A Little Sister's Love

Love is Difficult to Find

Hello fellow Kirby fans, and welcome to A Little Sister's Love!

Ten years ago (!), I wrote a Kirby: RBAY fanfic called Bittersweet Revenge on Fanfiction.net, featuring an OC named Erika. This fic begins as a partial rewrite of that fic, followed by the direction I wanted to take Erika all those years ago, but didn't have the skill or patience to actually write it. (Erika got a glow up on the cover art too, since my art has also improved in the last decade, thank goodness!)

The Kirby anime has always held a special place in my heart, so I'm pleased to finally share this fic with the world. I hope you enjoy~

"Approximately 380 millilitres of warm milk at 98 degrees Celsius..." I recited King Dedede's favourite hot chocolate recipe to to myself as I slowly poured the milk into a large mug, smiling as it began to take on a frothy form. "Perfect."

Rain was hammering hard on the kitchen window in Castle Dedede - it was difficult to see anything going on outside past the fog of condensation on the glass. Still, I didn't have time to be gazing outside. On rainy days like this, King Dedede liked to relax with a warm mug of hot chocolate, and I had to get it to him before anyone else did.

'Anyone else' being Escargoon, of course.

In the few months I had been working as a servant to Dream Land's ruler, I often found myself competing for the King's approval - well, to be honest, I didn't care much for the King's approval. I just wanted to one-up that slithering snail.

Escargoon was another servant of King Dedede's, and was constantly sucking up to him in a sickening fashion. Normally this kind of thing wouldn't bother me, but he clearly saw me as a threat from day one, and made it his mission to embarrass me or make me look bad in front of the King as often as he could. I wasn't about to let myself become his doormat, so pranking him was often my way of retaliating, showing that I wasn't going to let him walk all over me. I still have to hold myself back from laughing too much when I think about some of my old pranks, but the honey incident remains one of my favourites so far.

Escargoon had really irritated me that day - I couldn't remember exactly why, but his arrogant attitude was always chipping away at my patience. I found some honey in the castle pantry at lunchtime, and a devious plot hatched in my head, as they often did. That night while everyone was asleep, I decided to slather that honey all over the castle - on the stair banisters, on the door handles, even on the toilet seats - and told the King it was snail slime. Gullible as always, he believed me, and Escargoon was the target of Dedede's mallet that day, all while I giggled to myself from a distance.

That same evening, the King discovered the empty honey pot in the palace trash, and he was ANGRY. He actually placed a nationwide ban on honey for the next two weeks. I don't think he ever officially lifted the ban, but Dream Land just went back to eating honey after a short while, by which time Dedede had forgotten and was aiming his rage at his sworn enemy Kirby, like usual.

The next day, as payback, Escargoon accused me of stealing a pack of King Dedede's favourite cookies. I pleaded my case, stating there was no proof I had taken them, but the King later found a trail of cookie crumbs leading from the kitchen to my bedchamber, the empty bag left sitting at my door. It didn't take a genius to figure out who set up the false evidence, but Dedede didn't want to hear my protests.

Incidents like these were simply part of everyday life in Castle Dedede.

Finishing off His Majesty's hot chocolate with a generous helping of whipped cream and marshmallows, I cheerfully trotted along to the throne room, where I knew he'd be watching television, as he often did mid-afternoon on a rainy day.