Chapter 6 A Normal Night

Three days passed, and Luigi could say that he completely forgot about the mysterious mushroom. He mostly settled back into the routine of life, the boring and unextraordinary routine. Well… okay, those words had negative connotations, so they were probably the wrong words to use to describe things. Luigi quite liked falling back into normalcy, actually. Things moved at a pace that he was comfortable with, and nothing too horrific or stressful happened. Life just continued on. That was the best possible thing that could happen to him.

And right now, this boring and unextraordinary day was drawing to a close. Wearing a pair of pajamas, consisting of some flannel pants and a grayish-green shirt, Luigi sat down in his favorite recliner. Well… it wasn't his "favorite," as he liked Mario's recliner even more. He and Mario would have insane arguments and fights over the chair, enough to resemble a World War. Admittedly, Luigi did get a kick out of those quarrels. He didn't know why, he supposed it scratched some kind of itch. Most days, he would be more than thrilled to get Mario's goat when it came to this recliner, but not tonight. Nah, he was just interested in relaxing tonight.

And relax he did. Snuggling deep into his own recliner, he put the footrest up. His eyelids sagged, causing him to yawn. These past few days had been pretty good. He liked that he was getting recognition now. He liked that he now got more of an opportunity to hang out with Daisy. The fact that she was his girlfriend… Luigi still had trouble believing it. She was beyond what little old him deserved.

As he thought about this, Mario came into the living room. Much to Luigi's annoyance, he was brushing his teeth as he did. This ALWAYS bothered Luigi; that was so disgusting! That wasn't something he needed to see! Mario should brush his teeth in the bathroom. If something happened in the bathroom, that meant it wasn't acceptable for the other rooms in the house. What next, was Mario going to crap on the carpet?

"Bro…" Luigi sighed. "I don't want to yell at you tonight; can you PLEASE brush your teeth in the bathroom?"

"Oh, Luigi!" Mario's voice was slightly muffled by the stuff in his mouth, but he was thankfully still intelligible. "It doesn't matter what room I brush my teeth in; it's me getting clean!"

Luigi snorted. "Getting in the shower is also you getting clean, and yet you don't do that in the living room…"

Mario huffed. "Why does it matter? We swapped bodies a little while ago Lou; it's not like we have any…" What he said next, unfortunately, was unintelligible. Luigi had to strain his ears to try and make out what he was saying, but it was close to impossible.

"Mario, I can't understand you." Luigi gave him a dry look. "Maybe that's part of the reason why brushing teeth should happen only in the bathroom. You can't talk with your sibling in a way that makes sense otherwise."

Mario rolled his eyes. He disappeared, and two minutes later, he returned while wiping his mouth. Luigi let out a breath of relief as he glared at him. "Happy?"

"Immensely." Luigi, now knowing that there was no reason to fret, got right back into sitting back and relaxing. "Thank you. I appreciate it; you are a good, good man."

"Yeah yeah, whatever." Mario sat beside Luigi in his own recliner, letting out a breath as he put his footrest up. He sat silently for a little bit before looking at his brother. "Well… it's Saturday night."

"Yeah, so?"

"So, the week is over. Or at least, it will be in about two hours." Mario adjusted his position so that he was sitting up. "Would you say that it's been a good week?"

Luigi took some time to consider that question. "I… yes, actually." He sat up. "I would say that it's been good." He smiled. "I got to hang out with Daisy on Wednesday." He paused. "I think it's becoming a weekly thing, now that I think about it. The last three dates I've had with her have been on a Wednesday." He smiled. "Weird coincidence, huh?"

"Yeah. But hey, if it makes you happy, that's all that matters." Mario snickered. "I mean, I would say that it's a good idea to see your girlfriend more times than just once a week."

"Well, sure. I do agree with that. But…" he paused. "Actually, there is no but; I want to see Daisy more often." He pulled out his phone, about to open it before he glanced at the time. "Uh… I keep forgetting; the Chai region of Sarasaland is three hours ahead of us, right?"

"I believe so, yes."

"Which means Daisy is more than likely sleeping," Luigi grumbled as he put his phone away. "I hate time zones."

Mario chuckled. "Eh. It's no big deal." He smiled. "I talked with Peach yesterday; I heard Daisy is going to come back to the Mushroom Kingdom on Monday."

"Ooh! That's perfect; I can see her then!" He frowned. "Of course… she's probably going there to see Peach specifically. Would be kinda rude to intrude on that…" he sighed and rubbed his tired eyes. "I guess we're stuck with our Wednesday tradition."

"Hey." Mario gave him a grin. "That's alright. It is a good tradition, isn't it."

Luigi managed to smile too. "Yeah. It is. It really is." He chuckled. "Makes me look forward to the middle of the week. I don't think anybody in the history of the multiverse has EVER looked forward to the middle of the week." Both Mario and Luigi laughed, with Luigi feeling good enough to forget about the teeth-brushing issue. Leaning back in his chair, Luigi wore a smile that he could say was satisfied. It really was, and he wasn't one who usually felt satisfied during just regular conversations.

"Well… maybe I can use you as my role model Lou." Mario let out a breath. "When I start going out with Peach, I can set it up so that we have one day of the week that is ours and ours alone." He snickered. "She does have a pretty busy schedule, even more so than Daisy, I'm pretty sure." He frowned. "She has to balance so much on her plate."

"So do you." Luigi gave him a mischievous grin. "You're perfect for each other!"

Mario snorted. "Yeah, that's the only reason why we're meant to be." He shook his head. "But… yeah, I would want to consider her and her needs." He paused, looking a little squirmy as he did. "If you can ask out Daisy, I'm sure I could do… something similar."

"Oh, I think you can too." Luigi playfully punched him in the arm. "You've got this bro. All you have to do is follow my flawless example."

Mario laughed. "Flawless, eh? That's… actually an accurate word to use." Mario and Luigi laughed as Mario wiped some tears from his eyes. "You cover your tracks to well; I can't make fun of you!"

"Oh, the horror! I am missing out; I really am!" Luigi laughed so hard that his side hurt a little bit. Once he recovered, he let out a yawn. "Oh, Mama Mia, I need to hit the hay." He put the footrest for the recliner down and stood up. "See you tomorrow Mario?"

"Sure. When else; it's not like you're going to see me yesterday." He smirked. "Or two weeks ago."

"Har har har, you're hysterical." He shook his head. "You exhaust me with your humor; I pretty much HAVE to go to bed now."

With that sentiment, Luigi made his way up to his room. As he closed the door, he let out a breath and put on a smile. This… was it a little unrealistic to say that this was kinda the perfect week? There hadn't really been any hiccups; everything had gone super smoothly. The people he interacted with, the fun times he partook in… yeah, nothing bad had happened this week. This… he had never had a perfect week before; this was incredible! Actually, legitimately incredible!

"I am one lucky paisano." He made his way over to his bed, and once he was situated, he smiled at his ceiling. "Here's hoping that next week is just as good."

…

Luigi's eyes opened slowly. He looked up at his ceiling, taking notice of how dark it was. Frowning, he looked over at his clock. It read two o'clock in the morning, a fact that made Luigi sigh.

"Oh, that is just lovely." He didn't wake up in the middle of the night very often, but when he did, getting back to sleep was close to impossible. He couldn't for the life of him explain why that was, all he knew was that it was ultra annoying when it did happen. Groaning, Luigi turned over on his stomach and forced his eyes closed. He prayed that he would be able to get back to sleep. He wanted to do it so badly, surely that meant it would be doable right?

Yeah no, this was a task that was far from doable. Luigi lay in bed for about half an hour and was nowhere closer to getting back to sleep. Groaning, Luigi turned back over on his back. His mind filled itself with curses, curses directed toward his body's messed-up circadian rhythms.

"This is going to be a long night." Realizing that he wasn't interested in staying in bed if he wasn't going to sleep, Luigi hopped out of bed. He changed from his pajamas into his plumber's uniform, doing so quietly so as to not wake his brother in the other room. Once he got his hat on, he made his way out of his bedroom and down the stairs. Now, he didn't have very many options when it came to things he could do. He couldn't clean, because again, Mario was still asleep. He couldn't eat, as he knew eating in the middle of the night wasn't the smartest thing to do. So what could he do exactly? Well, you see, there was one amazing option he had…

Actually no, he had no options. All he could do was just go over to his recliner and sit down. He did just that, putting up the footrest and letting out a sigh. Yeah, the only option he had was sitting in the chair and watching the clock. Riveting.

Groaning again, Luigi leaned his head against the back of the chair. He could practically hear a clock ticking in the background despite the fact that there was no clock in the house that could do that. Closing his eyes, Luigi bemoaned his luck. His horrible, unsavory luck. He wanted to go back to sleep, he really did. There was nothing he could do at such an ungodly hour. At the very least, since nothing could happen at this time, that meant that nothing terrible could happen either…

CRASH!

Luigi jumped in his seat. That sound had come from outside, and BOY was it an ugly sound. Shaking, Luigi decided that he needed to investigate. He rose out of his chair and made his way over to the door, unsure of what to expect. Did some sort of animal knock over the trash cans outside? That would make sense, but what kind of animal would that be? Some big cat? Luigi wasn't even sure if big cats lived in the Mushroom Kingdom.

His shaking increased as Luigi opened the outside door. Stepping out, he looked from left to right. He saw that the trash can had indeed been knocked over. Hmm… was it the wind? It didn't appear to be blowing right now. Blinking, Luigi made his way over to fix the trash can. Once it was put back into place, he let out a breath. The trash can was fixed, so he had no reason to worry. Everything was going to be fine, all he had to do was go back into the house and just wait until sunrise…

"At long last."

Luigi's eyes grew wide. Before he even had the opportunity to scream, someone clamped a cloth over his mouth. It reeked of chloroform. Luigi tried to scream, to fight back, but… everything… was growing dark…