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S2: Chapter 17 – Dreamy Love (John)

Beta-Reader: Ant0nius

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I have to say, Della is perhaps the most amusing individual I've had to deal with in ages.

To summarize all the reasons why I believed that, I'll have to use this one scene I was part of as a relevant aspect of her personality.

"It's just weird," She huffed, helping up as we were cleaning a bit of a mess the kids left in the garage. They didn't go out for a mission, but they had made plans for a sleepover with Violet so... yeah, that was going to be big nonetheless and they wanted to make it super-special. "I mean, Donald says he 'luckily' ended up stumbling on Penumbra, that had decided to rebel against Lunaris because he wanted to... invade Earth?"

"I think you may be seeing it from the wrong angle," I replied distractedly, knowing that Donald had lied a fair bit in his account, but he was doing it more to protect some awkward aspects that would leave the Moonlanders in a bad spot with Earth- and he mentioned that the one that took care of it was more a 'look-alike', which meant he had gone as Paperinik for this trip. It was interesting to imagine how he pulled it off without any major gadget that was prepared for the lunar environment, but I knew he was a clever individual while donning that mask. "What Donald calls luck is usually a case of misfortune, except he rather not bring up any potential issues he may have with this friend of yours."

Which could also be true considering he said something about this Penumbra being a handful despite mostly focusing on keeping her people calm as they dealt with Earth's representatives. It had made the news, it was going to take a while to unravel that mess, but, once they were done, he made it clear Penumbra herself wanted to chat with Della over private stuff.

What about? I don't know and I found no edge to pry info from Della herself.

"Penumbra is tough when it comes to social situations," Della agreed and yet didn't feel convinced. "But there's this nagging gut feeling I have that tells me there's more to it."

"Hm," I hummed curtly, deciding to leave her pondering some more about it.

Ten minutes later, the conversation rekindled. "So... how are you handling Webby and Lena?"

I blinked in surprise at that curious question, but thankfully I saw little issue in answering it.

"They are both handfuls in their own ways. Webby is still latching on to her craving for adventure, which really makes me think that she may have some McDuck blood in her, while Lena is... always a bit of a puzzle."

Della set down her broomstick, clearly done with her side of the garage and I was close to done with mine.

"Puzzle? I thought you two were doing fine."

"We are," I admitted calmly. "But it's one thing is being fine, & another knowing how much is needed to be monitored at times. I can't exactly push her into telling me what her problems are- not without sounding too oppressive."

Yet that didn't stop me from feeling worried since she had been sleeping very little, which led me to believe this had something to do with nightmares. I had contemplated giving her something to stop her from dreaming entirely, which should be enough to put her to sleep... but a gut feeling informed me that this would build a dependency which was unhealthy. I wasn't even sure what sort of nightmares those were and there was a chance these were, in fact, the result of an issue, rather than the source of it.

It's been a while, but I guess the fear of dealing with Magic was still strong in Lena due to how unpredictable the witch tended to get after being left on her own for ages. Lena knew this perfectly as she had been one of those plans herself, and that was perhaps what worried her. To be once again used by Magica to do harm to the family.

It wasn't a complete guess either as Webby had acted as my informant on the matter. She didn't tell me much since she didn't want to 'sound too much to Lena', but the girl knew a lot about how much it was influencing her big sister, and I had to get this solved for good. One way or another. I had time to think of it, but Magica had to be beaten at once due to how dangerous she was.

In the comics, she was always seen as a 'gray figure'. Malicious at times, but never once contemplating hurting someone. She was known as 'the Witch that Bewitches', always using tricks to control people without having them harmed. And yet this version was more ruthless, more deranged and even more of that all at once due to what happened last time and what Poe told her.

It wasn't... going to be easy. But I had to be the one putting an end to her, one way or another. Either by depriving her of magic, or going through something extreme if necessary by the situation's demands.

"So, how are you going to deal with that? I mean, if you are struggling by being this close but not too much with your daughter, how would you go from there?"

That sort of questioning was nothing new, but some explanation is needed on why Della felt so fixated on the topic. Ever since I had been around helping her with her things, the woman had purposely started to use me as some sort of guide which was... reasonable since she took parenthood as some sort of activity from the Junior Woodchuck group- something important, that mattered a lot and that thus had to be learned in 'how-to' styled explanations.

So, through this questioning, Della was pretty much asking me, in quite the indirect way, how she was supposed to work with that sort of situation if she happened to face it with her kids in the near future. Since Lena was the oldest of the group, she was also the one that was struggling to grasp which degree of maturity she should go for, how much childishness she can deal with before it turned boring for her or too much for her to handle with her own experiences.

"With patience, as all unknown sights are at times. Parenthood can get really tricky when you are going blind on most occasions, after all."

She nodded in agreement and we went to the living room. Everyone had pretty much gone to sleep at this point, so it was just me and Della by the couch, in front of the fireside and... unconsciously leaning on each other. It wasn't something too awkward now that we were alone, but there was something more interesting about this scene which really showed how trusting she had gotten since we first met: she would remove her prosthetic leg and she would settle it on the side.

While there wasn't anything too unpleasant about the artificial leg, she had been told to remove it while going to sleep. Something about it reacting badly if she had a bad dream or nightmare which may cause the sensor within it to snap and kick something or someone. She snuggled up on the side and I wrapped an arm around. She didn't mind, yawning a bit and then falling asleep.

I followed through shortly after, tired by the work today and kind of warmed up by the feeling of the fireside so close and having Della resting beside me. That was how I last saw the situation being but... things suddenly changed as I felt myself pulled into something 'different'. I woke up to the noise of Della's cheerfully jumping around for some reason.

I thought it was morning or something, but it was still night, the fireside was still going strong and... I didn't feel as tired as I was mere moments ago. In fact, I barely felt much in this unusual experience. But what really got me to see that this was not reality as it was meant to be was the cause of Della's euphoric behavior.

"John, my leg! My leg is back!"

And she was right, much to my immediate surprise and confusion. Della now had two normal legs, as if the entire accident on the moon hadn't occurred and... Oh.

"A dream?" I guessed verbally, causing the female duck to pause.

"This is a dream?"

"I think it's doable by magic, we are both aware so this mean we are in a-"

Before I could finish that explanation, I felt Della bolt for me and slam her face against mine. While that sounded a lot rougher than it really was, the way that sudden kiss worked was... well, I couldn't explain it. I wasn't sure how it was possible, but it felt as natural as kissing someone with lips.

Kissing a beak was very different than I thought it would be. Perhaps it was some toon logic at hand, but it sure felt... you know, good. And the tongue was human enough to melt me up from my thoughts over it. It was an intense kiss, one I didn't expect Della to pull through so suddenly and, as she pulled away, cheeks flaring as red as mine, she gave me a bizarre look.

"W-Wait, you said we both are aware... right?"

I blinked, unsure if repeating myself would spare us from the embarrassment or not. "Y-Yeah."

...

Mortification struck as Della realized what she had done, the implications between the ramifications and the innuendos behind that gesture known to the two of us with ease.

"Sorry-"

"It's alright and... we need to focus on this," I interjected, putting the focus back on the fact we were on some sort of 'shared dreamscape'. Which made no sense as I doubted Poe had the means to do that, and I didn't cast that sort of spell since I didn't know how to create one myself.

Yet, as I scanned around, I felt a faint magical essence. Two actually which were familiar.

"Lena," I muttered, Della's eyes back to me.

"What about her?"

"I think she made this spell due to her sleep issues and... and I think someone else intruded on it. We need to find the kids in this realm, fast."

Magica was back. While only as an astral projection, she was finally within reach for me to end her threat against Lena.

-d-d-d-d-

AN

Della will have some explaining to do. But worry not, it will all collapse into drama once Penny enters the scene too.