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“Boo! You disappoint me in every way possible!”
“We’re a classic odd couple.” “I don’t know what that is.”
“I’m Della’s- oough, friend. It was really more of an unlikely roommate situation.”
“This is Lieutenant Penumbra for her friend, Della Duck.”
--
And just like that, Penumbra flew straight onto the window of Della’s ship, face-to-face with her first- and only- friend.
Despite the severely life-threatening conditions associated with being in open space, Penumbra couldn’t keep a smile off her face. “Hiya, roomie!”
Della’s face lit up. “Penny! Didn’t see that one coming!”
She kept talking as Penumbra pressed her body against the cold window of the rocket, feeling herself slipping. “Let me in!”
Della’s grin fell off her face. “Oh, right!”
With that, she shoved the ship’s controls to Donald and made a mad dash for the bay door.
One month ago, if (or rather, when) Della threw her arms around Penumbra, she would do everything she could to pull her off. But after an alien coming out of nowhere to defeat the Mite, Lunaris betraying her, and getting thrown through space and back? Penumbra had learned to expect the unexpected.
Penumbra pulled herself through the door of the ship, heaving for breath after the adrenaline-inducing crash. When Della ran at her, she kneeled down and held her with all her might, burying her face in her shoulder. Della, in return, squeezed Penumbra so enthusiastically she was lifted off of the floor by the force of it. “It’s really you!”
Penumbra offered a weak smile, pulling back just enough so they could see each other’s faces. “It’s me.”
One of the smaller ones- oh, god, were those Della’s kids? Weren’t there supposed to only be three?- peeked their head around. (Short hair sticking forward, wearing green. Penumbra would have to keep them straight, now.) “Mom, who’s the alien?”
Della laughed, and pulled herself away from Penumbra, looping one arm over her shoulder. “This is Penny! My best friend!”
Another kid poked in. (Blue shirt, hair sticking straight up, tousled-looking in a clearly intentional way.) “That’s Penumbra? Man, she is way taller than I expected!”
Della had talked about her to her kids? Scratch that, of course Della talked about her, if how much she’d talked about her family to Penumbra was any indication.
“Um… thank you?” Penumbra offered awkwardly.
Della affectionately noogied the top of her helmet, before standing up, holding out a hand to help Penumbra up as well. “Welcome to the family, Penny.”
Penumbra took a moment to stare back at the faces that had all turned to look at her. An older one- Scrooge, she thought. Two more kids, one in red with a hat on, and another with longer hair and a skirt. Finally, sitting in the center chair, piloting the ship-
Penumbra gasped, surging forward, and picked Donald up by the shoulders, pulling him straight out of the seat. “You’re alive!”
Donald squawked indignantly, wiggling a little. Once he stopped struggling, he gave a hoarse laugh, eyes as wide as dinner plates. Then he rasped something totally, completely unintelligible.
Penumbra considered him for a second, before turning to Della, still holding Donald. “I have no idea what he just said.”
Now it was Della’s turn for her eyes to widen. “Oh! He said he is.”
Penumbra nodded once curtly, setting him down. Donald frowned for a moment, before smiling nervously and giving Penumbra a thumbs-up.
Beside her, Della pressed a hand to her heart. “My best friend and my brother are already friends. This is one of the best moments of my life.”
Scrooge cleared his throat. “I hate to break up this heartwarming reunion, but, erm-” He gestured out the front of the ship. “How are we going to land this thing?”
Della grinned, and hopped into the driver’s seat- literally vaulting over the side of the chair and settling into it. “Simple! We crash!”
“I- What?!” Penumbra started, kneeling besides Della’s chair. “Isn’t crashing dangerous? Something to generally be avoided unless you want to die?”
Della waved off her concerns, and angled the ship towards the Earth again, the rest of the family buckling in and holding tight. “Spend enough time with LP and you’ll get it.”
Penumbra didn’t have enough time to ask who “LP” was before the ship began hurtling towards the ground far below.
—
Somehow, miraculously, they all survived.
Penumbra had furiously closed her eyes and clung to the main chair with all her might, so she wasn’t exactly sure how it happened. She was pretty sure the afterlife didn’t include Della taking her by the hand and pulling her out of the wreckage of a giant golden spaceship, though.
When Penumbra first stepped out of the ship, she had to squint her eyes against the bright sunlight and huge throngs of people on and around the hill. Barely a few seconds, and Earth was already so different from the faraway Moon Penumbra was familiar with. Della turned to look at her. “You good, Penny?”
Penumbra nodded, shielding her eyes against the sunlight. “Just… go on ahead.”
Della gave a thumbs up, and ran down through the trees to the mansion, following her family and leaving Penumbra in her wake, to walk down at her own pace.
--
“Uncle Scrooge’s mansion is so huge, I’m still blown away by it, and I lived there for twenty years!” Della said, putting her arms behind her head. “The Moon’s been so different.”
Penumbra looked up from where she was sharpening her spear, giving Della a flat stare. “If you’re trying to insult my house, you know you can just go out and live in the deserts again.”
“No, I like it here! It’s cozy,” Della started, waving one arm at Penumbra. “I was just comparing.”
Penumbra harrumphed, and looked back down at her work. “This place is definitely better than whatever dump counts as a mansion on Earth.”
--
Now that Penumbra was face-to-face with the heralded mansion, she could tell Della had a point. It was huge- probably bigger than Penumbra’s statue in Tranquility had been.
Penumbra’s face settled back into her characteristic frown, and she tugged off her helmet, looking around.
There were…. a lot of people she didn’t recognize.
A voice spoke up behind her. “So, um… cool crash.”
Penumbra swiveled her head over to the stranger.
“I don’t suppose you’d like to grab a coffee or somethin’?” he said conversationally.
Was he… asking her out? Penumbra gave him a once-over. Tall, compared to most of the other people around them, but in the end still only about the same height as her. Humongous shoulders, and then the smallest legs she’d ever seen.
Penumbra scowled at him. “I could destroy you easily.”
He beamed at her, clasping his hands together. “So, yes?”
--
Before Penumbra could process it, Della had wrapped her arms around her middle in a hug, Penumbra’s hand moving somewhat automatically to where her gun would be, had she not put it down before coming over. “I’m glad you found me, Penny.”
Penumbra really, really wished she had just ignored Della once again and gone to bed. She awkwardly patted Della on the shoulder when she pulled away. “I’m… glad you vanquished the Mite.”
She really wasn’t, but she had to admit that the Mite’s disappearance helped basically everyone else in Tranquility.
Della smiled softly, wiping at her cheek. “What are friends for, y’know?”
Friends. Once again, Della acted like Penumbra didn’t openly despise her.
--
Night eventually fell, the world set back in order, planetary clocks reset. Scrooge had shooed most of the people out of his yard by then, leaving only the group Penumbra had initially found herself associating with.
Although, “only” felt like a bit of a lie- there were still at least fifteen people in the house.
The housekeeper- Mrs. Beakley, she was called- (Why did Scrooge need someone else to take care of his house for him? Shouldn’t he be able to do it himself?) had come around with blankets for everyone clustered in the main room. After checking on the kids, Della had come over to Penumbra and thrown a massive, heavy blanket over the two of them, squatting them both on the stairs with mugs of a strange, dark brown drink. Della said it “smelled really sweet,” but Penumbra didn’t have a nose, so she couldn’t confirm.
Several hours had passed by, now. Penumbra had relayed the events on the Moon between Donald’s escape and her return, and Della had finished three cups of the mysterious drink mostly in silence, hanging onto every word. Most of the people around them drifted in and out of both sleep and the building itself (Penumbra guessed they were reorienting themselves after literally getting thrown out of orbit). She stared around the massive room, where the various clumps of people had eventually formed, some (like the kids) sleeping in a large pile, some muttering conversation amongst themselves, and some doing various chores around the house.
Some of the people there… made Penumbra do a bit of a double-take, to say the least. Casually sitting on the ground, wearing a lab coat, was some sort of hoofed beast with Scroot’s head, playing cards with Launchpad. Launchpad noticed her watching them, and waved enthusiastically. Penumbra inclined her head towards him, and turned her attention back towards the drink Della had offered her some handful of minutes ago.
“So,” Della finally broke the silence between them, leaning forward. “How’re you enjoying Earth so far?”
Penumbra shrugged, swirling the contents of her cup. “It’s a lot warmer than I expected,” she muttered.
Della snorted around her drink. “Yeah, a lifetime on the Moon will do that.”
Penumbra hummed thoughtfully. “I also met the other pilot- uh, Launchpad?” Della’s expression soured at the word pilot. “He asked me out for something called coffee.”
“Ooh, a date already? You’ve got game, Penny.”
Penumbra glanced up towards Launchpad again. He was fully engrossed in the card game, now, sticking his tongue out in concentration. Penumbra knew nothing about whatever game he was playing, but she had a feeling he was losing. She looked back towards Della, who was sipping carefully at her mug.
Penumbra took a long sip of her drink, before pulling away, frowning hard. It wasn’t… bad, per se, but definitely far from what she expected. Thicker. Really, really different from moon scorpion.
Della caught Penumbra’s expression. “If you’re not gonna drink it, you can always give the rest to me, just so you know.”
Penumbra scoffed, but cracked a grin anyways. “Your attempts to rob me of this sustenance are laughable.”
Della shrugged, smiling, and bumped Penumbra with her shoulder. “Hey, hey, you can’t blame me for asking.”
Penumbra hummed again, drinking her hot chocolate. The two fell into a comfortable silence, sipping at their drinks, until eventually Mrs. Beakley complained about the slurping noises and confiscated their mostly empty cups.
It caught neither of them by surprise when Della let out a yawn, stretching one arm up and around Penumbra’s waist, hugging her from the side. “Man, today has taken it outta me.”
She laid her head on Penumbra’s shoulder, and sighed deeply. “Thirty-six hours ago, a Spear landed on Earth,” she murmured. “I took the kids halfway around the world and back, reunited with my brother, and fought in an epic space battle! And,” she cuddled deeper into Penumbra’s side, wrapping the blanket tightly around herself.
“My awesome best friend finally came to Earth.”
--
“Why do you keep talking to that- weird box thing?” Penumbra asked irritably.
Della turned to her, eyes wide. “Oh! Penny! I’m just sending transmissions to my kids back home.”
Penumbra frowned, and walked over to the thing, inspecting it. “How?”
“Well, you see, I film myself with this camera, and attach it to-”
“Actually, scratch that, I don’t care.” Penumbra sighed, and rubbed her forehead. “Please do it more quietly, and not first thing in the morning when it will wake me up from the small bits of rest I’m able to get with you around.”
Della gave a casual salute. “Whatever you say, Penny.”
“Penumbra.”
--
When Della fell asleep there, sagging against Penumbra’s side, she found she didn’t have the heart to get her to pull away. Ever so carefully, Penumbra moved the two of them closer to the railing on the stairs to lean against it, one arm slung protectively over Della’s shoulders as she drifted asleep as well.
Outside, the sun rose slowly, striking the sky with gold, signalling the start of a new day.