"So could you tell me what exactly's got you in such a flurry?" Daisy asked, drumming her gloved fingers on the table.
"I'm having dinner tonight," Peach explained anxiously, pacing back and forth in nervous circles.
One Mushroom Kingdom day, the princesses were casually hanging around the castle's kitchen after lunch, along with Yoshi, Birdo, Blue and Yellow Toad, whom they'd asked over. Well, all except for Peach, who looked so worked up she might have been an Olympic swimmer who'd forgotten her bathing suit.
"Oh, good!" Yellow Toad said happily. "It would be bad if you didn't eat, Princess!"
Peach stopped and sighed, trying to suppress a smile. "No, I mean, I'm planning  a dinner tonight."
"Um...so what is it that's bothering you?" Daisy asked straightforwardly.
"OOH, I love your dinners!" Blue Toad cried, jumping up on his chair and waving his hand around like a rambunctious school kid. "Me me me me me! Last time, I ate SO much cherry pie my arm started tingling!"
Everyone looked at him a little strangely. Peach clasped her hands and stood a little shyly, not meeting their eyes. "Well, I'm glad you think so, but this time I really meant it would be just Mario and me."
The kitchen was silent for a second as everyone at the table exchanged 'meaningful looks'. Then Daisy turned to her.
"My dear Peach, do I smell the invitation for a real date?"
"No, no!" Peach exclaimed in alarm, backing up and bumping into the counter. "Ohh...I mean, I just wanted to have dinner! And I just want it to be special...you know. I just...I don't even remember the last time I did anything like this!"
"Didn't you invite Mario over for cake on the night of the star festival?" Yellow Toad asked, trying to look important by busying himself with picking his nose until he realized he didn't have one.
"I did, but that was different...that was ALL different. This is dinner! A real dinner...and it's got to be perfect! I'm just not sure how to do it."
Daisy grinned at her friends gathered around her. "Hey," she said. "If it's a perfect dinner you want, that's what you're gonna get. What are friends for, anyway?"
Peach turned to the group, all watching her encouragingly. Yoshi nodded eagerly and Birdo winked.
"We're gonna make this the best...um...dinner you've ever had!" Daisy declared.
Peach allowed herself to relax into a smile. "Thanks, you all. Thank you so much!"
Blue Toad laughed. "How hard can it be?"

"Alright!" Daisy announced in her best military voice. Five minutes later the group was all sitting around the table watching the princess who had taken charge. Daisy had found a pointer somewhere and wheeled in a dry erase board to demonstrate. Yellow Toad was standing on a ladder writing stuff all over it as she talked, albeit a bit unrestricted. At the top read:
MAKING PEACH'S DATE DINNER A PERFECT DINNER
"We have approximately three hours and thirty minutes to turn that back balcony into the perfect dinner destination," Daisy instructed. "If he gets her message on time, Romeo should be arriving around 6:30."
Peach, trying not to change color from embarrassment, looked shyly at Yoshi, who was sitting by her. The dinosaur grinned and shrugged.
"Wait, wait, Romeo?" Blue Toad butted in. "I thought his name was Mario!"
Daisy groaned. "You know what, never mind. Okay! Peach, you, Yoshi and Yellow Toad will take the kitchen. For the next few hours you can prepare the perfect dinner just the way you like it. That's what you do best," she added with a wink. "Birdo, Blue Toad, you're coming with me."
"Okay!" Blue Toad said, rubbing his hands together mischievously. "Where are we going?"
"We're handling decor and music," Daisy said. "We're gonna transform that balcony into the most romantically magic place you've ever seen!"
"Music? I-I didn't ask for music," Peach said.
"Trust me, music is everything," Birdo told her.
"It's for us to worry about and you to...not worry about, so just get cooking!" Daisy said, standing up and heading out the door. "Make something he'd die for!" She called through the closed door.
Out of earshot, she continued to herself, "Although hopefully not, because if Mario had a few too many hamburgers he really could..."
She stopped when she realized Birdo and Blue Toad were staring at her.
"Never mind! Lady and toad, we have a job to do." And with that she led them down one of the castle halls to gather supplies. "Lady and the Toad..." She mused to no one as they headed out. "That could be a movie title. Seriously, that would be really cool..."

"I think we should make the lasagna," Yoshi was telling Peach over a cookbook. "It's Mario's favorite."
"Are you sure?"
"Well...one of them."
Meanwhile Yellow Toad had been letting his imagination run free on the dry erase board. Yoshi looked up.
"Yellow Toad! We need you to start gathering these ingredients!"
"Is it the recipe of love?" He asked without looking up.
"No, it's the recipe for punished toads," Yoshi replied. "Get down here."
"Uggh!" Groaning like a frustrated two year old, Yellow Toad came down the ladder.
"You get the pasta," Yoshi instructed. "It's foolproof."
Yellow Toad nodded and skipped off.
"Lovely, if you two can handle that then I'll work on dessert," Peach said, already planning to make one of her famous cakes.
"Are you making the 'Sweet Revenge' cake?" Yellow Toad asked from the pantry.
"No...I don't even know what that is," the Princess replied.
"Ooh, you're making the Mario Killer, right? You've gotta make that one. Cause Mario would kill for that one."
"I didn't know my cakes had licensed names," Peach commented to Yoshi, who nodded in agreement.
"Hey Yellow Toad, what's the holdup?" He asked impatiently, waiting with an empty pan.
"No holdups! I was just busy...getting eaten...by the pasta." The pantry door swung open and a wave of dry noodles flooded out, with Yellow Toad surfing on top of them like a wave. They quickly got under Yoshi's feet, who at that moment happened to be carrying a big bucket of tomato sauce. You can basically guess what happened next.
"Uhh...I hope Mario likes his pasta sauce dinosaur flavored," Yellow Toad said sheepishly, grinning at the covered Yoshi that sat before him. Yoshi grabbed him by the vest.
"How about mushroom flavored?!"
With that he got up and slung a bunch of sauce at Yellow Toad. It might have broken into an all-out food fight if Peach hadn't intervened then.
"Oh, my! What happened?"
When neither of them answered, she said, "Yellow Toad, that was the last of our sauce! You'd better rush to the store right now and get more."
He groaned like Waluigi and dragged his saucy self out the door. Yoshi stood up, licking himself clean. Peach sighed and looked around at the mess.
"Oh, we don't have time for a mess like this! You don't suppose you could lick up all this too, do you?"

Daisy walked in circles on the castle's balcony, where they were to set the stage. "Okay, Blue Toad, we're going to need decorations. I'm sending you to ToadMart to get those right now. And I'm talking nice stuff: streamers, lights, but nothing too fancy."
Blue Toad frowned in confusion, but he didn't say anything.
"And I'll need you back by 3:45."
"But that's fifteen minutes!"
"Then get your rear in gear!" she exclaimed, pointing to the open door. Blue Toad turned and ran.
"Anyway, this thing needs romantic music," Daisy told Birdo. "Got any ideas?"
"Plenty," she replied, waving a hand. "I'm the love expert, remember? And I think the best way to get things moving is by setting the music to come on at random, uncontrollable times. Like a surprise visit from the love doctor. I've got the perfect thing for it."
Daisy grinned sneakily. "I get ya. Just show me this music player."

"The last of the sauce," Yellow Toad muttered to himself as he pushed his Toad-sized cart full of tomato sauce through the store. "Maybe there would've been some left over if he hadn't flung it all on ME!"
He turned a corner rather abruptly and slammed headfirst into another cart. "Oh, pardon me, I was just..." He looked up and saw that it was Blue Toad. "Oh, it's just you. Never mind."
Blue Toad rolled his eyes and threw a roll of streamers at him. It bounced off his bubble and landed in his cart.
"Ha, you're paying for that now," Blue Toad told him.
"Am not! I wasn't sent here for bathroom business!"
"That's not toilet paper, it's for decorating the balcony, you dweeb!" Blue Toad said.
"You're going to decorate the balcony with toilet paper?" Yellow Toad asked incredulously. "Isn't that going a little low, even for a toilet guy like Mario?"
Blue Toad slapped his face. "Ow," he said. "I just said it's not toilet paper! And for your information, I believe Mario got his name legally changed to Romeo."
"He did? Boy, thanks for telling me. Well, I've gotta run. See you at the castle," Yellow Toad said, heading off.
"Anytime," Blue Toad said.
And in case you are wondering, yes, Yellow Toad did end up paying for the streamers.

"Hey, Mario, this letter came for you," Luigi said, heading into the living room and waving an envelope. "It's from Peach."
"Really?" Mario asked, taking it from him and opening it. Luigi watched his facial expressions as he read through the note. He started out normal. Then he perked up with excitement. Then his eyes popped so much Luigi was afraid they might fall out and they'd have to crawl all over the floor looking for them. (It didn't get that bad, though.) Finally he lowered the letter and stared at nothing in a kind of frozen trance.
Luigi snapped his fingers. "Hey, bro. What is it?" He waved a hand in front of Mario's eyes and got no response. "What's it say?"
Not getting a reply from Mario, he shoved his way through to see the note. At first he was a little jealous, but he bit it back.
"So, we finally got asked on a date, did we?" He asked, grinning slyly at his brother.
Mario finally snapped out of his reverie. "What? No! She does this all the time! I'm just...concerned that my mustache doesn't look good enough to go in public!"
"It looks fine to me," Luigi said. "Really, bro, if you're nervous all you have to do is say so."
"I'm not nervous. Who's nervous?" Mario asked, starting to pace behind the couch. Luigi narrowed his eyes. "You are."
"Oh, what should I first say to her? How do I say goodnight? What cologne should I wear!?"
Luigi rolled his eyes. "Bro, I can read you better than a book. Here, I'll help you do your hair."
"My hair? But I'm gonna take my hat!"
"Bro, do you really think that's a good idea? Get dressed up, for Peach's sake!"
"Don't talk to me about Peach's sake! She loves my fashion sense!"
Luigi gave him a look. "Right, like she really wants you to show up looking like a farmer to your first date."
"For the last time, this is not a date, and furthermore, if I look like a farmer, what does that make you?" Mario asked.
Luigi slapped his forehead. "Doh."

"Two pounds of pasta sauce, just like the princess ordered," Yellow Toad said, lugging a wagon of it into the kitchen a little while later. Yoshi had been working on the rest of the food while he was away, and he ran to take it from him.
"It's about time! Whole new tomato plants could have sprouted in the time you took!"
"Gee, don't say thanks too quickly or anything," Yellow Toad said, plunking himself in a chair and pulling out an MP3 player. He turned on a Super Mario Bros. 3 remix. He had only gotten to enjoy it for two seconds before Yoshi came and yanked it out of his nonexistent ears.
"Oh no, sir, I still need your help," he said. "These pans aren't gonna fill themselves."
"What, do you expect me to pour those cans? They're huge!"
"Hmm, I suppose you're right," Yoshi said thoughtfully. "I got it!"
When Peach walked in a moment later, she found Yellow Toad standing on the counter, pushing all his body weight against a huge can of tomato sauce which was pouring over the edge and free-falling several feet into the pan, which was sitting in a wagon being held by Yoshi. It was not the most graceful of processes.
"What's going on in here?" She exclaimed.
Yellow Toad looked up with innocence. "Nothing. What's going on with you, princess?"
"Well, the cake is done, now I just need to decorate it," she said absentmindedly. "Are you sure you all can handle this...?"
"We're dandy, princess," Yoshi said, "so don't you worry about a thing. Yellow Toad, you got some on my head!"
"Uhh, right," Peach said before hurrying away.
"Hey, I was just thinking, what are we gonna eat?" Yellow Toad said.
"I don't know, we could make some Yoshi cookies for later," Yoshi suggested.
"Good idea! I'll get the stuff." But just when he jumped down from the counter, his MP3 player was bumped from the edge and disappeared.
When Yellow Toad came back a minute later covered in flour and carrying assorted bags, he glanced around. "Where's my music player?"
Yoshi shrugged, still wiping sauce from his head.
"You can't mean to tell me you lost it?!"
"I didn't touch it," Yoshi said.
Yellow Toad dropped the stuff in his arms and got to the floor, starting a desperate search for his MP3 player. Peach came in then to get some more frosting, and the toad on the floor bumped into her just as she was grabbing an open bag of it. An impressive amount squirted all over her apron. Then the door opened and Lakitu poked his head in.
"Just thought I'd let you all know that it's five o 'clock," he said. "Oh, and Purple Toad got his head stuck in the iron gate outside." He glanced around at the sorry scene for a minute, then said hastily, "I can see now's a bad time." With that he slammed the door and excused himself.

"This was a great idea," Daisy said.
She and Birdo were standing on the balcony looking at the speaker Birdo had cleverly hidden in a plant. "With this you can control the music."
Blue Toad was busy hanging the streamers in a decorative way on the railing. When he reached the end, however, he unfortunately tripped over an invisible rock, lost his footing, and fell over the railing. With a scream he vanished from view, and the two talking girls didn't even realize he was missing for a near minute.
Finally Daisy looked up. "Blue Toad?" The two ran up to the railing and looked over. There he was several yards below, holding on to a bunch of dangling streamers for dear life. "Howdy," he said when he noticed them staring at him from above. "Nice weather, huh?"
"Oh my gosh," Daisy said in a panic, "Hold on, we'll get you up!" She and Birdo grabbed the streamer and tried to pull him to safety, but it began to tear.
"Don't mind me, guys, I'm just dangling over sudden death here," Blue Toad told them.
"Hang on," Daisy said, letting go. "See if you can get to the kitchen window. It should be a few feet below you."
"Okay..."he said nervously, letting himself down a bit. He carefully started to swing back and forth, building some momentum to reach the window. Then he aimed and leaped like Tarzan.

Meanwhile, Yellow Toad was busy cracking eggs into a bowl when suddenly he heard a buzz. "Did you hear something?" He asked Yoshi, who was taking the finally finished dinner out of the oven.
"No."
"That's funny, I thought I heard a game over or something."
"Yellow Toad, if you're having thoughts of suicide, I'm going to tie you to my saddle and take you to Dr. Mario's right this instant," Yoshi replied.
"I'm not! And his name is Dr. Romeo, by the way," Yellow Toad added. "No, I seriously heard..." Suddenly he stopped and jerked his head up. "MY MP3 PLAYER!!"
"Sorry, it's lost, man."
But the determined toad was already sniffing on the floor like a greyhound. Yoshi watched as he followed a trail that led him right to the lasagna.
"You know you can't eat that. It's got Mario's name all over it. Remember that time Luigi ate his ravioli by mistake? He looked ready to slug somebody."
Yellow Toad ignored him. Instead he stared at the cheesy surface. A small sound, just distinguishable, rose from the warm pan.
Yellow Toad screamed.
"You are not telling me," Yoshi said in disbelief, "your MP3 player is in the lasagna?"
"MY BABY WAS SWALLOWED BY AN ITALIAN ENTREE! SOMEBODY HELLLLP!" He started running around the kitchen in frantic circles. Then a tiny spider dropped down from the ceiling in his path and made him screech to a halt. Screaming again, he turned around and grabbed a rolling pin.
"Get it!" Yoshi cried, shoving a chair out of the way. He ducked while Yellow Toad wildly swing at the air. Such was the state of things when Peach walked back in.
"The cake is done...." She trailed off.
"Where'd it go? Ow!" Yoshi grabbed the rolling pin from him in frustration after Yellow Toad whacked him with it. Then he tried to get the spider, who unbeknownst to them had fallen to the floor and was dodging under their feet. When he saw that Yoshi had taken the rolling pin, the spider cried, "Get it! Get it!"
"Okay...false alarm," Yellow Toad said, calming down. Then he exploded again. "BUT MY MP3 PLAYER!"
Just then Lakitu poked his head in. "Your highness, Mario has arrived," he informed them. Peach have them a worried glance and took off her apron. "Have that ready in five minutes," she told them before rushing out. The two looked at each other and screamed.
They were surprised to find that even when they stopped screaming, someone was still screaming in the background. Then suddenly Blue Toad smacked against the window like a mindless bird.
"Oh, hi." Yellow Toad waved.
"Let him in!" Yoshi said, rushing forward to open the window. Unfortunately, when he did their unexpected visitor fell right into the bowl of eggs and emerged covered in egg yolk.
"I'm...I'm safe! I'm...covered in...amniotic fluid."
"Well, doesn't that give a double meaning to survival," the spider commented behind them.
Yellow Toad turned, saw it, and shrieked. Then he dove out the window, grabbed on to the streamer, and began to climb up to the balcony.
"They'll be up here any minute," Yoshi told Blue Toad. "They can't see you like this! You gotta get scarce. I'll take the dinner to them."
"Sounds like a plan," the spider commented. The two looked at him.
"What?"

When Mario approached the castle the first thing he noticed was no one to greet him. As he walked up to the door, suddenly a toad called, "Evenin', Mario!"
Mario jumped and looked over to see Purple Toad watching him from the fence, with his giant head stuck on one side of the bars. He stood there patiently like a condemned criminal on display.
"Um...hi," he said before awkwardly continuing on his way. When he was about to reach the door, he heard a scream from overhead and looked up. Several stories high, he could see what looked like a toad dangling from the balcony by a rope of some kind. A couple of people stood at the top shouting things at him.
Mario tried to wrinkle his nose in confusion but found that he couldn't. Now really weirded out, he headed inside to see if someone needed his help.

"Guys!" Yoshi whispered urgently as he came onto the balcony. "Code red and pink! They're gonna be up here any second!"
"We better get outta here," Daisy said, motioning to Birdo and Yellow Toad, who thanks to his exaggerated fear of spiders, had successfully made it up to the balcony.
Just then they heard voices and footsteps approaching, so they had no other choice but to hide behind the door. When the Peach and Mario entered, the gang managed to sneak out behind them.
"Come on!" Daisy said, running over to the tiny window from which they'd be able to spy. There Blue Toad, still covered in egg yolks, joined them.
The sun was already starting to set and the moon was out. Birdo had activated her quiet music and the setting was nothing short of romantic.
Daisy sighed in satisfaction as she watched them sit down. "I think that's gonna work out just fine."
"Yeah, until they find the MP3 player in the lasagna," Yoshi commented.
At this everyone turned to look at him. They were silent for a few moments. Then Yellow Toad sniffed the air. "Do you smell something burning?"

Whoops, looks like their cookies got burned 😂 I'm not sure where this one came from, just lots of kitchen randomness.
Obviously the star festival is a reference to Super Mario Galaxy, and the bathing suit thing, ironically, is sort of addressed in the games. Peach has an Olympic bathing suit now, but for the original Beijing, she didn't yet, so she just swam in her clothes. I guess it didn't really bother her.
Anyway, I know it wasn't perfect and got kinda long, but please comment and let me know what you think! Thanks for reading and more coming soon 😄