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Webby stood in the woods out behind the mansion, knees bent, fists raised, eyes scanning through the darkness of the night. The trees rose up around her, tall and looming, their bark splashed with the cool light of the moon.
Suddenly, she heard a rustle of leaves from behind her. She whirled around just in time as Lena shot out from the bushes with a low growl, fangs bared and claws outstretched. Webby dodged to the side, but Lena quickly pumped her wings, redirecting herself towards Webby and swiping out with claws.
Webby deftly brushed Lena’s talons to the side with her forearm, then stepped inside her guard, swinging her left fist around in a hook at Lena’s cheek. Lena ducked the blow just in time, and reached out, taking advantage of Webby’s attack to grab her right behind the elbow. Webby felt a sudden tug as Lena lifted her off her feet, swung her around, and slammed her down onto the forest floor, knocking the breath out of her.
By the time Webby’s head stopped spinning, Lena already had both her wrists pinned down, and her ankles were wrapped up tightly in Lena’s strong bat tail. Lena wasted no time, and immediately dropped her beak down to Webby’s neck, the tips of her fangs pressing up against her throat just lightly enough not to pierce the skin.
“Got you,” Lena hissed into Webby’s ear. “I win.”
Webby blinked a couple times, laying there on the ground. Lena’s fangs felt electric against her feathers, the claws pressing down on her wrists warm and dangerous. Eventually, though, she breathed out a single, “Wow.”
Lena got off of her, standing up and offering her a hand. Webby took it and pulled herself onto her feet. She cleared her throat, brushing off her skirt. “Lena, that was amazing! You’ve improved so much since we first fought.”
“You mean since I tried to scare you off and you completely throttled me and then forced me to be your friend?”
“Yeah!” Webby said.
Webby had been regularly sneaking out of the mansion to visit Lena for a while by now, but the sparring was a relatively recent development. Lena had been hesitant at first, afraid that she might hurt Webby, but Webby had insisted, stating that it was a great bonding activity, and practical, too! She’d also thrown in that Lena probably wouldn’t be able to hurt her if she tried; Lena must have a little bit of a competitive streak in her, because that had convinced her.
Despite her best efforts, though, Lena had gotten thoroughly trounced by Webby in their first few sparring sessions. But then, one day, after a clever trick with her wings that Webby hadn’t expected, Lena had managed to get one up on her—and after seeing Lena pin her against the ground, staring down at her with that fang-filled smirk of hers, Webby had found herself wishing Lena would win their spars more often.
“Well, thanks,” Lena said back in the present, stretching out her wings. “I guess I have been doing better lately. That, or you’ve been going easy on me.”
“What? Why would I go easy on you? It’s not like I enjoy how it feels when you’ve got your teeth around my neck.” Webby laughed.
Lena stared at her. “Uh. Do you?”
“I just said I didn’t!”
Lena raised an eyebrow at her.
“So!” Webby said loudly, clapping her hands. “That was fun, as always! But, uh, I actually chose this location today for a reason. I wanted to show you something.”
“In the middle of the woods?”
“No, it’s on the other side of the woods, dummy,” Webby said. “Come on!”
“I don’t know if—woah!”
Webby cut off Lena’s argument by taking her hand and pulling her through the trees.
“Okay, okay! I’m coming,” Lena said. “You can let go of me.”
A little reluctantly, Webby released Lena’s claw. “Sorry! Just excited.”
“Really? I hadn’t noticed,” Lena teased. “Where are we going, anyway?”
“You’ll see! We’re almost there.” As the trees thinned out, Killmotor Hill slowly rose into view before them, with McDuck Manor perched proudly on top of it. Webby gestured dramatically up at it. “Behold!”
Lena’s eyes widened, and then her expression dropped into a grimace. “McDuck Manor?” she spat out. “Why did you bring me here?”
Okay, so, not really the reaction Webby had been hoping for. She soldiered on, though. “Well, you know, I was thinking, and the place you’re living in right now kinda sucks. Uh, no offense. But, I mean, it’s practically falling apart! I’m surprised it’s still standing after that thunderstorm a few days ago, honestly—I half expected to find nothing more but a pile of rubble after I came to visit the next day.”
“I mean, that storm did collapse part of the attic,” Lena muttered. “That’s not the point, though. Look, I know it’s not exactly up to regulation, but it’s good enough.”
“Lena, I stepped on a rotten board last week and got my leg stuck in the floor,” Webby said, unimpressed. “It took us twenty minutes to get it free, and I was picking out splinters for hours. You really shouldn’t be living there.”
Lena shrugged. “It’s all I have.”
“Well, that’s why I thought you might like someplace else to stay,” Webby said, raising a hand up towards the hill.
“You think I should—” Lena stopped dead, and gave her a look like she was insane. Then she said, “You’re insane,” just in case the look hadn’t been enough.
Webby blinked. “What?”
“Scrooge McDuck lives there, Webby!” Lena stressed, her wings flaring up behind her. “He hates vampires more than anything!”
“Oh, no, that’s not true!” Webby said, putting out her hands in a calming gesture. “He hates plenty of other things more. Honestly, I’m pretty sure it’s really just this one vampire he has a grudge against. But you’re not her!”
“No, but she—I mean—well, that’s…” Lena trailed off, like she wanted to protest the point, but wasn’t sure how. “Okay, fine, whatever. There’s still no way he would let me stay with him.”
“Maybe not, but you won’t be staying with him. You’ll be staying with me!” Webby chirped. “I live there, too!”
Lena’s beak dropped. “You—what?”
“Yep!” Webby beamed at her. “My Granny’s the housekeeper. I’ve lived in the mansion my whole life!”
Lena took a step back, glancing between Webby and the imposing figure of the Manor up on the hill. “I… I dunno, Pink.”
“C’mon, Lena, give it a chance!” Webby pleaded. “I’ve got it all figured out: you can hang out with me, because I have a loft above my room where my bed is and it’s technically part of the attic so there’s a bunch of nice rafters—bats like rafters, right? I guess you’re a vampire, not a bat.” She gasped. “Wait, oh no, is that a stereotype? Was that a microaggression?”
“Webby… Ugh.” Lena started massaging her temples.
“I’m so sorry!” Webby said, feeling her cheeks heat up a little. “Well, there are some rafters, just in case that would appeal to you for no particular reason. And since you’re nocturnal, you can sleep in there during the day when I’m not using the bed, and then at night when you’re out doing… you know.” Webby bit her wrist and made a slurping sound.
Lena grimaced. “Please stop.”
“Sorry!” Webby repeated. “But, uh, yeah, when you’re doing that, I can use the bed!”
“Look, Pink, I… appreciate the thought,” Lena said, “but I live out in the woods for a reason. I can’t let people know that there’s a vampire hanging around Duckburg— especially not people like Scrooge.”
“Okay, well, we don’t have to tell him!” Webby said. “Or Granny! Or anyone! You’ll be sleeping up in the loft all day anyway, so it’s not like you’ll be wandering around the mansion or whatever. Nobody has to know! But wouldn’t you like to sleep somewhere comfortable for once?”
Lena looked conflicted, her beak pursed shut as she looked down at the ground. “I… I’m sorry, Pink. I shouldn’t.”
“What?” Webby’s heart dropped. “Why not?”
“This is… this is crazy. You’re crazy. Forget my safety for a second—what the hell are you doing inviting me into your house? Where you and your family sleep? What if I hurt you?”
“You wouldn’t, though,” Webby said, brow furrowing. “Lena, what are you talking about?”
“Maybe… Maybe you don’t know me as well as you think you do,” Lena said. “I should’ve never gotten you wrapped up in this. I’m sorry; I should go. And you should probably stop visiting.”
“Again with that? Come on, Lena! I thought we were past this.”
“I know, I just… This made me realize how far I’ve let things get with you.” She breathed out a sigh. “I’m sorry. Bye, Pink.”
She turned, raised her wings, and jumped up, giving a powerful flap as she took off.
“Oh no you don’t,” Webby huffed. She reached out and grabbed Lena firmly by the tail, tugging her back down.
Lena’s momentum combined with Webby acting as an anchor caused her to immediately belly flop into the dirt, and she let out a pained grunt, turning back to glare at Webby. “What the hell?!”
Webby pointed an accusatory finger at her with her free hand. “You’re being stupid again!”
“Let go of me!”
“No!” Webby turned and started marching up the hill, dragging Lena along behind her. “I’m not letting go until you’ve at least given this a chance.”
“Webby, stop! You don’t know what you’re doing,” Lena said as she tried to tug against Webby’s grip. She only managed to slow her down a little, and let out an annoyed hiss. “Don’t make me make you let go.”
Webby kept walking.
“Alright; fine,” Lena growled. “You asked for it!”
Lena hissed and lunged forward, reaching out to grab Webby’s arm, but Webby instead yanked hard on her tail, causing Lena to let out a startled squeak as she lost her balance and tumbled forward. A couple seconds later, Webby had her restrained in a wrestling hold, and continued to carry her towards the mansion like nothing had happened, despite Lena’s protests.
A few minutes later, Webby was climbing the outer wall of the mansion. She had one hand gripping the line of her grappling hook, and the other held tightly around Lena, who was still half-heartedly struggling against her.
“You know,” Webby said as the membrane of one of Lena’s wings slapped against her face, “this would be a lot easier for both of us if you would calm down a little.”
“I hate you,” Lena hissed, pointedly not calming down.
“You’ll thank me later,” Webby said confidently.
“You were totally holding back during those sparring sessions,” Lena grumbled as she thrashed about.
Webby giggled. “Well, maybe a little.”
Soon, she arrived at the window that led into her room. She kicked it open, and then lifted Lena up, attempting to stuff her through the opening. Lena, still resisting, managed to break from Webby’s grip during the transfer and began trying to worm her way past Webby and back out of the room; Webby frowned, and hooked one of her legs over the windowsill as she roughly attempted to shove Lena inside.
In fact, their tussle was so chaotic, Webby didn’t notice the door to her room opening until it was too late.
“Webby?” Louie asked, poking his head in. Both Webby and Lena froze at the voice, their heads snapping over to the door. “You good? I woke up to go to the bathroom and it sounded like someone was… fighting…”
Louie trailed off as he caught sight of them in the window, Webby awkwardly straddling the windowsill with her hands on Lena’s shoulders, while Lena was gripping the outside of the frame with one of her claws, the other smushed up against Webby’s cheek as she tried to push her away.
Webby blinked at him. “Uhhhhhh.”
“Webs, is that a vampire?”
“Uhhhhhh.”
Louie rolled his eyes. “Actually, you know what? On second thought, nevermind. It’s too early for this.”
He left, shutting the door behind him, and Webby and Lena proceeded to tip over from their precariously-balanced state halfway through the window, ending up in a heap on the floor.
“Who was that?!” Lena hissed, scrambling to untangle her limbs from Webby’s. “So much for nobody seeing me!”
“That was just my brother Louie,” Webby said, sitting up. “Don’t worry, he barely counts anyway.”
“What’s that supposed to mean?!”
“He’s not gonna care,” Webby said, waving a hand. “He won’t tell Scrooge; don’t worry. I don’t think any of my brothers will as long as I ask them not to. We’ve just got to make sure none of the adults see you.”
“This is a bad plan,” Lena said. “Please, Webby. I should really go.”
“Lena, I did not lug your stupid vampire butt all the way up here for you to leave before even trying,” Webby said, putting her hands on her hips. “Come with me up to the loft and lay down on my bed for a little bit. If you still want to leave after that, then you know what? Fine.”
“Great. Sweet. Finally. Up here, right?” She didn’t wait for an answer and made her way over to the ladder up against Webby’s wall, climbing it and throwing open the hatch.
Webby followed closely behind her, watching as Lena made her way over to the bed and flopped on top of it, wriggling until she was under the covers. She crossed her arms indignantly as she lay there, a frown on her face as she stared up at the ceiling.
“Well?” Webby prompted.
“It’s not even that soft,” Lena grumbled. “It’s a shit bed, honestly. My bed back at the fort is way better.”
“You mean that pile of blankets and cardboard? Mmhmm.” Webby smiled at her. “Well, at least I tried. Feel free to leave at any time.”
Lena was quiet for a long time before she spoke up again. “I mean. It’s almost morning, anyway. There’s not much point in going all the way back home right now.”
“Mmhmm. Of course,” Webby said.
“I’m not staying, though. It’s just for today. Because I’m already here and it’s convenient.”
Webby smirked. “Right. Of course.”
“Shut up,” Lena hissed.
“I wasn’t saying anything!”
“Yes you were. Shut up.”
“Fine.” Webby let out a yawn, and climbed into the bed next to Lena.
“Wait, what are—Pink!”
“I’m tired,” Webby mumbled, closing her eyes and snuggling up against Lena. “I stayed up all night, remember?”
“I thought the whole reason this was gonna work was because we would be taking turns on the bed,” Lena protested. “Not… sharing it.”
“You’re free to leave whenever you want,” Webby said simply.
That night, she fell asleep with a wing draped over her shoulder.
“Lena. Lena, wake up.”
“Hhhnng.” Lena batted a claw at the annoying voice. Who was trying to wake her up right now? It was, like, morning. She should have another good six hours of sleep at least.
Wait. Who was in her house?!
Her eyes shot open, and she bared her fangs in a growl, only to stop cold when she saw Webby laying in front of her, looking at her with a cute little smirk on her beak. The events of last night came rushing back to her, and she awkwardly cleared her throat.
“Oh. Uh, hey, Webby. Why are you waking me up?”
“Because I need you to let go of me,” Webby said softly.
Lena looked down, and felt herself go bright red. One of her wings was curved up and around herself, wrapping Webby up in its membrane, and one of her arms was hugging Webby’s side, pulling her in. There was no way Webby would’ve been able to leave the bed without waking her.
“I-I-I’m so sorry,” Lena stuttered out, frantically kicking at the covers as she tried to free Webby.
“Don’t apologize!” Webby said, giggling as she sat up. “I love cuddling! But it does make it a little hard to get out.”
Lena groaned, rolling onto her back and bringing her wings up to cover her burning face. She tried to ignore the fact that she’d slept better that night than she had in years. Stupid soft bed, stupid soft… girl… ugh.
She tried to sit up, but her head started to spin, and she had to drop back onto the pillow, letting out another groan as she brought a hand up to her forehead.
“You okay?” Webby asked.
“Ugh. Yeah. Just a little lightheaded; didn’t get any blood last night.”
Then there was a gasp from behind her, followed by a harsh whisper. Lena’s ears could pick it up just fine, though. “Did you hear that? She is totally going to drink our blood.”
Lena’s head snapped around to look behind her, at the rest of the room. She’d been sleeping facing the wall, and she’d also been groggy, so somehow, she hadn’t noticed the three boys standing with their backs pressed up against the far wall of the loft. The one in the green hoodie from last night—Lena couldn’t remember his name, but it was something like ‘loopy’—had been the one speaking, but he was accompanied by two nearly identical boys, one in blue with bad hair and the other in red with a dorky hat.
Lena blinked at them. “What—who—how long have—”
“Oh!” Webby cut in. “These are my brothers, Huey, Dewey, and Louie!”
Dewey, the blue one, waved at her. The other two looked terror-stricken.
“Those are the lamest names I’ve ever heard,” Lena said slowly, her brain still waking up. “So, why are they here?”
“Well, when we woke up, Louie said he’d caught Webby sneaking a vampire in last night,” Dewey said. “Huey thought he was lying, and I wanted to see you, so we were gonna ask Webby, but it was already, like, way past the time she normally gets up and she wasn’t awake yet, and we thought maybe you’d killed her, so we came up to check! But instead you were just cuddling. It was kind of cute.”
“Not cute,” Huey said, shaking his head frantically from side to side. “Not cute at all. Terrifying. That is a vampire.”
“Woah, really? Hadn’t noticed,” Lena said dryly.
“I told you guys, Lena’s a friend!” Webby said, all smiles. “She won’t hurt you.”
“You made friends with a vampire?” Louie asked. “Are you insane?”
“That’s what I said,” Lena muttered.
“Aw, come on, guys, she’s nice!” Webby insisted. She turned to Lena. “Tell them you’re nice.”
“So, which room do you guys sleep in?” Lena asked instead. “Like, just down the hall, or…?”
“Nope,” Huey said, holding some book up in front of his face, like he was trying to hide behind it. “Nope, nope, nope, nope, nope!”
Webby giggled. “She’s teasing.”
“How’d you even find a vampire?” Louie asked, still eyeing her warily.
“Remember those rumors of the ghost haunting that old condemned Woodchuck building that I investigated? Well, so, uh.” She laughed. “It wasn’t exactly a ghost living there.”
“Whaaat? No way!” Dewey exclaimed. “That’s so cool! I have so many questions!”
“God, not another one,” Lena grumbled. “I’m going back to bed. Tell your dorky brothers not to wake me up.”
“We’re right here, you know,” Louie said.
“And we’re not dorky!” Dewey insisted.
Lena ignored them, pulling the covers back up over herself and folding her wings over her ears.
But then a strong, accented voice piped up from the room below, causing her to freeze. “Webbigail? Why aren’t you up yet? Is everything alright?”
“Granny!” Webby whisper-shouted. “Oh no! Lena, you have to hide!”
“Wh—hide?” Lena sat up, her eyes widening. “Hide where?”
“I don’t know! Just hide!”
But before Lena could even get out of Webby’s bed, the hatch started to creak open. Panicking, she did the only thing she could think of, and called up her vampire magic. One small poof later, and she looked like a regular vampire bat, only with a rather distinctive swoop of pink fur on her head.
When the hatch opened and Webby’s grandmother, an absolute tank of a duck, climbed into the loft, Webby and the boys were all blankly staring at Lena. The older duck followed their gaze, and raised an eyebrow when she saw Lena.
“Oh, dear. Do we have a bat problem?”
“No!” Webby exclaimed suddenly. “No, no, this is, uh, this is my new pet bat, Lena!”
“Yeah, Webs was just showing her to us,” Louie said, the lie sliding out of his beak like it was greased. “She’s pretty cute, right, Mrs. Beakley? Webby was so excited when she found her.”
Mrs. Beakley opened her beak in a frown, then closed it. Eventually, she settled for, “Isn’t that kind of an… odd choice for a pet?”
“Actually, it’s more common than most people think,” Huey said. “They don’t do very well with cages, though, so it’s best to let them roam free.”
Lena narrowed her eyes at the boys. Hadn’t they been terrified of her, like, two seconds ago? Why were they covering for her? It didn’t make sense. Magica had drilled it into her that any sane person would turn her over to a hunter the first chance they got, but here these guys were—related to Scrooge himself, no less—doing the exact opposite. It was weird. At least it meant that she could trust Webby’s word that they wouldn’t tell anyone about her, she guessed.
“Oh. Well, that’s probably for the best,” Mrs. Beakley replied to Huey. “Even though it would be terribly sad if it happened to fly away and not come back.”
Lena got the sense that Mrs. Beakley would not find that particularly sad.
“Can I keep her?” Webby said, giving her grandmother military-grade puppy dog eyes. “Pleeeeease? I’ll take care of her all by myself and everything, promise!”
Mrs. Beakley let out a sigh. “Well… I suppose. But keep it in your room; we don’t want it flying all over the mansion.”
“Of course! I’ll be super super careful,” Webby insisted. “Thank you thank you thank you!”
“You’re welcome, dear,” Mrs. Beakley said, before disappearing back down the ladder.
Webby waited a few seconds, then turned to Lena, letting out a high-pitched squeal. “Lenaaaaaa! Oh my god you’re so cute! I didn’t know you could do this! Awww, look at your little fangs…”
Lena let out an indignant squeak, which only made Webby squeal again. She rolled her eyes, and with a poof, transformed back into her humanoid form. “Well, that was humiliating.”
“Aww,” Webby said disappointedly. She quickly perked back up, though. “Well, at least you’re cute like this, too.”
“You have a very strange definition of that word,” Huey mumbled from the back of the room.
“Why are you three even still here?” Lena let herself fall back onto the bed, gripping at her pounding head. “Ughhhh. That took a lot out of me.”
“Is it because you didn’t drink any blood last night?” Webby asked. “Do you, um… I mean, I wouldn’t mind if—”
“Webby, no,” Lena said firmly. “Stop asking me that. I think I just need sleep.”
“Okay, well.” Webby wrung out her hands nervously. “If you ever change your mind…”
“Yeah, yeah.” Lena turned onto her side, shoving her face into the pillows. “Look, Pink, I really am beat. I’ll see you tonight, okay?”
“Okay!” Webby said, nodding. “And… maybe tomorrow, too?”
Lena looked up into her eyes; they were sparkling with excitement.
God, Lena was so screwed.
“We’ll see,” she said, even though she already knew the answer.
Webby beamed. “I’ll take it.”