A/N: For leviprime, teh-bluejay, rubbersoles19, and raidenraccoon because there's more GoMax in here.
These next stories take place a year after "Here Comes Santa Claus". The song is by Dick Robertson.
Max stepped aside to allow a waiter to whiz by before continuing across the room.
Gosalyn caught sight of him as he wove through the crowd and smiled. A whole year together and she still caused butterflies to flutter in Max's stomach whenever she smiled at him. Or looked in his general direction. Or laughed. Or when she did pretty much anything.
He was totally gone for her.
And he wouldn't have it any other way.
"Such a gentleman," she said, taking the champagne flute he held out to her.
"Well, there are witnesses," Max said smiling and nodding to Drake, who was standing near the gingerbread house on the other side of the room.
The pastry had been built to resemble St. Canard this year and Drake had been hovering around it all night. He'd probably have notes to give to the baker about intersections and crossroads that were wrong. The angle of Audubon Bay Bridge off by a few degrees. Or any other untold minuscule details that weren't quite right about Drake's hometown.
But he didn't scowl or roll his eyes at Max. Which was progress.
Instead, he just watched the couple for a few moments before turning back to scrutinize the pasty city.
"Ah, I see," Gosalyn said, her tone light as she smirked up at Max. "So once we're alone, you'll make me get my own champagne."
Max nodded. "It's like that 'if you teach a man to fish' theory. If I give you champagne, you'll drink for tonight. If I let you find your own champagne, you'll get to drink it forever."
"That's very thoughtful of you."
"One of my many good qualities."
Gosalyn smirked as Max took a sip of his own champagne, glancing around at the festivities.
There weren't any meet and greet set ups this year. As Scrooge had predicted, the "meet your heroes" event that Max had put together last year had become its own evening shindig. Gizmoduck had been invited along this time, much to Drake's chagrin. But the evening had gone off without any major catastrophes, and Scrooge had invited Max and Goofy along to his Christmas party as a reward for such a successful night with the heroes.
And speaking of….
"Is Dad with Launchpad?" Max asked, unable to locate Goofy anywhere within the crowd.
Gosalyn nodded. "They went upstairs to look at the tree."
That made sense. Goofy loved Christmas more than any other holiday and getting to attend the McDuck party as a guest this year instead of as Santa Claus had gotten him so giddy he'd practically been bouncing in his seat as they'd driven in from Spoonerville. He'd gone around the party with energy to rival any child, looking at all the decorations and talking to everybody. Launchpad had taken it upon himself to act as tour guide.
"So, overall, this party is a success," Max said, smiling down at Gosalyn who raised an eyebrow.
"A little early for that assumption, isn't it?"
He was about to respond — because a non-scowl from Drake Mallard and his father getting to celebrate Christmas alongside Launchpad McQuack was enough to let him declare this a win — when Scrooge McDuck took one one the mics the carolers had used earlier in the night and said, "Good evening, everyone," into it.
Gosalyn smirked. "Told you."
Max drank his champagne to hide his grin. He knew better; Gosalyn was always right.
"I hope you are all enjoying yourselves and I wish to extend you the compliments of the season to each of you." There were a few murmurs of agreement and returned sentiments from those gathered.
"This year, I wanted to extend a challenge to any of you who might be interested." He pulled out a large silver star from his pocket, one someone might put atop a Christmas tree. "I will be hiding this somewhere within the ballroom. At seven o'clock, you may begin searching for it. The first one to hand it back to me will get to be my second in command on one of my adventures that I'll embark on in the New Year." Scrooge grinned down into the crowd where Webby and his nephews stood collected in a group. "Good luck to those of you who choose to participate and, again, thank you all for coming."
There was a smattering of applause before everyone turned back to their conversations.
Max, no exception to this, glanced at Gosalyn. "How many people d'you think'll participate?"
Gosalyn surveyed the crowd. "Maybe half. Scrooge's adventures are known as much for their danger as they are for their excitement. I think the game is mostly meant for them," she nodded to Scrooge's family, all of whom were whispering furiously to one another.
"That mean you won't try to find it?" Max asked.
Gosalyn took another drink of her champagne. "I never said that."
A thrill of excitement shot through Max at the thought of getting to see Gosalyn in action. She was very adamant that he not go on any sort of mission with her, but Gosalyn was a badass and he was desperate to see her skills for himself.
He kept an eye on the clock, counting down the minutes and hoping the search for this star would warrant some sort of fancy combat moves from his girlfriend.
At seven o'clock on the dot, about half the party goers began searching the ballroom for the star. Huey, Dewey, Louie, and Webby scattered across the room and seemed to communicate to one another via hand signals.
Gosalyn swallowed the remainder of her champagne and handed the glass to Max. He glanced at her expectantly.
This was it.
The moment he'd been waiting for.
His girlfriend was gonna sweep the floor with everyone else and find the star and be Scrooge's second in command—
"I'm going to use the restroom," she said before heading up the staircase.
Or.
You know.
Not.
"Where did Gosalyn go?" Dewey asked, popping up out of nowhere and causing Max to practically jump out of his skin. He lost his grip on Gosalyn's empty champagne flute, but managed to snag it out of the air before it shattered on the ground.
"Warn a guy before you do that again, yeah?" Max said.
Dewey shook his head. "Second in command is at stake. I can't take any prisoners. Gosalyn? Where'd she go?"
Max straightened to his full height. "Bathroom."
Dewey nodded and darted away, sending Huey some sort of gesture that had the red-clad duck head for the bar in the back of the room.
Max shook his head and handed the empty champagne flutes to a passing busboy with a smile. He shoved his hands into his pants pockets and watched the crowd of eager would-be adventurers look for this star.
Gosalyn returned and stood beside Max, watching everyone around them.
"You gonna start looking?" he asked.
He wasn't trying to push her into something she didn't want to do. He was just….
Excited.
He was freaking excited, okay?
He wanted to see her find the star and kick everyone else's ass.
Gosalyn glanced up at him, mischief in her eyes. "Scrooge said the winner would be the one to hand him the star. Once they," she pointed to the nephews and Webby, "go to all the trouble of finding it, I'll take it from them, hand it to Scrooge, and be the winner."
"So I'll finally see you in action?" Max asked, unable to hold back a grin.
Keep it cool, man.
Keep it real cool.
She shrugged. "Maybe. Let's get something to eat. By the looks of it, this'll take a while."
An hour later and no one seemed any closer to finding the star. The people who had been looking had slowly lost interest or had gotten distracted by the festivities.
The only people who continued to search were Scrooge's family members. They were starting to grow frantic and messy, running into people and checking areas they'd already visited several times over. Gosalyn didn't do much of anything besides watch the group intently.
Twenty minutes later, the triplets and Webby gathered together in the middle of the dance floor, whispering excitedly and glancing around the room. It looked like something had been stuffed down the front of Louie's shirt, which didn't go unnoticed by Gosalyn.
"Show time," she said, standing up from the chairs she and Max had relaxed into by the fireplace.
"After you're done kicking ass, meet me over there," Max pointed on the other side of the fireplace. "Under the mistletoe."
Gosalyn rolled her eyes. "Sap."
"Your sap," he said, completing their customary endearment with a smile.
She returned his smile and ran a hand through his hair. "Kiss for luck?"
"You don't need it," he assured her, but pulled her down for a brief kiss all the same.
Gosalyn's fond smile turned into a knowing grin as she disappeared into the crowd.
Seriously.
Merry Christmas to Max.