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The rebuilding process was going well. Or at least, Luigi thought it was. He didn't exactly know what the mushroom kingdom had looked like before the battle, seeing as he hadn't been there, but the little mushroom people seemed to be getting more energetic and excited, and there was a lot less rubble and broken question boxes lying around.
Luigi had just finished helping lift a post back into place, and as he stepped back and let the toads do their thing, he glanced around to see where Mario was. The last two weeks had been a bit of a blur, and after coming down from the adrenaline high of the final battle, both Luigi and Mario had crashed hard. Mario hadn't left his side that entire time. Even after they had recovered enough to help with rebuilding, Mario had been glued to his side, never once leaving Luigi's sight. Luigi had appreciated it. After his . . . ordeal it was nice to know his brother was around, but it had also worried him. Maybe all of Mario's new friends hadn't realized, but Luigi could tell that Mario wasn't as ok as he was letting on. He had noticed that the amount of times Mario would pat his shoulder or lean against him had dramatically increased, like he was worried Luigi would disappear.
So now as Luigi looked around and didn't immediately notice Mario, he felt a spike of worry shoot through him. He spun in a slightly more frantic circle as his mind raced with possibilities as to why his brother wasn't there, only to relax immediately when he saw him at the other end of the street talking with the Princess. Even from this distance he could see how bright Mario's eyes were as he excitedly talked to her. From his gestures around him Luigi guessed that he was telling her about all the rebuilding they had accomplished that day. Luigi smiled softly at the sight. He was glad that Mario had finally made friends besides himself, because he didn't really count anyways. He thought that the princess was nice, but he hadn't really had a chance to get to know her as much as Mario did. Or any of Mario's other new friends for that matter. Mario had just kind of introduced him to them, and they had accepted that he was there without question. Mario did the majority of the talking when they were together, and Luigi just hung back, unsure how to interact with these new people.
Speaking of Mario's new friends . . .
"Hi!" The higher pitched enthusiastic shout had Luigi jumping an entire foot in the air and spinning in a clumsy circle in shock.
"Woah! Heh, sorry, didn't mean ta spook ya!" Luigi looked down, still breathing heavily from his near heart attack, to see Toad grinning up at him, holding the straps of his overly stuffed backpack and standing as tall as he could.
"O-oh, uh, hi," Luigi responded awkwardly, giving a small wave as he tried to force himself to relax.
"Man you're jumpy aren't ya? Mario mentioned that, but I didn't realize just how jumpy he meant!" Toad said with a small laugh.
Luigi tilted his head slightly.
"Mario told you I was jumpy?" He asked, a little surprised.
"Yeah. He told me lots of stuff about you! We are best friends after all," Toad put his hands on his hips and struck a pose that probably was supposed to look heroic, but Luigi had a hard time taking it seriously because of the fact that Toad only came up to his waist.
"What, uh, what other stuff did he say?" Luigi asked, glancing back down the street where Mario was still talking to the Princess. Even though he knew Mario would never say anything bad about him behind his back, his anxiety couldn't help but wonder.
"Well, he said you were super brave cause even though you're so jumpy you always follow him everywhere! And he said you were really loyal and awesome! I figured it must be true because only a crazy person would fight Donkey Kong and volunteer to go fight Bowser just to get someone else back unless that person was really special," Toad beamed up at him as he finished his little rant, and Luigi felt something warm bloom in his chest. He did know somewhat of the adventures Mario had been through when Luigi had been locked in a cage over a pit of lava, but he hadn't really considered that Mario had been doing all of those things and jumping headfirst into danger for him. Of course, looking back on it, it was obvious, and Luigi felt a little silly for not realizing sooner.
"So that's why," Toad continued, breaking Luigi out of his thoughts, "when I noticed that Mario was finally not glued to your side, seriously is that normal by the way? I haven't seen you guys apart for days, I had to come over and talk to you! Anybody that Mario says is a really awesome guy must be!"
"Oh, well uh, hi? It's nice to, uh, finally talk to you," Luigi stumbled through the words, and then winced internally. What was he supposed to say to that?? He was still reeling about how much Mario had apparently sung his praises to this little mushroom man. Of course, Mario had probably exaggerated pretty much everything, like he tended to do when talking about his younger brother, and Luigi felt a small spike of anxiety as he wondered what Toad would think of him when he actually realized how much of a disaster Luigi was.
Toad giggled again, and Luigi mentally scolded himself for briefly zoning out again in the middle of a conversation.
"You're not very talkative are you?" He asked as he leaned against a nearby wall, a perfect picture of relaxed confidence.
"Um, not really I guess? At least, not to people I don't know very well," Luigi's eyes widened as he realized what he just said, a hand shooting up to slap over his mouth as mortification washed over him. He quickly raised both his hands and waved them frantically in front of him, "Wait! I didn't mean, I'm sorry! I just meant-"
"Nah, it's cool. It just means that we gotta fix that by getting to know each other properly!" Toad said with a dismissive wave of his hand.
Luigi slumped slightly, relieved that he hadn't offended Toad, and then blinked as Toad abruptly reached a hand out toward him.
"I guess proper introductions are in order then! Hi, I'm Toad, and it's very nice to meet you!" Toad said enthusiastically with a nearly blinding smile on his face.
"Um," Luigi regarded Toad's small hand for a second before reaching out to shake it, his own white gloved hand completely dwarfing it by comparison, "Hi, I'm Luigi," he said as Toad gave his hand a very enthusiastic shake.
"Perfect! Now we're friends," Toad said as he let go, and Luigi's eyes widened slightly in surprise. This Toad guy was . . . very odd. But not really in a bad way. He was very high energy and seemed to be the living embodiment of an exclamation mark, but he was also immediately accepting and very friendly in his own weird way.
"So, what do you like to do?" Toad asked as he leaned against the wall again, acting like they had known each other for years.
"Do?" Luigi asked uncertainly.
"You know, like for fun? That's something you ask new friends, right?"
"Oh, I think so," Luigi said, and then he paused and thought about the question.
"Well, I like engineering," Luigi said thoughtfully, "I used to try to take apart our van's engine to figure out how it worked, but I think I ended up messing something up permanently because it's always touch and go on whether or not it'll start."
"Oh you mean like karts?" Toad asked, pushing himself off the wall in an excited little hop and holding his hands up near his shoulders in excitement, "I got to ride a kart for the first time two weeks ago and it was so fun! We went so fast and I got to customize my own! Although, it's probably at the bottom of the ocean by now," Toad looked to the side and grumbled the last sentence in annoyance before looking back up at Luigi with an excited smile, "Maybe we could go to the Jungle Kingdom sometime and build some more! And then we could drive them around and stuff!"
"O-oh, well, maybe," Luigi said uncertainly. The idea of building one of these karts did intrigue him, but the thought of driving one when he'd heard from Mario how intense it was didn't really appeal to him, "Isn't it dangerous though?"
"Oh, well I'm sure it won't be dangerous now that Bowser is locked up. Hard for him to ambush us again when he's teeny," Toad held his thumb and pointer finger about an inch apart and squinted his eyes.
"I . . . Guess that's true," Luigi conceded.
"So, when do you think we could go?" Toad asked, and Luigi paused again. He didn't really want to agree to anything right now, not while they were still figuring things out.
He was saved from having to answer by his brother.
"Luigi! There you are! Peach wants to know if we want to go back to the castle for lunch," Mario said as he suddenly appeared next to Luigi and clapped a hand on his shoulder. Luigi didn't flinch this time, he hadn't been caught off guard by his brother enough to flinch in ages, just always knowing that it was Mario before he spoke or touched him.
"Hey Mario!" Toad called and Mario glanced over with a smile.
"Hi! You're invited too of course," Mario said, and Luigi found himself once again envious of how easily Mario could talk to people.
"Yes! I love free food!" Toad punched the air, before he hurried past them toward where the Princess was waiting at the end of the street.
Luigi half hoped he'd completely forgotten about their conversation before Toad briefly turned back to give him finger guns and said, "We'll have to schedule that later! I won't forget, don't worry!" Before turning and running up to the Princess to begin talking excitedly to her.
"Schedule what?" Mario asked, and Luigi felt his hand still on his shoulder tighten its grip a fraction.
"Oh, uh, he invited me to go to the Jungle Kingdom to build some karts?" Luigi said, but it sounded more like a question.
"Really?" Mario asked, moving to stand in front of Luigi and looking straight into his eyes, something he always did when he was about to try to interrogate, er, make sure Luigi was ok.
"Y-yeah," Luigi responded, trying to maintain eye contact. He was fine, just his usual level of nervous wreck that he always was.
"What did you say?"
"Well, I didn't really agree to go, but, but I might, I don't know," Luigi shrugged and looked away.
"Why did he ask?" Mario asked as he moved to stand by Luigi again, hooking elbows with him and slowly guiding them back over toward Toad and the Princess.
"I told him I liked engineering and I mentioned fixing the van and he offered to take me to build karts. Which, I admit does sound fun, but like actually driving them? Uh, maybe not?"
Mario hummed thoughtfully before asking, "Why did you tell him you liked engineering?"
"He asked me what I liked to do. Also I guess we're friends now? At least he said we were," Luigi shrugged again. He was still trying to process the entire conversation.
Mario burst out laughing next to him and Luigi jumped slightly at the unexpected response.
"What?" He asked a little indignantly. Had he said something funny?
"Sorry, sorry," Mario said with a chuckle as he calmed down, "He just did the same thing to me! I met him pretty much immediately after I flew out of the pipe and I'd barely described my situation when he was helping me break into the castle to find Peach. And then the second time we crossed paths he was announcing we were best friends," Mario shook his head with a fond smile as they drew closer to the others.
"Oh," was all Luigi could say in response.
"So, are you going to go make karts with Toad?" Mario asked. They were nearly within earshot of the others, who were still talking to each other and weren't paying attention to the two brothers.
Luigi thought for a second. He found himself surprisingly not entirely opposed to the idea. Toad was growing on him despite how eccentric and loud he was.
"Yeah I might. Might be good to see a bit more of this world than just lava and dead trees," he replied.
He felt Mario's grip on his arm tighten a bit at the mention of the darklands, and Luigi knew he probably should confront his brother about how he was clearly ignoring his own problems right now, but that would have to wait.
"Yeah," Mario responded, his voice still light, "yeah that sounds like it could be a good idea."
Toad noticed them at that point as they drew near, and he waved and yelled, "You guys are so slow! Come on, I'm hungry!"
Luigi laughed slightly, feeling Mario look at him in surprise before joining in.
Mario quipped back as he let go of Luigi's arm and Luigi waved a shy hello to the Princess as she greeted him before leading the way back to the castle. As they walked, Luigi listened to Mario and Toad banter back and forth about who was slower and he felt himself relax slightly. Maybe he could get used to this.
Maybe he could call this place home.