had an engraved buckle.
As it happened, Yakko did tend to deviate a little from his usual getup when they weren’t filming, and had a small collection of differently styled belts and pants. It wasn’t too unusual for people to get him new belts as gifts.
That said, this usually happened on the gift giving holidays.
Yakko suspected he knew what this surprise gift was about. He slowly walked up to her, sitting down at the kitchen table next to Dot.
“How unexpected. Not to mention thoughtful." Despite his tone being light, Yakko furrowed his brow at his sister in concern. “Did I sleep until Christmas?” he added in an attempt to cheer her up, even though the sting of last night’s incident hadn’t fully faded.
“No,” Dot replied quietly. “I…thought I should get you something. I saw you eyeballing this,” she placed the belt on the table in front of him. “The last time we went shopping. So I decided to surprise you.”
Yakko thoughtfully ran his fingers over the belt’s engraved buckle. “I’d have forgiven you without a gift,” he said quietly. “Don’t get me wrong, though, I appreciate it.”
Dot finally looked him in the eye, slightly teary eyed. “I really am sorry. Are you mad at me?”
Standing up, Yakko moved closer to his sister. Then he went down on one knee in order to hug her, ruffling the fur on top of her head at the same time.
“Well…honestly, I was a little bit, but not anymore. I’m not gonna hold a grudge against you. Especially not with how hard you’re trying to make up for what happened.”
“I won’t tease you about it again,” Dot said in a small voice. “I should’ve noticed how much you don’t like it.”
Standing up again, Yakko smiled at her, tickling her behind one ear at the same time. Dot giggled in response.
“Duly noted…and appreciated. It’s okay if you didn’t notice anything. My acting skills are quite superb.”
And very often, he had used those acting skills to seem perfectly fine when he wasn’t.
“Well, now I know you feel better if you’re praising yourself.” Dot said, rocking back in the chair, Yakko noting with relief that she was smiling a bit.
“So…” he turned towards the stove. “Think you can get Max and your new friend up, ask them if they’d like to stick around for breakfast?”
“Sure,” Dot finally beamed and slid out of the chair, heading toward the living room.
Yakko took advantage of the resulting few moments alone to collect himself.
For a dangerous second, he had been tempted to tell Dot the truth about his bad reaction to her prank, despite how afraid he was of what her reaction could be. That it went well beyond just occasionally being dissatisfied with his body.
But no, that wouldn’t be fair to her. Yakko wasn’t going to burden his siblings with his problems. They didn't need to know what he was actually afraid of, how bad it actually was.
And he was going to make sure it stayed that way.