[Closed] The earth shakes and the city's burning, but it feels like the tide is turning

[goingbythebook]

WHO: Huey, Dewey, and Louie
WHERE: Whatever quiet corner they can find
WHEN: Late evening, third week of August
WHAT: Someone's a little late to catching up to his brothers' canonpoint


It had been such a strange compulsion, the mirror drawing him in... One moment he was here, then next he- wasn't? It was hard to describe, and even now the memories of what he'd seen were fading. All he knew was that now he'd been spat back out onto the "proper" side, and his head was swimming with all new memories. Experiences. Home. Had he lived them-? He felt like he had, but he also felt like he'd only been gone a few seconds.

Standing there in the room, hand on his chest as if to try and still his fluttering heart, Huey stared ahead with open eyes. The memories were all new ones, ones he could hardly process, especially... especially...! Swallowing thickly, he quickly swept a hand across his eyes and then took off, two names easily jumping to the top of his throat.

"DEWWWEEEEYYY!!! LOOUUUIIIEEEEE!!!"

Comments

[talkyourwayout]

It was hard to miss the sound of Huey crying out like that, and - call it what you will, triplet synchronization or something, or just guilt - he had a feeling that he knew what this was about. Maybe Webby had let out what the other two knew about their mother?

He had to do something, even though part of him wanted to run away from Huey's voice... But no. It was time to 'fess up. He headed in the direction of Huey's voice, moving more quickly than he usually would in most cases, though not all-out running. Once he met up with Huey, his hand jerked a bit as he fought the temptation to grab Huey's shoulder.

"Hey, Huey, hey... It's alright, what's going on?"

Because if he wasn't caught, he wasn't going to get himself caught.

[couldabeenturbo]

Dewey was only a few seconds on Louie's heels, eyes wide with panic. The Magicademy being what it was, he half expected to see his brother having been turned into some sort of four-headed creature, or unable to move, or see, or --

Oh, good, he was just normal panicking. No magic skills needed. He could handle this, then. If there'd been an added layer of magic, he would have likely freaked out right along with his brother. Fantastics had turned out to be the only thing he was picking up with any sort of ease, and that wasn't any good in the face of a crisis.

"Whoa." He flanked Huey, as per usual triplet protocol, and laid a hand on the small of his back. "Take a breath. Merit badges in order of acquisition, remember, bud? Knot tying ... and theeeen....?"

[goingbythebook]

There was no time for calming, grounding exercises, or anything of the sort. Huey's mind was fully in panic mode, exemplified by a few shaky breaths once he finally stopped. Whatever words he managed were panted out, eyes staring off wide.

"It- Gold Fever- the- tree!- and and the- lamp! And-"

His expression tensed right before he grabbed onto both his brothers, a hand on each shirt, hard enough Huey himself was pulled up off his feet to brace against them.

"MOM'S ALIVE?!!!?"

Unfortunately, Huey's weight being equal to his brothers', and nobody having really expected that jump (not even Huey himself), anything further is cut off by a surprised yell from his end as inertia carried him forward and straight on top of them both.

[talkyourwayout]

What was happening? Louie glanced at Dewey for a moment, questioningly, before Huey began babbling. At that point, Louie just stared at his brother as he tried to make sense of why he was bringing up all of this, and how he knew about it, until-

And there it was. Before he could begin to explain himself, though, the brothers toppled down in a heap. Louie closed his eyes as he wriggled away. Now Dewey would know he hadn't told Huey, like a total hypocrite, and he was so dead.

"...Yeah. She is."

[couldabeenturbo]

Dewey wasn't sure, exactly, where his spleen was, but he was pretty sure it hurt. He deserved it, though, so he just kind of laid there like a feather mattress and sighed, letting Huey's weight press him farther against the floor as his lungs emptied.

"Yeah. I ... I knew when I got here. But I didn't think you'd believe me! So ... I kept trying to figure out how to bring it up ... and every time I'd think I had ... something crazy would happen. Like us turning into each other, or whatever." He glanced over at Louie and raised his eyebrows as if to say 'see how that happens?', but didn't pass the buck. "I'm sorry."

[goingbythebook]

Like, Dewey, Huey also remained where he was, still breathing heavily though thankfully not quite as chest pounding as before. Feeling a rising sting to his eyes, he pushed himself up and turned away a few steps, only managing a few before they gave out underneath him and he went down to his knees. He quickly curled up into a half ball, hands covering his face when a sob wrenched its way out of his throat. He drew a shaky breath, choked back another sound, then waved a hand behind him, knowing what this would look like to them.

"This isn't- I'm not- sad!" He tried to get his crying under control, normally breaking down like this was Louie's domain and HE, Huey, was the one to bring it back. But this time, having been whalloped out of nowhere with- everything -it was pushing him a bit over the edge. He pushed up to his feet and turned to face them, and though he certainly didn't seem sad, even with a flushed face and tear-streaked cheeks, it was hard to read what exactly his actual expression was.

"You both- you knew?"

[talkyourwayout]

"I found out when I went home, or... Whatever happened," Louie sighed. He had gotten himself away from the lump of brothers, but he was still lying on the floor. Now, though, he at least propped himself up with one arm, looking at Huey. "I wanted to tell you! I did, but-"

God, this really was hard. He glanced from Huey to Dewey, and back again.

"I'm sorry, guys." Louie fell back down on his back with a groan. "I really am."

[couldabeenturbo]

Dewey sat up, wincing. He'd already made his apology, and yet he felt like he needed to make it again. He felt like he'd need to make it for the rest of their lives, even. That unreadable expression twisted his stomach and heart into knots, and he closed his eyes, unable to look at Huey.

"I wanted to," he said again, quietly. Miserably.

Then, in the silence that followed, he realized that they were focusing on the wrong thing. No, none of them had said anything, but ... the truth that they all shared now was so much greater than the fact that they hadn't.

"But we have our Mom, you guys."

[goingbythebook]

When Louie spoke he focused on him, his eyebrows coming together up above his eyes in some inscrutable way. Then he looked at Dewey, taking a half step forward at the echoed tone from their younger brother. But that last thing he said- that seemed to break the floodgates, and whatever was foggy about Huey's expression cleared. He choked up a little again but he was smiling, and he quickly crossed the space to sweep both of them up in a tight hug.

"I know!" He held them both, then stepped back and looked between them, a hand on each still. "We've got our mother back!" Then he softened at a thought, and stepped back so he could focus on them better. One hand swept his eye, then he brought them both down in front of him, fingers intertwined.

"Look, I can't even explain why you two knew first, and I didn't. But... I'm not mad, okay?" That especially went to Louie, at least at first, but Dewey also got his share. "I'm not mad. Goodness knows we've learned how difficult it is to tell someone something, but that's not even what matters! It's... it's like Dewey said.

"We've got our Mom back."

[talkyourwayout]

Louie watched Huey carefully, even as Dewey spoke up again. He knew the eldest Duck triplet had quite the temper, and he while he wasn't scared of Huey - not really - he was scared of knowing he'd hurt Huey to the point of anger.

But then came the hug, and with that, Louie couldn't hold his own emotional mess together anymore. He started to cry. "We've got our mom," he echoed, with a little nod and a sniffle.

"It's so crazy, right? But like... It's good. It's really good."

[couldabeenturbo]

"It's better than good," Dewey countered, sniffling as he wrapped his arms around both of their shoulders. "It's ... it's like sledding down Mount Neverrest on a piece of wall from Atlantis while wearing stuff from Uncle Scrooge's attic and cutting down anything in the way with that crazy awesome khopesh Louie found in the pyramids only we don't have to do any of that because we're all just riding in the back of the plane because MOM'S FLYING IT."

[goingbythebook]

Huey let out a little laugh that he couldn't quite help, whether at the rush of emotions he was still trying to process, or in the wake of Dewey's word salad that still somehow made sense. Wonderful, wonderful sense.

"It's incredible! And- Sure we're still stuck here for now, but we went back once somehow, it can happen again. Right back to where we came from, if my memories I have now are correct!" The gears are turning now, helping clear up and straighten out whatever else he's feeling. "I can't believe it... Getting to see Mom is the most unlikely thing I ever thought would happen, by a wide margin."

Huey paused, then half-shrugged. "'Course, I didn't know we were related to Uncle Scrooge either, but I feel like between the murder ponies, the Terra-Firmians, and a ghostly other-dimension butler, I think that needs its on 'Unlikely Occurrences' category..."

[talkyourwayout]

Louie had laughed, as well, and even seen fit to not worry about his image for long enough to ruffle Dewey's hair, getting his sticking-up feathers to swoop down like Louie's own bangs.

"Not a bad look for you, bro," he pointed out cheekily, before sighing a relieved sigh. "Yeah. We're going to go home, eventually, and we have a mom to look forward to seeing there."

He leaned over and turned Huey's cap backwards. Even that was unusually affectionate for Louie, but this was a very... Extremely special moment.

"Way unlikely. But it happened."

[couldabeenturbo]

The fact that even Louie was getting in on the moment made his heart feel fit to burst with joy. It wasn't often that his younger brother got mushy,and he was so happy that Louie was letting himself feel like this. Saying so would spoil it, though, so he kept it to himself like a treasure all its own.

"What about subcategories? We could have Unlikely Adventure Stuff and Unlikely Family Stuff."

[goingbythebook]

Huey straightened his cap with a soft chuckle, and when he came up his face was practically glowing. It was rare Louie got so affectionate, and between the three of them, that made this very special indeed.

"I do like the idea of separate categories. It could help us keep Uncle Scrooge's stories straight, if nothing else."

[talkyourwayout]

"You guys are nerds," Louie said, but there was fondness in his tone. "Oh, and just so you guys know, Webby knows about Mom, too. She actually said Dewey might have told her, but it seems like she was too excited about finding out Lena's okay to really let anything else get through."

[couldabeenturbo]

"Where's the fun in keeping them straight?" Dewey snickered. "My favorite story to tell people is how we fought off the money shark deep in the treasure pit of the tomb of Toth-Ra."

He winked at Louie. Okay, maybe he wasn't actually fond of telling that story, just seeing how Huey would react.