Huey sighed as he made his way to his room, this day had been such a mess that they had just finished cleaning up. All he wanted to do now was rest. He opened his door and the state of the room made him know that wasn't happening for a while.Stuff was scattered all over the place, things were ripped up and torn apart, and Louie was sat in the middle of it all bawling his eyes out.
Oh no.
He made his way over to his brother mindful of the mess and quietly called his name. Louiequicklylooked up and broke out into more sobs once he saw him, "I'm sorry, I'm so sorry!" Huey swiftly grabbed him in a hug and called for Dewey. This required both of them.
Dewey and everyone else looked up from what they were doing when they heard his name being called. Before he could really process it he took off in the direction of Huey's voice, the others following unknown to him. He opened his bedroom door to see a sight he wished he'd never had to. Huey looked up at him with worry in his eyes and he raced to join the hug, his heart breaking as he heard Louie's repeated sob filled apologies.
Della watched the scene with guilt overcoming her more and more as it went on. She didn't mean for this to happen, she was just mad and scared, and it was because of him, and, he was just a kid... Her kid, and she took her anger out on him.
"Get out." Huey said when he noticed her and she hesitated. "GET OUT!" Louie flinched and he softly apologized to himas Della left. She backed into a wall in the hallway completely speechless.
Scrooge placed a hand on her, "Yew were right ta punish the lad, but sendin' him ta be on his own after he just lost his family wasnae the best thing ta do. The last thing he needed was ta be alone."
Della looked at her hands in utter dismay, "What did I do?"
"We're not mad. We're right here and we're not going anywhere, I promise." Dewey said as Louie started to calm down. He looked at his brothers in surprise,
"Why aren't you mad?"
"Think you're mad enough at yourself for all of us." Huey sadly replied. And it was true, Louie was mad at himself. For everything. It seemed like everything bad that had happened lately was somehow his fault, or it felt like that anyway. He was the problem after all. "That's what you tend to do in most situations, take everything out on yourself."
"My anger left as soon as I saw you like that," Dewey admitted. "Yes, you messed up but you don't have to be so hard on yourself. You made a mistake, a big one, but it's not like you knew this would happen. Don't beat yourself up." But that was easier said than done, his family was gone, his brothers were gone, and it was all his fault. His eyes welled up again and he collapsed in their arms as a second set of tears overcame him. Della was right to be so mad, he screwed up, again.
But what right did she have to punish him? She wasn't the one that raised him and his brothers for ten years, she was the one who left and tried acting like everything was fine now that she was back. Things didn't work like that and he was so tired of being the only one who saw that. He missed his Uncle Donald, he would know what to do, how to fix this. Cause it was clear no one else did. Him most of all.
He just didn't know how to react to all of this, it was too much. And now he almost permanently erased his family from history. This was such a mess. One he didn't know how to clean up. Really, it had only been a matter of time before he messed up too badly and went too far. But he never imagined it'd be this far. He never wanted to go near this far ever again. Maybe it was better if he was grounded, he couldn't mess anything else up that way.
Eventually Louie fell asleep and his brothers looked around their destroyed room. Dewey tried to detach himself from Louie but Huey shook his head and got up himself passing Louie's full weight to him as he did so. He started cleaning up as Deweywatchedtheir sleeping brother worriedly,
"This is about more than today, isn't it?” Huey sadly nodded.
“How did we not notice?”
“We were too wrapped up with everything else, but it ends today. It has to.” Dewey agreed and the room fell back into silence, there was nothing else either of them had to say. Things shouldn't have gotten this far, they should've noticed the signs sooner. Of course Louie was gonna break down sooner or later, there were too many things happening for him not to. But they should've done something to help him. They shouldn't have gotten so distracted by their mom that they forgot he didn't handle things like her being back very well. They should've known something like the events from earlier today would eventually happen, that he would've gone too far.
They should've done something to stop him.
If they had just let him know they were there if he wanted to talk, that it was okay that he was feeling like this... But that was in the past, the only thing they could do now was focus on the present, to do better. And that started with trying to get him ungrounded. Or at least get Louie Inc. back. They had never seen him work so hard on something before and sure he may've not been doing it the best way, but all he needed was some help. Some guidance. He didn't deserve to have his pride and joy be taken away like that and maybe once their mom calmed down she would see that. But for that to happen they would have to talk to her, did they want to talk to her?
She wasn't out of line or anything but she made their brother cry and that had never been okay with them. She they had made him feel like he was completely alone, at the worst possible time for him to feel that. She was the reason he was having such a hard time, and the reason why they didn't notice. They were mad at her too.
But mostly they were mad at themselves and they didn't see that changing anytime soon. The only thing to do now was help Louie through this, to get him to stop being so hard on himself for every mistake he made. But they knew their brother well and knew that that was easier said than done. But they would do it, they had to, Louie deserved better.
And it was time they started acting like it.
