Disclaimer: Super Mario and all characters don't belong to me. They're Nintendo's.

Chapter 1: Polishing the Plot

Same Old, Same Old...

Toad sighed as he polished the silverware, his boredom increasing at a steady pace. Being a mushroom retainer does have its perks, but on average, it was a rather uninteresting occupation. Granted, he got to live in the castle, and was one of the princess's good friends, but one could wonder: who could possibly enjoy cleaning the enormous castle, or waiting at the door to greet every person who walked through it, or giving his possessions to Mario any time he dropped by. However, he did enjoy the card games.

The mushroom boy placed another tarnished silver spoon down on the table. He hadn't been paying much attention to what he was doing, and a row of half-polished, half-tarnished spoons were spread out before him.

Things had been unusually quiet lately. No racing, no tennis, no kidnappings for that matter (although he would really rather avoid having to deal with the latter) and he was terribly bored. Maybe Yoshi will race with me or something... Toad thought as he wiped the top of a fork. His thoughts were interrupted by the opening of the door behind him, and he shifted slightly in his seat to see who had walked in.

Oh, it's him Toad thought when he caught a glimpse of the neatly trimmed moustache, and quickly brought his attention back to the fork in his hand, ignoring the old mushroom man who had walked in.

"Good afternoon, Toad," Toadsworth said, stepping over to the mushroom boy to observe his work. He picked up on of the dirty pieces of silverware and cocked an eyebrow, turning it over in his hand, "Are you really hoping the princess will eat with these? It's not really up to her standards."

Toad resisted the urge to say something along the lines of, "Bugger off, Toadsworth," and settled on, "I'm only getting started, Sir."

"Well, it seems you'll be here a while yet. Enjoy your work, Toad." Toadsworth chuckled, "keep going, boy," he added, before slipping out the door.

"Sure thing, you old fogey," Toad said to the closed door, and began breathing on the fork and rubbing furiously at it with the rag in a vain attempt to try and add to its less than impressive apprearance. He placed it down on the table and snatched another one.

"One down, 149 to go."

"So, I just grab the melon, and come back down again?"

Yoshi nodded, eyeing the melon in the tree hungrily, "Yah, you get melon, bring it to Yoshi. Yoshi reward you well." The dinosaur sang, flipping a coin over in the palm of his hand, "One coin?"

"Make it two and you have a deal."

The dinosaur frowned, "Yoshi only have one coin..."

"One coin equals no deal. Sorry, dude..." The mushroom youth said, and scampered off in search of another way to make some quick cash.

"Fine. Yoshi doesn't need you." Yoshi said haughtily, turning away from the mushroom's retreating form.

With his eyes still fixed on the melon, Yoshi opened his mouth and his tongue extended quickly, sticking fast to the fruit. It then retracted, plucking the delectable treat from the tree and straight to its doom, the bottomless pit of Yoshi.

"Don't know why Yoshi didn't think of this sooner," Yoshi chuckled. He looked around a bit, searching for more food.

He didn't find any, but he did spot some of his friends, which weren't as good as food, in his opinion, but would suffice.

He made an odd squeaking noise, and ran as fast as his stubby little legs would carry him to the figures in the distance. One was tall and skinny, dressed in blue overalls and a green shirt. A green cap, sporting his trademark "L" covered his dark, messy hair. Anyone in the Mushroom Kingdom would recognize him as Luigi Mario, the younger of the Mario brothers. The other was a slightly shorter woman, with brown-red hair at shoulder length, and dressed in a yellow dress. A studded crown sat on the top of her head, and flower earrings on her ears. Princess Daisy. Yoshi admitted he didn't know her very well, but he still thought she was rather nice.

"Luigi! Princess!" he gasped, out of breath after his quick sprint.

"What is it Yoshi? Is something wrong? What's happened?" Luigi gasped, worry visible in his dark eyes, "Is it a rabid goomba attack? A wild koopa rebellion?" He shook the dinosaur's shoulder, "Yoshi, speak to me! We need answers!"

Yoshi blinked away his confusion and smiled at Luigi, "No. None of that. Yoshi just wanted to see you, that's all."

Luigi blushed in embarrassment, and Daisy giggled uncontrollably.

Once she regained control of herself, she knelt down beside Yoshi and patted him on the head, "Hey Yoshi, we're glad to see you too! Right Luigi?"

"Yeah, ecstatic..." Luigi said in a barely audible voice, still embarrassed by his earlier display.

"What you doing here anyway? The Mushroom Kingdom is a bit far from Sarasaland, Yoshi thinks," Yoshi asked.

Daisy stood up again and dusted off her dress before answering, "Well, the wonders of warp pipes! You know-" She was cut off when a small mushroom girl ran into her, "Oh!" she exclaimed, and knelt down beside the fallen child, who was sniffling.

The girl apologized quietly, but remained firmly planted on the ground. She held one of her hands in the other, sobbing and sniffling.

"What's wrong? Are you hurt?" Daisy inquired, feeling compassionate toward the small crying child before her.

The small girl thrusted her hand outward, and Daisy noticed that there was a small splinter wedged into her palm.

"Aw, a splinter? Want me to take care of that for you?" she asked, and was answered by vigorous nodding.

Yoshi and Luigi looked at one another, and shrugged. They merely opted to watch the scene in silence.

Daisy removed her glove, "Now this might hurt for a little bit, but it'll be over real fast, okay?" and she pinched the little splinter between her thumb and forefinger, and yanked it out quickly, causing the child to let out a small gasp.

"There we go, all done," she said, smiling. She helped the child up, receiving a quiet "Thank you..." from the mushroom girl. Before she left, she turned around and rushed back, hugging the stranger who had helped her and saying a much louder and heartfelt "Thank You!" before rushing back to her friends.

Daisy laughed slightly, "I like children."

"You're very good with them!" Yoshi exclaimed, "You should make a great mother to Luigi's and your children, Yoshi thinks!" the green dinosaur chuckled at the looks on their faces, which were a mix of surprise and embarrassment

Daisy laughed nervously, "Oh Yoshi, you're cute!" she said, patting him on the head again, blushing furiously.

Luigi, whose cheeks were slightly tinged with colour, chuckled slightly too, "Well, we'd better get going, I guess. Nice seeing you, Yoshi..." he said, grabbing Daisy's hand and starting in the opposite direction.

"See you, Yosh!" Daisy said before following Luigi's guiding hand.

"Bye, Princess Daisy and Mister Luigi!" Yoshi called after them, "Hope you have lots of kids!" he yelled down the busy street after Luigi and Daisy, who were, for some reason, in a huge hurry to leave now.