AN: Here it is, the sick "fic" that I previously mentioned, also featuring Cooking Cat (which I didn't plan for at all she just appeared randomly)!

Ahhhhhhh I'm so happy to hear you guys have been enjoying this fic, thank you all so much for your kind words! :D

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Snatcher was worried, but he would never admit it out loud.

The source of his, concern, was a certain hat brat that he had not seen for several days now. Typically the child would show up two days after her last visit. One day was a break for her to relax and the other was time she spent looking for the remaining Time Pieces, she had told him.

But it had been three days since he had last seen her, and he highly doubted that the brat had forgotten. Some days it seemed like she lived off of making him irritated. So where was Hat Kid?!

The shadow growled and slammed his book down on the table, leaving it there as he floated out of his home. How dare this, kid, make him feel so worried about her! It was infuriating!

He hoped she was okay.

Snatcher gazed up at the star filled sky, trying to see if the kid's ship was still up there. He could not see it, but he had something that would help with this specific task. The shadow summoned his magic and instead of creating something he imagined a specific object appearing on the ground in front of him.

A telescope appeared with a flash of purple and yellow smoke, swiftly adjusting itself so he could use it. It had been decades since he had last used this telescope...

The stars had not brought him any joy during those days, but he still kept the item around in case he ever wished to use it again. Granted for some reason he was beginning to get the urge to stargaze once more whenever the hat brat was around.

The shadow sighed and quickly got to work. He leaned downward and looked through the eyepiece. The brilliant glow of the stars greeted his eyes, but there was no spaceship in sight. He shifted the view, searching the skies for the ship.

Then again he had no idea what the brat's ship looked like. Maybe it was invisible, or perhaps it was positioned on the other side of the planet...

That has to be it!

Snatcher adjusted the knobs and the blurry outline of some strange object floating in space focused until it came into view. It was a wooden spaceship?

The entire spaceship seemed to be made out of some kind of wooden material. From his view, Snatcher could make out a large glass window that made up the front of the ship, with some kind of attachments on the top, bottom, and side, all held together by a gold coloured frame.

Well, the kid's ship was there, but was she inside?

Why the heck was the telescope rocking?! The shadow pulled back, ready to see if one of the legs for the stand had broken, when he noticed his hands. They were shaking. He growled and tried to get them to stay still.

The hat brat was fine! She had fought him and lived, so nothing could beat her!

But what if she was injured and needed help. She was still a child, and all alone.

She made it out of her manor alive, and beat that stupid living outhouse, all on her own!

She has no one to help her if she gets hurt...

"FINE!" The shadow snarled, his magic lashing out around him, avoiding the telescope in his rage. He would check on the stupid brat then, and she would be perfectly fine!

"Uh Boss, are you alright? I felt your magic go all wonky..." Snatcher spun around and faced the Subconite that had appeared behind him. He could sense the worry being projected off the smaller shadow and had to focus for a moment to control his own magical aura.

He felt a little bit irritated when he realized one of the emotions his magic had been expressing was concern over the hat brat.

Ugh, he had to go check up on her. How annoying.

"You're gonna go check on the newbie, right Boss?" Well, at least Snatcher would not have to worry about telling his minions his plan since they already knew thanks to his stupid magical aura letting them know!

The shadow sighed. "Yes, it's been too long since I've last tormented the kid, so I'm gonna check up on her and give her a piece of my mind!"

Both of them knew that was not true.

"I want you to tell the others about this so everyone knows where I am. If anything happens, or if you think something's happening, let me know!" He said, tone serious and allowing no room for argument.

The kid could be bleeding to death in front of him, but if there was a whisper of something being wrong with his subjects Snatcher would abandon her in a heartbeat.

Why did his whole body go cold at that thought? Why did his hands start shaking in fear?

"Of course Boss!" The Subconite said, nodding their head as they answered. Everyone was starting to get worried about whether the newbie was okay, even the Dwellers!

The shadow smiled once at his subject, happy to know the village would be alert if anything happened. It was one less worry on his mind. Now he had to go take care of the other one. "I'll be back soon."

And with that, Snatcher made his way up to the spaceship.

Now since the shadow was, well a shadow, it was easy for him to simply float up towards the ship, not needing to breathe air or worry about it getting too cold for him past a certain point. Being dead had some perks after all.

Once he reached the large window that made up the front of the ship he looked inside for any sign of the kid. He had no such luck. From what he could see of the ship it was empty, but there were some doors that most likely led to different rooms. Perhaps the kiddo was behind one of those doors?

Snatcher phased through the window, completely bypassing the small hatch in the window that was boarded up, and entered the spaceship.

It was quite... underwhelming.

Sure the ship itself looked intimidating, even with the wooden paneling, but the interior looked nothing like what he had imagined. The floor was covered in fuzzy carpeting and the walls had the same wooden paneling as the exterior of the ship. There were some interesting machine that rested on the walls and at the front of the ship, which he made note of to check out later, but other than that there was nothing of interest.

He assumed that the weird models resting on pedestals on the first floor of the ship were the kid's toys and did not bother checking them out.

"Where could the kiddo be?" Snatcher said to himself as he continued floating around the room, checking out the various doorways. There were a total of four doors and something that seemed like a lift.

One of the doors led to a kitchen with a large telescope sitting in the middle of the room, another hat strange machinery sticking out of the wall it connected to. That left the other two doors and the lift. The shadow floated over to the door on the other side of the room, beside a television.

Perhaps the kid's room was near here. Kids liked watching TV, right?

Immediately after phasing through the door, there was no handle on it, which the shadow found to be a bit strange since how else would the door open, he heard something that made him freeze and a chill rush down his spine.

Snatcher heard coughing.

Dozens of thoughts rushed through his mind. How long had the kid been sick for? What did she have? Was it a cold or something worse? Did have medicine to make her feel better? Was she eating and drinking enough water? And most importantly, was she alone?

Unable to hold back the concern, and slight fear that ran through him, Snatcher floated forward into what he assumed was the kid's room.

And it certainly was a kid's room! The room itself was massive with the orange walls covered with images of strange creatures, and the floor was a plush blue carpet, but this actually only described half the room.

The other half of the space was taken up by pillows!

There were easily a hundred of them stacked up into a pile, complete with what appeared to be a diving board resting on the outer edges of the mound. The walls here were purple and had small, yellow crescent moons on them, something Snatcher approved of.

What the heck did the kid need so many pillows for?!

Finally, there room itself had very little furniture. It consisted of one bed, a closet, two tables, one located beside the bed, and two chairs, one in front of the other table and the other off in the corner of the room. There was also another telescope sitting in the middle of the room.

I'm beginning to see a theme here...

Snatcher was snapped out of his thoughts by the sound of more coughing which came from the bed. He quickly floated closer and noticed that instead of only one blanket covering the bed, there was actually three. He could faintly make out the shuddering, curled up form hidden beneath the blankets.

So the kid was here.

"Hey kid, you awake?" Snatcher asked, moving closer so he was now hovering over the blankets. A faint groan was his answer as the figure curled up more beneath the blankets. The shadow sighed and carefully began peeling away each layer, ignoring the whining coming from the figure.

Finally he pulled off the last blanket and got his first look at the kid and boy, did she look like shit.

Her entire body was coated in sweat, including the light purple pajamas she was wearing. Her skin was pale and flushed, and her whole body shuddered. Her hat was absent, and it took him a couple seconds to notice that it was off to the side, trapped under the blankets. It took the shadow only a moment to piece together what the kid had.

She had a fever.

"You, you dumb brat." The shadow hissed as he took note of the lack of food and water. So not only was the kid sick, she was also probably extremely dehydrated and hungry.

"Snatcher..." Hat Kid mumbled, opening one teal eye to stare up at him. She sounded so weak, and her voice was scratchy.

"Shut it." He all but snarled, furious with the entire situation. Why the hell was the kid sick? What had she done that would cause her to become so ill in such a short amount of time?! And WHY had she not TOLD HIM?!

WHY DID HE CARE SO MUCH IN THE FIRST PLACE?!

Because she was a child all on her own, she had no one to turn to, no one to take care of her in her time of need except for those she had met on this planet, and even if I hate to admit it she reminds me of myself a long, long time ago.

Dammit.

Suddenly a strange noise broke through Snatcher's thoughts, reminding him of the situation at hand. He would talk to the brat later about how dumb she had been in not telling anyone she was sick, but for now he had to help her get better. He glanced down at Hat Kid and felt his heart drop at the sight that greeted his eyes.

She was crying.

The soft sobs echoed through the room while the child stretched her arms up towards him. She muttered the word "please" over and over again, though the shadow did not know why. Was the fever making her hallucinate, or was it something else?

The frown on his face fell into an expression of sorrow as he took in the pleading child, still shuddering on her bed.

"C'mere, kiddo." Snatcher sighed, gently picking Hat Kid up off her bed. At once the child snuggled against the shadow, burying her face in the warm hair around his neck. The whimpering and the tears had stopped, but she was still shivering.

Once again he summoned the red blanket, which he should probably just give to the kid since she's been using it so much, and gently draped it over the child. She sighed and pulled the blanket closer, but remained as close as possible to him.

"Alright, listen you little leach." He ignored the faint giggles coming from the girl, and how much lighter he felt after hearing her laughter. "You need to drink water, and eat."

"But I don't wanna." Hat Kid whined, nearly in tears once again. She felt so sick, and gross, and pukey, she could not eat!

When she had first realized she was sick the child had done her best to eat and drink, but after throwing up several times she could not handle anything. Granted the first thing she had tried to eat were a bunch of cookies...

What? She could totally take care of herself!

Snatcher merely floated out of the room, or was about to when the door randomly opened. "What the heck?"

Hat Kid lifted her head up from the shadow's warm, fluffy chest and peered at the door. "It's motion... detective, detecting? Something like that." She mumbled, finding no small amount of amusement in looking at his stunned face.

He huffed, adjusted his grip on the child, and floated through the hallway, wincing as the doors slid open and shut behind them. He then made his way up to the kitchen, relieved when he had to actually open the door to get in.

It was official, aliens were weird.

At first Snatcher went to put the kid down so he could get her a glass of water, but once she started crying again, it was clear he had to do something else. So he carefully cradled the kid in one arm while he searched for a glass.

Luckily enough it did not take long to find the object and the shadow quickly filled it up with water. He then held it up to the child's face. "Take a sip kiddo, you need water."

For a moment the child tried to refuse, but one look at the serious expression on his face told her that any argument she made would quickly be shut down, so she reluctantly lifted the glass up to her lips. Once she took a sip of the water she realized just how thirsty she had become, and quickly drank the water.

"Not that much!" Snatcher barked, quickly taking the glass away before Hat Kid could make herself sick. Another sad whine was his answer, but he ignored it and placed the glass of water down on the counter and made his way over to the fridge to look for some food for the kid.

However, after he opened the door he was not sure describing the items inside as food was accurate. There were strange items that he vaguely recognized as meat, cookies, cheese, and milk, but the rest was nearly unrecognizable.

Was that... a burger with tentacles and spaghetti with eyes?! Aliens were so weird!

"Where's your food kid?" He asked, scanning through the fridge and finding nothing that looked suitable for the ill child to eat. He growled softly and closed the door, irritated at his failure.

"It's there." Hat Kid muttered, frustration seeping into her voice as her fever continued to make her feel terrible. "All the good food's in the fridge, and all the bad ones are in the microwave!"

... Bad food?

The shadow sighed. He needed to think of something else, and fast so the kid could start regaining her strength so she could get better. He did not dare risk using the shadows to get back to the forest to find help in case it made the child feel worse, nor could he put her down to make her some food. If only there was someone that could...

That was it!

Snatcher reached out with his magic and connected to one of his subjects. I need you to get over here fast!

Right away Boss! Was the hasty reply, and not even a moment later his subject appeared. The Subconite panted for a moment, slightly winded since the trip used up a lot of his magic, before he straightened up and faced his leader.

"What do you need Boss?"

"I want you to find that Cooking Cat creature and bring her back to the ship as quickly as possible." The shadow said. He had seen the large cat several times in his forest and from what he knew she lived in Mafia Town.

"I'll be back in a flash Boss!" The Subconite saluted Snatcher and then vanished in a puff of purple smoke, beginning his search for Cooking Cat.

Well, I better keep an eye on the kid until then.

For the next several minutes the shadow floated in the kitchen, inspecting the area. Hat Kid was lightly dozing in his arms, comforted by his presence, though Snatcher did not know this.

Well if there was one thing he could conclude after inspecting the kid's kitchen, it was that she barely took care of the place! Unwashed dishes filled up the sink in tall stacks, and there was food out everywhere! He was surprised roaches had not taken over.

Actually, could roaches survive in space? Did space roaches exist? He shuddered and made a mental note to talk to the kid about cleaning up after herself once she got better.

It seemed as though he had many things to talk to her about...

"Hey Boss, I found her!" The voice of his subject called out, and with another poof of purple smoke he appeared with Cooking Cat.

Finally!

Now the cat had been extremely surprised when a strange shadow creature had appeared in front of her and told her that his "boss" needed help. She had been, understandably, very suspicious, especially after spending so much time around the Mafia, but once he had explained what was going on she agreed to help out.

The poor alien kid had no one to rely on, so of course Cooking Cat would help her whenever she needed it! Besides, kids should not be alone while they were sick, it was a recipe for disaster!

It was also a relief to find out that she was not the only one who found Hat Kid's "food" to be quite strange.

Snatcher quickly floated over to the cat and bent down so he was closer to her height. It would be tough to force her into a contract to obey his commands, which meant he had to try and convince her to help.

Contracts were more his style, but he had always been good at speaking to his subjects!

It was an important skill for a prince to know after all.

"Listen, the kid's sick and I need you to make some soup for her." He said, tone strict and allowing no room for argument. He had expected some kind of refusal and then to have to bargain for her help, so he was surprised when the cat smiled up at him.

"Don't worry! This guy here told me everything!" Cooking Cat said, gesturing to the Subconite. "Of course I'll help!"

"Great." Snatcher said, feeling an eye twitch. He was happy that he did not have to explain what was going on, but how in the world did his subject know what was going on?!

The shadow used his magic to project his thoughts to his subject, repeating the question over the bond. How did you know what was going on?!

The Subconite shrugged and sent his reply. You were projecting your emotions Boss, everyone in the forest knows the newbie is sick, even the Dwellers.

Damn, the Dwellers could barely feel any of the magic that was projected between him and his subjects so his emotions must have been very strong for them to feel what was going on, especially with such great distance between them.

"I have to wait for the water to boil so I can start putting the ingredients in." Cooking Cat said, completely oblivious to the silent conversation going on. She turned and faced the Subconite after putting a pot on the stove.

"Can you stay here until I finish cooking? Just so I can get all the ingredients I need." The smaller shadow glanced at his leader, and when Snatcher nodded he turned back to Cooking Cat.

"Of course, just tell me what I need to do!" He said, an invisible smile on his face.

Once the duo in the kitchen started boiling the water, talking as the liquid slowly heated up, Snatcher left the kitchen and made his way back to the main room. While he was there he took a moment to glance at the planet, his planet, and enjoyed the view.

It looked amazing, he had dreamed of being able to see his planet growing up, and that dream had stayed with him after he had died but he never thought it would come true. The stars shone with their typical, brilliant light and he could make out several nebulas in the distance. The planet itself looked beautiful, it was a glowing sapphire and for a moment all the rage, pain, and sorrow inside Snatcher faded, leaving only joy.

A spot of dark purple caught his eyes and he realized that he could see Subcon Forest from up here! He could even faintly make out some of the individual trees and his home, it was incredible!

The shadow hoped everyone was doing alright, and that Vanessa would not decide to invade his territory while he was gone.

"Alright since it'll be a bit until your food's ready you can have a nap, and I can take a break." He said, floating the child back to her room. This time he did not flinch as the doors opened and closed, too tired to be bothered by the phenomenon.

Who knew that dealing with sick kids could be so emotionally and mentally draining?

"No!" Hat Kid shouted, immediately doing her best to hold onto the shadow. He could not leave her just yet, she was still sick! She quickly buried herself into the warm fluff around his neck, a poor attempt at hiding as he tried to get rid of her.

She shuddered, this time not from how cold she felt, but rather the terror that was beginning to engulf her. She would not let him!

"Young lady, you have to get back to bed so you can sleep!" Snatcher growled as he tried to untangle the child from him. Why was the hat brat acting so clingy now? She had been fine earlier!

"No, don't leave me!" She sobbed, clutching onto the shadow with all of her strength. She did not want to be alone while she was so sick! She did not want to be alone! Please don't leave me! Please don't leave me!

"I'm not going anywhere kid!" And as if those were the magic words Hat Kid stopped squirming around, but she kept tightly holding onto the shadow, ready to start squirming again if she needed to. He sighed and gently hugged the child, holding her as her sobs subsided.

After what seemed like an eternity she finally stopped crying and simply lay limp in Snatcher's arms, completely exhausted.

What. A. Day.

He sighed, relieved that the kid had finally stopped crying, but he still needed to figure out what to do. He did not want to float there holding her until the food was ready, and he highly doubted he would fit in the bed, no matter how much he altered his size.

He looked around the room, trying to figure out a plan that would let them both rest. What to do, what to do...

Snatcher grinned when he noticed something that should have been obvious the moment he entered the room. It was honestly embarrassing the fact that he had forgotten about them being there, since they were the first thing he had noticed when he had first entered her room.

"That'll work!" He said, a cheerful grin on his face as he floated over to the massive mound of pillows he had, somehow, forgotten about.

The shadow leaned back on the pillows until he was fully lying on them. They were surprisingly comfy and all incredibly soft. It looked like the kid took the most care of her pillows and everything else was less important.

"Snatcher?" Speaking of the kid, she still seemed to be exhausted but her eyes were focused on him, waiting to see what he would do.

"I told you kid, I'm not leaving." The shadow swore he had never seen such a bright smile appear on her face. It was like a miniature sun lit up the room, a supernova of light that burned away all sorrow and left only joy in its wake.

"You're so nice to me." The girl mumbled, her voice taking on a sleepy tone as she relaxed once more in his arms. "Why were you so mean when we first met?"

Because I was scared you were sent by Vanessa to hurt my subjects, because I needed someone to help me take care of the village and fix all the things that seemed to be going wrong at the same time, because I was scared you would try to destroy everything I had created to help my subjects feel safe.

Because I was scared you would hurt me, and I'm still slightly scared of that happening.

"That's a story for another time, kiddo." Was all Snatcher said, ruffling the kid's hair as he spoke. He expected her to grumble and act like it annoyed her, so he was slightly surprised when she let out a happy sigh and leaned against his hand, clearly enjoying the sensation of her hair being played with.

The shadow smiled and continued to gently pet her head in calm, soothing motions. He kept doing this after she had fallen asleep and it was the last thing he remembered doing before he too joined her in slumber.

Nearly half an hour later the Subconite entered the bedroom, followed closely by Cooking Cat. Only the cat was surprised by the sight that greeted their eyes, the small shadow had already known what they would come across based on all the emotions the Boss had been projecting.

There was one word that perfectly described the vision that lay before them.

Adorable.

Hat Kid was carefully tucked against Snatcher's chest, still covered by the red blanket he had given her. Both of her hands were buried in the warm hair above her and her face was pressed against his chest in an attempt to stay warm.

The most surprising thing about this sight, in the Subconite's opinion, was the fact that Snatcher was sleeping.

Few beings in the forest needed to sleep and he could not recall the last time his Boss had fallen asleep, never mind how relaxed he appeared to be!

Snatcher's eyes were completely closed and he had a small smile on his face. One of his hands was resting on the newbie's head while the other was resting on his side, his arm resting on top of the child to hold her in place.

If the duo listened closely, then they would be able to hear not just Hat Kid's breathing but also Snatcher's, which was yet another sign of how relaxed the shadow was. The Boss and his subjects did not need to breathe since they were all dead, but they occasionally did it as a way to remember their human selves, or ground themselves if something especially terrifying had happened.

Snatcher wanted deeply to forget about his past and because of that he rarely engaged in the practice of fake breathing. The fact that he was doing it now told the Subconite how much more comfortable he felt showing this vulnerability, this connection to who he previously was.

How much closer, at that moment, he was to his past, and true self.

"I think we should come back later." Cooking Cat suddenly said, her voice a soft whisper as to not wake up the sleeping duo. The Subconite nodded and together they quietly left the room. As he walked back to the kitchen the small shadow thought about all the feelings he had sensed his Boss projecting just now.

There was happiness, of course, a sense of calm that he had rarely felt, just a hint of concern for the newbie since she was still sick, and finally there was love, but it reminded him of something more paternal, more protective of the child he had been cradling in his arms.

The Subconite smiled to himself. It looked like the newbie was helping the Boss after all. He could not wait to tell the others!

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AN: Oh god this was a struggle to write trying to get the right balance of tsundere and papa Snatcher! This will most likely be a two-shot but I won't be posting the second part right away.

Also I wanted to know if you guys would be interested in me making a social media account to stay updated on the status of my stories. There's a poll open on my profile that you can vote in or you can leave a review telling me if you would prefer a Twitter account, a Tumblr account, or both dedicated to keeping you guys updated.

Anyways I hope you guys enjoyed and I'll see you in the next chapter!