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"I think it's missing a page."
"What?" Mario looked up in surprise from the assorted screws he was trying to organize as Luigi shuffled through the instruction pages before holding two of them up.
"Yeah look, page 2 and page 4. Page 3 is missing."
"Did you check in the box?" Mario asked as he immediately started looking around on the ground between the stacks of different sized pieces of wood.
"Yeah. It's completely empty," Luigi leaned over to smack the empty box to spin it toward Mario so his brother could see that it was in fact empty.
"That's . . . weird," Mario finally spoke, and Luigi made a noise of agreement as he looked back at the instructions.
"I . . . guess we'll just have to figure those steps out without it?" He said uncertainly, looking back at the instruction pages in his hands like the missing one was just going to appear there.
Mario shrugged and nodded before he went back to sorting the rest of the screws.
"Yeah I guess. What's step one?"
Luigi shuffled the papers again until he found the one labeled 1 in the corner and looked the directions over. There were a bunch of diagrams and a lot of bubbles labeled with different letters or numbers, but absolutely no written directions.
"Ummm," he mumbled as he tilted his head, trying to make sense of what he was looking at, "I think it's putting the frame together?"
"Here, let me see," Mario held out a hand and Luigi passed him the paper. He smiled slightly as Mario's face went from curious to extremely confused in about two seconds. He looked up at Luigi with a slightly dumbfounded look, "Who made this?"
Luigi snorted.
"I don't know. Someone who clearly knows more about putting together a table than we do."
"Yeah," Mario muttered before he looked back at the directions, tilting the page slightly.
This was going to be interesting, Luigi could already tell.
They'd gotten most of their furniture for their new house second hand aside from all the furniture that had been in their room back in Brooklyn, but they'd decided to buy a new coffee table just for the heck of it and put it together themselves. They'd picked out one that also had drawers because they'd thought the space would be useful, but after looking at the directions Luigi found himself wishing they'd picked something simpler. He was sure they'd be able to figure it out eventually though. They did both have experience fixing things and putting things together.
The already familiar noise of a key in the lock of their front door made both of them look up right as Toad swung the front door open.
He noticed them immediately and smiled before tilting his head slightly in curiosity.
"What are you guys doing?" He asked as he closed the door and walked over.
"Being confused."
"Making a table."
Toad looked between the two of them as they spoke at the same time, and Luigi snorted as he processed what Mario had said.
"Really? Can I help?" Toad asked as he walked over and sat down next to Luigi on the floor, looking at all the different parts scattered around.
"Yeah sure," Mario said as he continued to study the directions, before he seemed to give up and tossed them aside. They floated to the ground next to Toad, who picked the paper up and looked it over.
"What does this mean?" He asked as he pointed at one of the diagrams.
"I think that's how you attach the legs?" Luigi said uncertainly, and Toad looked up at him in confusion before looking back down at the paper.
"Yeah I don't get this at all."
Luigi sighed as he took the paper from Toad and set it on the pile of other directions.
"We can figure it out without the directions," Mario declared before he picked up a few screws and a couple pieces of wood, "I think these are part of the frame, so how about I build that, and Luigi you can put together the drawers, and uhh, Toad how about you figure out how to attach the legs. Divide and conquer and all of that," Mario gestured to the different stacks of parts he'd made and then looked up at both of them to see their reaction.
"Ok cool!" Toad chirped, picking up a few longer pieces of wood that Luigi hoped were in fact the legs.
"Um, ok . . ." He agreed nervously before he shuffled through the directions until he found the page that seemed to be explaining how to put together the two drawers.
"Come on, we got this," Mario leaned over to nudge his shoulder playfully before he began trying to piece together the frame.
Yeah . . . they had this. Totally.
Luigi lost track of what Mario and Toad were working on as he puzzled over his own task. The directions were needlessly confusing. Why couldn't they also have written directions instead of just these cramped diagrams?
Luigi forced himself not to get overwhelmed by the task in front of him and just started, grabbing different pieces and a few screws to start piecing things together. He ended up tuning out what the other two were doing as he got into the zone, slowly puzzling his way through the directions as the two drawers took shape. He almost put a piece of wood on upside down, but he caught himself, and soon enough he had two drawers assembled and ready to be slid into place.
He looked up to both tell the other two he had finished and to see their progress, only to pause as he saw both Toad and Mario looking at the frame with confused expressions.
"Uh, what's wrong?" He asked as he scooted closer, and then he saw the problem. The main frame had been pieced together, but it looked . . .off, and the top of the table didn't seem to fit properly. But the weirdest and most obvious problem was that one of the legs was somehow on sideways, sticking out parallel to the floor instead of perpendicular like legs are supposed to be. ". . .How?" Luigi asked after a second of dumbfounded silence, and Toad and Mario looked up and gave Luigi sheepish smiles.
"Uh, I don't know?" Mario said feebly.
"Hey I just put the leg on, I wasn't told how to put it on," Toad said defensively as he crossed his arms.
Luigi sighed and rubbed his temples before he moved closer.
"Why won't the top fit?" He asked as he dragged the frame closer and began inspecting it. Mario shrugged again.
"Those are all the right pieces I think. I did glance at the instructions."
Luigi lifted the frame slightly to better look at it, and then he noticed the problem.
"Mario, this piece is upside down."
He looked up at his brother with half lidded eyes and raised eyebrows and Mario opened and closed his mouth a few times before he shrugged again.
Luigi sighed.
"We've gotta take it apart, pass me that allen wrench," he held a hand out for the tool that had come with the table and Mario handed it over.
All three of them ended up working together to take apart and then reassemble the frame. At one point they thought they were missing a side plank and frantically checked everywhere until they realized that they'd installed it in the wrong place and had to remove it to put it where it belonged.
It was both extremely frustrating, but also really fun. Toad clearly had no idea what he was doing but he was so enthusiastic about every little task he was given. To the point where he wasn't quite able to hold the legs still while Mario attached them because he was vibrating with excitement.
They had to mess around when they got to the steps that were on the missing page, but fortunately most of the table had been assembled at that point and they just had to use trial and error to attach the last few pieces where they belonged.
They all stood up and stepped back to admire the finished table, and Toad actually cheered and punched the air.
"Woo we did it!" He cried before he turned and held his fist out to Luigi, who smiled and bumped it with his own, making Toad smile happily and tap his feet a little in excitement.
"Yeah we did," Mario stretched a bit, like he was stiff from sitting on the floor for the past . . . Luigi glanced at a nearby clock and blinked in surprise. It had been an entire hour? Dang.
"That took forever ," Luigi said before he turned to all the packing materials strewn around the floor, "and now we gotta take care of this."
"How about you two do that, and I go get us snacks because I am hungry," Mario grinned before he quickly stepped over the box and slipped round the corner into the kitchen.
"Slacker," Luigi called after him, making Mario laugh in the other room. Luigi shook his head fondly before he stooped down to begin shoving all the Styrofoam packing pieces back into the box. Toad immediately moved forward to help, and it honestly only took a few seconds to tidy up. Which made Mario’s avoidance of the task all the funnier.
"Right," Luigi picked up the significantly lighter box and took a step forward, "I'll just put this by the door and then we can—" he yelped as his shin hit the side of the new table. Because he couldn't see his feet with the box in his arms, he wasn't able to catch himself and ended up sprawling on the ground with a much louder thump than he felt was necessary because the box flew out of his hands.
Luigi groaned as he tilted his head sideways before rolling onto his back. That was gonna leave a bruise later.
"Oh my gosh are you ok??" Toad's face appeared upside down above him and Luigi half shrugged.
"Emotionally? No."
"He's fine," Luigi glanced over in time to see Mario leaned around the corner to the kitchen giving Luigi an amused look before he vanished again.
Luigi flashed the air where his brother had been an indignant look before he took Toad's offered hand to help him back to his feet.
"You sure you're ok?" Toad asked as Luigi dusted himself off and gave the table a small frown before picking up the box again to set it by the door. His shin was actually starting to hurt now, but he knew it was just bruised.
"Yeah I'm fine," he grumbled as he dropped the box, "Just one of my classic blunders. You'll get used to them. Come on I'm hungry, we should get something before Mario eats everything."
"I heard that," Mario's voice rang out from the kitchen and Luigi smirked in that direction.
"Well, ok," Toad perked up again before he hurried toward the kitchen.
Luigi glanced back over at the new table now in front of the couch, and he walked over to straighten it a bit more before standing back. Maybe it was a little silly, but after having spent an hour building this thing he felt weirdly proud of it. It was just a coffee table, but it was their coffee table.
Even if it had already declared itself an enemy to Luigi's shins, Luigi couldn't help but smile at it before he turned to hurry to the kitchen, where he could hear Toad and Mario playfully arguing about what to eat.
All in all it was a good afternoon well spent.