Chapter Text
Kirby, with Magolor in tow, rushed through the rain as the drops became heavier by the minute. The two shielded their faces up until they were at the doorstep of a very cozy-looking dome-shaped house. Kirby quickly opened the door and ushered Magolor inside, bounding in after him and shutting the door. The two stood there idly, panting as water dripped off of them. The only other sound being the rain hitting the home.
“Hoo, looks like we got in at the perfect time,” Kirby said, listening to all the heavy pitter-patters.
Magolor nodded as he wrung out his cape a bit, his hood struggling to stay above his face, “No kidding.”
Kirby suddenly ran to another room, taking a moment before emerging with two towels. He handed one to Magolor before cleaning himself off. The mud from their little playfight earlier came off of him easily enough, eventually leaving him nice and clean, albeit with a now dirty towel.
Kirby turned to Magolor, just now noticing how filthy the mage’s clothes had gotten. Their mud fight was fun and all, but they didn’t really think about the clean up process. And he didn’t have any clothes here for Magolor to wear. “Mm…I shouldn’t have gotten so much mud on you. What should we do about your clothes?”
Magolor had been so busy trying to wring his cape out that he didn’t really notice that his whole outfit was caked in filth. But he already had a trick up his sleeve for that (despite not having sleeves).
“No worries. I have my ways.” Magolor’s hands sparked with magic. A purple sphere of energy formed in his palm, crackling with power. He tossed it up in the air, forming into a ring adorned with runes that Kirby recognized. The ring came down onto the mage, turning his vile blue outfit into a nice and clean green one. The magic dissipated and Magolor clapped his hands together. “Pretty impressive, huh?”
Kirby’s eyes sparkled in wonder, “I wish I could do that!”
Magolor giggled, finding great satisfaction in Kirby’s amazement at his magic. Though he wasn’t sure about teaching that trick to him, considering the puffball never actually wore clothing.
A flash of lightning suddenly lit up the windows, spooking them a bit. Magolor floated over to the window and looked outside. The playful rain had turned into a heavy downpour, and the wind was bashing against the land with full force. The mage hummed in concern as he thought about his current predicament.
“It’s really coming down. And with all that lightning…” He put a hand on his chin as he thought to himself. Eventually he shook his head, “I can’t have the Lor flying in these conditions. It’s too dangerous. That ship has already been through enough; I won’t let it risk flying through this storm to come get me.”
“Yeah, it would be bad if it got damaged by a lightning strike,” Kirby said, also concerned for the ship’s wellbeing. But he already had a solution in mind. “You’ll just have to stay here until the storm clears up!”
“Stay here?” The mage asked, tilting his head a bit. He wrung his hands together as he seemed conflicted about the offer. “I dunno, Kirby, this storm could last all evening. Maybe even all night. I don’t want to overstay my welcome.”
“But-”
“Besides! I’ve seen worse conditions. I can probably just go to the Lor myself! What’s the worse that could happen out there?”
A loud thud against the window caused both of them to jump and whip around to look at what the noise was. The Waddle Doo from earlier had slammed against the glass and was now squashed against it by the wind. It looked inside at the two.
“KIRBY! I’ll get you this time- AUGH!” The Waddle Doo yelled as it was blown away once again.
Magolor narrowed his eyes, both in confusion and concern. “...I’ve found out what the worse that could happen is. And it doesn’t look promising.”
The mage jumped as he suddenly felt a tug at his cape. He turned around and Kirby looked at him with worried and pleading eyes. Magolor’s ear twitched nervously at his friend’s face. He would never understand the worry that Kirby had for him. He could handle himself in dangerous conditions. He had done it before.
“Magolor, please just stay here. I don’t want you getting hurt out there. I’ll be happy to have you as my guest!” Kirby pleaded, gently taking Magolor away from the window. The puff’s eyes suddenly lit up as an idea came to mind. “Better yet, let’s have a sleepover!”
Magolor narrowed his eyes and tilted his head, “A what?”
“A sleepover!”
“Sleep over… where?”
Kirby giggled at Magolor’s genuine confusion, “No, silly! A sleepover is when you spend the night at a friend’s house. Think of it as hanging out like we were earlier, just overnight! It’ll be so much fun!”
Magolor scratched his head. It was certainly an interesting concept. Instead of spending time with friends during the day, it would happen at night. But what did the night bring that the day didn’t? What were the benefits? Would they just end up sleeping all night, thus rendering it all useless?
Once again, Magolor found himself stumped by Pop Star culture. Or it was just an effect of not having friends before coming to DreamLand. Either way, he found himself perplexed.
But it wasn’t like Kirby was going to let him leave with such a storm raging outside, so there was really only one answer he could give.
“Well, I suppose I don’t have much of a choice…” Magolor said with a shrug, but he pretended to be excited for Kirby’s sake. “Alright, let’s do this ‘sleepover’ thing.”
“Poyo! You’ll love it!” Kirby said, bouncing up and down in excitement. But his energy went away when a loud growl echoed throughout the room. Kirby settled himself, placing his paws on his tummy. “Just like how I’ll love some dinner, haha!”
The mage’s ear twitched and he scratched his head, “Oh, um…what are you hungry for? I’ll eat whatever you pick. Probably.”
Magolor had heard of the things Kirby consumed with the Hypernova ability.
“Hmm…” The puff paced a bit before lighting up with an idea. “Oh! Let’s make pancakes!”
“Pancakes…?” Before Magolor could even express his opinion on the dining choice, Kirby was happily bounding towards the kitchen. He quickly scrambled after his friend. “H-Hey! Wait for me!”
Kirby had a nice little kitchen. It had any appliance needed to make a good meal. Though Magolor felt a twinge of fear at the thought of Kirby operating a blender. Or a stove. Or an oven.
Even a microwave was pushing it.
But Kirby looked completely natural as he bounced between cabinets and pulled out various bowls and kitchenware. He even had a cookbook on the counter which he carefully read through after flipping to the pancake recipe. Magolor aided in pulling out all of the ingredients necessary: flour, eggs, milk baking powder, sugar, vanilla, and cinnamon (he swore at one point they were just making a regular cake).
Though, that was all Magolor could find to help with. Kirby took over at that point. He simply hovered idly as Kirby whisked together all the ingredients and turned on the stove to heat up the frying pan. Magolor shuddered a bit. Kirby around a hot stove made him nervous.
The mage felt awkward as he just watched the whole process. Sure, it was entertaining to watch Kirby flip the pancakes in the air with surprising precision. He could watch it all day, honestly. But he felt a strange pit in his stomach. He felt…bad for not helping more. Though he couldn’t understand why. He was Kirby’s guest, so naturally, he shouldn’t have to contribute anything to the meal prep. That’s how it worked, right? Why was he feeling…oddly guilty?
It was after Kirby had stacked a tall plate of pancakes and gotten down to the last of the batter that he finally glanced at Magolor. The mage jumped a bit, changing his posture to make him look less bored. But it did not go unnoticed, as Kirby smiled at him and waved him over.
“Do you wanna flip the last pancake?”
“U-Um…” Magolor wrung his hands together, his eyes laced with uncertainty. He had something to admit. And he felt unreasonably embarrassed by it. “I’ve never actually done that. Or any of the process in general. The Lor just synthesizes pancakes for me out of the ingredients.”
“Really? Well, it’s real easy when you get the hang of it! Come here and I’ll show you how to do it!”
Kirby continued to wave him over and Magolor sighed internally. He floated over to the stove as Kirby ladled the last batter into the frying pan. It looked like he had gotten his secret wish to help with the cooking, but now he was nervous about it. “You sure you want me to do this? I don’t want to mess up and waste a pancake.”
“Don’t worry, I believe in you!” The puffball said confidently, giving him encouraging little pats on the back.
Magolor’s ear twitched. Kirby believed in him.
He was the only one, anymore.
The mage looked down at the batter cooking in the heated pan. It was bubbling. Was that normal? Did he mess this up already? No…Kirby would have told him if it was already too far gone. If he was correct from watching, it was about time to flip the pancake. In the air. Without dropping it.
Oh no.
“What do I do…?” He asked, grabbing the pan’s handle.
“Just move the pan up and down like this…” Kirby put his paws on Magolor’s hands, guiding him through the motions. It helped the mage, as Kirby ended up doing most of the work. The two flicked the pan upward and the pancake gained about an inch of air before landing back down. “Like that! But a little harder. It has to land on the other side so it cooks right.”
Magolor nodded, panicking a bit as Kirby took his paws away. He was secretly hoping that Kirby would just do the heavy lifting for him on this.
Wouldn’t be the first time.
He looked down at the pancake, knowing he had to follow through with what Kirby said. Otherwise the food would become burnt on one side and would go to waste. Once again, he found himself with no other choice. Resisting the urge to close his eyes, he flicked the pan upward and waited for the worst to come.
Only for the pancake to flip in the air and land back in the pan with a satisfying sizzle.
The mage’s eyes went wide and sparkled more than the stars, not believing what he had just seen. “Whoa! Kirby, did you see that?!”
Kirby waved his paws happily. It looked like he was right to believe in Magolor, “That was great! Do it again!”
Magolor did as instructed, tossing the pancake into the air again, the flapjack flipping and landing back in the pan. The mage puffed out his chest proudly, feeling weirdly accomplished. “Haha! Look at that pancake fly! I’m a natural!”
Why was this so fun?
Why did he feel so…happy?
“One more time!” Kirby cheered.
“Roger that!”
Magolor put everything he had into this last flip. With all of his might, he tossed the pancake into the air, straightening the frying pan out and prepared to catch it…
…
…
And prepared to catch it.
…
…
And prepared to catch it-
Kirby and Magolor looked at each other as the pancake failed to come back down. Knowing there was only one place it could have gone, both of their gazes went upward and saw that the ceiling had a new pancake-shaped decoration. Magolor gulped as his ears lowered. It looked like he overdid it with the last flip.
Now they had to get the pancake back down.
“Uhh…” Magolor hummed, setting the frying pan down and preparing to levitate up to get the stuck food. But before he could, the pancake came down itself…and landed on Kirby’s head. The mage choked down a shriek, already fretting over his friend’s wellbeing. “KIRBY! Are you okay?! Does it hurt?!”
Instead of an answer, Magolor was met with chewing sounds. Kirby had grabbed the pancake off of his head and stuffed it into his mouth, eating it so casually no one would know it just dropped on him from the ceiling. He smiled happily. “Poyo! Good pancake!”
Magolor stared, dumbfounded. He really, truly didn’t understand Kirby sometimes. Most of the time, even.
But at least Kirby was okay. That was what mattered.
“Well, uh…as long as it didn’t burn you or anything. L-Let’s eat.”
With that truly bizarre moment behind them, Kirby brought all the pancakes to the table as Magolor helped set everything up. Butter, all kinds of syrup, berries, chocolate chips, and whipped cream, it was truly a pancake buffet. It was hard to believe it was only for two people.
Kirby was insistent on Magolor taking his share of the pancakes first. He knew it was the polite thing to do. The mage complied and took three pancakes off the tall stack, sitting them neatly on his plate with some strawberries, whipped cream, and a light drizzle of syrup.
Kirby looked at Magolor’s plate quizzically, “Is that all you’re having?”
“Oh yeah, this will easily fill me up,” Magolor nodded, cutting the stack of pancakes into quarters, “I don’t quite have an appetite like you do.”
Frankly, he didn’t think anyone did.
“More for me, then!” Kirby took the remaining seven pancakes and loaded them up with plenty of toppings. It was like the world’s most edible art piece as soon as he was done with it. He stuck a fork into the top pancake and put the whole thing in his mouth, having the decency to at least eat with his mouth closed. He let out a happy little squeal. “So good! Take a bite, Magolor! I wanna know if they taste any different than the ones your ship makes you.”
“Alright alright, don’t rush me.” Magolor picked up some of his own pancake with his fork, brining it close to him. He grabbed his scarf and prepared to pull it down so his mouth could be exposed enough to eat. But…he froze. His eyes going slightly wide. “.....”
Kirby immediately picked up on Magolor’s hesitation. He stopped eating and looked at his friend with both curiosity and concern.
Magolor wanted the puff to stop looking at him like that.
“What’s wrong? Not hungry after all?” Kirby eventually asked.
The mage quickly shook his head. “N-N-No! It’s not that. I…I just, um…you-”
‘If I lower my scarf, you’ll see…please. You can’t see it. I don’t want you to see it.’
“Oh, are you uncomfy with people watching you eat? I know Meta Knight is the same way.”
Magolor quickly clinged to that excuse. While it wasn’t the whole truth on why he didn’t want to eat while Kirby was watching, or rather expose his mouth, it was something that kind of bothered him. Eating along all of his life had caused him to grow used to it. So eating with someone else, who could just watch you, was weird.
It wasn’t the whole truth, but it was a truth he would stick with around Kirby.
Kirby couldn’t know the true reason.
Not yet, anyway.
“Y-Yes! Yes, that’s an issue I have. After eating alone for so long, having someone around to watch you eat your food is, like, super awkward,” the mage said, hoping he was convincing enough. Since returning to Dream Land, his talent in lying had become… rusty.
Thankfully Kirby was still as naive as ever, nodding and quickly averting his eyes.
“I’m so sorry! I didn’t mean to be impolite. I’ll just focus on my own pancakes, so you don’t have to worry!”
Magolor stared at his friend for a moment, a soft look in his eyes, “...Thanks.”
With Kirby no longer watching, Magolor was finally able to eat. His eyes sparkled the moment he tasted the true home-cooked pancake. He made the smallest but happiest whine that he quickly covered up with a cough. The last thing he needed was to be embarrassed by making a noise like that. Still, the difference in flavor was astounding. While the Lor made excellent pancakes, these ones were so much more…comforting. Like a warm hug on a plate. Magolor found himself grasping his fork a bit tighter and his breathing hitched a bit.
Kirby voiced himself from behind his stack of pancakes, “I’m still not looking, but are they as good as the Lor’s pancakes?”
“No…” He said quietly, trying to ignore the small tears forming in his eyes. “They’re better.”