A Nutcracker and the Beast

Chapter 26: A Break Though

"This is wrong in so many ways," Mario complained to himself. Peach and Daisy wanted Bowser to give them a tour of the Castle to see how much fun they could have there since they may only visit a few of the towns in the Darklands. The boys were with them until Wario and Mario kept stepping in between the girls and Bowser and then slapping and bumping into Bowser when he touched one of them. Peach told them to knock it off, but when that didn't happen, Daisy took matters into her own hands and beat some sense into the two before making Waluigi babysit them back in the garden as they went on by themselves. That also didn't go as planned, as Mario went off alone while the Wario Brothers headed to the kitchen instead. He wanted to see if he could catch up to Peach again, but the more and more he wondered, the more he got lost. He knew the main layout of this place, but wherever turn he took led him to a part of the Castle that didn't look familiar to him at all; he never really knew the layout if he only went to two places.

"Um, h-hi..." said a small voice behind Mario. When he turned around, he saw Luigi, scared and almost closed off as he held his arms close to his chest, like he was hugging himself. Mario looked straight at Luigi, getting annoyed, before turning his back on him. He didn't expect to hear crying and panic once he did.

"No, wait - please! I'm sorry! Please d-don't turn your back on me again! I–I-I'm-" Luigi cried as he ran after Mario, who had already turned around when he heard him say wait. When Mario knelt, Luigi had to stop himself just out of reach of Mario in fear he wasn't able to touch him. Luigi was only a toy, and his yelling out like that wouldn't change anything.

"Hey, it's okay," Mario said as he looked at this nutcracker, his eyes filled with tears and shaking as if Mario was going to hurt him. Not to mention the odd phrases he said about turning his back on him again, "I don't want to hurt you."

"I'm sorry, I w-want to have a normal talk a-and - I'm sorry," Luigi said as he tried so hard to stop the crying and not step away from Mario. It was just like him to stop and help those in need; Luigi just wished that Mario wasn't doing that just to be nice. However, Mario was confused, wondering what happened to him to make Luigi so scared of- well him.

"You're fine," Mario said as he sat down in criss-cross applesauce, watching Luigi as he got a good look at him, "You're pretty scared, aren't you?"

Wouldn't you be too if we switched places? Luigi thought as Mario gave him a bittersweet grin. Luigi was terrified as he took deep breaths, Mario doing them along with him to help him. He messed up the first time when they got here, not saying hello or pushing the idea of talking to him. Luigi wants them to become friends again and not mess it up even more.

"Y-yeah...Sorry, it's just- never mind, that's too straightforward. I'm just going to leave." Luigi said, afraid that telling Mario that he acted like his brother right out the gate was a bad idea. However, Mario stopped him by picking him up, leading Luigi to hissing in pain as he grabbed his arm.

"Ah," Mario said as he put Luigi in his lap after he heard his hiss, "did I hurt you?"

"No- I mean, you did-, but it was an accident! Y-you wouldn't know - I mean, you couldn't have known since you weren't here...but! It's fine! I'm fine," Luigi said in a panic; Mario raised a brow as if he didn't believe him. Luigi quickly went quiet when he saw Mario's face, turning away to hide, showing his back. It was no longer bandaged but looked like burn marks were left. Mario couldn't help but think of the worst.

"Does Bowser burn you?" Mario asks him point-blank, leaving Luigi in horror as he turns to face him. Out of all the things that he could have asked, it was if Bowser was burning him -was hurting him?!

"What? NO! NEVER! Bowser wouldn't do something like that!" Luigi said in a hurry.

"But he has done something, right? Look. If he's hurting you, I can help you. All you have to do is tell me, and I can help you." Mario tells him. Mario knew that Bowser was hurting the poor thing; now, all he had to do was help Luigi. Luigi felt uncomfortable with where this was going, so he got off Mario's lap and put some space between them. Luigi wanted this to be about getting closer again, not about Bowser.