Work Text:
Donald wasn’t surprised that his family had forgotten about him. Sure, when Della and the kids had landed on the island, he had hoped their rescue had meant they had noticed. Noticed that he hadn’t managed to make it to the cruise ship. Noticed that he had been taken captive and had been held for ransom. Noticed his message from the moon that he fought with his life to send. Noticed that he beat the impractical odds to escape, just so he could return to them. Noticed that he had spent weeks trying against all odds to survive on a deserted island, alone and scared he would never see them again. Noticed that he was waiting for some sort of rescue.
So yeah, when he saw them on the beach for the first time after months, he had hoped this meant they had noticed, but when the truth was ultimately revealed later by Scrooge, he wasn’t surprised it had just been an accident.
He wasn’t an idiot. He knew that the boys were thrilled to be living somewhere other than the houseboat. He knew they were embarrassed by how little they had, how little he could provide for them, even if they never said it out loud. He knew that moving into the mansion and meeting Scrooge had been one of the best things to happen to them. He knew that, while Scrooge had welcomed the boys in with welcome arms, his relationship with Donald was strained at best. He knew that the boys still didn’t really believe that he was a capable adventurer. He knew that Scrooge conveniently forgot to include him on adventures with the others, and that didn’t help that perception. He knew that they never doubted that Della was. He knew that Della was everything they had expected and hoped she’d be. He knew that in the time he was gone, Della had managed to reinstate herself in the boys lives and they accepted her as their parent.
He knew this was always going to happen. He knew that Della was alive and out there somewhere, no matter how delusional they called him. He knew she would come back to them, to her boys, no matter what. He knew the boy’s were so much like their mother, that it was only natural that they would love her just as much as he knew they would. He knew that no matter how much he was there for them, he wasn’t their mother and he would never be. He knew that he was just Uncle Donald, the embarrassment, the failure. He knew that now that she was back, they would finally have the one thing he could never give them; her. He knew that she could give them all so much more than he ever could have dreamed. She had given them the stars after all.
So yeah, he wasn’t surprised at all.
What did surprise him, though, was how much it hurt anyway.