Ness gritted his teeth as he entered his battle against Link. Link was always a tough foe in combat, and Ness had never beaten him, but few other competitors had either. One good thing about battles against Link was that Link genuinely liked a good challenge, and didn't get annoyed when other people beat him; in fact, he often gave advice to others on how to score more hits on him.

As Ness appeared on the arena, he saw that it was Final Destination.

'Great,' he thought, 'Now I can concentrate on the fighting.'

Ness started well by jumping into the air and pulling out his yoyo as he landed near Link, ready to hit him with it, but Link bashed Ness with his shield before he could move. Stumbling back, Ness recovered well and shouted 'PK Fire', but Link rolled backwards, out of harm's way. However, as he stood up, Ness, who had jumped over him, grabbed him and threw him off the edge. Hoping for a quick victory, Ness waited by the edge and when Link was close, jumped into the air again, hoping to kick him down, but Link swirled his sword around furiously, disrupting Ness and making his way back onto the stage.

Ness landed awkwardly and charged back, but Link was on the defensive. Eventually, a well placed sword forced Ness back, and Link muttered, "Boomerang!" Ness quickly prepared himself to defend against Link's boomerang, but found himself hit with an arrow, followed by a bomb, followed by a charging slash which knocked him off the stage. He couldn't recover in time and fell to end the match.

As Link and Ness re-entered the main hall, Ness felt Link's hand on his shoulder.

"Ness, you're improving, but I still caught you out at the end."

Ness looked at his feet and began to wish that Link wouldn't do this.

"Ness, when you're in battle, people can say things to try and trick you. Just try to shut out their voices and concentrate on their actions."

Ness was about to ask a question, but Link went on.

"In fact, you could try it yourself. Train yourself so that when you scream 'PK Fire', you could do a PK Thunder instead, or the other way around."

Link took his hand from Ness' shoulder and began to leave, turning around quickly to say, "Don't worry, we all have our weaknesses, we just have to try not to let them get the better of us."

Ness decided to take Link's words to heart and train later, but for now, he wanted to relax. Making his way into the living room, he came across a vacant sofa and leapt across it. Sighing on relief when he felt how comfortable the sofa was, he heard a chirpy, "Move up, please," as somebody sat down next to him. Sitting up again, Ness saw that Zelda was sitting next to him, but she looked engrossed in a book. Ness leant back again into the sofa, then heard conversation behind him as Peach was talking to Ike.

"Please?"

"No, your legs work just as well as mine, just get it yourself for a change."

"But Ike, you're so much stronger than me. Surely this should be no challenge for a brave fighter like you!"

"Peach, I'm going."

Ness heard Ike getting up and leaving the room, but he didn't think much of it. Right now, he was too comfortable to care about it, and it wasn't until he heard a small cough in front of him that he bothered to open his eyes. Peach was standing before him, with a sweet smile on her face.

"Ness, can I ask you a favour?"

Ness took a second to think about what was more important, helping a friend, or a really, really comfortable seat, and eventually decided to do her favour.

"Sure."

"Thanks, could you run to the kitchen and get me a soda? Please?"

Ness looked doubtful, "Why can't you go?"

Peach leaned over, making Ness blush as her dress began to move down, exposing some of her 'assets'.

"Please Ness, I'm just so tired, and I need a strong pair of arms like your's. Can't you help me?"

Ness blushed more as he wondered whether Peach knew how loose her dress was, before muttering 'Yes' and wandering off to the kitchen to get a soda.

Picking a fresh one out of the fridge, he was walking back to the living room until he tripped over his shoelaces, making the can of soda roll along the ground. Running to catch up with it, he caught it next to the living room, and decided to wait until it calmed down for a while before taking it back to Peach. After all, he didn't want it to blow up in her face. It was then that he overheard Zelda.

"You do realise you're being mean here."

Apparently, she was talking to Peach, who used her sweet voice to reply, sounding shocked and hurt.

"Why, Zelda, whatever could you mean?"

"Making Ness get you that soda. He's only a child, you know you're just teasing him."

"He's not a child, he's 16, and are you suggesting I forced him to get me that soda?"

"Actually, yes."

Peach let out an audible gasp.

"How did I force him?"

"He asked you why you couldn't get it-"

"And I answered him!"

"No you didn't, you just leant over and let your breasts do the talking."

Peach let out a louder gasp and sounded infuriated.

"Zelda! How dare you question my decency as a woman, especially as a fellow princess!"

However, Zelda kept her calm tone and replied,

"How dare you degrade yourself to a child just to get him to run your errands!"

There was silence for a second, and Ness thought that Peach was about to slap Zelda, before he heard her responding.

"Ness is 16 years old, he's practically an adult now, and if he wants to help out a friend by getting them something, I see nothing wrong with it. I don't know what you're problem is Zelda, but just keep your opinions to yourself."

"You're almost twice his age…"

There was a loud slapping sound and Ness jolted up, wondering whether or not he should peek round the door.

"I'm only 26, you rude, rude girl!"

"Fine, you're only 10 years older than him, but that's still too much! It's just cruel to watch you using your looks to try and manipulate your friends, and it'll come back to bite you in the end!"

With that, Zelda stormed out of the room holding her book, not spotting a wide-eyed Ness against the wall. Ness nervously stepped into the room, holding the now still can of soda.

"Um, Peach? I got the soda…"

Peach jumped a little to see Ness there, but grabbed the soda quickly, before making an over-exaggerated show of thanking him.

"Oh Ness, how delightful of you," she started, picking him up and hugging him tightly, making him blush even more. "It's nice to have a friend like you who helps out other people," she screamed at the door, making sure that Zelda would hear.

From then onwards, things got worse for Ness. At meal times, Peach would ask him to fetch her drinks, and whenever they were in the same room, she would ask him to bring her things, magazines, make up, anything she wanted. Ness rarely questioned her, but whenever he did, he would receive an answer that would immediately make him want to help her.

"Ness, could you open the window for me?"

"Why?"

Peach sighed, "It's just so hot in here. My clothes were boiling on the radiator this morning. My bra was so hot, I couldn't even put it on…"

Ness' eyes went wide and he started to sweat.

"I hope nobody notices," muttered Peach, puffing her chest out and looking down at it. "Ness, is it noticeable?"

Ness stuttered something incoherent and went to open the window as Peach had asked. As he sat down again, Peach pulled him next to her and, surprisingly for Ness, hugged him.

"Oh Ness, I'm so lucky to have a friend like you."

For a second, Ness thought that Peach meant it, before he noticed that Zelda was walking past the doorway. She scowled at Peach, who scowled back, and then kept walking. As soon as Zelda was gone, Peach dropped Ness back on the couch and went back to reading the magazine that he had fetched for her.

Ness was so busy being Peach's servant, or as she called it 'cute little helper' that he barely had time to prepare for his next fight against Fox. Feeling tired by running all of Peach's chores, he couldn't find much energy to fight back, and was knocked out fairly quickly. When he emerged back in the hall, he heard a voice calling his name, but instead of Peach, it was Link.

"Ness, you looked tired. Did you practise any of the techniques I told you about?"

Ness scratched his back and kept quiet until he heard Link sigh, and he muttered, "Sorry…"

"Don't be, you don't have to practise all the time. Just remember what I said."

As Link patted Ness on the shoulder again and walked off, his words stayed in Ness' head.

…

"People can say things to try and trick you. Just shut out their voices and concentrate on their actions."

"Don't worry, we all have our weaknesses, we just have to try not to let them get the better of us."

…

Ness walked into the dining room. Peach was sitting there, waiting for dinner, while Zelda was on the other side of the table chatting to Link, and a few other Smashers were just hanging out there too. Ness decided to sit next to Zelda, and she immediately said to him,

"Link just told me about your battle. Are you going to practise?"

Ness took a deep breath and replied, "I think I'm about to…"

Zelda and Link didn't understand, but Peach interrupted the conversation.

"Ness sweetheart, do you think you could get me another soda?"

Ness sighed, looked at his feet, and then muttered, "Sure," as he left to get one. Before he left, he could see Peach smiling slyly at Zelda.

When he returned, he was carrying a huge bottle, and with great difficulty, he heaved it into the table.

"Sorry, but we're all out of the small bottles right now."

"Oh, that's ok, thank you Ness."

Peach made sure that Zelda was watching, then leant over and kissed Ness on the cheek, leaving a giant red lipstick imprint there. Ness blushed and staggered back to his seat next to Zelda, who gave him a pitying look and began to talk to him.

"Ness, you shouldn't let her-"

"Shhh, I just did my practise."

"What do you mean?"

"We're not out of small bottles."

Trying to suppress a smile, he watched as Peach began to open the huge bottle, unaware of how furiously Ness had been shaking it.

The moment it became undone, the soda shot out at Peach, spraying her in the face. She screamed as she staggered backwards, dropping the bottle as it continued to point at her, covering her body in sticky soda. Forced to take a few steps back, Peach slipped on the wet floor and landed on her back, still being shot with soda. Eventually, it stopped, and as Peach looked up, she saw Zelda with a big smile on her face and Link with a shocked expression.

"NESS! Did you shake that up!?" Peach demanded.

"I don't know, I guess I must have," replied Ness innocently, before adding, "Should I get you some tissues to clean up?"

Peach thought for a moment, then shouted back, "No! I can't trust you any more, I swear I can only depend on myself around here," before storming out, muttering, "If you want something done well, you have to do it yourself…"

Ness turned back to Zelda and Link with a smirk on his face as Zelda patted him on the back.

"Well done Ness, this calls for celebration. How about getting me and Link some soda to celebrate?"

Ness was about to say yes when he realised what Zelda was doing, and slowly turned to Zelda, still grinning, before replying,

"Get it yourself."