A/N: Actually, I was originally just going to hop ahead to the next day, but then I figured that I did kinda build up to Luigi's dinner with Daisy and her family and it'd just be mean to exclude it from the story. So here it is. Really, I had trouble figuring out how to write this chapter since I was just gonna leave it out in the first place, but I hope you enjoy it nonetheless.
Chapter 8: "Importance of Imperfection"
Luigi's head was swimming the entire ride back to Daisy's home. As if the events of the day weren't already enough, Mario had to go and nearly give away Luigi's secret right in front of Daisy. And in the panic of the situation, Luigi blurted out that he would like to go back to her place for dinner when he really didn't.
It was one thing to eat dinner with her family after he'd been there for several hours. Luigi grew comfortable being on her turf for a while and by the time they were about to eat, he'd lightened up to the idea of eating with them. But after being out of the house and thrust into such a dismal situation concerning Tess so suddenly, Luigi was thrown completely out of his comfort zone and now dreaded the thought of being around the relatives of the girl he was so infatuated with.
God. Stupid Mario. If he'd just kept quiet and accepted the fact that Luigi cooked for Daisy's family, this wouldn't be happening right now. Luigi would be riding home with his own relatives and the rest of the night could be spent in relaxation. But no. Dumb motormouth Mario had to open his trap...
Come on Luigi, remember that this doesn't have to be a bad thing, Luigi thought, trying to summon up some positive energy as he stared out of the back seat window, tuning out Jeff and Daisy as they chatted about something up front. I mean, it can't be that hard, can it? Just sit down, eat some food, probably talk about some stuff and get a ride back home. It'll only take about a half hour, maybe an hour tops.
But...
What if they ask me about my hobbies? They know I can cook, but I can't tell them about my love for knitting and badge collecting. Then Daisy would think I was a total dork. I guess I could tell them about some sports I play, but that would probably bring back the fact that I hit Daisy in the face twice... Oh, I know! I could tell them I like kids! Yeah, that'd be a good topic. I mean, sure, I've never actually been around little kids all that much, but Ilys is pretty cool. If I just tell them that I love kids like Ilys, maybe we could shift the conversation on to her, the family would eventually drift off onto another topic that has nothing to do with me and I'd be home free! …
But what if...
These thoughts would plague Luigi's mind until he could feel the car pull to a stop. Having zoned out, completely drowned in his own thoughts, he didn't realize that it was time to get out of the car until Daisy opened up her door. Snapping out of his trance, Luigi quickly unbuckled his seat belt and unconsciously grabbed his backpack resting next to him on the seat, despite the fact that he knew he wouldn't be needing it.
Thankfully, by now, Luigi managed to calm himself down enough to be prepared to step through that front door, walk across that living room, sit at that table, and have dinner. It felt synonymous to jumping off that feared high dive at the local swimming pool, if that high dive preceded a fall that would be at least thirty minutes long; to get off the edge, all he had to do was jump.
Mentally bunkering himself down, Luigi was ready for game time. The front door opened and the warm, aromatic air welcomed the trio inside. Julie and Ilys were glad to have everyone back. It looked like they were preoccupying themselves while they waited with the unfinished board game that was started hours ago by Daisy, Luigi, and Ilys.
While Daisy whisked her baby cousin into the dining room immediately, Julie hung back to inquire about Tess's condition. Jeff imparted all the details to her, causing her to furrow her eyebrows and frown sympathetically, though she agreed that the important thing was that Tess would be okay.
Deciding to drop the subject in favor of dinner and lighter conversation, Jeff and Luigi filed into the dining room, Jeff taking a seat at one end of the six-person table, to the left of Ilys, who sat to the left of Daisy. Feeling that it would be presumptuous to sit at the other end of the table next to Daisy, Luigi settled for sitting directly across from her, leaving an empty seat to his right. Sitting there felt slightly intimidating though, for, unless he constantly looked down at his plate or directed his eyes elsewhere around the room, every time he looked forward, Daisy would be right there. And knowing Daisy, she would have no problem looking right back at Luigi if he ever glanced at her, an action that would immediately cause him to reposition his eyes awkwardly.
Why was it so easy for Daisy to look people in the eye? Or, perhaps more importantly, why couldn't Luigi do the same thing?
It wasn't just Luigi though; most people in the world had trouble making eye-to-eye contact, just like him. For whatever reason, looking someone in the eye was like blasting through their personal wall and grabbing them by the throat while demanding to hear their deepest secrets. Nobody liked the uncomfortable feeling of choking to death while being interrogated, but at the same time, nobody ever seemed to know why they felt that way in the first place. Really, what made eye-to-eye contact so impossible?
Luigi didn't have much time to ponder these thoughts however, as a steaming plate of spaghetti was lowered onto the table in front of him, delivered by Julie as she passed around the other three platters before sitting down with her own meal to Luigi's right, situating herself between him and Jeff.
"Alright Daisy, you remember what I said earlier," Jeff reminded his teenage niece as he picked up his fork expectantly. Daisy leaned a shoulder on the table and rested her head on an elevated hand, smiling smugly as she looked over at her uncle, waiting for him to take his first bite of the spaghetti. Jeff was referring to his decision to punish Daisy for not cooking that night based on how good of a dinner Luigi managed to make for them. She just knew that Jeff was going to love the food too much to even remember the threat after he started digging in.
And sure enough, after that first bite, any thought of punishing Daisy at all flew out of Jeff's mind. As Ilys and Julie began to eat as well, Daisy quietly chuckled to herself as her uncle didn't even realize that he never followed through with a grounding or more chores or anything.
"Hey Luigi," Daisy whispered across the table, managing to mask her voice so well that not even Ilys heard her, though Luigi could hear her loud and clear. He glanced up from his meal, mouth full of spaghetti, a stray noodle hanging from his lips as some sauce somehow managed to stain his cheek. "Thank you."
Realizing how foolish he must have looked at the moment with the strand of noodle hanging out of his mouth, Luigi painfully gulped his spaghetti down though he hardly even chewed it. It was rough fitting its way down his throat and he nearly gagged once it went down. He made an odd face, his right eye half closing as his tongue slightly hung out of his barely open mouth, bearing the unpleasant experience as best he could.
"Ya okay o'er there," Jeff attempted to ask through a mouthful of freshly placed spaghetti, having already managed to clear roughly one-third of his plate just seconds into the meal. Luigi coughed for a small while before taking in a deep breath as Daisy simply smiled at him.
"Yeah, I'm fine," Luigi responded, getting over his dumb decision to swallow such a mass of food without properly chewing it. Shaking off the moment of poor judgment, but still without realizing he had sauce resting on his cheek, he looked back at Daisy, avoiding eye contact as usual as he did so. "'Thank you' for what?" he asked quietly.
Without a word, Daisy stood from her seat at the table. She signaled for Luigi to follow her with the wave of a hand, making him stand immediately at her command.
"Where are you two going?" Julie asked as Luigi made his way around the table and Daisy stepped into the living room.
"To the backyard," Daisy informed nonchalantly. "We'll be back in just a minute."
"Well hurry, your uncle's probably gonna finish every ounce of spaghetti that's left in a little bit," Julie joked, causing her husband to retort with a full mouth once again. His plate was now roughly two-thirds empty, if not just a little more.
"'Ey, it's not I 'ault i' 'is 'ood ta'the great," he responded rather unsuccessfully, for nobody in the room understood exactly what he said. Daisy simply shrugged in response.
"We shouldn't take too long," she said as she led a reluctant Luigi out of the room. What in the world could she possibly want to talk with him in private for? Did he say something wrong? Did he do something wrong? Was something on his face? Well, as a matter of fact, all three answers were true, which Luigi would soon find out once Daisy opened up the sliding glass door leading out into the backyard, lit by a rather dim, yellow light bulb. After closing the door behind her, Daisy turned to face Luigi and leaned back against the glass, folding her arms as she gave him a smile. One that, to Luigi, was oddly quizzical, intimidating, and attractive all at the same time.
"First of all, I was thanking you for being so kind as to cook dinner for us tonight," Daisy spoke up with a sweet yet slightly serious voice. "I realized that I never properly thanked you for doing that, and I really appreciate it. I'm sure my family does too, the way they were attacking the food like that."
Luigi could feel his cheeks burn as he lowered his gaze to the ground, an action that sparked another reason why Daisy brought him outside. Without moving from her spot, she continued on before Luigi could say that the deed was all his pleasure and that he really didn't mind doing it at all.
"And I just wanted to know," Daisy spoke once again just before Luigi could say his piece. "Why do you always seem to get so nervous around me? Or are you just like that all the time?"
Oh crap, she noticed. Luigi could only hope that Daisy never paid any attention when he showed his meek body language around her. Whenever he was around her, he blushed frequently, lost his composure easily, usually slumped, hesitated his speech, never looked directly at her... Huh. Now that he thought about it, maybe his signs were a bit more obvious than he'd originally thought... And right now, every single one of them was showing. That was just great...
And really, she was right. Luigi never acted like this around anybody but her. Around his guy friends, he was the complete opposite actually. He was always willing to talk, carried himself pretty well, and always at least looked at his peers, although not always in the eye. Around his other friends, he was a pretty stand up character. It was only with Daisy that he seemed to be a wreck. And now she was interrogating him about it. What if she knew about how he felt about her?
"Well, to be honest..." Luigi began, sticking his hands in his pockets as he attempted to look at Daisy but failed, looking into the living room through the glass door behind her. Unfortunately, there was nothing of interest to be seen within the room. "I do get kinda nervous around you..."
"Luigi, look me in the eye," Daisy softly commanded, staying in her position as she spoke. She wanted to be direct while she was speaking, but she was careful not to sound commandeering lest she intimidate Luigi more than she already managed to.
Slowly and reluctantly, Luigi forced himself to return Daisy's look. It felt like the hardest thing he had to do in his entire life. Her eyes were just so large and blue, framed within such a flawlessly cute face... Luigi wanted to look away immediately, but Daisy's stare silently forced him to keep his eyes on her. "Why?"
"Why...why what?" Luigi responded stupidly. The black magic of eye-to-eye contact was already deteriorating his ability to control his own thoughts and speech.
"Why do you get nervous around me?" Daisy clarified, her voice growing slightly less sweet and more serious, though it was still soft and comforting. Luigi rubbed the back of his head, another nervous habit of his, as he somehow continued to hold his gaze, despite the difficulty of the action.
"U-Um..." he stuttered, seriously hoping he could keep himself from saying that he liked her right off the bat. "Because I kinda like...I mean, I kinda don't have friends like...uh, like you," he recovered shakily as he could feel himself breaking out into a sweat. "By that I mean...I don't have any girl friends... Not uh, not 'girlfriends' like the kind you date, but-"
"I know what you mean," Daisy cut him off with a small giggle, allowing Luigi to take a sigh as he broke the eye contact for a moment before quickly reconnecting it. "Well if that's the case, then just think of me as one of the guys," Daisy recommended. "Believe me, you wouldn't be the first person to do that."
How could Luigi even thinking of doing that? Sure, Daisy dressed like a boy most of the time, she didn't care about getting hurt at all, she never held serious grudges, and she was probably more like a guy than Luigi himself was, but none of that mattered at all. He thought she was simply beautiful, and no matter what she wore or how she acted, her cute face and beautiful eyes were what immediately came to mind every time Luigi thought about her. How could he picture her as "one of the guys" with those thoughts in mind?
"By the way, you have some sauce on your cheek," Daisy commented with a chuckle as she rubbed her own right cheek, immediately causing Luigi to break the gaze and wipe his left cheek as if performing a mirror reflection of the act. Seeing the red sauce resting on his fingers once he was done ridding his cheek of it, he looked back at Daisy, who was smiling warmly at him.
"That was there this whole time?" Luigi asked, feeling himself blush once again in his embarrassment. Daisy nodded in response.
"Come on Luigi, don't blush," Daisy instructed, only serving to make his blush a deeper red as a result.
"How come you didn't tell me that was there sooner?" Luigi asked, dropping his gaze to the floor as he did so. Without his notice, Daisy stepped forward and placed a hand on Luigi's chin, lifting his head up so he would be forced to look at her in the eye once again. Now their faces were roughly a foot apart and Luigi's heart threatened to pound right out of his chest as Daisy spoke.
"I didn't say anything because it was an imperfection," Daisy began to explain. "Luigi, nobody's perfect. Nobody's going to say or do all the right things at all the right times. Every time I'm around you, I notice you always try to make yourself say what you think I want to hear or make yourself appear like you're the perfect guy. But you're not. Nobody is." Daisy let go of Luigi's chin as she folded her arms, appearing rather firm as she stood before the bewildered young man. This entire time she seemed to insult him and defend him at the same time without ever sounding condescending in the slightest. Luigi had no idea how she did it, but her words stuck in his head loud and clear. And she wasn't done.
"I don't want you to try to impress me just because I'm a girl," Daisy continued. "I should be treated no different from how your guy friends are. I mean really, you've pelted me with a soccer ball and a tennis ball just yesterday, before we ever even knew each other that well. And now look at us. We're friends. I don't think most girls would be able to form that relationship with you under those same circumstances. So Luigi, I just want you to let your guard down when you're around me. I can deal with the fact that you're clumsy and that you're not one hundred percent perfect. It doesn't matter to me. I like you for who you are. Because despite your faults, you're still kind, caring, and fun. So please, just be yourself around me, okay? Just relax."
Daisy knew she was sounding preachy and cheesy as she spoke and was secretly glad to finally be done with the monologue, but she knew that she had to have this talk with Luigi. It'd grown so obvious that he was uncomfortable around her and, for the sake of their friendship, she just had to let Luigi know that he should just try and relax. She didn't like the idea of making him nervous just by being around him; she wanted him to be able to treat her like a friend, not like a judge that was evaluating his every move. And thankfully, her words did seem to strike a chord in Luigi.
Feeling an odd mixture of embarrassment and relief, Luigi let out a sigh as he lowered his gaze to the ground beneath them. A few seconds of silence prevailed as Luigi seemed to mentally reevaluate himself. If only doing what Daisy asked of him were as easy as it sounded. But he was resolved to try. Who knew, maybe it wouldn't be so hard.
Just try not to think so hard about everything you do when you're around her, Luigi thought as he brought his gaze back to Daisy's eyes. She said it herself... She likes you just the way you am. That's a start at least. Maybe I really should just try to think of her as one of the guys.
"Sorry," Luigi apologized immediately, making Daisy unfold her arms and lean back against the glass door once again.
"Don't worry about it," Daisy returned with a smile, bring back her sweet voice. "I just don't want you to have to be so nervous around me all the time. Though I have to say..." Daisy extended a balled fist and gave Luigi a light, playful nudge on the shoulder. "It's actually kinda cute in some flattering way that you get so shy around me."
Luigi's cheeks now had a plausible reason to flush with redness as Daisy now let out a small chuckle. Even she could feel herself having trouble hiding a blush as she uttered the sentence.
As she turned to open up the sliding glass door, Daisy couldn't help but wonder what was going on with her own thoughts by this point. Having him over at the house and just hanging out for those hours before the bad news about Tess derailed the visit, Daisy realized just how much she enjoyed Luigi's company. Sure, the offer to cook for them was nice, but it was during their board game that Daisy noticed Luigi's more true personality; how he acted when he wasn't out to impress.
The board game in question was Dreamland, a board game designed for children as young as three years old, making it perfect for Ilys while still being enjoyable to older participants like Luigi and Daisy. The objective, as most children's board games were, was to be the first to reach the end of the board by rolling dice, using conveniently placed Dream Clouds and certain playing cards that served to advance them further. At the same time though, Nightmare Storms and other playing cards sent them backwards, thereby hindering their progress. The objective was simple and the gameplay was very straightforward, and knowing Ilys, she was able to get into it quite easily. Little did Daisy expect Luigi to take the game just as seriously though.
"Aw man, not another Nightmare Storm," Luigi whined as he moved his oblong of a green game piece back to the very first segment of the board's pathway for an unprecedented fourth time in a row. Observing this caused Ilys to fall into a fit of giggles, for she was only twelve spaces away from the end of the board, a distance that could be traveled in two turns if she were lucky. Daisy couldn't help but chuckle as well, though her advancement was hardly any better than Luigi's. She'd fallen through several Nightmare Clouds herself.
Observing Ilys's near flawless success at nabbing almost every available Dream Cloud, Luigi gave her an odd, suspecting look, glaring at her as he raised a suspicious eyebrow at the four year old girl. "You know, I think Ilys is cheating," Luigi claimed accusingly, causing Ilys to stand up from her cousin's lap defensively.
"I'm not cheating!" she threw back, making Luigi stand as well. The two met at the side of the table and, despite the fact that Luigi easily trumped her in size, Ilys put her hands on her hips in a huff, appearing to have confidence in her ability to take him down. Playfully, Luigi place his balled fists on his hips as well.
"Don't lie; I saw you moving your piece ahead a few spaces when you thought nobody was looking," Luigi responded. "And that one time you rolled a five but only moved four spaces so you could get that Dream Cloud. I bet you think you're so sneaky."
"What!? I never did that!"
"Actually you did Ilys, remember?" Daisy interjected with a smile, causing both Luigi and Ilys to turn their attention to her. "When Luigi wasn't looking, you moved right to a Dream Cloud that you were supposed to have passed."
"You were supposed to keep that secret!" Ilys blurted out, allowing Luigi to call her out on her slip of the tongue.
"Aha, I knew it!" Luigi shouted out triumphantly.
Suddenly deciding to make a scene of the situation Ilys climbed up onto the couch behind Daisy and stood firmly as her cousin picked herself up from the floor.
"Alright fine, I'll admit it!" Ilys retorted with an amusing, poorly done accent usually reserved for the stereotypical dastardly villain. "I did it, see! I cheated! And I'd do it again too! Ahahaha!"
Not one to be outdone, Luigi responded with just as much energy, bringing himself into the same mindset as the little ne'er-do-well.
"I won't let you get away with this! You've cheated me, Daisy, and the helpless citizens of Dreamland, but I swear I won't ever allow you to do it again!" Luigi declared, surprising Daisy quite a bit. By now, Daisy herself was used to these miniature theatrical situations, for Ilys simply loved to play like this and Daisy was always willing to go along with it, but never once did would she have expected Luigi to be the same way.
That made up the highlight of Daisy's entire day. Watching on as Luigi trapped Ilys in a barrage of tickles, she finally seemed to discover his true personality. When he felt comfortable, he wasn't uptight, quiet, or shy. One would never guess that he was actually just a kid at heart, happy to run around and play like a young child.
He was so innocent too. At times one would think that he was simply an older, male version of Ilys, for they had roughly the same mindset about many things; from wondering how the clouds floated in the sky (he predicted that they were just a bunch of Lakitus who were having parties in the air) to figuring out the mystery behind how televisions worked (little people performing inside the box? That would explain why TVs were so darn heavy), the entire planet just seemed like a mystery, waiting to be explored and discovered. Really, Daisy couldn't tell if he came up with his answers and his wonder about the world just for Ilys's entertainment or because he honestly felt that way, but, no matter which explanation was true, there was no doubt that Daisy liked him for the way he was, although it only seemed that he acted like himself when he was speaking to Ilys.
As the pair rejoined the family at the table, Jeff having already finished half of his second plate of spaghetti, Daisy couldn't help but wonder. If Luigi could just always be the true, innocent guy he revealed himself to be around Ilys...maybe he would have a shot with her. Just maybe.