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With a hauntingly festive atmosphere avid in the air, many of the residents in Dreamland were preparing for the spooky festivities that Halloween night brought; dressing up and trick-or-treating, or merely spending the night in with bowls of sweets and candy prepared for said trick-or-treaters knock-knock-knocking at their doors. The walls of Castle Dedede were surprisingly decorated, many shabbily made bunting displays with a myriad of pumpkin, bat and ghost cut outs hung across the diverse branching hallways. In its heart, Kirby and his friends were making final touches on their outfits for the night, donning their spooky costumes in preparation for a night full of sweets and candy hunting.
Adorned in a pitch-black dress and cloak reminiscent of Miss Ebony Darkness herself was Fumu. She snuggly placed her matching witch’s hat – with a sewn-on raven familiar – onto the top of her head to complete her spooky costume.
Bun did his best to ensure he and his sibling would not match; the younger cappy sibling dressed up as a werewolf with giant fake paws full of clumps of unkept fur, with a matching mask also made from the same uneven clumps of fur that covered his entire face…Although he thought the outfit to be scary and intimidating, he couldn’t deny the agitating constant itch that came from the nasty fake fur, but such was the sacrifice you made to have a scary costume for Halloween.
Kirby, unlike his two friends, didn’t wear a costume of a traditional spooky creature. Instead, he chose a more heroic costume. Bearing a glimmering silver mask with the oh so famous ‘V’ cutout, it was fairly obvious what or rather, who, Kirby was dressing up with. Attached to the straps of the mask were little tiny purple wings formed from hard felt, when worn the two wings appeared as if they sprouted from the back of the wearer. Along with the mask came a tiny replica of the golden sword Galaxia, fake of course, but it still shone with the glamourous sparkling brightness that the real Galaxia did so often.
“Awe Kirby! You’re the cutest little Meta Knight ever! We need to stop by and show him your costume.” Fumu chimed, gleefully fussing over the littlest of the trio.
“Yeah! I’m sure he’ll love it,” Bun continued. “Plus, I’m pretty sure if we all turn up at his door with you centre stage as our weapon, we are guaranteed to get a pick from his candy stash- he isn’t very good at hiding it!” The younger sibling heartily laughed, smirking with a devilish glint in his eyes. He had faith in his master plan, Kirby was Meta Knight’s one weakness after all.
The pink puffball simply giggled at his friends’ remarks, waggling his arms around as per usual to convey his constant joy. He looked into a mirror to the right of them and upon seeing his reflection, Kirby struck a gallant pose to further imitate the character he was dressed as, earning another pass of giggles from his two companions. After the laughing died down, the three made their way through the castle, towards the knights’ quarters.
It was a short journey for the three, who now knew the route from the siblings’ lodgings to the knights’ quarters off by heart due to their constant journeys there to hang out with Kirby, as usually the pink puffball chose to stay with Meta Knight when sleeping overnight at the castle. Upon reaching the door to the far-off apartment, Fumu knocked at the door so the three of them could pull their first ‘trick-or-treat!’ of the night.
Shuffling, then steps, as the three observed a shadow from under the door slowly making its way closer to the other side of the door. Seeing the handle dip notified the trio to ready their yell, and as wood left the wall and the light from the room in front of them filtered into the hallway they all chimed in unison-
“Trick or treat!” Two voices of the three reverberated.
“TREAT!” The smaller voice followed, missing the beat of the first two. The two siblings turned their heads towards Kirby, whose expression was unknown beneath his mask, but his sapphire eyes betrayed the pink puffball’s airy smile that lay hidden under the hunk of metal.
“You can’t just say treat, that’s not how it works Kirby!” Fumu lightly scolded the baby warrior, who merely tilted his head at the remark.
Loud boisterous laughing interrupted the trio, quickly pulling them from their own little world back into reality. They looked towards the source of the laugh, not expecting such a laugh from Meta Knight of all people…and they were right in their suspicions. In the doorway wasn’t the familiar midnight blue of the blue puff, but a dark, almost maroon looking magenta instead.
“I think Kirby nailed it personally.”
“Galacta! I didn’t know you were here currently,” Fumu spoke with utmost glee in her voice at seeing the magenta knight, “are you visiting?”
“Heh, visiting.” Galacta spoke with a smirk on their face, “you could say that.” Their tone immediately flew other their heads, and so Galacta moved on quickly. “I’m here to take Kirby Halloweening of course, this body paint took forever to apply- I even coloured my wings, do you know how long it’s going to take to wash the colouring out of my feathers? so I’m going to make the most of this, naturally.”
Taking a good look at the knight in the doorway now, Fumu realised that their usual magenta hue was in fact much darker and desaturated, must be the work of the body paint. Their usual lavender wings were darkened, doused in a desaturated midnight purple. Once golden, shining horns now dulled and reflected no light at all. Wow, that body paint was good. Under Galacta’s right cheek were two black dots, very reminiscent of the bite of a vampire.
“Wow, you sure are dedicated, are you meant to be a vampire?”
“Yup!” The once magenta knight chimed without a beat. “Meta is the same- pretty sure we sold Gangu and Tuggle out of all of their remaining body paint supplies, but we wanted to go all in for Kirby this Halloween-“ Galacta looked over to said child, only now taking in the little outfit that the pink puff wore. “Oh my stars!” Instantaneously they scooped Kirby up and held him up in the air, as if presenting the baby to an entire kingdom, “aren’t you the cutest little knight! I don’t think Meta Knight has ever looked better, you suit the look far better than he ever has.” They giggled, continuing to dote upon the baby’s knight costume, cooing and squishing their cheeks up against Kirby’s costume mask. They received more giggles and coos from the child in response to their affections.
Initially zoned out, Bun finally clocked in at the first part of their sentence, “w-wait, you mean Sir Meta Knight is dressed up too?!” Bun exclaimed, eager to see the stoic knight dressed up in the same manor that most kids were.
Galacta placed Kirby back down before speaking up, “mhm, he’s still getting ready, why don’t you all come in whilst we’re still waiting on him, I’ll sneak you some candy as well- what he doesn’t know can’t hurt him, right?” Galacta spoke in a whisper for that last part, placing their finger over their mouth to metaphorically shush them all. More giggles, and the knight was ushering the trio of friends through the doorway.
Now inside, Galacta hastily made a beeline for the jar of sweets that laid in the corner of the room, the treasure of a jar currently vulnerable as the blue beast that usually guarded its contents was currently occupied with other chores. Plunging their fist into the jar, they were able to grab a handful of daintily wrapped spherical sweets, which they quickly brought back towards the three kids and divided out between them (though keeping one for themself) before the blue beast at large discovered they were stealing from his sugary hoard.
It was still a bit before Meta Knight had finished getting ready, Galacta made some small talk with the kids in the meantime to keep them somewhat entertained. Eventually, the blue knight made his grand entrance; his usual silver mask was instead a cold metallic purple, with matching pauldrons to boot. His usual cobalt blue body was significantly darker, appearing more indigo assumably due to the use of body paint. A bright, crimson red cloak tattered at the edges trailed behind him as he glided towards the group.
Bun had wanted to laugh earlier at the prospect of Meta Knight dressing up, but he couldn’t find it in him to do so because Meta Knight looked so damn cool – and very much intimidating if they weren’t friends with the knight – he was pretty jealous. Fumu found herself in awe at the lengths the normally stoic knight would go in order to make Kirby happy, clearly they cared for each other very much, which made a lot of sense considering their relationship to one another.
Upon hearing his approach, Kirby perked up, turning to the direction of his beloved father and waving his hands up and down dramatically to welcome the knight over.
Seeing his regular visage upon Kirby earned a chuckle from Meta Knight. Once close enough, he scooped Kirby into his arms much like Galacta had done earlier so he could bring Kirby’s eye level to his.
“It’s exactly like staring into a mirror…are we sure this is actually Kirby and not just my reflection that I’m looking at?” He playfully teased, garnering a fit of giggles from the tot he held up in his hands.
“He’s the spitting image of you…normal you anyways,” Galacta remarked, “but he absolutely wears it better. I think you should let him keep this look from now on, and you can keep… whatever this-“ they paused, gesturing to the blue knight’s hallowing appearance, “-is…you do suit red well.” Facing away from the two siblings, so only Meta could see the hot red blush forming on their face and cheeks, they continued, “much better than I thought you would anyways.”
“You’re too kind, Galacta.” Seeing the pink knight so flustered never failed to fill him with a certain glee, under the masked he grinned a devilish grin.
He turned to the other two kids, complimenting their choice of costumes as well, striking up a small discussion on the topic of costumes before he noticed the time quickly ticking away from them.
“Look at the time! Instead of sitting around and talking, how about we actually start going around houses so you children can fill up on your share of sweets. If we start now we should still be able to get round to every house in the village.”
“Yeah!” The group of kids agreed unanimously, hopping up and grabbing their buckets in preparation for the night ahead. The two adults trailed behind slightly as the group headed towards the exit to the apartment.
“A little eager aren’t you? It’s almost as if you’re more excited than the kids for this- you’re in it for the sweets aren’t you Meta?” Galacta playfully teased the blue puffball, knowing the trio were too wrapped up in their excitement to notice the banter between them.
“…Perhaps, perhaps not, I don’t need to spill my motives to the likes of you, flying rat,” Meta Knight teased in return, light-heartedly elbowing the vampiric-looking knight walking beside him.
“Just make sure to leave some candy for the kids won’t you, I know what you’re like,” Galacta chuckled, thinking about the knight’s ravenous sweet tooth. The blue knight merely scoffed and jokingly rolled his eyes at the remark. The both of them quickened their pace, catching up with the trio in front of them as they readied to leave the castle grounds and travel towards the spookily decorated village at the bottom of the hill.
House to house, door to door, slowly the kids’ pumpkin-shaped buckets gradually filled up with various types of different quality candy. Some houses offered larger, nicer pickings, such as the mayor’s house giving out large chocolate bars, and others offered not-so-nice cheaper candy, thus is the Halloween experience of course.
A few houses were more…reserved, in the amount of candy they offered to the kids. One particular cappy who seemed fairly uninterested in the holiday even scoffed and aggressively placed a single tiny sweet into Kirby’s bucket, seemingly annoyed at the prospect of halloweeners just expecting something just for knocking at their door. The pink puffball pouted, silently disappointed in the produce from that particular house. The cappy had guts in all honesty, acting in such a way towards Kirby with his actual parent and also somewhat other guardian merely meters away from their location. The angry cappy looked onwards from the three kids in front of them towards the two knights that stood behind them; their expression of anger immediately turned to intense fear when they saw the way that Meta Knight was scowling at them under the mask, they didn’t need to see under the mask to gather what expression was moulded onto the blue knight’s face. It was almost as if there was also an aura of darkness exuding from his figure as well, whatever it was blanketed the cappy with an unending feeling of dread and terror that their life may be swiftly ended if they did not right the wrong they had just committed. Galacta wore a similar expression, more visible this time due to their lack of mask. They gestured onto themself, using their finger to draw a line below their mouth where their throat would be visible if they weren’t orb shaped, all while staring directly into their deep, black eyes.
With a much more visible threat on their life the cappy panicked, fleeing back into their abode temporarily to rummage for a treat that would be a worthy enough sacrifice for the knights to spare them their life. Coming across a few somewhat luxurious looking candy bars, they grabbed the lot of them and after opening the door again threw the bars into each kids’ bucket, giving one to Fumu and Bun and two to Kirby in hopes that their offering would satisfy the terrifying monsters that stood behind the costumed kids. Without even checking for approval the cappy, now quivering, slammed the door shut, and a very loud locking sound was heard before the lights petered out of the house’s windows.
At the generous extra treats, all three kids rejoiced, oblivious to the true reason behind the cappy’s change in heart. Meta Knight and Galacta silently nodded at each other with an immense satisfaction, for them that exchange was probably the highlight of their night, asides from the kids having fun of course.
The group made their way around the village in plenty of time, their buckets filled to the brim with sweets and candy by the end of the night. After deciding to call it a night, they all headed back home, with the cappy siblings splitting off from the two knights and Kirby as they reached the castle since the brother and sister decided to go back to their own home to share their treats with their parents.
Once back at the knights’ quarters, Galacta scampered off into the bathroom in order to start on the long struggle that would be washing all of the body paint off of themself, Meta Knight remained in the living room with Kirby as the tot deliberated on what to do with his bucket of sweets.
Safely within the walls of Meta Knight’s home, Kirby finally spilled his spoils onto the floor; a sea of sweets and candy bars flooded a small part of the tiled floor. He ogled a few of the nicer looking candy bars, struggling to decide on which sweet to devour first (having since learned that inhaling everything in one go was not as good as individually eating his food as he got to savour each flavour for longer when he did the latter method of eating). He ended up picking one of the two candy bars that fearful cappy gave him earlier. Though, an obstacle made itself known: Kirby struggled to pull off the tight wrapper that served as a barrier between the sweet treat and himself. After a few moments of fighting with the foil, Meta Knight observed Kirby’s battle with the candy bar and so came over to aid him, effortlessly pulling off half of the foil and handing it back to the baby puffball who cooed back at the knight in appreciation. He located the other similar candy bar, and handed it to his father as a gift for helping him, wanting to share his stash of candy with Meta Knight knowing the blue puffball loved sweets and candy just as much as he did.
With slight hesitation, Meta Knight accepted the gift, gently patting Kirby’s head in thanks. “It’s very kind of you to share, thank you, little star.” He swiftly sat down next to Kirby in order to enjoy his gifted sweet treat. As per usual, Kirby used the situation as an excuse to cuddle into the blue knight, which said knight was never opposed to. The two of them got comfortable, settling down ready to dig into the pile of sweets.
Finally chomping hungrily into the bar, Kirby revelled in the sweetness of the candy, resisting eating the rest of the bar in one bite. Meta Knight seemed to be very much in the same boat, humming at the taste as he devoured the bar in a very miniscule number of bites.
“I hope you had a nice Halloween, it was a good haul this year, wasn’t it?”
“Mhmph-“
Meta Knight silently laughed at Kirby gradually quickening the amount of sweets he was gobbling up, though thought that he shouldn’t have too much sugar before bed.
“Save some sweets for tomorrow as well, little one… Besides, we should be heading to bed soon don’t you think? you shouldn’t have too much sugar, or you’ll end up struggling to get to sleep, and unfortunately I can’t stay up for you since I have to be awake early tomorrow for my patrol.” He gingerly rubbed the Kirby’s back as he ate, as a sort of gentle encouragement to stop.
Reluctantly, Kirby obliged to Meta Knight’s suggestion, scooping up the remainder of his sweets back into the bucket. Now the bucket was approximately two thirds full, opposed to how it was brimming from the top before Kirby had indulged in his sweet stash. He placed the bucket on the table, ready for pickings again when he woke up in the morning.
“Let’s get you to bed then, I need to shower and get rid of this paint before heading to bed myself, but lets take care of you first hm?” Meta Knight spoke softly, beginning to guide Kirby towards the spare bedroom that was assigned to him as he began to stay at the knight’s home in the castle more often.
Part way through walking across the room, Meta Knight offhandedly glanced towards the bucket of sweets, stopping in his tracks when he saw at the top of the pile one of the spherical sweets from his personal stash. He wasn’t angry at Kirby at all, more curious as to how the tot managed to get his nubs on the sweet without alerting him, as Kirby was pretty bad on his stealth, especially when it came to food.
“Little star, how did you get that blue circular candy? I’m sure that’s from my stash- not that I mind, I’m more than happy to share with you, but if you grabbed it, I’d appreciate it if you did ask beforehand…”
“Gawacta!”
Internally the knight growled.
Damn it Galacta.
