……
To put it lightly and in a 'modern' tone, this situation sucked.
Here Goldie was, on a hard, uncomfortable metal floor, bars all around, one diamond leg stretched out, the other curled up to her chest, bored out of her mind and sick and tired of quarantine.
Sharpie, the kid, sat next to her on the floor, attempting to use his touchscreen with hands made of priceless mineral. It…wasn't going great.
"Ugh! Stupid thing! Just work!" He yelled at his phone, before (gently) throwing it a couple feet away. It landed on the metal floor, resulting in a loud echo. Goldie snorted. "Real smooth, Sharpie."
"Oh, thanks, rhinestone ribs." He replied coldly.
Goldie glanced down. The diamond had indeed, spread to her torso on the right side. "Ugh. Wonderful." She tried to move from her sitting position and found she couldn't anymore. "And I'm stuck."
"Shall I fetch Miss Sabrewing's diamond dagger?" The ghost butler on guard duty asked from right outside the cage.
"Shut it, Duckworth." Goldie growled.
He shrugged and took out a duster, moving it across the cage bars indifferently.
"Man, I can't believe this!" Louie complained. "It's only been two hours, and I already never want to see this cage again!"
"Ditto." Goldie agreed.
"I'm missing so many calls from potential buyers-not buyers of you, of course- and Huey, Huey of all people, has a date tonight! Of all the nights to be stuck in a cage! I didn't even have a say in the matter! I mean, what am I, a Doofus Drake victim?"
Goldie laughed with a strained sort of smile at that memory. "Welcome to the club, Louiema-ma."
He groaned. "That's gonna stick, isn't it?"
"Forever and ever, kid." She vowed.
They sat for a moment. Then Louie stood up and entered the room hooked to the cage. "Welp, I'm gonna use the bathroom before my legs freeze too."
"See ya, Louiema-ma."
"Aauugh!" He groaned again from the doorway.
And he was gone.
Goldie folded one rock-solid arm across her knee. She guessed she was about sixty percent diamond at this point. She sighed. This seriously sucked.
"Don't take it too hard. Louie abandons everyone at one point or another." Came an all-too familiar voice.
Goldie tried to turn around, and managed it with some difficulty, one leg stretched out, smacking against the bars. "Scroogie."
"Goldie." He curtly replied. "How're you liking that diamond form of yours?"
"How are you liking it?" She replied, flipping her hair over her shoulder. Scrooge reddened. Goldie laughed mischievously. "Seriously though, this is the worst." She gestured to herself. "It's one thing if you're turned all the way to stone and don't have to consciously feel anything, but this? It's torture. I can feel diamond rubbing against my skin."
"Don't complain about something you brought upon yourself." Scrooge reminded her.
Goldie glowered. Scrooge grinned, glad he had silenced her. Then, she spoke again.
"Fine. I was an idiot and this is entirely my fault. Is that what you wanted to hear?"
"Something along those lines, yes." Scrooge nodded. She rolled her eyes. "You still shouldn't have let children guard me, especially June and May. Naïve, trusting….precious little things….Do you know what May said to me last night?"
"No?"
"She said… well, she said I….." Goldie laughed, then paused. "Never mind. It wasn't too interesting."
"Oh, come now, what did she say?" He sat down next to the cage once again.
"Well…no, forget it. I'm not telling you."
"Fine." Silence ensued.
"I'll just…see myself out." Duckworth said before floating though the ceiling, duster in hand.
There was a long pause before Goldie got up the courage to ask, "Scrooge, did you ever feel as if treasure hunting was getting…old at times?"
He slowly nodded. "Occasionally. It's harder, for sure, when you're all alone."
"It really is." She agreed. "I mean, treasure, stealing, conning, it's all a lot of fun, but…"
"That's one reason to reconcile with family, lass. They make the best treasure hunting partners on earth."
"I-I haven't even talked to my family for over a hundred twenty years. They're probably long gone." Goldie said, shrugging sadly.
Scrooge turned to face her more fully. "Well, if you wanted, you could…have a place with us. With me. I-I've missed having one of my oldest friends around."
"Y-you mean that?"
He glanced away. "Well, I mean, if you really wanted to join a family as cockamamie as this…"
"Scroogie?" She asked, scooting just a little closer. "I might…kind of like that….someday…
He also leaned in, completely unsure of what he was doing. Very slowly, breathlessly, they came only a few inches apart. Then, Scrooge leaned forward and they met in a kiss. Goldie could feel him stroking her cheek, and she reached for his in response. It lasted for only a second or two. Right about then, something cool and heavy spread jarringly over her beak. Out of instinct, she jerked away.
Louie walked back through the doorway as they yanked their faces apart. "Oh, great, now she really is going to be my aunt." He groaned. "Oh, uh, you two got a little something…right there." Louie gestured to his face with his solid diamond arm.
Goldie looked up at Scrooge, who's beak was very flushed and… covered by a layer of diamond? She felt her own beak and groaned. Scrooge attempted to talk through his clamped shut beak a couple of times, gave up, and dug a little notepad out of his pocket and scribbled a note on it, ripped it out and passed it to Goldie. She read:
What in the blazes was that? You meant for this to happen, didn't you?
She wrote a note right below it and passed it back to him. His eyes roved angrily over the page as he read:
Me? That was entirely you, Scrooge! And I had no idea that could happen! Your housekeeper specifically said that only touching diamond on someone with the curse would spread it! Trust me, if I wanted to burden you with this, I would have just reached out and slapped you!
Scrooge wrote a response and thrust the notepad at her. Goldie read the following:
Well, either way, now we're stuck like this. The curse must be adapting and spreading through touch of any kind, quickening its own victory. Curses, I should probably get in the cage.
She read the note and quickly responded:
Yeah, you'd better. I wouldn't wish this on anyone else.
He unlocked the door and stepped inside, re-locking it afterwards, eyes furious, the rest of his face still frozen in gemstone and still very red.
Louie stepped backward into the adjacent suite, leaning against the doorframe. "Ugh! Gross! Now I have to share a room with the lovebirds."
Scrooge ignored him, grabbed the notepad and pen again and wrote for quite a long time. Louie, curious, looked over his shoulder. "Yikes. You know, if your mouth could still open, I'd wash it out with soap."
Goldie read Scrooge's latest missive, snatched up the pen and responded with equal fervor. Louie looked over her shoulder as well. "Yeesh. Both of you. Welp, I've seen enough. I'm staying in that bathroom until I die. Louie out!"
……
Several minutes had passed by in complete and utter silence. Violet and Huey had wandered to opposite sides of the room to study bugs separately, and stood there still. Amazingly, to Huey, they were the only ones in the entomology section. They could hear the hustle and bustle from other rooms, but the bug room remained theirs and theirs alone. That was definitely unnerving, being in a quiet room alone with his crush. He, once again, attempted to make conversation.
"Do you wanna go to the café across the street after this?"
"Sounds nice." She accepted. "I have heard good things about cafes in this part of town.
Huey scratched his head, studying a picture of a tick. "I know you prefer quiet places, and this place has this nice little reading nook with armchairs, and-"
One of their phones buzzed. Huey reached for his only to find it missing. Then he realized he didn't remember taking it out of the limo. He'd been too busy trying to pull the door open for Vi.
The purple-feathered girl pulled hers out. "It's from Lena on our group chat with the other five." Violet read the message and gasped. "Hubert! Why didn't you tell me?"
"Tell you?" He hadn't yet read the message.
Her phone dinged again. "Webby confirms it. Hubert, this is very important. If you had just told me what was happening, so much suffering could have been avoided.
"Suffering? You were…suffering? Vi, are you saying what I think you're saying? Do you really like-"
She showed him a photo of Lena and Webby doing cheesy poses in front of the cage containing Goldie, Louie, and now, Scrooge, who had his back to the camera. All three had diamond body parts and looked very dead inside.
Huey blanched. "Oh. Oh no."
"Why didn't you tell me your family was infected by a Hayfelday bite? I know all about Hayfeldays! All you needed to do was call me over. Lena and I could have helped concoct a cure."
"Wha-oh, that." Huey realized, a little disappointed. "Yeah. Goldie was first infected Tuesday."
"Tuesday?" Violet looked alarmed. That's when Huey realized something was seriously wrong: Violet rarely showed intense emotion. He really liked that about her. Oh, right. He should probably respond.
"Is that serious?"
"The worst kind of serious." She grimly replied, scooping her books and notes into her bag. "If this lasts another day, all hope could be lost for any infected persons. Come. We need to get to the manor immediately…if you're okay with postponing the date, that is?"
"If it's for my family, I'm okay with anything." Huey replied. They ran for the exit. He stopped. "Wait, did you call this a date? As in, a romantic outing?"
"Was it not?" She stopped, turned around, and smiled at him. "I honestly am not sure; was it?" She looked down at her feet.
"Uh…yeah. I'd like to think so." Blush touched Huey's cheeks. The two resumed running. Huey pumped his fist. "Yes!" He mouthed.
He didn't see Violet doing the same thing in front of him.
……
"Launchpad, can you go any faster?" Huey asked the young pilot in the driver's seat "My family's lives are on the line!"
"Oh, wow, are you serious? You got it, Dewey's brother." Launchpad accelerated to at least twenty miles over the speed limit. Violet and Huey screamed and urged him to stop. He did, missing an elderly couple at a crosswalk by inches. Huey and Vi were thrust face-first into the backs of the front seats.
Violet dug her sharp beak out of the hole it had made in the passenger's seat fabric. She and Huey were flung back into their seats as the vehicle started up again. "The unpredictable power of inertia!" She cried, terrified for her life.
Huey finished the random fact. "The property of matter that states that any object that starts or stops moving abruptly will result in-"
The limousine shot toward forty miles per hour as it rounded a corner, and he and Violet flew into the left window, squishing together. As Launchpad finished the turn, Huey realized Violet was on his lap, freckled cheek squishing against his. She hastily scooted back over to her own seat, her entire face a furious crimson. Huey's entire head now matched his shirt and cap perfectly. The two turned their gazes to the view out the windows, still blushing an insane amount.
"Whoops. Heh. Sorry, guys. Don't worry, we're pulling up now."
Launchpad zoomed through the mercifully open gate and up the mountainous driveway, skidding to a halt in the garage. Huey and Violet leapt out, avoiding meeting the other's eyes.
"Come. My sister's already inside. We must act quickly." Violet reminded them after a moment.
She, Launchpad and Huey strode up the walkway and knocked on the door. Dewey answered it. "Ooh! How was the daaate, Huuuberrtt and Viiolettt?" He stretched the last few words out to a ridiculous length.
Huey rolled his eyes and shoved his brother out of the way. "We don't have time for this. We need to get to the cage victims. Please, try to be mature for once!"
Dewey nodded evilly. "Oh, I get it. The date was so good you can't even put it into words."
Huey and Violet ignored him and found the huge cage. Goldie and Scrooge sat inside, neither looking too happy. A notepad sat between them.
"Uncle Scrooge!" Huey couldn't believe what he was seeing. "You're nearly as diamond as she is! What happened? Did Goldie grab you to incapacitate you? Was it all a part of her scheme? Answer me!"
Scrooge and Goldie only blushed and scrunched their eyebrows into even angrier expressions.
"Ah. Right. Diamond." Huey neared the makeshift prison. "Fascinating! Don't worry, guys, I won't touch it. How does it feel to have a layer of valuable stone covering you? Isn't it heavy at all? How much does it weigh on your beaks? How are you able to breathe?"
"Hubert, we can ask them questions later."
"Right. Wait, where are you going?"
Violet was headed for the staircase. "To get the others. And find some books that would be most helpful for researching the cure."
"Oh. Alright."
She hurried up the stairs and out of sight. Dewey leaned against his brother's shoulder. "Soooo, she's gone now. We can talk safely. How did it go?"
"The date? It was…fine." Huey stammered.
"Just fine? Or…magical?" Dewey asked.
"Not exactly magical, no." Huey said.
Dewey finally noticed his brother looked kind of down. "What happened, Hue?"
Huey clenched his fists. "Nothing, okay? Nothing even remotely romantic happened because I was such a wimp! I-I couldn't even build up the courage to hold her hand. I just stood there and read about beetles and didn't talk to her almost the entire time! To summarize, it…didn't go great. It was the worst, most awkward date ever." He covered his face with his hands.
"Oh." Dewey said. "Well, did Vi have fun, at least?"
"I think so. She even asked me if it was a date, and I told her it was, but honestly, I don't even know what that was!" Huey's breathing quickened. Dewey laid his hands on his shoulders before another meltdown could occur. "Hey, hey, hey! It's okay, bro. If I were you, I'd just try again. Just go up to her in your little study corner and say how you feel. Trust me. I've done it with Gosalyn at least ten times."
"And did it work?"
Dewey held up a finger. "Well, when you put it that way…nerp."
It was the saddest little 'nerp' he'd ever uttered.
Goldie grabbed the notepad and scribbled a message onto the next page, then slid it out of the cage for the boys to read.
"Can you just hurry it up and bring that witch girl and her sis down here with a cure already?" Dewey read aloud.
"Ah! Yes! We're going, guys, don't worry." Huey realized just where the diamond was on the two elderly ducks. "Wait a second…how come both of your beaks are infected? Did you two…"
Scrooge pointed down the hall furiously, silently urging his nephew to leave them alone and hurry it up.
"Alright, fine, just wondering. Let's go find the girls!" Huey ran down the hall. Dewey stayed behind just long enough to make an obnoxious kissy face at the caged ducks. They scowled.
……
Twenty-seven minutes later…
This is the most uncomfortable evening of my life. And I once had to sleep nailed between two daggers on the wall of a rust-cankered armory.
Scrooge tapped his fingers on the bars of the cage, attempting to utter a threatening growl from his glued-shut jaw. Goldie, the woman he'd, well, somehow kissed not even an hour ago, sat facing him, tapping her foot against the iron cage floor.
The pen and notepad sat between them, unused for the past twenty minutes.
He could hear Louie having a mental breakdown in the suite bathroom all the way from here. Goodness, that lad had issues.
Then, looking as if she were thinking very hard, Goldie picked up the pen with her left hand and clumsily composed another message and slid the pad across the cage. Scrooge picked it up and read:
Well, we've got some time before those kids study up on curses. So, answer me this, Scroogie: Why did you do it?
Playing dumb, Scrooge responded.
Do what?
She rolled her eyes, tilted her head, and wrote:
Why did you kiss me, you old codger?
So she was just as confused as he was. He blushed enough to heat the diamond around his beak up a little, then said:
Well, I've kissed you before. That temple in 1899, that prison cell in 1924, the Foreverglades, e.t.c..
She argued back:
But that was me kissing you. You were never bold enough to do anything. Until today.
Scrooge glanced up. Goldie was staring right at him, emerald eyes boring into his soul. He shakily wrote:
I've known you for nearly a one and a half centuries, Goldie. I can tell something's changed in you. You're more approachable now. Much more of that lovely young lass I met all those years ago. More of a family woman. Maybe that's why I did it.
Goldie reviewed his latest addition to the nearly full page of writing.
She slowly wrote back:
I'll admit, I've been growing soft lately. It's these darn kids. They make you forget everything you came here for.
Scrooge nodded as he read this.
I agree. Something about family just messes with your head.
She then corresponded:
Speaking of family, were you serious about that offer? You know I can't just quit everything I've been working for.
Scrooge wrote:
All I was asking is if you'd stick around for a time. Stay here at the mansion with me and my family, Goldie. Share your ideas and schemes with eager young minds that may just help you accomplish them. You wouldn't have to give up your life as a treasure hunter in a clan like this, I assure you. I'm inviting you into our family because….I love you and I think you may be ready for it. Correct me if I'm wrong.
She read this and paused, running her finger over the lined paper. After what seemed like forever, she gave him the notebook again.
I think I may finally be ready to take on a few new adventure partners. That might be the most interesting path I can take.
Scrooge responded:
Well, I'll be happy to have you.
She read the note slowly, looked up at him, then wrote:
Yes, you will.
Scrooge read this last note, now spreading well onto the other side of the page. He looked up. Goldie was sitting there, in a shell of diamond, golden hair tumbling down her back and falling across her eyes. She really was beautiful with her hair down like that. Scrooge held up a hand and beckoned her to him. She awkwardly dragged her half-rhinestone body to his side with a roll of her eyes and almost leaned over onto his shoulder before remembering the consequences of doing so. She instead settled as close to him as possible without their fingertips touching. She turned to him and crinkled her eyes in another sans-mouth smile. Scrooge translated it as, 'I look forward to this next adventure, Scroogie.'
He gave her a look identical to it.
……
Author's Notes: That last scene seriously took days to get right….
Anyways, yeah, this story's almost over, in case you couldn't tell. I'm posting a few Gravity Falls fics at some point in the future. Meanwhile, if you want recommendations for DuckTales stories, my two favorite stories on here that I'd recommend are:
1.The Crow by DDBirb. It was written by my good friend and I helped her write some of it, but she came up with the concept entirely on her own. It's really funny and I could see it being an actual episode. Check it out!
2.Twisted Strings of Fate by Emilou1985. It's really impressive because of its length and truly unique plot. It's a romance that features her OC, and it is literally the best fanfic I've read….ever.
Both of these stories are awesome and I highly recommend!
Besides that, thanks again for commenting and reading my stuff. See you soon!
-MMMAAGGIICC
