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They couldn't cope anymore.

Two screaming, inconsolable babies thrashed their limbs as a pair of highly annoyed adults held them in their arms. One, a young, redheaded woman wearing a crown, was ramming a bottle into the also red-haired - and red-faced - baby's mouth, with no success. The other, a man dressed in a green sweater and overalls, was humming an off-key lullaby, desperately trying to soothe his own infant.

Some parents who did not keep up with Sarasaland politics and therefore didn't know that something was amiss passed the pair as they sat under a tree, holding their children's hands and shaking their heads in sympathy. They too had gone through the same thing a few years previously. They understood the struggle of attempting to get their little ones to sleep.

But those people were mistaken, for the young couple were not parents - not for now, anyway, and hopefully not anytime soon either. They were, in fact, victims of an experiment gone wrong.

An elderly scientist going by the name of Professor Elvin Gadd - a friend of Luigi's - had created a new time machine, and Daisy had been excited to try it out - Peach, Mario and Luigi had had enough of time travel after a certain adventure. But E. Gadd had insisted that this new time machine had been tested and had a success rate of 99.99 percent - unknown to the others, it had only been tried out twice, with three of the Toad volunteers still trapped in the past.

E. Gadd's memory wasn't quite as sharp as it used to be.

So, when the princesses and the plumbers agreed to try it out, nothing took place for an entire minute.

"Why isn't anything happening?" Daisy had asked impatiently.

"Have patience, Princess!" E. Gadd chortled. "It takes a while for this old thing to work. Any minute now..."

More time passed... but contrary to what had been expected, the four adults didn't end up in the past. Rather, four babies ended up in the future - along with, to the others' puzzlement, three Toads, their faces as green as the polka dots on their heads.

E. Gadd had scratched his head in confusion, then laughed and clapped his hands.

"Haha! How did this happen?" he said, giving a toothy grin to the Toads.

The Toads trembled as they spoke.

"We were in that time machine experiment, Professor!"

"It was scary! We saw us as kids. We saw our parents too and they didn't recognise us! We thought we'd never get out of there!"

"I won't be sleeping anymore after that..."

E. Gadd had stared at them. "I don't remember seeing you before. Ho ho! I must have forgotten all about you. My memory's not quite as good as it was when I was your age, ho ho!"

The Toads had gawped at him in alarm. They would never volunteer for a scientific test again. One of them thought of what his mother always said: pride came before a fall. And that was what they'd been - proud. They had been proud of themselves for doing something nobody else had the guts to do. Now, they were left to deal with the consequences.

The traumatised trio scampered away from the scientist, wanting nothing more to do with him or his tests.

Meanwhile, Peach heard a whimper next to her; when they looked down, they saw a petrified baby with a halo of blonde curls surrounding her head. Her large eyes were beginning to water, and her mouth was set in a pout.

A glass-shattering wail had forced everyone around her to cover their ears, for fear of rupturing an ear drum. They only noticed, then, that there were three other babies sitting next to them, open-mouthed, staring at the blonde infant. Soon they followed suit, and a cacophony of screams ensued.

"What's all of this?" a perplexed Mario had shouted over the noise. "Is this the past?"

"I think these babies might be us!" Luigi had exclaimed, picking up the baby in green and examining his face. The infant's exceptionally large nose and bright blue eyes confirmed his statement.

"No way!" Daisy had gasped, glancing at her younger counterpart. She scrunched up her nose in distaste at the baby's contorted, puce-coloured face. "Wow, I had no idea I was such an ugly crier..."

"Poor Toadsworth," Peach had winced, taking up the blonde into her arms and trying to comfort her.

"I know how you feel," Luigi had said. "And Mamma had two of us..."

After figuring out that the adults were actually still in the present, E. Gadd had started tweaking his machine, and Peach had suggested they shop for baby supplies in case the babies were in the "future" for a long time. They had then returned to her castle to take care of the babies. Once fed and changed, they had a few hours' peace as the infants slept.

But, when they woke up, they began to cry again, louder than the last time. Mario and Luigi threw their younger selves in the air and caught them, and Toadsworth remembered that spinning himself around or acting in an otherwise silly manner had always cheered up the Princess in the past. Within minutes, all of the babies had calmed down except for Baby Daisy.

Daisy had had enough of the spoilt little princess, so she'd decided to play with Baby Luigi instead. But that was the biggest mistake she had made: as it turned out, the boy in green was afraid of peek-a-boo - maybe it was the mention of Boos, or perhaps it was down to the fish-like expression Daisy had made each time she revealed her face.

To summarise, Luigi and Daisy had to take their two bawling infants to the park to calm them down, and Daisy had never liked Toadsworth so much when he lent them Peach's old (pink) buggies, leading to people in the streets thinking Baby Luigi was a girl.

Which was why they were sitting under a tree in the park, with the two small children still very much upset.

"Why won't they just stop?" said Daisy, close to tears of frustration. She wasn't much of a crier, but then, she had never had to deal with the spoilt brat that was herself. Talk about karma.

"They're babies. They'll stop only when they get what they want," came the blunt reply. Luigi's brow was furrowed, and he looked uncharacteristically annoyed.

"Then what do they want?" Daisy almost wailed, flinging the bottle on the grass next to her. "We've changed their diapers, we've fed them, we've walked them, what else do they want us to do?"

"Maybe they're tired," said Luigi.

"But they just slept!"

"Then I don't know, Daisy."

"Why are you acting like this?" she whined. She was unused to seeing Luigi so... cavalier. Cold. Uncaring.

"You were the one who wanted to travel in time, Daisy!"

"I know, I know. I'm sorry." But her mumbled answer remained unheard as Baby Daisy let out a high-pitched screech. By now, the people in the park were no longer glancing at them in pity - they were irritated.

"Maybe they're scared," said Luigi. "They don't know us."

"Well, how long is it going to take for them to get used to us?" Daisy scowled. "Can we please swap babies? Yours is a lot quieter."

It was true. Baby Luigi cried more, but Baby Daisy was the loudest. An unwilling Luigi handed his baby to his girlfriend, and took the redheaded infant. The young princess stared up at him, momentarily distracted by this new face. She reached out a pudgy hand, and with a giggle, grabbed his nose and pulled it. Daisy couldn't conceal a smirk as Luigi yelped in pain.

"Looks like you'll just have to let her do it," she laughed. "Unless you want her to start screaming again."

Luigi let out something between a groan and a yell, as Baby Daisy yanked harder. After a while she grew bored, and her eyelids began to close; likewise, Baby Luigi's cries died down to whimpers, and when he snuggled up to Daisy and his breaths evened out, both adults finally let themselves relax.

"I wonder what it was like for Toadsworth when he had to babysit all of us," Daisy whispered. "He told me I was a brat, but I never thought I was this bad!" Toadsworth had never hidden how he felt about Daisy as a child, though he disliked her less as she got older.

"Mamma told me I was a good baby, compared to Mario," Luigi said in a doubtful tone.

"Maybe it's just a bad day for him? Must have been scary for him to be taken away from his home."

"Maybe." Luigi seemed to be in deep thought. "I think this might have been the first time we met, technically. You and I, I mean."

"What?"

"From what I know about time travel, we've already gone through this twice, just from different points of view - as babies, and now, as adults. So, if we got taken away from the past, that means we'd already met each other in the future... If you understand what I'm saying."

"Oh, right," Daisy nodded, pretending to know what he was talking about. In her arms, Baby Luigi shifted in his sleep and stuck a thumb into his mouth.

Daisy smiled. "You know, you were actually pretty cute when you were a baby." She smirked, raising her eyes to meet Luigi's. "You still are."

Luigi chuckled shyly, lowering his gaze. Despite having gone out with Daisy for over a year, he still got moments when he felt timid around her. Baby Daisy looked completely different, much calmer when asleep, he noticed: he realised, then, that all of Daisy's personality showed in her eyes, so bright and sparkling and mischievous. Not even her confident grin or sassy posture truly showed who she was - it was her eyes, her ocean blue eyes that drew him to her.

A sudden vibration and an upbeat tune made him snap out of his reverie, and he reached a hand into his pocket. He took out his hybrid device which served as both a Game Boy Colour and a phone - nicknamed Game Boy Horror by Professor E. Gadd - and tried his best to answer the call without waking the babies up. He spoke to E. Gadd in hushed tones; apparently the scientist had fixed the time machine, and the babies were ready to return to the past.

Luigi switched off the Game Boy and smiled. Maybe one day he would get married and have a family - at the moment Daisy would be his choice for a future wife, though only time would tell whether that happened or not - but for now, he was content with spending time with Daisy alone, while they were still young, while they had less responsibilities, while they could.

I know I say this all the time, but this isn't really my favourite chapter - it's not even that I don't like these "not my favourite" chapters, it's just that there are other chapters in this story that I like a lot more. Also I figured that Luigi wouldn't be prepared to marry Daisy just yet, hence the wording in the last paragraph (I mean, obviously if he had to marry someone right now it'd be Daisy, but at the moment he's not ready and he's perfectly happy just being her boyfriend; like I said before, I'm taking this slow). Finally, I hope that E. Gadd's character was okay since he's never been a major character in any of my stories (he won't be major here, either, just for this chapter).

Hopefully nobody's annoyed by the rather long wait for this chapter, and that the quality of the writing is okay and made the wait worth it. Please review and let me know what you thought!