Yoshi was bored. Mario and Luigi somewhere fixing plumbing while Princess Peach was busy with her royal obligations. This left our dinosaur friend laying in the grass staring at the sky. He suddenly sat up.
"I'll go to Shiver City. Mario and Luigi said it had snow all year and was a nice place." The green dinosaur stood up and found the warp pipe leading to Shiver City fairly quickly. He shivered as he jumped out.
"I see why they call it Shiver City." Yoshi shook at the sudden cold. As he looked around he saw a nice open area with crisp and untouched snow. It seemed odd but Yoshi wasn't going to question his luck.
Just as he reached the clear area something cold hit him in the back of the head, "Ngh!"
When he turned around he saw Bowser Jr. with his mask up holding another snowball, "Hahaha! I got you!"
Yoshi smiled before making a snowball of his own and throwing at the young Koopa, "I'll get you back!"
The two reptiles chased each other around throwing snowballs until they heard a loud crack!
Both of them immediately froze in place and stared at each other before underneath them.
In their footprints cracks could be seen. Now Yoshi understood why there were no tracks in the snow. The green reptile looked at Bowser Jr. with a reassuring smile, "We're gonna be-"
"Your Highness!" The two turned to see Kamek on his broom, "What are you doing on the pond?! The ice is thin this time of year! Your father will be very angry if anything happens to you!"
Bowser Jr. didn't move, "Kamek! Do something! But don't hurt Yoshi!" As reptiles neither of them would last long under the surface.
Kamek looked uncertain, "But if I get you off that will unbalance the ice and Yoshi will fall in! I can't get you both off at once!"
"Kamek! Where did you and- Junior! What happened?!" The King of Koopas was now standing by Kamek.
"Papa! The ice is cracking underneath us!" The young Koopa shouted to his father.
Yoshi rattled his brain for ideas. Oh! if only I could use my wings outside of the Brawl stadiums! The ice cracked again. If he didn't do something, both of them would fall in.
"Bowser, Kamek, listen up! I've got an idea but I need you both to work with me!" Yoshi shouted, "Bowser, I'm going to toss Junior to you. Kamek, can you use a levitation spell on me so I don't fall in?"
"Yes, I can!" The Magikoopa shouted back. Just as he pulled out his wand, their time ran out. The ice gave out beneath them, sending them falling towards each other and into the water.
Yoshi acted without thought as he grabbed Bowser Jr.'s arm and tossed him at his father before the young Koopa got wet. Kamek had no time to cast his spell and Yoshi fell into the frigid water. His cold-blooded body having no defense against it.
"Papa, you have to do something!" Bowser Jr. yelled as Bowser set him on solid ground. As fire-breathing Koopas, their bodies could handle being in the cold better than a Yoshi could.
"Don't go anywhere." Bowser said to his son before jumping into the hole Yoshi had fallen into.
"Papa!" Junior yelled and took a step forwards before he was stopped by Kamek.
"He knows what he's doing." The Magikoopa said with an arm in front of the Koopa prince.
The Koopa King resurfaced with Yoshi who was unconscious. Bowser climbed up into the snow, "He's still breathing but we need to get him to the castle. If we don't get him warmed up, he won't last long."
Kamek nodded, "The warp pipe we came through is just around that building, Your Majesty."
The three Koopas hurried back to the castle and Bowser gave the orders. Kamek was to get a lukewarm bath started while Junior put a few towels on the towel heater and brought a few more to dry to cold water off of himself and Yoshi.
The King of Koopas set the tropical dinosaur on a towel on the stone floor. All the floors in the castle were warm due to the lava moat outside.
The green dinosaur shivered while Bowser was trying to dry him, "Ngh? W-where a-a-a-m-m I-I-I?"
"You fell in the frozen pond after saving Junior. We brought you back to my castle. You have hypothermia. I know how to treat it in reptiles." Bowser explained as he continued drying the smaller reptile.
He saved me? Even though I help stop him from taking the Mushroom Kingdom? Yoshi thought. His body shook again at being so cold.
After Yoshi was dry, Bowser took him to the bathroom where Kamek had drawn a lukewarm bath. The Koopa King helped Yoshi into the water before turning to the door, "Stay in the water until I come back. If you need anything, just shout." The large reptile left and closed the door.
Yoshi got comfortable, the water felt nice. Thinking about the situation, he felt a strange feeling. Why would Bowser save me? Is he simply repaying me for saving Bowser Jr.? Or is it… something else? He was so gentle, not at all like he would if he were simply repaying a debt. The more he thought about how the Koopa King had treated him, the more he felt the strange, fuzzy feeling. It was still on his mind as he drifted into sleep.
After leaving Yoshi in the lukewarm water for about 30 minutes, Bowser returned. He knocked on the door before entering and found the tropical reptile sleeping in the bathtub.
The Koopa thought about waking him up bet decided against it as he would need lots of rest to recover from the hypothermia. After drying him, Bowser carried him out of the bathroom, smirking at how the green reptile curled up and pressed against him for warmth despite being wrapped in a warm towel.
"Where should we put him, sire?" Kamek asked, flying next to Bowser on his broom, "We haven't built a guest room for years in the castles."
"I'll take care of it, Kamek. Are Mario and Luigi looking for him yet?" The Koopa King asked as he continued walking.
The Magikoopa shook his head, "Not yet. None of his friends show any signs of even knowing he's gone."
Bowser scoffed, "Figures. Mario doesn't pay attention to anyone but himself and the Princess. Even his brother gets ignored in favor of himself or Peach. Keep an eye on them, we don't need them making a mess of the castle while Yoshi recovers. Reptiles are vulnerable enough to hypothermia."
Kamek nodded before flying off. Bowser opened the door to his personal chambers before setting Yoshi on the large bed, wrapping him in the blankets. Leaving the smaller dinosaur, the king closed the door.
Bowser Jr. came running around the corner, "Is Yoshi gonna be okay, Papa? It was just supposed to be a game."
Bowser knelt and placed a hand on his son's shoulder, "He'll be fine. He needs rest."
Yoshi awoke some time later and felt very comfortable. Looking around, he didn't recognize the room he was in. It followed the same theme as Bowser's castles always did yet seemed more relaxed. He was laying in a bed quite large, you could probably fit someone twice Bowser's size in it.
Sitting up, Yoshi wrapped himself with the blanket. He looked out the window and saw the sun was just about to finish setting.
Yoshi stepped onto the warm floor and felt dizzy, placing a hand on the bed to stabilize himself. He heard the door open and close before someone put him back on the bed.
"You shouldn't be up yet. Hypothermia is dangerous for reptiles but even more so for tropical reptiles like Yoshies." He heard Bowser's voice and turned to the Koopa king.
"How long was I asleep?" Yoshi asked, adjusting the blanket to cover him more.
Bowser sat on the edge of the bed, "Most of the afternoon. You were already unconscious when I pulled you out of the water but didn't stay that way long. After I left you in the bath, you fell asleep." He explained before handing Yoshi a glass of water, "Try to drink that but do it slowly."
Yoshi took a few sips of the room-temperature water before handing it back and laying down. He felt abnormally tired but that made sense, he may be cold blooded but his body was still focusing energy to getting warm and recovering.
"Out of curiosity, whose room am I in?" He asked, shifting so he could see Bowser more fully.
Bowser gave a light chuckle, "As you can imagine, I don't get very many guests so I stopped building a guest room in my castle long ago. This is my personal chamber." He gestured to the room, "You won't be disturbed here like you would if I placed you in the barracks and Junior is worried enough without you taking up space in his room."
Something about being in Bowser's bed made that weird fuzzy feeling return to Yoshi. He could feel his face heat up and buried most of his head in the blankets, pretending to just be covering himself more.
"So…" He started, hesitant to go with what this strange feeling was pressing him to say, "Where are you sleeping?"
Bowser waved a dismissive hand, "The Koopa Army has plenty of cots and portable beds. I'll set one up in here to keep an eye on you."
Yoshi bit his tongue in uncertainty, "Well… You could… Sleep here… I wouldn't mind…" He looked away from Bowser and at a now very fascinating piece of wall, "...There's plenty of room… That's only if you want… I mean you don't have to…" He buried himself in the blankets, completely out of sight, "I'm just gonna shut up."
The room was agonizingly quiet to Yoshi. What was I thinking? He's the Koopa king! We're supposed to be enemies! Oh how the lines have blurred. He thought.
The weight on the bed shifted before Yoshi was pulled against what he assumed was Bowser but was too embarrassed to check.
"Alright you win. My bed is much more comfortable than a cot anyways." Bowser chuckled, "Get some rest, Yoshi."
The Koopa king was warm and Yoshi instinctively curled up against him. Must be because he can breathe fire. He thought as he drifted off into sleep.
It took merely seconds before Yoshi's breathing slowed down and Bowser uncovered him to see the tropical dinosaur had already fallen asleep, a faint blush still on his face.The giant Koopa grinned to himself. He's actually pretty cute when he's not eating half my army.