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Meta Knight found himself in his personal office on the Halberd, well after he normally went to bed. At this rate he would either oversleep or fail to be at peak performance the next day. He should go to sleep, and yet…
He settled at the window and pulled a warm ramekin out of his cape. Inside was a chocolate Lava cake, a nice change of pace from his usual de-stress parfait. Meta knight didn’t want to go to sleep just yet. He was starting to feel pains again, aches of wires and struts that weren’t there. Wisps of coding and protocols that no longer mingled with the synapses firing in his brain.
He was incomplete, broken and scattered, suboptimal, a savage-
He forced a spoonful of hot chocolate batter into his mouth.
“You’ll have bad dreams if you eat that before bed.”
Meta jumped and slid his mask back over his face before whirling to the door. Galacta Knight was standing in his doorway. Looking closer, Meta could see Morpho coming up behind him. The two really were inseparable.
“I should stab you both for breaking into my ship.”
Galacta laughed. “We knocked. Mace Knight let us in. He’s fond of me, you know!” Galacta pulled a chair up to Meta’s desk.
“All your subordinates like us more than you. Maybe if you were nicer to them…” Morpho followed suit and crossed his legs.
“I’m very nice to them, you two are just overly familiar with everyone!”
Meta watched as Morpho and Galacta set up in his office. There wasn’t much he could do to force them to leave, and as strange as it was to admit, he didn’t want them to. Not when he was still feeling so unwell.
Galacta pulled out a small box, which upon opening revealed a slice of strawberry cake. Morpho had a little tray of assorted wafers and cookies, as well as a pot of tea. Without words, the three were sharing said tea and enjoying their respective snacks. Galacta was the first to break the silence, and Morpho took the distraction as the chance to try and dip a cookie in Meta’s cake.
“You weren’t fighting normally when we were sparring earlier. I came to ask if you were okay, but you’re stress eating again so I’ll ask what’s wrong instead.”
Meta swatted Morpho’s hand away as he cleaned stray chocolate off of his spoon with his mouth. “And here I thought you came because you wanted to see me. You simply feel like I threw our fight. You don’t change.” Meta let out a sigh. “I’m still… shaken by the Haltmann Works incident. It’s been so long, and yet I still feel…”
Morpho held up a hand to tell Meta to stop talking. The two could piece the rest together. “These things take an incredible amount of time to heal from. And even then you never simply forget . We all know that.” Morpho placed a wafer on the side of Meta’s ramekin. Galacta followed with the strawberry on top of his cake. “Try to stop hiding like this, you have plenty of shoulders to cry on. It’s the only way you’ll start making true progress.”
Galacta spoke through a mouthful of buttercream. “You’ll make Kirby and the King worry.” A swallow. Why did Meta tolerate this man again? “And even if you don’t want to show weakness around them, you have us. You’ve seen me at my worst countless times. You owe me at this rate.” He jabbed his fork towards Meta, a mock pout on his face.
“Forgive me for wanting to keep my personal traumas away from my friends.” Meta helped himself to the strawberry Galacta offered, and pretended to not see Morpho dipping a wafer in his cake.
A lopsided smile spread across Galacta’s face. “So you admit we’re friends?”
“I meant his majesty.”
“Sure you did. We’re here for you, you know. Friends or not.”
Morpho stifled a giggle of delight at his enhanced wafer and Meta felt a strange pride at the affirmation that his baking was just that good . “We both mean that, Meta. We...got off on the worst possible foot, but it would feel wrong to let you deal with this by yourself.” The butterfly rarely showed much emotion around Meta, only seeming comfortable doing so around Galacta Knight, but here he looked up at Meta with soft sincerity. If it wasn’t for that Meta would feel like he was being pitied. He wasn’t though, these two genuinely cared.
“I believe you. I’m not yet comfortable going into detail though, not tonight. I simply want to eat and go to bed.”
“I hear that.” Galacta stabbed at his cake again, taking another big bite.
The three enjoyed their evening snack peacefully. Meta talked some about his practice plans for the Meta Knights, not minding Morpho’s chiding that he made them work too hard. Galacta hummed about a day he spent showing off his lance skills to Kirby and their friends. Morpho, while portioning out the last of the tea, brought up how earlier that day he snagged his wing on a vine in Wispy’s woods, much to Galacta’s amusement.
Before Meta Knight knew it, the food and drink was gone and he could no longer stall going to bed.
“Thanks for letting us bother you so late. Try to get some sleep tonight, alright? If you don’t battle me properly tomorrow I’ll cut your mask off!” Galacta packed up what he and Morpho had brought.
“I won’t do much to stop him.” Morpho carefully took the teacups and pot from Galacta.
“ Wait. ”
The two stopped in their tracks.
“Please, I… am not comfortable being alone tonight. If you could both stay here…” Meta Knight wished he had kept his mask on when he ate, he hated blushing in front of people, especially these two, but he couldn’t bear being alone with his thoughts tonight.
Thankfully Morpho didn’t seem to care and if Galacta did he had the decency to not mention it. Instead the two put their things back on the desk.
“Thanks for trusting us like this.” Galacta began. “We’ll get ready for bed in the spare room down the hall, we’ll meet you in your bedroom.”
“I absolutely despise how well you know the layout of my ship that you shouldn’t be allowed in.”
Meta watched as the two left the room without acknowledging his complaint. Meta forced himself to get up and head to bed and wait for his… friends?
Were they friends?
Meta could barely parse the relationship the two had with each other, let alone the relationship the two had with him.
Galacta was a frustrating case. He was a bitter rival and once Meta got to know him, he realized he was short tempered, far less serious than expected and sometimes downright childish. Still, he and Meta dealt with similar pains, and Meta couldn’t deny his own hand in the man’s suffering. Even after all the times Meta Knight had forced Galacta into a battle, he still wanted to help. Still saw Mea Knight’s mechanization as a unique and horrible case, instead of brushing it off as being nothing compared to what NOVA had done to him. To what Meta Knight had done to him.
Morpho was still an enigma. Only really known through his relationship with Galacta Knight. Morpho absolutely hated Meta at first, wanting to keep him from fighting his, friend? Boss? Whatever he is. Once Morpho knew that Meta and Galacta were no longer enemies, he became much less hostile. Morpho is quiet and thoughtful, traits Meta Knight always finds positive, but he’s also very out of touch with the world around him, spacey and lost on modern technology. It wasn’t a bad thing, but it explained how often he simply followed behind Galacta, who had a much better grasp on things. Meta suspected Morpho’s interest in his well being was simply him continuing to follow Galacta.
The two weren’t a consistent part of Meta’s life, they left planet often and when they were on Popstar they often didn't stay near the Halberd. Still, Meta occasionally sparred with Galacta or read a book in Morpho’s company and it seemed that was enough to land him in a situation like this.
“Sorry we took so long, Morpho snagged his wing on a display javelin.”
Galacta walked in first, followed by Morpho.
“By all means, share all of my follies with your rival, it’s not like I was using my dignity or anything.”
Meta knew he was exhausted when he couldn’t be bothered to stifle his chuckling.
The two crawled into bed, one on either side of Meta. Morpho flat on his back, with Galacta on his side.
“Do you need anything? Do you think you can sleep like this?” Morpho tilted his head a bit.
Meta let out a yawn. “Yes, I’ll be fine.”
“We’ll wake you if you have a nightmare.” Galacta offered.
“Can’t have nightmares on Popstar.” Meta was already slipping into sleep.
“Right, we’ll keep your knights from waking you too early then”
Meta should have protested against that, he had things to do in the morning! But he couldn’t keep sleep away any longer. In mere seconds he was out like a light.
“... he’s asleep?” Galacta asked.
“Yes, he must have been exhausted.” Morpho turned to face Galacta and carefully leaned over Meta to give him a kiss. “I love you, try to sleep yourself.”
“I will, and I love you too. Let’s make sure he sleeps in a bit, I’m tired of him almost blacking out when we spar.”
“I do wish you two would fight less, whatever happened to relaxing?”
“If you want me to take you on more dates you can ask.”
Morpho rolled his eyes and settled back down on the bed, this time facing Meta to reach his hand over him. Galacta took the hint and laced their fingers together. They would wake before Meta did, with how sleep deprived the man was, so there was no need to care about how their hands rested on his chest.
“Good night Morpho.”
“Rest well, Galacta.”
The two fell asleep shortly after, and all three dreamt of eating more sweets.