Author's note: Excitement is here. We hope—

Audience: (Groans)

Dokeshisan: Hey, don't jump to conclusions! What's going on isn't obvious to Dee, but she suspects something. There is also another pairing in the future. It's two final bosses, just so you know. If you can guess, you get to hug Marx!

Marx: Yeah! Wait, what?

Dokeshisan: Never mind. Just give it a try and guess after you read!

7

Loss of the king and...

It was everywhere in the papers the next week. Dedede disappeared. When I first read the headlines I thought it was probably some gimmick he came up with to get attention, but after a while I started to worry. I wished for years that our king would disappear, but when it really happened I felt almost guilty.

"What do you think happened?" I asked Marx the morning after the headline came out. He was silently drinking his fourth coffee that morning, probably not caring that our monarch was gone.

"Maybe he was assassinated. Or maybe he ran away. Or maybe he was kidnapped. Or, or cloth eating aliens abducted him and stole his clothes for lunch and sucked his brains out and now he's running around their planet with no brain! OWWOOO!" He made a face and went back to sipping his coffee.

I grabbed Marx's mug. "Okay, no more of that. You'll be hyper all day if I don't stop you now." He scowled at me and stuck his tongue out. Soon after he became distracted by something outside of the window and started to smile again.

"Hey look, a butterfly! Oooh, it makes me want to fly, FLYYY!" I smacked him in the side of the head, "Ow, what was that for?"

"Please stay on topic. I wonder what really happened to Dedede."

Marx sneezed. "Oh, jeez I dunno. Why are you asking me? I don't even understand why you care so much."

"Bless you and I can't answer that question. It's just that he's been there so long and it feels weird without him." I sighed angrily. At times Marx and I were completely in sync and even start finishing each other's sentences in conversation. This wasn't one of those times.

"I guess," He looked deep in thought for a moment, "I mean, I totally lost my job. That sucks."

"You don't get it. I didn't expect you to." I picked my purse up and headed for the front door, "I need to get to work. You're sneezing a lot lately, take some cold medicine and go to bed."

Marx grinned devilishly as I left. "Okay mom, I'll be good!" After he said this I stopped in the doorway just to glare at him.

"Well, excuse me for caring! Have a nice day." With that I finally left.

I trudged through the day, wanting to fall asleep for most of it. When lunch arrived I felt like collapsing. Not that work was any harder that day. In fact, there weren't many customers at all.

"Not many people are out today," I said as I sat down in a chair at the table where Kirby, Simirror and Ribbon were. Ribbon decided to stay for another week which is why she was still here.

"I know. They're probably panicking or whatever." Simirror sighed, "How does Marx feel about this Dedede thing?"

I shook my head. "He's actually kind of happy. Isn't that messed up?"

"That's heartless," Kirby stated. I expected him to say something else afterward but he didn't.

"I can't imagine telling the fairy queen this. She would panic and come here herself," Ribbon swiped a piece of sushi from Kirby's plate. He just smiled at her.

I laughed. "I still can't imagine anyone wanting to be in a relationship with him. I guess even bad people need someone to love them."

"Yes, I'm sure you'd know all about that," Simirror glowered at me, "I have to go now." She got up and walked away without even saying goodbye. As she did this she nearly banged into Marx who was coming in.

"What's her problem?" He asked, sitting next to me, "Did someone piss her off?"

"I don't know. Something is weird about her, isn't there?" I scratched the top of my head in thought.

Ribbon smiled. "I'm sure we're just thinking too much! It really can't be anything!" She looked down suddenly in sadness, "Unless, things that are going on with her are connected to the disappearances…maybe she's possessed by—"

"Oh yay! Let's pretend Ribbon wasn't about to say Dark Matter! Lalalalala!"

I stared at Marx. "What's wrong with Dark Matter? Is there something I need to know?"

"Oh crap," He smirked, "I guess I should tell you now. After that last time Kirby killed me I went to Hell. It was like some dark room with nothing in it. Ever. Anyway, I met Zero there. So it can't possibly be Dark Matter."

"Actually," Kirby started, "Dark Matter can control itself. It doesn't need Zero, but if Zero is there it can make them do what it wants. It can also create Dark Matter."

"Like you're some big expert, right? You couldn't even care less how Zero felt. You were too busy trying to kill it. It just wanted love and you totally IGNORED it!" Marx hissed at Kirby, totally enraged.

I looked at the two of them. "Marx, if you escaped from there, Zero could've too, right?"

He shook his head. "Zero gave its chance to escape to me. It really wasn't that bad a creature."

"Not that bad? It tried to destroy my home planet and yours!" Ribbon sounded angry which is something I never heard before.

"So?" Marx whimpered, "We all do things we regret. I should know, right?"

"Everything is about you, isn't it? Even if we're talking about something else you always bring it back to yourself!" Kirby said this very matter-of-factly.

"NO!" Marx stood up, "Why would you say something like that? I hate myself! And, why should I hate myself? It isn't me who kills people without giving them a chance! You ASSHOLE!"

"Hey, can you guys not fight? As if life isn't hard enough as it is! Please don't…" I grabbed Marx's hat and pulled him onto the chair again.

"It's okay," Kirby smiled, "I won't argue with a psychotic clown. There's no way to win."

"Oh, how immature. You want me to be angry so you're picking on me. I won't fall for it," Marx growled but I could tell he was irritated. Very irritated.

I got up and kissed his head. "I'll be getting off soon, please wait for me."

"Yeah, sure. I'll wait with them." He pretty much snarled the word 'Them.' I laughed and left for the kitchen.

As I expected, Marx didn't wait for me. Kirby and Ribbon stood in front of the door after I finished, forever loyal. I waved and gave them a cheery look.

"It's snowing!" I pointed outside, "But how? It's the first week of September!"

"I know, right?" Ribbon shivered, "I wish I brought a scarf!" She hugged Kirby, "Keep me warm Kirby!"

"Okay!" He smiled.

I laughed and opened the door. "Where did Marx go anyway? I thought he was staying."

She let go of Kirby and followed me out. "He said he was going to do something for you. I don't know what."

"Dee!"

Marx ran over to us with a bag in his mouth. I noticed that he was wearing a scarf. "Oh look, speak of the devil…" I shook my head.

"Scarves and hats," He dropped the bag at my feet, "I knew it was going to snow, so I borrowed them from the librarian."

"The librarian?" Kirby asked while grabbing a red scarf and hat.

Marx nodded. "Oh yeah, she knits all the time for her grandchildren when they come around the New Year."

I took a green scarf and wrapped it snugly around myself. I turned to Ribbon who was wearing three rainbow coloured scarves and a matching hat. "Cold much?" I asked.

She laughed. "What? Aren't you Dee? You don't even have a hat on!"

Now it was my turn to laugh. "I don't get cold easily! It's kind of weird."

I felt Marx nudge me with his head. "We need to go this way," he faced one of the snowy roads and I nodded.

"Okay," I waved goodbye to Ribbon and Kirby, "I'll see you guys tomorrow if we aren't snowed in!"

As Marx and I walked down the road we didn't talk much. It was almost unnerving, so halfway there I just had to speak and break the silence.

"How do you predict the weather? It's amazing!"

He turned to me and grinned hopefully. "Really? You don't think I'm a freak because of it?"

"No, of course not! How do you do it?" I was actually curious about this. It wasn't just some small talk subject I came up with (Well, it was that too but…).

"I dunno how. I always could ever since I was little. Other kids used to tease me about it." He smirked, "I vowed to get revenge on them!"

"Well, don't." I wrapped one of my arms around him, "Then I would have to be on your side all through it and that's hard."

He giggled. "Nah, I won't. I think it's better to let go of those things."

I let go of him as we reached the end of the road. "Hey, I see someone." I ran through the snow drifts and nearly tripped up. I squinted at the creature standing in front of my house. It was a girl that looked a lot like Kirby except that she was snow white with a pair of black angel wings folded on her back. She was wearing a collar like that you would see on a Chilly and a crown for some reason. She turned around and stared at me with her green eyes.

I felt Marx's presence suddenly next to me. "Nikki," He breathed.

Author's note: Yeah, I added an OC. She'll have a relationship with everyone's favourite knight later on^^! How Marx knows her is a mystery until next chapter XD! Oh, you still have to guess the final boss pairing. You won't get any hints from here besides they're of opposite genders…er, kind of.

Oh, one more thing, HAPPY NEW YEAR'S!

Now, review please.