Hi, everyone. Well, this one was difficult to do! I started this one a couple of one months or so ago but got stuck halfway. It went through a couple of different versions and while I liked the version I did with Meta Knight, ultimately I thought this one worked better for the situation (plus Rick can actually get a story in this archive). This is my attempt to explain why the Animal Friends and co. have disappeared from the games for so many years. Hope you like!

Parting Friendships

The hero of Dream Land, the champion of Popstar, a friendly soul and an adorable being. It would not be unexpected therefore for Kirby to be constantly surrounded by friends as he went on his merry way. He was polite, kind, caring and never afraid to help a person in need. What was there not to like about the pink puffball?

But Kirby was alone.

It was raining hard. Kirby was currently sheltering under a tree though every now and then, he was caught with cold drizzle when the wind changed direction. He shivered a little and sighed. Really, he ought to have stayed at home today; he knew the weather was going to be poor at the very least. But there was nothing on the TV and besides, he thought it would be better for him to get out rather than stay inside just thinking.

He shuffled a little. Maybe he could visit Whispy Woods; it was preferable to just sitting on the damp earth. But then again, Whispy Woods was probably concentrating on the rain, storing water, and making sure that it sufficiently spread throughout his little forest kingdom. He probably wouldn't want to be disturbed.

Many of his old friends lived in Whispy Woods. Or at least they had. They had moved on, he was told. Things had changed, they were moving on, he needed to move on too.

Kirby's eyes watered a little. Did that mean he had to be alone? He didn't want to be alone. But they had left him and someone had to break the news…

"You're leaving?" Kirby repeated. "You mean you're going a trip?"

Rick hesitated. How was he supposed to make the boy understand? Come to think of it, why was he having to do this? Coo would surely have managed this better.

"Not exactly a trip, mate," Rick said. "It's more of a case of leaving Dream Land for a very long time."

"So a really long holiday?" Kirby smiled. "Wow, Rick; that should be great fun! So where are you going?"

"Popopo Islands," Rick said uncomfortably. Jeez, he hoped the kid wouldn't try to track him down afterwards. "With Pick."

"Cool. I hope you both have a great time. So when will you be coming back?"

"That's the thing, Kirby, we won't be coming back. It isn't a holiday. We're moving there permanently." Had Kirby understood? He still looked confused.

"But… that means I won't be able to play with you anymore."

"Yeah," Rick sighed. "I mean, I know you still want to play games and stuff because you're still a little kid but honestly, I'm getting a little old for that kind of play with you."

Did that mean Rick didn't want to play with him anymore? Why? He could still have fun, right? "What do you mean?" Kirby asked. "You're not exactly old."

"Well, no, but… you're a kid, I'm an adult; it would be a bit weird if you know what I mean. Besides, you need friends of your own age. There must be loads of people you could be friends with! You're the hero of Dream Land after all! You must have loads of admirers I bet."

But Kirby wasn't looking for friends his age when he was already happy with the ones he had. Did it matter they were a bit older than him? It hadn't been an issue before now.

"What about Chuchu, Kine, Coo, Pitch and Nago?" Kirby objected. "They're older than me and they're not going anywhere!"

Rick grimaced. "Yeah, about that…"

When one thought about it, Rick was probably right; there were loads of people he could be friends with. But Kirby didn't want people to be his friend simply because they admired him and his exploits. He wanted people to like him for who he was, a person who really could be a true friend, not because he was seen as their hero; it wasn't really the best basis to start a friendship on. If all others wanted him for was to help out with their problems, then it wasn't really friendship, right? And besides, if it wasn't that, then others who were not as familiar with his deeds tended to brush him aside as a little kid. Otherwise he would be taken advantage of. Meta Knight had raised such issues with him. And besides, he was happy with the friends he had. Why change that?

Kirby sighed. You think it would be easy for the puffball to make friends but in Dream Land, there weren't so many his age and there certainly wasn't another of his species other than Meta Knight. Perhaps they were… afraid of him at some level. Afraid of the skill he wielded. Afraid of his power. What could Kirby do about that? Were such people destined to be alone?

Maybe… maybe they were afraid to get close to him in case they risked the ire of King Dedede instead? Yes, that would do. He was actually on much warmer terms with Kirby nowadays but he had previously and publicly made clear before how much of a pain and nuisance he thought the boy to be.

His animal friends hadn't minded though; they never really listened to the monarch anyway. Then again, who did?

But now…

"They're all leaving too?!" Kirby exclaimed. "But why?"

Rick tried his best to explain. "Well, apart from Coo, we all have partners and they're a big factor to us. You know Coo prefers to keep himself to himself for the most part anyway so seeing that we're doing our own thing, Coo thought he might as well do some travelling. I'm sure he'll come back to Whispy Woods sooner rather than later though so you could visit him there maybe."

So Coo was going as well. Kirby had learnt a lot of things from him like where the best apples were and the influence that Whispy Woods had over the forest. He was quiet but he always spoke meaningfully and that was fine with Kirby.

"What about Kine?" Kirby asked.

"He might be able to bounce about on the land but at the end of the day, he's supposed to stay in the water; he can't be out of it for so long. Remember that trouble he had when you went to defeat that dark swordsman thing? He can't really join in the same and besides, he's got his own family to think about. He, uh, said though to say hi if you ever bump into him in the sea."

Kirby had to relent to that; he supposed that Kine's absence was understandable at least and if he travelled to Orange Ocean or something, at least he could catch up with him. But the ocean was a big place and Kirby, with his stubby arms, was a slow swimmer. How was he supposed to find Kine in such a massive space?

"Nago?"

"Same reason as me."

"Pitch?"

"Ditto."

"Chuchu? Even Chuchu?"

Rick groaned. Chuchu had been very friendly with Kirby. "Even Chuchu. I know you really liked her—"

"She really liked me."

"Yeah, I know," said Rick as patiently as possible. "But it wouldn't have worked out in the end. Age difference and all that. She's supposed to live in the sea, you live on land. You're not even the same species which might not be a problem per se in the great scheme of things but… how old are you again?"

Now Kirby was completely puzzled. "What are you talking about? What has that got to do with us being friends? We're not the same species either!"

Ah, damn. "Uhhhh," Rick stalled. "I thought Chuchu might have explained that. I guess she knew it was unrequited from the start. What I mean is that she was really fond of you but now she's found someone and they're doing things. She's moved on. We've all got to move on."

"OK…"

Seeing Kirby so downhearted was not something that anyone wanted to see. Rick scratched his head wondering how he could fully explain their reasons. "Look, Kirby, you know as well as I do that Dream Land is a pretty dangerous place even though you sure do a lot to protect it. You've had our help a couple of times and it's great that we were able to help out. But… how can I say it? It's far more difficult for us to do this whole heroic business than it is for you because you have powers that we don't. If you had to keep helping us out of a jam because we couldn't keep up or couldn't protect ourselves that would make things far more difficult for you and put everything else at risk. We'd be a big liability. You… understand what I'm, saying, right?" What he didn't add was that being different species meant that they aged differently and while Kirby would be able to live for years, centuries even, they... could not.

Kirby looked up. He knew that he couldn't drag his friends on an adventure with him if they thought they would be in danger somehow or even bring Kirby into more danger. "I… guess so."

"OK. And we have different goals don't we? You want to play and all that and that's fine but we're looking to settle down and do other things. It's… not the same anymore. And Kirby, please don't think it's personal or anything. A lot of people drift over time because we want different things especially when we get older; it's natural. You'll be like that someday as well, Kirby."

Kirby shook his head. He was absolutely sure that he wouldn't change. He couldn't imagine being anything other than what he already was.

"Well, OK. Uhh, well, I know the others will be around later so we can say goodbye properly. And it's not like I'm going to completely disappear. If you're around the Popopo Islands, you can always come round and say hello. It's been great having you as a friend, Kirby and now you'll get to do new things like we are. Uhh, I guess it's getting late now. I'll see you about later, yeah? And Kirby, take care of yourself. Don't worry about it too much either. You'll get new friends, you'll see."

Kirby moodily picked at the bark on the tree. True to their word, his animal friends did come round and say goodbye properly and while he was glad they could have one last fun day together, afterwards he just felt empty. Worse, when he had discussed this with Meta Knight who had seen him looking so low, he had said pretty much the same thing as Rick had: that everyone would have friendships drift away at some point in their lives and it was part of the natural way of things – he himself had lost contact with a number of people over the years. At the very least, they had done things properly, Meta Knight had said, but now the important thing was to make a clean break and move on as brooding over the matter would only make things worse.

The friendships didn't have to end on a sour note if one party or both were at fault for doing something to fracture that relationship. Quite often nobody was at any particular fault. As people grew, they would often go on different paths, especially if there was an age gap between them to begin with. Friendships simply… weren't always to be.

Funny, you got flowers and sympathy when a romantic relationship ended but not so much when a friendship ended. They seemed to be much less acknowledged and if they were acknowledged, it tended to be that you shouldn't think of it as being too personal and not to take it so hard. You would get over it eventually.

It wouldn't have been so bad if he had his other friends with him, Kirby thought, but that wasn't the case at all. Adeline was busy carving out a career as a successful artist and was travelling around Popstar to make that dream come true; Kirby hadn't seen her in ages though their friendship technically hadn't broken off. Gooey had gone to see whether he could find others like him, essentially small, friendly versions of the manifestation that was Dark Matter, proving even such creatures had free will and independent thought. He was clumsy and rather scatter-brained but he had a great sense of fun and always loved playing games. Ribbon, of course, was on another planet entirely and they could hardly pop over to each other's planet to say hello. She was a gentle fairy who seemed to like Kirby in a way other than just friendship. Kirby missed them all.

The pink puffball stood up. There was little point in staying here. In his heart, he knew the others were right and that this turn of events just had to be accepted; it was part of growing up and was something that everybody went through. If anything, it would make him a stronger person. He just needed to take a little time that was all.

Just as Kirby was set to leave however, he heard a cry of help in the distance.

Kirby instantly dashed over to the source of the sound; this person needed his help! He shielded his eyes from the rain and after a while, saw the cause of the problem. In this weather, a Waddle Dee had slipped and fallen into a hole headfirst. Goodness knows what would have happened to the poor fellow if he wasn't around.

"Don't worry, I'll get you out!" Kirby called out and grasped the Waddle Dee by the feet. He pulled hard and soon enough, Kirby managed to yank the Waddle Dee out of the trap sending both flying backwards.

"Oww…" the Waddle Dee moaned. "Thanks for getting me out of there. Oh, Kirby! I didn't expect to see you out here!"

Seeing the blue bandana, Kirby recognised Bandana Dee who worked at Dedede's castle. He first met the Waddle Dee when the penguin king had thrown him as an opponent in a boxing contest for no apparent reason and again when he had the misfortune to find a crystal and be temporarily possessed by Dark Matter. (Also, his bandana had been temporarily misplaced before that adventure.)

"Just wandering about," said Kirby. "You?"

"Great King wants me to find some special flowers or something and he sent me out in this," Bandana Dee explained. "I've no idea what it's for but apparently it was urgent and I wasn't really going to question him."

"I'll help you find them if you like."

"Oh! That would be wonderful, thanks Kirby!" Bandana Dee then looked at Kirby closely. "You look kinda down, Kirb. Anything I can help with?"

Kirby hesitated. "Well, maybe. But let's get this done first."

"OK!" Bandana Dee grinned. "Tell you what, after this, once we get back to the castle, we can have coffee and cake and stuff because I think we'll both need warming up after trekking about. And I wanted to talk to you about our adventure anyway if you don't mind."

At that point, Kirby felt able to grin back. "Sure! That will be great!"

Later on, once they finished talking about their interplanetary adventure, Kirby and Bandana Dee soon ended up laughing at Bandana Dee's tales, mainly at Dedede's expense if truth be told. And while the discussion of another adventure together didn't really come up, little did they know that was exactly what they would be doing a few months later with King Dedede and Meta Knight. And after that Kirby and Bandana Dee needed to work together on restoring colour to Dream Land, meeting new friends on the way.

It was inevitable that some friendships would end but it didn't mean that new ones couldn't take their place.