"Welcome, welcome, welcome, welcome...welcome...welcome...? Welcome...what the heck?"
Samus and R.O.B had tickets piled into her hands as characters flooded into the Smash Stadium. They got their seats and sat down next to each other, each categorized by what game or series they come from.
Currently, numerous incarnations of Link and Zelda dumped their tickets into Samus's and R.O.B's arms and continued on. She had lost count on exactly how many there were, getting dizzy at the sight of just green.
Then, one stopped in front of her. "Oh," she stuttered, "U-Um...hello...Link...?"
This Link has pale skin and white hair. His eyes were like blood moons that emitted a crimson smoke. Next to him was Toon Link, Young Link, and Zelda of the same colors. All four of them stood there, staring at her with emotionless gazes. She...she didn't know what to do. What does she say to them? What if they hurt her if she declines their tickets? They look dangerous, is it worth the risk—
"Hey, get moving!" Someone shoved them all from behind. Shadow Link from the Four Swords. Dark Link glared at the floating shadow and humphed, slapping his ticket into Samus's hand, nearly making her collapse just from the force.
Once those freaks were gone, along came a group of...pirates? And a little girl. A dark-skinned girl with a scarf around her neck smiled willingly as she told the smaller girl, apparently named Aryll, to hand the robot her ticket.
R.O.B's head maneuvered down to look at Aryll. She was smiling up at him. Teeth showing.
Teeth showing.
From his smash experience with Donkey Kong, a program inside him said that teeth meant danger.
Danger.
DANGER!
"EEEEYAAA!" Aryll shrieked as R.O.B took hold of her and tried to tear her arm off. The pirate crew and Samus were all yelling and screaming at the robot to let go of the child. The other Links and Zeldas behind them gasped and stumbled back in shock.
Finally, after Ryu was called in, they got R.O.B to let go of poor Aryll. She was trembling, and Tetra held her close as she glared at the robot when they passed by them.
"Pittoo."
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"Hey Pittoo."
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"Pittoo."
...
"Hey—"
"What?!" He yelled, rolling over in his bed. "I'm trying to sleep!"
Pit recoiled and looked outside the window for a moment, then looked back down at his darker counterpart. "Sleep? It's morning." He pointed to the window that had sunlight coming in.
Dark Pit looked at the window, then sighed. "Morning...all right..."
"What's wrong?"
"I didn't sleep at all."
Pit widened his eyes. "You didn't? Why not?"
"I don't know. I'm exhausted."
Pit shook Dark Pit again and was swatted away. "Was it because of—ow, because of that girl?"
His head snapped off the pillow and stared at Pit intently. "What girl? Who are you talking about?"
"...That girl you hold hands with."
"I don't hold hands with her!" He retorted. "She clings to me like a leash! She won't leave me alone! I want Daisy to go away, that's all!"
Pit relaxed back. "Daisy. That's her name? Do you want me to go tell her to leave you alone?"
"Wha—you'd do that?"
"Sure. Besides, Master Hand said he doesn't want anyone feeling uncomfortable when we're here, so, might as well stop it now."
"...Alright."
Pit nodded and headed out on his mission to confront Daisy. Dark Pit sat on his bed. It was so, so, so stupid. He couldn't sleep last night for the stupidest reason ever. Because of her. Daisy. That bastard smile of hers was ingrained into his mind. The stupid look she'd give him when she looked at him. The way she held his hand. The way she hugged him. He hated all of it.
...But, there was one thing that stuck to him. One of the first things she ever said to him.
"And you're cute!"
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...Was she being serious...? Does she really think he's...cute?
He told himself no. She didn't think about him like that. In fact, she's probabaly just trying to annoy and embarrass him, because she's certainly done a fantastic job at that already.
Well...time to go. Early battles. He had a high doubt that he was going to fight anyone anytime soon. But, it's a possibility that he could be one of the first ones to fight just so he could lose and be tossed aside like last time.
He sat up from his bed, nearly falling over just from the lack of sleep he had gotten. He could might as well just fall asleep standing up. But he couldn't. He needed to get up and get dressed and ready.
Then, his eyes looked over at Pit's side of the room. It was decorated to Pit's liking, but the thing Dark Pit, secretly, liked to admire was his trophy shelf. Every fighter has one in their rooms, and they get to earn different trophies by winning battles or succeeding in the events that took place.
Pit had a lot of trophies. A lot. Dark Pit would count them every time he looked at it. It seemed to increase every day. Last time he counted 36, now it seems to be...yes, double that. At least somewhere around 60.
The ones he particularly liked was, well, one of himself, for that matter. Others included Phosphora, Shulk, Mimikyu, Midna, Ganondorf, Bewear, and more.
...He turned his head to his own trophy shelf.
...Empty.
He sighed and rubbed his eyes. The temptation to go back to sleep was stronger than ever now. Usually he's always tired, hence the dark circles under his eyes he'd have. Now they had increased.
He eventually got ready and exited the room. However, there was a piece of paper taped to his door. It was a pedigree of who was fighting today. What a surprise. A total of 4 battles will be played today, all free-for-alls. Inkling & Bowser vs. Ike & Kirby, Robin & Pokémon Trainer vs. Chrom & Samus, King K. Rool & Isabelle vs. Ridley & Peach, and Toon Link & Young Link vs. Ryu & Villager.
Dark Pit wasn't playing today. Neither was Daisy.
At least there's a reason to not play. But he still had to watch, so that was a bummer.
He walked down the hall with his feet dragging. At any moment he felt like he was gonna pass out. His arm held the wall as he tried to walk down the stairs to see everyone. The more he walked, the more he wanted to just collapse and go to sleep.
"No," he mumbled. "No, no, no...nooo..."
He fell to his knees. He pressed his head on the floor. "Get up," he muttered. His eyes fluttered as he tried to keep them open.
The last thing he heard before he passed out was a familiar voice shouting "Dark Pit!" from down the hall.
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"Oh my goodness," Peach gasped. "I didn't expect to see this."
"What's wrong with him?" Falco asked from a stool. A bunch of other male fighters stared at the...inconceivable sight before them.
Daisy was sitting on the couch with Dark Pit's head in her lap. He unconsciously dig himself into her dress, getting more comfortable. Shulk whispered something Captain Falcon, and Captain Falcon whispered something back. They laughed.
Palutena approached and put her hand against the angel's forehead. "He feels hot. I think he has a fever."
"Fever? So suddenly?" Peach said.
"Unfortunately. At least he is not fighting today. That would be too hard on him now," Palutena replied.
"Daisy," Dark Samus said in her robotic tone. "Why did you bring him down here?"
"Because I found him on the stairs," she replied, brushing back a couple hairs away from the angel's face, "and this was the closest room from there."
Then, Pit came rushing from around the corner. "Hey guys have you seen—oh, Daisy! I've been looking for you everywhere!"
Daisy looked up at him. "What do you need?"
"Pittoo said that he wants you to—" he stopped when he saw Dark Pit resting on her lap. He scrunched his face up, getting confused at what his counterpart said earlier.
Daisy held her gaze, interested. "...H-He wants to me to...what?"
"Nothing. Never mind." Pit walked back upstairs.
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Everyone went silent. ...What did Dark Pit want? Now they'll probably never know...
"Um," Peach said. "Daisy...why don't we take him upstairs? Surely he'd rather be in his room."
Lucina immediately stood up from her chair. "I'll do it."
The orange princess shot her glance to the warrior-princess. A look of...disappointment came over her. She really didn't want to move from this position. In her opinion, Dark Pit looked so...so...cute...laying in her lap like that. He looked comfortable.
"Gimme him," Lucina approached.
"No," Daisy moved away.
That surprised the blue-haired girl. "C-Come on, I'm just taking him to his room."
"I'll take him."
"How?"
"I'll carry him."
"You can't do that."
"Why not?"
Lucina crossed her arms. "What's the matter? Why can't you just let me take him back up?"
Falco and Shulk looked at each other. Captain Falcon stared at Daisy. Peach and Palutena side-eyed one another.
"I will take him," Palutena finally said. She raised her staff, and Dark Pit floated from Daisy's lap and disappeared.
"Wha—Where'd he go?" The princess frantically looked around.
"Do not worry. I just teleported him to his room. He should be fine now."
"Oh."
Some time passed. Everyone had left by then, getting ready to watch the first battle to determine who was proceeding to the next round. Everyone but Daisy, that is. She kept still on the couch, seeming to be waiting for something.
Peach couldn't stop looking at her cousin, and decided to have a chat with her. She sat down next to her and broke the ice.
"The first battle is going to start soon. Don't you wanna come watch?"
She held her breath. "...Not right now. I hope Dark Pit will be able to watch. When he wakes up."
"What you're doing for him is very nice, Daisy, but..." She paused.
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Daisy looked at her. "But what?"
"Maybe you're going...too far...?"
"...What?"
"You said you wanted to make him smile, right? Well...I thought it over last night...and, what you're doing isn't exactly smile-worthy. You pull him around everywhere, clinging to him, like...like a leash. No offense, dear, I just think that embarrassing him like that won't help very much."
Daisy thought about it for a few seconds.
"However."
Her eyes met with Peach's.
"There is one thing that all of that has done. Most likely, you've planted a seed of hope in him. Don't you think there could be a chance of that?"
"I don't know what you mean."
Peach smiled. "Daisy, I'll tell you something. I've only ever seen him smile once. And that was when he first entered the doors to this place. He shook hands. He said hello. He talked with others. From then on, it was just nothing but frowns and loneliness for him. Eventually most of us just decided to forget him."
Daisy felt hurt. "That's sounds...sad..."
"Yes...but, now that you've brought this all up...I've been beginning to think that there's something going on with him."
"And that means?"
"It means," Peach took a deep breath, "That there's something troubling him."
"What if you're wrong?"
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"Peach?"
"I don't know."
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A buzzer went off. "Oh," Peach jolted. "Sounds like the first battle is starting. Let's go watch."
"But..."
"Come on," Peach smiled again. "You can tame the tyrant some other time."
"...Okay."