I'm so happy to see so many people have taken the time to read this, and thank you so much to those of you who subscribed and even favourited it! Extra huge "thank you" to my reviewers. It's thanks to all of you that I was motivated enough to write again! This took longer than I had hoped (really? Over a month? I swear I started this two days after I posted chapter 1), but I've only got pure motivation for this story, I promise!

Also, yes, this chapter was formerly titled/set in September, but recent in-show revelations have caused me to change that ;)

Now, without further adieu, I do not own DuckTales, but I hope you all enjoy what I come up with!

Chapter 2~The Last Tuesday of March in McDuck Manor!

By the time Dewey woke up that morning, he actually had his entire bed to himself for once. He was used to Huey getting up bright and early, but it was rare for Louie to wake up before he did. Dewey decided to enjoy the rare opportunity to fully stretch out under his covers, and would have been content to sleep in for another hour or two. These plans were dashed, however, when he heard his bedroom door quietly click open. He could tell right away from the delicate, calculated footfall who was there. He briefly wondered if Uncle Scrooge would be impressed.

"Dewey?" Webby whispered, so loud she may as well have been yelling. "Are you awake yet?"

He opened his eyes and looked at her, propping himself up on his side. "Well, Webbs," he yawned, "I'm not sleeping anymore."

"Oh, that's great!" she said, rocking back and forth on the balls of her feet. "Huey and Louie told me I was only allowed to come in here if you were already awake." Dewey snickered a little and rolled his eyes, but Webby didn't seem to notice as she continued to talk at him. "Granny's making pomegranate pancakes and bacon for breakfast, and I said that we should come get you, but Huey and Louie said I should let you sleep." She was looking more around the room than at Dewey, he noticed, as if the triplets' bedroom was as interesting to her as some discovered island or unearthed tomb. "Louie said that you wouldn't mind if they ate your breakfast, but I said that we should ask you first. Louie told me I didn't have to, but I said I didn't mind at all, and that's when Huey told me not to wake you up, and Louie agreed."

Dewey was fully sitting up now. He smirked at his friend while he watched her pace around their room, picking things up and examining them before putting them back exactly where she'd found them; running her index feather along the thick layer of dust in the windowsill; and examining the spines of a few books, mostly Huey's, in the boys' shared bookshelf. Her curiosity had won out and she was exploring, but Dewey didn't think she even realized she was doing it. She was still talking.

"So I told them I was just going to see if you were awake, and then Louie told me I wasn't allowed to go into your guys' room alone, which, obviously, makes no sense since you're here. But then Huey told me that I should probably try and stay away from people when they're sleeping. Apparently it's an etiquette thing? But, like, what if there were a flood, or a demon attack, or unsafe levels of carbon monoxide in the house? Anyway, I promised them I wouldn't come in here unless you were already awake, which you said you were, so can Louie eat your breakfast?" she asked, not stopping to look at him.

"Huh? Oh, right. Well, first of all, definitely always wake me up for all of those things," he said, "and, um, also you can tell Huey and Louie that they can have my pancakes, but if they touch my bacon they die." Webby's eyes widened and then she nodded solemnly before Dewey added, "That's a joke, Webby."

"Oh! Right! Of course it is. Ha! A joke! I knew that. Who wouldn't know that?" Webby dropped the backpack she'd been looking through as if she had only just realized what she was doing. "Sorry!" she said, "I didn't mean to go through your bag!"

"It's totally fine," he laughed. "It's Huey's anyhow."

"But it's blue!" she said before looking like she regretted doing so.

Dewey raised an eyebrow at her sarcastically. "And?"

Webby grinned sheepishly at him and gave a small shrug.

"Huey bought it for himself because he liked the strap support or something."

"Yeah, that sounds more like a Huey thing, all right. This width is pretty close to optimal for decreasing strain on the lower back. Okay, well, tell him I didn't see any of his books or dolls or anything—" she stammered, again speaking before her brain caught up to what she was saying, "I—I mean, if he has—not that I would know—"

"They're action figures," Dewey laughed. "Starling Wars action figures. Uncle Donald got us each one for our birthday two years ago. Louie was super jealous that Huey got Swan Solo, especially since Uncle D got him a Princess Rhea for some reason. I'm pretty sure he just gave her to Huey. Luke was always my favourite, though! Wouldn't it be awesome to have powers like that?" Dewey noticed that the reference seemed to be lost on Webby, and that she was still looking noticeably uncomfortable while he had been talking. "Don't worry, Webbs, we'll watch it. Also I won't tell Huey you snooped through his bag. Former Woodchuck's honour." He gave her a mock salute and she giggled and then sighed in relief.

"Thanks," she said.

"Don't even mention it," he smirked. "Now go back downstairs before Louie decides he has rights your breakfast, too. I'll be down in, like, fifteen minutes."

"He knows I'll end him if he touches my pancakes," she chirped matter-of-factly, making her way to the door. Dewey thought she was probably a tad more serious in this threat than he had been. "You know," she said on her way out, "I never would have expected Louie to be the one who neatly makes his bed in the morning."

Dewey glanced up at Huey's bed, which had his top sheet pinned to the ceiling as a makeshift tent. Dewey's pillows were everywhere and the sheets were on the floor while his blanket had been twisted at an awkward angle. It was mostly, of course, Louie's fault, and Dewey laughed at the irony of her statement. "Yeah," he said, "Lou keeps his in pretty mint condition."

He could have sworn he heard her writing notes once she was out view.

Webby hadn't closed the door on her way out, so Dewey dragged himself out of bed and across the room to do so. The smell of breakfast wafted in, and he felt his stomach growl in anticipation. He knew Mrs. Beakley would make him more pancakes once she'd noticed his brothers had eaten them all, and he'd rather have fresh ones anyway. Deciding not to get out of his pyjamas quite yet, Dewey instead headed to the bathroom to wash his face before he went downstairs to eat.

Walking past the heavy mahogany door to Scrooge's study, Dewey could make out the sound of his two uncles having a rather passionate conversation on the other side. It could have been an argument, but between one uncle's thick Scottish brogue and the other's… distinctive manner of speaking, it was impossible to be sure. They could also easily be excited, or despondent, or simply discussing the weather. In any case, even if it were an argument, minor spats were far from out of the ordinary between the two drakes, and Dewey knew that they never amounted to much. No one wanted to lose another ten years. He only tried to make out their words for a few more moments before deciding it was impossible and moving on.

Getting to the guest bathroom, Dewey closed the door and immediately ran the tap to splash cold water on his face in an attempt to shake the leftover sleep clinging to him. He dried off and looked in the mirror, slightly taken aback by how tired how looked this morning. He hadn't really cared at the time, but now he found himself wishing that Webby had just listened to Huey and Louie and let him sleep until the early afternoon. He hadn't wanted to admit it last night when Huey had voiced his concerns, but Dewey really hadn't been able to sleep well at all recently. His older brother was having bad dreams nightly, sometimes multiple, and though they usually seemed to either end on their own or with Huey waking himself up, sometimes Dewey decided that they had gone on long enough and had woken him himself. This had only happened twice in the past month, and Huey had only woken Dewey up on purpose five or six times in the same time period. He'd also woken Louie twice, and Dewey had pretended to sleep through those since he'd figured there was probably a reason Huey had gone to his other brother instead.

The problem was that even though Huey was only being woken up by what Dewey assumed must have been the absolute worst of his nightmares, Dewey had been woken up by all of them. He had always been the lightest of sleepers, and Huey did not dream quietly. He tossed and loudly mumbled and kicked, hard enough to shake their entire bed frame, and on occasion he even sounded like he was about to cry. It was usually at that point when Dewey would decide to shake him.

Dewey was secretly glad he didn't really deal with nightmares like his brothers did. His dreams were always vague and distant, often formless, and forgotten not long after waking. Even if Louie never admitted it, Dewey reasoned that his dreams likely played a large role in the reason the twin-size bed with green sheets had gone all but unused since the boys had moved into McDuck Manor.

Dewey quickly ran his finger feathers through his cowlick and teased it to be as prominent as possible. He had tried to downplay it when he was a little kid, but once he'd realized it was a feature that made him distinct from his triplets, he had actively worked on growing it out. He splashed water on his face a few more times in an attempt to get rid of the dark circles which he had noticed earlier and quickly downed a glass as well before deciding he looked good enough for 10:30 on a Tuesday morning. For the six thousandth time that month, Dewey revelled in how lucky he was that Uncle Scrooge had convinced the Duckburg Marine District School Board to grant the three of them a year long "practical educational enrichment sabbatical". He was pretty sure that that wasn't actually a thing, but the fact that his great uncle quite literally owned the city probably factored in.

On his way down the imperial staircase to the foyer, he noticed what looked like a fortified mail truck parked not far from the door. This piqued his interest, especially since Scrooge rarely let anyone but family past the front gate, and so he went to see who was there.

"Hello?" Dewey asked the tall man at the front door.

The gorilla rolled his eyes at him. "I told you kid, I can't—oh, you're another one."

"Dewey," he said, extending his hand in a sarcastic greeting. The mailman shook it anyway.

"Everett," he said, "and I have a package here for a Mr. Donald Duck that I need a signature on before I can leave."

"Well, Uncle Donald's in a very important meeting with Scrooge McDuck right now, very important man, maybe you've heard of him?" Dewey smirked and the mailman raised an eyebrow. "Anyway, they are not to be disturbed for any reason, but maybe I can help you out. Uncle Scrooge trusts me with important business matters all the time, you know. I even have a briefcase."

"Look, kid," the mailman sighed and pinched the bridge of his nose, "the green one already spent twenty-five minutes trying to get this off my hands earlier. He even sent the red one for a while, but at least that kid knows how to take 'no' for an answer. Now I sees you here, and I'm really hoping you'll be more like red and just leave me in peace. How many of yous are there, anyway?"

"Just the three of us," Dewey answer flatly.

"Well, that's a relief," the big ape blithely chuckled. "Can't say I's ever met triplets before. Now come on, kid; go let your uncle know I has a very important package for him from a Ms. Minerva Mouse, or at least tell him as soon as you do see him. I get paid on the hour, so it don't matter to me."

Dewey briefly debated annoying the mailman for a little while longer, but then he caught another whiff of breakfast and decided it wasn't worth it. "Fine," he said, "I'll let them both know you're waiting out here. I'm sure the owner of the post office will love hearing about how you spent your morning," he smirked again as he slammed the door shut behind him. Inhaling the scent of breakfast deeply as he did so, Dewey all but skipped on his way to the dining room. Everett and his delivery could definitely wait.

Dewey strolled into the smaller of the dining rooms and saw his brothers and Webby still sitting at the table, mostly having finished their breakfast. Huey's plate was cleared and pushed slightly in front of him, silverware and neatly folded napkin on top. Louie was still picking at what Dewey guessed was probably his third helping of Beakley's famous pomegranate pancakes, drowning in syrup and butter. The sweet scent of more was in the air, so Dewey decided to sit next to Webby across from his brothers and grabbed the remaining two pieces of bacon on the platter in the centre of the table.

"I tried to stop them, but they were already halfway through your food when I got down here!" Webby said, gesturing at the other two.

Louie shrugged. "Snooze you lose, bro."

Huey just smiled. "How'd you sleep?" he asked.

"Not bad," Dewey lied. "How about you?"

"Pretty good, actually," Huey replied, drumming his feathers on the table. "I feel better this morning than I have in, like, a week."

"That's good," Dewey said, trying not to be just a little bit jealous. "Hey, did you guys get a load of the weird mailman at the door?"

"That's not our normal mailman," Webby said. "Her name's Gail and she's a collie."

"Yeah, apparently he has this super important package for Uncle Donald that we aren't allowed to just give to him?" Dewey asked. The others nodded, confirming they already knew. "I mean, does Uncle Donald even know anyone named Minerva?"

"Maybe she's an old flame from his navy days!" Webby said, eyes sparkling. Dewey figured she was momentarily lost in her thoughts, imagining his uncle's tales of grandeur. The boys just stared at her blankly.

"As in, the Navy?" Huey asked, beak slightly agape.

"No way," Louie said dismissively.

"Uncle Donald would never do something risky like that," Dewey agreed. Though, given the past couple months, he was almost inclined to believe her. It would explain that dumb uniform he liked so much.

"It's true!" Webby cried. "How do you guys not know this? Donald Duck served for years before he was honourably discharged a little over a decade ago. He even started a band while he was on leave in South America. Please, tell me you guys know about Los Tres Caballeros!"

"Cabbie-who now?" Louie asked looking to his brothers, who just shrugged back.

Webby buried her face in her hands. "Ugh," she grunted, "I have so many things I need to teach you guys."

"Well, maybe first you could help us learn what's in that package Everett out there is babysitting?" Dewey suggested. Webby was just about to answer when Louie cut in.

"It's just a stupid hat," he said, beak full with pancakes. "I know. Super disappointing, right?"

"What?" Dewey said, simultaneously excited and let down. "How do you know?"

Louie grinned smugly. "You underestimate me, Dewford. I tried talking Ev-o out of it for a few minutes, but once I realized that wasn't going to happen, I kept him talking while I made a plan and wore him down," he said, pausing to take another bite of his now-soggy breakfast.

Mrs. Beakley had quickly and quietly come in and out of the room while Webby had been talking about their uncle's supposedly very exciting past, leaving a fresh stack of pancakes in front of Dewey. She had a habit of making herself scarce when the children were eating breakfast. He tossed another flapjack to Louie when he noticed the puppy eyes he was giving him, and then began to dig in to the ones left on his plate. "Go on," he prompted his younger brother.

"Well, once I had an idea of what was what, I sent Huey out to distract the guy."

"Which I am still not okay with!" Huey piped up. "You told me you hadn't even answered the door yet. It took me a solid two minutes to convince him I wasn't just you in a new shirt."

"Well, those two minutes gave me just enough time to get into the back of that fancy mail van out there, which wasn't even locked, and, get this, not only is the package exactly where I figured it'd be, but bozo actually has the key hanging up on the wall not even ten feet away!" Louie was grinning madly now. Huey rolled his eyes, but Dewey leaned in closer, very engaged in the story. "Anywho, whole thing ended up being a dud. It's just this ugly, blue hat with these tacky stars embroidered on it."

"That is weird," Dewey said, intrigued. "I wonder why some mouse lady would send Uncle Donald a hat."

"You don't know she's a mouse," Huey corrected. "Remember Phillip Terrier from school? He was a siamese cat!"

"Fine, so some probably-but-maybe-not-actually-a-mouse lady sent Uncle Donald a dumb hat in a mail truck that looks like it's straight out of Fort Knauks. Why would someone do that?"

"Why don't you just ask him over breakfast?" Webby said, tilting her head sideways.

Dewey snorted. "Webby, we can't just ask Uncle Donald about it."

"What can't you just ask me about?" a familiar voice quacked from the direction she had been staring in. The triplets jumped at the sound of it and then slumped into their chairs. Their uncle was nothing if not persistent. This was going to be a long conversation.

Fun fact: I had originally titled this chapter "The Third Wednesday of October in McDuck Manor" just randomly, but then it turns out that that's actually Huey, Dewey, and Louie's birthday! (Well, it is if you go by comic debut. I guess it makes sense that the show would do animation debut, though.) I didn't wanna do that, but I thought I'd set it not too too far before so I can do that chapter later if I want to ^_^ Also, originally I had Webby find Huey's Darkwing Duck action figures, but since I had to retcon that for the show, I hope you enjoyed Starling Wars ;) I couldn't think of a clever play on Luke's name, but not every name has to be a bird pun, damn it!

Anywho, thanks for reading! Let me know how I did with the characters in the comments :) I'll try my damnedest to get the next one up quicker, I swear!

This chapter's bonus points go to whoever sees where I'm going with the mail thing ;)

P.S. It's my birthday (April 30th) today, so I guess this is my gift to you!