The lecture never came. Bowser wasn't sure what unsettled him more-the feeling in his gut or this deviance from the established norm, but as he walked over to Kamek expecting him to absolutely unload on him only to be met with a jaded expression, well, he just didn't know what to make of it.

Was he angry? Tired? Disappointed? He didn't know, and he despised every second of it. One could never be too sure with Kamek, and though Bowser never actually cared much (as he told himself) what Kamek's feelings were, he always knew he could expect at best his two cents, and at worst, a speech so long and dull that perhaps only that windbag King of the Mushroom People could rival. But the silence was deafening, and Bowser at least knew that he was confused, and subsequently placed a hand on Kamek's shoulder in a silent plea for him to set everything right, or at the very least to break the tension before he started sputtering excuses like a moron.

Kamek, to his mild disappointment, simply sighed and brushed his hand away. Wordlessly, the two began their aimless journey back through the hallways and away from the tranquility of his son's room, their general lifelessness all the more evident. Bowser chided himself, more than slightly embarrassed by his behavior and Kamek's apparent dismissal. Some king I am, running to Kamek like this. I'm not a kid anymore, it ain't like I need his help. Damn, I probably look absolutely pathetic. He debated just abandoning this probably pointless pursuit in an attempt to salvage at least a little bit of his disintegrating dignity, but as his stomach churned in protest, he knew that he just couldn't bring himself to do it.

Why? It had been so easy before. To simply slip back into the security of the mundane; to sign his name until the word looked foreign, to occasionally find himself in the comforting presence of his own flesh and blood, away from thoughts that were troubling or difficult. His life had been complex enough, couldn't he go at least one day without worrying about every little nuance? How he would feign laziness or disinterest when he was scared, plain and simple. Scared of failing his kingdom as his biological father had. Scared of this damn feeling in his stomach. Scared to think about what those kids really thought of him-

True to form, Bowser retreated from the thought, but nevertheless decided to remain with Kamek despite his chagrin. He pouted, and inadvertently broke the silence with an indignant snort. This is way more annoying than I could have imagined. To his surprise, Kamek responded in kind with a small snort of his own, though it seemed to be more out of amusement than anything else.

"Some things never change, it would seem." Kamek retorted with a hint of fondness in his tone before his irritation won out again. "Unfortunately, my tolerance for your hyperactivity seems to have significantly dwindled over the years. Though, I would like to imagine that you did not ask me to come all this way for nothing, sir?" Kamek paused inquisitively, folding his arms over his chest.

"All this way? You teleported here..." Bowser mumbled, testing to see if Kamek had prepared a speech after all, but when he remained respectfully silent, Bowser took it as his opportunity to explain the situation as quickly and painlessly as possible. "Truthfully, I'm not real sure, I just haven't been myself lately. I guess I just felt like something was off, so I acted without thinking," he summarized.

"Yes, well, it wouldn't have been the first time this month," Kamek muttered to himself, but Bowser was well within earshot. Man, had he set himself up for that one...wait, this month? Was he talking about-

"What do you mean by 'off', exactly?" Kamek continued, forcing Bowser to take his comment at face value and move on.

"Don't know. One minute I'm working like usual, the next, my stomach drops without giving me much to go off of. Now, I know I won't exactly be winning any parenting awards any time in the near or distant future, but I ran off to make sure my kid was okay because I really thought that something bad had happened. Come to find out, he's just fine, but here I am, still feeling like nothing I ever do will be enough to shake this crazy funk off of me. I don't understand it."

If Kamek was empathetic, there was no indication. This is not going at all like I expected. Bowser found himself oddly at a loss for words and paused in anticipation of the wisdom that never came to fruition. Instead, Kamek opted to stare off into the hazy and distant hallway, causing Bowser to faintly wonder where it was they were even headed before quickly becoming uncomfortable with the returning silence between them. Perhaps he wanted an apology?

"Kamek?" Bowser asked hopefully, and received only a barely audible hum in response. Undeterred, Bowser continued. "Sorry for getting you all tangled up in this mess. I didn't mean to scare you-hell, I think I scared myself half to death!" He attempted to lighten the mood, but once again failed to elicit a substantial response from the wizard. "Look, I'm just new to all of this, okay? I just want to know what all of it means because I love my son, but if he doesn't want his old man to go into cardiac arrest before his first birthday, I can't afford to be running laps like this every day. Though you don't seem too keen on helping me out for whatever reason, I was just hoping you'd toss me a damn line here because you like me or something. I'm sorry that I, unlike you, often don't know what the hell is going on," Bowser admitted bitterly.

Once again, Kamek would leave him at a loss for words. "Believe me, I know," he quipped, again a little louder than he had probably intended, but this time, Bowser was determined not to let that sleight slide.

"Where do you get off, thinking you can speak to me that way?" he fumed, and while Kamek winced at his mistake, he didn't seem too remorseful for what he had said, evident by his lack of a reply. This only made Bowser angrier. "What kind of an advisor ARE you anyway? The one time I actually ask for opinion because, like it or not, I've got nowhere else to turn, you use it to brush up on some stand-up routine? Well it ain't funny! If you're just going to be an asshole about it, then get lost and leave me alone before I kick your ass all the way to the end of this hallway!" he shouted, stopping in his tracks to further emphasize his point.

Kamek stopped just as abruptly and turned back to face him, as serious as death. "You know as well as I that I would never wish for any harm or discontent to befall you. I am not unwilling to help you, quite the contrary. Did I not drop everything I was doing for just that reason? I merely worry that this feeling you speak of may very well be self-inflicted, seeing as how you seem to be rather unwilling to assist yourself."

Bowser shot him a puzzled glance, his anger dampened a bit by his curiousity as he waited for Kamek to elaborate. When he did not, Bowser sighed, frustrated. Why did everything have to be a mystery with him? He just wanted this over with. "What's your point, Kamek?" he replied, impatience coating his every word. "Love the introspective twist, but unfortunately, if you're thinking I somehow did this to myself by sitting on my ass and signing papers for a week straight, you must've been-"

"How long has it been since you've visited those children?"

Bowser's words died on his lips, blindsided by the question. Not this again. He was met with a sudden desire to leave, to forget he had ever been here and return to the brief serenity his son had provided. He would postpone this forever if he could. His mind raced a mile a minute, but his legs adopted a more leisurely pace as he attempted to walk away from the subject yet again. "I'm not discussing this right now," he hissed through gritted teeth to an exasperated Kamek, who ran forward to block his path. However, he was no match for an annoyed Bowser, who barreled right through him. And he would have kept going, had it not been for Kamek's conviction.

"Your foolish behavior only validates my point, and my fears. I had hoped that you would at least learn that the problems in your life will not simply disappear if you ignore them long enough! Not your feelings, not me, and certainly not the children you've been sequestering off in some room for nearly a month!"

"What about them Kamek? What do you care?" Bowser spat. He wasn't thrilled, but if he was going to be forced to have this conversation, he might as well stand his ground. Unfortunately, Kamek was not about to back down either.

"Why don't you care? Do you not recognize the difference between children and soldiers? Or is it that you refuse to acknowledge the scope of damage your negligence could cause? What is it that you expected to do with them, train them? Rebuild your army perhaps? Clearly you haven't noticed, but these children have been fighting their own battles since they had everything taken away from them. What makes you think they'd help you fight yours?"

"Well what was I SUPPOSED to do? You make it seem as though I should have just left them out there! Is THAT what you want?" Bowser roared.

Kamek softened his expression, his voice tinged with a knowing sadness. "What I want is for you to be at peace with yourself. You must know that you are not responsible for what transpired under your father's reign."

The world stopped moving. The fire that had begun in his stomach rapidly engulfed his entire body, and before he was aware he was speaking at all, unspoken words bubbled up from the depths he had pushed them down into and tumbled out of his mouth. "How could you possibly expect me to be at peace? Have you forgotten who you're talking to? Have you finally become so old that you've forgotten the timeline I'm working with here? I'll spare you the atrocities he committed, along with the epic tales of all the nothing that was done to stop him, and skip to the part where I become the king of a kingdom that hates me, have a kid with someone who then also hated me, and eventually end up here, not even a year later with a group of kids who probably want to run over me in a tank with everything they've likely been through. Did I forget anything?" As he ran out of breath, his motivation fizzled out, and he realized just how exhausted he really was.

"Reason. And perhaps your temper as well." Kamek deadpanned, eliciting a humorless laugh from Bowser, whose anger had been all but spent. "My child, you must forgive me. I had no intention of reopening those wounds, but as you can see, they were poorly mended. I truly believe that if you wish to heal properly, you should begin by healing the rift you've created between you and these children. They've been on their own for long enough."

Bowser groaned. Deep down, he knew that Kamek was right, but what was he supposed to do? He had tried to do the noble thing, but even then he had managed to screw up royally. He had thought himself a hero that day, burying his doubts and fears in heaps upon heaps of excuses, for he had taken them in off of the streets and had given them a home, and when the grandeur of this act of charity finally faded, he had hoped desperately that no one would care enough to see it for what it truly was, an act. For all he had truly done was relocate them, and the tiny, frightened remains of his father's legacy remained as broken as they were when he first found them. Bowser's stomach lurched, and his heart lamented over their predicament, as at least when he had been left with nothing, he had Kamek. And they were stuck with him.

"How am I supposed to do that? What makes you think they'll want to have anything to do with me? No matter which way you slice it, I am the son of the man who destroyed their lives."

"It matters not. They accepted your offer to stay, correct?"

"Of course they did, they had nowhere else to go!"

"They're still quite young, there is no telling how much they truly understand what occurred. If you-"

"Are you saying we should lie to them?" Bowser irritably interjected. "Pretend it never happened? Because frankly, I don't fancy making any more enemies than necessary. And that doesn't sound like an acceptable foundation for a relationship, Kamek. I want to try as much as you do, but some things just can't be fixed!"

Kamek rested a hand on his arm and hummed thoughtfully. "Of course we shouldn't lie to them, that would be a mistake. But what is also a mistake is to deny these children the chance to rebuild their lives on some semblance of solid ground, all because you are afraid of repeating a cycle you have already broken. They may serve as painful reminders of the past, but if you hyperfixate on the world your father left behind, you may miss your opportunity to build them a better one."

Bowser remained silent, unsure of what to say. He wanted to argue, oh did he want so badly to argue that Kamek was mistaken, that everything in his life would inevitably fall apart, just as it always did. But no words came. Instead, he prepared a sarcastic remark to signify his unwillingness to further the conversation, but as he opened his mouth, a loud wail shattered the silence.

Bowser and Kamek jolted at the sudden noise and ran down what remained of the hallway, having ascertained the source to be in the general vicinity.

As they approached the end of the corridor, the sounds of muffled shifting and hushed arguing could be heard on the other side of one door in particular, as if its occupants were making a deliberate effort not to be heard.

Finally taking in his surroundings, Bowser put two and two together and cursed under his breath. No going back now. Turning to Kamek, he motioned for him to draw near. "You're going to have to help me, okay?" he practically pleaded.

Kamek gave him a small smile in return, but the worry was written all over his face as he tried to gather himself. "Always, sir."

With that, Bowser plucked up his courage, and the two entered the children's room together.