As if this trip couldn't get any worse.Huey leaned back against the wall just outside the bathroom and burped. Just the taste of regurgitated chili dog made him feel sick to his stomach all over again. It was like a never ending cycle of punishment.Why does this always happen to me?

The Duke's steely cold voice crept into his mind.Maybe you should stop being nice to your brothers all the time and quit taking the crap they give you.

Huey shut that thought down as soon as it came. If he had it to do over again, he knew he would still have eaten it. There was no world in which that decision and the ugly outcome would have been any different. It was Dewey, and as with everything that is Dewey, he had his hopes and dreams tied up in them eating gas station chili dogs together.

But, of course, where did that leave them? It left Huey sitting with their deadbeat dad, sharing turns puking their guts out in a RV toilet while old iron-gut Dewey sat totally unaffected up front.

He burped again.Classic.

Cosmo lifted his head and rested back onto the floor inside the bathroom. They were a foot apart, both leaning against the walls, one outside the bathroom, the other inside. That was the only system that worked, switching places in front of the toilet until they were both too exhausted to do anything but lay there.

"Need a turn?" Cosmo huffed, rolling his head against the wall to meet eyes with him.

Huey closed his eyes. "Not yet. I think the nausea is starting to pass."

Silence followed. He was just starting to savor it when Cosmo's voice tripped all of his nerves back on high alert.

"He's very… excitable, isn't he?"

Ohhh hoho, he's stepping into the fire with that question.The Duke sunk his teeth back in.What's he gonna do? How much do you want to bet he talks bad about them? After all, Dewey just poisoned him and the whole reason he's on this trip is because Louie kidnapped his kid.

Got kidnapped with the kid. There's a difference.

Potato potahto. The point is… maybe your brothers are just proving why he left you three in the first place.

Huey took a breath and opened his eyes. "Dewey? He does have a flair about him. What about it?"

Cosmo wiped the beads of sweat from his forehead. "He just reminds me a lot of Della."

Huey didn't move, he kept his eyes firm on him.I can't act nervous or back down. That's what he wants. He wants to see vulnerability. No doubt Dewey's shown every inch of his. He wears his heart on his sleeve."Yeah, he's the most like mom out of the three of us."

Cosmo stared down at his hand for a few minutes before turning back to look him in the eyes. "I loved that side of your mom. She was always so excited, eager… full of life. But for as much as I admired that about her, that was a part of her that I understood the least. It made for an exciting marriage but I always struggled to really know how she wanted me to be. I always felt like she wanted me to act just as lively but, in that regard, I fell short. You see-"

Huey cut him off. "Where are you going with this?"

Cosmo snapped his bill closed and smirked. "There's no doubt in my mind that you're the leader of the three. This whole trip it's been obvious that Dewey looks up to you. You're the oldest, the most responsible… and I have an older sister and so I am familiar with the order of things. It's probably safe to assume that you know your brothers best."

"Why does that matter?"Dewey was just being Dewey. There's no better way to explain it.

Finally Cosmo let out a sigh and laid what was on his mind. "Your brother wants something from me but I don't know what it is. It feels like it always did with your mother, like he's trying to get some reaction or words from me that I just don't know how to give." He gestured to the toilet. "I did what I thought was right but clearly that backfired."

Huey's eyes widened.That's what this is about? Making Dewey happy?"And that's why you ate the chili doganddidn't tell him that you were a vegetarian?"

Cosmo gave a somber nod. "He was so excited to be able to share something he loved with me I couldn't tell him."

Yeaaaah, that seems like a YOU problem.The Duke just snickered in back of his mind.

But as Huey watched their dad sit there, tired and depressed, he started to cave a little.He ate that chili dog for the same reason I did. Because he cared about Dewey's feelings. Otherwise he wouldn't have betrayed his own values for it.He folded his arms across his chest and turned his head to face him. "Dewey sets his heart on things. It can be a delicate balance between letting him down for everyone's good or building him up and giving him exactly what he needs to hear, no matter what happens afterwards. When you have a brother who has a passion for finding the good in everything, who wants to squish that?"

He smirked a little as he recalled a time when they were kids, hunting for treasure in a Toth Rah's pyramid. "Sometimes when he's fantasizing about finding a horde of mummies, when scientifically that's impossible, you just gotta let go of your own inhibitions and enter Dewey's world with him. Even if that means contracting food poisoning." He groaned a little when his stomach tightened and gurgled.Although, maybe the chili dog dream could have been squished. This is awful.

Cosmo let out a single chuckle before groaning and holding his own stomach. "I don't get that reference but I think I know what you mean. I just wish there was an easier way-"

"Validation. That's all he really wants. The more you can genuinely show that you're pleased, the more confident he'll be that you like him. But… try to find a time to tell him when he's stopped trying. Don't just validate him whenever he does something. Otherwise, you'll be trapped in the rat race of him showing you things he can do or doing things for you to get your approval." After he had told him the secret to unlocking Dewey's greatest desire, genuine approval, more than Huey's stomach hurt.Why did I tell him all that? He doesn't deserve to know. The more he fails Dewey, the more likely I am to get my brother back on my side and be able to leave Cosmo in the dust when this is all over.

The Duke's voice crept back in.You dimwit! You were supposed to sabotage him.

But sabotaging him meant sabotaging Dewey. Especially after the whole chili dog fiasco. I don't want to clean up Cosmo's mess when this is all over.

The Duke spun his head in a sickly sing-song voice.You're too torn between protecting your brothers and punishing your deadbeat dad. You can't do both… but I caaan.

Huey gripped the sides of his head.Shhhhhhhhhush. If I let you out, you'll create more of a mess than Cosmo is.

But I can get rid of him, you know I can. I could make him leave and everything could go back to the way it was.

His stomach dipped and dropped.Not now… not now.He controlled his breath and opened his eyes.

"Thank you. Looks like I came to the right person." Cosmo stared at him, his eyes soft and wide with a look of awe or confusion. Huey couldn't tell. It made him wonder for a second if he had seen the war with the Duke. Just the thought of that sent a stabbing pain down his abdomen.He can't know about the Duke.

Cosmo smiled directly at him. "So, Dewey mentioned something about a girl. Gosalyn?"

That brought a whole new wave of nausea over him. Huey jumped up and scrambled for the toilet, pushing Cosmo's face away in the process. As he heaved his guts out, the Duke tugged for free reign.Cosmo needs to go.