A/N: If there are any grammar or spelling mistakes, pls let me know. It's just me, myself, and I writing and editing this, so I would appreciate it if you could help.

Today was meant to be a lazy day. I was starting to crochet a blanket on the couch in the living room and watching the TV with Louie. We were watching one of his favorite shows, and once the episode ended, this new show 'Ottoman Empire' started playing.

I wasn't really paying attention to what was being said on the TV until Louie groaned and said, "Ugh. This show is so dumb!"

Uncle Scrooge overheard that and walked over to Louie, saying, "You could always turn off the telly."

Louie replied, "Oh, the remote's way over there."

It was on the couch between us.

Louie lazily reached out a hand to grab it, but quit and said, "Oh, forget it."

I rolled my eyes, set down my crochet stuff, and grabbed the remote, turning off the TV.

I mutter, "Lazy, bro. Very lazy."

I went back to my crocheting, and Uncle Scrooge raised an eyebrow, asking, "Any big plans for today?"

I raise my arms with my crochet stuff, and Louie yawns before replying, "Thought I might move to the big TV in a few hours. You know." Louie burps, opens a can of Pap, and takes a single sip before asking, "Hey, do we have any more Pep?"

Uncle Scrooge exclaimed, "You've got 6 full cans right there!"

Louie replied, "I only like that first sip. Peak carbonation. Never mind, I'll call Beakley."

He pulls out his phone, but it doesn't turn on.

He says, "Oh, man. My phone's dead. Guess I gotta buy a new one."

Uncle Scrooge stated, "Just charge it!"

Louie replies, "Eh, this one's three months old anyway."

I pull out my phone and say, "Mine is three years old, doofus. I still charge it!"

Louie rolls his eyes and states, "Who cares? We're rich!"

Uncle Scrooge grabs Louie by the scruff of his sweatshirt, lifting him off the couch, exclaiming, "No, I'm rich! That's it, laddie. You're coming to the office to learn the value of a hard day's work."

I shrug my shoulders and say, "Actually, I'm kinda curious what you do. Can I come too?"

Uncle Scrooge looks shocked that I wanted to come, and gives me this weird look of recognition, then agrees. I go ask my other brothers and Webby if they want to come. Huey is the only one who stays home, though Dewey and Webby are acting suspicious. We get into the limo, and Launchpad drives us to the Money Bin, terrifying all of the passengers except Uncle Scrooge.

Once we arrive at the Bin, Launchpad crashes the front of the limo into the wall, stating, "You have arrived at your destination."

Louie keeps groaning, and Uncle Scrooge says to Launchpad, "Be back at six, Launchpad. We have a long day of work ahead of us."

Launchpad nods and drives off.

Dewey suddenly states, "Thanks for letting us tag along, Uncle Scrooge, but I suddenly very much have to use... the bathroom."

He lightly elbows Webby, and she suddenly adds, "Oh, and I will show you where to go to that place."

We all watch them walk away before shrugging it off. Louie tries sneaking off, but Uncle Scrooge uses his cane to grab hold of Louie's sweatshirt, dragging him off while I follow behind. We enter an elevator and end up on the top floor where Uncle Scrooge's office is. He leads us over to a vault-like door and opens it, revealing -

"The money!" Louie exclaimed, then continued, "You want me to count the gold, maybe go out to spend some gold to make sure it doesn't expire?"

Uh oh, I know that schemy face. He's planning something, I know it.

Uncle Scrooge states, "There's more to money than just money. Gold is a beautiful thing."

He walks over to a pedestal with a cloth covering it and pulls the cloth off, revealing a dime on a velvet pillow under a glass dome.

Uncle Scrooge then continues, "But even something as small as a dime can have meaning. For instance-"

I interrupt Uncle Scrooge as I notice Louie running back towards the money and run off to the money pile, yelling, "Louie! What are you doing!?"

I manage to grab Louie before he can jump.

Uncle Scrooge runs over to us and yells, "Are you out of your head? You'll crack your skull open!"

Louie replies, "But you swim in money all the time!"

Uncle Scrooge fires back, "Yes, but I worked hard to perfect that skill, building muscles and dexterity. If you want something, you'll work hard to get it!"

The intercom on his desk suddenly beeps, and a bored sounding assistant states, "Mr. McDuck, The Board is here to see you."

Uncle Scrooge gave a confused look before stating, "We didn't have a board meeting today. No matter. Come, lad and lass!"

I turn to look at Louie just as Uncle Scrooge catches him with his cane when he tries to dive into the bin again. I keep a hand on Louie's shoulder to make sure he doesn't run off again as we walk into a room with a large table and three buzzards sitting on the opposite side, facing us.

Uncle Scrooge exclaims, "Welcome to the fast-paced world of business!"

Soon after, we sit down on the opposite side of the table as the buzzards, with Uncle Scrooge sitting at the head on the table, me on his left, and Louie on his right.

The buzzards look annoyed at the fact that Louie and I were there, and the one in the middle states, "I'm sorry, but is it necessary to have children in this meeting?"

Uncle Scrooge responds, "Bradford, these are my great-neice and nephew, and Izzabelle has been in these meetings before, if you remember. They are here to learn about business and what I do here at the bin."

Louie gives me a confused look, and I return it. I don't remember being in meetings before, but this building and the buzzards do look pretty familiar, so I just shrug.

The buzzards quietly confer for a short moment before turning back towards us, the middle one - Bradford, as Uncle Scrooge called him - responding, "Very well. Just keep the children under control."

I roll my eyes, slouching back in my chair. They then start the meeting, talking about budget and revenue, projecting charts, and pointing where they're referencing. Louie slowly starts falling asleep in his chair, and just as his head is about to hit the table, the door slams open, startling Louie so much he nearly falls out of his chair and revealing a chicken man who had kicked it open, a box in hand.

He exclaims, "Shut up everyone, I've done something brilliant!"

Uncle Scrooge removes the bored expression from his face, replacing it with an excited one, saying, "Ah, Gyro!" He turns to Louie and I, introducing us to the chicken, "Gyro Gearloose, my head of research and development."

Bradford interjects, "I'm sorry, but we-"

Gyro interrupts him, "Apology accepted. Now try to keep up with my mind-numbing genius."

Louie still looks bored, but I'm just starting to get interested. It's better than that budget meeting.

Uncle Scrooge scolds, "Gyro, what did we say about interacting with other people?"

Gyro sighs, pulling out a set of cards from his pocket, saying, "The cards. Fine..." He starts reading from the cards in a fake enthusiastic voice, "Hello, Mr. McDuck." He then glares a bit at Bradford's side of the table, saying in a slightly annoyed voice, "And others." The enthusiastic voice returns, "Are you tired of all those single-use gadgets cluttering up your junk drawer? What a mess! There's got to be a better way."

Gyro opens the box he was holding, pulling out a robot with a humanoid form, but with a lightbulb for a head.

He continues, "Meet Lil' Bulb! A tiny, all-purpose robot that does it all!"

Louie looks very interested by this point, leaning forward to hear more.

Bradford asks, "Wait, what does it do?"

Gyro cradles the base of his beak with his thumb and forefinger, trying to contain a bit of anger as he responds, "It. All. Lil' Bulb is an artificially intelligent personal robot helper. He can make toast," Gyro holds a piece of bread near Lil' Bulb, toasting it. "Find your keys," Lil' Bulb jumps into one of the buzzard's pockets, pulling out a set of keys. "Serve as a booklight for your late-night reading!"

Lil' Bulb glows lighter, making the buzzards back away and rub their eyes until Lil' Blub dims.

Gyro finishes, "You'll never have to do anything yourself again!"

Louie gasps in delight, but Bradford rolls his eyes, saying, "Uh-huh. And how will you ensure that this one won't turn evil like all the others?"

Gyro responds, "Only half my inventions turn evil. The other half are just... wildly misunderstood."

Lil' Bulb shakes its fist towards the buzzards, then makes a throat-slitting gesture towards Bradford before returning to shaking its fist.

Bradford asks, "What's it doing?"

Gyro picks up Lil' Bulb, sarcastically responding, "Waving. It likes you."

The Board discuss quietly between themselves, then Bradford says, "Request denied."

Gyro sighs, then puts Lil' Bulb back into its box, closing the box. He storms off in a huff towards the door.

Uncle Scrooge opens the door for him, saying, "Keep at it, Gyro! I know you'll come up with something great."

Gyro frowns, gradually getting louder, "Lil' Bulb is something great. I'll show you. I'll show you all!"

He walks through the door, and Uncle Scrooge responds before closing the door, "And maybe wait until you're out the room to say that next time."

Uncle Scrooge sits back down, and Louie exclaims, "A robot that does everything for you? How can you say no to that?"

Uncle Scrooge responds, "Part of hard work is knowing how to work with others! My Board are the only people cheaper than I am. I trust them completely to make good financial decision-"

Bradford interrupts him, "Indeed. Which is why we've called this meeting to discuss cutting your unnecessary spending here at the... Money Bin."

Uncle Scrooge growls at them, and I mutter, "Oh, no."

Uncle Scrooge then exclaims, "Unnecessary!? I'm Scrooge McDuck! I don't spend one penny more than I need to."

Bradford pulls out a folder, sliding it towards Uncle Scrooge, saying, "It says here that you're spending $50 million on magical defense."

Uncle Scrooge asks, "Do you have any idea how many vengeance curses I have on my head!?"

Louie got out of his chair, walking around Uncle Scrooge and over to me, saying, "Look, I'm just gonna go and, uh... get a drink. Yeah."

I hand him 2 dollars and say, "Can you grab me one? My treat."

He nods, grabbing the money and walking out of the room to find a vending machine. Uncle Scrooge keeps arguing with the board, eventually climbing onto the table.

Bradford asks, "But how do you justify spending $5,000 on a velvet pillow for a dime?"

As he says that, I notice Louie sipping on a Pep, setting another one on the table next to me.

He just stands next to me as Uncle Scrooge yells, "That dime deserves its own velvet pillow! It's my Number One Dime - the first dime I ever earned!" I notice Louie's eyes widen as Uncle Scrooge continues, "I was a young shoeshine in Glasgow when a man came in, his boots cemented in mud. I worked and worked until those boots sparkled! In return, he gave me an American dime. That dime inspired me to move to America and find my fortune. It means more to me than every bit of bullion in my Money Bin."

As Uncle Scrooge stops talking, the sound of Louie still sipping his Pep is deafening.

He quickly swallows as everyone turns to him, saying, "Uh, I... gotta go... Bye."

He runs out of the room. After a half hour, Uncle Scrooge opens the door so we can go look for Louie, and we see him get spooked by the door opening, hiding something behind his back. I give him a suspicious look and walk closer to him, making him more nervous.

I say, "Louie, where have you been? Are you trying to get out of work again?"

Louie nervously responds, "What? No! I just, um, er, filled filled my notepad with all that precious business wisdom, so I- I went to go... find another!"

I'm not convinced, but Uncle Scrooge is.

He says, "Good lad! Feel free to take as many pads as you want," He turns back towards the meeting room, yelling, "Or are we not allowed to use those either, ya penny-pinching buzzards!?" He closes the door behind him, then opens it back up, saying, "No, but really. Make sure to use the front and back of every page." He closes the door, then opens it again, clarifying, "Write small."

He closes the door behind him again.

I look directly at Louie, not dropping my suspicious glare as I ask, "What are you hiding behind your back?"

He drops his head in shame, holding Lil' Bulb to me. Lil' Bulb climbs onto my shoulder.

I ask, "What did you do this time?"

He then quickly says, "The vending machine needed a dime, and I didn't have one! I saw a dime on a pillow and thought it was an emergency dime for the vending machine, so I spent it! Then I went back to the meeting room and overheard Uncle Scrooge's story and knew I would get in trouble, so I had to get Lil' Bulb to pick a lock to get the dime back!"

I roll my eyes, then smile and pull him into a hug.

I say, "I appreciate your honesty. I know you didn't mean to, but you could have just asked me for a dime. I did say it was my treat. Next time, just ask for a dime."

He hugs me back, glad that I understood.

I say, "Let's go find that dime. I can't promise I won't tell Uncle Scrooge, but I'm proud of you for trying to make it right."

I ruffle his hair, and Louie smiles at me. I head over to the elevator, and it displays a number 1 at the top, saying that's where the elevator is. Louie just groans and leads me to the stairs. We have to go all the way down from the 50-something floor to the first floor, taking multiple breaks to rest my knee. When we get to the dime room, Louie holds Lil' Bulb up to the doorknob, and Lil' Bulb unlocks the door.

Louie states, "And that's how you unlock a door! Good job, Louie."

Lil' Bulb glares at him, and I lightly elbow Louie, saying, "You mean, 'Good job, Lil' Bulb'."

Lil' Bulb calms down, and Louie says, "Finding one specific dime in this mess is gonna be a big job. Well, you'd better get to it!"

He punts Lil' Bulb into a coin pile, and I smack the back of Louie's head.

I say, "You gotta be nicer when someone is trying to help you, Llewellyn. What does the dime look like?"

Louie rubs the back of his head, responding, "It's... like a dime- Eh, you'll find it."

He then sits down against the wall, watching something on his phone. I help Lil' Bulb look for the dime, ignoring Louie as I'm a bit mad at him. I turn my back to Lil' Bulb as I continue searching. That turned out to be a mistake because when I turn back to Lil' Bulb, he's upgraded himself into one of the coin-grabbing machines. I back up by Louie to protect him, and a dime rolls past me and over to Louie.

He finally looks up, saying, "Hey, you found it! Great job, little... buddy?"

Lil' Bulb spots the dime too, running over to us. Louie and I run out of the room as fast as we can, Louie running much faster than me. Lil' Bulb crashes through the wall, clumzily chasing us, thankfully just slower than me. We go up the stairs as fast as we can, Lil' Bulb gradually gaining on us. We finally make it back to the top floor, fueled by adrenaline.

Louie spots Gyro at the vending machine, yelling, "Ah! He's turned against me!"

Lil' Bulb smashes through the door to the staircase.

I continue, "He's sucking up all the dimes! Help! Help!"

Gyro sighs and pulls out a notepad, quickly writing something down before running after us. Louie and I run down a hall, hoping to lose Lil' Bulb, running into a random door to hide and catch our breath. I slide to the floor against a bookshelf to rest my knee again. The room turns out to be a library of some sort, and a woman who looks like a librarian is holding Dewey and Webby in her arms.

They yell, "Louie! Izzy! Over here!"

Before either of us could do anything, Lil' Bulb smashes through the door.

Dewey says, "Uh, never mind!"

Louie points behind Lil' Bulb, exclaiming, "Look! A distraction!"

Lil' Bulb falls for it, and Louie and I run under its legs.

It follows us, and Louie mutters to me while running, "Lazy Tuesday equals and afternoon of TV. Hard work equals giant robot attack - Great life lesson, Scrooge!"

I respond, "I doubt this happens every day. This one was kinda your own fault!"

We run into Scrooge's office and hide behind a couch. Lil' Bulb stops chasing us for a moment to suck up the dimes from the couch.

Gyro finally catches up to us, catching Lil' Bulb's attention and saying, "No! You are not evil. You are good, Lil' Bulb! Good!"

Lil' Bulb picks him up and scans him. Gyro has a face full of hope for a moment before he's flipped over, and the coins are sucked out of his back pocket. Lil' Bulb then drops him and tosses the couch we were hiding behind. Lil' Bulb starts trying to suck Uncle Scrooge's Number One Dime out of Louie's hand. Just as he loses his grip, Gyro gets back up and tackles Lil' Bulb. The dime falls out of Louie's hand, rolling into the meeting room. I help Gyro fight Lil' Bulb as Louie sneaks into the meeting room to get the dime. Soon after, Lil' Bulb, with Gyro hanging onto it, bursts into the meeting room.

Gyro exclaims, "Just a little malfunction! Definitely not evil!"

Part of the machinery breaks off, pulling Gyro along as Lil' Bulb swerves out of the room and near the Money Bin vault. I see Louie run out of the meeting room, and Lil' Bulb sucks the dime out of his hand, but it rolls near the Money Bin vault, with Louie chasing after it.

He yells, "No! No! No no no no no no, mine mine mine, please please please MINE!"

The dime falls into the pile of money at the bottom, and I walk over to him, saying, "Oooof course."

The both of us head over to the ladder and climb down into the money pile.

We start sifting through the coins, Louie frantically saying, "Gotta get the dime, gotta get the dime! Oh, a quarter!"

I see it just past Louie, exclaiming, "Wait, there it is!"

Louie starts wading over to it, grabbing it and shoving it in his pocket. I hear commotion getting closer above us. I look up and see Gyro wrestling with Lil' Bulb on the diving panel at the top.

Gyro suddenly chuckles a bit as he says, "Oh, I know what went wrong! This is a 75-watt bulb. Lil' Bulb's only built for 50! Ha ha, he just went mad with power."

Gyro replaces the bulb, and Lil' Bulb disassembles itself from the coin-grabbing machine. The machine opens, spilling its contents just next to Louie, narrowly missing him.

Gyro shouts down to him, "So, you write me a check, or?"

Louie growls at him as we wade back over to the ladder, climbing back up it. Just as Louie gets the dime back onto the velvet pillow, Uncle Scrooge bursts through the meeting room door.

Louie and I are trying to catch our breaths, and Uncle Scrooge says, "Oh, there you two are. Oh, don't be so dramatic, a little work never hurt anybody."

Louie and I finally catch our breaths after a moment, but I slide against the wall to the ground again, the adrenaline wearing off and leaving me with shaky, hurting knees.

Uncle Scrooge says to Louie, "I'm proud of you, lad. Spent a full day at the office, eh? I think you've earned this."

He grabs the dime off the velvet pillow, tossing it over to Louie.

He catches it and asks, "You're giving me your Number One Dime?"

Uncle Scrooge chuckles and responds, "That's not my lucky dime! I never let my dime out of my sight."

He pulls his real Number One Dime out, revealing it to be used as a pendant on a necklace that he's wearing, reminding me of my own necklace.

He continues, "That one's just a decoy. I'm not an idiot. This place is full of lunatics! A dime sure means more when you have to work for it, eh lad?"

I chuckle and say, "Juuust wait."

Uncle Scrooge gives me a curious glance, and Louie says, "Oh, maybe I'll get my own velvet pillow for this baby, heh heh." He notices the vending machine and says, "Oh, hold up." He slides the dime into the vending machine to by a can of Pep, then realizes what he just did, screaming, "NOOOOOO!!"

I finally get up and walk to Uncle Scrooge, pulling out my penny necklace.

He asks, "You still wear that?"

I reply, "I never took it off, only kept it hidden because Uncle Donald didn't like reminders of you. After a while, I couldn't remember why he didn't like it, but I still wore it. I guess I wanted a reminder of you, even if I forgot."

He gives me a sad look, then brings me into a hug. I hug him back, and Louie walks back over to us. Dewey and Webby finally meet back up with us, and we go back down the elevator. Launchpad is waiting just outside, and we head back home. Dewey and Webby walk off, Uncle Scrooge goes into his home office room, and Louie and I collapse on the couch, falling asleep instantly. I'm definitely gonna feel that tomorrow.

~3.8k words