"Be still, my beating heart," Marth murmured as he, Ike, Pit, Link, Roy, and Samus stood before a beautiful, shining, glorious, twenty-story five-star hotel.
"Is this where we're staying?" Ike asked, unable to take his eyes off the sight.
Samus smiled with obvious self-satisfaction. "Yup. Look, guys, I'm a hot blonde with a credit card in hand. I bet we got the best room in the house."
Link rolled his eyes. "Whenever someone says that in a book or something, that person and their party always end up sleeping in the basement or the supply closet."
...
"Okay, okay... I stand corrected," Link said, gaping at the penthouse suite Samus had secured for them.
"How many bedrooms is this place?" Marth whispered in awe.
"Six. Because there is no way I'm sharing a room with any of you five."
"Ordinarily I'd be insulted, but this place is sweet!" Ike dashed to the mini-fridge. "Samus, you're incredible!"
Samus smiled.
...
After approximately two hours spent eating food and candy from the mini-fridge, watching T.V., admiring the view for miles of whatever state they were in, and exploring the apartment, the six brawlers regrouped in the main room to get serious.
"Did you find out where we are yet?" Pit asked, biting into a chocolate bar.
Samus nodded and smiled that familiar, enchanting smile. "Los Angeles."
"Awesome! Isn't that the place where it's, like... there are casinos and stuff?" Ike asked incredulously.
"I guessss so..." Samus said unsurely for the first time that day. "I don't really know that much about the real world."
"WOW! ARE YOU SERIOUS? DO I ACTUALLY KNOW MORE ABOUT SOMETHING THAN SAMUS ARAN?"
"Well... yes, Ike, you do. Congratulations," Samus said, gracious in defeat.
Ike flopped backwards onto the plush carpet. "Sweet. Is there anything about this place I don't love?"
"Dude!" Marth said indignantly. "Have you already forgotten about the Great Battle of Applebee's?"
"Oh yeah..."
"So, Samus, didn't they give you any funny looks when you asked for a room for one chick and five guys?" Marth asked, popping the top off a can of soda.
"Um, no. Maybe they assumed you and Pit were girls."
Marth rolled his eyes and took a sip.
"Speaking of girls, I wish I'd remembered to ask for that cute waitress's number," Ike said wistfully.
Link rolled his eyes again. "Do you even remember her name, Ike?"
"Ummm... Anna, wasn't it?"
"Abby!" Pit, Marth, Link, and Roy yelled.
"Okay, okay, I made a mistake for once in my life!"
"Why don't you go back to Applebee's and ask her for it?" Samus asked. "You could do with a girl in your life!"
"Nah, I can't. She said it was the end of her shift. I'll go tomorrow."
"Hmmm... speaking of that, what's on the agenda for tomorrow?" Pit asked.
"We could go see a movie," Link suggested.
"Lame," was the universal response.
"Go to a theme park?" Roy suggested.
"Roy, you are not yet man enough to go on many of the rides," Ike said wisely.
"HEY! I may be short, but I'm not that short!"
"I didn't say tall enough. I said man enough. You, my short ginger friend, lack manliness."
"Ooooh, burn," Pit smiled.
"Oh... oh yeah?"
"Leave it, Roy," Marth sighed. "Hmmm... what can we do?"
"Let's figure it out tomorrow," Ike sighed. "I'm so tired right now."
"Yeah, me too," Roy said, yawning.
"Let's see... well, today we tested out the cool stuff in our room. Let's say tomorrow we check out the cool stuff in the whole hotel." Samus suggested.
"Sounds like a plan," Link said. "But it'll have to wait until tomorrow. I am totally burned-out."
Samus, Marth, Pit, Ike, and Roy sleepily nodded their agreement as they stumbled off to bed.
...
Approximately eight hours later, Marth (the earliest riser) opened his eyes to streaming sunlight coming in through the window. He smiled a contented smile, and a feeling of calm bliss washed over him. That feeling of calm one gets when it's the first day of a three-day weekend with no homework, on the first day of vacation, the first day of summer.
Marth yawned and sat up in bed. The digital clock on his bedside table read 7:30.
Rubbing his eyes, Marth stumbled into the mini-kitchen. To his surprise, Pit was already up.
"Mornin', Marth," Pit greeted Marth cheerfully.
"How long've you been up?" Marth asked.
"Since seven. After a while I realized that it wouldn't be good for me to sleep with covers on, so my bed's a wreck, and it took me so long to get comfortable that I got, like, four hours of sleep."
Marth winced. "Ouch."
Pit nodded. "Yeah. You want some hot cocoa? They've got coffee too, but it's gross."
"Yeah, I'll take cocoa. Thanks, man." After idly analyzing the conversation, Marth realized a mildly disturbing fact: he and his friends were acting a bit more like ordinary teenagers instead of brawlers now that they were in the real world. But then he remembered the Great Battle of Applebee's. He concluded that they would always house some brawl-like tendencies, no matter what their surroundings were.
"Hey, Pit," Marth called as Pit was making cocoa.
"Mmmm?" Pit responded.
"I've always wondered... just how exactly do you sleep?"
"On my stomach," Pit said simply. "Why?"
"Oh... I dunno. I just kind of thought... isn't it inconvenient?"
"If it were between flying and sleeping on my back," Pit said wisely, "I'd choose flying."
"Good point. I wish I could fly."
"Well, you can't. Ha ha."
"Oh, don't be infantile!" Marth said, quoting a cartoon he had seen on the Internet.
"You're the one who wants to fly," Pit snickered.
Marth rolled his eyes.
"Here's your cocoa, prince man," Pit said, setting a mug in front of Marth.
"Wow," Marth said. "I just realized something."
"What?"
"Put in a different context, this could totally be a scene from a Pirth yaoi fanfic. From when I started talking to you."
"Oh my goddess... you're right... I would, like, be making your breakfast, and we would be living together... and we'd probably be, like, flirting right now." Pit laughed. "Oh, wow. That is messed up. And I can totally see that. Wow. That's creepy."
The two of them heard a noise of creaking bedsprings from Ike's room. Seconds later, he lurched into the mini-kitchen rubbing sleep from his eyes and scowled at their amused faces.
"Who gets up this early?" Ike griped. "This is a vacation for us."
"Oh, don't be such a grouch," Pit chastised him. "I was up a half-hour before this. You want some cocoa?"
"Yeah, thanks."
"Nice jammies, by the way," Pit called, smiling as Ike scowled again. Unlike Marth and Pit, who were wearing t-shirts and flannel pajama pants in blue and white, respectively, Ike wore a red t-shirt paired inappropriately with sky-blue flannel pants with fluffy sheep covering them.
Marth snickered. "Where'd you get those pants? I want them. Sheep are, like, all the rage these days."
Still scowling, Ike rested his chin on his hand and spoke out of one side of his mouth. "Only thing in my dresser. Some maintenance guy's got a sick sense of humor."
"Probably Samus," Pit laughed, setting a steaming mug of hot cocoa in front of Ike. "Cheer up. Hot chocolate helps, guaranteed."
Ike shrugged and took a sip. "Oh man, you're right. That is really sweet."
"Hey, I want cocoa!" A female voice said, making all of them jump. Samus smiled.
"Ahhh... scared me. I'll get you cocoa." Pit said.
"Well... anyways, on the agenda... I looked up all the hotel's facilities." Samus laid a bunch of printed-out papers on the table. "They've got a pool... with a waterslide and six waterfalls and-"
"Yeah... I don't care," Pit interrupted. "I can't swim."
"Yeah... I don't care that you don't care. You can ride the skyline thing."
"I TOTALLY call first on the bungee jump thing," Ike said. "Link and Roy are snoozin'... and they're losin'."
Sorry for the late update... I should be more on top of things. Earth Science test tomorrow, wish me luck! This is not over!