We've Never Been Apart This Long

Vacation Time! Or: The Trio Finally Get a Moment to Themselves

"Oh Peaches!" Bowser's mane is groomed and he's even sporting a tie as he comes back to their room. "Ready to help you secure your husband's throne?"

But he's immediately ambushed when he hears the telltale sound of his door closing.

"You really thought I'd ever let the princess do something so disgusting ?" he hears Mario's voice through the door's barred window.

"Mario!" Bowser roars. "Bring me my wife, immediately! "

"You mean Peach?" Mario laughs. "She's being escorted to her private plane. Silly me. Looks like I forgot I was supposed to put the castle on lockdown . But not to worry, now you're all locked in all nice and tight while me and the princess take a much-deserved vacation from this dump you call a castle."

When he arrives, Toadsworth comes out of the front doors, and says urgently, "Master Luigi! Right this way!" and gestures for him to follow.

Luigi complies, and is immediately confused when he's led behind the castle, and seeing Peach's private plane doesn't clear it up in the slightest.

"Go right on in. They're waiting for you." Toadsworth promises.

"Who is?" Luigi asks, but Toadsworth shakes his head, just gestures for him to get on the plane.

Which, after a moment, he does.

He climbs the steps slowly, not sure what's going on, but upon making it inside, he's immediately ambushed by a pair of arms grabbing him.

"Wah!" he exclaims, but he stops struggling when he hears,

"Finally, little brother! I thought you'd never get here!"

"Mario?" Luigi says in complete disbelief. "What's going on?"

"So it looks like Bowser's castle is currently on lockdown." Mario explains as he leads Luigi to his seat. "And as we know, that means the place is locked up tighter than Peach's own vault. Probably should look into that..." Mario trails off, then shakes his head. "BUT that means Bowser won't be going anywhere or doing anything for at least a day or two."

"Wait, are you serious?" Luigi says. "We have a chance to all be together?"

"Yes we do!" Peach says as she takes her seat in the middle. "Now I don't want to hear my husband's name again until we get back. Understood? This is for us, not him."

"Done." Mario promises as he takes the last seat.

But as the plane takes off, the three all join hands.

"Isle Delfino, here we come!"

After they land in Isle Delfino, with the locals thankfully much nicer than Mario's first time here, they check into a hotel, with instructions to be on high alert for any suspicious persons coming to look for them.

But when they first get to their room, with Peach having the penthouse all to herself as a treat, Luigi freezes.

"Weegee?" Mario asks worriedly. "What's wrong?"

"I just forgot that the last time we...shared a room was...before everything happened." Luigi admits sheepishly. "And before I walked away from our business."
"Stars..." Mario mutters. "Already feels like that happened decades ago compared to what's happening now."

"I'm not a perfect brother." Luigi admits, no pity to be heard in his voice. "But that is something I'll never forgive myself for."

"Hey, forget about it." Mario says Brooklyn style, making Luigi laugh. "It's all water under the bridge." Then adds, worried. "At least for me it is."

"I was so stupid for throwing you away like that." Luigi whimpers, starting to cry. "If I even had the first clue how much time we lost--"

"Hey no." Mario grabs his shoulders, wiping Luigi's tears away. " None of that was your fault. It was Dimentio's. But now we're here, with the princess, away from Bowser. He won't hurt us here, or when we get home."

"Guess we should sleep off the jet lag." Luigi says thoughtfully.

"Weegee, wait." Mario begs. "I will repeat it as many times as needed: words can't describe how happy I was when you called yourself Luigi the first time."

"Even as I fought not to?" Luigi says.

"I knew I wasn't being fair." Mario confesses. "But I don't care. Because I finally have my brother, all of my brother, back, and I'm not taking that for granted ever again."

Luigi hands him a letter suddenly, so Mario takes it.

"What's this?"

"Read it."

Mario opens the letter and begins,

" Mario,

This time together has been one for the history books, and I can't wait to tell everyone about it when we get home. "

Mario stops, confused. "Huh?"

Luigi points. "Look closer."

Mario does, and laughs. "Oh I see. This is about an adventure we haven't had yet."

"Keep reading."

Mario clears his throat, then goes on, " This time together has been one for the history books, and I can't wait to tell everyone about it when we get home. Please don't ever let me miss out on more like it ever again, whether I come with you or not. I know we've been through so much already, and there were times when neither of us knew how we were going to make it, but we did, and we're still here, fighting the good fight together, like you promised all those years ago.

You're my best friend, and that will never change, no matter where we go or what we do.

Your brother in arms, and in life, Luigi ."

Mario looks at Luigi misty eyed. "I love it."

Luigi reaches up to squeeze the back of his neck, and that's all the invitation either of them needs to pull each other into a tight hug.

"Stars, I missed you so much, Weegee." Mario whispers into Luigi's shoulder not relenting his grip for anything.

"I missed you too," Luigi whispers. "More than I can ever say."

If anyone were to walk past their hotel room the rest of the night, all that would be heard is the sound of muffled sobbing.