AN: Inspired by the many times a toy decided to scare me in the middle of the night when I was a child.

~Monster Problem~

A soft knock on the door is what woke Mario, his eyes fluttering open and letting his vision adjust before taking in his surroundings, remembering where he was. Right. Sonic's room.

But... who could possibly be knocking on Sonic's door in the middle of the night? And if he answered the door instead of Sonic... well, the Smasher on the other side would probably start making assumptions about what they had been doing in there. Assumptions that were more than likely correct, but still!

Whoever was at the door was still there as they knocked again, and Sonic hadn't woken up yet, so Mario decided to take the risk and grabbed his bathrobe, deciding that whatever rumor would stem from this was long overdue anyway. Nobody ever spread rumors about him in the Smash Mansion after all. It was his turn to be the topic of gossip. Opening the door Mario blinked in confusion wondering if the person who was knocking had left. It wasn't until he looked down did he realize who had been at the door.

"Rose... what are you doing up?"

The little pink haired Villager stood in the hallway of the dormitories, clutching her teddy bear - Mr. Stuffy - as she gazed up at Mario with confused eyes. "Why are you in Sonic's room?" she innocently asked.

Mario winced. The answer to an older Smasher would be obvious enough, but Rose was only six years old. "Um... I was keeping him company." Mario carefully worded. "He was... lonely."

"Oh..." Rose murmured, hugging her stuffed bear tighter. "I get lonely too."

"So why exactly are you up?" Mario repeated, watching as Rose's eyes lowered to the floor and the vice grip she had on her bear tightened to the point where he was expecting it's head to come off.

"I heard a scary noise in my closet." she whispered, and that was all the information Mario needed to understand the situation. She thought there was a monster in her closet, and she went to someone she trusted so they could get rid of it. For her, that person happened to be Sonic, who she'd developed a sibling-like bond with.

"Well, since Sonic is asleep right now, would it be alright if I looked?" Mario asked. Rose pondered on the question before she nodded.

"Okay."

Mario went to duck back into the room. "Just give me one minute, alright? I'll be right back."

Rose nodded once again and bounced on her heels as Mario shut the door and scrambled about for his clothes that had been scattered across the floor. Just as he was pulling his shirt over his head, the twenty-two year old stirred and opened his eyes, immediately sitting up when he noticed Mario wasn't next to him and giving him a curious look.

"Are you leavin'?" Sonic questioned, to which Mario shook his head and fastened the buttons on his overalls.

"Rose heard a noise in her closet. So since you were asleep, I was going in your place."

"Oh." Sonic visibly relaxed, lazily grinning at Mario. "So you're comin' back after you deal with the monster problem?"

"Sì." Mario replied, wandering over and giving Sonic a kiss on his forehead. "I'll be back soon."

"Kick the monster's ass, babe." Sonic murmured, before he snuggled under the covers again and closed his eyes. Mario chuckled and opened the door again, giving a friendly grin to Rose.

"Alright, now let's go see about this monster problem, shall we?"

/~/

Rose stopped outside the door to her room, hugging her teddy bear to her chest. "I-I'm scared. It was a really scary sound."

Mario gave the girl a reassuring glance. "Don't worry, I'll take care of it Rose."

Rose whimpered as Mario slowly opened the door to her room, looking around for the lightswitch. Flicking it on the room was bathed in a warm yellow light, and Mario turned his gaze towards the closet, where a small plush elephant hung from a string on the doorknob. He cautiously approached the closet, Rose following close behind.

"Alright, let's see what we have in here..." Mario mumbled, reaching for the doorknob. Just as he did a strange buzzing came from the closet, causing Rose to scamper away and Mario to withdraw his hand in a bit of shock. Regaining his bearings he grabbed the doorknob and pulled the door open, the buzzing growing louder.

"The monster... it's the monster!" Rose wailed, hiding her face behind her teddy bear. Mario peeked his head in the closet, trying to locate the source of the buzzing. Eventually he found the culprit at the back of the closet, and with a bit of a chuckle pulled out the stuffed snail that was producing the sound.

"Mr. Shelly?" Rose questioned, timidly wandering up to Mario. "He's the scary monster?"

"Not a scary monster exactly," Mario explained, ripping open the velcro strip that hid the battery case. Popping the lid off he removed the two batteries, the noise ceasing to exist. Replacing the battery case and velcro he handed the snail off to Rose. "Think of him making that sound because he was hungry for some fresh batteries. Unfortunately we don't have any fresh batteries at the moment, so he won't be making sounds for now."

"But what am I supposed to feed him if he's hungry?" Rose questioned in concern. Mario placed a hand on his chin in thought.

"What do you feed Mr. Stuffy?"

"Mr. Stuffy likes plastic food!" Rose replied cheerfully, and Mario couldn't help but grin.

"Then I'm sure Mr. Shelly won't mind eating that either. In fact, would you hand me Mr. Shelly for a moment?"

Rose handed the plush snail over, and Mario held the plush in front of him. "What do you say, Mr. Shelly? Would you like plastic food?" Turning the plush back to Rose, he made it nod it's head. "Well, that solves that problem!" he exclaimed, handing Mr. Shelly back to Rose who giggled. "And now, just to make sure that no monsters bother you during the night, I'm going to do something my Mama used to do when I was your age. I'll be right back."

Mario stepped out of the room momentarily and returned a few moments later with a handful of tree shaped air fresheners. "Monster's don't like the smell of these," Mario explained as he went around the room placing them in problem areas - under the bed, in the closet, in the toybox. "So now those monsters will leave you alone for sure!"

"Thank you Mario!" Rose giggled, hugging Mario's knees.

"You're welcome," Mario replied. "And if those scary monsters ever bother you again, don't be afraid to get me or Sonic. We'll take care of it, promise."

"Okay!" Rose chirped as she crawled back into her bed, getting comfortable with both Mr. Stuffy and Mr. Shelly. Smiling, Mario flicked off the light, bathing the room in darkness.

"Goodnight Rose."

"Goodnight Mario." Rose responded before Mario shut the door, and with a chuckle began to head back towards Sonic's room in the boy's dorm.

/~/

"So what was the monster?" Sonic asked when Mario stepped back into the room, Mario chuckling as he got back into bed with Sonic.

"A stuffed snail that had dying batteries. I took them out and then placed some air fresheners around the room so that the monsters won't be a problem for her."

"I wouldn't have even thought about that," Sonic admitted. "How did you-?"

"Mama did the same thing with me and Weeg." Mario explained. "And the monster under the bed never bothered us after that."

"Heh, guess I've got some competition in the monster slayin' department, huh?" Sonic joked. "Though I'm warnin' ya, according to Rose I'm the 'bestest monster slayer ever', an' I intend to keep that title!"

"Well, I guess we'll just have to see about that!" Mario teased back. The two proceeded to glare at each other in mock anger before they both laughed, cuddling up with each other.

"Well, night Mar." Sonic mumbled, closing his eyes. Mario pressed a kiss to his forehead before closing his eyes as well.

"Buona notte, Sonic."