Hey everyone! So, it's been literally forever since I've written FanFiction ever since life started getting in the way, but lately I've been having the urge to write, and I've recently become obsessed with the DuckTales reboot. Anywho, this idea just won't stop bouncing around my head, so I decided I would finally get back into the game and try to put it on paper.
Now, on to my new story! It should be a doozy, provided I finish it. Will I find the will? Stay tuned to find out!
Lastly, obviously, all DuckTales rights belong to people who are infinitely more talented than I am, and this is simply a work of fan fiction.
Chapter 1~Nightmares Like a Hurricane!
Huey was having a nightmare.
He was almost used to it at this point. Huey had come to expect to find himself drowning in quicksand, trying to hold his breath while distantly hearing Louie tell Webby not to tell him how to die. Even 'Dream Huey', as he'd come to think of himself while unconscious, was no longer surprised when everything went dark on the bus he was riding before it transformed into a subway car and the roof began to cave in on him, suddenly alone with nothing but his Junior Woodchucks' Guidebook, which was, of course, frustratingly blank.
He was only almost used to it, though, because his dreams kept finding new ways of frightening him. He was still waking up in a cold sweat in the middle of the night more often than not. Less than a week ago Huey had dreamt that they were back in Macaw at The House of the Lucky Fortune, and that the illusion had once again fallen away. This time, however, Toad Liu Hai had chosen Huey and Louie instead of Donald and Gladstone. What was worse, though, was that once the race had started, 'Dream Huey' had wanted to beat Louie. Even though he knew what it could mean for his brother, he wanted to win. Worse yet, one look at 'Dream Louie''s face confirmed to Huey that he wasn't the only one who didn't care if the other made it out of there. He was fuzzy on the details now, but at the time Huey couldn't help but feel like they both genuinely wanted to hurt each other. Even after 'Dream Dewey' had miraculously arrived to intervene only to be dragged off in chains by the luck demon for interfering, it was the intense sense of mutual hatred he had felt that haunted Huey when he awoke. It left him feeling indescribably sad, emotionally drained, and desperately in need of giving Louie a hug, and that absolutely could not have waited until morning.
Tonight, though—tonight was different.
Huey was camping with his Junior Woodchucks and it was the Father/Son trip. He was there with Uncle Scrooge, because Uncle Donald had had a job interview. It was early afternoon and Launchpad was still the troop leader, but that was where his dream stopped lining up with reality. Webby was there with Mrs. Beakley and Louie was there, ironically, with Uncle Donald. Dewey was there as well, but he was standing with an older female duck that Huey just couldn't seem to get a good look at. He'd thought that he would be happy to see his brothers back in their Junior Woodchuck uniforms after they'd quit four years ago, but he'd forgotten how identical Dewey and Louie were with them on. When they'd been little ducklings they had thought it was funny, like some sort of cool magic trick that the three of them could pull off, but this night for some reason it unnerved Huey so much so that he thought he might be sick. He could physically feel a sense of unease coiling queasily at his core.
Look! he heard Uncle Scrooge say, there it is! The Duckburg Giant Butterfly!
He quickly lurched toward the nearest tree, needing something solid to support his weight.
Huey! his brothers said in unison. Huey lifted his head to face them, still trying to fill his lungs with air. Is everything okay? They had moved closer to him and away from the adults. You look like you're gonna be sick!
Huey stared at the two of them for a few moments before he suddenly realized that he couldn't tell his brothers apart. In an instant, the air around him was entirely too stale, and he just needed to get away from the situation. He started to climb the maple tree he'd been leaning on, intent on getting up to somewhere he could breathe more easily.
Hey, Mr. McDuck! He heard Webby cry, Look! Huey's climbing a tree!
Huey, don't! Get down from there! he heard his great uncle say, but it sounded far away. There were too many of them trying to breathe the same air down on the ground. Huey just need to have some space until his ears stopped ringing.
Is Huey gonna hurt himself? he heard his brothers say, again at the same time. Dude, get down!
He wanted to yell at them to shut up! and to stop doing that!, because it was really freaking me out!, but he was having a hard enough time keeping his grip on the branches as it was, and he worried that the extra exertion might cause him to fall.
No—he heard Scrooge reply—it's just that eagles don't like it when you get too close to their nests!
Oh, right. Huey had forgotten about this part. Uncle Scrooge! Uncle Donald! he yelled as he felt himself being lifted by his neckerchief, HELLLLP ME!
Unfortunately for 'Dream Huey', there was no second eagle for his uncle to to use to rescue him this time, and he watched in disbelief as the ground fell farther and farther away beneath him until he could no longer make out his family and could just barely hear Dewey and Louie calling for him. Huey had only a few moments of silence, however, before the eagle had decided to drop him and he was rapidly falling back to Earth. He tried quickly flapping his wings in desperation, but it had little effect on the speed of his plummet.
It was a surprise then, of course, when he hit the ground and harmlessly bounced off of it. He bounced a few more times before steadying himself, realizing he was now standing outside of the Waddle HQ. The air was here clear and easy to breathe, but Huey could only enjoy it for a moment before he was grabbed from behind and a firm fist clamped down around his beak.
Sorry, Master Duck, the voice of Falcon Graves whispered in his ear, but with Beaks out of the picture, I'm afraid I'm going to have to resort to another method to collect my salary today.
'Dream Huey' struggled, but, against the fully grown espionage agent, the ten-year-old's strength was negligible. He was promptly and very easily tossed into a broom closet, only to hit the ground and open his eyes in an entirely different room.
Not only was he now back in the meat locker at Funso's FunZone, but he was tied up again.
Huey gulped and took a deep breath. You're going to be fine, he tried to tell himself. Everything worked out just fine the last time this happened. Of course, last time he hadn't been alone. Webby had been there to save the them. Dewey and Louie had been there to stop him from freaking out. They'd been fine.
It was at this time that 'Dream Huey' finally came to the conclusion that he was probably, in fact, dreaming. He closed his eyes and focused on his breathing, trying to wake himself up, not breaking his concentration until he realized the floor beneath him had grown cold and damp.
He gasped and jumped up, suddenly free with the ropes nowhere in sight. However, that wasn't the relief it should have been once Huey took in his surroundings. For the first time that night, he had no idea where he was. The floor was metal and slightly wet while the surrounding dark walls were made of some type of stone. There were no windows and the only door in the room lacked a handle. A small lamp mounted by the door was the sole source of light, and it was only really successful in casting eerie shadows. Huey tried again in vain to wake up, but the harder he tried the more real the nightmare room felt. He was beginning to give up and tears had begun to form in his eyes when he heard a voice that somehow filled the room and yet made no sound at all.
Hubert, it echoed. Huey felt a shiver run down his spine, but it was more comforting than frightful. The duckling couldn't help but think it sounded like his Uncle Donald. Don't be afraid. It's just a dream. Try to ignore them. I'm sorry. You can wake up now.
And, like a light switch had been flipped, he finally could.
Huey had already bolted upright before his eyes flew open, hyperventilating and still feeling damp to his core. He looked under his bunk to make sure Dewey was still in his bed, and sure enough Huey's breathing began to steady as soon as he spotted the feathers on his brother's head sticking straight up overtop of his pillow, brushing the headboard. Louie, for his part, had his head at the foot of Dewey's bed, equipped with his own pillows as well as two he had "borrowed" from Dewey. He had one leg dangling precariously off the side while the other foot was awkwardly lying across Dewey's legs, preventing either triplet from properly accessing the blankets. Dewey was sleeping on his back, snoring softly with his beak open wide enough to catch flies, while Louie was stretched out like a cat and had a look of contentment on his face so serene that neither of his brothers could ever hope to replicate it. In that moment they were as distinct as could be, in his opinion, and Huey almost wanted to take a picture of them as Exhibit A for the next time someone dare accuse them of being identical. But right now he was still shivering and the dark of their bedroom was closing in on him, and what Huey really needed was his brothers.
He climbed down the ladder and got into the middle bunk as gently as possible. "Dewey," Huey whispered, only shaking him a little. "Dewey, wake up."
"Morning to you too, Huey," he said groggily after only a few seconds, slowly sitting up and rubbing his eyes. Dewey had never been a heavy sleeper. "What's up?"
"Shhh," Huey said, placing his index feather on his brother's bill. "Don't wake up Louie."
"What?" Dewey asked, brushing Huey's wing out of his face but still now whispering. "Why? Is something wrong?"
"No, I just had a nightmare," he blushed, feeling a little embarrassed about the whole ordeal now that Dewey was awake. "It's just that I woke him up a few nights ago over one and I don't wanna bother him again. I made him get out of bed and everything."
"You mean your Liu Hai dream?" Dewey asked. Huey tried not to flinch as he nodded in response. "Dude, you woke me up for that one, too."
"Yeah, but not on purpose," Huey said, though he knew his brother was right. He was pretty sure he'd been unintelligibly sobbing at the time. "It's not my fault you couldn't sleep through a mouse snoring, though you seem to ignore your own just fine." Huey felt a smile cross his face as he joked at his brother's expense, and Dewey laughed in response. "Besides," Huey continued, "Louie wakes you up basically every night anyway."
"Not every night," Dewey laughed again, not commenting on Huey's obvious redirection of the conversation. "If I remember to leave my pillows on the ground, he doesn't have to rip them out from under me!"
"Well then," Huey was having a hard time giggling quietly at this point. More than once he'd woken up to the sound of Dewey hitting the floor when Louie had tried a little too forcefully to get the cushions he had decided Dewey wasn't really using. "Maybe it's your turn to wake him up."
Dewey grinned and, cupping one hand around Louie's ear, yelled, "HEY, LOUIE!"
At this point Huey was openly laughing and having a hard time containing it. This was only magnified when their brother only grunted and rolled over in response. Louie, now in the fetal position and holding a clump of blankets and sheets like a teddy bear he had managed to cocoon himself in, apparently was unfazed by his brothers' efforts. Their twinned peals of laughter filled their bedroom, and they were quickly trying to shush each other so as not to wake anyone else in the manor. Once they had managed to quiet themselves, Dewey gave Huey a sideways glance and they both nodded, each grabbing a corner of Dewey's covers. On the count of three they gave a hard tug, twisting the fabric around and Louie along with it.
This finally did it, and the third triplet reluctantly opened his eyes as well and began to stretch. "Guys?" he yawned, smoothing the feathers on top of his head before sitting up. "What time is it? Why do I feel like I just did a lap in the dryer?"
"You were hogging all the blankets," Huey laughed, punching him lightly.
"And our big brother Huey here had a nightmare!" Dewey said, quickly putting his wing around Huey's shoulders. Huey shrugged it off and glared at him. He had almost forgotten his dream by that point, and rehashing it with the two of them was suddenly the last thing he wanted to do.
"Another one?" Louie asked, managing to look both concerned and annoyed at the same time. "Didn't you just have that luck vampire one the other night?"
"Yes," Huey said, "and I'd really rather not talk about it again." He was beginning to think he should have just tried to go back to sleep.
"He's been having them almost every night lately."
"What! I mean, yeah, but… Dewey!" Huey stammered. He wasn't sure why he didn't want his brothers to know his dreams were scaring him, but he felt legitimately hurt that they both now knew.
"Well, what?" Dewey said, "It was your idea to wake him up anyway. Was I just not supposed to tell Louie that our brother is having serious sleeping issues?"
"No, but… ," Huey sighed.
Louie blinked a few times before he spoke again. He had just woken up, and really wanted to get back to sleep, but he could tell his brothers both needed him to say something. It wasn't like Huey not to want to talk about something that had happened to him. After a half dozen sentences fell dead on his tongue, he simply leaned forward and said, "That bad, huh?"
Huey looked up at him. "Well, yeah. I've been trying not to bother you guys, because it's really been messing with my sleep schedule, but I can't even remember the last time I had a good night's sleep and I didn't want it to start getting to you guys, too."
"Classic Huey," Louie laughed. "Only you would be plagued by some sort of nightmare curse and worry instead about our sleep schedules."
"Curse?" Huey squeaked. He hadn't thought of that, but he really didn't like the idea of being cursed. He'd managed to avoid that until now, and really was hoping to keep that streak going.
"It's not a curse," Dewey said, now standing on Louie's bed and trying to fix the covers without telling his brothers to move. "Scrooge has, like, a bajillion dollars invested in magical curse protection. If you were cursed, I'm, like, 200% positive he would've dealt with it."
"You're probably right," Huey said, feeling slightly better.
"I'm definitely right," Dewey said, climbing back into bed, "and, if you're still worrying in the morning, we can ask Uncle Scrooge and Uncle Donald about it, okay?"
"Okay," Huey said. His brother had a way of talking that made Huey believe Dewey knew exactly what to do in any situation.
"Yeah, 'cause those two have never been anything but open and honest with us, and would never omit anything that might be important," Louie said, rolling his eyes lazily as if he weren't fully committed to his sarcasm.
"Not helpful right now, Louie."
"Oh come on, they've been trying really hard lately," Huey added, though in the back of his mind he knew Louie had a point as well.
"Speaking of open honesty," Dewey said, interrupting Huey's thoughts, "what were you dreaming about tonight?"
Huey shifted uncomfortably, but when he realized Louie was also looking at him expectantly, he knew he should probably just tell them. He wasn't sure why he was so reluctant, but he supposed he just didn't want to relive it.
"It'll make you feel better to talk about it," Dewey prompted again, laying back on his pillow.
Huey breathed deeply in and out before he started. "It was just, like, a hurricane of so many things that have gone wrong on our adventures, except every time the day was supposed to turn for the better, I was suddenly in a worse situation," he had to breathe again to steady himself. "The details are pretty fuzzy already, but I remember feeling like I was just so alone, no matter where I ended up and what I tried to do."
"Well, that's just a dumb dream. Not believable at all," Louie chimed in. His brothers looked at him quizzically. He laid back and stretched out along the foot of the bed once again. "I mean, when, in the past ten years, have any of us ever been alone?" Huey smiled, knowing his brother's statement was more true than most people would appreciate. "I mean, geez, I'll take the loneliness nightmares for a couple nights! I can't even shake you two nerds when I'm dreaming."
This made Huey smile again, and he lay back and started to get comfortable, finally feeling warm, dry, and safe once more. "Do you mind if I sleep here tonight?" he asked, honestly to the both of them.
"Fine by me," Louie said, turning to face the footboard, "but no kicking!"
Dewey sighed, but Huey knew he was doing it for comedic effect. "Welcome to La Cama del Dewey! The most popular bed around! Luxury blue sheets! It may only be meant to fit one duck, and you may have a perfectly good one literally right below us, Louis, but there's always room for one more!"
"That's not even my name," he said sleepily. Dewey snickered in response. Huey took the moment to take back one of the many pillows, and Louie reacted as one would to a mosquito. Huey was pretty sure Louie was already asleep by the time he had tucked himself in.
"Thanks, Dew," Huey said, "I really appreciate it."
"Anytime," Dewey said, fighting back yawns once again, "but now you need to go back to sleep, so that I can go back to sleep. Okay?"
"Okay," Huey said, closing his eyes and rolling onto his side. He could feel some of Dewey's feathers brushing against his leg and Louie's weight on the covers. The concrete evidence of his triplets' presence was more soothing than any lullaby could ever hope to be.
"Hey, Huey?" Dewey said.
"Yeah?" Huey replied
"I hope you have some nice dreams tonight, dude, or at least no dreams at all," Dewey paused and waited for a minute, as if he was trying to figure out what he wanted to say. "And you should know that no matter what comes at us in life, we'll face it as a family. Just like we always have, we always will."
"Duck Boys forever!" Louie cried languidly, obviously mostly asleep but still as enthusiastic as he could muster.
Huey didn't reply; he just smiled and let sleep take him as soon as Dewey's snores began to fill the silence. They would always have each other, and united they could face anything.
So that's it: The first chapter of The Search for The Missing Piece! I hope it wasn't too OOC, but I need to get a feel for how to write the triplets distinctly from one another. Bonus points to anyone who can tell me where the beginning of Huey's dream comes from!
I'll do my best to update frequently, but I'm not making any promises about regularity. If anything, that'll just make me avoid writing all together!
All right, until next time!
xo Shadow
P.S. You know, this'd probably be adorable as a fluffy one shot. If all you want out of this is fluff, then I advise you enjoy this chapter as-is and maybe don't continue on! But if you do stick around, I'm planning big things for this story. Big things!