Yes! I got a favorite! Thank you so much RainbowYoshi4Life!

Oh and I wholeheartedly agree with phantombullets240; Luigi, Daisy, and Amber are super adorable!

Haven't got much more to say here...

Without further ado, please enjoy!


Chapter 8

(Luigi's POV)

I tried to think of something to say. Daisy was driving, I was in the passenger seat, and since Amber was asleep in the back, it was completely silent. I shuffled awkwardly in my seat, trying and failing to break the ice. We came to a stop at a red light. I peered over at Daisy; I could tell by the look on her face that the silence was just as awkward for her as it was for me. She caught me looking at her and turned her head to look back. I smiled shyly at her, and she smiled back. I wasn't lying before; she really does have a beautiful smile. She has a really cute laugh as well and...wait a minute.

Laugh! That's it. I could tell a joke! But then I remembered that I don't know any funny jokes. Daisy laughs at everything, so whatever I came up with, maybe she'd find it funny. But if she doesn't, I'll be really embarrassed. I did remember a joke I saw on the Internet; I thought it was funny. Worth a shot. We started moving again, and when we got to the next stoplight, I decided to go on with it.

"Hey, Daisy," I called to get her attention.

"Hmm?" She responded.

"Okay, so there was this guy that decided to open a business in a new location. His friend decided to send him flowers to congratulate him," I started.

"Mm-hm," she said, letting me know that she was following me.

"When the guy received the flowers, he noticed they read "rest in peace."

"'Rest in peace?'"

"Yeah, so then the guy goes to his friend and says, 'Why would you give me flowers that say rest in peace? What kind of friend are you?'"

"Okay..."

"So the friend says, "Oh, sorry. They must have mixed up my order."

"Uh-huh..."

"They both go to the flower company and say, 'How could you screw up our orders this bad?'"

"Yeah..."

"Because someone, somewhere is dead and getting buried, and they've received flowers that say, 'I hope you're happy in your new location.'"

That was it. That was the joke. I look at Daisy for her reaction; she's just staring at me, wide-eyed and mouth agape. When she closed her mouth, however, she started snickering. She set her head down on the steering wheel and busted out laughing.

"Oh my gosh! That's really bad, but geez! That is priceless!" She said through hysterical laughter. I laughed along with her; her laugh is just contagious like that. Well, the ice is broken! Too bad though, because we immediately turned into the parking lot. Daisy parked the car, stood up, and opened Amber's door. I noticed that she was still sound asleep.

"Come on, Amber. Wake up," Daisy said, shaking Amber's shoulder. "We're here." Amber yawned and stood up. The three of us walked towards the playground area where the kids go to play. Amber ran ahead of us once we got closer, and I noticed Daisy was in a fit of giggles.

"Something funny?" I asked her.

"Yes," she said. "That story you told me was hilarious. Did that seriously happen?"

"No, it was just a joke," I said.

"Well, it was probably the funniest joke I've ever heard," she replied with another giggle, warming me up inside. "Do you have any more like that?" I was so glad she asked me that.

"I do." We sat down on a bench in front of the playground. "Okay, so a cop pulls over a car and says to the driver, 'Congratulations! You've won a million dollars for being the only person on the highway wearing a seatbelt. What do you plan on doing with this money?'"

"Okay," Daisy replied, glancing over her shoulder to look at Amber.

"So the driver says to the cop, 'I think I'm going to try to get my license back.'" Daisy snickered and giggled; that was my cue to keep going.

"So then the guy in the passenger seat says, "Oh, don't listen to him; he always talks like this when he's drunk." Daisy laughed a little harder. This was great; she was actually enjoying this!

"So then the guy in the back seat wakes up, sees the cop, and says, "Dang it. I new we'd get busted for stealing this car." Daisy absolutely cracked up. I laughed with her, finding it funny (and quite adorable) that she was in stitches before I even finished the joke.

"S-So then," I continued. Daisy was still laughing pretty heavily, but I could tell she was listening, "a tiny voice could be heard from the trunk saying..." Pause for dramatic effect, "...'Are we past the border yet?'"

That was it, and Daisy was laughing so hard, she nearly fell out of the bench. She even snorted a little, which was cute. Funny thing: the only time I've ever heard her laugh that hard was when Amber and I were tickling her earlier. It's a nice change; Mario usually called my jokes lame.

"That was the best thing I've ever heard!" She yelled. "'Are we past the border yet?' Genius!"

"Glad you think so," I said. I looked into her eyes, and she giggled and beamed at me. Her eyes always seemed to glimmer when she smiled like that. It makes my heart melt every time. I shyly grinned back, but then I caught something strange out of the corner of my eye.

"Hey, Daisy," I whispered.

"Yeah," she sighed, her eyes still shimmering.

"Look," I said, pointing behind her head towards the playground. There were a group of boys hovering over Amber. First thought in my mind is: Shoot, something's about to go down!


(Amber's POV)

I stood still, trying to find a group of kids to play with. It seemed everyone had a group to hang out with; I felt like such a loner. I peered back towards the bench where Luigi and Daisy were laughing together. I slyly grinned as I looked at them. They're totally dating I thought to myself. I looked around and found a group of boys hanging by the monkey bars, and they didn't look too much older than me.

"Hello!" I called. They looked at me.

"Uh...hi?" One of them said.

"Can I play with you?" I asked. They looked at each other and laughed. "What?" I asked, unsure as to why they were laughing.

"You? Play with us? You've gotta be joking!" A different boy sneered.

"I'm not joking," I said quietly.

"But you're just a wimpy little baby!" The smallest boy said. They all started laughing again.

"Yeah, how old are you? Four?" Another one asked.

"I'm six!" I yelled, blushing in embarrassment. The biggest one walked up and hovered over me.

"Listen kid," he said in a low, scary voice, "we don't want to play with you because you are a stupid, wimpy, little baby!" He pushed me up against a platform, and I bumped my head. Really hard. I was trying not to cry out in pain as the boys teased me.

"Aw, look at the little baby!"

"Is she gonna cry?"

"If you ever thought we would want to play with you, you're even dumber than you look."

They pushed me again, and I hit my head. Harder this time. I started crying. No, I was wailing. And they were laughing at me. I felt awful, hopeless. All of a sudden, I heard a very, very loud, "HEY!"


(Daisy's POV)

I had noticed Amber approach those boys, but when I saw them push her, I was livid! I headed up towards them, trying to stay calm. But they pushed her again. And she was crying. I heard them teasing her. I gritted my teeth, clenched my fists. I could feel my face getting hot. Uh-oh. I've only had one of these meltdowns once, and it did not end pretty. I tried to slow my breathing, knowing that I needed to gain control, fast. I kept hearing their bratty, snooty voices and their heartless words ring through the air, and I realized it was too late. I stood up and roared, "HEY!"

Everyone heard me and turned in my direction. I ran in their direction and protectively stood in front of Amber.

"Who are you?" One of them asked.

"Why are your eyes all red?" Another one asked.

Ignoring both of them, I growled, "Leave her alone!"

"Or what?" The short one asked.

"Or you'll regret it!" I snarled. Literally. I couldn't control myself. My voice was so distorted, I sounded like a beast. I could tell I was close to breaking. If I did, there would be no saving anyone.

"Look, Grandma," the biggest kid said.

"Grandma?!" I shouted. That was it; "Grandma" was one of my trigger words. I knew they were just kids, but they were going to get what was coming to them. I picked up the oldest kid by the collar of his shirt and drew back to claw his eyes out. But a hand grasped mine right before I brought it down.

Luigi yanked my hand down, forcing me to drop the kid and turn around so he could look me in the eye.

"Let me go," I hissed.

"No," he said sternly. "You need to calm down."

I growled and panted at him, but he remained calm. Funny thing: last time this happened, he was terrified of me. But this time, he was bravely staring me down. I stood facing him for another few minutes. He held my hand tightly and smiled warmly at me; that's when I finally calmed down. I took a deep breath, and I could feel my face return to normal. I turned and glared at the boys.

"You should be ashamed of yourselves," I grumbled as Luigi bent down to help Amber. "You are so much older than her. I don't want to see any of you near her again. Do you understand me?!" The boys nodded their heads in fear. "Good."

I turned away, ashamed of myself for what happened back there. I don't know what got into me. I went completely savage; I was an animal. But...why? I mean, I hate it when I see people picking on someone else, and I've interfered and stood up for them before, but I've never freaked out like that.

"Amber," I whispered as I bent down to her level. "Are you okay?"

"My head hurts so bad," she said, in tears. I held out my arms and picked her up.

"Shh, it's okay," I said quietly, holding her in a tight hug. "It's okay."

"It hurts!" She cried into my shoulder.

"I know, I know," I replied softly. She cried harder. I picked her up to look at me. "Are you dizzy?"

"No ma'am," she answered.

"Can you stand up?"

"Yes ma'am."

"Can you see me clearly?"

"Yes ma'am."

"Okay," I sighed happily. "Then, you probably don't have a concussion."

"What's a concussion?" She asked.

"It's a really really bad head injury," I explained. "But it looks like you're fine."

"Oh, okay," she mumbled.

I gently kissed the top of her head and she asked, "Can we go home?"

"Of course," I said, a little surprised that she called my house "home," not that I minded. I stood up and walked towards Luigi, who had stepped away to let me talk to Amber.

"Luigi, we're going home. You wanna come with, or do you want to go back to your house?" I asked.

"I'll stay with you," he said. Amber smiled at him, and so did I.


(Luigi's POV)

As we drove back to Daisy's house, the ride was painfully silent. I looked at Daisy and noticed a look of despair on her face. Clearly, she was upset, but she didn't want to say anything. I decided to leave her alone until we got home.

I thought to myself about the last time Daisy went savage the way she did earlier. It was a couple of years ago; the Mushroom Kingdom citizens threw a huge party for Mario for our birthday. But I wasn't invited. In fact, I didn't even know about the party until after the fact. It stung quite a bit since it was my birthday, too, but at least I wasn't alone. Daisy and I went to the amusement park, and I even got over my fear of roller coasters by helping Daisy conquer a roller coaster she had been afraid of.

The Fireball, as it was infamously named, was a coaster that was over 110 mph fast, so high that it went into the clouds, filled with all kinds of jerks and sudden turns and loops, and was named The Fireball because one car had actually been consumed in a giant fireball halfway through the ride. But I had vowed to ride every single ride in the park when we went in. I was surprised when Daisy didn't want to get on, but when she admitted she was scared of it, I gently encouraged her to go, just as she did for me on several other rides. When we got on the ride, we held each other the entire time. We got to the bottom, realized we were still alive, and rejoiced; I had never been so exhilarated in my life. I walked around the rest of the park, and nothing seemed scary anymore; it all seemed thrilling.

Back to the whole "going savage" story, when we found out about the party, she had decided to throw a private belated birthday party for me. She and I hung out at her house and played games, had cake, and she even got me some presents. We had a great time, the two of us. But then Bowser showed up, Peach in his clown copter. He began taunting and teasing me about how weak and cowardly I was. Daisy tried to get him to stop, but he knocked her down. I remember getting really mad and punching him in the face. Then he chased me, cornered me, and started beating me up. After maybe twenty seconds, Daisy grabbed him by the tail and flipped him over twice.

It was terrifying! She was hunched over, growling at him like an animal. Her fists were clenched, her teeth barred and grinding, her entire face, including her eyes, were blood red. She mauled Bowser with this superhuman strength; it sent him running and crying. He tried to escape with Peach, but Daisy had caught them mid-take off and took the fight into the air. Eventually, it was sent crashing into the castle garden. Bowser escaped, Peach got out alright, but Daisy was really hurt in the crash.

I thought about her injuries as we pulled into the driveway. She suffered from a nasty blow to the head and was in a coma for a couple of weeks. I'd never been so terrified in my life. Seeing Daisy asleep like that, unable to wake up. I thought I was going to lose her. You can't even imagine how happy I was when I found out she was okay.

I heard Daisy sigh, which broke me out of my thoughts. She sat down on the couch, forlorn. I hated seeing her so sad.

"What's wrong?" I asked, wrapping an arm around her.

"I feel awful," she mumbled. "I told those kids off for being a bunch of jerks after I went crazy. You remember what happened last time; I could've killed someone back there. I was...an absolute monster." She sniffed, and my heart broke; she was crying.

"It's alright," I said, rubbing her back. "You were just standing up for Amber."

"I know, but there are better ways to do that," she said. "Someone could've been hurt."

"That's true," I told her, "but you always have been very protective of the people you care about."

"But I've never gone full on mama-bear mode like that. Why did I do that?"

"It doesn't matter. No one got hurt, and Amber is home safe with no major injuries."

"I suppose."

"I gotta ask; how'd you meet Amber? Forgive my curiosity, but you said Amber was looking for a home; it feels like there's more going on than that."

Daisy sighed loudly and said, "You're right. Okay, so I met Amber in an alleyway the day you left to rescue Peach. She was...beaten badly, her skin was torn, and she was ensnared in barbed wire. She had been stuck there for about a week. Her...her...her parents...they abused her...tortured her, and just left her there. I brought her home, patched up her injuries. And she's been staying here since."

"Oh geez, that's awful," I said.

"Yeah...knowing what her own parents did to her, I couldn't stand to see some brats hurting her," she said. "I guess that's why I went a little nuts back there."

"A little nuts?" I asked jokingly.

"Okay, completely insane," she laughed.

"Are you going to be okay?" I asked.

"Yeah, I'll be fine," she said, smiling. She leaned in and snuggled into my chest, making me blush at first. But, then I relaxed and cuddled her in return. That made us both feel a lot better. The doorbell rang, interrupting the moment, so Daisy stood up to get it. A young tan woman stood at the door with a little boy of the same complexion at her side.

"Hello," I heard Daisy say. "How can I help you?" I peered over the couch to get a better look.

"Hello," the little boy said. "My name is Diego. I was with that group that was picking on that little girl. I wanted to say sorry."

"Well, come on in," she said.


I'll be switching point-of-views throughout the story now. Hope you all enjoy!