The second he sees Luigi being wheeled back to his room, Mario rushes right over.
"How is he?" He asks immediately.
"Surgery went fine." The doctor says with a smile.
"When are we gonna know?" Mario's not about to relax yet.
"It's already being sent for tests. We'll know pretty quick." The doctor promises.
"...as long as we're together." Mario hears Luigi say as he slowly wakes up, opening his eyes. "How'd I do?"
"Perfectly." The doctor praises.
"Me? All I did was sleep. You were the one poking around in my head." Luigi jokes.
"Humble to a fault." Mario jokes back.
"Oh, you're here too." Luigi chuckles. "How's tricks?"
"Just another day in the Mushroom Kingdom." Mario replies. "And I couldn't care less because I never left."
"I look ridiculous with this itchy thing, don't I?" Luigi picks at the bandage wrapped around his head, while Mario fusses with his pillows, once Luigi's back in his hospital room. "Or maybe I'll keep it, make it my new trademark."
"The anesthesia hasn't fully worn off yet, has it?" Mario asks.
"What makes you say that?" Luigi asks.
"How are you?" Mario changes the subject, suddenly serious.
"Me? I'm all aces." Luigi shrugs the best he can. "Mario Brothers can do anything when they're together, right?"
Mario can see Luigi's eyes starting to droop, so he moves to the side and gets on the bed next to him, wrapping an arm around his torso.
"Doctor? Hello!" Peach greets Luigi's doctor in surprise. "Sorry I couldn't see Luigi off before he went in. How did the surgery go?"
"I can't lie, he had a seizure." The doctor confesses.
"What?" Peach is aghast. "Tell me he's alright."
"If he wasn't, Mario would be here instead of me." The doctor says knowingly. "I managed to stabilize him, and we managed to do the biopsy."
"What happened?" Peach demands.
"This is actually very normal when it comes to masses in the brain." The doctor says quickly. "But in this particular instance, I think it was messing with Luigi's brain matter."
"What about the procedure itself?" Peach keeps asking questions.
"That's the thing. What we took out of his brain wasn't a tumor." The doctor says. "But in all our years, we've never seen anything like it."
"May I see him?" Peach asks.
"Not yet." The doctor shakes her head. "Mario's with him right now, so Luigi's in the best hands. I'm just here to ask to take a look through your library, to see what I can find out."
"They're still in the hospital." Mimi tells Nastasia.
"And Luigi?" Nastasia asks.
"The biopsy is complete." Mimi confirms. "Now L's just resting."
"Do they have the results yet?" Nastasia pushes, knowing they don't.
"No." Mimi says. "But Mario seems confident Luigi will be home in time to cook dinner." She laughs, then when she sees Nastasia isn't really listening, Mimi snaps,
"Okay, what has you so preoccupied that you can't be bothered to care that L's just undergone a dangerous surgery?"
"First, Mario has made it clear I'm not allowed to care." Nastasia reminds her. "Second, you and I both know exactly what's wrong with Luigi."
"You can't be serious." Mimi rolls her eyes. "You're really gonna let a little thing like an angry red plumber stop you from coming forward about what you know about Luigi's condition?"
But when Nastasia doesn't say anything, Mimi's eyes widen. "Nat, come on. I know Mario's mad at you right now, but I think he'll forgive you when you tell him what's wrong with his brother."
"Not if he thinks we did it." Nastasia points out.
"You. If he thinks you did it." Mimi corrects. "Mario fought all of us, remember? He knows what my magic looks like. And he knows you have mind control abilities."
"I shouldn't have brought this up." Nastasia decides. "It doesn't change the fact that we can't fix it this time."
"Is that not what we said about Luigi getting his memories back?" Mimi reminds Nastasia. "Did you forget about how far we went to make that happen? So what, you're just gonna keep quiet at a critical moment because Mario told you to?"
"He had to force the princess to marry his sworn enemy because of what we did." Nastasia says.
"And we fixed that too!" Mimi won't let her forget that. "Not that we had to try very hard, because Bowser's son already had the dirt we needed."
YOU ARE READING
At Least Your Brother's Not Gonna Die Because of You!
FanfictionThis is it. No tricks, no getting out of it. It's not the way Luigi ever thought he would die, but he doesn't regret the life he's lived. If only Mario could see it that way.
