A/N Written for Huey Week 2020 Day 7: Free Day over on tumblr. Let me know what you think of this theory? Xxxxxxx

It was a few hours after his realisation that his brothers found him, buried under the blankets of his top bunk in their old room on the houseboat. Sometimes he hated being the smartest of his siblings. He was usually the first the figure out how bad things were. So, he didn't know why it had taken this long for him to figure this out. Or maybe, if he admitted it to himself, it had been a niggling thought at the back of his mind ever since he learnt of their history that up until know he hadn't let himself think about.

"Hey," Louie said, trying to sound nonchalant as he climbed up the bunk to sit beside him, giving him the chance to tell him to leave him alone, whist Dewey crawled under the blankets to be a grounding presence besides him.

Huey had long since stopped crying, but his throat still felt raw, so it took him a minute to find his voice to speak.

"Do… do you ever think about how Mom and Uncle Donald's parents died young, so they had to be taken in by Uncle Scrooge, then how Mom… disappeared so Uncle Donald had to raise us?"

He could feel his brothers sharing a look of knowing that there was something more he was getting at but not quite understanding what. Again, he hated himself for being the smartest.

"What do you mean?" Dewey asked eventually, ever the inquisitive one.

"I mean… what if its some kind of curse. That something will always happen to the parents in out family so that their kids have to be raised by their Uncle instead." Huey had always assumed that he would have kids, so that he could teach them about the world and the scoutmaster at their Junior Woodchuck troop. Like their mother Dewey would probably be too adventurous to ever really settled down and he didn't think Louie had given it much thought yet. Not that any of them needed too they were only eleven after all. But still, the thought that if he had kids they would be doomed to grow up without a father, or that he would lose his brother and have to raise their fatherless children terrified him.

"That's… that's ridiculous!" Louie said. For the first time, Huey poked his head out from under the blanket so that he could look his brother in the eyes.

"Oh really? You don't think someone would put a curse on Scrooge McDuck's family."

Again, his brothers shared a look because no they couldn't argue with that.

"Well then maybe we should ask him?" Dewey suggested.

"Yeah because whenever we ask our uncles about family secrets, they always tell us the truth." Louie stated. But Huey was finally crawling out from beneath the blankets.

"It's worth a shot."

The triplets walked up to Scrooge's office in the mansion, their hands held tightly together.

Huey knocking on the door.

"Uncle Scrooge?"

"Come in lads!"

They pushed the door open to find their great uncle staring at a large board with photos and strings coming off in all direction that could either be his next greatest adventure or business venture or both.

"Now, what do ya think of-"

He cut himself off when he saw the look on their faces.

"Is everything ok lads?"

Huey glanced at his two younger brothers who were looking at him expectantly. He took a deep breath before asking. "Uncle Scrooge, we wanted to talk to you about curses?"

"Have you been into my garage again?" He asked, sitting down behind his desk.

"No!" Huey said despite Dewey coughing awkwardly into his sleeve. "We wanted to ask you if you knew about a curse on our family."

"You're going to have to be more specific lad."

"One where Uncles are cursed to look after their dead siblings' children."

Uncle Scrooge sunk into his chair, looking more exhausted than Huey had ever seen him before. With every second that passed Huey could feel his anxiety building. Just before he reached his breaking point Scrooge spoke.

"When your Mother… disappeared, I wondered the same thing myself. I researched everything about curses I could get my hands on, visited every spiritual person I knew and some I didn't, and they all told me the same thing, that there was no curse like that on my family. It was just dumb luck."

Huey let out the breath he didn't know he was holding and felt his brothers do the same.

Feeling a hand on his shoulder, Huey looked up to see that their uncle had come out from behind his desk to kneel in front of them.

"Now kids, I want you to promise me that you'll remember what family means. Its means being they're for the people you love no matter what. I forgot and it cost me eleven years of your lives. I do not want the same to happen with you three."

Huey was the first to tackle him into a hug, his brothers not far behind him, understanding what his Uncle was saying. That's whilst he cannot promise that nothing will ever happen to them, their family would always be there if anything did. For once Huey was glad that he was smart enough to figure it out.