Both needed a break. That and food. They had to have breakfast. Ridley was certainly more hungry than Samus and he let her know that by growling the whole trip to the canteen.

The canteen wasn't actually a room built for that purpose. It was just another location that spawned in this dimension. But then a cute little puff-ball named Kirby decided that he wanted food and it would be nice if other could have it too. She wasn't sure how, but the little guy could replicate abilities of others by swallowing them and if he needed to discard those abilities, he could transfer them into stars and throw them away. One such ability let him...cook. It was silly on paper, but very useful here and his dishes were great. Then, with assistance from Donkey Kong, they had arranged this canteen and it grew as more people joined them. More worlds also meant that more food was drawn in, which was very much welcomed as it gave them much needed variety. Having to feed more people wasn't much of a problem. It was a wonderful idea and it was executed quite well.

There was one annoying thing about it. Most of them could starve, but they could neither die from it nor even lose weight. What form they took was the form they kept until the next shift. Food was still necessary as they did grow weaker if they didn't eat, which was annoying.

Fortunately, since they had come so late, there wasn't any line for food and the canteen wasn't full at that time. Those who weren't too busy eating quickly noticed the person following Samus and, while two of them already knew what was going on, the others didn't know what to make of the girl. Ridley himself wasted no time in approaching Kirby to demand food.

"Gimme meat and make it quick. I'll have you for breakfast if you don't."

In spite of receiving a threat, Kirby simply nodded and handed the Space Pirate what he thought he wanted. But the latter only grew angrier when he saw his plate.

"Are you shitting me?! This is barely an appetizer! More!"

Samus rubbed the bridge of her nose. Everything was starting off so well, wasn't it? At least he didn't get violent...yet.

Satisfied with his portion, Ridley approached a vacant table away from others, sitting sideways on a chair so that his tail wouldn't get in the way. Of course, manners wasn't something he was concerned with and so he didn't even bother using any utensils. How hot his dish was didn't concern him either. He was more than used to heat and that trait carried over to this body.

"I...I think I'll just have the usual."

But before Kirby could even process that request, the bounty hunter heard some racket that turned out to be coming from Ridley, who was apparently choking on food. She quickly made her way to the winged idiot and grabbed him from behind, applying pressure to his abdomen to squeeze whatever got stuck out of him. He was obviously in no danger and she was applying way too much pressure, but she didn't care that much about how he felt. It did work though.

What got caught in the dragon's throat ended up being a rather big chunk of meat. Samus couldn't help but groan at this point.

"You know, you're supposed to chew before you swallow."

"And how the hell am I supposed to do THAT?"

As Samus had dealt with far more disgusting things before, she had no problems with shoving that piece of meat back into Ridley's mouth before closing it and grabbing his jaw. Helping some asshole chew food wasn't something she thought she would ever do, but here she was. It's a good thing that she couldn't damage anything no matter how roughly she moved his jaw. Unfortunately, she had to stop when the dragon tried to claw her face off.

"Now start doing that yourself."

Honestly, she wasn't sure how that idiot didn't run into that problem before. He was pretty big, sure, but his neck was almost as thin as his fingers. He ate a lot too, which was surprising to her when she saw him eat for the first time as he was way too thin to have eaten anything at all. It probably

By the time the bounty hunter sat down at a table with Zelda, she was dead tired and it was apparent on her face. This really was going to be a long day.

"So...that's...that's Ridley?"

"That's him, alright."

"I've got to say...That's not what I expected. I'm not sure what exactly I expected to begin with..."

"Just to make it clear, he's still the same on the inside."

"But on the outside, he's...W-Well, I can see why you wouldn't want to hurt him like this."

"Yeah, I probably wouldn't bother with any of this if he didn't look like a child."

"I can say for sure that he doesn't match Peach's description of the crown's effects. I guess he looks like a princess, but that's about it."

"And now I have to babysit him or else we're both goners...I really shouldn't have tried asking the Master for help."

"That's just terrible!"

"Tell me about it..."

"Do you th-"

"Hey, Kirby, you disembodied asscheek! Get over here!"

"Oh for the love of..."

Having given up on the idea of having her breakfast in peace, Samus looked over where Ridley was and saw Kirby slowly approaching him. The former tore off a piece of meat and held it in front of the pink ball. To the bounty hunter's surprise, his expression wasn't that of anger like it usually was. He seemed more confused than upset.

"What did you put in my food? It...tastes different."

The little cook didn't know what the rude girl was talking about and tried to shrug as much as his anatomy let him. Ridley quickly ate the piece of meat in his hand and went into deep thought, but he didn't dismiss Kirby yet. Normally, he would have at least tried punted the little guy like a ball, but he didn't and that made the bounty hunter curious.

"Can you bring something...sweet? Don't care what it is, just hurry up and give me some!"

Now that was even more surprising. He never cared about anything sweet as far as she knew. He never cared about taste in general. Either what he ate was fine or it wasn't and he let everyone know about it. This was completely new to her.

"I'm sorry, but there's something I need to know. I'll be back."

The Space Pirate didn't say anything when his arch enemy sat down next to him or even glare at her. Now that she was this close to him, she could see that he was a little excited about something. She was getting excited too, but the bounty hunter knew him too well and so she didn't let her guard down yet. For all she knew, he was going to try shoving it down her throat for no reason other than Ridley being Ridley. She just had to wait and see.

When Kirby came back with a fruit parfait, the dragon snatched it from the plate and he would have tried swallowing it whole if it weren't for Samus hitting his head with a spoon meant for the dessert.

"Use a spoon."

Ridley glared at her, but took the spoon anyway. He clearly didn't know how to hold it, but all he cared about was having a taste of this parfait.

The way his face just lit up made Samus momentarily regret not having a camera at that time. It was an expression of surprise and even genuine joy, but it was nothing like the glee he had on his face when his claws tore his victims into shreds or anything she had ever seen from him. However, she still didn't understand what caused it. He did eat sweets before and he was completely indifferent to them.

"So this is what sweetness tastes like..."

"Huh? You didn't know?"

"Of course I didn't, dumbass! I'm a carnivore and carnivores can't taste anything sweet! Hell, we can barely taste anything! All we need to know is whether something's okay to eat or not...but this...this is..."

That would have been sad if the person in question didn't deserve far worse, but it cleared some things up. Besides, there was something about watching him continue eating that parfait that made her feel...It wasn't a bad feeling, but it's not something she wanted to feel about Ridley of all people. She was conflicted about it, to say the least.

"Hey, marshmallow, drag your ass back here! I want more!"

"You know, people would be more willing to listen to you if you weren't actively going out of your way to be an asshole to them. Can't you just say 'please' when asking for something like anyone else?"

"You know, I couldn't give two shits about anyone here."

"You know, I could beat you unconscious with this table."

"You know, I could rip your heart out first."

"You know, I could make sure that you don't get anything sweet anymore."

"...You win this round, Hunter. Hey, marshmallow, PLEASE, drag your ass back here!"

Well, that was a step in the right direction. Of course, Samus wasn't stupid enough to think that it was possible for him to stop being the worst person in this whole dimension, but at least now she knew one way to motivate him. It would stop working as soon as everything went back to normal and there was obviously a limit to how much she could exploit it, but it was something.

Another thing she learned as she watched the Space Pirate eat was that, in spite of his much smaller size, he still ate a lot. She quickly lost track of how many parfaits he ate and he somehow still had enough room to eat that pile of meat he ordered earlier.

The thing with taste isn't exactly made up. It's unlikely that it applies to an alien dragon with a bizarre anatomy, but we're operating on enough headcanons as it is.