No Author's Note Today:

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So...enjoy :)

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Disclaimer: I don't own anything but the story idea and any OCs.

Chapter 9:
A Show of Thanks

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It was an early summer morning in the settlement called Toad Town. Its morning rays gleamed off of the brown roof of a small yet cozy house that respectfully belongs to the famous Mario Brothers.

Inside the house, the sweet smell of pastry filled through the air. That sweet smell came from the kitchen were a dozen or so of soon-to-be-done cookies were baking inside the oven. The oven door opened and Luigi took a quick peek inside. He closes it a minute later and decided to keep them in there a bit longer.

Luigi was usually the early riser between the two brothers and today, he had waked up a bit extra early. After showering and dressing, he came down stairs and headed straight for the kitchen. Normally, at this time he would start making breakfast, but he had decided to bake some cookies instead.

As he turns back to the kitchen, the front door opened. Mario walks inside the house and places his hat by the door as he announced his arrival.

"Hey Luigi, I'm home." He sniffs the air. "And I smell cookies."

Luigi poke his head out of the kitchen and smile to his brother in greeting. "Hey Mario, didn't expect to see you until later."

"Just thought I'll stop by for a quick visit," Mario walked into the kitchen; the delicious smell of food was alluring to him. "So, what are the cookies for?"

He was a bit surprise to see Luigi baking cookies. Usually after a break up with Daisy, the younger Mario would stay in bed longer, staring at his bedroom ceiling for at least an hour before he could make an attempt to get out of bed. Now, he was up, dressed and baking sweets in the oven.

Luigi took out the cookies in the oven and gave his brother a shrug. "I just thought I'll bake some today; nothing big." He placed the cookies on the window sill so they could cool down and took of his oven mittens. "You hungry?"

Mario nodded and had a sit on the kitchen table. Within thirty minutes, Luigi had two plates of eggs, sausage, and toast freshly made and ready to be eaten. He placed the two plates on the table as well as some cookies as the two settle down to their breakfast.

"So," Mario said, starting conversation. "You have anything 'important' to do later?"

Luigi flinched slightly. He could tell by the tone of his brother's voice that he didn't completely believe him yesterday when he said he had important things to do - which he didn't. He case his head down and focus his gaze on his plate of breakfast, avoiding any eye contact with his brother.

"I don't know, probably not"

Mario raised a brow. "Are you sure? Because if you asked me, you have been acting a bit strange lately,"

Luigi smiled, trying to assure his brother that there was nothing wrong. "Trust me, Mario, everything's fine. I'm just trying to figure out what to do with Daisy."

Mario softens his expression. "Speaking of Daisy, how are you feeling after the break up?"

Luigi shrug. "Alright, I guess…I mean, I had worse days,"

"That's true," Mario agreed. "Well, if it counts for anything, you're doing a lot better now than you did in the past. Cause by the way you were acting, one might think you were trying to make someone jealous or something." He laughed. "How funny is that?"

Luigi laughed nervously. "Yeah, very funny,"

…

After breakfast, the brothers were ready to head back to the castle. But before they could leave the house, Toad came running with news that the Princess had been captured once more. As usual, Mario set out to rescue her with his brother by his side to help, but not before packing some cookies for the ride.

Like they always do, they had to fight against the Koopalings before they could get to the Koopa King himself. The first ones they had to face were Lemmy, Larry, and Iggy. The three male Koopas were relatively simple and were defeat by the usual method of fighting. The next one was Roy. The large koopa was strong, one of the strongest of the Koopalings, but was defeated the same way as the others.

After Roy came Wendy. The pink koopa was rather moody prior to their arrival, mainly because she had just found out that it was actually Bowser Junior that had broken her necklace and blamed it on Larry. This upset her, of course, because Bowser Junior rarely gets punish and usually gets away with pretty much anything.

So, by time the brothers arrived, her temper was as bad as it could get. She battle against the two plumbers, but despite her bad mood, it didn't help change the outcome of her defeat.

Once she was defeated, Mario started moving on to the next castle. Luigi, however, stay behind; hoping to catch a moment with the pink koopa. He approaches the down koopa with great caution, knowing she was a brooding mood after being defeated by them - yet again. Once she had notice his advance, she turned to him with an angry snarl.

"What do you want? Came to rub it in and gloat?"

Luigi frowned. It was clear to say that she wasn't in the mood to talk. Upon their many fights in the past, neither brother has ever gloated about their success in front of the enemy. Bowser may do that, but not the plumbers.

"Well?" she yelled impatiently. "Are you going to say something or not?"

Luigi in fact didn't say anything. Instead, he pulls out a green kerchief full of cookies from under his cap and offers it to her. "Here,"

Wendy blinked at the unexpected gift being offered to her. She looks up to the green hero, silently wondering why he was doing this. Luigi look back at her with a friendly smile and replies to her unspoken question.

"It's my way of saying thanks," he said. "…for helping me with my predicament with Daisy. I know it wasn't easy, with us being enemies and all. You probably have more important things to worry about than my problems."

Taking a bit of a risk, he step forward and motion Wendy to take the cookies. She did and stared at it numbly. Luigi stood up and started to run after his brother. Wendy looked up from the cookies in her hand and watch the plumber go. He then paused and turned to her once more. Their eyes met which caused the flicker in her heart to start pinging.

"I hope this day doesn't discourage you from meeting with me later. I'm looking forward for our next session."

Wendy could nothing to stop the red blush on her face. Luckily for her, the green plumber was too far away to see it. He turned and left, leaving a confused blushing koopa sitting on the floor.

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On the path to Bowser's castle, Wendy was walking her way back after the Mario Brothers had left her defeated. In her hands were the cookies Luigi had given her, still neatly wrapped in the green kerchief.

She stared at it blankly as she slowly made her way back home. She stopped upon reaching a large rock and sat on it, her eyes still glued on the cookies in her hands.

She sighed tiredly and rubbed her hand across her face. The sound of footsteps drew her attention. She looked down the path to see it was her brother Roy. The sun-glasses wearing Koopa appears to be in a bad mood, but that's suspected since he too lost in a fight against the plumbers.

"Oh, hey Wend," He greeted once he saw her. "What are you doing here?"

Wendy shrugged. "Just taking a quick break, felt a little tired"

Roy sighed, "Yea', I hear ya. Fightin' those plumbers can just drain the energy out o' ya." He walked over and sat next to her on the rock. He then noticed the green object in her hand. "What's that?"

"This?" Wendy looked down at her hand and shook her head. "Oh, it's nothing, Roy, just some cookies."

"Cookies?" Roy raised a brow. "Where did you get cookies from? There isn't a store near here. And I haven't seen a toad house anywhere."

"Someone gave them to me," Wendy answered.

"Who? I didn't see anyone on the way here. Was it one of the minions?"

Wendy shook her head. "No it wasn't a minion. It was someone else."

"Someone else?" Roy narrowed his eyes behind his glasses. "Do you even know this person? How do you if they can be trusted?"

Wendy rolled her eyes but smile nevertheless. Roy may not always show it due to his tough guy act but he cares for his siblings, Wendy especially, and tends to be a bit overprotective at times.

Before he could get an answer, the other Koopalings appeared, riding on Iggy's already damaged airship. The airship landed beside them and Morton hopped out to greet them.

"Need a lift?" he asked.

Wendy jumped up from her seat and started walking towards the ship. Roy got up and followed after her.

"Hey, we're not done talkin', Wendy."

"Well, I am." Wendy reply to him. "Forget about it, Roy, it's nothing; let's just go home."

Roy growled but decided not to push any further. "Fine, I'll drop it…fo' now, anyways."

Larry looked between the two, not quite sure what was going on. "Are you two fighting?"

"No, now get inside."

Roy shoved the younger koopa inside before walking in himself. Once everyone was onboard, the smoking airship took flight once more and started heading towards Bowser's castle.

On the way home, Wendy stood by a window, separating herself from the others. Her thoughts were on a certain plumber and the way he had caused the sensation she felt earlier. Unconsciously, she looked down to her gift. Upon seeing it, she felt the ping sensation again only not as strong as before.

She sighed frustratingly and turned back to the window. Just then, Lemmy came by and took notice of the green kerchief in her hand. He walked over and sniffs it for him.

"Hey, what's that? Smells like cookies,"

Wendy growled at the smaller koopa and held on to her possession protectively. These cookies were given to her and her alone…no one can touch them.

"They're mine, so back off!"

Lemmy jump, a bit surprise from her sudden temper. He quickly walked away, not wanting to feel her wrath. Once he was gone, Wendy turned back to the cookies in her hands. Carefully, she untied the kerchief and revealed the cookies out in the open. The smell was still fresh and Wendy sudden found herself to be hungry. Taking one, she took a small bite and flavored it. Turns out, the cookies were chocolate chips.

She smiled; she loved chocolate.

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Ending Note:

Roy has an Brooklyn accent in this fic like he did in the show.

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Review :)