Chapter Text
In the skies high above Orange Ocean, on the battleship Halberd, a certain knight is doing some spring cleaning…
As the Halberd patrolled the skies of Dream Land, Meta Knight picked up a dusty cardboard box and unfurled his wings. He gave them a few powerful flaps, becoming airborne. The knight pitched his body forward, allowing him to change the direction of his flight and glide towards the door leading out of the dingy storage room. He emerged into one of the Halberd’s many corridors and used the next flap of his wings to turn about. Meta Knight gave a few softer flaps, allowing himself to stay in flight, but to remain in a single place. Facing the door, the knight watched as King Dedede emerged from the storage room, carrying two additional boxes tucked securely under each of his strong arms. The knight smiled-although it was obscured by his mask-and took a moment to admire his king, his husband. The pair were newly married, having recently made their return to Dream Land from their honeymoon at Dedede’s resort on the Popopo Islands. With those fun days of surf, sun, and leisure finished, it was now time for both of them to get back to work. For Meta Knight, getting back to work included finally tidying up the Halberd, a task that he and his loyal band of knights had been putting off for some time.
“Thank you for coming to help me organize my ship, Dedede.” Meta Knight thanked his partner as they made their way down the corridor together. Dedede gave a warm grin, a grin that never failed to make the knight’s heart flutter. Everything about his husband was warm and wonderful.
“Don’t mention it, Mety!” The king beamed. “Now, where do ya want these boxes?” Meta Knight indicated a room a few doors down the hall, and the pair entered together.
As the king and the knight were moving things around on the upper decks, on one of the lower decks of the ship, Kirby was hard at work with his broom. He had also come to help with the spring cleaning, and Meta Knight had given him the task of sweeping up all of the floors. The young boy was using his Cleaning Copy Ability to aid him, and he was wearing the signature white bandana speckled with green stars that came with that particular ability. Kirby hummed a happy little melody to himself while he swept, swishing the broom from side to side as he made his way around the deck.
“Kirby!”
He paused. Someone was calling for him. It sounded like two someones were calling for him, actually. Kirby lifted his broom from the floor and turned towards the direction of his name. A pair of Waddle Dees was standing before him. One of them was his good friend, Bandana Dee. The Dee at Bandana’s side was Sailor Dee, Bandana’s sister and a member of Meta Knight’s crew. Kirby almost didn’t recognize Sailor, since she wasn’t wearing her sailor’s cap. She was holding the cap in one of her hands, and on her head, she wore a pointed purple helmet. The helmet looked familiar to Kirby; he soon realized that it was part of Mace Knight’s old set of armor, the set he had worn when Kirby had first faced him and the other Meta Knights during the Star Rod incident.
“Look at what Bandana and I found!” Sailor exclaimed, her voice brimming with excitement. She lifted up an old weapon, a spiked ball connected to a staff by a string of chains-Mace Knight’s old flail.
“This stuff’s almost as old as us!” Bandana chimed in, and Kirby noticed that he had clipped a crescent moon decoration to the front of his bandana-part of Trident Knight’s old armor. Instead of his spear, Bandana was wielding the knight’s old trident. “Sailor and I found a box full of everybody’s old weapons and armor! We’re playing dress up!”
“Wow!” Kirby marveled at them. “I want to dress up too!” The three of them were supposed to be cleaning, but surely Meta Knight wouldn’t mind if they took a little break to play together. They had been working very hard, after all.
“Come with us!” Sailor gestured down the corridor. “We’ll show you where the rest of it is!” Kirby nodded, dropped his Cleaning Ability, and followed the siblings into the depths of the battleship.
With the latest collection of boxes now stashed in their appropriate places, Dedede meandered through another hall of the ship, towards the next room that needed tending to. Meta Knight shuffled along at his side, wrapping his cape around himself. The king couldn’t help but smile at the sight. The knight looked quite cute and cozy whenever he wore his cape like that. Dedede didn’t mention it, though. He was one of the few people that could get away with calling the knight cute without finding himself faced with the sharp point of Galaxia’s blade, but they had work to do. Now was not the time for flirting and banter.
“So, what else do ya need done around here?” Dedede asked his partner.
“We have a few more rooms left, and then we will be finished.” Meta Knight replied. Just then, he heard what sounded like multiple light, fast footfalls approaching. He paused to listen more carefully. “Hm?” Dedede paused as well, also hearing the noise. Three small figures rounded the corner of the hall, skidding to a stop in front of them.
“Hi Meta! Hi Dedede!” One of the figures greeted them. From the youthful, cheery voice, the pair instantly recognized the figure as Kirby, but to Meta Knight, it felt for a moment that he was looking at a younger version of himself. In a way, he supposed that he was. Kirby was brandishing his old sword and wearing his old set of armor, a purple mask and purple pauldrons adorned with a bright red cape. Bandana and Sailor stood on either side of him, wearing some old armor of their own.
“Aw!” Dedede smiled at the kids. “Ain’t that cute!”
“I’m playing dress up with Bandana and Sailor!” Kirby announced. “He’s Trident, she’s Mace, and I’m you, Meta!” Meta Knight grinned from behind his mask. Dedede was right; the three of them did look quite adorable.
“Ah, Kirby. You’ve found my old sword and armor. You wear it well!” The knight complimented his young friend, giving him an affectionate pat on the head. Kirby giggled happily; he was glad that Meta Knight liked his new look.
“I didn’t think ya still had that ol’ cape of yours after all these years!” Dedede interrupted their little moment, placing a mittened hand atop Meta Knight’s head and leaning down so that the two of them were face to face. Meta Knight regarded him with a soft, affectionate look, a look reserved only for his king, and Dedede wondered for a moment if his knight was blushing underneath his mask.
“Of course I still have it, mi rey. I keep all of your gifts.” Kirby’s eyes shined brightly at this revelation; he’d had no idea that Meta Knight’s first cape had been a present from Dedede.
“Ooh! What a cool gift!” He marveled. Sailor leaned in for a closer look at the cape.
“A gift from the king!” She gasped, eyes sparkling with wonder. “What an honor!”
“Wow! Great King, you gave this cape to Sir Meta Knight?” Bandana asked, carefully grasping the bright red fabric in his hands and lifting it up to display it to the king and the knight. The king nodded, breaking into a proud grin.
“Yup! I gave it to Mety way back when he and I first got acquainted!”
“It was a long time ago, before Kirby arrived on Popstar.” Meta Knight clarified. Kirby removed Meta Knight’s old mask and clutched it in his gloved hands, looking up at the knight with wide, curious eyes. Something had suddenly occurred to him, something that his friend had never discussed with him.
“Meta, how did you meet Dedede?” He asked. “I’ve known both of you for so long, but you’ve never told me how you two met! Did you know right away that you would like each other? Dedede must have really liked you a lot if he gave you a present!” Meta Knight’s expression shifted as he recalled that fated first meeting, as he thought of how to explain it to the boy. His initial encounter with the king had not been as romantic as Kirby was envisioning it.
“Well, it was not exactly love at first sight. It was more like ‘love at first fight’…” He muttered, a hint of annoyance evident in his voice. He wasn’t annoyed at Kirby, though. Just at a certain part of the memory. “You see, Kirby, the cape was actually the second thing that Dedede gave to me. The first was a hammer to the face…” Kirby couldn’t help but giggle at this. He pictured Dedede-a much younger, much more brash version of Dedede-delivering a powerful whack right to a younger Meta Knight’s face, sending him flying. He wondered how the king had gone from attacking the knight with his hammer to gifting him a cape to eventually becoming his husband.
“Hey now, you came into my castle lookin’ for a fight and you got one!” Dedede smirked, placing his arm snugly around Meta Knight. The knight’s expression softened. That was true. He had been the one that had sought out combat, and combat was exactly what he had received. Meta Knight could tell from the way that Kirby was staring up at him that the boy wanted to hear more about his and Dedede’s first meeting, and although they were being more reserved with their curiosity, he sensed that Bandana and Sailor wished to hear more as well. The knight knew just how much the three of them enjoyed it when he chose to tell them about his past, and they had all been doing such a good job helping out with the ship, so he decided that he would indulge them.
“If you would like, I can tell you how the king and I met-after we finish cleaning, of course.” He offered. Kirby, Bandana, and Sailor all cheered at this with chants of ‘story time’ and promptly hurried off to finish up their chores. Later, on a freshly-swept deck, the group had gathered together again for story time. They were on the uppermost exterior deck of the Halberd, looking out at the bright orange sky as bright orange waves rose and fell in the ocean below them. Meta Knight was laying on his side on the deck, laying next to Dedede, and Kirby and the Dees were sitting around them. The kids stared expectantly at the knight, eyes shining with anticipation as they waited for him to start speaking.
“Before I tell you how we met, let me first tell you how I arrived on Popstar.” Meta Knight began. Kirby, Bandana, and Sailor each leaned in closer. The knight was infamously quiet about his past, seldom choosing to share details about it and being extremely selective with who he chose to disclose those details to. Whenever he did decide to impart some of his past to them, the kids considered it a privilege to hear, and they knew that they should listen carefully.
“Like Kirby, and like all of our kind, I was born among the stars.” The knight explained. “I do not remember anything from this time, but I know what occurred from what I have learned as an adult.” He pictured himself as an infant, resting upon his very own Warp Star in the inky blackness of outer space. “We are meant to stay in a deep slumber until we are children, at which point we awaken and search for a planet to settle upon. However, in my case, something-well, someone, actually-found me and woke me early, when I was still just a baby.” Kirby and the Dees had a pretty good idea of who that “someone” was: Nightmare, the dark being that had invaded the Fountain of Dreams. He had raised Meta Knight, something that the knight had revealed to all of them long ago, right after the Star Rod incident had been resolved. He had not, however, explained just exactly how he had fallen into Nightmare’s clutches in the first place. Meta Knight pictured Nightmare’s imposing figure materializing and looming over his infant self, over the Warp Star that had been his cradle. A large, bony hand grasped his Warp Star, and the fingers of another pinched one of the infant Meta Knight’s wings, plucking him from his resting place.
“Levántate, niño.” Nightmare commanded in a rich, haunting voice that seemed to echo across the cosmos. “I have big plans for you.” He crushed the Warp Star in his palm with a sickening crunch, splintering it into glowing golden shards and waking the baby knight, who let out a confused cry of “poyo”.