A/N: I was a bit off when I wrote this so it might be a little O_O.
The second to last paragraph, the yummy one, is all credit to Flo ^-^ Because I suck at everything. So please glomp her lots because she deserves it. :3
e i g h t
"HA! Checkmate!"
"Nope," I said with a smile as I moved my king in my and Carlos' chess game. He burst out into tears, and I sighed, waiting for him to make another move. Conrad, reading a book in the corner, crawled over and pushed the weeping Carlos out of the way. "This is ridiculous," he said, and he continued the chess game with me. It was quite a relief, playing with someone who knew what they were doing.
Mimi and O'Chunks had gone off to search for the 8th Pure Heart, on Dimentio's command. The jester had also demanded that I entertain the twins while he took a nap. Conrad was easy to please; just hand him a long book and he would be set for the day. But Carlos had a short attention span, so I had to constantly come up with something else to do.
When the chess game ended, Conrad returned to his book and I quickly went through all of the things in the room to find something to do. "Um, here Carlos, let's uh...here, here's some matches, you want to set these...unnecessary papers on fire?"
Carlos' eyes twinkled at this. "Oh, yes, that'd be perfect!" he exclaimed, running forward and grabbing the matches. He lit one, then set flame to a blank piece of paper, and then burst out into a fit of uncontrollable laughter. "Let's do it again!"
I set the stack of blank paper in front of him and he sat, lighting them on fire. Conrad glared at me from across the room, and I shrugged. Then, Conrad's eyes widened, and he stood up and grinned evilly. I raised an eyebrow at him, then turned around. There stood a tall, skinny man with a green shirt and hat, overalls, and white gloves. I gasped.
"Luigi?" I asked, and he grinned. "The one and only!"
Carlos jumped up, and he and Conrad stood next to each other, already prepared for a fight. "What do you want, coward?" they asked simultaneously, and Luigi jumped, startled by their synchronized words. "Eh? I only want to get revenge for you ending my big bro's game!"
"If a fight is what you want..." Carlos said, jumping up and aiming a kick at Luigi's face. The man in green shrieked and jumped to the side, shaking his head violently. "No, no, no! I don't want a fight!"
"Then what exactly do you want?" Conrad asked, an eyebrow raised. Luigi placed a hand on his chin, deep in thought. After a moment or two, he snapped his fingers. "Aha! I got it!"
"What?" the twins asked, grinning. Luigi put his hands up. "I-I told you I didn't want to fight! Just tell me your plans so that my p-partners can fight you!"
The twins' eyebrows shot up, and they glanced at me. "We can't tell him our plans, can we?"
I watched as Luigi shook; with fear, nervousness, or anger, I couldn't tell. How terrible it would be to lose your brother, I thought. I sighed, thinking. If I shared fake plans, led him off course, we would have an advantage. He'd go tell Blumiere and Timpani, and they would be completely off track from everything...
"Well, we're simply collecting the Pure Hearts and destroying all of them! That way you have absolutely no defense against us, and we can beat you up for good! Then we're going to take out you and Blumiere and Timpani forever, and do whatever boss tells us to do because he has the Dark Prognosticus to lead him in the right direction! We have Peach, to lure you all here to battle us, because you'll want to take her back. Oh! Also, we're brainwashing everyone in the worlds we take over too, so that-"
Conrad slapped Carlos hard across the face, stopping his spilling of the things we were doing. Luigi grinned in victory, dashing away. "I did it! I did it! I did it!" he exclaimed, running away and out of the castle.
Conrad and I glared at Carlos, who blushed. "What? He lost his big brother! I couldn't just not tell him anything!"
"Look, it's not a big deal," I said, laughing. "We just have to pretend that that was just to lead them off course, and we'll just come up with something different! We don't need Peach to take over the worlds, right? It's not a big deal!"
Carlos smiled, sticking his tongue out at his brother. "See, she's nice!"
Carlos went back to setting paper on fire, and Conrad and I watched. After a few minutes, Conrad started telling me all about the amazing book he was reading, but I blocked him out, not interested in what he was saying whatsoever. Suddenly, a hand wrapped around my arm and pulled me away. Conrad didn't seem to notice the invisible figure dragging me out of the room, he just sat and continued ranting about his book. In the hallway, the person became visible and turned out to be Dimentio, an angry glare on his face. I pursed my lips. What was this mood?
Dimentio yanked me into the other room, slamming the door behind him. I stared blankly at him, confused. He seemed so angry. Why was he mad?
"I don't believe this," he snarled. I raised an eyebrow. "Don't believe what?"
"They spilled all of our plans to Luigi! He's the one who is trying to end our games, the one who wants to stop all of this! And you let them! You just stood there!" he yelled, turning to me with angry eyes. This is the first I'd seen him so angry. Usually, he pushed through these things with a smile on his face and a few jokes to crack. Yet for some reason, this destroyed something for him. This was the last straw, and he wasn't taking it easily.
"I'm sure we can lead him off course now, or come up with something different...? It's not the end of the world," I said, taking a step back. He'd gotten up from leaning on the wall and was pacing back and forth, inching closer to me with each pace. Something about this attitude scared me, and I wanted nothing to do with it.
"Lead him off course? How can we lead him off course if those morons already told him what we're planning to do? And come up with something different? The Dark Prognosticus won't al-"
"Screw the Dark Prognosticus!" I yelled, taking him aback. He looked up at me, his angry glare calming down a bit. "When Count Bleck tried to take over the worlds with it, did everything end up in his power? No, because Mario and his team ended up counteracting it with the Light Prognosticus! They still have it, Dimentio, and even if you go by its instructions, there's a chance you'll be defeated anyway! If you pretend you're using the instruction from the Dark Prognosticus, they'll try to counteract it with the Light, but if you create your own plan, you can-"
In the middle of my sentence, the jester silenced me by capturing my lips in a kiss. My eyes went wide, before they slowly closed as I melted into the sensation. His lips were soft, and tasted sweet. Dimentio's tongue ran across my lips, as if he were asking for permission to enter my mouth. Reluctantly, I opened my mouth a bit and allowed the boy entrance. His tongue rubbed against mine, leaving me breathless. A small moan escaped my throat, and was lost in the kiss. I'd never been kissed like this before; hell, it was my first kiss. And I loved every second of it.
"BOSS!" Carlos screamed from the hallway, and Dimentio growled, pulling away slowly. He rested his forehead on mine, staring into my eyes. He smirked, and I blushed. "Ciao, my love," he murmured, then disappeared into thin air. I stood still for a moment, catching my breath and thinking, what the hell had just happened?
