Super Heroes

Chapter 7

His whole body ached when he woke up the next morning. He wanted nothing more than to just lay in bed for the rest of the day. A cool morning breeze brushed through his open window and over his skin, soothing the still lingering burning sensations. 

The day proceeded as normal. Mario didn't say a word, the news reported the old factory burning down, but there was nothing reported about Mr. L. According to Daisy on the news, "There were luckily no casualties." 

Mario and Luigi got a call from Peach early that morning saying she needed something fixed, so they got right on that. Afterward, they went their separate ways. Mario wanted to continue hanging out with Peach, even after the job was done. Luigi made the wise decision to leave because he didn't particularly want to sit around and be the third wheel all afternoon. Since he hadn't yet bought a morning blueberry muffin, he thought he would stop by the bakery. As soon as he walked through the door, Blumiere greeted him with a warm smile.

"Ah, there he is! We were worried you wouldn't show up today," Blumiere chuckled, reaching down and grabbing a muffin. "I assume you want the usual?"

"Yep," Luigi chimed, reaching into his wallet and pulling out some cash. "Where's Henri?"

"Watching the news," Blumiere shrugged. "There's a TV in the back. He didn't use to be so interested, but he's been watching all morning for some reason. I guess he's just interested in the fire."

"Ah," Luigi awkwardly replied, bringing his eyes down to the muffin. He honestly didn't want to talk about last night, but he knew that completely avoiding the subject would make him look suspicious, so he gave his best casual answer. "That was quite drastic. Do they know what caused it?"

"Nope," Blumiere shrugged. "Thankfully there were no casualties."

"Right," Luigi breathed, awkwardly tapping his fingers on the muffin now. He was sure that tapping the muffin with his gloved hands wasn't all that sanitary, but he didn't really care anymore. Stuff like that used to matter to him a lot, but after getting into all the superhero drama, he was finding it harder and harder to care about such small things. 

"You can go back there and see him if you want," Blumiere offered with a shrug and a smile. "The backroom is technically for employees only, but you're a friend, so I don't mind! You get a free pass!"

Luigi briefly looked over at the door marked "employees only," then back at Blumiere. 

"Okay," he muttered. A part of him wanted to say no because he didn't want to impose, but he didn't like saying no. The fact that Blumiere was offering in the first place showed that he probably wanted Luigi to go back there, which meant there must have been something up with Henri. 

Luigi carefully walked down to the "employees only" door and stepped inside. Surely enough, Henri was sitting in front of a small TV, watching with wide eyes. (Or, eye.) He was on the ground, about one foot away from the screen, which was far too close. Luigi hoped he wasn't hurting his eyesight or anything. 

"Hey Henri," Luigi awkwardly muttered.

To his surprise, Henri didn't turn to face him or excitedly greet him. Instead, he muttered a quiet "hey," in response. There wasn't much more of a reaction. It reminded Luigi of those teenagers in those TV shows completely drawn into the phones, to the point where the rest of the world doesn't even matter anymore. 

Luigi tilted his head slightly and brought his attention to the TV. Surely enough, the news was on. There was live footage of Daisy herself reporting from the scene of the fire, which left the old factory in shambles. 

"That fire was really something, huh?" Luigi muttered, hoping to spark some kind of conversation.

"They say no one died," Henri muttered, his tone quiet. "They haven't found any bodies..."