#steamdnl

They met in Dreamland as kids: Dedede was brought there because of random portals appearing in Winter Horns due to Fecto Elfilis being "sealed" there in the Forgotten Land for a long time and started to slowly losing control of their powers, and he was adopted by the waddle dees/doos living there. While i think Meta was born there on Popstar, maybe around Nutty Noon? (i hc that puffballs are born like shooting stars, it's usually unknown when or where they'll land) and so he got to Dreamland and met Dedede because he wanted to explore the planet

After knowing each other for a while and becoming friends Meta started reading some history books getting more and more interested in them (+ stories about kings and knights hehe) and found out about all the stuff the ancients did and create + the sealing of the 4 heroes of Yore (he soon will find Galaxia thanks to that 👀) and so, he decided to explore more. Because of that he had to say goodbye to his friend with a promise that he will come back in the future

When Meta did come back with The Drip™ and a couple more scars from past battles to train himself he found Dedede being a King and all that and got to work under him for a while until the whole romk thing happened (still have to plan out how that happened in my hcs hsgf but i find it hilarious thinking that Dedede didn't know anything about that until like some time after the Halberd sank)