Chapter Text
The next morning-- afternoon-- his mind supplies him, Luigi wakes up feeling… not too bad, honestly. His head hurts, but it’s not pounding or throbbing in pain, and he doesn’t feel nauseous or tired at all. His friends are both still asleep, so Luigi sneaks out onto a balcony, swiping a snack that was left unopened the night before and shutting the door quietly behind him. He settles in on a plush chair in a shaded corner, stretching his legs out into the sun, and pulls out his phone to call Bowser. The man answers on the third ring, clearly having still been in bed.
"Hello?" he hears a groggy voice mumble into the phone, and he smiles, "good morning sleeping beauty! I was worried I would be interrupting something important but it seems like I got up before you did."
He can practically hear Bowser glare at the phone, "how the f*ck are you so happy? Aren't you hungover?" Luigi laughs, "Surprisingly no. You might be though, by the sound of it"
An amused huff comes through the receiver, "Oh, there's no might. Stars, my head is killing me." He apologizes, saying that they didn't have to stay on the phone if it was bothering the man, but Bowser's response makes him blush.
"No, no. Tell me about your night, your voice is so soothing. My headache's been getting better ever since you called."
And so Luigi does, leaving out all the times he was teased about his crush on the man and telling him some of the drama he was told about some of the other royals from different kingdoms instead. He then insists that Bowser tell him about hisnight, it was only fair after letting Luigi talk for as long as he had.
"It was nowhere near as exciting as your night sounds like it was. Just dinner with some friends and drunkenly watching tv" but he hears a gruff laugh through the speaker at his expectant silence and details his night with Luigi listening in intently.
They talk for a little while longer, Bowser putting the phone on speaker as he moves through his morning routine, before the Alpha has to go to a meeting.
"It was nice getting to hear you for once, we should call each other more often if you're gonna be there much longer. I like hearing your voice. And I meant what I said, last night, even if I was drunk. I do miss you, it feels weird without you here." Luigi feels his chest tighten at the admission, "I miss you too," he says quietly into the phone, "I know I sent it back last night but since you like my voice so much I figured you wouldn't complain about hearing it too."
The end of his statement is teasing, and he can hear Bowser laugh, "You're right about that. I would never complain about you." and the words are so soft that Luigi actually covers his face with his hand, hiding a smile.
"have a good day, Alpha, text me when you're done with the day" and he gets a "see you soon, Omega, have a good day" before the line beeps and Luigi pulls the phone away from his face.
What he didn't realize while wrapped up in his phone call with Bowser was that Daisy had woken up and made her way out onto the balcony with him, laying on a couch on the opposite end basking in the sun.
"Oooo, already pulling the Omega voice, huh?" He jumps and sputters in surprise, "How long have you been out here?"
"Long enough" she answers with a smile, and she starts laughing when his only response is to stand there blushing.
"Don't freak out, I'm not making fun of you or anything. I think it's cute, the little thing you have going on. I'm sure it sucks to be stuck here without, like, a timeline of when you'll be back." She sits up and squints against the harsh morning light.
He shrugs, but nods, "it does kind of suck. But I like getting to see my friends, and my brother, so its kind of like a tradeoff" and she nods at that, understanding. They stay out there until Peach stumbles out into the sun grumbling about breakfast, sharing the snack Luigi brought earlier and talking quietly about things happening in Daisy's life, which poor man’s proposal she’d had to reject that week and listening to the woman talk about her and Peach’s latest excursion to New Donk City with an expression on her face that makes Luigi curious about just how close the two princesses have gotten since he’d left, but he doesn’t have time to ask her about it because Peach is stumbling out onto the balcony pulling them down to breakfast.
After breakfast, he waits on the castle stairs for his brother, whose insistence on chaperoning him everywhere had been grating on his nerves twice as bad now that he's had a break from it. Things with his brother were more than a little awkward – Mario was still having a hard time grasping the concept that his heroism was essentially all an act. His evil nemesis wasn't actually evil, and every fight they had he had been set up to win, and when Luigi came back with nothing but good things to say about the Darklands it felt like his brother was judging him. The girls had noticed this too, agreeing when he brought it up last night that Mario's attitude about the whole thing was a little weird. His brother didn't even know the other side of it, the side where he was actually catching feelings for the dragon King, but Luigi felt like maybe it’d be better if Mario was left out of that particular conversation.
The walk back to his house was predictably awkward, but Luigi's attempts at small talk had been met with mild success, so at least that's something. Mario also, predictably, walked straight through the house and up to his room where he shut the door. He had been doing that a lot since Luigi had been back. He's tried a few times to get him to open up a little about what's on his mind but each attempt was brushed off with some excuse of you wouldn’t get it or it doesn't involve you, so after the fourth or fifth repeat of the same thing he stopped trying. Two more weeks pass, with a phone call to Bowser every few nights, before Peach calls him into an office and tells him that he'll be sent back to the Darklands at the beginning of the coming week. His explanations and evidence in favor of Bowser had paid off and they’d finally been able to approve the shipping of the plants to help the sick people of the Mushroom Kingdom, the first of which was slated to arrive by the time Luigi is back in Bowser’s castle. It's Friday, and Luigi can barely control the smile threatening to split his features as he realizes he's leaving so soon. He thanks her politely and moves to leave, but a soft hand on his shoulder stops him.
"Remember what we said, Luigi. Even if not everyone is so accepting, you'll always have us. Be safe on your journey, and have funwhile you're there."
She finishes her reminder with a wiggle of her eyebrows that has Luigi laughing his way out of her office and plopping down on his favored stair to wait on his brother. He excitedly pulls out his phone to call Bowser and tell him the news, and the man picks up on the first ring. He can hear the Alpha's smile when he speaks, excited, and he can't help the smile that creeps onto his features as he listens to the man tell him about some new places he and Junior discovered that they want to take him to upon his return.
He's giggling in response to some stupid joke the man made when a shadow falls over his vision, and he looks up to find Mario staring at him with an unreadable expression. "Oh! Bro! You could have let me know you were there, how long have you been waiting?"
Mario doesn't answer him, instead plucking the phone from Luigi's grasp to peer at the screen where his call with Bowser was still connected and hanging it up before tossing it back at Luigi.
"You're really going back there?" and at Luigi's nod he scoffs, "well come on then, gotta get you packed and ready to fraternize with the enemy."
His brother starts the trek down the castle stairs without waiting on him, and Luigi is only moved from his spot when Mario looks over his shoulder with an eyebrow raised, sharply motioning down the stairs with both hands. If the walk from the sleepover was awkward, this was downright mortifying, Luigi's anxiety increasing with every sharp exhale and mean look. When they make it home, he can't take it anymore, and stops Mario from retreating to his room with a firm hand on his arm.
"Bro, what's going on with you? You've never acted like that with me, what happened? and don't give me that 'you won't understand' bullsh*t because I'm tired of it" and his brother looks shocked, either at the arm grab or the call out, but the shock quickly transforms into anger as he slams down in a chair.
"You wanna know what's wrong? Fine! My whole f*cking life down here has been a lie, everything we did was like a joke to him. I don't understand how you could be giggling on the phone with him when you were right there beside me fighting!"
Luigi rolls his eyes, "dude, I get that. But that's the thing – he wants to drop the act, he doesn't want to be seen as all violent and aggressive. So I don't understand why you're mad at me for wanting to help with that?"
He thought he made a good point there, but Mario just looks more upset than before, "and that's another thing. Why did Peach pick you? Why wouldn't she pick an Alpha to go? Why wouldn't she pick me to go?"
His brother is glaring down at a newspaper strewn across the kitchen table, “I swear, all you Omegas are the exact same. You’re all so clique-y, and all you do is boohoo about being mistreated like you’d be able to make it on your own. You know what? Luigi, I was so excited when I presented, because I just knew you'd follow behind me, like you always do, and be an Alpha. I was so embarrassed, when you presented as an Omegain front of our entire f*cking family..."
The word Omega is pulled from his mouth like it disgusts him to say it, and Luigi's blood runs cold. He remembers the day he presented, his and Mario's birthday. His family had been so excited for him to present at all, both his mother and father had been overjoyed when his rainy flowery scent had come in that they'd wrapped him up in a hug, smiling and laughing. When he thinks back on it, Mario had always been the one to insist he act more appropriately for an Omega, when he'd gone downstairs the day after their birthday his mother had been so confused to see him in the bakery and his father had come looking for him when he hadn't shown up to help him with the deli.
"Mama and Papa don't give a f*ck that I'm an Omega! You're the only person I've ever met to have such a problem with it!" He's shaking, his breathing shallow.
"Because you betrayed me! You're f*cking pitiful, you'll latch onto anyone who shows you any attention. You know I'm just trying to look out for you. Do you really think your little vacation in the Darklands is actually doing anything? He's gonna turn on you one day, he's f*cking selfish and I'm not gonna be the one to come and get you. Since you want to be this strong, independent Omega you can get yourself out of that mess." Mario lights a cigarette, when the f*ck had he started smoking again? He hadn't so much as touched a cigarette since he'd accidentally set some poor woman's shower curtain on fire trying to smoke on a job.
"Bowser isn't like that, Mario, I swear! If you would just listen-" Luigi gets cut off by a scoff. "No! You f*cking listen! How are you sitting here defending that man when you know nothing about him!"
"I know plenty about him!" he should probably reign it in before he says something he won't know how to explain, but he just can't listen to someone he'd grown so close to, someone who had already had to deal with so much f*cking sh*t in their life be badmouthed for no other reason than because his brother is having an existential crisis. "What we're doing down there is helping people Mario, people who don't have anything to do with the Darklands. Does that sound selfish to you? You're just being stupid..."
Mario stands from his chair and leans forward towards Luigi, looking him up and down critically. "What we’re doing. Jesus, Are you f*cking him or something? The last time you acted like this was when you were with that orange Alpha woman."
He sputters, panicked, "what? You mean Daisy? I'm not- It's not- What are you saying?"
Mario barks a mean sounding laugh, "You are! No f*cking way, you're f*cking him! Luigi, I know you're an Omega but you've gotta learn to that just because somebody f*cks you doesn't mean they care about you. He's using you, come on bro are you seriously that blind? He probably tricked someone into his bed the night you f*cking left..."
As much as he's tried not to think about it, he can't deny that his anxiety has had him wondering about that exact thing. In all honesty, Mario could be right. He's had a bit of a problem in the past with ending up in bad situations with people because he'd overestimated their interest in him, and Bowser is a literal King. He's seen how some of the people in town look at their King as he passes through, many of them watching on with something more... inappropriate than pure adoration. His anxiety bleeds out onto his face, and into his scent, and Mario sighs bodily.
"See? You know I'm right. You shouldn't be messing around with sh*t like this, you're gonna end up hurt. Don't be stupid about this Weegie, I'm just trying to help you..."
Luigi can't even think up a response, he's been frozen in his spot since their conversation started but his inner Omega is telling him to get the f*ck out of there. Even though he'd known his brother was an asshole, he'd never felt entirely unsafe around him. He had kind of assumed that all the questioning and ensuring that he was only looking out for him was normal, that the comments and accusations he had been thrown over the years by his brother was just how it was to be an Omega. But, Bowser had never gotten angry with him, barring their first meeting, and he can't even imagine the Alpha King saying anything Mario has said about Luigi to his face no matter how hard he tries. He knows what it's like to be treated with respect now, and every fiber of his being is yelling at him to go back to where he knows he'll be safe. He could probably make it to the Koopa Kingdom by himself during the day, but the sun has already disappeared behind the horizon by the time their argument is over.
For now, he just makes the trek back to Peach's castle. She sends a group of toads to collect his luggage from the house the next morning, and Luigi doesn't leave his room at the castle until it's time for him to leave. He's so elated the morning of his departure that he can't even be bothered by his brother's absence from his send off. It's not like he was really expecting him, considering everything that had been said between them, but for someone who was so insistent he needed to *see* his brother alive and okay there had been a distinct lack of Mario's presence the entire time he'd been home. He can't stop smiling at the thought of *finally* returning to what had become his routine life, even though his anxiety about seeing Bowser was still simmering under the surface.
