[A/N: Hey all! Here's that Kirby oneshot I promised! I was debating whether I should do this or a Galacta Knight fic, but I haven't seen too many fics about Marx and Magolor, so I did this. I hope you enjoy!

Quick question, though: What's the deal with all of this fanart I'm seeing with Marx having mismatched red-and-blue eyes nowadays? I mean, I take artistic liberties sometimes, too, but his eyes are purple and they have always been purple. So what gives? I don't understand this madness. =/ Meh]

To Each His Own

Marx took a few careful steps forward as he glanced around the spread with what could only be described as a critical eye. Magolor watched him, half with amusement, half with exasperation. He, of course, knew Marx only did this so that he wouldn't have to get up repeatedly to get something out of his reach, as the little purple ball was...lacking in the arm department, but he certainly didn't have to look so distasteful about it.

"You know, I can just get whatever you can't reach by yourself for you," the Halcandran helpfully put in.

Marx pretended not to hear him and chose a seat immediately on Magolor's right. As soon as he sat down, he brought his toe down on a plate of Superspicy Curry and catapulted the contents into his wide-open mouth. He completely ignored the hateful look Magolor shot at him and ate with no ill effects – a rarity for residents of Dream Land, of whom even Kirby wasn't immune to the sheer heat of Kawasaki's specialty.

Magolor protested, "Now suppose I wanted some of that."

The Dream Lander finally acknowledged Magolor's presence for the first time since arriving on the scene by shooting him a mild glare. Marx then turned his head away from the picnic and allowed a thin stream of flame to escape his mouth, singeing the tree the two of them sat under only slightly.

Turning back to Magolor with a smug grin on his face, he responded, "It's too strong for anyone inexperienced. I can handle it. Not sure if you can say the same." Smoke issued from his mouth as he spoke, but he otherwise appeared completely unaffected.

"You do realize that this place is freezing compared to Halcandra, right?"

"But you wear that cloak all the time, don't you?"

"It's thermal," Magolor replied proudly, patting the clothes he wore underneath the cloak. "So much more convenient, especially for visiting you."

Marx took a moment to stare behind Magolor at the Lor Starcutter, the airship with the power to cut through dimensions. Magolor would tell others that he built it himself, but Marx knew better than to believe that, and was, quite frankly, much more impressed with the true story. Anyone with the nerve to steal something so priceless and potentially dangerous and claim it as their own was alright in his book.

"I bet," the Dream Lander answered finally, leaning forward to pick up a dumpling with his teeth. "That would be nice for today. It's kinda chilly out."

Magolor said nothing.

Quite suddenly, there was a click, a rustle of fabric, and Marx found himself surrounded by a white cloth.

"Hey– What're– Oh, okay, thank you."

His friend tightened the belt on the cloak and clicked it into place. Pleasantly surprised, Marx turned his head to beam at his companion.

"Thanks, Mag."

Magolor smiled. "You already said that, Marx."

The violet puff glanced down at Magolor's cloak as though with pride, then sighed. "Sometimes I just want to tear this place apart."

"Yeah, I know what you mean."

Marx stared at the Halcandran again, partially because it was somewhat...unsettling to see that dark brown sphere just floating in midair like that without anything reaching toward the ground, partially because Magolor's voice was still muffled slightly. Something told him that that just wasn't right.

When Magolor ventured to take a bite of an onigiri, he wasn't sure if it was the question itself or Marx's sudden volume that made him jump.

"What HAPPENED to your MOUTH?"

Magolor inwardly swore, his mind working frantically.

"Nothing. Nothing at all happened. This is normal."

Stalling. That's what he was doing. Sure.

It wasn't working. Marx now not only looked horrified, but angry.

"Nothing, my hat! That's unnatural! Talk to me, Mag, I'm your friend!"

Darn it! thought the Halcandran. And Marx was the one person I didn't want finding out! Stupid, stupid, stupid!

As he mentally chastised himself, Magolor searched desperately for a believable answer; Marx was tough to fool, and he knew the Dream Lander would definitely not approve of the truth.

"I...I was trying to get at Landia again earlier, but something that I think might've been a Doomer attacked me. It must have been venomous or something, because it made the corner of my mouth congeal shut."

The Halcandran grinned nervously. At least, that wasn't entirely untruthful.

Marx didn't look wholly reassured, but at least he didn't seem angry or horrified. Magolor considered the matter dropped and went back to his onigiri.

"I really hope you're not possessed by Dark Matter."

Magolor nearly gagged on the rice cake before turning angrily to his friend. "I already said–"

"I heard you the first time. But Mag, be honest: do you really think I'm that gullible, or are you trying to insult my intelligence?"

"I'm not possessed."

"I know why you would never tell me that up front, but have you seen what Dark Matter does to people? It made Dedede grow fangs and an eye on his stomach. I don't want to think of you as something that freakishly creepy."

"You've got to realize, though," Magolor put in, "Dark Matter gives a lot of power to Its host. Conquering a dimension would be a lot easier that way. Hypothetically speaking, of course."

"Yeah, but it seems so cheap. Besides, Dark Matter consumes Its host if you let It. If you get possessed, you're getting the raw end of a deal you can't back out of."

Magolor shifted anxiously. Lying to Marx wasn't like lying to anyone else. "Well you know, as long as there are people like us, Dark Matter and Nightmare will just get stronger. We might as well get ahead while we can, right?"

The Dream Lander appeared mildly offended at the offer, but then shrugged it off. "Yeah, I'll see it when I believe it." And with that, he helped himself to another dumpling.

The Halcandran felt distinctly dissatisfied and forgot about his onigiri. A sudden flash of inspiration appeared to him and he turned back to Marx.

"Tell you what." Marx looked up. "If I'm ever possessed, you make sure It gets beaten out of me, alright?"

Again, Marx looked worried. "I would," he began, "but I'm afraid of what might happen to you, Magolor. I mean, with that Kirby around anyway."

"Mm-hmm," Magolor replied automatically, suddenly remembering his rice cake. He'd heard much about the "super-tough pink puff" in the time that he'd known Marx.

"It'd be so nice to have him out of the way," the Dream Lander continued. "Well, I'm not sure I want to chance failure if I try killing him directly; I just want him to go away for a while."

"It'd be nice to have Landia go away for a while if it didn't have the Master Crown."

"Shame things aren't that easy, huh?" Marx then furrowed his brow as though deep in thought and stared at nothing in particular.

His friend knew this well. "Penny for your thoughts."

"I've heard legends – nothing more – of a clockwork comet with the power to grant wishes. Supposedly, it even holds the greatest warrior in the galaxy because of a wish to have him sealed away. I think the comet's called NOVA. Makes me wonder if I can't just wish for control of Pop Star." He shook his head. "But you need to get power from all the Dream Springs in the solar system to summon it! And I know for a fact that I can't last on Aqualiss! Believe me, I've tried!"

"That's not your best bet, is it?"

"No. Not unless I can get everyone on the planet occupied with something more immediately catastrophic, or–"

He stopped suddenly and lifted his head. A wide, malicious grin spread across his face as his purple eyes gleamed wickedly.

"Uh...Marx?" Magolor asked, a little concerned.

"Hey, hey, hey!"

Quick as a flash, Marx tore himself out of Magolor's cloak with his teeth (despite his friend's protests) and hopped onto the rubber ball he'd laid against the tree, setting himself off.

"Hey!" Magolor shouted, retrieving his fallen cloak. "Marx! Where are you going?"

"I just got a great idea!" the purple jester answered, briefly turning back on his ball. "I'll tell you all about it later!"

The Halcandran watched him go, feeling somewhat disappointed. Nonetheless, he helped himself to the rest of the dumplings before getting his cloak back on.

"I guess I'll stick around," he thought out loud as he busied himself with the cloak. "Landia will still be there in a day or two. It's not like I have to worry about Marx trying to conquer my dimension." He chuckled a little to himself, then paused before buckling his cloak into place, thinking.

"Maybe that's why we can stand each other."

As he thought about this, he stared in the direction his friend had gone and suddenly began giggling uncontrollably. Soon he was laughing hard; why shouldn't he? It was funny – because it was true. They were both perfectly happy with just their own dimensions to rule over. They'd even once considered being co-rulers but had quickly figured out that they really couldn't do that and stay friends. Magolor called it "jumping the shark;" Marx said it would be "too good to last." The two of them somehow knew instinctively which boundaries to watch, a bizarre fact that gave the Halcandran cause to laugh when he really thought about it.

Soon, though, he was doubled up, not with laughter, but with pain. With a sickening hack he spat up a small amount of what appeared to be bloody tar into his hand. An eye appeared rather abruptly in it and rolled over to glare at him. Magolor sneered in response.

Stupid...

"Marx is so right about You," he told it distrustfully. "I did get the raw end of a deal. But You might be my only hope."

The eye didn't react, but instead rolled over again and seeped into Magolor's glove with the black substance. The Halcandran lurched and grunted with pain, coughing up some perfectly natural bile. He glared at it for a second before wiping off his infected mouth.

He would stay, for his own sake as well as Marx's. But he loaded up the rest of the picnic into the Lor anyway. No use letting perfectly good food spoil, after all.

[A/N: And from here out, I'm devoting most of my writing to DKC. Big projects don't write themselves, you know!

And if you must know, I actually drew a picture of Marx wearing Magolor's cloak while cloakless Magolor floated nearby before writing this. It was disturbing. 8|

Also, I literally just thought of this:

Angry Hipster!Marx: I had the sun and moon fighting before My Little Pony!

Later!

-KK

P.S. I realized that the bit near the end could be very incorrectly misinterpreted. To clarify, Magolor only spat up a small portion of the Dark Matter possessing him. He's worse off than Marx thinks he is.]