Chapter 3: Volunteering

After telling M'ma, and her confirming that she still loved him no matter what-y si mi hijo le gustan los hombres, esta bien-Fenton had gradually told the others in his life.

His family had generally been accepting. Thankfully he'd already had a reputation for being a bit strange among his relatives, which seemed to allow a slightly easier path into something that might have been a bit more major. His great aunt Augustine wasn't speaking to him anymore, but for Fenton that was a plus, given how bitter the old woman was about everything it was a relief to have to spend less time hearing her talk about how much she'd hated her three husbands.

As for friends, he started with the Duck family. He'd steadily grown closer to Donald and Della and the boys after the moon invasion, and Huey in particular seemed to look up to him (or at least look up to his ability to use dangerous chemicals that he could occasionally 'borrow'). Donald was slightly surprised, but didn't seem to mussed by it. Della swore slightly before explaining she'd been betting someone on how long until he and Gandra had kids, which meant she was out $20. The triplets didn't really care, which given their age made sense-they likely didn't understand anything like sexuality yet.

Next was Launchpad, then Manny. Neither really minded the development, though Launchpad's immediate questions revealed that he was somewhat ignorant of how exactly same-sex partnerships worked. After a few awkward moments and some explanations, he got the picture and seemed just as on board as before.

Gyro was the final person on his list. It wasn't like he had a particularly strong reason to wait for Gyro's reaction, mainly it was that he hadn't had the chance. Between being Gizmoduck and Gyro being at a conference in Europe for three weeks discussing the French's recent developments in nuclear power, there hadn't been time to talk. However after a few minutes of confessing, his boss barely batted an eye.

"Okay, former intern, this matters to me how?"

Fenton blinked, everyone else had at least had some reaction. "I, um, figured it made sense to tell you, since I've told everyone else we work with."

Across the lab Manny nodded to confirm that Fenton had already told him the week prior, restored to his headless state the Scrooge bust atop his neck teetered slightly as he did so. He had decided that it made the most sense that way-less temptation to cleanse the earth of mortals if I don't have the ability to do it, and all that.

Gyro glanced at the duck in front of him. "You do realize that someone of my, shall we say… proclivities, has dealt with this kind of thing many times?" He paused recalling how hard it was after he'd first opened up and admitting to himself that perhaps he did have a certain feeling of friendship toward the often annoying duck he'd chosen as lab assistant, "Look, if you want advice on finding a good man, I'm afraid I don't have any. All the ones I've dated ended up being real jagoffs. Unfortunately none of the dating apps really work for me. I blame the algorithm, for some reason no one wants to date a rooster in his 30s with three doctorates, but a 24 year old with an eight pack gets fifty swipe rights." He clenched his fist slightly before taking a deep breath. "But you're young enough, you've got time."

"Wait, no, I don't really want to date anyone, at least, not right now."

"Really? Could've fooled me. New tie, better haircut-it's almost like you're making yourself more attractive for potential partners." Gyro turned away and headed toward his corner of the office, "Now if you'll excuse me, I need to finish calibrating a sensor array that I picked up in Belgium."

Fenton was now officially single and NOT ready to mingle. Dating terrified him. But he supposed Gyro wasn't wrong, he had changed his appearance slightly in recent days, though mainly it was because his normal barber wasn't available and he'd lost his usual mauve tie when it got scorched off by a malfunctioning exhaust port in the Gizmoduck armor.

Fenton shook his head as he thought about setting up an online profile and having thousands of strangers judge him anonymously as a prospective partner. No, definitely not doing that. Definitely not.

***DT***

"Fenton, would you get the mail? I forgot to grab it earlier." M'ma asked, scrubbing a particularly stubborn stain that had recently taken residence on the kitchen counter. While her son had offered a new cleaning product that he'd developed for McDuck Petrochemicals she was a bit hesitant when she saw it had eaten through the bottom of the first three spray bottles it had been in. She eventually had resorted to some water and concentrated dish detergent, but it was still proving a bear to clean.

"Okay M'ma, lo tendre en un momento, I need to quick-" a small boom was heard from Fenton's room.

M'ma tensed for a moment at the noise before she started counting mentally, one, two, three-

"I'm okay!"

She exhaled, while her son did tend to blow up far more often than she cared for, as long as he answered in less than five seconds it wasn't anything major.

Fenton closed the door to his room, a fan sucking out the smoke and shooting it into the side-yard. He glanced at himself in the hall mirror, no lost feathers this time, just a few singed. He walked out the front door and down the sidewalk, quickly punching in the pin for the mailbox-a recent modification he'd installed after learning that his Gizmoduck mail had been forwarded to his home.

There wasn't much in the mail, a few pieces of junk advertizing realtors, some flyer for a new takeout place-which looks okay, actually. He paused for a moment on a glossy piece of paper. It had the logo of the Duckburg-Canard School District. I didn't even go there, why am I getting junkmail from them? He flipped it over.

We welcome a new beginning as a unified district! The Duckburg-Canard School District is launching a new set of after-school programs, generously sponsored by McDuck Enterprises and Glomgold Industries.

Fenton smirked, No way either of those two signed up for that willingly. I bet one of the nephews got Scrooge to sponsor something at school and suddenly it became a contest between Scrooge and Glomgold. He continued reading.

Sign up today as a volunteer for after school programs. Show your passions and talents to a new generation!

Fenton tossed the other ads in the trash by the front door and was about to do the same to the school mail when it flipped open, the glue holding the glossy paper shut apparently not being a very high quality. Inside the paper had a sign-up form and a few pictures of students taking part in programs. He paused for a moment and raised his hand from the trash can where it had been hovering ready to toss out the paper. Inside there was a picture of a boy, probably around 11 or 12. He had tanish feathers arranged in a neat comb-over and some visible acne. He was smiling wildly as he typed something into a computer, a small robot made of what looked like Lego on a nearby table. Santa mierda, that kid looks just like I did.

Fenton double-checked the picture. The boy was a dead ringer for him at that age, even down to the slight overbite and braces.

"Lego robotics?" Fenton muttered, reading the heading. He pulled out his phone and looked it up. After a few minutes of reading he knew enough.

***DT***

Two weeks later Fenton received a follow-up letter from the school district thanking him for signing up. He would be leading the Lego Robotics team at Longneck Intermediate School beginning the next week.