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Always the Lady In My Life

Summary:

"And baby, through the years, even when we're old and gray, I will love you more each day, 'cause you will always be the lady in my life."

For Scroldie Week 2019.

*****

For those looking for the Diamond Thieves AU, the relevant chapters in this work are chapters 2 and 3.

Notes:

(See the end of the work for notes.)

Chapter 1: A Night We Won't Forget

Summary:

Day 1 - Klondike

Notes:

This first chapter is kinda an AU/canon-divergent scene insert for "Golden Lagoon." The path to the lagoon is much longer in this and therefore takes more time to travel, and for story's sake, Glomgold is just...way behind our lovebirds (he probably got tangled in the ropes of the one-man elevator XD).

(See the end of the chapter for more notes.)

Chapter Text

Goldie was the first to spot them. Beautiful, ethereal pools of color that offered enchantment in the darkness. They were no gold, but even after a hundred-plus years, the falls were still a sight to behold on their own and drew smiles from the two sourdoughs.

"The Rainbow Caves!" she gasped, turning to Scrooge as he reached her side. "We're over halfway to the Golden Lagoon!"

The pair pulled out their respective halves of the map to the lagoon and held them together. Indeed, the caves had them around the center of the map. After another day of hiking and navigating the glaciers, they would surely find the motherlode. This time.

As Scrooge calculated the obstacles of their remaining journey, a flash blindsided his peripheral vision. Scowling, he turned to see his partner holding her phone over his shoulder and stepped away from her.

"What? Just giving you a little reading light is all," Goldie offered as an excuse.

Scrooge snatched her phone away, and when she attempted to feign a look of innocence, he rolled his eyes. "We should probably set up camp here for the night," he explained, returning his thoughts to their itinerary. "Despite someone making me do all the work on the elevator, we're ahead of schedule."

Goldie waved off his accusation as she began to climb down the rocks they were on. "It's okay, Scrooge. No one else is around. You can just admit you need to rest your old bones."

"I donnae-" An audible crack of the knee as he followed her tore down his defense. She smirked, and he mumbled after her, "At least I know I'm not the only one."

"For your sake I'm gonna pretend I didn't hear that."

After they reached level ground, they fell into the task of setting up camp amid the light of the falls. Scrooge, being the frugal man that he was, had insisted on buying only one large bedroll for them to share, with the added excuse of wanting to keep an eye on her in that should she try to steal his half of the map while he slept, he would instantly know. Goldie pretended not to notice the frustrated blush that had crept up on his beak as he explained as much, and instead took delight in making him squirm by insisting, "Don't worry, hon. There'll be plenty of better opportunities to steal your map before we sleep. But we can trust each other, right?"

With their makeshift bed all made and a roaring fire going, the two settled next to each other around the flames, their shoulders nearly touching, and managed to have a peaceful dinner together. Or dinner for Goldie, at least. She shook her head in amusement as Scrooge scavenged through his backpack and pulled out the hors d'oeuvres he'd swiped from the buffet at Glomgold's gala.

"A hundred years ago, it was a can of beans," Goldie pointed out, gathering a spoonful of soup from the bowl in her hand before deadpanning, "Nice to see you've upgraded."

Scrooge munched happily on a teriyaki skewer before answering, "Hey, when it's free, it's free. And this is the good stuff. Flinty wants people to know he has the money for it, and who am I to stop him?" He unabashedly plucked the last bit of meat off the skewer with his teeth, then turned to offer her some tiny treats from another bag. "Cupcake, Cupcake?"

Goldie nearly spilled her soup as she choked over her laughter. "I'll take 'terms of endearment I'd never thought I'd hear Scrooge McDuck say' for five hundred, Alex." Still, she took a sweet from the bag all the same, setting it to the side to eat after her soup. "What's got you in a good mood all of the sudden?"

"Mostly the free food," he reiterated. "But also, look around ye! These falls are gorgeous! We didn't stop to enjoy them the last time, remember?"

Their eyes trailed around the cave: pools of pink, purple, and blue lit up their view, with a particularly large pool of light-blue gurgling across the fire from them. Goldie smiled at the tranquility of it all, but as she returned her gaze to Scrooge, who seemed to have truly gotten lost in the moment, a new thought crossed her mind.

"I'm surprised by you, Scrooge. Old legs or no, I was sure you would've kept us going all night to find the lagoon."

He shrugged. "Like I said, we're ahead of schedule." With a raise of her eyebrow, she knocked down his bluff by dragging a sigh from his chest, and he leaned back on his hands. "It's been over a hundred years. What's another day, hm? I'll be the first to tell ya that time is money, but adventure, this-" He gestured towards the falls, and she turned to look. "-is life. I want to savor the journey more now. Appreciate the finer things."

Goldie had been ready to call him a sentimental fool at the end of his soliloquy. It'd been on the tip of her tongue, that there must've been something in the water making him talk like that, but the way he was staring back at her when she looked at him again evaporated the words, leaving her feeling light-headed. Whatever energy he was sending her way in the short space between them, she wanted it. She wanted to latch onto it with a kiss that would leave them both dizzy. It'd been over a decade since their last, after all.

But she couldn't. Not when she still had a heist to carry out, and there was betrayal on the horizon. Not when she had to keep the upper hand.

"We...should get some sleep," she deflected, easily slipping on her pokerface again and doing her best to ignore the way Scrooge's spirit fell. She finished off the remainder of her soup and popped the mini-cupcake into her mouth with a satisfactory chew, then stood up and dusted off her hands. "Thanks for the cupcake...Cupcake," she echoed, leaning back down to plant a small kiss on his cheek. The way he leaned into her hold under his beak for a few seconds helped to assuage the guilt taking root in her heart, if only by a bit.

The two ducks fell into meandering chit-chat as they cleaned up after their meal against a waning fire. By the time they got under the single blanket they were to share for the night, another blanket between them and the ground, the conversation had returned to the gold they were determined to find tomorrow, any mammoths or elephants in the room be damned.

"You know you didn't have to hide it," Goldie remarked as she rested her hands behind her head so she could watch the nearest waterfall.

"Hide what?"

"Your map. Don't think I didn't see you moving it around like twelve times after dinner."

Scrooge stammered. "I-I...you weren't supposed to see that."

Even though he couldn't see it from the way he was laying away from her, she rolled her eyes. "Relax, Scroogie. I lost track of it after you put your kiddie meal back in your backpack."

That got a reaction out of him. "Ye are outrageous!" he declared, turning over to face her. Were it not for the amused sparkle in his eye, she would've considered him furious.

"Thank you. I'll take that as a compliment." Goldie leaned up on her elbow to face him in turn, a bewitching grin spreading across her beak.

His ensuing laugh was almost bitter. "I swear, you're actually going to be the death of me, O'Gilt. If you're not aggravating me, you're stealing from me, and if you're not doing that you're-"

A finger to his beak silenced him, and she leaned in close enough to tease him with the uncertainty of her next move. Just when the fire in his eyes started to plead with her, she finally murmured, "Get some sleep, Moneybags. We have a long day tomorrow."

Goldie wasn't sure if her whisper had reached Scrooge with how stunned he looked, but as she flipped over and pretended to go to sleep, she couldn't shake the feeling that she had made the wrong move.


It took about two hours of sleep for Scrooge to realize he'd even closed his eyes at all. The second he did, he jolted up and twisted about to try to find what had woken him up in the first place. Because he'd definitely heard something or, judging by the empty spot next to him, someone.

There, only a stone's toss away, continuing down the path of the map. Target spotted.

"You thieving temptress!" Scrooge shouted to stop Goldie, who turned back to face him with that telltale victory smirk, one half of the map in each hand. A quick glance at his ransacked backpack and dusty hat and—were his spats on backwards?—told him she had been ruthlessly thorough in her search. He tangled himself free from their blanket and jumped up to square off with her.

"Morning, Sleepyhead. How's that queen-sized investment in 'instantly knowing' my every move treatin' you?"

He'd known this was coming. If it wasn't Goldie's inherently untrustworthy nature, it'd been her distance all evening. Every previous encounter they'd shared in their history together should've been enough of a clue that she was going to backstab him again, but like the fool he was, he kept falling for it. For her. Confident that this time, she wouldn't trick him. That maybe they could figure things out.

Curling his fingers into fists, Scrooge growled, low and betrayed. "So that's it? Bring me all the way back to White Agony just so you can take off and steal the gold for yourself?"

"You know it's more than that, Scroogie."

"Oh? Right, yes, I almost forgot. Can't have a McDuck-O'Gilt adventure without you breaking my heart. You, lass, are nothing but trouble! Then and now, you always have been and you always will be!"

The echoes of his outburst rippled across the caves, and for the split-second he saw her face twist into genuine hurt, a deeper part of him wished he kept his beak shut. But it was out there now, and he had to live with whatever happened next.

To her credit, Goldie managed to steady herself with a deep breath off to the side, but her broken tone spoke volumes as she wavered, "Because that's all I can be. We-I can't...be anything more. I love gold, and I...I love you, but..."

"You love gold, more than you love me," he finished.

"And that's why you love me. And why I'm not worth the trouble."

With the worst of his anger burned off, Scrooge closed his eyes for a count and took some deep breaths himself. When he opened them, Goldie's retreating figure was on the move, almost to the end of the pool their camp was next to. "Wha- Are you serious?!" he yelled after her, his feet already in pursuit.

"Yes, but I was also serious about what I was saying before, if that helps!" she tossed back.

"Not when you're running off with my map!"

It didn't take long for Scrooge to catch her. With livid, moonstruck adrenaline motivating him, he managed to tackle her into the next clearing between the pools. They rolled across the ground, each pinning the other down several times, and Scrooge somehow reclaimed one of the map halves. When Goldie realized this, she sprung up in an attempt to get away and keep the other half safe from him. But just as soon as she had her balance back, she stepped and fell into one of the purple pools, unaware they had rolled that close to them.

"Goldie!"

The fall had shocked them both, but Goldie relaxed when she realized the pool wasn't that deep, only coming to her collarbone. She was pleasantly surprised to find that the water smelled faintly of blackberries and was warm enough to swim in, and even more so that she had managed to keep her hands, and thus the map, out of the water.

Scrooge scrambled onto his feet and over to the side of the pool, raising a hand to his chest when he saw that things were under control. "Bless me bagpipes, you're both okay."

"Both?!"

Realizing the error of his words, he tried to backpedal. "I- uh...I meant you mainly. You, Goldie, are okay. Good. Very good." He peered closer and adjusted his spectacles. "And, ah yes, the map also seems to be intact."

Goldie had to bite back a devilish grin as a new plan hatched in her mind. "Oh, you mean this map?" she taunted, waving the folded paper closer to the water's surface.

"You wouldn't..."

"Oh, wouldn't I?"

Scrooge held his breath as she dared to lower the map, just until the very tip of its corner dipped into the water. A violet hue fanned out from it.

A dangerous wak! tore its way from Scrooge's throat as he finally reached the last straw for her antics, both from the present evening and from over a hundred years ago. "Give me back my map!" he demanded, throwing his own half off to the side away from the water before jumping in the pool himself.

For a few long seconds, only the sound of thrashing water and the rush of the falls filled the air as they wrestled for Goldie's half. It was madness, pure aquatic, multicolored madness, in an attempt from both parties to simultaneously get the map and keep it dry.

It ended when Scrooge finally got his thumb and finger around the map, tugged it out of Goldie's hand, and tossed it over her shoulder to safety, trying not to wallow in the likelihood that it was dotted in purple now. He kept a hand on her other wrist to keep her from going after it, accompanied by a sharp "don't," before taking stock of just where their tussle had landed them.

Goldie was now pinned between him and the side of the pool, her free arm outstretched over the edge in a futile attempt to reach for their prize. Their clothes were soaked purple and clung to their feathers, casting them in a mystical glow, and their lungs begged for air after having to fight against the drag of the water against their garments. Drops of violet trailed down their necks in rivulets. Scrooge lowered her wrist into the water as she turned to face him and he backed off just enough to let her sink onto her feet again.

And just like that, she left him breathless.

The air was charged with electricity again, and Scrooge failed to swallow past it. At this proximity, all that he could focus on were Goldie's eyes and the way that the water's glow highlighted each individual shade of green in them with a glint of dazzling amethyst. How they watched him as her breath tickled his nerves, waiting for his next move. Daring him to make it.

Whether his free hand cupped her face or his beak crashed into hers first, Scrooge couldn't say. His grip on her wrist loosened and transferred to her hip, and both her hands ran up his chest to play with his shoulders, neck, whiskers. He leaned back and pulled her with him further into the pool and closer to the falls, letting momentum carry them both the rest of the way. Anything to prolong the feeling that they were soaring in the clouds above their own secret world.

When they parted to catch their breaths, an unspoken revelation rose up between them. The hesitation that had haunted them around the fire was gone now. Goldie no longer had the upper hand, but neither did Scrooge. Their guards were down, and whatever chapter waited for them next in their lives, they wanted it. Together.

Goldie smirked, even as carefree desire danced in her eyes. "So, still think I'm trouble?" she challenged.

After taking the time to brush back a few stray strands of hair that had fallen into her face, Scrooge replied, "I'm sure of it." He caught her beak for a few more swift, successive kisses, before leveling her with a dreamy, honest gaze. "But you're worth every second."

Notes:

Note to self: no more 2,700 word chapters during event weeks ahaha.

So for this chapter, other than some various in-universe references, the main inspiration for this was the Star Trek: The Next Generation episode, "Captain's Holiday." I swear, you could swap in Scrooge for Picard and Goldie for Vash (and Glomgold for the Ferengi), and it's basically "Golden Lagoon" in space, no joke. You all should watch it, and then come fan with me over it, because I've been screaming about it to myself and wanting to combine the two since late last summer.

Also, please consider the following unseen headcanon from this chapter: Alex Trebeak. XD

Thank you for reading!