A few days after the destruction of the Observatory, Rosalina had no place to live in.

The Observatory had been both her home and her most comfortable area to relax in. With the entire thing blowing apart after the attack of unknown hostile entities, however, that had all faded in an instant. Master Hand offered to reserve a new dormitory for the princess of the stars, but she initially declined the offer, afraid to think of whose dormitories would be next to hers if she moved into the mansion. The constant fighting in the mansion also did not help relieve her from tension.

Rosalina was not a woman who knew only of negative emotions. She laughed in joy when she competed in Mario's racing tournament and got second place, she giggled at both bad puns and legitimately funny jokes, and most importantly, she knew how to smile brightly.

But all of that was moot in a place full of chaos and diversity. She was accustomed to Mario's generally peaceful world, but the worlds outside of his sometimes frightened her. Ganondorf loved spicy memes that literally hurt people around him. Ryu loved fighting to the point where he would just randomly attack Smash contestants without giving much warning. Solid Snake loved pointing guns at innocent bystanders without ever shooting them, making him look far less stable than he was.

And she just couldn't seem to be able to make friends as easily as many others did in such an open world.

With what was left of her belongings, she first tried to find a place to stay at in the cities. Her Lumas instantly attracted attention, which forced her to eventually escape from the clutches of her admirers. She then thought about living at the yard near the original location of where her Observatory used to stand.

Unfortunately, Ryu seemed to wander about frequently at that specific location ever since he faced the unknown enemies. While his intentions were far from just waiting to punch someone in the face for the taste of a good fight, Rosalina decided it was best not to disturb him.

In the end, she gave up and requested a dormitory from Master Hand. Her Lumas urgently needed a place to stay at, after all.

When Rosalina went to the basement of the mansion, she initially thought that her dormitory would look like a dungeon. There were only two dormitory doors at the basement hall, one of them appearing to be occupied by someone else.

Much to her relief, the interior of the dormitory was far from that of a gloomy dungeon. Bright and relaxing, the simplistic design of the room let the Lumas feel no pressure in roaming around the dorm. The bedroom looked comfortable, and the kitchen was wide enough for both her and the Lumas to move around in it. On top of that, Master Hand had the decency to leave a small, warm star floating near one of the walls with several potted plants growing beneath it.

It was enough for the Lumas to reside at before the Observatory was rebuilt, for sure.

Things seemed great for the most part, but there was still one thing that poked at her consciousness.

Her neighbor.

Without anything in hand, she wore her usual dress and stood in front of her neighbor's dormitory.

As long as it's not Ganondorf, then I should be fine, she thought as she raised a hand to knock on the door. Or Captain Falcon… Or Wolf… Or Falco… Or Marth… Or Bowser or Bowser Jr. or Dr. Mario or Wario or-

She already knew it well, but there was quite a lot of people she found hard to approach without getting her mind blown. Not all of them were bad people, but some of them were just outright unique in the way they thought. So much to the point where they could completely lose her in a conversation.

Composing herself, she knocked on the door.

Silence greeted her first. As she waited, the sound of something approaching the door came out muffled.

A bit of time passed before a rather familiar man opened the door.

"..."

"…"

…

…

…

He was neither sociable nor intimidating. Little Mac, a man she met several times at the Observatory, stood with a pink jumpsuit on as the television behind him made noise.

Neither of them spoke for a while, staring at each other. The boxer looked up at her, while the star princess looked down at him.

Even though Rosalina was the one who opened the door, Mac spoke first.

"We're about to watch Roy and the Fire Emblem Episode 3."

"I see."

…

Much to her surprise, another voice called out behind Mac, "Mac, is there any apples left in the fridge?"

"Two," the pugilist answered as the voice revealed itself to be Ike's. "One's a bit sweeter than the other, though."

As Ike headed over to the refrigerator, he caught sight of Rosalina standing at the entrance. He changed his course of direction as he walked over to the door as well.

"Haven't seen you in a while," Ike admitted, receiving a polite nod from the princess. "We're about to watch Roy and the Fire E-"

"I just told her that."

"Oh."

As if that was all he needed to know, Ike headed over to the fridge yet again for an apple without a word.

Rosalina wanted to know if Ike lived at the dormitory as well. Rather than putting her nose in someone else's personal life, however, she decided to remain submissive and get along with her neighbors slowly. She would be at the mansion for quite a bit, so being friendly with them would be almost necessary for the time being. Otherwise, she'd probably crawl deeper into the awkward hole of awkwardness.

Mac woke her back into reality as he asked, "You moved in?"

"…Yes."

"Neat."

"…Yes."

…

Like the other times she met him, he was quiet. Perhaps less awkward than her, but still quiet.

"Gonna eat BBQ soon," Mac mentioned as he looked back at the television, which did not air Roy and the Fire Emblem yet, before turning to Rosalina again.

"I see."

"Ye."

…

"Wanna join?"

"…"

…

…

With a slow nod, the blonde answered,

"…Okay."

Truthfully, the last time she ate with someone else aside from her usual friends was when she had been first invited to a party. And since that time was roughly around when she joined the Smash Brothers, it certainly had been quite a while.

It was fortunate of her to experience it again, albeit with much less people.

She didn't expect Mac to have her meet him at a restaurant during the night, though. A restaurant that didn't have too many customers, yes, but it was still within the cities.

People called the entirety of the cities "The Iwata Hub," even if she never referred to it like that.

At one of the very corners of the Hub, Rosalina entered a restaurant with a long pale-blue coat, sweat pants, and a spaghetti strap. The smell of barbeque quickly took over her sense of smell.

It did not take long for her to find Mac- well, Mac and Ike, to be specific. The two quietly ate pork barbeque, holding the skewers one by one. For reasons unknown to her, the two sat next to each other rather than sit across each other.

Walking over to the two men, she bowed politely. Right as she tried to sit across the two, however, Ike perked up and asked, "Aren't you gonna sit next to us?"

Blinking, Rosalina glanced at the perfectly open bench that lay in front of Mac and Ike. She then glanced at the small spot next to the boxer.

"…Oh," she let out as she walked over and sat on the same bench as the two Smash Brothers.

"We left the skewers that were on the grill the longest to the right," Ike said. "The ones on the left are fresh, so you might wanna avoid those for now."

"Okay…"

Sitting next to the dark-haired boxer, the guardian of cosmos softly lifted one of the skewers. She let the food cool down before taking a small bite.

It tasted alright.

"So Mac, how was the newest Roy episode?"

The pugilist did not have to look up from his food to explain much. His tone as idle as ever, he responded,

"It was 'ye.'"

"Ye?"

"Ye."

Ike put up a thoughtful look, but his eventual shrug implied that he'd rather eat more than miss out the barbeque.

Although the dinner was uneventful and rather quiet, Rosalina found the calm atmosphere between the two men to be relieving. Eating with them did not go as badly as she thought it would, as they didn't push her to know more about her fervently. It felt… natural.

And for someone renowned for making things awkward, "natural" was a nice feeling.

If there was one thing she learned from the dinner, it was that she had some nice neighbors.

Author's Notes:

A rather short chapter that did its job.

Also, expect me to update my other stories (along with this one) a bit more often soon!

Next chapter- "Witch Time!"