Sweater Weather

O~o~O

There was a blackout.

Most of Toad Town was in the dark, or at least it would have been, if the Mario brothers hadn't gone around to every door to hand out and light candles to the citizens. They made sure every house had plenty of light before they would move on. After leaving the final house, satisfied that the Toads would all have light and stay warm through the cold winter night, they finally turned to go back to their own house.

The heater was broken. Snow was beginning to fall. They didn't have many candles left for themselves, but Mario used his Firebrand to light up the fireplace. They were too tired to worry about being very cold, or, more precisely, Luigi being cold. Mario didn't get cold.

It was late. Both brothers wanted nothing more than to get some sleep. Luigi trudged off to his room with the sleepy promise of tinkering with the electricity down in town with his Thunderhand, and Mario mumbled something about building space heaters to distribute around. They just had to hope the castle would be okay without them until morning.

Then, they went to sleep. At least, they would have liked to. Not even five minutes later, the house was awake again with the sound of a vacuum cleaner.

"For the last time, there are no ghosts in the house!"

"But Mario!" Luigi wailed, trying to wrestle with the vacuum nozzle. Mario wouldn't let go. "They're in the curtains! And the rugs! They hide, it's what they do!"

Mario yanked on the nozzle, but Luigi clung to it for dear life. "It's two in the morning!" Mario protested. "Come on, it's so late. You have to be tired. Let's go to bed, okay?"

Shaking his head furiously, Luigi threw his whole body into pulling, and both the brothers stumbled. "No! I can't sleep now!"

"Mamma mia," Mario sighed, and abruptly let go of the vacuum cleaner. Luigi flew back and fell on the floor with a yelp. "There are no ghosts. You know this! We checked last weekend."

The only light in the room was the fireplace, crackling away. The nearest light was several meters away, down town. The house was apparently very cold. Mario rubbed his eyes and glanced between the fire, Luigi shuddering on the floor, and the dark hall that led to their bedrooms.

Tilting his head, Mario looked to the floor again. "Luigi." he said, lowering his voice. "It's not ghosts you're afraid of, is it?"

Luigi blinked at him. His eyes darted all around the walls and the carpet before focusing on Mario again. Then, cradling the vacuum cleaner in his arms, he shook his head.

Mario's expression softened. Stifling a yawn, he came to sit down on the carpet with Luigi. "Your nightlight." he said. "It's not working. So it's dark in your room. Is that why you're scared?"

Back in Brooklyn, there was plenty of light, even at night. The dark had never been a problem for Luigi until after they had come to the Mushroom Kingdom so long ago. The city may never sleep, but the Mushroom Kingdom certainly did.

After weeks of being unable to sleep, to where Luigi had started walking into walls because of how tired he was, Mario was determined to find out what was wrong. He tried everything. Fluffing the pillows every night, reading a bedtime story, making Luigi hot tea before bed, Mario tried every trick in the book.

He wasn't sure how he put it together, exactly. But after listening to Luigi talk about the nightmares he had at night, and observing how he napped during the day just fine, Mario got gut feeling that told him the dark had something to do with it. So he went and found a nice little nightlight.

And it worked like a charm; Luigi hadn't had any problems sleeping since that day. Until now, at last.

Tracing the patterns in the carpet with a finger, Luigi avoided his eyes and finally nodded.