A/N: For Amelia, who can never get enough Negaduck.

Strictly speaking, walking through the Breakdown wasn't the most direct route to the Sugar and Spice and Everything Nice Bakery.

But it wasn't the first time Negaduck's curiosity had gotten the best of him. Nor, did he suspect, would it be the last.

It was surreal, to walk through town and not be recognized. He was in disguise, but all the same. Not a single flinch, no eyes widening in terror, no one ducking away or breaking into a run. A part of him wanted to be offended (suit, hat, mask, and cape or no, he'd worked hard for that fear), and another was relieved in the freedom of the anonymity. He'd garnered some sort of reaction from people all his life. He'd adapted to the attention and even craved it at times.

But he'd never realized the benefit of walking around unnoticed.

Maybe there was something to this secret identity thing. Not that he'd ever voice that aloud. But it was a thought.

Because walking around the main downtown area without anyone recognizing him gave Negaduck the rare gift of time.

No one raised an eyebrow when he slowed his pace to see all the shop windows decorated for the season.

People paid him no mind when he circled around the tree that had been placed in the middle of a business square, massive colored bulbs illuminated with syphoned electricity weighting down the branches.

Everyone walked by, business as usual, while he looked upward to study the garland stretched across the roads. The large red bows tied around streetlights. The wreaths (where had they found wreaths?) mounted atop building entrances and on doors.

This was Christmas in the Negaverse.

Now.

This was Christmas in the Negaverse now. After their supreme lord and ruler had been absent for three years.

They would never have been so brazen before. Their decorating would have been simpler, more candid, so that Negaduck wouldn't find it and incinerate it.

But three years gone and there were ten foot tall trees and garland and wreaths.

He wasn't mad. He couldn't be. The Negaverse had merely done what it always did: it had adapted. This time it had just adapted to Negaduck not being there.

Which sounded worse than it was. In a way, Negaduck was proud of them, deciding to so boldly go against his rule despite his return.

And this embrace of the season was so clearly sanctioned by Gosalyn, so he really couldn't even be frustrated at the holiday encroaching on his rundown city. She loved this damn holiday; it had only been a matter of time before her enthusiasm spread to the populace.

And he didn't completely hate the holiday himself. Not anymore.

So he'd let all these decorations stay up. Pretend he'd never been here and, thus, claim ignorance.

Hence his disguise.

Honestly, he'd just wanted to see it. Confirm with his own eyes just how much his world had changed without him in it.

Gosalyn had done well. Clearly divided the city so villains were on one side and law abiding citizens on the other. The citizens were safe in their space and the villains could be themselves, free to wreak havoc on the town without repercussions.

Negaduck wouldn't have been able to so clearly divide the town like that. He never would've thought to do it. But it worked. Functioned as both a villain's paradise and a citizens's society.

Snow started to drift across the city, giving Negaduck his cue to get on with it.

As he approached the edge of the Breakdown, he assumed his identity once more, ditching the trench coat and baseball cap in the newly falling snow.

He'd had his fill of peace. Chaos needed to return. All he had to do was confirm that he'd successfully rebuilt the bridge between the Negaverse and the Prime Universe.

For the third time.

He was getting real tired of doing that over and over and over again.

At least he'd been able to use Gosalyn's Duckburg portal to go back and forth this time. Repairing the portal from both sides instead of hoping and praying it would work was a lot less nerve-racking.

His Fearsome Four losers along with Steelbeak, Moliarty, Splatter Phoenix, Ammonia Pine, and Paddywhack had been stuck in the Prime Universe for the past few months as Negaduck had repaired the portal.

But now.

They'd come back.

Be officially under his supervision once more.

Christmas was all about giving. And he was ready to give himself full control over his minions again.

The city was even decorated. As if encouraging this homecoming and the chaos it would inevitably bring with it.

Christmas really wasn't so bad after all.