Chapter 11 Happy Handstands

Now, this story is one that is very important to me. It shaped me, Junior. Sure, the first one I told you was important too. Actually, now that I think about it, both of these stories hold equal importance in the value that they have for me haha!

So, before I jump into the story, I guess I should tell you about my relationship with Ludwig.

…

"Noooo!" Ludwig blushed crimson when Lemmy mentioned his name. He looked like he wanted to fall through the floor to the center of the planet. "Lemmy, no!"

Lemmy blinked at his older brother. "What?"

"You know that I have issues with my past attitude!" Ludwig hid behind his hand. "I treated you horribly. I treated you all so horribly."

Junior blinked. He recalled when Ludwig had told him about the time when he was five, how he had basically been the most spoiled Koopa to ever walk on Koopa Kingdom soil. Junior himself could relate to behaving like that in his youth, so naturally, he felt for Ludwig. He didn't want his brother to feel any further embarrassment.

"Lemmy, if this is going to hurt Ludwig, I don't think it's a good idea for you to tell me."

Lemmy blinked. "Hurt Ludwig." He snickered. "Oh no. No no no. I have no intention to do any such thing." He smiled at his eldest brother. "Sure, he might not have been the most perfect child when we were growing up. But he was still my brother. My amazing brother who helped me through some of the darkest times."

Ludwig lifted his head. "Darkest times?"

"Darkest times?" Junior asked. "You mean you struggling with walking wasn't the darkest times for you?"

Lemmy burst into laughter. "Are you kidding? Of course not!" He cleared his throat. "For better or for worse, that struggle I had when I was four was not the darkest I've ever dealt with, nor the worst I've ever felt. No, I'll tell you about the worst I've ever felt."

….

This story takes place when I was six. Back then, me and Ludwig weren't exactly on speaking terms. Whenever we did speak, it was more in a "how do you do" sort of manner as opposed to a full fledged conversation. However, deep down, I always wished for something more. I felt like I needed something more. After all….

He was my brother.

I always felt extremely low whenever I encountered Ludwig. I wanted to go up and talk to him, but something always held me back. Something….something. I have no idea what that something was, though. It could have just been circumstances, like he was busy doing other things. Or it could have been something like I felt too scared. Even though we were brothers, at that point in time, we barely knew each other.

And I wanted to know more about my brother. After all, he was so cool! He could fly and shoot fireballs out of his hands! That was pretty neat. It still is, but as a child, I always looked at those abilities and thought to myself "wow, I wish I could do that."

I guess his abilities are what made me so intimidated. Because, the more I tried to talk with him, to become friends with him, the more….the more I knew that I couldn't do it.

So, I mostly just stuck to myself. Bowser had bought my first circus ball for me not too long ago, and I had found an appreciation for it. I started learning new tricks, backflips and stuff like that. I eventually found that I could use my ball to get around faster; that was a lot of fun. Now that I think about it, I wonder if I could roll around on my ball nowadays?

Unfortunately, the tricks became sort of a double edged sword. The more I practiced them, the better I got at them. The better I got at them, the more I wanted to show them to Ludwig. And the more I wanted to show them to Ludwig...the lonelier I became.

Eventually, this loneliness took on the form of something far worse: sadness. I don't want to say depression; I'm not clinically depressed and hopefully never will be. But I was sad. I...began to worry. Questions filled my mind on a daily basis, questions that always began with the two words "what if."

What if I will always be lonely? What if I can't get rid of this sadness? What if I never get to show my tricks to my brother?

You get the idea; there were a lot of what fis. Too many what ifs, especially for a six year old to handle. I would spend night after night lying awake in my room, trying to tackle these questions and make them disappear. I was always unsuccessful.

Soon, I was crying at night. My pillow became so wet; there was enough water stored in that thing to fill the Great Mushroom Sea. I felt so lonely, so scared so sad. What if this was my fault? What if Ludwig hated me?

…

Ludwig sniffled from across the room. Junior looked up from writing in the notebook and saw that he was drying his eyes.

"It wasn't your fault, Lems. It was mine."

Lemmy smiled. "Don't say that. No one was to blame."

Ludwig whimpered. "But I was so selfish, Lemmy! I was such a spoiled brat, such a horrible person, that I didn't even see your struggles! I was so wrapped up in my own world, so absorbed with my filthy, stone cold heart…" he covered his hands with his eyes, and tears flowed in between the cracks of his fingers.

"Hey." Lemmy went up and patted him on the knee. "Don't talk about yourself that way. Sure, you made mistakes, but so did I. Besides….you're my brother. My bro. Remember when we swapped bodies?"

Ludwig dried his eyes again. "Yes."

Junior's eyes grew wide. "You two swapped bodies?"

Ludwig and Lemmy turned toward Junior and blinked. Ludwig chuckled.

"Oh, right, we never told him. Yes Junior, we swapped bodies after a run-in with a Duplighost." Ludwig's eyes grew somber. "It was one of the worst experiences of my life."

Lemmy nodded. "Mine too," he said quietly. He lowered his head. "I was so worried that I would never get my body back. I was worried that there would be nothing I could do. Especially seeing how much Ludwig hurt when he was trapped in my body, unable to access his powers." Lemmu looked up at his brother. "But in the end, we managed to get through. At the end of the day, I'm glad it happened with Ludwig and not someone else, otherwise I don't think I could've gotten through."

Ludwig smiled. "Same, Lems. You showed me that there was light at the end of the tunnel."

Lemmy smiled back. "And do you remember how I did it?"

Ludwig sniffled and dried his eyes again. "You said I couldn't stop you from loving me even if I killed you."

"Precisely."

While Junior would never admit it, his heart melted in that moment. So much love...so much sweetness...so much...CHEESE! It was almost too much to bear.

To hide his inner affection, he gagged. "Blugh. Get a room, you two."

Lemmy turned toward him and giggled. "Technically, this is our room."

"Still. That's just...blegh." He picked his pen and notebook back up. "Can you finish your story Lemmy?"

Lemmy grinned. "With pleasure."

…

Ahem.

Now, the worst time for me came one night. Ludwig had disappeared three days earlier, and I worried myself to death over it. What if something happened to him? What if he had run away?

What if it was my fault? All my fault and no one else's?

Now, looking back, I realize that last thought is illogical as heck. I mean...come on! First of all, he had left because he went to Frostwall. Secondly, even if that wasn't the case, there was probably very little that I had done or could have done to cause him to bail out on his family like that. Especially considering that he was only seven, and even though he had powers, he still needed to rely on his family.

However, none of this stuff was stuff I realized at the time. I was just so trapped within my own perspective, my own very limited perspective, that I couldn't see the forest for the trees. I was beyond distraught, beyond terrified, beyond worried.

Now, Ludwig did come back, and I loved that he did. That moment really helped me out of my rut. I didn't know that he had destroyed a city. And honestly, even if I had known, I probably wouldn't have held it against him.

However, while that moment was fantastic, it was the moment that happened afterwards that really made me smile.

It was the morning after he had come back from Frostwall. I remember there being a lot of hustling and bustling, but I didn't think much of it. I was just so happy that my bro came back. There was a smile on my face for the first time in forever.

I remember wanting to go down to a quiet corner and try doing a handstand. I knew how to juggle, I knew how to balance, and I knew how to cartwheel, but handstand? No. That wasn't in my skill set. I wanted it to be part of my skill set though. And, with my mood being up that day, I knew that it was the absolute perfect time to practice.

"Come on, come on," I said as I tried balancing on my hands. Now, not only were my legs weak, but my arms were weak too. Just like with walking, I had to try extra hard in order to do a handstand. "I think I can, I think I...WOAH!"

I fell. Flat on my face. My nose hurt, my heartbeat pounded in my head. I got up and swept the dust off my front.

"Let's try that again," I said with a sigh. I tried to do it again, but the same thing happened. I felt like crying all over again.

That was, until I heard Ludwig call out to me.

"Hey."

I looked up and blinked. "How'd you find me? This is my little quiet corner!"

Ludwig sighed. "It isn't as secret as you think. Especially when you tell the soldiers and servants about it."

I blinked and chuckled in embarrassment. "Right. Right."

Ludwig hesitated for about two minutes, creating an uncomfortable silence. He did this before showing me the Jasper that he had showed me the night before, when he had come back from Frostwall. "You really think I should make this into a button for a cloak?"

"Uh, of course!" I exclaimed. "It would look really nice on you!"

Ludwig nodded. "I think so too," he said softly. He put the gem back in his hammerspace and looked at me. I noticed the subtle details in his expression, indicating something was wrong. He looked...shaken.

"Are you okay?"

Ludwig sighed and ran his hands through his hair. "Yeah."

I knew he was lying. I couldn't let that go unaddressed. "Are you sure?"

He sighed. "Yes!"

I felt worried again. I wanted to know what was going on in that head of his, I wanted to know what was wrong. Whatever it was, i knew it was bothering him. Killing him.

However, I also knew that whatever was bothering him was something that he probably didn't want to talk about. So, I just smiled.

"Okay." I tried to do a handstand again, but failed even harder. My nose pounded something fierce. "Oww! Oww…"

Ludwig raised an eyebrow. "You trying to do a handstand?"

"Yeah." I got up, wiping more dusties off my front. "It's not going so well."

Ludwig nodded. He looked at me, then at the wall. Me, wall, me, wall.

"Lemmy, try doing a handstand again."

I perked up. Sure, at that point, I had failed with every attempt. But I knew that I could trust my older brother.

"Okay!" I tried again. I wobbled and shook as I stood on my hands. The blood rushed toward my head. "Ludwig, I'm gonna fall!"

"No you aren't."

With that, he activated his telekinesis. I felt the security of his hold around my body as I shined with the blue aura. I no longer wobbled. I no longer shook. I laughed out loud.

"I did it! I'm doing it!"

Ludwig nodded and released his hold. I stood for a good five seconds before toppling like a domino. I ran over and hugged him.

"Thanks Luddy. You're the best."

"No. I'm not. I'm really not."

"Sure you are; you helped me!" I let go and grinned at him. "Soon, I'll be able to do handstands without your help! And when I do, you're gonna think that you're the greatest of all time."

Ludwig blushed, but didn't smile. "Thanks, Lems."

"Anytime, Luddy." I then gasped. "Ooh! I can show you more tricks! I know I've got a ton of them up my sleeve!"

I laughed, for that was the first pun I had ever made.

…

Junior laughed as he wrote that down. When he finished, he looked at Lemmy with a smile. "That was cool. Thanks, Lems."

"You're welcome, Junior! I like telling people stories."

Junior nodded and turned toward Ludwig. "And thank you, Ludwig. I thought your stories were extra inspiring."

Ludwig blushed and smiled. "Aw, shucks."

Junior laughed and closed the book. "Well, I'm going to let you two enjoy your day. I want to ask someone else about their stories."

"Okay, Junior!" Lemmy said. "Have fun! I can't wait to see the scrapbook when it's finished!"

With that, Junior left the room. He sighed and looked down at the notebook, which was about a quarter of the way filled up. He flipped through it. "Who should I ask next?"

"Hey, Squirt. How's it hanging?"

Junior turned and smiled. "Oh! Hey, Roy!