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The brothers are hunched over their shared desk as they each take turns polishing Luigi's design, Mario offering his insights in structural integrity, fluid dynamics, and environmental resistance, while Luigi tackles the motion controls and machine learning.
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"And stretch it." Mario orders, watching as Luigi winces, eyes tightly shut as he bends his knee and stretches it out.
"Good. Again." This time gets a small whimper from the younger brother, but Luigi still does it.
"One more?"
Again, Luigi does it, and right when it looks like he might break, he gets it again.
"Wahoo!" Mario claps. "Nice one, Lu."
"Are we done?"
"Heck no. That was just step one."
"I hate you."
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"Blowtorch?" Mario holds out a hand, grinning when he feels it in his hand, dropping his welding mask over his face.
"Screws?" Luigi asks, grinning back when they're handed over without a word.
The room falls silent, save for the blowtorch as it welds the aluminum into a structure.
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"Hold it." Mario instructs, as Luigi leans against a wall, lowered like he's about to sit down. "Whatever you do, don't move from that spot."
Luigi's already panting, but he wills himself to do as he's told, even as his thighs start to hurt.
"Almost there, Lu. Keep it up." Mario encourages as he watches the timer.
Luigi would swear his legs are about to give out, and just as he's about to say as much to Mario, he hears,
"Done! You did it!"
Which is all the permission he needs to slide to the floor, and he would've, had Mario not grabbed him.
"Whoa there." Mario chuckles. "Alright, let's take a break."
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"How's the sensor network coming?"
Luigi pulls off his goggles with a sigh. "I keep getting faulty readings on these things and can't understand why."
Mario sighs, "Do I need to make another run?"
"Hang on." Luigi pulls back on his goggles and starts moving things around.
There's a spark here and there, but Mario just watches as his genius little brother handles it with the precision of a surgeon, gloved hands and all.
Until, "Aha! I got it!"
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"You ready?" Mario asks from where Luigi's positioned in front of him.
At Luigi's nod, Mario moves closer and asks, "Any areas I should avoid?"
Luigi shakes his head. "Nothing this will make worse."
Mario lifts one of Luigi's legs by the thigh, and slowly starts to straighten it.
"Tell me when you feel it stretching."
Luigi feels like his whole leg is stretching, but he just keeps quiet until he feels what Mario's referring to.
"There."
"Alright, now try not to move for 30 seconds." Mario orders. "And tell me if it's too much."
Luigi is silent the entire time, so after repeating with the other leg, Mario moves on.
"Alright, now let's see how your quads do."
And proceeds to bend Luigi's knee, holding the ankle, and slowly pulls it towards Luigi's backside.
"When can we work on the company?" Luigi whines later, during another break.
"When you can walk again." Mario says like it's obvious.
"But the Maker's Faire is coming up." Luigi points out. "What if we miss it?"
"There's always next year."
"Not if we want our company to take off!" Luigi insists. "Come on, Mario, we can do both! Am I your partner or not?"
Mario almost says something, but stops himself, nodding.
"You're right. Come take a look at this."
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"Gasket one."
Mario hands it over, watching Luigi place it over an opening.
"Gasket two." Mario hands that one over as well, but this time, Luigi offers Mario a chance, who happily obliges, watching Luigi's careful instruction.
"I think we got ourselves a winner." Luigi says proudly, as the prototype rests on his legs.
"Yeah?" Mario's eyes light up hopefully. "No discomfort, no glitches in the wiring?"
"Nope." Luigi's smiling so big, so Mario goes over and grabs him in a hug.
"Watch out, Maker's Faire! You ain't seen nothing yet!"
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"Auuuugh!" Mario throws the papers in the air, frustrated.
"Hey, hey." Luigi says, trying to catch them. "It's just one thing. Now come on. The business isn't gonna present itself at the Maker's Faire, is it?"
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"Ready?" Luigi asks, and at Mario's nod, he hits a key on his computer, and in seconds, they get confirmation their submission is accepted.
"That was...anticlimactic." Mario jokes, but Luigi's not discouraged.
"Now we wait."
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"And now we wait." Mario says, having just submitted their business model, putting his phone away as the doctor tells them.
"So. While I can't say you will make a full recovery, based on your progress, I'd say there's no reason why you can't walk without assistance."
Mario tunes out the rest of the doctor's words, choosing to focus on Luigi, who seems to have zoned out.
So Mario wastes no time pulling him into a hug, squeezing the back of his neck.
"I told ya, Weegee. Nothing can hurt us as long as we're togther."
After a second, he feels Luigi hug him back.
YOU ARE READING
Best Days We'll Never Know
General FictionOn the eve of high school graduation, Mario and Luigi's life diverges into two parallel realities: one in which they get accepted and move into Cornell's dorms to pursue their careers, the other in which they don't get accepted into Cornell and must...
