Chapter 13 Calling Myself

Luigi took a deep breath as he ducked around the corner. He looked from side to side, just to confirm that Peach hadn't followed and that there were no Toads within earshot. Once he got that confirmation, he looked back down at his ringing phone. He wondered what kind of questions he should ask Mario. He reasoned that his brother had gone out on the date with Daisy, or was possibly still in the middle of the date now. If that was the case, he was admittedly jealous. But then again, he had been jealous of his brother since breakfast this morning, so that really wasn't anything new.

How would he be able to handle the descriptions of the date? How could he talk about his brother enjoying the rewards of his own bold and daring decision? What's more, how would Mario react when he found out that his brother was getting kiss after kiss, smooch after smooch, from the person he was in love with? There was no possible way that he would react positively to that. Maybe this phone call was a mistake? Maybe he should just forget about this. After all, why have a horrible conversation now when you could hold off the discomfort for sometime later in the day?

Ring ring!

Well, Mario was calling him now. And, to top it all off, waiting until the evening to deliver bad news would only make Luigi anxious about going home. So, there was no getting out of it now. With a cringe on his face, Luigi hit accept and put the phone to his ear.

"Hey bro."

"Luigi? How are you? Is everything okay?"

Luigi scratched the back of his head. He debated whether or not he should give his brother the honest truth about what had happened to him less than a minute earlier. Eventually, he decided he would aim for "telling the truth, but leaving some details out."

"I'm fine, for the most part." He swallowed a lump; even talking about parts of the truth was uncomfortable. "I've been hanging out with Peach; we just got done clearing out a guest bedroom for Rosalina."

"Oh, Rosalina's going to visit?" Luigi could practically see the smile on his face, even though he was miles away. "That's cool! I haven't seen her in a while."

"Me neither.' Luigi thought back to when he last encountered the Lady of the Cosmos. It had been…five months? Six? Well, no matter how long ago it was, she had appeared before them because she was invited to participate in a round of Mario Party. That was fun. Luigi wondered/hoped that this visit would have a much vivacity as the last one (although, deep down, he knew that there was very little that could beat a game of Mario Party).

"Yeah," Mario said, drawing Luigi out of his head. "It's always a treat when I see her. She has a lot of tricks packed up her sleeves, that woman."

Luigi snickered. "Well, she's practically a goddess. If she didn't have at least a smidgen of power, I don't think that she would be deserving of her title."

Mario laughed. "That is true." He paused for a very noticeable ten seconds before speaking again. "So…you're having a fun time with Peachy, eh?"

Sweat formed all over Luigi's new body. "Yeah….yeah." Don't reveal the whole truth, don't reveal the whole truth! "She's been…affectionate."

"Affectionate?" A note of panic spiked Mario's voice up. "What's that supposed to mean?"

Luigi swallowed a lump. "Oh…you know, she's been really happy to see me…or, I mean, you."

Silence, unbearable and suspenseful. The sweat that formed all over Luigi only got stronger. It was as if he was waiting for his brother to tell him whether or not he was going to live or die. Which…actually, would Mario kill him if he found out that the Princess kissed him? He didn't know. Mario was usually understanding, but since they weren't in any sort of regular scenario, Luigi had no idea how he would react this time around. He prayed to Grambi in his head, begging him that his brother wouldn't be mad, or worse, pry for more information.

Eventually, Mario responded. When he did, all the suspense in the air melted into relief. "Well, that's good." He laughed. "I would be happy to see her too, if I were you." There was a pause before both brothers snickered. "Oh man. I did not mean to make a pun."

Luigi tried to hold back his giggles. "It's okay. You're not upset about any of this?"

"Why should I be? Peach doesn't know it's you. In fact, the fact that she is happy to see me after yesterday is a pretty good sign. So, I would say things worked out for the better."

The second to last sentence in that statement drew curiosity out of Luigi. "Wait, what happened yesterday?"

Mario hesitated on the other line. "Uh…I kind of went on a date with her."

Luigi's eyes grew wide; he almost dropped the phone. "Wait, really?"

"It wasn't official by any means. She asked me out to lunch and took me to a restaurant in the Star Mushroom Mall." Mario sighed. "I ended up walking out on the date. I'm sure that must have come across as a little too jerkish."

Despite the regret on Mario's part, Luigi was still overjoyed. Both he and Mario were taking steps to forming long term relationships with their girls of choice. This was both nice and comforting to the youngest Mario brother. It presented him with a newfound hope, one that made him believe he could conquer any obstacle involving a romantic scenario. What made it even better was that both Mario brothers would be conquering the romantic obstacles together. They would be walking down parallel paths, and thus could be of help to each other.

"Luigi?"

"Yeah?"

"Do you think you could apologize to Peach for me? You know, tell her that I didn't mean to be rude and leave her hanging yesterday?"

Luigi smiled. "Of course bro." That was something he would be more than willing to do. He considered it a way of helping his brother during the body swap. After all, it was Mario's message he was delivering, not his own. On some level, it made the conversation he and Peach were going to have regarding the issue more authentic.

Mario breathed a sigh of relief. "Oh, I can't thank you enough, Weegee. I really don't want a date with Peach to end on bad terms. Especially when it's a first date."

"I understand," Luigi said. "Still, it's really cool that you and Peach were able to go out." A question popped in his mind, one that he had thought of before, but almost got distracted from asking when the conversation got started. "Oh, speaking of which, how was your time with Daisy?"

There was a pause. "It was good," Mario responded. "I'm actually not done with it yet; I'm calling you in the bathroom of the place we decided to go."

Luigi perked up a little. Sure, the fact that it was Mario on the date instead of him still felt wrong on some level. But still, he was relieved to hear that the endeavor was weighing in his favor. Maybe he had Mario's natural charisma to thank for that? He didn't know. And honestly, on some level he didn't want to.

"That's good. Where did you and Daisy ended up going?"

There was another pause, this one long and drawn out. Luigi began to worry as he waited for his brother's answer; was everything okay? Oh, please let everything be okay!

"Uh…" Mario cleared his throat. "Please don't laugh when I tell you this."

Luigi raised an eyebrow. "Why not? Where did you go, Mario?"

Mario took a deep breath. "I…" he rushed through the next part of the sentence. "We went out to Goomburger."

Luigi's eyes grew wide. He snickered the biggest snicker in the history of snickering. "Wait, what?'

"I know, I know!" Mario said. "How embarrassing is that?"

"Very, considering you were giving me a lot of crap for suggesting Goomburger yesterday!" Luigi shook his head as he smiled. "Didn't know it would take you this short amount of time to change your mind."

"Well…" Luigi could kind of hear Mario scratching his head if he listened hard enough. "It was actually Daisy's idea."

"Oh." Luigi snorted. "I'm not surprised in the least. Still, this whole thing is pretty funny."

"Yeah…" Mario paused again. "I just wish I didn't have to go there on two different dates within the same twenty four hour period."

It took a minute for Luigi to process that statement. When he did, he burst into laughter. "Wait! Peach took you there?"

"Yeah…" Luigi could imagine that his brother was shrinking back due to embarrassment. "Can you believe that? It's like the universe is trying to punish me!"

"Yeah, just a little bit!" Luigi smiled as he dried a tear from his eye. "That is hilarious!"

Mario sighed. "It almost makes me long for attempting to get the boohemoth out of your mansion."

"Oh yeah! You're going to do that too!" Luigi grinned. "Tell me how that goes. I want every detail; don't leave a single thing out!"

"Okay…" Mario giggled. "If I survive, I'll tell you how it goes."

"Awesome." Luigi chuckled a little bit. "You know, this whole body swap isn't as bad as I thought it would be."

"Surprisingly, I actually agree. Although, I can't wait for when it gets reversed."

"Oh yeah, totally. I want to get back to my life as soon as possible." Luigi sighed, the sound airy and dreamy. "Especially since Daisy will be involved."

"I get that. I can't wait to spend time with Peach." There were a few seconds before Mario let out a breath. "Well, I'm gonna let you go. Don't want Daisy to wonder why I've been in the bathroom for so long and get worried about your health."

"Sounds good. I'm glad you and I checked in on each, Mario.'

"Same here. Talk to you when we get home."

With that, he hung up. Luigi smiled. What was a scenario he had kind of been dreading turned out to be nice (kind of a microcosm about the body swap in general). He put his brother's phone in his pocket and, smiling like a clown, made his way back to Princess Peach.

Mario kept his eyes glued to the phone as he stood near the sink. Luigi had seemed happy; a good sign to be sure. A little concerning since he was hanging out with Mario's girl, but Mario couldn't be too mad at that. After all, he was hanging out with Luigi's girl, and the situation wasn't…terrible.

But even still, Mario didn't want to leave the bathroom. While the date with Daisy was going relatively well, he didn't want to ge too attached. Plus, there was one detail that was brought up in the phone call that filled Mario with dread; capturing the boohemoth in his brother's mansion. He had no idea how he was going to do that; he didn't know how his brother's poltergust worked, he didn't know how to deal with ghosts...plus, while he would never admit it to anyone, he was a little afraid of ghosts. Boos and Goobs gave him the heebie jeebies, especially when the fact that he had been captured and put into a painting by King Boo multiple times was factored into the equation.

So, he had a lot on his plate. How in the world was he going to deal with it?