Chapter Text
As Luigi woke up, his eyes shot open. It’s his and Mario’s birthday! They’re 6 today!! He kept out of his bed and out of his room running past a middle aged toadette with lone mushroom hair that spills over her back and shoulders his feet skidding on the floor and running to her
“Hi mamma!” He said as she snapped up with a smile “why hello Tesoro! Have a good sleep?” She asked as Luigi happily nodded he then gave her a quick peck on the cheek “I’m gonna go wake up Mario!” He started sprinting to his room. “Try not to trip, caro!” The toadette called as Luigi ran to Mario’s door, practically slamming it open causing Mario to jolt up.
“MARIO!!! GUESS WHAT DAY IT IS!!!” Luigi bounced up and down on his tippy toes as he stood at the foot of his twin brother’s bed, His older brother yawned and then rubbed his eyes “Tuesday…?” Mario questioned “Nope!— well- technically- but think about it!” Luigi said, grinning as Mario glanced at his calendar circling “October 11th” absentmindedly and then snapped his head right back to it.
He practically screamed as he rushed out of bed “È IL NOSTRO COMPLEANNO!!!” Mario said as he and Luigi held each others hands and started shaking their arms together, and ran into the dining room while holding hands. Hugging their father who seemed to be a toad with a mustache and Overalls.
“morning papà!” They both said in unison as the toad hugged them back “well Buongiorno you two! Speaking at the same time? You two really are twins.” The old toad said with a smile as Luigi started hitting his arms weakly “you say that all the time!” Luigi said. Mario went to sit down for breakfast as his brother and father shortly followed.
Their mother then gave them breakfast “thank you Margaret.” The toad said as he kissed the Margaret on the cheek “thank you mamma!” The twin boys said to Margaret before eating, faster then she could sit down they finished and were about to leave until “aspettare! What about your birthday gifts?!” The toad said “oh William, leave them be.” barely got out before the boys were jumping in excitement as they started chanting for the gifts.
William then gave them both their gifts. As they opened the gifts they realized they were sweaters and in their favorite colors! They immediately put them on “Perfect for the fall!” “Can we go out?!” Asked Luigi “Sorry sweetheart, but your brother still needs to complete his chores from yesterday. Tell you what as long as you make sure to stay close” Margaret then gave Luigi a watch “just make sure not to stay out too late. Okay?”
Luigi immediately put the watch on in excitement “Okay mamma!” Luigi said before sprinting out the door to the forest
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Luigi took a stroll through the marketplace “Ciao Ms. Puffball!” Luigi greeted the elder woman that appeared to be in her late 70’s, with a pure white and fuzzy mushroom cap, she looked over her shoulder, her white cardigan covering her as she fully faced the boy with her wrinkles turning up into a soft smile “why hello sweetheart! I see you’ve grown quite a bit since your mother brought you here! Say, is that a new sweater?” *she lightly tapped his arm with her cane as she started bagging him a cookie.
“Yeah! Mamma got it for me for my birthday!” He said bouncing with excitement as Ms. Puffball gave him his yearly birthday cookie and he ran off after giving her a quick “Thank you!!” And then started coming up to a fish stand with a middle aged man cutting heads off of fish “Ciao Mr. Chanterelle!” Luigi called to the man “buongiorno Luigi! Rimanga sicuro!” “Lo farò!” Luigi started running off to the forest.
His safe space, the time he can relax. Usually when him and Mario come into the forest Mario tries to test himself, he’s always been the more active one of the two but now he can finally relax, go into the outskirts of the kingdom. And now that it’s starting to get cooler, he’ll have an excuse to— wait… is that crying? What’s going on? Luigi started to investigate, trying to find the source of the noise until he saw a clearing.
And is that… a koopa in the middle? He had horns… and spuket bracelets? Is he crying? “Um… are you… okay?” The young koopa imminently shot his attention towards Luigi with teary eyes and his breathing fast and erratic . Luigi slowly walked towards him. “W-what’s wrong?” The koopa Boy started crying even more “I-I *hic* I can’t- *hic* can’t find da *hic* dad!” Luigi then sat next to him, confusing the koopa boy until Luigi hugged him.
“Shh… shh… andrà bene, tu starai bene. Just breathe, deep breaths.” The koopa nodded and took deep breaths, hugging the boy back. “Do you have any way of contacting him?” The koopa wiped his eyes “n-no…” “ehm... come aiutare, come aiutare... oh! Well maybe we can play pretend until he picks you up?”
The koopa slowly blinked at the suggestion but then started to smile “I-I’d like that…” “WAHOO! Hm… you look a lot like prince bowser, maybe you can pretend to be the prince!” The koopa looked confused, even tilting his head. But before he could say anything, Luigi helped him up “I’m not sure what I should be though…” but before he could think about it. “… tag!” The koopa tagged Luigi and they started playing tag instead.
They ran and played for a while, until their legs gave out from exhaustion. They opted to play patty cake instead, as the sun lowered the koopa started worrying until another koopa on a broom and with a purple robe came down “There you are! Oh dear I was worried sick where were you?!”
“I feel off hours ago! I was here the whole time! But I made a friend!” The boy said as the robed caretaker looked over, his smile immediately fading and his face draining of all color when he saw Luigi waving at him. “We must go.” The elder said flatly “what? Why?!” The koopa asked in concern until the other koopa snapped “NOW. WE NOT GO N O W.” And with a wave of his wand, they disappeared, leaving Luigi confused… why did they have to leave so suddenly? Was it because he was human and the other two were Koopas?
Well whatever was the reason
Something told Luigi this would not be the last encounter
As he got up and started walking back home.. he couldn’t help but wonder…
Who was that?