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To be honest with himself, Yoshi should be used to thunderstorms by now.
He had lived with them for his entire life. He had grown up around them. Dinosaur Land, with its tropical climate, was a frequent stop for the color gray as it dashed its dark hues over the normally bright colors of the clouds and sky. It was common to hear thunder growl intimidatingly, as its hunting partner lightning bided its time to strike. During particularly rainy seasons, it was common for it to rain four or more days of the week.
Yet the fact that he had dealt with them forever was no warm insurance blanket for Yoshi.
He had been more afraid when he was young, obviously, but even as an adult, seeing the world around him briefly flash blindingly white for a second would send a shiver down his spine, as if he was out there himself in the cold, unforgiving rain, even when he was protected by a roof.
He was well aware of the fact that most storms caused little to no damage. He was well aware of the fact that in those same storms, water levels were unlikely to rise enough to start flooding. He also was well aware of the fact that the odds of lightning striking your exact location was slim to none. But there was always a little voice that would keep telling him about the worst case scenarios, the one percents. The little or big damages, the just high enough water levels, the slim that preceded the none.
That little voice was why Yoshi was currently in the kitchen of the house he now took residence in with Mario and Luigi. It had been raining all night, but that wouldn't be a problem, usually. Despite what Yoshi had just been worrying about, he actually did enjoy the sound of rain somewhat. It brought him back to those days in his homeland, where the rain was calm, not enraged, and he would be lulled peacefully to sleep by the pitter-patter of the drops off the leaves of the trees.
It was when claps of thunder and lightning were added to that calming symphony that it suddenly became anything but.
The green dinosaur had laid in his bed for hours, trying to focus on the sounds of the water instead of the rumbles and grumbles, but he was rudely interrupted by them without fail. He squeezed his eyes shut so that he couldn't see the bolts discharging, but it wasn't long before his eyes would jolt open as his dark, but not quite as dark as the sky, room was invaded by a blast of light.
If it was possible for anything to be clear to Yoshi tonight, it was that he probably wasn't going to find much sleep, so instead of torturing himself with his fruitless attempts of trying, he trounced into the kitchen for what would surely be a fruitful endeavor, though as quietly as he could so as not to wake his friends.
He wasn't quite sure what he wanted to do in the kitchen. He just wanted to get out of his room. Most likely, he'd get something to eat, and then have a seat on the living room couch to keep watch on the storm from there. Maybe he would get that blanket after all.
After snooping around, Yoshi decided that a couple cherries might help calm his nerves. There was not much to be scavenged around for, especially since “leftovers” had become a foreign concept to the house’s fridge ever since Yoshi had moved in. After securing his refreshment, he held the bowl containing it carefully in his hands as he headed toward the sofa.
Besides the brief bolts of lightning, it was pitch black outside, which made it hard to see, as Yoshi didn't turn any lights on so as to minimize his footprint. As he stepped closer to the couch, he could make out some sort of lump on it. Yoshi could only guess that it was a blanket. He smiled a little as he pictured himself wrapped up in its cozy threads, finally making himself somewhat comfortable as he indulged in his midnight snack.
Yoshi sighed in relief as he, at long last, seemed to be able to stop being so on edge.
What he didn't factor into that equation was the lump speaking.
“Yo…Yoshi? Is that you?”
“Eep!” the aforementioned jumped back, nearly dropping his prized possession. Good thing he had been holding on so tightly.
“Oh, um, sorry…” The voice was familiar to Yoshi. Very familiar.
“Don’t worry about it, I didn't drop anything. If I did, then it would be a different story.” Yoshi let out a tiny giggle. By now his eyes had adjusted enough for him to realize who it was.
“Of course, of course,” Luigi, the plumber in green, nodded.
The two paused for a moment, looking at each other.
“So…what are you doing up?” Luigi asked inquisitively.
“Oh, uh, nothing special,” Yoshi lied, before a burst of light made him whip his head around in fear as he searched for anything unusual. What he missed by doing that was Luigi copying him nearly exactly. When he recovered, he did his best to conjure up a convincing answer. “Just…hungry.” Considering who he was, that sounded pretty truthful.
“Five? Five cherries?” Luigi raised an eyebrow.
Yoshi waved him off. “Well, not that hungry.”
“Right…”
They studied each other again.
“So…what are you doing up?” Yoshi inquired.
“Uh…you see-”
Luigi didn't get to finish, as a deafeningly loud clap of thunder made its presence known. This time, they responded audibly, allowing no way for them to miss each other's reactions.
Yoshi laughed awkwardly. “Heh…I guess you can see my real reason now.” He plopped down onto the couch, next to the plumber in green.
“Still nothing special. It's mine too.”
Yoshi gasped. “What? You? Scared of thunderstorms?”
“It's true!” Luigi held his ground.
“But you're not scared of anything!” Yoshi continued. Luigi gave him a confused look. “Er, most things.”
“Believe it or not, I am,” Luigi refuted.
“Huh. The more you know.”
Yoshi ate one of his cherries, as Luigi gazed out of a window.
“When did yours start?” Luigi asked.
“Since I was a kid,” Yoshi answered.
“Same here. I guess it probably does for everyone,” Luigi figured.
“It makes sense. That's when you have the most wild imagination, so you think about all the things that go bump in the night, or in a storm…”
“Tell me about it,” Luigi agreed. “I mean, obviously I’m not as scared as when as I was back then…” Yoshi nodded in agreement, “but in my younger years, I’d always be terrified during storms. Even when I was a baby I would cry.”
“That doesn't surprise me, since you're Mario’s sibling.”
“Yeah, yeah, whatever,” Luigi said playfully, poking Yoshi in the arm. “I bet you cried as a baby too.”
“Definitely not as bad as Mario did.”
“I would ask how you would know, since you wouldn't remember, but the temptation to make fun of Mario is more appealing.”
Yoshi laughed. “That doesn't surprise me either, since you're his sibling.”
Luigi smirked. “Speaking of Mario, do you know what I would do as a kid whenever there was a storm?”
“How would I know if you've never told me before?” Yoshi joked, his tongue poking out of his mouth.
“Fair enough. Anyway, what I would do is I would wake Mario up, since he could always sleep through storms, and he would comfort me. I would worry and worry about a tree falling and hitting our house, or even the wind picking up our house like a piece of paper. Irrational kid stuff like that. But he always knew just what to say to make me feel better, and I would drift away into sleep eventually.” The plumber in green grew thoughtful. “He still knows.”
Yoshi looked at Luigi in endearment. “Aw…that's so sweet. You two are the best brothers ever.”
“Well, we have our moments,” Luigi chuckled.
Then, Yoshi turned his gaze to the floor. “If only I had someone I could've turned to like that during a storm when I was little…”
Luigi became concerned. “What do you mean? You didn't have anyone? Your parents didn't comfort you?”
“I'm sure they would've…if I ever asked them to. But I never did. I never wanted to disturb them. And plus…they wouldn't really understand like a sibling would've. If I told them I was scared that a monster was lurking in the mist, then they just would've told me that monster doesn't exist. But a sibling…they’d believe in that monster right along with me. And if I was the younger one, they'd tell me they would protect me, and if I was the older one, then I would protect them. You know what I mean?”
Luigi wiped a tear away from his eyes. While the water that tear contained would never fill a bucket, let alone thousands like the water outside could, it held infinitely more emotions than all the raindrops combined. “I know exactly what you mean,” Luigi whispered. “Because I can remember a time that Mario and I did exactly what you just described.”
Yoshi suddenly grew emotional, too. “Maybe that's why I was so eager to move in here, and why it felt like home almost instantly once I did. Because Mario, and you…you two feel like the brothers I never had.”
A smile graced Luigi’s face. “Yoshi…I could never measure how glad I would be to call you my brother.”
The green of Yoshi’s skin and the green of Luigi's shirt had always been different. Yoshi’s was a lighter shade, while Luigi's was darker. But the two colors that made up the Green Team became one for a moment, as they embraced each other on the sofa.
They only pulled away because a flash of lightning made them jump.
“Brr…it's kinda chilly in here,” Yoshi shivered.
“This’ll help,” Luigi replied, taking a blanket that had been lying near them the whole time and laying it on top of them.
“Thanks,” Yoshi mumbled, as he dove into the soft, inviting covering. However, though the blanket made him feel warm, what really made him feel safe was having Luigi by his side.
The two watched the storm in silence, holding on to each other whenever one of the many different louder sounds boomed in.
“It's just like Mario to sleep through this,” Yoshi said, muffled by the blanket.
“How so?” Luigi wondered.
“He's the heaviest sleeper I've ever met. He's worse than me! I bet he could sleep anywhere.”
Luigi giggled. “Well, if he's sleeping through this, that might not be a bad bet to make.”
And so, the two continued to comfort each other through the weary storm, akin to how another pair of brothers had done so long ago.