Work Text:
Luigi sighed with contentment as he did the laundry for him and his brother. The weather wouldn't always be so nice, Peach had told him, the seasons split between being sunny and being rainy. He wasn't looking forward to the gloomy atmosphere the rain brought so for now, Luigi was taking advantage of the summer weather and giving their dryer a break, choosing to take the wet clothes outside and hanging them up to air dry. As he was pinning up some socks, he heard running footsteps and panting behind him. Turning, he saw two Toads, one purple and one yellow, entering the yard of the home he shared with Mario.
"Emergency!" They yelled in unison from the gate to the yard of the modest home he shared with Mario.
"La? Lou?" The purple stuttered over his name.
"Luigi." The yellow corrected, red faced and out of breath.
"Luigi! Is Mario home?" Purple was frantically waving his arms around, causing Luigi's anxiety to rise, worst case scenarios starting to run through his head.
But he did his best to keep a cool head. Toads often responded to the emotions around them, and panicking would only cause them to lose their heads. "Unfortunately not at the moment, why?"
"There's a burst pipe at the castle, her royalness needs a plumber?" Purple shouted, yellow leaning against them as they tried to catch their breath.
Half turning back to hang up a sock, Luigi discreetly let out a breath at the simple problem.
"Oh!" He said, giving them a reassuring smile. "Well I can help with that. I'm also a plumber!"
The silence that followed that statement, and the looks they gave each other, did not help with his confidence.
"No, that's okay. Just let Mario know when you see him." Purple states before they turned to walk away.
"Bye Larry!" Purple called out, giving him a wave as they left.
Dejected, Luigi turned back to the laundry in much lower spirits than how he started.
"You really should stand up for yourself." Came a confident voice from the side gate of the fensed portion of their yard. "Otherwise they'll never respect you."
"Mario!" Turning in surprise, Luigi spotted Mario leaning against the low stone wall, the groceries he went to get placed beside him. It made Luigi internally wince, wondering just how much of that interaction his brother saw.
Pushing that aside, Luigi tried to sum up the situation as Mario gathered up the groceries and entered the yard proper, heading for him. "You're needed at the castle, the prin-"
"I heard." Mario cut him off. There went any hope that Mario hadn't seen the whole embarrassing situation. "Could you bring me the toolbox?" He asked as he placed the groceries on the ground.
"Yea." Relieved to get away for a moment, Luigi rushed inside to grab their tools.
Quickly packing their most commonly used tools, plus a few extra for just in case, Luigi slipped it over his shoulder, heading back outside. He noticed that his brother had managed to eat an apple while he waited. It made Luigi shrink slightly. He didn't think he'd taken that long. "Here you go."
But before he could pass the toolbox over, Mario spoke up. "Keep it on, you're coming with me."
"I am?"
"Of course, you're gonna fix it." Mario nonchalantly replied, slipping on his white gloves.
"Me?" Luigi hated the tremble that entered his voice, but he couldn't help it. "But they asked for you." He protested.
"Luigi, you're just as qualified as I am." Mario said, looking up at him (ha!) with the utmost confidence. "If they don't think you're capable, we'll just have to prove them wrong." He declared, giving Luigi a nudge in the arm closest to him.
Unable to say no, Luigi quickly removed the toolbox, handing it to Mario momentarily so he could remove the white apron he'd put on earlier to prevent his clothes from getting wet. Slipping on his own white gloves, Luigi took back the toolbox and meekly followed his brother as he set off towards the castle.
Arriving didn't take long and soon, they were directed towards the kitchen where, upon entering, they could see just why it was an emergency. The sink in the back that was used to wash produce, the one equipped with a flexible hose, was spewing water everywhere.
The Toads were running around moving as much food out of the kitchen as possible. It looked like this happened during a meal prep as well as Luigi could see several sad, soggy lumps of what used to be bread in a trashcan.
"Oh, thank goodness, the Mario Brothers are here!" A red Toad cried out when they noticed them standing and taking in the damage.
"Oh, we're saved!"
"Thank goodness!"
"Our here!"
Several Toads called, each coming up to shake Mario's hand and ask him questions.
Giving him an apologetic smile, Mario motioned with his head towards the damaged sink. Rolling his eyes in mock exasperation, Luigi nodded back and headed to the sink. Thankfully he was already in some older clothes he didn't mind getting dirty because just getting to the sink has him soaked in water. A quick glance at the pipework underneath showed them running off to the right side so he quickly made his way to that side of the room where he was able to find a little cubby with the water shut off valve. With that pulled, the water gushing from the sink slowed to a trickle, all the Toads sighing in relief.
Mario was still occupied with his fans who were offering him some of the salvaged food, so Luigi just shrugged to himself and worked his way under the sink. Grabbing a penlight from the toolbox that he partially pulled under with him, Luigi clicked it on and took a look around. The pipes didn't look damaged, but as he followed the paths they took he noticed that there seemed to be an area where the water stopped, leaving the rest of the pipes dry. Confident that he'd found the problem, a clog, he reached down to grab his wrench.
And jumped slightly when it was placed in his hand instead. Looking down he saw Mario crouching next to him, smiling as he handed him the needed tool. Smiling back, Luigi got to work disconnecting the pipes, occasionally asking for a different tool, Mario easily handing it to him as he let Luigi handle the work.
When Luigi finally got the section he needed unhooked from the surrounding pipes, he crawled out from under the sink, asking for a bucket. Free from under the dim lighting, Luigi squinted slightly in the bright kitchen, and by the time his vision adjusted he was surprised to see the place was looking largely put back together. Some toads were still mopping, while others were returning food and supplies back to their proper places now that a flood was no longer occurring. A glance at Mario showed him that his brother was emptying a mop bucket, one hand raised asking Luigi to wait.
Bucket empty now, Mario brought it over and Luigi got to work dislodging whatever clogged the pipe while Mario mopped up underneath the sink.
"You're so good at this, you know." Mario said out of nowhere.
"Oh! Uh, thanks." Luigi was surprised at the sudden compliment, but pleased.
"Hmm. I know a lot of people overlook you Lu, and I know it hurts, but you're just as good as I am. In everything you do." Mario continued, still scrubbing under the sink because knew Luigi couldn't always handle the full force of someone's attention, even Mario's. Especially when it came to praise.
"Don't worry about me bro, I know. Even if it's not totally true." Luigi tried to deflect, too aware of the listening ears and watching eyes all around.
"What? Name one thing you can't do as well as me." Mario prodded back.
"Well, you're a better driver than me."
"Yeah, but you're the mechanic between the two of us."
"You're a better fighter."
"And a hot head. But you can hold your own."
"You're better at sports." Luigi was grinning now, getting into the banter as they tried to one up the other, the pipe almost forgotten in his hand as he absentmindedly tapped it against the edge of the bucket, trying to dislodge the clog.
"Not all of them. You got me beat at tennis."
"You're a hero Mar, I'm n-"
"I'm only a hero cause of you Lu." Mario cut in.
"What, how does that make sense?" Luigi tried to look at his brother now, confusion on his face.
Mario, however, was back to mopping up the mess, and wouldn't look at him. Despite that though, Luigi knew every word coming from his brother was the sincere and honest truth.
"We landed here nobodies Lu, and I wasn't exactly looking to be a hero. I just knew I would do anything to get you back. I only insisted on going with Peach to fight Bowser for you. I challenged DK for the Kong army because it was my best shot at getting you back. I drove on a bridge made of rainbows cause it was gonna lead me to you. I busted my way out of a giant eels stomach and fought against Bowser's army cause I was so close to getting you back. And I did Lu, I got you back but it wasn't over yet." Putting his supplies away, Mario sat down beside him and finally looked at him, tears in his eyes. "Taking the fight to Brooklyn, that was all impulse cause my only thought was that I wasn't going to lose you again. And what did you do Weegie? You returned the favour. You saved my life, Lu, and then you fought by my side cause we're brothers, and nothing and no one will ever be more important to me than you. I love you fratellino ." Pressing their foreheads together, Mario linked their hands together, the pipe falling, forgotten into the bucket.
Taking some shaky breaths as he felt his own tears run down his face, Luigi squeezed his brother's hands, trying to compose himself. Mario just said all the things he didn't know he needed to hear, and he was trying not to have a complete breakdown on the floor of the palace kitchens. He knew they'd probably be making a blanket fort in their living room tonight to stay as close as possible to his big brother.
"Love you too fratellone ." Bringing their foreheads together, they leaned into each and took a few deep breaths.
After taking a moment, the brothers separated from each other and Luigi grabbed the forgotten pipe, resuming his task of fixing the clog, grabbing one of their sturdier pipe cleaners to force the debris out.
He missed the way Mario gave a small glare to all the Toads that had stopped to watch the interaction, all of them staring in awe at the brothers' bond. They jumped when they realised they'd been noticed, scrambling around before most of them filed out. Catching the eye of his Toad, his adventure buddy, Mario smiled at him as Toad gave him a thumbs up.
Toads were terrible gossips, and they knew that word of this little exchange would be all over the kingdom by the end of the day. As his gaze wandered the room Mario's eyes widened when he saw Peach at the entrance of the kitchen, smiling so, so softly at them, her eyes shiny.
Seeing she'd been noticed, Peach gave a knock at the wall, warning them (Luigi) of her presence as she entered the room. Luigi jumped still, but the jerk of his body finally seemed to dislodge the debris and his face broke out into a blush as it slid free of the pipe with a gross ' shlorp' and splashed into the wet bucket.
"Uh, hi princess." Luigi smiled shyly at her.
"Hi Luigi, hi Mario. Don't worry about the titles, okay, it's just Peach." She reassured. "So what was the problem?" She leaned over to look into the bucket.
"Uh…" Looking as well, they all gagged and retreated when they found a rotting lump of sponge.
"Ewww, who did this?" Luigi complained.
"We should tell the staff so they can avoid doing this again. Maybe it was an accident." Mario reasoned, getting up and grabbing the bucket. "I'll get rid of this. You can finish up Luigi." He walked off to dispose of the garbage in one of the outside bins so it wouldn't stink up the kitchen.
"Oh my, does that happen often Luigi?" Peach asked.
"Believe it or not, I've seen worse. You wouldn't believe the things people try to flush or wash away." Luigi answered, giving the pipes a wash down with some cleaning solution he carried in his work bag.
"Wow. That's awful." Peach said.
Luigi just laughed at the look on her face as she said that. She looked totally disgusted. "It's a lot sometimes, sure. But it's something we're good at and we do enjoy the work."
"Alrighty! That's taken care of. And some of the kitchen staff saw the mess and have promised to be more careful, but I think we should look into installing a sink trap to avoid a major accident again. What do you think, Lu?" Mario said as he walked back in to plop down at his brother's side again.
"I think," Luigi began, finger under his chin as he pretended to think. "that you should finish up the work here since you've been so lazy." He finished with a grin, handing Mario a wrench.
"So mean fratellino ." Mario pouted before he took the tool and began finishing up.
Peach and Luigi just shared a grin behind Mario's back. Mario, meanwhile, was grinning like a loon as he finished. Luigi was relaxed and happy enough to forget his anxieties for a bit, and he forgot about the rude Toads from earlier. Mission to cheer Luigi up: accomplished!
"As a reward for your hard work, why don't we have some tea in the gardens? The bakers made some cakes before this whole mess and I'd love to share it with you." Peach invited.
"Sounds great princess!" Mario chirped, jumping to his feet.
"We still have to turn the water back on bro." Luigi pointed out, gathering their tools and standing, giving Mario a hand up.
"Can't the Toads handle that?"
"Why don't Luigi and I go ahead and you can catch up. Since he did all the hard work." Peach suggested, wrapping an arm around Luigi and pulling him along as he nervously giggled.
"What! Noo, Peach! Don't tell me you like my baby brother more than me?" Mario whined playfully, a teasing grin on his face.
"Well, he did fix my kitchen. And he's very adorable." She teased right back, pulling Luigi to her side.
Luigi was bet red now, pulling down his hat to hide his grin.
"Well, I suppose I can't argue with that. Alright, go on ahead you traitors. I'll catch up."
"You sure Mario?" Luigi asked.
" Dio mio , you're too sweet Lu. Go on, I promise it's okay. We'll have fun." Mario encouraged.
With a final grin, Mario got work finishing up while his two loves went to relax.
When they finally made it home later that night, declining an invitation to stay the night at the palace because Mario remembered he left the groceries outside (again), Luigi's prediction came true. They built a blanket fort in the living room and spent the evening watching movies and snacking on candy. Luigi made sure they both brushed and flossed since Mario was passing out and they cuddled up for sleep.
They slept very well that night.
~~~~~~~~~
The next week, when Luigi was out in his garden, he heard a commotion as a Toad with a green cap came crashing into the backyard.
"Luigi, is Mario home?" The Toad asked.
"Uh, no sorry, he's out. Do you want to leave a message for him?" Luigi asked.
"No, can I get your help instead? My tub is broken and I need help!" They explained.
"Oh! And you want me to help?" Luigi clarified, surprised.
"Yes please!"
"Okay, just let me grab my tools."
Leaving the Toad outside, Luigi went to change into his signature look and grab the toolbox. The whole time he had a smile on his face.