Big Bwo

Mario and Luigi both stumbled through the door after a long days work, ready to rest and take it easy. The princess had again gotten captured and for the third time that week, no less. Mario and Luigi sure had their work cut out for them, and it showed on their worn out faces as they sat down on their familiar places on the couch. After sitting down, peeling off their gloves, and panting in the humid summer air for a solid minute, Mario was the first to break the ice.

"You doing alright, little bro? That hit from that spell Kamek cast on you looked pretty painful and you're looking a little pale right now."

Luigi looked up at Mario for a second. He had indeed taken a shot from Kamek earlier that day and it had smarted when he got hit, but what chilled Luigi most was after Kamek had been defeated and Luigi passed by him, Luigi distinctly heard Kamek let out a hoarse chuckle and said "baby" under his breath. Luigi was used to being called baby all the time, but the way Kamek said it made Luigi shudder and fearful. But all that the spell seemed to do was make Luigi a bit shaky. Luigi always seemed to shake a bit, regardless of if he was scared or not, so this wasn't new. However, after Bowser was defeated, Luigi noticed an increase in the intensity of his shaking. But he couldn't let Mario see. He had to be strong for his big bro.

"Y-yeah," replied Luigi with his usual stutter, "In fact, let me go and cook us dinner right now. It's been a long day."

"Okay, whatever you say," replied Mario as he turned on the TV.

Luigi made his way to the kitchen and began to grab a pot to make a favorite of Mario's that was obviously spaghetti due to him being an italian stereotype. As Luigi grabbed the pot, his hand shaking suddenly got worse. So bad, in fact, that the pot went tumbling to the ground as soon as he made an attempt to grab it. Luckily, Mario was too involved with his TV show that he wasn't really paying attention to the noise coming from the kitchen. Luigi noticed this and quickly picked up the pot and got to working on his food. Although his hands would not stop shaking violently, Luigi continued on the best that he could, hoping that Mario wouldn't notice how badly his hands were shaking. The last thing he needed was for Mario to rush him to the hospital and never leave his side. The kingdom needed Mario, and Luigi knew he couldn't get in the way of that.

"Dinner," Luigi called as soon as he served up the portions onto his and Mario's plate.

Mario came rushing in like a cheetah onto its prey in the savannah. Mario began to eat ravenously, but looked up when he needed to come up for air and noticed Luigi wasn't eating. Luigi's huge portion on his own plate just simply sat untouched.

"Hey Weege," mumbled Mario through his full mouth, "Aren't you going to eat?"

"No thanks," said Luigi, as he suddenly got up and started walking towards the hallway, "I'm not hungry and I need to take a shower."

Mario nearly fell over. Luigi not hungry? That was impossible. Although he was the food depository and had the gut to show it, Luigi was actually the bigger eater of the two. He could run entire all you could eat buffets out of business! And to top it off, he always seemed to be hungry. It was only his leaner frame and better metabolism that could say otherwise. Mario tried to stop Luigi, but he was already walking off in the hallway. Wait, were his hands shaking profusely? Mario dismissed it. It was a hard day and it would be better to just let Luigi have his night to himself.

XxX

Mario eventually finished off his pasta and rubbed his belly with a contented groan. Luigi was the better cook of the two and his meals were guaranteed to fill someone up. Mario leisurly got up and put his plate in the sink. Now to check on Luigi. Oddly enough, he hadn't heard from him for quite awhile and that was somewhat unusual. Although Luigi was quiet and shy in public, he could get rather boisterous while home alone with his older brother. Perhaps he was still in the shower. Mario got up and walked to the door. It was open a crack, but the odd thing was that there was no fan running to clear out all the steam. Luigi was one to also do things a particular way, and turning on the fan is one of his particular ways after a shower.

This was getting weirder and weirder. From Luigi's odd behavior earlier to more and more things not adding up, what was going on? Mario decided to peek in the bathroom to see if everything was alright. Towels and Luigi's clothes were strewn everywhere. Something was horribly wrong, Mario knew. This was too unlike Luigi for everything to be alright. He always cleaned up the bathroom to perfection after taking a shower, with his OCD constantly dictating his behavior into cleaning. What happened? Luigi was nowhere to be found and things that had fallen off the shelves almost suggested that a tornado had gone through there! But wait. Mario still hadn't checked Luigi's room. Mario went straight over to the door and tried to open it. Locked. Luigi also never locked his door.

"Luigi, are you in there? The door's locked."

Mario put his ear to the door and heard no response from Luigi. However, he did hear a small yelp that didn't sound like Luigi and some shuffling. He needed to get in there. Without another word, Mario rushed off to get his toolbox and pulled out some tools. He was going to get into that room and see what was wrong or what happened. Mario quickly got to work on the hinges and got the door off in no time. Mario rushed into the room to find that it seemed fairly normal. Luigi was an absolute neat freak and his room accurately reflected that, with every speck of dust in check. There was nothing seeming out of place. No blood or anything knocked over or in the wrong place to suggest that a skirmish with something happened.

But there was one thing that was out of place. There was a small forlorn pile of green blankets in the corner, that wasn't supposed to be there. Mario marched up to that small pile of blankets after arming himself with a baseball bat from Luigi's closet, and Mario poised the bat in one hand while slowly peeling back the blankets with the other, ready to strike at any given notice. Mario quickly uncovered the back of somebody's head as the soft brown hair came into view and contact with Mario's non-gloved hand.

"Pwease, no," a small childish voice from the blankets whimpered, startling Mario and almost making him swing the bat. Mario dropped the bat off to the side in an instant. This voice belonging to the lump underneath the blanket was clearly not belonging to a goomba, koopa troopa, or anything else of danger. Mario yanked off the blanket to reveal a toddler in a oversized green shirt staring at him with a very frightened expression. The toddler quickly hiked up the shirt, that fit more like a dress, and tried to make a run for it, but Mario watched as the child's somewhat oversized feet tangled up beneath him, causing him to fall to the floor. Mario bolted over to where the toddler was and snatched him up in an instant. Mario held the squirming and struggling kid at arms length in front of him, trying to get a good look at him. Where did this kid come from and why did he steal one of Luigi's shirts?

Oh no. With all the other events of this night not adding up, Luigi not being found, and the appearance of this strange child that fit the description of a younger Luigi, this could mean only one thing.

"Luigi?" Mario barely croaked out as the toddler continued to struggle to get away, but even more fiercely, "Is that you?"

Luigi stopped trying to flail his way out of Mario's arms and stared up at his older brother tearfully.

"Yes," Luigi sniffled.

"But how?" Mario asked, more profound and deep words ditching him as he stared at his brother that he was holding in front of him that couldn't have been older than 3.

Luigi couldn't hold back his tears anymore as he began to sob and say everything that he knew, while having his slurred child's voice, unable to pronounce many consanants correctly.

"I was taking a showa to calm my neves and when I got out, I just stawted getting smalla and smalla! Help me! I don't wana to be stuck at this young age!"

Luigi began to sob, leaving Mario staring at his little brother and silent. What had caused this? All they did today was... oh. Kamek must have done this but the spell had a time delay of sorts on it. Mario hugged Luigi and his crying died down to sniffles as he embraced Mario.

"Come on, Luigi," said Mario as he set Luigi on the floor and rolled up the sleeves and bottom of the oversized shirt, allowing Luigi to walk better. Mario and Luigi made their way down the hallway towards the kitchen. Mario picked up Luigi and set him on the countertop before grabbing a wet paper towel and wiping Luigi's tears off. Luigi only stared at his short and little limbs. How was he going to fight like this? Luigi's arms were short enough to where he could barely reach the top of his head, not to mention his upper lip was bothering him due to his mustache that he had been growing since he was 18 was now gone. He was even more useless now than before. All those toads in town that liked to make fun of him were right. He was a useless crybaby.

Mario eventually finished cleaning Luigi up and picked him up once more and carried him to the couch and sat him down before sitting next to him. Luigi sat in silence next to his older brother, not knowing what to do. How could Mario be a hero now if he constantly had to take care of Luigi now? He couldn't. Luigi knew he was already a bit of a pain in the rear to Mario during adventures when his extreme bad luck tended to turn a five minute ordeal into a five day ordeal. But now he couldn't even fight, probably. He was just going to be another liability to Mario and he was better off leaving and letting Mario have an easier life.

Luigi got up and jumped to the floor and headed towards the door. He could go somewhere else where he wasn't such a bother. Luigi made it to the door and had to jump to reach the knob. Luigi managed to open the door and ran out as fast as he could into the nearby woods. Although he didn't know where he was going, he knew he had to get away from Mario. Things were better this way. Luigi's feet and short legs were getting covered in scratches, and Luigi winced as he ran. He needed to get away. Luigi didn't notice the tree root sticking out of the ground until his foot had already hooked itself under it and Luigi tripped to smash his head onto a jagged rock very hard. As everything was going black and Luigi felt a warm liquid covering his face and going into his eyes, blinding him as he felt his limp body roll and fall off a small cliff. As Luigi fell, everything went black.

XxX

Why didn't he respond earlier? Mario kept kicking himself mentally that he let his little brother and only family run off. He should have gotten up and grabbed Luigi when he was going for the door. Not to mention Luigi ran off while he was in a deaged state, leaving him much more vulnerable state. Luigi could very easily get himself killed. Mario rushed towards the door as soon as Luigi opened it and ran out, but was too late as his calls for his brother were carried away by the summer night wind. Luigi had run off and there was little hope of finding him now, Mario realized. He quickly grabbed a flashlight and began to run into the forest after his little brother.

After about half an hour of looking, Mario gave up and sat on a jagged looking rock overlooking a cliff. Luigi was gone. There was no finding him now. Mario wiped away tears that were gathering in his eyes before setting his hand down on the rock to be greeted with more liquid coming in contact with Mario's hand. The liquid was warm and sticky. Mario brought up his flashlight to look at the rock better. It was covered in a red substance on one of the jagged points that could only be blood. No. It couldn't be. The blood was smeared down the side of the rock to the ground, the blood also creating a trail to the edge of the cliff. Mario shakily got to his feet and peered over the edge of the cliff with his flashlight to see a small crumpled form lying face down at the bottom wearing an oversized green shirt.

Mario felt time slow down around him as he leapt down the cliff face, not even caring how much it stung when his feet touched the bottom of the cliff. Mario rushed over to his little brother's body and turned him over. There was a horrible and nasty gash across his head that was still bleeding profusely. Mario quickly put his ear against Luigi's chest and heard the small and weak beating of his heart. He was alive, but not for long with a wound like that. He needed attention and fast. Mario picked up his little brother's body and jumped the highest he ever had to the top. Hopefully he could beat the clock to save his little brother's life.

XxX

Luigi woke up with a severe headache and Mario's tearful face close to him.

"What happened?" Luigi moaned, still waking up, "Why am I still here?"

Mario couldn't hold back a sob anymore and grabbed Luigi and held him close.

"Don't say that!" Mario cried, "You belong here and shouldn't be anywhere else."

Luigi remembered hitting his head with a lot of pain, but nothing after that. Did Mario find him? Luigi reached up a small hand to his forehead before wincing and bringing it back in a bunch of pain. It was covered in blood.

"Don't touch that," said Mario, still crying, but the sobs starting to subside into sniffles, "The stitches are only temporary and I need to take you to a real doctor in the morning."

Luigi felt horrible. Now Mario has to take even more time to fix this and now he was injured and required even more attention. This was exactly the opposite of what he wanted. Mario finally stopped crying.

"Luigi, why did you run away?" Mario asked, looking at Luigi.

Luigi sniffled and stared back up at Mario. He always had to be strong for big bro. He had to show his worth and be essential to the team. Even though he mostly failed at all that, he still did his best to hide his problems. He was a brother of Mario and had to be strong. Could he tell his older brother? Luigi felt the tears flood his eyes as he stared up at Mario, who had shifted Luigi so he was now in his lap.

"I wan becawse I didn't want to buwden you," Luigi said through the tears, "I've always been a pain in the weaw, but now I'm an even bigger pain! I don't want to botha you. I'm just the cowadly bwotha that gets in the way of the hewo."

Mario held his crying brother closer. Sure Luigi could be annoying at certain times, but he was what made the adventures fun and full of spice. He was what made adventures worth it. Not to mention if he did lose Luigi, being a hero wouldn't even be worth it anymore. What good is a hero that can't save what matters most?

"Luigi," Mario started, cradling his younger brother as Luigi shoved a thumb in his mouth to suck on, "You're never a bother to me. I'll always love you and you know that. Sure adventuring has its own share of disasters, but you were never a bother to me. After all, you give adventures spice and personality, making them worth remembering. I don't care that you're only about three years old now. I'll take care of you until this wears off. Heck, even if it never wears off, I'll still take care of you. You're my brother Weege and I love you. We can't be the Mario brothers without you."

Luigi stared up at Mario while still sucking his thumb. Mario did care about him. Why was he so foolish to not see it like this before. Luigi felt sleep inviting him to play, and he knew there was only one thing left to say.

"Mawo?"

"Yes, Luigi?"

"Thanks for being my big bwo."

No ending note because I'm tired and want to sleep