Luigi turned himself so he could still be facing Tatsumaki while he worked on making the pasta and sauce. He'd already filled the pasta pot with clean water from a nearby stream, after testing it to ensure it was indeed pure. He picked up the mushrooms, tomatoes, onions, peppers, and other vegetable ingredients for the sauce and began rolling them around his hands, using lightning arcing between his hands to dice them up into the right sizes before letting them drop into the base broth, briefly pausing to drop a green fireball in to set the liquid to gently bubbling.

Tatsumaki whistled appreciatively. "Where'd you learn to cook like that? Did your Mom have those powers too?"

Luigi hesitated. "I...I dunno. I never knew my parents…"

"Oh...I'm sorry…"

They both sat in silence as Luigi continued to work. Luigi desperately cast around for something he could say to move past the silence. "...I was raised by Yoshis," he finally managed to say.

"...what's a Yoshi?" Tatsumaki asked curiously, though he could see by her face she was just as desperate to end the silence as he was.

Smiling, Luigi rolled a spark of electricity over the grass, tracing an image of the dinosaur-like people. "They're a peaceful race of dinosaurs, mainly live on'a island south of the Mushroom Kingdom. They raised my brother and I."

"How'd you end up there?" Tatsumaki asked curiously. "Plane go down?"

"Stork got lost," Luigi joked easily.

"You're kidding me!" Tatsumaki snapped out, plainly not believing him.

"No joke!" Luigi insisted. "The stork got waylaid by Kamek and a few of his minions, and he dropped my brother and I onto Yoshi's Island. My brother wound up with the Yoshis, I wound up in Kamek's clutches...and Mario's sense of me led the Yoshis to rescuing me. Still no idea why Kamek was after us…"

"Then what happened?" Tatsumaki inquired, curious despite herself.

Luigi chuckled as he scooped up the meat he'd brought, shaping it into balls with burning hands to pre-sear it as it was shaped so he could drop it straight into the bubbling sauce. "Yoshi sent the stork on'a his way with Mario and I, and he dropped us off...to parents that weren't expecting babies. The wrong house!"

"Goodness!" Tatsumaki gasped out. She then blinked as she put it together with what was said earlier. "And...he never found the right house?"

"Nope," Luigi allowed softly. "The Yoshis helped find a bunch of other waylaid babies, and the others found the right homes...but the paperwork that said where we were supposed to go - even that we existed - was lost. By then, the Yoshis had grown rather fond of us, so...they kept us." Dropping the meatballs into the pot, he added another fireball to speed the cooking before setting it aside. He turned to the pasta.

"I...see…" Tatsumaki watched him quietly as he broke the pasta up and put it into the water before putting his hands to the sides of the pot, heating it up with his flames until the water boiled. "Guess that's why this feels a little like Jane meets Tarzan," she murmured at last, making Luigi chuckle.

"What about you?" he asked curiously. "Want to tell me about yourself?"

"There's not much to tell," Tatsumaki admitted ruefully. "S Class Hero rank 2, the strongest esper to ever live...and I've got a younger sister everyone thinks is the older sister because she actually looks like a mature adult compared to me…"

"Must'a been tough on her," Luigi observed idly. "Being the one everyone thinks is responsible for'a you when she needed you to take care of her."

Tatsumaki blinked in surprise. She'd always railed against how since she never developed like her sister, everyone always treated her like a little kid, or worse, like a spoiled brat. She'd never actually thought about how it affected Fubuki. She'd have to think about that another time.

"So it...was just the two of you?" Luigi asked carefully.

Tatsumaki lowered her gaze. "...yeah...at least, ever since our powers manifested…"

"Did something happen?" Luigi asked worriedly.

Tatsumaki pulled her knees to her chest, wrapping her arms around her legs. "I don't want to talk about it…" she muttered.

Luigi frowned thoughtfully as he looked at her. Anyone else might have just assumed sadness, thinking Tatsumaki's immense powers had resulted in something happening to her parents...but there was too much anger there for it to be so simple. Deep inside him, he felt the well of shadows that the dance came from stirring, responding to something felt, rather than perceived. "Then we won't," Luigi offered warmly as he poured the now cooked pasta out onto plates, scooping sauce and meatballs over top before sprinkling on some grated cheese. "Bon appetit!"

Tatsumaki idly picked up her plate and took a bite...then bit her lip as a groan escaped. "Seriously, where did you learn to cook so well? I need this recipe!"

Luigi chuckled indulgently as he ate. "Trial and error, mostly," he admitted ruefully. "And I don't really have a recipe. I just know how much of what to use to make it taste how I want it to...mostly by sight." He slurped up a noodle happily. "Though I only started using my fireballs or the Thunderhand to cook after I came here. Part of Sensei's training involves'a using my powers to cut down on utility bills. Has an odd effect." He smiled warmly. "This is the best it's tasted like that. Must be the company."

Tatsumaki ducked her head in a vain attempt to hide a blush. After a time, she looked back up. "So you think it'll always taste this good when you cook for me?" she offered in an attempt at teasing.

Luigi managed a nervous grin. "M-maybe," he managed to stammer out.

"In that case, we should try this again and see," she murmured thoughtfully as she ate. "Don't suppose you brought dessert, too?"

Smiling, Luigi set out two cannoli, carefully braced with the cream filling puffing out each end with the chocolate chips and drizzle atop. "Made them myself," he offered warmly, blinking in surprise at the wide-eyed gaze that Tatsumaki was directing at the sweets.

Tatsumaki stared as Luigi casually laid out her favorite guilty pleasure like it was nothing. When he said he'd made it himself, she'd found herself nearly frozen. Desperately, she forced herself to keep eating the pasta as she turned her gaze back to Luigi. If that tastes anywhere near as good as this pasta, she thought to herself as she chewed an absolutely divine meatball, I am finding a way to keep him all to myself...even if I have to ask White Fang for advice on how to seduce a man.