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It was a hazy, slightly rainy morning when Luigi left the house after saying good-bye to his big bro and set off on an important shopping venture. It was considered important because Princess Peach specially asked for Luigi to go to a faraway kingdom and buy a list of items that she compiled. She had given him enough coins to cover the cost and then a handful more if he found anything interesting that he’d like to buy for himself or Mario.
When Luigi was given the list earlier in the week he was a little surprised that she asked him first but then figured it made sense. He was often in charge of the shopping or general upkeep of the house. And it wouldn’t do any good for him to be a homebody for too long. Even if the house often demanded that he stay there so it would consistently pass a white-glove test. His big bro had declined going along in case something would befall the Mushroom Kingdom which made Luigi feel a little lonely on his walk to the train station but it made sense.
The drizzling rain made him pick up the pace as he walked. He looked up at the grey skies and hoped that it wouldn’t turn into a rampaging thunderstorm. He hurried into the train depot and felt some relief when he was able to get on the train. There were faster ways of travel but the scenic route sounded nice, as he looked out and saw little rivers of rain slide down the windows.
As the train started up and began to chug along, Luigi looked over the list that Princess Peach gave him, running over the requested items in his head so he wouldn’t forget. The list asked for a particular type of shampoo, a new comb, an order of raincoats for her Toad subjects, specialty paper for princess-related duties and a large box of candy that could only be bought in the faraway kingdom that this train was headed for: Luigi read the list over three times and then put it back into his overalls pocket.
Even though Luigi was glad to do this for his friend he still idly wondered why she asked him to do this. Sometimes people looked upon him and his cowardly nature and deemed him absolutely and utterly unreliable. He shook his head. If Princess Peach trusted him with this then that was all the explanation that he needed.
A pamphlet case was set into the wall nearby his train seat and he pulled out a map of the kingdom he was going to visit. It was set in the middle of a towering and gorgeous forest, and the décor of the kingdom reflected this by the houses evoking the images of flowers or other types of fauna and the store fronts were categorized by trees and plants that represented each season, such as food and household item stores being located in the spring section or clothing shops being situated in the fall section. What intercepted all of these sections was a plaza that was in the middle of the kingdom, used for any sort of celebrations. The castle itself was designed to look like a grand oak tree.
He read every description on the long train ride there, grinning a little when he realized that the weather was going to be much sunnier in the kingdom. It would make his shopping excursion less stressful. But the grin slightly faded when he read up on different types of flowers belonging to the aster flora family that were presented in the kingdom. It wasn’t long after that that the train slowed to a stop and that thought was filed away in his mind.
Once Luigi was in the kingdom his mind was focused on buying the needed items so he didn’t take much time to admire the scenery except for a few scattered moments here and there: smiling at the painted forest adorning some of the houses, marveling at the wind chimes that hung from rafters and checking out the cobblestone that had patterns of trees etched into the stone and indicating which section of the shopping areas he was walking around in.
Though Luigi was mostly focused on getting the needed items for Princess Peach, his arms soon becoming encumbered with different bags and hoping that it wouldn’t leave markings into his arms or wrists, he noticed that many of the items she requested were rather far away from each other. It took him a good while to find the type of paper she requested and then it was a long trek to go hunt down the raincoats she listed out. And the raincoats themselves were much more than what was requested in the floor section of the clothing store so the raincoats in the back had to be brought out for him and that whole process took up a huge chunk of time. Or maybe it was his strategy of shopping that was insufficient. He needed to pick up the pace because the day was waning into afternoon.
But there was a moment in which Luigi gave pause, when he passed by the plaza: a dancing celebration was set up here, beautiful violin music ringing out as couples and families danced with each other, a lovely sight to behold but for Luigi it had a taste of bittersweet. It was the same as when he was reading about the types of flowers on the train except those feelings hit him full force right now. His hand went over his heart and his fingers dug into the fabric of his shirt as achingly sweet memories flooded his mind. He wanted to feel Daisy’s embrace right now.
He breathed out slowly and decided that when he got home he’d get the ball rolling so that they could see each other soon.
With some extra drive to get back home quicker, Luigi was able to find the rest of the items on the list and picked up a box of candy for his big bro – it was almost like Star Candy but less dense and it was the sort that one could pop into their mouth and crunch down on. The train ride back home went smoothly and it was early evening by the time he made it home.
When Luigi opened the front door he was greeted with a delicious smell wafting from the kitchen alongside some low chatter which didn’t catch his attention because there was a huge mess on the living room table. He set the bags aside and tilted his head as he examined the mess. The table was covered in paper, recipes, drawings of different types of cake and proposed dinners.
Some of the papers were inscribed with notes. A drawing of a hypothetical cake was larger than the house, decked out with frosting and decorations and proudly displaying his name with custom-made candles.
“Be mindful of the time when making plans for the cake,” was scribbled next to the drawing, “He won’t be long out enough for us to make this.”
“You are not the boss of me,” was written under that in a cheeky flourish. The familiarity of it made Luigi’s heart pang. Then he was more focused on the chatter from the kitchen and didn’t remember if they were supposed to have visitors today. The sound of the kitchen door opening up to the garden in the backyard and closing loudly made things even more confusing because he still heard the chatter.
As he got closer to the kitchen door he heard, “The cake’s almost ready so I’m gonna get the icing,” and Luigi recognized Daisy’s voice. His heart did a little flip.
He saw his big bro at the stove cooking spaghetti with his back to the door and Daisy was at the kitchen table tying off an icing piping bag. Luigi couldn’t say anything because Daisy looked up and saw him, giving a yelp of surprise. Mario turned around at the sound and his eyes widened when he saw Luigi standing there looking confused.
“Ah! You’re not supposed to be home yet!” Daisy shouted, springing up from the chair and pointing at him with the icing piping bag. She set it down as she added, “Close your eyes! Don’t look at the surprise!”
Just as quickly she asked his big bro, “Didn’t you say he wasn’t gonna get home until later?”
His big bro just shrugged and turned off the burners on the stove. Luigi was still staring at both of them, his eyebrows furrowed as he tried to catch up on what was going on.
“Surprise? What?” And then he thought about it: the papers in the living room, the demand for him to close his eyes, and he realized that they were cooking and baking on a day that he would be guaranteed to be out of the house. Which then indicated that this had been a plan long in the making, if Princess Peach had sent him out specifically to get what she requested. Luigi’s hands pressed against his chest.
“It’s mine?” he asked. “For me?”
His big bro nodded, looking a little sheepish that Luigi found out about the surprise before it was time. Daisy smiled at him, the sort that made it feel like love washed over him like an ocean wave.
“Well, yeah! You always do nice things for everyone so we were making you a great dinner,” Daisy said. “Me and Mario and Peach, we planned it all for you.”
She added with a laugh and pointed to the table where Doggy was sleeping, the Polterpup apparently oblivious to the commotion because he was asleep. “Oh, your puppy tried to help out too but ghost puppy slobber in the pasta didn’t sound good. So he’s moral support.”
Luigi’s breath caught in his throat. It was hard to speak. “But… it’s me? Why go to all that trouble?”
His big bro’s expression fell at that question. Daisy still answered cheerfully, and coming from her it sounded like utmost truth: “Why? ‘Cause we love you!”
Luigi’s hands clutched the fabric of his shirt. He really wasn’t expecting this, and in the moment it felt so good but it was also overwhelming. This display of love was so much and his vision blurred. When Luigi failed to hold back his tears he put his hands against his face to try and stop them or try to cover it up because they did a wonderful gesture for him. But he couldn’t stop crying.
Daisy got to him first and immediately wrapped her arms around him. It was just as warm as he remembered. At his little sob she said, “Aw, Luigi, don’t cry!”
Mario was by his side too, one arm wrapped around his back and his other hand patting at his shoulder. It was a repetitive motion that always calmed him down. Luigi hiccupped when he was able to gain some of his composure back and he sniffled.
“Sorry – I’m sorry, I’m not sad,” he tried to explain but Daisy just hugged him tighter. He didn’t need to explain himself.
Since Luigi was facing the door that went out to the garden he saw Princess Peach walk back in with some rosemary in her hands, seemingly for the spaghetti. There was momentary surprise on her face when she saw what was going on but it softened when she saw that Daisy was hugging him and that his big bro was close by for comfort.
“Goodness,” she said, “I wasn’t outside for very long.”
It was enough of a tension break to make light chuckles fill the air. Daisy pressed a kiss to his cheek before she returned to the icing piping bag. Mario gave him a squeeze with his one arm and took the rosemary from Princess Peach’s hand before going back to the pasta. Princess Peach led Luigi to the table to sit down, going to help his big bro at the stove when she got Luigi to sit down, and he felt slightly out of sorts that he didn’t have to do anything in the kitchen.
“It’s all for me,” he said, still not quite believing it now that the emotional wave had washed over him and passed by.
“And you don’t have to do anything,” Daisy said cheerfully. She squeezed the bag too hard and the icing came out uneven on top of the cake. She grimaced a little and added, “Or you can give me some tips on what to do with this.”
So as dinner was being cooked Luigi did just that, the kitchen starting to sound lively again. Doggy did wake up at one point but it was just to get up and settle so that he could sleep again Luigi’s feet. It still felt a little weird that he wasn’t bustling around the kitchen too but it made sense if it was his surprise turned celebratory dinner where he knew about all the details.
At one point Luigi tried to get up so he could help set the table but Daisy gave a gentle push down on his shoulders. “Nope! You still don’t have to do anything.”
“Can I do the dishes, then?” It was partly because he was particularly precise and methodic when it came to cleaning endeavors.
“Neat freaks don’t get to leave their seat for any chore,” Daisy teased.
Luigi didn’t say anything because Mario served him a pasta dish, tousling his hair as he did so. Eventually everyone was served at the table, and the spaghetti was warm and the rosemary settled well with the pasta dish. When cake was served it tasted of strawberries and it was so delicious it made Luigi’s mouth water even as he was eating the confection. It made him a little teary-eyed again as he said, “Thank you.”
“We were happy to do it, you know,” Daisy said. She took his hand and the conversation turned over to what Luigi had seen when he was out shopping in that faraway kingdom. For a moment he took pause and understood what was before him. They had done so much to make this special for him, to show appreciation and affection and it made his heart feel so warm.
There wasn’t any doubt. Luigi knew he was loved.