"Thank you so much for saving me...Mario!" Princess Peach cried with joy after the main Mario Brother had defeated Koopa King Bowser and saved her for the nth time.
The Mushroom Kingdom princess rushed toward her love, oblivious to the second Mario Brother lingering about in the corner; for all anyone but Mario knew, he was all but invisible.
"What about me?" Luigi complained in a quiet aside.
Nothing came up—the princess and a handful of Toads were still focused on "their" hero.
Luigi grumbled. "I fought Bowser too, you know..."
Nothing again.
Giving up, Luigi sulked as he watched, with blazing eyes, the Mushroom Kingdom denizens, their rescued princess, and his brother head back to the Peach Castle to celebrate.
And he was left there with no acknowledgement or credit. Again.

"Tell us what happened, Mario," one of the Toads asked "their" hero.
"W-ell, I have 'ta tell you, Toad, it wasn't easy," Mario said in response.
Luigi picked at his carbonara as he strained hard not to listen to the gushing Toads who were impressed with "their" hero hardcore. Well sure, he'd say that he'd been with Mario throughout the journey, and yeah, he'd hear a few praises from Mario every now and then, a handful of grateful comments from his brother, but seriously, would that be enough for the Toads to even turn their hero-worshipping looks from "their" hero and shift it to Luigi at least for a second?
The obvious answer to that: No.
Finally, after two long hours of "Mario, you're the real deal here," "You know, Mario we're sure glad we have you around here," and "Mario, you're simply the BEST," Luigi had finally had enough; he stood up and stalked out of the dining room. He didn't even turn to check if any eyes were trailing after him—after all, if there ever were any, it would only come from his brother.

Luigi went out of the Mushroom Kingdom castle and into the full moon night.
He settled to the Peach Gardens, lay down on the grass, and looked up at the full moon.
"Mario here, Mario there...Ugh!" Luigi groaned, then sighed. "Well, a guess I can't blame my own brother for all his fame—he has been fighting longer."
"What's up, Luigi?"
The voice startled him—had it been Mario, he wouldn't have been surprised; it was so like his brother to go off, follow him and ask what was wrong.
But that was just it; that's why Luigi was startled—it wasn't Mario. Luigi looked up to see...
"What's up, Luigi?" he asked again.
Luigi mumbled, "Yoshi, go away."
Yoshi ignored him and lay down beside him on the grass. "Having fame problems, my friend?"
It took a while for the plumber to respond; Yoshi thought he wasn't going to answer—he'd just been about to ask again—but then Luigi finally moved.
Luigi shook his head. "Just hero problems."
"What's wrong with being hero?"
He shook his head again. "A-no, nothing is wrong with being the hero—that's exactly it. I wish I could be the hero at least just this once; everyone's trailing their eyes on Mario's success, Mario's battles, Mario's adventures, the trials Mario had to face. I tried going off with him, just to have a share of some of his glory, but nothing! All this 'Mario, you're my hero' stuff just won't go away—no, not that much; that's not really what I want; what I really want is at least a 'Luigi, you were awesome' line coming from the others, but nope, nothing at all."
Yoshi pursed his lips—it was times like this that got Luigi to push too hard and almost nearly get himself hurt. He tried to look for a way to help the thinner Mario Brother out and still not make him end up injured in the process.
But how...?
"You, Yoshi," Luigi suddenly said, turning his head to study the dinosaur. "You've been traveling with my bro as long as you can remember, right? Has he always been so...adventurous and heroic?"
"Almost always," Yoshi answered, then he saw the confused look Luigi gave him when he said 'almost always' and said quickly, "What I mean is underneath all the thrill of being the hero and kicking butts, he fears for everyone else relying on him; he even thinks about you, too, more than you'll even think to know. There's always the moment of doubt when he might not make it, and, if it really does happen, the fear of having to look into your eyes, and everyone else's and knowing he was a failure to everyone counting on him—including you."
Luigi blinked—that was probably the longest speech a dinosaur had to give in the history of all dinosaurs and Yoshis alike. Then he snorted. "He's been hitting the video game tracks for 27 years and he's still a-going strong. What's he got to be worried about?"
(Note to readers: I found it amusing to include that "he's been hitting the video game tracks" line. You know how in some TV shows it's like the characters seem actually aware they're in a TV show or something? I decided to make a minor scene like that in Luigi's line. ;D Hehehe...)
"You'd be surprised, Luigi; not all heroes who've been going through numerous victories have all the luck."
Luigi raised an eyebrow. "Really, Yoshi, you don't say...?"


**Original FanFiction chapter link: link