UBatiM Au

2TaaK Au (Rejuvenate)

Toons Alive! Au (random Lil' Toons)

Mickey is on the phone with Minnie, reminding him what orders to purchase at the bow boutique, when he sees them. He is about to make the corner right as a sailor clad duck steps forward on the sidewalk. Four ducklings dressed in red, blue, green, and lilac trail excitedly after him. He feels his throat leap into his throat, and his speech suddenly cracks, reciting Minnie’s list in poor order.

“Are you okay,” Minnie asks. “I can send a text if you like.”

“Yeah! No!” He runs in the opposite direction, away from their sight, and breathes in relief when they continue forward, oblivious to his presence. But there is a moment - fleeting and slight, when he feels Donald’s awareness prick in alarm, sensing a presence he has long pushed away. It does not last. He and the children disappear in the crowd, leaving Mickey to his thoughts.

Some doodles of my crackship/rarepair Delmick cause I am the captain of this ship and I have to make my own content dammit.

For Mickey’s Upbringing.

I made an earlier post about how I headcanon that Mickey and Donald’s families really contrast each other and I’m making another one to make it more clear. @moonstoneflowers here ya go — it got super long 😬.

Mickey is born into a financially unstable family. His father isn’t one of the greatest people in the world either,  made evident because of his habit of sleeping around (it was how Mickey came to be.) Mickey’s mother, Elodie Mouse, is Ezra’s third wife and they’re not very happy together. But unlike Ezra’s last two wives, Elodie was the only one who managed to have him stay. He takes his wife’s last name and his marriage to Elodie is his longest one. They have Amelia and Felicity Mouse. It was suspected that Ezra was planning on running off yet again, when both Elodie and Ezra die in a car accident. Mickey was 4 years old. His older sister Amelia was 8.

Mickey and Amelia were placed with their grandfather — Ezra’s father — Rattigan. It was with him that they found out they had other siblings; Oswald, who was 5 years old, and Julius, who was 10. Both Julius and Oswald were from Elias’ previous marriages (1st and 2nd respectively). Rattigan ran a circus and his main attractions were his grandchildren (Mickey was an acrobat). It became increasingly clear, as time went on that out of four of them, Mickey was the most popular; the child’s charisma appealed to the crowd, especially because of the act: the trapeze. Amelia and Oswald were part of the act, but it seemed as years went by, Mickey’s section grew longer.

Amelia and Julius aren’t really bothered by their dwindling presence — Amelia especially because the older she got, the more she saw how crooked her grandfather was and eventually, she refuses to perform; she’s not making him any money if she can help it. Julius worked more behind the scenes, at the booths; he also helps with the more technical aspects of the circus -- he’s the one to teach Oswald everything he knows about mechanics and all things electronics and Oswald never forgets that; never forgets how much his older brother and sister sacrificed themselves for them. Julius is the one struggling to take care of his siblings, with Amelia’s help of course, because Rattigan doesn’t give a rat’s ass about his grand kids. Julius and Amelia take turns finding odd jobs and the money stash they have saved in their shared bedroom continues to grow. The older siblings essentially raise the younger ones.

Oswald was at first a little jealous that Mickey got more of Rattigan’s and the audiences’ attention but it became obvious that Mickey was disliking the growing limelight; Rattigan’s increasing attention on him (and only him) bothered Mickey immensely — he wanted to be anything other than famous at this point — and Oswald eventually took note of that. He soon comes to be his younger brother’s confidant, someone Mickey desperately needs as the years progress. They become very close and at one point, Mickey, hating the spotlight, tries to get his brother some attention (he sees how much Oswald misses performing, as his number of acts continue to shrink), but his grandfather sees Mickey’s ways of trying to help his brother as a means of escape (and partly they are) and so he takes drastic measures; in early March of 2000, Oswald suddenly disappears without a trace.

Mickey is devastated.

He spends months looking for him but to no avail; his guardian makes sure of it, with a more tight schedule of practice and performances, leaving the young teenager with almost no free time. At this point Amelia has already run away and Mickey doesn’t blame her; he only wishes he had gone with her. She left two weeks after Oswald’s disappearance and the only reason he didn’t go with her was because he still held the stupid stupid hope that Oswald would miraculously return. Julius had left the circus even earlier, with a friend named Alice. He occasionally sent money back to his siblings; it’s why Amelia could afford to run away. It’s why she left Mickey some money in an envelope; it’s just enough to let him get away, if he ever tried to. 

Mickey instead uses the money to change his name legally to Michael Theodore Mouse — Felicity never suited him and anyways, it would be harder for Rattigan to track him down (downside of this was that it made it difficult for his siblings to find him too) — and he takes only what he need and hops onto the next freight train out of town.

Mickey is 15 and a half years old when all of this happens and for the next few years, he learns what he can using public library computers and books he ‘borrows’ around while town hopping. He sleeps and eats where he can and he has a rough few years, made better only because he has company; Launchpad McQuack and Drake Mallard are on the same boat as him *cough* less than stellar childhoods *cough**. The three of them spend 4 years together as a group, until Drake -- who was the only one to achieve a high school diploma, through online classes -- goes off to college in St. Canard really just an excuse for him to become a vigilante and Mickey and Launchpad go their separate ways. Or so they thought.

They both somehow miraculously end up working for Scrooge McDuck; Mickey as his clerk/bookkeeper and Launchpad as his mechanic. Mickey accidentally  gets dragged on a few adventures and it’s here where his circus skills are re-discovered by Scrooge, who officially makes him part of his little troupe of adventurers; it helps that Mickey is quite an adrenaline junkie, and it explains why and how he and one miss Della Duck get along so well. 

Mickey falls in love with her; he falls hard. He’s only 19 years old when it happens and he’s absolutely shaken by this; Della is Mickey’s first true love; Minerva ‘Minnie’ Mowse, from across the street of Mickey’s first and only childhood home -- the one that belonged to his parents before they died -- doesn’t count. 

Come to think of it, Mickey hadn’t thought of Minnie in a long while, not since the first night he escaped Rattigan’s circus and he briefly wondered if Minnie still lived in the same house, if Minnie would let him stay the night. Mickey immediately decided against that idea; Minnie had known only Felicity. And Mickey doesn’t ever want to think about being Felicity ever again.

Mickey’s an adrenaline junkie (a former acrobat as well); he likes the rush of an adventure just as much as Donald and Della do and he’s capable and can handle himself. It doesn’t mean that he’s entirely experienced tho; Della and Donald have been trained to be Scrooge Juniors since childhood. Adventure is quite literally their element. Mickey’s adeptness at heights and stunts gets him by just fine, but he’s a year younger than the twins. So of course there were times they had to swoop in and save him. And it’s during one of those rescues that Della is like oh shit, I like him like him. Donald is in the background with a video camera and some popcorn recording the cheesy reunion. (It’s such a bittersweet thing to look back on, after Della’s gone and Mickey’s away looking for work.)

Mickey, Donald, and Della find out Della’s laying eggs when Mickey’s 25 and the twins are 26. Mickey calls up Amelia in a panic because omigod, I’m going to be a dad. Omigod, what if - what if I’m a bad dad - what if I’m just like - and Amelia doesn’t even let him finish his sentence because all he says is Mickey, you’ll be fine, just do what you know what will be the best for them. It’s meant to calm his brother but Mickey never wanted kids in the first place and he’s afraid he’s going to be a horrible father and he just panics more. Amelia has to talk him down the rest of the night.

His hesitations about being a sudden dad are all laid to rest when he holds the eggs in his arms and well, instant heart eyes. Of course he freaks out when Donald juggles and drops one of the eggs; José and Panchi have to hold him back from quite literally taking a squeegee to Donald’s head. Della is not amused.

Mickey doesn’t really remember much from the night Della wanted to give their children the stars; he remembers the fire from the engines taking off a few feet in front of him and being blown back from the full force of it. He remembers running away from Scrooge and to his apartment, taking everything he needed and heading to Donald’s houseboat — the very same houseboat Scrooge, Della, and Mickey helped him pick out. He remembers sleeping on Donald’s couch, the carriage just in reach, Donald leaning against him, sleeping bag wrapped around himself.

The triplets hatch and Mickey and Donald’s lives are sudden very busy. And an old fear of Mickey’s resurfaces; financial instability. Ezra Mouse has passed this fear down onto his son and it follows. Mickey never went to college, so he can only take odd jobs. Donald doesn’t fare much better; he didn’t exactly have such a normal life either (he’s met time traveling relatives, that’s saying something): he grew up with Scrooge McDuck — Donald only knows adventuring. And so it’s why Mickey supports Donald’s idea of going to college to be an accountant (Donald’s father had been an accountant and Donald had taken his old books that were lying around the mansion.)

The triplets are 5 years old when Mickey gets an opportunity to do more than an odd job. The only problem is that it’s in Andover; 102 miles away from Duckburg. But there are still bills to pay. And their family needs this money desperately and Mickey refuses to have his kids grow up like he did ((—when Julius would come home with almost nothing and the fear of having to ask their grandfather for something was so palpable that Julius eventually had to take matters into his own hands; it’s why they had a generator hooked up to their trailer and it’s why Julius and Oswald had to become so adept at mechanics—)) and there are still bills to pay.

And so Mickey and Donald strike a deal; Mickey goes to Andover for work and sends the money back and Donald raises the triplets in Duckburg. Mickey’s job has him travel a lot (and he may or may not be looking for Oswald while he’s at it, because heck, he was given a job at a detective agency, he might as well put that to good use) and he’s only able to go back to Duckburg occasionally, but Mickey always makes sure to call whenever possible. Donald loves his unofficial brother in law, but a part of him is angry that he picked his job over family.

Eventually Donald decides to stop accepting Mickey’s money, says that he can do this on his own. Donald is stubborn, but Mickey’s learned enough from Oswald, so instead of fighting it, he opens an account for the boys and another for the houseboat and so several times afterwards, when Donald didn’t make enough for the end of the month, the emergency fund Mickey set up kicks in.

The triplets have vague recollections of Mickey when he was raising them directly himself and it’s why they don’t ask about their dad. Huey, Dewey, and Louie know they have a dad: they have his eyes and he facetimes them every Tuesday and Sunday and he’s not with them a lot but he looks out for them. Just from afar. Uncle Donald keeps with the family tradition of being mad at family members with him too.

Mickey and Minnie were childhood friends who were separated from each other because of circumstances. Truth be told, Mickey only occasionally thinks of Minnie while he’s homeless and city hopping with Drake and Launchpad, and when he meets Della well,,,

It’s only years into Mickey’s mid-adulthood that he meets Minnie again and it’s a few years after Della. They end up together but well, Mickey looks up at the stars and occasionally thinks of Della.