When Mario and Luigi had first stepped out of the lodge in the cold mountain air, the sun sat bright in the cloudless sky and the trees swayed lazily in the gentle breeze.
But now? Mario squinted through the thick sheets of falling snowflakes. The snow was rapidly coming up to their knees, and it didn't seem like this blizzard they were caught in had any intention of letting up.
"Hey Bro!" Mario could barely hear Luigi over the roaring wind. "I think there's a house over there!"
Mario let Luigi lead the way, frozen fingers gripping his brother's arm so as to not lose him in the expanse of white. Soon, the front wall of a wood cabin emerged through the snow, and the boys hurried inside, shutting the door behind them. They shared twin sighs of relief.
"Boy, that storm really picked up quickly, didn't it!" Luigi commented. Mario agreed. He'd been caught in a blizzard or two himself, and he'd never seen one set on so quickly!
As Mario dusted the snow off his coat, Luigi moved further inside, examining the small photos hanging on the wall with interest. He left the entryway proper to find himself in a modestly sized living room.
"Mario, come see — this place is a lot bigger on the inside!" There was even a fireplace! Luigi would've told Mario about it, but his brother still stood in the entranceway, staring out the door's window. "Mario?"
Mario opened the door again, letting in a wave of cold air and snow. "Mario?!" Luigi's teeth chattered. "We just got out of the cold, and now you wanna go back?!"
As an answer, Mario pointed at a silhouette in the distance. The brothers watched it trudge toward them before belatedly realizing the silhouette was a person probably also freezing out in the snow.
Luckily, neither of them had fully taken off their winter gear yet, so it was a simple task to go back out to help. Which was good timing, because the stranger collapsed only a handful of steps from the door. Mario and Luigi rushed to them before they were buried in the snowfall, discovering the stranger wasn't a stranger at all.
"Kamek?!" Luigi exclaimed. "What's he doing all the way out here?!"
Mario shrugged, hefting the wizard in his arms. Stars, he was cold. Was he even wearing a jacket? Between the two of them, they carried Kamek back to the cabin, closing the door on the winter chill once again.
Luigi was quick to tell Mario about the fireplace in the living room, and Mario rushed ahead to light it before Luigi had even finished speaking. Luigi was left to half-carry, half-drag Kamek through the hallway by himself. "Oof, you're heavy," he muttered, turning the corner and missing the doorframe glowing faintly as he left.
Some time later, Kamek was situated in the recliner in front of the lit fireplace, in a fresh change of clothes and cocooned in blankets. He looked awful, Mario thought from his spot on the couch. Blotchy red on yellow cheeks and shivering up a storm. But it was still leagues better than the blue-tinged deathly pale he was when they first brought him into the house.
Humming a little tune, Luigi reappeared from wherever he'd gone off to, with a tray of mugs in his hands and a soft blanket thrown over his shoulder. "Oh man, you're still freezing, ain't ya!" he said, setting the tray down on the end table. He draped his blanket on Kamek's shoulders. "Here, have another blanket!"
"No thanks," Kamek grumbled (almost quite literally — his voice sounded as terrible as he probably felt). He tugged the new addition off his shoulders, throwing it onto the floor in Luigi's general direction.
"No, I insist!" Luigi pressed a mug into Kamek's hands. He picked the blanket up off the floor, shook it out, and put it back on Kamek's shoulders. Kamek scowled, the effect mostly ruined by the steam from the hot drink fogging his glasses up.
Mario watched the interplay, amused. It was nice to see Kamek to his old self if a tad subdued. But what was he doing outside in a snowstorm, anyway? He was usually more prepared for those sorts of things.
On a similar wavelength, Luigi wagged his finger at Kamek disapprovingly. "Well, maybe you shouldn't've been outside in a snowstorm without a winter coat! Then you wouldn't need so many blankets!"
"I don't —" Kamek sneezed violently, jostling the blankets enough for them to slip off his shoulders. "I don't have to justify myself to you." He sniffed, taking a long sip of his drink. "How did you idiots get caught in this snowstorm?"
"Oh, us? We were out for a walk when it came out of nowhere!" Luigi re-covered Kamek's shoulders. "It was really somethin' else, lemme tell ya!"
Kamek groaned, more than fed up with Luigi's hovering (which wasn't a good sign, as it'd only been an hour or so) "Where are you even getting these?!" he burst out, voice cracking.
"They're from the closet! There's lots of stuff in there. Like those clothes I found for you!"
"I'm choosing to ignore how you got me in these."
"And the kitchen is fully stocked!" Luigi continued without missing a beat, "So I made this hot chocolate! It perks Mario right up when he's sick, doesn't it, Bro?"
Well, yes, but you didn't have to tell Kamek. Mario shot his brother a glare Luigi studiously ignored.
Kamek scrutinized the surface of his drink. "Are you sure it's fine to use this food?" he asked, distress slowly dawning on his face. "Who knows when the milk and such was even bought?"
Luigi waved a hand. "Eh, the person who lives here probably won't mind," he replied, missing Kamek's point entirely. "Better to ask forgiveness than permission, right?"
"No, I meant —" Kamek cut himself off with a sigh. "Nevermind." He took a resigned sip of his hot chocolate.
Mario turned his attention to the crackling flames, letting his mind wander from speculation about the type of person who lived here, to how there wasn't supposed to be a cottage out here in the first place due to this entire section of the mountain being zoned for the upcoming leg of Peach's golf tournament, to this sudden snowstorm that enveloped the area despite the weather forecasts they'd checked in preparation for said golf tournament heralding clear blue skies for the entire week. It all left an instinct niggling in his mustache that was telling him something was wrong, but he didn't have enough answers with which to pacify it.
...except that niggling was actually the beginnings of a sneeze, and it burst from his face loud enough to interrupt Luigi and Kamek's squabbling. Luigi scurried over to drape the blanket Kamek was so adamantly refusing over Mario's shoulders instead, picking up the last cup of hot chocolate on the way. As Mario was forced to bear the brunt of Luigi's fussing, Kamek smirked into his own hot chocolate at Mario's misfortune.