#kamek: so your single?

[riri-time]

What if...

Kamek and Luigi bonded over fashion and became friends that ends up with Kamek thinking wow Luigi is really great ,perfect for my son ,Bowser, and plays matchmaker ?

[stingynugget]

Bowuigi Mating Dance Idea

Again, another crack Bowuigi idea that I'm not sure how to flesh out. For this one, Bowser steals a serum/potion from the Mushroom Kingdom in hopes that it will make him invincible. However, instead, it reveals his subconscious desires. And one of those desires is to have Luigi as his partner.

Wrote some copy for this, but again, not entirely fleshed out:

Mario and Luigi stood up with a grunt. Princess Peach’s throne room was a mess, with rubble everywhere and a gaping hole where the room’s doors used to be. From behind them, Peach reached over to see if they were okay, but Mario gently pushed her back, straightening himself. 

The toads who had been in the room had already fled. They had been in the middle of a meeting when Bowser so kindly interrupted. 

Bowser guffawed as he strolled through the hole his airship had just made. His advisor, Kamek, flew on his broomstick above Bowser’s head. Green-shelled koopas marched behind them, and they quickly flanked the trio. 

Luigi took a deep breath and tried to stop shaking so much.

“Well, well, did I catch you guys on a bad day?” Bowser crooned. “That’s too bad.” He looked as menacing as usual, especially with the setting sun on his back. 

Mario rubbed the dust off of his mustache. “Can’t you just leave us alone? We all know how this ends.”

Luigi nodded in agreement, crossing his arms over his chest.

Bowser pretended to look at his claws. “I’m afraid things are going to be a bit different this time.” He smirked as he reached into his shell and pulled out a bottle full of strange, pink liquid. He held it up into the sky and roared, “Behold! My raw strength is about to increase tenfold!”

Peach pushed past Mario and Luigi, a confused look on her face. “Wait, why do you have that?”

“My dearest Peaches, it was actually quite easy to steal from your castle’s boring research facility. And now, I’ll use it to rule the world.”

Peach raised an eyebrow, and Mario and Luigi looked at each other. 

“I would highly recommend you don’t use that, Bowser,” Peach said slowly.  

“Hah! As if,” Bowser sneered. He opened the bottle and downed the contents in one go. 

Mario and Luigi readied themselves, clenching their fists and opening their stances. Peach covered her mouth in surprise. 

Bowser grinned and looked down at his body in expectation. But… nothing about his body really changed. He glared over at Kamek. “You idiot! I thought you said this would make me invincible!”

Kamek held up his hands in placation. “I couldn’t quite examine it, sire, because you didn’t want me to waste a single drop. So I made a guess based on what it looked and smelled like.”

Bowser growled. “That’s it. When we get back, you’re—” Bowser stopped talking mid sentence, his snout twitching like crazy. He tried again, “You’re…” He shook his head and stumbled a bit.

“Your majesty! Are you all right?”

Luigi glanced over at Peach, who was rolling her eyes at Bowser.  “Um… what exactly does it do, princess?” he asked.

Peach opened her mouth to respond, when Bowser let out a loud grunt. They all looked over at him to see his pupils had dilated. He was staring right at them. Luigi and Mario both took a step in front of the princess.

Bowser didn’t move for a second, then he leaned forward and let out a low bellow that sounded like chainsaws trying to start up. Luigi had never heard such a sound from Bowser before. 

Turning around, Bowser’s tail swept across the floor, flickering and moving in a strange pattern. Even stranger, his spikes started raising and lowering in some sort of rhythm.

Luigi had no idea Bowser’s shell could do that. Looking over at Mario, Luigi could tell he was thinking the same thing.

Bowser faced forward again and let out another bellow. This one was accompanied by a small burst of sparks from his muzzle. Then he turned right back around and kept doing that weird shell and tail combo.

“Well… that’s a thing. I guess,” Mario said, stroking his mustache.

Luigi kind of wanted to laugh. But they were still surrounded by Bowser’s minions. “Hey, how about I take the right side, and you take the left side?”

Mario nodded and said, “Peach, keep Bowser distracted?”

Peach hummed in agreement. 

The two Mario brothers took off. The koopas charged at Luigi, but he easily hopped onto their heads and kicked them out of the hole Bowser made. He hit a few with his hammer and kicked those, too. 

“Luigi, look out!” Peach called.

Luigi turned around and came face to face with Bowser. He jumped back with a shriek and held up his hands in defense. The koopas he had been fighting now took cover behind Bowser.

“Sire! What are you doing?” Kamek called. He shot a blast of magic at Mario, who dodged it easily. Mario’s end of koopas were already out of commission. 

Bowser didn’t answer, he just stared at Luigi with his red eyes. When Luigi continued to stand there, Bowser let out a rumbling bellow and bobbed his head up and down. 

Luigi had no idea what was going on. Maybe he should just leave this sort of thing to Mario. He tried to run back to Peach’s side, but Bowser stepped in front of him. Luigi didn’t dare breathe. But Bowser didn’t hurt him. Instead, he turned around and slapped his tail up and down on the floor. 

Now Luigi was really confused. What exactly was in that bottle?

A blast of magic surrounded Bowser and lifted him towards the hole in the room. “Your Craziness, we must retreat!” Kamek cried. He barely managed to dodge Mario trying to jump up and grab his broom. 

Instead of listening to his advisor, Bowser let out a fierce growl. Kamek froze in his tracks, dissipating the hovering spell, and stared at Bowser in bewilderment. Mario managed to grab the tip of Kamek’s broom and yank him down. The magikoopa freed himself by shooting a small lightning bolt at Mario, who avoided it gracefully.

Bowser let out one last growl towards his advisor, then he approached Luigi again. Smoke billowed out of Bowser’s mouth as he approached.

“What do you want?!” Luigi cried hysterically, glancing around the room. 

A piece of debris hit Bowser in the head. Luigi and Bowser turned to see Peach winding up to throw another one. Bowser blew a plume of fire in her direction. Mario dove onto her, getting both of them out of the way. Mario dragged Peach out of the way when another one of Kamek’s lightning bolts struck the ground.

Luigi returned his attention to Bowser, who had managed to get up close to Luigi’s personal space without him noticing. Luigi held up his hands in surrender; the last thing he wanted to do was set Bowser off in his crazed state.

Bowser stared down at Luigi, his blown up pupils nearly drowning out the whites of his eyes. Luigi tried to take a step back, but he got poked by something. He glanced behind him to see the few koopas he didn’t manage to take care of standing there. One of them had a long spear, which they used to push Luigi towards their king.

Luigi covered his head with his hands. His legs shook violently, and he muttered prayers to himself in Italian.

However, instead of Bowser biting his head off, Luigi felt something warm and soft rub against his face. He opened his eyes and moved his hands away, right when Bowser leaned back from Luigi. When Luigi didn’t do anything, Bowser leaned down again and rubbed his cheek on Luigi’s. 

Luigi froze. He saw movement out of the corner of his eye and saw Mario, Peach, Kamek, and the koopas staring at the scene.

“Seriously, Peach, what was in that elixir?” Mario asked. His eyes looked like they were going to bug out of his head. 

Peach hummed. “It was a serum that revealed your subconscious desires… We were testing it for interrogation purposes…” She tapped her chin in thought. 

Kamek shook his head. He flew down and wacked Luigi’s face away from Bowser’s with the back of his broom. Luigi sputtered and tripped on something behind him. He heard a low growl and something firm wrap around his body. He looked down to see Bowser’s hand around his waist. 

With a gulp, Luigi slowly looked up at Bowser, whose eyes were half lidded as he stared down at Luigi. Was it just him, or was Bowser’s face getting closer?

“Sire! Enough of this nonsense!” Kamek screeched. He flew up to Bowser’s head and wacked the back of it with his wand.

Bowser’s eyes shrunk back to their normal size, and Bowser shook his head to clear it. 

“W-what?” Bowser groaned. He glanced at Luigi, then at Mario and Peach, then back at Luigi with a look of bewilderment. 

“Um… hi…” Luigi muttered. He tried to tug Bowser’s fingers off of him, but his grip was strong. 

Bowser’s face morphed into his usual cocky sneer. “What do you think you’re doing?”

“H-hey!” Luigi protested, “I’m not the one who was making googly eyes earlier! And is still holding onto me!”

Bowser glanced down at his hand and blinked, as if just noticing he was holding onto Luigi. He dropped Luigi unceremoniously onto the floor.

“Your highness, I suggest a tactical retreat!” Kamek called.

Bowser grumbled. “FINE!” He blew flame towards Mario and Peach, so they wouldn’t follow after them as they ran back to their airship. 

Luigi watched them go with absolute confusion. Mario tried to chase after them, but he was too late. Luigi didn’t bother standing up, his mind still stuck on what had transpired.

I like to think that the bellowing Bowser's doing is like an alligator's bellow, but much louder.

[janmisali]

[NOT APRIL FOOL’S RELATED]

As the only supermariologist I follow, I wanted to know your opinion on a shower thought I had regarding the Mario franchise, specifically, what might be considered the “Main Cast” of the super Mario franchise.

I’m mostly curious about:

A) is there an official or semi-official set of characters defined in this way?

B) if not, what is your personal opinion (if any) on who that might be and what criteria that would require

Considering Mario, Peach and Bowser are almost certainly part of that cast (though Bowser is an antagonist…) I would say characters that appear or are playable in most if not all of the games who’s plot revolves around Bowser kidnapping Peach should be counted. That leaves me with Mario, Luigi, Peach, Toad (but is he a single character?), Yoshi, and Bowser.

I imagine that this is one of those things like “what is a mainline super Mario game” that has multiple ambiguous answers, but simply interested to know your way of approaching it!

this is a great question!

so there actually is a semi-official list of "main characters" for Mario in the same way there's an official list of mainline Super Mario games. over on mario dot nintendo dot com slash characters we can see that the main characters are:

Mario

Luigi

Princess Peach

Toad

Bowser

Yoshi

Daisy

Wario

Waluigi

Rosalina

Bowser Jr.

Boo

Donkey Kong

Diddy Kong

whether or not this list is an actual satisfactory answer to "who are the main characters in Mario" is another question altogether of course. besides the obvious questionable things here, I'd like to point out the odd inconsistency of referring to "Princess Peach" by her full title while being on a first-name-only basis with Bowser, Daisy, and Rosalina. fun!

personally, I'd say there are a few different "tiers" of main character status in the Mario games. the main main characters are Mario, Luigi, Bowser, and Peach. like, literally only those four. those are the four characters where it is always remarkable when a Mario game doesn't include one of them in a major role.

tertiary main characters would include all the recurring playable characters in ensemble multiplayer games, like Waluigi and Diddy Kong. (Diddy Kong would count as a main character if we were talking about Donkey Kong characters, but the question is about Mario characters, and Diddy Kong is definitely a tertiary main character in Mario games specifically) the real interesting question is who counts as being a "main character" at the layer between these two tiers.

I think Yoshi, Toad, Wario, and Donkey Kong are all a given for secondary main characters, but beyond that I'm really not sure! should Toadette count? what about Nabbit? Daisy? Kamek? Bowser Jr.? the Koopalings? Toadsworth? who knows! it's all very debatable, and there's no definitive answer here. nintendo's official list certainly isn't helping!

[inkprovised]

Pls keep scrolling if you don't like Bowuigi.

+TW Angst

There is so much stuff that didn't make it into the Reunion Comic... but I don't want it to go to waste.

So have a little something in-between the Coronation and Reunion;

Always time;

The day was long. Again.

Kamek dragged himself through the corridors on his way to his last duty of the day. It was past midnight already!

It's been 5 months since they created the healing sphere in which the King of the Koopa was locked in, to- well... heal. It needed four Magikoopa to build that giant thing, but fortunately, only one to run it. Kamek and Kammy took shifts since Kamek still had his duty at the side of their new King. And since this one had no experience in ruling whatsoever, this job was even harder than before.

Not to get it wrong, Luigi's doing great. But since Bowser's absence, things in the Kingdom were going out of hand. But there was no fault to seek in the new Ruler.

Bowser promised Luigi would surprise them all. And this Kamek could confirm almost every day. Luigi was kind. He had a feeling for situations that were in immediate need of de-escalation, he was willing to put himself into everything, and he was fair. Yet scared all the time...

The citizens who came to bring their concerns and requests to the king sure were not convinced at first. But some of them already met King Bowser and sometimes were scared to ask of anything at all. Then, while talking to Luigi, they relaxed visibly, and chit-chating was about to become a common thing with the King. And Kamek was certain they liked their new Ruler.

One time, he wasn't fast enough to react, Luigi jumped from his throne to hug a desperately crying single mother who asked for help. Her husband died in one of the (already countless) riots at the borders of the Lands. He just wanted to get a surprise for their anniversary and wasn't even involved in the sedition....

Kamek was thrown off his thoughts as he reached the healing chambers. The door was ajar, and the light of the sphere was showing through. The Magikoopa could hear a voice, reading with passion about a dragon and a village in flames. He knew this part too well! It was Junior's favourite book. How many times had Bowser or himself read it to him...

Kamek entered the chambers.

"Luigi?" He asked, the reading stopped.

At the bottom of the sphere sat an exhausted looking King, bags under his eyes, book in hand, and a loud snoring Junior on his lap. His hair had grown out, and Kamek didn't know if he did not want them to be cut short or if he was just prioritising other things. Luigi leaned on the sphere, which caused the magic glow to alter.

He smiled. "Kamek. Come sit with us. We're about to get to the best part."

"How?!"

"How- what?"

"The world could go down, and you'd still find enough time for them... how?" Luigi only shrugged. "And how often did you read that thing already?!" Kamek pointed at the book. "And why are you still reading? Junior is fast asleep already. "

"Who says I'm reading to Junior right now?" The King laughed and craned his neck to look at the shadow inside the sphere, then he smiled. "I know Bowser can't stand this book anymore. He told me the last time we read it to our little one here. " Then his smile turned sad. "I keep reading this to him until he wakes up just to make me shut up because he can't stand it anymore. "

At this, Kamek snorts unexpectedly fast and loud

Which led to them both laughing a couple of minutes straight.

Kamek cleared his throat and adjusted himself before talking. "You should go and rest yer majesty. Don't make me use my sleep magic on you again."

I needed to get this out of my system first. Thanks for your patience!

For all of you who don't know what is happening;

Start here

[galactic-knightmare]

Yet another Au!

So, I had mentioned a slime rancher au in the bowuigi discord, and soon enough me and a couple others were just brainstorming and slapping it together, and this is (one of) the results!

(also tried a different artstyle. its kinda a mix of my usual style and canon lmao)

So Essentially, the bros move in to their own ranch, and their neighboring ranches being home to Bowser, Peach, and Daisy. Daisy and Peach share a ranch, with Peach usually handling the basic care of the slimes and plants (hence why I gave her a more gardener-kinda outfit) while Daisy usually goes exploring for new slimes. their Neighbor, Bowser, mostly specializes in Boom, Fire, Crystal, and Rock slimes, preferring the more volatile ones since they can’t really do much to him. (he’s still a koopa here, mostly cause I just didn’t want to make him human lmao) He’s also best friends with Peach- no romance there or anything.

He ends up meeting the bros when Mario ends up disturbing his boom slimes somehow (either with extremely loud music or something else). The two end up in an argument and there is Immediate dislike between them. Luigi, knowing how intense and... dense, his brother can be sometimes, decides to come over to Bowser’s ranch and apologize for it, and Bowser ends up thinking “alright, his brother’s not bad, so I guess I can tolerate them being my neighbors” and they just slowly befriend each other over time.

As for the slimes, there’s bits of ideas on those too!

Mario seems to attract literally every cat-like slime in existence. He goes for a nap under a tree and then wakes up under a pile of tabby slimes. You turn your back on him and when you look over again he’s got Hunter slimes all over him. He has a single Saber slime that is his baby and definitely spoiled named Pawline. (I headcanon Mario with a Calico cat named Pawline, so this is her in the au I guess XD) Luigi tends to be swarmed by batty and phosphor slimes, mostly as a reference to the Luigi’s Mansion games, but also because Batty Slimes are cute. They don’t swarm him as much as the cat slimes swarm Mario though. He also has a Yolky Slime named Sunny. When the two first saw Sunny Mario wanted to try and cook them because they looked like a giant egg. thankfully, Luigi said no and took Sunny in (and away from the stove). Sunny usually just sits around in the chicken coops, though every now and then you’ll find them Hiding in Luigi’s hat.

Peach has a bunch of Pink Flutter Largos... I don’t think I need to explain my reasoning there LMAO And Daisy has a bunch of tangle slimes, mostly because she thinks their cool, but also their one of the few plant slimes, and well, plants, flowers, daisies... you get the idea... XD

Bowser, since he’s a koopa and essentially heatproof, just isn’t affected by boom slimes and fire slimes. he’s also too big for a vacpack, so he just. picks up a handfull of slimes whenever he needs to move them around. At one Point Luigi is just. watching, as Bowser moves a bunch of boom largos, completely unaffected by the largos exploding in his arms. We were a bit(?) torn on what to do with the Koopalings and junior? Someone suggested that their a bunch of boom slimes that Bowser babies, though Personally I prefer them still being his kids. Maybe at the start of the au their all on a trip with their grandpa kamek? I just find the idea funny that during their talks, Bowser mentions he has kids to Luigi, but doesn’t mention that he has eight. So when they do get back from their trip, Luigi is just stunned at the sheer amount of kids he has lmao

Anyway yeah, that’s.. essentially it I think. I have other ideas so we’ll see if I make more lmao. I won’t write anything for it though, aside from maybe a oneshot here or there. (though I do think there’s at least one person from the server who is writing a fic for the au. Memory ain’t that great...)

[snapple16]

Hello, Hello! So since I mentioned it here first I'm gonna share the first ch for the Bowuigi 20s au here! Now as I say on my fics comments much appreciated!

Warnings!

Tw: Blood, Guns. It's a gang fic so..

Also this ch is tame compared to what I have planned

____________________________________________

Cricket song filled the night air as fireflies danced amongst the tree trunks. The small man-made lake glittered in moon light, owls called out to the night as they took flight. It was a peaceful night, until the grind of wheels on the dirt road interrupted the nighttime symphony. The headlights of the two vehicles were kept off even though the occupants were on their own land. They didn't want to draw attention to themselves. The first vehicle, a Willy's Overland Whippet 93A came to a stop just on the shores of the lake. The car's occupants filed out, the four turtle like creatures moved quickly around to the large padlocked chest strapped to the back. The driver pulled a large key ring from his pocket, letting out a triumphant noise when he found the key on the large ring and unlocked the trunk. The larger of the four a five foot ten bruiser reached in and pulled out the beaten up occupant.

"Pl-please.. I.. I didn't want to.." The koopa pleaded as he was dropped unceremoniously on the ground. The green shell on his back was cracked badly, leaking blood as did his nose. The brown hair on his head was matted from blood and dirt. The front passenger door of the specially built Rolls Royce Phantom Limo opened as a nicely dressed koopa hybrid got out, his head was clean shaven a few black scales dotted around his single eye while the other was covered in an eye patch. A black shell lay over the suit jacket.

He moved over to the back of the door and opened it allowing the King to exit. "King" Bowser Ryujin was an intimidating sight for his men to behold no matter how many times they saw him. Standing a little over seven foot tall with firey red hair slicked back between two sharp horns, sharp fangs poked out from his bottom lip of a mouth set in a human face that always had a nasty smirk. Dressed in his nice three piece suit with his large spiked green shell on the back he looked every bit of the Mafia boss that he was. His scaled tail swished back and forth like a cat waiting to pounce on its prey, fiery red eyes glowed as they focused on the koopa man before him. From behind him came a much shorter man with round rim glasses and a pointy cone hat perched on his head, dressed in a fancy suit Kamek did not look at all that intimidating until he waved the wand that doubled as a cane.

The bloodied koopa started to crawl toward his old boss still trying to plead his case. "Boss, I.. I'm so sorry I didn't want to. You gotta believe me. King Boo he.. he tricked me.. he said he'd-"

The koopa flinched as the one eyed koopa reached into his jacket, the traitor expected a gun or a knife instead he pulled out the case holding the King's prefered cigars. The other koopa pulled one out and deftly clipped the end and offered it up to his king. Bowser plucked it from his third's fingers holding one end up to his mouth where he blew a small flame on the end catching it on fire. He blew it out allowing the end to smolder before he stuck it between his lips.

"Marky, Marky, Marky." Bowser shook his head as he started toward the shivering koopa on the ground before him. "I don't care why you did it. I don't care that you let that over sized marshmallow trick you. I care that you BETRAYED me, now had you come to me and told me what he was going to do, I might have let you live for even entertaining the idea of betraying me. Maybe I'd only take a finger or a hand. Now I'm afraid you put me in a difficult position: Kill you quickly and end your suffering, or make it last."

In what seemed like a split second of thinking the koopa Mark chose for him. Seeing no other way out of the situation alive Mark tried to scramble up and make a run for the lake. He seemed to have forgotten what the king had living in the lake, for in a matter of seconds he was overwhelmed by alligators attracted by the scent of blood. The screaming only lasted a few seconds. Bowser took a deep inhale of his cigar before letting out the smoke with a few sparks.

"Howitzer." Bowser motioned to his third.

"Sir." Howitzer nodded, he didn't even need to be told what to do already knowing what his boss wanted done. It was going to be an unpleasant night for Mark's family.

*

The midday sun shone brightly on the street, the pedestrians had smiles as they enjoyed the spring sun. The warm beams seemed to point toward one particular flower shop, the shop name Bella Rosa was carved into a green and blue plaque over the front door. The bell of the small flower shop jingled, signaling another customer coming in. Luigi Mariano, the owner, stood from behind the counter where he'd been kneeling, blue jean overalls slightly dirty at the knees. His blue eyes sparkled brightly as he saw who had come in.

"Mario, mio fratello!" Luigi smiled brightly as he moved around the counter to greet his older yet shorter twin brother.

In terms of appearance Mario had the same blue eyes as Luigi, his mustache was a little more styled than his brother's. Clothing wise however they were on the complete opposite of the spectrum. Mario was sporting a red three piece Italian pinstripe suit, which only made sense since he was the boss of the Mariano family mafia. Despite his lifestyle Mario always made time to visit his little brother. While Luigi was spared the life of a mafia leader or at least second, their father had made sure he still got into 'real man's work' and had him drafted into the military, special forces to be exact.

Mario had been furious and wanted to get his little brother out, unfortunately before Mario could get to him Luigi had finished his basic training and was shipped out. By some miracle, Luigi had survived the first world war and made it home. To Mario's shock, he was still the same sweet, slightly skittish man he'd been when he left. Even so Mario made sure his baby brother wouldn't be involved in anything violent ever again. Now head of the family Mario had a protective order put on Luigi and his shop.

"Lu, how's business?" Mario asked warmly as he embraced his brother, not at all bothered by the dirt getting on his thousand dollar clothes. "Must be good since its spring time."

"Its going well, everyones getting ready for mass and Easter sunday." Luigi nodded pulling away. "What are you up to?"

"Just a routine drive around. DK's wanting to meet up later for drinks so I figured best get work out of the way." Mario stated. "Heard rumors there's been a few koopas running around the area."

"Only the few civilians that don't live in Bowser's territory. Not all koopas work for him you know." Luigi shook his head. While he's heard stories of the terrifying dragon turtle hybrid he'd never seen the man. Not that he wanted to, if even some of what he'd been told was true. "I know I'm beating a dead horse but please try not to get caught by the police in a speakeasy or start any fights?"

"Hey, I don't always start those fights and I've never been caught." Mario huffed, crossing his arms. Luigi couldn't help but giggle, even as a mafia leader his brother still acted like a child sometimes. It was good to see Mario still had his heart even with what he does for a living. "Oh by the way, Peach wants to meet up this weekend with us and the other girls. Daisy's gonna be there." At Mario's eyebrow wiggle Luigi just rolled his eyes, his brother knew his preference lay with his own gender. Didn't mean Mario wouldn't tease him relentlessly.

"Still, please try to stay out of trouble. I really don't need your men dragging your tail in here like they did two months ago." Luigi stated.

"Hey, that was not my fault. DK said that area was legit, how was I supposed to know it had already been overtaken by those koopa creeps?" Mario defended. Luigi just shook his head as he pulled his older brother back into a hug.

"Go handle your business, I got orders to fill." Luigi smiled at him as they pulled apart.

"You sure you don't want me to leave a couple men here for you? I'm sure they'd be willing to help out." Mario offered. Luigi shook his head no.

"No, Fratello, you need all the help you can get to keep you out of trouble." Luigi smiled. "Now go on."

Mario always hated leaving his little brother alone since he came home from the war. Not that Luigi couldn't handle himself, the skinnier Mariano brother was a gentle soul and prefered talking to fighting. He would rather himself get hurt than someone else. And the last time he left Luigi alone he'd been shipped out.

Mario sighed as he nodded. "Alright, bro. I've been hearing some of King Boo's men and more of Bowser's have been spotted roaming our streets at night. So don't go out unless absolutely necessary, and even then call me so I can send someone to be with you."

"Mario, I'm not a little boy anymore you know." Luigi rolled his eyes.

"No but you are a mafia boss's brother. A dopo, fratellino." Mario walked toward the door where his men waited outside for him. As the door closed he looked down at the toad with blue spots, "Mikey, you stay close to this shop. If Lu leaves you, follow him, capiche?"

"Comprendo, Boss." Mikey nodded with a salute to his mushroom cap.

"And for God's sake stay out of sight this time." Mario ordered as he approached the car waiting for him. Mikey saluted again as he hurried away from the shop front toward a good vantage point.

All the men under Mario 'The Plumber' Mariano learned one particular rule upon their initiation: No one touched Luigi Mariano. Any who broke the rule, gang member or rival member learned very quickly what Mario's wrath felt like.

[mrs-luigi-vargas]

Here's the fic I wrote for @paper-mario-zine! You can get it here. Check it out for some more awesome art!

~~~ [AO3 Link] ~~~

We Launch in Five

Mario and Kamek have a chat on the deck of Bowser’s airship.

The last remaining of Bowser’s airships capable of flight bustled with activity as minions scurried around getting it ready for liftoff. Kamek stood among them, watching to make sure preparations were going smoothly; as Bowser had been neatly folded into a square shorter than he was with worse mobility, it was up to him to make sure the minions didn't somehow mess something up.

...even if he would rather be sweeping up that conspicuous dirt pile over there.

...ah, but he should focus; he was hardly a groundskeeper anymore. And he’ll hopefully never be again. He’s got enough titles stuffed in his job description as it is.

He glanced starboard and Mario was leaning against the railing, staring off at the other side of the ship. Just standing there, as hard-working members of Bowser’s Army flowed around him like water.

Kamek marched up to him. “What are you just loafing around for?” he said angrily. “Make yourself useful or get out of our way!”

Mario didn't acknowledge his words, lost in his own little world. Kamek’s eye twitched. Back to being ignored, was he?

“Hey!” Kamek jabbed the end of his broom into Mario’s nose. “Are you listening to me?!”

Mario started, looking cross-eyed at the broom in his face. His gaze slid down it to Kamek, who was scowling fiercely at him. Mario’s face turned apologetic in return. His eyes flicked over to what he’d been looking at once more, then he stood up straight and shook his head as if to clear it.

Kamek looked too, to a small crowd of Bob-ombs milling about the door to the cannons. He considered Mario, who was passing him to leave with a face that looked a bit sad, beneath his usual expression.

“Oh,” Kamek said. It sounded amused. “You got attached to one, didn't you?”

Mario stopped in his tracks. He turned around and blinked at Kamek, who smirked at his surprise.

“Yes,” Kamek mused. “It makes sense for a goody-two-shoes like you to do something like that. You know their lives are meant to be short, right? If you start having feelings about that, you'll just find yourself in more trouble than it's worth.”

Eyes flashing with indignation, Mario balled his fists with an impressive scowl of his own. Kamek scoffed at the display, rolling his eyes.

“Seriously,” he continued, “do you even know how many walk out of the factories every day? There are hundreds, sometimes! They’re all disposable! Take it from me, if you grieve after every single one, you'll burn yourself out in no time. Besides” — Kamek crossed his arms — “they hardly do much these days, aside from being sent out to fight you.”

Mario’s glare froze. It melted into something troubled.

“Oh, for the love of —!” Kamek poked Mario’s chest with his broom. “You heroes always make everything about yourselves. It's not like we expressly tell them to blow themselves up for good; it's hardly anyone’s problem if some of them get overzealous trying to defeat you. They're really not allowed to be that stupid unless it's an emergency, which” — Kamek’s face fell — “I suppose this classifies as.”

Mario frowned. He raised his head, looking up at where Olivia was flying up by the mast with Bowser Junior, and Kamek wondered if the emergency the Bob-omb Mario was thinking about had given it their all for had something to do with her.

“Well, all’s unfair in war, it seems.” Kamek sighed. “The Bob-ombs will be in the cannons,” he told Mario. “It’s doubtful we’ll be allowed to storm Peach’s Castle without resistance. So don't waste time in hesitating for them; they'd rather go out with their impact, as you surely already know. And defending us — you — so you can go do your hero thing certainly is an impact worthy of having.

“Falling out of the sky into the ocean would be a most unfortunate fate in comparison,” Kamek added, leveling Mario with a glare. “So you’d better not screw up!”

Kamek didn't take his eyes off Mario until he received a firm nod in answer, after which he stalked away to yell at a stray Shy Guy for making a mess. Mario fell into step behind him, and it admittedly took a while for Kamek to realize he’d done so, caught up as he was in mentally bemoaning the incompetence that surrounded him.

“...What are you doing?”

Mario shrugged, grinning.

Nearby, a Koopa tripped, the crate they were carrying flying up into the air. Kamek drew his wand to catch it with his magic. “Be careful!” Kamek snapped as Mario helped them back onto their feet. They paid him little attention, busy staring starstruck at Mario. Kamek grumbled about being ignored yet again as they scurried away with a blush on their cheeks. Mario jumped up to grab the crate still floating in the air, and waited patiently for Kamek to get the ire out of his system.

Kamek’s complaints petered out as he noticed Mario with the crate under his arm, watching him expectantly. The confused scrunch of his face shifted to mild irritation fairly quickly, though. “I suppose I did want you to be useful,” he muttered. If only everyone was as eager about receiving orders from him. “Put that over there” — he pointed — “and then go get Olivia and talk to King Bowser; we’re practically ready for liftoff.”

Mario nodded enthusiastically and hurried off to do just that. Kamek watched him go with a huff, then went to go chat with the airship pilot.

Minutes after that, the airship took flight, soaring towards the volcano upon which Princess Peach’s Castle sat. As predicted, there were origami aircraft ready to meet them, to knock them out of the sky. And when Mario had to man the main cannon to defend the airship, Kamek was pleased to note that he didn't miss a single shot. A more than adequate performance, if he did say so himself.

[skulls-soul]

Well that was unexpected

Silly_Inky

On Ao3

I 100% recommend reading it before reading the rest of this post because I’m gonna go off on how much I love it what I love about it and more specifically the auto filling that my brain did while reading it because I think it’s absolutely hilarious

Did you read it? read it. good, isn’t it great!

the relationship between Bowser and his family is so fucking adorable especially when all of the kids tackled Bowser into a group hug oh my goodness and when Kamek started being a cheeky little Old Man giving bowser a knowing grin because he’s like (this bitch gay good for him..good for him)

Bowser‘s over here getting really flustered because he knows Kamek is right

Also the things that Luigi says internally got me cackling each and every single time

Especially when he asked Bowser to step on him!!!! I’m DEAD literally RIP

Poor Bowser is even more of a flustered mess because he’s reading Luigi’s mind and he has to keep it all to himself because if not that would be a dead giveaway (also I’m pretty sure Mario would be furious to find out that Bowser was invading his brothers privacy like that even if it was kind of on accident)

I really love that there was a song recommendation to listen to while reading the racing scene it made my brain go brrrr

Also relatable as fuck because sometimes when I’m listening to music it helps me get into the mood for writing especially when it’s music that goes along with what I’m writing (if that makes sense)

But my favorite scene of all time has to be a tie between Luigi saving daisy or when Bowser asked Luigi officially out on a date.

Because Luigi saving Daisy was a real treat I love it when I get to see Luigi being an absolute badass that he is

But also when Bowser gave a kiss on Luigi’s hand I couldn’t NOT grin from ear to ear I think that would be physically impossible and if you were able to that’s a flex 

When Bowser asked Luigi on a date and Luigi was basically like “dead ass?” this is where my brain auto filled because I imagined Luigis internal thoughts just being

(AAAAAAAA OMG THIS IS HAPPENING?!?!? MARIO BRO I LOVE YOU AND IM SORRY BUT FUCK YOU!! YOUR HOT NEMESIS IS ASKING ME OUT AND IF I DONT TAKE MY CHANCE THAT WHOULD BE A CRIME TO MYSELF Plus I’m pretty sure Daisy would kill me) 

Speaking of Daisy absolutely love her in this and can totally see her and Luigi having a little sleepover squealing like teenage girls as Luigi tells Daisy everything that happens and also scold Daisy for being the one who gave away the fact that he was crushing

Even though it’s because Bowser had the ability to read Luigi‘s mind Daisy did say things that Luigi could definitely use as a (this is probably when he found out) moments “when you made a joke about the gym date or called us lovebirds!!! of course he would find out!!!”

Daisy would only cackle in response

I think the cherry on top though Has to be Luigi giving Bowser a little kiss on his cheek to only then have Mario’s reaction with him being like “Luigi what was that?!?!?”

Oh boy I can’t even begin to imagine the brother’s conversation that there going to have after luigi did that. although I do know one thing that it’s probably hilarious!!!

Also imagine with me, Kamek being an absolute fan girl in the background and giving Bowser a thumbs up 

There all dorks and I love them

[duckapus]

Curtain Call

So the fight against Showtime at the top of the tower isn't exactly going well given how powerful she is, but thanks to the war down on the ground the tides are about to turn, because a stray barrage of Missile Megs from Bowser misses Metal Overlord and hits the tower about halfway up instead, doing enough damage to make everything above start to fall. Everybody realizes that their only chance of maybe surviving is to jump out the window, and, well, Kamek and Cubot are the only ones who can fly and they're obviously not strong enough to carry everyone else, so all they can really do is hope for a miracle (or at least for Meme Energy to decide it'd be funnier for them to survive the fall).

And with a roar and a call of "YYYYEEEHHHHHAAAWWW!" a miracle does arrive, as they all land on something mostly solid far higher up than they expected.

"Need a lift, piss-ants?"

"Anti-Shroomy!?" The 4 then looks down at what exactly their savior rode in on, "you tamed Draco Piranha!?"

"Yep! Turns out he's not so bad once you show him who's boss."

It's at that point that Showtime reminds us that she can just ignore gravity, and she starts throwing attacks at them, prompting a chase down towards the ground.

...okay, I'll level with you, I've got a few small scenes figured out for all this but not a coherent story to stitch them together, and at this point I just want this done so bear with me. Eventually the fight reaches the ground, the group is still on the back foot, the chaos of the battle raging around them is messing with both sides, at some point Ice Melony and Mecha Desmond show up while fighting each other and Showtime gets caught in their crossfire and blasted elsewhere on the battlefield and the main group (plus the rest of the converted crew members who've managed to come over to either help or attack depending on which conversion they have).

At this point Metal Overlord seemingly manages to overpower Castle Bowser and tries to merge with him to become even more powerful...but it takes a lot more willpower than Metal has to overwrite Bowser's, so instead we get Heavy Metal Bowser.

(not my best work or even colored in but this is what you get. junior for scale)

The good new is that now the Robot converted characters are now under Bowser's control and helping the good guys. The bad news is that Showtime had a front row seat for this.

"Well now, there's an idea." she looks over the battlefield and spies a certain royal Siren fending off a frozen king and his army almost single-handedly, and in an outfit that's almost just her style to boot, "Jackpot."

She flies over, sending out a wave of energy that knocks away everyone besides Old King Winter and Sonata. Sonata levels her trident at the newcomer, "Your energy...you're the source of all this madness, aren't you."

She laughs haughtily, "Clever as always, kiddo. Now, both of you hold still." she raises her arms towards the two and they begin to feel something being torn out of them as painfully as possible.

Streams of colored energy pour out of them and into Showtime, gradually causing all three to glow. eventually it gets so bright that they can't be seen at all, and when it dies down only one titanic figure remains.

"Alright! Goodby Queen Cutie and he-llo Empress Sexy~!"

"Two down, five to go. Now, where's the mushroom girl?" She flies off towards Toadstool Tangle.

Meanwhile, the Ice and Undersea converted people start to undergo some rather horrific transformations, with Creep growing out of them at all angles. 4 unfortunately gets a front-row seat when it happens to 3. This continues with the Mushroom conversions (so really just Draco Piranha and the Tangle itself), then the Muppets and soon after the ghosts, and finally everyone gets to witness the battle between Heavy Metal Bowser and an even more powerful version of Fusion Showtime with features added from the other three trigger characters (I unfortunately did not draw the later Fusion Showtime stages. I might in the future but for now you'll just have to use your imaginations). It's a close match, but eventually even Bowser falls, and Wonder Showtime is born while the Group stands alone once again.

It seems as though all hope is lost, especially since most of them quickly get pinned down by the horribly mutated versions of literally everyone, but 4 gets an idea, "Wait, we still have the seeds, right?"

Mario manages to yeet Luigi away and pulls out a few of their collected Wonder Seeds, "Yeah, but they don't exactly do anything besides sit in your inventory."

"Not on their own, but they're part of a meme, right? And they're a new enough one that they've got way more Meme Energy than most things at that scale. Maybe I can turn them into something we can actually use!"

Meggy looks over from where she's trying to get what might be Saiko and Tari off of Ferb, "Can you even get a meme to that kind of power on your own?"

"..." he looks to a particular section of the battlefield, eyes full of determination, "No, No I can't." he runs in the direction he was looking, tackling the mutated Admiral 3 to the ground and pulling a tentacle that used to be an arm into a death grip.

"SMG4, what are you doing!?"

"My...job!" he's assaulted by the all-too-familiar sensation of the Creep burrowing into his body, his brain, along with the horrible memories that come with it, but he holds firm, "3, if there's anything left in there that can hear me, I need you!"

There's a long few seconds where 4 can't help but think he's just thrown his life away for nothing before the seven Wonder Seeds rise up and start to morph into raw Meme Energy spheres, "work...fast...ba...ka"

The two work in tandem to merge the energy into a single sphere, which then transforms into...

A Wonder Flower. Because what else could it possibly be? This one has the strange grey-with-yellow-accents color scheme of the Special World wonder flowers.

"You've got-erhf-one shot! Make it...count!"

Whoever's left of the group nods in understanding and rushes towards the flower in the hopes of reaching it before one of the mutants, and two hands grab its petals at the same time, one gloved, the other not...and something unexpected happens.

-------------------------------------------------------------------------

YsOwUiRnEgAyKoIuDrYaOrUmRsEfArSoQmUsIiDdYeOtUoRsEiAdKeIcDoYmOeUoRnEiAtSsQtUiImDeYtOoUgRoE-

wYoAoHmOyOwYoAoHmOyOwYoAoHmOyOwYoAoHmOyO-

waitifyourehereandimherethenwhosflyingthepingaswhatthehellamwetalkingabout

A single figure sits on a rooftop, looking out at the sun setting over a city that no longer exists.

They are alone.

They are together.

A living monument to a bond forged in Ink and Fire.

An experience made flesh.

The moment seems to stretch on forever, as they revel in simply Being...

--------------------------------------------------------------------------

But when they open their eyes, not even a second has passed.

"Holy shit."

They look down at the awestruck face (or, well, eyes) of Marcy, discovering that they're now significantly taller than either of them were before.

"I knew something crazy would happen but this..."

They grin, "I know, right? I...we?...Yeah, I feel amazing! Like I could do anything! Like-"

The earth shakes, and they look up to find that Showtime's definitely noticed the commotion, "-Liiike I'm wasting time. Let's-a go!"

They run towards the titanic villain, soon discovering that their fusion was only part of the Wonder Effect as an obstacle course of combined Super Mario and Splatoon elements springs up around them, forming a path up to their target. Obviously Showtime doesn't just sit and wait for them, attacking with everything she's got, but they tackle any challenge that comes their way with a combination of Meggy's athletics and skill and Mario's platforming prowess and Avatar powers, as well as some of the greatest reoccurring memes of both (of particular note is when they weaponize Meggy's poor cooking skills to turn an oven they found into a rocket to help them reach a higher level).

Soon enough, they reach the top of what's left of the Tower, nearly at eye level with Wonder Showtime. She leers down at them.

"And just what are you supposed to be, you little freak?"

"It's-a me, Marggy, and I'm not 'supposed' to be anything. But as long as we're both here, I guess I'll be the one to take you down."

She laughs at this, then gives them a sharklike grin, "Real cute, kids. But it's gonna take a lot more than two midgets in a trenchcoat to beat a goddess."

Marggy shrugs, "I dunno, eight on two seems like pretty good odds to me."

More laughter as she brings up her ice-covered arm, "Okay, okay. Now you die."

A blast of ice the width of an ocean liner barrels towards them, but rather than show any fear they simply activate a certain something they grabbed on their way up here: a Killer Wail Canned Special.

"NIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIINTENDOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!"

The beam of sound and ink cuts through the ice magic like it's nothing, badly cracking the ice arm and, after she moves it out of the way in pain, continuing on to blast a hole in the eye on her chest. They waste no time after that, continuing along the Wonder Effect's path towards the prone titan.

She can tell what they're doing, but at her size with her injuries doesn't have the speed or strength to get away in time. Instead, she directs every last one of her mutated minions, Creep tentacles, shadow arms, and whatever else she can muster at them, "JUST DIE ALREADY!!!"

Marggy continues to be able to outrun and outfight everything thrown at them, eventually diving into the hole they made and finding themselves in a massive chamber made of creep. And right in front of them is a face they've been hoping to see all day.

She's beat up, covered in Creep, her dress ripped to shreds and crown nowhere to be seen, and just barely conscious, but when she looks up at them her eyes are as bright as ever, and she doesn't look the least bit surprised to see them, "Hey honey. How was your trip?"

The bravado Marggy's been keeping up crumbles away, and they start to tear up, "Mom..." They run towards her, pulling her into a hug as best they can given her bindings.

They stay that way for a short while, then it's back to business, "Okay, Let's finish this." they look around the room, which seems to be slowly becoming active, for some kind of weak point, eventually spotting yet another massive eye directly above Emulator, "That looks about right."

They pull out Mario's Code Bow, which apparently merged with Meggy's Splattershot so become a futuristic Tri-Stringer, and aim it up at the eye. It's at this point that Showtime starts fighting back again, lashing out from the walls with more tendrils, but it's too late, and an inky, binary-covered arrow flies straight and true clean through the eye's pupil, and the entire room becomes enveloped in blinding blue light as Showtime screams in agony.

---------------------------------------------------------------------------

Back outside, Showtime's outer shell is glowing just as much as the rest of her, and a shockwave of Wonder Power blasts out from her, destroying any Creep it touches and transforming the Mushroom Kingdom and its people back into their original selves. Everyone present begins to celebrate the fact that it's finally, finally over.

In the meantime, the Crew and the airship group all do their best to get their bearings and start heading towards the now rapidly shrinking glow. Which, of course, leads them right back to the old castle grounds.

Before anyone gets there, a small shape falls out of the sky and lands with a comical squeaky toy sound in the grass, standing up to reveal that it's Old Man Hobo back to his usual self "Does anyone know where I li-"

*WHAM*

Suddenly, Bowser crashes shell-first on top of him, clutching Lily to his chest. When the trigger characters had reformed up in the air, he'd made sure to grab onto her so he could break her fall. Giant superpowered turtles can handle falling from the sky, human children usually can't.

Next to land is Kermit, who hits the ground with a splat before immediately standing up, "Well. That was traumatic. Goodbye everyone, don't bother inviting me to the next arc." With that, he walks off with that G-Mod "Move doll up and down" walk that most characters use.

Peach, Floyd and Metal Sonic can all just float down, so they do so.

And finally, there's Marggy and Emulator, who use the last of the Wonder Flower's power to gently touch down right on the moat bridge, with her leaning on them once they're on solid ground and gravity takes effect.

After this there'd probably be an actual reunion scene and maybe an epilogue (plus the scene about Showtime's fate that I detailed in this post) but I am done with this arc. Duck is out, peace!

[staticshipstation]

I am currently unemployed do any of your f/os need an evil underling?

In terms of romantic f/os? Buddy I'm the evil underling.. however for PARTENTAL F/OS. I know Papa B has been looking for a new evil underling. Kamek is still employed he just wants something to really spice it up.

Be warned the working environments are sweat inducing (you are working next to lava)

Escargoon has been gone for a while. No idea where he went. oh but. Dedede's not evil anymore so I guess he wouldn't need an EVIL underling. Though he treats his underlings super well.

OH! Maybe my other scaly dad is more your speed! Though I hope you don't mind trying to steal a coconut every single Saturday morning.

[xserenemeadowsx]

Unconditional Love (Chapter 3)

By xSereneMeadowsx

Link for Chapter 2: https://www.tumblr.com/xserenemeadowsx/718697625594003456/unconditional-love-chapter-2?source=share

A/N: Thank you everyone for the likes and follows! :) I appreciate it so much. :) I’m happy to know that people are liking this story. This chapter is a bit longer. I really wanted to get more in for this time around. I hope you all enjoy this extra long chapter! 

------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Chapter 3

Kamek was in his workshop, busy preparing his trip to scout out for help for Bowser. He knew Bowser would want someone who had all the right qualities with music. Someone that can help bring out the feelings of his heart for Princess Peach. Kamek would be sure to take notes on potential candidates and then single them out. He informed Bowser that this could take some time.

“So be it,” Bowser said. “I just want someone who will help me out by bringing in the right words to my song.”

“Of course, Sire,” Kamek replied.

So, here was the wizard gathering his tools and necessities together. He would be bringing his spell book with him so he could disguise himself or turn invisible again if he wanted to go that far. He made sure to pack along an orb that would allow quick communication with Bowser and let the king see the candidate in mind once a decision had been made. Bowser of course, would have the final say, but the ruler of the Koopas trusted Kamek 100%. Afterall, Kamek had been with Bowser ever since he was born.

With the spell book and orb packed up into a large bag, Kamek made his way out of the workshop toward his bedroom. Once inside his room, he set the bag down on the floor and cast a spell to make the bag and everything in it small for easy carrying. This was one of the reasons why he was thankful to be a wizard. The convenience of making things easier for oneself was satisfying.

Now that the bag was small, Kamek walked out to his balcony and hopped onto the broom. He then started moving into the air on his broom toward his first destination. He figured the Mushroom Kingdom would be a good place to start at. Even though he and Bowser had just fled from there, he had a feeling that going there first would be beneficial. Something, he felt, would happen in his and Bowser’s favor and he couldn’t ignore the feeling.

---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Mario, Luigi, Peach, Toad, and Y/N were all outside of the apartment building and heading toward the sewers. Conversation had jumped around all over the place amongst the five of them, but they all enjoyed chatting. One conversation shocked them, especially Toad.

“Wait…you meant it when you said that you did steal something once?” Toad asked.

“Yeah…” Y/N looked a little guilty. “When I was little, I did steal a pack of gum from a grocery store when I was with my mom.”

“For shame!” Toad exclaimed and then expressed sadness. “How could you do that?”

“I apologized and my mom had gone back inside and put it away. Lesson was learned on that day,” Y/N answered.

“Well…at least the lesson was learned,” Mario said.

“Yep! Never stole again. My mom had talked with me for quite a while about it,” Y/N then chuckled, “I was terrified of my mom and her angry voice. She and my dad had a certain pitch to their voices they used when disappointed or angry and I remember thinking that I don’t want to hear those sounds ever again.”

“Your parents sound like they’re strict,” Luigi said.

“They weren’t terribly strict, but they always made sure that I understood what needed to be done. What was right and wrong, everything like that. They care greatly about my sister and I,” Y/N smiled.

Peach joined in, “Well, I think they did well with raising you. By the way, you never mentioned that you had a sister.”

“Thanks. Yeah, I do have a sister. She’s older than me by a couple of years,” Y/N said. “I haven’t been able to talk with her as much because she’s been so busy with her career.”

“What does she do?” Toad asked.

“She works as a supervisor for a hotel chain called Melody’s Suites and Resorts. It’s a high-class chain and they offer great benefits. Honestly, if my sister didn’t work there, my family and I wouldn’t be able to afford it,” Y/N explained.

“What’s her name?” Peach asked.

“Her name is Hannah,” Y/N replied.

As the five of them continued chatting, they reached the sewer cover Peach and Toad had moved. Mario and Luigi maneuvered the cover and allowed the others to go down before they followed suit. The smell, as they all began descending the ladder, was awful. Even worse than what Peach and Toad endured earlier.

“Ugh! What a horrible stench,” Y/N said wanting to plug her nose.

Everyone else agreed with Y/N. The smell was quite foul.

“Did something die down here?” Toad asked. “I mean jeez! I don’t remember the sewers being this bad before.”

“Hmm…they could be doing some routine cleaning or something maybe,” Mario said.

“Let’s just hurry up and get to that tube,” Luigi said.

“Yes, lets,” Peach agreed.

They all continued down the ladder and soon came upon more ladders to navigate through. Everyone helped Y/N out to make sure she didn’t get lost along the way. It took some time to get to the green pipe with how far down they had to go. After climbing down a few more ladders, the green pipe was at least found.

“Here it is,” Peach said to Y/N.

“Wow…big pipe,” Y/N said.

“Entering the tube may be a bit scary at first, but it won’t hurt or anything. There will be a strong gust of wind that pulls you in. Just flow with it and make sure you stay with us. There are paths that diverge to other areas,” Peach explained.

“Alright,” Y/N said slightly nervous.

Peach put a hand on Y/N’s shoulder, “You can follow behind me and the rest can be behind you. Everything will be fine.”

Y/N nodded. “Okay. Let’s go.”

Peach stepped into the green pipe and not having walked very far inside, she immediately disappeared. Y/N’s eyes widened at how fast Peach vanished. Y/N took a deep breath and let it out. She did what Peach had done and slowly walked inside. Still nervous, she turned to look at the brothers and mushroom man. All of them gave her an encouraging smile, letting her know it would be okay and they’d be with her.

Feeling the wind grow in strength, Y/N’s body slowly lifted and got pulled further into the tube. Soon, all around her were colors of every kind swirling and twisting around her. She felt like she was flying through a galaxy of sorts. It was all pretty to her. Her nerves started to calm down from looking at the colors.

Not long after, Mario, Luigi, and Toad were behind Y/N. They all came upon a cloud-like area where other green pipes could be seen. Peach wasn’t joking when she said there were different paths to other areas. Y/N smiled as she gazed at it all. She and the others caught up toward Peach and soon a fork came up.

“Turn your body to the right!” Peach called out to Y/N.

Y/N saw Peach moving her body to the right and she copied her. The others behind Y/N followed suit. They all entered another green pipe and one by one, crash landed into some giant mushrooms below.

“Ouch! That hurt!” Y/N said as she got up rubbing her left shoulder. She unfortunately landed hard on her left side.

“Sorry, I should’ve warned you about the landing,” Peach said to Y/N.

“It’s okay. As long as no one is severely injured, that’s all that matters,” Y/N replied as she continued rubbing her shoulder.

“Maybe we should get some ice on that shoulder,” Toad observed Y/N.

“No, it’s okay. Don’t worry about it. Thank you though,” Y/N smiled at Toad. “I’m sure it’ll quit hurting after a while.”

“Now that we here, where to first?” Mario asked.

“Want to walk through the forest for a bit and then head into town?” Peach asked everyone.

“That sounds good,” Luigi said.

“Sure!” Y/N answered.

Toad and Mario nodded in agreement.

“Okay. A stroll through the forest it is then,” Peach said as she began walking ahead of all of them.

The walk was very nice, and Y/N couldn’t believe some of the heights of the mushrooms. She knew for obvious reasons why it was called a forest, but the height still astounded her. Never had she seen any mushrooms grow to be so tall. She glanced up and noticed what appeared to be floating islands in the sky with tall mushrooms on them. That amazed her to see such a site. This place really was like a children’s book come to life.

After some more walking, they came to the forest’s edge that led into the town. Y/N was once again in awe of what was in front of her. The town had many pipes (red, blue, and clear along with green) for travel and there were all kinds of shops and homes scattered about. Toad and Peach greeted some of the other mushroom people along with Mario and Luigi. Y/N politely waved at some of the mushroom people, feeling a bit shy. Y/N did feel that the town had a cute charm to it as she continued taking in the sights around her.

The five of them reached the pipes that had been seen earlier in the distance. Y/N was slightly overwhelmed with the pipes. There were so many of them. Didn’t they get lost easily? Then again, after living in a place for so long, everyone would eventually learn their way around and navigate easily. It was just like what Y/N had to go through when moving to Brooklyn.

“We can do as we did previously,” Peach said to everyone. “Follow me!” She jumped into a clear tube and Y/N followed.

The speed of the tube was not expected, and Y/N had a bit of difficulty keeping her body positioned to follow the curves and when the tube would go up or down. She hit a few corners and did her best to ensure that her face didn’t get smacked along with the rest of her body.

Peach had reached the top of a platform and waited for the others. She peered into the pipe and could see Y/N coming up. Y/N came out of the pipe falling almost headfirst. Peach helped her to stand up again.

“Gah, I feel dizzy,” Y/N said as she wobbled a bit from standing.

“You’re not going to throw up, are you?” Peach asked slightly amused laced with worry.

“No,” Y/N said chuckling. “My head just needs to stop spinning. Thankfully, I don’t get motion sickness. If someone with motion sickness were to go through these tubes…it would not be a pleasant sight.”

Peach grimaced, “Ugh! That would be awful to see. Makes me wonder if maybe other forms of travel should be put in. Though, I’ve never come across anyone with motion sickness.”

“I don’t think it would hurt to have that. You never know when you may meet someone who has that,” Y/N said.

“Very true,” Peach replied.

Mario, Luigi, and Toad soon joined up with Peach and Y/N. After everyone got over from traveling through the pipes, they all started walking again. A castle greeted everyone’s sight. Y/N looked up in admiration of the castle. It was white with a few towers and a large stain glass window of Peach.

“Very pretty castle you have there,” Y/N commented to Peach.

“Thank you,” Peach replied. “We do our best to keep it looking nice on the outside and inside,”

Large red doors with two mushroom guards in front of them stood proudly. As the guards saw their princess coming, they both bowed.

“Good afternoon, Princess,” they said.

“Good afternoon to you too,” Peach greeted.

The two guards stood aside and allowed Peach to enter along with everyone else. However, as Y/N was about to enter, the guards put up their spears blocking her way, making her gasp.

“Hold on…who are you?” A guard with blue spots on his head asked.

“Uh, I’m- “Before she could continue, Peach stepped in.

“She’s a new friend. I’m showing her around. Her name is Y/N,” Peach said helping to ease the tension.

“Oh, our apologies,” the other guard with yellow spots on his head said. He and the guard with blue spots moved their spears out of Y/N’s way.

Y/N walked inside and breathed a sigh of relief, “I thought I was going to be toast.” She and everyone started walking through the long corridor they were now in.

“Sorry about that,” Peach said.

“No worries,” Y/N replied. “They’re your guards so it’s expected for them to be extra careful with everybody.”

“True, but they have been on edge more recently because of Bowser,” Peach said.

“Ah. Yeah, Mario and Luigi said he caused a lot of trouble for all of you,” Y/N said remembering the conversation from the previous night.

“Even though he is locked up, it’s been very difficult dealing with some of the aftermath. If he were to get out…more trouble would be brewing our way,” Peach said.

“He’s still locked up though, right?” Y/N asked.

“Yes, but still…his Koopas have sometimes been very crafty in figuring out ways of escaping when captured. It’s more of a concern too because we didn’t get Bowser’s wizard Kamek,” Peach answered.

“Kamek? A wizard?” Y/N asked once again.

“Kamek has been with Bowser since his birth. He is what you would call a Magikoopa since he is able to perform spells with his magic wand. I know he has many years of experience on him and that’s why I’m a little worried,” Peach expressed.

“I’m sorry,” Y/N said worried for Peach.

“It’s okay. I know we can win again if anything does happen,” Peach said trying to boost herself with confidence.

“Can’t lose hope,” Toad said. “We need to always keep our guard up too, but we’ll pull through.”

Just as Mario and Luigi were going to say their thoughts, a mushroom man dressed in blue came up to all of them. “Princess! Urgent news!”

“What is it?” Peach asked with concern.

“Follow me to the meeting room. The council and I all need to speak with you. It’s…about Bowser.” He said nervously.

Peach and the others gasped. This could not be good news at all. The princess and the others followed the councilman and went into a large meeting room. In the center of the room, there were a few other council members dressed in various colors. They all stood around a table that brought out a very intricate model. The model took shape forming the Mushroom Kingdom and other places Y/N didn’t know of. The model then changed again and zoomed into Peach’s castle.

Before them, a scene of two guards outside of two large light pink doors was displayed. The guards were standing there chatting quietly to each other when they were suddenly knocked out. One of the doors opened after that. A few minutes later, a small creature could be seen looking like he was hovering in the air and leaving the room.

“Apologies your highness. We just found out about this a few minutes ago otherwise, we would have informed you sooner,” the councilman in blue explained with deep regret on the late and urgent matter.

Peach had to compose herself for a few seconds. She concluded more than likely that Bowser was probably back to his normal size as well. She took a deep breath and released it. “This happened last night.” It wasn’t a question, but a fact.

“Yes, which means, Bowser will be planning something if he hasn’t already,” the councilman replied.

“This is terrible,” Luigi said. “We literally kicked his butt not even that long ago and already...”

“It’s not a good thing, but we have to do something before he does,” Mario chimed in.

“What exactly can we do?” Toad asked.

“We’ll discuss some possible options,” Peach answered. “Mario, Luigi, Toad. Could you take Y/N out of here now? You can show her some more of the castle.”

“Sure,” Toad said. “C’mon Y/N.”

Y/N, having been quiet the whole time, was shocked. Mentally speaking to herself, ‘He got out and he sounds awfully dangerous…I hope nothing worse comes about…’

“Y/N? You in there?” Toad asked trying to get Y/N’s attention by tapping on her arm.

Y/N snapped out of her thoughts. “Huh? Yes?”

“We need to leave the room now. We’ll finish showing you around the castle,” Toad explained.

“Oh, okay.” Y/N followed the three out of the room. Two doors closed behind them, startling Y/N.

“Are you feeling alright?” Mario asked concerned.

“She’s probably worried like we are Mario,” Luigi answered. “I know I am.”

“I am a bit nervous,” Y/N answered. “I mean…all of you have had an encounter with Bowser and he…he sounds terrifying. I just hope nothing worse than the last time happens again.”

“Like Mario said, we do need to do something about him before he makes a move. I’m sure Peach and the council will come up with a good plan,” Toad said trying to calm Y/N down.

“Yeah,” Y/N said, trying not to get so doubtful.

“Enough of that for now. Let’s continue going through the other parts of the castle,” Toad said happily. “It’s got amazing rooms that you have to check out.”

Y/N appreciated Toad for trying to make everyone feel light in the situation before them. “Okay.” She smiled.

Mario and Luigi exchanged smiles with Toad and Y/N and all four of them started walking through another long corridor. Toad pointed out what the rooms were, and they all went inside the ones they were allowed access to. One room was dedicated to tea sets. The sets had intricate designs of different mushrooms and even flower patterns. Another room had many paintings displayed varying in types from scenery to people. Y/N couldn’t help feeling like she was in a museum from everything being shown. It was all delightful to see.

The last room had elegant dresses in it that Y/N found to be very pretty. They ranged in various colors. Most of the dresses were pink which didn’t surprise Y/N considering the color scheme of the castle and the dress the princess was currently wearing. She was very tempted to try one on, but she didn’t think that would be appropriate. The jewelry that was also displayed in the room was nothing to scoff at. Different gems mixed with silver and gold lined up in a display case. Y/N walked over to it to get a better look. The colors sparkled and shined from the sunlight that shone through the large glass window. It felt like going into a rainbow.

“Impressive, isn’t it?” Toad noticed how entranced Y/N seemed to be from everything.

“Very. It’s like walking into a dream. There’s so many dresses and the jewelry…it’s so beautiful!” Y/N’s eyes shined with happiness. Her sight was then drawn toward a stage with three full length mirrors behind it almost encircling the stage.

“Okay, now this is definitely like a dream.” She couldn’t help thinking about those teen rom-com movies when looking at it. “I would love to have something like this.”

“It seems pretty handy,” Mario said.

“Not a bad thing to have,” Luigi said. “You know, it’s making me think of the stage where you work at Y/N.”

“Huh, I can see that,” Y/N agreed. A thought then came to her. “Well…would you like for me to sing for all of you? I think it could be fun!”

“I do!” Toad exclaimed.

“Yes,” Luigi answered.

“Sure! Go for it!” Mario encouraged.

“Okay! Of course, this will have to be acapella style since I don’t have music on,” Y/N said with a smile. “I hope my audience is okay with that.”

All of them gave Y/N a thumbs up.

“Let’s see…what song should I sing…” Y/N wanted to pick something good. “Ah! I know! Unconditionally by Katy Perry. I love the lyrics to that song.” Y/N pretended to be holding a microphone and began to sing, the three audience members giving her their full attention.

---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Kamek was a little worn out from flying on his broom for a long period of time, but he was happy that he finally had the Mushroom Kingdom in his sight. He smiled still having the feeling that it was all worth it to come to this place first. His feeling told him that he would find someone very fitting to help Bowser. Finding a place to land and have a break from flying, he landed by a couple of large mushroom trees that weren’t too far away from the entrance of the town.

“Lies and ties, bring about my perfect disguise,” Kamek chanted his spell. He slowly began to morph into a mushroom person dressed as one of the guards for Peach’s castle. He wore a silver helmet and wore a blue and yellow outfit. His head had purple dots on it. “Perfect!” He shrunk his broom down just as he had with his bag to make for easy carrying. Also, he couldn’t leave his broom behind like what happened one time. Bowser gave him an earful about it. Not a good day.

Kamek walked toward the entrance and began his search. Thus far, no one had any instruments out and no one was singing. ‘Perhaps further in town,’ he mentally spoke to himself. Just then, he heard someone, or something, trying to sing.

“Ah! My ears!” Kamek covered his ears. The singing was atrocious. It sounded like nails scratching down on a chalk board. The next voice he came across wasn’t as bad but wasn’t any better. The next voice sounded more like screaming than singing.

‘Ugh! They sound like they’re being punched to death,’ Kamek grumbled mentally. ‘There must be someone here with a voice or instrument talent. Perhaps, I could maybe try the castle. It’s risky, but my disguise should do just fine for me.’

Finding an ally in town, he quickly chanted a spell to make his broom normal size again. He sat down on it and flew off before anyone could notice something strange flying in the sky. He cast the invisibility spell as he flew toward Peach’s castle. Reaching the castle at a quick speed, he slowed down. He could barely hear someone singing and from what he could hear, it sounded good.

‘I need to get inside to listen better. That teleportation spell should work.’ He quickly cast a teleportation spell and soon he was inside the building. ‘Follow the voice now.’ He listened closely to see where the voice was coming from. He walked around for a little bit and soon, he found the room the voice was in. He took his orb out, turned it invisible, made it large size, and cast it to appear in the room. He had cast another spell for him to have a screen displayed before him so he could see inside the room.

The voice was coming from a human girl. She had (hair length/hair color) hair in a ponytail and was swaying to the song she was singing. The lyrics seemed to be very captivating for her. Kamek was very impressed with what he was hearing. This human had a sweet voice and seemed to be giving her all into the song she sang. He could easily read her emotions from her voice and body language. However, the orb seemed to catch three others in the room. Upon closer inspection, he could see the plumber brothers and that mushroom man who had accompanied the other two men before.

‘Argh! Of course, they know this human. They always seem to find a way to get in the way!’ Kamek sighed. ‘No matter, no matter. We will make sure they do not ruin the plan this time.’ He continued listening closely to the girl singing. When she finished the song, Kamek transported the orb back into his hands. He had to find a secluded area to show his King what he had found. Getting all his belongings together, he transported out of the castle and flew on his broom. He found some trees and bushes to hide in and then took the orb out.

“Sire, are you there?” Kamek asked as he looked intently into the orb.

Bowser had been napping on his throne when the orb moved and made a sound. He yawned and held up the orb to peer into it. “Kamek?”

“My King, I have found someone for you. I’ll display the footage to you now.” Kamek waved his wand with his other hand to display what had been taken for Bowser to see.

A human girl appeared on the screen and the most serene voice entered his ears. He watched the girl sing out her emotions, her hair and body moving along to the song. Bowser had to admit that this girl did look very cute, but nothing compared to his Peaches. Her voice was nice, the lyrics were heartfelt, and that all seemed to prove her talent. He made his decision.

“Bring her to me Kamek. She will do nicely,” Bowser smirked. ‘She will do very nicely.’

“Yes Sire. I will work on a way to secure her and bring her to you right away. In fact, I think the Shy Guys would be of great help,” Kamek replied.

“Is there a catch?” Bowser sensed something Kamek wasn’t saying.

“Ehm, well, you see…Mario and Luigi are back…” Kamek’s body tensed, rearing up for Bowser’s reaction.

Bowser’s eyes widened. He couldn’t stand them since they ruined everything from before, especially Mario.

“I can show them to you in the footage.” Kamek had only focused on the footage of the girl and not showing the others. He zoomed into the footage to allow Bowser to see that Mario and Luigi were back.

Bowser looked at it and it showed Mario, Luigi, and Toad all clapping for the girl. He growled with anger and then breathed deeply to calm himself down, “Well, the Shy Guys along with my troops would cause a fuss allowing you to get the girl. Or you could simply do what you did with helping me get out of the castle.”

“That is another possibility, but I do not know if she will be staying here for the night or not either. I think we need to act quickly and get her now.” Kamek felt that time was of the essence, and he knew Bowser didn’t want to wait much longer either.

“Hmm…very well then. Are you able to cast a spell allowing several beings to appear at once?” Bowser asked.

“I should be able to,” Kamek said. “I should have a spell in my book allowing me to do so.”

“Excellent. I will expect to see you back here with the girl by this evening,” Bowser replied.

Kamek nodded. “Yes Sire.” He sighed. He knew he would need a few days off from casting all the magic he had today. Weariness was starting to get to him. He opened his book, making it normal size, and skimmed over the contents until reaching the last few pages of the book. A spell talking about casting large amounts of magic to transport tons of creatures was found.

Reading over everything a few times, Kamek stood up holding his wand and peered down at the book to read the spell, “Bright and smite, bring me tons of creatures to this fight!” An orange circle appeared from his wand and ascended toward the clouds in sky. It expanded in size and out of it dropped a hundred Shy Guys along with a hundred Koopas.

---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

“Thank you, thank you,” Y/N said as she took a few bows.

Mario, Luigi, and Toad were all ecstatic from Y/N’s performance as they clapped and cheered.

“Your voice is lovely,” Luigi said.

“It’s amazing!” Toad exclaimed.

“You have a very nice voice,” Mario complimented.

Y/N smiled and blushed, “Thank you.”

Suddenly, the window in the room started cracking. All four turned to look at the damage.

“What the?!” Mario said. He could see little guys wearing hoods and masks trying to break the glass.

“Ah! Those are the same guys that tied me up and brought me to Bowser before!” Luigi said, shivering slightly.

“Y/N, stay behind us,” Toad said. “These guys can get dangerous.”

Y/N wanted to help but listened to Toad. Afterall, she didn’t really have experience with these guys like the three before her did. She wished she could help somehow.

The window shattered into pieces, the hooded figures and other creatures who looked like turtles started climbing into the room. Mario and Luigi tried to fight off the turtles while Toad dealt with some of the hooded figures. Y/N watched as they all did their best to taper down the situation. She began backing up and hit the wall next to the door.

---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

The sky rained down on the citizens of the Mushroom Kingdom. Shy Guys started grabbing at the mushroom people while Koopas were smashing through different stores. Break-ins to homes occurred as more chaos ensued. The castle was especially flooded from the outside with the Shy Guys and Koopas. Guards had to rally together to push back the forces. It wasn’t enough and the large doors to enter the castle crashed open.

Shouts could be heard from all inside the castle and while this was going on, Kamek had prepared a particular spell to knock the girl he needed to bring to Bowser unconscious. With everything ready, Kamek transported himself inside the castle just outside of the room where the girl was. He heard a thud and carefully opened the door. To his right, he saw the human turn to look at him.

Before the girl could react, Kamek cast his spell on her. She fell to the floor unconscious. Toad, hearing the thud behind him, turned around to see the wizard casting a spell on Y/N shrinking her in size and carefully picking her up.

“Y/N!” Toad cried out.

Mario and Luigi punched off a couple of the Koopas and turned to look where Toad was looking at. All three had worried expressions on their faces and raced toward the doorway. The door slammed shut in their faces and locked thanks to another spell Kamek cast on it. He got onto his broom, making sure to hold onto to the human gently, and was about to fly off. Suddenly, mushroom guards came running toward him.

“Grab him!” One of the guards shouted.

“You’re all too late!” Kamek shouted and cast his transportation spell. He vanished instantly and reappeared in the sky. He headed back to his kingdom with the girl in hand.

---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

“I can’t believe we let him take Y/N,” Toad said in disappointment. “We should have paid better attention.”

Mario put a hand on Toad’s shoulder, “We’ll get her back.”

“Right. We won’t let Bowser hurt her,” Luigi said. “Although…how exactly did he find out about Y/N?”

Before anyone could answer, the door to the room they were in busted open. Peach and other guards were there with her. She saw the mess displayed and looked to everyone when she noticed someone missing. “Where’s Y/N?”

“That wizard…who works with Bowser…he got her…,” Toad said saddened.

---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Kamek flew on his broom with lightning speed. He was beyond exhausted and anxious to get home with the girl in his hand. He looked forward to getting some rest and hoped to have a goodnight sleep after the rather exhilarating day he had. He could see the balcony to his room and carefully landed on it. He got off the broom and transported himself with the girl to the throne room.

Bowser, who was still relaxing in his throne, perked up upon seeing Kamek appear before him, “You have her?”

“Yes, she’s right here Sire,” Kamek said. He gently laid the girl down on the floor and used a spell to turn her into her normal size.

Y/N began to regain some consciousness and slowly opened her (eye color) eyes. She sat up and rubbed her head. She had a strange feeling and uneasy feeling all of the sudden.

“Greetings human,” a rather intimidating voice spoke.

The girl gasped and turned to her right to see a large Koopa. She instantly recognized him to be Bowser. “B-Bowser?!”

The king was slightly taken aback by the girl knowing his name. However, once he thought it over some more, it made sense. Those pesky plumbers and the others had informed her about him, “I see you already know my name. I have a special job for you.” He started walking close to where Y/N still sat.

Y/N, extremely nervous, tried to back up. She couldn’t move and saw that there were light pink, lightning-like chains keeping her ankles down in place since her legs had been stretched out on the floor. Kamek had waved his wand and cast the bindings to appear.

“I know you can sing well. You have a lovely voice and I want to use your talents for singing and writing lyrics to improve on my song for a princess,” Bowser explained. He knelt to get a closer look at Y/N.

Y/N’s body shivered slightly and yet felt warm. Perhaps it was because of the place she was in. There appeared to be lava flowing on either side of the floor they all were on. “H-How did you know I sing?”

“A little bird whispered word to me of your ability. With your help, I can win over Peaches’ heart once again. You will help me until she falls for me,” Bowser said as he stared into Y/N’s eyes.

“Peaches? You mean…” Y/N trailed off. Bowser still wanted to go after her. Why though? He knew she hated him. Peach had made that very clear according to when Mario and Luigi chatted with her back at the bar. She knew it was obvious now that this wizard behind her had told Bowser about her. How exactly did the wizard come to know of her? She did not know.

“Yes, the princess you have made friends with. That one,” Bowser answered, easily reading her thoughts. “We will start working on the song first thing in the morning. There is one more thing I need from you.” He looked intensely at her.

Y/N’s body shook in fright from the red eyes that became fixated on her.

“I need your name,” Bowser said.

Y/N couldn’t stop looking into his eyes. The fire burning inside them was a bit entrancing and terrifying at the same time. She shook her head slightly, “It-It’s Y/N.” Her voice came out as nothing more than a whisper, but the king understood and heard her clearly considering he was still near her.

“Y/N, my new songwriter,” Bowser said proudly. “Get some food, drink, and rest. Kamek will prepare a place for you.”

Loud clanging sounds were heard, and a cage dropped down from the ceiling not too far away from where the king, wizard, and human were. It dangled just a few inches from the floor. Y/N looked at the cage with widened eyes. They were going to keep her in here of all places? Y/N felt the bands leave her body and she was transported inside the cage. She felt pathetic right now. How could she let herself be captured like this?

“Have the kitchen staff prepare food for Y/N,” Bowser said to Kamek. The wizard nodded and transported himself out of the throne room.

Bowser looked up at the cage, “Best get comfortable. You will be spending all your days in there except when you’re helping me.” He started walking away and laughed manically.

Y/N watched his retreating figure leave the throne room. Her eyes began to water, and tears slowly cascaded down her face. How was she supposed to get out of here?

Link for Chapter 4: https://www.tumblr.com/xserenemeadowsx/719178293244493824/unconditional-love-chapter-4

[noelledeltarune]

As a mario enjoyer I’m curious abt ur interpretation of the bros origins. This isn’t rlly asking what is canon cuz the series doesn’t rlly prioritize continuity and it’s all debatable etc. Personally I have a vague timeline in my head and I like to draw from pretty much all mario media but sometimes that makes contradictions. A lot of mario media has mario from new york (new donk?) and then ends up in the mushroom kingdom through a warp pipe. In yoshi’s island it seems his parents live in the mushroom kingdom though. And in partners and time baby mario and luigi are there during the shroob invasion in the past. I love partners in time a lot but I also rlly like mario being a new yorker so it’s hard to have my cake and eat it too. I guess he could be born in the mushroom kingdom then move to NY then come back? I’m not too sure. I’d like to know your take on it.

SORRY FOR TAKING SO LONG TO GET TO THIS. yeah i'm gonna be honest my take is sort of vague and meaningless because as a kid i just wanted every single thing to take place in one universe. and i sucked at making that happen. to me it sort of went like, they were delivered / born / whatever in yoshi's island to their parents. then those guys were like wait these arent our kids. then they were delivered to their actual parents or whatever (i have never really played yoshi's island i'm sorry) and they lived there for a couple of years and probably spent a lot of time with peach / around the castle because i figure if kamek was aware of the whole star children thing it's likely that at least some people in the mushroom kingdom would want them there for that. and mario has fought bowser a couple of times as a baby so who knows.

then after partners in time rolls around their parents who were sort of letting them hang around the castle went ermmmm actually nvm. we are going to brooklyn 1990 because it is Much Safer There. [looks into the camera like in the office]. and then they kind of lived in new york city for 20 years before getting dragged back to the mk in a tragic plumbing accident. even though i know they love their jobs as plumbers and are genuinely passionate about it i will admit that i like to think that mario wanted to go into paramedicine or nursing and luigi to university for aerospace engineering or something but it wasn't really feasible for them before the great eeby deebing 😔

i honestly don't really know how i imagine their parents, a lot of people have really lovely designs and concepts for them, and there's been a lot more stuff on them since the mario movie came out and gave people these dubiously canon characters to work with, but they just don't come up much in my mind. i don't want to be like "they died 💀" but also like mario and luigi are in their mid 20s and if they somehow ended up in the mushroom kingdom i figure their parents would also be able to go back there. but then you think about like the whole deal with the cartoons how the way between worlds was sealed and stuff and it just gets confusing to try and make everything work 😭

sorry i'll probably be able to come up with something more reasonable tomorrow after i sleep and give it some proper thought but i think in general i just have the skeleton of a timeline LMAO

delivered by stork yoshi's island style -> partners in time happens -> I Am Not Letting My Babies Fight Aliens We Are Going To New York City -> WHUH OH! PLUMBING EVENT GONE WRONG???!?!?! [NOT CLICKBAIT] -> basically every other game.

it's also a little tough to balance because judging by PiT they seem like they would have known or have learned at some point that they like. are actually from the mushroom kingdom and stuff. which idk how you'd explain that to your kids but whatever

there are honestly a couple of ways i imagine their backstory, like saying oh they fell into a warp pipe themselves while exploring baby style after PiT and were adopted and raised in brooklyn or just going oh they have their own room in the castle in PiT so they probably lived there as kids or just saying they were just born in brooklyn and ended up in the mk like in the the cartoons and ignoring yoshi's island and PiT but none of them are very cohesive or really make much of a difference in how i imagine their characters yknow?

i have the same dilemma as you because i also love mario being a new yorker but parnters in time is my favourite M&L game

don't worry though once get really into mario again i'm sure my favourite scenario will come to me in a prophetic vision. and then i will get back to you 🔥💯‼️

[fluideli123]

[Original Ask Post]

2. 🍄Describe your wip/one of your wips in the format of “___ + ___ =___”  

The Bowser-centric WIP "What if God was one of us?" (x / x) is basically Secret Keeper AU + Young Bowser = The horrors of being born with an entire kingdom baring down on your shoulders to solve alone because, despite your young age, you are already king, you have to take it head on. The history of your people is to conquer, of power and strength, but other kingdoms do not share your sentiments on war and the lack of treaties. So no one turns to aide you and you must aide an entire kingdom yourself. You search through the Royal Magic Koopa library in hopes of learning more of your culture, to fully understand your world to care for it, and come across rumors of the one being in all the lands who holds all history of the Darklands, someone who can help. The most powerful Magic Koopa of all, Kamek.

There is something about the only kingdom Bowser has ever known and its ever-withering, blazing features that make a pit in his stomach grow every time he lays his eyes on it. It’s beautiful, yes; the warmth of the fire against Bowser’s scales, the ever-bubbling, shifting state of lava, and the refraction of heat across the land feels like home with each forbidding, twisting tree and shadowy, looming mountain. But he sees past its magnificence into something deeper, the gloom hovering over every occupant of this kingdom, something Bowser can feel deep inside his bones, that something is wrong here. Something has been wrong long since before he was born. He was born as the next heir, the next ruler of this land, one that’s falling apart right before Bowser’s very own eyes. He can see how their agriculture has worsened since his first memory of watching the farmhands at work, the hardening of once much more free-flowing streams of lava. Even the flaking of now hollow trees that once stood with a power and resilience that Bowser had been determined to break with a single tail swipe as a young child. Now it’s all lost. Lost to something Bowser knows nothing about, past the muffled roars of his mother in meetings and the quiet whispers between guards in the dead of night. He understood why the secrets of their land were so hidden; it had been explained to him more times than he could count on his paws. It was for the protection of their people, the security of knowing that no one but those who needed to know would not let information slip to the other kingdoms. They had the advantage of secrecy where others did not, and no spy could fool them into giving over the information they did not have. But Bowser didn’t understand why he couldn’t be in on it. He had to rule this place sooner or later. Why couldn’t he know what he was dealing with? Bowser was never thrown in as blind to a challenge as he is into this big mystery. He has always had at least a hint of basic information, and with that bare minimum, he would face it head-on without fear. But this felt so much bigger than him.

[gertlushgaming]

Mario Kart 8 Deluxe Booster Course Pass Review (Nintendo Switch)

  For this Mario Kart 8 Deluxe Review, we play Race on 48 remastered courses from across the Mario Kart series with the Mario Kart 8 Deluxe – Booster Course Pass! All courses form 12 new cups, and returning characters from the Mario Kart series have also been added.

Mario Kart 8 Deluxe Booster Course Pass Review Pros:

- Gorgeous graphics. - 11.2GB Download size. (base game and all tracks included) - The base game contains all previous DLCs from the Wii U version. - LABO support. - New characters were added with the tracks - Diddy Kong, Funky Kong, Pauline, Peachette, Kamek, Wiggler, Petey Piranha, and Birdo. - Four-player split screen support. - Two local players can go online and race with others. - 12 Player online races. - Wireless mode allows two Switches to connect making 8 player local races a thing. - Amiibo support- Scan Amibo to unlock special outfits for your Mii racer. The Amiibo section has a checklist so you know who is scanned in, Also you only need to scan the Amiibo once. - Mii creator within the game. - Supports big screen and handheld mode. - Controller- Supports both Joycons, Single Joycons, and Pro Controller. - Driving aids- Smart steer and Auto accelerate. - Motion control support. - Full stats breakdown, Split into online/solo/wireless. - MKTV is back and allows you to watch the community replays of gamers. - Classic bright cheery soundtrack. - Tutorial/help section. - You can now carry two items at once. - Grand Prix has 12 cups with four races in each. - Five game speeds- 50, 100, 150, 200cc and Mirror. - 47 Characters to play as well as your Mii so it is actually 48. - Earn 1-3 stars in races and they in turn unlock new kart parts. - Full kart customisation. Choose your frame, Wheels, and glider. Each one will change your stats and you can bring the stats screen up to check. - Time trials with ghost management. - Vs and battle mode races you can choose speed, tracks, rounds, AI, difficulty, etc. - Battle mode has 6 modes-  Balloon battle (hit each other to lose balloons), Renegade round-up (Like cops and robbers), Bob omb blast (Bombs only), Coin runners (Collect the most coins), Shine thief (hold the crown for the longest time) and random. - New purple ultra mini turbo drift. - Miis can wear themed outfits like a Bowser suit and helmet or peach, piranha plant etc. - New items for battle mode. - Can set up online tournaments for people to join. - Can host or join online races. - Addictive gameplay. - Controls are as tight and fluid as ever before. - Fun to play. - Easy to pick up and play. - Ten new cups - Turnip, propeller, rick, moon, fruit, boomerang, feather, cherry, acorn, and spiky. Each has four tracks in each. - The new tracks bring a lot of old favorites with a few new tracks from newer games. - No unlocking is needed, all new tracks and cups are instantly playable. - An easy game to come back to. - The whole set of tracks is FREE with the Nintendo Online subscription. - 48 tracks added. Related Post: 2024's Most Significant Esports Events Worldwide Mario Kart 8 Deluxe Booster Course Pass Review Cons: - Playing with friends online with others is still a pain in the ass, With no friend invite system. - Driving assists start n as default and the game doesn't tell you or that they exist. - Split screen can be hard to see around the track and this is especially evident in battle mode. - No friend ghost download option. - AI can still be cheap at times. - No control layout options. - Online has a few connection issues from time to time. Mario Kart 8 Deluxe Booster Course Pass: Official website. Developer: Nintendo Publisher: Nintendo  Store Links - Nintendo   Read the full article

[mrs-luigi-vargas]

Um. Hi. So I was reading @theangelofangst's newest work and it gave me Blorbo Thoughts. Unfortunately my blorbo is Kamek, so uhh…yeah.

Anyway, I wrote a thing based on it! Sorry if the lore/timeline (or the cipher) is wrong; I started writing this after Chapter 3 came out and then Chapter 4 came out as I entered the editing phase, lmao.

Also if you haven't read Speechless Symphony yet, you really really should! It's a delight of a story and the ending is very good :D

~~~

Sivsocavoup & Sitvusevoup

[AO3 Link]

Sitting in a cage in a pitiful excuse for a dungeon really gives you a lot of time to think.

A lot of time for your mind to wander, bored with staring at golden bars, white walls, the glint of metal spears meant to poke you if you’re out of line, the closed door denying you freedom. Nothing to stop thoughts and memories from surfacing, and of course those thoughts and memories can't do you the decency of being any semblance of pleasant.

No, the memories that float beneath your eyelids and repeat ad nauseam are those having to do with how you had ended up here to begin with. That plan, that infiltration, that confrontation. That oh-so-satisfying spray of blood, those delectable cries of fear. That green human’s face flipping to pure rage at a speed that could have put even King Bowser to shame.

That lucky throw.

That throw that shouldn't have been of any note, as the object flung through the air had been just a small stone. But it hadn’t been until the flames King Bowser had been gathering abruptly died out and he'd begun clawing at his own throat that you’d realized something was wrong. But you had barely been able to raise your wand to do anything about the way his face had twisted in pain before the green one struck, with a blow to the head that cast your world dark.

And then you had woken up here.

You spend the first hours after reorienting yourself fuming about the indignity of it all. Swearing vengeance for being treated like this, cursing those blasted humans who had landed you here, vowing to break out with King Bowser and —

The panic that had been blooming in your King’s eyes flashes in your mind, then. If you were an optimist, then you would next hope that whatever had been wrong with him had somehow resolved itself, and that he was waiting somewhere in the wings with a grand plan to break you, his esteemed second-in-command, out of this dreadful place. But you know exactly what had been wrong with King Bowser, and you haven't gotten this far in life with anything as worthless as optimism.

So you flick your wrist when the guards aren't looking, pulling up that monitoring charm you’d attached to your King back when he’d been a trouble-making prince, one you’d never bothered to remove as he’d aged. It stares back at you, fuzzy and buzzing with static as if it had never been anchored to him at all. You allow yourself one tremulous breath, paired with a single overlong blink. You’re behind enemy lines, after all.

...

...He’d been a great king.

For the next few days, you comfort yourself with the fact that the Mushroom Kingdom’s hero, at least, had been injured enough that he likely hadn’t survived that encounter, either. But even that solace is denied to you, as you overhear the guards standing near your cage chatter about Mario. About Mario’s recovery —

You struggle to keep your magic under control. They'd taken your wand away when they’d locked you up, in the assumption you were powerless without it; there’s no need for them to have evidence to the contrary. Still, you seethe over the meager, tasteless prison food they’d given you. You should have known the lack of funeral bells was a sign something wasn't right. Not only does that green hero get to walk away a murderer, he gets to have his brother with him, safe and sound. A duo of goody-two-shoes, prancing about as if they hadn't destabilized an entire kingdom in one fell swoop. As if they hadn't —

Again, you wrestle your magic down. It still simmers beneath your skin, eager for an outlet. And you're eager to give it one, one that ended in those brothers suffering a thousand times the amount King Bowser had, as he’d burned from the inside out. Yes, they would rue the day they crawled out of whatever wretched hole they’d surfaced from, so long as you still lived.

---

For a while, you entertain more...outlandish forms of revenge. A curse to cause unending nightmares as it puts them to sleep for good; an “accident” that leaves them both blind and deaf and crippled for life; the red hero held down, helpless to watch as you break every one of his brother’s bones one by one by one.

But those ideas, while satisfying, still aren't enough. You haven’t gotten this far in life without a reliable and fine-tuned cruel streak, and in that fine-tuning you’ve learned cruelty is a dish best served cold. So you let those short-sighted scenarios pass you by, sorting through the chaff for the perfect one.

You also know cruelty is a dish best made to the servee’s tastes, and for that, you need intel. You haven't needed a wand to cast simple spells since you’d learned to walk, so it’s trivial to attach little eavesdropping charms to the food trays and cutlery those fungal peons bring to you at mealtimes. Emphasis on little, because while you have been doing magic longer than any of these imbeciles had been alive, you know the Princess, at least, isn't as much of an idiot as the rest of them regarding magical matters, and you haven't gotten this far in life without a healthy dose of caution.

So you do what you do best — you listen, and you learn. Those brothers visit the castle often, and thus you find the red one hadn't actually escaped King Bowser’s final attack unscathed; apparently, his voice box is forfeit. The world forever spared of that idiot’s worthless blathering...for the first time since waking up imprisoned, a ghost of a smile curls up on your face. Even in death, your King’s vicious nature still prevails. You’d taught him well.

And, in a lucky break, you manage to eavesdrop on your King’s murderer well enough to catch the guilt in his voice when talking about the state of his brother. You take a risk and upgrade the charm to give you visuals, and you see with your own eyes the self-condemnation lining his shoulders. The sight is enough for the second grin of your prison stay. But it isn’t enough to satisfy you completely; you need it to hurt more. Nonetheless, you could still use this; the only reason King Bowser’s blow had landed — besides his unrivaled combat prowess — was because his initial target had been too busy cowering in fear to see the strike coming.

Without access to your spellbooks, it takes a while for the perfect idea to manifest. But that’s fine; you haven’t gotten this far in life without a wealth of patience. You mentally flip through them, one by one, for the perfect spell to make those humans pay, as you bide your time for an opportunity to escape.

And the perfect inspiration comes months later; after months of awful prison food and taunting from the guards and absolutely no privacy, you sit next to the light of the moon, thinking about your late King. Not in a moment of weakness, as someone soft-hearted would assume, but of the power vacuum he’d left in his wake. To be filled by whatever schmuck made a big enough power play, by the circumstances. You frown imagining it, a headache half-budding in your temples. If you were a lesser man, this would be when you would wish to do anything to have King Bowser back to take his rightful place once again. But you are greater, so you merely cast that thought aside; when you return to the Darklands you’ll find some poor saps to use as fodder for whatever revival ritual you’ll perform to get King Bowser back to his glorious, living self.

But...you do know someone lesser. Many people, in fact. One person in particular, however, would be perfect to cast in a certain role. And there’s another who would be an excellent fit for the tragic hero of this upcoming tale. And you won't even have to hatch another escape plan to direct it!

Originally, the spell you’re thinking of was something to cast on oneself in a saccharine moment of self-sacrifice for a loved one, but you know better. So you spend the next week or so keeping to yourself, those pathetic excuses for guards long since bored of you, recalling the exact shape of the incantation you need, building your magic reserves as much as you can to cast the spell itself the way you want to, knowing your slight magical atrophy and the lack of magical focus would make things marginally difficult. Or rather, it would have made things marginally difficult, if you weren't the greatest wizard alive.

As such, soon enough, with the moon sitting high yet hidden in the night sky and almost a year to the day since King Bowser was killed, you deem yourself ready.

In the darkness, you kneel on the metal floor of your cage. With a deep breath, you close your eyes and focus your attention inward. You think of your King, that look on his face, the last look you had seen on him while he was still alive. The look he probably died wearing. Surprised. Agonized. Frightened.

The vowels and consonants of your native language fall from your lips easily; low, whispered, with the barest of shaking as you concentrate. You feel the spell reach out to you, wanting you to pay your price. You feel it reach out beyond you, toward the Darklands, wanting to restore what was lost in exchange.

But you aren't a lesser man, so you don't give it the chance. You gather your magic and push it away, away out of the room, towards the magical signature you want it to latch on to instead. While the act of doing so is simple, it still costs a fair bit of energy, and without your wand you’re left panting from the effort of avoiding becoming ensnared by the spell yourself. You’d chosen it for a reason, a reason that was rather deadly. It wouldn't do to fail now.

The moon sits high in the sky and the rest of the world is asleep, so you shift to a better sitting position and lean back against the bars of your cage. You feel the traces of magic stretch out toward where you sent the spell, winding down pathways and weaving between buildings, to a little house in a town, to a certain murderer’s sleeping form. They’ll figure out what you’ve done sooner rather than later, you know. And with the spell you’ve cast banned in every country and scrubbed from every text published in the last century, they will have to come to you to learn how to break it. Not that you’ll tell them, of course.

So now, all there’s left to do is wait. Wait for them to come with their distress and their anger and their paltry threats. Wait for their tears, their denial, their attempts to bargain with you. And as the only one with answers, you’ll be free to give the ones that would only send them further into despair.

As your magical exhaustion ushers you to sleep, a cold smile dances on your face. You haven't gotten this far in life without patience and cruelty, after all. And it looks like both are about to pay off.

You can hardly wait for it.

[itsamenickname]

To Break the Bonds Within Two Kingdoms Chapters 14-17 (the most up-to-date chapter that I have uploaded to Ao3)

Chapter 14

Twenty-four hours.

That was the amount of time it took for Bowser’s life to fall into an endless void of despair.

From leaving his castle at the crack of dawn to rushing Luigi to the castle hospital in the dead of night, everything that happened up to this point all took place in a span of a single day.

It was baffling how so much could happen in such a small timeframe.

But that wasn’t what plagued the Koopa King with immense guilt and regret.

No, it was the gut-wrenching fact that this entire adventure was solely his fault.

Bowser knew how nervous and uncomfortable Luigi felt about the meeting from the moment they read that wretched letter. Hell, after one of their royal council meetings, Luigi had told Kamek and Kammy, the only members of the Koopa Troop Bowser would unquestionably trust with his life, about the mysterious letter and they instantly took the green king’s side. On multiple occasions, the two Magikoopas had gone out of their way to warn the Koopa King about the suspicious letter and even begged him to talk it over with his husband, or at least think about the actual logic behind the letter.

“You should really think this through, My King.”

“Your Burliness, it’s not like King Mario to ask you to meet with him and Queen Peach in private like this.”

“I don’t have a good feeling about this, Bowser.”

But Bowser never listened.

And look where that got him.

________________________________________________________

3 hours ago…

As soon as they heard the waiting room doors open, Mario, Peach, and Bowser shot their heads up and felt their hearts skip a beat upon seeing the doctor walking towards them. The past five hours have been agonizing for the three royals, so for them to finally see the doctor who rushed Luigi to ICU brought them both such an enormous amount of comfort but also an alarming amount of anxiousness.

They just couldn’t stand the wait any longer. They needed to know.

“How is he?” Mario asked with both nervousness and a hint of hopefulness.

The doctor took one look at each of the three royals before he looked back down at his clipboard.

“He’s stable for now…,” the doctor answered after only a few seconds of silence. Bowser would’ve celebrated the reassuring news right then and there, if it wasn’t for the fact that he noticed a very slight hesitance in the Koopa Troopa’s voice. “But, things aren’t looking very good for him…”

“What do you mean…?” Peach nervously inquired as she grabbed Mario’s hand without taking her eyes off the doctor.

It took the Koopa Troopa 15 seconds to respond to Peach’s question, but the three royals could tell that the doctor wasn’t going to give them pleasant news when he carefully removed his glasses and looked straight at them.

“King Luigi lost almost 5 pints of blood, which is a dangerously high amount of blood for anyone to lose, much less a human,” the doctor calmly explained. “To be completely honest with you three, it’s a miracle that he survived for this long, especially when you consider the amount of time that passed between the moment King Boo stabbed him to when you all brought him here.”

“But you can give him a blood transfusion, right?” Mario immediately questioned as he squeezed Peach’s hand with fear. “I don’t know how different Koopa blood is from human blood, but I’m willing-,”

“We already gave His Majesty a blood transfusion and he’s been recovering quite well from it,” the doctor interrupted. “However…, that’s not the main problem we found while treating King Luigi…”

“W-What else did y-you find…?” Peach asked with a noticeable waver in her voice. She felt tears welling up in her eyes, but she made no effort to wipe them away as she and the two kept their attention on the doctor.

This time, not only did it take the Koopa Troopa an eerily minute to answer Peach’s question, but it was the fact that he started to nervously pull his lab coat collar that filled the three royals with absolute dread.

They knew at that moment that they were not going to like hearing whatever the doctor was going to say next. 

“I’m afraid…King Luigi has been paralyzed from the waist down, Your Majesties,” the doctor hesitantly revealed. “Upon treating his back, we discovered that King Boo had severely damaged his lower spinal cord. Even if he miraculously wakes up from this life-threatening injury, it truly pains me to tell you three that King Luigi will never regain movement in his lower body.

Oh Grambi.

Oh dear Grambi, they felt like they were going throw up.

But wait, it just couldn’t be true, could it? This just had to be some sick and twisted game the doctor is playing on them! Surely he’ll start laughing and tell them that Luigi is actually okay and is just recovering from everything that happened, right?

But when they took one look at the doctor’s face, the three royals knew in an instant that this wasn’t just some terrible nightmare.

This was reality.

Luigi, sweet, gentle, and innocent little Luigi was never going to be the same again.

He could never again accompany Mario on one of their fun adventures or join Bowser in one of his crazy shenanigans.

All because of King Boo.

And his fucking determination to take over the entire world.

Right then and there, Bowser wanted nothing more than to free King Boo from the Poltergust just for the pure purpose of putting the ghost king through eternal hell.

But there was one pounding unanswered question that was stopping him from forcefully removing the vacuum cleaner from Mario’s back.

“What about Kamek and Kammy?” Bowser questioned, but with the slight, yet obvious, crack in his voice, the royal couple and the doctor could tell that it was taking everything in the Koopa King’s power to keep his emotions in check. “I know for a fact that they have the power to heal any physical injury, so why aren’t they, or any Magikoopas, rushing over to Luigi’s side and healing his back wound?”

While Bowser was too focused on waiting for the doctor to answer his question, both Mario and Peach took their eyes off of the Koopa King just in time to notice the apple-sized lump in the Koopa Troopa’s throat.

That small action destroyed any remaining confidence they had left.

“I’m sorry to be the one to tell you this, My Lord, but both Kamek and Kammy are dead,” the doctor nervously confessed. “When King Boo invaded the Dark Lands, he ordered his Boos to kill every single minion who had any form of healing abilities. The only surviving members of the Koopa Troop who can truly help King Luigi at this point are us doctors and nurses, but even with our combined medical knowledge, His Majesty will never be physically, and possibly even mentally, the same again.”

That was it.

That was the precise moment when Bowser felt his whole world shattering right in front of him.

His most trusted and loyal minions, no, his guardians, who loved and raised him since the day he hatched, were dead.

But it wasn’t because of King Boo or because of any of the Boos who were loyal to the ghost king.

No, the reason, the one singular reason, this whole adventure had even happened in the first place was because of him and his selfish desire to get Mario’s stupid blessing.

“C-Can we see h-him?” Mario tearfully choked out as he brought Bowser back to reality. The Koopa King didn’t have to look at his brother-in-law to know that he was on the verge of breaking down into tears. He honestly couldn’t blame the red king. He wanted to let everything out right then and there too, but his ego and pride forced him to hold it in because he didn’t want anyone to see him cry.

“You can, but because he’s still in ICU, I’m afraid that only one person can see him at a time,” the doctor responded. “If you like, I can take you to him now, but I do want to caution you that what you’re about to see will be unsettling.”

Bowser didn’t have the mental strength to argue or fight with Mario as the red king followed the doctor to ICU. With every soul-crushing news the doctor had just given him and the royal couple, the Koopa King lost all motivation to even do anything anymore.

But the second after Peach left the waiting room to call Toadsworth and inform him of Luigi’s condition, Bowser finally broke.

______________________________________________________

“What was King Boo talking about?”

When Mario’s voice brought him out of his thoughts, Bowser couldn’t help but quietly sigh in frustration as smoke started to come out of his nostrils. Stars, from trying to figure out his future with Luigi to the fact that he was still mourning for Kamek and Kammy, Mario was honestly the last person the Koopa King wanted to talk to right now. He had half a mind to just flat-out ignoring the red king, but Bowser quickly realized that not acknowledging his brother-in-law would probably lead to another ridiculous argument.

Something he was especially not in the mood to deal with right now.

“Excuse me?” Bowser grudgingly inquired as he looked at Mario with a confused and annoyed expression. Out of the corner of his eye, he noticed Peach watching them behind the receptionist’s desk, which was truthfully the least reassuring thing for him to see.

It could only mean that this wasn’t going to be a pleasant conversation for him.

Great.

“Before you agreed to surrender your kingdom, King Boo said that you ignored Luigi and tossed him aside like some rag doll because you wanted my blessing,” Mario explained. “And I want to know what he meant by that statement.”

Bowser felt his heart stop with horror as he used all his strength to keep a straight face right then and there. Fuck, between the stress of repairing his castle and figuring out his and his kingdom’s future, he completely forgot that King Boo made the heavy indication that he was keeping a secret from the royal couple. He was able to dodge this similar conversation back at the airship before, but since they didn’t have to worry about King Boo anymore, there was nothing stopping Mario from interrogating the Koopa King.

He could lie. Bowser could say that King Boo only said what he said to get a rise out of him, but how long could he keep up that charade? As much as he cared for his minions, they had a terrible habit of spreading rumors and gossip to anyone who showed any remote interest. And considering that he gave Mario and Peach the option to stay at his castle until Luigi woke up, the Koopa King knew it wouldn’t take long for the rumor of his and Luigi’s fight to reach the royal couple’s ears.

Whether he liked it or not, Bowser knew he had to confess what happened between him and Luigi. The scary part was that he was pretty confident Mario knew this as well.

“Luigi…was uncomfortable with me visiting the Mushroom Kingdom yesterday…,” Bowser hesitantly confessed. He ran a hair through his hair in a nervous manner while avoiding eye contact with Mario. “Since the day we received the letter, he had this feeling that something bad was going to happen while I visited you and Peach, but I didn’t listen to him because I was too focused with the thought of getting your approval.”

None of the three royals spoke for what felt like an eternity. How could they though? Both Mario and Peach were too busy digesting the information that was just given to them and Bowser was honestly scared to say anything for fear of making the situation much worse. 

But to both Bowser and Peach’s complete shock, it was Mario who finally broke the silence in the waiting room.

“You knew,” Mario chuckled with a smile so unbelievably forced and strained to the point where Bowser was almost genuinely terrified of the red king. “All this time, you knew exactly how Luigi felt, and yet, you still chose us over him.”

“Mario-,”

“No, I don’t want to hear any of your fucking excuses!” Mario screamed as he stared at Bowser with pure rage. “You mean to tell me that you knew from the very beginning that King Boo was planning to take over both of our kingdoms and you still left Luigi alone to fend himself!? Why?! So that you can have my fucking stamp of approval?! Is how I feel about your relationship with Luigi really that important to you?!”

“We didn’t know King Boo was going to invade our kingdom!” Bowser shouted as he shot up from his chair and kept his focus on Mario. “E. Gadd swore to Luigi that the canisters were secure enough to prevent that psychotic ghost from escaping! If that stupid professor had warned us about King Boo, I would’ve put the entire castle on lockdown and guard Luigi with my fucking life!”

“Don’t you dare blame E. Gadd for your screw-ups!” Mario threatened as he pointed an accusatory finger at Bowser. Tears started to form in the red king’s eyes, but he used all his strength to not let them fall as he kept his attention on Bowser. “You swore to Peach and me that you were a completely changed Koopa and look where that empty promise got us! Because you were so hellbent on wanting me to like you, Professor E. Gadd is dead and my sweet fratellino has to live with the fact that he can’t do most of the things he loves to do anymore!”

“And do you know why I have been trying nonstop to get you to like me for the past 10 fucking months?!” Bowser hollered with tears in his eyes.

Mario couldn’t help but let out a scoff as he started to shake his head.

“Oh, I know exactly why you want my approval so damn badly,” Mario responded with a smile. “The only reason you’re even doing all of this is because you are just waiting for me to give you my trust so that you can have a much easier time taking over the Mushroom Kingdom! Well, guess what Bowser?! I am not falling for your tricks! I know underneath all that ‘goody two-shoes’ exterior is a short-tempered, cold-hearted, and manipulative Koopa who only cares about himself and the fact that Luigi still can’t see that proves that he is a traitor to me and the Mushroom Kingdom!”

That was the moment.

That was the moment when Bowser couldn’t take it anymore.

He had tried to keep in anger in check throughout the entire argument (although he would admit that he didn’t do a very good job), but what Mario just said threw all formalities out the window.

He wasn’t going to stand there and just take it.

And he made no attempt to hide his anger as his mouth started to produce fire.

“Get out.” 

Peach knew right then and there that she had to intervene. She didn’t want to interrupt the two kings from letting their anger out, but with the way Bowser sounded so furious and outraged right at that moment honestly terrified to the point where she had a bad feeling that things would quickly turn into a slaughterhouse if she didn’t stop them from arguing.

“Bowser-,”

“I SAID GET OUT!” Bowser shouted at the top of his lungs as flames emitted out of his mouth. As he started to take a few steps towards Mario, a hint of fear began to grow in the red king’s stomach as he took a few steps away from Bowser. “IT IS ONE THING FOR YOU TO INSULT ME AND CRITICIZE EVERY SINGLE DAMN THING I DO, BUT THE MOMENT YOU CALL LUIGI A TRAITOR, ESPECIALLY WHEN YOU TWO IDIOTS DON’T EVEN KNOW HALF OF THE STRUGGLES HE WENT THROUGH JUST TO HAVE A LITTLE SHRED OF HAPPINESS, THAT’S WHERE I CROSS THE FUCKING LINE! NOW, GET THE HELL OUT OF MY CASTLE AND DON’T EVEN THINK ABOUT STEPPING FOOT IN MY KINGDOM EVER AGAIN! YOU TWO HAVE DONE ENOUGH!”

The Koopa King didn’t wait to see Mario or Peach’s reaction as he stormed out of the waiting room. The only thing that mattered to him at that moment was seeing the one person who meant everything to him.

******

Chapter 15

Today was the day.

And to say that Luigi was nervous was an understatement.

From the moment he decided to take another chance on romance, the green Italian knew he was going to have to eventually tell Mario about his newfound relationship. To find someone who made him the happiest he had felt in a long time was such an enormous milestone for Luigi and he knew that Mario was going to want to know that his younger twin found someone who loved and cared about him just as much as he did.

However, there was one little catch.

Luigi Mario, one of the heroes of the Mushroom Kingdom, was dating King Bowser Koopa.

The same Koopa who kidnapped Peach and terrorized thousands of innocent citizens.

The same Koopa who conquered dozens of kingdoms and galaxies.

The same Koopa who was willing to do anything in order to get what he wanted.

And the same Koopa Luigi had been secretly dating for a little over a month now.

Oh yes, with the way the green-clad plumber was pacing back and forth in his guest quarters and with the way he was twiddling his thumbs, it was plain to see that he had been dreading this day for quite a while. No one could blame him for being so timid and anxious. How are you supposed to tell your older twin brother, or anyone else for that matter, that you’re seeing the sworn enemy of the Mushroom Kingdom because you saw a soft, caring, protective, and somewhat sensitive Koopa underneath his tough and threatening exterior?

Luigi had honestly been asking that same question since he and Bowser first became friends.

And he still didn’t know the answer.

“Are you sure you want to go through with this?”

As soon as he heard his boyfriend’s voice, Luigi immediately stopped pacing and turned around to see Bowser staring at him while simultaneously leaning against the doorway. Despite the unreadable expression the Koopa King had on his face, Luigi didn’t miss the very, very, slight waver in Bowser’s voice and could tell that he was also somewhat nervous to reveal their relationship to Mario.

Stars, what Luigi would give to have even a little bit of Bowser’s confidence right now. How was the Koopa King so clam when they were mere minutes away from telling Mario and Peach about their secret relationship? Were fear and anxiety just not part of Bowser’s vocabulary? And if that was the case, then what on Earth impacted the Koopa King’s decision to start dating a cowardly, timid, and clumsy buffoon who can’t even get out of his brother’s shadow-

No words could express the relief Luigi felt at that moment when he suddenly felt a firm, yet gentle, grip on his shoulders. It was strange, yet very reassuring, how Bowser could tell when his thoughts were about to spiral into an endless blackhole.

“Hey, don’t go freaking out on me right now,” Bowser demanded with a calm and soft tone. “This is the first time I’m visiting the Mushroom Kingdom as an ally and I want us to look good in front of your brother and Peach when we tell them about our relationship.”

Grambi, leave it to Bowser to worry more about impressing Mario and Peach while Luigi over here was on the verge of having a panic attack. The green Italian could’ve had half a mind to break it off with the Koopa King right then and there so that he would have to deal with his egotistical personality anymore.

And yet, despite it all, Luigi just couldn’t help but laugh at Bowser’s strange priorities.

Stars, he loved that Koopa very much.

But he also loved Mario too.

And knowing that there was a strong possibility that his older brother could force him to choose between the kingdom he had sworn to protect or the Koopa who chose to be with him was enough to make Luigi’s laughter die down.

Something that the Koopa King instantly noticed.

“Listen, we don’t have to do this if you’re not ready,” Bowser informed in a comforting tone. He noticed tears welling up in Luigi’s eyes, so he let go of his shoulders and used both of his hands to carefully wipe Luigi’s tears away before they could trail down his face. “If you don’t want to tell your brother and Peach about us, then we can turn this airship around and head back to the castle right now. I am okay with keeping our relationship a secret however long you want until you are comfortable enough to tell them that you and I are a couple.”

Every part of Luigi wanted to tell Bowser to turn the airship around and set a course back to the Dark Lands. He was terrified about the hundreds of possible ways this meeting could go wrong and he was panic-stricken with the sole thought of Mario, Peach, and everyone else hating him for putting himself out there and finding someone who saw him as him.

Not as Green Mario.

Not as the scaredy-cat sidekick.

Just Luigi.

But for some reason…, the green-clad plumber just couldn’t bring himself to say the four simple little words.

Because one way or another, Mario was going to find out about their relationship.

And even though Luigi knew that his older twin wasn’t going to take the news very well, he would rather be the one to tell Mario than have him find out from a random stranger who just happened to see him and Bowser together.

Luigi had to be brave.

Just like Mario.

Just like Peach.

And just like Bowser.

“We have to tell them about us,” Luigi quietly affirmed while he leaned into Bowser’s warm touch. He felt nausea rising in his stomach, but he forced himself to take a few deep breaths in hopes of easing his nerves. “I made the choice to be with you and it’s not fair for you to keep our relationship a secret when I know you want to shout it out to the entire world. I want to tell Mario and Peach that we are a couple.”

Bowser didn’t speak as he took some time to digest Luigi’s statement, but it wasn’t long before the Koopa King brought Luigi close to his chest and wrapped his gigantic arms around the tiny human.

“I don’t know what the future has in stored for us,” Bowser quietly admitted while giving the top of Luigi’s head a gentle kiss. “But whatever happens, I want you to know that there is nothing out there that will ever stop me from loving you.”

_____________________________________

When he started regaining consciousness, the best words to describe how he was feeling at that moment were dazed and disorientated. Now yes, his mind was somewhat sharp enough to notice the bandages that were wrapped around his body, but with the dozens of needles and tubes that were pumping who-knows-what into his arms and the blinding white light that greeted him when he had the strength to open his eyes, it was honestly difficult for him to tell if this was all part of some weird fever dream if he was in the Overthere.

That is, until he heard one particular voice.

“Morning sleepyhead.”

Could it be…?

No words could express the amount of happiness Luigi felt right then and there when he turned his head and saw the one Koopa who snuck his way into his heart.

“Bowser…,” Luigi cheerfully whispered with one of the biggest smiles Bowser had ever seen. The green king felt tears forming in his eyes, but he allowed them to trail down his face as the full realization of his husband sitting right by his side with no visible injuries positively overwhelmed him.

Bowser was okay. 

Bowser was safe.

Those thoughts are more were all the green king could think about at that moment as he forced himself to sit up in hopes of giving his husband the biggest heartfelt hug the needles and tubes could allow him to give.

But Luigi instantly stopped dead in his tracks and let out a painful cry when he suddenly felt a sharp shooting pain in his back.

“Woah there, take it easy sweetie,” Bowser urged as he carefully helped Luigi lay back down on the bed. “Your body is in a very fragile state right now and any sudden movements may reopen your back wound.”

Wait…, back wound…?

What did he mean by that?

Luigi was quiet as he allowed his husband to help guide him back down to a resting position. As he felt his head softly touching the pillow, he started to notice his back pain going down to a more bearable level. However, despite this, Luigi still didn’t speak because he instead decided to use this time to focus on his breathing to help ease the pain in his back a little more.

Neither king spoke for what felt like hours, but Luigi eventually broke the silence when he no longer felt any current pain in his back.

“What happened to me…?” Luigi asked as he looked at Bowser again.

Luigi noticed how that specific question made Bowser uncomfortable because the Koopa King started to look at everything in the hospital room except at him.

That started to somewhat worry the green king.

Because Bowser only did that when he was nervous about something.

And it was rare for Bowser to be afraid of anything.

“King Boo stabbed you in an attempt to kill you…,” Bowser hesitantly answered when he had enough confidence to look at Luigi.

Oh.

Oh.

That would explain why Bowser was so nervous just moments ago.

Actually, come to think of it, as he was processing what Bowser just said, Luigi couldn’t help but notice that everything around him suddenly made much more sense than they did minutes ago.

His back was in a fragile state because King Boo sliced in open.

There were bandages wrapped around his body to prevent him from bleeding to death in addition to protecting his back wound.

And his arms were covered with needles and tubes because that was the only way for the doctors and nurses to inject fluids and medicine into him while he was unconscious.

Luigi’s face must’ve shown that all the dots were now connecting in his head because the next thing he heard was Bowser speaking in a wobbly and quiet tone.

“I’m sorry.”

Luigi couldn’t help but raise an eyebrow in confusion as he looked at Bowser.

But what he saw made his eyes widen.

Because Bowser Koopa, one of the most fearsome creatures in the entire galaxy, was on the verge of crying.

“There’s no reason to be…,” Luigi quietly argued.

“Yes…, there is…,” Bowser insisted with a croaky voice.

And for the first time since they started dating, Bowser started to cry.

Something that Luigi never thought he would see from his tough and intimidating husband.

“I should’ve listened to you!” Bowser screamed in frustration as he shot up from his chair and started to pace back and forth in the hospital room. While Luigi was surprised by the sudden change in Bowser’s voice as well as the Koopa King’s quick actions, he knew that his husband’s anger wasn’t directed at him. “From the moment we received that letter, you knew that something was off and had even talked to Kamek and Kammy to help you convince me that the meeting was a bad idea, but did I take the time to listen to you guys?! No! I was too bloody consumed with wanting your brother’s stupid approval to realize that I was basically handing you and our kingdom over to King Boo on a fucking silver platter!”

“You couldn’t have known about King Boo,” Luigi argued with a gentle tone. 

“But you still had a bad feeling about the letter and the meeting with Mario and Peach!” Bowser explained while continuing to pace back and forth. “I made a promise to you that I would protect you and our people from anyone who would try to hurt you guys and look how well of a job I did there! Our kingdom is in ruins because of me, Kamek and Kammy are dead because of me, and you will suffer from a permanent injury for the rest of your life because of-,”

“Stop it!”

Bowser stopped dead in his tracks and stared at Luigi upon hearing his husband’s voice.

“Stop blaming yourself for this,” Luigi pleaded as he gave the Koopa King a worried look. “Please, it…it hurts me to see you like this when none of this was your fault to begin with.”

Whatever emotions Bower felt moments ago all died out in his body and were replaced with worry and concern when he started to hear Luigi cry.

“I’m sorry,” Bowser whispered as he rushed to Luigi’s side. He took one of Luigi’s hands in his as he sat back down and used his other hand to wipe Luigi’s tears away. “I didn’t mean to freak you out like that. I just…hate that you and our people are suffering because of the choices I made.”

“This isn’t your fault…,” Luigi quietly replied when he was sure he wasn’t going to break down in tears. “I had two full days to tell you how I truly felt about the meeting and letter, but instead of finding time for both us of sit down and talk about it, I waited until you were moments away from entering the airship to express my concerns and worries to you.”

“I should’ve stopped and listened to you though,” Bowser argued as he used his thumb to rub the top of Luigi’s head in a comforting manner. “If I hadn’t been so focused on getting Mario’s approval-,”

“You did what you did because you were doing what you thought was best for our kingdom,” Luigi interrupted as he leaned into Bowser’s hand that was still touching his face. “You didn’t leave me to rule the Dark Lands by myself out of hatred or because of some petty revenge. You chose to visit the Mushroom Kingdom and meet with Mario and Peach because underneath all of those scales and intimidating features is a Koopa who would do anything for the people he loves. I don’t blame you for making those tough decisions and there is nothing, I repeat, nothing, out there that will ever stop me from loving you.” 

Bowser was completely and utterly speechless as he stared at Luigi with a flabbergasted expression. Stars, from the moment he stepped foot into the airship to visit the Mushroom Kingdom, he regretted the things he said to Luigi and had since been terrified of losing his husband or the possibility of the green king despising him all because of his enormous ego, so for Luigi to not blame him for any part of the adventure was such a perplexing thing for the Koopa King to comprehend.

Grambi, Bowser didn’t deserve to be with someone as forgiving and pure-hearted as Luigi.

But before he could have a chance to tell the green Italian this, the two kings heard an unexpected knock at the door.

“Your Beefiness, please hear me out before you burn me to a crisp for disturbing you,” Jerry begged upon opening the door. “It’s just that you haven’t left the room in almost a week and everyone is terrified about the possibility of war between the Dark Lands and the…”

But the words instantly died on Jerry’s lips when he noticed that Luigi was awake and was staring right at him.

“Hi Jerry…,” Luigi greeted with a smile while speaking in a soft-spoken tone.

No one spoke for what felt like hours, but the silence was quickly broken after Jerry shook his head and looked at Luigi again.

“King Luigi, you’re awake!” Jerry exclaimed with a smile.

What happened next was a bit of a blur to Luigi because this was when the Hammer Brother immediately started to ask him hundreds of different questions. The green king knew that Jerry meant well with his questions, but it didn’t stop the green Italian from hyperventilating as everything started to overwhelm him.

Luckily, this was something Bowser instantly noticed.

“Jerry, enough with the all the questions,” Bowser commanded as before whispering comforting  and reassuring things to his husband. Once Luigi’s breathing went back down to a normal level, Bowser spoke to the Hammer Brother again. “Luigi just woke up a few minutes ago, so he would appreciate you not bombarding him with ridiculous questions.” 

Jerry’s face immediately went red with embarrassment upon realizing that his actions almost caused Luigi to have a panic attack.

“My deepest apologies, Your Majesties,” Jerry apologized as he looked at both Luigi and Bowser. “It’s just that-,”

“I know you meant well and it’s fine,” Bowser interrupted before looking at the Hammer Brother. “Just be useful and let the doctor know that Luigi woke up.”

Jerry nodded and would’ve left the room at that moment, if it wasn’t for one pounding question that suddenly came to him.

“Oh, I almost forgot!” Jerry confessed loudly, an action that caused both Luigi and Bowser to look back at him. “Since King Luigi is awake, would you like me to send a minion to inform King Mario and Queen Peach?”

********

Chapter 16

Mario and Peach?

Where are they?

Are they okay?

Have they already left to go back to the Mushroom Kingdom or are they staying here to help Bowser nurse me back to health?

What did Jerry mean when he said that our kingdom is on the verge of war?

These were just a few of the dozens of questions that ran through Luigi’s head as he and Bowser quietly stared at Jerry for what felt like hours. The green king wanted to break the silence that was hanging in the hospital room, he really did, but truthfully…, he couldn’t. Hundreds, no, thousands, of thoughts and questions started to swarm around in his head at a speed that was much too fast for him to process to the point where he was having trouble remembering what Jerry had even initially asked.

And without something to help him focus on the matter at hand, it wasn’t long before Luigi’s thoughts started to spiral into one enormous snowball. 

How will Mario and Peach react upon finding out that I’m awake?

Will they still love me even though I wasn’t strong enough to stop King Boo from taking over our kingdoms?

What if they want nothing to do with me?

What if Mario thinks of me as a traitor to him and to the Mushroom Kingdom for failing to stop King Boo?

He couldn’t help it. Luigi couldn’t help but hyperventilate as the pure thought of Mario despising him for allowing King Boo to conquer their kingdoms increased his anxiety tenfold. Luigi knew deep down that his older twin would never think less of him, especially for something that neither he nor Bowser were prepared for, but his anxiety always had a terrible habit of latching onto one overwhelming thought to the point where he would start having a panic attack.

But what stopped Luigi from having this specific full-blown panic attack was a gentle grip on his shoulders and Bowser’s calm and soothing voice.

“Hey, it’s okay, my love. Everything is going to be alright. Just take some deep breaths and focus on my voice.”

Luigi listened. He closed his eyes and forced himself to slow his breathing down while he listened to Bowser’s soft and gentle voice. At one point, Luigi thought he heard Jerry and Bowser having a small conversation, but because he wanted to focus on keeping his breathing under control, he ultimately decided to not dwell on his surroundings.

But once Luigi felt calm enough to open his eyes, that was when he saw that he and Bowser were the only two beings in the hospital room.

“Where’s Jerry?” Luigi asked as he looked at Bowser. He noticed that his husband’s hands were now resting on the hospital bed, but Luigi quickly pushed that thought to the side as he was more curious on Jerry’s whereabouts.

“He’s preparing for his trip to the Mushroom Kingdom,” Bowser answered before resting his hands on top of Luigi’s hands. “I told him to inform Mario and Peach about you first thing in the morning because I want us to spend some quality time together before they come and visit you.”

“Why are they at the Mushroom Kingdom?” Luigi questioned before gently grabbing one of Bowser’s hands. “I mean, I understand that they have to put their people and kingdom first, not to mention that Toadsworth would probably want to see them after the adventure we all had, but I would think that Mario would want to stay and help you take care of me while Peach watches over their kingdom.”

“I did give them both the option to stay here until you regained consciousness,” Bowser explained before scratching the back of his head with his free hand. “But…, your brother and I aren’t really on good speaking terms right now…”

That.

That response actually surprised Luigi quite a lot as he noticed that Bowser was starting to avoid eye contact. Okay, yes, the green king knew that Mario and Bowser had always been on thin ice with each other, even after he and Bowser told the Mushroom couple about their relationship, but he honestly thought that Mario and Bowser would at least be on betterish terms after this whole King Boo ordeal.

Luigi just couldn’t wrap his head around it. What on Earth could’ve caused his husband and his older brother to refuse to speak to each other?

“What happened…?” Luigi softly inquired as he used his thumb to rub Bowser’s hand in a circular motion.

The hospital room was quiet for quite a long while as Bowser tried to find a good response to his husband’s question. Luigi didn’t mind the silence. From the way Bowser tensed up immediately after he heard his question, the green king could tell that this was a sensitive topic for his husband. In fact, as a way to reassure Bowser that he could take as much time as he needed, Luigi gave the Koopa King’s hand a gentle squeeze while also giving him a soft and understanding smile.

That small gesture eventually gave Bowser the confidence he needed to answer Luigi’s question.

“…Mario knows about our fight…,” Bowser revealed while staring straight at Luigi.

Oh.

Oh.

This was not the direction Luigi thought this conversation would be going.

And considering that Bowser took a long time to respond to his question, Luigi could only imagine what went down between Mario and Bowser while he was unconscious.

“How…did he take it…?” Luigi hesitantly asked as he looked at his husband with a worrisome expression.

Luigi’s question was immediately met with a forced chuckle from Bowser.

“Bad…,” Bowser admitted while running his free hand through his hair. “He took it really fucking badly…”

Luigi couldn’t help but silently gulp as nervousness attempted to prevent him from speaking again.

“Do you…want to talk about it…?” Luigi inquired with a little bit of timidness in his voice.

“There’s not much to talk about,” Bowser responded with a sigh. While Luigi heard the exhaustion and frustration in his husband’s voice, he knew that neither of those emotions were directed at him. “Your brother despises me with every bone in his body and nothing, not even surrendering my entire kingdom in exchange for your life, will ever get rid of that raw and pure hatred he has for me.”

Well fuck, that was rather disheartening for Luigi to hear, if he was being honest with himself. He had hoped for any sign of willingness from Mario or Bowser to at least try to get back on better terms, but based on everything Bowser just said, that optimism was pretty much thrown out the window.

Luigi only had the strength to let out a soft “oh,” before uneasiness and tension started to fill the hospital room. The green king couldn’t stand the painfully awkward silence, but no matter how much he wanted to break it, he honestly didn’t know how to. Breaking the ice had never been his strong suit.

That is, until he thought of one particular question.

“Why do you want Mario’s blessing so badly?”

Now that.

Luigi noticed how that specific question threw Bowser’s whole demeanor off course when the Koopa King suddenly froze up and stared straight at him. Truthfully, this was a question Luigi had thought about for months, but it never occurred to him to bring the topic up with Bowser until he remembered that the reason his husband wanted to visit the Mushroom Kingdom in the first place was because he wanted Mario’s approval.

“Do you remember the first argument we had as a couple?” Bowser asked with a low and rough tone.

While the sudden change of subject was completely unexpected, Luigi quietly nodded as he nervously rubbed his arms in remembrance.

“What happened after that fight is the reason I’ve been trying so hard to get Mario’s blessing,” Bowser confessed while giving Luigi his utmost attention. “The things my minions, my own fucking members of the Koopa Troop, and those idiotic Toads did to push you into doing what you did on that fateful night were, and still are, unacceptable to me as someone with some decent morals and especially to me as someone who loves the wonderful and kind-hearted human being that you are. I never want you to go through that same pain and misery you went through back then, especially with your last living relative. I know you and Mario have one of the strongest brotherly bonds in the entire galaxy and I know sadness wouldn’t even begin to convey how you would feel if your brother started treating you like a traitor, so when I saw your unconscious body that same night after we had our first fight, I made a promise. I promised, myself, Grambi, the Star Spirits, and especially to us as a couple that I would do everything in my power to get Mario to like me so that you would never have to feel that gut-wrenching feeling of your brother hating you because of the relationship you have with me.”

Oh.

Oh Stars.

All this time…

He never thought…

He was doing it for him.

All this time, Bowser had been trying to get Mario’s blessing for HIM.

And he never even realized it until now.

Luigi didn’t noticed the tears that were trailing down his face until he felt Bowser’s hand gently wiping the tears off of his cheeks.

“I-I don’t deserve y-you…,” Luigi softly choked out as more tears began to well up in his eyes.

Bowser brought himself closer to his husband before carefully wrapping an arm around his shoulders.

“Hey now, don’t say that about yourself,” Bowser quietly reassured while rubbing Luigi’s upper  arm in a comforting matter. He kissed the top of Luigi’s head before continuing to wipe the rest of the tears off of Luigi’s face. “If anything, I’m the one who should be saying that.”

That response earned a little laugh out of Luigi as he rested his head against the Koopa King’s shoulder.

“You’re just saying that to make me feel better…,” Luigi whispered as a smile crept up onto his face.

“No, I’m being 100% serious about this,” Bowser promised while continuing to wipe Luigi’s tears away. He inwardly celebrated when he saw Luigi’s smile, so he decided to give the top of Luigi’s head another kiss. “I called you a disgrace and almost got you killed, and yet, you’re still choosing to forgive me for everything I’ve done since we got that letter. It takes a big heart for someone to do that, especially after everything you went through.”

“Maybe we don’t really deserve each other at all and would be better off finding someone else to spend the rest of our lives with,” Luigi jokingly remarked with a smile. “I think Prince Peasley is still into me, so maybe after we make our divorce final, I should give him a call and let him know that I’m available to date again.”

“Oh no, I am not letting you get away from me that easily!” Bowser teased with a mischievous smirk. He gently pulled Luigi closer to him as he placed his snout up against Luigi’s ear and spoke in a low, yet playful tone. “I chose you over an entire kingdom and the way you want to repay me is by dumping me for someone who cares too much about his looks? I would think that a big and strong king such as myself at least deserves a better reward, don’t you think?”

Luigi couldn’t help but laugh uncontrollably at the thought of Bowser using flirtation to help him get what he wanted. However, the laughter was quickly cut short when Luigi let out a painful cry due to a sudden unbearable pain in his back.

Something that Bowser instantly noticed.

“Alright, I think it’s time for you to rest for the night,” Bowser remarked while moving his face away from Luigi.

“But I just woke up,” Luigi pointed out before letting out a yawn, an action that made Bowser raised an eyebrow with a smirk.

“Yes, but the thing you’re not realizing is that it’s almost 1 in the morning, not to mention that your back is still in a very fragile state,” Bowser explained. “And the more you rest, the faster your injury will heal, so let’s get you ready for bed before the doctor yells at me for-,”

“Can you tell me about your adventure with Mario?”

Bowser stopped in his tracks upon hearing Luigi’s unexpected question before looking at him with a confused smile.

“What?”

“Can you tell me about your adventure with Mario?” Luigi repeated while grabbing one of Bowser’s hands. “I promise I’ll go to sleep after you finish the story, but I want to know what it was like for you to team up with my brother.”

Bowser was honestly conflicted. On the one hand, the idea of playfully exaggerating his and Mario’s adventure was rather appealing to him, but at the same time, he wanted Luigi to recover from his injury as quickly as possible and he knew that keeping him awake when he should be resting was going to make the recovery process a little slower.

But when Bowser looked at Luigi and saw that his husband was giving him the puppy eyes, that was when the Koopa King couldn't help but cave in.

Damn, Bowser couldn’t say no to that face.

“Fine, I’ll tell you about my adventure with Mario,” Bowser said with a sigh of defeat. “But, you have to promise me that you’ll go to sleep right after I finish the story.”

Luigi smiled and nodded in agreement before better settling himself into the bed.

“Okay… I’ll start off after I left the Dark Lands…"

********

Chapter 17

The next morning…

When the sun broke through the dark clouds and cast its warming rays onto the Dark Lands just a few hours after their late-night conversation, Luigi and Bowser spent their morning together in the hospital room.

What did they do throughout the morning, you ask?

It’s really quite simple.

Luigi and Bowser just hung out.

You see, since Luigi was still far too injured to get out of bed, much less leave the hospital room, the odd couple had limited options on how they could spend their morning together. However, this setback didn’t stop them from getting creative with the few activities they could do together. From having conversations about all kinds of random and different topics to just silently enjoying each other’s company, the only thing that ultimately mattered to the two kings was spending quality time together before Mario and Peach’s arrival.

However, their happiness was soon interrupted when a Koopa Troopa visited the couple and informed them that General Guy and Goomboss, the last surviving members of the original royal court, requested an urgent audience with King Bowser.

Luigi could instantly tell that the minion’s announcement angered his husband when he saw smoke coming out of Bowser’s nose.

The green king watched the two Koopas with worry and concern as Bowser started to go off on the young minion. He was conflicted. On the one hand, not only was it quite touching to see this protective side of Bowser, especially when he was being protective over him, but it was also especially comforting knowing that his husband was so easily willing to put his needs first.

But on the other hand…, both he and Bowser were kings of the Dark Lands.

And as kings, they had a duty to put their citizens and kingdom before anything else.

Even if that anything else was their significant other.

Upon hearing Bowser threatening the poor Koopa Troopa, Luigi was quickly brought out of his thoughts and wasted no time in grabbing his husband’s hand in order to stop him in his tracks. While the green king was successful in interrupting Bowser, this action also earned a bewildered look from the Koopa King as he was now confused on why Luigi interrupted his conversation. Luigi could feel his husband staring at him with confusion, and maybe a hint of annoyance, and while he was now somewhat afraid to go through with what he wanted to do next, the green king soon pushed his fears aside and told the young minion to let Goomboss and General Guy know that Bowser will meet them in the conference room located near the dining hall.

To say that Bowser was shocked after hearing Luigi’s order was a complete understatement.

“Why did you tell him that I’ll meet with Goomboss and General Guy?” Bowser asked in an annoyed tone after the Koopa Troopa rushed out of the room in nervous haste.

“Because I can’t always be your highest priority,” Luigi answered as he stared straight at Bowser.

“And just what the hell is that supposed to mean?” Bowser demanded with an accusatory tone as his free hand grabbed the hospital bed railing with a death grip.

Luigi didn’t speak as he grabbed Bowser’s other hand and gently forced him to let go of the railing. While part of the railing was now crushed beyond repair, the green Italian paid it no mind as he brought Bowser’s hand closer to his heart and gave it a gentle squeeze in hopes of calming him down.

“At the end of the day, we still have a kingdom to rule and hundreds of citizens to watch over and protect,” Luigi calmly explained while giving Bowser his utmost attention. To help further reduce Bowser’s temper, the green king started rubbing his husband’s hand in circular motions with his thumb. “And while it’s great that you and Mario defeated King Boo, everyone in our kingdom is in a tough place right now and as their kings, you and I have to step up during these hard times and put our people’s needs above our own.”

“General Guy and Goomboss can take care of the kingdom and citizens’ needs without me,” Bowser grumbled in a much softer tone while looking down at his and Luigi’s hands.

“Bowser…, you and I both know that General Guy and Goomboss can’t watch over the kingdom in our absence,” Luigi admitted with an amused smile. “Don’t get me wrong, while I do appreciate the enormous support they’ve given us since we made our relationship public, you have to admit that General Guy is very disorganized and Goomboss is…well…not the sharpest Goomba in the kingdom.”

As much as Bowser wanted to prove his husband wrong, the Koopa King inwardly knew deep down that Luigi did have a really good point. Goomboss and General Guy, as loyal as they were to the royal family, were honestly two of the last members of the royal court Bowser would trust with anything that could even be remotely important.

The Koopa King couldn’t help but let out a chuckle as the thought of General Guy and Goomboss becoming official rulers of the Dark Lands entered his mind.

Oh yea, their kingdom would surely fall apart if it was under their idiotic rule.

“Alright…, I suppose it would be a good idea for me to meet with them so that we still have a functioning kingdom to rule over after you recover,” Bowser admitted with a smile.

“I would agree with that,” Luigi remarked with a smirk.

“However,” Bowser emphasized. “Even though I’ll give them my audience, you better mark my words, my little green bean: As soon as I finished my meeting with the two nitwits, I swear to Grambi and to the Star Spirits up in the Overthere that I will come straight back here to continue nursing you back to health.”

“And I will be right here waiting for your heroic return,” Luigi teasingly promised before kissing Bowser’s hand.

_______________________________________________________

7 hours later…

When Luigi woke up from his unintentional nap, the first thing he realized was the sound of someone knocking on a door. Now yes, while he was sort of in a daze from being woken up so suddenly, the green king’s haziness only lasted for a few seconds before he looked down at his arms and remembered all the events that led up to this particular moment.

King Boo launched a surprise invasion on the Dark Lands in his new ultimate plan to take over the world.

King Boo conquered the Mushroom Kingdom and kidnapped Peach as a way to have an advantage over Mario.

King Boo stabbed him even after Bowser agreed to surrender their kingdom over to the ghost king.

Wait a minute…

Bowser.

At the mention of his husband’s name, Luigi quickly looked around the room and felt his heart sinking when he noticed that the Koopa King was nowhere in sight. However, this feeling only lasted a few seconds because Luigi quickly remembered that Bowser had to leave his bedside because General Guy and Goomboss wanted to meet with him.

Another knock at the door brought Luigi back to reality before he could have a chance to figure out how much time had passed since his husband left to attend the meeting.

“Come in,” Luigi called out with a horse voice before quickly clearing his throat.

It took the unexpected visitor a little bit of time to open the door (which slightly confused the green king for a few different reasons), but when Luigi finally saw the visitor after they opened the door, he couldn’t help but let out an excited gasp.

Because the mysterious visitor wasn’t really mysterious at all.

“Mario…,” Luigi whispered with a heart-warming smile. If he noticed the few tears that were trailing down his face, he made no effort to wipe them away as the sight of his twin standing right in front of him with no, if not minor, injuries confirmed the questions he had thought about during his late-night conversation with Bowser.

Mario was safe.

Mario was alive.

“Hi fratellino…,” Mario softly responded with one of the most wholesome smiles Luigi had ever seen. As Mario started to walk to his brother’s bedside, his mind urged and begged him to give his twin the biggest hug he could possibly give to make sure that this wasn’t a dream. However, the red king knew that Luigi was still in a very delicate state, so rather than risk hurting his little brother, Mario instead kissed Luigi’s forehead once he was right by his side. “How are you feeling?”

“I’m okay, especially now that I know that King Boo didn’t hurt you,” Luigi answered. After Mario kissed his forehead, Luigi looked around the room but soon started to get confused when he noticed that he and Mario were the only two beings in the hospital room. “Where’s Peach?”

“Toadsworth and the royal court thought it would be best for her to stay behind while I visit you,” Mario explained before sitting down on the same chair Bowser had sat on for the past week. “She really wanted to come and see you after Jerry told us that you woke up, but both Toadsworth and the entire royal court were really determined in keeping her as far away from King Boo as humanly possible, even if there was no way for him to hurt us again.”

“But wouldn’t it be easier and better to have you guard her instead of the Toads?” Luigi inquired with an amused expression.

“That’s what Peach and I said, but you know how stubborn those old geezers can be, especially when it comes to Peach’s safety,” Mario chuckled before carefully grabbing one of Luigi’s hands.

“Old geezers?” Luigi questioned with a raised eyebrow. “Aren’t most of them younger than you and Peach?”

“Hey, Peach and I are not that old!” Mario exclaimed with a huge smile on his face. “If anything, you’re basically calling yourself old by calling Peach and me old!”

Luigi couldn’t help but laugh uncontrollably as the image of him, Mario, and Peach being senior citizens entered his mind, but his laughter was quickly cut short when he let out a painful cry due to a sudden and unbearable pain in his back.

Something that Mario quickly noticed.

“Maybe I should let you rest for a little bit…,” Mario pondered while looking at Luigi with a worried look.

Luigi waited for the pain to become more bearable before quickly shaking his head in disagreement.

“No, no, I’m okay big bro,” Luigi quickly reassured. As a way to help him change Mario’s mind, he gave his brother’s hand a squeeze while giving him a reassuring look. “My back only hurts like that when I laugh too hard, but it’s fine otherwise. Besides…, this is the first time I’ve seen you since King Boo made that deal with you and Bowser and I want to spend some quality time with my big brother.”

Mario was quiet as he continued to worryingly stare at Luigi, but it only lasted a few seconds before he used his free hand to gently ruffle Luigi’s head.

“Alright, if you say that you’re okay, then I’ll take your word for it,” Mario promised with a genuine smile.

“Thank you, big bro,” Luigi replied with a smile. He looked down at his and Mario’s hands, but quickly looked back up when a sudden thought came to him. “Actually…, since it’s just us here in the hospital room, would it be okay if I ask you something?”

“Of course,” Mario answered while nodding his head in affirmation. “What do you want to ask me?”

Luigi looked down at his and Mario’s hands as he nervously thought about how he could best ask his question. He knew he needed to ask the red king about the one thought that had been in mind since last night, but truthfully…, he was afraid. He was afraid to ask his brother his question because he knew that it would send in a conversation in a whole other direction that neither brother would be prepared for.

Plus, he was also afraid that discussing this topic would further drive the wedge between Mario and Bowser as well as possibly their kingdoms.

He didn’t want the two most important people in his life to hate each other. He couldn’t bear the thought of possibly having to choose his brother or his husband.

It was only when Mario silently and gently squeezed his hand that Luigi was not only brought back to reality, but also eventually gained the confidence he needed to ask the ultimate question.

“Why do you hate Bowser so much?”

With the way Mario’s shoulders instantly tensed up and with the way he immediately froze up with something that resembled fear, Luigi could tell that this was the last thing Mario expected him to ask.

He couldn’t blame his older brother for reacting this way, he really couldn’t, but that wasn’t going to stop Luigi from figuring out the root cause of Mario’s hatred towards Bowser.

“W-What makes you think that I hate Bowser, little b-bro?” Mario asked with an obvious slight stutter in his voice.

Luigi felt Mario’s grip on his hand tightening, but he didn't comment on this as he placed his free hand on top of his and Mario’s hands.

“Bowser told me about the argument you two had after you guys brought me here,” Luigi revealed while giving Mario his full attention. “Plus…, he also told me about how our kingdoms are on the verge of war.”

There was a painful awkward silence between the brothers as they each took their time to process the words that now hung in the air.

But what surprised Luigi more was that it didn’t take Mario long to have an answer to his question.

“I was terrified of losing you…,” Mario revealed as he stared straight at Luigi.

“But that doesn’t explain why you declared war on my kingdom,” Luigi softly responded after taking a few seconds to process Mario’s answer.

Mario couldn’t help but close his eyes and let out an annoyed sigh before looking at Luigi again.

“The reason I declared war on the Dark Lands was because I was, and still am, angry at Bowser for leaving you alone in that castle with no way to defend yourself from a lunatic ghost, even after you told him about the bad feeling you had about the letter,” Mario explained.

“The only reason Bowser left me alone in the first place was because he was following your orders so that you could give us your blessing,” Luigi argued. The green king felt anger rising up inside of him, but he forced himself to take a few deep breaths because he didn't want to yell at his twin. “Throughout my entire relationship with him, you have never once given him the benefit of the doubt, even after he had already proven himself to me.”

“Luigi, look, it’s not that I’m ungrateful for Bowser taking the bullet for you, I really am thankful for what he did to save you,” Mario explained while running his free hand through his hair in a stressful manner. “But you have to see this from my side and understand that the reason you almost got killed in the first place was because he was too damn stubborn to listen to your concerns-,”

“What happened with Boom Boom wasn’t when Bowser proved to me that he was a changed Koopa,” Luigi interrupted. “What I’m talking about was the time when he saved me from killing myself.”

Wait, what?

No…, it just couldn’t be true.

Luigi is kind, gentle, and one of the sweetest people in the entire galaxy.

There’s no way that he just said that he tried to kill himself at one point.

Right?

But when Mario looked at his little brother and saw nothing but seriousness on his face, that was when the red king knew that Luigi wasn’t joking.

He wanted to throw up.

How did he not know about this?

But Mario forced that question down as he gained the strength to only say one word with such a  quiet and croaky voice that he wasn’t even sure if he said anything at all. 

“W…What…?”

Luigi closed his eyes and took one calming deep breath before looking at Mario again.

“Do you remember when I spent that week at the Mushroom Kingdom shortly after Bowser and I made our relationship public?” Luigi softly asked.

Mario only had the strength to nod as he refused to take his eyes off of Luigi.

“During my stay at the castle, the Toads started to treat me differently,” Luigi explained as he kept his eyes glued onto Mario. “At first, it was just the usual bullying, like calling me ‘Green Mario,’ ‘Louis,’ or even ‘Mario’s sidekick,’ but after a short while…they started to treat me very differently. They would give me hurtful nicknames like ‘disgrace’ and ‘traitor to the Mushroom Kingdom,’ they would give me the cold shoulder whenever I would try to say hello to them or give them a friendly wave, and they would even try to convince me that you were ashamed to have me as your brother just because I was dating Bowser.

“But they weren’t the only ones who were giving me a hard time because of my relationship with Bowser. Pretty soon, a lot of Bowser’s minions started bullying me after I visited you and Peach. At first, they did the same things the Toads did to me back at the Mushroom Kingdom…, but…it wasn’t long before they…”

Luigi didn’t finish speaking because he used his free hand to wipe away the tears that were now trickling down his face. Mario, sadden to see Luigi so upset, was quiet as he carefully helped his brother wipe the tears off of his face.

“What…did they do…?” Mario asked in a very quiet and hesitant tone after Luigi calmed down.

Luigi didn’t speak for what felt like an eternity, but when he did finally speak, Mario felt his heart shattering into a million pieces when he heard his little brother speaking with a brittle and quiet voice.

“They…They vandalized my room one night…,” Luigi hesitantly confessed while avoiding eye contact with Mario. “They destroyed all of my things in my room, but the thing that hurt me the most was that they wrote horrible and cruel things on my walls like ‘Go kill yourself’ and ‘You deserve to die.’”

Mario wanted nothing more than to go find the Toads and minions who gave Luigi so much shit for being in a relationship, but there was one pressing question that was stopping him from rushing out of the hospital room.

“Why didn’t you tell me?”

Luigi was silent, but it wasn’t long before the green king looked at Mario with a sad and worried look.

“Because you hated Bowser so much back then, much more than you do right now,” Luigi whispered. “And I knew that if you found out that I attempted suicide under Bowser’s care, then you would’ve blamed him for something that wasn’t his fault.”

So many thoughts and questions were running through Mario’s head, but they were all quickly dashed away when the two kings heard a sudden knock on the door.

“I’m sorry to interrupt Your Majesties, but Toadsworth called and requested King Mario to return to the Mushroom Kingdom immediately,” Jerry informed while looking at both of the brothers.

Mario had never felt more conflicted than he did at that precise moment. Every part of him wanted to stay by Luigi’s side and asked him the questions that were rushing through his head right at this very moment.

But on the other hand…, he was a king. He knew that he couldn’t just ignore Toadsworth’s request, especially if it was about something significantly important.

Luigi could tell how difficult this decision was for his brother, so he gently tighten his grip on Mario’s hand as a way to snap him out of his internal dilemma. 

“You should go be with Peach and Toadsworth, fratellone,” Luigi suggested. He gave Mario’s hand one last squeeze before letting it go. “I think it’s best if you leave and take some time to process all of this.”

Mario didn’t move for what felt like hours, but he eventually listened to his brother’s suggestion and reluctantly followed Jerry out of the hospital room.

*******

I do have two more chapters planned for this story, but I have no idea when I'll be able to write & those because at the end of March 2023, I put this story on hiatus due to irl personal stuff. Don't worry, everything's fine and okay, but it's something that I have to prioritize for a while.

Thank you all who took the time to read my story (whether you read it on Ao3 or on here) and I look forward to seeing you all in the final 2 chapters sometime in the future. :)

To the Bowuigi fans who are suffering from Ao3 withdraw (including myself):

I present you with this very long post (that I will break down into 3-4 different posts) I have luckily kept in my computer files that I hope will ease you in these hard times.

Enjoy. :)

To Break the Bonds Within Two Kingdoms

**********

Chapter 1

For as long as he could remember, King Boo wanted to become the greatest villain the Mushroom Kingdom has ever seen. From the heroes dying right in front of him to the damsel pleading for their very life, King Boo fantasized hundreds and thousands of plans all with the same end goal of him becoming the new king of the Mushroom Kingdom. So naturally, when King Boo was given an opportunity to defeat Mario, the said hero of the Mushroom Kingdom, at Isle Delfino, he was ecstatic. This, he thought, was the first step in conquering the Mushroom Kingdom and possibly the entire world. If King Boo could defeat Mario, nothing could stop him from achieving his life-long dream.

Except Mario did stop him.

Now yes, King Boo was frustrated at his and Bowser’s ultimate loss, but the ghost king knew that he would be given a second opportunity to defeat Mario. He just needed a new and different angle to work with, but what new angle would allow him to have the advantage over that annoying red plumber?

The answer to that question was Luigi.

After his defeat at Isle Delfino, King Boo was informed that Mario had a younger twin brother named Luigi. This new piece of information allowed King Boo to come up with a new perfect plan that would surely stop Mario once and for all. All the ghost king had to do was kidnap Luigi and Mario would come crawling on his knees and beg him to spare his little brother’s life. Surely, nothing would go wrong with that plan, right?

Wrong. That so-called “perfect” plan backfired on King Boo.

Three times.

To say King Boo was angry after his third defeat is an understatement.

While his hotel plan ended in a total disaster, the one good thing that came out of it was that Luigi didn’t capture all 16 Boos with that Poltergust he hated so very much. King Boo was grateful that the uncaught Boos were loyal enough to distract the professor long enough for him to break out of the canister.  

But the ghost king knew that it wouldn’t matter in the long run.

As long as Luigi and Professor E. Gadd were around, King Boo knew it would only be a matter of time before he would get captured and be put back in that infuriating prison again. 

And that thought alone fueled him with nothing but anger.

“ARGGH!”

In a fit of rage, King Boo threw his crown at a nearby mirror. As his anger slowly started to simmer back down, he realized that he was essentially powerless without his crown, so he quickly placed his crown back on his head before staring at his reflection in the now-broken mirror.

He hated, no, loathed, Luigi. If King Boo ever saw his face again, he would make sure that scaredy-cat plumber wished he didn’t defeat him in that first mansion all those years ago. If only he had a new angle to work with, he could-

“Um, Sir?”

King Boo swiftly turned around to see a Boo watching him with a worrisome expressions. Boos who served under King Boo for a long time were used to seeing him frustrated and angry, so the fact that this Boo seemed nervous to be anywhere near him told King Boo that he was one of the Boos they recently recruited.

At least that small piece of information reassured King Boo that he could still fear into the young Boo.

“What reason do you have to interrupt me?!” King Boo shouted. He was fuming with rage and he felt that he had every right to be. This Boo interrupted his loathing of Luigi and he should’ve known better than to barged into the room like this.

The Boo nervously gulped before speaking.

“I-I think y-you should see this,” the Boo stammered while holding out an object with a shaky hand.

It took King Boo a moment to realize that the Boo was holding out a newspaper. He yanked the newspaper right out of the young Boo’s hand, without even muttering a thank you, and read the front page headline.

PEACE TREATY AND ALLIANCE BETWEEN THE MUSHROOM KINGDOM AND THE DARK LANDS!

A peace treaty between Peach and Bowser?

This peaked King Boo’s interest.

Upon further reading the article, King Boo learned that Queen Peach and King Mario are willing to sign a peace treaty with King Bowser and King Luigi, despite everything Bowser did to the Mushroom Kingdom in the past. King Boo wasn’t sure why Mario would agree to sign a peace treaty with his sworn arch-nemesis, but he figured that the red king didn’t have that many options since Bowser and Luigi are a married couple.

Speaking of Luigi…

“Remind me of the relationship status between Luigi and Bowser as well as the relationship between Mario and Bowser,” King Boo ordered while staring at a picture on the front page. It was a picture of Mario, Luigi, Peach, and Bowser with jubilant and cheerful expressions surrounded with all kinds of different decorations. King Boo could tell that the picture was taken on Luigi and Bowser’s wedding day due to the fact that all four of the royals were wearing the most extravagant clothes he had ever seen in addition that Bowser was also kissing an embarrassed, but overjoyed, Luigi on the cheek while carrying him bridal style.

Grambi, King Boo despised every single thing about the picture. 

“Luigi and Bowser were officially married almost three months ago and their coronation took place three days after the wedding,” the Boo informed. “While Mario gave his public approval to the wedding, multiple spies from both the Mushroom Kingdom and the Dark Lands have confirmed that Mario and Bowser still don’t like each other.”

It was quiet as King Boo continued to read the rest of the article. It wasn’t until he started to read an article about a Toad explaining the disadvantages of the peace treaty that King Boo realized what the Boo actually said.

They still don’t like each other.

Despite the wedding and the peace treaty they’ll soon sign together, Mario and Bowser still hate each other.

King Boo couldn’t help but laugh at the situation that was now presented in front of him.

This didn’t just peak his interest anymore.

This was fantastic news.

No, this was absolutely perfect.

King Boo instantly tossed the newspaper aside as he gave the young Boo his full attention for the first time since he entered the room. Hundreds of ideas started to swarm in the ghost king’s head, but they were all easily pushed to the side as one thought consumed his mind. 

This was his new angle.

“Gather all the Boos to the corridor immediately!” King Boo exclaimed to the Boo. He stared at his reflection with the biggest grin he ever had while brainstorming his brand new master plan. “We are going to pay a visit to our dearest friend!”

***********

Chapter 2

One week later…

If there was one thing Luigi could change about himself, he would like to be much more confident. For their entire lives, Luigi always admired the enormous amount of confidence Mario had in any situation he was put into and wish he could have half the courage his older brother had. From battling villains without hesitation to being the spotlight of a party, Luigi wondered how it was all so easy for Mario when he would have the most difficult time talking to even one person.

Even if that said person, or rather, Koopa, was his husband.

Luigi watched the interaction between Bowser and the airship crew as he twiddled his thumbs in an anxious manner. While he couldn’t hear the conversation, Luigi could tell that Bowser was demanding the Shy Guys to finish the airship preparations based on the authoritative body language Bowser was using and the nervous posture the Shy Guys had.

He understood why Bowser was so eager to leave. A heavy thunderstorm was expected to hit the Dark Lands for the first time in weeks and both he and Bowser knew that flying an enormous wooden airship in the middle of a thunderstorm would certainly lead to disaster. The Koopa King wanted to leave before the thunderstorm could have a chance to hit them and Luigi didn’t blame him one bit.

But just because Luigi understood Bowser’s reasoning didn’t mean he agreed with his husband’s decision.

Now that the Shy Guys were working at a satisfying pace, Bowser faced Luigi and immediately noticed how anxious the green king was. Hating to see his spouse so distressed, Bowser walked back to his husband’s side and wrapped his arm around Luigi’s shoulders.

“I’m sorry about that, love,” Bowser apologized before kissing the top of Luigi’s head. He turned to watch the now-frantic Shy Guys making the final preparations as he gently squeezed Luigi closer to him. “I know you hate it when I yell at the minions, but every once in a while, they need to get it through their heads, you know? It’s like I need to babysit these idiots in order for them to actually do their job.” 

Luigi was quiet. He knew he should’ve responded, or, at the very least, acknowledged Bowser’s statement, but his mind was too preoccupied with something far more pressing.

He wasn’t the only one who noticed that Bowser’s statement was met with silence.

“Are you alright?” Bowser asked worriedly. While keeping his right arm around Luigi’s shoulder, he used his left hand to gently turn Luigi’s head in order for him to see how concern the Koopa King was for him. “You’ve hardly said a word all morning and I can tell that you’re thinking about something serious. What’s going on?”

Luigi needed to tell him. He already voiced his concerns to Bowser ever since they received the letter two days ago, but they would always get pulled away by their royal duties before they could finish the conversation.

Maybe Bowser would listen to him this time. It was just the two of them in front of the airship and Luigi didn’t think the Shy Guys would be brave enough to interrupt their conversation. Would Bowser take his words to heart?

Luigi desperately hoped so.

“I-I don’t think this is a good idea,” Luigi confessed while staring at Bowser.

Neither of them spoke for a minute, although it felt much longer to Luigi, as Bowser processed his words. Once Bowser fully realized what Luigi was referring to, he took his arm off of Luigi’s shoulders and carefully held his husband’s hands.

“There’s no reason for you to worry about this,” Bowser responded. He started rubbing Luigi’s hands with his thumbs in a circular motion in hopes of easing his husband’s worries. While he noticed a visible change in Luigi’s nervousness, Bowser could tell that his actions weren’t enough to completely calm the green king down just yet. “It’s just a meeting with your brother and Peach. I don’t see anything wrong with that.”

“The problem isn’t about the meeting,” Luigi explained as he looked down at his hands. “The problem is that Mario and Peach want to meet with you alone.”

Luigi looked back up at Bowser as the Koopa King tried to think of a response to his statement. When he saw that Bowser was struggling to find the right words to comfort his anxiousness, Luigi continued.

“I know Mario wasn’t…thrilled about our wedding,” Luigi hesitated. “But even still, Mario and I have been very close our entire lives. I’m just confused on why Mario wants you to visit the Mushroom Kingdom by yourself. I know he already gave you the protective big brother lecture at our wedding and when we all signed the peace treaty last week, so what other topic does Mario want to discuss with you that I can’t or shouldn’t know about?”

If Bowser was completely honest, he had no idea what the meeting with Mario and Peach was going to be about and that terrified him. Ever since he and Luigi announced their relationship to the royal couple, Bowser never felt like he actually got Mario’s approval. He couldn’t blame the red king, especially after all the hell he used to put the Mushroom Kingdom through, but he and Luigi have been together for almost 18 months now. Surely, Mario would at least realize that Bowser loved Luigi just as much as he did, right?

Then again, judging by the tone in the letter, Bowser highly doubted he was going to get Mario’s approval anytime soon.

“Your Majesties,” a Shy Guy announced as he interrupted the couple’s conversation. With the dark blue jacket and the captain’s cap the Shy Guy was wearing, both Luigi and Bowser could tell that this particular Shy Guy was the Captain of the airship crew, or, at the very least, a Shy Guy with a very high rank. “The airship is ready for departure. If we want to reach the Mushroom Kingdom before the thunderstorms hits, I suggest we leave immediately.”

“Excellent work, Captain!” Bowser exclaimed, not realizing Luigi’s question was left unanswered. He gave the Captain one unexpected, hard pat on the back before wrapping his arm back around Luigi’s shoulders. “Prepare for takeoff while I have another minute with my husband.”

Luigi watched the Captain as he bowed to Bowser and left them alone to notify the airship crew. Once the Captain was out of their sight, Bowser took his arm off Luigi’s shoulders and gently grabbed his husband’s shoulders to make sure he had Luigi’s full attention.

“I should be back by tomorrow night at the absolute latest,” Bowser informed. “The only thing you’ll need to focus on is the meeting with the royal court later today, but both Kamek and Kammy will be there to help you with that as well as anything else you’ll need while I’m gone. You’ll be okay handling the royal stuff without me, right?”

Luigi had never felt more like two completely different people than at that moment. On the inside, he was begging, pleading, and doing anything else he could desperately think of to stop Bowser from entering that airship.

But on the outside, all he could do was silently nod.

“Good,” Bowser responded with a smile. He gave Luigi one last kiss on the head before he let go of his shoulders. “I love you and I’ll see you tomorrow night.”

As Bowser started to make his way to the airship entrance, Luigi’s world instantly started to crumble right in front of him. He had no idea why his brother wanted to meet with Bowser in private or why his husband didn’t find Mario’s letter suspicious, but there was one thing Luigi knew with absolute certainty.

He can’t let him go.

He cannot let Bowser get onto the airship.

“STOP!”

Luigi was surprised and relieved when Bowser stopped in his tracks and turned around to face him. Luigi noticed Bowser’s bewildered facial expression, but he couldn’t dwell on his husband’s emotions. He had to be brave.

“You can’t get on that airship,” Luigi demanded. He was fully aware that he sounded like a parent ordering a child to not do something, but it didn’t matter to him. The only thing he could think about was preventing Bowser from entering that airship.

“Luigi, I’ll only be gone until tomorrow night,” Bowser reassured. He started to take a few steps towards Luigi in hopes of calming him down. “It’s going to be-,”

“No!”

Bowser immediately stopped walking after Luigi interrupted him. By now, the entire airship crew was watching the conversation unfold, but neither Luigi nor Bowser noticed. They were too busy focusing on their significant other to realize that they now had an audience.

“Every time we try to talk about this, something always interrupts us to where we can’t finish the conversation,” Luigi explained. “But I’m not going to let that happen this time. This trip is a bad idea Bowser and I won’t let you get on that airship.”

Wait, what?

He had to be joking. 

There was no way Luigi would try to prevent him, the King of the Koopas, from entering the airship, right? 

But as Bowser looked at his husband, he realized that Luigi’s nervousness and anxiousness from before was now completely replace with something that almost resembled confidence and determination.

Oh yes, Luigi was actually being sincere.

Now Bowser just couldn’t help but laugh at that.

“You won’t let me?” Bowser scoffed. He took a few intimidating steps towards Luigi with the goal of scaring him a little bit. Even though Bowser noticed a small change in his husband’s demeanor, it didn’t stop Luigi from keeping his ground. “How do you intend to stop me? It may have been a while, but we both know I can defeat you in a fight.”

“The Shy Guys will listen to me,” Luigi responded. He inwardly knew that Bowser could very well easily crush him like a bug, if he really wanted to, but Luigi couldn’t let that thought break his confidence. “And if they decide to follow your orders over mine, I learned my way around an airship and I know the parts that can prevent it from flying for days or even weeks.”

“Are you seriously trying to blackmail me right now?!” Bowser screamed while running a hand through his hair. If he wasn’t so frustrated with how stubborn Luigi was being, Bowser would’ve honestly been proud to see his husband standing up to him for something he truly believed in. “It’s just a stupid meeting with Mario and Peach! Why are you so hung up over this?!”

“It’s not just about the meeting!” Luigi argued. He felt the tears welling up in his eyes, but he refused to let himself cry in front of Bowser. “Ever since you got the letter, I’ve been having this really bad feeling that something terrible is going to happen if you enter that airship and visit the Mushroom Kingdom! And besides, if it’s just a ridiculous meeting, then why are you so obsessed about it?!”

When Luigi and Bowser first started dating, the Koopa King made a promise to himself to not take his anger out on Luigi whenever he was frustrated about something, even if Luigi was the cause of his anger. Bowser knew how sensitive and emotional his husband was and the Koopa King especially didn’t want to do or say anything that would greatly upset the man he vowed to love and protect.

But this time, Bowser let his anger get the best of him.

“Do you really want to know why I want to go to this meeting so badly?!” Bowser snapped. “Fine! I want to go to this meeting because I want to get Mario’s blessing! You may have a fantastic relationship with your brother and Peach, but incase your idiotic brain didn’t realize it, Mario despises my guts and ignoring him certainly isn’t going to get him to like me! I’m going to this damn meeting whether you like it or not, so you can either suck it up and accept it or cry about it like the fucking disgrace you are to everyone!” 

No one uttered a sound after Bowser’s emotional outburst. The Shy Guys have worked with Bowser for many years, but to see Bowser so livid and enraged terrified them to the point where they were too paralyzed with fear to even move. 

It was beyond horrifying to witness the Koopa King like this.

But the Shy Guys and Bowser were especially surprised when it was Luigi who finally broke the silence.

“S-So that’s how y-you really feel about m-me?”

When he heard Luigi’s quiet and brittle voice, Bowser instantly realized the harsh words he said to his husband. Bowser was very hesitant to look at Luigi, but he knew he needed to see just how much of an impact his words had on the green king if he wanted to apologize for his outburst.

But what he saw shattered his heart.

Luigi was visibly shaking so much that Bowser couldn’t help but wonder how he was even able to stand. The tears the green king desperately tried to hold in during the argument were now pouring down his face and he was hugging himself so tightly that Bowser had a feeling that bruises were going to form on Luigi’s arms within the next few days.

It was a gut-wrenching sight to see.

But what devastated Bowser the most was that he was the reason for it.

“Luigi,” Bowser whispered. He had no idea what to do, but he knew he needed to do something. Bowser carefully took one step towards Luigi as a way to show that he wanted to apologize for his outburst and help comfort his distressed husband.

Luigi took one step back in response.

“I-If that’s how y-you really feel about me, then I-I won’t stop you from l-leaving,” Luigi stammered while taking a few more steps away from Bowser. “E-Enjoy you t-time away from a d-disgrace like m-me.”

Luigi hastily ran back to the castle before Bowser could utter a response. Every part of the Koopa King’s mind wanted to follow, call out, or literally anything else he could think of to let Luigi know that he was sorry and that he didn’t mean to take his anger out on him.

But his body just simply wouldn’t let him. All Bowser could do was watch Luigi as the green king ran farther and farther away from him.

“K-King B-Bowser?”

Bowser turned to see the Captain watching him with fear and terror. He completely forgot that the Shy Guys were waiting for his orders and considering that he now no doubt knew that the entire airship crew saw his and Luigi’s fight unfold was especially a nail to the coffin.

“W-We really need to g-go if want to m-make it b-before,-”

“I hear you loud and clear,” Bowser interrupted with a sigh. He gave the castle one last look before walking towards the entrance of the airship. “I’m ready to go.”

***********

Chapter 3

When Luigi and Bowser revealed their relationship to Mario and Peach, the Mushroom couple had mixed feelings. At first, Peach was very hesitant about the relationship, but her opinion soon changed when she saw how happy Luigi and Bowser were together. From putting the other one’s needs above his own to supporting each other through all the hardships, Peach noticed all the little interactions between the odd couple during their stays at the Mushroom Kingdom and it warmed her heart to see that Bowser was a truly changed Koopa.

For Mario…, it was really difficult for him to give Luigi and Bowser his blessing. Sure, he announced his approval of the relationship to the public eye, but Peach, Bowser, and even Luigi knew that it would take time for the Mushroom King to fully accept Luigi and Bowser’s relationship.

Bowser couldn’t blame Mario for his reluctance. Up until two years ago, he considered both Mario and Luigi as his arch-enemies, so it made sense to the Koopa King that he would need to gain Mario’s trust in order for the red king to truly accept his relationship with his brother.

But the last thing Bowser expected was for Mario to antagonize him.

Constantly.

You see, every time Luigi and Bowser visited the Mushroom Kingdom, Mario sort of made it a goal of his to anger Bowser to the point where the Koopa King would cause a massive scene and prove to everyone, especially Luigi and Peach, that he was the same Koopa he used to be all those years ago. Whether it was criticism or complaints, Mario would try every tactic he could think of to push Bowser over the limit.

I don’t understand how your minions are still loyal to you after all you put them through.

This is not how you should rule a kingdom.

You don’t deserve to be with Luigi.

Bowser had considered telling Luigi and Peach about Mario’s behavior on multiple occasions, but he decided long ago that it wasn’t worth mentioning to either of them. Mario was Peach’s entire world and Bowser was smart enough to know that Peach would easily take her husband’s words over his.

As for Luigi…

The green king had been through so much ever since they announced their relationship to the public. From the Mushroom Kingdom treating him like a traitor to the Dark Lands still seeing him as an enemy, it pained Bowser to see all the battles Luigi faced just to live the life he wanted to have.

If Luigi ever found out about Mario’s behavior towards the Koopa King, it would break the green Italian’s heart.

Although with everything that happened today, Luigi finding out about his brother’s behavior was honestly the least of Bowser’s worries.

“What the hell have I gotten myself into?” Bowser sighed as he rubbed his face with his hands.

Three hours have gone by since the airship left the Dark Lands, but to Bowser, it was three hours since his huge fight with Luigi. As soon as he entered the airship, Bowser ordered anyone within earshot to not disturb him until they landed. He didn’t wait to hear any of the Shy Guys’ responses (but he knew that none of them would risk angering him) and took the most direct route to his quarters. The Koopa King didn’t even acknowledge the Shy Guys who stopped and bowed to him, although the minions were sort of used to it at this point.

But as soon as Bowser was alone in his room, he broke down.

Why? Why did he lose control like that? All Luigi wanted was to voice his concerns about Bowser’s trip to the Mushroom Kingdom. It was a simple request that Bowser could’ve easily agreed to, but instead, he essentially destroyed his entire marriage all because he was so determined in getting Mario’s stupid approval.

Was this ridiculous meeting with Mario and Peach really that important to him?

Bowser heard a knock on the door before he had time to consider the question.

“Enter,” Bowser grumbled as he ran a hand through his hair.

The door opened to reveal the Captain, but with the way his hands were fidgeting and his whole body was rocking back and forth, it was obvious that the Shy Guy was terrified to interrupt whatever Bowser was doing.

“I-I’m here to inform y-you that the a-airship just l-landed,” the Captain nervously announced.

Bowser was hesitant. As much as he didn’t want to, he would need to figure out his situation with Luigi later. Right now, he had to prioritize this meeting with Mario and Peach.

Sighing one last time, Bowser looked at the Captain and spoke with an aggressive tone.

“Let’s just get this over with.”

King Mario felt a headache coming on as he listened to the argument between Peach, Toadsworth, and the royal court. If it was purely up to him, he would’ve ended the meeting hours ago, but ever since he and Peach signed the peace treaty, his days were filled to the brim with all kinds of different meetings with the royal court explaining their reasons on why signing the peace treaty was a terrible idea.

It’s not like he could blame them for being such nervous wrecks. Luigi and Bowser have been together for almost 18 months and Mario still hates Bowser with every fiber of his being.

Not that he would admit that to anyone.

“Your Majesties, we cannot trust King Bowser on keeping his promises,” a male Toad insisted, interrupting Mario’s thoughts. With the white spots on his black cap, Mario recognized the Toad as one of the higher-ranking members of the royal court. “He has caused nothing but trouble to our kingdom for years and he expects us to pretend that his actions never happened?”

“By boogity, that’s exactly what he wants us to do!” Toadbert explained before adjusting his glasses. Mario watched Toadbert as the longtime serving Toad looked through the dozens of papers scattered in front of him. “King Bowser hopes to gain our trust with the peace treaty, and once he sees us letting our guard down, he’ll use that opportunity to attack us, by boogity!”

“What do you suppose we do then?” a female Toad with red spots on her white cap explained. Based on the way the Toad was rubbing her forehead, as if she was stressed, Mario could tell that she was likely a newer member of the royal court. “His armies have always been, and still are, much more powerful than ours. If we attack him now, he’ll surely destroy us, but we can’t just sit back and wait for him to make the first move.

“King Bowser is not going to betray us!” Toadsworth exclaimed while slamming his cane on the floor. He took a few deep breaths before looking at each member of the royal court. “Have you all forgotten that he is married to King Luigi, one of the heroes of the Mushroom Kingdom? He would never allow King Koopa to attack our kingdom.”

A male Toad with white spots on his orange cap slammed his fist on the table before anyone could have a chance to respond.

“King Luigi betrayed us the moment he started a romantic relationship with that vile Koopa,” the Toad stated. “For all we know, he could be plotting with King Bowser to conquer the Mushroom Kingdom. We cannot trust either of them.”

Mario was grateful that Peach chimed into the conversation at that moment because he would’ve gone off on the idiotic Toad for even considering Luigi as a traitor had she not intervened.

“That is enough!” Peach shouted while shooting up from her chair. The entire royal court turned stiff upon hearing the queen’s sudden outburst, but Peach paid no attention. “We have been in an official alliance with the Dark Lands for less than a week and no one is even willing to give Bowser a chance! Yes, he has done nothing but terrible things to the Mushroom Kingdom in the past, but he wants to be a better Koopa now. Need I remind you all that the peace treaty was entirely his idea, not ours, and not to mention that he went through a lot just to have a public relationship with Luigi? That right there proves to me that Bowser is not the Koopa he used to be all those years ago and it greatly disappoints me that none of you can see that.”

It was a huge relief to Mario when a maid announced her presence with a knock on the conference room door right then and there. He didn’t have to look at the royal court to know that the meeting would’ve instantly turned into a verbal bloodbath if the maid arrived even one second later.

“Your Majesties, you have a visitor in the throne room,” the maid informed.

“Who’s the visitor?” Mario asked, speaking for the first time since the meeting started. He and Peach weren’t expecting any visitors today, but it was also entirely possible that the visitor could’ve just slipped from their minds, especially given that this past week had been exhausting for the royal couple.

The entire throne room noticed the stutter in the maid’s voice.

“I-I think it’s best if y-you see for yourself, Your M-Majesty,” the maid answered with an anxious tone.

Mario and Peach exchanged a worried glance before following the maid to the throne room. Usually, the maids or guards would announce the visitor to the royal couple, but considering the fact that the maid refused to provide the visitor’s name, in addition to that she was reluctant to respond to Mario’s question was rather alarming.

Who was the mysterious visitor?

Upon entering the throne room, Mario and Peach were relieved to find that the mysterious visitor was just Bowser. Mario now understood why the maid was nervous in answering his question and couldn’t blame her for the way she reacted.

But Mario’s relief melted away when he noticed two important pieces of information.

Luigi wasn’t with Bowser in the throne room.

And Bowser didn’t have his usual confidence.

“King Bowser.”

“Your Majesties.”

The throne room was painfully quiet for what felt like an eternity. None of the three royals knew how to break the silence.

It was only when Mario finally spoke that the atmosphere of the room took a 180˚ turn.

“What are you doing here?”

***********

Chapter 4

Wait, what?

This wasn’t at all where Bowser thought the conversation would be going.

Okay, sure, the actual purpose of this meeting had honestly been a mystery to the Koopa King ever since he received the letter, but he did have a few ideas on what the royal couple wanted to discuss with him. Between his relationship with Luigi and the peace treaty they all recently signed together, it would make sense for Mario and Peach to check in on him and make sure that he wasn’t going to back down on the promises he made to them.

But for Mario to ask why he was in his throne room when this entire meeting was his and Peach’s idea?

That was the last thing Bowser expected to hear.

“You wrote a letter that said you two wanted to speak with me in private,” Bowser answered while keeping his temper in check. He wasn’t sure how they could forget about a meeting, much less a meeting with him of all people, but with everything the four royals had to deal with since the signing of the peace treaty, Bowser figured that this meeting was likely not a high priority for the royal couple.

That hopefulness was thrown out the window when Mario spoke again.

“I never wrote you a letter.”

Okay, now that just didn’t make any sense to Bowser. It was one thing for Mario and Peach to forget about a meeting, but for them to have the audacity to act like they didn’t plan this meeting in the first place?

That started to anger the Koopa King.

“What do you mean ‘you never wrote me a letter?’” Bowser bellowed in a mocking tone. “Two days ago, I received a letter from you saying that you and Peach wanted to have a private meeting with me. You didn’t provide any purpose or reason for the meeting, but considering the fact that you don’t think too highly of me, I figured that you two wanted to do another ridiculous check up on me.”

Bowser could tell he struck a nerve when he saw Mario clenching his fists and momentarily conjuring up his Firebrand. While he was able to keep his composure in front of the Mushroom couple, Bowser couldn’t help but inwardly smirk at his small unintentional victory.

“You better watch what you say, King Koopa,” Mario threateningly demanded while ruining Bowser’s little victory. “I don’t know how it works in your kingdom, but here in the Mushroom Kingdom, you are expected to treat me and Peach with respect.”

It was a miracle that Peach interrupted the small argument right then and there because if she hadn’t, Bowser would’ve instantly dropped the formalities and used his fire breath to burn Mario to a crisp.

That would’ve been an interesting way to tell Luigi that he broke the peace treaty and started a war against his brother’s kingdom.

“Mario, sweetie, calm down,” Peach pleaded as she placed her hands on her husband’s shoulders. Bowser was amazed by how calm she was despite the amount of tension that was now hanging in the throne room. “Can you please show us the letter we allegedly wrote so that we can clear this matter up?”

It took a few moments for Bowser to realize that the question was directed at him and not Mario, but once he noticed that Peach was looking directly at him, the Koopa King immediately grabbed the letter out of his shell. He held the paper out to the royal couple, but Mario was quick to yank it out of Bowser’s hand, without even muttering a thank you, and start reading.

It was quiet as Peach and Bowser waited for Mario to finish reading the letter. Every part of Bowser wanted to tap his foot or sigh in annoyance, but he forced himself to take a few deep breaths because he knew that his impatience would only fuel Mario’s happiness. When five minutes have passed, Mario handed the letter to Peach before giving Bowser his utmost attention.

“We didn’t send this letter.”

Now that.

That statement made Bowser furious.

“Bullshit!” Bowser fumed. “I have seen the letters you two wrote to me and Luigi after we became an official couple and I know for a fact that those seals are real and official!”

“Yes, that is true, but this is neither mine nor Peach’s handwriting,” Mario explained. “Plus, we have a few Toads who are authorized to write letters on our behalf, but Peach and I always review the letter before we give the approval to mail it out to the recipient. This is the first time we’re seeing this letter and I can guarantee you that none of the Toads have this kind of handwriting.”

“Okay, so if none of you guys wrote the letter, then who the hell did?” Bowser inquired with a frustrated tone.

Before the royal couple could have a chance to think about Bowser’s question, a Hammer Brother suddenly barged into the throne room. Mario and Peach quickly went into a battle stance, but Bowser immediately shot his arm out to prevent any conflict from breaking out as he recognized the now-exhausted minion as one of Luigi’s personal guards.

“Jerry, what the hell are you doing here?” Bowser asked. “And why are you so out of breath?”

It took far too long, in Bowser’s opinion, for Jerry to catch his breath. Come to think of it, he wasn’t even sure why the minion was so out of breath to begin with. Jerry’s devoted loyalty to the royal family and high status in the Koopa Troop gave him the privilege to use the Koopa Clown Car Kamek and Kammy specifically made for the highest ranking minions.

But what Jerry said next made the three royals’ blood run cold.

“King Boo has taken over the Dark Lands!”

2 hours ago…

Luigi sighed as he stared at his reflection in the master bathroom mirror. With his red face and puffy eyes, it was easy to tell that he had been crying for quite some time and Luigi knew the minions well enough to know that it wouldn’t take long for the entire castle to find out that the green king sprinted to his and Bowser’s room with tears in his eyes.

And considering that his fight with Bowser was loud enough for even the Comet Observatory to hear them, Luigi knew it would only be a matter of time until everyone put two and two together.

It was such a relief that the master bathroom was directly connected to the master bedroom.

Luigi decided to give up on trying to look presentable, so he exited the master bathroom and collapsed on his and Bowser’s king-sized bed. He grabbed one of the pillows on his husband’s side of the bed before giving it a tight squeeze as a way to comfort himself from everything that happened in the past hour.

“How could this have happened?” Luigi whispered to himself while staring at the ceiling.

Why? Why did Bowser have to yell at him like that? All Luigi wanted was an actual conversation with Bowser about his private meeting with Mario and Peach. Granted, it probably wasn’t the best idea to express his concerns to the Koopa King right before he was scheduled to leave the Dark Lands, but Luigi didn’t think he was asking for too much. Was it really that difficult for Bowser to stop and listen to him for ten minutes?

Judging by the way their conversation ended, it apparently was.

Luigi didn’t want to think about Bowser or the argument anymore, so he forced himself to sit up on the bed and look around the room for something to distract himself with. It wasn’t until he saw the balcony entrance that he remembered the entire reason for Bowser’s early departure.

The thunderstorm was going to start soon.

And despite all the alarms that were running through his head, Luigi suddenly wanted nothing more than to take a walk in the rain.

With his mind now made up, Luigi got off the bed and walked to the bedroom door with a sense of urgency.

But he only took a few steps before the door was instantly sealed off with a purple gate.

A purple gate? He hadn’t seen that since-

Luigi could’ve sworn he felt his heart stop upon remembering the last time a purple gate blocked the exit.

“N-no,” Luigi trembled as he frantically looked around the room for any possible exit. He quickly realized that the rest of the exits were sealed off with the same purple gates, so he started to hysterically knock on the wall next to the bedroom door in hopes of making enough noise for any minion to hear him. “No, no, no!” 

He talked to E. Gadd two weeks ago. He reassured Luigi that his arch-nemesis was still trapped in that canister along with all the other ghosts he captured after that horrendous hotel adventure.

It was impossible for him to escape again.

But horror struck Luigi as soon as he heard the all-too-familiar and low chuckle he heard so many times in his nightmares.

And even though his mind was begging him not to, Luigi forced himself to turn around to face the one Boo he never wanted to see again.

“Well, well, well, if it isn’t my dear friend, Luigi,” King Boo taunted. “How long has it been since our last little reunion? One year? Two years? It’s hard to tell since I’ve been trapped in that canister for quite some time.”

Luigi couldn’t respond. He wasn’t sure if King Boo’s questions were rhetorical or actually genuine, but Luigi honestly didn’t care one way or the another because his mind was pleading him to scream, run, or do anything else he could think of to get away from the Boo who caused so much trouble for him and his brother.

But he was far too petrified to do anything.

And it didn’t take King Boo that long to notice this.

“Not in the mood to talk, huh?” King Boo asked upon noticing Luigi’s terrified expression. “That’s fine. I figured we would have a short reunion before I start my ultimate plan.”

Ultimate plan? What did that mean?

Luigi’s questions were immediately answered when he saw King Boo summoning a painting frame. The green king didn’t even realized he was screaming in terror as thunder rumbled in the distance at that exact moment.

But by the time the thunder stopped, he was already gone.