Settling Arguments
{Mario and Luigi are fighting over a video game, their dad thinks they’re acting like children, so he decides the only way to settle this childish argument, is to challenge them with something childish..} “YOU CHEATED!” Luigi yelled.
“I won fair and square! You’re just jealous cause you’re bad!” Mario yelled back.
The bros were currently chasing each other through their family’s apartment. They ended up at a stand still at the edges of the dining table both trying to guess the other’s next moves.
“No! I had you weakened and you moved out of the way of my shot!” Luigi pointed.
“Sorry I know how to squid roll properly!”
“I do, too!”
“That’s why you end up doing a normal jump and get killed a lot huh?” Mario smirked.
“Whatever! Plus you held onto the rainmaker way longer than you’re supposed to, and ran away like a coward!”
“I held onto it and ran so I’d run the timer out because we already won!”
“No you didn’t!!! You don’t win until the match is over!” Luigi stomped his foot like a child.
“And guess who had the victory screen at the end? MY TEAM! SO BOOM!” Mario made an over dramatic boom gesture with his hand.
Luigi was about to make a run for Mario at the end of the table, when suddenly a hand was on his shoulder.
“What in the hell is going on here?” a voice said.
It was their dad.
“Mario cheated in a video game!” Luigi whined.
“I did not! You’re just a sore loser,” Mario replied, folding his arms in a kind of cocky gesture.
“Really guys? A video game? How old are you two? Don’t you have a job to go to?” Their dad said.
“It’s Sunday,” Luigi replied.
Damn, dad was hoping reminding them of their business would get them out of the house, but not today. He pinched the bridge of his nose between his fingers, and sighed.
“Come on, what happened to fighting like men?” he said.
“You want me to punch Mario?”
“No! I meant having an adult conversation. Since that’s apparently not gonna happen, though, and you’re acting like children, then you’re going to fight like children,” dad said.
Mario and Luigi looked at each other curiously.
They followed their dad into the living room where the three of them stood in the middle of the room.
“Now, when you two were young, y’all were inseparable, but you still used to fight about absolutely anything! Do y’all remember what I would do to settle arguments and give y’all a ‘winner’ between you two?”
The boys shook their heads.
“Really? It happened pretty often. So, what I did was sit you two on my lap, make you hold your arms up, and I would tickle both of you until one of you put your arms down. The first one to put his arms down, lost. And there were no and, ifs, or buts afterward.”
Mario and Luigi silently gulped a bit.
“Now, obviously you two are too big and old to sit in your papa’s lap, so I’m gonna change it up. Mario, stand here.”
Mario stood in the middle of the two.
“Lift your arms up.”
Mario did so.
“Now interlock your fingers.”
His dad grabbed his arms together, and Mario locked his fingers together in a fist.
“There,” his dad said stepping back, “you stand there, and keep your arms up as long as you can while Luigi gets to tickle the crap outta you!”
Luigi’s face lit up. He was going to get to tickle his older brother with no repercussions?! Oh yes! He practically skipped over to Mario. Mario gave him a side eye.
“Can I tickle him anywhere?!” he exclaimed.
“Yup! Anywhere you can reach. Now don’t get too excited, Lu, you’re next,” his dad threatened playfully.
Luigi got a bit nervous at this, but was quickly pulled out of it when remembering why he was standing behind Mario.
“I’m gonna start a timer. Mario, you can laugh, move, anything you want except for running and putting your arms down. As soon as those arms go down, that’s time. Whoever held them up the longest in the end, wins.”
“Got it, now can we get this over with? My arms are already getting tired,” Mario sighed.
“Sure. Start… now!”
Luigi wasted no time skittering his fingers over Mario’s sides up to his ribs. Instantly targeting his top ribs and armpits. Mario held strong for about two seconds before bursting out in giggles. He stomped his feet, and clamped his fingers tighter together. Since they were wearing their lounge clothes, there was very little protection for their bare skin. As Luigi tickled Mario’s armpits, he saw that his shirt lifted up a bit due to his arms being above his head causing his belly to peek out of it. Luigi’s fingers instantly gravitated towards Mario’s stomach skittering across the bottom of it that was peeking out.
“Waihihit! NOT THEHEHERE!!” Mario squealed as Luigi dove his hands under his shirt, squeezing his belly.
Luigi’s hands skittered across his tummy to his hips squeezing them gently. Mario doubled over but kept his arms above his head.
“Oh come on, you know you wanna protect yourself. Just do it. Clamp your arms down on my hands, it ain’t gonna hurt ya,” Luigi teased.
Mario shook his head, “n-NOT A CHAHAHANCE- EHEHEHEHE!!”
Mario snapped his body back up when Luigi suddenly went under his shirt, and back to his armpits. His fingers skittered and poked all over his upper body rapidly to keep him from getting used to any sensations. Mario could feel his arms slipping down, and he almost gave up.
“You made it past sixty seconds!” his dad exclaimed.
Mario shot his arms back up with newfound determination. There was no way Luigi would beat past a minute! He tried to make it longer just to make sure.
“LU! S-STAHAHAP THAHAHAT! STOP S-SWITCHING SPOHAHAHATS!”
“What’s wrong, big bro? Too ticklish, hm? If I stayed in one spot, you’d get used to it, so I gotta switch it up a bit!” Luigi smiled.
“I- I WOULDN’T HAHAHAHA! OH MY GOHAHAHAD!!”
His nerves were screaming at him to give up, but he was determined. That was until Luigi snuck a hand between his shoulder to his neck. Mario squealed, scrunched his neck, and recoiled. His arms came down, swatting Luigi’s hands away.
“TIME!” their dad announced.
Mario doubled over panting, his arms wrapping around his middle to protect himself.
“One minute and twenty seconds!”
“Whoo!.. b-beat that!” Mario huffed.
Luigi giggled but was visibly nervous. He knew he was going to lose this. Sure, Mario was pretty ticklish, but him? He was a walking tickle spot..
“Ha! Bet, I will!” Luigi scoffed confidently.
He took Mario’s place in the middle of the room, and raised his arms, interlocking his fingers. Mario rolled his eyes and grinned at this faux confidence as he stepped behind his little brother.
“Ready?”
“Ready.”
“And… go!”
Mario instantly dove his fingers into Luigi’s underarms. Luigi screeched and almost failed instantly, but shoved his arms back up.
The good thing about this whole challenge is they both knew each other’s tickle spots. Obviously after being brothers for years they knew exactly how to target each other. The bad thing was usually Luigi, being the younger brother, was the one to get tickled to pieces every time they had a tickle fight which would always just end up being “tickle Luigi.” Luigi knew where Mario was most ticklish, but he also knew exactly where Luigi was most ticklish, and exactly how to tickle him to make him completely succumb and go crazy. Perks of being the asshole older brother he guessed.
Luigi twisted in Mario’s grasp, but held steady. He screamed when his ribs were suddenly tased. God how he hated when Mario would do that. Just two fingers quickly, and harshly vibrating between his ribs were enough to kill the man. Luigi tightened his fists above his head. He dropped them onto the top of his head trying to lessen the sensations.“He put his arms down!” Mario exclaimed seeing his dad not react.
“Nope, they’re still up,” he replied.
“You didn’t say we could do that!”
“You didn’t ask.”
Mario rolled his eyes, and dug into Luigi’s tummy. Now he was determined to win. Luigi shrieked, and doubled over, but like Mario, kept his arms up. He held a leg up trying to protect his stomach.
“Ah ah ah, fratellino, no protecting yourself!” Mario teased as he squeezed his kneecap making him drop back down. Mario skated his fingers over Luigi’s bare belly.
“PLEASE I-IT’S SO BAHAHAHAD!! N-NAHAHAT MY TUMMY PLEHEHEASE!”
“Ohohoh yes! Is your tummy ticklish, Weeg? Got a ticklish tum?! Sucks for you!”
Luigi’s face turned bright red at the teasing. God, why’d that always get to him so much?!
“30 seconds till a minute!” dad said.
No way Luigi was gonna get to over a minute. Mario was not going to lose to the most ticklish person on the planet! Time to kick it up.
Mario squeezed Luigi’s hips as he began to walk around to face him.
“W-WHAT ARE YOU DOIHIHIHING?!”
“Oh nothing, there was nothing against changing positions was there?” Mario called back to his dad.
“Nope!”
Mario grinned evilly at Luigi whose giggles became nervous. He tickled up his sides then shoved his hands onto the sides of his neck fluttering his fingers gently. Luigi threw his head back, wheezing, and scrunching up. He was sure that digging into his shoulders would break him, but Luigi kept himself together. Even raising his arms back up fully.
“You passed a minute, Weeg!” dad exclaimed.
Oh he was not going to win this.
Mario thought fast, then quickly shoved Luigi’s shirt up to his chest revealing his stomach. Luigi felt the breeze, and tried to back away.
“NO! M-MAHAHARIO! DO NOHOHOT PLEASE!!”
Without hesitation, Mario grabbed Luigi’s sides to hold him where he was, while still squeezing them, took a quick deep breath, and blew as hard as he could on his tummy.
Luigi screamed then cackled as his whole body convulsed and his arms shot down trying to push Mario off of his poor ticklish belly.
“TIME!”
Luigi collapsed on his butt on the ground panting and still laughing hard.
“What did he get?” Mario asked practically running over to the timer on the phone.
“One minute.. and seventeen seconds!”
“YES!”
“NO!”
“I WIN! HAHA!” Mario pumped his fist.
Luigi pulled himself up from the ground defeatedly.
“Congrats, now if you’ll excuse me, I hear leftover lasagna calling my name,” their dad said getting up from the recliner.
“Wait! No that’s not fair, let me see-”
“Sorry, can’t hear you over lasagna!”
The boys were left in the living room. One gloating and the other sulking.
“Aw it’s okay Weeg, it’s not your fault you’re too ticklish for your own good,” Mario giggled.
“No, you came around front to blow a raspberry on me! You cheated again!” Luigi exclaimed.
“Ah fratellino, always will be the sore loser little brother..”
Luigi glared at him.
“I’m only joking! Come on, you know it’s not that serious. You’re not actually mad, are you?” Mario asked.
Luigi rolled his eyes then smirked, “no. But you should run.”
Mario widened his eyes, and tried to get up, but Luigi caught his leg.
“Whoops too slow!” Luigi gleamed.
Mario struggled to pull his leg out of Luigi’s grasp but Luigi was already locking it under his arm. Mario hopped on one leg, eventually stumbling down onto his butt on the floor.
“You good?” Luigi asked, making sure he wasn’t hurt.
“Yeah but l-let go!”
“Ha! As if. You deserve this.”
Luigi pulled off Mario’s shoe, and instantly scribbled his nails on his foot making Mario snort and fall onto his back instantly cackling.
Laughter could be heard from both boys for at least another hour before it quieted down.
There was no final winner.