Chapter Text
“K.O, I don’t think this structure is sound.”
K.O looked back at Dendy, the kappa shaking her head slightly at the dusty concrete walls. K.O came over and held her webbed hand.
“Aw, it’s okay Dendy. I’ll keep you safe!” he said with a warm smile
They were at an abandoned Boxmore warehouse to find some Glorbs. Apparently, Mr. Gar’s Plaza-wide camera system ran on Glorbs and his store had just run out. How he couldn’t have gone down to the Lakewood tree and got more was something Dendy was mulling over on the walk to the Glorb stockpile.
Suddenly, a support beam fell from the rafters, and before everything went black, all Dendy could see was the look of horror on K.O’s boyish face.
-+-
Dendy is in a dark place. She knows that she's likely unconscious or in a coma. Nevertheless, she calls out for K.O. Then her mother, and father. After the likely lack of any response, Dendy falls to the ground (floating?) and starts crying.
As a proud kappa, she knows to never let anyone see her vulnerable.
She starts babbling to herself, all the words that loop and loop around her head before bedtime, after she wakes up in the morning, all the words that were not said, will never be said, are spilled out in this one moment of respite, alone.
-+-
K.O doesn’t leave her side.
Carol, Gar, Enid, and Rad have tried to pull him away, bribe him with spaghetti and cookies, and even try to bring T.K.O out to convince him to eat anything other than granola bars and greasy chips and water from the vending machine.
Little do they know that T.K.O takes over watching Dendy so K.O can have some sleep in the mindspace.
One day, a week after Dendy was hospitalized, they hear something.
A weak murmur, just a whisper, but they can see Dendy’s mouth moving.
“Hopeless, useless, weak, incapable…”
K.O jumps up. “What? What was that, Dendy? I need you to repeat that.”
“Disgusting kappa, dumb, incapable of loving…”
K.O feels something twisting in his gut, and it’s not a good feeling. “No, Dendy, you’re not disgusting. In fact you’re very clean, I think cleaner than Enid, and she has a 13 step bathroom routine.” K.O chuckles a little bit, but the muttering starts up again soon after.
“Boring, clingy, idiotic…”
Her eyes are still screwed shut, but when she says this, her eyes fly wide open, revealing hazelnut irises.
“You’ll never be capable of loving K.O, you disgusting kappa!”
K.O’s gut has twisted and coiled over on itself millions of times over.