Archive of Our Own ^beta

Chapter Text

For being so damn zany and energetic, there was one odd thing the Warner siblings have to deal with, and that was forcing Wakko to go out.

Strange, right? You’d think he’d want to go out and about, maybe make a few special friends in the way. But no, it went nothing like that. 

Instead...

“Wakko.” Yakko begins, mentally formulating a weak plan in his head of how he can trick Wakko into getting out of the tower in his own accord.

Wakko lays on his stomach on the couch, legs crossed as he chews on his sweater collar while playing his new favorite switch game: animal crossing. Yakko sees Dot grimace.

“Wakko, Stop chewing on your shirt!”

Wakko just glares at her, and releases the wet part of his sweater, tongue hanging out.

“Okay. Look. We’re gonna go out for a bit, dot wants to go to Ulta, but I thought we could go get ice cream after! What do you say?” Yakko gives his sweetest, most optimistic smile he could give.

Wakko, of course, sighs and rolls over, his ears flopping against the side of the couch. “I don’t want to go.”

“Come on bud. It won’t be fun without you.”

“No.”

Dot, who is considerably less patient than him, sighs out, annoyed.

“Come on Wakko. You always do this. We’re all going, and you know you never end up staying here anyways.”

“I don’t care. I don’t want to go.”

“Come on-“

“I don’t want to go!” Wakko finally shouts out, frustrated. He takes the toss blanket from the corner of the couch and covers himself, hiding his face underneath.

Dot growls. “You always do this, Wakko! Why do you have to be so damn complicated?!”

“Hey.” Yakko scolds. “Don’t be mean. Look-“

“I don’t care. I don’t want to go.”

“Okay. Go take your bath and-“

“No.”

“You don’t even want to do that?!”

“No! Just leave me alone!” Wakko growls out, tears beginning to form in his eyes. He curls up as tight as he can and grabs the switch again, focusing all his attention onto it.

Yakko sighs, then smiles at his sister sympathetically. “Look dot, why don’t we just-“

“Don’t you dare” Dot glares at him. “Don’t. You promised.”   

“But-“

“You always take his side!” Dot finally explodes, and she glares over at Wakko. “You’re such a baby! They call me spoiled but look at you!”

“Angelina!” Yakko snaps, white hot anger bubbling in his stomach, along with something he never usually felt: disappointment.

Dot stiffens up, hugging her shoulders and looking scared for a moment, realizing she really messed up if Yakko used her real name. “Hnngh....” after a moment, she shakes her head and growls at Wakko, whose now sobbing quietly.

“Whatever.” She mumbles and turns to walk away. “Let’s go and do nothing at all today. Just because Prince Wakkorotti wants to stay home for the third week in the row.”

With that, she walks into their room, and slams the door.

Yakko breathes hard, half wanting to go after her and ground her and half wanting to stay here and comfort their little brother. He chooses the second, and he goes to sit next to him.

Wakko’s crying quietly, tongue sticking out moodily. He’s looking down at his switch, refusing to meet Yakko’s eye. He sighs.

“It’s okay Wakko, come here.” Yakko leans in and wraps his arms around his little brother. Wakko squirms for a second, then relaxes his embrace.

“You know,” Yakko’s says after a bit. “Even though Dot was really mean about how she said it, she’s right in a way.”

He feels Wakko stiffen, but rubs his arm and continues. “We can’t be canceling something shes wanted to do just because you want to stay home. It really hurts her, she thinks I take sides. I can’t always be advocating for you, little brother. I know you don’t like going out, especially without warning, but just try okay? It’s not as bad as you think, especially once your out. Please just try, for Dot. She hasn’t been able to go anywhere.”

Wakko kicks his feet lightly, chin pressing against his chest as he looks down, sniffling quietly. He shrugs. “I don’t want to go.” He whimpers.

Yakko sighs, then brightens. “Okay, I have an idea. What if we go to gamestop too? We can get that game you’ve been wanting, overcooked. We can go to ulta first, then after go there. How’s that sound?”

At the mention of him getting a new game, Wakko looks up, tail beginning to wag. “...Okay. Fine.”

“Good.” Yakko smiles.

A few minutes later, he calls Dot over. He doesn’t even have to say anything before she, reluctantly, apologizes. She still looks angry, but after hearing about the plan, she brightens.

Yakko rubs his face, and pats himself on the back. Hey, someone has to give him some credit.

He loves happy endings.

Chapter Text

“Dot!” Yakko sing songs.

Dot crinkles her nose.

“Yesss?”

She’s cleaning the kitchen, something she finds quite relaxing actually. The feeling of the warm water against her paw strangely made her happy.

Of course, that relaxing atmosphere is broken when Yakko comes in.

“Guess what your big brother did. Guess. Guess.”

“Uh oh.” Dots face grows comedically red, on purpose of course, and Yakko chokes on air. Dot has to hold back a loud laugh at the sight of her brother losing his cool for just a second.

“Ya know I outta wash your head out with soap young lady.” He coughs out after a second, and Dot blinks innocently.

“I don’t even know what your talking about!”

“Mhm.” Yakko glares at her, then straightens up, smiling. “Anyways, i got us candy! So we can all watch a movie together tonight!”

Dot squeals out at the mention of candy. “Oh yakko! You’re the best! What kind?”

“Ah you know....” Yakko pretends to be nonchalant. “Only the finest for my baby sister. M&M’s.”

“My favorite!”! Dot bounces on her heels happily. “Thank you so much! What movie are we gonna watch?”

Yakko taps his chin. “I’m not sure, it’s Wakko’s turn to pick. He says it’s a surprise.”

Dot groans. “Oh great...Yakko, it’s obviously going to be—

“No deposit, no return!”

Dot sits on the media room couch, groaning as she heard the movie name once more. “Wakko, Isn’t there ANY other actor you want to obsess about? Once whose movies we haven’t watched 24/7? If I see Don Knotts on the big screen one more time, I’m going to TURN into Don Knotts!”

“No.” Wakko says, tongue sticking out. “And now I’m just going to show it to you even more! I would love to have Don Knotts as a sister!”

Dot groans out, even louder than she had previously, and Yakko laughs.

“You dug your own hole, sister of mine.”

“Shut up.” She hisses, and she sits back and curls herself around the pillows, snuggling into them as she braces herself for an hour of a movie she basically knows inside out.

She hears Yakko and Wakko settle down as well, happily munching on their portion of M&M’s. Well, at least Yakko.

It’s only five minutes into the movie when Dot hears her name being called out.

Oh. Oh no.

She ignores it.

“Dot~!”

“Nope.”

“Wrong answer.”

She feels two bodies crash into her and she screams out in horror as she’s inevitably pulled into her brothers cuddles, sandwiched in between two bodies.

“Get off me!” Dot kicks.

“Your big brothers NEED cuddles though!”

Dot holds back bratty sobs.

The truth is...she doesn’t like affection.

Theres something about being held in a caring way that makes her feel so...uncomfortable?

Affection makes her feel uncomfortable. It makes her feel awkward.

But her brothers don’t know this.

She feels Wakko’s tail thumping against the couch in excitement, and next thing she knows Yakko’s nuzzling her nose. Dot feels like she’s about to cry. For absolutely no reason.

“Must you annoy me so?!” She says instead.

“Yes.” Yakko says, pressing her against his chest. Wakko swings one arm around her middle and licks her cheek. Dot cringes. She feels trapped.

Come on! Get a hold of yourself! These are your brothers! Your family! Your supposed to like affection from them! It means they love you!

Dot takes a deep breath and womans up, snuggling closer into her brothers chest. She holds Wakko’s hand and nuzzles his nose. She feels awkward and moody.

“Fine. You win.” She says.  It’s almost is worth it when Wakko yips happily, and Yakko hums in satisfaction.

Something about this cuddle pile feels too foreign, even though they had forced Dot into it more times that she can count on two hands.

She pushes it away, and tries to focus on the movie, ignoring the tears that threaten to well up her eyes.

That night, when she’s sure her brothers are asleep, Dot lets out her tears.

She doesn’t get it. Why is she like this? Why is it so hard for her to enjoy that kind of stuff? Isn’t that something a lot of people love? Physical affection? Affection in general?

Dot thinks back to the times when her brothers had told her they loved her.

‘Who doesn’t?’ She would say, just to avoid saying it back.

She thinks back to the first time they called her Dottie. It was such a sweet, affectionate nickname. She hated it.

“Don’t call me that again.” She growled.

Dot puts her hands in her face. She’s a horrible sister. They treat her so well, give her all the love she needs and deserves for being so cute (Whoops. Well, she is!), and she takes it all for granted.

She falls asleep that night with her heart heavy in her chest.

Yakko stirs at his morning coffee, eyes heavy with sleep as he yawns. He’s so tired.

He turns his head to look back at where their room is. Strange. Dot isn’t up yet.

Shrugging to himself, he starts to gulp down his coffee quickly. He needs the caffeine in his body now. That Don Knotts marathon last night had left him exhausted and slightly cranky. As much as he loves Wakko, he doesn’t know how much more of Don Knotts he can take.

“Old fucker.” He mumbles to himself.

“I’m telling.” He hears a voice say. Grinning, Yakko turns to the source of the voice.

“No, you’re not.”

Dot only smiles back mischievously. “Oh yes i am. You’re going to be in so much trouble.”

“I’ll tell Wakko you stole his camera yesterday.”

Dot gasps. “You monster!”

“You started it.”

“You can’t tell on me! I’m just a cute little thing!”

“Yes you are.” Yakko coos, and pinches her cheek affectionately. Dot crinkles her nose up.

“Ew.”

Just to teach her a lesson, Yakko pinches her other cheek, too. Dot begins to squirm, like she usually does.

“Get off me!”

Yakko laughs. “Nope.” and his two fingers turn to palms, and he’s suddenly he’s sandwiching her cheeks in between them.

Dot kicks him lightly in the shin, and he surrenders, releasing her cheeks with a light little slap on them.

Dot sticks her tongue out. “Yuck! I hate you!”

“No you don’t.”

Dot suddenly looks uncomfortable. She shifts on onto one leg, then speaks. “You’re right, i don’t. I love you.”

Yakko blinks, then breaks out into a smile.

He knows Dottie hates affection. He knows Dottie can’t stand cuddles and kisses and hugs and words of affection.

Does he care? No. Being the older brother he is, he’s very touchy with his siblings. He raised them, he loves them, and that’s just how he shows it.

But Dottie? She despises all of that. It’s apparent, it has been apparent ever since she had yelled at them not to address her as (the super affectionate nickname) ‘Dottie.’

Seeing her try and show affection like that though, it warms his heart.

“I love you too baby sister.” He says casually, as to not make her feel more awkward than she already did. He sees Dot brighten up, looking slightly proud of herself, and Yakko hides his smile behind his empty coffee cup.

Chapter Text

Wakko always knew there was something different about him.

As the middle child, he had been drawn to be the “Wacky.” one. The looney one. Hell, even his name pointed out that obvious fact.

But when does “Wacky.” Become....”Stupid.” ?

When does “Wacky” become “Crazy”,  “Slow” , “Annoying” ?

Different?

Wakko walks into the kitchen for the fifth time that morning. Yakko’s already awake, sipping on coffee while reading the news. He looks tired. He was probably up late again, doing god knows what. He still chirps out a good morning, though.

Dots also awake, Wakko can tell because of the way her bed is set up. The stuffed animals are lined up neatly. Bigger in the back, smaller at the front.

Then he blinks, shoving his face in his hands.

Or maybe she’s just not in her bed.

Shaking his head to himself, he heads over to pantry once again, jumping up and down in place. Nothing has changed. Absolutely nothing. There’s still nothing new to eat. His nose twitches a few times. What now? He’s hungry...he thinks-

“....WAKKO!”

“What?!” He yelps, fur standing up as he’s startled out of his food induced daze.

He turns to look at Yakko, whose looking at him with an amused, but impatient expression.

“Wow. Even worse this morning, huh?”

Wakko hugs himself and shifts his weight from foot to foot, glaring at him. “Sor-RY!

“It’s okay bud. Dots calling you.”

A horrid feeling suddenly strikes through him, great. Greatgreatgreatgreat.

“I’ll be right back!” Wakko hops a few times in place before scampering off to the restroom. Once he’s there, he knocks two times.

“Dotttt!”

There’s a few seconds of silence before Wakko hears two other knocks. Then, a quiet “Come in!”

He opens the door, and is immediately hit by warm steam and the strong odor of some kind of tropical, coconutty scent. There, in front of the mirror, was dot, observing her reflection in the mirror, eyeing her eyelids multiple times before turning to glare at him.

“W-what!?”

“I know you grabbed it.”

“I don’t know what your talking about-“

“My needle roller! Your grabbed it again didn’t you?”

“Hnngh...” Wakko bounced in place a few times, arms wrapping around himself. He did. He did grab it. He just really, really likes how the light pressure felt on the skin under his fur... “I’ll bring it right now-“

“You shouldn’t have grabbed it in the first place!”

“You know, you’re not even supposed to be using it everyday! It’s bad for your skin! That’s what Yakko says!”

“Who cares what Yakko says right now! Don’t try and change the subject! Stop grabbing my stuff!”

“Okay! I said I’m sorry!”

Dot huffs. “You’re not! It’s always the same with you! You never, never listen.”

That really hits Wakko in the heart. He feels his ears droop down even further than they had been. He tugs on them, growling at dot, and turns around. He ignores her angry calls as he storms out of there as fast as he can.

He knows he doesn’t listen. Yakko knows, she knows. So why’d she have to mention it?

He doesn’t know why it’s so hard for him to just...listen. It’s always getting him into trouble. It’s like his mind can never think properly. Never. He’s sick of it.

So, so sick of it.

Chapter Text

Yakko yawns, his head lolling to the side once again as his body tries to forcibly shut down.

Is Yakko going to let it? No. Absolutely not. He has more important things to do. More important things like....

“Rise and fall of the Chinese dynasties?” He mumbles to himself. He can barely even hear his own voice. “Count me in.”

What time is it anyways? His siblings were fast asleep. One above him, one under him. They were probably having the best sleep of their lives. He should join them, he thinks. He should sleep so he can wake up in the morning and be able to give 100% on whatever mayhem his siblings want to cause. He should sleep.

But he doesn’t.

‘Just a little more.’ He thinks to himself.

‘Right after this answer.’

‘Right after I search up this question.’

‘Right after I watch this video.’

‘Once I watch this other video halfway I’ll sleep.’

By six AM, Yakko loses against his body’s wishes, and he passes out right in the middle of watching a documentary about the history of candy.

Naturally, the next morning, he’s exhausted.

His movements are as slow and heavy as his eyes are. He can’t even blink. It’s 9:00 in the morning and he feels like crying because of how stupid he was. He pours himself a cup of coffee, eyes threatening to slip closed while it’s brewing.

His siblings notice. He knows they do. Dot just clicks his tongue at him. Wakko blinks at him, confused, then his face droops as his expression morphs into something more moody. Yakko’s too tired to care.

(He doesn’t notice his siblings giving each other side eyes, silently telling each other we have to do something, this can’t keep happening.)

In the end, he can’t even remember anything he had read on Chinese dynasties.