[Author's Note: You can thank Alpharad for giving me this brainrot of an idea. Happy Valentine's Day even though this is platonic because Olimar's a married man.]
Sayori sat in her classroom, twiddling her thumbs like she normally would. It was the odd day where she wasn't feeling as sad as usual. Ironic, as there were actual rainclouds in the sky rather than the ones in her head.
Her teacher prattled on some gibberish that, for the life of her, she never quite understood. So, she spent her time looking out the window…
That was when she saw something… A shooting star? At this time of day? It streaked across the sky, breaking apart the clouds briefly before she heard a small thud. The weirdest part? No one else heard it. No one else paid attention to it. It was only Sayori who saw this shooting star…
'That star…'
Sayori's thoughts continued to linger on as she nervously looked over the poem she had written. Yet another, thinly veiled confession to her childhood friend. She was almost surprised that she wrote another one. Perhaps she should instead write something more whimsical… Perhaps one about a ladybug?
… Her mind once more returns to outside, where the rainclouds form. Even now, she has rainclouds in her head… She skimmed the words of her poem.
"Something wrong, Sayori?" The club president, Monika, approached her desk.
"Um… No." Sayori paused, thinking back to the shooting star and its whereabouts. She knew for certain it and the thud were connected. And that curiosity, that concern, took over her thoughts. "Actually, if it's okay, I'm going to go home early." Sayori muttered.
"Already? Sayori, this is the third time in a row. Are you-" Sayori bit her lip as Monika seemed ready to scold her.
"N-no! It's not like that at all! There's… something I must take care of." Sayori looked away as Monika peeked at her poem. Sayori noticed too late and snatched the poem. "H-hey!"
"I understand." Monika solemnly bowed her head. Sayori bitterly looked away.
"How… is he, by the way? Is he doing okay with Natsuki and Yuri?" Sayori asked.
"He's doing great. You don't need to worry yourself, Sayori." Monika smiled.
"…" Sayori smiled back before getting her things. "Tell him I left home early… I'm sure he'll understand." Sayori then quickly ran off, hoping she could remember where she saw the star…
Sayori ran outside to the school courtyard. Thankfully for her, the site where the thud could have been heard wasn't far. In fact, there was a small scorch in the middle of the field. She could still smell the burning grass, even though its flames were long gone.
Sayori sprinted to the small crater and saw… A toy rocket? This whole time, she was concerned over a toy rocket? It looked like it had seen better days… No, to say that would be an understatement. It had been battered and beaten, and had missed quite a lot of parts to it.
That's when Sayori noticed something else, about a few feet from where the rocket crashed… A tiny little doll, almost three quarters of an inch tall. Sayori, curious as to why it seemingly came with this rocket, picked it up.
It seemed to be designed after an astronaut and… it seemed to breathe? It was definitely tied to the rocket ship, right down to the matching color scheme. But something about the doll seemed to throw Sayori off…
Just then, the rainclouds began to pick up and roar. Sayori carefully looked at the doll and wondered what exactly it was supposed to be… She couldn't just sit there and ponder as she felt the few little droplets of rain. She could almost feel the humidity… She knew better than to leave these two to soak in the rain.
She took the rocket ship and her umbrella, safely securing the little spaceman in her tiny hand before she headed off, shielding both from the oncoming rain.
Sayori got home and, immediately, the first thing she did was drop her umbrella to the ground, causing a clattering onto the floor. She breathed heavily as she carefully held the tiny man in her palm. She now had time to rest and ponder just what exactly this toy was that she had in her hand.
She observed the doll and closely inspected the details of his clothes, skin, and even the small bits of hair he had. Every little aspect was almost… perfect. Either this was a very well-crafted doll, right down to realistic breathing mechanics, or… and this was something Sayori was slowly coming to realize…
In her hands… Was a living person.
"T-that can't be real… Can it? Th-this is the sort of things I'd see in fairy tales… Not… reality…" Sayori tried to rationalize herself. She looked at the rocket in her hand, tightly gripping it before she could feel the sharp edges of where the rocket broke. It almost cut into her skin.
No… These were real. And in her hand was someone on the brink of death. No… Someone she had to save.
Without any time to lose, she rushed upstairs and harshly opened the door before she went over to her desk. Setting the rocket ship down, she made a makeshift bed out of crumpled pieces of paper that she hastily torn up.
Placing the unconscious rocket man on the bed, the most she can do now was rest on her own bed and wait, almost praying that either he was okay or, worst case scenario…
That she was dreaming this whole thing up.
Fifteen minutes passed and Sayori woke up to the sound of whistles. She quickly got up and saw the tiny little astronaut walking around on her desk.
"H-hey!" Sayori called to the astronaut, who immediately took notice of her. "It's okay, it's okay…" She tried to calm him down. As soon as the astronaut looked at Sayori, his eyes immediately widened before retreating behind the pile of shredded paper.
"Who are you?" Olimar managed to speak perfect Japanese, albeit a little robotic and seeming to come from a tiny speaker in his suit.
"My name is Sayori… And… Wait… You're… a human!" Sayori couldn't believe it! There he was. A little human being on her desk! And he's talking to her!
"Actually, I'm a Hocotatian. My name is Olimar and…" He took a moment to look at his rocket ship. "Oooh dear…" He muttered as he saw the damages.
"Yeah… It crashed earlier today." Sayori said. She got out of her bed and looked at the missing parts of the ship.
"This isn't the first time it's happened… But… It's going to be hard recovering the pieces…" Olimar frowned, though he turned to Sayori. "The only benefit is that this area doesn't seem to have as much poisonous oxygen as the last planet I crashed on… So, I could spend some time here repairing the ship."
"Time? You mean… You're gonna fix the ship all by yourself?" Sayori asked him.
"Yeah…" Olimar said. Sayori watched as Olimar struggled to even get down from her desk… No…
She couldn't stand for it!
"I won't allow it!" Her stern voice caused Olimar to freeze. It also caused her some pause as well, but she couldn't understand why. Why this one situation in particular? What made this moment stand out? Most of the time, she wouldn't let herself be bothered with what other people do, but watching such a tiny man in a large place like her room…
"What do you mean?" Olimar asked her. Immediately, she knew her answer.
"I want to help you." Sayori said.
"Huh?" Olimar asked again.
"I don't know how exactly to fix it, but, ehehe, as you can see, I'm pretty big compared to you. I can have a whole lot of ground covered as I am." Sayori gave a smile.
"I… Thanks… That'll save me a lot of time." Olimar then looked to her window and noticed it was nighttime. "Though, I don't think we'll be able to do much right now."
"Definitely not… It's bed time." Sayori's smile softened. With that in mind, Sayori got ready for bed.
And yet, she still could not sleep. There were still so many things swinging by her head. She just now met alien life… And it's just the cutest, tiniest person imaginable! The fact that he crashed on this planet just overwhelmed her with such a sadness that she couldn't just…
"Is something wrong?" Olimar asked her.
Damn it… I cried again, didn't I?, she thought to herself.
"… It's nothing." Sayori chirped, keeping a false smile on her face that she had practiced since she began high school.
"Don't worry yourself, Sayori. This isn't my first time being stranded like this… Hopefully, the pieces aren't too scattered." Olimar said. That, however, puzzled her.
"… What exactly do you mean?" Sayori asked.
"The last time this happened, the pieces of my rocket ship were scattered all across the planet and I had to scour it with the help of…" Olimar paused, as though to reminiscence, "well, I don't think I'd be able to find any of them here." Them? Who or what was Olimar talking about? "But… I think I could get some help with you." Olimar said.
"Yeah. Here, I can show you…" Sayori got up from her bed and nodded, putting out her hand and gently allowing her palm to be a platform for Olimar to come on. Gently, she took Olimar to her bed.
"Yeah, see? Like that…" Olimar said.
"I might have my hands full if I carry you like this though, ehehe…" Sayori said.
"Maybe you could carry me in a bag or something… Or even my parts… Hmm… Things we can figure out tomorrow. We have time. About… sixty days starting tomorrow." Olimar said.
"That long, huh?" Sayori muttered.
"Yes. That's approximately how long it will take before my life support gives out and even then, I don't think the toxic levels will do me in immediately, so we may have longer… But I don't want to risk it." Olimar said. As Sayori laid down, Olimar took a bit to find himself nestled safely onto her collar bone. She gave a slight giggle as the boots on his suit pressed against her skin.
"S-stop… That tickles!" She exclaimed.
"Sorry, just… there we go." He laid down and looked at the ceiling alongside Sayori. "I do want to know though… Why did you want to help me?" Olimar asked.
"… Truth be told, I wish I knew. I just saw your ship fall out of the sky and I knew I had to see what it was… Then I saw you there being helpless and… then the rain was about to come down and one thing led to another…" Sayori muttered.
"Thank you… I might not have survived in the rain." Olimar said.
"You're welcome…" Sayori said.
"It's moments like these that make me appreciate the smaller moments in life…" Olimar paused, then smiled. "Like my friends… I guess I should explain. When I was first stranded, I had help from these little friends that I called Pikmin. They're tinier than me, believe it or not, but what they lack in size, they make up for in number. They were able to lift entire objects for me. One day, I hope to find new kinds of Pikmin… They're such fascinating creatures. I keep them documented in my Voyage Log." Olimar said.
"Wait, you write?" Sayori asked.
"Yeah. I usually write logs of my travels for my wife and kids back home. You a writer yourself?" Olimar asked back.
"Yeah, though, I write poems… And… Well… my poems aren't all that great." Sayori frowned.
"Don't beat yourself up like that… Did you just start out writing them?" Olimar asked.
"Y-yeah. About… A week or so ago…" Sayori said.
"Then don't be so hard on yourself! I mean, I made some big mistakes when I was exploring PNF-404, but I was able to learn from them. You'll never improve if you just keep looking down on yourself." Olimar said.
"Huh… I… never looked at it that way…" Sayori said.
"I should have my Voyage Log somewhere… I'll read it to you at some point so that you could know what I went through." Olimar replied.
"I'd love to hear it… And… Maybe I'll read you some of my poems." Sayori chuckled.
"I'm not really a poet, but I can lend an ear." Olimar said.
"Hopefully, I can be a good poet… And…" Sayori paused and thought about what she wanted to actually do with her poems. Did she want to explore something with them? Or was she just wanting to confess her feelings in a way that only she could understand?
"And what? I guess you want to be an author?" Olimar asked.
"Y-yeah…" Sayori's hesitance was noticeable, even to her… She even felt Olimar detect it, though she also noted how he never really commented on it.
"Then… How about this. I've explored a lot of what nature had to offer… I could guide you to such places during our search for ship pieces and maybe it can inspire you to write more poems. Perhaps you'll be able to find a style you can feel confident in writing?" Olimar asked.
"That… That would be wonderful. Thanks, Olimar." Sayori smiled.
"Think nothing of it. It's my way of helping you help me find the pieces… Oh, and don't worry if we can't find them all. When I returned to my home, I didn't have all the pieces I lost when I first crashed… Don't be too worried about it, Sayori. I'm sure we'll do fine." Olimar said. With that, the two stared up into the ceiling, before they both drifted off to sleep, safely within each others' reach…