Sorry I'm a bit late, guys! I was off battling writer's block again... Well, anyways, the ball doesn't start until next chapter because I didn't want to rush into it yet. Personally, I think I've written better chapters, but you can decide for yourself. And our disclaimer today: LUIGI!

Luigi: ...way to burst my eardrum.

Me: Disclaimer, please. No complaints.

Luigi: UM owns nothing besides the fic itself. Please read!

The next day, even more guests arrived. Candy Kong and Dixie Kong, Donkey Kong's and Diddy Kong's dates, respectively, had come that morning. They had become fast friends with Blue (meaning, they had joined the "Meta Knight Freaks Me Out" club), and the three had hung out anywhere that Meta Knight wasn't. Another guest had arrived, a young Asian woman. Her name was Mei Ling, AKA "The Voice Over the Codec." Apparently, Snake had "convinced" her that the entire little rant against Jigglypuff had been his attempt at matchmaking between her and Meta Knight.

"I don't believe him," Mei Ling muttered to Jiggly, "but it's much more fun to insult him in person."

A few others, like Pichu (Pikachu's guest) and Mona (Wario's), arrived, too, making the Smash Mansion a much noisier place in general. Meta Knight and Jigglypuff, Peach and Bowser, and Wolf and Samus were all sitting together at the café tables outside. Out of the corner of his eye, Meta saw Blue, Candy, and Dixie slowly inching inside, obvious ticked that they couldn't stay outside thanks to him.

"Gee, they make me feel so loved," he muttered under his breath. Bowser stifled back a laugh, earning himself a glare from the Star Warrior. Jigglypuff glanced back at the three girls.

"Weirdos," she said. "Meta Knight, you're no creepier than Mr. King of Koopas here," she said, pointing her thumb at Bowser. He let out a puff of smoke.

"I like to consider myself creepy, thank you very much," he snorted.

"Aw, but how could you be creepy when you're so sweet?" Peach said, wrapping her arms around him. The "creepy" Koopa King's face went bright red.

"Peach...," he pouted.

"Hey, where is everybody?" Samus asked suddenly. "I haven't seen Zelda, Blaze, or Krystal all day!"

"Come to think of it," added Jiggly, "I haven't seen Nana or Midna, either."

"They're all doing girl stuff," Wolf muttered. He looked up to see the three girls present glaring at him. "N-not that girl stuff is bad!" he added quickly.

"Actually," said Peach, "Marth took Zelda to the movies, Blaze and Krystal went to the Multi-Man training area, Nana is in her room, playing video games, and Midna's out buying Link a 'thank you so much for bringing me to the ball' gift." Meta looked at the Mushroom Kingdom princess, eyes wide.

"Do I even want to know how you know all that?" he asked.

"I wouldn't ask," muttered Samus. Jiggly sighed.

"Aw, it's so cute that Marth took Zelda to a movie," she said. "It's like a date!" At this, Bowser, Wolf, and Samus all made hacking faces and Meta glanced up at the sky. It seemed that only Peach shared Jiggly's outlook.

"Romance-haters," the princess muttered.

"It's not hate," said Wolf. "We're just not obsessive about it."

"Actually, it's hate," Samus said. Peach stuck her tongue out at her.

"Anyway," said Bowser, trying to break up a fight before it started, "speaking of movies, are you guys doing anything tonight? There's a horror movie on tonight, but Peach..." He gave her a look, and she smiled sheepishly. "...doesn't want to watch unless there are a lot of people around. Anyone want to watch?"

"Ooh, I will!" shouted Wolf and Samus in unison. They looked at each other. "Stop copying me!" they said again. "Jinx!" Then they both started laughing hysterically.

"Aw, aren't they so cute together?" whispered Peach to Jigglypuff. However, she didn't whisper softly enough, because Samus suddenly looked up and glared at her.

"Peach, start running now," Meta Knight said. The princess looked from him to the glaring Samus and then back to him.

"Good advice," she said, dashing from her seat.

"Get back here, you! You can run, but you can't hide!" Samus leapt from her seat and ran after her. The four remaining at the table sat in silence. And then continued their conversation as if nothing had happened.

"I'll watch it," said Jigglypuff, a bit quietly. Meta looked at her. She wasn't a very big fan of horror movies, so why was she agreeing to watch one? "I mean, if Meta Knight watches it, too," she said, glancing back at him.

"...sure," he said. He himself didn't like horror movies too much either, not because they were scary, but because they were so dang predictable. But he didn't want Jigglypuff to not be able to watch it just because he didn't want to.

"Thanks, Meta!" she cried, hugging him. Oh crap, the fuzzy feeling was coming back. Bowser tried not to laugh again. Meta sent him a look that said, Laugh and die, turtle-boy. The Koopa shut up then. Meanwhile, Peach and Samus had made five full laps around the garden, and the former was running out of energy.

"Samus, stop chasing me, please!" she cried, gasping for breath.

"You're mine now!" the bounty hunter shouted, charging.

"EEK!" Peach leapt behind Bowser and cowered there. The Koopa looked back at her.

"...why are you pulling me into this?"

"You'll protect me, right, Bowser?" she asked, completely disregarding his last question.

"Um..."

"Right, Bowser?" Bowser shuddered at the now-menacing tone in Peach's voice.

"Yeah, yeah, of course!" he stuttered. Samus, who had been getting ready to charge again, stopped and burst out laughing. "What's so funny?"

"Nothing!" she replied, taking her seat again. Peach continued to hide behind Bowser.

"Peach," said Wolf, "are you going to come out any time soon?" She shook her head quickly. "I didn't think so," he sighed. Jigglypuff let out a small chuckle.

"Come on, Peach, I'm not that scary, am I?" asked Samus, also holding back a laugh.

Noticing Peach's huge eyes and tiny pupils, Meta Knight said, "Apparently, you are."

"Are you sure you want to watch the movie with us tonight, Peach?" asked Jigglypuff. "I mean, if you think Samus is scary, how are you going to react to serial killers?"

"Serial killers stay in the T.V.," Peach said, still inching away from the bounty hunter.

"She has a point," said Meta. Bowser sighed and looked back at the princess.

"Geez, Peach," he said, "I knew you were a bit jumpy, but scared stiff of Samus?" He laughed a little bit.

"WHAT ARE YOU IMPLYING?!"

At Peach's sudden outburst, Bowser's eyes went wide. "Nothing, nothing, I wasn't implying anything, Peach, no sir!" he said hastily. Now the entire table, save for Bowser and Peach, was laughing.

"Very good," said Peach, oblivious to the fact that she had just completely humiliated her date. Bowser sighed again, his face going a bit red.

"Thank you, Peach," he muttered sarcastically. Peach smiled at him.

"You're welcome!"

"Hey, Blaze?" asked Krystal as she punched a Yellow Alloy in the face. The fire cat looked up, just finished blasting a Green Alloy with flames from her fingertips. "What are we doing here again?"

"Proving to Master Hand that he should have made us Smashers."

"Ah." The two continued fighting in silence for a while, until Krystal asked, "So, how long have you known Sonic?"

"A while," she replied, kicking a Red Alloy in the gut and throwing it into a Blue Alloy. "We technically live in different worlds, but the Chaos Emeralds and the Sol Emeralds created a portal so that we can visit each other." At the vixen's blank look, she said, "It's a long story."

"Oh. I've known Fox for a while, too," said Krystal. "He saved me from Andross. But not before he stole my staff." Blaze raised an eyebrow.

"Stole...your...staff?"

"Yeah, this one!" she exclaimed, pulling out a long, jeweled staff and impaling a few Alloys with it.

"So...he stole it?" asked Blaze cynically. "And then you got it back?"

"Exactly!" Krystal kicked a Blue Alloy's legs, causing it to trip over and become a perfect target for the point of her staff.

"No wonder you two have relationship issues," the cat muttered.

"What was that?"

"Hmm? I didn't say anything."

"Hey, I'm getting tired," said Krystal. "And hungry. Wanna get something to eat?" Blaze shrugged.

"Sure." She pressed a button on the bracelet she was wearing, and a portal appeared. Krystal mouth dropped.

"How did you do that? Can you control time and space, too?"

"You were supposed to take one before you came in," Blaze sighed. Krystal made an oh face and followed her through the portal. In a flash of light, the two arrived at the Stadium section of the Mansion. Blaze removed her bracelet and dropped it into a basket.

"Oh, look, it's Luigi!" said Krystal suddenly. Blaze looked up to see the green-wearing plumber walking out of the Boss Battles portal. He waved to them.

"Hi!" he said. They walked over to him. "What's up, you two?"

"We've been training," Krystal said. "Anything new with you?" He shook his head.

"How are things going with Mario?" asked Blaze nonchalantly. Luigi looked down at the ground.

"He's still in denial," he sighed.

"Denial?" asked Krystal.

"Yep," said the Italian. "About Peach. But he'd deny that any day."

"So," Krystal asked, "he's in denial about being in denial?" Luigi blinked.

"Well, when you put it that way, it sounds confusing."

"Maybe I shouldn't have asked," sighed Blaze. "So, how have you been, Luigi?"

"Um...okay, I guess," he said, sounding a bit uncertain. Blaze noticed this, but she knew that it wasn't her place to intrude. However, Krystal didn't seem to feel that way.

"You don't sound okay," she said. "What's wrong?"

"Nothing!" said Luigi, taken aback by the question.

"No, something's wrong," Krystal said.

"Nothing's wrong!"

"What's wrong?!"

"Nothing!"

"Tell me what's wrong or I'll steal your hat!"

"Please don't mind the idiot," Blaze cut in, pulling Krystal by the ear. The vixen shouted in pain a few times.

"Oh, it's fine," said Luigi. "I guess I have been kinda down lately..." Blaze cocked her head. "It's a long story," he said.

"We're not going anywhere!" cried Krystal, pulling her ear free of the cat's gloved hand. Looking at her, the plumber sighed.

"It's really nothing...," he said, trailing off. Blaze knew the saddened look in Luigi's eyes.

"Does this have to do with the ball?" she asked, even though she knew that she was right. Luigi looked shocked.

"How did you...?"

"I have my ways," she said, regaining her blasé appearance.

"Luigi, tell us what's wrong," said Krystal. "We might be able to help!"

"You wouldn't," he sighed, looking down, "but I guess I should tell you anyway, if only to get it off my chest." Blaze nodded. Good. The younger brother was going to open up to them. "Princess Daisy. She had been my girlfriend for a long time," he explained. "But, not long ago, we began to have arguments. Big arguments. Then, one day, she just left." He kept his eyes to the ground. "She left, and then, about a month after, she got together with Waluigi. At first, I thought it was just to spite me, but when I saw them together..." Luigi paused for a moment. "...she seemed to be, I don't know, happy. Happier than she ever was with me. Tell me that's not supposed to make me feel like a horrible person."

"Oh, Luigi," the vixen sighed, placing her hand on his shoulder.

"And with this ball, I can't help but be thinking about her," he finished. "But don't tell Mario that. I've been bugging him so much about Peach, it'll make me look like a hypocrite." He smiled a little bit. "But thanks for listening to my pointless rambling. See ya later!" With that, he walked away.

"Poor Luigi," said Krystal. "That's so sad." She looked over at Blaze. The cat had her eyes closed, like she was thinking about something rather hard. "Blaze, what are you doing?" Blaze opened one eye.

"Trying to think. Be quiet." Krystal opened her mouth to say something when someone interrupted them.

"Oh, there you guys are!" Midna ran up to them, a wrapped present in hand. "Blaze, I got it! Do you really think it's going to work?" she asked.

"If it wasn't going to work, why would I have told you to get it?" she answered.

"Should I give it to him now?" Blaze shook her head.

"Wait until the ball. At a nice, romantic moment. Now, if you'll excuse me, I need to find a list of single women in the Mushroom Kingdom world." She started to walk away. Krystal, utterly confused, looked to Midna, who shrugged.

"Why? What are you doing?" Krystal called. The cat turned her head to them, stopping for a moment.

"My job," she said simply. Then, she walked away.

Of all the nights there had to be a huge thunderstorm, it had to be tonight. The night when she was watching a horror movie. Jigglypuff bit her lip.

Maybe I should have rethought this a bit...

A lightning flash, followed by the crash of thunder, nearly made her jump. Geez, they hadn't even gotten past the opening credits! She sighed. When the thunderstorm had started, Meta Knight had asked her if she still wanted to watch the movie. Not in a "you're a scaredy-cat, you can't watch it" kind of way. A nice, gentle, "I care about you" kind of way. And still, she said yes. Even though she had a feeling Meta wouldn't even think twice about it, she didn't want to look like a coward in front of him.

And you're doing an amazing job with that, she thought, trying desperately to keep herself from shaking. She glanced around the room. Bowser and Peach were together on the sofa, the latter snuggled in the former's arms. Samus and Wolf also crowded on the couch, both of their eyes wide with excitement. Horror lovers. Midna and Link had come to watch, too, and were sitting on the floor next to Jigglypuff. And, last but not least, Meta Knight was sitting on one of the beanbag chairs that Peach had brought down. Jiggly looked at him. He didn't seem to be fazed at all. In fact, he seemed kind of bored. She wished that she could be more like him. It didn't seem like he was scared of anything.

...then again, they were only three minutes into the movie, and there had been nothing particularly horrifying yet. But that was beside the point.

The group watched through the opening credits in anxious silence, save for a few questions from Peach. "Bowser, what's that thing?" she whispered oh-so-quiet-and-not-annoying-ly. For the fifth time.

"Peach, watch and you'll find out," the Koopa muttered, trying not to be distracted as the opening credits ended and the camera zoomed in on a small, out-of-the-way cottage. Thunder crashed both onscreen and off. Jigglypuff shuddered. She had a bad feeling about what was coming next. Slowly, maybe instinctively, she began to inch towards Meta Knight. He glanced at her, but didn't say anything. The movie continued, and then, five minutes in, there was a blood-curling scream.

From both in the movie and not, seeing as Jigglypuff, Midna, Samus, and Link had all screamed, too.

Jiggly stopped inching and nearly jumped into Meta's arms. He looked at her, his eyes turning a bit pink. She felt her sudden terror fading away, and annoyance starting creeping in at that. His eyes turned pink when he was amused. "I don't find it funny," she whispered, pouting a little bit. Meta Knight smiled behind his mask. She gave him an annoyed look, but huddled closer to him anyway. He simply sighed.

"Why do I have a feeling it's going to be a long movie?" he muttered. Jigglypuff stuck out her tongue and turned her attention back to the movie. The horror didn't die down at all, unfortunately for her, but, for some reason, she wasn't as scared as before. That being said, she was still scared half to death. But she felt somewhat...safer in Meta's arms. At one part, she got so scared that, had Meta Knight not had his arms around her, she would have leapt up fifty feet in the air and hidden behind the couch. But Meta simply smiled, his eyes turning pink again, and squeezed her hand as if to say, It's alright. Jiggly squeezed it back, also feeling a small smile creep onto her face.

Finally, the movie began to come to a close. As the final scene ended and the closing credits began to roll, Jigglypuff couldn't help but sigh with relief. That was probably the creepiest movie she had ever seen. She wasn't the only one who thought this. All but two pairs of eyes were wide at the end, the first being Meta Knight's (obviously) and the other being Peach's.

"That was awesome!" she cried. "He killed eleven people! Eleven people in two hours!" Bowser sighed.

"Just don't get any ideas...," he muttered. The friends turned off the T.V. and began to head for their rooms.

"...well, that wasn't as bad as I expected," lied Jigglypuff as she and Meta Knight walked towards their room. She wanted to at least make it seem like she wasn't afraid. Meta looked at her. She was still shaking a tiny bit, and her eyes hadn't shrunken back to their original size yet.

"Yeah...," he said sarcastically. Jiggly crossed her arms.

"Just because you're not scared of anything doesn't mean other people aren't," she pouted. Meta chuckled, his eyes turning pink again.

"You think I'm not scared of anything?" She nodded. He sighed. "Everyone's scared of something—"

"Except you!" Jiggly butted in. Meta Knight gave her an annoyed look. "I'll be quiet now," she said softly.

"...Horror movies," he continued, "aren't really that scary to me. They're pretty predictable."

"Wait, so, the part when the ax murderer broke into the house while they were having dinner, you knew that was going to happen?" He shrugged.

"More or less," he said. "It's not really as scary when you know what's going to happen."

"Can you teach me to do that, too?" Jiggly asked. He looked at her.

"It makes the movie rather boring though."

"So?" The balloon Pokémon didn't care, as long as she could get through a horror movie without having a nervous breakdown. Meta sighed as they approached their door.

"Maybe sometime," he said, giving in. Jiggly smiled. Meta Knight opened the door. The room was dark, and the light switch was all the way on the other side (another brilliant architectural idea from Master Hand...). Meta walked in, and Jiggly followed, shaking a little. Before Meta even got halfway to the switch, lightning flashed and illuminated the whole room. Jigglypuff leapt right back into Meta Knight's arms. "Jigglypuff...," he sighed.

"Um...hi, Meta Knight!" She smiled nervously, still shaking.

"Is it going to be like this all night?" he asked. Jiggly thought for a minute.

"Most likely." He sighed again. Flicking the light on, Meta brought her over, and the two sat on his bed. Thunder and lightning continued to wreck havoc outside, but now that the light was on, and Meta was holding her, Jiggly's fear began to dwindle away. And with her fear, her energy did, too. "Meta Knight, I'm still pretty sure you're not afraid of anything," she said, trying to stifle back a yawn. He didn't answer, but he smiled at her from behind his mask. Jiggly, somehow knowing that the smile was there, smiled back.

Maybe she should try watching horror movies more often.

Well, there you have it! I promise that the next chapter will come quicker (and be better!!).

Luigi: Next time, a battle of the matchmakers! And the beginning of the end! Well, for most of the guys, anyway.

Me: What are you doing?

Luigi: Sneak preview!

Me: ...right... Anyway, review please! Cookies to everyone!

Luigi: See ya next time! CIAO!

Me: That's my line...

-Umbreon Mastah