"A lot has happened since I last saw you." Even though he'd already been married by the time Peach and Mario's wedding ceremony had been held. Luigi wasn't even sure where to start with that.

"I was married." Ma and Pa looked at him blankly before Ma smacked his arm.

"Why didn't you invite us? Even Mario invited us to his wedding with Peach!" Luigi grimaced. Knowing the two had already been married technically before the wedding day. Ma and Pa didn't need to know that though.

"Mario married for love; I was forced into a marriage. Uh, the king that married me tricked me-he. It's hard to explain…We told you about how dreams can affect the waking world?" They both nodded and that had been such a difficult conversation, but that was mostly because Uncle Arthur was asking a million and one questions.

"Well, King Boo used that to his advantage, and I thought I was just dreaming about getting married because Peach and Mario were about to be…" God that sounded so fucking naive of him. He rubbed his face and put his hands on the table wishing that he could just forget about what happened to start all of this.

"He didn't love me and now that I have the power of his kingdom-which is a long story in itself- All of the Vows I gave people are broken, including my wedding vow. So, technically I'm divorced? I guess?" Luigi let out a laugh, because yeah of course he'd be the one to get divorced. Mario loved Peach too much, they would never be separated. His parents shared a look that Luigi wasn't sure what to make of.

"So, what are you going to do now?" Pa asked a meaty hand on Luigi's forearm. His father's warm hand grounded him in a way he'd hardly thought of before, but right now was extremely comforting.

"Run a kingdom as a king because I must now? I'm going to be so busy just trying to put everything together. I rather hide under my bed than deal with that nonsense."

They smiled at him, but he felt like even though he was standing up for himself now it wasn't the way things should have ended up.

"What if Boo?" Ma starts but then sighs and shares a glance with Pa who motioned for her to continue.

"What if the reason Boo thought of you was because he cared about you and didn't know how to show it?" That didn't change how messed up it had been.

"He forced my hand, if he did care about me, he broke any chance of us ever being together." Because he wasn't about to let Boo yank him around, he would have to just lock his heart away. Oh shit, that reminded him that the Ghost Dimension and the Dark Lands had a truce. Fuck, how was that going to work out now that he was the ruler with very clear ties to the Mushroom Kingdom?

"Luigi…" His mother said and it almost broke his heart to hear her so sad for him.

"I'm not swearing off love Ma, just love with someone who would rather lie to my face than just tell me why he chose me. He made it out like he picked me because I'd beaten him multiple times already." She wiped her eyes, tears still hiding in her eyes, and he felt bad, but he wasn't about to change his mind.

"Welp, as a newly divorced man we're going." He watched mystified as Pa got his jacket and shoes.

"Come on, it's a family tradition to go to the bar with your old man when you get divorced." Luigi snorted and yeah, that did sound good. A beer and a crowd that didn't know shit about what he'd been through and probably a game going on in the background. It was better than being left in his head.

He went to get his shoes and coat and kissed Ma on the cheek as he left with Pa. It wasn't too cold this time of year, but Pa hunkered into his jacket, he wasn't a spry young man anymore and the cold seemed to get to him more and more each year. Probably arthritis to be honest given all the hard work Pa had done in his life.

"You'll find someone, Luigi, just give your heart time to settle." He blinked, his father seldomly talked about emotions…He was more the type to grumble about pansy emotions and Ma would support them anyway.

"I know Pa. I'm just glad that Mario had an easy time of it. Peach is the best sister-in-law anyone could ask for." Pa chuckled and threw an arm around his shoulders.

"Your Ma and I weren't perfect at first, had plenty of arguments in the time we've been married but I always knew she was the one for me. I'm sure when you meet the person you'll marry, it will be the same way." Unlike Mario who hung off of every word, Peach said like she was the brightest star in the sky and arguments smoothed over like they never happened.

"I hope with less fiery arguments, Ma is sure scary when she's mad." They both laughed and Pa pulled him into the usual bar, the bar he'd had his first beer in-the one where Mario started a fight and got utterly clobbered, where when they got off work sometimes the others would come with, and they would have a beer or two. Spike being such an asshole and hitting on everything that moved practically.

They went up to the bar and Pa ordered while Luigi looked around, it was fairly full today, the Superbowl! Oh, he didn't realize it was that time of year already! People cheering or booing depending on if they were cheering the 49ers or the Chiefs. He spotted Spike and some of the other guys they used to work with. Great. That was the last thing he wanted to deal with today.

They were given their beers by a new bartender he'd never seen before and he focused on the game, his Pa making comments here and there about it. A few other guys started chatting with Pa about the odds of who was going to win this game.
"Man, it's been too long since I've seen you here Luigi." He glanced up from his beer and smiled at the bartender, she was a big woman and had saved his ass a couple of times from bar fights.

"Oh, hey Amelia. Yeah, been a while." Pa patted him on the back, and he focused back on Amelia.

"Just wanted to warn you Spikes around." She knew too well how Spike tried to bully him.

"Yeah, I saw, thanks for the heads up though." She nodded and went to take someone else's order, the guy bartender smiling at her and her swatting his back. He caught out of the corner of his eye Pa with a group of older guys heading towards the door, it was fine. He wasn't great company right now and his Pa hardly hung out with friends. He watched the game and sipped on a third beer, as much as it was nice to be in a crowd he was still alone with his thoughts and he could feel his blood boil just thinking about how trapped he'd been, how he'd allowed someone to mess with him. He wasn't the sort to sleep around but God all the touching had ramped up his libido.

Luigi chuckled to himself, who would have known this was how he was going to end up? Pining for a fucking ghost king and wishing that he'd at least gotten laid before the truth came out? He could still get laid if he wanted, there were a few guys here that would probably take him up on an offer if he was so motivated to.

A heavy hand landed on his shoulder, and he looked up already expecting who it was that dared laid a hand on him. Spike grinned at him, and he snorted.

"Hey, Luigi."

"Where did he go!" Mario said panicky, and he could feel his chest tightening, he couldn't lose his brother after having just got him back!

"He's now the power source for the whole of the Ghost Dimension, he could be anywhere he wants to be in an instant." Boo said, his body slumped against a gravestone and Peach frowned at those words.

"But where would he go without Mario?" Mario's eyes light up. There was only one place Lu would go without him and Boo wouldn't know where that was.

"Home." Mario pushed himself up and Peach came up to him, They nodded before moving towards the entrance of the Graveyard. Boo moved as if to follow them then turned away. Good, he didn't want to have to deal with the bastard. Yeah, he'd help beat his father but he was the reason that the former King Boo had managed to get close to Luigi and kidnap him.