Work Text:
“Shuriken. You need to make more friends.” Said Vine Staff from the kitchen, as Shuriken was busy scrolling on his phone in the living room. He let out a hum, letting his sister know he had heard her but had decided to not answer. “The only people I ever see you talk to are me, Sling, and Katana.” She added.
Vine Staff came out of the kitchen, wiping her hands clean with a towel as she made her way towards the couch. She plucked the phone out of his hands, gaining an annoyed “hey!” from her brother. She tossed it to the other side of the couch and poked him on the cheek. “Try and make some friends, at least. Alright?”
Shuriken rolled his eyes and stretched out to go grab his phone. “Fine.” He muttered as he grabbed his prized possession and leaned back again, going back to scrolling. He heard his sister let out a sigh as she disappeared from his peripheral vision — probably going back to the kitchen to keep doing whatever she had been doing.
oO0Oo
Shuriken and Slingshot were both chilling together, sitting on top of a ramp at the skatepark, eating ice cream that had been handed out by the idols after a phight during particularly warm weather. Shuriken was kicking his legs back and forth, and Slingshot’s tail was slowly going from side to side.
They had been chatting about how the phight had gone — both had ranked quite good — and every now and then they made a comment about a phighter when said phighter walked past the duo. This time, the victim happened to be none other than Subspace Tripmine.
“I heard no one likes him.” Said Slingshot as he took another lick of his ice cream. Of course, it wasn’t said loudly enough so that the other phighter could hear them. Shuriken hummed and narrowed his eyes slightly at Subspace, the phighter had his arms crossed and he looked unhappy — probably because he ranked rather low this phight.
Slingshot leaned towards Shuriken and said. “Not even people who work with him like him.” Shuriken watched as Subspace walked away, and Slingshot added. “He’s probably lonely most of the time.” Slingshot leaned back and seemed to think for a moment, taking another few licks of his ice cream. “I don’t think I can count his robots as company?” Shuriken nodded and said. “They’re killing machines.” “Yeah.” Agreed Slingshot.
The two sat in silence for a while, Subspace having long disappeared around a corner and so the two’s attention was no longer on him. Though, Shuriken remembered some things his sister had told him a while ago. Something about making friends. And then he thought back at how lonely Subspace must be, and how he might enjoy having a friend.
Shuriken stared off into the distance, thinking about all this. Surely befriending Subspace wouldn’t be so hard, right?
oO0Oo
Shuriken trudged up the snowy mountain, letting out huffs, squinting his eyes as the harsh cold winds blew past him, threatening to make him fall backwards into the snow. Each time he took a step he feared he’d lose his snow boots in the deep snow — snow boots that he had bought just for this, as it doesn’t snow enough to warrant having special boots for it in Thieves Den.
Some might have gone back down at this point, giving up on getting to the building Shuriken had been told was up here. However, Shuriken was incredibly stubborn and after all, he was doing this for his sister, right? She had been the one to tell him to make more friends. So here he was, making a new friend.
Of course, she had no clue he was up here; he had lied to her and told her he was going to hang out with Boombox and Skateboard. And naturally, she had been excited and ecstatic at the idea of him being friends with the two. Which, they were kind of friend-ish? Anyways, not the point.
To his delight, it didn’t seem like his trek up would be much longer, as he could now see a huge building. This was a pretty far away spot from the rest of Blackrock, and there weren’t any clear instructions on how to get up here, so for a while Shuriken had been afraid that he was completely lost and would die here. Luckily, it didn’t seem that that would be the case.
He hurried as quickly as he could with his legs sinking into snow each step he took, and pretty soon he arrived in front of a surprisingly normal door. He thought a huge lab like this would have a bigger, fancier door. But turns out it just had a normal wooden door. Huh. You learn something new every day!
Anyways, he outstretched his hand towards the door and after a pause, loudly banged on the door repeatedly until he heard something fall inside and shortly after the doors were pulled open and Subspace’s annoyed face stared right at Shuriken. The scientist examined him and raised an eyebrow. And Shuriken took that as his cue to speak.
“I heard that you were lonely.” Bluntly stated Shuriken, slightly looking up to meet Subspace’s eyes. “So I think.” He added, taking a dramatic pause. “You need a friend.” He finished, giving the older man a smile.
There was silence for a bit, before Subspace sneered down at him. “I don’t need anything.” Scoffed the pink phighter, crossing his arms. He then muttered. “Except maybe more material to keep making Biografts…” Shuriken perked up at this new information and you could practically see stars light up in his eyes. “What materials do you need?” He asked, hoping he could win over Subspace by helping the older man.
“Wh- I’m not telling you!” Exclaimed Subspace, frowning. Finally, the rotting phighter had enough and took a step back as he grabbed the doorknob from the inside. “Now, I’ve had enough of you wasting my time.” He snapped, slamming the door in Shuriken’s face.
Shuriken winced at the loud sound and stared at the door for a bit, slightly shivering because of the cold. He looked around him, before turning around and slowly sitting down, his back pressed against the door. He was determined to make a new friend.
He remembered being told by Katana that keeping body heat was important when in cold places, so he curled up into a ball and hid his arms behind his knees. He closed his eyes, and focused on his heart beat, which slowly led him to falling asleep.
oO0Oo
When he woke up again, it had stopped snowing significantly. There were still snowflakes who fell down here and there, but it wasn’t a snowstorm anymore, which he was thankful for because he was pretty sure he would’ve ended up freezing to death if he had stayed in the snowstorm for just a bit longer.
At some point he stood up and started walking around because he was pretty sure staying in one spot while very cold was probably not a good idea. At first, he stuck to the front of the building, hoping Subspace would come back, but eventually he wandered off to the sides.
He walked closely to the wall, practically being pressed up against it. He was planning to make it to the back of the building and then go back to the front to keep waiting for Subspace. But when he finally made it to the back — after probably half an hour of walking — he noticed something.
There was a Biograft currently throwing something out into a large trash bin near an emergency backdoor, and the door was open. Shuriken grinned as he saw the opportunity to get inside, and he paused to think of the best way to do this without getting caught. In the end, he just bolted for it and hoped for the best.
And he seemed to be extremely lucky as the Biograft didn’t notice him at all. So Shuriken had successfully infiltrated a building once again! The only issue is that now he has to try and not get caught by every other Biograft that probably resided in this place.
So Shuriken stuck to hugging the walls, hoping that no one would notice him. And finally, he made it to what seemed like living quarters. There was a living room, a kitchen, and hallways branching out to what were probably bedrooms.
He stood in the doorway of the living room for a bit, before he heard footsteps coming towards him and he panicked. He immediately jumped up, reaching for the wall and sticking onto it, climbing higher until he was — hopefully — out of view.
Whoever had been coming his way was completely unaware of Shuriken being there and just kept walking. Shuriken watched with slightly wide eyes as the demon he was trying to befriend walked towards the kitchen and opened the fridge. He watched curiously as Subspace pulled out a glass jar with some sort of liquid in it. There was also something in the liquid but no matter how much Shuriken squinted to try and see what it was, he couldn’t see from this far. So he just assumed there were pickles in the jar.
As Subspace examined the contents of the jar, Shuriken felt himself start slowly slipping down. He knew he couldn’t stay on a wall for a very long time, and he prayed Subspace would just get out of the room already. Unfortunately for him, Subspace did no such thing, and Shuriken promptly fell down and hit his face on the ground.
He laid there for a bit, accepting his fate at the hands of a Biograft, realising the idea of befriending an evil scientist maybe wasn’t the smartest one he’s had. Too bad he only realised this now, when it’s too late; he’s probably going to die in a few minutes.
He heard the click of shoes walking towards him, until they stopped near his head. His hood was grabbed and he was yanked up, ending up in an uncomfortable position where he was half lying down on the ground and half being held up by Subspace.
“How the phuck did you get inside.” Demanded to know the scientist, glaring daggers at the green phighter. Shuriken’s eyes widened slightly as he said. “The- the back door was open!” And he pointed towards where he came from.
Subspace examined his face before scoffing and saying. “And you seriously thought it’d be a smart idea to go inside?” “I wanted to convince you to be friends…” Muttered Shuriken, looking away, pouting. The scientist stayed quiet for a while before letting go of Shuriken’s hood. Shuriken yelped as he fell forwards, and managed to stop his face from making contact with the floor again by putting his hands out against the ground.
Subspace turned and started walking away, before turning around to look at Shuriken. “Are you coming?” At Shuriken’s confused expression, Subspace added. “You might as well make yourself useful.” And Shuriken, realising this might be an opportunity to befriend Subspace, grinned and scrambled to get up quickly.
He happily followed the scientist, smiling. Now Vine will surely stop pestering him about making friends.