Author's Note: This is a story trade with mrs. mario13 (no space after the full stop). Haven't done one of these before, so let's see how I go!

"Weegee? You up there?"

Silence. Mario sighed. Ever since Mario's latest adventure, Luigi had been holing himself up in his room a heck of a lot lately. Sometimes, the red-clad hero wondered if his brother was ill. Luigi rarely came out of his room nowadays, and when he did, his face was pale, there were large grey bags under his eyes, and his hands shook. What really scared Mario, however, was that once he had thought that Luigi's eyes had flashed red.

Scarlet, blood-red.

Afterwards, he had shrugged it off, taking it as a trick of the light. But now... now he wasn't sure.

He was starting to get the idea in his head that Luigi was slowly turning evil.

But Mario had shrugged that off, too. They trusted each other, and if Luigi was sick, or if he really WAS bending to the will of evil, he would have obviously told Mario. Mario, his brother, his saviour, and his friend. Even if Mario was a hero, Luigi had still rescued Mario a TON in the past, from an illness, from ghosts...

Anyway, Mario was starting to get annoyed when he had been calling for Luigi at the foot of the wooden stairs for about half an hour. He decided to take matters into his own hands. So Mario started scaling the staircase.

When he reached the landing with the labelled doors, Mario knocked on the one that proclaimed "L" in bold green, and waited.

Nothing.

He tried again. Nothing.

"Come on, Weeg, stop teasing me!" called Mario, his voice somewhat forced to be jolly.

This time, he heard a noise, but there were no words, just growling.

"Okay, Luigi, this isn't funny anymore. Your dinner's getting cold!" said Mario, hammering on the door after unsuccessfully trying the doorknob. "Open up, man!"

"G-go away!" stammered the thin voice of someone starving. "I'm not hungry."

"Luigi, I can hear your stomach from downstairs," said Mario. This was not true, but Mario knew when his brother was hungry.

"I told you, I'm not hungry!" camed Luigi's voice.

Mario sighed. "Luigi, you're looking worse every day. You aren't going to come out until at least midnight if I leave you be, so come on already and quit starving yourself! And while you're at it, OPEN THIS DOOR!"

There was no sound. Then, Luigi's voice came, and Mario was shocked to hear that the green-clad plumber sounded... scared.

"I-if I open this door, p-promise me that you'll listen to what ever I have to say?" stammered Luigi.

Mario paused, his mouth open and forming a retort he would never say.

"Mario?"

The hero swallowed and said, "I promise."

"You won't throw me over to the police?"

"Promise."

"You'll believe me?"

Mario stopped again, then said, "Yes."

There was more silence, as though Luigi was reconsidering already, but he had given his word. With a creak, the doorknob turned, and the door opened, revealing Luigi's pale, frightened face. "Come in," he muttered, holding the door open.

Mario walked in, his jaw open. Luigi's once-immaculate room was now messy, disorganised and cluttered. His wardrobe was flung open, clothes and litter were strewn over the floor, and his bed was unmade. Once both of them were in, Luigi shut the door firmly, so the only light was the small one of Luigi's nightlight.

"So what's this all about, Weeg?" asked Mario.

"Mario, I'm evil."

It took a while for Mario's brain to process these words. After a while, Mario managed a shaky laugh.

"Aw, c'mon, Weegee! I'm not that stupid! You aren't evil. You're one of the nicest guys I've ever known!"

"I am, but he isn't," whispered Luigi, his sapphire-blue eyes starting to brim with tears. "Mar, I've never hurt anyone, and I want it to stay that way. I don't want you to get angry cuz I've never told anyone, but I have an alter ego. He calls himself Mr. L, and when he comes..."

Luigi shivered, as though reliving the worst memory of his life. But he went on. "When he comes, I don't have any control over myself. When he first appeared, he escaped through the window and terrorised Princess Peach, tried to kill her, got her hurt real... badly. I... I had to stop him after that. So that's why I stick myself in my room. I don't want anyone else to be hurt, and above all, I don't want youto be hurt, nor for me to be the one to hurt you."

Mario stared. His face was virtually expressionless, but his brain was processing about a million different thoughts and feelings. His shock said, Man, Weegee's a psycho? What? How is that logical? His fear whispered, Mario, you have to run! Call the police... don't let him get to you! His brotherly instincts yelled, Go comfort him! Help him out! He's your freakin' BROTHER!

But Mario pushed these all away, and let anger take over.

"WHY?" he shouted, making Luigi squeak and back away, towards the door. "Why didn't you TELL me? Or Peach? Or ANYONE? We could have helped you, or better yet, we could've helped those people YOU mindlessly hurt!"

"Mario, I didn't!" said Luigi weakly, but he was so quiet, anyone could have pretended not to notice.

"So what you're trying to tell me is that you're a freaking PSYCHO?" roared Mario, advancing on his brother. "A psycho who brings pain to others', all because he has nothing ELSE better to do? And you attacked PEACH? Why?"

"Mario!" yelled Luigi, who was now crying.

"I'll tell you why," hissed Mario. "Because my brother's a bastard. A sicko, heartless BASTARD who turns on the people he loves!"

But then he stopped. Mario's mouth popped shut, because right then he realised that he was turning on the person he loved. Luigi, his brother, was now full-out crying, into his arms, crouched on the floor like a child caught in wrongdoing.

"I-I'm... I'm sorry..." whispered Mario, and now he felt the treacherous tears overwhelming him, too. He bobbed down and laid a hand on Luigi's shoulder. "I'm so, so, sorry..."

Luigi kept sobbing, and Mario clutched his brother's shoulder, now crying himself, repeating the words over and over to try and heal the wounds his words - his words - had inflicted on his brother. "I'm sorry, I'm sorry, I'm sorry!"

Then, suddenly, Luigi had stopped crying, and had flung his arms around his brother. And they both cried for a bit, and comforted each other, and they were friends and brothers and loving family once more.

"I'm sorry too," whispered Luigi as they got up. "Sorry for not telling you earlier."

"It's okay," said Mario, as the two brothers went down for dinner. "I forgive you."