"Seriously, what story could possibly be more important than the one nobody knows?" Luigi demands. "Or is your point that they don't deserve to know what happened, so I should just sit here and let this thing kill me?"
"Lu, we're the only ones that know the truth." Mario reminds him, not even fazed. "We need to tell our family.
"Like fuck we do." Luigi yells. "I'm the one who's about to have his mind taken over by a plant in my brain! I get to decide what people know about it."
At Mario's flinch, Luigi stops, "Mario, I—I—I'm sorry, you're just trying to help and I'm getting mad at you."
"No, you're getting mad at the Floro Sprout through me." Mario corrects. "Which you more than deserve to be. Trust me, yell as much as you want."
"This thing isn't just in me, it's doing something to me." Luigi tries to explain. "My thoughts and actions don't feel like mine anymore. Forget dying, when this thing is done with me, you won't even recognize me anymore."
"Yes I will, because that won't happen." Mario grabs Luigi's hand, squeezing it.
"Yes it will." Luigi disagrees. "You know I only ever get mad at you over stupid stuff. If anything, I'm mad at myself because I'm not going to be a Mario Brother anymore for much longer, after everything I did come back to you."
Mario can't bring himself to argue that, so he scoots up the bed to hold him, right as Peach bursts in.
"They just told me Luigi--" her outburst is cut short when she sees Luigi in his bed, nasal cannula over his face. "I'm so sorry, I can wait outside."
"No." Luigi says quickly. "Can you stay?"
Perhaps sensing something, Mario says, "I'll just...wait outside.", and leaves the room.
"Someone interrupted a meeting to tell me you were back in the hospital." Peach explains, once they're alone. "But no one told me you'd collapsed until I got here."
"I didn't want you to know." Luigi admits.
"Then you were wrong." Peach says. "I think this is where you need to swallow your pride and tell your family and friends what's going on."
"You're right." Luigi agrees with a sigh. "But this isn't something you tell someone over a phone call or letter, is it?"
"What is it?" Peach asks.
Luigi takes a deep breath, then just says, "The Floro Sprout is close to taking over my brain. If it doesn't kill me, it's going to change me in unfathomable ways. I have less than a week to live."
Peach covers her mouth with her hand in shock and begins to cry.
Mimi finds Mario in the waiting room.
"Hey." Mario greets her.
"Peach reached out to me, said I needed to be here." Mimi says. "What's happened? Another outburst?"
"I wish." Mario replies sullenly.
"I'm going to talk to your doctors." Peach decides, face now wet with tears, but Luigi grabs her arm to stop her.
"Please don't." Luigi begs. "The doctors were very clear. Less than a week. No more, no less."
"Luigi..." Peach starts, trying to speak through her choked up throat. "I know you don't want them here for this, but..."
"I know." Luigi says for her. "I was hoping we'd find our way out of this on our own like we always do. But it looks like we've finally met our match."
Then Luigi winces, clutching his head, "Owwwwwww..."
"Luigi?" Peach exclaims in alarm. "Are you in pain?"
Luigi nods. "I can feel it poking the back of my skull."
"Take my hand." Peach offers it, not wincing when Luigi squeezes it tightly as she presses the call button. "We'll get you something."
Luigi tries to ride it out, but the Floro Sprout is determined to make that impossible.
"Just breathe." Peach coaches. "In the nose, out the mouth."
"Peach?" Luigi finally manages to say through the pain. "Get our family down here. Please."
"O-of course." Peach nods quickly. "Y-you just sleep this off, and I-I'll get them down here faster than you can wake up."
"Thank you." Luigi whispers, unable to speak louder without it hurting.
"I can't believe it's gotten so bad in such a short amount of time." Mimi says once Mario's filled her in.
"We actually fooled ourselves into thinking we'd have an easier time knowing it wasn't a tumor." Mario huffs. "What a joke that was. This thing isn't responding to any experimental therapy, and we can't figure out how to get it out of him for good."
"Neither do I." Mimi says. "Brainwashing was Nastasia's thing, not mine. They said L has less than a week to live?"
"Uh huh." Mario says. "And this all goes back to Nastasia putting it in his head in the first place, and what she wanted Luigi for in Bleck's plan to destroy the world. And now she's conveniently gone radio silent."
"It keeps coming back to her, doesn't it?" Mimi ponders.
"If I could just talk to her one on one, we might be able to save my brother." Mario seems to truly believe that; it's heartbreaking.
"Well when you put it like that..." Mimi says, which gets Mario to look at her, demanding "What are you talking about?"
"I've kept quiet because you haven't been open to the idea of talking to her, but...I know something about what Nastasia did."
Mario's eyes widen, "You do? You know what she did to him?"
"Not exactly." Mimi says quickly. "But I know her side of the story."
"Mimi." Mario's voice drops to a menacing level. "If you know anything about the woman that did this to my brother, you're gonna tell me. Now."
YOU ARE READING
At Least Your Brother's Not Gonna Die Because of You!
FanfictionSequel to We've Never Been Apart This Long This 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.
