"He was tricking me for weeks! I thought you were having mental snaps!" Luigi glared at King Boo, knowing now, the flirtatious version was a lie his father had fostered. He'd been emotionally cheating on Boo all this time without being aware.

He stomped a foot and pushed into Mario's arms. Tears soaking his brother's shirt, he'd wanted to believe that he and Boo were building something...That their marriage might have been more than convenient to Boo, that they had a future despite all of the things that had happened between them since they first met.

"I would have let him, I didn't know…" Mario patted his back. Because how could he have known that Boo's fucking father had pretended to want him? The kissing and god, he would have let the man fuck him-would have enjoyed every second unaware it wasn't his husband, but thankfully magic had made that impossible.

"It's okay Weegee." It wasn't okay it was the farthest from okay but he was glad that Mario was trying to comfort him. Mario was the one constant in his life he could always count on.

"Okay? Magic could have killed him before we found him! He wouldn't have even been a ghost," King Boo hissed, and Mario snarled at him. Luigi was so tired of everything. feeling like he had no energy like he had a hollow carved out deep inside.

"I'm going home." He muttered and, in a blink, he was standing at the entrance to the warp pipe leading home. Yes, that sounded good, and only Mario and Peach would find him there. He moved through the pipe and sighed as he made it into Brooklyn, it looked as it always did even though he felt like everything had changed, at least he could go home and just soak in time with his family that cared for him even if they teased him and Mario so much it drove both of them almost literally up the wall some days.

When he stepped into the apartment his ma took one look at him and ushered him to the Bathroom. He could hear her shout for Pa as he turned on the shower, throwing his dirty clothes on the floor he paused as he caught a glance of himself in the mirror.

Moving closer he frowned at his hair, it was longer and wavy-a flash of the fight had him realize it wasn't white anymore. It had been as the power washed through him fully and he could still feel it there inside of him...

His eyes were a deeper blue than he remembered but that could be the adrenalin pumping through him still, Ma would tell him that his eyes change color with his emotions. Not a terrible look Luigi admitted to himself, he was surprised his Ma hadn't said anything about it though.

Luigi inhaled and then stepped into the hot shower, soaking his longer hair. It was weird what Magic decided was important in a change...It was a lot, he could feel Boo's rage when the man fought against his father, his fear. He'd truly been afraid of what was happening, Luigi pressed his forehead against the wall. Why couldn't he have moved faster? Ended the fight quicker with all the power surging through him, they had all been injured to some extent.

Though by the looks of it, Mario and Peach were going to be able to walk it off, sleep like fucking logs but otherwise be fine. It was the only reason he'd left them, though he supposed he could have sent them home. Luigi chuckled; he'd been more focused on going home himself.

Boo…Well, fuck him. He could disappear for all that Luigi cared. If Boo hadn't been such an idiot none of this would have happened, if he'd only just been around more his father wouldn't have been able to trick him. Fuck why hadn't he realized it wasn't Boo? They were identical in so many ways, and he had thought Boo was still Insane because he had been before- so why wouldn't he still be? It wasn't like the last Living Bride had done anything for him, so maybe he just needed brief moments around Luigi to be lucid enough to run his kingdom for the first time in who knew how long.

Eventually, he cleaned up and stepped out of the bathroom in a towel, his clothes utterly ruined and dumped in the trash. Dressed in his softest tee shirt, some jeans, and his favorite socks he moved into the kitchen where he heard his parents talking quietly.

They both looked up when he entered and he paused because he'd never seen them look that worried before, yeah there had been days they had worried. Parents worried about their kids no matter how old they were, but this was far worse wasn't it? And they didn't know anything about what had been happening.

He'd been too caught up in his life in the Mushroom Kingdom to even think to tell them that he'd been…He let out a shivering breath and his Ma pulled him into a hug, tears threatened to spill down his face and he tried to hold them in but couldn't. Sobbing he pulled his Ma closer to himself, needing to be close to her as his heart shattered all over.

"Pa get the kit." He let them fret over him, bandaged him up where he couldn't reach, and let them share worried glances before Pa pushed him into a chair at the table, as Ma began to pull items from the pantry and began to cook some of his favorite foods. All of it he was silent, even as his mother bless her singing in Italian, songs that had soothed him as a child.

Luigi felt bad that he hadn't said anything, but he felt so empty. So utterly done with everything. The lies, the kidnapping, the fighting. He just needed time away from it all and reevaluate what he wanted now that all of his vows were broken, and they had all broken-he felt it the moment the artifact had merged with him, his vow to Peach, his vow to Peasly about protecting their kingdoms gone, shattered fragments of glass in his chest. His marriage Vow, his vow to have Mario's back…Magic had given him a clean slate, even as it had claimed him for the Ghost Dimension. He was now the Artifact, something told him that he would always be now…And that there was something greater out there that threatened everything he cared about.

Magic whispering to him even now in Brooklyn, telling him things about his Kingdom. Boo would be so pissed off once he realized that Magic had basically dethroned him and placed Luigi there. He wanted to giggle at the sour look Boo was sure to have once he realized that little fact.
"Do you want to talk about it now?" His mother asked him, and he set his spoon down, he could talk about it all couldn't he…They wouldn't judge the mess his life had become especially since he was technically a royal now but unlike Mario not a mere consort…He was a King. Oh, fuck he was a king now-how the hell was he supposed to run the ghost dimension? He would probably have to share with Boo since the man had started to put things back together after years of being insane. Boo was going to hate that.

"No, but I can't just keep it bottled up ma." She nodded and he inhaled.