Chapter Text
In the McDuck manor, Donald splayed himself on the couch, his fists clenching various papers while growing confused and angry.
"I hate money," Donald declared with certainty from years of experience.
"You hold your tongue; money made the world go round before you were born," Scrooge replied. He went back to his newspaper, only picking up on the conversation like a satellite only picking up on certain broadcasts. Della walked on the couch, patting Donald's back empathetically.
"What do you need?"
"Money."
"You're not Scrooge, what do you need to buy?"
"These various wedding shit,” Donald complained letting himself swear before reframing, “I mean beautiful pieces of ambiance to the best day of my life. I've had 10 jobs in the past year. I have barely enough money to cover the bouquet."
"I buried some gold in the backyard," Della offered.
"Already discovered, taken, and cataloged. Anything in or buried on this property is legally mine," Scrooge corrected.
"You want me to remove more teeth that may have a gold filling? Oh, shoot I already promised the next one to Louie."
"Don't worry about it. I'll figure something out. I mean I think I have a kidney to spare that could be worth something on the black market."
"Actually, I have something better."
"What a liver?"
"I mean a heart is worth the most if we're really talking about it, but I think we can make the wedding extravagant and on the cheap. The manor!"
"I like it! We can trash the place like I've always wanted! But I still need a bit more for the dress and rings."
"Daisy is a seamstress so solved, and you can take something from the "gift shop"", that was code for a treasure closet.
"I know that you two pillage my treasure closets. But as a wedding gift and to prevent additional purchases you can take your pick for your wedding." Donald stands up and gives a tight hug to Scrooge, one-sided.
“Hug me any longer and I’m taking it back.”
“Okay,” Donald patted Scrooge callously and went off with Della following his tail.
Scrooge settled into his chair with his month-old tea bag and the newspaper from yesterday – making it free today.
“Ah taste the savings.”
Dewey’s eyes scrutinize the corkboard with the following lines materialized with different coloured yarns. Webby was jumping on the bed with provoked excitement. Dewey followed suit.
“I can’t believe it!”
“I can, I figured it out,” Webby panned.
“I helped! And it’s happening, I know someone who my mom was enamoured with.”
“Around your birth no less,” Webby egged on, “what are you going to do now?” They paused and came to the same conclusion.
“Invite him to the wedding!” They exclaimed.
“Yeah, it’ll be so cool,” Dewey smiled. He found the journal entry in scattered pages. It involved a man who was an aviator, with Della as they did loop-de-loop over a volcano. It was also the same time Della invented a material that was impermeable to volcano lava. Not only did Dewey want to meet the really cool pilot who could be added to his collection of pilot teachers, but it could be a further genetic link to his awesomeness to meet.
“I found his mail address,” Webby interrupts Dewey’s thoughts with a piece of paper.
“How?” Webby narrowed her eyes in response conspicuously.
“I have my ways,” Webby replied ominously when in reality she just looked up the guy’s name online.
“Cool, this wedding is going to be so cool. I get to show off my new dance moves and meet my father!”
“And it’s Donald and Daisy’s wedding,” Webby added.
“Sure, sure,” Dewey dismissed.
Huey wrangled his hands together with the pages he gathered isolated from a mysterious book, but it was clear the person it belonged to. His mother. Lena sat watching the anxious boy approach her.
“May I ask you for a favour?”
“Human or spiritual?”
“Spiritual…”
“What am I a sack of magic?”
“And Webby’s best friend.”
“Okay, I’ll help you. What do you need?”
“Can you send an item to a person no matter where they are?”
“If they’re on earth. Space is a whole other ballpark.”
“Perfect,” Huey smiled and gave Lena the envelope.
“Well, now I’m interested. There’s this thing called the postal service that just so happens to deliver these types of things. You even put a postage stamp on this.”
“I don’t know how portal travel works.”
“Not like that!”
“It’s my father!” Huey exclaimed letting the cat out of the bag.
“The who?”
“I think it’s my biological paternal figure. I read my mom’s diary before the time I was born, and I found someone who my mom liked around this time.”
“Where was this?”
“It was in my mom’s memorial room.”
“Jesus, that’s a dark sentence.”
“Dewey calls it a mom-orial room if that helps.”
“It does not. How do you even know if your mom wants to see him again?”
“It ended because of travel. He’s a scientist who documents the population in Antarctica. It is like the stories where they are separated only by distance but still long for one another.”
“Okay, okay, just please stop talking about love. It’s too early for this discussion.”
“It’s 2pm.”
“I mean for an 11-year-old!”
“Lena, when did you learn about love?” Lena blinks at the question.
“I mean can you stop learning about it?”
“Well, when did you first feel love?”
“When Webby gave me a friendship bracelet.”
“That’s a lot of years of not feeling that way.”
“Eh, it makes itself up now.” Huey gave Lena a short hug to provide some comfort.
“Uncle Donald and my brothers were my world for 11 years then it grew bigger, and I like the idea of it growing even more. I just want to spread it out further.”
“Okay,” Lena said resolved. She delivered the letter via a portal. It made her eyes more prominently felt as her tiredness increased tenfold, but it felt well worth the smile on Huey’s face.
“There you go kid, good luck.”
Louie smiled to himself as he walked over to the mailbox. He recognized this as the most devious plan he’s had this week. The idea of his father being a part of the Fortune 500 brought him excitement. All the child support he owed – Louie planned on giving some of the payments to Donald, as a wedding gift. The plan involved mailing the letter with the wedding invitation in Scrooge McDuck’s stationery to his office. He'll favour it first as a business proposition then take it in as a social outreach. Then Louie will find out his paternal figure and be accepted as the co-founder of his company or at least be a part of his trust.
Louie found the pieces of paper as there was a mild deconstruction of the memorial as Della stripped it for some of the things she needed. She left it open to her sons and Louie found the loose pages with this man spoken about. It would make a lot of sense in Louie’s eyes, for a relative like Scrooge, to be a bit like them it could be an entrepreneurial spark that was in him and the ways he got there being in the same vein as Scrooge’s toughness and smartness implemented in the family. Optimistically, Louie also wondered if this would be more substantial than money – if that was possible – where he got the relational benefits more than the material goods. I mean his mom turned out to be better than he could have pictured so why couldn’t that carry to his potential father.
Della found herself in a rare moment of peace. She hated it. She purposely found materials to bump into the elevated sounds and her leg helped immensely finding that the sound of the clanging wasn’t as empty then it was on the moon. It helped to quiet the noise in her brain or sometimes the uncomfortable quietness in her mind as she blended into her surroundings without herself being in it. Scrooge was the opposite.
“Child some people are trying to think!”
“It’s cute that you call a 36-year-old a child.”
“Looks like, acts like.”
Della stuck out her tongue thereby, proving his point. A moment of silence enters the room so Della uses it to speak what first comes to mind.
“So, weddings. In biblical times shoes were seen as a badge of authority to differentiate people from serfs so with weddings a father would give the son-in-law shoes to transfer authority.”
“Ok.” Della rolls on.
“The tradition of not being able to see the bride on her wedding day before the wedding can be derived from an arranged marriage and not wanting the groom to bolt beforehand. If you’re optimistic it is also said that it could be bad luck since seeing the dress is looking into the future.”
“I have been to countless weddings I know all these from countless speeches.”
“Well, I can’t compete with that since you were probably there with Queen Victoria’s marriage with her 300-pound cake or 136.078 kilograms.”
“Do you hate the quiet?”
“Yes.”
“Well, hopefully, post this wedding you’ll get your soulmate to keep you company.”
“Psh that tradition is bogus. I mean you danced with Goldie is she… something to you?”
“Just because she isn’t here right now doesn’t mean we haven’t put the pope in Rome.” Della cringed.
“That is disgusting. I don’t need to hear that!”
“I could have said way worse.” At that moment the children including – Huey, Dewey, Louie, May, June, Webby, and Lena enter the room talking as a group about the movie they just watched with Beakley some members of the group are more upbeat from the good news of today. Della jumped up and walked towards the kids, redirecting them.
“Come on kids let’s walk away from the pervert!”
“Della, you have three kids.”
“Don’t misalign me,” Della exclaimed as she walked away with the kids seamlessly picking up 3 of them to get them away faster – Louie, June, and Dewey much to their delight. As they got further from earshot Scrooge smiled to himself.
“Perfect plan.” The room was nice and quiet.