Author Notes - It should go without saying, but this story will continue to use the characters as they are written in my story, which often differed from most people's interpretations of them. Good examples include Ug being a very smart ghost, Amadeus and Gloria being (adopted) father and daughter, and Clem even having a twin sister named Billie. Now that you're all caught up, let's go.

To continue the trend from the last story, let's acknowledge some favourites/follows: 4597boss, Jojo Mafia, Majestic Yo-kai Fauntleroy, and UltimateCCC!

CHAPTER TWO - A LAST RESORT RE-WELCOMING

'Dey're nearly here… dey're nearly here! Whadda we do?'

'I-I'm sure that if we all stay calm and collected, w-we can… oh, my hero Luigi is getting married! EEEEEEE!'

'Thou musteth keepeth thyself under control, me lovely maiden! Thou art ye one planningeth yon wedding, art thou noteth?'

'Would you keep it down?! Zee chef cannot create while everyone's going crazy around him!'

The staff of the Last Resort hadn't just returned to normal once Luigi captured King Boo and Hellen Gravely, but in fact had returned to a better normal. Now, without a cruel boss to control them like a tyrant or corrupt them with horrible mind games, the ghosts could finally relax and know that - no matter what happened - they would have a nice peaceful time. Aside from E. Gadd occasionally performing experiments on them, but compared to Hellen's treatment his experiments were like a spa treatment.

Most importantly, however, they had a fantastic friend who would visit them whenever he had the time - a certain young man by the name of Luigi! Sometimes, Luigi brought on his brother too - Max? Mark? Murphy? Miyamoto? The ghosts could never remember - when the red-clad plumber could face the ghosts again.

And that very same friend would be arriving any moment now.

'Okay, so after I distract him with a little bit of red sparkle, you-'

'Hang on, who the bloody hell put you in charge?!'

'Ginny, I've always been in charge.'

'Aw, com'on girls! We gotta get this just right for him!'

If only the triplets could agree on how to do the glorious ending fireworks. Alas, Ginny was being as disagreeable as always, and Nikki really just wanted to get work done. Lindsey and her carefree giddiness, as usual, was the one thing stopping the two older sisters from giving each other a second death.

While most of the ghosts were stirring about in the lobby, Chambrea - one of the co-owners of this glorious hotel - sat in the corner on a fancy lover's couch all to herself, reading a book that she definitely did not steal from the last guest they had staying over before the entire hotel had to be rented out for this wedding. She wanted to find out about the mysteries behind the 'Thousand-Year Door', but the chatter from her workers distracted her from the words. And right as she got up to chapter five, 'The Key to Pirates', too.

'What are we gonna do?!' Steward yelled, sitting behind the front desk and chewing on his red hat. 'HE'LL BE HERE ANY MOMENT NOW!'

With a groan, Chambrea tossed her book aside and stood up. With just a couple of claps, she got the attention of every ghost in the room.

'Just turn the lights off!' She said. 'And we'll give the love birds a nice surprise when they show up. Not too surprisingly, though. We don't wanna give Luigi a heart attack, do we?'

She turned her head just a little, and flinched when she saw Lindsey - the youngest of the triplets - standing right next to her.

'How did you get here?' Chambrea asked. 'Weren't you a few floors above two seconds ago?'

Lindsey whimpered. 'How can you be so calm and chill when the great Luigi and Daisy themselves are going to be here any moment now?!'

'Because I'm not an idiot. Now get ready.'

'Ma'am yes ma'am! I'll send the message to Clem straight away!' Lindsey said before she disappeared from the lobby once again.

In just a few moments, the lights went off all at once. And I mean all at once, for the entire hotel had been plunged into darkness. If there was any time to, both Chef Soulfflé and Dr Potter would've gone down to remurder the trashy twins, but in only a few seconds the TV-screen-looking thing at the front door turned on. In a split second, every ghost in the room turned transparent and disappeared behind the furniture, to really make sure they were hiding.

And then, Serpci had to try her hardest to resist fangirling when her beloved idol and hero stepped through the Pixelshifter into the darkness. Seeing darkness all around him made him yelp and shiver, but all his fears were alleviated when Daisy locked arms with him. While they were busy staring into each other's eyes, the ghostly pups followed after them. The first one through was Polterpup, and right after him came all seven of his adorable children - only seven because Luigi Jr, the eighth one, was still sitting on Luigi's head. The last one through was Polterkitty, who struggled to get her massive panther-sized body through the small screen.

'Where is everyone?' Daisy asked, looking around.

'I think they're gonna give us a nice surprise.' Luigi replied.

'Ah, of course!'

So, they stood there waiting for the 'surprise'. Unfortunately, the ghosts and guests were waiting for the lights to turn back on, and those lights remained off for quite a while. After almost a minute of waiting, Chambrea groaned.

'CAN SOMEONE TELL CLEM TO GET OFF HIS BUTT FOR FIVE SECONDS?!'

Perhaps because Clem and Billie heard the furious Chambrea from a couple of floors above, all the lights were turned back on at once. Luigi and Daisy had to shelter their eyes from the sudden flash, which also left all of the ghosts in the rooms stunned for a moment. Thankfully, by the time the mortals could look around again, the ghosts weren't stunned anymore and could shout…

'WELCOME, LUIGI AND DAISY!'

All at once, popping out from their hiding places.

'Hey guys!' Luigi called, waving to each and every one of them.

'Yo!' Daisy added.

While every ghost cheered on their heroes, Luigi walked down the sparkling red carpet to the front desk. Steward waited for him, more than a little happy to see their most VI of VIP's standing right in front of him once again, and in a snazzy little tuxedo too!

'Hi, Steward!' Luigi said. 'I'll just be-'

'Oh, don't worry about checking in.' Steward said. 'Your brother's already done that for you!'

'He has? Where is he, anyway? He's not… you know, worried, is he?'

'Nah, he's just fine! Just a little busy having some good ol' pasta in the restaurant with his lovely wife. Now that you're here, they'll be down here in just a minute.'

As Daisy looked around, she realised that she wasn't as up-to-date on the news as her partner was. After all, she had considered the entire experience a little too scary to want to deal with much, so she rarely visited the Last Resort. In contrast, Luigi had gone to see them at least once a month, so he was always the first to know any of the news.

Hence why he wasn't nearly as surprised as her to see that Serpci had a very young ghost floating around her. This was Arthur, the son of Serpci and King MacFrights, who looked a lot like his mother but with the fiery hair of his father. To make it better, MacFrights himself was very close by, holding not a sword but another young ghost, this one clearly having been 'born' only a few months ago. This was their daughter Anaconda, who unlike Arthur looked just like a brown-haired female version of her father.

'They had kids…?' Daisy murmured to herself. 'Huh. Good for them, I guess.'

Most of the 'grand ghosts' she and Luigi had been forced to capture during their adventure could be seen somewhere around the lobby, mostly celebrating Luigi's arrival but some doing their own things. Chambrea especially did not seem like much of a co-owner, sitting by herself on a couch in the corner, but she must've been a good co-owner since the place was still running.

'Come on, dude.' Johnny Deepend said, approaching Luigi. 'Let's see some bodacious muscles!'

Luigi attempted to flex for the muscular ghost, which did nothing but reveal that he still didn't have much muscle in those arms of his. Still, Johnny gave him a thumbs-up.

'Killer job, dude!' He said. 'A little more than last time! Keep up the good work.'

It didn't take Daisy long to figure out who was missing. Clem and Billie were probably doing some important work down in the boilerworks, and would arrive for the party later. The triplets would've been practising for their act, the same way Amadeus Wolfgeist and Gloria were rehearsing the music they would play. Chef Soulfflé stuck around for the greetings, before he flew into the ceiling to return to his work.

Then she saw that some of the mortal guests were already here, ready to go. Unsurprisingly, the three Toads - Soff T, Gus T, and Parr T - who had accompanied them for the first 'vacation' were there, but another 'guest' got her attention.

She gasped. 'What is he doing here?'

Standing by the buffet table and swiping up some brownies was none other than Waluigi himself. Her eyes narrowed at the sight of the lanky man devouring more table snacks than seemed right for someone so thin. Straightening up her crown, she stormed over to him with her fists clenched.

'Hey, Creepo!' She yelled.

Waluigi glanced her way, and grinned when he recognised her. 'Well well well, I see we've got the lucky lady here with us! And I say 'lucky' because it's a miracle she managed to get married at all.'

Her face immediately turned red. 'Listen, Waluigi. I don't know how you got past Kruller, but I don't care. If you think I'm gonna let you crash this wedding, you've got another think coming!'

He looked at her, a little confused. 'Crash the wedding? Now why would I do that when the snacks here are simply divine! Can't have wedding snacks without the wedding.'

'Oh, don't you play dumb with me. You're just jealous that Luigi got to marry me instead of you! … I mean, that you don't get to marry me. Not Luigi. Not that I would judge. … The point is, you're just jealous!'

With how angrily and loudly she was yelling, it didn't take long for Luigi to hear them while he was conversing with Steward. When he saw the inevitable argument coming, he gasped.

'Sorry, Steward!' He said. 'I-I gotta take care of this.'

Steward simply smiled. 'Do what you need to, Groom!'

Luigi rushed over to the scene as quickly as he could, separating the flowery princess and the mischievous man and standing between them. Waluigi just stuck his tongue out at Daisy, who glared back at him with more rage than her body could possibly contain.

'Hey, Dork.' Waluigi greeted.

'Hi, Jerk.' Luigi replied, before he turned to Daisy. 'Daisy, there's no need to-'

'Good thing I found this creep before the wedding, huh?' She said. 'Did you know this jerk was here?'

'Yes, actually. I invited him.'

'See, Waluigi? You… WHAT?!'

She was all but certain that she misheard him, but then Waluigi whipped out his invitation from his pocket. He must've known this was gonna happen, and he had a massive smirk on his face too. Daisy snatched it out of his hand, and scanned it down to the smallest details. Her eyes widened when she realised that it was legit.

'WHY?!' She shouted. 'Why would you invite Waluigi here? On purpose? ARE YOU INSANE?!'

'We're friends now.' Luigi replied. 'Kinda.'

Her jaw dropped. 'EXCUSE ME?! That just raises MORE questions!'

Waluigi cackled. 'Well, after you proposed to Dorkface here, I realised I kinda lost. Yeah, it was tempting to get you back anyway, but I figured it was more trouble than it was really worth. And when I thought about it, would I really want to be married to you?' This got him a nasty glare. 'O-Okay, I'll stop talking now.'

Luigi sighed. 'Yeah, something like that. We just kinda met up again one day, and we came to realise that our rivalry was kinda pointless. It was like we were trying too hard to copy Mario and Wario, so we just gave up. We haven't been like this for very long, so our relationship is still a little rocky.'

'And if you're still worried about me crashing the wedding or whatever, I'm married now, ya Brat!'

Seeing as the arguments could only escalate from here, Luigi adopted a nervous smile and dragged Daisy away by her wrist. He made sure he had put a great distance between her and his former rival, but she didn't seem any less angry about it.

'He's married now…' Daisy mockingly repeated. 'Alright, which 'lucky lady' did he manipulate?'

Luigi gave her a deadpanned look. 'Wario, who we couldn't invite without losing half of our money.'

In an instant, her face turned red again, from embarrassment this time. 'OH! T-That… that makes sense. L-Look, I'm sorry, but I'm still angry to see him and his stupid pink-nosed face here again!'

'No need to make fun of his appearance.' He sighed. 'Okay, I'm at fault here too. I really should've told you I brought him along. I-I was just a little worried that you would… do exactly what you just did. I don't know what I was trying to prevent.'

Daisy leered at the lanky man. At this very moment, he was holding a cupcake high above Gus's head. The poor blue Toad kept hopping up and down, but his short arms couldn't even reach past Waluigi's knees let alone up to his arms.

'What's the matter, shorty?' Waluigi asked, laughing to himself. 'Can't reach?'

Unfortunately - or perhaps fortunately, depending on your point-of-view - Waluigi had chosen just about the worst Toad to mess with. Gus put his hands on his 'hips', before he suddenly delivered a strangely-powerful kick directly into Waluigi's shin.

'WAAAHH!'

The purple-clad man collapsed to the floor and held onto his sore shin while seething. The cupcake fell directly into Gus's hands, and the Toad laughed as he walked away with his prize in hand.

'I'll get you for this, Mush-head!' Waluigi yelled, shaking his fist at him.

After watching this little scene, all Daisy could do was sigh.

'Alright.' She said. 'I'll try not to kill him. It seems like Gus and the others oughta keep him under control anyway.' She glanced up the steps. 'Huh. Looks like the elevator's here.'

'It is?!' Luigi cried. 'THAT SHOULD BE MARIO!'

The green-clad groom ran past Daisy and up the steps so fast that it left the princess dizzy. He made it all the way to the elevator before anyone could even blink, and he shook in place as he waited for the doors to open.

'Come on, bro… come on!'

After what felt like far too long, the elevator doors opened. Luigi's eyes lit up when they met a certain man dressed up all in red stepping out into the lobby.

'Bro!' He cried.

He brought Mario into a tight brotherly hug, so tight that you might think they hadn't seen each other for years instead of merely half a day. Mario yelped as his little brother wrapped him up, but reciprocated the gesture in just a few seconds.

'I'm-a so happy to see you, Big Bro!' Luigi declared.

Mario chuckled. 'Y-Yeah, I could see that.'

'Criminy, son! If I didn't know any better, I'd say you were trying to suffocate your own brother!'

Luigi's ears perked at the voice of his favourite professor. E. Gadd was standing right next to them, looking at Luigi a little judgingly. He had hardly changed at all over the years, aside from his age being just a little more obvious, and his lab coat had the Last Resort symbol over his heart.

'Professor!' Luigi said.

E. Gadd smiled. 'Oh, I admit it. I'm happy to see you too, Sonny. Looking spiffy in that tuxedo too! I can't say marriage has ever appealed to me, but if it makes you happy then I'm happy too!'

'You'll love it too, Bro.' Mario said, motioning to his own wife.

Princess Peach - well, Queen Peach now - stood close behind Mario. Ever since they had gotten married, they hardly spent any time apart. The only times they did were when they needed to spend time with other people, which made it quite easy to have double-dates with Luigi and Daisy. Luigi was about to give his sister-in-law a massive hug, until he managed to stop himself. It was easy for him to forget about the 'bulge' in her body, but she would always point it out of him.

'Hi, Sis!' Luigi greeted, waving. 'How's little Cherri going?'

Peach giggled. 'She's going just fine. I think this wedding has her really excited, since you can feel her kicking.'

'Oh, really? … C-Can I…?'

She nodded. 'Of course. Just be careful.'

Luigi pressed his face up against Peach's, erm, 'bulge', making sure the contact was as soft as possible. For a moment, he could feel a little kick directly into his cheek. He couldn't help but to unleash a high-pitched series of girly squeals as he backed away - the very thought of having a little niece delighted him to no end.

'Awwww!' He cried. 'She's gonna be the cutest little thing around when she's born!' He sighed blissfully. 'Oh, I can't wait to have one of my own!'

'So Daisy wants a kid too?' Peach asked, a little surprised.

'Oh, of course she does! She wasn't so sure about it at first, but I think I got her really excited too. I kinda wanted a daughter myself, but she says she really wants a son, so I do too!'

Peach had to restrain herself from squealing a little bit too. Luigi's excitement to become a father never failed to both touch her heart and make her laugh.

'Does that mean I'll become an uncle?' Said a distorted voice.

Luigi gasped as he realised that he almost forgot about one of the most important guests. The gooey man stood a few feet away from everyone else, reflecting the ceiling lights almost perfectly.

'VERDE!' Luigi declared, super happily.

Verde - formerly known as Gooigi - hadn't changed much over the years. He still looked a lot like a monochromatic green Luigi, but now he had a few differences. For one, his 'hair' was a little longer, and he seemed just a bit more buff, for lack of a better word. The Poltergoo on his back remained, though now it had a hook for him to hang the nozzle on. The most important difference - as far as Luigi was aware, at least - was that he had a mouth. He still hadn't quite learnt how to speak through it, but now he smiled whenever he was happy. And, right now, he was smiling the widest he had in awhile.

'Oh, of course you'll be an uncle!' Luigi said. 'Uncle Verde… I like it! I can't imagine what it would be like to have both a niece and a nephew!'

Verde shook his head. 'I don't consider Mario my brother like you do. You're my only brother as far as I'm aware.'

Mario gave Verde a look. 'Oh, well, thanks.' He chuckled. 'Nah, just kidding. It's not like you had my… consciousness inside of you. … That sounded better in my head.'

Luigi laughed even more, and looked back at all the ghosts in the lobby. Most of them were looking back at him while trying to put up the decorations, which led to many of them spilling things all over the place.

'Hey Dude,' Johnny said to the bellhop behind the counter. 'Is it, like, totally cool with you if I look at Luigi? You're the only one for me, but you can't deny… Luigi's quite the looker.'

Steward nodded. 'Of course. As long as you give 'im space. I mean, look at the guy! He's not even my type and I can't help but stare a little.'

Luigi blushed just a little. He would've been more surprised to hear a bodybuilder describe his lanky body in such a way, if said bodybuilder wasn't Johnny who had made his love for lanky dudes quite clear.

Chambrea, after making sure she had finally finished the next chapter, decided to give Luigi a more proper greeting. She placed her duster down on the couch, since she knew how much dust irritated her little saviour, before floating over to him.

'Good to see ya finally made it.' She said. 'I hope you weren't expecting anything grand, because unless the staff gets their crap together the entire wedding is gonna go south.'

'Uh, correct me if I'm wrong,' Peach said. 'But aren't you the owner of this place, and thus the one with all the power?'

'I-I… I'm the co-owner, thank you very much! That professor next to you will be just as guilty as me!'

E. Gadd put his hands on his hips. 'Oh, don't you try getting out of this one! We decided that, as a living ghost, you would be in charge of the ghost-side of things while I'm in charge of just about everything else. If the ghosts ruin everything, that's your fault.'

Chambrea's eyes narrowed, and she clenched her fists. Luigi - well aware of how each ghost in this hotel acted and what made them tick - made some sort of sound of fright that cannot be described and jumped in between the two arguing parties.

'H-Hey!' He said, flailing his arms around. 'I-I've noticed that some of the ghosts don't seem to be here. Where are they right now?'

Chambrea sighed. 'Finally got some of them to work just a few minutes before you and Daisy showed up. Gordon's way up in the kitchen, trying to get the wedding cake ready. It's taking him a while, because he wants it to be 'perfect' for some reason. The triplets are busy practising their fireworks display thing, while Billie's trying to get Clem off his butt down in the boilerworks. Then there's Amadeus and Gloria. If I had to guess, they're probably working on the music.'

'Well, I can't let them go without a meet-up before the wedding, can I? I'll just go get Daisy and the kids, and… oh no.'

When he looked down into the lobby, he realised that he couldn't find any of the Polterpuppies or Polterkitties anywhere. Even Momma Polterkitty herself had vacated the floor, and only Polterpup remained. The loyal doggo sat in the middle of the lobby, wagging his tail in anticipation for his Master to return.

'Oh dear… that isn't good.'

Author Notes - So... Waluigi! I don't know why, but I really like the idea of Luigi and Waluigi managing to put their rivalry behind them and actually be friends, even if we're stretching the definition of 'friend' here. I've been wanting to use it for a while, and this seemed like a good place to put something like that.

The next few chapters are going to serve as a sort of 'here is what everyone has been doing' kind of thing, where we'll see most of the Last Resort staff and get sneak-peaks as to what they're doing for the wedding.