Chapter Text
The Waddle Dee platoon had fallen. Well, to be honest, most of them were hidden away in the secret rooms throughout the castle, carrying spears to ward him off in case he found them. The King had ran off to prepare his final, secret weapon against the invading force. And the only thing standing between that monster which had broken into the castle and the King of Dreamland was the last of the Waddle Dee platoon, the one which wore a bandana.
The Waddle Dee in the bandana gulped as the sounds of other platoons fighting and castle walls being destroyed grew louder and louder. None of the other platoons had a chance, not since the bosses went down. The last Dee knew he had no chance, but he was loyal to his king and so stood unarmed as the only barrier.
Finally, the last wall broke. It came down in a shower of brick, mortar, and dust. It washed over the Dee, enveloping his world in chalky, choking grey. The only thing he could make out beyond his gloved fingertips was the hazy dark outline of the invader, growing more solid by the second.
Fluffy, pink hair, rosy cheeks, a grin wide enough to consume the world. Exactly as the King had described the beast; Kirby.
Despite the destruction, the boy smiled kindly. "Hey pal, whatcha doing here so far in the castle? You lost?"
"I— I'm not lost!" the Dee shouted. "I'm gonna protect the king! I'm gonna beat you!"
The smile changed, slightly. Almost sad now. Pity. "Um. Not to be rude, but you don't even have a weapon. I mean, I'd rather be a pacifist too but Mr. Dedede stole a lot of people's food and I guess I'm the one trying to get it back for everyone. It would be great if you could convince him, but I think I'm gonna have to fight him."
The more he spoke, the sadder he got. Maybe that pity wasn't just for the Dee's doomed to fail vow of protection; maybe he was pitying the whole situation itself. Still, the Dee knew there was no stopping Kirby nor convincing his King to go back on his plans and Kirby could feel the Dee's devotion. Why else would he put himself in such an impossible situation?
Kirby smiled and walked closer to the boy. The Dee flinched back, though Kirby did nothing. Even when the pink-haired boy extended his hand, it wasn't in a fist. He simply poked the Dee's nose with his finger. "Boop!"
"Ah!" The Dee's arms flew up defensively as he shook with fright, the sudden movement sending him off-balance and falling back to the ground.
Kirby laughed and then began to walk past him. "Hehe. Well, you're fun but I've gotta finish this up and get home. I was gonna make and sandwich before all this started and my stomach's grumbling."
"W— You've been eating every piece of food we dropped on the way back!"
"Yeah, but it's not my food. It's something special when the food is yours." The boy began to drool and gazed dreamily into the distance as he made his way into the arena. "Mmm… Maybe add a slice of metamato…"
The Dee in the bandana had been training. He'd gone down against Kirby without even a fight; it would have been more effective to walk into him and annoy him than just trying to be an immobile roadblock. The Dee had to get stronger, and now was the perfect chance for it.
The King's annual Megaton Punch tournament was just days away before the Dee realized he could use it to show the great King how far he had come. That he wouldn't beg for mercy from their enemies but instead face them head-on. He'd crush the competition and be a face for the world to fear, finally—
A puff of pink was thrust in front of him. "Want some?"
The Dee jumped back, out of his thoughts and back into the tournament fair. He nearly fell again but managed to catch himself and do what looked like a series of strange, winding dance moves in order to not lose his balance. Then he heard that laugh, the one ingrained in his mind since the siege on the castle.
"Hehe. You're funny, Bandee." Kirby said between giggles. He stood there in a red headband and holding cotton candy as pink and fluffy as his own hair. For a millisecond, the Dee wondered if it was made of the same material but pushed the nonsensical thought aside to focus on the matter at hand.
"I— I'm not funny," the Dee stammered. "And what the heck is a 'bandee'?"
"It's a you! Y'know: bandana, waddle dee… Bandee!"He beamed, seeming a bit more proud of the nickname than he should have been. At least, for what Bandee thought of it. "Besides, 'Cubee' would have been too close to my name and then everyone would get all confused."
"Cubee?"
"Cute and waddle dee."
It wasn't just what Kirby said that set Bandee into a stammering mess of, "Wha— Wha— Wha—" but the way he said it like it was obvious. Like, duh, he would be the designated 'cute' member of the platoon. Besides, he was a warrior and warriors aren't cute! "What makes you think I'm cute?"
"That!"
"What!"
"The way you get wound up so easily and the way you're always blushing."
"I don't and I'm not!" And yet Bandee couldn't help but notice how loud he had raised his voice and how hot his cheeks had become. Kirby giggled as Bandee blushed harder in embarassment. Then he approached, way too close for Bandee's comfort, and put a finger through his hair. It caught in a curl and straightened out as Kirby pulled away, snapping back into a loop as Kirby's finger lost contact with the strand.
"And your hair's all curly too. I bet you spend a lot of time each morning looking after it, even if you hide it under your bandana. And your cheeks are puffy, probably because you're pouting all the time."
Bandee did his best to hold back a pout and prove him right.
"You're just a cute guy!"
"No I'm not!" Bandee stomped in place, which Kirby giggled at. "Urg. What are you even doing here?"
"Well… I came because I heard there was gonna be a lot of yummy food but then it turned out I wasn't waiting in line for the fried donut stand and was actually signing up for the Megaton Punch tournament. So I thought, hey, why not? They even gave me this cool headband." He pointed at the aforementioned accesory. Bandee glanced at a similar headband wrapped around his wrist. "Then I got some cotton candy and saw you and then you freaked out and here we are!"
"I didn't freak out!" And then, realizing that he did and in fact still was freaking out, Bandee smacked his forehead. What was wrong with him recently? Usually he was more put together than this. Something about Kirby— aside from how scarily strong the starborn kid was— seriously sent him off balance. This was something he's have to talk to the king about.
"Why even let him enter the tournament?" Bandee asked.
The good (according to Bandee) King Dedede sat in a room atop the stands overseeing the tournament ground, letting another Waddle Dee feed him grapes. Bandee couldn't help but notice how the other Dee was shorter and if it were a word he would have been smiley-er. The cute Waddle Dee, Bandee thought, All the others are like this guy. Kirby must be messing with me.
"He's strong," the King said. "You've heard he took down Nightmare, right? Any fighter in the kingdom will want to test their mettle against him. And it will prove me all the stronger when I make my appearence and beat him. That's why I sent him that letter of invitation in the first place."
Bandee decided not to say Kirby had actually wandered into the tournament.
"And I bet you want to get back at him after your battle at the castle," Dedede continued. No matter how much Bandee had hung his head in shame and said he did nothing to stop Kirby, the King never called their conversation anything other than a battle or the a brave last stand. "If I put you two together in the first round, maybe I won't even need to beat him myself. As my most loyal soldier, I suppose I could let you get a first go at him."
Bandee also decided to not remind the King it wouldn't be a duel competition. Instead he saluted and thanked his liege.
"That must be why he makes my head spin so much," Bandee said. "This whole time, I've wanted to get back at him and prove I can fight him. I can't lose heart now that I get to face him head-to-head. And he must see me as a threat if he's trying to throw me off balance!"
The King raised an eyebrow. "Throw you off balance?"
"Back in the castle, he booped me! And just a bit ago he called me cute and tried to give me cotton candy!"
"Kid, I think he might just be overly friendly with ya. Not many kids you two's age around this part of Dreamland." The King thought perhaps some of the issue came from this Dee being raised in a military environment rather than one that would foster social skills. Then he was fed a particularly sweet grape and stopped thinking about it.
"He treats me as a joke!" Bandee pouted. "I'm not his friend, I'm a proud member of the First Waddle Dee Platoon! I'll show him the power of the Waddle Dees!"
The King kindly waited for Bandee to fully storm off before erupting into an uproarous laugh. "Ha! It's gonna be a good first match; that kid's like a growling puppy that don't know how to play with others. Hey, you, Grape Dee, make sure the next bowl is full of sweet ones."
And it was a good match. Bandee was happy that he has practiced so hard that he even managed to leave a mark on the ground. He couldn't quite remember what happened after Kirby managed to crack the planet in half, though.
"Get back here!" Bandee yelled. Though he did wonder if his voice was muffled by the great King's blubburous body as the two chased after Kirby and the King's stolen cake. "Didn't you used to be against stealing food?"
Kirby turned his head and blew a raspberry at the two. And then the sky cracked apart.
Kirby skid to a stop. And then the King fell on top of him and Bandee on top of him.
"Ow," Kirby groaned from beneath the king, "My bones…"
"That's what you get for stealing the king's cake!" Bandee said.
Dedede stood and pulled both boys up with him. "Enough about the cake," he said, wiping said cake off his face, "Look at that!"
The three stared in awe as a flying ship crashed through the skies of Cookie Country, breaking apart before it could even smash into the ground. Dedede was the first to take off after it, closely followed by the two boys. Then, the local vampire swordsman guy, but Bandee didn't pay him much mind.
"Dedede!" Kirby shouted as they ran. "You owe me a cake!"
"You owe us a cake!" Bandee shouted.
"Enough about the darn cake!" Dedede repeated.
Bandee could not stop thinking about the darn cake. Yeah, sure, he entered the ruins of a space ship and met a man who probably was an alien, but he was far more concerned about the principal of the darn thing.
The King had invited the First Waddle Dee Platoon out on a picnic to celebrate their victory in routing Kracko away from the castle. Many Parasol Dees got wet in that operation and had recieved the highest honors for their bravery. Then out of nowhere, Kirby appears and steals a slice of cake! Bandee fumed over the nerve of him. It was made all the worse when the King decreed the two boys would scout out Cookie Country for one of the missing ship parts while he and the knight explored Raisin Ruins since it was more dangerous. Which meant being stuck with Kirby alone.
"Since when did you start carrying a spear around?" Kirby asked as the other boy slashed a scarfy away; his own starchild powers seemed to just make them mad.
"Since you cracked the planet in half."
Kirby pouted. "I wished for Nova to fix it."
"You blew it up!" Every word out of Bandee's mouth was now spoken in a stressed, high-pitched squeak. "To stop it from destroying the world because of some jester clown monster guy that made the sun and moon fight! You beat up, like, eight gods in an afternoon!"
"Hehe, Marx musta seen my grumpy side since I didn't get my afternoon snack."
Bandee's hand found its way to its usual position when talking to Kirby: resting flat against his face. "That's not the point. I've been training with this because if I'm gonna take you down, I'm gonna need a weapon to do it! And I've been getting good at it too! Watch this."
The young soldier used his spear to point at a ledge of a hill overlooking the valley the two were traveling through. Then he held the spear above him and began turning it around in his hands, twirling it until the shape of the spear was lost in a blur and the boy's feet left the ground. Kirby watched as Bandee flew through the air and onto the ledge, propelled by his spear. He cheered in excitement when the other boy landed.
"See?" Bandee asked. "I'm getting stronger and I'm gonna beat you."
"You definitely are!" Kirby hurried after him, jumping through the air like he was hopping up invisible steps. Bandee gaped at him, pulled out of his self-congratulation and remembering the starborn's true power. "The first part, I mean. Why would I wanna fight my friend?"
"What makes you think we're friends?"
The world shook. At least, that's what it felt like to Bandee. A strange prickling sensation ran across his skin and a shiver ran down his spine. There was a slight sway in the gravity of things, like a black hole had just opened somewhere out there in space and was trying to ever so slightly pull him in.
Bandee turned to face the direction all these feelings suddenly came from and found himself looking to Kirby, who sniffled as tears welled in his eyes. "We— We're not friends?"
The boy might not have been holding a weapon, but Bandee could feel a knife at his throat. Despite not thinking he cared about Kirby, it still felt like a natural disturbance in the order of the world and a sin punishable by the multitude of gods out there to make the boy cry. Bandee suddenly wished the King hadn't enough faith in him to explore on his own just so they were together now and he could consult his majesty. But as it were, Bandee was alone with Kirby and his closest confidant was his spear. As much as he did wish to battle the boy, Bandee felt suddenly lashing at him with his weapon wasn't going to help the current predicament.
"Uh, I mean. Um," Bandee stammered. "I was just wondering. Like, uh, what makes us friends?" Despite his attempt at sincerity, his fractured and forced smile betrayed him as did the trembling of his words.
Yet, the words did the trick since in a blink Kirby was back to his usualy cheery self. "Well, back when we met you didn't want to fight me and you seemed cute and friendly. Then I saw I was supposed to go up against Mr. Kawasaki first at the Megaton Punch tournament but it got changed to be against you so I thought you wanted to see me again. Plus you always look so stern and strict and boring but you're all excited when we're together so that's gotta be because I'm fun to be around, right?"
The words came out of Kirby like an unending waterfall, unrelenting to the point Bandee felt a sentence behind in comprehending everything he said. He opened his mouth to respond several times before closing it again, realizing he didn't know what to say. Thankfully, Kirby picked up his slack.
"Y'know, that's why I took that slice of cake this morning. I knew the 'Hero of the Waddle Dee Platoon' would get up and try and get it back and when you caught me we could have a picnic!"
Bandee was struck stupid. Half by Kirby's ludicrous plan and half by being refered to as a hero when the most he had done before was halt Kirby himself for just a few seconds.
"But then Dedede came after me too," Kirby continued, "And that ship fell out of the sky and now we're on an adventure! I mean, I do love adventures but sometimes you just wanna hang out with your best friend and have some cake."
And then it all clicked for Bandee. Best friend. What had the ingenious King said before the Megaton Punch tournament? There aren't many kids their age in this part of Dreamland. Bandee didn't know if Kirby had the brain power to realize what he meant, but Bandee was starting to catch on. If he was Kirby's best friend, the guy must have been pretty lonely even if he was always wearing a smile on his face. Sure there were a lot of people around that he was friends with, but how many did he really connect with and have fun with? Was that Megaton Punch round the most he had 'played' with another person? Heck; nobody really even knew what Kirby was. They all called him a starborn or a starchild just because of his powers kinda giving off star-shaped sparkles. He lived on his own. He was lonely even if he didn't fully realize it, wasn't he?
Bandee sighed. Kirby was childish, a glutton, had next to no social skills, and drove him up a wall. And yet when he thought on it, he had more of a connection with him than he did anyone else in the platoon. Bandee just didn't make any friends early on in his life and so the King seemed to take him under his wing. Then, since he first faced Kirby, he was avoiding most of the platoon entirely to focus on his training. It might have been a want for revenge or competition, but having Kirby in his life lit a spark in Bandee that no other relationship he had did, not even the King.
Realizing this, Bandee gulped down his pride and held out a hand to his— friend, he would guess.
"How about, after all of this, we get some cake and have a picnic?" Bandee asked.
Kirby squeed, sharp and shrill enough to give Bandee a headache. Then the other boy tackled him into a hug, squeezing him so much and bringing so much heat to his face that Bandee thought he'd erupt like a volcano.
Bandee was a soldier by birth and, as the King said, the strongest and most loyal of the Waddle Dee Platoon. Surely he could survive being Kirby's friend.
Probably.