Heroes of Dreamland, Book 6: Kirby and the Fountain's Fate (OLD)

Family Dinners, Stargazing, Time Travel; You Know, the Usual

Sakura's POV:

"See? I told you guys it'd be a piece of shortcake," I laugh, having just finished helping Kirby relay the story of Dark Sakura's dethroning and Dedede's reinstatement as ruler of Dreamland. "Took us a whole afternoon. If that isn't the easiest quest we've ever been on, then my middle name isn't 'Always Right.'"

Bandana, Kirby, Meta Knight, Shadow, and I are all sitting at one of the tables in the secret library and eating supper together. Well, it's more like most of us are eating while Meta Knight is just staring hungrily at the food and waiting for all of us to leave him alone long enough for him to be able to take his mask off and feed himself. I'm kinda surprised his hubris hasn't long since starved him to death, but it's something that you get to used to and even grow to love when you're around him long enough. We all have our quirks, and one of his stranger ones is a nearly-obsessive unwillingness to be seen by 99.999999999999% of the population.

Anyway... I thought that at least sitting around the table together would be a good way to rendezvous after all going in different directions all afternoon, and several Waddle Dee were nice enough to bring our food all the way out here for us, so why not? Besides, it's what Shadow and Kirby have kinda gotten used to after spending so much time at Mom's, and I have to admit that I like it a lot better than just eating by myself whenever I get around to it too.

Rolling his eyes goodnaturedly, Meta Knight points out in reply to my earlier self-naming, "I thought your middle name was 'Careful,' or has it changed again? Besides which, 'Always Right' is my middle name."

"Meta Always Right Knight?" Shadow giggles from where he and Kirby are apparently trying to build a house of cards out of the saltine crackers that they're supposed to be eating. "That rhymes. I like it."

Kirby laughs a little bit too, but then quickly resumes frowning in concentration and continues trying to balance the precarious stack of crackers. "C'mon, Shadow, add another one before it falls over! We have to make it as tall as possible!"

Laughing at their antics, I turn back to Meta Knight and grin teasingly at him. "What a professional-sounding name, eh what? I suppose it only goes to prove that both of our families have simply impeccable taste when it comes to naming."

Rolling his eyes again, he quickly resumes staring intently at the bowl of stew in front of him. I'm not sure if he's making sure it doesn't go anywhere, or attempting to find some way to use telekinesis and make it appear in his mouth. Either way, I can't help but snicker at him, quickly covering it up with a ladylike faux-cough the instant he glares at me.

"Hey!" Kirby and Shadow suddenly chorus in irritation, which makes me and Meta both start looking over at them.

Their cracker stack has collapsed onto the table, and Bandana's humming innocently with a smirk in his eyes. When he sees us all staring at him, he can't help but laugh. "Aw, c'mon, guys. I just blew on it. I couldn't help it; it was just so tempting!"

Although Shadow and Kirby keep glaring at him for a moment, they soon join him in laughter. I can't help but giggle a bit too, and even Meta's eyes glow light-green for a second.

Dinner continues without anything else all that exciting coming to pass, except for when I tell Kirby to clear the table and he almost does so by just inhaling everything. A glare from Meta Knight as he reaches out to save his still-untouched food cancels that plan, though, and Kirby starts just-plain collecting empty dishes with a sigh.

With a grin, Shadow offers, "I'll help." Something in his grin seems to almost grow darker as he challenges, "Bet I can carry more than you can."

"Bet ya can't!" Kirby laughs, apparently not noticing, as they both scramble to grab as many dishes as possible, Meta still watching them carefully to make sure they don't try and take his. Okay, seeing as how he used to spend his non-fighting time at the Star Warrior Academy surrounded by Dragato, Falspar, and Nonsurat, who I'm sure took his food from him many times due to his refusal to eat in their presence, how in Dreamland has he not starved to death yet? What did he do, live off of vending machine cookies? Gah, it's just like sending a Human kid to college- they won't eat well no matter how you raise them.