Chapter 7: Truths

It had been a week and Fenton was nearly chewing his beak off from all the times he was biting his tongue from either confessing his secret or trying to figure out how to ask Drake about his. Ya no puedo hacer esto...When Drake invited him over for dinner on Friday he decided that he would tell him then, hoping that his boyfriend would be okay with him and likewise reveal his alter ego.

It was 5:47 and Fenton was supposed to show up in 13 minutes. Drake had learned from experience that Fenton always showed up on time-I mean, I once caught him standing in the hall outside counting down on his watch to make sure he arrived exactly when he was supposed to get here-that constant helped him slightly to calm down when he realized that the pasta was nearly boiling over and the rolls were on the verge of burning, at least I have some time to fix this. As he hastily repaired his dinner he was glad Gosalyn wasn't here to hear him muttering the string of curses under his breath. Gosalyn was next door with the Muddlefoots working on some project with Honker-what it was she didn't share, so I don't think it's a project for school. While Drake didn't mind the kid, the rest of that family is annoying as hell, so he was fine to limit their interactions to picking up and dropping off Gos. He quickly set the table and got the food mostly finished, yelping as he realized he'd forgotten the potholders when he started to move a pan off the stove. After some cold water he was fine, and it was six o'clock.

A knock on the door let him know Fenton had arrived. Drake quickly tossed his apron-a father's day gift from Gos-onto a hook in the kitchen and went to open the door.

Fenton nearly burst through, "Hi Drake!" He hugged his boyfriend before a quick kiss. "I got some wine. I couldn't decide on red or white, so I got rose."

Drake looked at the bottle; it was a newer vintage, but a good brand. " Looks good, Fen. I've had some of their reds before and they were good. I'll have to see if their roses are the same way." He moved the wine into the kitchen and got a bucket to chill it in.

He returned with dinner a moment later, motioning for Fenton to sit at the small, but comfortable, table. "It's pasta puttanesca. I was watching this TV show on Netflix and they mentioned it. I looked it up and it seemed pretty good."

Fenton nodded, it smelled good. "Smells good, aunque sea un nombre raro." He paused, remembering he needed to translate himself, "Even if it is a weird name."

"Puttanesca?"

"Well, puta means whore in Spanish, so I'm pretty sure it means something along those lines in Italian."

"Y'know, I've got to learn another language." Drake looked at Fenton for a moment, a grin forming, "Honestly it's incredible, being able to do that, switch back and forth. How do you do it?"

Fenton was surprised, he'd never really thought much about it. "Well, growing up we only ever spoke Spanish-y'know it being Cuba. I had to learn English in school here, and it wasn't easy. I guess because I was a kid I got it a bit quicker, but M'ma and I, we'd always practice together. She wanted me to be 'a real American boy'." He used finger quotes, "And part of that was speaking English. We could still speak it at home sometimes, but she wanted me to learn English so other people wouldn't think less of me."

Drake frowned slightly before he sighed, placing his hand on Fenton's, "Well, either way, it's still amazing." He paused, "I mean, you're bilingual, a certifiable genius, and great with kids. What can't you do?"

Fenton blushed a deep scarlet, while he was getting more used to the compliments from Drake it was still a lot at times, Alright, I guess it's time to do this. "I can't keep a secret, not from you, not anymore."

Drake paused, the way Fenton looked, Whatever this is, it's serious. "Fenton, I trust you. If you're sure you want to tell me, go ahead."

Fenton exhaled deeply before he replied, "Drake, I'm not just Fenton Crackshell-Cabrera."

Drake nodded, expectantly.

"I'm also Gizmoduck."

Drake realized his mouth was hanging open somewhere around the sixth second of silence. "You, you're Gizmoduck?"

Fenton nodded.

"But, but…" Drake tried to navigate his mixed feelings on the titanium nuisance. I mean, he has helped out every once in a while, but he's always been a goody-goody glory hound, right? "You're Gizmoduck?" He repeated, it seemed to be the only thing he was capable of saying at the moment.

"Yes."

After a further moment of stunned silence and a litany of facial expressions Drake seemed to be able to use more than three words. "I'm sorry. I'm so, so, sorry."

Fenton raised an eyebrow. "Sorry?"

Drake shook his head, "I guess if we're coming clean I ought to as well." He sighed, "I was going to wait a little longer, but… I'm Darkwing Duck."

Fenton nodded, "I sort of guessed when I heard your story about the box-cutter."

Drake reddened, "You know you basically saved my ass there." Drake gestured to the now somewhat healed scar. "According to the EMT I was lucky, I could've lost a lot of blood if someone hadn't done that."

"I figured you needed some help and wanted to make sure you were alright." Fenton shrugged, "Even if you apparently hated me without me knowing it for a few years."

"I'm sorry, I was just, I don't know, jealous?" He sighed. "I mean, you had all these awesome gadgets and a cool city to protect, and I didn't have much…"

"Until you started asking me for some tech support."

"Technically DW asked you for tech support…" Drake held up a finger, trying to defend his past actions.

Fenton rolled his eyes, "Well, either way, I'm glad you don't hate me."

"I never really did, it was a petty one-sided rivalry at best, and I definitely can't now. After all, now that I know the duck behind the mask I know he's far too amazing to hate." Drake replied, gently holding Fenton's hand. He paused a moment, "So, does this make us some sort of dynamic duo now?"

"What?"

"Y'know, since we're a couple and we're both superheroes, so are we, like, gay Batduck and Robin?"

Fenton sighed, trying not to slap his boyfriend. "As long as I'm Batduck."

***DT***

Gosalyn returned from Honker's, pleased with the progress they'd made. When she arrived Drake and Fenton were watching TV on the sofa. She glanced at the screen, it was some sci-fi show she half-recognized from Honker's action figure collection. I guess Fenton's into that kind of stuff. Before she could do much Drake paused the show and turned to face her.

"Hey Gos, how'd it go with Honker?"

"It was good. We need some more time, but I think we made good progress."

Drake glanced at Fenton, who nodded slightly.

"Remember how I said I was going to have a talk with Fenton about some stuff when I'd known him for a little longer?"

"Yeah, you wanted to tell him about some of the 'volunteer work' you did." Gos responded, knowing the code phrases they'd come up with to talk about his vigilante actions.

"Well, it turns out he's also a volunteer." Drake said, gesturing to Fenton.

Gos scrunched up her brow slightly. "Really?"

"Go ahead Fenton, you can trust her, she's known about me and never told anyone else."

"I'm Gizmoduck."

"That makes sense, I was wondering why I kept getting all those weird signals whenever we hung out."

"What?" Fenton was confused.

"Your interface with the suit, it's gotta be a neurolink, right?"

"Si, how do you know-"

"It makes the most sense to do it that way, run it through the brain as a processor, more efficient and better control. You've got a circuit breaker in that thing, right?"

Fenton's eyes widened. As far as he was aware, there wasn't one.

"That panicked look tells me no."

Drake looked at Fenton, "Really?"

"I never thought of the possibility of it shorting out."

"I go through phones every other month with all the stupid water and electricity themed weirdos around here, you definitely need a safety shut-off to keep it from screwing with your head." Drake said, looking concernedly at Fenton's skull. After a brief glare he backed off.

"I'll definitely get on that tomorrow morning. I don't want to end up getting a stroke because of a power surge."

Gos sighed, "That sounds like a plan. So now I guess I have two hapless superheroes to look after."

"Hey!" Both men replied.

She shrugged, "Fine, two disaster-prone superheroes. Better?"

Neither could deny that, given the number of times things had gone wrong.

After a moment she looked again at the two, "So, does that mean you're like a gay Batduck and Robin?"

Fenton buried his head in his hands as Drake tried to control his laughter.