"You ready to go?" Luigi asked Daisy.
Daisy finished putting a sweater in her backpack and said "If we stop by the kitchen, I will be."
"The kitchen?" Luigi asked.
"You said it's a two hour drive to where the professor lives, it's best to bring something to drink and maybe something to snack too." Daisy answered.
"Yeah, you're right, I'm always raiding Gadd's fridge when I arrive." Luigi said.
Daisy chuckled and said "Let's go to the kitchen."
They left Daisy's room and walked to the kitchen. Unfortunately for them, they ran into Toadsworth on the way there.
"Princess Daisy, master Luigi, good that I caught you two before leaving. I have to warn you about the dangers of-" Toadsworth started, but Daisy interrupted.
"Toadsworth, I've been trained my whole life. I'm prepared for any type of danger, and last time I checked you've never been on the battlefield." Daisy stated.
"Princess! Where is your etiquette? You should respect your elders!" Toadsworth yelled.
"We'll be fine, Toadsy." Daisy replied.
"Might I remind you that you have been kidnapped before, young lady. And not too long ago!" Toadsworth told.
"I was alone out at night at that time, that was stupid I know, I don't need a lecture about that, Val has already lectured me a million times about it. Now I'm out during the day with Luigi, one of the Mushroom Kingdom hero's, we'll be fine." Daisy explained.
"I won't let any harm come to Daisy." Luigi said while putting his arm around her and pulling her close.
"Master Luigi! That is inappropriate behavior! Let go of the princess right now!" Toadsworth said while whacking Luigi's arm with his cane.
Luigi pulled his arm back and rubbed it while Daisy tried to contain her laughter.
Toadsworth pointed his cane at Luigi and said "You better bring the princess home safely, otherwise you'll be stripped of your hero title!"
"Jeez, Toadsworth, if Mario would've been stripped of his hero title every time Peach got kidnapped on his watch, he'd never even had the title to begin with." Daisy said.
"Anyways, we should get going, otherwise traffic will be too busy." Luigi said quickly before anyone else could say anything.
"Be safe and careful!" Toadsworth said when the couple left "And no inappropriate behavior!" he added.
Daisy chuckled while Luigi rolled his eyes as they continued to make their way to the kitchen. Once they'd arrived in the kitchen, Daisy opened the fridge and grabbed some water and soda for the two of them. She opened the freezer as well to search for cooling blocks to keep the drinks cool. Meanwhile Luigi searched for some snacks and put them in the backpack as well.
"Now we've got everything, right?" Luigi asked once Daisy zipped up the backpack.
"Yes, we do, if you have your keys for your car." Daisy responded.
"I do, we still have to retrieve my car from the basement though." Luigi replied.
"Ugh, that means we've got to empty the water from the castle's canals in order to drive it out." Daisy stated.
"I already asked Toad to do so, it should be done by now." Luigi explained.
"Good." Daisy said while putting her backpack over her shoulder. "Let's get going." she added.
"Do you want me to hold your backpack?" Luigi asked, feeling bad that they had put everything they needed in Daisy's backpack instead of grabbing a bag himself, even though Daisy insisted that one bag was indeed enough.
"Nope, it's not that heavy." Daisy replied.
Luigi nodded and opened the door to the basement for Daisy "After you, my lady."
Daisy giggled and took the lead "You're goofy."
Luigi closed the door and said "Better goofy than boring."
They continued walking down the stairs and through the hallways until they made it to the garage area of the basement. Toad was waiting for them at the entrance.
"Hi guys!" Toad greeted the two.
"Sup." Luigi answered.
"Yo!" Daisy responded.
"The water is fully gone by now, so you can drive your car out safely." Toad explained.
"Can you flood the canals again once we're gone?" Daisy asked "Otherwise Peachy will lose her shit, especially considering her mood today." Daisy added.
Toad recalled Peach's mood earlier today during the meeting and he also didn't want to upset her. "I will, you two have a safe trip."
The couple thanked Toad and walked deeper into the garage to Luigi's car. Luigi got in the driver's seat and Daisy took the seat next to him, placing her backpack at her feet for when they got thirsty or hungry. They both buckled their seat belts and Luigi started the car and drove out of the garage. He carefully maneuvered up the elevation and they started their drive to the professor.
"How do you know the professor this well?" Daisy asked, knowing that he doesn't share where he lives or basically any personal information with anyone.
"We first met when Mario got kidnapped for the first time." Luigi explained "Mario was captured by King Boo and the professor reached out to me." he added.
"Yeah, I've heard that he's been studying all kinds of stuff for years, but that Boos are his speciality." Daisy mused.
"Exactly, he taught me how to use the Poltergust and helped me save Mario. Multiple times might I add." Luigi further explained "In-between Mario being kidnapped by King Boo, or King Boo just attacking in general, I've helped the professor multiple times with his inventions and such." he added.
"Kind of like a lab partner?" Daisy asked.
"Well, not really. The professor does all the work while I just retrieve things for him that are hard to find. And I of course do all the ghostbusting." Luigi answered "I never say no to him when he asks for help, he did help me save Mario multiple times. If it wasn't for him the whole MK would've been overrun by Boos and Mario would've never been saved." he added.
"Mario must be grateful for the professor then." Daisy said.
Luigi stayed quiet for a good minute. "I actually don't think that Mario has ever said thanks to the professor. Gadd is always hiding from everyone, but still." he said.
"Jeez." Daisy said. "Has Mario ever thanked you for saving him?" she asked.
Luigi had to think for a good while. "I don't think so." Luigi responded.
Ungrateful shit. Daisy thought. "Only he can be the hero, it seems." Daisy mumbled.
"I guess." Luigi mumbled back.
"You said your 'device' to contact the professor doesn't work anymore, how come?" Daisy asked, trying to change the subject.
"Oh, the modified DS." Luigi responded "On my last adventure including ghosts, one of basements I was exploring flooded and I'm pretty sure the water killed the device. I told the professor I would try to revive it by putting it in rice, but it never turned on again." he explained.
"That's too bad, now the professor can't reach you when he needs you." Daisy said.
"The professor will always find a way, I received a letter from him a couple of months ago congratulating me on winning in a sports contest." Luigi replied.
"You won a sports contest? Which sport?" Daisy asked intrigued.
Luigi chuckled and said "Peach held this sports day in the center of town, to try and settle the people because of your 'rumored' disappearance. We could participate in all kinds of sports, and I did because Peach asked me to 'set an example' or something. I strangely enough won in boxing."
"You should give yourself some more credit, are you forgetting that I've been training you? I immediately noticed that your arms are your strength, they're your main muscle." Daisy explained.
Luigi got a bit shy and said "If you say so, commander."
Daisy chuckled. "Anyways, let's listen to some music." she said while fumbling with the radio of the car. After zapping through some stations, she stopped and let one of the stations play music. "I like this song, it gives me summer vibes." Daisy stated while singing along with the song.
Luigi smiled at the sight of Daisy truly enjoying herself. Cute. he thought.
They slowly pulled up to the driveway of a big, old mansion, as the gate was open anyways.
"This mansion looks straight out of a horror movie, I love it." Daisy said while admiring the structure.
"If you say so, it used to be taken over by Boos." Luigi said while parking his car.
"Is this one of the mansions you've defeated?" Daisy asked.
"No, this one isn't one of those." Luigi replied, turning the engine of his car off. "This mansion was actually defeated by the professor himself, back when he was younger." he added.
"Oh, he used to be a ghostbuster too?" Daisy asked.
"Yes, many people don't know that about him." Luigi answered.
"No, my family knows him as the crazy inventor." Daisy stated.
Luigi laughed and said "That he indeed is, let's go inside."
They both unbuckled themselves and got out of Luigi's car. Daisy took her backpack with her and Luigi locked his car. They walked up to the big doors of the mansion and Luigi pressed the doorbell. The noise of the bell could be heard echoing all around the house. The couple waited patiently for the professor. After a couple of minutes they heard mumbling and keys rattling. Soon after, the professor opened the door and said "Whatever you're selling I'm not interested." without looking who it was.
"We're not selling anything, professor." Luigi responded.
Gadd looked up and said excitedly "Luigi, my boy! You are one of the few people that can come in!"
Luigi chuckled and asked jokingly "Do you know other people then?"
"Of course not! I just said that in front of the princess to make it seem like I have a social life, thank you for ruining that." the professor joked back.
Daisy, not wearing any royal attire, was surprised that the professor knew that she was a princess. "No need for formalities, how did you know that I was a princess?" she asked.
Gadd chuckled weirdly and said "I might've always been hiding from society, but I know my royals. At least those from my Kingdom and the surrounding ones."
"Well then you should know that Daisy is fine." Daisy said.
"Nice to meet you, Daisy." Gadd said.
"Nice to meet you too, professor." Daisy replied.
"Now, come on in, we can't be standing at the front door the whole time!" the professor said while moving out of the way for the couple to walk inside.
Gadd led the two to the living area and motioned for them to take a seat. "Can I help you two with something?" he asked.
"Yeah, first of all the device you got me to stay in touch with each other never turned on again." Luigi sheepishly explained.
"My boy, I told you it was gone, but no, you wouldn't listen." Gadd responded while Daisy chuckled. "I've already made you a new, updated and improved version, which I will give to you soon." he added.
"We've also come here to ask for your help." Daisy chimed in.
"My help?" the professor asked shocked "What can good old me do for ya?" he added.
"Have you heard anything about Bowser lately?" Luigi asked.
"No, but princess Peach hasn't been kidnapped as much as she used to." Gadd replied.
Luigi motioned to Daisy that he would continue talking, as he knew that she wasn't fully comfortable with speaking about Bowser just yet. "Well, the thing is, he had kidnapped Daisy for a long time, but we didn't know about it." Luigi explained.
"Oh my, that must've been awful." the professor said while Daisy stayed silent.
"She somehow managed to escape and make her way to the MK." Luigi said.
"There's something wrong with Bowser, he's not himself and his eyes are a different color." Daisy joined in the conversation. "His eyes are black now instead of red." she added.
"That is indeed weird, maybe magic is involved?" the professor thought out loud.
"That's exactly what we were thinking. After some further investigation we found out that Bowser is working for King Boo." Luigi explained.
"Bowser and King Boo working together? Those two can't stand to be in the same room for more than a minute." Gadd stated.
"We think that King Boo might've put a spell or something on Bowser." Daisy added.
"We saw them interacting with each other and for a short moment Bowser's eyes flickered to their original color again when he was trying to disagree with Boo." Luigi said.
"He might've been trying to break through whatever has control over him." the professor thought out loud again.
"We've come here to ask if you want to help us with this whole mess, considering that you're an expert when it comes to Boos." Luigi said.
"We'd really appreciate it if you would help and of course we'd reward you greatly." Daisy added.
"Nonsense! Of course I'll help, but I don't need any rewards, child. Look around, I live like a royal already from previous rewards and adventures." Gadd said.
"So, you're in?" Luigi asked.
"Of course, my boy, you don't have to ask me that!" the professor responded.
"We've arranged that you can stay at the MK castle for the time being." Daisy said.
"It'll be easier that way for meetings and updates and such." Luigi added.
"That's alright, children." Gadd said "You two must be tired from driving all the way here, we'll leave first thing tomorrow." he added.
"I don't mind driving back now, it's your choice." Luigi said.
"I'd prefer it if you've had some rest, my boy. I know you, you always overdo yourself." the professor said while giving Luigi a pat on the shoulder.
"He's right about that." Daisy agreed "But I can also always drive back, if you give me directions." she added.
"Nonsense! I'll ask my maid to prepare dinner for the three of us." Gadd answered "I'll also ask her to prepare two guest rooms for you two." he added.
"If it's not too much trouble for you?" Daisy asked.
"Never! I rarely have people over, as you've guessed it's just Luigi that comes over." the professor replied.
"We'll only need one room, your maid doesn't have to prepare two rooms." Luigi said with a faint blush, but mainly because he thinks that this mansion is scary and he can never sleep here at night.
"One room?" Gadd questioned, eyeing the two "I already thought I saw a spark between you two! You two have my blessing." he added.
Daisy giggled as Luigi mumbled while blushing "Thanks, Gadd."
"Anyways, I'll go look for my maid and inform her, the two of you get comfortable on the couch." the professor said "But not too comfortable." he added jokingly.
Daisy continued giggling as Luigi blushed harder. "I like him, he's a fun, but strange, fella." Daisy said.
"You can say that again." Luigi mumbled.
"I remember how Luigi always used to say that Mario shouldn't get his hopes up about dating a princess like Peach and now look at him!" Gadd said while eating his food.
"Gadd! I didn't mean it like that." Luigi said while blushing.
"I don't know if you've met Peach, professor, but she's the definition of old school princess." Daisy chimed in. "She's the 'marry the best type of prince for the Kingdom' and 'wait for marriage for literally everything remotely affectionate' type of princess." she added.
"Oh! Are they still applying those kinds of rules nowadays?" the professor asked.
"Pretty sure it's just the MK that does that. I can't think of any other Kingdom or country that still applies these rules." Daisy answered.
"It's absurd that they still have these rules." Gadd said.
"I know, right? I've tried to explain it to Toadsworth so many times that these rules are outdated, but he still doesn't budge." Daisy stated.
"Toadsworth is Peach's advisor." Luigi added.
And a pain in the ass. Daisy thought.
"Oh, yes, I'm pretty sure I've met him years ago when Princess Peach's parents were younger and the princess wasn't even born yet." the professor said.
Damn, how old is he exactly? Daisy questioned herself.
The three of them finished their meal soon after their conversation.
"I suggest that we go to bed early, so we can leave early in the morning." Gadd said "I know how important it is to have both commanders available at all times when there's a war brewing." he added while looking at Daisy.
"My brother, Val, the other commander, is currently staying at the MK too." Daisy explained.
"Isn't it dangerous to leave Sarasaland without its two commanders?" the professor asked carefully.
"My other brothers are trained to be commanders as well, they can step in if needed. They weren't called in as commanders considering that they're next in line for the crown and because Val and I nailed the tests to become a commander better. If Bowser is to attack, he will start with our weaker allies, which is the MK." Daisy explained.
"I see." Gadd agreed "I will show you two to the guest room." he added.
The couple nodded and followed the professor down the labyrinth of hallways. After a while Gadd stopped walking and said "This will be your room, the same guest room as you had last time, Luigi."
"Ah, yes." Luigi replied, not ever remembering how to get anywhere in this mansion.
"A bathroom is attached to the room, feel free to use it. I will be down the hall to the right, the room with the big red doors, if you need me." the professor said, leaving the couple alone.
"You know your way around here?" Daisy asked while they walked inside.
"Fuck no, I get lost every time." Luigi admitted.
Daisy chuckled and said "Best if we go to the professor's room in the morning."
"Probably." Luigi agreed.
Daisy dropped her backpack at the footing of the bed on a chest. Then she realized something. "Shit, we don't have anything to stay overnight." she said.
"The professor normally keeps the toothbrush I use here in the bathroom and I'm pretty sure there's a new one in one of the cabinets. As for other bathroom supplies, Gadd keeps this bathroom stocked like a hotel, we'll be fine." Luigi explained.
"I don't really have anything to sleep in, and I don't want to sleep in clothes that I'm going to wear the following day. Do you have any spare clothes here?" Daisy asked.
"Hmm, I've got some sweatpants for me but something else, I'm not too sure." Luigi said while walking to the closet, opening it in progress. He was fumbling around the closet and found an old t-shirt in a corner. "Damn, I'm pretty sure this is from when I was in high school." he said while holding up an oversized shirt that says 'Skrillex'.
Daisy looked at the shirt and said "Didn't take you for a dubstep fan."
Luigi chuckled and said "Skrillex was on another level back in the day. This is the only spare piece of clothing that I have in here except for my sweats."
"It'll do." Daisy said while taking the shirt from him "I'll go get ready for bed, can you contact the castle and tell them that we're staying here?" she added when she was at the door of the bathroom.
"Sure, I'll call Peach and inform her." Luigi answered while taking a seat on the bed.
Daisy nodded and went into the bathroom and got ready. Meanwhile Luigi grabbed his phone and searched for Peach in his contacts. Soon enough he found her and called her. She picked up the phone pretty quickly.
"Is something wrong?" Peach asked worriedly before Luigi even had the chance to speak.
"No, nothing's wrong. We're at Gadd's." Luigi responded coolly.
"Jeez, Luigi, you scared me." Peach replied, letting out a breath of relieve.
"I only called you." Luigi mumbled "Anyways, Gadd insisted on us staying the night, but we'll leave first thing in the morning." he added.
"Oh, okay, that's alright. Is the professor onboard with the plan?" Peach asked.
"Yes, he's happy to help." Luigi answered.
"I'll let my maids know so they can set up a guest room for him." Peach responded.
"Good, we'll see you tomorrow." Luigi said.
"Bye, see you tomorrow." Peach said.
Luigi hung up the phone and just in time, Daisy walked out of the bathroom in his shirt. "You can go if you want to." Daisy said.
Luigi eyed Daisy hungrily and got up from the bed. He walked close to her, pulling her even closer into an embrace as he said "You have no business looking as hot as you do in an old tee of mine."
Daisy giggled and returned the embrace. "Go get your ass ready for bed and maybe I'll spare you a kiss." she said, having a mischievous smile plastered on her face.
Luigi kept her close and gave her a kiss on the crown of her head. "You better have a kiss ready for me." he said, letting her go soon after and making his way to the bathroom.
Daisy giggled and walked to the bed and crawled under the blankets. Goofball. she thought. Once Daisy snapped out of whatever trance she was under, she grabbed her phone and called her brother.
"Sup." Valerian said, picking up the FaceTime call.
"Yo." Daisy replied.
"Where are you?" Valerian asked, confused by the background of Daisy's whereabouts.
"Still at the professor's, we're staying the night. He insisted on it, but he will be joining us on the way back and he will help us in anyway he can." Daisy explained.
"Good, do you know when you'll be back?" Valerian asked.
"The professor said to leave first thing in the morning and it's a two hour drive." Daisy answered.
"I see. Back here we made sure to order the shortages of the supplies for both the army and the castle itself." Valerian said.
"Good, we can't be having shortages at a time like this." Daisy mused.
"Exactly, I also made sure that the person who made the mistakes is demoted to another job that doesn't require numbers." Valerian added.
"Probably for the best." Daisy agreed.
Luigi walked out of the bathroom, ready for bed, and said "I'm ready for my kisses now."
Daisy chuckled as Valerian, who heard Luigi, groaned. "I did not need to hear your late night activities, sis." Valerian said.
Luigi blushed firmly as Daisy laughed at her brother. "Whatever, we'll see you tomorrow morning dipshit." she said.
"Later idiota." Valerian said, ending their call.
"You know, maybe you should look at what I'm doing before you suggest something like that." Daisy said suggestively as Luigi's blush seemed to lessen.
"How was I supposed to know you were going to call your brother? I had already informed Peach of our whereabouts." Luigi responded while walking closer to the bed.
"Peach will probably forget to tell him, considering that it's starting to get late already. He would've worried and called otherwise, now we have the whole late evening to ourselves." Daisy explained suggestively.
"What exactly are you suggesting, la mia principessa?" Luigi answered while also getting into bed on the other side of where Daisy is seated.
Daisy bit her lip as she said "You know I love it when you speak Italian, it sounds so sexy." while crawling closer to Luigi. "If I remember correctly, I promised you some kisses." she whispered in his ear once she got close enough.
Mamma mia. is all Luigi thought before caving in to Daisy's affection.