Chapter Text
“What’s with you?” Huey asked Louie who was glaring intently out the window.
“Nothing,” Louie grumbled.
Huey peeked over his triplet and was joined by Dewey and Webby. Together they saw Donald leaving his houseboat, all dressed up, and headed towards the gate.
“Are you mad about him going out with that tie? Cos you’re right. Totally clashes with his blazer.” Dewey pointed out.
“That’s the tie we gave him for Father’s Day last year.” Huey pointed out.
“I take it back, it adds personality,” Dewey replied.
“I think it’s sweet! This is his third date with Daisy. It’s going really well for them. Oh! Soon there might be a wedding!” Webby exclaimed.
Louie tore his eyes away from his uncle’s retreating form to stare incredulously at Webby. Before he could stutter out how insane that sounded, his brothers had thoughts of their own and they weren’t matching up with his.
“The organization and checklists for a wedding would be an amazing project!” Huey exclaimed.
“This will be my chance to be the Best Dewey Duck!” Dewey exclaimed. You could practically see the stars in his eyes as he envisioned himself in his suit.
“I always saw you more as ring bearer,” Huey commented.
“You really think Uncle Donald would trust him with the rings? No offense.” Webby commented.
“None taken. But hey, I’d have better luck than him. And besides, the ring bearer usually goes to the youngest, so that’d be Louie’s gig.” Dewey told them.
“Hey, wait what about me?” Huey demanded.
“Didn’t you make yourself wedding planner a few moments ago?” Dewey asked.
The title of wedding planner made him perk up, his mind already making lists of all the things that needed to be made for a wedding.
“I think you broke him...” Webby whispered.
Dewey smiled fondly and turned to Louie but whatever he was going to say left his mind as he saw Louie’s expression. His gaze was angry, narrowed, near tears. “Louie?”
“There’s not going to be a wedding!” Louie exploded.
That outburst brought Huey out of his trance, as he joined Dewey and Webby at staring at Louie with shocked expressions.
Huey cleared his throat and said, “Well, okay maybe not soon...”
“No, there’s not going to be a wedding ever! Uncle Donald can’t get married! Do you even realize what it means if he does?” Louie demanded.
Huey, Dewey, and Webby all exchanged glances before Dewey chimed in, “His credit score will be good enough for an actual house?”
“Yes!” Louie yelled as if that should be obvious as to why it was a bad idea.
The other three shared another confused glance off before Huey stepped up this time and asked, “Isn’t that a good thing?”
“Of course it isn’t! It’s a horrible thing! Almost the worst thing ever! Except it’s not but it leads to the worst thing ever!” Louie cried.
“Okay, I feel like we’re gonna be here a while if you don’t just tell us what’s up, Lou.” Dewey deadpanned.
Louie shed a few tears of frustration at his brothers not understanding what all this meant. “If Uncle Donald gets married then yes, he’ll be in a better place to buy a house. Away from us!”
“Uh...Louie? We’re family. We’d obvous-” Huey began but Louie cut him off.
“Mom’s back! And she’s already starting to want parental control! Sure Uncle Donald stepped up and took care of us and was our guardian all our lives, but do you think that’ll mean anything for mom? I mean, okay yeah, she’ll be grateful sure, but she’ll want her time now. And Uncle Scrooge will back her up. And we know Uncle Donald, he’s going to want the best for us and maybe it’s having mom be mom 100% of the time!” Louie ranted.
“Isn’t that...I mean okay yeah it’s complicated but...we wouldn’t stop being uncle Donald’s boys, right?” Huey asked. His voice was filled with uncertainty.
“She’s our mom, Louie. She wants to be there, but she’s not gonna force Uncle Donald to not be there for us either.” Dewey told him. Gently but firmly. As much as it pained him, he knew that all of them weren’t equally bonded with their mother.
“And it’ll start off small but then it’ll snowball!” Louie pressed. “Getting married will lead to them getting a house, and getting a house will lead them to wanting to have kids of their own! We’re the best thing that ever happened to Uncle Donald! I know he was a great adventurer and stuff but he was willing to step up and take care of us when our mom cared more about having another adventure!”
“Louie,” Dewey said in a low voice, a warning.
“Facts are facts! Maybe she didn’t intend to be gone long but who takes risks like that when your eggs are days from hatching?” Louie fumed. Maybe a lot of what he’s been holding in was coming out with his fears. He was too far gone to stop now. “Do you really think Uncle Donald’s not aware that the best thing he’ll love to take credit for is raising us? Don’t you think he’ll want to relive those moments after mom takes over more of the parental responsibilities? He’s going to have mor-...he’s going to have his own kids!”
“That’s...a good thing, right?” Webby asked quietly. “More family?”
“You really think Uncle Donald’s gonna move away?” Huey asked.
“Even if he does, it’ll still be in Duckburg, right? And...we’ll have our own room in his house.” Dewey added.
“But what if he moves away from Duckburg?” Louie exclaimed. “What if they only make up the guest room for when we visit but we don’t get our own room because we’re just ‘his nephews’?”
“Well, even if he moves with Daisy outside of Duckburg, not saying he will, but if he does...we do have a plane. Launchpad would love to fly you guys over to visit him whenever!” Webby tried to comfort the triplets. Louie’s claims were beginning to hit the other two a bit more. She herself was beginning to see the differences that would happen if Donald got married. They weren’t bad! But it would mean a change in the family’s dynamic. Donald’s priority would...shift. To Daisy as his wife and then to his kids...
“But Daisy’s nice. She loves Uncle Donald. I don’t want to ruin that. She makes him happy. He deserves to be happy.” Dewey said.
“Change is hard, Louie but Uncle Donald’s done so much to make sure we were always taken care of and happy. I don’t want to ruin this for him either.” Huey added.
“We don’t ruin it! I like Daisy too. I just...we need to come up with a plan that’ll make them realize that dating is....enough!” Louie cried out.
“Well, she’s becoming one heck of a force in the fashion industry. Her career and just dating might be keeping them busy for a while” Webby suggested.
“Yeah! I think we just jumped the gun a little.” Huey added, hoping to reassure his brother and help him calm down.
Louie sniffed and wiped his eyes. Now that he got all of that out in the open, his chest felt less heavy but now he did feel slightly bad for the things he was feeling. “Do you guys think I’m being too selfish?”
“No.”
“I mean...”
“Sorta.”
Webby, Huey, and Dewey replied in that order.
Louie sighed, “Things are just changing too fast and too much! I...the adventuring and learning about our family is great and all, but...we were a family before! I love having you around, Webby, I do! And mom coming back is amazing and totally love all the people who are now in our lives but...I just...It was the three of us and Uncle Donald against the world! And maybe not in the exciting terms, but....that’s my family and if he leaves...”His bill trembled as he was trying very hard to not cry.
Having lived through the life Louie was mentioning, Huey and Dewey understood Louie a bit better, and also felt the pain he was feeling. They immediately hugged him. After a moment of debate, Webby joined in.
“Uncle Donald’s not gonna disappear from our lives. Not again. We won’t let that happen.” Huey promised.
“Not again.” Dewey echoed. “Why don’t we get Uncle Donald to take us to Cape Suezette for the weekend? Just us and Webby?”
“I don’t wanna impose...” Webby tried to sound like she wouldn’t mind not going.
“You’ve become our sister and one of Uncle Donald’s kids. You’re invited.” Huey told her before smiling at Louie. “Sound good?”
“Yeah...sounds good,” Louie said.
“But not good enough.” He muttered to himself as he began to look through Uncle Scrooge’s garage for something that could help.
Deep down he knew his brothers were right. With his Uncle’s luck, marriage itself was pretty far off. Which meant that kids of his own were even farther away. But he just couldn’t get rid of the feelings inside of him.
Everyone was so excited about having their mom back, that Uncle Donald was more easily ignored! Maybe he still had guilt from not doing enough after the postcards kept getting returned from the supposed cruise he was on. But dang it, he felt like they were losing him all over again!
He felt like he was losing his Uncle Donald again!
And he couldn’t go through that.
What he needed was to secure his place in a better way. The idea began to form and he had a bit of a plan. Now he just needed a way to execute it.
It was a good plan, he reassured himself. If the others weren’t worried then that’s on them. Louie wasn’t going to sit back and let Uncle Donald vanish from their lives...or at least not be taken along. If he was simply de-aged back to an age where he needed constant care, then...then...that would solve his problem, right? Uncle Donald wouldn’t let anyone else have a hand in taking care of baby him, right? His mom could try but she struggled in parenting them as kids as is, a baby would be way out of her depth! Uncle Donald would need to stay!
It took him hours of searching to find anything that would help. But Uncle Scrooge’s adventures had treasures that were thankfully more than just jewels and gold. He found an artifact that he’s sure would do the trick. Trying to figure out how it worked took a bit of insight but he thinks he has the gist...and only one shot.
Just as he was preparing to de-age himself the door opens to reveal none other than Uncle Donald himself!
“Louie? Your brothers said you wanted to talk w-”
“Uncle Donald!” Louie cried out in surprise, the artifact jumped from his hands and he gasped in panic.
Not knowing what it was, but seeing the thing glow, old adventurer’s instincts took over Donald and he reached for it...just as it did its job. A blinding light forced Louie to cover his eyes before Donald was engulfed in a cloud of smoke.
“No! Oh no oh no oh no...Uncle Donald?!” Louie cried out in panic. He did his best to wave off the smoke and clear the way. When it finally did his eyes widened when they landed on his uncle.
A young duckling was all but drowning in his uncle’s adult-sized blazer. He tried to stand but couldn’t take a step before tripping over the oversize clothed. Landing on his butt, he looked up at Louie and tilted his head and asked, “Who you?”
“I...am in so much trouble.”