A/N : I did not want to abandon this story, but the other computer caught a really bad virus. Incidentally, it was my brother's; he blames himself and zango (if you don't know by now then let's just say you should avoid it like the plague) So I had to buy him a new laptop, and I even got myself one, of course it took a while for me to actually be able to afford it!

On top of that, I had 5 chapters ready, so yes, I felt incredible frustration. Let's just put all of that behind us for now and bring on chapter two.

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Warm voices of praise echoed through the air. Pats on the back, and occasionally a hug or two.
Luigi could literally feel their adoration. For a shining moment he was no longer 'Mario's brother' or 'that green guy', but he was Luigi – a good guy who just happens to make wonderful soup. Everyone loved it, everyone paid attention to him, everyone loved HIM! Even..that beautiful princess. Her orange-brownish hair ending right at her shoulders with a soft curl, her skin light and fair in complexion – which only made her blue eyes more noticeable.

Oh, those eyes. Luigi couldn't stop staring at it, what an exquisite shade of blue it was. Blue like the clear sky on a perfect spring day, blue like the sea surrounding Isle Delfino, blue – the feeling he receives after spending time with her. Daisy really is a great girl, but as the days went by he thought more about how pathetic he was for not telling her how he feels, instead of his usual thoughts of how lucky he was to have the opportunity to be near her. All of that didn't matter at this moment though, his dream girl was right in front of him, not only that but she just happened to be impressed with him. If there was a time to find courage it was now, gathering the little confidence he had he managed to speak with this vision of perfection in front of him.

"D-Daisy..um" Luigi couldn't help but to look downwardly and fumble with his words. Realizing that he was quickly losing the confidence he had painstakingly gathered Luigi looked into her eyes once more and tried as hard as he could to gain control on his speech patterns.
"Daisy, I'm in love with you!" There, he said it - everything from this point should be easy. "It's been that way for years. All this time I've admired you. You're so sweet, and kind and gentle, and...you always seem to have such a pure innocent light about you." Not a second sooner those same exquisite eyes seemed to light up. "Oh Luigi!" exclaimed Daisy before embracing our green hero "I-I've felt the same about you! All this time I've admired you, but not in my wildest dreams have I thought that you would return these feelings" she could feel her eyes welling over as she spoke.

Four seconds passed and neither one of them said a word, Luigi was about to attempt speaking but he felt Daisy's embrace loosen. Why? Did he smell bad? Was she only joking? Our lovely princess didn't say a word, she only looked within his eyes and smiled that warm sweet smile of hers. Luigi felt..flushed, blissful and a little dazed. This was all the paradise he needed, could it get any better?
Those were his thoughts as Daisy slowly closed her eyes and leaned over.
Could this mean what he thought it meant? Luigi didn't know, and he couldn't be bothered to over think this, so he tried to clear his mind and follow Daisy's lead.

As their lips drew nearer and nearer, his heart begun beating faster, he started to quiver a little,
the ground even started trembling - effectively ruining their moment. Frightened, Daisy hugged and kept Luigi as close as physically possible. She only reached right below his shoulders, making it particularly easy for Daisy to rest her head on his chest. The way Daisy acted – she must've seen something! Slowly turning around he saw a colossal shadowy figure. It looked like a silhouette of himself – when it bent over reaching for him he noticed it's eyes. Two oval shapes of pure white. Something about it made him shiver.

Eventually, it's hand went over Luigi's head and all he could see was darkness – he felt nothing. Not even Daisy's head against his chest. However, he didn't forget about her existence. Resting a hand over her delicate thin neck he started to tighten his grip. Soft squeaking noises can be heard from the princess, that beautiful sound. The very same sound that made his grin grew.

"WHAT!" Jolting awake up from his nap and soaked with sweat all Luigi could do was sit there, sit there and breathe. Maybe it wasn't a good idea to nap in his jacket and scarf, yes that must've been it.

Dazed – he made his way to the main room and spotted Mario at the table. Our chubby plumber ceased his consumption of dry cereal and paid complete attention to his younger sibling. "Weegie, are you okay?" despite asking such a question, Mario seemed relaxed as usual. Luigi only chuckled nervously as he spoke "Sure, why do you ask?"
Raising an eyebrow, Mario continued on to explain his position "Well, I heard you shout just a few minutes ago, and.." he stared intently at his face "you don't look so good" Mario did not lie, with a few trickles of sweat running down on his face, a ruffled mustache and hair combo and the look of shock deep within his eyes – Luigi didn't exactly look like a picture of health.
This meant he looked as good as he felt, but he had a great reason for it – it's hard to snap back into things after dreaming about killing, or at least torturing, the girl of your dreams.

However, there was nothing less he wanted to do than tell Mario of this. It would only worry him. It was just a dream anyway. It meant nothing....right? Besides, Mario would tell Princess Peach, and she would tell Daisy. Daisy would avoid him at that point – he just couldn't risk that, something like that could kill him. At that moment a familiar voice interrupted his thoughts "You're hiding something" Mario expressed plainly.

Ever since they were infants those two had a special bond. They always seemed to have a vague idea of where the other is located, and if they weren't telling everything. It was a decent concept on paper, but it became hard to hold any secrets. A few years ago Luigi had a secret room where he'd write in his diary, and of course Mario had a strong feeling he was concealing something and eventually found it - all while Luigi felt that Mario knew. It left them no choice but to be completely open with one another. It gave them a strong relationship but it made things annoying in a situation like this.

Times like this he'd just prefer it if instead of snooping around, Mario could respect the fact that he doesn't want to say anything on it. There was nothing more he'd like to do than tell him that, to set some ground rules – but instead he attempted lying "Listen, I'm okay. Really I am, I'm not hiding anything" in order to prove his point, he tried smiling – it came out very unconvincingly. Especially to his dear brother, who became a bit worried at that point.

It wasn't unusual for Luigi to get nightmares – to scream in the middle his slumber. However, he'd never look this bad and he'd never hide his feelings from Mario, not like this. Something was wrong, but at the same time Mario knew confronting him would bring no good, as much as he hated this tense feeling between he and his brother – there was nothing he could do besides get back to his cereal and ignore that bad feeling. Corn flakes coated with sugar, marshmallow fire flowers, mushrooms, and stars – there seemed to be more flakes than marshmallows. It wasn't a subject of interest, but it was something to keep Mario's mind off Luigi's odd behavior.

"So...why are eating your cereal without milk?" asked Luigi, also desperate to change the subject. In response to that Mario only lifted his head a bit – enough that it was clear he was talking to him, but not enough to actually make eye contact, that was a little hard for him to do now. "Well, we're out of milk" As his older brother said that, Luigi finally realized he'd need more ingredients than mushrooms if he wanted to make mushroom soup. Opening the fridge he noticed the lack of 'moo moo butter' and as Mario has mentioned before – no 'moo moo milk' , he shot right to the cupboards, there was no 'Shiver City salt', not a single petal of a fire flower - his flour that he imported right from Yoshi's island was even used out and only it's bag remained. On it was an admittedly cute drawing of a light blue Yoshi trying to reach bread growing out of a tree, with bold yellow words on the bottom 'You don't have to work hard to taste the delightful flavor of the island' right now, Luigi strongly disagrees.

"I guess I should buy groceries", muttered Luigi, that's when Mario called out to him "Before leaving, will you at least wash your face a little?" Reaching the sink and filling it with water – Luigi finally caught sight of his reflection, Mario was right, he really didn't look good but it was nothing a few drops of cold water couldn't solve.
Cupping his hands with water and raising those hands up to his face, Luigi allowed it to rest there as some water splashed against the floor he didn't care, he was too busy enjoying the cool feeling against his skin. When he was satisfied, he held on to a kitchen towel and wiped his face with it, dropped it, and left the house – ignoring his slightly damp clothing.

Nearly reaching the store, and growing very impatient, he begun to jog. Perhaps if he didn't jog and continued walking slowly and somewhat cautiously he wouldn't trip over something. From the general feel of it, Luigi guessed that he tripped over a twig of some sort, at least, until he heard a mocking laugh "Nyeh heh heh heh". It was amazing how such a simple laugh could make his mind race, why did it have to be him? Why did it have to be now? As the lanky figure bent over, it was the very person he feared it to be – Waluigi. Obviously here to make sure he has a bad day. It was almost to the point of obsession, it was as if it wasn't enough having to be in Mario's shadow – he had to deal with this jerk too! While he'd never openly admit it, Luigi wished something horrible would happen to Waluigi one day.

Finished with his laughter, the towering jerk finally spoke "I figured that a worm like you would enjoy some dirt". This was nothing new to Luigi, but he was always afraid to stand up to him – to even talk back in a situation like this. Luigi always believed that he would stop eventually, besides he'd never last against Waluigi alone if things elevated into a fight, Waluigi has a hard time playing fair so who knows what that villain could have underneath his sleeves. Taking notice of how quiet Luigi became, Waluigi shot a "You're welcome!" towards him right before walking off. As Waluigi's boastful laughter completely faded out, Luigi stood up and dusted his knees. He hated his shyness sometimes, he hated how it held him back from saying how he really felt- it left him with his head full of thoughts and that hollow feeling inside.
It wasn't hard for him to talk to people, but he'd never show his feelings to many. To everyone else Luigi was just a happy-go-lucky fellow – since that was the person everyone wanted him to be, he tried as hard as he could to make that his exterior although, he sometimes wished he truly could be that guy. This was something that weigh heavy upon him, and wasn't easy to shake off just by thinking of mushroom soup – but he still continued towards the store in silence.

Being inside Harry's store would usually make Luigi feel some level of giddiness, he loved shopping for food – it put him in control of things which really wasn't bad, if Mario had his way then they'd eat nothing but mushroom pizza. However, the magic of grocery shopping is lost to him, maybe it was Waluigi, maybe it was Daisy, maybe it was Mario – or perhaps it was Luigi and his inability to truly express himself with people like them. The more he attempted to terminate those thoughts, the more they arose – leaving him standing with a troubled expression. "Excuse me" snapping back into reality and looking down, towards the origin of the sound, Luigi spotted a Toad. From the looks of it, he seemed a bit on the small and timid side, his mushroom cap was yellow with green spots, what a familiar pattern it was, his face looked small and chubby – like a child's and he had a small dark green apron

"Will you be buying anything?" and with that Luigi responded right away "Oh yes, sure. I'm just...thinking about it for a second. Trying to read my mental note, it's such a shame I have such bad brain-writing", he even chuckled a bit all while understanding how horrible his little joke was - what was surprising was the roar of laughter he heard coming from the Toad, who sincerely thought it was funny. At that moment Luigi confirmed that it truly was best to hide his sorrow, frustration, envy – any negative emotions of his and only show the positives, if it can make someone laugh and truly feel joy themselves then it can't be that bad of an idea.
At last, Luigi remembered what he came here for "Ah that's right..I'll need milk, butter, salt, a fire flower and.." tightly closing his eyes, the image of the depleted bag with that Yoshi flew by "flour!"

Making a weak nod, the very same Toad assisted him by pointing out the general directions.

"Well...you can get fire flowers by the main counter. It's a hot item!" he stopped to laugh at his own joke, and Luigi who didn't want to seem rude, tried to laugh alongside him "Milk and butter are in the back and salt along with the flour is right over here!" he pointed to a nearby aisle.

"Thank you very much!" uttered Luigi as he made his way to the back of the mini mart.

Walking towards the edge, Luigi couldn't help but to think back to the days where this store only had a few items on the counter.

Leaving him to mutter "Funny how things progress..." as he opened the door, allowing the cool air to hit him while grabbing what he needed – 'moo moo milk' and 'moo moo butter' in the corner of his eye, Luigi spied a carton of Birdo eggs, but decided to buy that another day.

Walking towards the counter, with milk and butter in hand, he quickly it set them down and quickly went off to do the same with the salt and flour.

"So, would you like the fire flower" piped in a small voice from behind the counter, "Sure..." replied the green plumber.

Leaving the store carrying a bag filled with his items, he was just about to wave goodbye – but at the corner of his eye he noticed something. From the looks of it, it was Waluigi, standing right in front of the door next to the store, it seemed as if he had something in his hand it must've been interesting enough for Waluigi to pay attention to it while missing a great opportunity to make Luigi's day a little bit worse. Seizing the moment, he quickly walked away – it was best to get out of his sight while that was still an option.

Finally making it home, he promptly set his bag on the table. "Luigi, are you back already?" called out a familiar voice from the back "Yeah...I'm back" he halfheartedly responded, yet there was only one sentence playing over in his mind.

'Mario called me Luigi

Mario called me Luigi.'

All he wanted was to, for once keep something to himself. Maybe it was a little too idealistic to think that Mario would have gotten over it in a short span of time....

"..but he's upset enough to call me Luigi?" he almost surprised himself by how soft and timid his own voice was. The last time he called him 'Luigi' happened to be that time when rumors were spreading around – ridiculous rumors about a secret relationship between Princess Peach and himself.

It wasn't as if he would mind being in one – Peach is a beautiful woman after all, but he'd never want to betray his brother like that even if they were going through a rough patch.

Besides, he had Princess Daisy. Well – technically he doesn't have her, but one day he'll confess his love for her, one day.

Taking his newly brought items at resting them neatly on the bag, he felt a decent level of confidence. Perhaps it was because he started to recall his dream – or at least the good parts.

There's a great possibility of the first part coming true. This season allows him to show off his culinary skills, and his selflessness all at once. Who wouldn't be impressed by that?

People like eating, and they like getting things.

Pulling out his pot Luigi allowed 3 tablespoons of butter to drop in there and turned on the heat, not too long after it started melting, taking note of that he poured in 2 cups of water and 4 tablespoons of flour.

It was odd in a way, how content he felt stirring it – making sure that there were few pesky lumps

"Not too long now..." he voiced "until I add in the main ingredient. Before tending to his mushrooms, he made sure to lower the stove's fire.

All he had to do was slice them up and toss them in, however he noticed something a bit...off with a few of his mushrooms. Instead of being red with white spots, they were bright purple and from close inspection it looked as if there was some sort of symbol on the mushroom's cap. Almost bearing the appearance of a..

"SKULL!?" shrieked Luigi as he dropped the very same vegetable he previously examined, suddenly filled with the urge to wash his hands.

"Oh well, looks like I have to toss a few of them out." he sighed "I wouldn't wish the digestion of these things upon my worst enemy!" and with that, he begun gathering them up, that is, until something spoke to him.

"You really wouldn't? Because I can think of a person perfect for a taste of their own medicine..."

It was just a thought lingering at the back of his head, an undesirable thought, but a thought all the same.

"That Waluigi is a total jerk, giving him poison mushroom soup would be exactly what he deserves and you know it!"

"N-no..I couldn't do that" reasoned the ever kind Luigi "Something like that would be too much."

"Too much? He'd gladly do the same to you!"

"You're right...I'm right!" he replied, while completely ignoring how crazy he looked.

"Besides..." picking up the same mushroom as before, he begun to stare at it – almost in an adoring fashion "It's not like it will kill him...right? It'll only make him really sick."

A certain sentence refused to cease ringing in his ear at that point.

"If you don't do this now, when will you stand up for yourself?"

"When you will stand up for yourself?"

"Will you stand up for yourself?"