A/N: I need more gijinka Daroach x Drawcia in my life. (Also low-key Dark Nebula x Daroach but oh well.)

Disclaimer: In no way do I own Kirby.

I'm writing more fanfics when I should be updating most of them by now. I also have too many headcanons *cries*

. . . . . .

"Hurry up and be quiet!" A harsh whisper with no ill intent. The man brushed silver fringe from his vision and eyed his three companions, and then nodded. Without a second to waste the group fled the dark ballroom.

Castle Dedede appeared as dimly lit with only candles to lead the way in and out. Daroach smirked. He'd heard that the castle's security lacked concentration and protection but he certainly did not expect the rumors to be so true. At this rate, the gluttonous king would be dead in a matter of seconds if one truly wished to murder him. Maybe the neighboring kingdom will send an assassin.

Daroach chuckled at the thought.

"Nee, Daroach…" Said man looked at Spinni, urging her to continue. "I have a bad feeling about this. We should take another exit."

Daroach stopped in his tracks and in mere seconds his accomplices paused as well. "Your gut feeling never lies. Let's escape from one of the nearest windows, and if one were to awake from slumber, we let out the Squeakers." At that statement, Spinni genuinely smiled and the pudgy teenager standing next to her nodded enthusiastically.

With as much stealth as he could muster, Daroach weaved his way to a bedroom door and clasped his fingers around the knob, one by one, before slowly turning it and opening the door ever so slightly. He peeked in and spotted right there on the bed, a small lump obscured by blankets, rising and falling with even snores to accompany the pattern. Perfect.

He beckoned for the others to follow and they complied.

Upon entering the chamber he was able to make out the window, for the moon shone brightly and illuminated random objects. Daroach could easily make out the sleeping body; eyelids closed and faintly parted lips, most likely bubblegum-pink dyed hair, and a small frame which lead to the conclusion that the person was just a young boy.

"Heh, he should be about your age, Spinni. I can hook you guys up, if you'd like." While the man's eyes shone gold with mirth and mischief, Spinni's own orange ones glinted in something akin to disbelief.

"No. Way." She ground out.

"Indeed, thief, 'no way' are you going to successfully steal one of this castle's treasures."

Daroach already knew who it was. He turned towards the voice, grinning, and motioned for the others to move along without him. Albeit reluctantly, they did as told and fled through the bedroom's window. Storo didn't miss Daroach's wink directed at him.

"Meta Knight! It's been a while, hasn't it? 'Haven't seen you in ages."

Meta Knight lit a candle and threw the blanket off of the snoring boy on the bed. "Daroach, it has barely been four months."

"A long four months, unfortunately."

"Fortunate, for me. Training without interference is good for the child." Meta Knight poked the pinkette's right cheek. He sighed when not receiving a response. "How are you able to sleep through important confrontations? How are you going to become a knight like this?" he muttered.

The thief laughed. "Seems you got a problem, Mety Knight. If you'd like, I can try and wake him up."

Meta Knight's yellow slits bled crimson. "Do not call me that," he said darkly. "And Kirby is an… odd child, to say the least. I have this under control." The man's eyelids closed and from the mask concealing his face, Daroach only found a dark shadow where his eyes were supposed to glow.

After heaving a deep sigh, the air suddenly got frigid and with a congealed voice, Daroach watched in a mixed wonder how Meta Knight growled out the name of his apprentice.

And with that, Kirby knocked his forehead with Meta Knight's armor. A yelp, and the boy sputtered out a million apologies per second.

"I'm sorry, I'm sorry, I'm sorry, I'm so so sorry Meta Knight; I'm sorry–"

Daroach sat on the side of Kirby's bed, laughing his ass off because, damn it, this Kirby kid was adorable!

"Hey, Meta Knight, who is that?"

Daroach grinned playfully and Kirby happily waved back to him.

Before the knight could answer, Daroach took a bow. "I am Daroach. Your friendly neighborhood crook. Please, watch after your things once I take my leave." Said criminal gently grabbed Kirby's hand and brushed his lips over the knuckle. The boy blushed and looked away.

Meta Knight sat Kirby down and turned his neck to face him. "No touching my students, lewd or innocent intention." He unsheathed his sword and pointed the crackling weapon at Daroach. "Now, please return the chest you took. I would rather not spill blood past midnight."

"Yeah, honestly, I'd rather you not stab me with that lightning machete, either."

Kirby perked up, "It's not a lightning machete — it's Galaxia!"

Meta Knight thrust Galaxia towards Daroach who leaped backwards, surprise clearly evident on his face. "Mety–!" he choked out. "You're seriously trying to injure me!"

Kirby cheered on his teacher as Daroach continued to dodge Meta Knight's strikes. Either Kirby was extremely supportive of his dear teacher or he was a psychopath who enjoyed seeing other people in pain or in danger. Whatever the reason, there was no denying that the boy was cute. A definite comparison to a certain hotheaded Spinni he knew.

After consistent ducking and spinning, the thief decided that toying around with Meta Knight wasn't worth the little cuts all over his body and face. It was probably the electric currents surging throughout Galaxia, but these tiny slits hurt! Enough of this.

Daroach threw himself towards the corner of the room for a pause from the assault and plucked the bell from his necklace. Without a second to waste, his lips curled upwards into a smirk as he swayed the object, the bell chiming in a reciprocated melody. Meta Knight eyed the bell with suspicion and Kirby doing the same but with horror, knowing that a very big problem were to occur if an itty bitty bell caused a first-rate criminal to smile that way.

And soon enough, the ground shook as little hamsters — mice? What was with their body shapes? — of various shades and colors flooded the room. If it weren't for the fact that these things were climbing up his body, Kirby would have felt delighted to see such cute animals around the room. He shut his mouth to prevent the gurgled scream from escaping his throat when he felt one of the things crawl up his back.

Kirby's eyes glistened with panic and he looked over to find Meta Knight in a similar situation, albeit the knight was clearly much more annoyed than scared. His own eyes widened when he spotted Daroach dive from the room's window, the treasure chest in tow.

"Hey–! Don't leave us like this!"

~oOo~

His laughter was merry and Spinni recognized it instantly. She lifted her shades higher to conceal her eyes and frowned when she saw the cuts littered all over Daroach. Doc seemed to have the same thought and grabbed ahold of their leader's sleeve to prevent the man from escaping. He inspected the injuries with pursed lips and Daroach laughed again.

"While they're distracted, we should go."

Storo hauled the chest over his shoulder with ease and suddenly Spinni wished that she were as strong as him. Even if the teen was built, he was certainly a soft person at heart. She could easily say that she was his opposite. Hard on the inside and physically weak on the out. She was too small.

When Daroach lifted a foot to continue the trek, Doc nodded at Spinni and she made a grab for him.

"Ouch–!"

She may have halted his steps a little too abruptly.

"Boss, you're injured. You shouldn't be walking."

Daroach childishly blew a raspberry at her. Spinni flushed at his actions and the man waved carelessly at her. "Don't worry, don't worry; I'll be fine." Daroach added emphasis to the "fine" to illustrate his point.

Spinni glanced at Doc, unconvinced, but froze when Storo flung Daroach over his other shoulder. Even Daroach was shocked at the action but soon started to protest when his hat fell from his head and gently touched the ground.

"Storo– Storo! Why–? Storo, put me down right now! My hat, at least get me my hat! Or even better, put me down, man!"

"Storo," Doc said. "Don't put him down. Spinni, can you please get Daroach's hat?"

Spinni picked up the blood red hat and stared at the object for a few seconds before returning it to its owner.

"Thank you."

Throughout the way of getting home, they all made idle chatter. Sometimes there would be teasing from Daroach and other times, Storo would even hump the shoulder that the older male rested on just to irritate him. Spinni and Storo laughed while Daroach just scoffed, unamused. Doc just snickered from his hovercraft.

At some point, Daroach pulled out a shortcake from seemingly nowhere and began eating it.

"Um… what? What is that…?" Spinni was taken off-guard by the action.

"Strawberry shortcake."

"Where did you get a shortcake?" Storo asked.

Daroach clanked his fork on the plate noisily. "That cute sleeping kid, Kirby I think — he had it resting on a nearby desk." He continued to eat his delicacy before Storo let him off of his shoulder and swiped an ounce of frosting from the dessert.

"Storo," Daroach warned.

Spinni ended up grabbing the strawberry and shoving it into her mouth.

"Spinni–!"

Doc opened the window to his hovercraft and stole the whole plate of remaining shortcake.

Daroach glared at all of them. He then proceeded to pat the small specks of fur from the Squeakers that he released on Meta Knight and Kirby earlier off of him. "Seriously, you guys steal my sweet reward. And it took two seconds to grab it off of the desk. Do you have any idea what else I could take in two seconds?"

"Yes…" Spinni and Storo answered in unison.

Daroach nodded. "Exactly."

He huffed (a bit amused at how apologetic the two looked) and crossed his arms over his chest. "Let's just go. I should've brought the Triple Star with me after all. If I did, I definitely would have been able to take Galaxia as well."

Being the oldest and knowing the man the longest, Doc shook his head. One of these days, Daroach would cause those two teenagers self-esteem issues or major stress or high blood pressure. Who said he already hadn't, actually, now that he thought about it.

He has known Daroach for a decade now and the silver-haired man was still unpredictable and his actions very questionable.

Even right now, the master thief paused in his steps to look up.

Unpredictable and questionable, indeed. Although, as a child he was still quick-witted and highly gifted in rhetoric somehow.

Doc was fairly confident in his faithfulness to the younger man of whom won the title of "Boss," so he chose to ignore the steadily growing urge to ask him why he'd halted in his steps.

"I… sorry, I thought I heard something but I might have been mistaken," said Daroach finally. "I thought it was something like murmurs or harsh whispers." He scratched his cheek through black gloves.

"…And now you wanna go check it out, don't you?" Spinni responded.

Daroach laughed apologetically and nodded. "I'll be back quick, okay guys? You go home."

He fled into the woods and Doc flew his hovercraft to block Spinni or Storo — or both, from trying to follow their boss. The pudgy male was highly obedient and timid, and he always commented on how his complexion looked like "a chubby cute mouse". Spinni, however, was rebellious and sneaky. She could probably outrun most people if she wanted to and could most likely crack a thick glass if she used force on a shuriken.

The real problem would be the girl sneaking off to follow Daroach. "Storo, Spinni," Doc recited the names in a scolding voice as he did everyday. "Let's go home."

He saw how Spinni glanced back at the direction where Daroach left before following him and Storo.

~oOo~

He wasn't crazy. Maybe a bit unstable when it came to certain decisions or thoughts but he wasn't crazy.

Sometimes the murmurs would get louder and other times they would stop abruptly before a splashing sound would be heard. Daroach followed the soft sounds without a second thought.

It might have been a monster or demon which was justifiable because it was after midnight. It could have also been a weirdo making creepy sounds. But the thought of a witch, wizard, or sorcerer did cross his mind too. Popstar was a gold mine for everything freaky, if one had to be honest.

Silently, he would brush past the trees and slyly jump over every rock or branch that gouged out from the dirt. Finally, he came to a clearing and hid behind a tree to spy on the creature making such noises.

To be frank, he hadn't expected the creature to look like a woman.

Another thing, he hadn't expected the creature to look like a woman who had just descended from heaven.

Oddly enough, she wore a violet robe that blended with the midnight sky and icy blue hair that contrasted greatly with the clothing she wore. Now that he was within range to hear, he noted how her voice was silky like velvet but young and alto-like.

He wanted to hear more of it.

Her back was also turned to him and Daroach just wanted to see her face.

What color eyes did she have? Does she have bangs? Was her face as angelic as her voice? What was her skin tone like? Was she–?

Daroach cursed under his breath and frowned.

Was she a succubus of some sort?

As far as he knew, Popstar didn't have a lot of beautiful women. Most were nobles and some were even from different planets or dimensions. Sure, Spinni was quite pretty but he saw her as a little sister-daughter. And she fit more into the cute, tiny-badass category rather than the serene beauty one.

But who was he to say such things anyway, he thought. She's still a developing fourteen year old.

Daroach was so engrossed in his thoughts that he hadn't noticed when the woman turned to face him. He froze in place and resumed to be mesmerized by her appearance.

She had one eye obscured by locks of tinted blue hair whereas the other was shining gold with what appeared to be poorly contained anger. Now that she was facing him, he saw her holding a large paintbrush with a wet tip that was shaded red and her other hand dropped a witch's hat that matched the color of her robe as she glared at him with any tiger's ferocity. Her lips were pink and formed in a heated scowl, and her figure lithe with just the right curves.

She was perfect in every way and he wanted to touch her; touch her lips, her body, her hair, he wanted to lay her down on the moonlit grass and make-out with her until she pleaded for him to make love to her.

Damn her to Hell if she was a succubus. He was a goddamn gentleman.

After what seemed to be an hour long staring contest, the female spat out, "Who are you? What are you doing here?" She sounded so hostile that Daroach just wanted to calm her down and caress her hair.

Nevertheless, he cleared his throat and removed his hat as he bowed to her. "Friendly Gentleman Thief Daroach, at your service, fair lady. Today you see me here for I heard your murmurs and whispers from across the forest. I was considerate enough to make sure that there wasn't anything bad happening to the source of your pretty voice."

The woman — Daroach was nearly positive that she was a devil just begging to be played with — just scowled more.

"Okay, 'Friendly Gentleman Thief Daroach,' please leave. I have important matters to attend to." Damn it her voice is like a ringing church bell. And she said my name too…

"Now, why would I leave when I just got here? And I'm afraid I never got your name either," Daroach pouted for a few seconds before wearing his trademark smirk.

"Drawcia." He didn't think that the glare she had on would get any more distrusting. He was proved wrong. "And I really think you should get out of here before I make you, 'Friendly Gentleman Thief Daroach'."

It took a few moments for him to process her threat, then he played the first thing she said over again. "Drawcia." Now wasn't that name unique?

"Miss Drawcia, if I may, why would you wish for me to leave? Surely these matters you speak of aren't that important if we're currently having a civil conversation."

Drawcia had to bite her tongue to not lash out at him. She took a deep breath. "Go. Now." She knew that Daroach would keep up a strong protest to continue stalling so she took ahold of her large paintbrush and began chanting loudly.

Daroach couldn't understand what she was saying — the words seemed to be in some kind of ancient phonetic language. He couldn't deny that the words rolled off her tongue beautifully, though.

Drawcia flung her brush in Daroach's direction and a myriad of colors painted his face and clothing. He had to say, the wet paint felt like like acid on his many tiny cuts all over his body. He hissed at the pain rather than scream. It had a sensation similar to fire but he was sure that everything was an illusion of the sort. Unreal. Drawcia was probably fake as well.

When the burning started to dissipate, he opened his eyes and was surprised to find himself sitting in a clearing, covered in reds, blacks, blues, pretty much every color that would come up at the top of his head at that moment.

He sighed and decided that this was a crappy illusion that someone put him under. He got up and lifted his head towards the sky to follow the brightest star that lead north to his airship.

Within an hour and a half, he reached his airship and pressed four buttons on a pad to unlock a nearby entrance. He opened it carefully and entered the dark room of the ship before closing and locking the door.

A bath would have been great.

Upon entering the bathroom, he stripped out of his clothes and adjusted the temperature of the water. He dipped a finger into the pouring liquid and turned the knob again until perfection.

Once accomplished of getting the paint off of him — really, he thought that flinging blotches of paint at him was increasingly disrespectful — he pulled on his cargo pants and red cloak before stepping out of the bathroom.

The halls were dark but he was confident in knowing his way around the ship without any guide whatsoever.

He found the room he was searching for and silently crept up next to the bed. He took in the sleeping form of Storo and patted his head in a quiet goodnight before entering Spinni's room. She was under the bed sheets and had her shades and clothes off, replaced by a red sweater and messy hair already spewed out all over the pillow. Daroach placed a hand on her head as well and said, "I know you aren't asleep, Spinni."

The girl groaned. "How did you know? Was it obvious?"

Daroach chuckled quietly. "No, it wasn't obvious, really, I just suspected that you'd try to pull off being asleep. You're too much of a Spinni, you'd do anything to trick me." He poked her nose and smirked despite of the lack of light. "You foolish girl. I can practically read your mind when it comes to these type of things."

The small blonde was sending a prodigious amount of gratitude to whichever deity above assisted her with the darkness that hid her rosy face. The infatuated side of her wanted to say "Did you expect this?" and lick his cheek and see him stutter and blush; the logical side of her — which was usually present, thank gods — decided to take action and move further away from Daroach by falling under the sheet.

"…So did you find what you were looking for, earlier?"

She added up more points of praise to the god looking over her current situation. No stuttering. Nice.

Spinni felt Daroach's eyes staring at her. "The castle?"

"No, the… voices? You said it was, like, voices?"

"Oh," Daroach blew into the air. "Yeah, I guess I did. It turned out to be a woman. A fair maiden who was talking to herself while painting."

Spinni shuffled in response and the man didn't blame the sudden change in atmosphere. Honestly, his answer sounded so strange, even to his own ears.

He continued nonetheless. "In my defense, I think she was a witch or something. Drawcia. She got paint on my hair. It felt slimy and gross…"

Unlike her body and face, he wanted to say.

"Wait– Daroach. This chick got paint on you?"

"Don't be mad, Spinni, it was my fault anyway." Daroach coughed in embarrassment, "She told me to leave and I didn't."

The silver-haired man combed a hand through his hair and sighed. "You get to sleep." He ruffled Spinni's bangs and she squeaked in annoyance. "Welllllll, goodnight!"

He heard her mumble her own goodnight and left her room to the living room couch. He stretched on the comfortable furniture and reached for the hat he left lying on a table. Instead of the familiar fabric texture, he felt cold skin and huffed.

"Hey Doc."

Doc planted the requested hat on Daroach's head and rebuked, "Spinni was worried about you."

Daroach watched with semi-nocturnal vision as Doc's shadow (the man was not in his aircraft) walked up to a far off light switch and illuminated the corner of the room. He then walked to the couch that the younger man was lying on and removed Daroach's legs to sit next to him.

"Spinni always worries about me. Such a worrier," Daroach pouted. The girl shouldn't have to care for anyone but herself lest something happens to their own little makeshift family. Self-security is an important thing, after all.

Doc grabbed Daroach's hat from his head — eliciting a grumble of immature curses from the man — and began picking strands from the thief's damp hair. "It's still wet."

Daroach's golden eyes peeked at Doc through silver hair. "Well, I did just finish showering. Why else would it be wet?"

The younger male lifted his elder and laid down, sitting Doc on his stomach. "Remember when you used to be taller than me?"

"…No."

"Yep," Daroach smiled. "Me neither."

A restful silence proceeded to engulf the two men and none of them intended to break it. Peace was a scarce thing nowadays. It almost seemed as if the Gamble Galaxy was a magnet for trouble — whether the problems be native to the galaxy or inter-dimensional.

Though… Daroach's mind wasn't at peace at all. Neither was his heart. It felt like it was skipping multiple beats at a time. He was pretty sure that his face was on fire and burning away all logical ways of thinking.

He sort of wished that Drawcia was sitting on him instead of Doc.