Game with Goldie

Disclaimer: I do not own DuckTales, or anything associated with it. It all belongs to Disney.

Closing the door quietly behind him, Louie went to work at setting up distractions. Uncle Scrooge's closet was huge, just like everything else in the manor, and that gave him a lot to work with. As he set up to keep the enemy at bay, he began to reflect on how much he hated this impromptu game.

Me and my big mouth. Then Dewey and Webby just had to add fuel to the verbal fire.

Right as he finished setting up his diversions, the closet door swung open with a slam.

"Gotcha!"

"Oh come on! Seriously?" Louie groaned.

Scrooge stepped out of the limo, and watched Launchpad haul the car over to the garage so he could fix it back into shape. He had no idea how Launchpad got it back into working condition so quickly after every crash, but he wasn't about to question it. Whatever he did, it saved him money on repairs.

After a moment, he nodded, reminding himself that it was a good choice. The old duck turned, and walked up to enter the manor's front door. No sooner than he got both feet inside, his good mood from the afternoon's productive business meetings faltered.

"Goldie," he almost growled, eyes narrowing automatically in suspicion.

"Hey, moneybags," Goldie greeted with a wave as she leaned against the stairwell in the foyer, "was wondering when you'd get back. Dreadfully dull place this is when you're not here."

"Dull?" Scrooge squawked disbelievingly. "Are you daft? This house hasn't been dull for a moment since Donald and the kids moved in." Something dawned on him, and he strained to listen. "Speaking of the kids, where are they? It's too quiet. Did they head out somewhere?"

Goldie smirked playfully as she twirled her ponytail between her fingers. "Not exactly."

Scrooge's growl rose back up. "Goldie… what did you do with them?"

"All I did was play a game with them," she replied, shrugging. "And I won."

"I doubt you'd ever lose a game to children," Scrooge remarked, leaning on his cane. "What's this game got to do with where the kids are?"

"Funny you should ask that," Goldie said. Reaching for her purse that was slung across her body, she opened the flap and dug inside. Moments later, she was pulling out a green-hooded duckling and dropping him on the floor between her and Scrooge.

"Finally," Louie grumbled as he got to his feet. He sent an annoyed look at Goldie. "You've got a lot of cool treasures in there, but it got boring after a while when you couldn't go anywhere. And, I'm taking this back." He pulled out a golden idol that Scrooge recognized from the family's temple adventure right before their last game night.

While clearly something had gone on between Louie and Goldie regarding the idol, Scrooge was a bit dumbstruck by Louie's entrance. "What in the blazes were you doing in her purse, lad?"

"Ugh, don't ask me. I regret even talking this afternoon," Louie replied, retreating to the living room adjacent to the foyer.

Scrooge watched him leave in a huff, and then looked at Goldie for an explanation.

"Enchanted purse, remember?" Goldie reminded him, patting her bag. "Fits and carries more than it appears it can." She reached into her purse again, and this time, Scrooge's great-niece was brought out swinging.

"That was so cool! I've never been in an enchanted purse before! Can we play that game again?" Webby shouted excitedly, staring up at Goldie like she looked at every adventure somewhat linked to Scrooge.

"Game?" Scrooge balked, completely lost.

"Not today, kiddo. Maybe when I stop by next time," Goldie answered the young girl, ignoring Scrooge's stunned expression and enjoying every moment of it at the same time.

Nodding eagerly, Webby said, "I can't wait! Let's make it two rounds next time- no, ten! One wasn't enough." Spinning around, Webby greeted her great uncle, "Hi, Uncle Scrooge!"

Before Scrooge could organize his thoughts enough to greet Webby back, she was off to the living room to join Louie.

Scrooge looked back at Goldie, only to witness her bring Huey out next.

"I knew we should have come up with rules," Huey huffed, writing something down on a pad of paper the moment he was back on his feet. He glanced up at Goldie. "I'm writing up a list of rules for next time."

"You can try," Goldie teased the eldest duckling, "but we both know I'd find dozens of loopholes to act on."

Huey opened his mouth to retort, only he had no rebuttal. "…You have a point. I don't like it, but you have a point. Curse the morally gray and their ability to think outside the box." Continuing to write on his notepad, he greeted Scrooge without looking up, "Hey, Uncle Scrooge. See Fenton today?"

"Um, no? Can't say that I have," Scrooge answered slowly.

"Oh. That's okay, then. I was just waiting to hear his thoughts on my ideas for upgrades to our project. Which way did Louie and Webby go? Wait, never mind." Hearing the TV in the living room, Huey went in its direction. Huey pointed back before he disappeared through the doorway. "I'll outsmart you next time, Goldie."

"Cute that you think so," Goldie shot back, still teasing. Once Huey vanished from sight, Goldie locked eyes with Scrooge. "Alright, I think that's all of them. There's three, right?"

"Goldie," Scrooge said, leveling a flat look at her.

Goldie chuckled behind a sly hand. "I kid. I kid." Grasping the purse flap once more, she lifted out an especially grumpy Dewey and sat him on the floor. "This one was the easiest to nab."

"So unfair! Huey and Louie should've been caught before me!" Dewey pouted, crossing his arms. "Huey follows the rules too much where you don't, and Louie hates moving unless it'll give him a profit."

"Kiddo, if you had thought of that, you wouldn't have tried to challenge me directly like one of those overly dramatic heroes in an adventure movie," Goldie pointed out.

Before Dewey could make some overly theatrical reply, per typical Dewey, Scrooge interrupted, "Could either of you bother to tell me what kind of game you were playing this afternoon?"

Sighing, Dewey explained, "Goldie stopped by to visit you earlier, but you weren't home. She decided to snoop around while waiting for you to come back, and didn't even try to hide it. We found her poking around in the kitchen, and when we asked what she was doing here, she said she was after some of your treasures. Louie made a smart comment about how as your family, we are your most precious treasures. We watched Goldie take a bunch of snacks and stash them in her purse for later, which gave me and Webby an idea for a game while she waited for you to get back from the Bin."

"Basically," Goldie took it from there, "Pink wanted to see the inside of my enchanted purse, and Blue here convinced me to chase them all down like your other treasures. If I caught them, they went in my purse until you got back. If at least one of them was still free by the time you got back, they won, and if I grabbed all four before you returned, I won. As you can clearly see, I won."

"This time," Dewey qualified with a point of his finger. "This time, you won. But next time, we'll be the ones winning, or at least, I'll be the last one standing."

"Looking forward to it," she replied with a smirk.

Dewey turned back to his uncle. "Welcome back, Uncle Scrooge. Oh, and you might want to have Goldie empty her bag before she leaves. I'm pretty sure I saw some stuff from around the house in there." Calmed down from when he was first brought out, Dewey went to join his siblings.

"It's not nice to snitch to your great uncle, Blue," said Goldie, rolling her eyes.

Dewey stuck out his tongue. "Consider it payback for catching me first."

The End

This little fic came about from 'Glass of Water' from mandaree1 and watching the 'Happy Birthday, Doofus Drake!' episode of DuckTales. Initially, the premise of this fic was a game Scrooge was playing with the kids. They challenged him to catch them one by one and take them back to a home base location, using only his beak. Using his beak for the game was inspired by the moment in 'Glass of Water' where he uses his beak to pick up and carry Huey since his arms are already full. Then after watching Goldie loot Louie's treasure in the episode, I decided that Goldie's purse had to be enchanted to carry more than it was originally meant to hold. For a woman constantly on the go, it would certainly make adventuring easier if she could carry one little bag as opposed to several bigger ones. At that point, I realized she'd probably amuse herself by bagging Scrooge's greatest treasures to rile him up- his greatest treasures being his family. So, the premise evolved to the final result.

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