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(20 years ago)
Donald’s twin sister was nowhere to be found. He knew where Della had been about ten minutes ago, but she had since vanished and left Donald alone in a sea of strangers. Which was, honestly, pretty par for the course for Della. They go to a new city in another country? She disappears. They go to the bottom of the ocean? She disappears. They go to high school orientation?
Well, had Donald really been expecting anything else?
He sighed, looking around. He kept telling himself that he didn’t need to know where Della was to have a good time or feel safe, but here he was, anxiously scanning the room for her. Again. He just couldn’t shake the feeling that he had to be aware of her at all times that came hand-in-hand with the things they did with their uncle-turned-father-figure on the weekends. Scrooge hadn’t done it on purpose, but he’d certainly burned a protective streak a mile wide into Donald. Needless to say, he was a little on edge.
But a very tall boy found his way into the seat next to him, and one even shorter than Donald into the seat on the other side, and within the hour he’d almost forgotten to be anxious about his sister. The boy on his right had introduced himself as Goofy, a play on his last name as he insisted that his first was too embarrassing to share. The one on his left was Michael-call-me-Mickey Mouse. They’d compared schedules and discovered that in addition to being in the same home room (which had been what brought them to the same table in the first place), they shared an English class, plus Mickey and Goofy were in the same Spanish class and Donald and Goofy had gym together and Mickey and Donald had art. Which meant, at the very least, that he had friends through almost half his day already, Della or no Della.
By the end of their freshman year, Donald knew he had friends in Mickey and Goofy for life.
--
(18 years ago)
Goofy was the one who introduced them to Daisy. She was in his math class, just transferred in for junior and senior year. He brought her to the lunch table where Donald sat with Mickey and Minnie (who’d been in their sophomore homeroom and That Was That) discussing the legitimacy of Atlantis.
“Look, I’m telling you, Uncle Scrooge is convinced,” Donald was saying. “And I’ve never known him to be wrong about this kind of thing.”
Goofy approached the table, lunchbag in hand, and slipped on a dropped chip bag and went sprawling to the floor.
“Hi, Goofy,” Minnie, Mickey, and Donald chorused in unison without looking up.
“Hi guys,” Goofy replied as he pulled himself back to his feet. “I brought a new friend, if that’s cool with you guys. Her name’s Daisy.”
That’s when the others turned to look at him. Daisy was a small duck – smaller than Donald, who was by several inches the shortest in their group. She wore a purple dress and a gigantic bow on the top of her head.
Minnie stood up immediately, straightening her own giant bow. “I’m Minnie,” she said, “and I think we’re going to get along swell.”
Daisy laughed. “I think so, too.”
“I’m Mickey,” said Mickey, not standing. He gestured toward Donald, who was dumbstruck. “That’s Donald, don’t mind him. He’s never talked to anyone pretty before, apparently.”
Donald swatted at him, and the whole thing devolved into a great big pile of nonsense right there in the middle of the cafeteria. And after that first impression, somehow Daisy still thought they were worth spending time with.
--
(16 years ago)
They were sitting in McDuck mansion, in the weird little sitting room between Donald and Della’s bedrooms. Donald, Mickey, and Goofy had been inseparable since the day they met, with Minnie and Daisy stuck to them like glue since their addition, and tomorrow Goofy was leaving for college. A few days after that, Mickey would leave, then Minnie and Donald who were the only ones going to the same place. Daisy started last, nearly into September.
“We have to swear not to lose touch,” Mickey said very seriously. “You guys are my best pals in the world, and I’m not losing that over some stinkin’ school.”
“Agreed,” said Daisy. She and Minnie gave each other significant looks. They did this a lot, from Donald’s experience. He was pretty sure the girls had some kind of psychic communication going on.
Goofy looked at Donald, who obliged him by fulfilling his half of a mocking version of the look Minnie and Daisy were giving each other. Because what is the true love of friendship if not making weird faces at each other to make fun of your other friends? Mickey rolled his eyes so hard Donald could practically hear it, then elbowed Donald.
“What are we doing tonight?” he asked. “We’ve got a few more hours before Goof has to get home to sleep before his flight.”
“We could watch a movie?” suggested Minnie.
“Board game,” Daisy offered.
“I dunno, guys, I’m just happy to hang out with you,” said Goofy.
All eyes fell on Donald, who was frowning at his feet.
“What do you think, Donnie?” Goofy asked.
“Let’s go on an adventure.” Donald looked up at his friends, a small crease between his eyebrows. “Nothing big, obviously. Just – let’s get out of the house, you know?”
“Alright,” said Daisy, “I’ll bite. What’s your plan?”
“Well, I’m not supposed to go on real adventures without at least Dell,” Donald replied, “and she’s –“ he waved vaguely toward her room, “doing whatever Della does when she’s ignoring me. But the mansion grounds are pretty expansive and there’s all kinds of crazy shit out there –“
“Don!”
“Sorry, Min.” Donald cleared his throat. “Crazy stuff. I bet we could find something cool just outside the back door.”
The five of them looked at each other, and for a long moment, they all contemplated the idea in silence.
Mickey broke it, because Mickey always did. “What’re we waiting for? Let’s go!”
--
(14 years ago)
“I can’t believe you’re dropping the history major, Donnie,” Minnie said. They were lounging on opposite ends of the terrible couch in their shared apartment. “You were always so excited about it.”
“Yeah, I – yeah,” replied Donald, not looking at her. “I need a major I can do stuff with though, you know? Can’t live in Uncle Scrooge’s house forever.”
“You don’t live in Scrooge McDuck’s house now,” Minnie pointed out, waving across their tiny apartment.
“This barely counts, Min,” Donald said. He leaned forward, putting his hands on Minnie’s ankles. “Like, I love you, but living with you for college isn’t exactly the rest of my life.”
“No, it isn’t.” Minnie smiled at him, sweet as ever. “Still, that’s no reason to stop doing something you’re interested in. Maybe keep it as a minor?”
“Maybe.” He swept a hand through his feathers. “I don’t know.”
Minnie leaned toward him, too, patting his hand. “You’ll work it out. In the meantime, you do at least get to share an apartment with your best friend in the world –“
“Aw, man, since when has Mickey lived here?” Donald laughed.
“Oh, you!” Minnie said, playfully tossing a pillow at him.
The night devolved into pillow fights and laughter from there.
--
(12 years ago)
“I can’t only take one of them.”
“Why does it matter, you’re dating Daisy, aren’t you?”
“Not really, I – Daisy’s always been more of a – “
“Well, she’s into you, you know.”
“I’m pretty sure we’ve gotten that out of our systems, actually.”
“Oh my god, you’re joking.”
“You asked.”
“No, I’m pretty sure I didn’t.”
“So you’ve – but you’re not together? I always kind of thought you were –“
“How did this become about me and Daisy, anyway?”
Goofy fixed Donald with a serious look. “I dunno, Donnie, doesn’t it always come back to you and Daisy?”
“I don’t know, Goof, ‘cause it sure started as a conversation about José and Panchito,” Donald said. He waved vaguely at Mickey. “Just because Minnie and Mickey are settling down together doesn’t mean I’ve got to get with Dais and have ducklings or anything.”
“Nobody said you had to,” said Mickey, frowning. “Only that we thought you and her had finally pulled it together, and then you come in asking if you can bring your boys as your plus one. I didn’t think the three of you were still –“
“It’s not – it’s more casual now.” Donald’s face was reddening visibly under his feathers. “I don’t know why you thought I was going with Daisy again though.”
“You act like you are,” Goofy said. “You always have.”
Donald shook his head. “It’s not like that.”
It turned out, at the wedding, that it rather was like that. And, perhaps more importantly, that Daisy was really tired of it being Like That, and they spent quite a bit of time dancing and having quiet but heated arguments and then turning to smile as normally as possible at anyone who came close to them.
It turned out that Daisy was over Donald’s refusal to get serious with anyone, done with wondering where she stood next to his other interests (with a sharp wave toward where José and Panchito were dancing together across the floor), and finished with him. This stung, but was made all the worse for the fact that they shared almost their entire friend group and were currently at a wedding, which is a terrible place to break up a relationship that may or may not have actually been a relationship.
“But Dais –“ Donald broke off so that they could smile sweetly at the newlyweds for a moment, who had drifted close to them on the dance floor. As soon as they were gone, he spoke again. “Dais, we can’t let this be awkward when we’re out with the others, okay?”
“Oh, that won’t be a problem,” Daisy said with a humorless laugh. “I got into the masters program I applied to. You know, the one in Ireland? And I’m going. So I won’t be around to make things awkward.”
And with that she pushed away from Donald and didn’t talk to him for the rest of the night.
She left a month later. Didn’t talk to Donald for the next twelve years.
--
(today)
Donald was at a Dead Boring Uncle Scrooge Party, as he and his sister had always called them. It was officially the Welcome Della And Donald Home And Also We Survived A Space Invasion party of the year, but the fact of the matter was that these big fancy parties were and had always been the dullest part of life with Scrooge McDuck. And, of course, Donald’s twin sister had thoroughly disappeared. He knew where she had been about ten minutes ago, but this was always how things went with Della. They went to high school, she disappeared. They went on adventures, she disappeared. She had kids, she – well. That one wasn’t entirely her fault.
Donald had a sneaking suspicion that Della had snuck away upstairs to where the kids were, since they had been freed from any responsibility to attend the party beyond being introduced right at the start. In fact, the kids had rather been encouraged to stay away from things, since they were known to cause chaos even when there wasn’t any chaos to be found. So that left Donald alone, no Della and no kids to distract him, chatting with the most boring people on the planet.
He’d been texting all night in his group chat with Minnie and the boys, who’d been planning to attend but were running late due to some circumstance out of their control, but it wasn’t quite the same as being able to retreat into a corner and avoid everyone else with them like in the old days. Still, Mickey had just let him know that they were on their way again so hopefully they’d arrive soon.
In the meantime, he was trying to drift toward the stairs in the hope that if something else held up his friends he’d be able to sneak away to his kids. He’d almost made it out when he heard a voice that threw him back to being seventeen with his first crush, to sitting in the high school lunchroom being made fun of by his best friend. He whipped around, almost losing his footing on the stairs.
“Daisy?”
“Donald Duck!” And there she was, standing partway across the room with Mickey, Minnie, and Goofy behind her. Delayed indeed. More like planning an ambush.
Donald stumbled down the stairs to meet her, catching her in a disbelieving hug. “Dais – Dais, I’m so sorry.”
“Yeah, I’m sorry, too,” she replied. “Is it true you’re a dad now?”
Donald laughed as Mickey started to splutter a why would we lie about that. “Yeah, kind of. Want to meet my kids? And Dell’s –“ he waved vaguely up toward Webby’s room, where the kids were playing, “back from the dead or something, she’s probably up there too.”
“Then what are we waiting for?” Daisy took Donald’s hand and waved for the Mouses and Goofy to follow them. “Let’s go. You’ll have to catch me up, though. Since when is Della back?”
“Not long. You haven’t missed much.”
“Oh, Donnie, I’m pretty sure I’ve missed everything.”