The stars shone like a black carpet with a flashlight being flashed through holes poked with a needle. They were wonderful, of many different colors, of different sizes and appearances! How marvelous they were to the knave's eyes...
Sword sighed sadly. He couldn't find the constellation he was looking for, the Candy Constellation, people called it.
Every night when Sword couldn't stop his mind from racing, he climbed onto the dome of a roof of Castle Dedede to look at the stars and memorize the constellations he saw, but that wasn't the real reason he was there; that was what he would say if anyone asked.
Sword loved the stars, but that night, something was missing from his life, and for a short amount of time it had been gone, less than a day, and though he couldn't place the loss it still put him into a funk. He didn't know what it was, but he could feel the hole in his heart as it let in the demons of loneliness.
Sword sighed and took off his helmet to get a better look at the swath of black carpet above him. The night was chilly, and even though his helmet had trapped his warm breath until then, not even the softness and warmth of a blanket could satisfy his loss.
"What is it I lack?" Sword whispered to himself, "I don't see why I'm so depressed all of a sudden. I should be happy, I love to patrol and Nightmare has been defeated. What else could I desire?"
Sword laid back and put his arms behind his head as he stared into the twinkling lights above him. "Go to sleep," the stars told him, "What you lack is sleep..."
Sword drowsily smiled and fell asleep, right there on the roof of Castle Dedede... But was awakened when a loud ringing sound pierced through his doze. It sounded like something metal had slammed against the stone Sword was laying on.
Sword sat up and looked around, but relaxed when he saw no one was there. He pulled his feet up to his chest and turned to gaze at the ocean. How spectacularly the full moon was reflected! How milky white the still ocean seemed with the celestial wonders above it!
A bitter breeze bit through the chinks in Sword's armor, causing him to shiver violently. He wished he brought a blanket to battle the cold. Sword jumped slightly as he felt something wrap around his shoulders, but calmed down when a familiar, feminine voice behind him laughed a laugh that sounded like church bells.
"Blade. I'm so glad you could make it tonight," Sword complimented as he turned around to face his companion.
"I wouldn't miss our stargazing nights for anything, Sword. Sorry I'm late, Meta Knight made me do his patrols since he found out the prank was my idea." Blade chuckled, "But was I the only one of us that didn't take the punishment too seriously?"
"Not at all." Sword blushed, remembering the chest with all the ability hats and how Meta Knight said that he thought that if he shot an Angel Kirby arrow at both his knaves, nothing would be different. Meta Knight meant that as a joke, but both knaves knew that what their master said was true.
Blade snuggled up next to Sword and set her helmet next to his as she looked up at the stars. "Wow, Sword, look at them tonight! They're amazing! I've never seen them like this!"
Sword smiled and wrapped an arm around Blade as she scooted into his lap. "I heard the stars are supposed to be easier to see during winter, something about the moisture in the air being frozen that makes it dense and somehow lets more light through. All I got from it was, 'It's cold in winter at night.'"
Blade chuckled at Sword's remark as he went on, "It's a good thing you brought a blanket tonight, I probably would have frozen if it wasn't for you." Sword pulled the blanket around Blade and himself to keep snuggly and warm, but mostly snuggly.
The two sat in silence, observing the beauty of the natural world as each thought about what stars were and how they were so delicately made so as to be a certain size or last a certain amount of time.
Sword caught a movement from the corner of his eye. "Look," Sword leaned forward and pointed to the right, and Blade could swear she felt his lips stroke her ear as he spoke. Where Sword was pointing was a cluster of shooting stars.
If the sky was a black carpet with holes poked through, what Sword and Blade were marveling at were the needles that stitched patterns into the sky with bright, white thread. One of the shooting stars was bigger than the rest and blue instead of white.
"Make a wish," Sword whispered in Blade's ear.
"I wish that no matter what happens to us, even if time itself breaks or Popstar is destroyed, that we will always be together forever." Blade murmured as she squeezed Sword's hand.
Sword hugged Blade a bit tighter, but most certainly not too tight, and planted a peck on her neck.
Blade giggled, turning her attention to her companion, "Sword... You know how I feel about that..."
Sword responded by smiling and pecking the base of Blade's neck again.
"Sword, don't..." Blade closed her eyes.
Sword continued kissing Blade's neck and she started squirming to get out of Sword's hug, but to no avail as Sword leaned over and rested on his side, taking Blade with him.
With one of Sword's arms between her and the roof, Blade was able to escape Sword's grasp and sit upright. Sword followed and Blade eventually rested in Sword's lap again, wrapping her arms around his shoulders as she always did. Sword rested his head against Blade's and recognized the scent of her hair. 'Like raspberries and wood smoke, only it smells almost separate. I love her so much.' Sword thought as he looked at Blade's pale, upturned lips.
Blade pointed up. "See that big, red star?"
Sword looked to where she was pointing. "Yeah, the one with the two coming down from it, right?"
"If you follow the those two stars to the left and right, you can make out a star shape on top of a nearby swirling galaxy some people call the Milky Way, and under the Milky Way are six big, blue stars. Do you know what constellation that is called?"
Sword hummed, "Mm... It's familiar... It's on the tip of my tongue... The constellation that looks like a lollipop was..."
Sword left the sentence to hang as he racked his brain for the name of the constellation, too focused on Blade to remember what he was doing before her arrival.
"Do you want me to tell you?" Blade suggested.
Sword nodded dumbly.
"It's the Candy Constellation, because it looks like a lollipop. It's said that there is a huge structure floating in that constellation, and that the structure even has gravity. Barely anyone has seen this structure though, and very little is known about it."
"Then how do you know so much?"
"Kirby told me about it."
"But Kirby can't-"
"Meta Knight taught me how to speak Kirby," Blade interrupted, pressing her index finger against Sword's lips.
"What else does Kirby say?" Sword tilted his head to punctuate the question, releasing Blade's finger.
"He said that I'm very lucky to have someone like you to spend my life with. I wonder what he would have said if we were still foolish bandits?"
"How does Kirby know? About us?" Sword asked with a worried tone.
"He said that it was obvious because we are made for each other. We grew up together, made bad decisions together, beat stuff up together, and we're barely ever apart except for patrols." Blade paused to think for a moment, "And if one of us got injured in battle, the other immediately rushed to protect them, like the time that Wolfwrath paralyzed our master."
Sword shuddered from the horrible memories that came from that little episode, but also realized how much better at communicating he and Blade were since then. Sword looked directly at Blade as he murmured, "We've come a long way, Blade. I think I'm proud."
"Me too," Blade replied, turning to Sword.
Their faces were less than an inch apart then. They could feel each other's breath as brown eyes locked with yellow. The eyes closed and two pairs of chapped lips met. Blade took Sword's breastplate in her right hand and used it to pull herself up to Sword's height so they didn't have to crane their necks.
It wasn't the most extravagant kiss ever with the cold and the chapped lips, but it beat being possessed by one's best friend into doing it with someone much older on a bathroom floor.
Sword stroked Blade's face while Blade ran a hand through Sword's black hair. Both knaves simultaneously collapsed onto their sides, cuddling close together.
Sword ran his unoccupied hand across Blade's bright red hair and made a loose fist around her ponytail, stroking it gently so as to not pull her hair too hard.
Blade massaged the back of Sword's neck, working halfway up his head and returning to the base of his neck, then trailing a finger up to his face and bringing the couple's lips together more fiercely as she cupped his jaw line in her hand, making Sword shift in surprise with a suppressed moan.
The knaves savored the last few moments of their lip-lock then separated for breath.
"I love you, Blade," Sword whispered in his counterpart's ear, eyes still closed and arms still hugging.
"I love you too, Sword," Blade replied as she went back in to enjoy Sword's lips all over again.
As their lips made contact, Sword realized the feeling of loss was gone and what the feeling of loss was. Sword couldn't stand being separated from Blade, no matter how long the time period. He needed her just to survive. Sword didn't feel whole without Blade by his side, and it was the times like these that he loved most because he finally got to be with the one he loved, the one that made him feel whole.
Sword grinned at his newfound realization and softly placed his hands on the sides of Blade's face, wanting to express his full love for her but not knowing how.
The two separated again and Sword decided to try to convey his love to Blade. He took Blade's hands in his own and stared into her eyes. "Blade-"
The same clanking noise from earlier, only louder, made both knaves jump and look toward the entity that made the sound, hands on the hilts of their sword and blade respectively.
"Oh, hello, was I... interrupting anything?"
Sword and Blade struggled to make out the silhouette of the intruder and recognized the rounded hourglass shape as their master. Both knaves paled considerably and tried to think of any excuse as to why they were tangled up in a blanket with each other on a roof without their helmets on.
"... We felt bad about pranking you and Fumu so we punished ourselves..." Blade improvised.
Sword nodded vigorously to back her up.
"Or was it that in my joking comments I may have struck some truth?" Meta Knight asked as he struggled to keep his eyes from turning too pink, "Carry on, then."
Sword and Blade had never heard more relieving words in their lives.
"Thank you, Sir Meta Knight," Blade thanked.
"I'm just glad I'm not the only one who goes out on the roof in the middle of winter to see the stars." With that, Meta Knight walked to the other end of the dome to give his knaves some privacy.
"Where were we?" Sword asked his girlfriend as his fingers played with her ponytail.
"Here," Blade slurred through Sword's lips.
'Right where I always want to be,' Sword thought to himself as he let Blade take him away.