As promised, Ludwig came back a few minutes later with shears and gloves. He plopped down next to me on the ground and grabbed a pair of shears and put on the gloves. I did the same and while I was doing so Ludwig looked at me and furrowed his brows.

"You do have a bruise." He put a hand on my cheek, slightly tilting my head with his hand. I involuntarily flinched from his touch but it was obvious that he was not going to hurt me.

"My wretched father…I don't know why he has to prove himself by hurting people." His voice was a murmur, barely audible. My cheeks flushed a little from the close proximity that we were in and I quickly changed the subject.

"Well…how about trimming these roses?" I said, laughing nervously, pointing to the overgrown bush of flowers.

Ludwig blinked and shook his head. "Yes, let's get started…forgive me for that small outburst."

We worked in silence, listening to the birds and hum of insects.

"So…Ludwig?"

"Hmmm?"

"Those other koopalings…who are they?"

He paused and turned towards me. "My siblings. Why?"

I shrugged. "Just wondering. Everyone has heard of the infamous Bowser but nobody at my village told me of any koopalings."

"That's because Bowser considers us his minions." He said bitterly. He scoffed, shook his head and began cutting the roses a little more quickly before turning to look at me.

"Well, what about you, Bree? What's your story? You know mine- eldest son of Bowser, genius composer." He gave me a smug smile.

"Oh, you know…normal girl, normal life…until your terrible dad kidnapped me!"

Ludwig sighed, "Bree…if you really so desire, I can help you escape."

I paused and looked up into Ludwig's face, trying to access whether he was being serious or not.

"…It would be such a shame though", Ludwig continued, "Because then I would have no servant- who would be there to change my sheets, brush my hair, or undress me…?"

I stifled a laugh and grabbed a handful of roses that were on the ground and threw them at him in response to his last comment.

"It was only a joke, a joke!" Ludwig laughed merrily, wiping tears from his eyes. He then grabbed my wrist and his voice took a more dangerous tone.

"Be careful though. I know you were only playing but if Bowser saw you chucking roses at me…"

I shrugged, grabbed a rose and put it on top of his fluffy hair.

"Then I'd just explain to Bowser what you just said to me", I giggled.

Ludwig blinked dumbly and took the rose off of his head, examining it. His gaze then turned to me and he smirked deviously, throwing the rose back at me and then he lunged forward and pinned me down, tickling me.

"Apologize! Apologize for what you just did!" He growled playfully while I giggled like mad and squirmed, attempting to push him off of me.

"Okay, I surrender! I surrender!" I giggled, swatting his head.

"Oh god…what?"

Ludwig and I immediately got off of each other and looked up towards the sound of the unknown voice. The koopaling from yesterday with the blue mohawk was standing three feet away from us and frowning.

"Larry! What are you doing?!" Ludwig cried, light pink beginning to dust his cheeks.

"Um…I could ask you the same thing, big bro." Larry looked upwards and scratched his face. "I was, uh…sent here by King Dad to check on the progress of the rose bush." Larry peered around to check the bush and frowned.

"Big bro, you've barely even worked on it!"

"Yeah, well we're doing it right now!"

Ludwig turned back around and began clipping roses at a fast pace, grumbling under his breath.

"Stupid Larry…thinks he's hot stuff because dad promoted him a rank…"

I few minutes later I looked over my shoulder and saw that Larry had left and gave a sigh of relief- it was embarrassing getting caught doing such a thing with Ludwig! Glancing back at Ludwig, I smiled and followed suit in quickly trimming the rose bush, pausing a few times to smirk at Ludwig's embarrassed blush.

By the time we had finished it was noon and the both of us were exhausted and hungry from being out in the heat. My stomach growled loudly, making Ludwig stop in his tracks and look at me.

"Someone's hungry." He chuckled and pointed to the castle's entrance, "Let me lead you to the dining hall, we can get something to eat."

I nodded and smiled. I was warming up to him. He was sweet, cocky, funny, and slightly flirtatious- and unlike some of the other beings of the castle, he did not wish to harm me. I began thinking about him and felt my heart race slightly. Shaking my head, I chased away those thoughts.

We walked through endless corridors until we reach one hall with two large wooden doors. Ludwig opened the doors and my mouth watered at the sight in front of me. One very long table was in the middle of the room and various plates of food were piled upon it. It was obviously lunchtime as three koopalings were sitting at the table, eating and discussing their various exploits. They stopped talking and turned to look as Ludwig and I entered the room.

Ludwig led me to a chair one seat away from a koopaling with green hair and glasses and as I took a seat a koopaling with pink sunglasses slammed his fist on the table.

"Ludwig, get outta here! Servants can't sit at the dining table, what the hell is this all about!?"

Ludwig sat next to me-in the seat between the green haired koopaling and me-and grabbed the plate of sandwiches that was in front of the sunglasses wearing koopa. The koopa growled and bared his teeth, looking ready to lunge forward.

"Roy, stop being stupid." Ludwig said as he rolled his eyes. "Although I understand that's probably immensely difficult for you…" he mumbled the second part quietly.

"But she's a servant! She ain't equal; they don't eat at the table unless they have special permission!"

Ludwig turned to me, grabbed my hand, and held it near his lips. "Well, lady, would you like to sit with me at the dining table?"

"I'd love to", I replied grinning shyly.

Ludwig kissed my hand in response and the upper corners of his mouth twitched. "I'm graced by your presence, my lady." He turned to Roy and smirked. "Look, now she has special permission to sit at the table."

I giggled, grabbed a sandwich and bit into it, feeling embarrassed and flattered.

"Always the show off, Ludwig…" a brown koopaling with white face paint said, face palming and shaking his head.

"Yea! He IS a little show off and one day I'm gonna BEAT DA MESS outta him for it!" Roy said, cracking his knuckles. He growled again and then got up and ran out of the dining hall, fuming.

"…What was his problem?" I asked in between bites of sandwich, chewing slowly.

"Roy? He's just a jerk." Ludwig looked at the koopaling that face palmed. "Right, Morton?"

"Right." Morton said. He sighed, pushed his plate away, and got up from his seat. "I'd better go find him, he's probably off to smash some goombas flat again…" He said before running out of the door in search of Roy.

Ten or so seconds of silence followed before the green haired koopaling spoke up.

"…Well, I, for one found it funny, my dear brother." He said and I peered around Ludwig to get a better look at him. He caught me looking at him and narrowed his eyes in interest.

"Ah, it's the girl from yesterday. Hello." He said and then grinned at me. "My name's Iggy!" Iggy leaned over and reached to touch me and Ludwig slapped his hand away.

"Don't touch her, you delusional weirdo."

"I just wanted to give her a hug", Iggy whined.

"Yeah, sure. Get out of here!"

Iggy got up from his seat and started towards the door, then turned around to glare at Ludwig before heading out.

"My siblings are so annoying sometimes…" Ludwig sighed while rubbing his temples.

"You were a bit mean to Iggy." I noted, recalling the way he turned around and glared heatedly at Ludwig after Ludwig chased him off.

"Don't feel bad for him. He is absolutely nuts…By far one of the more annoying siblings that I have…" Ludwig muttered before grabbing a sandwich.

"So, Bree…there is nothing else on today's agenda. What do you want to do?"

I thought for a moment and then recalled Ludwig's words from this morning.

"Well…how about you show me some of those word famous music compositions of yours?"