Adeleine hummed a sweet little tune to herself as she used several carefully-placed brush strokes with a few occasional glances at the subjects of her art. Then she frowned. "Guys, I need you to hold still!"
"You tell that to the spider crawlin' up my back!" Dedede said, jerking his thumb at said spider.
"Come on, Dedede, this is the only spot I'm visible and in frame!" Taranza protested.
"But do ya have to cling to my back so tight?" the king asked. "I mean, you can fly for Pete's sake!"
"Yeah, but… your robe's really fluffy," Taranza said.
"Okay guys," Adeleine interrupted. "I can't make a steady painting if you're all constantly fidgeting. Soooo…" She pointed her brush dramatically at the one front and center. "Kirby, quit trying to use my paint tubes as toothpaste!"
"Poyo?" the puffball asked, his voice muffled by said tube of paint stuck in his mouth.
Adeleine pointed again. "Ribbon, pick a spot and stick with it."
"But I can't decide!" the fairy protested, flitting about around Kirby's head. "I mean, should I rest on Kirby's head or lean up against his side? I can't decide which one makes me look cuter!"
"I honestly don't care which one you pick, just pick one," Adeleine said. She pointed at Meta Knight next. "Meta Knight, you need to…" She trailed off when she heard something strange. A rhythmic, slow, deep breathing.
"Is he…snoring?" Rick asked, sniffing curiously.
"Yep," gargled Kine from within his tank. Coo nodded in agreement from his perch on top of the tank.
Dark Meta Knight scoffed from the other side of the group, as far away from his rival as he could get. "The buffoon's fallen asleep standing up with his eyes open. How is he considered my adversary again?"
"Actually," Daroach said, "that's quite impressive."
Adeleine ignored the snide comments of the mirror entity. She looked at the leader of the Squeak Squad. "Daroach, is there any chance you can maybe tilt your hat back up?"
The rat, one claw keeping his hat firmly planted over one eye, raised an eyebrow. "Why exactly would I do that?"
"So I can paint your whole face, dummy!" the artist said.
"Hmmm…" Daroach tapped his chin with his free claw. "Nope."
Adeleine sighed and looked at the jester. "Marx, get off the ball. Or if you won't, quit bouncing around on it."
"Okay," Marx said, balancing on one foot on the beach ball. "Then if you're asking me to quit playing ball, then I'll ask you to quit painting. Sounds about equal to me."
Adeleine gave a frustrated huff. She heard some beeping and looked at the technician. "Susie, please get off your tablet."
"No," she replied, furiously tapping away on her handheld device.
Adeleine crossed her arms and tapped her foot, getting more paint on her smock in the process. "Are you going to give a reason why?"
"No," Susie replied, not even looking up.
"Susie, maybe do as she says?" Magolor suggested.
"No," Susie said.
"Hey lady, we're trying to make a painting here!" Flamberge shouted.
"Calm down, Flam," Francisca said, but her fiery sister was ignoring her.
"I have important work to do," Susie said. "Haltmann Co. isn't going to run itself."
"You can do it later!" Flamberge said, grabbing Susie's tablet and trying to yank it out of Susie's grasp.
Susie scowled, trying to pull the tablet. "Hey, give it back!"
"You can do your dumb work stuff later!" Flamberge said, yanking it toward her.
"It's not dumb!"
"Hey calm down now, ladies," Dedede said. He took a step forward, then he fell over onto his belly, Taranza stuck to his back.
"So fluffy…" the insectoid said.
"Would you get off already?!" Dedede said in protest.
Kirby was apparently finished playing with the first tube of paint, as evidenced by the blue splotches all over his face, and had moved on to the next one.
Dark Meta Knight's eyes were even more smug than ever. "Just as disastrous as I predicted."
"Nobody asked for your opinion," Daroach said with a glare.
Dark Meta Knight harrumphed, leapt up, and kicked Daroach's hat off his head.
"M-my hat!" Daroach said, patting down his balding head. He glared daggers at the mirror master. "You'll pay for that!" He tackled Dark Meta Knight to the ground and the two became embroiled in a less-than-epic fistfight.
From there, everyone had devolved into petty squabbles and loud arguments with the exception of Meta Knight (who was apparently still asleep) and Gooey (who was trying to see how long he could hold himself up on his tongue). Adeleine looked between all her friends, watching them fighting amongst themselves, and felt her heart begin racing. Then, suddenly…
"GAAAHHH!" Adeleine screamed, throwing her palette and brush on the ground. Everyone froze and stared at her. "That's it! If you guys aren't going to take this seriously, then neither will I!"
At that, she stomped away, leaving behind a very flabbergasted group of friends.
"Addy mad?" Gooey asked.
"You could say that," Bandanna Dee said with a sigh.
Flamberge scowled at Susie and let go of the tablet. The robot girl didn't seem too eager to return to her all-important work anymore. Daroach firmly planted his hat back on his head and stared at the ground.
Ribbon hummed in thought. "You guys stay here, I'll go talk to her." At that, she took to the air, flying off in the direction the young artist had stormed off in.
Ribbon found Adeleine sitting against one of the castle walls right around the corner. "There you are!" she shouted in relief, flying up to her friend. "We were worried about you."
Adeleine sniffed and Ribbon realized something with shock. "Oh no, are you…?"
Adeleine looked up, her eyes puffy, red, and filled with tears. "Y-yeah," Adeleine said.
Ribbon sat down next to her friend. "Do you want to talk about it, Addy?"
Adeleine replied with another sniff. With a flick of her wrist, Ribbon conjured a handkerchief from thin air, giving it to the artist. There was a sound not unlike a bike horn, and Adeleine had successfully cleared out her sinuses.
"Thanks," Adeliene said with a shaky yet less stuffy voice.
"Addy, we didn't mean to hurt your feelings back there," Ribbon said.
"I know," Adeleine said. "It's just that… a whole lot happened to us lately. Meeting Kirby again. Getting to meet his allies. Fighting that Void thingy. I just wanted to make something so that I could always remember this stuff. You guys are my friends, and I love being with you, but I just don't know if it'll always be that way."
"What do you mean?" Ribbon asked.
"I mean everyone's gonna move on eventually," Adeleine said. "You have to go back to your planet, Magolor and Taranza are going back to wherever they're from, Susie's got her business stuff. I'm just… I'm just afraid we'll all forget each other if we spend too long away. That's why I got everyone together to make that painting." Then she scowled. "But everyone's just treating it like one big joke! It's so frustrating!"
Ribbon frowned and took her friend's hand. "You know what? We will never forget anything about what happened recently. Real friends don't forget each other just because they have to go away for a while."
Adeleine looked at the fairy. "But everyone was fighting and yelling. It was like they didn't even care."
"Addy, friends bicker sometimes. That's normal. I'm willing to bet that everyone is back in the courtyard right now feeling sorry about what they did."
Adeleine gave a small smile. "Even Dark Meta Knight?"
Ribbon laughed. "Even that old grump, as much as he would try to hide it."
Adeleine took a deep breath. Then she stood up and wiped the tears out of her eyes. She gave Ribbon a look of confidence. "Okay, let's go."
"That's the spirit!" Ribbon said, following her friend back to the courtyard.
When they got back to the courtyard, they were very confused by the sight they saw. "Uh, you guys okay?" Adeleine asked.
"Yep," Bandanna Dee said. Everyone was frozen in place, smiling and staring straight ahead.
"We are very sorry to have caused you so much distress," Zan said. "We didn't realize how much this meant to you."
"So to make it up to you, we're going to hold perfectly still until you finish your painting," Magolor said, hands clasped together.
"Poyo!" Kirby said, arms out wide.
Adeleine looked between her friends and smiled. "Thanks, you guys."
Ribbon floated over and rested on Kirby's head. "Well, go on then!"
Adeleine nodded and walked back over to her canvas. Someone had propped her brush and palette back up on the table next to it, and she took them. She returned to humming as she painted, the courtyard much more peaceful than before.
"Aaaand done!" Adeleine finished her painting with a flourish of her brush. She placed the palette and brush on the table and waved her friends over. "Come on, you guys, take a look!"
Everyone rushed to stand behind their artist friend to look at what she had done.
Everyone was standing together, just like in their poses. The colors were bright, and everyone had a smile on their face… except Meta Knight and his monochrome double on the count of their masks.
"It looks amazing, Addy!" Ribbon said.
"Hey, could you just learn to lighten up a bit, Reflecto?" Daroach asked.
"I thought I had?" Dark Meta Knight said in confusion.
"Addy very good painter!" Gooey said, hopping up and down. "Addy get Gooey's good side!"
"Thank you guys for being patient with me," Adeleine said.
"You're the one who should be thanked!" Magolor said. "You're the one who put up with our antics long enough to make this masterpiece."
"So… where are we going to hang it up?" Marx asked.
Everyone stood there for a moment in deep thought. Then The distinctive loud laugh of King Dedede filled the courtyard.
"I'm thinkin' I know exactly where to put it!" Dedede said.
"A little more to the left!"
At Dedede's command, Taranza hovered it more to the left.
"Nah, I'm thinkin' it's better to the right."
Taranza huffed in frustration, but did as he was told.
"Okay, now it's all crooked."
"JUST PICK A SPOT ALREADY!" Taranza said.
Dedede gulped and nodded. "Uh, looks good where it is now."
Taranza sighed in relief and fastened the painting to the wall directly above Dedede's throne, on full display to anyone in the room.
"Now that's what I call art!" Dedede said.
"You're just saying that cause it's got your face on it," Taranza said.
"Rather selfish of you to claim ownership of the painting immediately," Dark Meta Knight said.
"I'm not claimin' anything," Dedede said. "Addy signed the thing, didn't she? I just wanna put it where a lotta people will see it."
"Well when you put it that way, it does sound marginally better," the reflected warrior said.
"I love the idea, your majesty," Adeleine said. "Anyway, with that done, Ribbon and I are going to get something to eat."
"Yep, I'm hungry," Ribbon said. She hugged Kirby. "See you tomorrow, Kirby!"
"Baiiii!" Kirby said cheerfully as the two friends left.
After the artist left, Taranza sighed. Dedede turned to look at his friend. "Something wrong?"
"I still feel really bad about what we did," Taranza said.
"Indeed," Zan said, brushing a strand of yellow hair out of her eyes. "I wish there was something more we could do to make up for our mistake."
"Poyo!" Everyone turned to see Kirby was playing with another tube of paint. Then he swallowed it, tube and all. In a puff of smoke, Kirby now had a brush in one hand and a beret covered in dried paint on his head. He waved the brush around with a big smile on his face.
"I think Kirby might be on to something," Coo said. Kirby was frantically pointing at the painting. In an instant, Daroach disappeared and reappeared on the back of the throne, peering at the painting closely.
"She's got a great attention to detail," Daroach said. "Except she did forget one thing."
"What's that?" Magolor asked.
Daroach turned around. "Check it out."
Everyone looked at the spot he was pointing to and all of them realized the problem immediately.
"W-what?!" Francisca flew up to the painting, shoving Daroach off the throne to get a better look. "This is terrible!"
"Poyo!" Kirby nodded, sweeping his brush side to side in the air.
Susie nodded in understanding. "I think I know what he's trying to say."
Meta Knight rubbed his hands together. "So, how's everyone's artistic skills?"
"Better than yours," Dark Meta Knight replied.
"No peeking, okay?" Ribbon asked, hands firmly planted on Adeleine's eyes.
"I already said I wouldn't," the artist said, a little annoyed. "Like, five times."
"Okay, now stop moving," Ribbon said, fluttering away. "No peeking!"
"I won't!" Adeleine said. She stood there for a while, eyes squeezed shut and foot tapping in anticipation.
"Okay…now!" At Ribbon's voice, Adeleine opened her eyes.
"Surprise!" shouted twelve voices in unison.
"Poyo!" Kirby said.
Everyone was standing in a line, each with something covered in a bedsheet right next to them.
"What's all this, guys?" Adeline asked in confusion.
"We still felt bad for being so uncouth," Susie said.
"So, we decided to try our own hands at art," Marx said. "Uh, so to speak."
"Gooey do better than finger paint!" the blue blob said. "Gooey do tongue paint!"
Adeleine looked at all the covered canvases. "Well, let's see them then!"
In unison, everyone turned and threw off the covers. Everyone had made paintings of varying quality. All of them were of one person.
"Is that…?" Adeleine said barely above a whisper.
"We noticed that you forgot to put yourself in your own painting," Meta Knight said. "So we decided to correct the problem."
Adeleine, hands covering her mouth in surprise, walked up to each painting. They were in varying styles, but all of them had the specifics. Green dress, red beret, short black hair, paintbrush and palette. They were all unquestionably paintings of Adeleine.
"Guys, these are beautiful!" Adeleine said.
"Not bad for our first attempts," Daroach said.
"Yep, went super smooth!" Flamberge said, looking very proud of the canvas covered in shapeless color splotches that vaguely resembled Adeleine's color scheme.
"Flam, you set five canvases on fire before you got it right," Francesca said.
"Yeah, I sure showed you, Fran," Flamberge said. "You thought I'd set ten on fire!"
Coo looked at Kine's painting. It was actually one of the better-looking ones any of them had managed. "How the heck did you manage to paint that?"
"Sorry," Kine said from within his tank. "Trade secret."
"You look really proud of that painting," Bandanna Dee said.
"I went for a more minimalist style," Dark Meta Knight replied.
"You drew a stick figure," Bandanna Dee pointed out. "With a potato on her head."
"That's a beret!" Dark protested.
"It was all his idea," Ribbon said, pointing at Kirby. He was covered in various colors of paint, most of which weren't even colors he used in his painting. He smiled at Adeleine.
Adeleine looked at the pink puffball and laughed. "Kirby, you're the best." She turned to the rest of them. "All of you are amazing. You're the best friends anyone could ask for!" She opened her arms wide.
"GROUP HUG!" Taranza shouted, using his six hands to draw everyone close to Adeleine. There were some shouts of protest at first (mostly from Daroach, who's hat was nearly knocked off, and Dark Meta Knight, who was just being himself), but then everyone quieted down and leaned into the massive embrace.
At that moment, Adeleine thought that she had never felt more at home.
A/N: This'll just be a collection of one-shots centered around Kirby and the Dream Friends from Star Allies. Lighthearted fun and misadventures abound. Leave suggestions for possible scenarios at your leisure.