This is a very important chapter! Not because of the content, although I'm pretty happy with it, but because I'm releasing it on the one-month anniversary of the fic! So, happy one-month birthday, Jailbird! You're the reason I've procrastinated most of my homework but DAMN if you don't make me happy.
Louie woke up, shifting in the sheets and searching for his husband -no that had been a dream- his boyfriend. It was cold for November and Louie really wanted to spoon his handsome space heater.
"Boyd?" He made out the android's frame on the other end of the bed and reached toward him.
"You okay?"
"Yeah, I'm okay." It was blurry without his glasses but Boyd didn't really look okay.
"Are you going to go? It's okay if you go," Louie said, sitting up a little. Damn, it was so cold. He didn't want to get up but he would be there for Boyd if Boyd needed him.
"No, no. I'm going to stay."
"You can go if you want to. I won't be upset," Louie said, "Really. I trust you."
"No, I'm going to stay," Boyd fell back down on the bed, pulling the covers over them and reaching out for Louie, "I want to stay."
Louie smiled and his eyes began to close as Boyd pulled him close. It was the night before Thanksgiving and if Boyd wanted to be the bigger spoon Louie supposed he could allow it this once. Plus he felt so much warmer with Boyd's arms around him.
"You're like, freezing," Boyd said with a tired little laugh as he wrapped his arms around Louie's stomach.
"Why do you think I wear hoodies all the time? I just get cold really easily."
"Mm, then let me keep you warm," Boyd said, and they settled into a cozy embrace, drifting off soon after.
Louie woke up early the next morning to a call from Huey, which immediately set Louie on edge. He didn't just get random early morning calls from his siblings, something had to be off.
"What's wrong? Are the kids okay? Is Gosalyn okay? Is Violet okay?"
"Everyone's fine," Huey interjected, sounding frantic.
"You don't sound fine. Did something happen last night?"
Had Gosalyn gone while Boyd stayed? Louie's chest felt tight and guilt seeped into his words. Had his selfish desire to keep Boyd close led to another family member getting hurt? Bullshit, bullshit, bullshit, this wasn't helpful thinking, it was a destructive distortion. He didn't control what happened in the city anymore. He didn't control what Gosalyn did, he didn't control what Boyd did either. None of this was his fault. Still, he took the phone call out of the room so as not to cause Boyd to worry, pulling on his fuzzy navy blue robe and going to go sit out on the front porch, his first sunrise in a while.
"No, it's not that. I just…" Huey sighed.
"I'm here for you, Huey. I love you. Let's talk this out. What's on your mind?" Louie talked softly, gently, wanting to comfort Huey even though he didn't know what was wrong.
"I'm really nervous about today," Huey confessed.
"Oh! Well, that's perfectly understandable," Louie said, "Do you want to elaborate?"
"I'm not mad at him anymore. I'm not. I got over that years ago. But… I still haven't talked to him, you know? It feels weird that we're celebrating Thanksgiving at his house." Ah. This was about Scrooge.
"It does feel weird," Louie agreed, "And it probably will be weird. Forgiving him was weird, getting asked to come over for Thanksgiving was weird. All of this is weird and it's hard but it's good. It's going to be good, Huey. This is what mom would have wanted, I think. She loved Uncle Scrooge, she never would have blamed him for her own choices. She would want her grandkids to know their great uncle."
Huey let out a little sigh, "I know. I'm just worried…"
"Worried about what? If you want to tell me, that is."
"I'm worried I'm just gonna lose it. Just gonna totally snap. I haven't talked to him in a long time, so it's not like I ever told him that I forgive him for his part in what happened to mom. What if there are feelings I never addressed? Stuff I never talked through in therapy? What if I lash out?"
"Huey, I know your anger scares you. But you're not a monster. Your anger is the part of you that just wants to make sure that you're being treated well and fairly. Your anger is there to protect you. But you don't have to protect yourself from Scrooge, and you know that because he's not a monster either."
"I don't know how to stop being afraid," Huey confessed.
"In this case, the only way to stop being afraid is to face your fears. I'll be there for you, Dewey will be there for you, your partners and the rest of our family will all be there to support you. If you ever feel overwhelmed or like you're going to say something you're going to regret you can just step away for a bit. I'll even hang out with you if you want company."
"Thanks, Louie. I really appreciate you listening to me vent."
"That's what I'm here for, Hue. Love you."
"I love you too. See you soon."
"See you soon," Louie echoed, before hanging up. He needed to shower, get dressed, eat a light breakfast, make sure Boyd was up and feeling okay, etc. It meant a lot to him that Boyd had chosen to stay, but he knew that that could be really hard on Boyd. Even Louie felt a little guilty the morning after some minor disaster.
"Boyd? You up yet?" Louie called through the house.
"No, I'm going to sleep forever," Boyd replied, face down on the bed when Louie came in.
"Ooh, shame. Because I look really handsome in my new autumn sweater and you're going to miss it if you stay in bed all day."
"I'm up," Boyd sat, rolling off the bed and landing on his feet like Mars, who was suspiciously nowhere to be seen.
"I need to shower, do you mind making us a bite of breakfast? There's gonna be a lot of food at lunch and I'm gonna eat myself into a food coma so we definitely don't need much breakfast."
"What was that phone call earlier?" Boyd asked, wrapping Louie up in a hug before they could go their separate ways.
"Huey had some nerves, I just offered a bit of advice."
"You're a good brother. When my brothers reach out to me early in the morning we usually just argue," Boyd admitted.
"He would have done the same for me. He has done the same for me. Just repaying what I owe him."
Boyd frowned into the folds of Louie's robe. He had noticed how often Louie deflected compliments. Louie would let you call him attractive any day of the week but if you complimented his character he would kind of shut down, making a joke or comparing himself to someone "better" or just keeping quiet and letting the voices in his head water down his virtues until he was right back to feeling like a bad person.
"I love you," Boyd said, "You know that, right?"
Louie nodded into the hug, "I know. I love you too, dear."
"I love you for your goodness," Boyd said, kissing Louie deeply. Louie's eyes widened when Boyd pulled away.
"Wow," Louie mumbled, "Happy Holidays to me."
Boyd rolled his eyes. Once again, Louie was making a joke of it. But Boyd would find a way to make Louie listen, he would find a way to make Louie believe that he was good. He just didn't know how to do it just yet.
Louie had a few nerves of his own as they headed to McDuck Manor. He hadn't been back there since he was Raphael's age, now he was returning with his siblings and the next generation of young adventurers. For a brief moment, he worried Thanksgiving would go sour in a different way, that the family would get caught up in something dangerous. That's what usually happened to Scrooge McDuck and his family. But their family was tough. They could protect each other. Ducks didn't back down.
"You haven't met my uncles yet, Fethry Duck and Gladstone Gander. Technically, they're Uncle Donald's cousins, but we call them our uncles. I also have two tios you don't know, Jose Carioca and Panchito Pistoles, but they're not related to us at all. And they're not coming to Thanksgiving, I'm pretty sure, at least. I should still put all four of them on the photo wall, though. Sorry, I'm rambling…"
Boyd giggled, "It's adorable when you ramble."
"Ah, thanks, Boyd, you're sweet."
"Not as sweet as you," Boyd said. He was driving or he would have peppered Louie's face with kisses, gentle punctuation for his loving words.
"Stop it," Louie was red in the face, "I can't handle all these compliments."
"I have more," Boyd said, "Wanna hear them?"
"No," Louie laughed, "Please, my ego will explode if you keep going."
"Well, I love you. I'm in love with you. And I think you're too humble and good to explode."
Louie let out a little squeak and turned away, still red and smiling, not saying anything else until they pulled up at McDuck Manor.
"Ready?" Louie asked.
"Let's do this."
Louie was in for a surprise. Well, several surprises. The first was that Scrooge still had his ghost butler after all this time. The second was the smiling blond who greeted him after Duckworth had let them inside.
"Aunt Goldie? I didn't know you'd be here…"
"Ah, well I wasn't going to miss the free food." Goldie tried to act casual, but she was wearing a dress. Louie almost fell underdressed in just a sweater, scarf, and pants. Pants were so boring. Why had he worn pants?
"Sure." Louie gave her a look.
"Don't be rude, Sharpie. Introduce me to that handsome young man of yours."
"I don't own him, but ah, this is Boyd, my boyfriend." After his very elaborate wedding dream last night Louie really wanted to say husband but he held back.
"You must be the infamous Goldie." Boyd wore a smile but his eyes were narrowed.
"Guilty as charged. It's nice to finally meet the man who stole this crook's heart." Goldie slung an arm around Louie and patted his chest.
Louie blushed and wished he had a hood to pull over his head.
"It's nice to meet you too," Boyd said, his smile turning serious after a moment when he added, "Don't ever try to pull Louie back into a life of crime again, though."
Goldie laughed in surprise, "Oh he told you about that?"
"He tells me a lot of stuff because we're partners. It's what we do."
"Aw. That's cute. Sharpie, you sure you're out of the crime game?"
Louie glanced at Boyd, almost sure that he'd seen Boyd's eyes glint red for a second. He untangled himself from her embrace and held up two hands to stop the two from burning the house down or something.
"For your sake and mine, I'm out of the crime game," Louie told Goldie firmly.
"I knew it!" Scarlett said, surprising Louie from behind, "I knew you were a criminal! I'm telling dad!"
"Your dad already knows!" Louie said, reaching out and picking Scarlett up before she could say anything to her parents, siblings, and cousins.
"How'd you figure that out anyway? What're you hiding, Pumpkin?"
"I saw your crime suit when we came over for your house wrecking party. And I heard you and o'pa talking but I wasn't sure what it meant..."
"House warming party," Louie said, setting Scarlett down but holding onto her by the shoulder, kneeling and talking in a low tone, "And what do you mean, crime suit?"
"The one with the stupid goth mask. It was in your closet." Louie didn't think to ask her why she'd been digging around his closet but he had been the one to invite children into his home so really, what should he expect? She'd probably been snooping for birthday presents since that had been coming up and Huey's oldest had no patience whatsoever.
Louie's eyes widened, "Scar, did you tell anyone about that?"
"No," Scarlett scoffed, "snitches get stitches."
"Right. Good job. I'll pay you $100 to not tell anyone about that. I don't commit crimes anymore, Pumpkin, I promise."
"That's kind of cheap for a bribe, Uncle Louie."
Damn it. She was right. He was a billionaire. He had to do better.
"...What do you want?"
Scarlett smirked, "I want a car."
"I can't give you a car, you're nine."
"I bet Raph would love to know about your criminal past," Scarlett said, her smile absolutely devious. She knew that if she told Raph that he would tell everyone. The kid couldn't resist an opportunity to antagonize Uncle "Lou-cifer."
"I can't buy you a car right now, and I can't do anything too extravagant for you that would make it look like favoritism."
"Hm, good point," Scarlett said, wheels turning in her head.
"I guess you're just gonna have to get all of us extra Christmas presents this year, then," Scarlett said, mimicking zipping her lips.
"Done. Make me a list. Have the others do the same but if you let one peep out about the suit all your presents are coming from the dollar store."
Negotiations complete, Scarlett skipped off to go hang out with her cousins, the secret safely locked away.
Louie stood up, feeling terrible. He shouldn't have to bribe his niece to keep his horrible secrets. His old life shadowed him wherever he went and he wished he could just cut ties with who he'd been seven months ago.
"Lou? You okay?" Boyd asked. He'd stayed close and hadn't intentionally eavesdropped, but his super hearing made it impossible not to listen in.
"Oh, yeah. For sure. I should go check on Huey, though. Follow up on that phone call from earlier." Boyd trailed behind him, still worried about Louie, hoping they could move past this little hurdle, however.
Huey seemed to be doing just fine, considering he was laughing and talking with Scrooge and Uncle Fethry. They were discussing some underwater missing mystery, or something of the sort, and questioning Fethry on whether or not he'd seen merfolk during his time in the underwater labs. Louie introduced Boyd to Scrooge and Fethry and Boyd quickly became absorbed in the discussion, but Louie didn't want to interrupt Huey's conversation since it was such a big step for Huey.
So Louie did what he did best. He went to hang out with children.
"Uncle Louie! I like your scarf," DJ complimented.
"Thank you, Sweetpea, I made it myself. Your Uncle Boyd has a matching one."
"Can you make me one?" DJ asked, eyes sparkling, hopeful.
"Of course. We'll go pick out yarn sometime. I'm not great yet but I can show you what I know if you ever want to learn to knit."
"I'll think about it," DJ said, not wanting to hurt Uncle Louie's feelings by implying that she was too cool for knitting.
"Are you going to sit at the kids' table with us this year?" Mikey asked, not wanting to admit that he was not too cool for knitting.
"No, probably not," Louie admitted, "They let you sit at the adult table when you get in a serious relationship. None of you get any ideas, you're all too young to date."
"Are you saying the only way I'm gonna get to upgrade from the kids' table is if I find a partner?" Raphael said with a frown, "Dad doesn't have a partner and he sits at the adult table."
"Yeah, but your dad has four kids so he got to pass go."
"So the only way to get to the adult table is through a romantic relationship or having kids? That seems kind of unfair... What if I don't want to date anyone or have kids?" Mikey asked, and then his eyes widened and grew watery, "Am I gonna have to sit at the kids' table all by myself forever?"
Louie was quick to pull Mikey into a hug, "No, no, no, of course not! I'm so sorry I said it like that. I was just joking around, Mikey. There is no hard and fast rule about who sits at the adult table and you're never ever gonna have to eat alone at a family gathering. Don't worry about that. You're allowed to like or not like whoever and want or not want whatever and we will never exclude you for that."
Mikey hugged Louie back tightly, blinking back tears.
"It's going to be okay," Louie promised, "I'll sit at the kids' table with you, dude."
"But you just got invited to the adult table," Mikey said, sniffling a little.
"And I'll have other opportunities to sit with the stuffy old adults. You guys are more fun anyway."
DJ laughed at that, patting her twin brother on the back supportively.
"We are more fun," Raphael reluctantly agreed, deciding to give up on his pursuit of the adult table, at least for this year while Mikey was worrying about getting left at the kids' table alone.
"Is Uncle Boyd gonna sit at the adult table?" Emerald asked.
"Ah… Probably. He's not as cool as me."
"I heard that," Boyd called from the other room.
"He also has very good hearing. I would not recommend trying to keep secrets from him."
"Is it because he's a robot?" Raphael asked.
"Yes, Raph. Obviously."
Raph huffed and stuck his tongue out at Louie and Louie returned the gesture, causing the younger kids to giggle.
"Where's Leo?" Louie asked, looking around for his favorite nibling, still keeping one arm wrapped around Mikey while he composed himself.
"Uncle Gladstone has him," Azure said.
"He's gonna make Leo lucky, or something," Raphael elaborated.
"That's probably not going to work," Louie warned, "Gladstone's luck doesn't really rub off on other people. It's a very self-serving skillset."
"Aw. Bummer. What's the point of magic if you can't control it?" Azure asked.
"Hm. I don't know. Some things you just can't control. Like, I could never control you guys, but you're still what I'm the most thankful for this Thanksgiving." Louie gathered as many niblings as he could reach into his arms, holding them close.
"Aww," DJ grinned.
"You're so sappy," Scarlett laughed.
"Maybe," Louie said with a grin, "Whatcha gonna do about it?"
"Louie," a voice from behind said, startling him, "can we talk a moment?" Gosalyn stood, arms crossed per usual, and beckoned him over with a head nod.
"You and your oldest, always coming up behind people. Stop that," Louie grumbled as he followed Gosalyn away from the others.
"She'll make a good spy one day if that's what she wants to do with her life," Gosalyn said.
When they'd gotten away from the others Louie felt a bit nervous.
"I'm sorry," Louie said instinctively.
"What? What for?" Now Gosalyn just looked puzzled.
"I assumed you were mad about something so I thought I'd start with an apology."
"No, I'm not mad at you, Louie, geez. I'm not always mad at you." Gosalyn crossed their arms again.
"Just usually."
"Well, you know why."
"Right. So uh, if you're not mad at me, why'd you want to talk?" Louie loved all of his in-laws but talking with Gosalyn always started like an interrogation.
"I wanted to say thank you for earlier. You're the only one who managed to calm Huey's nerves today. I don't know if he would have even come if you hadn't talked to him. So thank you."
"Oh, it was nothing. Huey would've done the same for me."
"Well, yeah, but it's not nothing. You really helped him."
"Ah well, then, you're welcome." Louie turned away. Gosalyn placed their hand on Louie's shoulder.
"Hey, Louie?"
"Yeah?" He glanced at them.
"You're a good person. I know I talk a lot of shit because we've been on different sides of the fight for a while but you're getting better. You've been doing the right thing. Fighting the good fight. You're a good person and I'm proud of you."
Louie blinked away tears.
"Thanks, Gosalyn. But it isn't me, it's Boyd, and you guys, I'm only better because my family pushed me to be better."
"You still made the choice to be pushed. You don't have to make excuses as to why your growth isn't your growth. You're the one who's become a better person. You should be proud of that, the way we're proud of you. Let yourself feel good about this. I mean…" Gosalyn turned him around and gestured at the sight of all their family. Uncle Donald and Uncle Scrooge were hugging for the first time in two decades, the kids were laughing and talking, Goldie and Gladstone were squabbling over custody over Leo (eventually Dewey stepped in), Boyd and Huey were talking science with Fethry, everyone seemed happy.
"You're the reason all this happened. You're the reason we're all together today. Because you chose to reconcile with Scrooge. That was your choice. That was you. You should be proud of that, Llewellyn.
"Thanks, Gos." Louie glanced around, smiling to himself, "I should let myself be proud of it. I guess that's another thing I should work on."
"Well, we're all here for you. We can keep telling you you're good until you believe it."
"Thanks. I'm going to need to hear it a lot," Louie admitted.
"Well, lucky for you, you've got a very sappy boyfriend who is probably dying to build up your self-esteem," Gosalyn said, "And he has very good hearing."