Author's Note: This is the sequel to Acceptance of the Stars, a story I wrote about Waluigi and Rosalina. However, you don't have to read Acceptance to understand what happens in this story.

Sentiments of the Stars

Sometimes he forgot that it had been nearly a year since he had last seen her, in a meeting that had quite literally changed his life. He couldn't believe how long it had been since he he had gazed into the infinite starry depths of her sapphire eyes, their courage and compassion glowing like a blazing fire. It had been their wintery brightness, and the soft wind-chime sound of her voice, that had given him the strength to return here, to the Mushroom Kingdom, where he supposedly lived. It seemed as though he had never met her, that she had just been a dream born from mad hope, but in the depths of his near-emotionless heart, he knew it wasn't true.

Only an hour ago he had been engaged in another verbal battle with his brother Wario, who had been being as stubborn as always and refusing to let Waluigi's pet piranha plants inside the house. Older by two years, very powerful, and full of reckless stupidity and a certain amount of arrogant confidence, Wario was a formidable opponent. However, he possessed not an ounce of his younger sibling's intelligence. He was well aware of this, and it was one of the few facts that he really hated.

The argument had been brief but fierce.

Now, as Waluigi sat with his back resting against a tree trunk, his piranha plants huddling close to him in a gesture of silent reassurance, he couldn't stop thinking about what had taken place in his own house such a short time ago. He never realised that his dim-witted brother was capable of showing so much fury. They had both been shouting much more loudly than was necessary, but it had been Wario whose voice rang out the loudest. His rage, fuelled by his sibling's insistence, had eventually driven him too far – it had driven both of them too far, and Waluigi had finally given up and left, grabbing his beloved piranha plants and, quickly but calmly, abandoning the house.

He wondered vaguely whether Wario would forgive him the next time they met. Even after years of disagreeing with each other, they somehow still occupied the same house, and had managed to avoid destroying it. Countless fights had broken the tense silence that usually existed between them, but the cold aftermath of their frequent arguments always brought the animosity back, stronger than ever before. The wary glances, long periods of ignoring each other, all of it eventually breaking out into another bickering session, before fading into quiet tension yet again.

He supposed that he ought to be used to it by now; after all, he received the same treatment from almost everyone else in the kingdom. Being sneered at and insulted was nothing new to him, and he barely noticed it anymore. But hearing those terrible words coming from his own brother's mouth, seeing his brother's face twisted with fury and loathing, all of it directed towards him...

Sometimes he wondered if there was any point in continuing the live out his days in this pathetic kingdom any longer. Moving somewhere else – anywhere else – would at least mean that he could spend his life in peaceful solitude, and make his existence somewhat tolerable. But the real question was, where would he go? That was a different problem entirely; his lack of any known relatives besides Wario and his two cousins meant that he had nobody else to live with. Nor could he afford his own home anywhere. He was stranded here. Trapped, lost, unable to live in peace, his waking hours full of arguments and his sleeping time overwhelmed by nightmares.

He had developed a habit of disappearing into the Forever Forest to calm himself after fighting with his older brother, and today was no different. He didn't care that it was already growing dark outside. His piranha plants had begun to huddle closer to him, frightened of being alone in the forest at night; they were not nocturnal creatures. He hardly cared about the rumours of vicious monsters roaming the forest after nightfall, and they were probably lurking nearby right now. He didn't care about anything anymore, except for the memory of her – and the newfound, recently-lost hope that she had brought him.

She may have promised to return one day, but she had never done so. Even an entire year after their original meeting, he had heard nothing from her, nor caught a glimpse of her compassionate blue eyes. There was only one explanation: she had left him forever, forgotten him like everyone else did, leaving him to wallow in his own pathetic loneliness, existing for the sole purpose of giving other people something to laugh at.

The insults, the taunts, the lack of any friends or true family... it left him wondering if there was anything left to live for. He was useless, and as far as Wario was concerned, he was nothing more than a waste of space. He knew that everyone either hated him or saw him as a source of amusement, but he had never realised that his brother's disgust of him ran quite so deep before they had argued today.

This wasn't the first time that such thoughts had occurred to him, and he had learned long ago that there was nothing he could do about it. There was no way he could stop other people from constantly plaguing him with insults and sniggering behind their hands when they thought he couldn't hear them. And he couldn't force his brother to like him, no matter how much he wanted to. The way he lived and the way people acted towards him wasn't something that he could change overnight, but he wished he could. He had long since grown tired of it, tired of not being accepted in the Mushroom Kingdom, and he didn't want it anymore.

Out here in the Forever Forest, it was as silent and peaceful as he wanted it to be. His piranha plants – his beloved, ever-faithful companions – were curled up underneath his hand, which had been absently petting them a few minutes ago. None of them reacted when he abruptly stopped, deeply asleep as they currently were.

He gently caressed the flowered head of his favourite plant, his hard expression softening fractionally as he observed the peacefully dozing creature. However, he still could not keep the raw, fresh memory of his fight with Wario out of the front of his mind. The knuckles of his left hand ached dully; a reminder of the moment when his brother's taunts had finally enraged him beyond control, and he had unthinkingly retaliated. Wario probably had an unpleasant bruise forming on his jaw by now, but that wasn't likely to help him forgive Waluigi any sooner.

And he didn't want to be forgiven – he wanted to prove that he was not a weakling who obeyed his brother's every command. If he had the choice, he would walk back to his house and demand an apology. But recent events had caused him to lose his desire to attempt something like that. And he still couldn't keep his thoughts away from her – the one who had given him hope, the one who had comforted him under the glittering night sky... the one who had abandoned him again, leaving him more alone than ever.

The coldness of the night forced him to head back home. With a hurried farewell to his piranha plants, he stood up and brushed dirt from the forest floor off himself, glancing in the direction of his house. He was nervous, eyes flicking from place to place as he wondered how his bad-tempered brother would react when they met again. Probably not in a way that either of them would enjoy, but sometimes that couldn't be avoided.

Slowly, and with several backwards glances, he began to make his way back to his home through the pitch-dark forest. He didn't get lost; after travelling through these shadowy trees so many times before, he knew the route perfectly.

Time seemed to speed up once he had started walking, and it came as a slight surprise when he found himself moving towards the front door of a familiar house. It was two-storey, the yellow paint on the door chipped and flaking, flanked by two towering pine trees. Waluigi stared up at the ominous building, noticing the lack of any lights shining through the windows. Perhaps his brother had gone to bed early, to sleep off his anger over their argument.

It would be easier to get inside the house if Wario was asleep – but there would be trouble if he woke up suddenly. Waluigi had had enough fighting for one night, and all he wanted was to get away from the frosty cold of the outdoors, which he was becoming more and more aware of as the minutes crawled by.

Just as he was considering sneaking in through an open window, he noticed a very faint blue glow from somewhere behind him. It was a soft, gentle light, and the familiarity of it struck him so abruptly that he spun around on the spot without thinking. There was nothing there; whatever the glow had been, it had vanished as quickly as it had appeared. Despite his overwhelming suspicion, he felt a strong sense of disappointment when his eyes scanned the line of the trees, and he saw no trace of the mysterious light.

Then the voice spoke. It didn't seem to emanate from any particular direction, but instead felt as though it was everywhere, surrounding him, like the weight of the galaxy itself.

'So we meet again.'

And then she was there, standing a few feet in front of him, looking so calm that she might have been waiting there for hours. It had been so long since he had last seen her, but he hadn't forgotten one tiny detail; the long sapphire-coloured dress, the cyan hue of her eyes, the way her pale golden hair completely covered the right one. Her appearance hadn't changed even slightly, but there was one subtle difference; she wasn't accompanied by her watchful black Luma tonight.

'I wasn't expecting to see you now,' he said. He was surprised that his voice remained so calm, as calm as hers. When she spoke again, it was in that distinctive wind-chime voice that he remembered so clearly, and joy rose up inside him for the first time in months.

'I did say that I would be back. Although I suppose I was gone for longer than I ought to have been.'

'You... haven't changed.' Again, he noticed the black Luma's absence, but he did not mention it to her.

'Nor have you. I was expecting things to be different here, actually.' She didn't sound surprised – at least not in a way he recognised – but her tone rose slightly, as though she was concealing some emotion from him. 'This kingdom hasn't changed, either.'

He glanced over his shoulder, towards the dark house on the hilltop, making sure that his brother wasn't eavesdropping. She didn't miss the movement, and tilted her head curiously at him as though awaiting an explanation of some kind. 'You have been fighting with your brother,' she eventually said. Her voice wasn't accusing as he had half-expected, but she sounded more interested, more intent than before. Her previously detached tone had taken on a sharper edge, like a moonbeam cutting through a shadow.

He nodded briefly. 'It's impossible to avoid that, sometimes.'

'You're right.'

He was startled that she didn't say anything more – just those two quick, decisive words.

When the silence between them stretched out, he took the chance to inspect her more carefully, and realised that there was something different about her that he hadn't noticed before. It wasn't her voice or any obvious detail, but the glint in her sapphire eyes seemed to have faded away a little since he had last seen her.

He was also slightly shocked that he didn't even know her name yet. There were so many things he didn't know about her, and they shrouded her in mystery – but it was her name that he wanted to know most of all.

They both gazed off into the horizon, where the sun had recently set; the sky there was now completely dark, and the stars were gleaming like white teeth. Without turning back to look at him, she said softly, 'Not everything is the same as it used to be.'

Waluigi could tell by her tone of voice that something had happened – something that was not good at all. '...What is it?'

Her pale blue dress swished slightly in the cold air as she turned to face him, her eyes more serious than was normal, even for her. 'I suppose I will have to tell you everything,' she said. 'But before I do, will you explain why you were arguing with your brother?'

He knew that he could not lie to her; her eyes were sharp, penetrating, and she would most likely guess the truth in any case. And now he was thinking about it, there was no reason for him not to tell her what had happened. So he told her everything, starting with his insistence on bringing his piranha plants inside the house, and Wario's resulting anger, due to his deep dislike of the creatures. She remained utterly silent throughout his explanation, and did not show any signs of emotion when he told her about the fight he'd had with his furious brother.

After he had finished, the silence grew between them again, creating a mysterious but not unpleasant barrier. Finally, she spoke. 'It sounds as though you and your brother don't agree on much.'

He had to laugh at that – a rough, hoarse snicker that tore out of his throat, dry from the minutes he had spent explaining. 'I thought you might say that.'

She nodded lightly, still unsurprised, gazing at him with her one visible eye. None of the old sparkle had been restored to it, but it was filled with a stabbing intensity that froze him where he was standing. 'It seems strange that your own family members act this way,' she eventually murmured, her expression thoughtful as she stared off into the midnight sky. 'Have you done anything wrong to your brother?'

He almost laughed again at the absurdity of her question, but it was a bitter laugh rather than a mirthful one. He shook his head. 'That's just the way he is.' And that was the truth, from his point of view. Wario never appeared to have time to do anything except bully people and argue with his sibling.

She didn't look at him again for a long time, and the air seemed to grow colder by the second, as though she was radiating icy power. Crossing his arms, Waluigi wondered if this was what it felt like when she became angry. It was several minutes of silence before he heard her quiet wind-chime voice again, and it was strangely sharp. She was no longer giving off an aura of calm and serenity as she usually did.

'Did you and your brother fight – not only with words?'

He was startled by the briskness of her tone, but immediately decided to answer truthfully. 'Not exactly... we didn't fight. Except when I punched him.' He smirked a little at the satisfying memory, and the back of his left hand throbbed in response, as though in rebuke.

She raised her eyebrows, although they were not visible underneath her hair, so the disbelieving effect was lost. 'That wasn't a very good idea. He will only be more angry with you now... you know, don't you?'

'Probably,' he admitted. 'But he was asking for it...'

'Even so,' she continued mildly. 'It's not going to help you improve your relationship with your brother.'

'I don't think that's possible. You haven't met him.'

She seemed to consider this statement for a short while, gazing into the dark sky the entire time, her expression both curious and thoughtful. He had never known anyone to be so interested in him, so fascinated by everything he said. Wario had certainly never shown any concern for his brother's opinions, even when he knew they were right.

'Show me your hand.'

He glanced back at her; she was staring into his eyes in that strange, intense way again, as though she was attempting to read his mind. Shrugging, not really caring what she wanted his hand for, he offered it to her. She took hold of it and inspected it carefully for a few long moments, although she couldn't have been able to see it properly through the white glove that he almost always wore.

There was a faint glow of blue light, and he pulled his arm back in surprise before realising that the ache in his knuckles had faded. She must have healed it somehow. It made sense, considering that she always seemed to have a magical aura around her, and that she lived in outer space among the stars.

It was a few seconds before she spoke again.

'I think that your brother may not dislike you as much as he appears to. You should go and talk to him. He's awake now; I can sense his presence inside the house. He's waiting for you to come back, and he seems worried about you.'

Waluigi thought about this, not answering immediately. Wario was known for his bullying and thieving across the kingdom, and was famous for his strength and power that caused others to fear him. He had never displayed affection towards anyone, least of all his younger brother, and that had never changed. But her opinion made things seem different, somehow; made Wario look less threatening than before.

'Are you sure that's a good idea?' he asked slowly.

She smiled faintly, the first smile he had ever seen on her. 'We seem to be talking about good ideas a lot tonight.'

'Maybe punching Wario wasn't such a good thing to do, then.'

'Perhaps, but I think I know what ideas would be best right now,' she replied, though there was a note of wariness in her wind-chime voice. 'Go back home and talk to your brother about this. He's waiting, and he's worried because you've been away for so long. He will be angry at first, but do not let him pretend that he hates you. You two are family, and you could be great friends if you learned to trust each other.'

By the end of her speech, her voice was so determined that there was no room left for doubt in his mind. Nodding again, he wordlessly agreed to her idea, and she smiled back slightly as though satisfied with his answer.

They stayed there for a few more minutes and watched the stars turning in the dark sky; it was a cloudless night, and it would be a waste to ignore the unearthly beauty of it. She was the one who moved first, although she looked reluctant.

'I have to leave now. There is much to be done,' she murmured.

He whirled around to look back at her, not wanting her to disappear again, but she was already starting to walk away. 'I will return as soon as I can, and I won't take so long to come back this time,' she added. 'But please don't forget what I said about your brother. I don't want you to be enemies with him.'

'Wait,' he yelped, as she started to vanish into the black shadows of the trees, back to wherever she had originally come from. He still had one question that he wanted to ask her.

'Hmm?' she said, glancing back with an inquisitive tilt of the head, her long hair falling over her right eye.

'You never told me your name.'

She appeared almost surprised by this statement, as though she had expected him to say something completely different. Nevertheless, she remained calm and quiet when she replied, 'Do you wish to know my name?'

Another hasty nod in answer, and she smiled vaguely, her eyes recovering a little of their old gleam as she gazed back at him. 'I suppose I can tell you, then. You deserve to know; you are not evil.'

He loved the way she said that – her matter-of-fact tone when she said 'you are not evil', as though it was the most obvious thing in the galaxy.

'I am Rosalina.'

And then she was gone again, stepping into the darkness of the forest so quickly he never even saw where she went. And that was it; it was all over. She had left him, just like she had done before, and it might be months before they met each other again. It felt like he had been staring at the brightest star in the sky all night, and it had suddenly sparked out of existence, leaving everything darker than it should have been.

Despite this, it didn't take long for him to turn his eyes back towards his shadowed house on the hilltop. A small smile curled up his mouth when he saw that one of the interior lights had been switched on, and was shining yellow through the downstairs window. She had been right; his brother was still awake, still awaiting his return.

And he would remember his unspoken promise to her, Rosalina. It was about time he sat down and talked to his brother properly, instead of arguing and fighting. And maybe, if they were lucky, they could form a truce – perhaps even friendship. They could become true siblings, exactly as they should be.

With a new resolve and a new determination giving him courage, he set off in the direction of his house, searching for his brother.

Behind him, too far away to see in the darkness, scuttled a large collection of very eager-looking piranha plants.