December 24th, 2019
Cottage on the outskirts of London
5:47 PM

Piérre threw down the controller of the Wii, smacking Romeo with a pillow as the unashamed younger twin laughed aloud at Piérre’s expense. Mario had just crossed the finish line, and Luigi has been left spinning out in second place, shaking his fists in the sad, cartoonish way Nintendo characters did. Piérre leapt on top of Romeo as Romeo cried out in surprise, trying his hardest to fend off his energetic twin. Piérre knew that Romeo was infinitely stronger than he, but he also knew that Romeo tended to be playful in the wrestling more often than not, and he often let Piérre win in the end. In this case, nothing was different, and Piérre pinned Romeo onto the beanbags they had been gaming on.

”You cheater! You big, fat, cheater!” Piérre laughed aloud, hugging Romeo tightly. He was, of course, being overexcited because he missed his twin so dearly, having been separated for nearly four months. Alas, he knew that there was still another four or five months still to go, and boy, Piérre had so many stories to tell his twin. Tales of meeting people, missing people, arguments, fights, a flaming Masquerade, and not to mention Piérre’s first friend, Koko Riddle, a Prefect he had first met when out of the castle after curfew, had served a detention with, but had also made an ornament with hardly a month later.

”Whoah, whoah! Piérre! Calm down, tiger, it was just a game!” Romeo was bear hugging Piérre back, trying to roll his twin beneath him to pin him. Mathilda was out, no doubt finishing up the rest of her Ministry work or perhaps, perhaps, she was picking up last minute presents for the two of them. Knowing Maddie, Piérre was guessing it was probably both at the same time. Because of that the boys had been binge playing Mario Kart and Smash Bros nearly all day, with Piérre maining Luigi, no surprise, and Romeo dominating for the most part as Kirby, or Mario in the karting enterprise.

”I’m a lion, Romeo! A lion! And so are you! Haha!” Piérre pulled away from Romeo, snatching the control form where he had thrown it and quickly clicking through the awards ceremony, where Mario showed off in first, and Luigi clapped off to the side, brandishing an uninteresting silver trophy. ”Bookie or no, you’re a lion, and you will always be a lion!”

Romeo chuckled half heartedly, picking up his own control and selecting Rainbow Road. Piérre grinned maliciously. Rainbow Road. ”You ready for this one, Piérre?” Romeo gave a side eye glance at Piérre. He knew how competitive his twin could be, and he knew how eager Piérre was to flaunt and master the Rainbow Road shortcut.

Piérre only selected Luigi and his favorite cart before grinning mischievously at Romeo. ”Need I answer? You’re going down.”

Romeo only waved a hand casually. ”Let’s let actions speak louder than words, shall we? You can spout off when you’ve won the match, eh?”

”You’re on.”

After another five minutes, Piérre threw his controller down again, and he whooped aloud, striking a pose in front of Romeo as his younger twin groaned in agitation. Luigi, in superstar form, had crossed Rainbow Road’s finish line, having completed a best of five with Romeo and Mario. It had been a close match, and each boy had gotten a two and two lead before Piérre, with a stroke of luck, had gotten a superstar, making Mario spinout just a second before he crossed the line. ”Haha! I win! Pay up!”

”Hey, hold up! We never bet anything!” Romeo chuckled lightly, putting the controller aside and rubbing his eyes with a yawn. "Blimey... What time is it, Fierro?" Romeo asked sleepily, calling Piérre by a personalized nickname. Fierro was Italian for 'fire' or 'firebrand', easily and fittingly given to the elder twin because of his hothead and slightly immature ways, but Piérre never found offense to it. On the contrary, he took it as a point to pride himself upon. After all, you couldn't have life without emotion or fury, and being a brand of fire could be a good thing, especially when surrounded by people made of ice.

Shrugging, Piérre sat down again, tapping through the victory screen and debating whether to change the game. "Dunno, and I don't really care. If Maddie wants to be late, then she can be late. It gives us more time to figure out who the better gamer is." Glancing at the clock on the far wall, which was covered in pastel flowers typical of a grandmother's home, Piérre swiftly read the time on the roman numeric clock. "Looks about... oh...quarter after six, I'd say?" Piérre responded evenly, deciding to switch the games. He popped out the Mario Kart game and looked through the shelf of Nintendo games next to the TV.

"Quarter after? What in the world can Maddie be doing at this time? She's usually home by six on the dot. It's not like her to be late." Romeo mused, half to himself, watching Piérre attempting to select a game. "Fierro, why don't we touch up on Super Paper Mario again? I found out how to beat the Hundred Trials efficiently, and you still haven't beaten Brobot's second iteration yet!" Romeo of course, brought up the second point to serve as a small gash in Pierre's pride. As much as he wanted to refute that tale, it was sadly quite true. Mister L, the hypnotized version of Luigi himself, the inventor and engineer extraordinaire, created a robot that was supposed to kill the heroes, had done a surprisingly good job of trying to thwart Piérre as of now. Perhaps it was a combination of Pierre's jumpiness and anxiety that caused him to foolishly run into attacks, or perhaps it was the fact that Piérre laughed too hard when he was facing the borderline cliché boss that distracted him from moving forward. Either way you sliced it, and though Piérre hated to admit it, Romeo was more than correct.

Finally finding the yellow case and the CD within, Piérre nimbly swapped out the games and patiently waited for the new one to boot up. "Okay, okay, I get it. L's had at me for long enough. I'm gonna have at him now!" Piérre gripped his wii control tighter, and Romeo shifted his beanbag to sit behind Piérre. The only thing that was not exceptionally good about the gameplay was that the game was not intended to be played with two players. This resulted in the boys dividing into two parties, one of them actually controlling the avatar and the actions in platforming, and the other would grip the first's shoulders, coaching them on what their next game plan should be. Oftentimes, it was Piérre who was the one controlling the game, and Romeo was the coach, simply because Romeo's analytical mind was so in tune with every result of an action, but sometimes when Piérre was coaching, Romeo would be able to play with such high ability it blew Piérre and even one of the most talented speedrunners out of the water.

”Alright, Fierro. I coach, you play, yeah?” Romeo asked, yawning before lounging back on the beanbag as Piérre began to load up the save file and get to the spot he had been at previously... the land of Nothing.

It was a scary place, completely white, and it had an eerie soundtrack to boot as well... Piérre had listened closely to it on many occasions, and it was his go-to soundtrack for telling ghost stories, for there were sounds of metal on metal, slamming doors, and even the sound of a flatlining heart. It was terrifying enough on its own, but to be put in a kid’s game?! What on earth!

To Be Continued...