feathers & treasure - neopuff (2024)

Chapter 1: dressing up

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“You said you wanted to help me.”

“I just thought helpin’ you would be a wee bit different, is all.”

Goldie scoffed and finished tying his bow tie for him before walking back to the bathroom. “You’re my fake husband now, so deal with it.”

He sighed and stared at his face in the mirror. It wouldn’t have to be fake if she hadn’t rejected his proposal years earlier. But really, this is what he got for saying “yes” to her without knowing what she needed help with.

As she came back and stood next to him, Scrooge didn’t regret his decision. They always looked perfect next to each other - tonight was no different. Goldie in her favorite red dress gave him a red tie and cumme*rbund to match. She said he couldn’t wear his top hat “in case someone recognizes you,” to which he was tempted to ask why she didn’t just bring someone less famous. Though…he was pretty confident he knew the answer to that.

She was brushing imaginary dust off her dress when he leaned over and planted a quick kiss on her cheek. “You look beautiful, O’Gilt.”

Goldie smirked. “Try to call me Goldie when we’re on the dance floor, alright, Sweetie?”

He put his hands on her shoulders and laid his forehead against the back of her head. “What are you gonna do with yer hair?”

“Just a quick bun,” she mumbled, applying her mascara and enjoying the light physical attention he was giving her. “I know you like it down, but it’s easier for me when it’s out of the way.”

“Hmmm…” He moved his head and dug his beak into her feathers – preening for a few moments before backing off to the bathroom.

Goldie smiled and grabbed her hair tie and a few bobby pins off the table. She knew playing house always made Scrooge act domestic – but it was impossible to pretend she didn’t enjoy it. There was an odd thrill that came with the idea of being together permanently and publicly after all these years of short, hidden meet-ups. A natural transition, some would say. But she loved her life as it was and didn’t plan on retiring to his mansion anytime soon.

When he came back into the room, she was all ready to go. And his heart felt hollow as he thought about all the investor’s meetings and McDuck Industry parties he’d be going to dateless in the coming years. Perhaps he should leave invitations in their old cabin, just in case she came across them with enough time to join him.

“Ready?” Goldie said as she stood in front of him and laid her hands on his shoulders.

“I’ve been waitin’ for you,” he responded, grabbing onto her waist. “You still haven’t told me what you’re after.”

“That’s true, I haven’t.” Goldie leaned forward and pressed her beak against his for a quick moment. “Don’t worry about it, Hubby – all you need to do is look pretty and keep an arm around me.”

Scrooge smiled and tapped his fingers against her dress. “I think I can handle that.”

(ok that’s all I got but i also wrote this snippet cuz it made me laugh)

“You’re very lovestruck tonight, Scroogey… Can’t you keep it in your pants ‘til we get back to the room, at least?”

He frowned at her, clearly hurt, but didn’t stop dancing. “…well, I’m not wearin’ -”

“Oh, God - it was a joke, Scroogey. C’mon, lighten up!” She took a song change as an opportunity to move her arms up around his neck. “My treasure has yet to arrive, so we can keep having fun until it does.”

Chapter 2: 1995

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“Goldie, would you just tell me what happened?”

“What do you want me to say? She’s safe now, so- so you can go back home!”

“They called her your granddaughter!”

“And?”

“Is…is she…” He paused to unclench his fist. “Who’s her grandfather?”

She huffed out a breath and closed her eyes. “What does it matter? She’s already living on her own. She doesn’t need more family to put her in danger.”

“If she’s already in danger, she could use more family to protect her.” Scrooge kept wanting to reach out and grab her arm, but he couldn’t bring himself to move. “It doesnae even matter if she’s mine…if-…if she your family, then she’s my family.”

Scrooge jumped as Goldie suddenly let out a loud, guttural groan and lowered her forehead against the couch. “Of course you’d say that. Of course!”

He frowned. “Goldie-“

She spun around and poked an angry finger into his chest. “I was handling it, alright?! For years and years and years, I’ve been there! And I’ve been careful and cautious and I made sure to background check her roommates and I’m paying for school and I was handling it!”

Exhausted, Goldie stepped back and sat down on the edge of the couch, falling back. “Then this happens and I thought I could handle this, too.”

Scrooge walked around the couch and stared down at her face. “It’s nae a crime to need help, Goldie. You know I’ll always be there when you need me.”

She sat up to let Scrooge sit down next to her – laying back down so her head was on his lap. “…I should’ve been there for her mother, too. But I wasn’t. And now she’s gone and I have to live with what I’ve done, but I can’t just…I can’t just move on.”

Scrooge ran his fingers through her hair and stared off into the corner of the room. He never expected this day to end with him sitting in the living room of an unfamiliar Calisota State dorm, but hey – that was just part of being Scrooge McDuck. You never knew where you’d end up.

“It’s startin’ to feel like you’ve lived a whole other, secret life.”

She sighed and closed her eyes again. “It wasn’t a secret, it just never came up.”

“You know everything about my family.”

“Let’s be honest, here, Scroogey.” She sat up again to look him in the eyes. “How much about your family did you actually tell me? I learned most of it from newspaper articles on your oh-so-famous life.”

He stayed silent and turned away. “…I told you about Della.”

Goldie sighed and brought a hand up to rest against his whiskers. “Scrooge, this isn’t like that.”

He swatted her hand away. “Someone you care about was hurt because of you. How is this any different?”

She stared at him for a few more seconds before adjusting her posture and leaning normally against the back of the couch. This was not how she expected this day to go either.

She inhaled, then exhaled with a big sigh.

“…Dickie’s mother was the only Dawson orphan still alive when I went back in 1908. She was ten years old and on the brink of death and I took her to your cabin and got her some food and water.”

Scrooge didn’t move an inch.

“She said her name was Lucia and she absolutely hated when I tried to call her Lucy,” Goldie chuckled as she spoke. “And I did such a poor job of taking care of her. When she got her strength back up, she moved back down to Dawson to start working and earning for herself. And I’d come down to chat or take her with me on adventures.”

He had an eyebrow raised – a few questions clearly on his mind. Goldie had a feeling she knew exactly which ones: how did I not know about this? and how was this girl’s mother born in 1899?

“Some of those missions would be a little bit…supernatural. I’d take her to other dimensions and show her what the world has to offer. I didn’t keep up with her life so I didn’t know what she wanted or if she had kids or a boyfriend or anything. I just…had a little partner to take with me sometimes. Made treasure hunting easier when she got into her 20s.”

She had closed her eyes and was clearly lost in the memories. Scrooge felt a pang of familiarity, knowing he’d had the same look on his face whenever he was thinking of the Klondike.

“…but I got co*cky. Tried to steal a chronal scepter from Dimension 79. Have you been there?”

“…not yet.”

“It’s absolutely beautiful. But I can’t go back, as you can imagine. Guards fired at me, and she just…she pushed me out of the way. No one besides you and her have ever done something like that for me. And it…and then she was gone.”

He paused for a moment. “Dead?”

Goldie sighed and opened her eyes to stare at the ceiling. “Not immediately. She was shot forward in time…and every hundred hours or so, she’d get shot somewhere else. I saw her again in 1953, after thinking she was dead for twenty years.”

“…Goldie, I-“

“And she was pregnant! I guess she’d decided to do whatever she wanted since she only had a short time in each place! Can’t blame her for that. We didn’t have a lot of time to talk, y’know? She just told me what city she planned to have the baby in and what names she was thinking of. No idea what year. Could’ve been in 1600 where I couldn’t get to her. Could’ve been in 3050! We were lucky that it happened in 1995. We were so, so lucky.”

He wasn’t used to Goldie talking this much. She was really lost in the memories – and Scrooge wondered briefly if this was the first time she’d said any of this out loud. Did Dickie even know about it?

“Where is Lucia now?”

“Dead.”

“…I'm sorry.”

“I don’t even know how or why she died – I just know it was in May of 1960. She could’ve been an old woman. Maybe she got shot or hit by a car. The obituary I found didn’t say. Just that she was survived by her daughter, Dixie Duck. Who wasn’t even born yet! But who checks for that, right?”

“Dixie?”

“Yeah, I tried it for a few years but Dickie hated it. So…Dickie it is.”

“I…I get why you didnae tell me about this. And I’m not…alright, maybe I would’ve liked to be a part of Lucia’s life, but…at least now I can be a part of your granddaughter’s.” He reached forward and laid a hand on Goldie’s.

She turned towards him and smiled in a way that Scrooge felt was still very sad. “…I think that’d be good for her, actually.”

Scrooge put a hand on her cheek. “You shouldn’t have had to go through that alone.”

“But I did. And it’s fine,” Goldie mumbled. “Lucia’s the one whose life was ruined. She never even had the chance to meet her daughter.”

“Maybe they’ll meet sometime in the future?” He brought his other hand to her other cheek and felt his heart swell. Though Goldie was already putting up a calm front, the emotional vulnerability she’d just displayed was more than he’d seen from her in a long time.

“…I guess that’s always possible…” Goldie closed her eyes as Scrooge pulled their beaks close together. It was just a short moment of passion that ended with them staring into each other’s eyes.

“Scrooge-“

“Granny?”

Chapter 3: that's what she said

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“You need to grab on tighter! Dinnae let go no matter how wet it is!”

Goldie laughed as Scrooge pulled on the rope, laying her down next to him at the top of the cliff. The rain beat against her face as she tried to stop.

“I donnae see what’s so funny about you almost fallin’ to yer death, O’Gilt!”

“It’s too hot…I dinnae think I can do this all day.”

Goldie snorted and put a hand over her mouth to try and calm herself down. If she laughed too much, she’d end up needing to drink more, and in this dry desert they were wandering through, they needed to ration their water.

“What’s so funny? You want me to pass out?”

“I’ve already taken care of Duckworth and Quackfaster. I suppose you should come next, but…do you really deserve it?”

Goldie paused for a moment before starting to chuckle on the other end of the line.

“Y’know, I’ve figured it out! When you start laughin’ randomly, you’re just…interpreting my words inappropriately, aren’t you?”

“Oh, Scroogey, it’s not my fault! You just love to talk dirty to me all the time.”

He sighed. “Do you want a Christmas present this year or not?”

“Look, I’m sorry, alright?”

“An apology? “ Scrooge gasped. “Last time I got one of those from you, we were still so young and new to each other. You sure know how to make me feel like a young man again.”

Goldie put a hand over her face, really taking in exactly what Scrooge said, and tried to keep the moment serious. It didn’t last more than a few seconds until she let out a quiet laugh.

“Wha-…no! Damn it, Goldie! I didnae mean it like that! Stop makin’ everything I say dirty!”

Chapter 4: last choice

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“You want to go trick or treating? Seriously?”

Dickie pouted and leaned onto the desk. “What do you mean? Of course I do! Don’t you?”

“Trick or treating is for children.”

“C’moooon! It’s free candy and dressing up in a fun costume! Why would we stop ourselves from having fun?”

Gyro flipped to the next page in his textbook. “We have different definitions of fun, Dickie.”

“Not always…” She sat next to him and propped her chin up with both hands. “I bet this could be fun for both of us! We could dress up at characters from Star Wars! You like that, right?”

He rolled his eyes and finally looked over at her. “Not all nerds like Star Wars.”

Dickie pouted again and Gyro turned back to his book. “…I prefer Battlestar Galactica.”

She squeaked. “Perfect! I dunno what that is, but we can dress up as characters from that, right?”

Despite himself, he laughed for a moment, but tried to cover it up with a cough. “No, I don’t think- well…no, no. Are you really serious about this?”

She leaned right into his personal space. “One. Hundred. Percent.”

“And there’s no one else you can take?”

“Mindy’s visiting her friend Vanilla in another town and Fred and I are kind of not talking right now and that’s making things awkward with a couple other friends so yeah!”

Gyro scoffed. “Nice to know I’m your first choice after…literally everyone else.”

“Only ‘cause I was pretty sure you’d say no!”

“Well, for once you were right.”

“SO MEEEAAANN!!” Dickie whined and spun around on the lab stool several times before falling over.

“Wha-?! Dickie!” Gyro finally stood up to lean down and pick up the source of his current agitation. “How many times do I have to tell you not to do that?”

She rubbed her head and laughed. “At least seven or eight!”

Chapter 5: collaboration

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“It was so nice of your brother to introduce us!”

Loopey took a sip of her soy caramel macchiato and smiled. “Chyeah! Launchy is the realest. And I’ve, like, always been a fan of your videos. They’re so genuine and like…I dunno, they’re, like, really funny and stuff.”

Dickie rubbed the back of her neck. “Thanks! I always watch your makeup tutorials before I have to go somewhere fancy!” She laughed awkwardly. “Your Instagram photos always have soooo many likes, it’s crazy!”

“Yeah, I dunno how it happened!” Loopey leaned onto her hand. “It was, like, one day I was just, like, making videos for nobody, and then boom! I started getting emails from ELF and Sappho about getting paid to show off their products.”

Dickie sputtered into her frappuccino. “Wh-…what was that?”

“Oh, right, lol, yeah. I keep forgetting you don’t know this stuff - they’re just makeup brands. One hundred percent vegan…cruelty-free, y’know? I can’t use stuff by companies that, like, hurt little animals or whatever.”

She took a long sip of her drink, hoping she wasn’t blushing. “Right, of course! Th-that makes sense. So, um…yeah, I was thinking we could maybe….do some kind of collab? You could appear in some of my videos-”

“Or I could give you makeovers!” Loopey gave her new friend a huge smile and reached down into her bag to pull out some eyeliner and blush. “I can, like, see it already! You’re totally a Fall and you’d look super adorably cute with some winged liner, for sure. OhEmGee, one hundred percent yes, Dickie. Yes. Let’s do this.”

Dickie blinked a few times, not expecting Loopey’s reaction to be so strong. “Wow, really? I mean, yeah, no, this is perfect! My friend Gyro explained all this cross-promotional stuff to me and it seems like a really good idea. Tap into each other’s markets, kind of.”

“Totes. We could literally make soooo much money if we get this going for the long-term. And honestly, you’d make, like, the best partner.”

“O-oh?” Dickie felt herself blushing again - normally she was just as open about her excitement towards new projects, but something about spending a lot of time in close proximity with the Loopey McQuack was making her nervous. “I think so, too. This’ll be really fun!”

“Hells yes, Dickie. Now what’s your Insta? I, like, have to add you.” Loopey started typing on her phone. “You can follow my private Insta, too, if you want.”

Dickie nodded a little too fast. “Um, yeah, definitely! I’m, um, it’s…@dickieyeahyeah, spelled just like my BeakTube name. My pics aren’t pretty like yours, so you don’t need to scroll through them or-”

“Ooooohhh my God, Dickie, these are too funny!” Loopey started repeatedly clicking on her screen, and Dickie’s phone immediately blew up with a Like on every photo. “You’re literally, like, the funniest person I know! This is gonna be so much fun!”

Dickie laughed in response and opened up her phone to mark all these new messages as Read. She wasn’t used to this nervous feeling, but somehow it felt…nice, at the same time. Gyro would probably know the answer.

Chapter 6: maybe isn't good enough

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“I can’t do this, I really can’t.”

“It’s just for a few days! You don’t want to go on an adventure in the Galapagos for the weekend?”

“Grandma, please! Exams are going to kill me if I don’t make time to study!” Dickie groaned. “And Gyro will kill me even worse if I have to retake BioChem. He’s the TA!”

“…so I don’t know who or what that is, but you’ll have plenty of time to study!” Goldie put an arm around her granddaughter’s shoulders. “The plane ride is a good ten hours at least! You can study then!”

“Alright…but how life-endangering is this ‘adventure’ gonna be?”

“Not very!” Goldie shrugged. “There’s apparently a Legendary Lava Lizard that might be hoarding a lovely amount of-”

“Nope. Not doing it.” Dickie started to walk back to her dorm.

“Wha-!? Wait! Dickie!!!”

Chapter 7: mountain climbing

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Their adventures weren’t always glamorous. Often they were just…dirty. Hours of climbing and sweating, digging and shuffling - often all during the same afternoon. But if the missions didn’t take hard work to get to the treasure, then what would be the challenge?

This thought was running through Goldie’s head as she grabbed the edge of the cliff she and her partner were climbing. One more pull and she’d be free to sit down and catch her breath.

Scrooge, meanwhile, was already at the top - dangling his legs over the side while he watched her struggle. He had a smug look on his face that she wanted to smack off - she was still new to this high-stakes treasure hunting!

“Do you need help, Lass?”

She grunted and pulled herself up, shuffling her arms over the side and stretching her leg to pull the rest of her body up, too. Immediately, Goldie flopped over and laid down on her back, spread out and hyperventilating.

“I guess not.”

Goldie glared up at him briefly before closing her eyes and taking a few more big breaths. They sat in a comfortable silence for a minute while Scrooge enjoyed the view and she enjoyed oxygen, until she could hear her partner shuffling around.

She opened one eye to see him staring down at her in an oddly soft manner. “…why are you looking at me like that?”

Scrooge leaned closer to her and balanced on one elbow. “I just like to look at you.”

Surprised by that, Goldie scrunched her beak and scoffed. “Uh-huh. Take a good look, then. My hair is sticking in ten different directions and I’m drenched in sweat.” She rolled her eyes. “At least you’re not doing much better.”

He laughed and brought his free hand to her cheek, guiding her face towards his. “You always look beautiful to me.”

She didn’t react immediately as he pressed their beaks together, but her eyes fluttered shut just before he backed away and sat up straight again. She tried not to be embarrassed by the fact that her beak stayed puckered for a few moments after the kiss was over.

“Sorry, I know we arenae, um…” Scrooge stuttered, clearly flustered over what he’d done.

Goldie opened her eyes and smirked at him, sitting up as well. She placed one of her hands over his. “It’s fine, Scroogey. Just don’t let yourself get distracted from the real treasure.”

He gave her a nervous smile in response and watched her stand up to start the next half of their climb. Perhaps treasure hunting with someone who sends his heart racing wasn’t the best idea, but he didn’t plan on stopping anytime soon.

Chapter 8: almost like a dream

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When he first fell ill, they didn’t think it was anything out of the ordinary. An old man who doesn’t take the best care of his health and frequently goes on life-threatening treasure hunts; changing altitude five times a day and experiencing severe weather patterns without proper clothing? And who’d been on four different adventures in the past week?

Beakley was surprised he didn’t get sick more often. Certainly being 150 years old couldn’t be beneficial for his health, after all. So they put him on bed rest despite his whining, and Duckworth’s ghost checked his temperature while they slept during the night. The kids weren’t worried, Donald wasn’t worried. There was no reason to worry.

Until day three of his fever when his eyes rolled into the back of his head and he started chanting in an unrecognizable language.

Immediately they consulted a local physician, who was completely baffled. Donald thought Gyro might be able to help while Beakley contacted Ludwig Von Drake - neither had a clue, but would dedicate as much time as possible to searching for the answer.

At a certain point, Scrooge went completely still and quiet, and Beakley thought this nightmare could be over. But then his body tensed up and he started to seize, and Beakley knew she had to contact the second-to-last person she wanted to deal with.

(The last being Magica de Spell, the only person they knew who was magically fluent. It was hard to deny that there was some magic involved in this.)

Rather, she would have to find a way to get in touch with Goldie O’Gilt...whose Scrooge-esque experiences with time travel, dimension hopping, and magical artifacts made her a bit of an expert when it came to things like this. Unfortunately, she changed her phone number regularly and never stayed in one spot for long, so Beakley did the only thing she could think of:

She went on TV. As a representative of McDuck Enterprises, Bentina Beakley went on Roxanne Featherly’s program and gave a message to the world and anyone who was watching.

“Mr. McDuck has decided to take a relaxing vacation for the first time in his career. McDuck Enterprises’ activities will be temporarily handled by our Board of Directors. But rest assured - Mr. McDuck has plenty of gold to stay comfortable for a little while and catch his breath.”

It took only a day and a half until the doorbell rang and Beakley was greeted with an ever-unpleasant sight.

“Beakley.”

“O’Gilt.”

Goldie made her way into the house and looked up the stairs. “What’s going on?”

“We’re not sure. Fever, seizures, eyes darting around, mumbling in some language I don’t know.”

She huffed and headed up the stairs, adjusting the duffel bag on her back. “Got it.”

Bentina glared at the blonde as she turned at the top of the stairs, and started to follow. Obviously some items around the house would be stolen before the day was over, but the most important thing was that she cured him. They could replace gold candelabras and picture frames - they couldn’t replace Scrooge.

Goldie left the door open a crack behind her as she went in, and Beakley took the opportunity to spy. As soon as Goldie tossed her duffel bag onto Scrooge’s bed, Bentina felt a ghostly presence above her and looked up to see Duckworth being just as concerned.

(And perhaps a bit nosy. He always said he found Scrooge and Goldie’s relationship to be “a fascinating trainwreck.”)

She sat on the edge of his bed and sighed, putting a hand on his forehead. “Scrooge, what did you do?”

He mumbled something in that language Beakley had mentioned to her, and Goldie rolled her eyes. “Some language...it’s just backwards Hebrew. No wonder they needed me here if they couldn’t get that.”

Beakley squeezed the doorframe angrily, but didn’t budge. Duckworth would’ve scoffed if they weren’t trying to be quiet.

Goldie reached into her bag and pulled out a few items that looked like absolute nonsense to the housekeepers watching. There were a few large stones, some long leaves, a small mirror, and a golden hamsa with a brightly-colored amethyst in place of the pupil. The bag was still very full - Beakley realized she must’ve brought any magical healing artifact she owned.

She placed two identical leaves over his eyes and mumbled something, and Scrooge almost immediately started to shake. Beakley’s eyes widened and she almost barged into the room until Goldie grabbed one of Scrooge’s hands and forced the hamsa into his palm.

“Lie still, Sourdough, you’re going to be fine. Just lie still.”

The seizing stopped as soon as the gold touched his hand, and Beakley and Duckworth stared at each other briefly before looking back.

“You were playing around in the Dead Sea, weren’t you?” She chuckled to herself. “How else would you get possessed by a dybbuk? You’re lucky it didn’t go after one of the kids.”

Scrooge was breathing quietly - almost as if he hadn’t been shaking around just a minute before.

Goldie placed her head on his chest and closed her eyes, listening to his heartbeat. After a few moments, she sat up slowly and grabbed the mirror, placing it face-down where her head had been. She started mumbling again and the whole house felt like it was shaking for a second and then just as suddenly...it stopped.

She picked up the mirror and, keeping it face down, smashed it onto one of the rocks. It shattered into a dozen pieces (which Beakley dreaded having to pick up later) and Goldie tossed the mirror handle onto the floor.

“Scrooge?” she asked quietly. “Are you asleep?”

He responded with a snort and a rotation of his head. Goldie just smiled. She watched him for a moment before remembering one last thing and turned on her phone’s flashlight. She forced open his eyes to take a good look at them before letting him be.

After another minute of enjoying the calming sounds of clock ticking and the air conditioning purring, Goldie stuffed everything except the hamsa (including the small mirror shards, surprisingly enough) back into her duffel bag and stood up. She side-eyed the door to the room - knowing full well that she had an audience - but couldn’t stop herself from leaning down and placing a gentle kiss on Scrooge’s forehead. She smiled down at his sleeping face before turning and walking out of the door.

Beakley and Duckworth moved out of the way as she headed to the stairs.

“Wha-? You’re leaving?” Beakley glared at her. “Don’t you want to see if he’s alright?”

Goldie rolled her eyes and grabbed the top of the railing. “He should wake up within an hour. Don’t give him any food with salt, and make sure he stays in bed at least one more day.”

Duckworth and Beakley shared a look again. “So it’s done? He’s cured?”

She was partway down the stairs before stopping to sigh and answer what she considered a series of dumb questions. “He wasn’t sick, he was possessed. And yes, he’s fine. Don’t let him take anymore trips to the Dead Sea if he’s not going to protect himself properly beforehand.”

Beakley blinked, a bit disturbed by this information (and how did O’Gilt know where he'd last been?), and peeked back into his room to see Scrooge turn in his sleep and start to snore like normal. He really looked like his regular old self again.

The thought of “regular old self” made Beakley slap a hand against her face. “Damn it!” She rushed over to the top of the stairs to see that Goldie had already left the mansion. A quick glance around the foyer showed nothing out of place. “I have trouble believing she left without taking something.”

Duckworth appeared next to her and looked around as well. “Your doubt is understandable, especially considering that she took a sword, an umbrella, and...a framed photograph of Mr. McDuck?”

“What?!”

“One from his Gold Rush days, I believe. Perhaps she took it for the memories.”

“That thieving little-” Beakley grumbled with her hands balled into fists. She inhaled deeply and then closed her eyes and breathed out her frustration. “Let’s just call it payment. If she’s right and he wakes up just fine, then he can deal with it instead.”

“Works for me. Now you should start calling around to let everyone know he’s alright.”

“You’re not going to help?”

“Hm?” Duckworth darted his eyes back and forth before starting to float up to the ceiling. “Oh, seems I can’t! Ghostly callings, and all that. Have fun!”

Beakley glared and ran a hand through her bangs. She had a lot of people to call.

Chapter 9: conclusions

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They sat on the couch, Goldie’s head on Scrooge’s shoulder, and only sort of paid attention to what was playing on the screen in front of them. An old western they’d each seen a few times already and had no vested interest in.

What was interesting, however, was the meddling and inquisitive comments they’d been receiving from children throughout the day. Questions about their history, the Klondike and other adventures they’d been on together in the last century. Questions about the other people in Goldie’s life. Statements about the complete lack of non-family in Scrooge’s life.

It wasn’t subtle.

Goldie chuckled suddenly and Scrooge turned his head to look down at her, his beak stopping against her hair. “What’s so funny?”

“Your kids.”

He sighed. “They’re…a handful. But they mean well.”

Goldie shifted around a bit, leaning the back of her head against his arm while her long hair flowed over her shoulders. “They seem to think we’re in love.”

Scrooge didn’t look down at her, rather he stared off down the hallway, wondering if they had an audience to this chat. “…they come to these kinds of conclusions all on their own.”

She huffed and rolled her eyes. “That’s how kids are, isn’t it? Curious about everything that isn’t really their business.”

“Makes me glad I never had any of my own,” he said with a laugh similar to the one that sparked this conversation.

But Goldie didn’t respond, instead she just hummed briefly in a way that made Scrooge feel…odd. He couldn’t contain the sudden feeling that he’d said something wrong. But a small bout of anxiety kept his mouth shut.

“…are you watching this?”

“No,” he managed to say - grabbing the remote and shutting it off.

Goldie stood up and grabbed his hand, tugging him upright. “Come on, let’s go to bed.”

Scrooge followed her and decided that he was just being paranoid - Goldie would never want to spend an extended amount of time with a child, and no child would be safe in the hands of Goldie O’Gilt. She knew that, he knew that. No doubt about it.

Chapter 10: treasure

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“Granny!” Dickie whined, stomping a foot on the ground.

“Hm?” Goldie looked down at the six-year-old child glaring daggers at her from the other side of the couch. “What?”

“I want ice cream!”

Goldie blinked and squinted at her granddaughter, trying to figure out where this craving came from. “It’s January.”

“Chocolate with rainbow sprinkles!”

“Alright, not really a response to that,” Goldie sighed and sat up straight. “We just got home, can’t it wait?”

“No!” She jumped forward and laid on the arm of the couch. “We already got your treasure thingy! Now I wanna get mine!”

Goldie considered that for a moment. “You want to…go on an adventure where ice cream is the treasure?”

Dickie gave her grandmother a big, toothy smile. “Yes, yes!! Your shiny gem is pretty, but ice cream is better. So let’s go!”

She laughed and stood up, already thinking of how to make up a little ‘adventure’ for the kid. “Alright, alright, let’s go.”

Chapter 11: hex

Chapter Text

Magica gasped as he walked into view, and she took in his outfit very slowly. Surely he wouldn’t have just gone along with this without asking her to clarify.

He flicked the little ball gag hanging around his neck. “After you asked me to come with, all this stuff just arrived at my place for free. Apparently I won a really weird contest.”

She slapped a hand against her forehead and groaned. “You stupid-!! I didn’t say sex party like some orgy. I said hex party! As in: witches!”

“Oh.”

Magica groaned even louder and sunk to the floor.

“Well…does the outfit still work? I don’t really have time to change.”

She opened one eye to look him over again. “…maybe. We just need a cloak.”

“I’ve got one with me. It was a really weird contest.”

Chapter 12: first glance

Chapter Text

“This is your cabin?”

She walked in and brushed away some dust she could just feel in the air in front of her. “You’ve been living in this dump this whole time?”

“It’s not a dump,” Scrooge huffed as he brushed past her. He started to unpack the supplies he’d bought in town (and managed to keep from getting stolen) and store them away for safe-keeping.

Goldie took this opportunity to look around. See what this little cabin had to offer, like, say, maybe some gold or the deed to McDuck’s claim. Nothing too specific, of course. She ignored his mumbling while she opened every door to see what was up.

After a minute of wandering, she came back into the main room with her arms crossed. “There’s only one bed.”

Scrooge stared at her. “And?”

“So where the hell am I supposed to sleep?” She knew he was a terribly ruthless guy, but surely he wouldn’t just force her onto the floor?

“In the bed.”

“Oh, you wish. That is definitely not happening.”

Scrooge stared at her for another few moments before blushing and turning away. “That’s not what I meant! I-I’m not…I’m sleeping somewhere else!”

Goldie calmed down immediately and unclenched her fists. “…where’s that?”

He shrugged. “I’ve got some extra blankets I can use.”

She frowned and scratched the side of her neck. Terribly ruthless, indeed. How was she supposed to react to such an unexpected act of chivalry?

Surprising even herself, Goldie opened her mouth and said something she didn’t say often: “Well…thank you, then.”

Scrooge barely reacted as she walked back into the bedroom and shut the door. He didn’t mind sleeping on the floor, so long as she paid him back the gold she owed him, it’d be fine.

Chapter 13: office administrator

Chapter Text

“This is ridiculous.”

“We bet and you lost, so you have to do it!” Scrooge laughed and gripped the handle to his office door. “Answer the phone, help visitors come around, be at my beck and call with coffee and papers all day…it’ll be fun! I’m sure you’ll be handin’ me your resume in just a few hours.”

“Is this a thing for you?” Goldie glared at him. “Should I warn your usual secretary?”

“Quackfaster. And she’s -”

“Right! Emily, that’s it.”

“She’s on vacation, so there’s no need.” Scrooge smirked. He wouldn’t deny that seeing a woman he had…….relations with……sitting in his office administrator’s chair was a bit of a thrill. “Just remember, you have to act professional, Goldie.”

“Yeah, yeah, I know how to answer a stupid phone,” she grumbled and rolled her eyes.

Scrooge smiled at her and leaned against the doorframe. “Isn’t there something you should be asking me, Ms. O’Gilt?”

With a huff, Goldie stood up and put on her biggest, fakest smile. “Would you like some coffee, Mr. McDuck?”

He laughed and headed towards his desk. He was about to have a very fun work day.

Chapter 14: scared

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Lena stared at her hand as it shifted from black to white - shadow to feather. She could feel her corporeal form returning to her, slowly but surely, and hoped that this time it stayed for good. She couldn’t stand the thought of being Magica’s puppet again. She couldn’t stand the thought of not being able to control her own movements again. She couldn’t stand the thought of hurting Webby again.

“Lena!”

She lifted her head and saw the girl on her mind racing towards her. But as much as Lena wanted to lunge forward and wrap her friend in a tight hug, she hesitated. She looked away from Webby’s eyes and leaned her arms onto her knees.

Despite her obvious urge to get closer, Webby came to a stop in front of her. “…Lena? What’s wrong?”

Lena raised a hand and rubbed at her eyes, trying to stop herself from tearing up. “I-It…it’s nothing.”

Webby dropped to her knees and scooted a few inches closer. “It’s not nothing. We won! Magica’s gone! Why aren’t you happy?”

She pulled at her hair and sniffed miserably. “I’m scared, okay?!” Lena turned to finally look Webby in the eyes and felt the tears falling down her cheeks. “This is the third time Magica’s just…taken over! Every time we beat her I feel like I can be a person, but then she comes back and puts you in danger and I’m so scared that next time she’ll be too strong for us! And I can’t…I can’t let you keep getting hurt like this!”

Webby frowned and reflexively covered the bloody gash on her arm, having forgotten about it up until that moment. “What are you trying to say?”

Lena sniffed again and rubbed the tears away from her eyes before standing up. “I’m saying…I should leave. If I’m not near you or Scrooge, then she won’t be able to hurt you anymore.”

“But she’d still be able to hurt you!” Webby reached out and grabbed Lena’s arms. “I don’t care about some cuts and bruises! I just care about- about being with you and going on cool adventures with you and…and saving you.”

Lena wasn’t looking down at her - Webby reached up and placed one hand on her cheek to force her to look in her eyes. “I’m not scared. Magica can set up a million attacks and I know we’ll take her down every single time. So you just trust me, okay?”

Lena sniffed again and leaned down to press her forehead against Webby’s, comfortably laying her arms on Webby’s shoulders. “You love me way more than I deserve, Webs.”

Webby wiped at the tears still lingering on Lena’s face and gently kissed her beak, pulling back with a smile. “You beautiful idiot, I love you exactly how I should.”

“…I love you, too, you dork.” Lena smiled back and leaned forward to kiss her again.

Chapter 15: ballet

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It made sense, when Lena gave it some thought. The girl knew how to move. She knew like fourteen different fighting styles and could parkour between buildings that were ten feet apart. So, yeah, it made a lot of sense that this would come naturally to her. But she was also kind of awkward, and super dorky, so there was a low expectation.

But damn, Webby Vanderquack really knew how to dance. Currently the song was classical, and Webby was flying around the room like a prima ballerina on a Broadway stage. It was like a switch had been flicked once the song changed - Lena still wasn’t sure why BeakTube’s autoplay sent them to a different genre, but she wasn’t complaining.

As the music drew to a close, Lena finally felt like she had a moment to speak. “Wow. I…I didn’t know you could dance like that, Webby.”

Webby posed in what Lena recognized as the 4th position (hey, there were a lot of TV shows about ballerinas!) and shook her head before responding, almost as if she’d been in a trance. “Oh! Well…Granny taught me!”

“Your grandma can dance like that?”

Webby laughed. “Granny says that knowing internationally popular dances and rituals are just as important as knowing fighting styles!”

“Huh.” Lena shrugged. “I guess that makes sense for a spy. But you’re, like…really good. You’re telling me you’ve never been to a fancy ballet class?”

“No, no!” Webby blushed and rubbed the back of her head. “Granny says my mom was a dancer, so maybe it’s just in my genes!”

Lena walked over to her phone to pick out another song. “Well, let’s see if your mom’s genes know the Cha-Cha Slide.”

“The what?”

“Trust me, you’ll love it,” Lena said with a laugh.

Chapter 16: portals

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“We’ve got to jump in!”

“Lass, you know how I feel about dimension hoppin’. There’s gotta be another way-”

“Scrooge, there’s no time to whine! If we don’t move now, we won’t be able to go home for another week.” She reached down and grabbed his hand. “You can hold my hand until it’s over, alright?”

He groaned. “Mocking me isnae gonna make this any easier, you-AUGH!!”

She cut him off by jumping into the portal and pulling him along, smirking on the way.

Chapter 17: ladies night

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“A girls night out!” Goldie held up a wad of cash in a familiar money clip and the two girls in front of her responded with a resounding ‘ooooooh’. “We could go shopping, get dinner somewhere nice, get some drinks-”

“Grandma.”

“Alright, ice cream, whatever. Same difference.”

“Actually,” Webby interjected. “Granny says I’m not allowed to leave the house while she’s gone unless it’s with Mr. McDuck.”

“What? She can’t possibly think he’s the responsible adult around here,” Goldie scoffed.

Webby fiddled with her thumbs. “She may have…kind of…specifically said that I shouldn’t go to a second location with you.”

Goldie rolled her eyes and Dickie pointed to herself. “What about me?”

“She didn’t say anything about you!”

“I don’t know if that makes me feel better or not.”

“Fine, fine, fine, alright, I’ve got it.” Goldie pocketed the money and pulled out her phone. “How about a girl’s night in? We can order pizza, play games, watch a movie…you name it!”

Dickie smiled. “That sounds fun! What do you think, Webster?”

Webby’s eyes sparkled at her new nickname and she twirled around. “A girl’s night in! And it should be a sleepover! We can get out sleeping bags and have a pillow fight and…” She calmed down for a moment and looked down at her wrist, which bore a colorful bracelet.

Dickie and Goldie glanced at each other and then down at the younger girl again. “Webby? Are you okay?”

“Yes! I’m just thinking about Lena again, sorry!” Webby smiled and gave herself a little boop on the side of her head. “We’ll have a lot of fun tonight!”

Dickie took Webby’s hand and smiled. “You wanna play some sleepover games I learned when I was your age?”

Webby sparkled again. “YES! And I wanna do makeovers!”

Goldie sighed as the girls exchanged pop culture references regarding sleepover trivia. Agreeing to babysit while Dickie babysits was going to be a tiring night.

Chapter 18: reunited and it feels so good

Chapter Text

“It’s been a long time,” Beakley said quietly, her eyes half-lidded at the sight of an almost-lover.

The Ghost of Christmas Future stayed silent and scratched their chest, clearly feeling a little awkward. It had been a long time. But they remembered this woman very well. Their brief acquaintanceship was fun and exciting, but also a bit foolish. And a bit…unfinished.

“You look the same.”

Future nodded and motioned towards the woman in front of them, shaking their hand to show a mutual feeling. There was a slightly nervousness in their movements as Beakley stepped closer.

“Everyone else has gone to bed - do you have somewhere you need to be?” she glanced up at down at Future’s cloak, taking it in as the same outfit they were wearing the last time they’d met.

They froze and lifted up both hands, trying to come up with something to say. Naturally, nothing came out. Instead, Future shook their head and tried to fight the blush on their fleshless cheeks.

“If you’re not busy, you’re welcome to join me in my quarters,” Beakley said with a shrug, walking past Future and towards the stairs. She turned to see them unmoving, but staring at her with a curious look in their eyes.

Future wanted to react more clearly, but was only able to make a few hand motions in an attempt to show interest, but hesitation. They wanted to know if Beakley really wanted this, and hoped she’d get the message.

“I know what I want, and when I want it.” Beakley put a hand on her hip and smirked down at the cloaked figure. “So come over here, or leave. Your choice.” She turned and started up the stairs again.

Future tugged at their collar and glanced left and right - making sure Present, Past, and Scrooge weren’t around - and quickly followed her. No point in fighting off a good thing.

Chapter 19: zombies

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“Could a zombie apocalypse really happen?”

“No,” Gyro scoffed and started putting on his coat.

“C’mon! You’ve met shadow monsters and ghosts, how could zombies be a stretch?” Dickie laughed and elbowed him in the arm, slipping on her own jacket.

“It’s not the zombies themselves,” Gyro groaned. “It’s the idea of an entire apocalypse centered around them. It’s just ridiculous!”

Dickie pointed her thumb at the movie poster they were walking past. “You didn’t think Dead Duck Rising was realistic?”

“Obviously not.” He zipped up his coat when a chilly wind hit his neck. “Especially the crap about turning into a zombie when someone is bitten! But not when they’re eaten? How does the body determine the difference between a bite for consumption versus a bite for companionship? And why does shooting a zombie kill it, but chopping off its head doesn’t? There’s no logic behind it!”

Dickie laughed again. “I get what you mean, I really do. But…I’m just saying, if a zombie bit you, I’d definitely shoot you twice in the head. I’d be heartbroken about it, but I’d do it.”

Gyro rolled his eyes. “Great. Well, if a zombie bit you, I’d take a DNA sample from it and work tirelessly to find you a cure.”

“Which I’m sure would only take you a few days.”

“A few hours, at most,” Gyro poked a finger in her face. “Don’t underestimate my genius.”

She smiled up at him and swatted his hand away. “Alright, alright, you love me and would do anything to keep me safe, I get it!”

“Wha-?!” Gyro blushed the slightest bit and glared down at her. “D-don’t put words in my mouth! I didn’t-!”

Dickie smacked his arm and laughed again. “You’re so dramatic, Gyro! But thank you for saving me from the zombie disease.”

He frowned and shivered as the wind hit him again. “Another problem I have? This concept of zombieism as a disease. Are they dead or diseased? They can’t be both. The idea of them being both is just ridiculous. And another thing -”

Chapter 20: drinking practice

Chapter Text

“Graaaaannnyyy….Grandma!!” Dickie rolled around on the couch. “Nonna!! Avó!!”

Goldie appeared behind the sofa with a martini in hand and a frown on her face. “What?”

“I lost the baby!” Dickie shouted, sitting up straight and pointing a finger in her grandmother’s face. “I lost….I lost ‘er!”

Sighing, Goldie looked around the room to see if she could figure out what her drunk-ass granddaughter was confusing for a baby. Her eyes locked onto a small stuffed alligator that was under the ottoman and she walked around to grab it.

“Is this your baby, Dickie?” Goldie asked, holding the plushie by its tail.

“THE BABY!!!!” she shouted and lunged forward to grab the gator out of her grandma’s clutches. “Awww…my baby gatey…I’m so glad he’s okaaaayyy….”

Goldie made a disapproving expression before turning back towards the kitchen. Despite their lack of biological relation, she still kind of hoped that Dickie would’ve developed her alcohol tolerance. Clearly…that wasn’t the case. Two and a half shots and she was already like this?

She sighed again at the sound of Dickie throwing the stuffed alligator around the living room. She had a lot of prepping to do before this kid started college.

Chapter 21: comfort

Chapter Text

She’d dealt with him in all sorts of moods. He’d been happy with her, upset with her, angry with her, excited to see her…there was a small variety of emotions that she’d grown accustomed to over the years.

This time, however, she was at a loss. She’d seen Scrooge McDuck depressed, she’d seen him cry a few times before, but this was the first time she’d ever seen him at such a complete low. His eyes were red and puffy from what seemed to be hours of crying and his whole body was shaking and shivering - coming to her hotel in Dawson during this time of year was a chilly mistake if not wearing the right clothes. Scrooge had clearly traveled all the way up there without a second thought and would probably get sick because of it.

As soon as he’d shown up in the front lobby, she grabbed him and guided him up to her room, silencing her employees with a furtive glare. No one should be seeing Scrooge McDuck looking so pathetic. She sure as hell didn’t want to see it, but he’d come here for her and she had to take some responsibility for him.

“Scrooge, what’s going on?” she asked quietly, dragging him to her bed.

He sat down and stared at the floor, looking like he didn’t quite know where he was. “I lost her,” he mumbled angrily, wiping at his face with the back of his hand.

“What?”

Rather than repeat himself, Scrooge laid back and curled up into a ball. “I-I can’t…I couldn’t help her and she’s gone.”

Goldie came over and laid a hand on his face. “Who’s gone? I can’t help you if you don’t talk to me, you know.” She couldn’t help but grow frustrated at how pathetic he was being - clearly something was very wrong, but he didn’t seem to want to tell her about it.

Scrooge shook his head and grabbed her wrist, tugging her down to lay on the bed next to him. She didn’t resist and stayed silent as he rolled around and laid his forehead against her chest.

“…I’m not really good at this comforting thing,” Goldie mumbled as he wrapped his arms around her waist and pulled her closer. “But if you’re not going to explain what happened, I guess this is the best I can do.”

He squeezed her tight and sniffed, suddenly feeling self-conscious about how Goldie will react to what he’d done. Would she blame him just as Donald did? Would she be mad at Della? Or would she just say life sucks, get used to it? It all depended on her mood. But he knew that no matter how she felt, she wouldn’t push him away right then and there. The hands she placed on his back - rubbing small circles - made him confident of that.

“You love me more than I deserve, O’Gilt,” he mumbled - once again, barely audible to the woman holding him tight.

But the sudden stiffness in her body made it clear she had heard him, and he worried that he may have crossed a line. Wouldn’t it be just perfect for him to lose two of the most important women in his life just hours after each other?

Unexpectedly, Goldie softened again and didn’t move from her spot next to him. She sighed as he continued to silently sob and not explain anything to her.

“Just get some sleep, you old sourdough.”

Chapter 22: heartfelt letter and a box of chocolates

Chapter Text

Goldie groaned as the phone rang and rang and rang next to her bed. She was oh-so-very tempted to just unplug it (or throw it at the wall), but it was a Thursday and that was an important day for the hotel. She couldn’t just sleep through everything.

“Yes?” she muttered into the receiver, hoping it was an employee and not a customer.

“Miss O’Gilt,” came Linda’s familiar voice. “There’s a package here for you.”

“That couldn’t have waited until I put my face on?”

“Well…there’s no return address and the box looks really old. And it feels like ice. I’m concerned it’s going to scare people.”

Goldie hummed for a moment. “Alright, send it up.”

“There’s no chance it’s something dangerous?”

“Oh, please,” Goldie laughed. “When people wanna kill me, they’re much more direct about it.”

With the box in hand, Goldie had an opportunity to really take a look at it. Linda was right, it looked very, very old. At least a hundred years, if she had to guess.

“So is it safe?”

Goldie blinked at the realization that Linda was still in the room with her. “Oh, um…I believe so. It’s too old to be a bomb, it was clearly frozen so any animal in here would’ve died, and I don’t think any kind of pathogen would last in a sh*tty little box like this.”

“I’m really glad to work for someone who knows that off-hand.”

She rolled her eyes and put the small box on her desk, looking at the way her name was written. It was clearly Scrooge’s handwriting, but she couldn’t imagine when or why or what or how. “Who dropped this off?”

“Oh, uh, he didn’t say his name,” Linda tapped her chin, trying to remember. “Said the box had your name on it, so he brought it here. He was wearing a uniform, but he looked kind of dirty.”

“Like he’d been digging?”

“I guess.” Linda stared as Goldie continued to poke and prod and examine the package. “Alright, are you gonna open it anytime soon or should I get back to work?”

Goldie sighed. “Yeah, yeah, alright.”

Linda leaned over her shoulder to make sure she could see everything that came out of there - she was perfectly prepared for something grotesque or weird or murder-y or maybe even someone’s hand. What she wasn’t prepared for was…

“Are those chocolates?”

Within the chocolates was a folded up piece of paper that Linda reached over and grabbed before Goldie could even react. “Hey-!”

“To Goldie, huh?” Linda opened it up and started to skim the words as Goldie snatched it back. “Come on! It was just getting good!”

“That’s private.”

“You didn’t even know what it was! How can it be private?” Linda crossed her arms, but knew the argument was pointless. “Do you think those chocolates are still edible?”

Goldie hummed a bit in response and held the letter close to her chest. “Only one way to find out, right?”

Linda happily started munching on some of the morsels, but Goldie stepped over to the window to read the letter Scrooge had written her over a hundred years earlier.

Foolishly, she knew her heart was fluttering. The letter was a stupid, heartwarming confession of feelings that she probably would’ve paid to read back in the day. He wasn’t charming or poetic in the least, but the honesty in his words made her want to go see him again. Maybe this time she wouldn’t take anything after visiting, since he went to the trouble of buying her a gift.

Chapter 23: the ol sneeze n swap

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“What, are you a jinx today?” Magica pressed down her greasy hair that just had the displeasure of being shocked upwards. “Everything you try to do is going wrong!”

“It’s known to happen when I’m hit with a reversing curse!” Gladstone yelled back, not even bothering to fix his usually perfectly coiffed locks. “You can’t honestly blame me for this.”

“Your luck should’ve prevented my spell from hitting you,” she said with a shrug, clearly not sorry. “That’s not my fault.”

Gladstone groaned and smacked a hand against his face before leaning over the witch’s brew in front of him. “What else do you need to get me back to normal?”

She pointed to an object behind him. “Just those newt’s eyes and a few sprinkles of curry powder.”

He stared at her while grabbing the items and handing them over. “Curry powder?”

“Don’t try to judge what you don’t understand.”

“Alright, fine, whatever,” he muttered, shoving his hands into his pockets. “I don’t have to drink this, do I?”

“Of course not!” Magica laughed. “But you will owe me two days work after all the trouble I’ve gone through.”

“If you hadn’t made the reversing curse in the first place, we wouldn’t be here!”

Magica rolled her hand towards him. “Details, details. Alright, now…” She reached into the pot and filled her hand with the substance inside - which had suddenly turned into a greenish powder. “Mixti muxti-”

Gladstone stared down at the powder and, unfortunately for the both of them, inhaled a small bit and immediately started to inhale. “Ah…ah…”

“No! Stop, you stupid-!”

“ACHOO!”

As the powder coated them and everything in the room, Magica coughed loudly and tried to bat away the cloud of dust with her hands. “You absolute buffoon! Look what you di-!”

She stopped halfway through her sentence at an unfortunate realization. Her voice sounded much deeper than usual.

“Yeah, yeah, I screwed up, I…wait.” Gladstone blinked and stared in front of him - seeing himself looking very confused and angry. He glanced down to see his slender legs leading up to a short black dress and the realization of what was happening hit him fast.

“You know what? I made the mistake of thinking this day couldn’t get any weirder. And I’m sorry for that,” he mumbled, finally noticing the slightly higher pitch to his voice. “But you can still fix this, right?!”

Magica inspected her new (and hopefully temporary) body with some interest. “Or I could just go visit your Uncle Scrooge and see what he’s up to…”

“If you can suppress your accent, maybe he’ll fall for that. But I wouldn’t count on it.”

“Wha-?! I don’t have an accent!” Magica turned to a mirror nearby, knowing full well that being able to look at her current face wouldn’t change anything about the inflections in her voice. She started saying random words and sentences, and got grumpier as she went on. “Your voice sounds better this way, you know.”

“Yes, well, it’s nice to know what you’d sound like if you were American,” Gladstone laughed. “Matilda’s voice was way too different to compare, so…”

She glared at him and rolled her eyes, heading back to the table of potion ingredients. “Shut up and help me get back to work.”

Chapter 24: introduction

Chapter Text

Fenton looked up from his notepad to see a somewhat familiar red-hatted duck smiling and waving. “Hi?”

“You’re Fenton, right?”

He nodded slowly. “And you are…?”

“I’m Fethry! Donald’s cousin!” Fethry took a seat next to Fenton on the bench, a little closer than Fenton expected.

“Oh! Um…” He sorted through his thoughts. “Are you the one who worked in that underwater lab?”

“Sure am!” Fethry smiled. “And you work in an underwater lab, too, right? One of the little Donalds mentioned they’d been in one before and I looked into it for fun!”

“Technically, yes,” Fenton wrote down some ideas that had come to mind - hoping to keep his thoughts in order during this unscheduled conversation. He had a plan to keep for the day. “So what are you doing in Mr. McDuck’s office?”

“Just came by to say hi,” Fethry wiggled his feet back and forth. “And I heard you were going to be here, so I thought I should introduce myself finally!”

“How do you know me, if you don’t mind me asking?” Fenton asked nervously.

Fethry lifted up a hand and started counting steps on his fingers. “Looked into the underwater lab, saw pictures of the employees, your picture was very nice, so then I looked into who you were!” He gave Fenton a big, toothy smile.

“O-oh,” Fenton wrote down a note to look up information on ‘Fethry’ to make sure he was safe with some of his personal information in this duck’s hands. “Well, thank you. I’ve always liked having my picture taken! One of my very first independent engineering projects involved dismantling and reassembling an old photographic camera. It was quite the experiment! You see, I was…”

Fethry nodded slowly as Fenton continued to talk, scooting a little bit closer to the scientist as he did. Fenton didn’t pay any notice and kept going.

Fethry pouted and tried a different approach - leaning back on his chair and stretching so he could wrap an arm around Fenton’s shoulders. Again - no notice.

Fenton finally stopped talking about the experiment with an “Oh!” and wrote down a few more ideas in his notepad. “Sorry to blather on, it’s just a project I was very passionate about as a kid.”

“Yeppers,” Fethry leaned his chin onto a hand and stared off to the other wall.

“Fenton!”

They both looked up to see Scrooge sticking his head out the door, waving his hat a bit. “Come on in, I’ve only got a few minutes to hear what you have to say.”

“Yessir, Mr. McDuck!” Fenton immediately stood up and headed for the door. “Oh, um, it was nice meeting you, Fethry!”

As he stepped through the door, Fethry crossed his arms and leaned back so that he was barely sitting on the bench anymore. He sighed. “That guy sure is a genius with facts, but boy is he stupid with people!”

Chapter 25: new chapter

Chapter Text

Watching the two of them was similar to watching one of her older sister’s terribly frustrating reality TV shows. They’d bounce around subjects and make excuses to hold hands or touch each other’s arms, staring when the other wasn’t looking and talking non-stop about each other when they weren’t around.

It was started to get infuriating because, logically, they should know what’s going on. They weren’t stupid - at least, Webbigail in particular was not - so what was the difficulty here?

“Oh, Violet, Violet, Violet,” Huey said casually as he put a hand on her shoulder. “I can tell what you’re thinking right now.”

She turned to him and examined his expression. “And how exactly can you do that?” She looked down at his hand.

He yipped and pulled his hand back, rubbing the back of his head. “Sorry! I just meant, um...that we’ve also noticed Webby and Lena. And their feelings. And all that stuff.”

“And yet you haven’t done anything to encourage them, I take it,” Violet surmised. “Why not?”

Huey lifted his hat and pulled out his favorite literature, opening it and pointing to a specific page. “Though the JWG has a large section about adult courting, there’s a small section dedicated to teenage courting as well. It’s not detailed, but the thing they list as ‘Most Important for Teenage Romantic Development’ is self-discovery.”

Violet scanned the page while he spoke. “Your book is suggesting that a relationship which manifests from friend or family meddling won’t feel as genuine to the couple as opposed to them figuring things out for themselves?”

He smiled at her and nodded. “Exactly! And trust me on this - the Junior Woodchuck Guidebook is never wrong.”

She turned her head to glance and Webby and Lena again, who had just thrown themselves into a long embrace for reasons they weren’t aware of. “Does your guidebook have any advice on dealing with the frustration of sitting back and waiting for something to happen between them?”

Huey sighed and lowered his head. “It doesn’t.”

Violet sighed, too, and started to walk away when Huey grabbed her wrist. “But! We could figure it out! I’ve added my own pages to the JWG before, I could certainly do it again!”

She raised an eyebrow at him and considered this for a moment before smiling. “So a guidebook that you’ve contributed to is the guidebook that’s conveniently always correct? You must be very confident in what you’ve written.”

“O-oh, um, yeah!” Huey tapped his fingers on the back of his book, holding it against his chest. “It’s all been first-hand information, so…”

“May I read it?” Violet held out her hand.

Huey stared at her hand for a few moments before placing his faithful guide there. “Just so long as you help me write the Dealing With a Teenage Will-They-Won’t-They chapter.”

She smiled at him and opened up the guidebook to its first page. “I think that would be an excellent use of my time.”

Chapter 26: windows

Chapter Text

Conveniently, he walked into his room just as she was popping the window open. The timing couldn’t have been more perfect, in case she was planning on stealing something from his desk.

“Hey there, Scroogey!” she said as she stretched a leg over the frame. “How’s tricks?”

“…fine,” he said as he walked over to her. “You know there’s a door, right? You don’t always have to use the window.”

She smiled and got her other leg inside, jumping forward to land on her feet right in front of him. “But then I’d have to talk to Beakley and you know how much I don’t want to do that.”

He grumbled as she wrapped her arms around his shoulders. “Goldie-”

“Hmm?”

“…I have a meeting in an hour.” His hands still made their way to her waist, despite his subtle protests.

“Is that so?” Goldie responded with a pout. “Then we should hurry up and get into bed.”

Chapter 27: constellations

Chapter Text

She’d never been a fan of the outdoors. Technology was her friend. Her childhood was spent tinkering with computer parts and then learning to code. Her first successful virus completely wiped everyone’s student records back in high school - a success she could never revel in without getting into trouble.

Fenton was the opposite of trouble. He was a good guy, always trying to do the right thing. And even after what happened on their first date…he still kept in contact. And it was nice. She’d never been with someone before who was actually…kind to her.

So when he asked if she wanted to look at stars with him, she ignored her hatred of spending time in the grass and the dirt and said yes. She could take off one night and just do something normal.

Coming to a park in the middle of the night wasn’t usually her idea of a good time, but Fenton was just sitting on the grass next to a little telescope. He looked cute, for some reason, and she smiled.

“Don’t most scientists watch stars from rooftops?”

Fenton turned around and smiled as soon as he saw her. It made her heart jump a bit. “Normally yes, but I’m looking for a specific constellation that I’ve determined will be best viewed from this exact spot!”

Gandra rolled her eyes and walked over to take a seat next to him. “What constellation?”

“Her name is Norma.” Fenton pointed to a certain part of the sky. “She’s small and not very bright, but her triangular positioning near the Milky Way can show me a whole big arrangement of star clusters all around her!”

“Wow,” Gandra said, raising an eyebrow innot-as-feigned-as-she-expectedinterest. She wasn’t an astronomer by any means, but his excitement was a little bit contagious. “I didn’t realize you had such an interest in stars.”

“I’m interested in all types of science,” Fenton said matter-of-factly. “It’s just endlessly fascinating to learn how the universe works!”

They chatted about stars and the inner workings of the universe for what felt like hours - but when there was finally a lull in conversation where Gandra could check her phone…it’d only been about twenty minutes. She let out a pathetic huff of a laugh and laid her head down on the grass.

“What’s so funny?” Fenton asked as he laid down on his back next to her.

“Nothing,” Gandra said, staring up at the sky. She crossed her legs and stretched her arms up so she was laying on her hands. “I’m just having a better time than I expected to.”

Fenton stared at her. “Why did you come if you didn’t think you’d have a good time?”

She wasn’t sure how to answer that. It’s not like she was in love with him, or even thought they’d ever really work together. But…she still came.

“I don’t know.I guess it just feels like…” She stumbled over her words, trying to pick something that wouldn’t get his hopes up too high or shoot him down too hard. “…like I could lay here with you forever.”

Fenton sat up and looked down at her, a light blush across his cheeks. “I think that’s the nicest thing anyone’s ever said to me.”

Gandra closed her eyes and sighed before deciding it was time to go. “I have to leave.”

“Wait, what? Why?” Fenton watched her get up and followed, brushing dirt and grass off his shirt. “W-we don’t have to stay here! I was thinking we could get some boba or ice cream or-”

She closed his beak with her hand and shook her head. “Thanks for this. It was fun.”

Before he could get back to protesting, she gave him a very small and very brief peck on the cheek - his whole face light up in embarrassment and Gandra took his distraction as an opportunity to get out of there.

She didn’t spend a lot of time outdoors, but maybe if Fenton asked…she’d do that again. Talking to him - about science, about life, about the world - made her feel more at home than anything else.

Chapter 28: 1900

Chapter Text

She never liked writing letters. They always ended up being too mushy or too emotional, and the reader could never understand what tone she was trying to take. She couldn’t be her usual sarcastic self when the words were written on paper. She couldn’t be an ass as a joke on the off-chance someone took her too seriously and ended up hating her guts. All you be in a letter was completely genuine and that wasn’t how she was.

Maybe someday there would be a way for her to talk to people far away in real time. No writing things down necessary, just somehow sending vocal audio messages. Who knew what the future had in store.

This letter was even harder than usual. It was…a struggle to write, since she didn’t even know what she would say if she was talking to his face. But everyone said it would be cathartic to write down how she felt. She didn’t plan on ever giving him the letter, but maybe it would help. Nothing else had been helpful. Following him to other towns wasn’t helpful. Taking things from him wasn’t particularly helpful, either. She was very good at getting his attention, but not the best at giving it a positive spin.

She tapped her pen on the paper and sighed. How could she even start this? Dear Scrooge? Hey Scrooge? I Love You, Scrooge? None of it was right! None of it was good enough!

The blank piece of paper she hadn’t even started writing on was then crumpled up and tossed aside, like getting rid of an untouched rough draft would help her think. It did not.

As the next piece of paper started staring back at her, she was happy to hear a knock at the door. Maybe the hotel was on fire! She wasn’t in her own hotel this time, so there was no downside to that.

She opened the door and stared. “…Scrooge?”

“Goldie.”

“What are you-? How did you know I was here?” She’d followed him to another town - a damp, cold, and ugly place called Tagish - but she hadn’t announced her arrival to him yet. That was supposed to happen in the morning so she could wake him up and scare the living daylights out of him.

Scrooge rolled his eyes and shrugged. “Some people outside were talkin’ about the Star of the North being in town. Somethin’ tells me you’re not plannin’ to put on a show.”

Goldie smiled despite the situation. “No, that’s not why I came here.”

“So whyareyou here?” Scrooge shoved his hands in his pockets, giving her a tired glare. “Tryin’ to steal my gold again?”

She crossed her arms over her chest. “And what if I am? You don’t own this town, McDuck. I have just as much right to be here as you do.”

He didn’t say anything for a moment, just staring at her face, before turning away and letting out a sigh. “Look…I-I just…”

“What?” Goldie fell into a less defensive position when she noticed the light blush across his beak.

“I dinnae if you’ve been payin’ attention to the calendar, but…” He stumbled over his words a bit. “Tonight’s a, um…an important night.”

Goldie hadn’t thought about what day it was in a while. She didn’t celebrate her birthday anymore and didn’t really celebrate any holidays other than Christmas, which had only been a few days earlier.

“Oh!” She pressed a hand to her cheek. “I suppose it’s the last day of the year, isn’t it?”

Scrooge nodded. “Tomorrow is the start of a new century,” he mumbled. “I…I wasnae sure what you were doin’ tonight, but…I thought we could, um…”

Goldie stared at the darkening blush on his face and felt her heart jump in anticipation. “Scroogey, are you asking meout?”

He grunted. “It’s just-! Everyone said I’d just forget about you and move on, but…it’s been three years.” He was clearly having almost as much trouble as she did with explaining his feelings. “…and here I am.”

She smiled and leaned against the doorframe. “You know I’m never going to let you forget about me, right?”

“…I know.”

“Where are you staying?” She looked him up and down, seeing the expectedly ratted clothes and lack of proper shoes. “Certainly not in this hotel.”

“I have a tent,” he spit out. “I’m not payin’ for a place to sleep when I brought my own!”

Goldie laughed and grabbed his hand, tugging him into her room. “Come on, you’ll sleep better in here.”

Chapter 29: movie night

Chapter Text

“MOVIE NIGHT!”

Dickie grabbed Scrooge and Goldie’s wrists and tugged them closer to her. “What are we gonna watch? A classic? Something new?”

Scrooge raised an eyebrow. “I havnae watched a movie in decades.”

“Huh???”

Goldie tried to pull her wrist out of her granddaughter’s grasp. “I prefer to see something live.”

“Wait, what?” Dickie let go of them and started counting arbitrarily on her fingers. “Does that mean you haven’t seen The Devil Wears Prada? Or Beauty And The Beast? Or…orHarry Potter?!”

Goldie rolled her eyes. “Is that the series of children’s movies about magic?”

Scrooge blanched. “I’m not watchin’ somemagic propagandamovie!”

Dickie slapped a hand against her forehead. “Oh, my God.”

Chapter 30: crashed

Chapter Text

“Mrs. Cunningham…?”

She looked up from her seat, eyes red and baggy, and smiled sadly. “Hey there, Kit.”

He walked over and awkwardly played with his hands, not looking up at here. “I’m…I’m sorry.”

“Oh, Kit, no,” Rebecca mumbled and shook her head. “It’s not your fault. Baloo knew what he was doing.”

Kit sniffed. “But…but if I hadn’t been-”

She leaned down and wrapped her hands around his, trying to stop them from shaking. “You can’t keep thinking about it. He’s…he’ll be fine.”

Kit sniffed again and tore away one of his hands to wipe at his eyes. He took another step forward and wrapped his arms around Rebecca, squeezing tight.

Rebecca sighed and sat her hands on his back and head. “I know this isn’t easy, Kit. It…it’s not easy for me, either. But Baloo’s been throughsomuch worse than this.” She hugged him back and laid her head on top of his. “He’ll be just fine.”

Chapter 31: girlfriend

Chapter Text

She’d never had a girlfriend before.

Plenty of dates, plenty of flings. But this was the first time she’d been in a real monogamous relationship with another person. For two whole weeks.

There was a lot of stuff she wasn’t used to. Particularly, getting a text at 2 am that wasn’t a booty call.

It said: “i kno its 2 but…can we meet up?”

Dickie stared at that message for only a moment before asking where. She didn’t care if she had a class at 9 am, spending time with Loopey was worth the lost sleep.

Chapter 32: hiding place

Chapter Text

Working with an enemy was never easy. It wasn’t supposed to be easy, obviously, but when this particular enemy never took you seriously to begin with, it certainly didn’t make things better.

So running for her life alongside Goldie O’Gilt was not exactly how Bentina Beakley intended to spend her evening. But when ferocious monsters that may or may not have been made of shadows were hunting you down, there weren’t a lot of options.

“C’mon, Beakley, down this way!”

Bentina watched her reluctant ally quickly turn down a familiar hallway, and she sighed angrily before following. She came to a halt when Goldie stopped moving. “Whatnow?!Have you finally decided you’ll be better off on your own?”

“Don’t press your luck,Bentina.”Goldie turned to look at her. “We need to hide.”

“Of course we do,” Beakley reached over and placed her hand on the wall, roughly pushing on a spot Goldie didn’t recognize.

The wall opened up to reveal a very, very small closet. Goldie glared. “You want me to go inthere?I didn’t sign up to play seven minutes in Hell.”

“Just get in, you aggravating little-” Beakley grabbed the smaller woman and shoved her into the closet, following after and shutting the wall again. “And shut yourbeak.”

Goldie smirked and squirmed a bit, but stayed silent. She’d take the opportunity to tease Beakleyafterthey were safe.

Chapter 33: forever

Chapter Text

“That was…nice.”

Goldie chuckled at his pointing-out-the-obvious and pecked a few kisses on his cheek and neck. “Mmm…you think so?”

Scrooge rubbed her back gently and smiled, feeling like a zillion bucks. “I do. I feel like…you should stay here longer.”

She hummed and kissed the underside of his beak. “…maybe I should just stay here forever,” she mumbled.

He expected to hear a harsh laugh afterwards, but instead, Goldie froze in her kisses and sat up suddenly. Scrooge looked up at her, realizing that she hadn’t intended to say that out loud. “W-well, if you wanted to-”

She knocked him in the face with her side of the blanket and was already grabbing her clothes before he could say anything. “Come on, you don’t have to lea-”

His words were cut off when Goldie leaned forward and kissed him again, very briefly, before pulling back and taking three long strides to the window. “Til next time, Scroogey!”

He stared at her and huffed, feeling a bit emotionally vulnerable. “You can’t just say that and disappear, you torturous tease!!” he shouted after her, knowing she could still hear every word.

Chapter 34: pick up lines

Chapter Text

“What do I say, what do Isaaaayyy???”Mark whispered into his phone.

The voice on the other side of the line sighed. “How should I know? Hitting on evil witches isn’t one of my skills.”

“You could at leasttryto help instead of just being useless!” he grunted and tossed the phone as far as he could - which wasn’t particularly far, but it managed to land in the water. He pulled out one of the back-up phones in his pocket and started typing.

“U suck”

He didn’t expect her to respond to that and settled on doing an internet search for ‘cool things to say to hot witches’ instead. The results were surprisingly vast, but evenhecould tell they weren’t very well thought-out.

Still…he didn’t have a lot of options.

Taking the third suggestion he saw, Mark swiped a hand through his pompadour and quickly sauntered over to the woman on his mind, who got up from the table she’d been sitting at and started to walk away.

He appeared in front of her and leaned his arm against the wall. “Hey there.”

Magica stared down at him. “What do you need?”

Mark cleared his throat. “Did you cast a spell on me? ‘Cause I can’t get you off my mind!”

“…what?” She crossed her arms and raised an eyebrow.

“Oh, um…” Mark scrolled through his phone for a second before looking back up at her again. “I’d love to ride your broomstick!”

Magica didn’t even respond that time, choosing to simply stare at him.

Undeterred, Mark picked out another line. “I could really use your help finding mymagic wand.”

“Alright, you’re done with this,” Magica said and grabbed his phone - crushing it in her hand. “Those were all pointless and cheesy.”

“Aaannndd…..?” Mark asked with a hopeful look on his face.

She rolled her eyes. “And I’m lactose intolerant. Now move out of my way!”

Magica pushed him to the side and continued walking - to the bathroom, apparently - and Mark just watched her go. He smiled and grabbed another one of his back-up phones so he could text Agent Dee with the good news. “Oh, yeah. She’ssointo me.”

Chapter 35: photographic memory

Chapter Text

Nobody knew how to respond to her questions. Nobody even knew how to respond to her presence. It was disturbing and weird and kind of upsetting all at the same time.

“I dinnae trust her,” Scrooge grumbled, watching her from the other side of the kitchen. “This could be some sort of sick joke!”

“Though normally I’d agree with you, this seems like a lot of effort to go to for a mediocre joke,” Beakley responded, crossing her arms. “She’s never pretended to be this pathetic before…it just might be genuine.”

Scrooge continued to stare at her - blonde hair messy and tangled and cascading down her back while her eyes wandered around the room. “But…then…what do we do?”

“I’m not sure,” Beakley scratched her chin. “Didn’t Glomgold deal with something similar last year?”

“Yes, but…” Scrooge rubbed his arm. “…it made himbetter.For her, it’s like…she’s lost.”

The housekeeper nodded in affirmation. “Then I suppose you’ll have to guide her back.”

He looked up at her in surprise. “You think it’ll be that simple?”

“If not, I’ll contact some old associates to see if anyone can help.” She dismissed him with a wave. “You should go talk to her.”

“…thank you, Twenty-Two,” Scrooge mumbled as he started to walk away.

The woman of the hour tilted her head slightly when the man on her mind slowly took a seat on the chair next to her. “Is everything alright?”

“No, Goldie, it’s not.” Scrooge closed his eyes and sighed. “My housekeeper made some excellent points, so I’ve decided to believe you. For the moment.”

She smiled and tugged at her hair. “Well…thank you. I don’t know what I could possibly gain from pretending to not know who I am, but I’m sure you have your reasons to be wary.”

He stared at her, squinting for a moment in distrust. “Just…why did you come here? Did you wake up nearby?”

“Well…” Goldie reached into her pocket, pulling out a wallet. “When I came to, I just had this. No money in it, but…”

She opened it up to reveal two photographs in the see-through sleeve. Scrooge felt his heart race when he saw his own picture - next to it a cute photo of Louie. “I…you had this on you already?”

“Mmhmm.” She pulled out the photo of Scrooge and flipped it over. “It said‘Scrooge McDuck,’so I asked the first person I saw if they knew who that was and they told me to come here to find you.” She flipped it over again and rubbed her thumb over his face in the photo. “Looks like it’s from alongtime ago.”

“…it is.” Scrooge blushed and reached over to gently take the photo from her. He couldn’t believe Goldie had not just kept this for all these years, but she kept it on her at all times. Suddenly, his doubt about what Goldie was saying completely went away. There’s no way she would show him this kind of sentimentality unless she didn’t realize what she was doing.

“I was only two towns over, so I just…came here.” Goldie chuckled quietly. “I guess it was a silly thing to do, but I couldn’t think of anything else.”

“It wasnae silly.” Scrooge handed the photo back to her. “And I’m going to help you. We’ll get your memories back.”

She smiled brightly and wrapped her arms around his neck, hugging him tightly. “Thank you! Thank you, thank you!”

Scrooge blushed again and placed a hand on her back, feeling all kinds of confused. He really wanted to get his Goldie back.

Chapter 36: cliff sledding

Chapter Text

“No, no, I promise it’ll be super fun!” Webby screeched, positioning the plank of wood precariously on the ledge of the cliffside. “I watched a BeakTube video about this!”

“That doesn’t make you an expert, Pink,” Lena said, peeking over the edge and looking down at the fall ahead of the. “This isn’t a good idea.”

Webby strapped on her helmet and handed one to Lena. “It’ll be fine! This is gonna be great!” She stepped each foot onto the wood plank and waited impatiently for Lena to get on right behind her.

Lena grabbed onto Webby’s shoulders. “If I die, I’m definitely gonna haunt you.”

She just laughed cheerily in response. “Aww, Lena! You’ll be like my little guardian ghost angel!”

“Not really what I was going for, but-”

Lena’s words were cut off when Webby pushed them a bit further and they started to plunge off the edge and slide down the side of the cliff - screaming the whole way.

Chapter 37: soft

Chapter Text

She thought about sneaking away. They were all safe and all together, so there was no reason for her to stick around (after all, there was plenty of gold to plunder). But - as if he could somehow sense she was behind him - Scrooge turned around and they locked eyes, and she knew she couldn’t leave just yet.

With everyone headed in different directions and hugging each other and congratulating each other, Scrooge broke away and walked towards her, stopping just a hair too close. “Even you cannae ruin the good mood I’m in, O’Gilt.”

Goldie laughed and put a hand up to her beak, trying not to be too loud. “I just wanted to make sure you were alright, Scroogey. It took you longer than I expected to fix this little mess.”

He raised an eyebrow. “Were you worried?”

She took another step towards him and smirked. “Not for a second. You are Scrooge McDuck, after all.”

Despite his attempts at looking sour, Scrooge smiled brightly and reached down to grab her hand. “It’s nice to see you, Goldie.”

She hummed and reached her free hand up to his face, gently playing with his whiskers. “...don’t get used to it, Moneybags.”

He leaned into her touch and chuckled lightly. “Of course n-”

“Uncle Scrooge!? Where’d you go-oh, my God.”

They both turned towards the source of the yelling and Goldie’s eyes widened at the sight. She’d heard the news thanks to a little duck in a green hoodie, but seeing it for herself was much different.

“...Della.”

Scrooge looked sheepish as he glanced between the two women. “Um...Goldie, I'm not sure if you knew…”

“I’d heard.”

Della, meanwhile, had her hands on her hips and was glaring daggers at her uncle. “You’re still doing this?!”

Scrooge blushed and shrugged, mumbling something about how it was complicated and she wouldn’t understand. But Goldie didn’t care about that. She started walking towards the younger duck, quickly closing the distance between them and only feeling slightly offended when Della flinched.

Goldie placed a hand on top of Della’s head and smiled. “It’s good to see you.”

Della blushed and huffed out an angry puff of air. “What’s your angle here? I just got back from a long trip and I don’t have anything worth stealing!”

Goldie just smiled in response, moving her hand down to gently run her fingers through Della’s bangs. “I’m just glad you’re alright, Fly Girl.”

As she pulled away, Della felt her heart pump faster in a way that made her frustrated and angry. It wasn’t like Goldie was really her aunt or that she had any reason to be as red in the face as she was, but there was an undeniable pull Goldie had that kept her heart racing. She wanted to hug her. But she didn’t want to want to hug her.

She watched Goldie whisper something to Scrooge before walking over to...Louie? - Della had so many questions about that relationship - but to her own embarrassment, she opted to just watch them and wait until their conversation was over. She stepped next to Scrooge and elbowed him in the arm.

“Has she gotten softer or am I going crazy?”

Scrooge rubbed his arm and scoffed. “Soft? Goldie? That couldnae be further from the…” His words faded out as he took in the sight of Goldie kneeling down and patting Louie’s head, a look on her face that he didn’t quite recognize. It was mesmerizing - to see the thieving adventurer he’d fallen for all those decades ago share such an intimately maternal look with members of his family. Part of him wondered if he was going to see her more often in the next year.

Della smiled and crossed her arms, feeling like she’d just witnessed the beginning of a new chapter in the messed up love story that was Scrooge and Goldie. Now she just had to tell Donald about it!

Chapter 38: last names

Chapter Text

“I’m not really a paperwork kinda guy, Beckers…” Baloo took a seat in the much-too-small chair in front of his boss’ desk.

“Yes, I’ve noticed. That’s why we’re taking care of it finally!” She picked up a pen and started to write. “So your name is Baloo…Cloudkicker, right?”

He laughed. “Nah, that’s Kit’s last name! I’m just Baloo. Nothin’ else!”

“You don’t have a-?!” She sighed and wrote it down, deciding not to argue. “Wait, isn’t Kit your son?”

Baloo stared at her for a moment before laughing again. “Myson?!I’m no daddy, Lady! He’s just my little buddy!”

Rebecca frowned and pointed her pen at him. “But he calls you‘Papa Bear’. Aren’t you at least his legal guardian?”

“Uhhh…” He shrugged and scratched his chin. “I don’t think so! Never signed nuthin’ about it.”

“So an orphan just waltzes into your life and you’ve given him a home and food and a job, but you don’t consider yourself his parent?”

“Is that a question on the form?” He asked and leaned over to check.

She rolled her eyes. “Fine, I’ll just accept your denial and move on. Next I need your birthday…”

-

Baloo tried not to think about everything Rebecca had said to him, but it was stuck on his mind. He never saw himself as a dad. Never imagined becoming a dad, for sure, even though he liked kids. Liking kids was different from settling down with a wife and a family and never being able to go places and see the world like he wanted to.

But…Kit didn’t stop him from flying and traveling and partying. But he was still a kid. Maybe he’d been looking at this the wrong way this whole time.

Speaking of, he looked over at Kit, who was laying in bed and flipping through a magazine. It was filled with detailed pictures of new planes for the coming year and he was completely focused on it. Baloo felt his chest swell with pride and he chuckled at himself.

“Hey, Lil Britches?”

Kit looked over at him. “Yeah, Papa Bear?”

“I, uh…” He stammered a bit and tapped his fingers on his knees. “I wanted to tell you…you’re a great kid. And I’m really happy to have ya around.”

The brown bear blew a raspberry and laughed. “Are you sayin’ this ‘cause you broke one of my toys again?”

Baloo laughed along with him. “Not this time! I just want you to know I love ya, is all.”

“Aw, come on, Papa Bear!” Kit smiled. “I already knew that!”

“Well I wanted to say it anyway!”

The kid smiled brighter. “I love you, too!”

Baloo’s heart felt ridiculously full and he wondered if this was what it was like to be a dad. He wasn’t going to try and apply for legal guardianship or whatever Rebecca was talking about, but he kind of hoped Kit would be his little buddy for life.

“Now you should go tell Miss Cunningham you loveher!”

“Whoa,now!” Baloo raised up his hands. “Let’s not get any of those kinda ideas in our heads, alright?”

Chapter 39: influencer

Chapter Text

“Is this the same sister who taught you that awful gum trick?” Della grumbled, following the taller pilot towards the garage.

“Yeah!” Launchpad responded cheerfully. “She’s super smart! I think you’ll like her!”

“I’m sure I will.” Della didn’t want to be negative, but something told her that Launchpad’s definition of ‘smart’ was a lot different than her own. “How long is she visiting for?”

“Just a week,” Launchpad spun around while he walked. “I haven’t seen her in a while and we’re gonna fly together and eat together and it’s gonna be great!”

“Who doesn’t love some brother sister bonding?” Della laughed, thinking about the whoopie cushion she’d left on Donald’s chair back on his boat. “Is she just hanging out while you finish your errands?”

“I think she said she was gonna wash her plane,” Launchpad nodded and put a hand to his chin in thought. “Mr. McD keeps grabbing me for stuff even though I told him Loopey was here…”

“Sounds like Scrooge.”

As they finally approached the garage, Launchpad’s phone went off again and he pouted as he stared at the screen. “Okay, ummmm…this should only take ten minutes! I’ll be right back!”

Della didn’t even get a chance to ask where he was going before he ran off. Probably Scrooge again. He tended to choose the worst times to make other people busy.

With a shrug, she finished the walk towards the garage, seeing that the door was open and an unfamiliar plane was sitting right outside. There was definitely someone washing it, but Della couldn’t see her.

“Hey! Loopey?” Della yelled out, hoping to get her attention. “Launchpad got caught up, but he’ll be back soon!”

“Oh, like, no probs! He’s, like…such a busy guy, y’know?” A voice called back.

Della awkwardly looked left and right, still not seeing this mystery sister. “Um…yeah, he is. I’m Della! It’s nice to meet yo-oh, my God.”

Her sentence was cut off by Loopey finally hopping down from the other side of the plane, where she’d clearly been having a fun time washing it down because herskimpy little bikiniwas covered in soap bubbles and she was soaking wet. Della turned red at the unexpected view - she hadn’t seen this much of another duck in averylong time.

Loopey smiled and waved. “Like, nice to meet you, too!” She walked over and pulled a phone out of seemingly nowhere. “You’re the, uh, like, the missing mom or whatever, right?”

“Uh…uh-huh,” Della mumbled back, trying to keep eye contact so she wouldn’t look down.

“It’s soclutchthat you’re back!” Loopey finished walking over and wrapped an arm around Della’s shoulders. “Selfie?”

“I…huh?” Della didn’t even notice when the phone camera went off.

Loopey frowned. “We need to retake! Your eyes are totally closed.”

Della shook her head. “I’m…I’m sorry, it’s just hard to focus when you’re, um…dressed like that.”

Loopey looked down at her and laughed. “What doyouwear when you’re, like, washing your plane?”

“I don’t really…have a specific outfit for that.”

The younger duck pulled up her Wingstagram and pointed to some photos of herself in the bikini. “I get paid, like, waaaay too much to promote this brand. It’s so funny! I’m, like, an influencer or whatever. But not really, y’know?”

Della blinked rapidly and tilted her head. “No, I…I don’t know at all.”

Chapter 40: turning back

Chapter Text

Goldie squeezed the doorknob and sighed. She wanted to just leave. She really, really wanted to. But... Sharpie.

She sighed and closed the door, walking back towards the boys.

“What are you doing?” Huey asked as he and Louie stared up at her.

“Saving your butts, apparently. And Scrooge’s, in a minute.”

Louie squinted at the young blonde as she grabbed the inner tube they were stuck in and picked them up. “Wait…”

“What?” Goldie started walking towards the door.

“...Aunt Goldie?”

She rolled her eyes and kicked the door open. “Yeah, Sharpie. It’s me.”

Huey raised an eyebrow and looked between Louie and Goldie. “Aunt Goldie as in...Uncle Scrooge’s ex-girlfriend?”

“If that’s what you want to call it,” Goldie scoffed as she rushed back to the fight.

“Hey! Pick on someone your own age!”

Chapter 41: Cloned

Chapter Text

Making her way into the Money Bin was never a problem - she’d been in and out so many times it was just like walking through another door. Though there was definitely some unfamiliar construction going on that she hadn’t noticed anytime recently. Perhaps Scrooge was was enhancing his security? She’d heard that F.O.W.L. was back in business - maybe they were after him.

With that in mind, she popped her head into his office and smiled at the sight of Scrooge filling out some paperwork at his desk. It was a little late in the day to be doing office work, but he never really stopped working, did he?

“Scroogey.”

He simply glanced up at her for a second while finishing his scribbling. Goldie didn’t mind the lack of greeting and closed the door behind her as she came towards his desk. Normally she would sit on top to get on his nerves, but it was covered in paperwork. Probably important stuff. He called her for help, so she figured she'd be nice and not mess up his work.

“So…” she started, a little irritated that he had grabbed another paper and started signing that one, too. “What’s the big emergency you called me here for?”

Scrooge scoffed and shook his head, earning an annoyed glare from Goldie. He finished his signature on the last page of a large document and quickly moved it to his Done pile. This time, finally, he put the pen down as well, and interlocked his fingers on top of the desk as he finally looked up at the woman in front of him.

“Well, Goldie, to put it simply,” Scrooge said with an unfamiliar monotone. “I’m done.”

She raised an eyebrow and crossed her arms over her chest. “Done with...what?”

Scrooge pushed his chair back and stood up, walking around the desk with his hands behind his back and stepping closer to her with every word. “Done with adventurin'. Done with nonsense. Done with puttin' my town in danger. Done with theft.

“Done with you. ”

Goldie hadn’t moved as he came closer, and his last words hung in the few inches of air between their beaks. Neither wanted to break eye contact first, and Goldie squinted at him suspiciously.

“Excuse me?”

After another few seconds of staring, Scrooge obnoxiously rolled his eyes and walked away from her, towards his desk again. “I wanted you to hear it straight from me, Goldie. I don’t want to see you again and I certainly don’t want you near my family. Never again.”

He turned around and pointed his cane in her direction. “If I see you near my Bin or my mansion, I won’t hesitate to call the police and let them finally take care of you.”

Goldie’s arms were still in front of her chest and she squeezed her hands into frustrated fists. It took less than a second for her to come to an odd conclusion.

“You’re not Scrooge.”

He laughed maliciously and plopped his cane back down on the floor. “You cannae be so paranoid that you didn’t see this comin', O’Gilt. I have businesses to run, I cannae spend time worryin' about the next thing you’re gonna steal.”

She glared and started looking around the room - checking for exits and maybe wherever the real Scrooge was hiding. Doubtful he was anywhere nearby. “You’ve always had businesses to run and you never minded it before,” she said with a nervous smirk - humoring this fake Scrooge for a few moments.

“Oh, I minded,” he said with a glare, clearly noticing her wandering eyes. “And I’m tired of it. So you can leave now and never come back…”

Scrooge pulled a buzzer out of his pocket and held a thumb over the large red button. “Or I can just deal with you here.”

Goldie stared at the device in his hand and took a few angry steps towards him, poking her finger in his chest. “What have you done with Scrooge?!”

He wrapped the curve of his cane around her wrist and pulled - hard - enjoying the pained hiss she let out and bringing her face right to his. “I am Scrooge.” He shoved her down a few feet in from of him and pressed the button.

Goldie gasped as straight lines of identical blue lasers shot out from the floor - trapping her in a small box. She whipped her head around to check for escape routes or any angle she could work - but a poke and a burn later and she was pretty confident there was no getting through those beams alive.

She turned again to glare at Scrooge, who was already back to doing paperwork. It was like she wasn’t even there. As tempting as it was to scream and shout words of revenge and escape, Goldie knew that was the time to bite her tongue.

The doors behind her opened up a minute later and she turned around just in time to see a vaguely familiar face in a short red dress pressing another button. Before she could say anything about it, the floor panel she was trapped on opened up and Goldie fell into the darkness below.

Chapter 42: cuddles

Chapter Text

Scrooge grumbled as he tossed and turned in the hotel bed, unable to sleep. After such an emotionally exhausting day, he thought he’d fall asleep right when his head hit the pillow.

He turned to the side and, despite the dark clouding his vision, enjoyed the view of long blonde hair cascading over the pillow next to him. Well, maybe notrightwhen his head hit the pillow. But after the day they’d had (plus some additional exercise in the evening), he should’ve been out like a light.

“…Goldie?” he whispered, not even sure what he wanted to say.

She didn’t respond, but that didn’t mean she wasn’t listening.

“Are you awake?”

This time she jiggled her shoulders a bit and cuddled further under the blanket, making a short humming sound that Scrooge supposed was an answer. He took her movements as an invitation and scooted himself closer, wrapping an arm around her waist and tugging her into him.

He pressed his forehead against her shoulder and sighed. She shivered as his breath hit the feathers on her back, wiggling her tail against him. Suddenly, one of her hands reached around and grabbed his arm, pulling Scrooge even closer and forcing him to tighten his grip on her.

He was more than happy to hold her, trying his best not to let his hands wander. He placed a brief kiss against her shoulder and then laid his head down on the pillow behind her head.

Only a moment later did Goldie grunt and try to move her head ever-so-slightly. She scoffed and mumbled and Scrooge just watched her with one sleepy eye open before she finally decided it was time to use her words.

“…you’reonmyhair,” she said.

Scrooge opened both eyes and let her words register for a moment before he finally leaned up, making sure his head and arm weren’t tugging on her locks anymore. As soon as he did, Goldie’s hands came back to run her fingers through her hair and she pulled it up into a very messy ponytail as her entire body turned so she was laying on her back.

Her eyes were still closed as if she was doing this all in her sleep. Scrooge just smiled and took in the view of the enchantingly lovely woman in front of him, his arm now draped over her stomach under the blanket. He couldn’t help himself and quickly leaned down to press his beak against hers.

Goldie took a few seconds to kiss him back - very lazily, he noticed - but then her arm stretched over his shoulder to get her fingers lost in his whiskers and Scrooge knew she was plenty awake. They continued that for a few moments until Goldie’s free hand pushed against his shoulder and Scrooge moved his beak off of hers by barely any distance at all.

“…Scrooge -” she started as he cut her off with another quick kiss. She pushed him off again. “…why aren’t you asleep?”

He kissed her again, but pulled away of his own accord that time. “I havenae been able to sleep.”

“Hmm,” Goldie hummed, moving her hands so they were on both sides of his face. “…and why’s that?”

Scrooge took note that her eyes were still closed, and felt an odd little warmth knowing that she was humoring him by staying awake. “I’ve had a certain someone on my mind.”

She smiled and let him kiss her again, pulling away after another few seconds. “I’m sure you’ve been able to sleep with me on your mind before, Scroogey.”

He finally laid back down fully, plopping his head onto the same pillow Goldie was on, and moved the hand he’d had on her stomach to the side of her face. He gently turned her head so she’d be facing him again. “Are you askin’ me to stop?”

Goldie moved forward this time, dipping her head down so the top of her beak would rub against the bottom of his. She sighed dreamily and moved her hands to his shoulders.. “Yes. Now go to sleep.”

Scrooge smiled and moved his hands so one was on her waist again while the other rested atop one of hers. “Yes, Dear.”

Chapter 43: hospital

Chapter Text

“…..-oldie?……”

“…………Goldie?………”

She didn’t want to open her eyes yet. She was still feeling very, very tired, and had no idea who was trying to talk to her or why, but she didn’t plan on responding anytime soon. Plus her head was hurting. And as she tried to drift back to sleep, she realized her whole body was hurting a bit, too.

“……Aunt Goldie,please……”

Her eyes shot open at that name, knowing it could only come from a small number of people. Specifically, one little Sharpie who knew it both flattered her and got on her nerves.

“Y-you’re awake!”

She turned her head slightly to see just who she thought it’d be sitting in a chair next to her bed - his clothes were ragged and his eyes were red and his hair was a mess. Did Scrooge not let these kids bathe anymore?

With a groan, Goldie started to sit up, but a jolt of pain coursing through her abdomen sent her right back down on her back. She grimaced and moved her left hand to the source of the pain. “…what…what’s going on?”

She almost didn’t notice how hoarse she sounded. Why couldn’t she remember the last thing that happened before she fell asleep?

“…you don’t remember?” Louie said softly, sounding less excited than he did a minute earlier. “You, um. You got hurt.”

Goldie groaned and scooted herself back using her elbows - even if she couldn’t sit upright, she could at least lean at an upwards angle. “…no kidding. Where am I?”

“Hospital,” Louie said stiffly. “…Duckburg General. Uncle Scrooge said you wouldn’t want to come here, but there wasn’t really any other option…”

“…he’s right about that,” Goldie said with a scowl. “So what happened? I can’t remember anything.”

She expected an immediate reply, but was struck by the uncomfortable silence that followed her question. Goldie opened her eyes again to look at the kid, who was playing with the strings of his sweatshirt instead of looking at her.

“Hey,Sharpie,” Goldie grumbled. “You awake in there? What happened?”

He had a guilty look on his face and Goldie didn’t know how to feel about it. “I…yeah. I did something stupid and you saved me.”

She huffed and turned her head to stare up at the ceiling. That was unexpected.

“…there was a minute back there when…I really thought you were…you were dead,” Louie mumbled, back to staring at his hands. “I didn’t think - I mean…I’m just…I’m sorry.”

“Don’t worry about it,” Goldie said nonchalantly. “I’m not dead, so…it all worked out.”

Louie breathed out a sad laugh. “Yeah, I don’t think Uncle Scrooge will see it that way. I’m sure almost killing his girlfriend is high on the list of things to get me grounded again.”

Goldie rolled her eyes. “He’s almost gotten me killed dozens of times,” she said with a painful cough. “If he gives you any trouble, just send him to me and I’ll set him straight.”

“…really?” Louie finally looked up at her again and smiled. “…thank you, Aunt Goldie. A-and I’m really sorry, again, about…well…yeah.”

“Yeah, yeah,” she waved her right hand dismissively in between them. “Now just tell me one thing…”

She did her best to sit up a tiny bit straighter, hating the feeling of not being able to protect herself. The pain was excruciating, but she stayed silent in the hopes that Louie wouldn’t notice.

“Who did this to me and how are you gonna help me get them back?”

Chapter 44: volcano

Chapter Text

“You want to work for me?”

Dickie responded with an excited little spin. “I’m finally taking some of those business classes you said I should take!” She pulled a notebook out of her bag and pointed to the glittery, puffy sticker-covered front. “See?”

“That’s wonderful, Dear!” Scrooge said with a bright smile. “What made you change your mind?”

She put the notebook away again and laughed shyly. “Well...Granny said I should listen to you since you’re paying for school ‘n everything.”

“Ah.” Scrooge rolled his eyes. “So it’s about guilt and not an actual interest in business.”

“Well...who knows where the future will lead!” Dickie leaned down to look the man right in the eyes. “That’s why I figure doing some work for you will help me figure it out! Plus shadowing a real big-time businessperson is one of our biggest assignments of the year!”

“Shadowing?” Scrooge smiled again, though a bit maliciously this time. “That means unpaid! Of course, Dickie, you can be my assistant for a few weeks if you’d like.”

“Groovy!” Dickie shouted and jumped up in the air. “I can be whatever you need - bodyguard, secretary, legal counsel, accounting...anything!”

“You cannot be most of those.” Scrooge leaned on his cane and walked back to his desk. “But Quackfaster took off the rest of today, so if you’d like to take her place at the front desk, that’d be very helpful.”

Dickie nodded and skipped to his office door, doing another little spin on her way.

Scrooge watched her with confused fascination - he didn’t think he’d ever fully understand this girl. “I’ve got a lot of work to do, so don’t let anyone know I’m here unless it’s an emergency, alright?”

“Got it, Chief!” Dickie answered with an incorrect salute as she made her way out the door and shut it behind her.

He smiled and thought about Goldie convincing her granddaughter to listen to him...he was always happy to help Dickie with her education, but having his old girlfriend on his side spread a warmth through his chest.

About an hour later, Scrooge was happily getting through a pile of forms while suddenly the door opened again.

“Gran’pa Scrooge!” Dickie said as she poked her head in. “There’s someone here to see you!”

Scrooge frowned. “...this is exactly the opposite of what I asked you to do, Dickie.”

“But it is an emergency!”

“Oh?” He stood up, ready for anything. “What’s going on?”

“This guy is selling Volcano Insurance!” Dickie pointed behind her to someone Scrooge couldn’t see. “Apparently there’s a rumor going around that -”

“Dickie!” Scrooge shouted angrily. “That’s a scam, not an emergency! Tell him to get lost!”

“Oop…” She grimaced and slipped back out the door, closing it behind her again. “Sorry!” she shouted from the other side.

Scrooge sat back down and grumbled until he heard the familiar sound of a strange scream as the salesman was tossed out of the Bin. Always satisfied to get rid of a conman, he started to hum as he continued with the paperwork.

Less than twenty minutes later, the entire bin started to shake menacingly. Scrooge grabbed onto the edges of his desk and held his breath, not sure what was happening. A minute later and the shaking stopped, but the damage was done: tons of furniture had fallen over and pictures hanging on the wall had fallen to the floor, most of the frames and glass breaking on impact.

“Gran’pa!” Dickie yelled as she ran into his office. “You might wanna look outside!”

Scrooge blinked at her before rushing to the window to see what was going on. Even an earthquake of that magnitude wouldn’t have had such a visible impact on Duckburg, right?

“Oh, no.”

As soon as he came to the window, the first thing he saw was Magica De Spell perched on top of a giant volcano that was suddenly in the middle of the water, just a few hundred feet from the Money Bin. She was laughing maniacally and posed with her wand in the air, stirring it around like she was stirring up the lava.

Dickie leaned over him and frowned. “Too bad you didn’t get that Volcano Insurance, huh?”

Chapter 45: snowballs

Chapter Text

Ever since the kids started living with Scrooge, Goldie limited her visits to once every few months (at the most) and almost exclusively at night. She didn’t like kids. They were a hassle and they were nosy and even if she did have some sort of weird, inescapable soft spot for them, she had no interest in getting attached to some ankle biters that were just going to die from overexposure to adventure.

So it was an odd, snowy January day when she showed up at the mansion while the sun was still high in the sky. But she was on a time crunch and didn’t have a lot of options, so there she was - her boots crunching in the snow as she made her way down the driveway. It wasn’t terribly cold, at least not for someone who spent over a decade in the Yukon and five years in ice, so she only had on a light jacket, some thin gloves, and a warm beanie on her head. Without any big, fluffy coat to bog her down, she could just pop into the manor, grab what she needed, and vamoose.

That’s what she thought, anyway, until suddenly a snowball flew past her face at a terrifying speed and broke apart as it smacked into a tree. Goldie took a moment to stare at the tree before turning to see where the offending weapon had been thrown from.

Oh, no.

“Was that supposed to hit me?” she asked, putting a hand on her hip. Where was Duckworth to watch over these brats?

“Maybe!” Donald shouted, working on a small pile of snowballs at his feet. “Dumbella over here has the worst aim!”

“Oh, can it!” Della shouted back, grabbing one of them and shaping it in her hands. “Everyone deserves at least two or three shots to hit their target!”

Goldie frowned as she realized what was about to happen. She considered running away from the kids, but her stupid pride prevented her from giving children the option of hitting her while her back was turned. She decided to settle on imitating her mother instead. “Don’t you dare throw that snowball -”

The next snowball hit Goldie right smack in the middle of her beak before she could even finish speaking. She was thrown back and had to readjust her footing before angrily wiping the snow off of her face. “Dammit!”

Donald and Della were laughing - it was a screechy, high-pitched laugh - as if they were proud of this accomplishment. They should’ve been much more intimidated by her, which meant that Scrooge was probably telling the wrong kinds of stories if they thought they could get away with it.

Unable to stop herself, Goldie reached down and started packing up some snowballs of her own, completely prepared to throw them as hard as she possibly could. “You two better be ready to hurt.”

Della laughed harder, but Donald stopped and started packing up more snowballs at a much quicker pace than before. Della turned around and shook her tail at Goldie, sticking her tongue out and making some obnoxious random noises. “Do your worst, Aunt Goldie!”

Aaaaand...that was that. Goldie fired right at the little duck and hit her right smack on her tail. Della squeaked as she fell into the snow, laughing the entire way. Donald didn’t even pause in his work as his sister got hit, completely focused on the task at hand.

Goldie started rolling another snowball so she could hit him, too. No one got away with hitting Glittering Goldie O’Gilt with a snowball!

Chapter 46: blood

Chapter Text

Goldie’s breath was almost as shaky as her hands as she tried her best not to lose hope.

Despite sacrificing her pants to form some sort of makeshift tourniquet, the pool of blood under his body was still getting bigger and it didn’t seem like the pressure she was putting on his abdomen was making any difference at all.

Still, she continued to push, ignoring the blood soaking into her feathers.

“Come on,come on!” she mumbled angrily, knowing full well that he wasn’t going to react. “You can’t die!”

Goldie turned to look at his face - he looked mostly calm, though his beak occasionally twitched in a tinge of pain and there was sweat beading down his brow. Her heart beat faster knowing he was still alive, but she wasn’t sure how long it’d last.

Quickly, she moved towards his head and pressed the tip of her beak against his. She pulled back to see if his expression changed at all...nothing.She leaned down and kissed him again, and again. Quick little reminders that she was with him and he was still breathing.

His face actually did seem to soften a bit when she pulled away one last time and Goldie took that as encouragement. She looked back down at her hand, which had still been putting pressure on his injury, and grimaced at how ruddy brown her pants fabric had turned.

She turned back to Scrooge’s face and her heart skipped as she saw him start to completely fall out of focus. Goldie reached her hands to his whiskers and grabbed on, squeezing tight enough to get his attention, but not tight enough to hurt. She ignored the way his whiskers stained red from the blood seeping off her hands.

“Scrooge...please,” Goldie mumbled, her vision starting to blur from the tears she’d been building up over the last seven minutes. “Pleasedon’t die…”

When he woke up, Scrooge immediately groaned at the pain in his side and opened his eyes to see the stark white walls of a hospital. Not the Duckburg Medical Center, definitely not, but wherever he was...they kept him from dying. So how could he possibly complain?

He looked around him in the hopes of seeing Goldie, but he had no such luck. Though there was a chair near his bed (covered in reddish stains) and several crumpled wrappers on the floor around it - it seemed like his partner was gone.

Scrooge sighed deeply, regretting that immediately from the amount of pain it shot through his body. He grimaced and tried to turn onto his opposite side, which brought his attention to the nightstand.

His eyes landed on a piece of paper sitting on the lamp. Scrooge scooted himself into a partially upright position and reached over to grab it.

The first thing he saw was the wordsI’m sorry,which had been badly scribbled over. Underneath it, he recognized her cursive handwriting - though it was much shakier than usual.

“Thank you. I’m glad you’re alive.
xoxo Always”

Scrooge smiled down at the note, realizing that Goldie must’ve stayed with him until the doctors said he’d live. She always liked to get out before they handed over the bill.

He rubbed his thumb over thexoxoand sighed dreamily, happy it didn’t hurt as bad this time. Maybe taking a bullet for Goldie O’Gilt wasn’t his smartest decision, but he didn’t regret it for a second.

Chapter 47: buttons and strings

Chapter Text

Not wanting to waddle all the way back to her tent, Goldie thanked the cashier for selling her the dress at a discount (courtesy of some light flirting) and made her way back to the jail, box of new clothes in-hand.

She was happy to see Scrooge was also back already and writing down some notes as he went over their plan once again.

“It’s not the most complicated plan, Sourdough,” she commented, starting to unbutton her vest. “I’m sure the other two know their parts.”

Scrooge scoffed haughtily. “That wacky inventor may have some brains, but that Sheriff is as absent-minded as a Sheriff can get! I’m not leavin' anythin’ up to cha…”

He looked up at her and his brain completely shut down as Goldie unbuttoned her blouse and started casually taking it off. Scrooge’s face turned bright red and he looked back down at the desk. “Wh-what...what are youdoin’?!”

Goldie raised an eyebrow incredulously. “I’m getting dressed. Remember? Your plan?”

“Y-yes, but…” Scrooge nervously tapped his fingers and darted his eyes around. “Don’t you...want some privacy?”

She let out a short laugh. “Why are you acting like you’ve never seen me naked before?”

His face burned even brighter and Scrooge laid his head directly down onto the wood. “I-...it’s just...it’s not…”

She smirked and got to work on her pants. “When you work in show business, you can’t be bothered by something like a little nudity, hun,” she said matter-of-factly. “Especially not around people you’ve already slept with.”

Scrooge grumbled in response and continued to not look at her, moving his eyesight towards the clothes he’d grabbed and thinking maybe he should get dressed, too. It wouldn’t take him anywhere near as long as it’d take her, but it was good to be ready.

They didn’t speak for a few minutes while Goldie was putting on the dress and fussing with her hair - Scrooge settled on stripping off his clothes behind the Sheriff’s desk and quickly throwing on the jacket he’d stolen.

Before he could finish suiting up, Goldie grunted in a way that caught his attention.

“You alright there, O’Gilt?” Scrooge asked with a smirk, enjoying the view of her struggling.

She grunted again as she tried to grab the tie at the back of her dress. “Can you just come and tie this for me?”

Scrooge put the hat back down on the desk and waltzed over, taking the strings in hand and tugging them to make sure the dress was nice and tight - just how he remembered that she liked it.

“Make sure it looks nice.”

Scrooge grumbled while tying them together, complaining about the impracticality of these types of dresses and how you shouldn’t need two people to put on a piece of clothing. Goldie just smiled and continued to mess with her hair - without a mirror it was hard to know exactly how it looked, but after over a decade of making herself look stage-ready in under fifteen minutes, she was confident in her work.

He finished getting dressed as Goldie stuffed her feet into those tiny little shoes that he didn’t understand why any duck would wear - they lookedverypainful - and paused to look down at himself.

“Not a bad look, if I do say so myself,” he said with a smile. “If I didne know better, I’d almost think I came from money!”

Goldie stood up and rolled her eyes, brushing invisible dirt off her dress. “There isno waydirty dour Scrooge McDuck could pass off as…” She’d turned while she spoke and he stepped a little closer so she could get a good view of him in his fancy new clothes.

“...wealthy…” Goldie sounded stunned as she eyed him up and down, feeling a swell of shock and satisfaction at just how damngoodhe looked. If her future looked anything like that, she was definitely on the right track. But...she didn’t want him to get any ideas.

Chapter 48: match

Chapter Text

She was trying to avoid him, for obvious reasons.

After the botched mission with Beaks - the one where she was supposed to use his resources to gather intel and work on projects for F.O.W.L. on someone else’s dime - she was under close watch from her superiors. Heron didn’t care much about what happened, but she was always more focused on her own stuff. The Buzzards, on the other hand, had a lot to say and none of it was good.

Gandra hadn’t contacted Fenton since it happened. He still had her number and he had texted herquitea few times. At first he’d sent her a few messages asking if she was alright and if he’d ever see her again. Though she didn’t respond, he was clearly encouraged by the read receipts and continued to send them. Never more than once a week, she noticed, and wondered if he had it scheduled.

After the incident at the Money Bin where her face was revealed to Scrooge McDuck, Gandra didn’t get her weekly text from Fenton. She didn’t hear from him for several weeks after that, until finally getting one message that just said,“Why are you with F.O.W.L.?”

She still didn’t respond. She didn’t have to explain herself to him. They’d gone ononedatemonthsago and it wasn’t even arealdate soshe didn’t owe him anything.

But after seeing his disappointed message, Gandra felt a hollow ache in her chest. She decided the best way to fight that was to open Hootr and swipe left ‘til she saw someone worth spending time with.

Swipe, swipe, swipe.

She hadn’t opened this app in a long time, considering she was so focused on work. It only took a minute for her to land on Steelbeak’s profile, which she promptly screencapped and continued on her left swiping spree. No one was really standing out and she realized she’d probably need to lower her standards...until she came across another familiar face.

Seeing Fenton on a dating app shouldn’t have made her pause as much as it did. He was a young, cute, single guy...why shouldn’t he try to get a date? Just because he had two fulltime jobs didn’t mean he couldn’t have a social life.

Gandra turned onto her side and stared at his profile. She wanted to swipe right, just to see what would happen. Her profile had a fake name, but surely he’d recognize her face from the pictures. Would he have swiped for her? He stopped messaging her and he would never want to be with someone who worked for F.O.W.L.

Her curiosity got the better of her and she swiped.

It’s a Match!

Gandra blinked at the screen and her heartbeat sped up a bit. She felt stupid for it.

Almost immediately, she got a message.

“Really?”

She breathed out a short laugh and clicked on it. It wouldn’t make any sense to respond after months of ignoring him. But...she really did want to see him again.He was nice and smart and weird and cute and they got along really well (for the most part).Was that so wrong? Just for one night, maybe?

“Hey there, stranger.”

Gandra watched him type and stop typing and type again for well over a minute before finally getting a response.

“How are you?”

“Been better. You?”

She waited for a minute while he typed his response without stopping.

“Well, I finally worked up the courage to text this girl I like who I recently learned is working for an evil organization that's trying to destroy my employer and his family and now I know that she decided to ignore me, since she’s clearly on her phone right now.”

Gandra smiled sadly and decided to take a chance.

“Bummer. Wanna get a drink and not talk about it?”

There was another long pause with lots of typing and not typing. Gandra wondered briefly if he hated her, deep down.

“You want to get a drink? With me?”

It wasn’t a no, so she sat up and started to think about where her shoes were.

“Yeah.”

“Why?”

She knew where he lived and though there wasn’t any bars nearby, he could just zip wherever in his little Gizmosuit. Gandra was excited to take him to her favorite place - it was small and cold and seedy and he’d be confused as hell. It’d be great.

“Well, today I got a sad text that I can’t answer so I think it’d be nice to get drunk and cuddle a cute guy. That a problem?”

She wasn’t out the door yet on the off-chance he rejected her. She wouldn’t blame him for it, but she hoped he’d say yes all the same.

“No. Not a problem. Where do you want to meet?”

Chapter 49: lone wolf

Chapter Text

Goldie didn’t want to open her eyes.

She didn’t know where she was, but she knew it was better and safer than where she was last time she’d been awake. It was certainlywarmer,and she wasn’t bleeding out on the street anymore, so she wanted to just go back to sleep and leave her future self to deal with all the who-what-when-where-hows.

After a few minutes of trying and failing to get back to that nice dream she was having, Goldie sighed and squinted her eyes open before sitting upright. She groaned at the pain shooting through her arms and back and she did her best not to focus on the bandages across her abdomen and arms. They had a tinge of brown to them, but it was subtle and old and she was certain that the bleeding had stopped. She must’ve been out for a long time.

The room was dark, and looking out the window let Goldie know it was probably the middle of the night. The moon was barely visible, but the stars were shining brightly. She was surprised how well she could see them considering all the tall buildings that obscured Duckburg’s skyline, but clearly someone had gone out of their way to get her the best suite at Duckburg General Hospital.

Stupidly, she’d been hoping that her savior hadn’t been Scrooge. Or any McDuck-adjacent people. But who else would save her? She had no one else. And it wasn’t like there were many kind, helpful strangers wandering around Bark Row to help the victims of deals gone wrong.

She scoffed and thought about how badly that scheme turned on her. Every once in a while, her Lone Wolf style really wasn’t as nice as she said it was. Having a team (or at the very least, a trustworthy partner) would’ve come in handy when she got ambushed by a team of dogs and pigs, all in their physical prime. She was certainly lucky to be alive.

Her thoughts were cut off by the door opening and someone flicking on the light, probably after they saw she was awake. Goldie covered her eyes with her hands and cowered at the sudden brightness shooting into her retinas.

“...you’re awake,” Scrooge said slowly, closing the door behind him and walking over to take a seat on the bed. “How are you feeling?”

Goldie loosely hugged herself and sighed. “I’m fine.” She paused and decided she needed to be harder, for no reason other than her pride was a bit wounded by this whole situation. “You don’t need to be so concerned. I’ve handled much worse on my own.” It wasn’t a lie, but she was younger and stronger then.

Scrooge just stared at her with a frown.

She looked away from him, down at the bedsheets, and reflexively tugged at her hair, which was done up in the same loose bun she’d had it in before, though her hair was probably sticking in every direction at that point. “You should’ve called first, I didn’t even have time to freshen up.”

He was staring at her bandages and looking sour until she spoke again, making him roll his eyes and smile despite the situation. “Aye, you’re not exactly the prettiest postcard in the box right now, dear.”

Goldie scoffed and turned to look back at him, locking eyes long enough for her to really take in every little detail on his face. “Look who’s talking, you old miser. How long have you been awake?”

Scrooge reached up with one hand and rubbed a finger under one of his eyes as if he was trying to feel the bags she was pointing out. He knew that his eyes were likely red and dry to match everything else, but he didn’t want to talk about that.

“Goldie…” he said, scooting closer and reaching an arm out towards her.

She didn’t stop him, but she didn’t mirror his movements, either. She just closed her eyes and breathed in his familiar scent - rank as he was, it reminded her of better days. “Don’t get mushy with me, Scrooge…”

His palm landed on the side of her face, cradling her like she was the most fragile creature in the world. She wanted to hate it - she wanted to be so angry with him for daring to be gentle with her. But she couldn’t muster the energy to feel anything besides how happy she was to be alive and with him in that moment.

“I thought…” Scrooge said quietly, his hand twitching against her feathers. “...I thought I’d lost you.”

Goldie opened her eyes to look at him, her heart racing a little too fast when she realized how close he’d gotten. She reached out and grabbed one of his sleeves, tugging him even closer. Scrooge obliged without a word and leaned in so their beaks were almost touching.

“...but you didn’t,” Goldie whispered after a deep sigh. She lifted up one of her hands and rubbed at his shoulder, trying to ease him closer. “You never will.”

With that, Goldie lifted her head to close the gap between them and bring their beaks together. It was a soft kiss filled with more love than she intended, and Scrooge’s grip on her face tightened - he kissed her like he needed her, and Goldie felt her heart skip a beat when he finally pulled away.

He stroked his hand down her face and then back up again, unable to take his eyes off of her face. Goldie didn’t say anything in anticipation of another kiss or some sort of unneeded lecture.

Instead, Scrooge simply pushed himself forward and completely wrapped his arms around her waist, clearly trying his best not to squeeze too tightly or ruffle any feathers, but he just needed to feel her as close to him as possible.

Goldie froze for a moment simply because she was not accustomed to hugs that weren’t under the covers. Her arms had instinctively lifted up to accommodate him, and she stared before finally settling them around his neck. His beak sitting on top of her shoulder was certainly uncomfortable and a little bit painful, but it paled when compared to the amount of love she felt for him in that moment. She squeezed him tightly and took a deep, deep breath.

It seemed that being a lone wolf didn’t suit her as much as it used to.

Chapter 50: rejection

Chapter Text

He was trying so hard to sleep. Harder than ever before; he needed to close his eyes and rest and then in the morning he would deal with the aftermath of everything that just happened.

...but he couldn’t. He couldn’t take his thoughts off the warm body huddled under the blanket next to him and how her hair was tickling his back and the sound of her breathing was making him anxious and embarrassed despite it being the most natural sound a sleeping person could make.

Images of the past hour were playing over and over in his head and he couldn’t move past it. She’d...they’d...done things he’d never done before. Things he’d barely even thought about doing before, considering his complete lack of social life. But it was confusing. She was confusing. He thought they were fighting, but then she kissed him, and then they were sort of fighting again, and then...more kissing. And that just continued from there. He couldn’t make heads or tails of it.

Nervously, Scrooge turned his head to the side and stared at the back of her head. He wished he knew what was going on in her head. Sometimes it really seemed like she hated him, but...clearly she felt something other than hate or else this wouldn’t have happened.

He let out a sigh that was louder than he intended and immediately flinched and covered his beak with his hands.

Goldie turned around and glared at him, eyes open wider than Scrooge expected. If he had to guess, it didn’t seem like she’d fallen asleep yet, either.

“Do you need something?” she asked in a surprisingly quiet tone, almost as if someone could be listening in.

Scrooge blushed at the sound of her voice...or maybe it was the sight of her face...or maybe it was everything about her. He turned away from her and grumbled out, “N-no, sorry.”

She continued to stare, almost unblinking, before turning back around. “You should get some sleep.”

“...right,” he mumbled back, twiddling his fingers on the edge of the blanket. She seemed so unaffected by what happened between them and he wasn’t sure if he should be offended or roll his eyes at her predictability.

She was an attractive adult woman with a career that thrived on socializing. Going to bed with a new man probably wasn’t very exciting for her. She’d probably been with a lot of people. She’d...probably kissed a lot of people.

He stared at the back of her head again.

A lot of people.

“...you were my first kiss.”

The words came out of his mouth before he had the chance to realize what he was thinking. Once they’d spilled, there was no going back, and the embarrassment creeping throughout his cheeks wouldn’t stop the fact that she’d certainly heard him.

It was a few seconds before Goldie turned again, this time laying on her back.

“I could tell.”

His embarrassment exploded - Scrooge knew he was red all the way to the top of his head and the tips of his fingers. He rolled onto his back as well, tightening his fists into the blanket.

“...I’m sorry.”

Goldie turned to look at him with a confused expression on her face and Scrooge refused to look back. He flicked his tongue against the roof of his mouth and thought about how disappointing that experience must’ve been for her. He’d had a good time, but he didn’t know what he was doing. Did she even…? He wasn’t sure how that worked.

“It’s...fine,” she answered, not sounding totally convinced. “It’s not like I expected anything else.”

Scrooge closed his eyes and grimaced, her response not making him feel any better. He didn’t know what to do or say, but he knew he was getting it all wrong. “W-well, did you...did I, um...did…”

Goldie turned again and leaned her head onto her hand. “Are you looking for a formal review? I could probably write something up and send it into the local paper.”

“No!” Scrooge finally turned to look at her, not caring if she saw how much he was blushing. “N-no, I just...I…” After a moment of eye contact, he turned away again, unable to look at her without thinking of how she was on top of him only a few minutes earlier. “...did you...have a good time?”

Goldie blinked at him slowly and then turned away, smiling more than she expected to. She didn’t answer for a moment before starting to crawl closer to him. “Well, let’s just say…”

She put a hand on the side of his face and tugged him towards her, making Scrooge suddenly very aware of their close proximity.

“...I wouldn’t be opposed to going again.”

He felt himself getting sweaty and hot and there was a tingle in his stomach that he desperately wanted to ignore. And...he would. He couldn’t go right back into the fray without some recovery time. Scrooge shook his head rapidly and turned away from her, embarrassed beyond relief.

“N-no, you don’t...we shouldn’t do that,” he mumbled quietly and picked at the fabric of the mattress under them. He couldn’t take anymore teasing for one night - she was going to give him a heart attack.

Goldie frowned, still posed the same way she was when she propositioned him. His reaction caught her off guard and she almost didn’t know what to do.

Her face lit up red as she realized he’d just rejected her. Scrooge McDuck rejected Glittering Goldie. That wasn’t something she was prepared to deal with. She’d never actually had that happen to her with anyone in her entire life.

Without saying anything, Goldie turned back around to how she was when she was trying to sleep before. Her heart was pounding so loud, she was surprised he couldn’t hear it. She knew some feelings had been creeping into her heart over the past few weeks, but the way he acted so unpredictably sometimes left her feeling hollow. She could usually read everyone in the room. But she wasn’t sure if she’d ever be able to read him.

Chapter 51: lies

Chapter Text

He wasn’t sure how he’d gotten into this situation in the first place.

Fenton Crackshell-Cabrera always considered himself a pretty vanilla guy. He never kissed until the third date and didn’t even try to hold someone’s hand without asking first. Nervous by nature and polite by nurture, he was never interested in some whirlwind romance or sweeping someone off their feet immediately after they met.

Gandra was special, he noted. She was special in that she was confusing and gorgeous and critical and surprisingly gentle and clearly more experienced than him but never bothered by the way his hands shook every time they graced her feathers.

When she finally texted him back after many,manyweeks of heartache and frustration and suspicion, Fenton didn’t think anything could really come of it. She was bad, he was good. They couldn’t mingle knowing that about one another.

And yet, as he turned his head that night to see what she was shuffling around for, he had to admit that he’d crossed some sort of line. A lot of lines, he supposed.

Gandra was sitting up - pulling a tank top over her head and then reaching down to grab some things off the floor. Fenton scooted himself upright to match her.

“What are you doing?” he asked quietly. “You’re not planning on leaving, are you? We’re atyourapartment.”

She chuckled and tossed the objects in her arms at his face - it was a big pile of his own clothes. “You can’t stay the night, Suit.”

“Ah,” Fenton mumbled as he tugged his shirt off of his head. She had a point - not only was this exceedingly complicated, but he had work in the morning. She probably had some kind of work in the morning, too, though he didn’t understand it. “I guess I wasn’t good enough to earn some breakfast,” he attempted to joke, putting his shirt back on.

Gandra turned and looked at him for a moment - watching him struggle into the opening of his shirt instead of just unbuttoning it - and then turned to look out the window instead. She sighed quietly and lifted up one of her legs to lean her chin onto her knee. “...you’re a good kisser, y’know that?”

Fenton scoffed, having finally gotten step one of dressing himself complete. He was always a little more nervous than usual around her. “You don’t have to lie,” he muttered angrily, feeling stung that she felt the need to pity him.

She didn’t turn around. “Why would I lie about that?”

“I don’t know,” he answered with a quick shrug as he thought back and forth on whether or not to bother putting on his tie. “You lie about a lot of things. I guess it comes naturally to you.”

That line made her look at him again, and Fenton didn’t know whether or not she was hurt or unbothered oranything. He couldn’t read her expressions any better than he understood why she was working with F.O.W.L. or why she kept inviting him over.

When she didn’t say anything back, Fenton just huffed and grabbed the rest of his things. “I guess I’ll see you next time we do this, then.”

He started out the door and didn’t turn back when Gandra finally spoke up.

“...see you soon.”

Chapter 52: safe

Chapter Text

Her heart was racing. Never in her entire life had she been so bewildered by anyone - he was certainly a unique duck and a strange, strange man. The way he managed to frustrate her with his insensitive pride and severely lacking social skills while simultaneously saying the sweetest things she’d ever heard in her entire life kept her on her toes in more ways than she was comfortable with.

Particularly, she hated being saved. She hated that her life worked out in a way where sheneededto be saved on multiple occasions - most of which were when she was young and naive. Now she was an adult woman and a business owner and an adventurer and there was no reason she should ever need someone else to save her life.

And that thought process kept running through her head as Scrooge was pulling her out of some rubble from a cave-in that she somehow managed to get caught in. He grabbed her arm and tugged her out and she had just a few extra moments of consciousness to understand who was with her before succumbing to sleep.

She wasn’t surprised to wake up who-knew-how-long later in a random bed, though she immediately noticed it wasn’t a hospital. Scrooge was sitting at a desk nearby, staring out the window and muttering to himself.

“...Scrooge?”

Her throat was scratchy and sore and she wondered how long she must’ve been out for that to happen. Either way, the hoarse whisper of his name whipped Scrooge’s head around and he stared at her like he’d never seen her before in his life. Only a few moments later and he was at her side, hesitantly reaching out to grab at her limp hand.

“You’re awake,” he mumbled softly. “I’m sorry, I didne know where to take you. The nearest hospital is too far away...I couldne…”

Goldie scoffed and tried to shrug, realizing at that moment that she couldn’t feel much in her arms or back or legs oranywhereand her head was a bit cloudy. She felt very drugged and very tired. “...why can’t I feel anything?”

Scrooge moved his hand a bit, and though she couldn’t really feel it, Goldie knew he was rubbing his thumb over her knuckles. “You woke up a few hours ago and downed all the medicine I could get at the local pharmacy...here’s to hoping there’s no consequences for that.”

Goldie chuckled and turned her head away from him. She didn’t remember that at all, which probably meant the drugs were pretty good. She let out a sigh and fully laid her head back on the pillow again.

He tilted his gaze up to stare at her face, lingering for such an obscenely long time that Goldie felt like she might turn to stone. She looked back at him with a curious expression, which made him blush the tiniest bit.

“Goldie…” he started, staring down at their hands. “I...I thought you were dead. And then I started thinkin’ about what I’d do if you were dead...what it’d do to me. I couldne...I’d...I wouldne know how to deal with that.”

She stared at him, unblinking and silent, which just encouraged him to continue.

“You make me so mad, but then...you’re always there,” he mumbled. “There for me. And not just in Gumption or in Cabo or in Casablanca...but anytime I need you, you always seem to be there for me. And I wanna be that person foryou.I want you to feel safe when I’m around, even when we’re arguin’ or challengin’ each other. I...I cannae lose you.”

His grip on her hand tightened and Goldie would swear she could feel it that time.

“You just...you need to be more careful. I donnae want to think about life without you around, alright? No matter what I’ve said before and what I’ll say later, I just...I need you.”

With his confession complete, Scrooge still didn’t shift his focus from their hands even though he desperately wanted to see her reaction. He was anxious and nervous and ready for her to laugh him right out of the room, but when she didn’t say anything for another ten seconds, he finally looked up.

Her face was contorted into an expression of joyful confusion - her cheeks tinged pink and her beak partially curved upwards with a hint of a smile.

When they locked eyes, Goldie sheepishly looked away for a moment before looking back.

“...aren’t you gonna seal that with a kiss?” she asked with a small smile.

Scrooge’s cheeks were engulfed in a deep red as he frowned and started to stutter. “D-do you...do you, um...youwantme to...to kiss you?”

The stupidity of his question immediately soured her expression and Goldie scowled. “Do you want me topunch you?” She felt empty knowing her threat was hollow without the visual of her raised fist, but instead her limbs just continued to lay down at her sides.

Scrooge was taken aback by her comment and glared at the bed, darting his eyes back and forth. Eventually he looked back up at her. “I...I cannae tell if you’re flirtin’ or tryin’ to start a fight.”

She sighed loudly, taking her once-a-year opportunity to swallow her pride and somehow managed to stop herself from saying something sarcastic in response. “Will youpleasejust come over here and kiss me, youobnoxiously stupid little sourdough of a man?!”

Chapter 53: fall

Chapter Text

He’d let her fall hundreds of times. When she was really on his nerves or when it was through no one’s fault but her own, he was almost inclined to push her. But only because he knew, without fail, she’d be fine. Goldie O’Gilt had lived through some of the most horrifying, dangerous things that any duck could imagine - no way a simple fall could take her out. She was a survivor and an adventurer and he had no reason to worry about her safety any more than he worried about his own.

When she fell into molten liquid gold, Scrooge wasn’t sure if he thought that way anymore.

They were so much older than they used to be. Their bodies were shakier and more fragile and his reflexes weren’t as good...if Goldie hadn’t pushed him out of the way, he’d be dead. And to repay her kindness, he pathetically screamed her name and watched her die. Even knowing later that she was alright didn’t stop the nightmare from replaying in his head over and over and over again.

Scrooge had never responded to her note. He never called or wrote or tried to meet her. He had too much going on with his family and Magica and then Della and the invasion...he used every excuse not to contact her. He was nervous about seeing her again - seeing herfallagain.

In Florida, while his body was still young, he didn’t have to fear for her life. She fell, sure, but he caught her without a second thought. Not even a moment’s hesitation and he had his arms wrapped around her to keep her safe. One of the hundreds of benefits of having a younger, stronger body. Another benefit was the deep blush all over her face - it wasn’t as if he’dnevercaught her before, but it was rare. She certainly hadn’t expected it.

When they were in her hotel room later that evening - under the covers with her head laying on his chest - Goldie brought it up again.

“It was nice having you catch me for once,” she said with a smirk. “A real knight in shining armor moment for you.”

Scrooge exhaled a deep sigh and popped his shoulders in a lazy shrug. “Like I said before...I’m not the man I used to be.”

Goldie chuckled in response and turned a bit so she could twist her pointer finger around some of the feathers on his chest. “Yes, though your body was much younger then. Aren’t you back to your usual old self now?”

He frowned, but felt his mind getting distracted by the feeling of her hand.

“I’m sure you’ll let me fall next time the opportunity comes, just like in White Agony,” she mused with a tone that sounded strangely nostalgic.

Her words, however, sent a chill down his spine and Scrooge turned his head to face away from her. “To think, I’d just gotten that out of my head. Now how am I supposed to sleep?”

Goldie looked up at him with a curious expression, clearly bewildered by what he said. “You’re not still bothered by that, are you? You can clearly see I’m fine, Scrooge.”

“It doesne matter,” Scrooge said with a huff. “...some images never go away.”

She turned even more and leaned up to lock her eyes with his. “Scrooge, look at me. I’mfine.”

He let out a frustrated sigh before turning towards her and putting a hand against her cheek, rubbing his thumb over her feathers. “Goldie Girl, I’ve watched you die more times than I can count. My nightmares couldne care less how alive you really are.”

Goldie’s frown deepened and she leaned forward to press a long kiss to his beak. As she tried to pull away, she found herself pulled back in for another longer kiss, and completely melted into it until finally being able to pull away another twenty seconds later. She stared at him and nuzzled her beak under his, preening at the feathers on his neck.

“How about I help you get those nightmares out of your head?” she mumbled softly.

Scrooge gave a satisfied groan as she continued to work through his feathers. “...and how exactly are ye goin’ to do that?”

With a smirk and another kiss, Goldie dove under the covers, and Scrooge squeaked in surprise when he realized what was happening.

It was definitely only a temporary solution, but he wasn’t going to complain.

Chapter 54: idol

Chapter Text

He knew her appearance was more than just a coincidence - Uncle Scrooge had explained it many, many times: Goldie O’Gilt can show up any place and at any time so long as there’s some way for her to benefit from the situation. Sharp with her schemes, but not with her heart - that was always supposed to be the takeaway.

But Louie couldn’t figure out what her angle was in their current situation. He was on the ground, about to be attacked by some weirdo in a yellow jumpsuit and an egg-shaped headpiece, when Goldie flew into the scene out ofnowhere.She kicked the weirdo in the head and sent them flying before grabbing Louie’s hand and pulling him along as they ran in the opposite direction.

Being helped out of a dangerous situation was always nice, but she was potentially pulling him into another evenmoredangerous one. Never go with a criminal to a second location, right? Though he’d done that a few too many times before...

When they were a decent distance from his attacker, Louie suddenly tugged his hand out of Goldie’s grasp and stood his ground. She immediately stopped and turned to look at him.

“What’s wrong?” she asked between deep breaths. “I need to get you out of here.”

“Wh-...” Louie started to speak, but realized he wasn’t sure what to say. “You...what areyoudoing here?! You’re not my family, you can’t expect me to just go with you anywhere you ask!”

Her frown noticeably deepened at what he said, but Goldie just scoffed and reached her hand out to him instead of commenting. “Scrooge called me. Just trust me, alright?”

Louie smacked her hand away from his face. “Last time I trusted you, I losteverything!”

She closed the distance between them and crouched down to his eye level. “You didn’t lose everything, you lost some money. Money isn’t everything, Sharpie.”

“Oh, likeyou’reone to talk!”

Goldie sighed and considered her options at that point. She could just leave him and go back to her normal life and what she wanted to be doing...or she could pick him up against his will and force him to come with her (but then he’d probably scream and give away their position). In the end, she reached over to her bag and stuck her hand into the endless void that made up her purse-space.

Louie’s curiosity got the better of him and he looked down at her hands.

A few moments later and Goldie pulled a familiar golden idol out of the bag, handing it to the boy in front of her. “How about this, alright? If I promise to give you your treasure back, will you come with me?”

He took the idol from her cautiously and turned it over to see if it was the real deal. He recognized the small notch he’d left on one of the feet when he accidentally dropped it out of the window. He scrunched his beak and looked up at her. “...okay.”

Goldie reached down and picked him up, holding the kid in her arms like a baby.

Louie grumbled, but didn’t move - the comfort of not having to run definitely outweighed the humiliation of being carried like that. And he had his golden idol to stare at - his inspiration for Louie Incorporated and one of the first gifts Uncle Scrooge gavejustto him and not to all three of the kids. It was special and Goldie stealing it had been quite the blow to his self-esteem. But this...was different.

As she ran, Goldie was concentrating on getting through the brush and the trees without being too loud or too slow, so she didn’t notice when Louie started staring at her instead. He wondered what exactly Uncle Scrooge had said to her and he wondered what could’ve possibly been going through her head.

Thinking she showed up specifically to save him bloomed a warm sensation in Louie’s chest and he looked back down at the idol. Maybe they could....share the treasure.

Chapter 55: skofnung

Chapter Text

It wasn’t every day he got the opportunity to face off against an angry draugr because his thief-of-a-girlfriend decided to rob an especially sensitive Norse grave.

Well, maybe once every other month. But definitely not every day.

Though he was just one undead swine, he was abehemoth,towering over the two of them and leaning down to release a terrifying shriek of dissatisfaction.

Goldie smirked - though Scrooge sensed she was a bit more nervous than she let on - and held the Skofnung tightly in her left hand, still completely buried in its sheath. Scrooge glared at her and then looked down at the sword.

“Well, let’s see it!” he shouted, backing away from the draugr. “That sword better be worth what you said!”

“Don’t worry, it will be!” Goldie screamed back, watching the skeleton closely as it raised its fists into the air, clearly preparing to strike. “Watchthis!”Goldie said and gripped the hilt of the sword, tugging on it as dramatically as possible.

The sword didn’t budge, and Goldie gaped at the oncoming attack while she continued to try and get the sword out of its’ sheath.“What the hell-?!”

“Goldie!” Scrooge shouted, rushing over and diving into her to get them both out of the way of the draugr’s fist. He scrambled on top of her and moved quickly to make sure they were upright and ready to dodge another attack. “What’s wrong with you?! Just get the damn sword already!”

“Oh, yeah, obviously this is exactly what I wanted!” she said with a shove to his chest. “It won’t come out!”

Scrooge rolled his eyes and grabbed the handle, trying to pull it out himself. He frowned when he realized it wasnothappening, and this time Goldie was the one to grab him and get them out of the way as another fist came down to kill them.

Goldie held him closer than necessary and Scrooge took a deep breath. “...thank you.”

She rolled her eyes and stepped away. “Don’t thank me yet, Sourdough!”

They dodged another attack, both adventurers seeing a pattern in the way the draugr moved, making their attempts to stay safe a lot easier. “You said you did your research, O’Gilt! So why can’t we get the sword out?!”

Goldie groaned as they just barely missed another swipe - she distinctly felt the bony fingers latch onto a few hairs from her ponytail. “I just thought it was some old sexist Nordic nonsense! I didn’t think it wasreal!”

“You thoughtwhatwas sexist Nordic nonsense?!” he yelled back in anger, wishing he’d brought an alternative weapon with him. His cane wouldn’t be enough for something like this.

“Skofnung cannot be wielded by a woman,” Goldie quoted with a clear annoyance in her tone. “And it must be wielded by man of noble Swedish blood!”

Another dodge.

Scrooge could’ve killed her. He grabbed the sheathed sword from her side and shook it in the air. “So this isuselessto theboth of us!” he shouted, already considering just throwing it back and getting out of there.

She rolled her eyes again and shrugged. “Since when are you against some useless treasure?” she countered as they continued to move away. The draugr only seemed to be growing stronger and faster as the minutes wore on, and both ducks were starting to tire out.

“Useless treasure is one thing!” Scrooge shouted louder than ever, the sounds of some stones falling out of place making it harder to hear. “This stupid Skofnung sword isnae worth the trouble! It’s justgarbage!”

The draugr seemed to freeze at that point and both Scrooge and Goldie turned away from each other to see what was going on. The rotting jaw bone unhinged on one side and both of the ducks grimaced at the sound it made.

It started to shake and Goldie came to a realization.

“You definitely shouldn’t have said that, Scroogey,” she mumbled before grabbing the sword from him and shoving him back onto his butt.“Good luck!”she shouted with a wave as she dove into a small opening that had formed as the draugr shook the room.

Scrooge fell back with a loudOOF!and quickly looked up to see the creature staring down at him. Only a moment later and it let out the loudest, most horrifying scream of the night, and Scrooge didn’t waste a moment before running after Goldie and hoping the draugr couldn’t follow.

“Get back here, you belligerent bandit!” he shouted, seeing the end of her ponytail in the distance.

The draugr’s screams echoed through the hallways of the ancient catacombs and as the walls started to shake, Scrooge knew this was going to be averylong night.

Chapter 56: graves

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She hated visiting graves.

She had that thought with a sad laugh, wondering if anyonelikedvisiting graves. At least she kept her numbers down by keeping to herself most of the time. Avoiding close relationships. Avoiding family. Anyone who might die.

She felt an envy towards Scrooge and the lack of graves he had to visit. His whole family was still alive thanks to all his magic and mayhem, his dead butler hung around to keep cleaning for no pay, and his dead Austrian friend had no burial since he was never officially moved from the ‘missing’ pile to the ‘dead’ pile. He didn’t know what it felt like to stand on dying grass where people who once cared for you laid and their bodies rotted.

She was glad he didn’t know.

So it was especially unexpected when she walked into the usual cemetery - every year on December 4th - and found a familiar duck standing in front of her parents’ graves.

There was no point in being surprised, so she chose to continue her walk and place the flowers down before silently standing next to him.

“...sorry I didne bring anything,” Scrooge said quietly.

Goldie didn’t look up at him, giving a small shrug instead. “I’m sure you didn’t know what you were in for.”

He shuffled his feet and looked at the hundreds of unmarked or partially-marked graves around them. “Did you add the names yourself?”

“Yeah,” Goldie answered and hugged herself as the chilly wind picked up. “Their original headstones were destroyed so I just got them new ones.”

“Ah,” Scrooge said quietly, feeling quite uncomfortable. “...I’m sure you’re mad that I’m here, but I can explain.”

“I’m sure you can,” Goldie mumbled, finally turning to look at him. “This is either a huge invasion of privacy or your way of telling me I can visit Dismal Downs anytime I want.”

His cheeks lit up at the idea of Goldie interacting with his family - particularly his parents - and he shook his head. “N-no, no! I...I suppose it’s the former. I needed to find you and none of the phone numbers you gave me were working so I had the kids try to find anything online and...this was the only address they came across.”

Goldie tugged at her ponytail. “Why’d you need to find me, then?”

“Huh?”

She frowned and put her hands on her hips. “You needed to find me? Why?”

“Ah, right,” Scrooge stumbled and reached a hand into one of his coat pockets. He pulled out a small stack of envelopes tied together with a red string. “Some of your mail came to the manor.”

Goldie scrunched her eyebrows and cautiously took the stack from him, staring at the top letter curiously. “This doesn’t seem that urgent.”

“Yes, well…” he scratched the back of his head. “Before I realized they were for you, I opened one and…” He ignored Goldie’s frown as he played with his hands. “...you’ll want them. I’m very sure.”

Without another thought, she stuffed them in her own pocket. “Thanks.”

They fell into a companionable silence while Scrooge was pretty clearly trying to steer the conversation to something specific. Goldie didn’t have a clue what was on his mind so she decided not to help him figure out his words.

“Do you, um…” he struggled. “...so your father died when you were just a kid?”

Goldie raised an eyebrow. “I was nine, yes. He got caught up in The Fire.”

“Thefire?”

“The Great Fire,” Goldie repeated as if it was the most obvious thing in the world. “1877. Most of the town went up in flames. The rest of us headed West and that’s when I started my way to Dawson.”

Scrooge nodded, still not understanding the full context, but excited to hear more about Goldie’s life. She shared so little with him that sometimes he didn’t think he knew her at all. “And your mom?”

“Pneumonia,” she said casually. “You remember how it was back then. Twenty-four hours after the first cough and they’re dead.”

“...I’m sorry,” Scrooge responded, feeling a little dull for it. Over one hundred years later and he was only now saying something. He looked at the death year and frowned in an almost guilty way, despite knowing it wasn’t his fault. “When did you find out?”

Goldie glanced at him. “Not long after I got out of the ice. My sister was pretty pissed that I was three years late for the funeral.”

“Sister?”

“Alright, I think that’s enough sharing for today,” Goldie said with a scoff. “You want to tell me something, so tell me.”

Scrooge blushed lightly again and he looked away from her face, taking a deep hesitant breath. “I need you to come back to Duckburg with me.”

“Oh? Why’s that?”

“...Webbigail’s friend is in trouble and you’re the only one that can help her.”

Chapter 57: noise

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She was woken up by the pitter-patter of little feet and the excited whispers of children passing the bedroom door.

It was terribly, terribly annoying.

Goldie groaned and grabbed a spare pillow to put it over her face, hoping to block out all the noise. When that didn’t work, she yanked the comforter over her head, too. Still, she could hear the kids talking and she wished her hearing wasn’t so good.

“I warned you,” the man laying next to her said with a smirk.

She dramatically pulled the blanket back down so she could glare at him properly. “No, you said they’d be loud in the morning.” She pointed to the digital clock next to him. “It’snotmorning yet.”

“Are you sayin’ you didne wake up at 4 in the morning on Christmas?” Scrooge was still smiling and leaned on his arm. He was certainly enjoying the view and wanted to make sure she knew that.

“Never,” Goldie scoffed. “We were so poor it wasn’t like I had anything waiting for me, anyway.”

Scrooge hummed in response and lifted his head as they both realized the kids had gotten much quieter. “...goin’ back to sleep?”

“It’s too late for that,” Goldie said as she grabbed at his whiskers and tugged him closer to her. “Now come here and give me my present.”

Chapter 58: move

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They were finally having thetalk. The talk they’d been putting off for over a century. The talk she didn’t want to have, but knew she’d initiated down in Florida. She was lucky to get out of that hotel without having had the talk already, and when she saw him on Christmas, he was too distracted with other nonsense.

But suddenly she was in his home, on his couch. They were alone and the fire was roaring and he was holding her hand and looking at her so seriously she had trouble keeping eye contact without blushing.

“Scrooge…”

He squeezed her hand. “I’m not tryin’ to tie you down, dear. I just want you to know the option’s open for you.”

She kept her eyes on their locked hands, staring at the way his thumb gently rubbed her knuckles and sent shivers up her spine. “I...I know.”

He took her other hand in his and held them together between the two of them. “Will you consider it, at least?”

Goldie exhaled a shaky breath, not wanting to say anything too emotionally incriminating despite the situation. But at the same time, she felt a little more vulnerable than usual. It was something about the intimacy and domesticity of the scene that had her feeling a certain kind of way. “Scrooge, I’m always considering it.”

He leaned a little closer. “Really?”

After a few seconds, Goldie lifted her head to look him in the eyes, feeling herself blush at the realization of how close he’d gotten. “...really.”

“But…?”

She sighed. “But nothing. I’ve never come to a decision.”

He smiled the tiniest bit. “So you’ve never said‘no’?”

“It’s just…” Goldie tugged her hands out of his and scooted back a few inches to give herself some space. “We’re stillus,Scrooge. Moving in here wouldn’t change that.”

Scrooge scratched his cheek and leaned back. “I wouldne expect anythin’ different.”

“Wouldn’t you?” she said in an accusing tone. “There’s no part of you that’s hoping we fall into some kind of domestic bliss where I bring you wine and you rub my feet and we’re just a happy little family?”

After a pause, Scrooge chuckled a bit and placed his hands on her shoulders. “Goldie, you donne have to live here to get wine and foot rubs. I just want you to have a home. With me.”

She stared into his eyes, feeling the urge to run. Just leave and come back when he wasn’t feeling so emotional. But the words she didn’t want to repeat poured out of her beak anyway. “I...I don’t want us to keep making the same mistakes.”

Scrooge took her hand again and moved closer, trying to keep her eyes on him. “Do you think this is a mistake, Goldie?”

Her hand felt safe and comfortable and warm in his. Her heart fluttered. “No.”

“Then what’s the problem?”

“Wewillmake mistakes,” she said quietly. “Over and over again. How can we sit here and try to be together after everything we’ve been through?”

Scrooge brought a hand to the side of her face. “You said you wanted a fresh start with me.”

She reflexively leaned against his hand. “I...I do.”

“We don’tneeda fresh start,” Scrooge said adamantly. “We just need to move forward.”

Goldie sighed into his palm before turning to look him in the eyes again. “Scrooge…”

“I love you, Goldie.”

She sighed and smiled and moved her hands to the sides of his face. “I know.”

“And you love me,” he said a bit softer - confident in his words but not confident that she’d let him say them.

Her smile grew a little wider. “...I do.”

“Then move in,” he all but whispered, pressing the tip of his beak against hers in what couldn’t even be called a kiss. “We’ll make mistakes all day and night.”

Goldie laughed and pulled him the rest of the way to her for a long, passionate kiss. She hated being vulnerable around him, but god if she didn’t love that man more than anything. She pulled back and kissed his cheek. “So that’s what this is really about, hm? Lonely old man wants a beautiful woman to share his bed with?”

Scrooge scoffed and kissed her again, wrapping an arm around her waist to pull her closer. “Only if she says yes.”

Her eyes sparkled and she leaned her forehead against his. “...alright. You’ve convinced me.”

Scrooge opened his mouth to respond, clearly very excited, but Goldie clamped his beak shut. “This is a trial run so don’t get excited just yet. I’m giving us two weeks before we can’t stand each other anymore.”

He rolled his eyes and kissed her once more. “You never know, dear. Maybe in two weeks you’ll be going byMrs. McDuck.”

Goldie let out a short laugh and shoved him til he fell flat on his back. Then she crawled over to straddle him and put her hands on either side of his head. “In your dreams,Mr. O’Gilt.”

Chapter 59: privacy

Chapter Text

Scrooge grabbed the next ledge, ignoring Goldie’s sarcastic pleas for him to hurry up. He knew he was close - closer than anyone had ever been before - and he was going to savor the moment.

He pulled himself up to the top of the stalagmite and briefly turned away as the shining glow of the gemstone in front of him pierced his eyes. After a moment of composure, he turned back and took in the treasure in all its glory.

Without hesitation, Scrooge reached forward and pulled the tiny stone off its perch, too enchanted by the beauty to consider any consequences. Fortunately for him and his partner, nothing seemed to change, and Scrooge squeezed the gem in his palm as he looked down at the blonde below.

Goldie waved up at him. “Did you get it?”

He nodded and shook his hand that was holding the stone. “Did I set off any traps?”

She looked around herself to check for monsters or living statues or demons or anything of the sort. Nothing in sight, Goldie just shrugged. “Doesn’t look like it. Probably means the mysterious legends aren’t true, then,” she said with a sarcastic drawl.

Scrooge shrugged, undeterred by her pessimism. He was hoping beyond hope that the legends were true, since they weren’t mysterious to him. He’d come across detailed information about what exactly the diamond would bestow upon its holder and conveniently failed to mention it to Goldie. Just in case it was true.

He slid down the stalagmite and came to a graceful stop not too far from the woman on his mind. He looked at her seriously and then down at the gem in his hand.

Goldie crossed her arms over her chest. “So are there supposed to be any other treasures in this cave or am I just gonna nab that from you later?”

“The Agartha Diamond lives alone,” Scrooge quoted, taking another step closer to her. “That’s what the inscription said, at least.”

She rolled her eyes. “This was a lot of work for one little diamond. Are you gonna pay me for all my help, Moneybags?”

Scrooge smiled and rolled his eyes, too, but then moved his focus back to the gem. He moved it around in his palm and stared right at his partner.

“Why is he looking at me like that?”

Scrooge’s smile grew wider as the sound of Goldie’s voice hit his ears despite the fact that she hadn’t opened her mouth. He grabbed his water bottle to take a drink and avoid answering the question she’d actually said.

“Maybe he’s getting in the mood. I’d be down for some cave sex.”

He spit out his entire sip, getting his bag wet and making Goldie yelp and shove away from him.

“What? What’s wrong?!” she said quickly, looking at her own bottle.

Scrooge shook his head and punched his chest lightly. “N-nothin’, nothin’! Just, um...down the wrong pipe!”

She glared and glanced at his bottle, looking like she didn’t believe him. “Don’t waste your water, I’m not giving you any of mine!”

“I can’t believe how much that scared me.”

Scrooge glanced at her as she turned around to pack up her tools they’d used since getting to that part of the cave. He knew the gem would let him hear the thoughts of the person closest to him while he held it in his palm. He didn’t know what exactly to do with that power. Being able to read Goldie O’Gilt’s mind was a treasure of its own - a priceless gift that could help him avoid betrayal or perhaps even...understand her a little better.

His father always told him that women were impossible to understand, but Goldie was different. She was purposefully difficult in ways that other people weren’t. Sometimes he could barely make sense of her ulterior motives, he just knew there always was one.

She sighed and turned towards him again. “Why are you staring at me?”

He blinked as her thoughts lined up with her words for once. “...I want to ask you somethin’.”

“Then ask me already.”

Scrooge took a deep breath as he considered his choice of words. “Would you want to come with me on my next adventure?”

“Yes, yes. Yes. Yes, yes, yes, yes, yes.”

“Will there be more treasure for me to take?” she answered with a frown. “Otherwise I wouldn’t get your hopes up.”

Scrooge felt his heart race at the way she reacted in her head. Her excitement was contagious and he felt an urge to kiss her.

“Mmm…” Scrooge hummed. “There should be. More than this one, at least. But if you’re not interested, I’m sure I can find someone else to help me.”

“Oh absolutely not.”

“Don’t go jumping to conclusions, Scroogey. But before I agree to our next trip, how about we make it out of this one?” Goldie said as she strapped her backpack back over her shoulders. “Now let me see the diamond! I didn’t even get a glance.”

Scrooge squeezed the gem tighter into his palm. “How do I know you won’t just grab it and run off, hm? Safer to keep it out of your sight.”

“As if that could stop me,” Goldie responded with a smirk.

“God he is irritating. I wish he’d just shut up and kiss me already.”

He paused and considered that for a moment. Goldie was staring at him with a raised eyebrow and a hand on her hip and he glanced from his closed fist to her face and back again.

Well...he couldn’t just ignore a request like that, could he?

A moment later, Scrooge closed the gap between them and gently grabbed the side of her face with his free hand, pulling her break to his. She seemed genuinely surprised by the act but quickly kissed him back, moved her hands to his shoulders to squeeze the fabric of his jacket and pull him closer.

“Finally something goes my way,” he heard Goldie think as she deepened the kiss. His heart was racing even faster as he realized the intense intimacy of hearing someone’s thoughts while being physical with them.

“If he keeps this up, I’ll follow him anywhere.”

That time, Scrooge deepened the kiss, shoving her against the nearest cavern wall. She groaned and wrapped her arms around his neck.

“God, I love him, I love him, I-”

Unable to stop himself, Scrooge moved his previously closed hand to her waist, not noticing that the gem had slipped away from him. Her thoughts were cut off and the small sound of the stone hitting the floor made both adventurers pause.

Goldie was breathing heavily and Scrooge leaned down to briefly peck her beak with his a few times. She smiled as he did and opened her eyes to reveal a lusty expression.

Scrooge didn’t need the gem to figure that one out. But before he did, he wanted to clear some air. He moved away from her to grab the diamond off the ground and stood back up, holding it out so she could see it.

Goldie glanced down and shrugged. “It’s not much to look at.”

He shook his head. “You should try holdin’ it.”

With a confused expression, Goldie reached over and grabbed it, surprised by his change of heart. A little make-out session and suddenly he was trusting her? That wasn’t how they usually danced.

“I’m fallin’ in love with you.”

Goldie blushed deeply and stared at Scrooge’s beak, knowing for a fact that he didn’t say that out loud, but she distinctly heard it in his voice. She looked down at the diamond and then back up at him.

“I know you heard that. I wanted you to.”

She blinked. “I...is it…” She held up the diamond. “...mind-reading?”

Scrooge nodded, reaching out to take the gem back from her.

Goldie was faster, though, and held it against her heart. “So you were...listening to my thoughts. For the past ten minutes?”

“Give or take,” he said softly, grabbing her free hand. “You didnae think anythin’ you wouldnae have said out loud, lass.”

“Except that you love me.”

Her cheeks were bright red and she felt an unfamiliar anxiety prickling all around her. She couldn’t look Scrooge in the eyes as she tried to go over her thoughts for the last few minutes. How sappy and pathetic could she have possibly been in such a short amount of time?

“Y-you know...that’s a terrible invasion of privacy!” Goldie stammered, trying to sound angry but mostly sounding embarrassed. Which made her even more embarrassed.

“Says the walking invasion of privacy.”

“Feel free to listen to my thoughts, then,” Scrooge offered genuinely. “Unlike you, Goldie Girl, I’ve got nothin’ to hide.”

She scoffed and finally made eye contact to glare at him properly. “You call it hiding, I call it none of your business.”

“Loving me is none of my business?”

She blushed harder at his thoughts and angrily tossed the gem to the side. Scrooge watched its descent and reached down for it when Goldie grabbed his wrist and tugged him back towards her.

“I’ve heard enough from you already. Now get back over here, you condescending old sourdough!”

Scrooge hesitated for only a moment as he thought about grabbing the diamond, but decided that Goldie’s open arms were much more inviting. He had to finish what he’d started, after all, and there were some things he didn’t need to have telepathy to understand.

As their beaks crashed together again, he smiled and pulled her as close as possible. She loved him, and he wouldn’t let her live that down anytime soon.

Chapter 60: dodge

Chapter Text

Goldie smirked as the giant troll creature struggled to free itself from the wall. Its’ head was thoroughly stuck and it’s odd screams were muffled by the surrounding rocks.

She gave Scrooge a sarcastic little curtsy and winked at him. “You’re welcome.”

He rolled his eyes and crossed his arms over his chest. “Anyone could’ve figured that out, O’Gilt.”

“And yet, I’m the one who did and you’re the one who didn’t.”

Scrooge opened his mouth to insult her as he glanced to the left and saw the troll had gotten free and was rushing right towards his partner. “Goldie!” he screamed as he ran at her, too.

She noticed the troll a second too late to get herself out of the way, but Scrooge tackled her to the ground and they both missed the giant fist by centimeters, rolling onto the ground and finally stopping with Scrooge on top and both of their arms wrapped around each other.

Goldie was disheveled and out-of-breath as Scrooge pulled away, and Scrooge tried not to be distracted by how pretty he thought she looked at that moment. He was about to say something to her when Goldie suddenly grabbed his shoulders and wrapped one of her legs around his back - pulling him to the side and flipping them over so she was straddling him and he was staring up at her breathlessly.

Not a moment later did the troll’s foot stomp directly where they’d just been. Scrooge gulped at the realization of his own distraction.

Goldie breathed out a shaky laugh and tugged at some of her hair. “How come we always end up on top of each other, huh?”

Scrooge only smirked at her comment for a second before quickly sitting up and pushing himself towards her and toppling them back to avoid another attack. “Now’s not the time, Goldie!” he shouted as he grabbed her hand and they finally stood back up together, running out of the cave.

The blonde looked back to see the troll scream and start to chase after them, so she picked up the pace and squeezed Scrooge’s hand tighter. “Let me know when it is the time and we’ll circle back!” she yelled as she felt adrenaline pumping through her veins. She hadn’t been on such a dangerous adventure in a long time. She was glad she had a decent partner to help her out.

Chapter 61: hold

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He didn’t expect the lump under his comforter when he retired to his bedroom that night, nor the tuft of blonde poking out.

After a long day of work and entertaining the kids, Scrooge had every plan to just hop into bed and enjoy some pleasant dreams of the past. It wasn’t often the subject of those pleasant dreams just crawled into his sheets before he could even change out of his robe.

“Goldie, dear, what are you doing here?” he asked quietly, not sure what was going on. Usually she waited until he was already in bed, or she waited on top of his sheets seductively. At that moment, it looked like she could’ve already been asleep.

He couldn’t make out her muffled response and took a few steps closer. “What?”

She tugged the blanket over her head.“I’m trying to sleep!”

Scrooge blinked down at her. Well now he was more confused than ever. A sleepover where she actually just...slept over? Was she treating him to some quick domestic fantasy before running off with her next treasure?

He tapped his fingers against the top of his cane and considered his next steps. Certainly, the best way to keep an eye on her would be to lay next to her. And she couldn’t easily escape if his arms just so happened to be around her. So…

Within a minute, he returned to the bed changed into his nightgown and he uncomfortably watched the steady rise and fall of the blanket lump made up of Goldie O’Gilt. She’d been in his bed plenty of times before, but the odd circ*mstances surrounding this evening was giving him...unusual feelings.

He slowly crawled under the sheets and cuddled into the warmth, staring at her blonde hair the entire time. An aching urge to reach out and touch her was pulsing at his arm, but he wasn’t sure how she’d react to it. They hadn’t been physically intimate in quite a while, after all, so he didn’t want to assume…

Another few moments of staring got him no new information, so Scrooge opted to turn onto his back and get ready to go to sleep himself. Maybe this was all a dream and he was already sleeping. She’d likely be gone in the morning whether it was real or not.

But as soon as he closed his eyes, a hand reached out and grabbed his left arm - roughly tugging him closer to her and wrapping his arm around her waist.

Scrooge snapped himself out of being stunned and quickly fell into the embrace. He tightened his arm around her body and shoved his other arm under and around her as well, pulling her back completely against his front. She was so, so warm. And he kept his hands relatively still, choosing to simply move his thumbs up and down a bit against her feathers.

He wanted to ask what was going on, but she always managed to leave him unsure. Maybe she was just in a cuddly mood...that was a rare treat and he didn’t want to look a gift horse in the mouth. Maybe she was inmorethan a cuddly mood and was just getting to it slowly...he wouldn’t object to that, either.

Fifteen minutes of spooning and Scrooge became aware of her breathing evening out. He didn’t adjust his grip on her, but wondered if she really expected him to hold her this tightly all through the night. That wouldn’t happen even if he tripled his dose of arthritis medication.

“...Goldie?”he whispered, thinking it’d be better to wake her up with his voice than by moving her around.“I need my arms back.”

He heard an unexpected whine and was even more surprised when she suddenly turned around and shoved her head under his neck while gripping her hands into his pajamas. His face turned a little red and he adjusted his hands so they were protectively gripping the backs of her shoulders.

“...what’s going on?”

Goldie sighed and shook her head, digging her beak further into his feathers and unintentionally preening them quite a bit. He waited a few moments to see if she’d give him an answer, but she stayed silent.

“...are you goin’ to tell me why you’re here?”

She shook her head and he sighed, laying his beak against the top of her head. He supposed there wasn’t any point in trying to fight it, so he grabbed the comforter and made sure they were both fully covered before falling asleep with the much-too-lovely feeling of Goldie in his arms.

Scrooge could not have been more surprised when, at least six hours later, he awake to find her still there. Not just still in the manor - but still in his bed and still wrapped up with him. She moved her head a little bit and he realized she was awake, but just...hadn’t gone anywhere.

“...I thought you’d be gone by now,” he said quietly, thinking about going back to sleep and taking her with him.

Goldie sighed through her nostrils and moved her hands to the backs of his shoulders, gripping him tightly. “...I just want you to hold me.”

Scrooge almost didn’t believe what he just heard, but...well. Itwasa Saturday.

He moved his left hand from her back to her cheek, brushing some strands of hair out of her face and finally noticing the dark circles under her eyes and what seemed to be light bruising on the side of her head and neck. He’d ask about that later. For now…

“...I...I can do that,” he said softly.

Chapter 62: trick

Chapter Text

Scrooge sat at the table, reading the morning paper as per usual. He always enjoyed his morning rituals and patiently waited for his usual nutmeg tea to be placed in front of him.

Just a few moments later and it did exactly that. Scrooge smiled and looked around the paper to see the teacup. Immediately he was struck by the hand that was currently pulling away from his morning treat and his eyes followed the arm to see it was very much not connected to his housekeeper.

"G-Goldie?!" he stuttered out in shock.

"Hey there, hun," she greeted casually, as if this was the most normal scenario. "How's your morning going?"

He blinked at her and glanced around the room to see if Louie was around or something else strange was going on. "It's…going just fine. What are you doing here?"

Goldie smiled softly and raised a curious eyebrow at him before taking a seat on the table in front of him. She leaned over and let her hand glide across Scrooge's beak, stopping with her fingers tangled up in his whiskers. "Can't I greet my husband in the morning?"

Scrooge was too stunned to react. Was this some kind of con? What could she possibly get out of this? Just a chance to be in his house and steal anything she wanted? Or was she just trying to humiliate him by convincing him they've been married and he's such an old fogey he forgot? He’d never forget something like that.

He was so caught up in his paranoid thoughts that Scrooge didn't notice as Goldie leaned down and kissed him properly. As soon as their beaks touched he felt a jolt of electricity down his spine that told him that whatever was going on, he should enjoy this little moment and then be paranoid about it afterwards.

He kissed her back with what was clearly more fervor than she expected, based on her surprised moan and her hands moving to his shoulders. He stood up and placed himself between her legs, hands gripping his hips as they continued. Who needed nutmeg tea when he could have this?

After a few more moments of that, Scrooge pulled away and enjoyed the vision of Goldie looking thoroughly ravaged. Her hair was a bit messed up and her cheeks were red and her chest was rising and falling heavily with each breath.

Goldie smiled at him - and it was a smile that he'd have embedded in his memory for the rest of his life - and slid one of her hands down to his chest. "What was that for?"

He almost rolled his eyes, still not understanding the game they were playing. “Just enjoying my wife.”

She reached over and grabbed the nutmeg tea, taking a few sips while never breaking eye contact with him. Scrooge felt a shiver down his spine and she tilted the cup towards his beak so he could drink from it, too. It felt so intimate and domestic and...and nice that he started to think maybe he didn’t care if this was a trick.

As she put the cup back down, he leaned forward and lightly kissed her neck. She hummed happily and put her hands on his shoulders, pushing him back into his seat. He obliged as she followed and straddled his lap, pressing her beak softly against his once again.

He felt like putty with her fingers in his whiskers and her breath against his skin. “Goldie…”

“I love you, Scrooge,” she mumbled in between kisses. “I’ll never leave you again.”

His fingers dug into her hips and he scrunched his eyebrows in confusion as he kissed back. “...what’s wrong, Goldie?”

“What do you mean?” she asked, kissing him still.

“You’re...why are you really here?” he responded, pulling away from her and putting his hands against the side of her face. “Are you alright?”

“I’m fine, so long as I’m with you,” she said softly. “Why is that so hard for you to believe?”

He blinked a few times and looked deeply into her eyes, trying to gauge her angle using his decades of experience with her. “It just is,” he said finally, squinting as Goldie’s eyes seem to darken.

“Scrooge…” Her tone was reminiscent of a time he’d disappointed her before, but Scrooge didn’t back down.

“I don’t understand why you’re here.”

Her eyes flickered again and he felt his heart leap. Maybe this was a trick in a different way than he thought.

“...Goldie?”

“Why can’t you just accept this?” she said sadly, her voice starting to shake in a way that felt unnatural.

Scrooge glared at her and pushed against her shoulders. She didn’t fight back, instead falling back and smacking into the edge of the table. She closed her eyes and he took note that she looked empty and hollow. Nothing about her felt bright and fun and exciting like she usually was. Nothing about this felt like her at all.

“...you’re not Goldie.”

Her eyes opened again to reveal bright yellow with deep triangular slits that immediately faded back to her normal green. But there was no questioning what he’d seen, and Scrooge slid his chair back and stood up in shock.

“What are you-?!” he spat at her, wiping a sleeve against his beak in disgust. “What’s wrong with you, you egomaniacal -”

She responded with a deep laugh and another look that sent shivers down Scrooge’s spine, but for decidedly different reasons. “Just needed to distract you while I finished taking your dime.”

He looked even more confused as her blonde hair turned to black and the rest of her seemed to disappear in a mist of pink smoke.

Scrooge rushed towards the door so he could grab a phone, but when he opened it he was met with complete and utter darkness. Magica’s laughter hung in the air around him and he looked every which way as he backed away from the darkness that was slowly creeping into the dining room.

He closed his eyes tightly and tried to focus. This wasn’t real. He’d known it wasn’t real from the start and now his arch nemesis was going to steal his most treasured possession because he was too busy being a lovestruck fool.

Scrooge took a deep breath and grabbed the dime from around his neck, squeezing the coin tightly in his hand.

When he opened his eyes again, he found himself laying in his bed, same as he last remembered. Before he could even consider that this whole thing had just been a dream, he heard the sounds of struggling coming from his floor. He sat up and witnessed the most unexpected site: Goldie holding Magica De Spell in a violent chokehold and demanding that she ‘undo her spell.’

“It’s done! Just-” Magica choked out and coughed. “Just let me go, you psychotic harpy!”

Goldie scoffed and let her go with a violent shove. “How am I the psychotic one here?”

Magica growled and kicked out at Goldie again for quickly jumping out the window and flying off on her newly acquired broom. “You haven’t seen the last of me, McDuck!” she shouted.

Goldie rushed to the window to make sure the witch was really gone and breathed out a sigh of relief.

“...Goldie?”

She turned to see Scrooge staring at her with the widest, most confused stare she’d ever seen. “Hey, Moneybags. You’ve got a real rat problem here, you know that?”

He blinked and tried to soak in everything he’d just seen. “Did you...save me?”

“Don’t sound so surprised,” she said with a smirk, but he could hear that she was out of breath and her hair was sticking up in so many places it was clear she’d just been in quite the fight. “I stopped by for a visit only to find another woman in your bedroom. What else was I supposed to do?”

Another slow blink. He reached towards his chest and felt for the dime, but didn’t feel the string around his neck. Before his paranoia started to come up, Goldie tossed the dime at his face and he let out a loud “oof!” as it smacked into his forehead.

As the dime fell into his open palm, he thought about how this was definitely the Goldie he knew and loved.

He looked up at her with an expression of pure love and Goldie’s sarcastic comment was cut off by her own shock. She blushed and looked away from him for a second before glancing up again.

They silently stared at each other for a few moments. Goldie finally moved towards him and took a seat on the edge of the bed with a loud sigh. “Don’t make this into something it isn’t, but I’m tired as hell.” She laid down across his bed and closed her eyes. “So you can either go back to sleep or get to work, but I’m staying right here.”

Scrooge just stared at her for a minute as she snuggled under his comforter, her back to him and her eye makeup smudging against the pillow. He smiled brightly and leaned down to kiss her cheek.

“Stay as long as you’d like, dear.”

She hummed in response as Scrooge got out of his bed and shrugged on his morning robe. It wasn’t quite his usual time to wake up, but he needed to update his magical defenses. Goldie could wait til he came back.

Chapter 63: fresh start

Chapter Text

“A fresh start.”

Goldie lifted her head from the pillow and turned to stare at Scrooge, confused by his echoing of her words earlier in the day. She didn’t respond, waiting to see what he would say next.

He was staring up at the ceiling, hands laying on his abdomen. He sighed gently. “Why a fresh start?”

“...you know why,” she said quietly, not understanding why they were having this conversation suddenly after an hour of solitude together.

Scrooge glanced over at her, but didn’t turn his head. He tapped his fingers against the comforter. “...I don’t want a fresh start with you, Goldie.”

She almost felt like laughing, the way his unexpected statement slapped her across the face. Instead she just stared at him. “Alright. Well. Thanks for that, I guess.”

Before she could make assumptions about what he meant, Scrooge rolled over and wrapped an arm around her waist, tugging her closer to him. All the movement let cold air under the blanket and Goldie shivered, placing her hands against his chest. “We don’t need a fresh start. We just need to move forward.”

She blinked twice, embarrassed at the eye contact he’d forced her into, and turned her gaze away. “If only it were that easy.”

“I can’t just forget everything you’ve done,” Scrooge mumbled, rolling them a little more so he was on top of her and her head was sinking into the pillows. “And you certainly haven’t forgotten everything I’ve done.”

Goldie moved one of her hands to his whiskers, combing through the feathers with her fingers. “Exactly my point.”

“But I don’t care, dear,” Scrooge said as he leaned closer, his beak just a breath from hers. “I don’t want to focus on any of that.”

She felt his hand dig into her hair and tried not to enjoy his attention too much. “You say that now, but you know coming back for you one time doesn’t mean I’ll change. I won’t stop being me.”

“I fell for you because you’re you, Goldie.”

Her cheeks had a tinge of pink that Goldie hoped Scrooge wouldn’t notice in the dark hotel room. But her heart was beating so loud, surely he could hear it. “Well...maybe you shouldn’t have.”

Scrooge scoffed and leaned back a bit. “What’s that supposed to mean?”

Goldie shrugged, her heartbeat still not back to normal.

“You don’t want me to be in love with you?” he asked more aggressively, sitting up straight and pushing the blanket back.

Goldie felt a cold chill as she followed him and sat up, ignoring the fact that he was straddling her during this stupid conversation. “It’s not about what I want!” she said just as aggressively back, poking her finger into his naked chest. “It’s about how you’re being idealistic ‘cause we had a nice time but in a few days you’ll be glad I’m gone just like always.”

Scrooge huffed and rolled his eyes. “After everything you said to me today, this is how you’re acting now?”

“Am I wrong?”

“Yes!” Scrooge threw his hands into the air in frustration. “You’re wrong, O’Gilt! Just because I don’t make sudden declarations of love doesn’t mean I don’t genuinely want to be with you, you presumptuous, paranoid -”

“...stop, Scrooge.”

He did as she said and looked down to see Goldie staring up at him, her green eyes shining and a visible blush on her cheeks. Scrooge slumped down and grabbed her hands in his.

She spoke before he could. “I don’t...I don’t doubt that you want to be with me, alright?” She sighed. “I just think it’d be easier to try and start over instead of trying to build off of what we have. That’s all.”

“Are you saying you regret everything?” Scrooge asked sadly, rubbing his thumbs over her knuckles.

Goldie laughed. “No, not for a second. But...you do.”

“Goldie-”

“I know you do,” she said softly, still not looking at him. “So don’t call me paranoid when we both know I’m right.”

Scrooge sighed again, frustrated. They’d had an interesting day followed by a lovely night and she was trying to ruin it like she always did by trying to push him away. He didn’t know how to prove she was wrong when she was always so sure of herself. She never liked to listen to him.

He leaned forward and pressed his beak against hers, earning a shocked sound for a brief moment before she started kissing back. Scrooge leaned harder and pushed her back down onto the bed, one hand moving to the side of her neck while the other was propped against the mattress next to her head.

Goldie hummed underneath him and Scrooge moved to press kisses against the side of her beak and then her cheek and temple. He blew warm air against her feathers. “I could never regret you,” he mumbled between kisses before moving back to her beak. He didn’t give her a chance to talk back because he simply didn’t want to hear it. Maybe he couldn’t convince her that she was wrong, but he could still try to move them forward. He wanted her to be a part of his family more than anything, and he’d fight for that.

Goldie wrapped her hands around his shoulders and pulled him closer as they kissed - glad that their conversation was over. She didn’t know why he started it or where he wanted to take it, but she knew she was much more comfortable under him than she was trying to get him to understand her point of view.

She wanted to be with him, she always did, but if they couldn't start over, then everything she'd done could still bite her in the ass and she might not be able to fix it. Even if she wanted more, it would be safer for her to leave before the morning, just like always.

Chapter 64: last night

Chapter Text

Heron felt groggy as she slowly opened her eyes, a rough hangover reminding her of the mistakes she'd made the night before. Her memories were hazy and she struggled to place where she was.

She closed her eyes again, hoping the darkness would help her headache go away. As much as she loved VillainCon, it was getting tough to keep this up at her age.

A noise next to her made her peek one eye open again. Apparently she really fell back into old habits.

Curious, she turned her head to see who she'd drunkenly picked out.

She didn't immediately recognize him - the thin parrot looked much younger than her and was probably new to the villain scene. He groaned and turned around so they were face-to-face, and suddenly he was familiar.

He opened his eyes and stared right at her face, then looked down at her chest, then at the blanket on top of them and then back to her face.

Heron blinked rapidly. This was the idiot who designed those stupid exploding cell phones...the one who couldn't even take down his one single nemesis and had his reputation utterly destroyed by his failures.

Mark smirked and pointed at her with finger guns. "Do you remember last night at all?"

She grimaced. "...no."

"Well trust me on this," Mark continued, the disgusting smirk never leaving his face, "I totally rocked your world."

Heron took that as her cue to leave and to swear off whiskey for a long, long time.

Chapter 65: sick day

Chapter Text

She pried the window open without her usual tact, hoping to rouse him and lead to some light banter and flirtation. Every mistake she made was perfectly calculated to her benefit.

This time, however, he didn’t wake up, and Goldie frowned as she realized she’d have to work a little harder. Ah, well. She hopped into the room, making sure her feet landed loudly on the floor, and walked over to his desk where she could start messing with his papers and opening the drawers. Maybe something would catch her eye and she could just take that instead of sleeping over.

After a minute of shuffling around, she picked the lock on a particularly large desk drawer and started to open when he finally spoke.

“...Beakley?” He coughed. “Is that you?”

“Excuse me?” Goldie turned around angrily, ignoring whatever might’ve been in that drawer. “I don’t know if I’ve ever been so offended.”

After a moment, Scrooge rolled around in his bed and creaked his eyes open. “...Goldie?”

“In the flesh.” She stood in front of his eyeline and crossed her arms.

Scrooge coughed again and groaned. “What’re you doing here?”

“Hmm,” Goldie hummed as she realized what was going on. “Well...I suppose I’m here to make sure you stay in bed.”

“Oh, no,” Scrooge scoffed, coughing again. “I have a big meeting this afternoo - (cough) - noon, and I cannae miss it!”

She sat on the edge of his bed and put her hand on top of his forehead. “I think you can. How about we make today a pajama day and just stay in?”

He squinted and laid down again. “...you’re not in pajamas.”

“Good point,” Goldie smirked and waltzed over to his dresser. “I’ll just have to borrow some of yours-...”

She lifted an eyebrow and stared down at the two vaguely familiar teddies folded up in the back. “Or I guess I could just wear my own.” She turned around and smiled. “I hope you haven’t been stretching these out, Old Man-”

He was snoring lightly and Goldie felt a pang of regret for choosing such a bad day to show up. This wasn’t fun for her. It wasn’t fun for him. It was just...sad. She had no reason to stick around while he slept and coughed and got her sick.

Knowing Beakley would probably be coming up to check on him soon, Goldie quickly scribbled a note and left it next to him on the bed before hopping back out the window. Maybe it’d give him some encouragement to get better faster so they could get back to their usual routine.

Chapter 66: just a kiss

Chapter Text

She was leaning against him - her entire body pressed up on his side. Scrooge was all too familiar with this move, which seemed to come to her as easily as remembering to breathe.

“Scrooge…” she breathed out, placing her palm onto the center of his chest.

“Goldie, I, um-” he stammered out his words, terribly embarrassed and not quite sure how to handle this situation. “We can’t, uh…”

Her head was tilted downwards and she looked up at him with a more gentle and pleading expression than he’d seen in years. “...you have feelings for me.”

It wasn’t a question. Scrooge turned his head away so he wasn’t looking into her eyes. “I...I do, yes.”

She reached up and tugged his face back towards hers. “And I have feelings for you.”

He gulped. His hands were twitching like he knew they needed to do something, but his heart was pumping and his mind was racing too fast to keep up. “Well-”

“I’m not asking,” Goldie said confidently as she scooted just a smidge closer. “I know the old me felt this way, too. I can tell.” She tilted her head upwards and pressed the top of her beak against the bottom of his.

Finally, one of Scrooge’s hands reached up and tugged her hand off of his face and out of his whiskers. “It’s not that simple.”

She huffed. “And what if I’m stuck like this, Scrooge? What if I never get my memories back?” She crossed her arms over her chest. “If you never get your Goldie back? Am I not good enough?”

He frowned and glared at her. “You are getting your memories back, Goldie.” A pause as he considered his next words. “And you’ll...you’ve always been more than enough. It’s just not right. Not when you’re like this.”

Goldie felt her heart jump in her chest and frowned. “You can’t just assume everything will work out. I may not remember everything, but I know that things almost never go the way we want.”

Scrooge raised his head and stared at her. “Things didn’t always go the right way with us, but...but in the end, we always made it. Always.”

She decided to take this vulnerable moment and try her hand again - leaning even closer than before and laying her hand against his cheek once more. “If you’re so confident, then why not just be with me now?”

“You won’t appreciate it when you’re back to your old self.” Scrooge sighed out, but didn’t make a move to change their positioning again. He missed her. He missed her so, so much. “You and I haven’t...we haven’t been like this in a long time.”

“I was just being stubborn.” She leaned closer still.

“You don’t know that.” He didn’t move away.

“...I know.” She closed the gap between them and pressed her beak up against his - savoring the likely brief moment and enjoying it while she could.

It was a few moments before he pulled away - he was frowning and clearly mad, but he kept his forehead pressed gently against hers.

“Goldie Girl...I do want you. I’ll always want you.” He grabbed her hand again, this time holding onto it tightly in his own. “But I just...can’t.” In a move which he felt was against his better judgement, Scrooge finally separated from her and stood up to walk away. “I’m sorry.”

She glared at his feet as he stepped towards the door, not wanting to dignify his last words with a response. How could a man be so romantically charming and yet so frustrating dense at the same time?

Goldie turned and looked out the window on the opposite side of the room. Maybe she should take a page from her own book and just leave. Apparently he preferred the version of her that didn’t want to be around him.

She didn’t remember enough about their past to know why she kept leaving. Maybe he was a heartbreaker. Maybe she was just heartbroken. But this was a perfect way for them to start over and he was just passing it by for an opportunity to have her abandon him again. She tapped her fingers against her knees.

Clearly, she needed to learn more about herself. More than Scrooge could offer. Probably more than anyone in this mansion could offer. She needed to figure out where she was when she wasn’t here.

Chapter 67: youthful problems

Chapter Text

“Goldie?” Scrooge grumbled and walked around the bar trying to spot his partner. “We should really be sticking together, you no-good-!”

He stopped as he noticed her silky blonde hair still trailing down her back. Her hair was so long when she was young, he couldn’t help but notice. And since she was sitting on a stool, it looked even longer.

“Goldie!”

She turned around and smirked at him. “Hiya, Handsome. You buyin’?”

He took a look at the drink in her hand and scowled. “No, I’m not buyin’. What’re you doin’?”

“Having a few shots, obviously.” Goldie motioned to the bartender to bring her another.

Scrooge glared at her and looked up at the bartender. “Did you ask to see her ID?”

“I, uh…” He stuttered and looked awkwardly at some other patrons at the bar. “Miss...can I see your ID?”

Goldie growled and shoved the duck behind her. “I, uh...left it in my car?”

Scrooge smirked and tugged on her hand before the bartender could start shouting. They exited the bar and he laughed at the sour look on her face.

“Oh come on, Scroogey! I just wanted to relax a bit!” She crossed her arms and tapped her foot.

He rolled his eyes. “We need to focus on getting ourselves back to normal, not playing around and pretending to be kids again!”

Goldie stuck out her tongue. “Kiss my ass!”

“What did I just say?”

“I would’ve said that to you no matter how old I am.”

“I suppose I can’t argue with that.” Scrooge reached over and grabbed her hand - tightly grabbed her hand so she couldn’t get away - and pulled her back towards where they came from. They had to fix this fast.

Chapter 68: uneven match

Chapter Text

It was supposed to be just a short visit. She would sneak into his office, take some insignificant things that he’d notice, but not go crazy over, and then they’d bicker for a bit and she’d be on her way.

As she stepped through the window and quietly closed it behind her, Goldie felt a presence she wasn’t used to coming up behind her. She waited a moment and quickly dodged out of the way, lifting her head up to see who her attacker was.

“Ah. Looks like someone’s happy to see me!”

Della fell into a bow stance and glared. “What are you doing here, Aunt Goldie?!”

Goldie stood up straight and brushed nonexistent dust off her pants. She raised an eyebrow at the child in front of her and smiled. “Just here to visit your uncle. And don’t call me that.”

Della smirked and moved her arms around. “I’ve been training since the last time you saw me!”

“I can see that.”

“I could totally kick your butt!”

“I’m sure you could.” Goldie crossed her arms over her chest and glanced around the room. Where the hell was Scrooge? She didn’t come here to babysit.

“Are you...are you gonna fight me?” Della asked with a slight hesitation in her voice.

Goldie just laughed and walked over to Scrooge’s desk, plopping down in his chair. “Absolutely not. Now go get your uncle so I can be on my way.”

Chapter 69: protective

Chapter Text

Lena tapped her fingers on the table as she waited for Violet to bring their food. She was starving and they had plenty of mall left to scour and shop around in.

Tap tap tap. Where was she?

After another two minutes of waiting, Lena got up and decided she was going to go find her, but Violet came from around the corner with a tray and some food.

“Finally!” Lena yelped, grabbing one of the wrapped subs and drinks and slurping while she unwrapped. “That took forever!”

“I apologize,” Violet said with a shrug, shuffling into her seat across from Lena before she started to carefully unwrap her sub. “I had a very odd interaction with the boy who put our sandwiches together.”

“Odd how?” Lena asked with a mouthful of bread.

“He told me I was ordering too slowly and aggravating the other customers,” Violet said matter-of-factly. “But none of the people in line behind me said anything like that or had angry looks on their faces. The comment left me a bit flustered and unfortunately made me stumble over my words and that’s why the food took so long.”

“What!” Lena shook her head. “Y’know what? f*ck the sandwich guy! He’s just being a dick!”

Violet shook her head and cautiously looked around them in the hopes that no one heard her sister swearing in public. “I suppose you’re probably right.”

“Probably? I know I’m right!”

Chapter 70: you can do better

Chapter Text

Scrooge was having a rough day - combined with being bothered by two of the most bothersome women in his life, he opted to kick them to the curb together.

Magica scoffed and started dusting off her dress while Brigitta sighed and stayed on the ground. The witch looked down at her and raised an eyebrow. “Aren’t you going to get up?”

“...no,” Brigitta said quietly. “I need a moment.”

Magica rolled her eyes. “I don’t understand you. Your infatuation with Scrooge is confusing enough, but he kicked you out alongside his greatest enemy and yet you’re not even mad.”

“You don’t get it!” Brigitta stood up and held her ground, poking a finger into Magica’s chest. “When you love someone, you just don’t stop! Ever! Even when people roll their eyes or call you crazy...even then. Especially then!”

Magica batted Brigitta’s hand away from her. “Even if the person you love is those same people? How do you benefit from this?”

“I get to spend time with my Scroogey! What more could I want?” Brigitta said confidently, crossing her arms over her chest. “I doubt you’ve ever been in love, so you’ll never understand.”

“Never-?!” Magica brushed some of her dark hair over her shoulder and laughed. “I’ve certainly been in love, MacBridge. Just never like this.”

“Hmph.”

“And you can certainly do better.”

With that said, Magica hopped on her broom and flew off, leaving Brigitta to watch her go. Brigitta continued to frown and blushed a bit at her not-boyfriend’s nemesis’ words. Do better than her one true love? That didn’t make any sense.

Chapter 71: overthinking

Chapter Text

“I think you’re just drunk,” Brigitta said carefully, but she was smiling and holding her drink close to her while she spoke.

Emily shook her head and frowned. “No. No I mean...I am drunk, but I just...it’s frustrating!”

“You’re just overthinking our friendship!” Brigitta took another swig of her co*cktail. “You know where I stand and you know I’m in love with my Lamiekins.”

“Oh, I know. I’m perfectly aware.” Quackfaster glared at the ice melting slowly in her glass and then shoved it to the other side of the table. “I shouldn’t be in love with you! It’s not fair!”

Brigitta blushed and looked away - her silence accompanied by the ice in their drinks clinking gently. “Emily....”

“I don’t need your pity!” Quackfaster shook her head and tried to stand up, finding that she was quite a bit drunker than she realized. “I just need to get over it. No point in falling for someone like you unless your name is Scrooge McDuck.”

Chapter 72: real magic

Chapter Text

“Magi. Magi. Magi. Magi.”

Magica closed her eyes and took a deep breath, trying to meditate and ignore her surroundings. Meditating wasn’t a very common practice for witches or sorceresses, but Hell, trying couldn’t hurt.

“Magi.”

It also wasn’t helping, either.

“You know I’m not gonna stop poking you until you pay attention to me.”

Magica groaned and whipped her head around, smacking Goldie’s hand with her hair as she did. “Go away! I’m not helping you!”

“C’mooooooooooon. For old time’s sake. I need your magic!”

“There are thousands of witches in this dimension alone. Bother one of them.”

“Hmph!” Goldie frowned and stood up. “I guess I’ll just have to call Adelia instead…”

“What?!” Magic stood up angrily. “That two-bit fairy wannabe doesn’t know a thing about REAL magic!”

The blonde smirked and held out her hand. “Then show me some real magic, De Spell.”

Chapter 73: mutual acquaintances

Chapter Text

It’d been a fun night of adventuring and collecting. Often, Goldie would’ve left by now. Disappeared into the night to who-knows-where and Scrooge would hear from her again whenever she felt it was acceptable to pop back into his life.

This evening, it seemed, she had other plans. And as his back fell onto the bed, he was perfectly content with that. Not just whatever she had planned, but he had some new tricks up his sleeve thanks to a recent excursion with a scientist of certain renown who said she’d only let him call again if he fired his new scientist. He wasn’t going to do that, but he didn’t need to repeat that night of fun.

Scrooge decided he stick with some of his usual routine so he could surprise her at a particularly vulnerable and unexpected moment. He had plans! He had strategy! He was going to one-up Goldie O’Gilt and she was going to absolutely love it!

It was only a few moments after he did his special new trick that Goldie shoved him off and she backed up into the headboard. Scrooge didn’t know how to react at first. “Did...did I do something wrong?”

“What was that?”

He rubbed the back of his head. “It was...well...I. I thought you’d like it?”

“And who did you learn that from?”

Scrooge blinked. “It’s not like we’re exclusive! You know I’ve been with other people!”

She crossed her arms over her chest. “What’s her name?”

“...why?” He glared. “Are you jealous?”

Goldie groaned and leaned forward - crawling towards Scrooge and giving him a view that normally he would’ve loved, but in this moment was quite intimidated by. “Was she a scientist? An eagle scientist, perhaps, named Eva?”

Scrooge blinked. “Um...how did you know that?”

“That little move you just made was Eva’s signature move,” Goldie grumbled as she moved her hands to Scrooge’s shoulders and shoved him down onto the bed again. “And she used it on me more times than I can count.”

“Oh.”

She rolled her eyes. “I’m sure you were excited to try, but I’m immune to that garbage after she overused it. Now it’s just annoying.”

He flicked his tongue. “So...I guess you’re not turned on anymore?”

“Not even a little bit,” Goldie sighed. “But what’s a successful adventure without some unfinished sex?”

Chapter 74: drunk

Chapter Text

“Goldie Girl…….” Scrooge sighed and ran his fingers through her hair.

“Hmmm?” Goldie sighed back, twirling her fingers over his arms.

“Your hair is...so soft.”

She laughed and pinched him. “Your feathers are so soft!”

Scrooge sat up and played with her hair a little more thoroughly - pushing her bangs back and revealing her forehead to him. “Maybe...we, um…”

She giggled again and batted her hands at his arms. “Scrooooooooge!”

“What was that...that drink you brought?” He fell onto his stomach next to her and laughed.

“Oooh,” Goldie giggled once again. “It was Yontankian Ale from Dimension 17. I think!”

He pushed himself up and leaned on his elbows, staring down at her. “...there’s no way we should’ve had so much of it,” he said while starting to laugh again.

“You might be right!” she answered while staring at her wiggling fingers. “This might be...the worst hangover of our liiiiiiiiiiiiives!”

Chapter 75: terms and agreements

Chapter Text

“Magica! Babe!”

The witch turned around to see that a certain unwanted goose had just entered her secret Duckburg apartment without so much as knocking. “What do you want now?!” she growled at him. “You know I should curse you for just barging in here!”

Gladstone laughed and kicked the door shut behind him. “You could, but I think we both know how that’d work out. Now look, I need a favor-”

“No.”

“It involves my Uncle Scrooge!”

“Double no! Why do you insist on bothering me with your petty little family problems? I’m trying to kill Scrooge, not help you borrow money from him!” She stood up and wiped dirt off her dress, taking a few steps closer to her intruder.

“Well, Matilda,” Gladstone responded with a sudden ire. “I’d say you still owe me.”

Magica glared and glanced over to see her wand laying on a nearby chair. If she could just grab it, maybe she could cast herself out of there at the very least.

Before she could even start moving her fingers, Gladstone took note of the wand and wrapped his feathery little fingers around it instead. “Now...let’s talk terms.”

Chapter 76: squishy pillows

Chapter Text

A few glasses of wine. A few missing clothes. A few extra blankets. A few odd, creaky noises to remind them of their age.

Goldie scoffed as Scrooge laid his head down on her chest - thinking back to the attention he was giving the same spot just a few minutes earlier.

“See, this is what I was saying.”

“Hmm?” He turned towards her with a raised eyebrow.

“They’re just squishy pillows. I don’t see why men are so obsessed with them.”

Scrooge looked confused for a moment and sat up, taking a look down at the feathery view below him. “Your...breasts?”

“Obviously.”

He gave a little shrug. “I just so happen to be a fan of squishy pillows.”

Goldie laughed and punched his arm before stretching her arms out towards his face. “And I’m a fan of fluffy whiskers. Bring ‘em here!”

With a small blush, he complied and leaned forward where they came together for another kiss.

Chapter 77: gasolina

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Dickie whistled as she filled up the van with gas, not really sure how much gas they needed, but Daisy told her to hold it in place until she came back. That was reasonable! She could handle that.

Whistle, whistle, whistle.

Gyro came out of the van at one point - probably to get some air - and screeched when he saw gas spilling out of the van and all over Dickie’s shoes. And the ground.

“Dickie!!” he yelped. “Stop!!!”

She raised an eyebrow. “But Daisy told me to keep going til she came back.”

He jumped back to avoid getting gasoline on his shoes. “Just turn it off!”

Dickie pulled the pump out of the van and turned towards Gyro - getting gasoline all over him. She screeched and quickly shut it off while Gyro stayed completely silent.

“I-I...um…”

Gyro pulled off his glasses and tried wiping them on his shirt, which just spread the gas around with more gas. He sighed and glared.

“Well don’t, um...don’t look at me like that! It wasn’t my fault!”

“I wasn’t even here for this and even I can tell it was your fault.”

Dickie and Gyro turned to see Daisy with an armful of drinks and snacks, looking very unhappy.

“You know I have to pay for all this gas that we’re not going to be able to use?”

Chapter 78: legal

Chapter Text

“So of course I’ll help you no matter what…”

“Uh-huh.”

“And I would never question your motivations or anything…”

“Naturally.”

“But I do have one teeny tiny little concern…”

“Which is?”

“...are you sure this is legal?”

Fethry turned around and smiled at his friend, squeezing the detonator in his hand. “What do you mean?”

Chapter 79: all nighter

Chapter Text

“All nighter. You ‘n me. First one to fall asleep buys the other one dinner.”

“Why’s everything got to be a contest with you?”

Goldie scoffed and crawled across the couch, straddling Scrooge when she reached him. “Not everything. But most things.”

Scrooge settled his hands on her hips and smirked. “And how do you plan on staying awake all night?”

She shuffled in place and brought her arms up around his shoulders. “Hmmm…”

“I might have an idea.”

“Eh,” Goldie smiled as she spoke. “Unless you’ve learned some new tricks, I don’t want to risk being lulled to sleep.”

Scrooge frowned deeply and his eye twitched. Immediately, he stood up - hands under Goldie’s ass so he could take her with. “I’ll show you some new tricks!”

She smiled and leaned forward to kiss him as he tried his best to get up the stairs without tripping.