Chapter 21 My Favorite Soap Opera

Ludwig didn't even have to think about his next course of action. He bolted over to his brother, still smooching the admittedly hot but still very fictional woman. "Iggy!"

Iggy pulled away from Bunny. At first, when he saw Ludwig, hatred filled his expression, a hatred that was quiet frankly extremely uncharacteristic of the bespectacled genius. He opened his mouth, looking like he was preparing to shout. That was, until Ludwig spoke up.

"Iggy, it's me; it's your brother."

Iggy blinked. All hatred in his eyes melted away, being replaced with shock. Then, that shock melted away into surprise, and that surprise…confusion.

"Derek," Bunny said as she put her hand on Iggy's scarred up cheek. "Who is this man, and why does he call you Iggy?"

Iggy gently placed his fingertips on the top of Bunny's hand. "Uh…um…" he turned toward her. "Bunny…if you don't mind, I would very much find appreciation in just a minute of privacy."

Bunny's face fell. "But a minute of privacy will mean one less minute I get to be in your presence!"

Iggy smiled, a little chuckle escaping through his lips. His face fell just as he got another glance of Ludwig. "I promise you can worship me afterward."

Bunny still looked upset, but amid that disappointment was a glimmer of understanding. "I will count the seconds."

Iggy chuckled. It was now becoming apparent to Ludwig that his lanky little brother immensely enjoyed being in this man's shoes. The amount of reluctance and devastation in Iggy's body language as he pulled away from Bunny and toward Ludwig and Roy was unparalleled.

Once they were finally out of earshot of Bunny, Iggy's jaw dropped. "Ludwig!" He looked at Roy, raising an eyebrow as he did. "Roy?"

Roy chuckled. "Yep. I'm a girl now; it's official."

"Oh, you are not just a girl, dear older brother," Iggy said. He looked right into Ludwig's eyes. "Roy, you appear to have adopted the form of none other than Natasha Nastiness." He looked at Ludwig. "And you, Ludwig….you are Benedict von Evil!"

Ludwig snorted. "Great names. Ten out of ten points for creativity."

Iggy smirked. "Those two characters are villains; they do not make their presence in the show known until season 4." He looked between his two brothers, his expression wobbling with concern. "You two are not desiring satisfaction by ruining my sweet sweet relationship with Bunny, are you?"

Ludwig gave his brother a raised eyebrow. "Yes Iggster, cause Roy and I receive great pleasure in making sure unhealthy relationships with fictional characters go as wrong as wrong can get." He shook his head. "Why do you think we came here, doinkus?"

Iggy blinked. He looked between his brothers, the gears obviously turning in his head and his eyes filled to overflowing with confusion. "To…make sure that I live happily ever after with Bunny?" When Ludwig gave him an incredulous look, he hesitated again. "To…announce that Bunny is having an affair? That would at least be following this show's script."

Ludwig's face fell. Seriously? Iggy Koopa, the super genius, the Koopa with an IQ in the high two hundreds, the Koopa who discovered Galaxium when he was a four year old…he really couldn't put two and two together?

Roy seemed to share Ludwig's dumbfoundedness, as his jaw dropped as he took a step forward. "Dude, it' not that hard! Even I would have figured it out by now!"

"We're here to rescue you, dingbat!" Ludwig exclaimed.

Iggy blinked once more. "Rescue me?"

"Uh, yeah," Ludwig said. His incredulity was so strong that someone could get drunk off of it.

"Uh," Iggy said, his eyebrow raised. "Why?"

Ludwig did a double take. "Why?" He shook his head, trying to gather his bearings (or at least figure out how Iggy could be so colossally stupid). "Why? WHY?!"

"Dude, have you forgotten?" Roy asked. "The haywire Internet explorer…being unconscious on the floor of your lab…" Roy raised an eyebrow. "Calling out to us from inside the TV set?"

Finally, Iggy's donned a look of comprehension (took him long enough). "Ohhh…" He scratched the back of his head. "I do recall the events that you two are referring to. Although, that last one occurred before I realized which show this was?"

"And what show is that?" Ludwig asked. Not like the answer would matter; he was going to get Iggy out of it and back into the real world either way.

Iggy grinned. "Why, it is Heart to Heart, of course!" When Ludwig and Roy gave him blank looks, his grin grew much larger. "You know, Heart to Heart! It's my favorite soap opera! I've been a Hearty since season one and have no intention of giving it up (despite the drop in quality since season eleven)."

Roy blinked. "I'm sorry, did you just call yourself a 'Hearty?'"

"It's what members of the fandom are called." Iggy giggled. "I'm a diehard Hearty, a Derek x Bunny shipper, and I am not afraid to admit that I have established my own fanfiction forum on the show!"

Roy nodded. "Wow. Impressive."

Ludwig shook his head while gawking. "No! It's not impressive; it's foolish!" He turned back to Iggy. "Iggy, you do realize we aren't leaving you here, right?"

Iggy's face morphed into seriousness. "How can you get me out if I have no intention of leaving?"

Ludwig stopped, staring at Iggy like he had just landed on Earth in a spacecraft. "What?"

"Ludwig, do you realize how amazing this is? I've literally written hundreds of self insert fics involving this show, but never would have imagined in a million years I would get to live in it!" He excitedly stamped his feet. "This is every Hearty's dream!"

Roy cringed. "Okay, dude, you seriously need to stop calling yourself that."

"Iggy, this is insane!" Ludwig protested. "You have a life in the real world! You have friends and family! You're one of the most amazing scientific minds that this world has ever seen! You can't stay here!" He glared at his brother. "Besides, do you realize what Roy and I had to go through in order to find you? I got stuck in a magical girl show!"

"Yeah!" Roy said. "And I almost got eaten by a lion."

For a second, Iggy looked sympathetic. "Wow. That sounds a little rough." Just as suddenly as it appeared, the sympathy dissolved with a smirk. "Well, I hate to do the stepping on your toes, but I am not budging on this. I will continue living in this dream world for the rest of time if I am allowed the opportunity." He grinned. "Now, if you'll excuse me, Bunny has been deprived of Derek's presence for far too long." He adjusted the eye patch covering his left eye before calling out. "Oh Bunny! I'm coming back, my star-crossed darling!"

With that, he left, leaving Roy and Ludwig stuck in dumbfounded states.