...Hi everyone...So I didn't die. No, in all honesty I really feel bad about taking this long to post. However, I got sidetracked between the mountain of homework I would have each night, my 35 hour weeks I work, and just general writer's block. But I went back over and re-read what I had done previously and remembered how much I had enjoyed this story and decided I really needed to finish it. So here's a start, hopefully I won't take years with my next update.

As always I own none of the Mario characters or other copyrighted things.

Chapter 14- The Story

"Would you like another piece of cake Luigi?" Peach offered.

Luigi's eyes lit up in anticipation. "You're spoiling me Princess."

She giggled. "Is that a no?"

"Don't be ridiculous!" He instantly responded helping himself to his third pink-frosted slice of heaven.

He and Peach had been sitting in the lounge mostly sharing recipes and eating cake. She had originally baked it for Mario, but at the rate he was diminishing it there might not be any left for the red clad hero.

"So my brother saves you on a regular basis from this Bowser guy?" Luigi finally asked in between bites.

Peach smiled and nodded.

"And is he a toad too?" He asked confused by the whole thing.

Peach giggled. "No Bowser is a koopa."

"And what do koopas look like?" Luigi continued.

"Well most of the time they're little and yellow with green or red shells. I believe Mario called them a…turtle?"

Luigi nodded his head at the correct pronunciation.

"However, Bowser is different from most koopas. He's about ten feet tall and breaths fire." Peach explained seriously.

Luigi just about choked on his cake. A dragon? His brother rescued princesses from dragons? He put a hand to his head. This was just too much. And now that he was thinking of Mario rescuing people he came back to the topic of Daisy. He really hoped she was okay.

"Announcing Master Mario and Princess Daisy."

Luigi and Peach both looked up at Toadsworth as the two came around behind him.

"I'm not a princess!" Daisy shot back.

"Believe me, nobody besides Toadsworth thought that." Mario remarked.

"Well you certainly know how to sweep a girl off her feet." Daisy sneered sarcastically.

That's when they both caught sight of the green clad boy.

"Luigi!" They both exclaimed before glaring at each other.

They began walking briskly towards him almost as if in a race to get to him first. That's when Daisy stuck her foot out and tripped Mario. She smirked triumphantly as she moved past him towards her boyfriend. However, Mario reached out and grabbed the hem of her dress pulling her back onto her butt. Luigi watched in fascination and worry as this led to an all-out wrestling match that Peach promptly broke up.

"Mario! I'm ashamed. How could you treat a guest this way?"

Mario instantly jumped up guiltily. "I'm sorry Princess."

Luigi got up and helped Daisy up. "What were you guys doing anyways?"

However, she didn't even notice him. Her eyes were glued to the blonde girl across the room.

Mario turned to Luigi. "So bro, your girlfriend and I were talking and…"

"You're Princess Peach!" Daisy suddenly exclaimed startling everyone in the room.

The pink princess blushed smiling. "Yes, I am. Have we met before?"

Daisy giggled uncharacteristically. "No way! I mean, not at all your Highness. This is just like meeting a celebrity!"

"Thank you, you're far too kind." Peach modestly waved off.

"Whoa! How do you know who Peach is?" Mario demanded.

Daisy glared at him. "From the bedtime stories of course."

"Bedtime stories?" Luigi questioned more than a little lost.

"Sure, didn't you guys get told stories about Princess Peach and Mushroom Kingdom?" She confirmed cocking her head slightly in confusion.

"No! We got told normal ones." Mario sneered.

"Oh and so my stories aren't normal even though we're living it?"

"Yeah because it's so normal to…"

"Enough!" Luigi finally shouted surprising everyone.

He couldn't take anymore of this fighting between the two people closest to him. For some reason, he had been under the impression that if Daisy were to ever meet Mario they would become instant friends. However, he could now see their personalities were so close they clashed against each other. He mentally groaned. Perfect.

"Look it's been a really long…and kind of a weird day." Luigi sighed.

"You can say that again." Daisy grumbled in agreement.

"Oh my dear! I did not even think about your trials, forgive me." Peach inserted regrettably.

Luigi instantly started feeling bad. "No, that's not…"

However, Mario put a hand on his arm shaking his head like it wasn't even worth arguing. Peach clapped her hands and Toadsworth instantly came running back in the room.

"Please ask the cooks to begin on dinner for my friends and I." Peach ordered politely.

"Of course Princess. Do I need to draw up some rooms for your…guests as well?" Toadsworth questioned.

"That would be very nice! Thank you Toadsworth." Peach beamed.

The small old man toad waddled back out of the room grumbling something about Luigi, the green clad boy was certain.

"Now what brings you and Daisy to Mushroom Kingdom?" Peach asked turning towards Luigi.

"Well actually…"

"How about we start with what have you been doing while I was gone?" Mario interrupted glaring at Luigi with his disappointed older brother face.

Luigi pulled at the collar of his shirt feeling very uncomfortable.

"The thing is…"

"Why did you hide all of this from me Luigi?" Daisy asked quietly.

Luigi swallowed past the lump in his throat seeing how sad she looked. Then something dawned on him.

"Hold on a second! None of this is important right now! You!" Luigi pointed at Mario. "You left me in that desert! What happened with the alien? And why in the world are you here?! What happened that night?"

Mario rubbed at his temples. "Mama mia, I can already see this is going to be a long night."

"Mario, they're our guests, and Luigi has been waiting a long time for this." Peach mediated.

Daisy pouted slightly not getting her answers first, but seemed just as curious as Luigi. Mario smiled sincerely at Peach making Luigi think there was something there. Then his normal confident smirk came back as he turned his attention to Luigi.

"Where to start? Well I think I was doing homework or something." Mario smoothed his mustache.

Luigi snorted. "You doing homework? Don't make me laugh."

Daisy snickered slightly at this.

Mario thought about it a little more before he suddenly lit up. "That's right I was meeting Pauline! How's she doing by the way?"

"She dropped out of high school last year to take care of her newborn son." Luigi answered stiffly.

Mario sighed shaking his head. "Good old Pauline. Yeah, I got a text from her to meet up by the playground on our block. So I figured that was as good a time as any to break up with her."

"You were going to break up with her?" Luigi questioned curiously.

Mario smirked again. "Do you really think I was so ignorant to not see how she was treating you?"

Luigi flinched in surprise. He kind of did.

"Mario, who is this Pauline? And what do you mean by break up?" Peach questioned slightly confused.

Mario turned an intense shade of pink. "I-It doesn't matter now." He assured.

Luigi was about to crack up. He had never heard his brother stutter before.

"Anyways," Mario sat down sighing. "I was waiting there by myself when the strangest thing happened…"

Mario was sitting out on the swing sighing with impatience. Pauline was late. Really he shouldn't have been too surprised, but she had texted him. He checked his phone again. He had now been out there for thirty minutes. So much for twenty tops, Luigi was probably about to have a panic attack. He finally jumped up heading home. Screw Pauline, he was going to be a gentleman about this and break up with her in person, but if she wasn't going to give him the same courtesy, he'll just do it in school the next day.

He was strolling along the sidewalk with his hands in his pockets when something grew bright behind him. He shrugged it off thinking maybe it was a car passing by when he could feel it getting hotter as well.

He turned around nearly jumping ten feet in the air in surprise. A flaming meteor was hurdling straight towards him. He stood there in awe for half a second before his danger senses finally kicked in and he sprinted down the street. He could tell from the heat that it was getting closer to him, and he began looking for any means of escape. An open manhole suddenly caught his attention in the middle of the street. He poured in the last bit of speed diving for safety, only to feel the hot rock collide with his body. He felt like his body was burning as he fell into the darkness of the manhole that never seemed to end.

"Hold on a second!" Luigi interjected. "You expect me to believe you were hit by a meteor…and lived?!"

"You were hit by lightning." Daisy pointed out.

"Really?" Mario asked amazed.

"There is a big difference between an electrical surge that you have a chance of living from and a giant flaming inferno that should probably have destroyed the entire neighborhood as well!" Luigi argued.

Mario gave him a blank look. "Well…did it?"

"No." Luigi narrowed his eyes.

"Well there you go." He shrugged.

"Yeah Weegee, you shouldn't try to make such a big deal out of nothing." Daisy rubbed his arm soothingly.

He could just kill them.

"I am learning so much!" Peach piped up animatedly. "What exactly is a phone?"

The other three tried to cover their snickers at Peach's innocent question.

"Fine." Luigi sighed pushing past illogic for the time being. "You were hit with a meteor."

Mario felt disoriented when he was finally able to wake up. For one thing he remembered it being dark when he left, and yet he could feel the sun shining brightly. He put a hand to his head groaning only to yelp at the temperature of his hand. He opened his eyes to look down at it, but couldn't find anything wrong with it.

"Weird." He complained sitting up.

He took in the view finding something was definitely wrong. For one thing, he wasn't anywhere he recognized. It was the most beautiful place on earth with vividly green grass, small little mushroom shaped houses, and strangely of all, little mushroom people.

"Who are you?" One of them with a red spotted cap inched closer curiously.

"Mario. Who are you?"

He smiled. "Nice to meet you Mario. I'm Toad. This is Toadette, Toadbert, Toadmy, and Toadio."

"Sup guys." He waved at all of the creatures around him.

"Are you here to rescue the princess?" The pink capped one introduced as Toadette asked hopefully.

Mario scratched the side of his head in confusion before it suddenly dawned on him. He was dreaming. He chuckled standing up.

"Sure. Sounds like fun."

The mushroom people gaped at him in awe.

"Everyone! Mario the Mario is going to save Princess Peach!" Toad cheered.

Suddenly a bunch of mushroom people surrounded him, cheering just as enthusiastically and shaking his hand. Mario grinned at the treatment. They already considered him a hero, and he hadn't even done anything yet.

"Make way!" An older mushroom man pushed his way through the group.

He observed Mario carefully poking him a couple of times before finally nodding his head satisfied.

"You have been chosen by the Stars Master Mario. Do not fail us."

Mario nodded confidently. "Not a chance. Just tell me where to go."

"Very well." The older man nodded. "She is being held prisoner by Bowser in one of his eight castles. The first one is in that direction. If she's not there, you'll receive directions on how to reach the next one."

"Sounds easy enough." Mario smirked adjusting his cap.

"We're counting on you Master Mario." The mushroom man stressed.

"Your Princess is as good as safe. I don't ever lose."

With that he ran off in the direction pointed out to him.

"Of course, I had no idea that I was going to be defying gravity to make incredible jumps, running from koopas and goombas, or fighting them off. And I really wasn't expecting what I found in the last castle." Mario summed up crossing his hands behind his head.

"So you actually went to rescue a princess in a castle from a dragon just like that." Luigi deadpanned.

Mario shrugged. "I really did think it was a dream. And Bowser isn't exactly like a dragon. He's a lot more annoying and less cool."

Daisy and Luigi blinked at him. Mario chuckled at their faces, but before he could explain more, Toadsworth returned announcing dinner was ready as more mushroom people appeared with trays that they placed before each occupant at the table. Luigi quietly thanked them before they slipped away as his mouth watered from the delicious smells.

"So you mentioned they called you 'Mario the Mario'." Daisy pointed out as she pushed around some of the vegetables in the soup before her.

"And your point?" Mario sighed exasperated.

"I'm pretty sure I just stated it." She snapped.

Luigi decided to interject if for nothing else but his and Peach's sanity.

"Do they think your species…is a Mario?" He asked.

Mario grinned and nodded. "That's how things are done here. Everyone is named by their species. All of the toads have the word toad somewhere in their name, same with the koopas and the goombas."

Luigi could feel his head spinning with all of the strange terminology when something dawned on him.

"That's why they called me Green Mario when I arrived." He marveled.

Mario put a hand to cover his mouth before he sprayed food as he started choking out a laugh. Luigi narrowed his eyes at him.

"That's hilarious." He finally gasped. "But yeah, that would be why."

"Then what about Peach? Why isn't she…?"

Luigi didn't know how to finish that sentence because it was obvious she thought she was of the same species as the little mushroom people known as toads. However, at the same time he knew she had to be a human like himself which meant she was either adopted and never told about it, or under some kind of spell that would offend her. The logical part of his mind wanted to deny the last option but given the circumstances, he couldn't very well write it off.

"Well…" She started slowly her hands in her lap.

"Peach is special." Mario instantly jumped to her defense.

Luigi raised an eyebrow at him, but Mario just continued to glare at him with a look that screamed Peach was off limits as a conversation topic.

"Okay, here's my second question." Daisy started in again making Luigi want to slap a hand to his face.

"Alright." Mario growled slowly.

"As we were walking to the castle, one of the toads asked you if you wanted to play Mario Karts. What is that about?"

Luigi was surprised to see Mario's cheeks turn a slight shade of red as he gave a nervous laugh.

"The thing is…it had been a really long time since I had gotten to do the things I enjoyed like baseball, soccer, hockey, or go-karts. So, thinking I was the only one from our world who would ever be here, I 'invented' some games for the toads." He admitted.

"You mean you stole games from our world and changed the name to make them yours?" Daisy asked incredulously.

"You made your name a trademark." Luigi accused.

Mario's cocky smirk quickly returned. "Damn straight."

"Wow, that's pathetic even for you." Daisy sneered.

"Jealous you didn't think of it first?" Mario mocked.

"You know that was the exact thought that was passing through my head. I've been here for less than twenty-four hours. I should teach the residents to play basketball and call it Daisy-ball." The auburn haired girl remarked sarcastically.

Luigi really hadn't been paying attention to them anymore. The more he began to process this information, the more pissed he grew. For five years now as he wallowed in guilt in the mausoleum he called a home, his brother was here happily playing games with creatures that looked up to him like Superman. While he had given up the things he enjoyed to take care of his grieving parents, Mario had gotten everything he wanted. Luigi suddenly jumped up his hands slamming into the table harder than he had meant to.

"Luigi, is everything okay?" Peach asked concerned.

Luigi ignored her boring his eyes straight into his twin.

"Si cazzo bastardo." He growled softly.

Mario narrowed his eyes in confusion. "Che diavolo?"

Luigi turned away from him walking towards the exit.

"Luigi." Daisy soothed putting a hand on his arm.

He gave her an apologetic look shaking his head in frustration.

"I need some air." He explained as he backtracked out of the dining room trying to put as much distance between him and his brother as he could.

So I decided Luigi needed to have a moment of anger because let's face it, this is a lot to take in. But never fear...Daisy to the rescue! Once again, I would like to say I'm sorry and if you hate me, I understand completely. Just leave an unbiased review of the chapter, and you can tell me what a horrible person I am at the end.