"It's because I love you Lucas."
Lucas sat down on his bed thinking about those words.
"Do you want to go out with me?"
That question to which he couldn't answer.
"Um... Let me think about it..."
Why did he run? This is exactly what he wanted, exactly what he dreamed of. His only chance and he ran away.
"Lucas..."
Lucas Lucas Lucas Lucas, he heard his name on repeat in his voice, in the way he said it. That feeling of regret and anger settled in himself, how stupid could he be?
...
It was morning and as usual he woke up with Ness cuddling up to him. It had been the seventh day he and Ness had to share a bed after the incident between Ganondorf, Kirby, Ike, and the Ice Climbers destroyed major parts of the Mansion, Ness's bed being one of them. Because of Ness's obliviousness he insisted that they shared a bed despite the fact that they were both boys, even saying that if he ever found Lucas sleeping on the floor he would feel so guilty that he would break.
At first, Lucas found it uncomfortable but quickly got over it and found sleeping with Ness to be comforting, it was like having a second pillow to lean on. Besides, he was used to Claus whenever he decided to sleep with Lucas for the night after a really bad dream. It was safe but it was a reminder of his brother who he so dearly missed. A tear fell onto his round supple cheeks as he uncontrollably gripped onto Ness.
Lucas was just about ready to go to sleep when the door made itself known by being slammed into a wall.
"Wah!" Lucas cried, quickly sitting up in bed.
"Whuzzat...?" Ness mumbled as he rubbed his eyes and got up. "Lulu are you okay?"
"Wake up you two! This is a very important Smash meeting going on downstairs and Marth will be extremely angry in you guys don't come down!" Ike yelled.
"I'm too tired for this... Maybe later..." Ness mumbled as he covered his face in blanket he and Lucas shared and went back to sleep.
"Ness!" Lucas cried, ripping out the blanket and shaking him fiercely. "Come on! It might be something important!"
He shook him back and forth and then looked to Ike who then went over to Ness and punched his arm.
"Owww! Why did you do that for!?" Ness cried, sitting up to face Ike.
"Because," Ike said, his face quickly turning into despair. "Marth will murder me if you two don't get down in time..."
"Damn straight I said that!"
The three of them turned over to the door and saw a furious Marth with his arms crossed and what's this?
"Where's your tiara at?" Lucas asked.
Lucas looked to Marth and then to Ike who had a pained look on his face.
"Funny you ask Lucas," Marth said. "Somebody stole it and we're having a meeting about it, now!"
"What? That's it? Who cares about a dumb tiara?" Ness said, turning to Ike in agreement but poor Ike was already hiding under the bed praying.
"D-d-d-dumb?" Marth said.
"Ness! You know that tiara is very important to Marth!" Lucas said.
"Dumb huh?" Marth said, walking over to their closet and opening the door. There laid a shiny yet scratched up baseball bat and Marth took it.
"No," Ness said. "Anything but that!"
Ness ran over to Marth, stepping on Lucas's leg in the process and latched onto Marth's leg, crying.
"I'll break it," Marth said. "If my tiara, a precious symbol of my country, is dumb than so is this baseball bat that you used to save your country."
"No, no, no! It isn't! It's good! It's precious I get it! You love it! Now leave Mr. Batty alone!" Ness cried.
Mr. Batty? Lucas and Marth thought.
"Fine," Marty said. "Get the hell downstairs now then."
"Yes sir!" Ness ran down as quickly as possible, not even bothering to fix himself.
Lucas looked over to where Ness was and got out of bed, opening the drawer next to his bed to get some hair gel, only to find out there was no more. Lucas dug his hand around in the drawer but to no avail and then promptly searched the room for his hair gel.
"My hair gel!" Lucas cried, tears rising in his eyes. "Where is it!?"
"You must of had your stuff stole then," Marth said. "A lot of people had their stuff taken and everybody is getting all worked up. If you think I'm angry then look at Meta Knight, he stabbed Ike just because Ike was walking behind him and then went to Snake and beat him up. It's not a pretty sight. Snake used grenades and guns that are so deadly they're illegal against him but not one hit. Meta Knight just went and beat him after that."
"Don't mess with Samus today either," Ike added. "She whipped my back and then took the remains of Snake and beat him up."
"Oh my gosh," Lucas had a hand covering his mouth. "Nobody in the mansion would steal right? Nobody is that bad of a person."
"Then what about that god damn Ganondorf," Marth scowled as he spat out the villain's name. "That awful bastared messed us up in Subspace."
Lucas remembered. How Galleom attacked Marth, Ike, and Meta Knight and then coming down to attack him and Red. It was at that time that Lucas had the courage the save Red by using his PK Thunder to break Galleom's arm and hold onto Red so that his head doesn't break. Meta Knight saved them and that's when Lucas and Red first met the trio. That was also the first time Lucas ever felt truly brave, even shaking Red's hand in the end as a sign of friendship.
After that Meta Knight went to retrieve his Halberd and there fell the Ice Climbers and then everything clicked in place. The whole fight with Tabuu in the end, thus saving the world, how could he forget? Ganondorf was working with them but only for Master Hand, not Tabuu. He must have been tricked but, even if it was on purpose he couldn't bring himself to hate Ganondorf like how he couldn't hate Wario for trophifying Ness at the Ruined Zoo or Mr. Game and Watch for the Halberd incident.
"Yes he did," Lucas said. "But you shouldn't hate him for it! He must have something reason for it!"
"Lucas," Marth said calmly. "You need to stop it."
"Stop what?" He asked.
"Being so nice and naive," Marth replied, patting his head. "You're a good boy and all but if this keeps up then somebody will take advantage of you. That's the last thing I would want."
"I'm sorry," he said.
"Hey don't worry about it," Marth picked Lucas up. "Let's go downstairs already!"
"Bipolar."
"What was that Ike? I could punch you the same place Meta Knight stabbed you!"
"I'm sorry!"
...
"Okay guys," Marth stood in front of many angry Smashers ready to discuss the incident at hand. Everybody from an annoyed Pit to an extremely deadly Meta Knight whose glare cut through the Smasher's souls like his Galaxia would do to their head if his mask wasn't found soon.
"I have called you all here because as you all may have known, much of our stuff has been taken without consent." The very sentence caused all the Smashers to clamour. "We'll be going on a hunt to retrieve our missing items unless someone here has any clues or would like to confess?"
Marth glared at Ike and then back to the crowd.
"I have informed Master Hand about this and so he and Crazy Hand have went through video surveillance to look for our culprit. As for now I'll be assigning groups to look for it and locations to look. You will each be in groups of 5 people, all children will be having a designated adult Smasher to assist them. Any questions?"
Everybody shook their head.
"Good. Now, Mario you will be the leader of the group consisting of Luigi, Yoshi, Link, and Pit."
"Why me?" Mario asked.
"Isn't that obvious? You're like, the video game rep of the world. Plus you're technically the oldest out of all of us. I think this team will suit you well," Marth had a smile on his face that told otherwise.
"Snake, you'll be the leader of the group consisting of Sonic, Toon Link, Peach, and Mr. Game and Watch," Marth let out a giggle.
"What?" Snake asked. "Why would you band us up?"
"Because I feel like it now moving on," Marth turned to Ike.
"Now Ike," Marth said, the corner of his lip twitched. "I will be the leader of your group consisting of Zelda, King Dedede, and Falco."
"What!?" Ike cried. "No! Change it you scare me!"
"What did you say?" Marth got up close to him and glared. "Dare you to say that again."
"N-No I'm fine," Ike quietly mumbled.
"Alright!" Marth smiled again.
"Olimar, you are the leader of the group consisting of Fox, Ganondorf, the Ice Climbers, and Wolf."
"A-are you s-sure?" The tiny astronaut quivered under the glared of the ferocious Ganondorf, the jealous Fox, the mischievous Ice Climbers, and the violent Wolf.
"Yes of course!" Marth had his diabetic sweet tone.
"Okay next group is... Oh okay! Lucario, you are the leader of the group consisting of Donkey Kong, Diddy Kong, Wario, and Bowser!"
Marty waited for Lucario to say something as did the leader of all the other groups did but he said nothing. Just standing there with a expressionless look.
"Okay... Last group announcement then we're off! Lulu!"
Lucas turned in fear at the sound of his nickname.
"Y-yes?" He wanted to whimper and cry and bury himself in a hole.
"Congratulations! You're the leader of the group consisting of Meta Knight, Samus, Red, and Ness! Isn't that great!"
Lucas took a step back. He was stuck with the two angriest Smashers in the mansion, Meta Knight and Samus. Sure, he was with his best friends Red and Ness but then there's the two who stabbed and whipped Ike and Snake. Well, it can be worse. Red and Ness can be replaced with Marth and Ganondorf (who Marth stated earlier he hated).
"Any questions?" Marth's face turned twisted.
"N-no..."
"Okay now," Marth ripped open a box from behind him. "Here are maps with different areas encircled. What area is circled that's where you will be assigned! Good luck everybody!"
Marth punched the wall after saying that last line, causing everybody to quiver including Bowser and Ganondorf. Everybody hastily grabbed a map before Marth had a chance to kill them all and ran.
"Isn't this great?" Red asked. "We're going together!"
Lucas looked up at him.
It's because I love you Lucas.
He looked down again and said, "yeah" before quickly running off, making sure Red didn't see the tears on his face.
"I'm such a coward," Lucas mumbled to himself and he tried to blend himself into the running crowds.
...
Well you're all probably wondering why the hell Lucas was crying. Well, that gets explained in Chapter 2. You'd be surprised what happens next.