A/N: Hello to all readers! It's been a while, hasn't it? I'm alive, I just haven't had any fanfic ideas... at all... for about a year. I also thought I'd gotten bored of writing Luigi hurt/comfort, which apparently I am not. So here's my latest oneshot, with high hopes that I'll start writing and publishing more often now.

This story is set post-Super Mario Galaxy, but there's no spoilers or major references to that game.

Enjoy!

TALKING TO AN EMPTY ROOM

Luigi folded his gloved hands behind his head and lay back more comfortably as the faint sounds of his brother climbing into the bunk beneath him drifted up to his ears. It was late, it had been a long day and all he wanted to do was sleep, but in reality he wasn't tired at all, and his attention was so firmly affixed on a certain spot on the ceiling that he could pretend not to hear Mario calling up to him from the other bed.

Their most recent adventure to rescue Princess Peach from Bowser's claws had taken them away from everything Luigi might have considered a comfort zone, all the way into space where nothing was familiar and anything that moved could potentially have the ability to kill him. He'd had to be careful where he walked, because the planets they explored were often covered in dangerous hazards. Not to mention there were small but lethal creatures that concealed themselves in the long grasses and closed their jaws around his ankle before he had the faintest idea they were there.

In the end both of them had survived, rescued the princess and gotten back home safely. A quick trip to the Toad Town Hospital had dealt with their minor injuries, and they'd been able to return to their own house right after the celebratory feast in Peach's castle was over. He wasn't sure what to think of the feast, really. The food had been delicious as always, the guests had been friendly and Mario had clearly enjoyed himself. And that was the most important part, right? Nobody needed to know about Luigi's hand in the adventure, or how he'd managed to find three Power Stars all by himself with no help from his big brother at all! Well, OK, that wasn't technically true, as he had gotten stuck in Battlerock Galaxy, and in Good Egg Galaxy, and there was that time when he climbed a tree to escape from a giant beetle and had been too scared to climb back down even after Mario arrived and kicked the monster away. The memory of the impromptu rescue - which had involved an exasperated Mario shooting a Star Bit to dislodge his grip on the tree-trunk, sending him tumbling to the ground - still made him cringe a little.

But hey, he'd played his part, hadn't he? He'd done a pretty good job. At least, he hoped so.

'Hey, Bro?'

The soft voice echoing from the lower bunk startled him out of his wandering thoughts, and he turned his head just slightly to the right to hear better. 'I thought you were asleep already.'

'Not yet. I was, er, thinking.' Mario shifted his weight, causing an agonised shriek to emanate from the long-suffering bedsprings. 'Not something I do very often,' he admitted, rubbing the back of his neck and smiling sheepishly, not that Luigi could see his face from where he was lying.

'About what?' He was pretty sure he already knew what Mario had been thinking about. It didn't take Professor E. Gadd to figure it out, especially when the memory of the scene back in Peach's castle, just before the celebratory feast began, was still seared across his retinas and brain forever. Not that it was a bad thing as such, but it was something he knew he was going to remember vividly for a very long time.

'What Peach said earlier,' Mario replied. He stopped rubbing his neck in that awkward way, and his gaze settled somewhere in the middle distance with a dreamy expression that was normally reserved for looking at spaghetti, chocolate cake, or the princess herself. 'You know. Did you... see it?'

Luigi sighed. It was just loud enough to have carried to the bed below him, but Mario didn't seem to notice. 'Of course I saw it, Bro. I was there.' Never mind that you probably didn't even realise I was there.

'Well, yeah. I thought you did. But just in case you missed something, let me tell you exactly what happened.' Mario's voice had turned even more dreamy than his expression, and Luigi glanced listlessly at the half-open door and contemplated making an excuse and running to the bathroom for an hour or so. 'The Toads were just bringing out the first dishes, when suddenly, out of nowhere, Peach walked over to me. She looked... I dunno, Bro, she looked kinda nervous. But I was nervous too so I didn't notice. Then she... she thanked me again for saving her, and then she asked me if I'd think about being with her forever! I won't lie, Bro, it took me a moment to figure out what she meant. But then I realised she was asking me to marry her!'

Luigi shook his head - not that Mario could see him, but he was worried he'd drift off to sleep if he stayed still any longer and that might seem rude. Also, he'd heard Mario's recitation of the magical moment so many times already, both directed at him and at various other people, that he had no idea what he was supposed to say anymore. 'Isn't it more traditional for the man to propose to the woman?' he asked primly.

'But I never even suspected she liked me, Luigi!' Mario burst out. 'I mean, I know she liked me but not in that way, if you get what I'm saying.'

'Yes.' Here he sighed again, a little more quietly, and the bed creaked as he rolled onto his front and smashed his face down onto the soft pillow. 'I understand.'

Mario didn't seem able to restrain himself. It was as if he'd been walking around in a daze for the last four hours and suddenly the evening's events were catching up with him, forcing his brain - which must, Luigi reasoned, be exhausted after the party - into frenzied speech. 'She actually wants me to marry her! We're gonna live together in the castle, and have a wedding, and I'll be able to see her every day from now on! Don't you think it's just...' He faltered slightly at the pointed silence from the other bunk, but didn't entirely lose his enthusiasm. 'Don't you think it's going to be great, Luigi?'

The silence reigned for a few moments before a voice came weakly from somewhere above him, soft enough that he had to pull both ears off his pillow to listen. 'I know it's gonna be great, Mario. You and Peach, you're going to be happy together. I know you will. But sometimes I wonder...' He trailed off, drawing a grunt of exasperation from his older brother.

'C'mon, spit it out.'

'What am I going to do after you leave?' Luigi mumbled. It sounded like whispering, but it was mostly just because his nose was still buried in his pillow. 'We've lived together in this same little house for so many years, and when you go to live with Peach and I'm here by myself... it's going to be kinda quiet.' He forcibly stopped himself before he said, 'lonely'. The last thing he needed was for Mario to consider him even more weak and pathetic than he already was. Or worse, to think he was incapable of looking after himself.

'Luigi?' Mario actually sounded confused. 'Well, you'll be OK, right? I bet it'll be great for you - you won't have to cook me breakfast every morning.' He was joking, making light of the situation. Most likely, Luigi thought when the silence trickled back in and settled between them, he doesn't think it's a big deal at all. Well, it's not. It's really not. He tried to make himself believe it.

When no more sound came from Mario, he extracted his face from his pillow and rolled over to stare at the ceiling again, eyes meticulously following the lines and patterns visible in the off-white paint. The scene from four hours ago, which his mind had been replaying on a continuous loop ever since, swam in front of his vision. Peach holding Mario's hands. Looking into his eyes with a love and affection that had stunned both brothers as well as anyone else watching to utter silence. Asking him to marry her - or rather, in her own words, to 'stay with her in the castle forever'. Asking Mario to marry her. Luigi's own brother!

And of course Mario wouldn't have said no, not to that. He'd been harbouring a crush on the princess for years and was too nervous to do more than drop the occasional hint, aided by an amused Luigi who hadn't even considered the consequences of his actions. He hadn't stopped matchmaking them long enough to realise that if they got together, Mario would move out and he'd be left alone.

Alone? As good as. Sure, he had Daisy, but she was currently living in her own kingdom and they hadn't seen each other in weeks. He still wrote letters to her, timidly of course, and his heart nearly exploded with joy whenever she wrote back, even if her response was only a paragraph of text saying how much she wanted to see him again. He'd sometimes pull out her old letters at night and read through them, just for something to do. By the Stars, he missed her. He'd asked her to come back for the celebratory feast today, but she'd been too busy dealing with affairs in Sarasaland, something he bitterly hated.

So once Mario left, he'd be alone. Maybe it made him look clingy and pathetic, but he'd been sharing a house with his brother for as long as he could remember. They'd been living here the day Mario set out for the very first time to rescue Peach from Bowser. He didn't even know her back then, and had honestly hoped to earn himself some money (and likely fame as well, not that he'd ever admit it) by saving the life of a princess. That all happened years ago. Luigi had been about seventeen then, and Mario had forced him to stay at home so that he wouldn't get hurt. He had despised every moment of waiting around for his brother to come back.

Luigi closed his eyes against the view of the darkened room and let his head thump back, cushioned by the softness of his bed beneath him. There were a lot of old memories tied up with this house. Here, two years ago, Mario had given him a vigorous pep talk just a few minutes before he was due to meet up with Daisy in the local park for their first real 'date'. Here was where he'd been when he received the letter about winning that mansion - that damned mansion that someone neglected to tell him was also full of ghosts. He'd nearly died of heart failure, passed out a few times, and thought he'd suffered a legitimate heart attack at one point, though the details were too fuzzy to be sure. Oh, and not to mention he'd nearly gotten his arm burned off during the fight against the fake Bowser controlled by King Boo.

But it was all in the past. The memories didn't bother him anymore - though he sometimes felt a little cold shiver run up his spine whenever he glanced at the hearth and his eyes happened to rest upon the framed photograph of his mansion. The picture had been taken by E. Gadd after they'd worked to clear out the remaining ghosts, but something about the building - even in its presentable and innocent-looking state - gave him the creeps.

'Are you thinking, too?' A low voice sounded from out of the dark.

He jumped slightly. Should have known he wasn't asleep, he grumbled, this time rolling completely sideways and hanging his head over the edge of his bunk. Mario's thoughtful eyes stared back at him, the rest of his body buried in several layers of blanket owing to the slight seasonal chill in the air.

'I know something's up, Luigi,' he added. 'I've known you long enough - I can tell when there's a problem.'

'Maybe there's not,' he challenged. But he knew he'd lost control of the situation already; his voice was too weak and he couldn't make himself meet Mario's unusually contemplative, piercing gaze. He sighed yet again and scratched his mustache, feeling the blood rushing uncomfortably to his head the longer he hung there. 'I'm just thinking about the future, that's all. I'm not used to living here alone. I'm not angry with you for wanting to be with Peach, if that's what you thought.' He tacked the last part on hastily, not wanting Mario to jump to any conclusions about why Luigi didn't want him to go. 'I just need to get used to it.'

He hauled himself back onto his bunk and propped himself up on his elbow, hoping the lightheadedness would go away quickly. Beneath him, Mario was silent enough to have been asleep, except that Luigi had seen him wide-awake just seconds ago, even if he was acting a little strange.

He waited for what he deemed to be a polite interval, then when no answer came, slowly sunk down and closed his eyes. He was tired now, tired enough to sleep until noon the next day if Mario actually let him sleep in that late. He supposed that now he'd gotten his thoughts and feelings off his chest, he should be more relaxed. That was what people always said. He wasn't particularly relaxed. He really just wanted to forget everything that had happened today and drift off into a deep, undisturbed sleep.

But then an answer came.

'Fratello. Non me ne sto andando.'

Luigi opened his eyes a crack, but all he could see was the ceiling waving in and out of focus above him. 'Yes you are,' he tried to stop himself saying, but couldn't quite manage it. 'You're going to live with Peach. Haven't we been over this?' He wasn't even sure why he was snapping at Mario, but he was exhausted and didn't feel like being pulled into another pointless discussion that he knew would lead back to the same answers.

He shuffled on the bunk and evened out his breathing, hoping Mario might think he'd fallen asleep. The hope was shattered when a reply came from belowdecks a moment later. 'Io saro ancora qui... Luigi, I'm not leaving the country or anything. I'll be right around the corner in the castle. And you can see me as often as you like.'

'And what if... you don't want to see me?' Luigi's response was almost too quiet to be heard, even in the dead silence and complete darkness of a small bedroom at one AM.

'Why wouldn't I want to see you, Bro?'

'You'll want to spend time with Peach. You won't need your weirdo of a brother hanging around and getting in the way.'

Mario shifted on the bunk bed; from the sounds of it, he'd moved to prop himself up on his elbow. 'Why d'you keep saying things like that?' he asked in a low voice. 'You're my brother, Luigi. As much as I love Peach, you're just as important to me and you always will be.'

'How can you love Peach so much and still want to spend time with me?' Luigi shot back, tucking both hands behind his head in mimicry of the position he'd been in when he'd fallen into bed about an hour ago. He ran his fingers through the back of his hair, a habitual gesture from his childhood. It usually meant he was tired, or annoyed, something Mario would have probably commented on if he'd been able to see him then.

'Because you're my brother,' he replied, as if that solved everything. When Luigi remained silent, he added, 'Yeah, it's that simple. And yes, it's possible for me to love Peach and still care about you. It's a different kind of love - the family kind. There's enough room for more than one kind of love in my life.'

Luigi wrinkled his nose. 'Cheesy.'

'Yeah, sorry about that.' Mario let out a quiet chuckle. He sounded just as weary as Luigi himself felt. 'But it had to be said or you'd never have shut up.'

'I'm still your weirdo of a brother, though.'

'I never thought you were weird. Your words, not mine.' The red-clad plumber yawned hugely, sounding as if he were attempting to imitate a black hole. Luigi's mind immediately decided to remind him of the black hole they'd nearly been eaten by after Mario succeeded in rescuing Peach the last time, and he shuddered and forced his attention back to the present. 'Peach likes you, too. Said she'd love to have you around the castle more.'

'Hm.' Luigi hummed in acknowledgement. 'You must be excited.'

'Of course I am! I can just tell we're gonna be happy together... Oh hey, did I ever tell you about the wedding plans?' There was a faint edge of something in Mario's tone that he wasn't sure if he liked. Cautious and controlled, yet somehow trembling with anticipation.

'...No?' Luigi replied just as carefully.

'The wedding's going to be held this weekend! Pretty early, huh? We really want to do it as soon as possible, since as we're both so happy about it... There's gonna be a huge party, and cake, and we're inviting guests from loads of different kingdoms, even Sarasaland!'

Now, Luigi was half-asleep. If he hadn't been, then he probably would have reacted a lot faster to the sentence he'd just heard. As it was, it took ten whole seconds of Mario shuffling around impatiently on his bunk before the realisation finally, finally sunk in.

'S-Sarasaland? Daisy's coming?'

'Yep!' Mario grinned, not that he could see it. 'She had to pull some strings, but she's leaving her country for a week so she can be here for Peach's wedding.'

A hint of a smile twitched beneath Luigi's mustache. A whole week with Daisy... He realised in that moment what an idiot he was. During the last four hours he'd been agonising over the possible consequences of Mario leaving, and throughout it all he'd been too selfish to think of anything besides himself. Now, he understood that this was an important time of his big brother's life. He was getting married - to a pretty, kindhearted, and cheerful young woman no less - and he was excited about it. Of course he was. He had every right to be. I should try to be more happy for him. He doesn't need me spoiling his special day... Maybe if he'd continued down this train of thought, he might have been tempted to lapse back into his previous self-loathing and misery.

But then he remembered Daisy was coming back. And that alone gave him more than enough reason to cheer up and appreciate the good side of what was going on. Mario might be leaving the house, but he was by no means leaving Luigi's own life. And things would be better once he and Peach were married; half the population of the Mushroom Kingdom had been waiting on tenterhooks for it to happen for years, and maybe even Bowser would give up his efforts to kidnap the princess when he saw her settled down and happy with her new, loving, loyal husband.

With that thought in place, he hung his head over the side of his bunk and met Mario's expectant gaze for the first time since they'd come back from the party. 'You know what? You're right, Bro. And... I'm sorry if I ruined anything for you... I really am happy that Peach asked you to be with her. Just remember that, OK?'

Mario grinned up at him. 'Course I will, Luigi. And in return, you remember to show up at the castle every day after Peach and I are married so we can go on adventures and do awesome stuff together like we've always done. If you don't, I'll find you and drag your butt over there myself.' The grin widened, and his eyes gleamed with suppressed laughter.

Luigi rolled back onto his bunk, smiling to himself, and - if he were honest - feeling happier and more at peace than he'd felt in weeks. He heard Mario lose his restraint and begin laughing uncontrollably, and the sound triggered him off too, his chuckles rather softer and more restrained than his brother's, but there nonetheless.

When the laughter faded at last, they were both exhausted - even more so than before. Luigi settled back comfortably beneath his three layers of orange blankets and yawned massively, before cocking his head to listen for anything else Mario might say. When nothing came, he murmured an absent-minded, 'Grazie, fratello' and let his head slump against the pillow.

In the moments before he fell asleep, he could have sworn he heard a barely-audible, tinged-with-exhaustion mumble of 'No problem' from the lower bunk.

As a side note: I've said this on another story, but I don't speak or understand Italian. I used Google Translate, so any errors are because of that.