A/N: This stemmed from an idea which was originally much shorter, but while writing it out, it sort of spiralled out of control. Several paragraphs were cut from this story as I tried to keep it below the 4000 word mark (which hasn't happened, but points for trying).

Timeline is somewhere post-SMG, but that's not important to the plot.

Anyway, enjoy!

Finding Sleep

It had been three days since the whole galaxy came down and he'd seen his life flashing before his eyes.

Three days since he thought every single one of them was going to finish this particular adventure dead and buried, or else hideously injured, lying in a cold sterile hospital bed listening to the steady beep-beep of their own heart monitors slowing and then stopping forever.

Three days since he'd woken up on the lush grass outside Peach's castle and spotted everyone, even Bowser himself, struggling to their feet around him and finally realising that they weren't dead, not yet.

Three days since he'd faced monsters, ghosts, dark tunnels, haunted houses, and witnessed the the laws of physics being smashed to pieces. Three days since he and Mario made their triumphant return home with a dishevelled but very much alive Princess Peach in tow. Seventy-two hours afterwards, a part of him was still stubbornly swimming in the night sky amongst infinite stars, planets and bizarre creatures that he couldn't even begin to describe.

Three days, give or take, since he'd felt the stabbing, tearing pain of one such creature digging its massive teeth into his leg as he jumped up to grab a Power Star that Mario hadn't been able to reach. He vividly recalled the way his blood had looked when it spattered in little droplets all over the tiny island they were standing on.

There were still faint scars just above his right foot from where the damn thing had bitten him, and he knew they'd never fade completely. At least they didn't hurt anymore.

Now, three days after their quest to save the Princess had come to a victorious end, he still hadn't managed to sleep for more than an hour at a time.

It wasn't that he was having nightmares. He was no stranger to nightmares. He'd suffered them on a virtually regular basis since he and Mario had been toddlers, and his brother had always been around to shake him awake and offer him a drink of water on such occasions, his round five-year-old's face creased up with innocent concern.

So he knew exactly what nightmares were like. But this time, it wasn't the fear of dreaming that was keeping him awake. Whenever he lay down to sleep, he found his mind unhelpfully replaying various parts of the adventures in the Comet Observatory and beyond. The ghosts and monsters always looked more terrifying in his mind than they had in reality.

Before he realised how many hours had passed, Mario would be climbing up the ladder to prod him into alertness, cheerfully rambling about everything they were going to do today.

Today was the morning of the fourth day.

'C'mon, Luigi, get up,' he growled, tugging on his younger brother's arm in a wasted effort to pull him out of the bunk bed.

Luigi groaned and threw his other arm over his face to block out the sunlight that was just beginning to creep across the room. 'Just... give me a few more minutes,' he mumbled into his sleeve. 'I haven't been sleeping well lately.'

'Been staying up too late reading comics again?' Mario said with a laugh, joking around, trying to act his usual self, because he didn't want Luigi to know that he was actually worried.

He'd already glimpsed the look of slight concern on his brother's face before he covered his eyes, but he was tactful enough not to mention anything. He just nodded absent-mindedly and eased his arm away a crack to look at Mario directly.

'Yeah, something like that. I'll be there in ten minutes, OK?'

Mario smiled, nodded in return, and then left.

Breakfast went by uneventfully. Luigi ate drowsily, his mind about a hundred miles away as he mechanically spooned fried eggs into his mouth without tasting a single bit.

Opposite him, Mario was shovelling his own food in with gusto. For a few minutes, there was no sound in the kitchen besides the clink of old cutlery and the faint strains of birdsong outside.

'Y'know, I think we should go visit Peach today,' he mumbled after a while, causing Luigi to glance up and focus his gaze for the first time.

'Why?' he asked.

Mario paused to finish a fried egg. 'Well, we haven't talked to her since the day we all got back from the Comet Observatory, and remember we promised to visit her for tea and cake sometime soon? Today seems as good a day as any.'

Luigi barely kept himself from rolling his eyes at how predictable his brother was; mention food and you could convince him to do anything, even if it was something he normally hated. Of course, there was an added motivation in being able to dine with Princess Peach, whom he'd been harbouring a less-than-subtle crush on for years. Luigi really wished the two of them would just hurry up and get together or something, because the tension was going to kill him at this rate, and he really wanted to see his big brother happily married before he died.

He didn't give voice to anything that'd just flown through his mind, because he was nice enough not to embarrass Mario on purpose. Instead, he pushed the last little pieces of cold food around the edges of his plate and replied easily, 'Sure, why not? It sounds like it could be fun.'

After they'd washed up the breakfast dishes and headed outside, he noticed a little mischievous smirk twitching at the corner of Mario's mouth, as if his brother knew something he didn't. But he never stopped to think about what it might mean.

Tea at Peach's castle was never a grand affair. She didn't care much for elaborate meals, even less so when she was entertaining two people she counted among her closest friends. It just wasn't in her nature to demand perfection on the grounds of her being a princess – something Luigi was immensely grateful for, because it meant he wasn't obligated to eat in a crowded hall and socialise with all of her numerous guests.

Today they were eating on the castle balcony. It jutted out from Peach's own bedroom, meaning they had to walk through there to reach it. The princess seemed completely unfazed by what most people would probably consider a shocking loss of royal decorum. Luigi didn't care either, though he noticed out of the corner of his eye that Mario was blushing ever so slightly.

The fresh air struck him with renewed force as he stepped out onto the balcony, pausing to hold the French windows open for his companions. He smiled slightly as Mario and Peach passed by him, barely noticing his presence as they gazed into each others' sapphire-blue eyes, their expressions showing all the love and adoration that they were both too shy too admit out loud.

I think I was right, he mused, quietly following the enamoured pair as they all settled down around the plastic outdoor table. He was surprised to find three cups of steaming tea and a plate of cakes already there, but then he supposed Peach would've alerted the castle servants of their visit in advance. They really do need to start dating.

For a few minutes the three of them passed around cakes and drank their tea whilst chatting about various inconsequential things, such as politics, and the weather, and the news that Toad Town was getting a new swimming pool built for the summer.

'Oh, Mario, did I forget to tell you who's coming to visit tomorrow?' Peach asked suddenly, following a lull in the conversation.

Mario looked up quickly. 'I don't remember you telling me that,' he replied, but that little smirk was once again visible on his face, and Luigi had a strange feeling that he was the only one in the room who didn't get the joke.

Then again, he probably would've been able to figure it out if he wasn't so damn tired.

Opposite him, Peach smiled softly and set her empty teacup down before reaching out for another piece of cake.

'Daisy's coming to visit tomorrow, remember?' she said.

Mario's mouth fell open in what Luigi considered to be an overly theatrical gesture of surprise. 'Oh! How did I forget about that?' Without waiting for an answer, he spun around in his chair to face his brother, the little smirk a huge grin now. 'What d'you think, bro? Daisy's coming! You two can finally go out!'

Luigi couldn't stop himself this time. He rolled his eyes.

'Listen, despite what everyone seems to think, me and Daisy aren't together,' he responded, keeping his voice light and playful. The last thing he wanted was for Mario to discover how he really felt about the princess who'd been occupying his mind almost constantly since she left for Sarasaland four months ago.

'But this'll be the perfect opportunity to ask her out, don't you think?' Mario protested. 'C'mon, I know she likes you too. It was so obvious the last time you two saw each other, I'm surprised you didn't kiss her there and then.'

Luigi spluttered, heat creeping up his neck and face, and he hastily bent over and made a show of adjusting the brim of his cap to hide the blush. Sometimes he wished it were possible to buy speech filters.

'You're kidding, Mario. She's just a good friend. We've always been good friends.'

Before Mario could reply, Peach jumped in. 'I think maybe he's right,' she said, though her voice was more gentle and reassuring than that of the plainspoken plumber. 'I want you to be happy, and I want Daisy to be happy too, and I'm sure she likes you as much as you like her. Don't be so nervous. Just go for it!'

She gave him an encouraging smile whilst absent-mindedly waving a piece of coconut sponge cake in the air, which didn't make him feel much better.

'Yeah, you're right!' Mario cried out. 'Luigi should just do it already.' In an unusually bold move, he placed his white-gloved hand over Peach's bare one and squeezed her fingers affectionately. 'You always have the best ideas.'

Luigi sighed and flicked a cake crumb off the edge of the table. 'Get a room already.'

However exasperated he might have been by his brother's continuous prodding about his love life, he felt a glow of satisfaction when both he and Peach flushed with embarrassment at his comment.

Luigi knew quite well that he didn't have the best luck in life. He never had, even when he was a little boy. Mario had always succeeded where he couldn't, always won games he couldn't, always had more friends, always had more luck in the romance department. It was something he'd grown used to and come to terms with mostly because he knew Mario didn't deliberately upstage him.

Once, he'd gotten it into his head that picking a fight with Wario was a good idea. His overweight cousin had been spewing rubbish about Daisy, talking about how ridiculous she looked, and how he couldn't believe both Luigi and Waluigi had a crush on her, and eventually the comments had sparked a kind of concentrated rage that gave him the courage to jump up and punch Wario in the nose.

At first, it had been comical. Wario just stood there holding his face with the most shocked expression Luigi had ever seen on anyone. A thin trickle of blood ran down into his mustache, but he didn't seem to notice.

It hadn't been comical a few seconds later when Luigi found himself being bowled to the ground, kicks and punches raining down on him from all sides as he threw up an arm in a vain effort to protect his own face.

Then the usual thing happened, which was Mario flying in out of nowhere and laying into Wario with all the vengeful fury of a Bob-omb sighting an enemy. Luigi rolled himself onto his hands and knees and quickly crawled off as his older brother and older cousin beat each other within an inch of their lives, wincing and fighting back tears as every bruise and cracked rib in his body complained at the action.

It had ended quickly, with Mario coming back from the battle sore but triumphant, still twitching with anger at what Wario had done, but his movements slow and careful as he helped his brother to his feet.

So it was pretty much a given; Luigi had terrible misfortune.

Maybe that was why, today, he found himself standing in Peach's ballroom as hundreds of guests were ushered in from outside. It didn't help that he was wearing a tuxedo – which he hated – and didn't have his signature cap on, meaning he had nothing to hide behind when people started looking his way.

He was also tired as usual, and his eyes felt like he'd spent five hours staring at a computer screen in a dark room before vigorously rubbing sand into them and not washing it out.

I knew I should have made up an excuse, he thought, folding his arms and sighing as he watched Mario strolling towards him. His older brother seemed a lot more cheery than he felt. In fact, the only reason Luigi had agreed to attend this stupid party was because Mario had asked him – several times, whilst looking like a lost puppy.

'Hey, bro!' came the familiar greeting, significantly louder than usual to be heard above the thumping background music. 'How's it going?' He was practically thrumming with nervous energy.

'Great,' Luigi responded, eyeing his brother, then the figure of Princess Peach standing at the other end of the hall, welcoming in the new guests. 'So, your first official date, huh?'

'It's not a date!' Mario protested hotly, but there was no way he could disguise the embarrassment this time. 'We're just hanging out, like friends.'

'Sure, I believe you.'

'Yeah, you'd better.'

They exchanged a quick grin, before Mario sobered and met his brother's eyes directly. 'Listen, Luigi... I meant what I said the other day, about you and Daisy.'

'Here we go again...'

'I'm serious! You two are meant for each other. In fact, you should ask her to dance tonight.'

Luigi mentally thanked Toadsworth for not already serving the drinks, because he was pretty sure that, had he been holding something, he would have just dropped it from surprise.

'I hope you're joking,' he deadpanned.

Mario shook his head predictably, grinning again. 'Nope. I told you, I'm serious. I'm going to get you two together if it's the last thing I do.'

He smirked, gave a thumbs-up, then turned and hurried away before his brother could think of a retort.

Luigi groaned quietly. If there was one thing that he'd never understand, it was Mario's obsession with getting him a significant other. Exactly how was his love life any of Mario's business anyway – or Peach's either, for that matter?

Unfortunately, he didn't have to ponder long before the answer came to him as clear as day. Because they care.

It wasn't nosiness. They weren't prying into his affairs for the fun of it. They just wanted him, and to a slightly lesser extent Daisy, to be happy with each other.

He sighed out of habit and reached up to adjust the green bowtie at his throat. All he really cared about right now was getting out of this uncomfortable suit as soon as possible.

'It's nice in here, isn't it?'

The lights had dimmed, the music flared, and couples everywhere were spinning and twirling in graceful patterns on the dance floor. In the centre of the room, an illuminated globe twice the size of a person's head was sitting on a raised dais, throwing long dizzying rays of yellowish light around. The music was slow and rather jazzy.

'I-I guess,' said Luigi timidly, looking down at his and Daisy's interlocked hands and wondering how on earth they'd gotten to this point. Less than an hour ago he'd been utterly convinced that getting a date with her was about as unlikely as the idea of Bowser and Peach falling in love and eloping to the Badlands together. Now, they were dancing. Actually dancing!

All right, maybe he was going a little too far with that description, seeing as it was more like slow twirling in a circle, neither of them making any effort to come up with moves or steps. Actually, they were both very good dancers – Daisy had been forced to take lessons as a little girl because it was considered the princesslike thing to do, and Luigi had picked up the skill in his spare time, probably as a result of all the previous parties he'd been dragged along to.

Tonight, though...

Daisy smiled, squeezing one of his hands reassuringly as they reversed their spin counter-clockwise. 'You sure looked like you were enjoying yourself over there,' she said with a hint of playful sarcasm.

He knew what she was referring to; the fact that he'd been hiding in a corner of the room, clutching at a glass of champagne as he tried to avoid eye contact with anyone. He was aware that he'd looked slightly ridiculous, but there was no way he was going out there to interact with people he didn't know. Once Mario had disappeared to talk to Peach he'd pretty much given up hope of tonight being in any way enjoyable for him, until Daisy had dragged him out of his corner and asked him to dance.

He'd almost jumped at the chance to spend some time alone with her, but he had to admit that it had taken a lot of his courage to walk across the dance floor hand-in-hand with the Sarasaland princess.

Now, his hand relinquished hers to scratch the back of his head, a low chuckle escaping his throat as he tried not to show how out of his depth he was. 'Parties aren't really my thing...' he murmured, barely loud enough to be heard over the swell of the music.

Daisy nodded slowly, understanding. She always did.

'And what about this? Is this your kind of thing?' she challenged, reclaiming his other hand and stepping sideways, a bit of complicated footwork turning their pathetic waltz into a sort of improvised salsa. Luigi followed with surprising ease, keeping his fingers wrapped tightly around hers, relishing the physical contact just as much as knowing that he was actually good at something.

'I guess you could say that,' he concluded, coming to a sudden halt and looking her straight in the eyes for the first time. 'You're good too... even though I don't think you ever wanted to learn.'

She rolled her eyes good-naturedly. 'It's expected for a princess to learn how to dance,' she said, using the word as if it were a profanity. 'I guess I thought that was stupid. I always wanted to learn how to fight when I was little.'

'And did you?' Luigi asked, moving his hand to her waist just as hers slipped around his shoulder. They set off into a slow spin, hardly even aware that they were in motion. He vaguely wondered whether or not Mario had danced with Peach at all.

Daisy shrugged slightly.

'I found out later that I was better at sports,' she said casually. 'But I still took some self-defence lessons when I was a kid. Never hurts to be prepared, right? With all the crazy adventures you and Mario get into, I think it pays to be able to fight back. I could teach you, if you like.'

Luigi chuckled again, this time with real mirth. 'Maybe I'll take you up on that sometime.'

The music stopped as the musicians paused to eat and drink, exhausted from hours of playing. Only in the back of his mind was he aware of how silent the ballroom had suddenly become; the rest of his attention was on Daisy as they continued swaying gently together, ignoring the loss of the music as they lost themselves in their own little dance.

He knew Mario and Peach must be nearby. In fact, now that the dancing was over they'd probably rushed back to the buffet table to stuff themselves with food – or at least Mario had. Maybe he should go and look for them now... but Daisy was still here. And he couldn't figure out whether it was the Sarasaland princess or his big brother whose presence he valued the most.

He'd been drifting off into his own little world again. Daisy was looking down at him, one eyebrow raised, obviously amused by his sudden lapse from reality.

I need to stop doing that, he scolded himself.

Rather than speaking, he leaned up to plant a lightning-fast kiss on her cheek before looking down at his feet, too terrified to do anything else. He was the coward of the family, after all. Even his mum and dad, bless them, always made a point of mentioning that he needed to be more confident around people. But he was regressing again...

Before his mind could finish processing the realisation that he'd just kissed his not-quite-girlfriend with no warning whatsoever, she'd pulled him closer by the lapels of his tux and pressed her lips firmly, decisively to his.

Mario, Peach, he thought dazedly a few minutes later, you two are lifesavers. Remind me to thank you – profusely – next time I see you.

When the party was over, they went home together while Mario stayed over at the castle to spend more time with Peach. Luigi had a strong suspicion that his brother wouldn't be back until tomorrow morning at least.

'I remember coming here once,' said Daisy thoughtfully, inspecting the darkened living room as Luigi fumbled around beside her, simultaneously trying to unbutton his winter coat and turn on the lights so that they might actually be able to see where they were treading. He'd rather not have to explain to her why there was leftover spaghetti on carpet – that was Mario's responsibility.

'Dinner, right?' he said, finding the switch and wincing as light flooded into his eyes. He rubbed them vigorously and added, 'Mario hosted a celebratory meal after he saved Peach from Bowser during that trip to Isle Delfino a few years back.'

'Yeah... I remember being surprised at how well you could cook,' Daisy admitted, examining the row of small framed photographs stood along the mantelpiece. 'Though I expected Mario to do it, seeing as it was, y'know, kinda his idea all along.'

He let out an undignified snort of laughter, unable to hold it in. 'Him? He can barely make a fried egg without killing himself. Forget about a three-course meal for four people.'

Daisy set the photo she'd been holding down with far more care than she normally displayed when handling inanimate objects. 'That's a pretty good picture,' she commented lightly. Luigi didn't look to see what it was. 'So, what d'you wanna do now?'

He was suddenly reminded that neither of them had planned anything; they'd just run back home without a thought nor a backwards glance, delighted to be in each other's company.

He blamed it on his continued exhaustion, but that excuse didn't stop him feeling a bit stupid.

'...How about a drink?' he ventured after an uncomfortably drawn-out pause. 'I have tea, coffee and cocoa if you want that...'

She smiled and nodded. Her warm fingers curled around his hand, hanging limply at his side. 'Sounds great to me.'

Later, they were sitting side-by-side on the threadbare couch dominating the middle of the living room, the lights dimmed again, listening to the soft sound of an owl hooting outside. Empty mugs, one white with green stripes and one plain yellow, sat on the table in front of them. A few minutes ago they'd both contained scalding cocoa.

It was past midnight by then. It was late enough, and they were tired enough, that Luigi couldn't even muster the energy to act his usual awkward self, instead mumbling his way through the conversation without stopping to think about what he was saying. And when the talk lulled into silence, Daisy let out a huge yawn, wrapped an arm around him tightly, and rested her head on his shoulder. Their fingers were still entwined and had been for a while, mostly to keep them warm, but also partly because he couldn't bring himself to relinquish her hand quite yet.

Slowly, he let his head fall back against the couch and tried to match his own breathing to hers as she drifted off to sleep, the sound oddly comforting in its complete unfamiliarity. How many years had he been wishing for this scenario, or something like it, to happen?

He closed his eyes and exhaled gradually.

Sleep had never come so easily.