A/N: Did you think Cos had the ability to write ~4800 words of complete nothingness? You thought wrong. She did. I have no idea what prompted me to actually post this besides the fact that I was going to post it when I started writing it…I started this on August 2nd as well, so it's been more than a month that I've been delaying/working on this. Animal Crossing fans will probably get the inspiration for this fic.
Also, this would take place a year or two after the events of the anime ended, probably just before the gameverse would begin. Thus the reason why Kirby's already-decent-in-the-original-Japanese-version vocabulary has taken a step up—but only when he wants to, of course.
Disclaimer: I own no Kirby in no way (papers), shape (I'm not shaped like a ball), or form (no stuffed versions of him at the time...).
Meta Knight stood on top of an overlook of the valley. The fireworks looked beautiful tonight, and the only clouds in the sky were far away on the horizon. It was extremely dark out at this point, mainly because it was 11 o'clock at night. The fireworks had started at 7 that evening as soon as twilight fell and would continue until midnight. The decision to run them so long and late was because of the lack of fireworks so far in the summer; it was August and there had been only a small celebration in July for some event no-one knew much about. Meta Knight had opted to miss that one, but much regretted it, so of course he had attended this one. He was glad he'd gone—it was utterly beautiful.
Fireworks were everywhere, and they were every color imaginable. Dark reds and oranges, flashy yellows, light greens, sky blues, grape-colored purples; all mixing together in the sky scattered at completely random places…The spontaneity of their location and color only made the display more appealing to him. Occasionally a big firework or two would shake the sky alone, but Meta Knight preferred the smaller clusters instead. He wasn't entirely sure why; he could confess to being a bit superstitious and clusters of fireworks meant teamwork while single fireworks meant strength by yourself.
Even as he thought about that, a huge blue firework shot into the sky and exploded, fading to a medium shade of purple. Once the firework was done, a smaller cluster of multi-colored fireworks went off, with the blue one fading into purple while the pink one faded to dark red, a yellow firework turned to bluish green, and the last firework turned from pink all the way to green. Meta Knight had to think about that for a moment. Had those fireworks been deliberately planned out? It seemed like it; what with the way the colors so perfectly coordinated themselves with himself and his friends. He had to admit, though…he still liked the fireworks when they were in groups, so he supposed that it meant he wouldn't be any worse when it came to working with others. Hm, this fireworks festival was being more happily profound to him than whatever New Year's celebrations there were.
Of course, he'd always had a soft spot for seemingly 'childish' things; fireworks being one of them. He'd stayed behind at the castle when Sword and Blade had wanted to leave (they were going to watch from somewhere else; the exact location had slipped his mind). Once they left, he had snuck out. Making it to the spacey plateau had been a bit of a challenge with the plains in front of the castle, but Dedede and Escargon were probably inside moping instead of watching the fireworks…
…well, he hoped they were. No way he wanted them to see him out here, especially while he was enjoying himself. Even the weather was nice tonight; with the temperature being milder than the normal heat (perhaps even a bit cold, if you weren't used to it) and a nice, cool breeze was blowing at just the right few seconds. A faint smell of the ocean was carried up toward him, and he breathed it in gratefully through his mouth as if he were drinking it. After the heat of the summer, he was thankful for this cool spell. He'd always preferred cooler climates to the heat; cool climates perked his abilities and always kept him awake, while hot climates almost drugged him and made him feel like lying out on the ground and sleeping for a season. He was particularly alert tonight as well despite his fatigue; this was probably the lowest temperature that the place would get down to all year, with the current temperature being 60 degrees. He was surprised that more cappies didn't have blankets. He wished he knew how many did and didn't.
He hadn't gone down to the field of course; he wasn't sure what the townspeople would think. He was curious about what was going on down there but didn't want to display his ignorance. He thought he would have been able to see from here…apparently not as well as he thought. But he was sure nobody would stir up a lot of trouble about his sudden appearance at this hour of the night; most of the children were probably in bed—except Fumu, Bun, and possibly Kirby, though even they might have returned home at this point. He dearly hoped not; it would be terribly awkward to head down to the village and then have no-one intelligent to talk to. He hated to admit it, but almost every cappy resident utterly lacked common sense no matter how smart they were in their professions. Fumu and Kirby were the only ones he could feel comfortable talking to for long periods of time; Escargon was intelligent to some degree but Meta Knight didn't like the snail. He was still a bad guy, and couldn't get over his spiteful tendencies even when he wasn't with Dedede. The knight couldn't understand how Fumu could tolerate him enough to actually work with him. Probably the same way he tolerated the snail, which was by forcing himself to.
Meta Knight let out a high-pitched yawn as he briefly lifted his mask. He liked the feel of the wind blowing across his cheeks, and since nobody was around, he might as well enjoy—
"Poyo!"
The blue puffball was suddenly knocked over by a familiar friend's tackle. "Mmph, Kirby! Nice to…see you tonight, eh? Could you get up? I…can't see…"
Kirby rolled off Meta Knight, who rolled himself upright. The blue puffball usually appeared to be bigger and taller than Kirby, but the height difference was only minute when the two were compared fairly (like now, when they were sitting)—anybody who studied Meta Knight closely would notice that he stood on tiptoe as much as possible, and wrapped himself up in his cape so that nobody would notice. Meta Knight pushed the mask over his face. "Kirby, is anybody else around?"
Kirby shook his head/body. "No, poyo."
"Good." Meta Knight sighed in relief before pushing the mask back onto the top of his head. "It's nice out tonight, isn't it?"
"Yaiy, yaiy!" Kirby clapped his paws in front of his pink little face (instead of the species' usual tendency to clap their paws over their head). "Are…you gonna play? With the…spahklers?"
He could see that Kirby was trying to look casual, but hope still managed to shine through on his face. Meta Knight thought for a moment.
Eh, everyone was probably getting ready to go to bed anyway. They wouldn't remember him in the morning.
"Sure Kirby," he chirped. "Let's go!"
"Poyay!" the pink puff shouted. "Les' GO!"
Meta Knight pushed his mask down over his face and started to trot after Kirby before picking up the pace a bit and starting to run. Kirby noticed this and increased his speed as well. Soon both of them were into a race to the village, with Kirby taking the lead and Meta Knight trailing two or three feet behind. When they reached the edge of the village, Kirby stopped to catch his breath. Meta Knight halted as well, except he was breathing a little harder. He'd tripped while trying to jump over a boulder halfway through and had had to run twice as fast in order to catch up to Kirby. He put one of his paws against the ground for support until his body stopped shaking. Kirby looked at him in concern.
"You okay poyo?"
"Yes, I'm…fine…just…a bit…tired…"
The blue puffball yawned again, and Kirby followed suit a few seconds later. The two stood outside the village for a while before Kirby poked his friend in the side.
"Yes Kirby?"
"Let's-a go." Kirby stated firmly, narrowing his eyes at him.
"Kirby, it's just that—"
"GO, poyo!" Kirby nudged him toward the village. Meta Knight took a silent breath before following Kirby down the road.
The village was quiet on the outskirts, presumably because everyone was in bed. There would probably be more cappies toward the town square, which was where the two were heading. Just before they reached the center of town, however, Meta Knight stopped. Kirby looked at him questionably.
"Let's watch them from here for a moment. It's darker here, so we can see them better."
Kirby knew his friend was stalling the event of having to approach the townspeople, but followed him anyway. They were on the edge of the town square, something that Kirby knew but Meta Knight did not. The two puffballs stood to the outskirts of the square in what they thought was a shadowed corner, watching the fireworks for a little while.
"Wish I had faiyrwohks…" Kirby muttered enviously. Meta Knight nodded in agreement.
"Hm? Give you fireworks, you say?"
The two puffballs immediately dropped their gaze from the fireworks and started looking around frantically to see who had said that. Mayor Len was standing right in front of them, something they noticed in about five seconds. The duo looked at the mayor curiously, but he just stood there thinking for a moment before he burst out laughing.
"Heh heh heh! Hahaha! Aren't YOU a little firecracker, Kirby! Ha ha ha! Ah, I remember the first time I saw fireworks, I thought the same thing. Here. We have some leftovers for you." He took two boxes out of a bag on his shoulder and handed them to Kirby, who jumped up and down happily. The mayor then looked at Meta Knight. "Oh, here, Sir Meta Knight. You can have some too."
The cappy reached into the bag and handed the boxes to Meta Knight. "Well, if you needed to light them, which I'm pretty sure you do, Fumu's still over by the fountain area with the candles. If both you and her run out of sparklers, then just come find me; I'm sure we'll still have some."
Meta Knight nodded (or, at least, he tried). "Um, thanks."
Kirby hesitated for a moment before stating, "Than'kh you Mayh' Len."
With that, the two of them walked off toward the fountain area—with Kirby leading again, and Meta Knight following. It was hard for him to remember where everything was when there wasn't some sort of crisis going on. As they were walking along, a question came to the blue knight's mind.
"Kirby."
The pink puff turned to him. "Yeah poyo?"
"You talked to the mayor instead of saying 'poyo'. I thought you were afraid of talking to others?"
Kirby thought for a moment as he was walking along, with a maturity he did not usually let show apparent in his eyes. "Figured…Kaabii would hafta talk sometime. You talk. I cuh jus'…be quiet like you. Fumu…like you still even…when you quiet."
"Really?" Meta Knight tilted his head. "She got a little—well, kind of—annoyed when I leave without saying too much."
Kirby rolled his eyes. "Miss Fumu jus' angry. Meta Naito sound smarter than Fumu…so she nah like."
"Oh. Wait…" Meta Knight narrowed his eyes. "Since when did you become so insightful?"
"A'ways!" Kirby chirped happily. Meta Knight grinned. "Really."
"Ree—lly!"
The two carried on guarded conversation when the cappies weren't around (Kirby was still nervous to speak), and when the cappies were in the area, they simply waved. It was strange, but Meta Knight found himself strangely relaxed even among creatures he thought he didn't like. Perhaps he was being a bit biased against them. Maybe all creatures were like this. If that was the case, then he felt bad for judging them…he supposed they'd never had a reason to be smart but some common sense would at the very least help them.
Kirby's eyes lit up when he saw Fumu sitting on the edge of the bench, trying her best to look alert even though sleep was obviously pressing hard on her. Kirby walked over to his friend and jumped up and down in front of her, trying to startle her out of her sleep-induced coma. Fumu blinked slowly before realizing who was standing in front of her and smiling. "Hi Kirby. Did you get more sparklers from somewhere? I thought you would've gone home by now."
"No poyo." He stated happily, shaking his body. Fumu held up her candle.
"Here's the candle; everyone else has already gone so you're the only one, for now. I'm staying until the bitter end."
Both puffballs could see that she was tired, but was not going to give up easily. Kirby glanced toward the bushes where Meta Knight was standing, and Fumu followed his gaze. She grabbed Kirby's paw briefly when she first saw him, but then relaxed when she figured out who it was. "Oh, Sir Meta Knight. I didn't expect you to show up tonight when I didn't see you, but I should've guessed you'd come later."
The blue puffball hesitated, but walked up to her anyway. He desperately racked his brain for something to say explaining the entire situation but found nothing; the sparklers were still in his paws too and how long would it be before she noticed them? He could light them when she wasn't looking but he'd planned to just go up and hang around and maybe give his packs to Kirby but now that they were by themselves he wasn't sure what to do. He didn't want to embarrass himself in front of Fumu (or anyone, for that matter), but he wanted to talk to her for the rest of the night, but—
"Do you watch a lot of the fireworks? I mean, even if you were by yourself?"
"Hm?" Well, there went his train of thoughts for excuses. "It depends. I missed the last one for some reason, so I had to come to this one." It was so much easier to say stuff when Sword and Blade would state anything he thought might be stupid, but…he was all alone now. Time to be as tough as he thought he was. "It's been beautiful so far. How about you? What have you been doing this evening?"
"Oh, I've just been in charge of the candles and sparklers this evening. Speaking of which, Kirby, didn't you have some you need lit? You're all by yourself now, so just stick the tip in there whenever you need to now."
Kirby stuck his sparkler in the candle, and before long he was admiring the sparks that flew off the tip of the metal stick. Then he looked over to Meta Knight. "Poyo?"
Both Fumu and Meta Knight glanced at him questioningly. Kirby pointed to his sparkler a few times, then to Meta Knight's paw. The blue puffball took a step backwards as he saw Fumu glance at the boxes of sparklers in his hand curiously. "Aren't you going to light yours?"
Meta Knight paused. Then something in his head told him 'Go for it; she won't care.' It had been a while since he'd messed with these (actually, it had only been two years) and he'd missed the sparkle and colors from the miniature fireworks.
He was going to jump onto the back of the bench so he didn't seem shorter than the other two, but he figured that it would be a bad choice with all the fireworks so close. Instead, he sat down next to Fumu on the end, probably so he could run off if somebody else came by. Kirby yawned as he sat down on the ground next to the candle. The wind didn't blow as much on the ground, which made the sparkler burn much better. Meta Knight was relieved that Fumu didn't mind him 'playing' with the sparklers. Then again, she didn't really mind when he did various other things that seemed immature (standing on the heads of Dedede sculptures came to mind, along with hiding whenever the king had a job for him to do, helping Fumu and Bun with a prank or ten, overreacting/getting duped by the king on a few occasions, and various other activities). That was something Meta Knight liked about hanging out with the kids and Kirby—he could be himself without having to worry about whether or not they would take him seriously when they were done.
"Sir Meta Knight."
"Hm?" He could feel Fumu nudging him. He opened his eyes halfway and looked up at her. She was staring at him with a bit of concern.
"You looked like you were about to fall asleep. I wouldn't want you to get burned. See, Kirby put his down before he fell asleep."
Meta Knight glanced down at where Kirby was sitting. His firework lay extinguished a safe distance away from him and he was leaning against the bench breathing quietly. It made Meta Knight even more tired and much to his dismay, he found himself yawning. Fumu soon followed.
"Hm, both of us are equally tired. I can't even depend on someone else to stay up for me." Fumu stated, rubbing her eyes while giving him a weak grin.
"Do you need me to stay up?" Meta Knight offered, looking almost innocent as he tilted his head in a hopeful manner.
"Huh? Oh, no, Sir Meta Knight. I only positioned myself here so the adults could enjoy the party. I'm not required to stay here for any given time. I just…didn't feel like letting it sit until the end with no-one here, you know?"
"Mmhm—um, y…yes…I think that's great. That you, you know, decided to stay."
"I…suppose so, now that I think about it. But someone had to. It just wouldn't feel right to leave all the sparklers and candles sitting out here with nobody watching them. That could be bad."
"It would be bad. Everything's made out of plants in this village."
Fumu grinned. "Well, Sir Meta Knight, there's not much else to build them out of around here. Nobody sells stones and bricks any more except for repairs."
Meta Knight paused. "What repairs would those be for?"
"Dr. Yabui's office and the streets, probably. And the castle. I have no idea where Dedede gets the Waddle Dees to go to find the replacement bricks."
"He most likely just orders them from some online company. I mean, if Nightmare Enterprises actually bothered selling him a cold virus, imagine how normal other companies must be in comparison."
"Hm, I never thought about it that way. I guess that would make sense. Here, you wanna try a Roman candle? We have a few sitting around."
"Um…"
"It's kind of like a sparkler, but it makes different colored sparks and little shapes occasionally, too." She added swiftly, catching on to his obliviousness. True to her suspicions, the blue puffball jumped down to the area where she was sticking the Roman candle in the ground. Fumu grinned; Meta Knight's silence meant that he was embarrassed about not knowing what the Roman candle was. It wasn't nice to leave him humiliated, although it was funny to see him act so bashful. Fumu was torn between taking up a topic that would make him forget about it or playing with him a little more. When she'd first met him she'd been reluctant to tease him or yell at him, but when she realized he meant no real harm and only wanted an equal to talk to, she'd been quite a bit more open toward him to say the least. She didn't yell at him too much, though…and usually went back and apologized later ( In secret, of course, because she hated people knowing about that sort of thing). Fumu lit the Roman candle, and the pair watched as it burned and snapped with little bursts of colors and sparkles. A few times little star-shapes or swirls would fly out, which made it all the more interesting to watch. It took her a little while to notice, but Meta Knight had his paw out flat near the candle as if he was trying to catch a shape to examine. Fumu stuck her hand out as well, much to his momentary embarrassment. After what seemed like both forever and not long enough, the candle was reduced to a little stick. Fumu could've sworn that Meta Knight's eyes were about a quarter of the way open; his face was leaning downward under his mask so she couldn't tell. "You wanna try another one?"
The question seemed to catch him off guard. "Hu—oh, yes, please. That was…that was great. Thanks, Fumu."
The cappy grinned and reached over to her bag. "So, how is everything? Is Dedede up to anything suspicious; Escargon yelling at Bun; some evil threat overshadowing our lives, or is everything just normal for now?"
"Surprisingly enough, the last one." Meta Knight reached up and got the bag for her. Fumu nodded her head in acknowledgement.
"Well, that's good. I mean, the peacefulness is just a bit…weird for now. Especially after all the chaos we used to have."
"What did you do before all this trouble was caused? Same thing as always?"
Fumu stopped for a moment. "Well, I…guess I just studied books. Although I did end up studying a lot more after Kirby showed up because…well, you know why."
The two sat in the silent darkness for a while longer, watching the fireworks and generally conversing. Eventually they wound up back on the bench, used fireworks in a small pile by the fountain. All the supplies were neatly stacked up. And strangely enough, the area was still deserted. The two looked around warily as Kirby slept.
"Is it just me…" Fumu started. "Or did everybody forget about us?"
"It's not like anybody knew me and Kirby were out here in the first place. Or, maybe they did and figured they'd avoid us." Meta Knight inwardly breathed a sigh of relief about the sentence he had tacked on; just stating the first one would imply that they were ignoring Fumu and he didn't want her to feel depressed.
"Still, you would've thought mom and dad would be after me already, telling me to go to bed or be careful or something. I swear, it's nice that they worry, but I can do things myself, too." Fumu sighed. "Sorry, I must sound like a spoiled brat."
"You don't. I can see your reasoning." Meta Knight stated awkwardly.
"Thanks." The awkwardness seemed to spread into silence. After what seemed like agonizing hours of quiet, Fumu spoke again. "I mean, you're really the only one who can see my reasoning easily. I like that."
"Reasoning is something I use a lot." Meta Knight replied bluntly.
Fumu let out a sigh of irritation. "Why do you keep giving me dead ends for conversation? If you're going to say something vague, could you at least continue the line of thought for me?"
"What more do you want me to continue with?" he questioned.
"Hm." Fumu paused. "Well, now that I think about it, I can't really think of anything wrong with your last points. It's just that…"
"That?"
"Why'd you stay and talk with me? No one else would for this long; I'm too technical." She joked.
"No; other people are just dumb." Meta Knight said stubbornly.
Fumu grinned slightly. "Harsh, aren't we?"
"The truth hurts."
"Well, not for Honey and Hohhe. The adults won't stop gossiping about them." Fumu rolled her eyes.
"What about Honey and Hohhe?"
"Oh, nothing, it's dumb."
"Don't worry about spreading gossip. It just means less eavesdropping for me."
"You eavesdrop a lot?" Fumu asked suspiciously. The knight shrugged.
"When I can. How else do you think I found out about the demon beasts ahead of time?"
"By reading Dedede's catalog, for starters."
Meta Knight looked away for a minute while Fumu giggled at his embarrassment at being found out. "Thought you were clever enough to be the only one who bothered flipping through it, didn't you? Well I did too."
Meta Knight was still quiet. Fumu put a hand on his back. "Don't worry, I'm just joking around, you know. I don't expect you to know everything, even if you think you do."
"I don't. Anyway, you had something to tell me?"
"Hm? Oh. Honey and Hohhe are dating. Mama and Papa won't stop talking about it. They keep pestering me to uh…find somebody. It's a bit annoying."
"Do you like anyone yourself?"
Fumu's head immediately snapped toward him, and Meta Knight shifted a bit. "Sorry, just trying to make conversation…it's not exactly my strong point and I'm socially awkward…it's not like I'd tell anyone anyway…"
"It depends. Since you're trying to make conversation, how about you answer the question first?" Fumu shot back smugly, seriously hoping that he had some sort of romantic inclination so she wouldn't look like a fool.
Meta Knight clammed up for a few seconds before coming up with a feasible response. "Well, I was really basing my answer on yours, so…why don't you go first."
"Then I wouldn't know whether you were telling the truth or not! Besides, it's not like I'd tell anyone." Fumu retorted.
"But I'm intelligent. I keep my feelings to myself when it would be best."
"Well come on! I have a hunch and I want it—"
Suddenly, a shadowy force from behind shoved Fumu into Meta Knight and off the bench. Fumu lay still for a moment, a bit dazed from the impact. She pushed herself up to look around, but her hand came down on something warm and soft. She blinked before looking down and noticing that she had landed on a half-conscious Meta Knight. Her cheeks turned red, but luckily it was dark out so nobody could see. She gently got off him before offering him a hand. He seemingly ignored the gesture and started to push himself up instead, so she grabbed his paw and pulled him up herself. He stumbled a bit before regaining his composure and shaking his cape off slightly. "Fumu, are you okay?"
"Yeah, but…" she looked around. "Who did that?"
The duo gazed around cautiously, inspecting the surrounding trees, rocks, and bushes. Fumu gripped Meta Knight's paw as they slowly scanned the area. After a while, the two went back to sitting on the bench and relaxed.
"Well, Kirby's here, so we hopefully shouldn't have anything to worry about." Fumu said with a smile.
"You're saying he's more reliable than I am?"
"Hm? No! You're both powerful. It's just that there would be two of you against whatever trouble came up. I guess I'd just be sitting to the sidelines being useless, eh?"
"You're not useless. You're our inspiration." Meta Knight argued.
"Um, repeat that? What's the reasoning behind that?" Fumu questioned.
"You're important to us. You're our friend. And you're always there to cheer Kirby on; nobody else does. I don't even do that."
"You do, you just are more subtle about things."
"Yeah, I guess so."
Fumu leaned against him. "Well, I'm being subtle. Wanna guess what that means?"
"It…could mean…a bunch of things…but…"
"You won't say 'cause—" Fumu yawned. "—you think you'll be wrong."
"Let's just enjoy the fireworks…for now. They should be ending pretty soon…"
"Yeah…but…you should really quit being so…evasive…"
"I don't know what you mean."
The duo leaned against each other's sides and stared at the fireworks on the horizon. The two tried to stay awake as best as they could, but they were both utterly exhausted. About half an hour later, the two were asleep, as was everyone else in the village…
…except Kirby, who seized the opportunity to put their hands together when he woke up to get a midnight drink from the water fountain that everyone had been dipping their used sparklers into.
Trivia: The scene with Mayor Len included a quote from Animal Crossing: Wild World, where Mayor Tortimer talks to the protagonist on the date of the summer fireworks festival:
Tortimer: Hm? Give you fireworks, you say? … Heh heh heh! HO HO HOORF HEEORF! Aren't YOU a little firecracker, LuigiFan! Well, here's a (Roman candle or sparkler). Now, impress us all with its sparkle!
I'm not for sure on his last sentence because I used up all his supplies. –sweatdrop- Oh well. I loved writing that scene anyway. The reason the air of the fic is so happy and innocent is because I was listening to the 'Fireworks Show' theme from the aforementioned game, which is also where the cover came from…
Trust me, the rest of my FumuxMK oneshots will not be as utterly crappy as this one; like I said, this was one I just had sitting around that I decided to throw out on the table as a cookie. I doubt anyone will like its flavor, though; it would be like making a coconut-flavored cookie. (oh wait, there are lots of cookies with coconut in them…)