A.N.: This was partly inspired by 1Thunderfire's fics focused on Meta Knight and Bayonetta, "The Lollipops Are Mine!" and "Masks", go check out their stuff!
The other inspiration is because of Cereza's name, I found out what it translates too on a medicine box in a Walgreens.^.^
And Holy crap, I just realized that this is my 40th fic ever on this site. WOOOT!:D
"C'mon, Meta Knight! The Hands want ta get all of dem villain fighters announced so far together ta pose for reference fer a painting they're making, and evidently, you count!" King Dedede clapped Dreamland's most trusted knight on the back playfully as he hobbled off to follow the other villains heading towards the designated picture posing spot.
Meta Knight for one, was completely off guard since one, he wasn't anticipating any sort of mild attack from any of the other Smashers no matter how chaotic the halls of the Smash Mansion tended to be. Two, he was walking along side Bayonetta, and now he would have to give a brief explanation about another snippet of his past that he'd rather not ever come up into conversation because of ill judgement on his part.
"I'm never going to live that evening down am I?" He muttered to himself but Bayonetta was able to pick up on it regardless.
"Obviously not if you count as one enough to have to pose for a portrait. If you would be so kind as to enlighten me on that single evening that you were a villain?" She asked, looking to him and noticed that his eyes were a bright pink in embarrassment.
"I… When the Halberd was first completed, I had kept its construction a secret initially because I decided to try my hand at taking over Dreamland, King Dedede was not a very good king at the time, hence why he is also considered a villain, and why I tried to take over using the Halberd. However, there was one member of my crew that I did not choose wisely and ignored my standing in the chain of command. He used my ships weapons without my permission and could have very easily hurt my pupil in the process. Thankfully we all underestimated Kirby, and I suppose karma did not like me that day either."
"I blew up his ship and it fell into the ocean, poyo!" Kirby quipped as he sped past the two mature warriors. He had been playing the tag version of Hide and Go Seek with the other kids and was dashing off to another hiding place, he just happened to over hear this particular conversation and couldn't help but put his two bits in if only to embarrass his mentor further in front of his potential girlfriend from another universe. He would gladly take whatever punishment Meta Knight would have in store later if it meant that he was able to give his mentor a slight nudge towards a potential romance. Meta Knight deserved all the happiness across the universe after the toll of the last two adventures. Of course since the little star warrior was dashing, he didn't have time to add that at the time it was also the first time he had ever seen Meta Knight mad enough to almost actually kill him especially after breaking his mask again. Luckily there was a corner he rounded to escape any immediate wrath his mentor could muster.
"Let me guess, the little one managed to do that single handedly?" Bayonetta prodded if only to attempt to calm the knight down seeing as his eyes went from bright pink to red of obvious anger. Thankfully her prodding worked as his eyes turned bright pink again. Probably in part to her reminding him of his present company.
"Yes, I wasn't exactly happy about it either even if it was all more my fault than his, I nearly did something I would regret and still do to this day. I'm still surprised he forgave me so easily, since he already had quite a month of excitement during that time." Meta Knight sighed with a tiredness of a thousand regrets. "I only hope you do not think ill of me from now on."
"Now why in the universe would I do that when you've already told me of your other mistakes of not being able to control yourself?" Bayonetta nearly scoffed at the absurdity of what he just said. But she continued in a softer tone to ease his worries, "It's all in the past dear, and I know you've already learned so much from since then. Obviously you salvaged that beautiful ship of yours since its flying today. Regardless, it's only fair that I share one final secret of my own since you've indulged me with this well guarded secret of yours…My real name is Cereza, but you don't have to use it if you so wish." She turned to him to gauge his reaction and found that his eyes were a darker pink, for amusement if she remembered correctly. He was even shaking as if to keep himself from laughing.
"Good, I'll continue to call you Bayonetta then, because you really don't look like a 'Cherry' to me." She could practically hear the smile he was hiding under his mask. They also dutifully ignored a surprised sound coming from Pac-Man at the mention of the fruit in the next room over.
Before anything else could be said between them concerning the matter further, King Dedede popped his head around the corner looking slightly irritable.
"Come on, Meta Knight! None of us got all day!"
"I suppose you'll have to excuse me for an undetermined amount of time." Meta Knight sighed exasperatedly.
"You go on ahead, how about we have a match first thing tomorrow morning to make up for it?" Bayonetta suggested playfully.
"Excellent idea, I'm looking forward to it already." Meta Knight replied, his eyes shining green in seriousness. He took a few steps forward and took off with his wings to go and get this over with. "Until then!" He called back with a small salute as he rounded the corner Dedede had popped his head out from. Unfortunately he had to fly over two of the latest arrivals who were born and bred as superstitious, as Simon and Richter Belmont gave chase because they still believed he was kin with Dracula, just because of his wings.
Naturally Bayonetta heard that bit of commotion from around the corner and sighed in exasperation herself in knowing she should go and help her constant companion as of late. As she reached the intersection of the hallway, she noticed Kirby was still nearby, hiding by a potted plant from his game with the other children, but had obviously still caught sight of that commotion.
"Come along little one, we wouldn't want your mentor to get his Sunday best branded into with a cross, now would we?" Bayonetta asked with a cheeky smirk that looked ready to punish those that stood in her way.
"No way, poyo!" Kirby replied cheerfully and dashed after her to go knock some sense into the two members of the Belmont family, completely forgetting about the game he was supposed to be playing.