Work Text:
“Your favorite’s in again.”
Luigi looked up, startled. “My what?” he asked, eyes searching over the stacks of books.
“Your favorite customer,” Daisy said, nodding her head towards the children’s corner of the small bookstore.
“I don’t have a favorite,” Luigi said, ignoring the face his best friend/co-owner made at him.
“Bullshit,” she said, voice low in deference only to a child being in the store. “How long did you search for that one book for him?”
“I don’t have to answer that,” Luigi huffed, finishing his order. He’d look over it once more this afternoon, before he left. “I should go check on our customers, though.”
“Uh-huh,” Daisy said with a knowing smirk. “I’ll man the till.”
Luigi ignored her and made his way over to the children’s corner.
“Mr. Luigi!” The boy was maybe seven years old, and a voracious reader of just about anything he could get his hands on, but with a special fondness for books about art. He came in nearly every week with his grandfather, and the weeks he didn’t, he tended to have wild stories about his dad afterward.
“Hi, Junior,” Luigi said with a grin, hugging the boy when he threw himself at Luigi. “What are we looking for this week?”
“Something with magic,” Junior said seriously. “That’s Dad’s favorite kind of book. He likes them with kissing, though,” Junior made a face. “But that’s gross.”
Luigi laughed and ruffled the boy’s hair lightly. “Alright. Let’s see what we can find.” He glanced up to check with Kamek, the boy’s grandfather, on how much he was looking to spend today, but stopped in his tracks when he saw the most handsome man he’d seen in his entire life.
“Hi,” he stood up, straightening his shirt. “Luigi Mario. I run the bookstore.”
“Bowser Koopa,” the man, and gods, even his voice was attractive, rumbled. “Junior and my dad speak very highly of you.”
Junior ended up with the first three books in a fairly popular new children’s fantasy series. Bowser somehow managed to find the hottest, dirtiest M/M fantasy romance they stocked in the store. And Luigi, in a flash of unprecedented bravery, got Bowser’s phone number.
All in all, it was a good day.