now you're over there, & i'm way over here

Summary: Goldie and Scrooge spend some time together on his claim.

Word count: 2061

Warnings: None

1897; White Agony Creek

DAY FIVE

The first time Goldie found a real, actual gold nugget was an exciting day for both ducks, though they’d never admit as much to each other.

She was just going through the motions of digging and panning and washing, barely even thinking about the work anymore. After the fourth day of nonstop work and barely any food and uncomfortable sleep, Goldie’s body seemed to accept its fate and was letting her continue without too much suffering. So she was able to work without thought and let her mind drift back to her saloon, and how she left Snake-Hips and Lulu in charge because she thought she’d only be gone for a few days and she should’ve been back already but instead she was stuck with this grimey, dirty, cute, annoying miner who loved to talk about his family and their run down ancestral castle and how hard-working he was…

Her thoughts were cut off by a shiny gleam coming from one of the stones in her hand. It was small - extraordinarily tiny - but as she continued to clean off the dirt it became very clear that what she had in her hand was real, genuine gold.

“Ah...it’s…” Goldie stammered, feeling oddly starstruck. She didn’t fully understand the feeling of pride and joy building up in her chest, but she knew she had to let it out somehow. After a moment of deep breathing, she let out a squeal and jumped into the air. “GOLD!”

Scrooge walked over to her, annoyed that she was making so much noise over what was probably nothing. He glanced at the pebble in her hand and was about to roll his eyes at her overexcitement about such a small victory when he looked up at her face.

She was smiling brightly, brighter than he’d ever seen from her, and he was completely stunned by how beautiful she looked. Sure, her hair was a wreck and there were bags under her eyes and she was covered in dirt, but...she looked happy. Truly, genuinely happy.

The feeling was contagious and he gave her a small, shy smile right back. “Good job, O’Gilt.”

Her joy was overwhelming and Goldie knew if it was any other man standing in front of her, she would’ve given him a big hug and kiss to celebrate. Instead, she did a little spin and hop and then held the nugget between her thumb and pointer finger and held it up between them. “See that, sourdough? That’s proof that you were wrong about me! They don’t call me Glitterin’ Goldie for no reason!”

His smile turned into a glare and Scrooge swiftly grabbed the pebble out of her hand and shoved it in his pocket. “That should cover about half of your rent for the month.”

Goldie stared at her now empty hand and blinked rapidly, trying to figure out what the hell just happened. “I-...you!...how dare you-?! Who do you think you are?!” she growled, wishing she’d worded her reaction differently but somehow she always fell into her default for when a handsy miner grabbed where he shouldn’t have.

“I’m Scrooge McDuck!” he answered with a smirk, resting his pick-axe on his shoulder. “And you’d better get back to work if you want shelter for the second half of the month!”

Her eye twitched in anger and Goldie’s hands clenched into tight fists, fingers digging roughly into her palms. She let out a dramatic screech in Scrooge’s direction before turning around and walking down the hill.

Scrooge noticed and quickly rushed towards her. “Where are you goin’?”

“NONE OF YOUR F@#^^@^$# BUSINESS!” she screamed back, throwing her hands over her head.

He grimaced and lightly scratched at his neck, wondering if he’d made a mistake.

---

DAY TEN

In her free time, especially when Scrooge was out doing who-knew-what, Goldie found herself digging through his things in his little cabin. There wasn’t much to look at, if she was being honest. She’d found a few letters from his family (not surprisingly, they were heartfelt and warm and of course he’d have loving parents who he sent money to, because he was so good-hearted and moral and whatever) and a photograph of two girls that she assumed were his sisters.

She also found his secret stash of dynamite. Goldie knew from stories that miners told in an attempt to impress her that dynamite was a faster, easier way to break up rock and lessen the workload to get to the gold faster. She was surprised Scrooge had any, considering how much he loved to brag about working hard, and quickly grabbed a stick so she could try it out herself.

Scrooge was returning from wherever with two buckets filled with clean water when he spotted Goldie out mining without him. He was surprised but happy to see her putting in some real effort, but then he leaned forward to see exactly what she was doing and saw her light a stick of dynamite. She took a few steps away from it but certainly not far enough, and Scrooge dropped the water buckets and ran towards her at top speed.

“GOLDIE! GET DOWN!” he screamed as he quickly grabbed her wrist and pulled her behind him. She looked confused and surprised by his scream and didn’t fight back as he wrapped his arms around her - and then she felt the heat of the explosion.

It sent them both toppling backwards - Scrooge took the brunt of the blast on his back and then as they slid across the ground, his forearms took most of the scrapes. Goldie felt a few scratches and cuts along her arms and back, but it was certainly nothing compared to what he’d gotten.

As the dust cleared, Scrooge loosened his grip on her and moved one fist to cover his mouth while he coughed. Goldie squirmed under him, trying to move her arms around, and ended up finding her hands placed on his shoulders in an attempt to push his coughing face away from hers. But he was heavier than he looked and she couldn’t get him off of her, so instead she just glared up at his face and waited for him to open his eyes.

When he did, he looked angry. Very, very angry, and Goldie could tell immediately he was about to scream at her. There was a brief, hesitant pause where he seemed to realize their position and blushed, but he quickly shook off the embarrassment and went straight back to anger.

“What do you think you’re doing?!” Scrooge yelled, putting his hands down on either side of her head. “You’re an amateur! A jackleg! You shouldnae be usin’ dynamite! You have no idea what you’re doin’!”

Goldie looked away from his angry gaze and tried to shove against his shoulders again, once more to no avail. “I just...it wasn’t-”

“You could’ve gotten yourself killed!” he interrupted, yelling louder. “You could’ve gotten me killed! And now we’re both covered in scrapes and bruises and for what? An easy way to gold? You think this is easier?! Now we have to patch ourselves up and lose at least an hour of work thanks to you!”

The screaming, combined with their current position, put Goldie a little on edge. She understood she’d made a mistake, but wondered with significant fear if he was going to attack her. In their time stuck together, she’d pissed him off no less than once per day, but this was something worse than usual.

She glared up at him, making eye contact and shoving against him harder. “Get off of me!” she grumbled.

Scrooge’s eyes widened and he looked at their position again, almost as if he’d forgotten she was trapped underneath him. His cheeks turned pink and he quickly sat up, then started rubbing at his forearms to check for serious cuts or injuries.

Goldie continued to lay on the ground for a few moments, thinking about how her fear of being assaulted by this man continued to be unjustified by his complete fear of physically touching her, before scooting herself away from him and bending her legs so she could wrap her arms around her knees. Her back hurt and she knew it had to be decently scraped up, but his back was probably worse thanks to the explosion.

Scrooge was grumbling and glaring at his own feathers, picking at some that were particularly damaged. He continued to grumble as he pulled off his scarf and then his jacket over his head - Goldie heard him mention something about where his hat could’ve gone to and she let her eyes wander over his body as he inspected his coat for holes and tears.

He was very muscular. She’d already been aware of that just from watching him work and feeling his grip on her wrist once before. But actually seeing him naked was a different perspective entirely.

“Ack-!” Scrooge said suddenly, making Goldie look back to his face. “C-can you...argh, some privacy, please?!?” He held the coat against his body and his face was bright red.

Goldie blinked a few times at him before looking up, then left, then right, then turned her head away and held up one hand to completely block her view. She was so used to nudity she didn’t even think about the obvious fact that he’d be embarrassed. And he was so clearly virginal it was probably even worse for him than most people. Still, she wasn’t one for apologies.

“Not like you’ve got anything I haven’t seen before,” Goldie muttered with an eyeroll.

Scrooge scoffed and put his coat back on, seemingly satisfied with the damage done to his only article of clothing. “I don’t care,” he said, though his face was still red and he seemed to spend an extra moment thinking about the implications of what she said. “After almost tryin’ to kill me, you could at least show a little decency!”

“I didn’t-” Goldie started, but cut herself off with a sigh. Even she had to admit that this situation was entirely her fault. She wouldn’t admit it out loud, obviously, because she knew Scrooge would get a big head about it and his head was big enough already. She glanced up at him again to see he’d turned around and was inspecting the ground where she’d used the dynamite, and through the several tears in his coat, Goldie could see some of the injuries on his back.

She frowned and stood up, brushing dirt off her knees. She was right about him looking worse off than she felt. With a deep breath, Goldie decided to do something nice and offer to clean and dress his wounds. It was the least she could do.

“Scrooge.”

He waved a hand at her and grabbed a pick-axe off the ground nearby, though Goldie could see his hand shaking a little bit as he wrapped his fingers around the handle.

“Scrooge,” she said, taking a few steps closer.

Again he waved at her, this time with an accompanying hmph! “Go back to the cabin, you wretched ruffian! I might as well make use of the dynamite you wasted!”

“Scrooge,” she repeated, reaching a hand out to grab his shoulder.

“What?!” he yelped, turning towards her again. He almost jumped when he realized how close she was and then his surprise turned into more anger as he glared at her. “What could you possibly want now?”

Goldie was prepared to be nice to him. Really, absolutely she was. She was ready to wipe alcohol over his cuts and press bandages to his wounds as they sat together in the dark woodbin next to a dying fire. But, as always, he was loud and angry and rough and as much as she was completely used to men treating her that way, she felt indignation spread throughout her body and so she shoved him in the chest, let out a scoff as he almost lost his balance, and she simply did as he suggested and headed back to the cabin.

Scrooge watched her walk off and his glare softened. He had a strange feeling in his gut that she’d wanted to say something and now it seemed he was never going to know what it was. Oh, well. It was probably just more excuses.

DEFINITIONS:
- jackleg: an unskilled person

REAL HISTORY FACTS:
- I did some research on how gold was mined and panned back in the day. Of all the fic research I've done that is definitely the most boring lollll so I never went into much detail with it

DUCK FRANCHISE REFERENCES:
- Goldie swears a lot in the comics