Chapter 4: Encounter

It was early October when the after-school activities started in earnest. Drake had already had auditions, coordinated a stage crew, and gotten the AV club on board to help run light-after all, it'll fulfill your extracurricular credit requirement and all you've got to do is flip a few switches. First play practice was the ninth, which meant he only needed to stop worrying over his first ever production and everything would be set. After all, it's just going to be corralling 28 middle schoolers after school twice a week for three months, what could possibly go wrong?!

It was the Tuesday of the first rehearsal and things had gone wrong. Shit, shit, shit! Drake sprinted down the hall leading to the drama room. Why do I always forget the keys? He'd accidentally left the keys to the auditorium on his desk, which meant at the moment all the students he was supposed to be working with were doing an impromptu game of zip-zap-zop in the hall outside the auditorium. He came to a junction. Think Drake, you've been working here a month, which way is your room… He grimaced, the identical beige walls and maroon lockers not helping him in the slightest. He chose right and started pelting down the vinyl clad hallway.

***DT***

Fenton arrived at 2:45. He had twenty minutes to find room 126 and the Lego Robotics team. After locking his car he went around to the main office and got his visitor's badge. He was thankful there was a parent volunteer who'd helped run the team last year who was returning. It meant that he had someone to help, because while he'd done a fair bit of research into the topic and was knowledgeable in robotics in general-because obvious reasons-he still wasn't familiar with all the ins and outs of the program. He was definitely hoping that between the returning students and the parent volunteer things would go relatively smoothly. As he mulled over his thoughts he nervously twisted his lanyard with the word 'visitor' printed on it and walked down the hall leading toward the middle of the building. A moment later a man wearing a pink plaid shirt nearly tackled him. Fenton was thrown a good five feet forward and landed unceremoniously with a thud. Thankfully it didn't feel like anything major had been bruised.

"Woah! Sorry! I didn't see you." The duck extended his hand and helped Fenton up. It was clear he had some weight behind him, and given the firm grip it was certainly mostly muscle. Fenton looked up at the man pulling him back to his feet. The first thing he noticed was that he was taller than him, probably by half a foot. He was, as expected, in good shape, and seemed to be filling out his plaid shirt in a very pleasing way. He had a pair of glasses hooked onto his collar and was wearing a lanyard with some pins hanging on it, including one of the pride flag, though unlike Fenton's lanyard had a staff ID hanging from it instead of the word "VISITOR" printed in red block letters.

Fenton stared silently for a few seconds before the man spoke again.

"You okay?"

Fenton blinked. "Um, yeah, sorry. I, um…"

"What are you sorry for? I'm the one who bumped into you." The man joked.

"Oh, yeah…" Fenton felt his throat tighten slightly.

Drake looked at the badge, "You here for one of the extra-cirriculars?"

Fenton nodded, clearing his throat, "Yes, I'm supposed to lead the Lego Robotics team."

Drake smiled, "Makes sense, given that you're at McDuck Industries."

"Well, having a background in robotics does generally help." Fenton rubbed his arm.

"What room are you looking for?"

"126."

"I think that's down the hall from my room, I'm in 140."

There was a comfortable silence as the man lead him down the hall. A minute later they arrived at Fenton's room.

"Looks like this is it, um… I'm sorry, I didn't ask, what's your name?" Fenton asked, feeling slightly embarrassed he hadn't asked.

"Drake. Drake Mallard." The pink shirted duck smiled and stuck out his hand to shake.

Fenton stuck out his hand and shook, "I'm Fenton. Thanks Drake."

"No biggee, well I've got to grab my keys, good luck." He patted him on the shoulder before resuming his quicker pace.

***DT***

The play rehearsal had been a success for the most part. Today they had just worked on the blocking for the first two scenes with scripts. Most of the kids seemed like they had a good sense of what they were doing, though a few had to be reminded to face the audience on occasion. The kids had been dismissed, which left Drake to get Gosalyn from lacrosse practice.

"Hey, how was practice?" he asked Gos, who was walking across the field with her bag and stick.

"Pretty good. I'm doing better than last year, though I think that might be due our other practices." For the past few months Drake had allowed Gosalyn to occasionally practice sparring with him, figuring she should be able to defend herself in case any of his enemies ever found out his secret identity and targeted the girl. Recently she'd started using a bo staff and had taken to it like a fish to water.

"Good, I'm glad to hear that." He smiled, his eyes wandering slightly up and to the left.

"Something good happen at play practice tonight?"

He snapped back to reality, "No, well, not really. Nothing went wrong, though. Well, aside from me forgetting my keys and almost running over a guy in the hallway…"

"You almost ran someone over?"

"By accident." Drake clarified, holding up a finger.

"By that look you had on your face a minute ago he must've been something."

Drake reddened, sputtering, "No, it was Fenton, I was just, well surprised to see him. And seeing as we've really never met properly before as me and him, and everything it was… surprising to see him."

"Um hmm…" Gosalyn hummed. "So, when are you going to ask him out?"

"Excuse me?!" Drake nearly shouted, glad that their car was near.

"Well, it's clear you like him."

"Gos, I'm pretty sure Fenton is straight. He's dating Gandra."

"Not according to his Waddle account."

Drake tilted his head.

Gos huffed slightly, "I swear, old people and technology. His Waddle account, y'know, online."

"I know what Waddle is." Drake scoffed defensively, unlocking the car.

Gosalyn smirked slightly, throwing her bag in the back. "Well, anyway, he updated his account. First to single, then to say he was interested in men."

"Why do you know this?"

"I'm friends with the triplets and Huey's basically Fenton's number one fan, which means he likes all of Fenton's updates, which get pushed onto my homepage."

Drake blinked twice.

"Huey liked Fenton's update so I saw it."

"Oh, okay."

Gos smiled, "Dad, please never try to do anything online."

Drake muttered something noncommittal before he started the car. He tapped the steering wheel a few times before turning to Gos, "So, you think there might be a chance?"

"Ask him, after all, you already know him as DW and you think he's a good guy, why not try as Drake?"

"Alright, I guess I can give it a shot."

***DT***

Thursdays were again play rehearsals and Lego Robotics, which meant Drake was standing down the hall from the Lego Robotics room, trying not to look too much like he was stalking the man he'd accidentally knocked flat on the floor earlier that week. After three minutes of awkwardly leaning against the wall and alternately trying to look like he was just on his phone he saw Fenton start to walk down the hall. He had ten minutes until play practice started, Alright you are Darkwing Duck! You are the terror that flaps in the night! You can ask one guy out on a date, even if it has been almost a decade since you've seen anyone…"Hey, Fenton."

"Hey Drake, nice to see you without being knocked on mi culo." The scientist joked, patting his behind. Today he was wearing a grey shirt and blue tie, a bit more formal than when the two had run into each other before-given that it had McDuck Industries' logo on it Drake guessed he had had some sort of presentation at work and had had to dress up for it.

"Sorry again about that." Drake grimaced slightly.

"No es una gran cosa, it's not a big deal. I'm fine." Fenton waved his hand.

"Well, I wanted to make it up to you, in any case. I figured we could get a cup of coffee and chat sometime, my treat. You seem like the kind of guy who'd be nice to get a drink with."

Fenton paused, "Really?"

"Yeah, really. I'd ask you out for a beer, but you don't seem like the type who drinks a lot, no offense."

Fenton snorted slightly, "None taken, I don't really drink much. At least, not after my Cousin Ernesto's bachelor party."

Drake raised an eyebrow, curious and hoping he'd elaborate. Fenton obliged.

"I may have had a few too many shots and ended up wasted enough to forget English. After managing to get a cab home I ended up with the worst headache of my life and ended up vomiting the rest of the weekend. Gracias a Dios, the wedding was the next weekend, if not I would've been even more miserable."

"Sounds like when I was in college." Drake replied, thinking back to his undergrad years.

Fenton stifled a chuckle, knowing too well the risks of being an undergrad with a little spending money and an open bar, and pulled his phone from his pocket. "Here, put in your number and I'll text you. We can figure out when we'll get that coffee."

Drake punched in his contact and Fenton shot off a quick text. A buzz in Drake's pocket told him it had worked. He checked the text.

Hello Drake! This is Fenton Crackshell-Cabrera.

"Looks like it worked." Drake commented.

"Awesome, I'll text you later, the kids'll be here soon so I've got to get everything set up."

"Alright, text you later." Drake replied, awkwardly making finger guns before quickly putting them away, realizing quite how juvenile it made him look to do them.

Fenton chuckled before he went into his room to start setting up for the team.

***DT***

It was Saturday night and Drake had left Gosalyn with the Muddlefoots next door. Gosalyn was close with the Muddlefoot's youngest son, Honker, so she was fine with spending a few hours next door at her friend's. He met up with Fenton and the two sat down at a table at Café Cafe, a coffee café that served specialty drinks from South America.

"I had no idea this place existed." Fenton remarked, glancing at the menu. "You know how long it's been since I had a good café cortado?" He nearly sighed, "The one place I used to always go in Duckburg shut down. I'm going to have to remember this place."

"Yeah, I stumbled upon it a few months ago after work and I needed a bit of a pick-me-up." Drake remarked, leaving out how he'd been pummeled by jewel thieves beforehand.

A waitress took their orders and soon the conversation began properly. After talking about their hobbies and Drake again apologizing for almost flattening Fenton eventually the topic came to jobs.

"So, you never actually told me, what do you do at Longneck?"

"I'm the drama teacher, that's why I'm there late-play rehearsals."

"Makes sense, what play are you working on right now?"

"West Side Story."

"Wow. An ambitious undertaking."Fenton slowly sipped his coffee.

"Well, I'm only directing, choreographing, and playing the piano, so, y'know, not much…" Drake listed on his fingers.

"Your humility is showing, Mr. Mallard." Fenton joked.

"So what do you do again, aside from working at McDuck Industries?"

"I'm an inventor, so I do all sorts of things. Mostly prototyping and R&D for the consumer products divison." Fenton paused for a moment, "Wait, when did I tell you where I worked?"

Drake panicked a moment before replying, "You didn't, but your tie did on Thursday."

"Oh yeah, I had to meet with the new board along with my boss. Some project needed more funding so we had to talk to the new buzzards McDuck brought in, los bastardos tacaños. " Fenton shrugged.

"Sounds like fun." Drake smirked.

"Not even close, it was horrible." Fenton commented. "Wait, that was sarcasm, wasn't it?"

Drake nodded.

Fenton frowned slightly, "Agh, I have got to get better at that."

"I don't mind, it's nice to meet someone honest for once."

Don't reveal your secret identity. Don't reveal your secret identity… "Yeah, well, M'ma is a police captain; I can't exactly lie around her."

The conversation continued for another hour until both men had finished their drinks and a light snack.

"So, um, Fenton, I had a really nice time tonight."

"Yeah, I did too." Fenton smiled.

"I was wondering, if, um, you would want this to have been a date?" Drake hurriedly amended, "If not, that's totally fine and I'm okay with us just being friends."

Fenton blinked in disbelief, He's asking me out? Fenton tried to stop the look of disbelief from taking over his whole face."I wouldn't mind that."

"Really?" Drake looked up from his hands.

"Porque diablos no? Why not? After all, you seem like the king of guy who I wouldn't mind getting another drink with."