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"You said their name was Lena?"
Beakley pulled on her coat as she studied Webby carefully. As good a new friend could be for her, Beakley couldn't help but worry about the abundance of things that could go wrong with a new friendship with a new person. The triplets were one thing, they were at least Scrooge's family. This Lena character, however, was someone Beakley had never even heard of before.
“I can’t wait for you to meet them!” Webby bounced on the cushion as she practically vibrated with excitement, “They’re really cool!”
Beakley seemed less than impressed. “We’ll see. We need to get through introductions with everyone else, first. We have standards, of course.” She didn't want to say it out loud, but especially with Louie and Huey being noticeably she had to be sure they were careful with who they let into their circle. The last thing she wanted was to be responsible for any of the children getting hurt.
“Aw, they’ll be fine!” Webby didn’t voice her hesitation and decided to ignore it and hope for the better. “I bet nothing bothers them!”
Beakley sighed and rested a hand on Webby’s shoulder. “I understand your excitement, Webby. But remember that I don’t want to see you hurt. You’ve at least… Considered the alternative, yes?” The alternative that the new friend wasn't as amazing as Webby thought, the alternative that she would be down a friend once again, and most of all.. The alternative that Webby would have to really face someone that might not support her.
The idea made Beakley's stomach drop.
She ignored it.
The alternative, the possibility that her new best friend could be ignorant or transphobic or any number of negative things that their conversation on the roof hadn’t had room for. Webby hadn't even managed to ask for their pronouns, something Beakley wondered she should be grateful for. “...Yeah, Granny. I have. But they won’t care!”
Webby felt another hand on her shoulder and turned to see Huey, Dewey, and Louie. They all smiled at her, mirroring the confidence she almost had. “It’ll be fine, Webby. You should be excited to see a movie!” Huey knew exactly how to get her back to her excitement, which Beakley was grateful for.
“I’m excited and I think we should hurry up and go before we miss all the good seats.” Louie rolled their eyes and motioned towards the front door. “Can we go?"
Beakley barely contained a groan of annoyance before she stood and herded four ducklings out the door. “This is going to be a long night, isn’t it?”
“Lena! Lenaaaa!” Webby shouted louder than necessary as Lena approached their spot in line. She immediately launched herself at the taller duck and wrapped her in a hug. “How are you!”
“Web--Webby, you just texted me--” Lena tried to pry nullself out of her grip and retain her composer, but it was useless. Webby pulled back on her own when she deemed the hug accpetable.
“Guys, this is Lena!” She turned and addressed the ducks behind her as she pulled Lena towards the group.
“We gathered.” A duckling in green raised a brow and the blue one snickered. The largest of the ducks, presumably Webby’s grandmother, nodded to her.
“I am Ms. Beakley. I use she/her pronouns.” After she stated that she turned away and pretended to look forward towards the ticket booth.
That.. wasn’t an introduction Lena was used to. Null didn’t mind, though. It was only slightly awkward from it’s underuse. Null could feel Magica’s uneasy presence behind null but null shrugged it off.
Lena watched with disguised interest as the red duckling stepped forward and addressed null. Null crossed null arms and considered the duckling as they spoke. “I’m Huey, he/him or she/her, I’m the oldest triplet.”
Null made a mental note to switch the pronouns up when null could. Not that null cared. Not at all. Null didn’t care about no things, no sir. “Does being the oldest triplet really matter?” Null raised an eyebrow, more curious than judgmental.
The look he gave null told null it did, in fact, matter. Okay then.
“I’m Dewey! Middle triplet, he/him!” Dewey winked and gave a thumbs up and Lena couldn’t help but smirk. He was cute, null would give him that.
The green one shrugged. “‘M Louie, process of elimination says I’m the youngest. They/them.”
Null smiled a bit more honestly at that one. Snarky, they were at least the more interesting of the three.
“And you know me!” Webby grinned as she thumbed towards herself, “I’m Webby! She/her!”
“Yes, Webby, I’ve met you before.” Null laughed softly as Webby introduced herselt yet again. They were admittedly cute, though null had no notions of getting… Attached.
“I’m Lena,” Null hesitated briefly before null decided to go for it, “Null/nulls or they/she are fine.”
They all stepped forward in line as their turn approached. The ducklings all nodded and leaned towards null, intrigued, and null noticed them relax a bit more. Beakley even seemed to relax as she continued to pretend she wasn’t listening.
Huey was the first to form a complete thought as he grabbed a notepad from.. Somewhere.. And made to jot down a note. “Is that null, nulls, nulls, nullself? Or null, null, nulls, nullself?”
Lena had to think about that for a moment as null tried to envision the words in null head. “The second. Null instead of her and him.”
Huey nodded as she wrote them down and Lena felt an emotion null wasn’t quite sure of. Fondness, maybe. Null tried not to think about it as the other ducklings formed their own questions. Huey was a nerd.
“How did you come up with null?” The green one--what was it? They, at least--tried to play off their curiosity, but Lena could still see the gleam in their eyes as they asked.
Null shrugged. “Sounds cool.”
“It is cool!” Webby nodded, “Very cool!”
Weird, but okay. “If you say so, Webs.” The pinprick of annoyance from Magica seemed to crawl up null back, but they ignored it. For one night--one night--null would do what null wanted. Magica’s opinion was unnecessary.
“Kids, what movie were we seeing again?” Beakley’s voice snapped Lena out of null thoughts and the others looked towards her as well.
“Well, there’s this really… Educational movie about moles…”
This would definitely be too easy.
"Null?" Magica snarled behind null, "You're getting distracted again, niece."
Lena ignored the bite behind the words and flipped null hair. "Sure, sure. At least I'm getting somewhere. This was my idea, not yours, you know."
Magica fizzled back into an angry shadow. They would both have to deal with reality later.
Webby grinned, obviously exhausted and dusty but beyond ecstatic. "Lena! Are you coming with us?"
"I've invited null for breakfast." Lena glanced up in surprise as Beakley spoke. They shared a look and Beakley continued, "I think that's fair."
Lena couldn't manage a response and only shrugged.
Maybe the long game would be more difficult than null thought.