It was a quiet morning, and Gooey had just woken up. Kirby wasn't here, so he must've gone off on one of his morning walks...Actually, he wouldn't be too surprised if Kirby was pulled into another adventure.

Regardless, Gooey scooted outside of the house and was welcomed by the sun. Oddly enough, not even the Waddle Dees were walking by today. All Gooey could hear were the birds chirping.

He scooted along the dirt road, perhaps Dedede wanted to play with him today? Assuming that he wasn't busy with anything else of course. Besides, his birthday was coming up soon, wasn't it?

"There you are, Gooey!"

The Dark Matter looked up, he could see Meta Knight and Waddle Dee hover above him. He waved at the duo using his tongue.

"Kirby wanted us to come find you," Waddle Dee said as he landed on the ground, with Meta Knight landing next to him. "He says it's important."

"Whaddaya mean?"

"He's been working on something since before the sun came up," Meta Knight explained. "And, well...it's better if you saw it for yourself."

The duo walked with Gooey as they headed over to Dedede's castle. Neither of them really spoke, but Gooey couldn't help but think that they were hiding something.

They finally reached Dedede's castle, Waddle Dee and Meta Knight didn't hesitate to open the doors. The inside of the castle was covered in decorations. There were streamers on the walls and on the ceiling. There was a table with a cake in the middle, as well as presents sitting on both sides of it. Dedede was having another birthday party soon, but today wasn't supposed to be the day yet. Why hide it from Gooey, anyway?

Suddenly, Kirby, Dedede, and the animal friends came out from behind the presents and yelled "Surprise". The Waddle Dees even came downstairs to greet Gooey.

"What's all this?" Gooey asked curiously. Kirby, walked over with a slice of cake in his hand. "It's your birthday today."

"But...I dun have a birthday."

"Maybe not, but it's been a year since you came to Popstar," Rick added. "Hard to believe, huh?"

"Anyway, Kirby wanted to throw ya somethin' special," Dedede added. "This means we get two cakes in one week, ain't that neat?"

Gooey couldn't believe it, his friends could've treated this like any other normal day. In fact...today probably would've been a normal day if Gooey hadn't come to Popstar. He started to cry, but he was crying out of pure joy.

"Hey, are you OK?" Kirby asked as he placed a hand on Gooey's back. The young Dark Matter nodded. "I-I'm fine, thank you."

With that said, Gooey started to enjoy the party. And since this was his home, he couldn't wait to have even more parties down the line.

From taking him into his home to now throwing him a party...he couldn't thank Kirby enough.

And that's the end of that. I remember being really proud of this story when I first finished it, so it was nice actually going through it again.

This won't be the last time we see Gooey or Dark Matter if you've seen any of my other stuff on Ao3, but aside from a couple of oneshots I plan to throw in here, I'll take a small break from posting anything big. Anyway, I hope you guys like this one at least.