Kid Icarus: World of Light

Interlude: Mario and Luigi

Guys, look! A new chapter! Guys, I'm still here; I'm not dead!

First of all, I'm so sorry about how long this took me. Life has been a disaster and this series kinda got put on the backburner. I'm here now, though! I promise, this series will not be abandoned. There's only one part left, anyway.

This is my first time every writing all of these characters, so I apologize if it seems a bit clunky. I'm trying my best here, okay?

Alternate title for this: "Grace Can't Write Fight Scenes, why is she Even Trying?"

Okay, I'll stop boring you. Thank you to all my readers and I hope you enjoy this installment!

-

For as long as Mario could remember, it had always been him and his younger twin brother. For about the same amount of time, Mario could remember the feeling of needing to protect his brother, to keep him as safe as possible. Mario couldn't remember why he had the overwhelming need to protect his brother, but he ultimately decided it boiled down to the number of times Luigi had been kidnapped as a baby and just being the older twin in general.

Luigi had always been the more timid of the two of them and it had made him an easier target for bullies growing up. Mario had never hesitated in putting them in their place for hurting his little brother and that had, thankfully, made it less likely the he himself would get bullied. It had happened a few times though, and it was on those occasions when his brother became fiercely protective of Mario. The two brothers were extremely protective of each other and would do just about anything for the other. Whenever they needed each other, the other would always be there. When situations became too much, Mario found it easier to mostly stop talking, leaving only his exclamations and short catchphrases; Luigi would fill the silence and tell him it was okay if he didn't feel like talking. When adventures became too scary or stressful, Mario would be right by Luigi's side to assure him he was doing a great job, to hug him, and to help him move forward.

This hadn't changed one bit since the two of them had grown up, but something else had. Mario had been forced to accept that he couldn't always protect Luigi. It had been hard, but he had eventually gotten there. Don't get him wrong, though, every time he failed to protect his twin, Mario was crushed under waves of guilt. By skill and luck, Luigi always ended up okay in the end, there to reassure his elder brother with words and hugs that it hadn't been his fault.

He had experienced this guilt many times: when bullies had managed to get their hands on Luigi, every time Mario had gotten captured by King Boo, the whole Chaos Heart ordeal, that evil tennis racket that was still really weird to think about, and watching his brother being taken by Galeem.

Mario wondered how much time had passed since he woke up to Kirby next to him and finding out that Galeem had wiped out everyone; he wondered how long Luigi had been away from him and under control of now two different mythical beings. Mario felt his anger rise like a fire as he remembered how hard he had worked to find Luigi is the Light Realm to free him from Galeem's control, only for Dharkon to come along and ruin everything.

He could only thank the stars that somehow Mario had been able to just barely feel Luigi enough in his mind that he knew to go down the north path. The initial elation had started to die down though, so even with the comforting presence of some close friends beside him, Mario had stopped talking for the most part.

The group defeated the girl inkling clone, freeing the spirit of Amy. The pathway ahead cleared up and they followed along it, entering a place filled with colour that just looking at was making Mario confused. He looked forward and noticed the four-way split pathway ahead of them.