It was late, and Mickey's Garage was virtually empty save for four souls, Mickey himself, his dog Pluto, and the chipmunks, Chip, and Dale. Mickey was working these wee hours of the night on a car that needed to be fixed by the next afternoon. Pluto had his dog bed at least but the chipmunks, though small enough to sleep anywhere in the garage they could ever want because of their small size, would rather go home to their tree and sleep in their own little beds, but kept watch on Mickey out of duty and the need to spot for him since the mouse was under the car and needed to be spotted for safety reasons anyway.
This particular car that he was working on just happened to be a picky witch with a 'b' to fix up. It had been to two other car repair shops before it was brought here as a last resort. The time frame couldn't have been worse though as it was brought in just minutes before closing time, and that was at least four hours ago, plus the fact that it needed to be fixed by the next afternoon really made the time crunch be felt. The insides were fine by now, Chip and Dale made sure of that, but the underside and other parts needed a ton of TLC. The only upside to all this work and effort is how much it was going to cost, even though with Mickey being as generous as he naturally was in trying to keep his rates fairly cheap, this case was going to be one heck of an exception.
Aside from his own roadster as well as his friends' roadsters, Mickey set up his garage to be a place to fix other people's cars, for the sake of the extra cash if and when racing didn't cut it for whatever reason. He did have bills to pay after all for both here at the garage and his own house just down the hill, which was big enough to serve as a clubhouse for everyone to stop by and relax if need be, safety in numbers and all that jazz especially in case of emergencies like storms hitting Hot Dog Hills.
As Mickey worked seemingly tirelessly as the hours ticked by, Chip and Dale constantly tried to get him to take a break or at the very least get some sleep by taking a nap if he was pulling his actual first all-nighter since he opened the Garage. Pluto whined to him too but only once before falling asleep and staying asleep. It came to the point that the chipmunks would pester him about it every fifteen minutes, then they started making bets using acorns as the prize on whether or not he'd crack and finally take a break at the very least.
It wasn't until a new voice was heard, a voice from someone who was guaranteed to talk some sense into Mickey, that he paused in his restless work.
"Goodness, don't tell me he's still open at this hour." Minnie's voice came from the front door of the garage.
"Not really," Dale sighed before continuing. "He's just got one last car that needs ta be fixed by tomorrow, but he refuses ta get a headlamp or something so we can turn the main lights off so that we can sleep while he works."
"What Dale means by sleep is us taking turns making sure Mickey doesn't hurt himself, even though he's been at this since that car got here just before closing time. We've been trying to get him to take a break but he won't budge. Maybe you can talk some sense into him, Minnie." Chip elaborated and hoped with all his might that Minnie could sway Mickey. If anyone could, it was her after all.
"I'll certainly try." Minnie told the chipmunks quietly. Then she stepped closer to the car her beloved was working on. "Mickey~ you had best come out here and take a break. Surely there isn't too much more that can't be done tomorrow." She said in a low tone with authority in it, despite still sounding as sweet as possible.
In all technicalities, he had taken a break since the moment he heard her voice, but he wasn't going to argue with her either, as he looked back to his progress he noticed that he couldn't focus properly. So out he came on the board he was laying back on.
"Yer right, I can finish up tomorrow. Thanks Min, I was starting ta go buggy eyed under there." Mickey chuckled uneasily after sitting up and stretching out the kinks in his back.
Minnie arched her brow skeptically at him before she spoke. "And you couldn't take a break sooner because…?"
"Because I wasn't buggy eyed before ya showed up." He answered automatically without thinking. It wasn't until he actually looked at her and saw how beet red she was that he realized he accidentally implicated something. So he corrected himself in a way that wouldn't get him in trouble with her, albeit nervously. "I mean, I was doin' just fine up until I heard ya come in and when I looked back at my progress, I realized I was goin' cross-eyed, and how tired I actually was, heh."
"Uh-huh." Minnie narrowed her eyes in her skepticism now that she regained her senses from his witty save. She was flattered regardless of whether he meant to imply anything or not, even if it was obvious that he didn't.
"So, uh, what brings ya by otherwise?" Mickey asked to jump to a new conversation topic.
"You built the garage on a hill, Mickey, and the place is lit up even brighter than Donald's lighthouse. It made me worry about you and here we are, I got to stop you from pulling an all-nighter." She deadpanned.
"Go ahead an' turn off the main lights fellas and go on home if ya want," Mickey said aside to Chip and Dale. As they eagerly set off to do as they were told he turned back to Minnie with a skeptic remark of his own. "Ya sure that's all yer here for, toots?"
She stepped closer to him, tugging at his shirt's loose lapels and smoothing them out, if he had a bow tie around his neck she'd straighten it out, Mickey had no doubt of that.
"Well I did say I was worried about you, didn't I?" She cooed at him, nudging her nose into his playfully.
"Uh-huh, but ya don't need ta worry none. I got everything I need right here. I put a secret loft in my original blueprints in case such a situation as pulling an all-nighter arrived. And lookie, it's happened, so…." He pecked her cheek. "G'night, Minnie." With that he pulled away and started heading toward the second floor, leaving his girlfriend sputtering after him in shock, especially since the main lights shut off at that exact moment. The moonlight alone still filtered in with plenty of light to see, since the moon was full tonight.
"You- you're not going home?"
"O' course not, the client that owns that darned car said he was coming by tomorrow afternoon ta pick it up, but he wasn't specific about when exactly in the afternoon so fer all I know he could come in exactly at noon. Which means I need to get up early enough to finish doin' what I was doin'." He told her over his shoulder as he reached a green glow in the dark button in the wall and poked it.
"Now Mickey, you better not set the alarm too early, you need your sleep." Minnie warned him firmly, so worried over his well-being that she didn't have time to comprehend the fact that he was serious about the secret loft and it was so secret that the wall moved to open.
"Min, this is the first all-nighter of sorts that I've ever almost pulled, and I'm getting enough sleep I promise. It's not like I'll sleep when I'm dead if I have to, 'cause that ain't the case." Mickey snorted at his last sentence because the first part of it was a phrase he'd been waiting to use for years. He said this as he turned on the small lamp on the night stand as he sat on the little bed that was just big enough for two, and took off his shoes.
It was then that Minnie finally took notice of the surroundings of this little secret loft. It was a cute little hideaway of a room, about as big a bedroom that you'd find in the back of an RV, but it was cute all the same and even had just enough room for its own shower stall. There was a skylight window on the ceiling and she could tell that Mickey had mapped this spot out perfectly since the moon passing by wouldn't be a problem since she didn't see heads or tails of it. She just managed to notice that the bed was one of those number beds where you can adjust the firmness of the mattress by remote control. Finally her eyes laid on the little desk that secondarily (though mainly) served as a side table, and she could see that it was here that Mickey mostly did his paperwork when he had to.
Since she was so speechless at the moment and he caught her looking around in awe, Mickey decided to give her a small offer.
"Yer more than welcome ta use this room yerself when ya want ta, Minnie. Just let me know beforehand so I don't walk in on ya or somethin'."
"Thank you kindly for the very sweet offer, Mickey, but I doubt I'd need to use this room at all since my place is just down the hill with Daisy and Cuckooloca." She shot back lightly in her sweetest of tones. She lived in the Happy Helpers building after all, and at least she didn't have any too close for comfort neighbors like the Bowtique apartment building.
Mickey's house, which also served as the clubhouse for all their friends was also just down the hill, and she would've brought that up to argue with too but him staying here for the night would save time for the work he still had to do on that car.
"The offer's still open regardless, Min. Ya could even use it when you're just too tired ta even bother goin' home." Mickey told her plainly, though he wiggled an eye brow as he finished that last bit.
"Mickey Mouse…are you trying to imply something?" Minnie scoffed in amusement, because even she knew that if he didn't imply what she knew he was implying with just his eyebrow, then he would've patted the bed to make it clear as day.
Though he opened his mouth to reply, he didn't get the chance to say anything as a loud explosion-like sound was heard from outside in the back of the garage, and to the mice it sounded like it distinctly came from outside behind Mickey. A flash of light followed and moved from right to left diagonally down from what could be seen from the skylight, followed by another explosion-like sound, again from somewhere outside and behind the garage.
Mickey had never gotten his shoes back on quicker than he had right then, and thankfully he was well prepared for blackouts in this secret loft of his- ahead of time as he pulled out two heavy duty flashlights, one for him and one for Minnie.
Together the mice dashed out of the secret loft and down the ramp. The main lights had already come back on since the explosion-like sounds were loud enough to startle the chipmunks to turn the lights back on.
"Mickey, what was that?!" Chip asked worriedly from the ramps railing.
"We're looking into it now!" Mickey replied hurriedly as he all but bolted out the door, just remembering that Minnie was behind him and left it open for her. As soon as she was through he kept bolting around the corner of the garage, not even thinking of his roadster as a better means of getting to the approximation of whatever probably crashed down to Earth.
"Mickey!" Minnie shrilled just to remind him of his common sense as she quickly pulled up alongside him in her roadster, Pink Thunder. "Get in the car, you're not getting anywhere fast on foot."
"Only if you let me drive! I don't want to scare it!" He shrilled back.
"It?" She asked in confusion, but sighed and shook her head because she knew Mickey and not to question certain instincts that came to him sometimes, regardless she had the other immediate matter that she was now lightly arguing with him about. "Pink Thunder is nothing like the Hot Doggin' Hot Rod, Mickey."
Mickey hesitated as a new thought came to him as he smacked his forehead upon forgetting the obvious. He really was going to need his roadster, and a lot of cables to help drag things since Pete's tow truck was out of the question at this hour. And he didn't want to risk using the Turbo Power button since it lights him up like a glowstick.
"Yer right, and I really do need my roadster if we're gonna carry things back ta the garage!" He replied over his shoulder after having quickly turned back and around the corner and made a beeline for his roadster before switching gears again and drove the Hot Doggin' Hot Rod into the Rolling Roadster Rumbler, and of course got to work driving the Rumbler instead.
"Carry things back?!" Minnie shrilled in question as Mickey pulled the behemoth of a vehicle up beside hers, and rolled down the windows.
"Whatever it is, I don't want the government getting their hands on it, Min." Mickey quipped simply before driving off ahead of her towards the supposed crash site.
Minnie looked on after him and sighed exasperatedly before muttering under her breath, "Honestly, the things I do because I love him." And then she promptly drove off after him. The both of them having to go off-roading for the sake of needing to go into the woods beyond even the test track.
Minnie weaved her roadster in and out of the trees while Mickey had no choice but to squeeze through or barrel through most of them as they zoomed through the woods. Mickey was insistent that they keep a good speedy pace over the communicators built into their vehicles, but he still couldn't explain why other than the gut feeling he had, and he also insisted that they couldn't use their Super Charge buttons.
Soon enough they found what they were looking for as they followed some fire sparks from whatever crashed. The mice hit the breaks in their respective vehicles, and out of the two of them Mickey maneuvered around more so he could turn the Rumbler back the way they came, for an easy escape if need be. They had come to a newly made clearing and found a crashed ship that was in the shape of a star, and it was surprisingly mostly intact with the exception of a few scattered pieces and the majority of the dents on the ship itself.
Unfortunately because of the shape of the ship it had rolled quite a ways from wherever it had first made contact with the Earth, and as such the crater it left was more of a giant gash with individual dents that was maybe a quarter of a mile long. The ship had only stopped thanks to a boulder, had definitely flipped in the air one last time before finally embedding itself into the ground on the other side of the boulder and tilting onto its side at last. Thankfully the cockpit was completely accessible.
Mickey had long since hopped out and started booking it for the star shaped ship, and Minnie being the more level headed of the two stayed by her roadster, though she still cautiously called out to her beloved boyfriend. "Be careful, Mickey! We don't know what we're dealing with!"
"Don't worry Minnie, I'll be fine! And I'll be as careful as possible…" He called back and added that last bit because it was the only form of reassurance he could muster.
The ship was still hot from its overheated crashing, so Mickey had to gingerly step over to it and essentially climb up onto it so he could reach the cockpit to see if the pilot of the craft was okay, and he was so grateful for all the padding in his racing outfit that switching from his daily driver to his roadster had always given him.
The dome in the center that was the cockpit opened up as soon as Mickey got close enough, opening two layers, a part of it that looked like the rest of the ship, and underneath was probably the equivalent of bullet proof glass or some other tough see-through substance. Mickey didn't know what to expect but he certainly didn't expect the pilot to be a small pink puff ball with red shoes, and…apparently sleeping of all things.
"Hey, Minnie…Yer not gonna believe this." Mickey started slowly and just over his shoulder so she could hear him.
"Is it a scary alien?" Minnie asked hesitantly.
"No, no, it's actually really cute." He replied, trying to keep his voice down since he didn't want to disturb the sleeping puffball. "Alright little guy, let's get ya outta here." Mickey muttered as he reached in to gently cradle the puffball in his arms. He had to stifle a few hisses of pain as the heat from the ship was really starting to get to him, finally seeping through the fabric of his racing outfit. Slowly but surely he slid off and backed up, and managed to not disturb the puffball in his arms at all.
"Huh, you're right, it is pretty cute." Minnie said as she came up behind him. "I wonder what it's doing all the way out here though."
"Yeah, that is kind of weird…here, ya wanna hold 'im?" Mickey offered the puffball to her.
"And just where are you going?" She asked back but took the round alien from him anyway, cradling the little fellow much like Mickey had, which was like a baby.
"I'm just gonna check out its ship, get an idea of where it's from." He replied over his shoulder as he was already almost on the ship again. As soon as he was on it, he realized just how tiny the cockpit was, it was plenty big enough for the pink puffball alien, and even though Mickey himself was a little guy, he was just a little too big for this cockpit. So he had to resist any heat related pain as the heat from the ship seeped into his racing outfit again.
"Mickey, it just burped out a card, and it kind of looks like its driving license, but I can't read it because it's in a weird language." Minnie felt the need to mention.
"Huh, that's pretty reassuring, he can drive," Mickey replied just as he leaned on a button that made wheels come out of the underside of the ship.
"Oh! Wheels! The ship can be a car if it needs to, oh this little alien can fit right in!" Minnie gushed excitedly, forgetting the volume of her voice. Even as she caught herself at the last minute and as Mickey simultaneously tried to shush her, they looked down at the pink alien in her arms to find that it was still dead asleep to the world.
"Heavy sleeper for a little fella…" Mickey commented before thinking of something as he jumped off the ship for the moment, "Hey, Minnie do ya still have any Bow-las in Pink Thunder's emergency ammunition?"
"Of course, but why?" Minnie asked, nearly scoffing at the notion that she wouldn't have emergency bows of any kind on hand. One must be prepared for anything after all.
"Gonna need to use it as rope to move this ship so it can be even with the ground, then we can get it into the Rumbler." He told her simply.
And that's exactly what they did, even though it took a bit longer than Mickey would've liked since he really was so worried about the Government swooping out of nowhere to collect everything. Regardless they somehow managed to bring everything in the Rumbler and have enough time to cover their tracks all the way back to the garage.
"Huh, weird, it looked like it said his name was Kirby for a second, but maybe I was imagining things…" Mickey mused as they got to the front of the Garage. He was looking at the little alien's driver's license.
"Well, it certainly suits him regardless. I like it enough that it feels right." Minnie said with a giggle, she still held Kirby in her arms.
"Yeah, it feels right ta me too...Ya sure ya don't mind looking after him fer a bit?" He had to ask as he was about to walk back inside the Garage alone.
"Of course, besides you still have that car to finish in the morning. I'll keep you posted on what he's like when he wakes up. He certainly looks friendly enough."
"Thanks, Minnie, you're the best. If he starts causing any sort of trouble, I'll be sure ta make it up ta ya however I can."
"Oh I'm counting on it. You rest up tonight, you definitely need it." Minnie told him gently as she leaned over and kissed him goodnight.
"Poyo…" Suddenly came a sleepy coo from Kirby, the little pink alien.
The mice instantly parted from the kiss and looked down at the cute little round fella. He didn't seem to stir much else otherwise, and continued to sleep. Mickey and Minnie couldn't help but chuckle and giggle at hearing the little guy's first words, it wasn't exactly first contact aside from holding him but it was close enough.
At the very least it gave Mickey another pet project to work on Kirby's spaceship in his spare time. It was still going to be interesting introducing the little guy to the rest of the gang, though Minnie had at least half of that covered as soon as she got home. For now it was a waiting game to see if they could avoid letting Kirby get taken by the Government, and to see if they even could fix his spaceship without having to try and reverse engineer anything. Only time would tell.
AN: Happy 93rd Birthday Mickey and Minnie.