(Author's Note: Thank you all so much for following the story! Reviews are so very much appreciated and keep me going! I'm sorry about the lack of progress on the Bowsette story - got a lot of balls in the air in my life I need to juggle first, but I'm working on it.)

scooter2: Oh, definitely. I feel like it's inevitable that Peach and any other monarchs of realms accessible through the sublevel system would need to establish some sort of official presence or embassy here. May get into that later, maybe briefly.

DISCLAIMER - I do not own these characters or IP and no copyright infringement is intended.

Double Date!
Chapter Two
Life Finds A Way

Princess Daisy fumbled with the controls of the old radio.

There was a time when she'd used it every week, but she had long given up scanning the skies.

She finally got the mic on and buzzed in.

"Hello! Hello, can anyone hear me?" Daisy said.

A few seconds passed. "Oh, my! Yes, this is Princess Peach of the Mushroom Kingdom! Please respond!"

"Greetings, Princess Peach!" Daisy replied, blushing a little. "Hi, I'm Daisy! Princess Daisy, actually! I hail from sunny Sarasaland!"

(A/N: I have omitted the 'over's and 'roger's from this exchange to keep it more natural.)

"You're a princess, too?!"

"You bet!" said Daisy. "Been all my life. Or most of it, probably?"

"Probably?"

"Yeah… to be honest with you, my parents' memories aren't the best, but occasionally some piece of junk from another world will show up in one of our Warp Pipes…"

Peach gasped. "Warp Pipes! We have those!"

"Do you have Toads?"

"I'm their Princess!"

"That's great! Okay, so most likely, our realms are connected or at least adjacent. Say, I had an idea for tracking you—"

"Follow the strength of the radio signal?" Mario interrupted.

"YEAH! Wait, who's that?"

"He's Mario. And together with his brother, they're the heroes of the Mushroom Kingdom."

"This is just like my dream!" Daisy said aloud before realizing she'd said it.

"Your dream?" asked Peach.

"I'll tell you another time," said Daisy, not wanting to scare Peach off before they'd even met. "So, Princess Peach—"

"Just call me Peach!"

"And you can call me Daisy. So, Peach, uh, how are you communicating with me? Do you have a radio, too?"

"Yes, a long-ranged radio, with a big antenna and everything."

Peach was hesitant to reveal anything about Earth, not wanting to endanger the realm, but knew the topic would need to be broached. And somehow, she just trusted this voice on the other line. She was definitely another pure-hearted heroic archetypal kinda gal.

"Okay, Princess Daisy, are you thinking what I'm thinking?"

"That we should find each other!" the two Princesses said in unison.

They giggled at the synchronicity.

"Do you ride Yoshis, by the way?"

"It's been a minute, but yeah, I've gone Yoshi-riding on some trails!" Peach admitted.

"What's a Yoshi?" asked Mario.

"YOSHI!"

The high-pitched cry shocked everyone in the vicinity.

A local fruit stand on 51st Street had just been invaded by an adorable green dinosaur, a quick-moving baby with a ridiculously long tongue.

Mario's Mother (A/N: referred to from now as Mama) gasped. She was across the streets, groceries in her arms, taking a video on her phone.

"Honey, you gotta see this!" Mama told her husband, who was already scanning to see if he could jaywalk and possibly catch a closer look at the thing.

"Holy smokes! Do you think this thing came from the Mushroom Kingdom?" Mario's father (referred to from now as Mario Senior) asked his wife.

"Don't move!" another voice said in a hushed tone.

Mario Senior looked up. A large man was leaning out of a window. His chin was extraordinary, and he had an impossibly sharp, jagged mustache. Mario Senior felt a sudden need to ask the guy his facial care routine.

Suddenly, the Baby Yoshi leaped diagonally hard to dodge a projectile. It barely escaped being tangled. A lanky being in the street had just shot an exploding net at the green creature. Yoshi whimpered away, but not before picking up a newspaper and scattering it to cover his tracks.

The man with the net gun gave chase, and Mario Sr. and Mama were stunned silent at the sight of him.

He had amazingly long legs and was similarly out-of-this-world proportionally. His entire body was so stretched as to seem anatomically impossible and Mario Senior wondered whether he needed two chiropractors to work on his stretchy back.

"What are you?!" Mario Senior called out to the purple-clad gentleman.

Waluigi turned and smirked at the old man and his wife.

"I'm your worst nightmare."

Waluigi then shot another net at the Baby Yoshi, who was climbing balconies off of a side street.

But Waluigi was ready for a rooftop chase. He whistled to Wario.

"WAHAHA! I've got him!"

Wario took up the controls for his net-shooting drone and followed the Yoshi into a chase across the Brooklyn rooftops.

By this time, helicopters from the news were circling.

Jets were scrambling and en route.

The President of the United States had been informed that an alien being had somehow made it through the portal unnoticed.

The Baby Yoshi slid down a vent atop an apartment building, scrambled down through sliding down a cable on an elevator shaft, and made it to the sewer system.

He heaved heavily. Some innate homing instinct guided the creature to its egg, which it had hatched from several days ago. Being hyper-intelligent reptiles, Yoshis are born not only intelligent, but possessing a sort of genetic memory, giving them all inborn speed and strength, action supremacy honed for generations. This innate intelligence allowed them to keep their island's independence through sheer force of willpower in battle.

The Yoshi paused. Wario and Waluigi's footsteps were approaching.

"I can't believe you lost him!" Wario grumbled under his breath.

"Shhh," Waluigi hissed. "He's close."

The footsteps ceased.

Just before he heard Mario and Peach address Princess Daisy on the radio, Luigi felt the pangs of jealousy weighing on him.

Mario had somehow found a… potential girlfriend?!

And Princess Peach! What a bombshell she is!

Naturally, Luigi was always super excited for Mario and believed in him with all of his heart. And he realized that that love for his brother spurred him on to grow and rise up to protect him.

Even though he hadn't realized it yet, Luigi had finally found the strength to overcome his fears from being imprisoned and nearly seeing his brother get killed.

In that key moment, when all seemed lost, Luigi caught sight of his brother.

He acted on pure instinct. It was as if God had guided his hand to take hold of the manhole cover and save Mario from Bowser's fatal flamethrower.

Something in his deepestmost gut just knew that was now or never.

But it wasn't even a question, Luigi realized. Mario had risked his life for him. What kind of brother would Luigi be if he didn't save him?
His brother's inspiring example gave Luigi a key insight into the man he could be if he really put himself forward.

Looking back, Luigi realized that was a real Rubicon he'd crossed. He wasn't the same man anymore after that.

These deep inner thoughts flitted through Luigi's anxious mind.

Mario was checking in on him with looks of concern in between chatting with Peach.

Lu gave a tiny smile.

Luigi couldn't deny that Peach was adorable. Somehow, just maybe, Mario was gonna win her heart.

But Lu always just wished he could have a girl of his own, for once.

Mario was a total player. He once dated Pauline, who ended up being Mayor, of all things. Why couldn't his little bro have a shot at dating? He was tall, and pretty good-looking, if his Mom was to be believed.

There was no use feeling sorry for himself, though. Luigi knew that in due time, he'd meet the right one. Until then, he ought to work on himself, on becoming a better man. A little braver, a little more stoic, a little more comfortable in his own skin.

He tried to read. He tried to lift weights, and to work hard. But it didn't always come easily for him. He would doubt himself, let fear and anxiety trip him up at every turn.

He picked himself up, though. Always had and always will.

But even trying to learn from the past and improve didn't seem a good enough incentive for Luigi to get up sometimes.

The sapping of strength of will all of this took didn't help him any.

Deep down, he knew exactly what the problem was.

He just wanted someone to give him a chance.

Luigi fell asleep several nights ago praying to God for a girlfriend, tears streaming down his face as he watched dumb emotional scenes from movies just to feel something. Each day he hoped for a sign, like an Orthodox country lass gazing out of the window in the morning.

Once, in a dream, he had a sort of premonition, a feeling of warmth and radiance, a confident, youthful energy.

So when Luigi heard Princess Daisy's voice on the call, he was star-struck. She sounded energetic, perky, and an overall cool gal.

During the call with Peach, Mario, and Luigi, Daisy finally asked, "is there anyone else I should meet?"

"There's me!" said Luigi, suddenly finding his voice.

"Oh!" Daisy exclaimed. "And just who might you be?"

"I'm Luigi. Mario's my big brother, and we've always worked together."

Peach said, "He and Mario saved the day! I'm so proud of them!"

"It's nice to meet you, Princess Daisy," said Luigi.

"Likewise," Daisy replied. "So what's your world like?"

And so, Mario and Luigi shared a bunch of details about their world. Daisy tried to rack her brain for any potential connections to it. She hoped to fill the memories of her younger years, which were all but forgotten.

For her part, Princess Daisy was intrigued by all three of the mysterious radio voices. They spoke long into the night.

Princess Daisy woke up on the wrong side of the bed. She'd fallen asleep just two hours ago, unable to stop pondering the details of her conversation with Princess Peach and the two brothers, which left her subconscious with way too much to digest.

She hydrated, took herbal remedies, and declined breakfast with her father, opting to have it in bed, but no sooner had the Toad messenger left when he came calling to her room.

With three short knocks, she knew it was him.

"Daddy! Come in! You're never going to believe what happened!"

The door opened and King Ironoak gave his daughter a beaming smile. His face was chiseled and bearded, but he was just getting at that age where he was over the hill physically. The King was clad in robes with golden chain mail beneath.

(Editor's Note: due to expensive confusion on the part of the world-builders and CGI animators, the King's character model generally seemed to clash with the surrounding art style, but in a cool way.)

"Do tell, darling!"

"Well, gosh! Where do I begin…"

And she told it all, spilling about the details of the Mushroom Kingdom and even the destructive fight with Bowser and its effects on both realms.

"This is outrageous!" the King exclaimed. "Are you to tell me there are other realms, and we may be able to interact with them… Mother must be informed at once."

The King sent for his scribe to take the message to Daisy's Mom, who was out joy-sailing in the tranquil waters.

"I shall declare that we must try every Warp Pipe by the Castle and search for secret walls."

"Go for it, daddy."

"Ah! We should be talking while dining, child, as I am to go hunting with King Totomesu. Or was. I shall need to convene a War Council meeting!"

"So busy!"

"This is nothing!" he laughed. "Just be glad you've not witnessed a true war in your lifetime, and hope that you won't have to."

"Don't be so grim, Daddy! Oh, that reminds me! I want you to tell us war stories again!"

"Your Mom says it's getting you too hyped up. And then you stay up too late…"

"I know, I know, Dad," said Daisy. "I'm working on it."

"Good," he hugged her. "You'd better go find that other princess. Now get out there and have an adventure!"

"Wait!" she said. "Can I borrow your Yoshi mount? Mine has been getting… chunky…"

"You spoil her!" said King Ironoak. "Fine! Go in peace!"

After breakfast, Mario, Luigi and Peach were busy making plans.

They adjusted their karts, gifts from the Kongs. Cranky Kong had recently signed a treaty with the Mushroom Kingdom to share their karting knowledge in exchange for resources and access to other potential realms.

Peach agreed to these terms, and they began transacting business.

The Toads didn't seem to mind. They stored their Coins by leaping and hitting boxes. Somehow the Coins manifested. Mario wondered if it were some advanced nanotech, or else just some sorta magic.

"How does it work?" Mario asked Peach when Luigi was off working on getting his kart's loadout tweaked.

"Huh?" she was looking into his eyes, curious as to his theories. "We've never really questioned it too much. The rules seem so arbitrary, don't they?"

"Yeah. They do."

"Hey, Mario, um…how do you think it works?"

Mario gave her another smile.

"I haven't the slightest idea," he said with a laugh. "Your guess is as good as mine."

"There's a Creator," said Peach. "A God, or Goddess, or… something."

"There is," Mario agreed. He believed in God, though he was torn between the Catholic and Orthodox churches. He didn't like being a part of organized religion, but he did understand that he owed everything to some higher power, and there was always something pulling him towards the innermost unknown.

In his childhood, he and Luigi walked in on his uncle watching an old rental DVD of Tarkovsky's four-hour classic Andrei Rublev, which is about a medieval church painter, and later, a boy, a teenaged son of a late master bell-builder, was tasked with building a massive cathedral bell.

The film was one of the most life-changing experiences for the two kids. Their uncle had long fallen asleep, but they watched it until the incredible ending. Tears.

There was a time when Mario wanted to be a filmmaker. He had dreams of making something as deep and meaningful as Andrei Rublev. And he would sometimes try to write. But for the most part, he spent his time making money (or trying to). He had a large family, and New York City had grown very expensive lately.

Those times were over. They had the money from that Gold Coin.

Mario frowned at the implications.

The incredible amount of Gold Coins in the Mushroom Kingdom boggled his mind.

"What'cha thinking?" Peach asked Mario.

"That no one from our world must find out about this," said Mario. "About your riches. Do these Coins just… appear?"

"Yeah, they kind of do," said Peach.

"And there's no limit to them?"

Peach giggled. "I dunno. Never tried to use 'em up, or thought of trying. We just kind of find them occasionally across the landscape. People trade them and bank them. They're mostly stored in those boxes, and if no one picks one up, it disappears and reappears somewhere else on the map. Toads also have a strange reproductive process, in that they pop out of the ground from spores. Anyway, um, I guess what I was trying to say is our needs are pretty simple, so we don't keep a huge treasury."

"Your world is so fascinating," said Mario. "To me, it's almost proof of God's existence."

"Oh, definitely!" Peach agreed. "I mean, who knows what kind of a Creator made us, or whether there's another layer of reality beyond that… sorry. I think about this stuff a lot."

"I like that you think about it a lot," said Mario.

"What do you mean?" Peach asked.

He scratched his chin. "How do I put it… you're… not an NPC?"

"NPC?"

"Non-player character. Oh, I haven't told you about video games yet! And the Nintendo call! Right!"

And so, after defining an NPC and explaining video games, Mario revealed to Peach how Nintendo had called him and Luigi up asking for the rights to a video game based upon their adventure to beat Bowser.

She understood right away. "Why not?" she said. "If these games are something that can bring people happiness, then I want to help bring some more of that into the world. We just need to get consent from DK and Cranky, and the others."

"Well-said, Princess," said Mario, then noted the pit crew Toad waving to him from the pit. "Shall we test out our karts?"

(Author's Note: Thank you so much for reading! Faves, Follows, and Reviews keep me going! ^_^)