Chapter 5: Relationships
Drake smiled. He was happy.
Not that he wasn't normally pretty happy. Drake usually thought of himself as a happy enough person, but recently he'd been-Joyful? Cheerful? Ecstatic?-he wasn't great with words sometimes-As Gos pointed out whenever she felt one of his catchphrases fell particularly flat. But whatever it was, it felt great! Between Gos' recent successes at school-both with making new friends and her academics-the play being mostly on track, things were going well. Well, and being with Fenton didn't hurt his good mood either, even after one of the Lego Robotics kids saw Drake kiss him in the hall.
It had quickly spread among the robotics kids and the drama kids that the two had some sort of relationship, and after the fiftieth question of, "Are you and Mr. Crackshell-Cabrera together?" Drake had conceded and confirmed it. This of course did little to quench the fire that was hormonal drama kids or their supposedly more rational counterparts. Eventually the two adults had to call a brief joint club meeting to finally get the groups to stop theorizing and gossiping (I'm serious Drake, I'm pretty sure one of them has a notebook with fanart of us.). After a discussion about how they should mind their own fucking business, phrased in a school appropriate way, the conversations mostly subsided. Though given Fenton's grin when Drake theatrically announced that they were together, it was worth the slight headache.
***DT***
It was a week after the announcement to the clubs and the two were out to lunch in a restaurant in Duckburg a few blocks from the beach. "Hey, Fenton, I need to confess something…" Drake said, nervously stirring his drink.
"Sure, que es, what is it?" He put down his sandwich and looked at Drake.
Drake fretted for a moment before he spoke, "I've been keeping a secret since we started dating and I feel like I should tell you. And I figure now that we've been going out for a bit over a month it makes sense to be totally honest." Drake cleared his throat, "I'm not sure how you'd react at first, and so I wanted you to get a chance to know me first so that I could tell you later, hoping it wouldn't be as big a deal as I think it is… But please, just promise me you won't freak out, okay?"
Fenton nervously adjusted his sleeve as he suddenly felt guilty, Don't tell him your secret identity, don't tell him your-
"I have a kid." Drake shared quickly before amending, "Well, kinda, it's a bit complicated."
Fenton blinked, surprised at that specific revelation-De todas las cosas que podría ser... I was not expecting that, "Okay." He nodded, hoping for some more details.
"Okay?" Drake hesitantly scratched the back of his hand.
"Yeah, okay." Fenton reassured him, taking a deep breath, then smiling. "Can you tell me about them?"
A look of relief washed over Drake, allowing him to slacken slightly before he spoke, "Gosalyn isn't biologically mine, but I'm her guardian. I've been her guardian for almost a year now."
"How old is she?"
"She's 12. She's actually a student at Longneck in 6th grade." Drake pulled out his phone and showed a photo of her to Fenton before scrolling through half-a-dozen others. "Here, this is her at her game last week-she's on the lacrosse team." He smiled, "She's so amazing, and I just want to make sure everything's good for her now. Her past, it wasn't great… But she's such a resilient kid. I knew when I met her I had to do everything I could to help her. So I talked to a social worker and completed classes and worked my ass off to build a case so I could legally adopt her."
Drake smiled lovingly, flipping through a few of the dozens of photos of her on his phone before stopping on one of the two of them together on the day he legally adopted her. The two were smiling widely, with Drake's campy half-dimpled grin matched by Gos' sincere small smile. He held out the phone for Fenton to see. "She's actually the reason I'm even at Longneck at all. If it wasn't for her I doubt we ever would've met, at least not the way we did. And I wanted to give her a chance to meet you, since, well, y'know…" Drake motioned between the two of them.
"I think I'd like that very much." Fenton smiled.
"Great!" Drake nearly shouted, quickly restraining his enthusiasm when he remembered the dozen or so others dining around them. "Maybe we could do something this weekend? She doesn't have any games, so we're both free, if it works for you."
"How about Saturday?" Fenton suggested.
"Perfect. Let's make it a date."
***DT***
It had been decided by the men, with Gos' input, that a day at Duckburg's pier would be a good chance for them all to meet. While it was far from the summer heat, the pier's off season hadn't fully gone into effect yet-given how many tourists still found the view something to seek out, even if it was far too cold to go swimming in the water.
"I've never actually met Fenton before, I've only seen you two talking on the computer as DW, what's he like when he isn't making you gadgets and doodads?" Gos asked as they crossed the bridge leading into Duckburg. She glanced out the window at the other cars going by, thinking how their secret headquarters was almost directly overhead.
"He's actually not that different, he's still my personal nerd-in the best possible way."
Gos looked away from her window to glance at Drake, "Which is?"
"He's enthusiastic about everything. He's always thinking of new ways to make the world a better place, and he isn't afraid to try new things."
"That sounds pretty cool."
"Plus he built a heat gun that can melt titanium in seconds!" Drake grinned fiendishly, "He is so awesome."
That caught Gos' attention, "That is pretty impressive."
"I think you'll like him, but remember, if he's a little awkward at first it's just because he wants to figure things out. Give him a chance, I promise, he's a good duck."
"You know I will." Gosalyn confirmed.
Twelve minutes later they arrived at the pier. Fenton had said to meet up at the McDuck Wheel-formerly the Glomgold Wheel until the city had forced him to dismantle it and pay the massive fines for its unsafe nature.
"Hey Drake!" Fenton waved as the two neared. The two men shared a brief kiss before Fenton addressed Gosalyn directly.
"Drake told me all about you, you're Gosalyn, right?"
"Yeah." She nodded, not quite sure how to act.
"It's nice to meet you." He paused, trying to think about how to carry the conversation for a moment. "Drake told me about how you play lacrosse. I did soccer a little bit when I was in school, but I was never much good. I heard your game went well on Thursday, you guys beat Spoonerville 18-7."
"Yeah, it was good. We had some trouble in the first two quarters, but after halftime we managed to get a couple of goals in a row, which helped pull us out of our slump." She paused a moment before continuing, "So, what do you do? Dad told me that you were some sort of scientist, but I didn't get much more than that."
And so the two went back and forth, gradually discussing their interests, hobbies, and friends. It turned out that Gos wasn't too different from Fenton when he was her age-well, aside from him being a boy growing up in Cuba-they both liked sports-Which I never heard about. That's because I know how you feel about 'sports-ball' Drama King.-loved anything with caffeine in it, and had had close relationships with their grandfathers.
"Mi abuelo, my grandfather, he was the most amazing man I ever knew. We never had much when I was growing up, given the policies of 'Partido Comunista' but he always worked so hard so we'd have something. My father died before I was born, he was in some sort of accident, so he was the closest thing I had. M'ma and him made it seem like it wasn't so bad, even if we didn't have much. When we came here, to America, I was nine. I missed him so bad I tried to steal a boat to row back to Cuba-little did I know we were on the wrong side of the country. I never did get to see him again." Fenton frowned for a moment at the memory, trying to push away the thoughts of him at 11 being denied return to Cuba for a funeral because he was now a US citizen and crying himself to sleep every night for three months. "Sorry, you don't want to hear about that." He shook his head.
Drake was silent, processing everything he'd said. Before he could speak Gos placed her hand on Fenton's, "I'm not going to say I understand what you went through, but I get it. My grandfather was all I had before Drake. My parents died when I was too little to remember them, so he took me in. he was a genius, like you. He worked with computers and technology I don't really understand, but apparently it was the kind of stuff that could be used for not so good things. When he realized someone was going to try and steal one of his prototypes he tried to shut it down, but…" She paused, "And now, he isn't really here anymore."
"Hey, it's alright." He scooped both of them up in a hug. "Let daddy give you a hug."
"Dad!" Gos laughed.
Fenton turned crimson.
***DT***
In the end it was a lovely outing. As the sun started to dip down toward the horizon the three stood on the pier looking out into the bay.
"I had a really good time today." Fenton said, looking down at Gos. "It was nice to meet you Gosalyn."
She smiled. "It was nice to meet you too, Fenton."
"You know, you have a really great guy here. Don't let him get in too much trouble." Fenton jokingly clapped Drake on the back. "Seems like he's always in some sort of state."
"I'll keep an eye on him." She smirked.
Drake rolled his eyes, it had been a really nice day. As the orange and yellow reflected off the water he sighed. "It's a beautiful sunset. It sort of reminds me of this dock my family had in a pond behind our house when I was a kid." His eyes watered for a moment before he blinked. He turned back toward the other two. "Hasta la próxima, mi amarillo."
Fenton tilted his head slightly, "Do you mean 'mi amado'?"
"That's what I said."
"No, not quite." Fenton chuckled, "You called me your yellow."
Drake huffed, "Look, I'm trying here, Duckolingo is a major pain sometimes."
"Either way, I appreciate the effort."
Gos rolled her eyes, "C'mon Romeo, I'm sure Fenton has things he needs to do."
The two men kissed before Drake acquiesced and followed Gosalyn back to the car. It had been a really good day.
