Chapter 6 Super Bros, Super Argument

Mario put his head in his hands as he leaned over his microwave fettuccine alfredo. He had already taken a shower, and his clothes were cycling through a very warm, very wet, very powerful cycle in the washer. Thus, he wore his pajamas. A nice change of pace admittedly; he would never grow tired of the pajama's softness.

No pun intended, of course, but he'll take credit for it regardless.

Mario put another bite of fettuccine into his mouth. He was still a little annoyed that the cliff had crumbled right under his feet. The last thing he had wanted to experience today was a freezing, muddy swim in the Cremini River. Plus, the embarrassment from taking Peach to Goomburger was still present. Seriously, Goomburger? Might as well take the Princess to a back alley dumpster next time they stopped for lunch.

Wow, Mario was really stewing in negativity. He needed to stop, slow down, and be mindful; mindful and present in the moment. He took a deep breath, counting to five in his head as he let it out. Ahh. Now that he was no longer tightly wound up, he could consider the actually good elements of his day.

Like…oh, his speech turned out really well. Ooh, and he had also saved someone! Those were two very major, very good accomplishments under his belt! He smiled just thinking about that. Yeah, there were some super parts to this day. Not a lot of them; he wouldn't call this day a super day. But, in the end, the day was decent. Not bad, not good, just….decent.

Creak.

Mario's spirits lifted right up. Luigi was home! Even better! Now, he could share this day with his little brother! Of course, that did beg the question; would it be appropriate for him to share the less than stellar portions? He didn't know; it was possible sharing them would make him come across as a whiner. No, he was going to share the good parts. Didn't want to bog Luigi down with the bad parts.

"Ciao, fratello!"

"Ciao." Luigi came into the kitchen, and he blinked when he saw what dish Mario was eating from. "You didn't want to make something on the stove?"

Mario shrugged. "Eh. Sometimes simple is exactly what you need."

Luigi sighed. "I…I guess that's true." He went over to the refrigerator, pulling out a microwavable meal of his own from the top freezer. "So, how was your day?"

Mario smiled as Luigi prepared his dish for heating up. "It was good. I ended up giving a really nice speech, and I managed to save a little Toad from falling into the Cremini River." He chuckled. "Overall, there really is nothing to complain about."

Surprisingly, Luigi actually stiffened up when those last few words were spoken. He also mumbled something under his breath. Mario couldn't quite hear it though.

"What was that?"

"Nothing," Luigi said almost immediately. He leaned against the counter, watching his meal spin around on the piece of the microwave that Mario liked to dub "the foody go round."

"Huh." Mario shrugged. "Okay." He looked right into Luigi's crystal blue eyes. "How was your day?" He figured he might as well be polite.

Luigi snorted. The sound was loud, abrasive, not happy in the slightest…oh man, did Luigi not have a good day?

Mario was so concerned about that possibility that he actually rose from his chair and went over to his brother. "What's wrong?"

Luigi chuckled, the sound mere inches away from falling into crazy, maniacal territory. "I had to deal with boos at my mansion today."

"Oh. I'm sorry." The apology was a little flat, but Mario figured it would at least serve its purpose in making Luigi feel heard.

Unfortunately, because Luigi was already in a sour mood, all that apology did was draw scorn out of him. "You should be!" The microwave beeped, so he pulled his meal out. "It's your fault!" he said as he stirred the meal.

Mario did a double take. "My fault?" He gawked. "I'm sorry, I think I'm missing a piece or two of the puzzle; how is this MY fault?"

Luigi snorted again. "Like you don't know."

"I really don't!" Mario took a step closer. "Weegee, what's wrong?"

Luigi sighed. He seemed to soften up a little bit as he took a bite of his meal. "Don't you remember? This day was supposed to be our special day. This day we were gonna have fun; just two bros bonding over silly, fun little activities." His face grew sad as he chewed. "But instead of doing that, you decided to give that speech at the new mall and run off." He looked Mario right in the eye. "It…kind of hurt."

"Oh." Mario pondered over this. "Well, I'm really sorry about that." He patted Luigi's shoulder. "But…you know, sometimes stuff like that happens. After all…" he chuckled. "Life is what happens when you're busy making plans."

Luigi actually glared at him. "Except you could have just told the Princess no."

"No?" Mario chortled. "Why would I do that? She was counting on me! On top of that, she's very important to me; I didn't want to let her down."

Luigi's glare got more concentrated. "Oh, so it's okay to let your brother down instead?" he asked, his voice rising in volume.

"What?" Mario said. "Oh come on, we can have days out any day we choose. An unveiling of a new shopping mall doesn't take place everyday."

"But you're not the only one who could give that speech! Peach was there; why didn't she do it?"

"Because I'm regarded as the hero of the Mushroom Kingdom." He chortled. "Not that that would be understandable to you."

NOW Luigi's face turned red. He grit his teeth, he clenched his hands into fists. "Excuse me?"

"Oh come on; it's not a bad thing! You have your own life and your own worries. Me? I have a whole kingdom and their princess' worries on my plate." He turned his head. "It's not like you would understand what its like, being revered like that."

Luigi sharply exhaled. "Wow. Way to sound modest AND compassionate Mario!"

This time, it was Mario's turn to glare. "Hey! I'm not trying to insult you; I'm just saying that saving a Princess is a big deal."

"You think I don't know that? I helped you rescue Peach before! It's not like I'm totally ignorant to all the effort you put in." He scoffed and put another bite of his meal into his mouth. "I would even argue that I put in double the effort yet only get half the credit."

"Uh, what?" Mario crossed his arms. "Are you saying that I slack off in comparison to you?"

Luigi stood up straight and tall. "Mario, I've battled Bowser with you. I've fought boos and ghosts to save you! I could have easily just chickened out, but I persevered! I had to go through hell in order to help you, and yet you're telling me that I don't know what it's like to be a hero?" He scoffed and put his hands on his hips. "Oh, wait, that's right. Maybe I would have a better idea of what it's like if you weren't hogging the spotlight every time!"

Mario's face grew as hot as the sun. "It's not my fault that the people of the Mushroom Kingdom gravitate toward me more!"

"No, but it is your fault that you don't point out me and my efforts to them!"

"THAT'S…" Mario shook his head. "Look, this is ridiculous. We shouldn't be arguing; especially not at this point in the evening."

Luigi shook his head and rolled his eyes. "Look at you; you don't even have a good counter argument to that statement."

Mario grit his teeth. "Luigi…!"

"What? Are you gonna deny it? You know it's true, Mario! You don't point out how much effort I put in! You just let me go by the wayside as you get all the praises, all the cake, all the kisses from the Princess…heck, you did that today! You blew off our plans just because you wanted to experience just a little more praise, a little more glory!"

"Luigi, that's not true!"

"THEN WHY'D YOU BLOW ME OFF, MARIO!" His face was redder than Bowser's hair. "WHY? WHY IS IT THAT YOU HAD AN AWESOME DAY, WITH AN AWESOME SPEECH AND AN AWESOME SORT OF QUALITY TIME WITH PEACH WHILE I WAS STUCK FIXING TOILETS AND GETTING RID OF GHOSTS?"

Mario huffed. "I have duties to fulfill…"

"YEAH! BROTHERLY DUTIES!" Tears were welling in the corners of Luigi's eyes. "YOU'RE MY BROTHER; MY BROTHER WHO I LOVE SPENDING TIME WITH?" He shook his head. "It's just too bad that you don't feel the same about me."

By now, Mario was fuming. There was so much he wanted to say, so many things he wanted to shout at the top of his lungs just to shoot down Luigi's arguments. He loved Luigi, after all. He was his one and only brother! He would travel to the farthest ends of the universe just to make him happy!

"Luigi, that's not true. I promise you that's not true."

"Yeah," Luigi scoffed as he turned his head away. "Sure."

That ambivalent, dismissive, apathetic word drew more anger out of Mario than anything else Luigi had said that night. "You know what? If you don't believe I care about you, then maybe it would be best that we don't carry on this conversation!" He turned toward the door. "I'm going to bed Luigi. I WOULD say have a good night, but apparently I'm too much of an apathetic monster to care about you."

"Don't forget that you look down upon me because I'm not as 'revered' as you!"

Mario sharply exhaled. He wanted to respond to that; really, desperately wanted to respond to that. But he didn't. There wasn't any point; any response he could provide would only lengthen this already exhausting argument.

But still, Mario was extremely pissed off. When he got to his room, he slammed the door extra hard and flopped down on his bed. He began monloguing to himself was he pulled his comforter up to his neck.

"It's not that I don't care," he said. "It's just that I have responsibilities." He snorted. "Oh, but I forgot; my responsibilities are only there so I can hog the glory and not care about my brother." He shook his head. "Bull shit. Absolute bull shit."

Mario reached onto his bedside table and turned off the light. As he snuggled deeper under the covers, he sighed.

"It's alright, Mario. Once Luigi gets a good night's sleep, he's going to feel better." He closed his eyes. "There's nothing to worry about."

Luigi, now dressed up in his own set of pajamas and was now pacing around his own bedroom, felt as if he was going to explode at any second. Mario. Mario Mario Mario…why, that good for nothing, deadbeat brother! That arrogant, pig headed man who thought that Luigi didn't understand anything about his personal issues. Luigi had meant what he said before; he put in double the work but only got half of the credit. At least, that's how he felt.

"Unbelievable," Luigi said, dwelling on that daunting, disgusting fact. "Mario thinks that I'm some sort of lesser being because I'm not as famous as him, doesn't he?" He snarled and went over to the window. Looking up at the stars, he felt like screaming into the night sky. He didn't, but he certainly wanted to.

"I hate him sometimes," he said. "He's my brother, and I love him dearly. But MAN do I hate him sometimes." He shook his head. "His life is just a dream come true. If there's anyone who is misunderstood in this situation, it's me." He looked up into the sky. "He doesn't understand what it's like to be put on the backburner. He doesn't know what it's like to be the 'lesser' Mario brother."

Right at that moment, a shooting star zipped across the night sky. Luigi, seeing it in all of its glory, decided to make a wish.

"I wish Mario could see what it's like. I wish he could walk in my shoes, know what its like to not be recognized and appreciated. I wish…" Luigi sighed. "I wish he could be me."

A cool breeze kissed his cheeks. Not wanting to let that breeze develop into a sickening chill, he closed his window and got into his bed.

"It's too bad that wish won't come true." He said. "It's not like shooting stars are actually magic." He closed his eyes. "Yep. It's too bad."