Oh, I Miss You
by Martial Arts Master
Kirby and all related characters are copyrighted by Nintendo. This story takes place after the Kirby 64: The Crystal Shards game. Here's the story.

***

It was a week after the whole Dark Matter incident. It was nighttime on the Pop Star, and Kirby was in bed. He couldn't get to sleep, though. He had much to think about.
For starters, for the first time in his life, he'd had to fight his best friend, Waddle Dee. Granted, Waddle Dee had been possessed by the Dark Matter, but Kirby still felt guilty about it.
Then there was King Dedede. Kirby had been extremely surprised to receive help from HIM, of all people. Kirby had fought King Dedede many times. Kirby had never expected to one day have King Dedede as an ALLY. But that's what happened. King Dedede's brute strength had actually come in very handy. Kirby doubted HE'D have been able to bash down some of the walls King Dedede bashed down.
And there was Adelaide, the painter. Kirby wasn't surprised that her paintings came to life. After all, this WAS the Pop Star, and many unexpected things happened daily in Pop Star and in all the other stars near Pop Star.
Also, Kirby certainly didn't expect the heart of Dark Matter to have possessed someone as benevolent as O2! (Author's Note: O2 is that guy you fight when you defeat Miracle Matter with all 100 shards. He also appears in one star, but I'm not sure whether it's the Shiver Star or not.) Another thing Kirby had thought about was his ability to copy powers. Kirby had thought all along that he could use it one at a time. He didn't know where the HECK he'd suddenly learned to combine powers to make an even better power. It just came to him naturally. Maybe it was because he was older and more mature, and combinations were part of his growing up.
That theory certainly seemed plausible. Unusual things did happen during puberty.
Speaking of unusual, the thing that kept Kirby the most awake was that unusual feeling he'd gotten when Ribbon kissed him on the cheek after giving him that medal for defeating Dark Matter. That feeling had caused him to dance around until he fell down the podium stairs. That had given him a bruise that didn't go away for a couple of days.
Just what WAS that unusual feeling? It was like Kirby's whole inner body glowed when she kissed him on the cheek. It felt like he was metaphorically on Cloud Nine.
He'd BLUSHED, too. He'd never done that before.
He thought more about the adventures with Ribbon he'd had during the fight with Dark Matter. Come to think of it, he'd always felt pretty good around her. He didn't know why, he just did.
Of course, during that time he'd just dismissed it as a simple best-friend relationship. But later he realized that the aforementioned theory didn't make sense. Waddle Dee was his best friend, not Ribbon.
So that theory was out.
Maybe he felt good around her because they shared something in common. They both hated Dark Matter.
No, Waddle Dee, Adelaide, and King Dedede also hated Dark Matter, which was understandable considering it had POSSESSED them, and Kirby didn't get that same feeling around THEM, so that theory was out too.
Wait a minute! What the heck was he doing thinking of Ribbon anyway? He'd been thinking about his new combination powers before! Boy, had HE gotten off-track in his thoughts.
He certainly never got off-track in his ADVENTURES.
Puberty was one explanation for that new trick, but maybe it had something to do with Ribbon, too.
What the---he was thinking about Ribbon again! This was getting on his nerves. Just what was so special about Ribbon anyway?
Kirby turned over in his bed and tried to get to sleep. But he couldn't do it. Try as he might, he couldn't keep his eyes closed.
Kirby wondered if it was a coincidence that Ribbon had just HAPPENED to, while looking for help, come across Pop Star's greatest hero by sheer ACCIDENT.
He decided that yes, it was a coincidence. Coincidences did happen, after all.
Maybe that good feeling about Ribbon was caused by that wonder.
No, if that was true he should have had that feeling from the start.
But he didn't get that unusual feeling until sometime AFTER he met Ribbon.
So that's another theory down the drain.
Now THIS was getting on his nerves. He should be sleeping peacefully, not lying awake at night thinking about some unusual feeling that for all he knew only existed in his imagination!
No, it wasn't his imagination. If it was, the feeling would be gone as soon as he realized it was in his imagination. But Kirby checked mentally, and he knew he still had that feeling.
To distract himself he'd thought of all the tough enemies he'd faced on the way to achieving the destruction of Dark Matter.
There was good ol' Wispy Woods, who was another adversary Kirby had faced many times. Wispy Woods had been a bit tougher, adding spikes and Wispy Wood Juniors to his battle style, so he didn't JUST shoot apples anymore, but Wispy Woods had been a pushover compared to the others.
Pix had been a tough cookie too. Those three crystals were tougher than Kirby had thought. In fact he thought they were invincible until he realized they were only vulnerable to attacks of their own color. So Kirby had inhaled the molecules that corresponded to the Pix's own colors and had shot each colored molecule at its own color.
Pix had been a piece of cake once Kirby had known what to do.
Acro had been much tougher, but only because Kirby was slower in water than in air, and Acro was a whale, BUILT for swimming. In the end he'd kicked that whale's butt.
Magman had been even tougher than Acro. That thing was made out of LAVA! Luckily Kirby had triumphed over it.
Then there was that stupid HR-H robot. That thing had been simple at first, until it turned into a blasted SPACESHIP!
Kirby'd been able to defeat that robot anyway.
Then there was Miracle Matter. Kirby'd been surprised to find out that Miracle Matter's powers were based on the exact same seven powers that Kirby himself used to make his combination powers!
Luckily the thing had worked on the same principle as Pix. It was only vulnerable to its own attacks, so when Miracle Matter was in each of its forms, Kirby had simply inhaled some of its attacks and sent them back at it, and Miracle Matter was soon history.
That's when he had to fight O2, who was the real villain. It turned out O2 controlled all the Dark Matter in the first place. And here Kirby had thought that O2 was some nice, harmless being.
Ribbon had to help Kirby with that guy, but they triumphed in the end.
That's when all the shards were collected, and Kirby and his friends had each gotten a shard as a medal. That's when Ribbon had kissed him on the cheek and inadvertantly caused his injury.
Kirby sighed. He still had that unusual but very good feeling about Ribbon, and was sorry that they had to part.
"Oh, I miss you," Kirby said to no one in particular. Who knows, maybe Ribbon could hear him from wherever she was now.
That's when sleep overtook Kirby. His last thought before slipping into slumberland was: Where the hell did THAT line come from?

The End

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