Past Lives Could Never Come Between Us

28

"Have I mentioned you're a badass?" Spike says to Pauline over the phone.

"You could mention it again." Pauline replies. " Make the whole thing worth it. "

"But seriously, Pauline, thank you." Spike tells her as she walks around her apartment. " Max still knows how to get under my skin, and clearly I need to talk to someone about that. "

"Come on, you know I'm always here for you." Pauline assures him.

" He is actually gone this time, right? No tricks? " Spike asks.

"Nope, he is most definitely gone." Pauline says, trying not to give away anything. "I'll talk to you tomorrow, okay?"

" You got it, hotshot. " Spike says, before hanging up.

As Pauline does the same, she keeps looking at the now gutted apartment, no appliances or even a trace of magic in sight.

"Will you knock that off?" Mario complains when he catches Luigi looking at him while they're sitting on the couch. "I told you, I'm okay!"

"No you're not." Luigi insists. "Mario, all these crazy things you've been doing, not looking before leaping, what else am I supposed to think? Are you hiding something from me?" his look turns worried at that. "Or are you just being a big show-off?"

"No no no." Mario shakes his head. "Trust me, it has nothing to do with you. It's just my new normal, that's all. No more second guessing."

Luigi seems to accept that as he nods, but Mario's not done.

"Weeg, do you really think I don't know?"

Luigi looks at him, startled.

"You know how I feel." Mario says simply. "I know you do. You were walking around my dreams, how could you not? Maybe you don't have those same feelings, maybe you do...I'm hoping you do. Or maybe you can't answer that yet. And that's fine."

"Mario..." Luigi stops himself, trying to get his words right. "It's been...crazy, with me getting all my feelings back."

As Mario starts to look away, Luigi reaches out to make him look at him. "People typically need their whole lives to learn how to manage them. I've only had about the last few weeks, okay? So I can't really know for sure what or how I feel about anything , let alone us. On top of trying to find my uncle, and--"

"You need time." Mario says. "That's what you're getting at, right?"

"Are you okay with that?" Luigi asks.

"Of course." Mario nods. "And if in the future, you think you're ready...we'll talk, okay? We'll make time to sit down and figure this out together, once and for all."

Luigi can't tell if the clench in his heart is good or bad, but all he says out loud is, "G'night, Mario."

"G'night, Luigi." Mario smiles at him.

Luigi looks down, only noticing just now that they're holding hands, and asks, "But seriously, how are you?"

"Now I know." Mario replies, knowing Luigi won't understand it.

But if Luigi's confused, he doesn't let on, just nods, "Okie dokie.", gets up and walks away, with Mario watching him go until he's closed the door.

"Agent Clark!" Paula praises when she sees her come into the bar. "Nice job."

"Hey, we all pitched in." Clark reminds her.

"I wanted to help." Paula confesses. "I even stopped by your house, fully prepared to beg. But I couldn't make myself do it. Mulder was always on my ass, but she was right."

"There's still time to prove her right." Clark says.

Paula hands her a drink, "To Mulder."

Clark takes it, lifting it up, calling out to the bar, "To Mulder!"

All at once, everyone calls out, "To Mulder!"

In the quiet of his bedroom, Luigi takes a marker and starts writing on the wall, until he has a thermodynamic equation fully written out with some maps tacked underneath it.

He steps back to look, but instead of calling it a night, he just keeps staring at it.