Very special thanks to Verran, Nene, KoopaKrazy85, YesNoMaybeIDK, ThatNintendoFangirl, Abrams Generation Trekkie and Casamora for your words of encouragement on the last chapter! *Hugs you all*. I'm afriad this chapter isn't really action-based like the last but if you don't mind that then who am I to complain? So, here it is! Chapter 2!


"Kammy! I demand your presence!" Bowser choked, trying as hard as he could do lift his arms to point towards the door.

"Yes your fierceness?" Kammy Magikoopa, Bowser's most loyal right-hand coot, tumbled through the open doors on her broom, which sputtered fog in its struggle to stay airborne underneath her. "Lord Bowser, you really mustn't try to shout so..."

"I DON'T CARE!" Kammy was hurled backwards by the sudden outburst. She decided it was pointless to argue with him, or even to pick herself up from the floor.

Bowser groaned as he tried to sit, much to the frustration of the Koopatrol who was attending to his burns.

"How could this happen to me! I had the guy in the bag!" he flinched again when a wet cloth met his scalded arm. "Get off me!" he howled. The Koopatrol anxiously bowed and scurried towards the exit carrying the bowl and cloth. Bowser turned his head towards Kammy and rested it on his arm. "Tell me who that pathetic little guy was! I'll make him regret the day he ever set foot in my castle!"

Kammy separated her hands and a thick book appeared in a cloud of smoke between them. She hastily began flicking through the pages, looking for a match. She frowned and turned several pages back and forth. "Your wickedness, it appears he is not a resident of the Mushroom Kingdom."

"What! Gimme that!" he roared, snatching it out of her hands. Bowser skimmed through the pages, grumbling to himself. It hadn't been five seconds before he threw it abruptly over his shoulder, forcing Kammy to chase it to the corner of his bedroom and begin dusting it off.

"I can't believe I have to put up with this incompetence!"

"Yes...your...your foulness. I will look further into the matter!" The old Magikoopa then scrambled back onto her broomstick and whizzed out of the door, closing it behind her with the broom's wake.

-oOo-

As we approached the town centre I realised why Mario had begun to hold back. Great numbers of toads had congregated in a muddled panic, still unaware of our arrival but with a strong aura of expectation about them.

"You can make your own way from here if you like princess- it looks like you have a lot on your hands," he uttered, while creeping his way back up the hill. I doubted he had ever done this before. Luckily I had, on rare occasion.

"Don't worry about them," I smiled, "this castle of mine does so happen to have a back door."

"But I..."

"Don't you want to come inside for some tea?"

"I don't drink tea."

I had to withhold myself a little at his response

"How about cake?" I inquired. I knew it was difficult to turn down such an offer.

"Err..." he shuffled on his feet.

I knew he wanted to decline by the grimace on his face. I sighed angrily; why was he so adamant all of a sudden? I didn't want to give up and let another one merely walk away. I'd had enough of seeing people come and go, leaving me feeling more stupid and helpless than ever.

Mario reacted with a look of guilt followed by an artificial smile and a nod. It was almost as if he was actually...nervous. That must have been the reason for his change of character. Now that I thought about it, it was hardly surprising given the fact he barely knew me. I didn't want him to feel uncomfortable.

"I promise nobody is going to bite. I think you'll like the people here."

"Of course, princess." He nodded again and his smile became a little more genuine. Feeling somewhat content, I allowed him to follow me behind the hills that were concealing us from the sight of the town's bustling civilians. I would get Toadsworth to address them later so that they wouldn't be kept in the dark about my return.

The door was much smaller than the huge double doors at the front. I often used it to get in and out of the castle without the question of my faithful steward. The old toad was much like a father to me, and his paternal instinct often lead him to be rather over-protective. I hoped that he wouldn't have been worried sick, but that was very wishful thinking.

The door lead through to a spiralling stone staircase which I began to climb, trusting that Mario was following behind. I continued to ascend towards the castle hallway when I realised suddenly that I hadn't been able to detect any footsteps apart from my own for a while. I turned my head to find an empty stairway behind me.

Boy was he slow.

I decided to wait awhile for him to catch up, but still after a few minutes, not a sound could be heard. Rolling my eyes, I retraced my steps. "Mario? Are you coming?" I waited for a reply. The silence stretched on and I picked up my pace. As I neared the bottom, a faint murmuring came into my earshot. I opened the door and peered back out into the garden. There, standing uneasily outside the entrance, I found him, in the company of the person I least wanted to find...Toadsworth.

It was too late. Mario looked terrified as I emerged from behind the door. The Toad's attention promptly turned to me. It looked as if he had already finished with Mario as he proceeded in my direction.

"Your highness! In dire times such as these I do not expect you to come home after all this time, towing this preposterous excuse for a gentleman behind you!"

He'd given Mario the perfect reason to call me a liar and head straight home. I knew everything would take a fair amount of explaining for both him and Toadsworth, so I attempted to nullify the situation.

"Please Toadsworth! I am not towing him!" To be fair, he wasn't that willing to come in the first place, but that wasn't the point. "I invited him to the castle after he rescued me. I know you'd been waiting for that to happen for days!"

His expression changed to a look of disbelief and he hobbled back to where Mario was standing. Toadsworth eyed him up and down. "This..." he lifted his cane and prodded it into Mario's stomach, prompting a quiet yelp from the man in question, "...chump rescued you?"

"Yes!" I cried, "And if you had actually let him speak without jumping to conclusions then you may have been able to avoid scaring the poor man to death!"

There was a moment of silence whilst Toadsworth stepped away from Mario and began to compose himself.

"Well my dear, one can never be too careful!" he piped. "Come inside...err..."

"Mario."

"Right..." the Toad continued. "Come inside Mario, I'll have Tayce T. make you something!" Mario was finally allowed to go through the door as Toadsworth hastened him up the stairs. I followed slowly after, breathing a sigh of relief.

Once I had reached the great foyer, Toadsworth had already given Mario a brisk handshake and scurried off to find the servants, leaving him on his own. The resonant sound of his footsteps had just faded as I stepped into the room. Mario's gaze swept anxiously about. He was looking for me. I was about to make my presence clear, but was seized by a sudden impulse, and retreated back behind the room's vast door.

Mario remained standing on the spot for some time. After looking at the ceiling for a few minutes, it eventually dawned on him that Toadsworth wasn't going to come back for a while.

He rocked on his feet before swivelling round to face the wall behind him. Curiosity hit him at the sight, and rightly so. I had collected various reminders of the people who had come here after rescuing me time and time again and displayed them on a stack of shelves against it.

All kinds of weird and wonderful species had come and gone, though never had another human set foot in Bowser's castle. All of them had returned to their home land and I never saw them again. For this reason, I would usually take something that belonged to them, something small to display. It wasn't stealing as such; I was simply collecting a harmless souvenir.

I continued to watch him as he tried to work out what their meanings were, carefully picking out and studying each item from the enigmatic selection. Little did he know that whilst his attention was diverted, I was devising a plan to add to that very shelf something from his own possession.

However, any inkling of an idea as to how I would go about this was foiled by the sound of Toadsworth approaching once more. In a deft, panicked movement, Mario placed back on the shelf an odd looking parrot statue and turned back around just in the nick of time. The toad came thundering into the room at an alarming pace.

"Come along now! I don't want that tea to be cold by the time we get to the sitting room!" he called to the poor servant behind him, who was desperately trying to keep up with a bulky cart full of cakes, biscuits and various pieces of porcelain crockery.

Mario could only watch in awe. He started to turn, but Toadsworth had other ideas. He raised his cane and drove it straight into Mario's back. "Ahhoo!" Mario flinched in discomfort, hopping forward several steps to stop himself from falling flat on his face. Toadsworth continued to shunt him into the sitting room. A final prod sent him stumbling through the doorway and into a nearby chair. "Find a seat Mario... Oh ho, it seems as if you have already found one!" he said with a taunting gleam in his eye. Mario stared nervously back.

I felt guilty for not jumping to Mario's defense as I started across the great foyer after them. Toadsworth lurched forward in his seat when I entered the room. I stopped in my tracks.

"Your highness, where on earth have you been?"

"I was just…"

"No matter! You must sit down at once!" he interrupted.

I was met with Mario's glare as I lowered myself into the chair opposite to his. I tried to look apologetic, but his eyes were averted as Toadsworth interrupted again. "Mario, you must tell me, are you married?" Trust him to pick such a question as his first.

Mario sank back in his seat, intimidated no doubt by the prying nature of the inquiry. After a moment of hesitance, he replied. "Yes...yes I am."

That was the last thing I had expected to hear. I turned my eyes to the table in front of me but he continued to glance at me through the corner of his eye, almost as if he was trying to hint something.

"Well that's wonderful! She must be a lovely girl!"

Mario smiled, "She is…"

"Oh..well…" Toadsworth cleared his throat. "Have you any children?"

"I have…two girls."

I felt a bit confused at this point. What would prompt a married man to leave his wife and children to go and rescue another woman?

"They must come and visit some time! We would be delighted to meet your family, wouldn't we princess?"

I continued to stare at the table.

"Princess!"

I jolted from my daze. "Yes! Delightful!" There was an awkward stillness; the only reply was a look of bafflement from my steward. "Sorry, yes, I would be thrilled to meet her… and the children." I beamed and straightened my dress in an attempt to dismiss the confusion in the air.

Toadsworth looked a little bewildered, but continued regardless. "Well, I have an excellent idea. We will arrange a meeting!"

Mario tensed. "That won't be necessary. I'll be leaving in the morning."

Something about the way he said that, with such nonchalance, struck a chord inside me.

"I doubt you even know how to get out," I remarked somewhat pointedly.

"He could use a warp pipe!" replied Toadsworth. I glowered at him.

"Warp pipe?"

"Mario, there is no other way into the Mushroom Kingdom, you must have used one." Toadsworth informed him.

"You mean those giant green things? I came through one of them after I fell down a drain. They're crazy!"

I laughed. "You fell…down a drain?"

"Well it was more complicated than that." He looked at his feet. "My brother and I live in Brooklyn, as plumbers."

"Plumbers?" I asked.

"It was the only way we could make money."

"No. That's great… we've been having a few pipe problems lately." Perhaps now I could make him stay longer.

Toadsworth stood. "Not that the subject of the castle's plumbing doesn't intrigue me, but I must accompany Dayne. T in returning the tea cart." We all looked at it. The stunning array of delicacies on offer sat there still, untouched. Dayne. T, exhausted by the strenuous journey up here, watched us now with a look of pure resentment.

Eager to repair the poor toad's dented morale, Mario leaned forward to take a cake from the cart. However, this was promptly whisked from his reach by Toadsworth.

He shoved it back into Dayne. T's grasp and ushered the servant towards the door. "Come along now Dayne. T! We've already spoken about this. You need to learn to pick up the pace before I dock your wages entirely!"

We watched in helpless sympathy as both toads left the room. Once their footsteps vanished from earshot, we turned slowly to face each other. I felt strangely uncomfortable without my steward, whereas Mario seemed to emit a wave of relief.

"I think that cane and I are destined to become mortal enemies," he chuckled while rubbing his back. I smiled, but something else was on my mind,

"About the castle pipes, can you take a look at them?"

He grinned. "Of course. Luigi and I have been doing stuff like that most of our lives."

I took this opportunity to ask a burning question. "What about your wife? Won't she miss you?"

"I...err…no…she'll be…fine..."

"Mario…"

He looked down.

"What?"

All of a sudden, he sprang from his seat with his arms flung out in exasperation. "I don't have a wife! I don't even have any children! It was Toadsworth...he kept telling me, whilst you weren't there...that he had ways of finding about things. And the things he didn't approve of...and..."

I burst out laughing. "Oh Mario don't be silly, I can't believe you let the old man get to you!"

"I just...I just don't think he likes me."

I leaned forward. "He's always taken care of me, and the fact that you've come here is a massive change for him. He says these things to try to keep me safe. Sometimes it can be really unhelpful but he means no harm. Please don't worry about him."

Mario nodded slowly. "As long as he won't hold anything against me...maybe Luigi and I will stay a little longer."

I never imagined Toadsworth to be the reason that everybody had wanted to leave. He must have been fiercer than he looked.

However, I was still curious about this Luigi he kept talking about. "Who is he, by the way?" I asked.

"Luigi?" He's my younger brother."

"You have a brother?"

"A twin brother at that. I don't go many places without him. You would have probably seen him today if he hadn't chickened out at the last castle."

"That's a shame." I sighed, secretly wondering if that was the real reason that I hadn't seen his brother.

"Actually, it's getting dark," Mario said, his eyes turned to the window. "I think he'll be wondering where I am."

"My guards will let you out. It was nice of you to come here." I said with a hint of disappointment, I hadn't been able to spend much time speaking to him all.

"My pleasure." He bowed and backed towards the front door. I couldn't help but giggle again.

"And I want to see your brother next time I get kidnapped!" I called after him as the guards opened the heavy doors.

Mario laughed nervously, not sure how to answer.

"Actually, why don't you two drop by the castle tomorrow?"

"Sounds like a plan. I guess I'll see you then."

With a tip of his hat, the guards closed the gates behind him and he disappeared into the darkness. I remained standing there. Even though he had gone, a strange fascination kept me on the spot. For once in my life, I had no idea what the morning would bring.


Poor Dayne.T and her rejected cakes :(. I made her up by the way, but I may have heard her name somewhere...Anyway! In the next chapter, we meet Mario's beloved younger twin brother, Luigi (and hopefully Daisy not too long afterwards!) The fact that the bros are twins is debatable but that seems to be the most widely known fact so that's what I've gone with. This will probably be updated around every fortnight but I'll try to get them up earlier if I can. I'm not too sure about this chapter but tell me what you guys think! That's more important :D.