"You're awful at this." Daisy said while pressing all of the buttons on the controller repeatedly.
"This game has no logic." Mario grumbled after putting the controller down because Daisy beat him once again. "You just smash all the buttons, I do the same and you still win?" he added annoyed.
"That's how you play Tekken." Luigi said.
"Exactly." Daisy said. "There are some button combinations, but it's different for most characters so why bother learning them."
"Just smash all the buttons at once and hope to win." Luigi added.
"Whatever, I've got enough of this." Mario said, then he turned to Daisy and said "Didn't Dixie tell you to rest anyway?"
Daisy rolled her eyes and said "That's so boring, now that these wires aren't in my arms 24/7 I can at least have some fun."
"Nothing too intense though." Mario answered. He got up from the floor and said "I'm going to rest, it's late."
"Good night." Daisy said.
"Night." Luigi said.
After he said goodnight to them, Mario left his brother's bedroom to go to his own.
Luigi, who was sitting on the bed next to Daisy, said "You don't look tired."
"Of course not, I slept for half the day." Daisy replied.
"I slept way longer than usual too." Luigi said.
Daisy looked out the window and said "I want to go outside."
Luigi joined Daisy with looking out of the window and said "It's dark and cold."
Daisy turned to face Luigi and said "If we bring one of those big, soft blankets we should be fine, don't you think?"
Luigi pondered for a second and said "You sure? I don't want you to catch a cold."
"Yes, Lou, I just want to breath some fresh night air." Daisy insisted, then she looked at what she was wearing and said "A hoodie would be nice though."
"Okay, if you're sure." Luigi replied. He got up from the bed and said "I'll go grab us some hoodies, please don't try to stand on your own, your blood pressure is still too low for that according to Dixie."
"I'll jump off the bed and do a split." Daisy remarked sarcastically.
Luigi eyed Daisy and after that he went into his closet to grab 2 warm hoodies of his. He walked back to the bed and handed one of them to Daisy. She took the hoodie from him and wanted to put it on, but grunted in pain instead. "Hold on." Luigi said "Put you arms down, I'll help you."
"I'm not a 6 year old." Daisy grumbled.
"You're in pain." Luigi said.
"But-" Daisy replied.
"I will help you and you will accept my help, wether you like it or not." Luigi demanded.
Daisy rolled her eyes, but went along with it, partly because bossy Luigi turned her on. Luigi helped her with the hoodie and even though she won't admit it, it barely hurt when he put it on her. Luigi looked Daisy in the eyes and said "You gotta let people take care of you, Daisy."
Daisy averted her gaze and asked "You still want to take me outside?"
"If you want to, yes." Luigi responded. "But if you start to feel ill or cold we come back inside, accordo?"
"Sì." Daisy replied.
"How can I best carry you?" Luigi asked.
"Carry?" Daisy asked in return.
"You're not allowed to do stairs yet. I'm also not risking you tripping over and me, being as clumsy as I am, also tripping and falling." Luigi explained.
Daisy turned to face him and raised a brow "What if you fall when you're carrying me? Isn't that the same thing?"
Luigi's face showed worry and he said "Maybe it's best if we don't go outside then."
"What? Luigi! You said you would take me." Daisy responded annoyed.
"You're not going to walk." Luigi answered.
"Fine." Daisy replied "But we are going outside."
"Good. Can you hold the blanket while I carry you?" Luigi asked.
"Yes I can hold something." Daisy responded, mocking him.
"If I am in any way hurting you, you tell me immediately." Luigi said.
"I'll be fine, just pick me up bridal style." Daisy replied while holding on the blanket.
Luigi picked Daisy up, bridal style as she asked, and asked "You sure I'm not hurting you?"
This does kinda hurt, but it's doable. she thought."I'm fine as long as you don't drop me." Daisy said jokingly.
"Don't remind me." Luigi said while getting that worried look on his face again.
"I know you won't." Daisy assured him.
They walked towards the bedroom door and Daisy opened it for them. Luigi walked through the door and saw that all the other bedroom doors were closed and they didn't hear anything. "I'm pretty sure everyone's asleep." Luigi whispered "We'll have to be silent in the hallway."
"You're the only one talking, Lou." Daisy whispered jokingly.
Now it was Luigi's turn to roll his eyes, which he didn't do very often. He continued to walk through the hallway until they reached the stairs. Luigi carefully walked down the stairs, praying he wouldn't trip and fall, but he made it downstairs just fine. He continued to walk to the garden, while Daisy made sure to turn lights on and off. When they reached the garden, Luigi wanted to sit down on the garden swing, but then he realized that hard wood wasn't exactly comfortable for Daisy's condition.
"What's wrong?" Daisy asked.
"It's too hard for you to sit on, it'll hurt you." Luigi replied.
Daisy thought for a second and got an idea. She unfolded the blanket and put it around Luigi's back and back to the front around her too. "Now, sit down." Daisy said.
Luigi blushed a bit and asked "W-with you on my l-lap?"
"Yes, I'll be comfortable enough." Daisy responded.
"You sure?" Luigi asked.
"Yes, Lou, I'll find a comfortable position on your lap." Daisy answered.
Luigi blushed deeper and thought That totally didn't sound wrong. "Okay." he replied while sitting down.
Daisy moved around a bit and found herself comfortable soon after. When she was comfortable she started staring at the sky, there were lots of stars visible tonight. Luigi joined her soon after and laid back with his back on the swing, giving them a more comfortable position to watch the stars. After a couple of moments of silence, Daisy said "I've always liked staring at stars, ever since I was a little kid."
"I've always liked stars but never liked the dark outside, I preferred watching from inside, where it was safe and I didn't have to worry." Luigi said.
Daisy smiled and said "So, you have always worried about everything, even when you were a kid?"
"Um, now that you say so, I probably did." Luigi admitted.
"Stargazing reminds me of my parents." Daisy said.
"How come?" Luigi asked.
Daisy grew a bit uncomfortable, but answered his question anyway "It's one of the only things I remember about them. Hayes, mom and I would always be stargazing whenever there were stars to be spotted, and my dad used to always sneak up on us and scare us when we were concentrating the most. Our neighbors probably didn't really like the screaming during nighttime, but we didn't care, it was our little thing as a family." Daisy smiled at the memory and continued looking at the stars.
Outside in the dark watching stars is kind of her safe space. Luigi thought.
Daisy shifted uncomfortable and slowly asked "Remember yesterday? When I didn't have energy to talk about my... past?"
"Yes." Luigi replied "You don't have to tell me anything if you're not comfortable, Daisy." he added.
"I'd like to try." Daisy answered "My brother always says that sharing trauma with people you trust helps you deal with it better."
"Your brothers seems wise." Luigi replied.
Daisy snorted and held her stomach in pain.
"You alright?" Luigi asked immediately.
"Yes, don't make me laugh though." Daisy responded.
Luigi pondered back on what Daisy said a couple sentences ago. "You trust me?" he asked.
Daisy took her gaze from the stars away and focused on Luigi. "Yes, I don't know why I trusted you so easily, it normally takes me months, sometimes even years to trust people." she admitted.
Luigi blushed and said "For what it's worth I trust you too."
Daisy faced the stars again and said "Anyway, I'll start at the beginning. Gotta warn you though, there aren't any good parts to this."
"If saying it makes you feel better, I'm all ears." Luigi answered.
Daisy took a deep breath and started talking. "We used to be a pretty normal family. My parents, grandparents, older twin brother and I lived together in a middle class house, but that didn't last for long." Daisy took another breath and continued "When Hayes and I were around 3 years old, my grandpa got diagnosed with cancer. It wasn't curable, but he managed to live around 2 years after being diagnosed, which was longer than any doctor would've given him." Daisy cleared her throat and spoke "My grandma didn't really take his death well, my grandpa was the love of her life and they always said they would die together. She didn't outlive him very long, she died of a heart attack a couple of weeks later." Daisy stopped for a minute after the last sentence.
Jesus, all this childhood trauma and she isn't even past the age of five yet. Luigi thought while looking down at Daisy, who was still looking at the stars, in pity.
Daisy cleared her throat once again and continued "The house was a lot emptier without my grandparents around. Abuelito and I would always pull pranks on abuelita and Hayes and vice versa." Daisy had a broken smile at the thought of their pranks. "It always caused a lot of trouble with my parents too, but in the end it didn't matter, we had fun. And my papá always sided with me, madre, even though she would've never admitted it to me, always sided with my brother." Daisy let some more of the good memories flow through her mind while smiling.
I should let her think about the good stuff for a while. Luigi thought while seeing Daisy's expressions.
After a couple of minutes of silence Daisy bit her lip, took another deep breath and continued "We continued living our lives, it got better for a while, but then..." Daisy stopped, visibly uncomfortable, but she put a brave face on and continued "One night, Hayes and I had just turned 8 a couple of days before, we woke up to yelling." Daisy swallowed hard. "My brother and I, who were sleeping in bunk beds in the same room, both got up and went to go see what was wrong." Daisy now had tears in her eyes and said "W-when w-we wanted to open our b-bedroom door, we heard g-gunshots." Daisy closed her eyes to let a tear flow and continued "H-Hayes told me t-that we had to l-lock the door and h-hide under the bed. T-that's what our abuelito u-used to jokingly say." Daisy opened her eyes again and composed herself. "I didn't want to do that, as I h-heard both my parents yelling. I opened the door and rushed downstairs, with Hayes closely behind me, as he would never leave my side." Daisy wiped some tears away and continued. "When we got to the l-living room, I-I saw my p-parents on the f-floor, covered in blood. T-they were s-shot by 3 or 4 men who were s-standing in our living room." Daisy sniffed and Luigi started rubbing her hand, as to comfort her. "W-when they noticed us, Hayes and I were f-frozen, we didn't know how to r-react, but the men who l-looked at us realized something." Daisy's expression grew mad as the continued. "One of the men said "Scheiße, wir haben die Falschen erwischt. Die Leute, die wir umbringen sollten, haben keine Kinder." We grew up speaking English, Spanish and Dutch at home, because we could understand Dutch, we could make up what he meant by that in German." Daisy tensed, but continued. "They killed the wrong people, the people who they were meant to kill didn't have children." Daisy's expression turned even more mad when she continued. "The men fled out the back door. The police ruled it as a home invasion gone wrong, which it clearly wasn't." Daisy clenched her fists. "We told them multiple times what happened, but they didn't listen, they were probably paid by who killed my parents." Daisy paused for a moment to calm down.
German? Wait a minute- Luigi was thinking, but Daisy interrupted his thoughts.
"The then leader of the Koopa gang required all his Koopalings to know German." Daisy grumbled.
"W-wait? So the Koopa gang..." Luigi said, but stopped mid-sentence.
"Killed my parents, yes." Daisy replied annoyed.
"Jeez, I - I don't even know what to say, Daisy." Luigi said.
"I wouldn't know what to say to that either." Daisy said "Anyway it didn't even get better from then on."
Luigi kept on feeling worse and worse for Daisy, but decided to just keep listening, as he didn't know how to reply.
"To sum up the next couple of years, Hayes and I went from foster home to foster home. We always ended up with awful people who only wanted for us to be quiet, do their shores and listen and if we didn't do so, we would get beat up." Daisy said annoyed. "When we were about to turn 12 the foster care had enough of us and wanted to separate us from each other." Daisy shifted a bit and continued. "We weren't going to let that happen, so we sneaked out the same night and never returned." Daisy paused for a moment.
"Didn't the foster care come looking for you two?" Luigi asked carefully.
"No, no-one was going to miss two "misbehaved" children who don't have any family except for each other." Daisy replied. "They were probably glad we left, I know we were." Daisy cleared her throat once again and continued "Anyway, we lived on the streets for a couple of years. We decided to stay in an alley behind a fancy restaurant and a bakery, they always threw out food that doesn't look like it has been eaten already. We always said that stealing from stores would be our last option, as we didn't want to take food other people would pay for." Daisy shifted uncomfortable again. "For around two years we lived good, considering that we were living on the streets. Some people would have pity from seeing us sleep in a cold, dark alleyway and leave us money or clothes. However, we couldn't let the fact go that our parents were murdered and the police ignored it. We looked into it by talking to a lot of shady people, and found out that the gang leader himself, then Koopa Senior, killed our parents." Now, Daisy grew extremely uncomfortable and paused for a good minute. "H-Hayes said to l-let it go, b-but I just couldn't. I-I started s-stalking him and when h-he was a-alone I-I c-confronted h-him." Daisy started to shiver a bit, but continued. "H-he t-told me that h-he was s-sorry and t-that I-I..." Daisy had to compose herself again, but continued her sentence "I h-had g-grown into a b-beautiful w-woman." Daisy swallowed hard and stopped talking.
I don't like where this is going. Luigi thought while feeling himself getting angry and holding tighter onto Daisy.
Daisy felt his grip tighten and she moved her hard stare from the stars to him. She saw that he was clearly upset and angry. She decided to put her head on his shoulder, to look back at the stars and continue after composing herself. "H-he was a-about to r-rape m-me." Daisy swallowed hard again. "B-before he c-could, um, p-pull h-his, um, t-thing out, I h-heard a g-gunshot." Daisy took in a deep breath and continued "I p-passed out for a c-couple of minutes. W-when I got back so m-my senses, I saw h-him on the floor, covered in blood around the crotch area and he was shouting at someone." Daisy shifted her head a bit and continued "My brother had stolen his sons gun and shot him. His son looked pretty in shock too, and it wasn't from him being shot. His son was shocked because his father, to whom he had looked up to his whole life, would r-rape a freshly turned 14 year old." Daisy cleared her throat and wiped a tear away. "His son was the one he was shouting at, for being "stupid enough to get your gun taken by a child." What hurts the most was that he considered my brother, who is half an hour older than me, a child, while he was ready to r-rape m-me."
"I'm so fucking sorry this happened to you, Daisy, no-one deserves this." Luigi interrupted.
"You don't have anything to be sorry for, none of this is your fault." Daisy quickly said. She wiped away any remaining tears she had and said "I wish it ended there, but that's when that bastardo took my brother away from me." Daisy's expression was filled with anger once again. "He made up a story and they ruled my brother shooting him as attempted murder." Daisy grumbled. "He's been in juvie ever since, no-one would listen to the orphan children who were living on the street. They'd rather listen to the 'rich businessman', like anyone believed that." Daisy balled her fists and continued "I would stay at the police station night and day and keep on begging them to believe me, but they never did or ignored me. After a while, dirty cops started beating me 'till I fucked off, probably paid by that pendejo leader." Daisy grew even more tense after that last sentence. "After a while I quit and started visiting my brother in juvie as much as I could. The bus ride there was long, but worth it because I got to see my brother. I-I always felt like it was m-my fault that he was in there, but he always assured me that it wasn't and that we would get our revenge, that we couldn't have that much bad karma against us." Daisy sniffed and said more quietly. "I'm still wondering where that good karma is at. The bastardo, Koopa Senior, got killed over a year ago, but my brother is still rotting in that hellhole." Daisy's expression changed to angry again. "The only reason that he hasn't been transferred to an actual jail yet instead of juvie is because the jails are overcrowded and because of his good behavior."
I have to talk to Mario about that, he must've done what I'm thinking about if he knew about the false accusations. Luigi thought while stroking Daisy's arms. "Rosalina knows about your brother?" Luigi asked carefully.
"She knows that he's in juvie, not what for." Daisy replied. "I-I didn't really dare to tell her, considering that her parents were persistent on having me stay with them, because they couldn't bare seeing "a poor girl living on the street when they have this much money." "They shouldn't have trusted me so easily though, who knew, maybe I was a serial killer like Mario suggested." Daisy added jokingly.
Even though Daisy tried to lighten the mood a bit by a joke, Luigi still had a serious and angered expression, with a hint of pity and sadness on his face. Daisy decided to ignore it for now and continue. "I met Rosalina at a park I was sleeping in, and soon after I stayed at hers. Her parents enrolled me back into school and paid the principal enough so he would fake grades from previous years and so on. Somehow I managed to pick up on everything easily, with the exception of math, and got extraordinary high grades on languages and sports." By now, Luigi's grip around her lessened and he started to calm down. "I never liked taking money from people or having people spend money on me, which is what Rosalina's parents were doing non-stop. I got a job as soon as I was allowed to, much to their dislike as they wanted me to focus on school, but I managed to combine those two. This meant that I could pay for my own clothes and such and Rosie's parents didn't have to anymore. They did however force me to eat with them and I was never allowed to pay them back for something." Daisy's expression grew a bit sad again. "I knew that I could never pay for college and that Rosie's parents gladly would so, but I wouldn't be able to live with myself if they did. My high grades on languages and sports made me a candidate for a full paid scholarship, if I did well on the admission exam, and I did." Daisy started smiling to herself. "I was so proud of myself and so was my brother when I told him. I was also relieved that I didn't have to rely on Rosie's parents anymore, and I hope to one day pay them back for everything they did for me." Daisy finished.
Luigi looked down at Daisy but didn't know what to say. Daisy looked up at him and said "I told you I was cursed."
Luigi's face saddened and he said "No, you're not, you've just had a really, really fucked up shitty life, Daisy." He put a strand of hair out of her face and continued. "You're the strongest person I know."
Daisy blushed a bit and said "From there on we just went to college, which didn't last long considering we got kidnapped."
"You're all the same age?" Luigi asked.
"No." Daisy answered. "I'm 18, Peach is 19 and Rosie is 20. We all started college at the same time though. Rosie wanted a 2-year break from school and also wanted to start college at the same time as me and Peach wanted to study an extra year abroad, which she came back from after 2 or 3 months because she missed her family and friends too much."
"I'm the same age as Rosalina." Luigi said.
"Sooo old." Daisy teased.
"Before you girls arrived I was, except for Toad and Yoshi, the youngest." Luigi replied.
"How old is everyone?" Daisy asked.
"Like Rosalina, I'm 20 and so are Diddy and Dixie. Mario is 21, Funky is 23 and Donkey is 24 years old." Luigi answered.
"And Yoshi is 7 and Toad is 16, right?" Daisy asked.
"Yes." Luigi replied.
The garden grew silent again as they both fixated their gaze on the stars above them again. After about half an hour of stargazing, exhaustion hit them and they both fell asleep on the garden swing, still wrapped in the big blanket that covered them both.