Chapter 12 Unwanted Affection
Doing things for the Princess wasn't a chore a at all. In fact, it turned out to be quite fun. Luigi found that all the heavy lifting Peach required him to do was easy. Almost…too easy. He found that things he had been scared to lift and carry out of the makeshift guest room were not as heavy as he originally projected. Or maybe they were, and Mario just had more natural muscle. Now that he thought about it…was there any reason for Mario to be stronger than him? The oldest Mario brother wasn't someone who spent a glorious amount of time exercising. Unless you counted the treks across eight worlds of course.
Well, whatever. The point was they were making good progress with the room. The time flew by as Luigi hauled the boxes and portraits and other junk that Peach had accumulated for no particular reason. Luigi couldn't help but feel a little fluttery inside as he hauled a huge box on his back out into the hallway.
"My goodness," he grunted. He set the box down, wiping his brow and smiling when he finished. "I feel so accomplished!" He turned toward Peach, carrying two vases that housed rotting plants. "Is this what it feels like to be the Mushroom Kingdom's hero?"
Peach snickered. "Sure. Not that I know what it's like to be the Mushroom Kingdom's, but sure."
Luigi smirked and went back into the room. Exerting all the strength he had at his disposal, he moved the thing out into the hallway. Once it was far away from the bedroom's interior, he wiped his hands together and returned to the room with Peach. While he did this, he grinned from ear to ear.
"Wow. The room looks so different when its not filled to overflowing with junk.."
Peach nodded. "Yeah." Her face turned a little red. "Sorry; I don't really have any place to put all the stuff."
Luigi chuckled. "Trash cans aren't available in this joint?"
Peach playfully elbowed him in the arm. Luigi noticed that the sensation was far less painful and impactful from Daisy's attempts of getting physical with him. "Shut up."
Luigi laughed and put his hands to his hips in satisfaction. This day was turning out to be alright. In some ways, being Mario was a breeze. Sure, Luigi still preferred the comfort and familiarity of his own body, and desperately wished that he could get it back tomorrow. But still, this day was very…invigorating, he guessed he could say. Seeing things from Mario's perspective, and getting to experience the perks that came with that perspective had turned out to be a whole new level of enjoyable in its own right.
Which did beg the question…how was Mario holding up during this day? Luigi held back a chuckle thinking about this question; it was probably taking the Mushroom Kingdom's hero a lot of time to adjust to the lack of recognition. Not even the lack of fame, just the lack of recognition at all. That was one of the things that drove Luigi crazy during most days.
You know, perhaps it wouldn't be such a bad idea to give Mario a call. You know, just to get a clear idea of how he was reacting to all of this. With a smirk on his face, Luigi pulled his brother's phone out of his pocket and started dialing his own number, relishing over the possibility that Mario didn't like being his brother.
Before he could complete the call, Peach put her hand on his arm. "What are you doing?"
Luigi sent her a smile. "I'm calling Luigi." His face fell a little bit. "Is that okay?"
"Oh yeah. Yeah, it's fine; you call your brother."
Luigi nodded and selected his own name in the contact list. He held the phone to his ear, waiting for the ringing to stop and for the sound of his own voice to replace it. His face fell when the only voice he heard was the automated one telling him that the person on the other line was unavailable, and that he should leave a message.
"That's weird." Luigi canceled the call and selected his own name again. The phone rang for what felt like an even longer time to the younger Mario brother. But still, the result was the same; the robotic female voice told Luigi to leave a message.
"Darn it." His heart sank as he canceled the call again and looked at the phone. Why wasn't Mario answering.
"Huh. Maybe he doesn't have his phone on him?" Peach suggested.
Luigi bit his lip. That was a likely explanation. Even still, he couldn't help but worry about this. Maybe Mario saw that it was his brother calling and canceled the call on purpose. Maybe Mario was mad at him on some level. After all, this whole swap was his fault. Luigi figured his brother was holding a grudge against him for this, and was feeling bitter and resentful toward him.
This possibility…actually made Luigi cry a little bit.
"Mario?" Peach stroked his arm, her brow furrowed. "Are you okay?"
Luigi sniffled. "Yeah." He wiped his eyes and his nose with his fingers and sleeve respectively. "I'm okay."
Peach didn't look convinced at all. She raised an eyebrow, all while the concerned look didn't leave her face. "It's so unlike you to cry like this."
That made Luigi want to dial back on the tears. After all, the goal of this day in particular was to act as much like Mario as humanely possible. Luigi was already responsible for stealing his brother's life; he didn't want to be responsible for ruining it too.
Even still, Luigi couldn't act on his desire to cease with the tears. The thought of his brother being resentful toward him (not the fact, just the possibility; the thought) made him want to curl up into a little ball and cry until he could cry no more. Mario was his older brother. He drove Luigi crazy, sure, but he wasn't a fan of the idea involving Mario not talking to him for years on end because of a grudge.
"I…I'm sorry Peach." Luigi wiped his face again. "This…this really isn't like me; I don't know why this is happening…"
Without any words, Peach pulled a handkerchief out of one of the pockets on her dress. Luigi used that, feeling like the little satin napkin was helping him on some level. Regardless, his tears still flowed, which prompted the Princes to pat him on the shoulder and suggest something.
"What do you say you and I go get some fresh air?"
Liking that idea, Luigi nodded. "That…that sound good."
…
Underneath a cherry tree that was blooming with pink flowers (a beautiful sight for the eyes, but a horrible one for the allergic nose), Luigi still dried his eyes as he at on a marble bench. Peach sat beside him, her face and body language displaying concern and worry toward her beloved mustached hero.
"If you're worried about Luigi," she said, "you probably don't need to." She smiled. "Luigi's tough; he can handle himself."
Luigi chuckled. "Thank you." He immediately noticed what blunder he made by saying that, so he quickly went down the path of course correction. "I mean, I'm sure Luigi would love to hear you say that." He took a deep breath. "But that's not why I'm upset."
Peach blinked. "Then…why are you upset?"
Luigi thought about this. Part of him wanted to say that Peach wouldn't understand, but something about that response sounded inappropriate to him. It was like he would be pushing her away, which was something that one shouldn't be doing for a princess. But still, he really didn't know what to say aside from that. He didn't want to talk about the swap. That was something that he and his brother wanted to keep secret (or at least, Luigi wanted to keep it secret; he couldn't control or read Mario's thoughts).
But then, what should he do instead? How could he communicate some of his troubles to Peach without dismissing her, or giving away too much information. Luigi thought about this as the Princess rubbed his arm, going over every possibility in his head at least twice.
"I just…" suddenly, it occurred to Luigi what he could say, and it caused the tears to be vanish a little bit. "My brother and I had a fight last night."
"Oh." Peach looked deep into his eyes. "What about?"
Luigi sighed. "You know…" He did the so-so gesture. "Things were said, emotions came boiling out onto the forefront…basically, Luigi was a little mad at me because I went off to do that speech."
"Hmm." Peach's brow wrinkled in thought. "I see."
Luigi nodded. "Yeah. It wasn't pretty. Both of us went to bed a little steamed."
Peach nodded, the thoughtful expression not leaving her face. After a little bit, another emotion appeared on her face; guilt.
"I'm sorry Mario. It's partially my fault." She rubbed her forearm, the guilt growing stronger and stronger. "If I had known about the grief it would cause you and your brother, I wouldn't have asked you to do the speech." She shool her head. "I'm really sorry."
Luigi bit his lip. Oh no. Now Peach was getting upset. Luigi didn't want her to feel like there was any responsibility she needed to take regarding his brother's actions. She suggested that Mario do the speech, sure. But ultimately, it was Mario who decided to ditch him in the end.
"It's not your fault, Peach. I just acted selfishly." He shook his head. "So, so very selfishly."
Peach blinked, clearly taken aback by these words. Luigi decided to elaborate further.
"I mean, I have a responsibility towards my family. And since Luigi is the only family member I have with me in this particular world, that means that I need to be there for him. I need to look out for him and be by his side. I should have realized that the second that your text was sent. I'm the older brother. Older brother's look out for their younger siblings."
Peach pressed her lips together. "I see." She smiled, the action weak. "Well, it's at least very good that you've realized that. You clearly did some self reflection."
Luigi snickered a little bit. He doubted his brother did any self reflection regarding this issue. Not that he never did any self reflection, but Luigi had the sneaking suspicion that his brother still didn't think that he was in the wrong.
"Yes…" Luigi struggled to get through that one word. "I did."
Peach smiled. Before Luigi was fully aware of what she was doing, she leaned against his arm in a way that…reminded Luigi of couples snuggling together. "That's good."
All the alarm bells in Luigi's head went off. He shouldn't be in this position! Mario should be in this position! Therefore, it was completely and utterly wrong that Luigi was on the receiving end of Peach's affection. He felt…he felt like he was going to throw up.
"Uh…Peach." He tried pushing her away a little bit, but the normally astute Princess didn't seem to take the hint. What's worse, Luigi didn't know what to say in order to tell her that this was unwanted. "Uh…um…uh…"
"You're tense," Peach said.
Luigi swallowed a lump. "Mmhm."
Peach smiled and thankfully pulled away. Unthankfully and unfortunately, she then did the last thing that he ever wanted her to do. She kissed him on the cheek.
"There's no reason you need to be tense." She rubbed his shoulder. So much love (or at the very least attraction) was in her eyes. "Today is a good day. We don't have to worry about what happened yesterday." She pointed up to the cherry tree. "It's spring. Spring is a time about new beginnings and starts." She beamed at him. "I'm sure Luigi will realize that you feel bad about this when you return to him." She giggled and gave him another kiss on the cheek. "Don't worry about it."
Luigi's inner self was practically screaming with panic. This was Mario's love interest, not his! This shouldn't be happening to him! Mario should be getting all of these kisses and lovely looks. This felt wrong. Wrong, wrong, a million times wrong…
Ring!
Oh, thank the Star Spirits. He reached into his pocket and saw that Mario was finally returning his call. "I, uh, I'm going to take this."
