(A/N: In this, Liz is taking Fenton to meet her family in Ohio so let's just say Gyro's taking over as Gizmoduck. K? K.)
(Friday, August 23rd 2019)
Liz's POV:
Liz and Fenton were flying out to Spoonerville, Ohio for Fenton to meet the Feathers family at their yearly weekend-long family reunion.
That weekend would always be an ordeal for Liz. Of course, it was lovely seeing Angie and her many, many cousins again but in all the prior years, she'd felt like she hadn't achieved anything compared to the rest of her family.
At least when she was dating Mark, he'd keep her in Duckburg so she wouldn't have to go to the reunion.
But now, she had no way of hiding from them. But it wasn't as if she wanted to. She was dating the greatest inventor she'd ever met and a superhero! And boy was she going to rub the former in her family's face.
But, deep inside, she felt a little bit guilty that it felt like she was forcing him to 'meet the in-laws' before they'd even thought about getting married.
While they were on their flight, Liz asked Fenton something.
"Hey, are you sure you're going to be okay? I mean, I know parents are never easy to deal with and my dad is definitely no exception."
"I'll be fine.", he reassured her, "I've defeated 52 villains this month alone! I'm sure I can handle your father!"
"Alright. It's just, I feel a little guilty, like I'm dragging you along with me just to prove to them I've done something worthwhile since breaking up with Mark. Not to mention the hailstorm of opposite reactions from my family."
"I am telling you, I want to be here for you.", he reassured her again, "Besides, once we've gotten to know each other, I'd like to give your father a little piece of my mind about that whole 'marry rich' plan."
"You really are my knight in robotic armour. I'm gonna try and get some sleep now. I think you should do the same.", she told him as she curled up in her chair.
~Timeskip once again brought to you by Pep. Put some Pep in your step!~
Fenton's POV:
They landed and looked around at the airport for a while until Liz saw a large lady with long black hair wearing a flowery dress looking around. They both ran up to each other, arms wide open to hug each other. Fenton followed quickly behind Liz.
"Lizzie!", the lady cried, showing that she had a strong New York accent.
"Aunt Melanie!", Liz cried.
"Sweetie! It's so great to see you again!", she told Liz, "What happened the past few years? You weren't at the reunion."
"A lot! I mean, at first, I couldn't afford to fly out here and then when I was dating Mark, he wanted me to stay in Duckburg with him and then we broke up and it was just a huge mess but that's not important.", she told her.
"Oh, darling. That's terrible.", the lady consoled her.
"Don't worry, I'm a lot better now an it's mostly thanks to this lovely guy right here.", Liz said, putting her arm around Fenton's shoulder.
"Oh my goodness, who's this handsome young man?", she asked.
"Aunt Melanie, meet my boyfriend, Fenton.", Liz introduced him.
"It's a pleasure to meet you, ma'am.", Fenton said while sticking out his hand.
"Oh, you don't need to be formal like that!", Melanie then whispered under her breath, "At least not with me. But please, call me Melanie!"
"Thank you! I will!", he replied.
"Anywho, let's get your bags! You two must be exhausted! Debbie, Kaitlyn and Angie are in the car, I'll go get 'em!", Melanie said while running off.
"So ...?", Liz asked.
"She's great!", Fenton replied.
"Alright, good so far. But don't let your guard down just yet. We still have to go through cousins Debbie, Kaitlyn, Paulie and Joey. You'll wanna be careful with Debbie and Kait especially. I don't think they even know I broke up with Beaks yet.", Liz warned him.
"Oof."
"Indeed. But if they dare disrespect you, I am more than prepared to full M'ma on their asses.", she told him while raising a fist.
Fenton lowered it down and said, "I don't think that'll be necessary."
"Alright, if you insist. But just know that I'd never let anyone disrespect my precious adorkable genius.", she joked while giving Fenton a peck on the cheek.
Fenton was about to say something equally as saccharine but was cut off by two nearly identical looking girls, one wearing a leather jacket, one wearing a denim, also with New York accents shouting out to Liz.
"Hey, girl!", the leather one called out.
"Hi!", the denim one waved at her.
"Debbie! Kaitlyn!", Liz shouted back.
Liz ran up to the two girls and hugged them tightly before looking to the side and seeing a girl who looked nearly just like Liz except she was taller and had curly brown hair. She was wearing a pink t-shirt and skinny jeans.
Liz let go of the twins and immediately ran to the girl in pink and hugged her while screaming, "ANGIE!"
Angie hugged her back and said, "Missed you too, sis."
After a few seconds, Liz let go and ran over to Fenton, who had caught up to her at that point.
"So, where's Mark?", the girl in leather asked.
Angie smacked her arm while both Liz and Fenton looked away awkwardly.
"Don't tell me...", the same girl said, "Oh my god, he dumped you!"
"He did not dump me! I dumped him!", Liz told her.
"Why'd you go and do something like that?", she asked.
"Because a bunch of reasons I'm not telling you because we don't have time for right now and I don't want to sour the return further.", she quickly told her.
"It's fine, Liz, because we support you no matter what, right Debbie?", Angie said.
Debbie rolled her eyes and replied, "Yeah, we do. Anyway, who's this?"
"This is the guy who helped me through a very difficult period in my life.", Liz told them.
"So he's your shrink?", Debbie joked.
Liz gave her a death glare. "No, he's my boyfriend. Fenton, meet my cousins, Debbie and Kaitlyn and my sister, Angie.", she said while gesturing at each respective person.
"It's great to meet you!", Fenton said while extending his hand out, trying to cut the tension.
"It's great to meet you too, Fenton!", Kaitlyn said, shaking his hand.
"Same here.", Angie said, also shaking his hand.
He tried shaking Debbie's hand but she just raised her eyebrow at him and started walking back towards the car. Melanie smacked her across the head so she quickly walked back, shook Fenton's hand and kept walking.
~Timeskip brought to you by Powerline~
Liz's POV:
When they arrived at the house, they got out of the car and quickly got their bags out of the car.
Thankfully, Aunt Melanie knew how awkward things were between Liz and her dad so she said she'd cover for her and Fenton if they got upstairs and in the spare room fast enough.
That was why they had to practically sprint up the stairs with their bags under their arms all the while trying not to make any noise.
They put their bags in the closet, locked the door and flopped down onto the bed.
"Phew, just missed my dad.", Liz exclaimed, relived.
"That's a shame. I wanted to introduce myself.", Fenton said, unknowingly.
"Oh you beautiful, innocent, child. We were avoiding my dad. I don't wanna talk to him right now."
"But why not? Wouldn't it be better to tell him how you feel so he can understand?", Fenton asked.
"Yeah, but I don't wanna do it with everyone around, including you. It's not that I don't want you around, it's the opposite, but I just don't wanna put all my emotional baggage on the table just like that. And I don't wanna drag my family down with me. And I don't want you to be the subject of mockery like back at the airport again.", she told him.
"It wasn't that baaa...", he prolonged his sentence because he saw Liz tilting her head and narrowing her eyebrows in a questioning way, "aaaa- yeah, it was super embarrassing."
"Don't worry, I'll talk to Debbie and if threatening her doesn't work, I'll just keep her away from you.", Liz reassured him.
"Aw, thanks.", he said and they both hugged on the bed and ended up falling asleep.
Their nice 2 hours of bliss were violently interrupted by knocking on their door followed by a man saying, "Eliza? Are you awake?"
"Crap, it's my dad.", Liz whispered to Fenton.
They quickly jumped off the bed and they straightened out their hair and clothes before Liz opened the door and put on a fake smile.
"Hello, father.", she said.
"I'm glad you could make it this year, Eliza.", he said to her, a certain tone in his voice.
She looked at the ground, uncomfortably. "I told you, I go by Liz now.", she told him.
Her dad then looked behind her and saw Fenton standing there, extremely uncomfortably.
Her dad looked her deep in the eye before asked, "Eliza, who is this?"
"Oh god", she muttered under her breath, "Father, this is Fenton. He is my boyfriend."
"I see. I hate to intrude but weren't you seeing that bizarre Mark Beaks fellow?", he asked.
Liz sighed and told him, "I was but I broke up with him for... a number of reasons I think are best suited for another conversation."
"Oh, I see.", he looked down awkwardly, "Would you both like to come downstairs?"
They went downstairs and saw Angie, Paulie, Kaitlyn, and Joey sitting on the couch, watching TV. When he saw her, Joey immediately jumped up and ran to Liz, shouting, "LIZ-KID!", before trapping her in a bear hug which she ticked her way out of.
"Hey, Baby Kangaroo!", she said back.
"I can't believe you're back!", he exclaimed. He then spotted Fenton and walked towards him, towering over him intimidatingly, "Hey, Uncle Phin, who's the poindexter?"
"Joey!", Liz scolded him, "This isn't some 'poindexter' here for dad. He's my boyfriend, Fenton."
Fenton nervously smiled at Joey, who was staring him down before Joey burst into a laughing fit.
"Hahaha! Who'da thought! Liz with some geek!", He laughed as Liz facepalmed and apologised to Fenton.
When Joey's laughter died down, he said, "I remember when we were, kids, you wanted to marry some crazy romantic rich guy! You remember? And that summer you spent with that French dude, called Chance or something."
"His name was Chance (French pronunciation, sh-on-ss) and I'll have you know Fenton can be very romantic when he wants to.", she defended him as she looked at him, lovingly, "And for the love of god, STOP CALLING HIM A GEEK!"
That was when Paulie stood up and apologised for Joey's misbehaviour, "I am so sorry, Fenton. Joey always get's like this when Liz brings someone home. He's just scared he'll get replaced. I'm Paul by the way."
"Sure, you are." Liz then said in a mocking tone, "HeY, i'M bIg BUsINesSmAn, PAuL. WHo's PAuLIe? C'mon, dude. You know we've practically changed your name to Paulie by now."
Paulie sighed while pinching the bridge of his nose before asking Fenton, "So, what do you do for work?"
"Well, I'm working for Dr Gyro Gearloose at McDuck Labs!", he replied cheerily, thankful that Liz's family isn't completely full of defensive stereotype-ers.
That was when the entire room went 'hol up'.
Joey asked, "Wait, wait, wait... McDuck? As in, Scrooge McDuck? As in, richest-duck-in-the-world, Scrooge McDuck?"
Liz knew that this was the time of rubbing boyfriend in family's face.
"Yes, and Fenton has been assigned to a very important role at McDuck Enterprises by Scrooge McDuck himself! And it's top secret so, as much as I'd love to rub it in your judgemental face, Joey, I can't tell you what it is."
"Damn it! That only makes me wanna know what it is even more!", Joey complained.
"On top of that, Fenton makes these incredible inventions that could change the world!", she cockily told them.
Paulie replied, "Wow, that's very impressive, Fenton. I never expected Liz to fall for an actual genius."
"Hey!", Liz scolded him, "Is that an insult towards me or Beaks?"
"Can it be both?", he jokingly asked.
"I guess so.", Liz played along, "So still, hey!"
"It was actually me who fell for Liz. By the time she finished moving in, I had already fallen head over heels for her.", Fenton said.
"Aww!", both Liz and Angie said.
But both Paulie and Joey gave him a very confused look before asking, "Really?"
"Yes! She's just so friendly and excitable and sweet, I just can't bear to be away from her! She makes me happy just by sitting next to me and she's just the light of my life!", he said lovingly.
"Aww!!", Liz said in an even higher voice than before, before kissing him on the cheek, "I told you he can be romantic when he wants to!"
"God, wait 'til Kait get's a load of this.", Angie scoffed.
"So, now that you've actually heard him say more than one sentence, what do you think of this 'geek' now, JoJo?", Liz cockily asked her cousin.
"After much careful consideration, Fenton, I have decided to reassess my opinion of you. In simpler terms, I hear wedding bells!", Joey shouted out.
Both Liz and Fenton blushed violently while Angie and Joey jokingly hummed Here Comes the Bride.
"Quit it!", Liz shouted at them while trying not to burst into a fit of laugher, "Stop!"
Fenton's POV:
Fenton smiled at how comfortable Liz seemed with her cousins once they got over the whole 'new guy' thing with him. He'd never had any siblings or sibling figures in his life and he thought to himself, So this is what it's like. It looks pretty great.
(A/N: This 'Meet The Feathers' arc will be continued in the next chapter. Hope you're liking it so far. Imma stop writing cuz it's 23:54 and I've got online school tomorrow.)