The Lollipop Thief

Blue eyes glanced around furtively.  Little Terra wanted to hide his gifts from his little brothers until he could get them all gathered together in one room.  Sunstar watched with a bemused smile, then led the tiny Stardroids into the central room of their spacecraft.  Terra counted each head, and then his own, satisfied that everyone was there--little baby Mercury, tiny little Venus, the little cannon Mars, the chicklet Jupiter, little toddler Saturn, big calf Uranus, little baby merman Neptune, and fuzzy kitten Pluto.

"I gots somefin we all can like!"  Terra gave a proud grin, twirling little green strands of hair around his finger, eyeing each of his little brothers with joy.

The younger Stardroids made noises to indicate that they wanted to know what it was; there were moos, chirps, mews, dolphin-clicks, buzzes, the sounds of screeching fireworks, and the bellowing of two human-like baby babbles.

"I gots us all lollipoppers!"  Terra flashed his grin, poking his mechanical tongue in the gap where he'd lost both of his front teeth.  He then held up his bag full of candy, and passed out a lollipop to each brother.

Mercury immediately popped his into his mouth, replacing his pacifier.  He tilted his head with a sweet smile and sucked on the lollipop.  This was the best thing he'd ever had in his short life, and he had to have more.  More!  All of the lollipops had to be his!

Little green hands padded their way across the floor--Mercury could crawl insanely fast when he wanted to--until the tiny liquid metal Stardroid was behind Venus.  Venus had his lollipop in a very loose grip, and hadn't popped it in his little mouth yet.  A gooey green hand floated over and snagged the lollipop.  Caper number one, complete!

Mars wheeled his way around the floor, keeping a vigil.  No one was going to get between him and the gift from his big brother!  No one!  At least, he thought not.  However, he had neglected the tiny, shiny green puddle on the floor.  Right after he rolled by the puddle, a hand rose from the puddle and yanked the second lollipop.  Another successful heist!

The tiny chick Jupiter nestled down in the little nest that Sunstar had helped Terra make for him.  He clung tightly to his lollipop, making happy chirping noises.  Mercury crawled over, a determined look in his little crimson eyes; he wasn't gonna let this bird keep a grip on the lollipop.

"Me?"  Mercury pouted, making grabby hands at the lollipop in Jupiter's little hands.

Jupiter shook his head, giving an indignant peep.  

"Meeeeeee!"  Mercury whined, grabbing at the lollipop again.

Jupiter gave a shrill peep, pulling the lollipop again.

An oozy green hand floated toward the lollipop and yanked it forcefully out of Jupiter's tiny hand.  Mercury chirped.  "Me."  He then crawled off in search of his next victim.

Saturn waved his lollipop in the air with his left hand, clinging to his ring with his right hand.  "Poppipop!"

Tiny green hands floated up in tandem and snatched the lollipop from Saturn's hand.  Angry, Saturn started wailing and formed his first little black hole, trying to tug Mercury into it.  Mercury squealed, crawling away with insane speed.  He couldn't get away from Saturn fast enough!

His speedy crawling took him to the corner where Uranus grazed on a patch of space grass.  The little calf Stardroid had left his wrapped lollipop on the ground where anyone could snatch it up.  And someone sneaky did, then crawled away as quickly as he'd come.

In a little kiddie pool, Neptune sat, daydreaming about bathing in the sea.  His wrapped lollipop lay beside the pool, prime pickings for little Mercury, who had stolen nearly all the lollipops at this point.  Little Mercury snagged the lollipop and continued to Pluto's catbed.

Pluto batted around his lollipop, mewing with excitement.  He pounced it, meowing victoriously; there was no limit to what he could do!  Mercury gave a mean little smirk watching the kitten.

"Me."  He demanded, pointing at the lollipop.  

Pluto ignored him, continuing to pounce the lollipop.

"Me!"  Mercury demanded once more.

Pluto swished his tail, still clearly ignoring the demands of Mercury.

"Meeeeeeeeeee!"  Mercury shrieked.

Pluto hopped up, glancing around, and assessed his location.  When he reallized he was "home", he started laughing.  However, something felt wrong.

That lollipop.  His brand new lollipop.  

Chaos started to break out, until Terra frowned.  The rest of his brothers didn't seem to have a lollipop.  That was when he noticed a little green blur crawling across the floor.  With a stern look and a strong foot, he pinned Mercury to the ground.  "Mercky!  You're stealing!  Stealing is bad!"

Mercury started to sniffle, his red eyes welling with tears as though he were trying to get Terra to go easy on him.  Terra frowned and shook his head, taking the lollipops that Mercury had stolen, and redistributed them to the other little Stardroids.

"Mercky, if you wanted anudder, all ya had to do was ask me!"  Terra frowned.

Little Mercury pouted and nodded.  "Meeeee?"  He pointed to the candy bag.

Terra blinked.  "Oh, want anudder, den?  Pwomise you not steal the others' lollipoppers?"

Mercury nodded.  Terra handed over an old-fashioned butterscotch lollipop.  

"Now don't eat that too fast, otay?""

"Tay tay."