could i wash my hands of just looking out for me?

Summary: Goldie and Scrooge sort through their feelings.

Word count: 4505

Warnings: None

2019; Florida

Goldie wouldn’t have been aware of Spring Break if not for Dickie. She didn’t really pay attention to what teenagers did, and since she didn't have a formal education of her own, never had breaks like that. Her Blackjack Hotels weren’t exactly known for being popular spots for young people to hang out, either.

It was just a little before Spring Break in the year 2019 when Goldie caught wind of Scrooge McDuck’s recent activities. It was pretty easy to learn these things when she had a spy inside the man’s walls.

(That wasn’t quite fair. Sharpie wasn’t spying for her, he just liked to give her updates on occasion. Goldie felt an uncomfortable warmth in her chest every time she got a new message from him.)

They didn’t text each other too often, but their initial conversation after the alien invasion established a new kind of relationship that neither had had before. Goldie felt drawn to the little Duck - he reminded her of herself and Scrooge and Donald and Della - all wrapped up into one green hoodie. And she provided him with realistic support for his schemes and ideas. Goldie wasn’t afraid to tell him when he was doing something stupid, and also wasn’t afraid to tell him how to fix it.

After a bit of her coaching, Louie tried one big scheme without her help. Goldie didn’t have time to come down to Duckburg and watch how it went, but she heard about it on the news. It sounded like she should've been there to help, especially when the professional assassins showed up. In retrospect, she probably should’ve looked over his plans before letting him go out on his own. But that was that.

She was just surprised at how much they enjoyed talking to each other.

Goldie couldn’t help but notice that her text history with Sharpie was already longer than her text history with Scrooge. Mostly because Scrooge barely knew how to text. But it stood out to her in a way that made her frown. She was learning more about Scrooge’s life as a family man through Louie than she ever did from the man himself. It was…interesting, to say the least.

In mid-March when Louie started complaining about all the fancy old specific treasures they were going after from some Woodchuck Lady’s diary, Goldie couldn’t help her curiosity. Louie told her about some of the artifacts they’d be going after in the coming months, and Goldie tried to figure out what they had to do with each other.

She wasn’t even familiar with the Stone of What Was, and only vaguely recognized the Sword of Swanstantine. And what they had to do with the Fountain of the Foreverglades and the Lost Mervanan Harp…she had absolutely no clue.

But she did know the general area that the Foreverglades Fountain was rumored to be. If Scrooge was planning to go down to Florida over Spring Break to search for the Fountain while all the teens distracted everyone else…she’d just have to be down there, too.

It was during a scheme-planning phase that Goldie was able to learn from Sharpie exactly when they’d be arriving in Florida. She made her plans accordingly and packed some of her favorite lingerie - when it came to Scrooge, she never knew exactly how the adventure would go. But she always knew how to throw him off balance, that was for sure.

—

The Forbidden Fountain of the Foreverglades! - 0:00 - 1:43

—

The kid with the hat - Huey, she was pretty sure - was very easy to steal from.

He kept everything under that hat. Goldie wondered if he got the idea from his dear old Uncle Scrooge. Maybe his uncle could consider looking for better hiding places, since there was already one thief who knew everything he hid in there.

But either way, she had plenty of opportunity to grab the little book that the Duck family had been obsessing over. She zipped away from the lot of them and took a seat by the pool, knowing she probably only had a few minutes to skim before Scrooge or one of the kids spotted her.

The book was interesting. Isabella Finch’s long lost journal full of all the treasures she’d never found. That certainly explained what they’d all been doing over the past few months.

She flipped through it to see what information the book had about the fountain of youth that was supposedly nearby. There wasn’t much, just some general directions. Goldie flipped through the pages to see if Isabella described why she struggled to find it, but there wasn’t any explanation. If it was simply a fountain in the forest, why couldn’t she find it? Isabella Finch had found much better hidden treasures in her time.

She shrugged. Maybe Isabella had been getting old. Made some little mistakes. Maybe she’d had her own family and they distracted her. Maybe she’d fallen in love and didn’t have the passion for adventuring she once did.

There were a lot of possibilities. But either way, Goldie wanted that fountain. She hadn’t used any youth water since Duckworth’s death and her age was starting to catch up to her again. Her knees were really giving her trouble these days.

Goldie got up and grabbed a drink from the bar, watching all the teenagers splashing around. Dickie was probably doing something just like this on some beach in Calisota. Or maybe not. Goldie sent her so much money, but didn’t always ask what the kid did with it. Hopefully she didn’t spend it all on video games.

As she was trying to enjoy her drink, some of the teenagers got a little rowdy around the pool. Despite the time she’d spent with Dickie, Goldie still hated when kids got all loud and acted like they owned the place. If they acted like this in one of her hotels, she’d have them all thrown out.

“Knock it off, ya pool-floatin’ show-boaters!”

Goldie turned to see the familiar whiskers of Scrooge McDuck, surprised that he had already found her. She thought she’d have more time to relax. Oh, well. She was aching to have some fun with him after so long, so who was she to complain?

“...fancy meeting me here.”

—

The Forbidden Fountain of the Foreverglades! - 2:52 - 10:55

—

Goldie felt weird.

Well, more than that…she was feeling very turned on. Hornier than she’d felt in a very long time. This stupid cursed teenage body she was in had its benefits, but that was definitely not one of them. She felt like her nerves were on fire thanks to the way Scrooge pulled her body against his own.

Genuinely, she was angry at him for being so sexy. And how dumb was that? He caught her, he flirted, they almost kissed in front of one of his kids.

It was nice. It was fun! They were having fun.

And this was what she’d been wanting, wasn’t it? She’d been thinking about how much she wanted a do-over. A restart on her life. When she’d used fountains of youth in the past, it was always just a few years off the top. A decade or two. Never sending her back to her teen years.

Being a teenager with Scrooge was something she’d never even bothered to imagine. But it did make her feel like…like they could have a real, normal relationship. They could start over and just be two people that like to spend time together. They’d forget about their past and re-introduce themselves and go on normal dates and she’d get introduced to his family like it was something brand new and they’d fall in love and it’d be…nice.

As they walked through the woods, Goldie ran her fingers through her hair, flipping it over her shoulder. She caught Scrooge staring at her like she was the most beautiful person he’d ever seen, and her heart jumped as she turned away from him again.

She wanted him badly. But more than that…she wanted to hold his hand and tell him she loved him.

(She would not be doing that.)

Goldie watched as little Webbigail Vanderquack went off on some rant about age and youth and got distracted thinking about how much she wanted to run off with Scrooge and be young and get married and live happily ever after.

Was Goldie this stupid and romantic as a teenager the first time or was she just going insane? She wasn’t sure. But as Scrooge spoke to the little girl, she couldn’t fight the urge any longer. She wanted to run off with him and have fun and be crazy and young and in love or whatever. She wanted to do dumb teenage romantic things and she couldn’t help herself anymore! She didn't care that he might reject her, she just had to try.

—

The Forbidden Fountain of the Foreverglades! - 11:16 - 18:31

—

Goldie squeezed the doorknob and sighed. She wanted to leave. She wanted to take the water and go, forget about Scrooge and his family and start a new life now that she was young again. But…

…but Sharpie.

Could she justify stealing youth from innocent people? With Scrooge, she’d shrug and laugh and say she was bad and that was that. But with Louie…she didn’t want to be that kind of bad. She didn’t want to hurt people or hurt him. He was just a kid. And he looked up to her. And…she wanted to be better. She needed to be better.

She closed her eyes and shut the door, walking towards the boys.

“What are you doing?” Huey asked as he and Louie stared up at her.

“What’s going on?” Dewey muttered from behind his brothers, wiggling his legs and arms around as best as he could.

“Saving your butts. And Scrooge’s, in a minute.”

Louie squinted at the young blonde while she reached for the inner tube, and watched in surprise as she picked it up almost effortlessly. This was no ordinary teenager. “Wait a sec…”

She ignored him and moved towards the door.

“Aunt Goldie?!”

Huey and Dewey made noises of surprise and tried their best to get a good look at her.

“Yeah, Sharpie. It’s me.”

“Aunt Goldie as in…Goldie O’Gilt?” Huey questioned.

“What’re you doing here?!” Dewey shouted.

“Like I said, boys. I’m saving you and your uncle. So try sounding a little grateful, why don’t you?”

Before the boys could even open their mouths again, Goldie was back in the pool area and watching Scrooge struggle badly in his fight against De Leon and Rockerduck (well, against Jeeves). She knew he was tough and could handle the fight, but…she was here. She was capable of helping. There was no reason for her to leave.

She was going to help him and that was that.

“Hey! Pick on someone your own age!”

—

The Forbidden Fountain of the Foreverglades! - 18:45 - 22:00

—

She couldn't help herself, especially after he looked at her like that.

Scrooge was never big on PDA. She'd known that from the beginning of their relationship. And he didn't talk about her or their relationship much with his family, that was clear. So when he finally - finally! - kissed her back, with a gentle stroke of his hand along the side of her cheek…

Goldie felt elated. She was ecstatic. Excited, even. She never wanted to stop kissing him.

But there were kids around and she didn't need to traumatize them. So she broke it off with a distracting yell to get all the teens back to their loud partying like they were doing before. They were acting like they hadn’t just had all their youth stolen and then given back. Maybe they just thought they’d had a bad trip.

Scrooge looked at her with a bit of confusion and embarrassment as she righted him back up, patted his chest and smiled sweetly.

"This has been a fun day, sourdough."

He smirked, some pink still visible on his cheeks. "It doesnae have to end here, ye know."

Unable to stop herself, Goldie blushed again. He was really saying all the right things today, wasn't he? Her heart fluttered and she leaned closer, inching her beak towards his again. "I suppose I did pay for the night, might as well stay…"

Scrooge dodged her beak and gave her a swift kiss on the cheek instead, enjoying the surprised look on her face. "It only makes sense."

They stared at each other for a bit and smiled - suddenly feeling like they were still the awkward teenagers they'd been an hour earlier.

Both of the old-timers danced between staring at each other and staring off into the distance, clearly wanting to talk about something but not wanting to ruin the mood. Scrooge, as he'd been known to do, was the first to give in.

"Thank ye for comin' back for me, Goldie," he said happily. "And for savin' the boys."

"Well I couldn't just leave them there." Goldie shrugged, not wanting to tell him how close she’d gotten to leaving him behind.

She’d really struggled with his initial rejection. As she often did, Goldie took it in the most offensive way possible and saw his rejection of youth as a rejection of her and of any possible future between them. It made her want to run away and not see him again for years.

But then she saw Louie. And she remembered how it felt to leave him behind the first time. And she remembered how it felt to care about someone so innocent and fragile and scared. She knew why Scrooge would never prioritize her over his family. And looking at that scared little kid's face…she didn't want him to. She didn't want to come between them. She wanted to stay and help, whether Scrooge wanted her to or not.

"What made ye turn around?" Scrooge asked genuinely, reaching out for her hand.

"Ugh, can you two stop with the old people romance? It's getting gross!"

Scrooge and Goldie turned their heads to find Louie Duck standing in front of them, arms crossed over his chest. Dewey and Huey and Webby were behind him, all three sporting very different reactions to the scene they'd just witnessed.

Goldie couldn't stop herself from smiling at the agitated look on his little face. What could she say? She had a real soft spot for greedy, cheeky boys.

"Louie, don't be rude. Love is ageless!"

Dewey and Webby shrugged at each other behind the bickering brothers.

"It's good to see you again, Sharpie."

Louie rolled his eyes at her, but he had a smile on his face. "You too, Aunt Goldie."

Scrooge sputtered and coughed at the nickname - he hadn't heard any children call Goldie that in decades. The return of her 'aunt' moniker combined with the developments in their relationship made his heart feel like it was exploding in his chest. God, she really could be Aunt Goldie one day. It could really maybe happen, after one hundred and thirty years of back-and-forth…

"Aunt Goldie?" Dewey said suspiciously. "If you're our aunt, then you should know our birthday is coming up pretty soon and you'll owe us twelve years of presents!"

"Uh-huh."

"Dewey, stop. She and Uncle Scrooge aren't married, obviously we would know if they were," Huey said very confidently. "She's just our aunt in spirit."

Goldie rolled her eyes playfully and stood up straight to crack her back. "Alright, I think that's enough commentary from the kids today."

Scrooge looked happily embarrassed as he watched their interactions, like he never thought Goldie and his nephews would actually get along.

"What about me?" Webby spoke up, rubbing her sore eye.

"You've been giving us little comments all day." Goldie put her hand on her hip.

"You were with them?" Dewey said excitedly. "Did you get to see the fountain? What was it like?"

Webby shook her head. "Nah, they got all young and weird and left me so they could…kiss, I think? And find the fountain on their own."

"Gross."

"Left you?!" Huey sounded shocked. "That's terrible! Mrs. Beakley will be so disappointed in Uncle Scrooge."

Webby laughed. "We were in a little swamp less than a mile from here. If I couldn't handle that on my own, Granny would be super disappointed in me!"

The kids laughed together about the strange circumstances of their lives while Goldie and Scrooge stood nearby and eavesdropped.

"Sounds like Twenty-Two's gonna rip you a new one when you get home."

Scrooge shrugged. "She's angry with me half the time anyway."

Goldie perked up at that curiously. "Oh? Have you and your roommate been squabbling?"

He rolled his eyes. "Beakley just disapproves of me bringin' the children along on adventures. But she's the one who trained Webbigail to be a fightin' machine! I dinnae get the point if she's not to use her skills!"

"She's almost a teenager now, right? Seems like Beakley has to let the kid start to make her own decisions."

"Aye. But it's hard. She raised her from birth mostly by herself."

Goldie tilted her head. "What about you?"

"Me?"

"Weren't you there? You didn't help?"

Scrooge shrugged. "I dinnae know anythin' about takin' care of an infant! And I was busy stoppin' an uprisin' in another dimension, ye may remember."

Goldie couldn't explain why, but knowing that Scrooge wasn't really involved in raising that baby with Beakley was extremely comforting to her. It was just another in a long list of things she hadn’t known about Scrooge, but she was happy to learn it.

She scoffed internally, feeling stupid about her logic. She was happy because Scrooge never raised a child without her? What kind of nonsense was that? He certainly took care of preteens and teenagers without her, so what was the big difference? There wasn't one!

And yet…she couldn't deny how she felt.

"I remember, Scroogey, I remember." She leaned her arm against his. "Y'know…I've got a room all to myself here."

Scrooge blushed, knowing exactly what she meant by that. "I, um…the kids will be fine in the room I booked, I'm sure."

She smiled brightly. "Are you busy now?"

He blinked at her, but the memories of their alone time in the woods and the loving look on her face…he wanted to be with her. The kids could handle themselves now that the bad guy was dead, so…it couldn't hurt to try and have some more alone time.

"Before that…" Scrooge mumbled. "I want to see if I still have to pay for my room. I'm thinkin' attempted murder will get me a discount, at the very least!'

Goldie laughed as he walked towards the front desk where a scared teenager seemed to have recently returned from her break.

"Hey."

She turned around to see Louie in front of her again. "Hey."

"Thanks for saving us."

"Try not to sound so surprised," Goldie said with a bit of sass. "I'm not a monster."

"I know that," Louie muttered. "I didn't even know you were here 'til you grabbed us."

"This was supposed to be more of a get in and get out plan," she said with a shrug. "Then things got…complicated."

"Got too close, huh?"

Her eyes widened and Goldie felt a flutter in her heart. It was strange to hear a member of Scrooge's family quoting her so casually - and particularly quoting her in an attempt to mock her. Who did this kid think he was? One of the only three lights in her life?

(Yeah, well…)

"Ha HA!"

The two of them turned at the sound of Scrooge's boisterous laughter.

"99% discount!" Scrooge said excitedly. "And I got it for you too, dear."

Goldie smiled and grabbed his hand. "You're sweet."

"Ugh, this is getting gross again. Are you two gonna start being like this all the time?"

Goldie started to respond, but Scrooge grabbed her around the waist before she could and confidently said, "Maybe we will!"

Despite Sharpie's disgusted groans of protest, Goldie felt like that little gesture from Scrooge was something she'd wanted from him for eons. The feeling of being wanted and loved and wanting everyone to know about their love…in her younger years, she would've shrugged it off as meaningless. But now it meant everything to her.

She leaned closer to Scrooge and whispered into his ear - in Portuguese, for old times sake. "Let's get out of here."

He blushed and smiled at her, then looked down at Louie again. "Goldie and I have, um…private matters to discuss. Dinnae get into any trouble while we're gone!"

Louie watched as they rushed off towards the stairs, knowing full well what they were going to do but refusing to acknowledge it. He didn't have the spoons for that kind of disgusting gross icky icky blech nonsense.

What he did have energy for, though, was a little brown piece of leather laying on the ground nearby. Louie reached down and picked it up. "Oooh, free wallet.”

He opened it up and was surprised to see Goldie's ID card (that definitely was not her real birth date). Even more surprising were the photos of him and what looked like a young Uncle Scrooge right next to that.

Though he couldn't wait to make fun of Aunt Goldie for this, he was more interested in the gold credit card that was peeking out of the backside of her wallet.

"Hey guys!" Louie shouted to his fellow kids.

They looked up at him curiously.

He held the card up in the air. "Buy whatever you want! It's on Aunt Goldie!"

She was playing with the feathers on Scrooge’s chest while he was playing with the feathers on the back of her neck. It was relaxing. They both felt like they deserved this moment together, even if it wouldn't last forever.

"You should say goodbye before ye leave more often," Scrooge mumbled, trying to address the elephant in the room with a joke.

Lucky for him, she was in the perfect mood for that. Goldie chuckled against his chest and kept her eyes closed. She felt almost blissful. "Who knows? Maybe sometimes I'll just…stick around for a bit."

Scrooge blinked at her silently.

"... y'know, instead of saying goodbye."

Nervously, she was picking at his chest feathers while she spoke, but Scrooge didn't care. He had the biggest grin on his face and he painfully strained his back leaning over to kiss the top of her head.

Goldie was caught off-guard by that and looked up at him, not expecting to see such a smile. "Don't make me regret saying that."

"I would never," he said happily. "I love ye, Goldie. You should come around whenever you want."

She exhaled loudly through her nostrils and stared at him for a few seconds before launching herself up so she could kiss him again. How dare he say such adorably romantic things to her? Especially after the tryst they just had! She was vulnerable to his charms and he knew it.

They made out for another minute, both of them too tired from their earlier activities to go for another round. Goldie straddled his lap, though, comfortable on top of him.

"I'd…I'd like this to be a new step for us," Scrooge said nervously while he tried to keep eye contact.

Goldie was glad her face was still flushed from all that exercise because he was making her blush a lot. "Well…I…I'd like that, too."

"...yeah?"

She frowned. "Yes. Though I should point out that we've been here before, Scroogey. This isn’t the first time we’ve been…like this."

Scrooge shook his head and scooted himself into an upright position, pulling Goldie with him so she was still straddling him. He wrapped his arms around her waist and held her close. "No we have not. Not with my family in the picture."

Goldie brought her hands up to rest on his shoulders. "That's true. But-"

"No buts, Goldie! It's different. Ye know it is."

She didn't like being interrupted or corrected, but Goldie had to admit that he was right. Her feelings for Louie had a significant influence on her actions during this little adventure they were on. She was pretty sure that, if not for Sharpie, she'd have left with a jug of youth juice and never looked back.

(She might've looked back. Who could say? She’d felt pretty shitty in that moment.)

"...yeah. You're right."

Scrooge smiled at her. "I cannae believe ye just admitted to me bein' right! This really is a new step!"

Goldie rolled her eyes and kissed him again.

A new step. A new step was good. It wasn't a fresh start, but…maybe they didn't need a fresh start. The way Scrooge was acting with her now, the way Sharpie was talking to her earlier…she could live with it.

A fresh start would change everything. And yeah, she had plenty of regrets. But if this was where she'd end up, she could accept a new step.

"Also…"

"Hm?"

"I think we should just leave the fountain where it is," Scrooge said, tapping his fingers against her thighs. "Stealin' youth like that…it's not safe."

Goldie shrugged. "It was kind of an ugly fountain anyway. I've got no use for it."

He breathed out a sigh of relief and glanced over at the digital clock next to their bed. "Curse me kilts, it's already six? I hope the kids havenae gotten into anythin'..."

Goldie laughed and climbed off of him. "Knowing your family, I'm sure they've destroyed half the property and saved an ancient civilization by now."

Scrooge got up and stretched, giving Goldie a great view of his fluffy, naked body. "What should we do for dinner?"

After eyeing him for a moment, Goldie stood so she could start picking her clothes off the floor. "I'm not staying for dinner."

"Oh." He turned around, no interest in hiding his disappointment. "But I thought-"

"I have…other things to attend to, Scrooge." Goldie put her hand on her hip. "You’ll have to go without me."

He frowned. "But ye have this room for the night, dinnae ye?"

"Oh," Goldie laughed. "No, I lied. I swiped the card for this room off of a particularly drunk teenager. We should probably get outta here."

"Wait, what?!" Scrooge exclaimed, scurrying to grab his clothes and put them back on. "You are insane, woman! Why would you-?!"

She was already dressed again when he opened his eyes. "Because I'm Goldie O'Gilt, remember?"

Scrooge sighed dreamily; annoyed but enamored. That felt like a constant state of being with her around. "Somehow I keep forgettin’."

Goldie started to walk towards the door when she instinctively reached into her back pocket. "Do you see my wallet over there?"

He glanced around and shook his head.

She tried to think back to where it could be when the answer hit her like a flying metal box. Goldie snapped her fingers and rushed out the door. "Damn it Sharpie!"

DUCK FRANCHISE REFERENCES:
- Forbidden Fountain of the Foreverglades! One of the best episodes of DuckTales. It's literally so good I was talking about it with a non-duck fandom friend today and she was telling me how much she loves Goldie's character development and y'know what? She's right
- There's a scene in this chapter that I sort of wrote back when the ep first aired.
https://archiveofourown.org/works/17323205/chapters/65912689