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Just as the three Goombas were taken care of, a Hammer Bro jumped at Daisy from behind one of the many scraggly, unkempt bushes that populated the Badlands. Daisy smirked at the chance to try taking down a Hammer Bro – she always thought Hammer Bros were pretty annoying. She started to run towards it, but before she was able to throw her fist at it, Mario appeared in front of her, blocking her motion.
Daisy was left bewildered – and annoyed – as she stepped back and watched Mario quickly and effectively dodge the Hammer Bro’s hammers and jump on its head, causing it to retreat.
“...Uh, hey, Mario? Why do you keep doing that?”
“Huh? Doing what?”
“Fighting off enemies for me! It’s like you’re constantly trying to protect me, instead of letting me work with you guys like a team. Am I just, like, an escort on this mission or something?! Do you guys even view me as a useful team member?”
“Oh, no, no, no! That’s not it at all! I...”
From a few metres ahead, Luigi called out, “Are you being over-protective again, Mario?”
Mario fell quiet for a moment, before chuckling sheepishly, fiddling a little with one of his overall straps. “Ah, yeah, I guess I was...”
“I thought you said you were gonna stop being so paranoid!”
“I know, I know! But I can’t help but get worried with this stuff.”
Daisy was getting a little confused now. “Huh? What are you guys talking about?" she asked.
“Ah, well...” Mario paused, trying to think of an effective way to explain it. He figured that comparing this to a past experience was the best way to go about it. “This kind of thing happened when Peach first joined Luigi and I on an adventure, too. I spent that whole journey being so worried about her!”
Daisy would normally have had some witty remark to butt in with by now, but for once, she decided to just listen. It wasn't like they had any minions left to fight at the moment.
“I-It’s not that I didn’t think she could fend for herself!” Mario quickly added on. He averted his gaze as he continued, his voice quiet. “It was just... she’s such a big target for people like Bowser, being a member of royalty with great magical abilities... and that made me worried that, if I wasn’t constantly looking out for her, that some villain would come along and capture her again, or do something else bad to her.” He looked back at Daisy with a sheepish smile. “She got annoyed with me too,” he admitted.
At this point, Luigi had slowed his pace so that he would end up walking alongside Mario and Daisy, allowing him to make conversation with them more easily. “So now you’re all worried about Daisy in the same way?” he chimed in from Mario’s left.
Mario jumped slightly at Luigi’s sudden entrance into the conversation. “Ah, well, yeah, I guess,” he responded quickly. He turned back to Daisy, addressing her. “Since you’re royalty as well, and you have your own magical powers, and I’ve seen you be targeted by Tatanga before...”
Noticing that Mario was still looking a little uneasy, Daisy smiled softly and put a reassuring hand on his shoulder. “Hey, don’t sweat it,” she said, grinning at the small plumber when he looked up at her. “I get where you’re coming from. People back home are always worrying about my well-being. You should have seen them after I was kidnapped by Tatanga! The whole kingdom went crazy with security after that! It was a miracle my retainers even let me visit the Mushroom Kingdom.” Her voice turned soft as she said her next sentence. “They probably knew that I would be safe in the home kingdom of Super Mario!”
Mario smiled at Daisy’s remark. Luigi smiled too, though he was slightly annoyed that she didn’t say “the Super Mario Brothers,” or something like that.
Daisy’s warm smile quickly changed to a sheepish one as she joked, “They’d probably kill me if they found out I was going on this adventure with you guys.” She chuckled a little to herself, and Mario and Luigi joined in.
Then Mario started to laugh more, louder this time, but it was directed at himself rather than Daisy’s comment. “Sorry about all of this,” he said to the princess, as he looked up to meet her blue eyes. “I really should try to just let you do your thing from now on.”
“Again, don’t worry about it!” Daisy replied, draping left arm over Mario’s shoulders in a friendly, yet rough, manner. “And don’t worry about me! I’ll beat the crud outta all of those baddies! Just watch me!” She pumped her right fist forward in a determined pose. Mario and Luigi just looked at each other momentarily, before sharing a chortle at their friend's antics.