Chapter Text
“Now, you two sit there while we call your parents!”
Both Mario and Luigi flinched as the shrill teacher turned on her heel and entered the school’s faculty office with a slight slam of the door, leaving the brothers to wait outside until the principal saw them.
Mario let out a groan as he leaned back into the uncomfortable wooden chair, softly cursing the furniture and his rotten luck that landed him and his younger brother in hot water. Luigi sat quietly next to him, his two hands holding Mario’s between them, fingers gently dancing along his bruised knuckles he sustained a few moments prior.
“How’s your hand feeling, big bro?” Luigi asked softly.
The older sibling flexed his injured hand a bit and said, “Feels alright. Nothing a little ice won’t fix.”
Luigi nodded slowly, his face twisted with guilt. “I’m really sorry I got you into this mess, Mario…”
The red-loving male looked in surprise at his twin. “Hey Lu, what are you apologizing for? It was that punk, Remy, that caused all of this!” Just thinking about the event that led up to the brothers getting sent to the principal’s office made Mario’s blood boil.
The twins had been walking through the school hallways, on their way to their next class when Remy Jackson had come up from behind and dared to get handsy with Luigi’s backside. It had taken Mario a full second to process what he had just seen before all hell broke loose. He hadn’t even realized he had thrown a punch until the bastard was laid out on the floor, unconscious, and Luigi was desperately trying to pull him away. It was then that Mrs. Jackson, Remy’s mother, and their third period history teacher, happened upon the scene and promptly dragged them to the principal’s office to face judgement.
“I-I know, but I should be able to fight my own battles…” started Luigi, still looking downtrodden. “…I shouldn’t constantly keep depending on you…”
Mario huffed before reaching over and pinching his brother’s cheeks. When the younger teen squawked in surprise and gave him his full attention, he said, “Lu, I’m your big brother! It’s my job to protect you, even when I know you’re fully capable of it! You’re not trying to put your own brother out of a job, are you?”
The green-loving twin giggled at this and squeezed Mario’s hand. “Of course not, bro. I doubt I’ll ever find a better protector than you.”
“And don’t you forget it!”
As the pair laughed amongst themselves, the door opened, and the angry teacher poked her head out. “The principal will see you now,” she said icily.
“Welp, time to meet our fate…”
“I just hope this doesn’t take too long. They’re serving baked spaghetti for lunch today…”
*~OoO~*
Principal Sadler was an older gentleman in his late 60’s with silvery white hair, thick black rimmed glasses, and a long, white beard. His grey eyes looked between the brothers, Remy, and Mrs. Jackson as he regarded them with an unreadable stare.
“So, can anyone tell me what happened?”
“W-Well, you see Principal Sadler…” started Remy tearfully, holding the bag of ice to his swollen eye. “Mario attacked me and…”
“These hooligans…” Mrs. Jackson seethed as she glared harshly at the brothers, “…Decided to assault my boy without provocation! I want their parents called and them expelled!”
Mario and Luigi sat quietly as the mother and son duo ranted and raved against them. Luigi looked worried, but Mario wasn’t too stressed about it, knowing full well the school’s headmaster was a fair and just man. Soon, it was their turn to tell their tale.
“Mario, Luigi, please tell me your side of the story.”
The older sibling sat up straighter in his chair, giving his younger brother’s arm a squeeze. “Well Principal Sadler,” he began, glaring at his troublesome classmate. “My brother and I were walking to class together when Remy came by and touched Luigi inappropriately! Yes, it’s true that I punched him, but any responsible sibling would’ve done the same!”
The school director slowly nodded his head while the Jacksons sputtered contrary statements. The older man then turned solely to Luigi and asked, “Luigi? Is what your brother is saying true? Was there unwanted contact between you and Remy?”
The taller twin gulped when addressed directly but answered the question in a steady voice. “Yes sir, it’s true. Remy grabbed my rear without my consent...” He twiddled with his fingers as he continued, “And it’s not the first time it’s happened either…”
“M-Mr. Principal!” shrieked Mrs. Jackson at the allegations. “My boy would never do something like that! Why, I’m insulted just hearing such things! Surely you’d believe me over them, wouldn’t you?!”
Mario glared hatefully at the woman. Of course, she would use her status as a teacher to get her son out of trouble. He turned to headmaster imploringly. “I know you’d trust a teacher’s word over a student, but you know Luigi! When has my brother ever lied about anything?!”
A chuckle escaped Sadler’s lips at that statement and nodded his head. “You’re right, when has dear Luigi ever been untruthful? I can’t even recall you ever causing any trouble either, Mario.”
Mrs. Jackson’s eyes go wide. “B-But Mr. Sadler—”
“Your son, however, Mrs. Jackson…” interrupted the man, giving the woman a hard stare. “Your son’s name is something I hear almost every other week, and none of those things good. I’ve been meaning to talk to you about this for some time now.” The head teacher then gave the twins a smile. “Why don’t you boys head back to class, or lunch as it is. I just need to have a talk with the Jacksons to ensure that this never happens again.”
“Thank you, Principal Sadler,” Mario replied thankfully. Luigi said the same. He rose from his chair and took hold of Luigi’s hand, pulling him up as well. “We’ll take our leave then.” He gave the Jacksons one final glare before leading his brother out the door.
*~OoO~*
“Phew! I can’t believe we got outta that scot-free,” Luigi said with a sigh of relief as the pair made it home from school.
“Plbbt! I never had any doubt!” replied Mario easily. “You are a good boy, after all.”
A light blush spread across Luigi’s face, always weak to praise. “Hey, you’re a good boy, too! The best and greatest big brother ever!”
“Aw go on~~!”
“By the way, how’s your hand? Does it need more ice?”
The older male opened and closed his hand before shaking his head. “Nah, I’m fine.”
“Mario! Luigi!”
The pair of brothers winced at the sound of their names and soon their mother entered the room, followed by their father.
Hands on her hips, their mother gave them a stern look. “We received a call from the school…” she started.
Welp, so much for scot-free…
“Knocked the little bastard out with one punch, huh?!” guffawed their father, slapping his older child on the shoulder. “Great job, son! Definitely got that from my side of the family!”
“Honey!” chided the woman, pinching her husband on the arm before returning her attention back to her kids. Her blue eyes softened, and she gathered her boys into her arms. “Oh, you two. You know I don’t like it whenever either of you get into fights.”
The twins hugged their mother back. “We’re sorry, Mama. But I couldn’t just let anyone mess with Luigi.”
“I know, sweetie. You always take such good care of your brother.”
Their father squeezed his youngest son’s shoulder. “And don’t forget to throw some punches of your own, Luigi. I know you can rely on your brother, but I know you’ve got power in your punches as well.”
“Yes sir.”
“Now, you two go wash up; dinner will be ready in an hour.”
*~OoO~*
The twins entered Luigi’s bedroom and dropped onto the green blanketed bed with heavy sighs.
“What a day…” mumbled Luigi.
“I’ll say…” replied Mario. He reached over and squeezed the younger man’s arm. “But are you okay, Lu? Seriously?”
Luigi turned to face his brother properly. “I’m fine, bro, honestly. I mean, yeah, it sucked getting grabbed, but seeing you knock Remy’s lights out made me feel better!”
Mario puffed out his chest in pride at Luigi’s praise. Nothing made him happier as a big brother to know he was doing his job right.
“You wanna take a shower first?”
“Nah, you can go first. I wanna hurry up and get a jumpstart on this math homework.”
“Alrighty.”
Once Luigi had left for the bathroom, Mario set about doing his homework though his mind could barely focus on it. At the forefront of his mind was Luigi, as usual, but not for the typical cause for concern.
Luigi was gay…or…bi as it were.
Now, Luigi being bi wasn’t the cause of Mario’s consternation, far from it. After all, Mario was the very first person Luigi ever confessed to, and accepted without prejudice, hugging his bro tight as he cried into his shoulder in relief. No, the problem wasn’t that. The problem was the attention.
The bad and the good kind.
Luigi, being the younger, meeker of the two brothers, was prone to bullying and the like. And things got worse when it was learned where his interests laid. Mario always did his best to protect him from such things but there were times when he couldn’t remain by his side. Those were the moments where Luigi was preyed on the most, and Mario would have to pick up the broken pieces afterwards. It wasn’t as bad as it was when they were in elementary and middle school, thankfully, but there were still some troublesome individuals lurking in their high school, like Remy Jackson.
The “good” attention came in the form of admirers. While most students knew how overprotective Mario was and avoided asking directly about dating his brother, there were bold ones who dropped off love letters for him to deliver. Mario couldn’t even be mad since Luigi had been tasked with delivering love letters to him as well. They were mostly harmless…mostly…but there were a few that went beyond that scope…
Mario slammed his math book closed when he thought about of that particular memory. And had he known what had been written in it, he wouldn’t have given it to his brother in the first place!
“Here, Luigi. A letter from yet another admirer,” Mario said, waving a light blue envelope in his hand. “Think his name was Michel Durand. This is what, the fourth one this week?” he teased.
“Hm? Oh really?” Luigi asked, taking the offered envelope. He sniffed it and gave his brother a teasing smile. “Smells nice. Is that ‘Sauvage’?”
Mario assumed that the stench emitting from the letter was some fancy cologne like the ones at the mall. He steered clear of the perfume section since his mother spritzed him down while remarking he should try to smell like a gentleman once in a while. “Yeah, well he looked like the pretty, rich-boy type,” he said with a shrug.
“You don’t sound too impressed.”
“Should I be?” Mario asked with another shrug, never really wowed by the hoity-toity types at their school and started pulling out his homework from his bookbag. When he turned back around he saw Luigi’s attention fully on the letter, watched as his normally gentle smile fade and his brow furrow slightly. Even more puzzling was the deep cherry-red flush that started at his cheeks and descended past his neckline along with Luigi’s quickened breath.
“Lu?” the older son questioned. In the back of his mind, he recognized the look on his twin’s face, but because it was the very first time he’d had seen such a look on that face he’d been mystified by it. “What the hell is in that letter?!”
The question seemed to snap Luigi out of his stupor. “H-Huh? Oh…I…”
“Let me see that letter!” he nearly demanded due to the unknown uneasy feeling in his gut.
“What?! No! Th…This is private!”
The uneasy feeling grew even more. The twins never had secrets between them before and Mario wasn’t about to let it start now either. He pushed and persisted and eventually Luigi yielded and gave his brother the letter. Mario wasted no time reading the words that had bewitched his sibling, a grimace growing on his face the more he read. Mario had to admit that while he had read and experienced spicier things, Luigi’s admirer’s words were more than enough to get any potential reader a little hot under the collar.
Especially for someone as innocent as Luigi.
Mario had half a mind to tear the offending letter into tiny pieces but knew it wasn’t his place to do such a thing. Ocean colored eyes glanced back at his brother, who sat quietly on the bed, face still as red as their mama’s marinara sauce. “Is…is this something you’d be interested in?” he asked softly. While he wasn’t happy about this, he wouldn’t stop Luigi from pursuing this relationship if that’s what he wanted.
Luigi stared down at his lap, fingers tapping an unknown rhythm against his left leg as he considered the question. He eventually shrugged and said, “T-To be honest, I’m not. I’ve met Michel a couple of times before, and while I would consider him handsome…his personality is a bit…I mean, he’s…” he let his words trail off and Mario happily filled in for him.
“…A pretentious, insufferable, spoiled brat, who wouldn’t know hard work if it pinched his wallet?”
The younger teen laughed at that, looking a little more composed now. “Exactly.”
Satisfied and a little more than relieved, Mario made a motion to the letter. “So, I can…?”
Luigi laughed again and nodded. “Go ahead.”
The letter was completely obliterated by Mario’s hands and tossed into the wastebin with extreme prejudice. Tomorrow, he would tell the little pervert to keep his distance from his brother or else.
“Should I let you field my future letters, big bro?” Luigi asked playfully.
Mario really, really hadn’t want to overstep his boundaries doing something like that, even as Luigi’s protector, but since he’s been given permission…
“Don’t worry, Lu. Your big bro will keep the creeps away!”
And Mario had done just that, making his reputation of being overly protective sky-rocket even further.
But…
Mario could feel his stomach churn as he thought back to the first letter and Luigi’s curious unforeseen reaction to it.
Heat…want…lust…desire…
All the emotions that Mario shouldn’t have been privy to due to his familial relationship with Luigi, and yet he had gotten a front row seat to it. He had always prided himself on knowing everything about Luigi but knew realistically that there were some things he shouldn’t know, such as this.
But why not?
The answer should’ve been obvious, but even with sound reasoning the feeling in his stomach refused to abate.
Mario couldn’t help but think back to his past girlfriends, fulfilling his duty as lover and bringing them pleasure to the best of his abilities. It was always such a wonderful sensation seeing the looks of arousal shining in their eyes. The feeling managing to be a close second to feeling he got whenever Luigi was pleased with him. Those shining cerulean blue eyes, that gentle, happy smile…
…How would it feel to have Luigi give him that heated look…?
Mario shook his head vigorously to shake the thought away just as Luigi returned to his room. His mouth went dry when he saw what his taller sibling was wearing. “Wearin’ my clothes again, Lu?”
“Can’t help it, bro. Your pajamas are so comfy!” Luigi replied with a little twirl. Mario’s large red t-shirt with a baseball logo printed on it swamped Luigi’s frame to the point that it flared out like a dress when he spun. The red and grey plaid bottoms were short in the leg, but loose around his thin waist. “Want me to take them off?”
“No, no. You know I don’t mind you wearing any of my things.” On the contrary, he liked it. A lot. He liked it even more when Luigi gave him his pleased, sweet smile.
The smile only meant for Mario…
END CHAPTER