"Ribbon, your hat is on backwards!" a certain painter remarked.
"Wait, what? I just fixed it!" a frenzied fairy exclaimed.
"I'm just kidding." the former giggled.
"Oh Adeline! How many times must I tell you, I don't like being teased!"
"Ribbon, you take things too seriously. And you're fussing waaaaay to much right now!"
"Maybe I am…But it's not like the anniversary of our liberty from Dark Matter comes every day."
"You mean 'it's not like Kirby comes to visit every day'."
Ribbon rolled her eyes but blushed a dark red. Somehow Adeline discovered that she was writing letters to Kirby. Even though Ribbon trusted the painter to keep it a secret, she wished she didn't know since Adeline was bound to tease her about it every now and then.
In just an hour, Kirby would arrive and that would make it complete. The whole group of heroes would be there for the celebration. Due to certain circumstances, they didn't get together very often but they all agreed to meet up at least once a year on the important anniversary.
The fairy looked through her notebooks and wrote a few things down. A faint smile appeared on her face as she thought up some ideas for a surprise. The fairy herself didn't care for surprises very much. Neither in the giving of them or the taking but it was fun to do it once in a while.
Outside she could see tiny snowflakes falling softly. All the trees and various plants were covered lightly in the early snowfall. The houses were trimmed in white and fairies flew down the streets to avoid stepping in the powdery snow. Delicate patterns were imprinted on the windows and the frost lined every nook and cranny. Fluffy clouds floated overhead and were blown around by the icy wind.
Ribbon hoped it would warm up a little as she felt a bit nasty in cold weather. It wasn't too terribly chilly but she was worried that some fairy would catch a cold. She positively couldn't afford that to happen.
Ribbon looked out the window at the castle. Outside she could see the queen strolling about. Usually the fairy queen was indoors in this type of weather but at the moment, she was enjoying the snowfall with a particular penguin.
"Dedede is to Queen Ripple as Kirby is to you." Adeline remarked as she noticed what Ribbon was looking at.
Ribbon sighed and placed her hands on her hips. "Adeline, why are you so interested in other's love affairs?"
"I'm not. Really I'm not. I'm just teasing you because you need to lighten up. You're so nervous right now."
"Am I? Well, I think you're right. How about some lunch."
"Sure, I'm game!" Adeline neatly put her colorful set of paintbrushes away and walked over to the kitchen. "This sure is a nice cottage you have here. Though I wonder, why'd you move away from the castle?"
"I don't like crowds or attention and that's all there was, so I thought I'd take a vacation, that's all."
"Oh. But didn't you have more fun at the castle? I remember you would host magic shows and stuff."
"Yeah but that always made me super antsy. Like I said, crowds and attention just aren't my thing."
"But you're still hosting the anniversary party, right?"
"Yup. That's the last event I figure to be in charge of so I want it to be perfect."
"You also want it to be perfect for Kirby too" Adeline said playfully.
Ribbon smiled and rolled her eyes again."Eat your mush."
The fairy glanced out the window again. "I wonder if I should tell Queen Ripple to go inside…She's rather wise about ruling but she sure is absentminded about herself. She'll probably catch a cold."
"Let her be. So what if she gets a cold. She's having fun!" the painter exclaimed.
"Yeah, but I don't want the party to be spoiled because she's sick."
"Stop worrying so much! Besides, sometime or another, she's going to have someone else be taking care of her."
"I hope so but who knows…" Ribbon wondered if Dedede was right for the queen. It was anonymously agreed that they were suited for each other but Ribbon was still a bit doubtful.
"Hurry and finish up or else we'll be late" Adeline pulled the fairy out of her thoughts.
"My my, how time does fly." Ribbon glanced up at the clock and saw that it was time for Kirby to be arriving.
Once finished with lunch, the two ladies rushed down the streets. Ribbon had to wait for Adeline a bit because the latter didn't have the convenience of wings and didn't want her shoes to get wet.
Pretty soon they arrived at the rather small landing. "No sign of Kirby yet…" Ribbon muttered
"Well, I'm tired of waiting…I could just paint him here!" Adeline suggested playfully.
"That wouldn't work, silly. All we'd get is a clone, not the really Kirby."
The two girls waited a half and hour more before they could see Kirby's starship flying in. "Hey!" Kirby waved to them and jumped out of his ship. "Sorry I'm late…"
"That's fine. How have you been?" Ribbon asked.
"Doing good, and yourselves?" he inquired politely.
"Oh com'on, why so formal? Now that you're here, our band is complete! How about we go adventuring like old times!" Adeline said, laughing.
"No thank you, I've had enough of 'adventuring' to last me a lifetime!" Ribbon exclaimed.
"I wonder about that." Kirby mumbled as he looked over the fairy. She had grown a bit since he last saw her. She was taller than him now and looked wiser and a bit more stately.
"Anyway, let's go inside. You must be a least a bit cold." Ribbon broke the awkward silence.
"Yeah." Kirby mumbled.
The three chatted about various topics as they made their way to Ribbon's cottage. "I'm going to go see what's happening around. See ya later!" Adeline exclaimed as she winked at Ribbon.
"See you around." Kirby said as he and Ribbon stepped in her cottage.
"Have a seat." Ribbon muttered as she pushed the hair away from her face. She put her glasses on and opened up her notebook. While scribbling down various ideas, she chatted idly and enjoyed a rather pleasant afternoon.
Ribbon hopped on her little footstool and rearranged the artificial flowers. It was the third time she had done so but it was of great importance that even the littlest of things were just perfect. Even though many would not notice the tablecloth was absolutely smooth or the tapestry was hanging at the perfect level, she strove to make it faultless anyway since seeing a job well done was rather pleasing to her.
"Ribbon, dear. You shouldn't work so hard." Queen Ripple remarked.
"It's fine. I'm working so you don't have to. Besides, I want everything to perfect. After all, I am in charge of this whole event!" Ribbon answered cheerfully.
"If you say so. Don't push yourself too hard now." the queen said with a smile.
Ribbon stood back and admired her decorating. Although there was many fairies who kindly volunteered to help her with the project, she was determined to do it completely by herself.
As soon the queen left, Ribbon smiled playfully. Dashing to the kitchen, she pulled a gorgeous cake out of the oven. It smelled heavenly and looked wonderful Grabbing all sorts of decorations, she carefully frosted the cake. It was her own recipe and it took long to prefect it but she was sure that everyone would love it.
Just when she was almost finished, a small face peeked in. "Kirby! What are you doing here?" the fairy said in shock as she attempted to hid the dessert.
"I just thought I could maybe help you…" Kirby replied, wondering why Ribbon was being so secretive.
"No. That's kind of you to offer but I reeeealy don't need any help." she attempted to say in her sternest voice which wasn't that stern.
"If you say so…" Kirby stepped out, wondering what Ribbon was planning. He was always fond of desserts and the particular one Ribbon was hiding looked delicious.
Ribbon adjusted the bow in her hair and brushed the wrinkles out of her dress. "This is going to be amazing!" she thought to herself.
Ribbon quickly made her way to the large dining room where the party was going to take place. Already the guests were flooding in and having a good time. It was easy to host parties for fairies as they weren't very picky. All Ribbon had to do was greet the important guests and she was free to enjoy her hard work.
"Ribbon, you look wonderful tonight." Kirby complemented her.
"How kind of you to say so." she desperately didn't want to sound stiff and formal but she never figured out how to respond to complements. They always made her feel embarrassed.
Across the room, a small band of fairies played various instruments and sang softly while delicious treats were handed out. After all was done eating, the queen gave a small speech as was customary and then the fairies paired up and started to dance.
Ribbon smiled deeply as she inwardly rejoiced the party was going fine. In the back of her mind remained the terrible memory of the last party she hosted where she messed up badly. Naturally everyone wasn't that upset and forgot all about that event rather quickly but Ribbon still remembered and that memory hurt her because she was rather fragile and took things a bit too seriously.
"Hey, Ribbon, why don't you show us some of your magic tricks, just like old times." one of the fairies spoke up.
"Yeah, that would be splendid!" another exclaimed.
"Well, I'm not sure…"Ribbon really didn't want to do it since that was the cause of her last failure.
"It would be nice to see you preform for us again. You're so talented, after all." one of the fairies said.
"Okay." she mumbled. Ribbon's spells lighted up the room as the different colors showed brightly. Then the little sparks of light exploded like glitter. Ribbon then charged up a large spell for the finale. Out of the corner of her eye, she could see King Dedede about to eat the fabulous cake she baked.
Forgetting everything, she rushed to stop the penguin. The magic exploded with her sudden movement and the cake exploded with it. All the unprepared guests were suddenly pelted with the flying desert. Seeing the horrible mess and thinking all the guest would be terribly upset, Ribbon ran out of the castle.
"Don't stand there gaping!" Adeline nudged Kirby.
The pink warrior took the hint and rushed outside. There the fairy was crying out in the snow and brushing herself off. "Ribbon, are you alright?" he asked.
"I did it again…I messed everything up." she cried.
"Ribbon, it's okay." Kirby reassured.
"But it's not! Everyone probably mad at me again and they'll never trust me ever, ever again!"
"Aww, you know that isn't true! Everyone is having such a good time that they won't care."
"I still messed it up again I wanted this party to be especially good because of your birthday!"
"Wha-"
"Don't you remember. Before we went out to fight the last battle, you told me about it. You were shy about your birthday because you weren't sure what was the exact date of it or of your origins. Well, I wanted to thank you for trusting me enough to confide such touchy information and I wanted to give you a real birthday party, so I baked that delicious cake. I wanted you to have the first slice. I-it was your favorite flavor."
The fairy burst into sobs again as Kirby hugged her. "It's alright, Ribbon. It's the thought that counts and I'm very grateful to you for remembering about my birthday, as uncertain as it is."
"You're not disappointed?"
"Of course I'm not. Now, let's go join that party. The night isn't over yet!"
Ribbon nodded and reentered the dining room. She was about to formally apologize for the mess when she saw that everyone was cheerfully eating the remains of the desert.
"Why didn't you tell us you could bake so well!" Dedede laughed.
"You're all not mad at me?" Ribbon question, quite surprised.
"Of course not!" Adeline exclaimed as she started a regular food fight with all the cake.
Ribbon smiled and giggled gratefully as she got pelted in the face with her delicious cake.
A/N: Was planning to make it longer but I kinda ran out of ideas so I hope that didn't sound rushed. I hope you really enjoyed this and as always, thanks for reading!