And if I didn't know better
I'd think you were singing to me now
If I didn't know better
I'd think you were still around

song: marjorie - taylor swift

The rain fell in a gentle rhythm, its quiet patter echoing the somber atmosphere that hung over the funeral. The air was heavy with grief as friends and acquaintances gathered in solemn silence, dressed in white attire that contrasted starkly with the darkness of Yakko and Wakko's clothing. It had been a week since the accident, a week since the world had shifted their lives in a completely different direction.

In the front row, Wakko's once bright eyes were now dull and listless, the stream of tears that had cascaded down his cheeks long since dried up. His face stuck in a frown, a numbness settling in as he clutched his hat on his lap. Beside him, Yakko sat there quietly, his tail lowered down; a stoic facade to hide the raging emotion bubbling beneath the surface. Every attempt at consolation only seemed to intensify the ache deep inside.

Dr. Otto Von Scratchansniff, a close friend of their parents, stepped forward and spoke with an air of sorrow in his voice. "I can't even begin to comprehend what you two must be going through. Your parents were such wonderful people." A lump formed in Wakko's throat as he looked upon the still bodies of his parents. They had been taken away from them too soon, and their unfamiliar faces filled him with dread. Yakko forced himself to put on a brave face, even though this was not the same couple that was always seen with smiles upon their faces. The Angelina and William Warner that he knew were vibrant and full of life, but here the pair before him seemed void of energy - like empty shells broken beyond repair.

Dr. Scratchansniff shuffled away, leaving Yakko and Wakko to soak in the uneasy atmosphere of their parents' funeral. Everywhere they looked, they saw people talking, but no one seemed to talk about their parents in meaningful ways. Even though it was an entire room full of people, Yakko whispered hoarsely, "It's like we're not even here." Wakko glanced around, hearing scattered chatter and people gawking at the caskets. He felt a wave of grief crash over him as he asked, "How are we supposed to go on without them?" Wakko's voice seemed to drift away from Yakko's hearing range as he saw the caskets being moved.

People opened their umbrellas as they watched the two caskets slowly being lowered onto the ground. The younger Warner sibling shuts his eyes and grips the older Warner brother's hand. He doesn't want to see his parents disappear forever. Yakko's ears twitched when he heard people murmuring behind them in hushed tones, shuffling their feet in the dirt. White roses tumbled down into the abyss before them as Yakko and Wakko stepped forward to throw their own roses on top. After a few moments of silence, Yakko heard the thud of shovels scooping up dirt to fill the grave and cover the caskets, followed by a quiet thud as each tombstone was set in place.

One by one, those people said their final condolences and farewells to the Warner siblings. Leaving Yakko and Wakko there soaking in the rain, with Pinky and The Brain beside them. Angelina and William had no one else to take with the two children, Yakko and Wakko. So, as their last act of kindness, they bequeathed custody of the kids to Pinky and The Brain. Without any hesitation, they welcomed them with open arms and made them part of their family.

⋆｡˚ ੈ✩‧₊˚ ✧.*

A month passed by, Pinky and The Brain helped the siblings move to a new house, their tiny figures scurrying back and forth as they prepared for the move. Yakko and Wakko followed close behind, with boxes of old photos and items in hand. They are doing what they could to help while also trying to hold in the emotions that wanted to swell. The move to a new house was supposed to be a fresh start.

The siblings settled in their new room, a spacious room with a bunk bed, cabinets, and a study table. It was different from their small room with one bed that they have to share. An uncomfortable silence covered the room as Yakko and Wakko fill the room with their things, no eye contact or a mutter which has been the norm for the past month. Wakko heard a sniffle, they turned to look at Yakko crying as he holds the family photo.

It was a photo of them one summer night. Glistening fireflies covered them. 5 year old Yakko, along with baby Wakko, tried to catch the bright flying bugs. William takes photos of the kids as they run around the garden. Angelina holds a year-old Dot with a soft grin. Seeing the charming opportunity to capture this moment, William grabbed his tripod and gathered them for a family photo. A still in their lives that they could never recreate.

Wakko puts down his things and sits beside a shaking Yakko. The blob of tears streamed down and soaked the frame. All of the pent up grief he tried so hard to repress is being let out. For him, their faces seemed obscured. "It's like I'm forgetting how they sound." He croaked, Wakko pulled out a handkerchief and gave it to him. Yakko looked at the initials on the handkerchief, A.C.W II, Angelina Contessa Warner II. He carefully wiped his eyes with the handkerchief and violently sneezed at it. Wakko leaned their head on Yakko's shoulder while lightly rubbing his back to calm down the shaking. "They are really gone."

"I know you think that, but there's still in our hearts." Wakko tries to console his brother, but he doesn't want to sound like every pity-filled comment from the people at the funeral. Yet it isn't what Yakko wanted to hear from Wakko. "But they are dead, Wakko! It's just the two of us left, we can't go on!" He puts the frame facing down on the top of the table, not wanting to see the haunting faces of the people in that photo. Wakko grabs it from the table, wiping off the leftover tears, "We can still go on, we can't give up living... Mommy and dadoo wouldn't want that for us."

"But look! The people that we love are quickly disappearing and we can't do anything but to drown ourselves in sadness. What more can we do? Forget about them and move on? Just like that?" Yakko fumed, avoiding Wakko's gaze while he talked. The thought of their family leaving them and for them to just do something else wasn't what he wanted. Everything was too sudden, he wanted to be like the past. To be in a time where they were happy and still complete.

Wakko's ears drooped down, he doesn't like people angrily shouting. It makes his heart hurt that his brother feels that way, so he tries to talk the anger out. "Yakko, I know you're angry, you're sad, and you're grieving, but it's just no use trying to find a way to bring them back. We just have to accept that we won't see them again. We don't have to stay in the past. As much as it hurts us, we need to keep moving forward."

Wakko pulls his brother into a hug. The oldest sibling tightly clings to his younger sibling. "First Angie disappears, then mom and dad. I don't want you to disappear too, Wakko." Wakko made Yakko face him as he answered him. "I won't disappear. I will not leave you, you said it's only the two of us. We will take care of each other." Yakko looked at Wakko, his face filled with hope and determination, his ears standing high up. He couldn't help but to smile at his sibling's optimism. It had been so long since he smiled he felt his cheeks strain. "Thank you little sib."

Dinner brought the four together around the table. Pinky and The Brain talked about some kind of invention they were making. Wakko is munching a whole lot of mashed potatoes and Yakko is quiet, poking around his food. After that talk with Wakko, he kept thinking about the circumstances of their parents' death. Their guardians haven't disclosed the tragedy to them yet.

When they finished dinner, he found the courage to ask Pinky and Brain about it. "Uhhhhhhh Pinky, Brain, we never really got the full story about... about what happened to our parents. How did they...?" Pinky gave his and Brain's plate for Wakko to bring to the sink. Then he goes to Yakko's side. "Narf! Well, you see, Yakko, it's rather..."

"Straightforward. They were killed in a deliberate car crash. A suspected driver crashed into them, and then attempted to set the car on fire." Brain cuts him off to give a more concise answer than what Pinky plans to say. The revelation left Yakko and Wakko stunned, grappling with the incomprehensible act of malice. The two siblings glanced at each other, it was much more horrible than they thought. "Who would do that to mommy and dadoo?" Wakko spoke up for him and his brother, who could have harbored such animosity towards their family if they had done nothing wrong to anyone.

Brain sighed and let the kids sit down. "There are those who might have envied their success, their genius. It's not uncommon for those feelings to manifest in dangerous ways." Yakko kept silent, he was at a loss for words and trying to think of what to say or to ask next. Wakko took off his hat and fiddled with it. He had a darker thought - that their parents' tragic fate might somehow be tied to the disappearance of their sister. "Do you think... I mean, could this be connected to what happened to Angie?"

The tension in the room heightened, "You mean that the person responsible for Angie's kidnapping is the same person responsible for our parents' death?" each word Yakko said hangs in the air like a weighty secret. "Yakko, your parents didn't tell us how your sister disappeared..." Pinky tried to steer the conversation to another topic. After all, Angelina and William did not clarify to the mousey pair how it all happened.

Yakko had a shaky sigh and recounted the night of the break-in. His voice trembled as he described the masked intruders who had torn their family apart. "I heard a noise that night and went to check it out. One of the masked men... covered my mouth with tape and shoved me into the closet. It was dark. I think that they jammed the door because I couldn't open it from the inside. I started panicking. There were screams and gunshots. I can hear dad arguing and struggling. I wanted to get out so badly to help mom and dad, or keep my siblings safe.

The silence became deafening. I had no idea how long we stayed locked in that claustrophobic closet. Suddenly, the closet door burst open and Mom was there with Wakko cradling in her arms. We stepped out of the house, dad was following behind us, and were greeted with the chaos of flashing lights and blaring sirens as police cars poured into the street. They searched the house for the intruders but it was too late. They're gone, and they took Angie with them."

The memory weighed heavily on Yakko's heart. He avoids their looks and keeps his head slightly down. The impact of it lingers around them, it's hard for him to remove that guilt of not being able to help their parents. Wakko, too, felt the heaviness of the tale, but he knew that they couldn't let grief consume them entirely. They hold Yakko's hand, giving him a small yet significant gesture that he's not alone.

Brain, who had been deep in thought, looked at Yakko and Wakko. His expression was a mixture of analytical assessment and genuine concern. He cleared his throat before responding. "There is a conceivable plausibility to your earlier conjecture, Wakko. The convergence of that break-in and subsequent kidnapping alongside the tragic demise of Angelina and William does indeed raise suspicions. One must ponder why these malevolent forces targeted your family on two distinct occasions."

Pinky, ever the optimist, goes to Yakko's shoulder and lightly pats him. His blue eyes brimmed with sincerity as he spoke, his voice gentle and reassuring. "Gee, Brain, do you think we could help them find out what happened?" The short lab mice paced on the table, thinking about some possible plan to solve their mystery. "It's a complex situation, Pinky. The odds of finding concrete answers are uncertain, and the journey may be fraught with obstacles. However, if there's even a slight chance of finding justice, or unraveling the truth behind this tragedy, we should assist them."

The gravity of Brain's words hung in the air, underscoring the seriousness of the commitment he was proposing. The younger Warner sibling leaned in and placed an arm around Yakko. Everything in their lives has been tragedy after tragedy and they only hope for a good ending. If he and his brother have to do an investigation to end this misfortune, then so be it. Wakko nodded, his expression a mixture of determination and gratitude.

The four souls within that room found solace in each other's presence. In the midst of their shared grief and the weight of their parents' loss, Yakko, Wakko, Pinky, and Brain form an unspoken pact. For the mousey pair, they would do whatever it takes to protect and help the Warner siblings from any harm that would come their way. And for the siblings, they plan to see answers, to unveil the truth that had been hidden from them, and to have the closure that they never got. They would trigger a series of events that would not only unravel the mystery but also shape their destinies in ways they couldn't yet fathom.