'Under The Weather'1

"Under the Weather"

"Chapter 1: It's Just Allergies"

The first snowstorm of the winter season had passed over the Mushroom Kingdom during the night, leaving behind a fluffy white landscape.  Mushroom houses, now covered in snow, dotted the countryside like so many iced cakes, while the winter birds that hadn't flown south crowded around the bird feeders in squabbling packs.  Children were elated when they woke up to find that school had been cancelled, and it was all their mothers could to do get them to eat at least some of their breakfasts before donning their snowsuits and scampering out to play.  

Luigi was hovering somewhere between sleep and wakefulness, his only thought being that his mouth had a metallic taste to it as if he had been sucking on a gold coin.  His sleepy musings were completely interrupted when a muffled 'BOPF' sound caused him to snort himself awake.  "Whuzzat?" he muttered, wiping the corner of his mouth on his sleeve to remove a trickle of drool.  The noise was repeated, and he realized that the neighbors' kids were throwing snowballs at his bedroom window.  Shaking his head, he ran his tongue over his teeth and grimaced, trying to swallow the lousy taste in his mouth.   He snorted to clear his sinuses, frowned in distaste when he felt a glob of mucus running down the back of his throat.  He hawked a few times, spat into a tissue, and dropped the offending twist of soft paper into the bin beside his bed.

"That's disgusting, Weege." Mario called through the door as he passed.

"Allergies."  Luigi called back hoarsely as he rested his head on his pillow again, hoping that was all it was.  His throat was a little scratchy, but it wasn't uncommon for him to wake up with a sore throat that disappeared within the first half hour of being awake.  "You're not usually up this early.  Going somewhere?"

The door opened and Mario stood in the doorway, already dressed in his denim overalls, work boots, red shirt and monogrammed cap.  "Yeah, I told you yesterday.  The neighbor's pipes froze up, and I have to finish the job."

"Oh.  Hey, can you tell their kids to quit throwing snowballs at the house?" Luigi asked as he rolled over onto his side, presenting Mario with his back.

"Sure thing.  " Mario walked out, and noisily went about his business for a full ten minutes before leaving the house.  

It soon became clear that sleep was no longer possible, so Luigi reluctantly got out of bed and had a good stretch before ambling into the bathroom, smacking his lips and idly scratching his chest.  He caught sight of his reflection in the mirror, and he was a little taken aback by his appearance.  "Mamma mia..."  Leaning a little closer, he rubbed his eyes with his index fingers to get rid of the 'sleepy seeds' that had appeared overnight.  He wasn't concerned with his bad case of bed-head; he had that every morning, and his comb always made short work of it.  Besides, since he almost always wore a hat, his hair wasn't really much of an issue.

It was his face.  His cheeks were flushed, and yet the rest of his face was extremely pale.  And his eyes, they were puffy with shadows beneath them.  'Allergies.' he told himself again, and he went about his morning tasks before going into the kitchen to look for something to eat.  He wasn't particularly hungry, but he knew he'd be light-headed and cranky later on if he skipped breakfast, so he made himself some tea and a piece of toast.  

Instead of having milk and sugar with his tea, Luigi made a beeline for the honey.  His throat wasn't any better; if anything, it was a little bit worse.  He added some honey to his tea, then after considering for a moment he drizzled some over his toast.  'Might help it go down easier...' he thought, but even after chewing the honey-toast to mush, he winced at every swallow.

After breakfast, he got dressed and headed outside to shovel their front walk, thinking that he was alone.  He was wrong.

BOPF!

"Wha...Hey!" Luigi turned to see who had pegged him in the back with a snowball, and caught the next one full in the face.  "Oof!"  As he wiped the snow from his eyes he could hear the culprits jeering and shrieking with laughter from behind a snowbank.

"Haaaa, nice shot, sis!"

"Yah, right in the schnoz!"

"Oho..." Luigi snickered softly as he recognized the voices of the neighbors' Toad twins, an eight-year-old boy and girl duo of disaster.  He pretended to continue on his way, walking around the side of the house towards the shed where the snow shovel was kept.  He knew from prior experience that they would follow him, ready to bombard him with snowballs on his return, but this year he wasn't about to fall for it.  He took the snow shovel and brought it with him, propping it up against the side of the house as he stood in silence, waiting.  He would jump out and surprise them when they got impatient and came to investigate, and then...then...

And then he sneezed.  A split second later he heard them shriek "Get him!", and took a volley of snowballs to the face.  Luigi, laughing, dropped to his knees and flung a double handful of snow right back at them.  The fight was on!  

Unfortunately, they outnumbered him two to one, and they were smaller and quicker.  And, though he wasn't quite ready to admit it yet, he wasn't at one hundred percent.  The snowball fight went on for about a minute before Luigi showed signs of tiring.

"C'mon, you can do better than that!" laughed the girl.

"Yeah!  We want a pitcher, not a belly-itcher!" taunted the boy, pegging Luigi in the nose with another snowball.

"Ow!  Not in the face." Luigi stood up and dusted himself off.  "All right, that's enough, no more fun and games."

"Awwww..." they chorused, pouting in disappointment.

He held up a gloved hand and shook his head, his nose still stinging from the snowball and tingling with the urge to sneeze.  "No, sorry, I have work to do.  You two go home and play, all right?"

"Oh, okay..." the little boy smirked and pointed at Luigi's mustache. "Later, snot-cicle!"

Luigi self-consciously wiped at his nose as the twins ran off, giggling.  "Hmph..."

He took up his snow shovel, and went back out front to clear a path from the front door to the street.  It took longer than it should have; he kept having to stop and rest, and the cold air was making his nose run.  If Mario was there, he probably would have told him to stop and finish it later, but it would be even more difficult once the snow got an ice crust over it.  'Better to just get it over with.'  He was coughing badly by the time he finished the job, and even though he really felt too lazy to do it, he went all the way back to the shed and put the shovel in its proper place.  "Finally done..."

Luigi carefully wiped his feet on the mat to remove all traces of snow, and headed inside for some relief from the cold.  He coughed and sniffled as he removed his snow clothes, and even though he was alone in the house he covered his mouth and nose out of habit.  He hung his coat and hat on their appropriate pegs, draped his scarf over the hat peg, and put his gloves in the coat pocket.  Then he placed his boots neatly on the floor beneath his coat and went to have a shower, stopping once on the way to blow his nose.

Mario came home while his brother was in the shower and, tracking muddy slush into the house, he removed his hat and closed the door behind him.  "Whew, brrr...Luigi?  You still home?" he called.

There was no answer, but when Mario's ears caught the sound of running water, that was answer enough.  He kicked off his boots and tossed his hat like a frisbee at the hat rack, not noticing that he had missed, and went out into the living room.  Picking up the remote, he seated himself on the couch with a long sigh and turned on the TV, propping his feet up on the coffee table.  One large pink toe peeped through a hole in his right sock.  He made a mental note to either have it mended or simply throw them out.

Luigi soon came out dressed in his usual attire; blue over-alls, green shirt, and his hat.  However, he was barefoot, which made the discovery of Mario's homecoming somewhat unpleasant when he stepped in an ice-cold pile of melted snow.  "What the..."

The television in the living room was on, and the volume was turned up way too high.  The floor was a mess, and Mario's coat and hat lay in a sopping-wet pile by the door.  One boot was lying on its side directly in front of the door, and the other one lay just below a muddy footprint on the wall.  "MARI...ow..." Luigi massaged his aching throat, forcing himself to swallow hard.

"Luigi?" Mario turned off the TV and went to see what his brother was yelling about.  "What's wrong?"

Luigi sighed, shaking his head and bending to pick up Mario's coat.  "Nothing...How'd it work out with the neighbor's pipes?"

"Great." said Mario, taking his coat from Luigi and hanging it up before getting the rest of his things in order.  He had planned to get them later, but it didn't take a genius to figure out what Luigi's gripe was.  "I'd rather deal with frozen water pipes than clogged toilets any day.  Here, I'll get those.  You better go blow your nose, because...well...eugh."

Luigi's hand immediately went up to cover his nose, and he went to get himself another tissue.

When Mario had finished cleaning up his mess he went into the kitchen to wash his hands, and found Luigi rummaging through one of the cupboards.  "Bario, do we have ady cough drops?" he asked.

Mario dried his hands, looking concerned.  "You feeling all right, Luigi?"

"I'b fide." said Luigi, finally producing a red bag of cough drops from their 'junk drawer'.  "Blecch...cherry.  Well..." he unwrapped one and popped it into his mouth with a grimace.  He hated cherry cough drops, but by now his sore throat was so bad he didn't really care.  Besides, with his sense of smell out of commission due to a stuffy nose, he couldn't really taste it all that well anyway.

"You don't sound fine." Mario persisted, reaching to put a hand to his brother's forehead.

Luigi tilted his head to avoid it, looking annoyed.  "I said I'b..." he sniffed hard, then tried again, "I said I'm fine.  I told you, it's just allergies."  He ducked again as Mario once more tried to feel his forehead.  "Cut it out!"

"You better hold still, Weegie, or I'll put you in a headlock and make you smell my socks." Mario smirked, though he was kidding about the last part.

"I'd like to see you try it," snorted Luigi, though he consented to let Mario do his 'fever check'.  "Besides, I can't sbell adythig adyway..."

Luigi's forehead was a bit clammy, but it felt just like a hot water bottle and his cheeks and nose were beet red.  Mario took his hand off his brother's head, and crossed his arms.  Luigi lowered his eyes guiltily.

"Allergies nothing, you have a cold.  And-a you went outside in-a the snow and shovelled the walk."  Mario's accent crept into his speech a little bit, a sure sign that he was a bit miffed at his brother's stupidity.

Luigi's eyes flicked up briefly, then he looked down once more.  "It needed to be done..." he mumbled.

"So you shoulda told-a me you were sick, and I would have done it."

"You had to fix the pipes..."

Mario rolled his eyes and picked up the kettle, filling it with water from the tap.  "Never mind.  Get out of here."

Luigi looked up, hurt at first, but the twinkle of amusement in his brother's eyes dispelled it.  "What're you doig?"

"What's it look like I'm doing?  I'm making you some tea."

Luigi wasn't sure whether to be touched by this or to laugh in disbelief.  Since when did Mario know how to make tea?  "You don't have to..."

Mario, who knew how to make tea and more, turned the stove on 'high'.  "Well, you're not making it, you're a walking germ factory.  Honey and lemon?"

Now it was Luigi's turn to roll his eyes.  "I guess so..."  He went out into the living room and lay down on the couch with a soft groan.  His head was beginning to hurt.  He reached up and pulled the crocheted granny-square blanket (a gift to their mother from some neighbor or other) from the back of the couch, and wrapped it around himself in an attempt to get warmer.  There was no denying it now; of all allergy symptoms, the chills certainly wasn't one of them!  He curled up tightly as he burrowed his cheek into the scratchy tweed throw pillow, and a when his eyelids became heavy he didn't fight it.

By the time Mario brought him his tea, Luigi was fast asleep and snoring as only congested people can.  Mario shook his head and set the tea on the coffee table (neglecting to use a coaster), and considered whether or not he should wake his brother and tell him his tea was ready.  Then, deciding instead to let Luigi sleep, Mario went upstairs to take his own shower.  

................

Author's Note:  First a disclaimer, Mario and Luigi (and any other characters) belong to Nintendo, not me.  I've always liked Luigi, and after playing through "Luigi's Mansion", "Mario & Luigi: Superstar Saga", and reading several fanfics, a wave of nostalgia just about knocked me down!  I haven't played all the games, so forgive me if a few details are a little bit off.  

What will Luigi's cold have to do with Bowser?  Absolutely nothing!  But...well, I'll let the next chapters speak for themselves.

To Be Continued...