Chapter 7:

Oh Brother

After his wasted vacation days were done, Mario went back to work, feeling anything but rejuvenated. He tried to avoid Luigi's room whenever possible, just wanting to think on things for himself without internal or external voices going to war around him.

He most wanted to avoid Toadette, because now that she knew, she was always looking at him with such a hunger that it made his heart ache. He needed time to figure out whether his heart ached because he, too, missed his old life, or because he felt sorry for a little girl. Right now, he was believing the latter.

Who could blame me? Surely if they knew who I was, they wouldn't have spoken to me so honestly. They would have assured me of their love for me for more than what I do for them. But it was never true, was it? I'm a hero. That's just what I do. They'll never see me as anyone else. It even got so bad that I didn't realize I hated it. Let them have their historical stepping stone. I'm done with them. The voice was winning their mental battle.

He was able to spend a good amount of time with his new girlfriend, though. And now that the nagging feeling in his mind about how he broke up with her 'for a reason' was all but gone, he was able to move further in their relationship. He bought her gifts, she started paying for desserts, and he was able to kiss her goodnight every night.

Soon enough, he had to clear Luigi to be let go, since he had done the most checking up on his health. So he headed again for his room, hoping to get rid of him quickly and never worry about it again for a long while. Before he got completely into the room, he heard Luigi's voice louder than he had since the incident two months ago.

"I need to do something about it!" he was crying.

"What did the doctor say to him?!" Daisy's voice.

"Nothing that he should take so seriously," Peach answered.

Luigi's voice again, "But… I was a burden! I always thought I was, and I was!"

"No, Luigi. Mario would never see you as a burden!" Daisy insisted. "Listen to yourself! Do you really think your brother would think that about you?"

"Why not? He's protected me all my life!"

"You were as much an aid to him as he was to you," Peach told him in a firm, serious tone.

"How?"

"Don't you remember what the Yoshis told you? You know that neither of you would've turned out how you did or so happy without each other."

Mario was shocked into that flashback. He remembered it. He and his brother had revisited Yoshi's Island to save their old guardian's son and the other Yoshis from imprisonment in their own kinds of eggs. It was so long after their original journey on Yoshi's island, and the elderly Yoshi had told them something that had both surprised and made perfect sense to them:

The brothers listened intently to the story about their first time on Yoshi's Island. And Mario discovered what he would be like without his brother. Apparently "Red Temper-Tears," the Yoshis' nickname for him, was an understatement. "You were fussy on our backs and anytime we got hit with something and lost you, you would scream and wail to no end!" The old green Yoshi chuckled. "Yeah, Cheery Greeny here was what finally cheered you up, lad." The old Yoshi gestured to Luigi. "He was always rather timid, but he laughed and smiled… especially at you, Mario."

"At me?" Mario asked. He glanced at his brother, who smiled sheepishly.

"That's not to say Luigi didn't have his share of drama. You two were the most dramatic children I've ever seen! A single trip and fall would make you wail. Hard to believe you're big-time heroes now!"

"A single fall still makes this one wail," Mario teased, pointing at his brother.

"As if you've never screamed down a hole!" Luigi countered good-naturedly.

The old Yoshi laughed, "I suppose it's true what they say… True courage is being scared to tears—"

"But fighting through it anyway!" his son finished.

The brothers looked at each other. How true that was indeed.

Those old Yoshis had basically insisted that the brothers depended on each other. They couldn't bring Mario to his home until Luigi could be taken with him. That was the only case of two brothers who weren't twins being delivered at the same time. It was because Mario would've been a hot-tempered handful without his brother. Never before had Mario ever considered how much he needed Luigi… perhaps as much as his little brother needed him.

He stood there for quite awhile until he heard Toadette's voice. "Doctor?" she asked up hopefully.

He snapped out of his thoughts. Ignoring the little girl, he entered the room. The reception he got was cold, but he tried not to let that bother him as he said, "You're to be released today, Luigi. I wish you well." And he left before they could say anything.

He found an empty room and sat on the bed in the dark. He laid his head in his hands and let his mind run away to the past. He never paid Luigi's influence much mind, but if he had never been his brother, Mario certainly would have turned out differently. Who knew how much differently? Based on his baby self, the tearful tantrum child, he could very well have been a jerk, the complete opposite of who he was. He wouldn't have had many dreams of helping people, whether as a doctor or hero, and was more likely to be like his cousins, who rarely thought of anyone but themselves. Maybe he was meant to have someone to protect.

He shook his head. Meant to? He asked himself. What does that even mean? This isn't some destiny or something! It's my life… I need to figure out what I want to be… not what my brother made me.

He certainly didn't want to wind up like Wario and Waluigi, but he's come to realize he didn't like his actual life any better. This was what he wanted. This life he was leading now. He hated to admit it, but he was grateful to that voice. She had given him his dream life.

He left the room in time to watch Luigi and his friends leaving the hospital. They went down the hallway, toward the glass doors. He didn't notice when Toadette showed up to his left. She didn't turn to him, but she spoke, "I can't imagine what it is that you need to work out, but I hope you see how much we miss you."

Mario paused, then turned to her. "Mushroom Kingdom is safe now. You don't need me."

"Not as a hero, maybe… but as family…"

Silence as Mario turned his head forward again.

Then, he spoke, "I have everything I've ever wanted. I have no worries… I'm a doctor… I have no one to care for but my patients."

He could see Toadette turn to him from the corner of his eye, "Sounds lonely."

He looked at her. Her face no longer held that hunger that he had seen before. She looked sad, not for her own sake, but for his. Like she really felt bad for him. "Not for long," he told her.

She tilted her head. She seemed to know he was not alluding to returning. "How?"

He thought about Pauline, the new love of his life. He could really see himself ending up with her. He could see himself being with her for the rest of his new life. But he didn't share this with Toadette.

When the awkward silence between them lasted long enough, she sighed. "Goodbye, doctor."

He watched her as she walked slowly down the hallway and to the door. She didn't turn back, didn't even stop. But Mario could tell from her pace that she was anything but happy. The voice whispered in his mind, "Even if she does care, that's one citizen out of thousands. One friend out of many you thought you had."

"I know," he answered aloud.

"So you admit that I'm right."

Mario didn't want to. He wished hard that he was wrong in believing her. But he longed for his new life. And he saw more and more the problems with his old one.