Chapter Text
A knight must be calm. A knight must be dignified. A knight must keep their composure, even if his armor has been taken from him. His armor, his cape, his sword...
“I knew it.”
His mask. The sky pirates had taken his mask. They even took his gloves. They could have simply shoved them into the star-metal manacles along with his arms but no, they had to strip him naked first. So they could sell his equipment like thieves, no doubt. Was it not enough that they had downed his Halberd? Forced his crew to abandon ship to the deep ocean waters below?
“I knew it!”
A knight must believe in his fellows. They had done drills, they would know what to do. Especially after the first Halberd. He had to believe they were alright. He knew they were alright. A knight must stay level-headed. A knight must keep his dignity, even if -
“I knew you were just like me!”
“SHUT UP!” Meta roared to the pink child next to him. The toddler. Barely more than an infant, and sounding it. To be fair, the yell that echoed beyond the bars of their cell and into the dark brig of the sky pirate's vessel...
It didn't sound any different. But it got Kirby to shut up, for just a moment. Meta cursed himself all the same. A knight mustn't yell.
“...I mean....I always kinda knew?” Kirby offered, more quietly, more gently. “We're the same size. We move the same way...”
Meta didn't say anything. A knight must have poise, even if all of his arms had been stolen from him by big dumb birds. Even if his ship had been soundly beaten in battle and his crew scattered to the winds because he was an inadequate leader for them.
Even if he looked like the smallest of children, barely holding back his tears.
“Aren't you...just like me?” Kirby finished, uncertainly, but also hopefully. Still excited, despite being more subdued in response to his cellmate's barely contained emotions.
“I am not just like you.” the blue boy spoke with a quietly burning anger unbecoming of a knight. He couldn't meet Kirby's gaze, he couldn't stop himself shaking with barely-contained frustration. “I'm not a child.”
“But...we're the same age, aren't we?”
Meta didn't answer, letting the obvious question hang in the heavy silence of the brig.
“Aren't...aren't you here for the same reason I am?”
Meta glanced at Kirby, one wary yellow eye shining wetly in the dim light.
“Aren't you...here to stay a kid? Because of what'll happen if we-”
Meta looked away, shivering.
“I-I want my sword back.”
Kirby let the statement fall into the stale air of the brig like lead.
“I want my sword. An-and my armor. And my cape.”
“And, your gloves...?” Kirby offered, gently.
“A-and my gloves.” Meta gulped down his emotion, not able to bring himself to look at Kirby.
For his part, Kirby beamed. “Then we'll get your stuff back!”
At this, Meta did turn to look at Kirby – sat in the exact kind of manacles that shackled Meta's own hands and feet. “H...how? They know exactly how to restrain both of us.” At this, Meta realized, the penguin pirates did in fact know precisely how to restrain the both of them. That was worrying in it's own right. The pirates knew what they were, well enough to -
“Nah, I got this. Watch!” Kirby winked confidently, then proceeded to inhale, hard, at his own feet. Meta's eyes widened into glowing saucers in the dim light of the brig.
“H, hey, what are you doing!? You might-”
He didn't get the chance to finish his sentence. Kirby, brow furrowed, inhaling hard enough to suck in the dusty air of the brig, inhaled his own feet, manacles and all, which he promptly pulled free, shiny, red and free of the starmetal restraints that had held them.
Meta gaped at the pink boy in front of him, who for his part, swallowed and grinned, presenting his newly-freed feet. “Tah-dah!”
“You're...you're not supposed to eat starmetal!”
Kirby giggled as if Meta had just told a joke. “Of course not! They're made of metal!”
“N, no, I mean starmetal is bad for you! You could get sick!”
Kirby frowned thoughtfully, kicking his feet idly. “Ohhh...well, I better be sure to spit these out, then!” He proceeded to inhale, hard, sucking in his own arms, manacles and all, as Meta watched in utter disbelief. Inhaling your own extremities was even not remotely safe. They learned this as infants. Was this boy really the one that had foiled him and King Dedede so completely before?
Kirby spat the manacles free, sending them flying as a comet of star-energy. It burned through the bars of their cell, leaving a glowing-hot hole in their cell, the cell across from them, the wall...
“Careful...! They're going to realize we're up to something!” Meta hissed, in a very much futile effort to remain stealthy despite the comet likely having just shot out the port side of the ship. To be fair, if their meeting on the first Halberd had taught Meta anything about Kirby, it was that stealth was not the pink boy's forte.
Destruction was.
Kirby giggled mischievously, as if this were some naughty prank they were both committing. “Then we better hurry and get yours off, too!”
Oh no. It was bad enough that he would suck in his own body parts, but he wouldn't be able to feel it if he was overdoing it with Meta's own-
“And then we'll get your armor and stuff back!” Kirby grinned brightly.
Meta sighed in defeat. He couldn't exactly say no to that. And he had no way of getting the restraints off himself...he nodded, to Kirby's unabashed delight.
A knight must be brave....