Brother's Loyalty

Shadow Play

The star's warmth and comfort continued to encircle Luigi as he stepped into the Twins' Room, and the moment he saw that bunk bed and the posters on the wall, more memories rushed in. He and Mario didn't have bunk beds, but they shared a bedroom until they were around five. After waking up from a nightmare, Luigi would crawl into Mario's bed, and the elder brother would snuggle with him, no exceptions. Even after they were old enough to sleep in separate rooms, Luigi would tiptoe into Mario's room whenever he needed company. Mario's arms would be wrapped comfortably around him, his body curled around his, the sound of their shared heartbeats quickly sending him off to dreamland. During their teen years, the two of them would secretly watch MA-rated programs on the TV, the sound on low so their parents wouldn't hear, snickering and blushing at the flashes of skin or whenever a profane word was uttered. While in college, one would sneak into the other's dormitories, and the two of them would whisper about various pieces of gossip they'd picked up or look over—ahem—magazines together. And while they wound up living in different apartments, they made sure to stay in the same apartment complex so they'd visit each other frequently.

Scanning the room, Luigi could tell that these twins were quite young—two, at the oldest. He stared up at the mobile dangling from the ceiling and turned his vacuum on it so that it started to spin. Unfortunately, a blue ghost interrupted him.

After dealing with that blue ghost, Luigi began to spin the mobile around again. Once it had gained a fast enough speed, the ghostly twins materialized in front of him.

Both of them had blonde hair styled in the same way, but whereas one wore pink, the other wore purple. Luigi cocked his head and studied them; they sort of reminded him of Neville. Were they related to him? According to the GBH, their names were Henry and Orville, and they enjoyed playing hide-and-seek.

Hide-and-seek—Mario and I used to love playing that game. We grew out of that, though.

Well—we sorta play a twisted version of hide-and-seek with that infernal turtle nowadays, whenever he spirits Peach off to his castle...

"Hey, mister," Henry said cheerily. "What are you doing there looking all lonely?"

"I'm—looking for someone," Luigi truthfully replied.

"Like—hide-and-seek?" Orville piped up.

"Yeah," said Luigi. "The thing is—the other guy is doing too good of a job at hiding."

"You're in luck—because Henry and I are hide-and-seek champs!" boasted Orville. "We can teach you a few basics."

"Yeah," Henry chimed in. "Wanna play hide-and-seek with us?"

"Sure, why not?" asked Luigi. It's not like I have much of a choice, anyway.

"Yay!" the ghost twins cheered in unison.

"Okay, you know the drill," said Orville. "We're gonna hide now, so you gotta wait outside!"

"Okeydokey," said Luigi.

Once he was outside the twins' room, he called, "So—do I count to twenty or something?"

"No," said Henry's voice. "We'll let you know when we're ready!"

"Whatever floats your boat," said Luigi.

So, he waited. Luckily, the twins didn't need that long to find a hiding spot.