Chapter 8-2

Happily Ever After

Once again, the world was quiet. The news spread quickly around the castle. A trail of blood led out of the balcony and towards Daisy's room. The king and Mario began asking frantic questions about Luigi.

"I don't know!" Daisy exclaimed.

The king sent the lantern down on a nightstand. Mario quickly lit candles around the room, setting a dim light.

Peach walked in, gasping at the sight. "What happened?!"

Daisy raised her voice, almost screeching. "I DON'T KNOW! I DON'T…."

Thunder boomed, making everyone go silent. Peach stiffened and ran down the halls to get the doctor. Daisy turned back to Luigi and walked closer to him. She put her hand on his chest, almost expecting a normal pulse. It was getting gradually slow with every passing second. The king walked to her and put a hand on her shoulder.

She turned around to him and dug her face into his chest, crying. "I don't know what I did…I don't remember…I…" He hushed her.

The doctor stepped in. "Bloody hell!"

"Please," Peach pushed him forward, "We need all the help we can get."

The doctor stepped closer to Luigi. "I'll try. I need electricity, though."

Peach nodded.

"And some privacy."

Mario walked out of the room, making his way down the halls. Peach followed after him. The doctor looked up to the king. "I'm sorry, but I need to…"

"Come with me, child." The king grabbed Daisy, but she moved away from his grip.

"I'm not going. He was there for me and I'm going to be right there for him."

"But let the doctor do his work."

"NO! Daddy, I'm going to stay right here."

"It's fine," The doctor grabbed a moist rag. "She can help me."

The king huffed. "Very well, please be careful, child."

Daisy nodded and the king left the room. She turned back to the doctor. "What do I have to do?"

"Take his shirt off."

"Wh-what?"

"Do you want to help me or not?"

"Of course."

"Then do as I say."

Daisy took a breath and lifted the sides of his shirt. His chest was pale and covered it blood entirely. The doctor wiped the blood off his chest around the deep wound.

"How will that help?" Daisy asked. "He's…he's practically dead. I don't think the blood matters."

"Ho ho! Your boyfriend here is only MOSTLY dead. There's a big difference between mostly dead and all dead. Mostly dead is slightly alive. With all dead, well, there's only one thing to do."

"What's that?"

"Go through his clothes and look for loose change."

Daisy uttered something foul under her breath and crossed her arms.

"Get the cloth and wrap it around the wound. I'll be right back." The doctor ran down the halls to his quarters.

She did as she was told and waited for the doctor to return. She held Luigi's hand tightly, but he did not respond.

Mario ran past an orange flower. He pricked his finger on one of its thorns, making the top part of his finger bleed. As the chemicals on the flower ran through his blood, he quickly snapped his fingers. Little flames circled around Mario's hand, appearing in a ball.

"The levers that control the castle's lights are right here." Peach felt for the levers on the ground. Mario walked over to her and grabbed the lever.

"Are you sure this is going to work?" Peach shrugged at his question.

Mario rolled his eyes and pulled the lever back. The lights in the castle flickered. He pulled the lever once again and the all the lights turned on.

With both of them happy the mission was a success; they ran back up the stairs to the halls.

However, the door was locked, leaving them outside. Mario yelled in frustration. He fell back on the chair. "I'm a horrible person."

"Mario…"

"No!" He glared at her, his hands lighting up. "I'm not the same. I would always listen to him and be careful, but now…I'm not even listening to myself."

Peach sat down next to him. "It's okay, Mario. I'm more than sure that Luigi will be fine. It's not your fault."

Mario sighed. "First Daisy…now it's my own brother…my own damn brother. I have no idea what it'll take for me to just…stop."

"But you couldn't do anything to help it. Whatever happened to Luigi before this, well, you weren't aware of it."

"He told me, but I thought he was crazy. He wanted me to help him, but I didn't believe him."

"Oh." All she could say was oh. Now that she had thought about it, Mario did change. He never listened to what some had to say and he just went on his own. He did what he wanted to do and it cost him.

Mario looked out towards the window. The rain had stopped and the sun was beginning to rise.

Daisy hovered around the doctor, forcing him to ask her to step back. He took an egg in his hand. Daisy questioned his actions but he simply replied, "I'm the doctor here, not you."

She frowned and watched him smash the egg on the ground. Once again, she questioned his actions.

"What's that supposed to do?"

And once again, he replied: "I'm the doctor here, not you."

Daisy huffed and looked outside the window. The doctor began to set up the beeping machine that Daisy despised listening to in her mind. A strange sense of déjà vu hit her as she listened to the slow beat of the machine.

The doctor opened the door. "That's all I can do."

Mario shot up and looked into the room. Luigi was still motionless. "Are…are you sure that's all you can do?"

"I've tried normal treatments, superstitious treatments, some weird voodoo that my old cousin back in Rogueport taught me…I've even tried to use that stupid 'clap-on clap-off' method that my mom used to try on me to wake me up. He's out like a light, but he's still alive." The doctor looked at his clipboard, "He can hear and move certain parts of his body, but he doesn't really speak."

Mario nodded and gently pushed the doctor out of the way. He took careful steps towards his still brother. Daisy turned to face him, their eyes met for a brief second, and they looked in their own directions.

Peach took deep breaths. She couldn't stand to see another one of her friends hurt. She stood up, breathed again, and walked away, without another word. Nor Mario or Daisy objected to this, but they still thought it was weird.

"I'm sorry, okay."

Daisy turned to Mario again and looked at him with suspicion. "What?"

"I'm sorry for almost killing you, Daisy. I'm sorry for not believing you, Luigi. I'm sorry for all the horrifying things that I've done. If anything, you two didn't deserve to suffer, I did."

"Mario, please. There's no use for that."

"But I'm serious."

"It's…not…your…fault…" Luigi's voice whispered. Daisy ran closer to him, leaning over his weak body.

"Luigi?" Daisy stood over him. Mario looked over at them. "Sweetie, can you hear me?"

His eyes twitched open and he was welcomed with what looked like a wonderful sunset. The oranges and the yellows blended perfectly together. It was so beautiful, like magic. As his vision cleared up, he could see Daisy's face perfectly.

"Dais…Daisy?" He blinked.

"Yes, yes, it's me." Daisy put a gentle hand on his bare chest. "Luigi, darling!" She wrapped her arms around him and lifted his head.

"Gently."

"I see you again and all you can say is that?"

"Gently!" She let go of his head and it hit the frame of the bed. "AGH!"

"Sorry."

Luigi looked over at Mario. "You need to stop blaming yourself."

Mario walked closer to him. "I didn't believe you and it almost cost me your life. I think now's a logical time to blame myself."

"Yes, but…"

"But I never listened to you," Mario cut him off, "And I don't want you to think that I just want you to be my sidekick. I understood what you said and I'm sorry…"

"I know what I said!" Luigi rolled his eyes. "You are such a sap."

Peach walked in and gasped. "Luigi…you're…you're well?"

Daisy ran over to Peach and hugged her. "It's wonderful, isn't it?"

"Yes, yes…" Peach was in utter shock. She walked closer to him and managed to smile. "Are you…?"

"I'm fine, thanks for asking."

"Oh…"

Mario pulled Peach to the side. "At least he's well and…alive."

"Of course he is…I never doubted it." Mario scoffed.

Peach smirked and crossed her arms. "Uh-huh."

She walked over to the door. "Well, I think we should really give him some rest."

Mario agreed and turned back to his brother. He smiled a goodbye to both Luigi and Daisy and left the room with Peach.

Daisy closed the door and grabbed a chair. She sat down next to Luigi. "I'm glad you're safe."

"I'm glad you're safe."

She took his hand. "It's a miracle that you're here, you know that?"

"It's because I have something…something to live for."

"Like what?"

He smiled and moved his hand away from hers. He tried to lift himself up, setting his back on the back board of the bed. "Well…you."

Daisy giggled and shook her head. "Luigi…"

"Let me finish," She hushed herself and let him continue, "I'm still alive because I have something to live for. That's you."

Daisy felt herself blush as he looked at her with gleaming blue eyes that made her heart race.

"Daisy, I love you."

He had finally said the three words that had always caused him trouble in the past. He had said those very three words without a single stagger. With little hesitation, Daisy responded.

"I love you too."

They leaned in closer to each other, their lips almost colliding with a passion. Luigi suddenly recoiled in pain. He leaned back on the back board and rubbed his side. Daisy smiled and turned his head back to hers. She kissed both her index and middle fingers and pressed them gently against Luigi's lips. He suddenly felt light-headed as the morning sun shone brightly on them.

Peach quickly stepped back in and apologized for the interruption. "Your father wants to see you, Daisy."

Daisy nodded and quickly caressed Luigi's face before leaving the room with Peach.

"What does my father want?" Daisy tried her best not to sound rude.

"I'm not sure. He simply said he wanted to talk to you."

Daisy glanced down at the tiles on the castle ground that passed by her as she walked. "Peach?"

"Yes?"

"Remember what you said…about finding that someone that can provide the same love that my parents had?"

"Yes…yes I do."

"I…I think that maybe, it wasn't a bad idea."

Peach looked at her friend with suspicion. "Why is that?"

"Because I think that I might of found that someone."

As the girls made their way towards the king's room, they didn't speak another word. The silence was now common in the castle, but everyone hoped it would soon change. With the only mysterious threat now gone for good, there was no reason to fear.

Everything was just a thing of the past and now it was time to make room for the present.

Man, I stink at happily ever afters...Wait...I forgot ONE KEY thing to a happily ever after.

And they all lived happily ever after.

The end.

Okay and that was the happy note of the ending. The original ending was going just to be that Luigi dies and that's it (Chapter 8-1, if you want to read that) but since I wrote enough sad endings to stories where Luigi:

A) Kills himself

B) Dies due to an attack

C) Spontaneously combusted (explodes)

I thought it was about time I let the reader chose.

Oh and the whole explosion fan fiction thing where Luigi explodes...that was written when I was 5...I'm never going to speak of it again.

NEVER

I'm not posting it either, so don't get your hopes up.

I love Luigi as much as Peach loves pink, but in most of my stories, he's always getting beat up or damaged and left in critical condition. I don't know why...ironic, huh?

But, he always gets the girl in the end.

This was a weak happily ever after, so I won't mind if you bash me on this one, but the logical ending was much more complex...I think. YOU DECIDE!...Cause I really don't know. I just liked the logical ending better.

Some inspiration for this story comes from The Princess Bride (1987, not 97, my sorries).

Play will be up after I post this chapter so just hang tight! I'm going to post the first chapter and I'll do the next chapter the next day, so I'll be busy.

I'm glad to turn the switch to COMPLETE on this story and I hope you enjoyed reading it as much as I did writing it!

Leave your final reviews for me below and I will see YOU...in Play! BYE-BYE!