AN: Day 2 of Kippea Week

"I've already gone with a ruby to make my eyes red and with an amethyst when I went after the Dark Moon to make my eyes purple, now I need a new jewel for my crown that will enhance my magic and make my eyes match it, but it needs to be scary! I have my honor as a ghost after all!" King Boo practically pleaded his case to Princess Peach as he hoisted his bag of jewels that would fit his crown onto her balcony and dragged them into her room as she let him in out of habit.

Needless to say the princess was still rather befuddled by all this, after she continued to see him in her dreams fighting off Bowser or some other fearful figure, he started visiting in the evenings just as the sun set as if he were a stray cat or something. He had admitted that he really did magically manifest himself into her dreams so she'd sleep peacefully, and he desperately felt the need to admit it after she had the Shadow Queen nightmare. Especially since that one took him by surprise that he wasn't sure how to deal with it at first. In any case, it's been a couple of months now since he started visiting outside of her dreams and despite everything, especially the obvious, they became friends. Secret friends of course, as he was still a villain, but regardless, she was willing to help him pick out a jewel for his crown that he would no doubt use against Luigi and even Mario, but at least they put up an honorable fight, he would assure her with a click of his tongue.

"Um…how about the topaz?" Peach suggested vaguely from seeing it peek out of the opening of the bag.

King Boo pulled it out and pursed his lips in thought, then put it on his crown and dashed over to her full length mirror to watch his eyes glow yellow. He pursed his lips in contemplation for a moment before sticking his tongue out in a classic boo scaring pose. Before turning to her, not emitting the energy it usually takes to scare someone enough to knock them back a step or two, but enough to hopefully seem scary.

"What do you think?" He asked, lolling his tongue back in momentarily to annunciate properly before leaving it out again.

"Definitely intimidating." She answered honestly after a slight shiver of intimidation.

"Hmm…." He lolled his tongue back in and put a nubby hand to his chin to think about it again, turning back to his reflection, he squinted at himself as if he genuinely wasn't sure. "I'll keep it as a maybe, as good as being intimidating is, I don't entirely want to look like a Bomb Boo." Thus, he promptly took off the topaz from his crown and set it aside on an ottoman that was nearby as the start of his 'maybe' pile.

He then pulled out a diamond next, as he had no doubt that it would be a powerful boost to his magic, but he hadn't the slightest idea of what it would do to his eyes.

For Peach it was a little surreal to witness the darkness around his eyes to show up whenever he had a jewel in his crown but at least he still had the same rather plucky personality she's known him to have so far. She couldn't help but make a slight noise of surprise as the diamond whited out his eyes to match the rest of his round blobby Boo complexion.

At the noise she made he turned to her cheerfully with hope.

"Better?"

"It's certainly weird seeing you with white eyes despite the terrible lighting not making it scary enough for me." She admitted honestly.

King Boo contemplated again, and after a glance to the mirror, it was definitely a maybe. So he took it off his crown and set it next to the topaz. Now it was her turn to pick again, so she went to the bag and dug around a little and picked out an emerald.

Ah, the most expensive gem…regardless of diamonds being overpriced since they're common enough that they're over-marketed, and the only excuse that was logical for that reason is the craftsmanship in arranging the diamonds into the rings….but still, the emerald was the true most expensive gem. In any case, he put it on and watched his eyes turn a fairly dark shade of green, bright enough to be noticed in the darkness but even he could tell it wasn't that intimidating. Still he wanted her opinion for the sake of it and turned to her with a hopeful open mouthed grin.

She couldn't help giggling at him as she explained. "Your eyes are pretty in that shade."

As flattered as he was, his grin still deflated. His first definite no would be the emerald.

"Perhaps a peridot instead? Maybe if you're lucky it'll make your eyes an insect green?" She suggested in guessing.

King Boo took the thought to heart, after all, a lot of people were scared of insects. He dug around the bag and found the peridot, and as he tried it on, it did indeed turn his eyes into an insect green. But it seemed off…like it was too cheery….like a spring green. Turning to her for her opinion, Peach scrunched her nose and shook her head since it didn't look as good or intimidating as she thought it would.

He already had a solid no for a garnet and a sapphire since a garnet would be blood red and dark enough that it wouldn't be noticeable in the darkness, even if he liked the element of surprise he had standards for his eye color being starkly noticeable and intimidating. And the sapphire would make it look like he was Cap-tured by Mario so that was a sound 'no'. The same went for any other equally blue gems.

"You wouldn't happen to have any rose quartz in here would you?" Peach suggested jokingly.

"Ah. Ha. Ha, very funny, my dear." He replied sarcastically. "But I wouldn't turn my eyes pink even for you."

"Maybe an opal then?" She quipped another suggestion.

He opened his mouth to detest the idea but closed it as he thought about it. It was worth a shot, he wasn't sure what that would do to his eyes either. However, when he set the opal on his crown, it didn't just effect his eyes but his entire body, and it sent Peach reeling with laughter since he looked like a little floating disco ball with prismatic beams of light emitted from his body every which way.

King Boo was busy looking at the strange rainbow gradient effect the opal had given his eyes, but at hearing her laugh so hard he then noticed that he was practically a floating disco ball. Naturally at that realization, her laughter became contagious as his chuckles bubbled up into an uproar of laughter as well.

Unfortunately in their glee they forgot themselves, as guards knocked on Peach's bedroom door to see if she was alright. Thankfully she had a good excuse that they bought with ease, something along the lines of reaching a very humorous part in a good book.

As soon as the two monarchs gathered themselves and Peach let out a few more giggles as she finally got a good look at King Boo's eyes, he took off the opal and tossed it into the 'no' pile which was back into the bag. He felt that it was best that he left for now but would be back in a heartbeat if she had another nightmare tonight. Thus, he kissed her knuckles on her right hand in adieu and scooped up the diamond and the yellow topaz, quickly settling on the topaz for now so he'd only have the diamond to carry, and let her keep the bag of remaining jewels as compensation for any future troubles the Koopa King might give her and her castle since it was constantly in some form of repairs after an attack by him.

Peach accepted it at that since it was extremely reasonable, and as she watched King Boo float away she kept waving once she noticed he kept looking back every now and then since his now yellow eyes were that piercing in the darkness of the waning moon. As soon as he was finally out of sight even by the light of his eyes, she headed inside, still wondering how she ended up friends with the ghostly king. She would have to make up an excuse as to why she had a bag of jewels but it could wait until the next day. For now, she figured she'd retire for the night and hope for his energy's sake that she didn't have a nightmare tonight even if she wouldn't mind seeing him again tonight, she didn't want to be a burden. But then again he was a ghost, so maybe he didn't actually waste any energy.

Eventually she shoved that thought from her mind so she could fall asleep without much trouble, idly hoping that if she did have another nightmare that he wouldn't have much trouble with it, and that's besides the fact that she'd have to get used to his new yellow eyes.