Hey! Thank you to everyone who has favourited, followed and reviewed this fic so far. This is one of those 'setting things up' chapters, I hope you enjoy.

See chapter one for the disclaimer and let's go!

03/10/2020

Gladstone came over today. No one asked him to, he just turned up. With Feathry. Apparently they'd been 'passing' and decided to 'look in on us' and see if we were alright. [?]

I found this out when Fragmuffin knocked on my door and said, politely. "Excuse me, Miss..." She then - with a completely un-readable expression - told me that two 'gentleman' were here to see us and one of them was apparently yelling the confusing phrase of 'Dells-Bells!' at the top of his lungs.

"Hhmm." I said, in my best imitation of a British detective. "Tell me, Fragmuffin, did this 'gentleman' have a face that made you immediately want to slap him?"

She giggled a little, then pulled herself together and said it was.

I told her that this would be my cousin Gladstone, and the other gentleman was probably Feathry [unless Gladstone's hooked up with any other men we don't know about. But that's unlikely, he learned that the hard way back in college.] and went to go. Just as I was brushing past her, however, Fragmuffin gently grabbed the top of my arm and said, apologetically. "Sorry, Miss...I know this is improper of me, but can I pick your brains?"

"What I have of them, sure." I joked. "What's up?"

Turns out she was slightly confused by our family. Which isn't the first time that's happened. When you have a family as big as ours, the details get a little lost. The main reason she was confused was because she had heard the boys calling Gladstone 'Uncle' Gladstone, but calling Feathry, well. Feathry. Then Donald confused the whole thing further by demanding they let there 'cousins' go.

So yeah, I can understand the confusion.

I explained to her that Gladstone and Feathry are Donald and mine's cousins. First cousins. Which I think that technically makes them my boys 'second' cousins? Or cousins 'once removed' or something like that. Somewhere along the line while I was on the moon through, the boys started calling Gladstone 'Uncle' - he used to look after them occasionally when Donald needed a break [this was something of a understatement. Donald once admitted that he'd lived with Gladstone for a number of months when the boys were about 1 -2 because he'd been kicked out his first house. Long story. Anyway] - and the title stuck. Feathry - having never been in a position of either having a stable job or a stable house for very long and being very disaster-prone - was one of the last people on Donald's list of 'people to potentially live with.' For all of Gladstone's many, many faults you never have to worry about financial stability.

Anyway, I went downstairs and was immediately hugged tightly by Feathry and spun round. "Della! It's so good to see you! It's been ages!" Cue me feeling guilty, because it has been about six months or more since I last saw em both, but eh.

"Nice to see ya, cuz!" Gladstone said, in his loud, brassy voice. "We were just passin' an' thought we'd drop in. There's a amusement park I got tickets for and I wondered - or, me and Feathers here wondered - if the boys would like to come with us?"

"And Webby, of course." Feathry added.

"And Webby." Gladstone agreed, though I'm sure he hadn't remembered her. "Of course. Well, kids?" He asked the jumping, excited children. "What do you think?"

The kids all cheered and said they'd love to go, cue Donald raising his arms in the air. "Hold on!" He said, over the noise. "Hold on! Who's paying for this?" He demanded, hands on hips, glaring straight at our dear cousins.

That's Donnie. Practical as always. I wish he wasn't always so money-minded, but I suppose after poverty it makes sense. Anyway, to give him credit Gladstone instantly said he was. [As well he might. What with his mansion, his yacht, his plane and his general life] but the moment was ruined slightly as he added. "I got a 50% ticket off in my breakfast cereal this morning!"

"I thought there WAS no prizes in your breakfast cereal?" Donnie said, acidly.

Gladstone shrugged and gave a friendly wink at Louie. "What can I say? Just lucky I guess."

Louie gave a beam back. So much for his and Gladstone's bad feeling then. They must have made up at some point. Maybe that's why Louie's been on his phone so much? No...he's a teenager of the 21st century. Apparently it's a contractual obligation.

Anyway, after a short exchange it was decided that it would be Gladstone and Feathry who took them without me or Donald going. Donnie wasn't thrilled at this arrangement, but my logic is that Gladstone and Feathry are both competent adults [Kind off] and anyway, Gladstone has his luck [which although benefits primarily him, it has been noted it's helped various family members out at times as long as Gladstone's been around. Which he would be, as I threatened both him and Feathry with death if they let any of the kids out there sights for more than a millisecond. And Feathry's very protective as well. They'll be all right.] Also it's precious bonding time for them.

It was only after they left that we realised we hadn't actually asked Beakley's permission for Webby to go. After we argued for a few minutes it was 'decided' that Donald would go and tell her.

Five minutes later he came back down the stairs looking a bit embarrassed. "She's not happy." He told me. "Which makes sense. I wouldn't have been either if the situation was reversed. But she says as long as Webby comes back without injury and happy then she won't kill us. I think she was joking." He added, completely uncertainly. I nodded and went to go, but he grabbed my arm and muttered. "She also said that she doesn't trust April."

"April?"

"Fragmuffin!"

"Oh? On first name terms now, are we?" I teased. A blush appeared on his cheeks and I gasped. "Oh! You DO like her! I thought you were going out with Daisy again?"

"I am!" Don hissed. Then, seeing my not-at-all-impressed look, he added. "It's not serious, Dells-"

"-Which one Daisy or 'April'?"

"April, of course! I'm fairly certain it's a crush, it's just. I don't know. There's something I like about her. I trust her-"

"-But Beakley doesn't?"

"Phooey! What does Beakley know?"

I looked at him like, do you really want me to answer that? The women has at least 20 years experience on you for a start. And I'm fairly certain she was a spy. That must give you some good insights into characters.

So yeah. Donald appears to have lost his marbles. He apologised afterwards, seemed embarrassed, said he wasn't sure why he had a crush on April, but said it should pass with time. He still liked Daisy.

I hope so. For his sake. Daisy, if I remember correctly, doesn't like being messed around...