Heads up: the medicine that Timpani gave Blumiere is basically anesthesia.
"Aw, shoot!" Daisy exclaimed when all the girls meet up after the guys had fallen asleep. "How could we forget that, of all things?!"
"Very easily," Peach said, rinsing a rag in the sink next to Daisy. "We had bigger worries."
"We could go down there and get it, you know…" Goombella said.
Timpani shook her head. "After that spook, I'd rather not leave the guys alone, and I'm not saying that just because I'm married to one of them."
"Aw shucks girl, you're married?! Where's the rock?" Goombella asked bluntly.
Timpani gestured at the butterfly pin in her hair. "It was a bit of a hazard, us getting married… and by that I mean we had armies after us. Besides, neither of us cared for rings, as they get in the way more often than not."
"Now that's a story I'd pay to hear!"
Timpani shook her head. "It's not just mine, so until Blumiere is awake…"
"Ugh…" Goombella sat back down, "but then it's get the Star and go!"
Peach made a strange sound while Daisy outright snorted.
"Please. We wanna hear this too! We'll just move the party location to here," the flower princess laughed.
"It's not as if it would be difficult… Mario likes going around and making sure everyone's okay after an 'end of the world' plot. He hasn't these last few times because he's had injuries and as soon as they healed, it was another adventure," Peach shot down any argument Goombella might've had.
"Strange how the universe works," Timpani muttered, finally cleaning the dried leaves out of the bowl.
"Why didn't you just use a Mushroom on him or something, sugar? It'd be a heck of a lot easier than chewin' those leaves!" Daisy asked.
"He's allergic," Timpani shrugged.
Peach blinked rapidly in surprise. "I hope he's not allergic to my kingdom!" she laughed.
Everyone else joined in.
"I hear mirth!" Blumiere called from the bedroom adjacent. He had woken up, apparently, but his speech sounded a little weird.
"Good, that means your ears are working fine!" Timpani replied, still laughing.
They could hear Blumiere chuckle too, which was quite odd. Normally he laughed too quietly to hear. For them to be able to hear him through the walls pretty much meant the Count was in hysterics.
Timpani sighed. "Not to say those leaves don't make him a little loopy."
Peach laughed. "It's certainly entertaining."
"So are we just gonna sit here and chat about the guys or are we going to get to the actual conversation?"
"I heard that!"
"Good! Now go to sleep, we don't want a grumpy Count!" Timpani responded.
The Count went back to his usual volume (mumbling) before presumably doing as his wife said.
"You two are too cute."
Silence took over the females as they continued cleaning some dishes and medicinal supplies. It wouldn't be fair to lump the inn staff with them. (Goombella, being too short to reach the sink, keep the others company.)
"Say, sugar. Where'd you get the idea for a mecha arm?" Daisy inquired. "I mean, I just have this stuff lying around from the whacky sport plots, and Peach has always had her parasol. But a mecha arm? That's new."
Timpani laughed. "Actually, my mom made me my first one. She was an absolute genius with robotics, even making some like Francis's." Timpani and Peach shuddered. "But less… design oriented and more for a purpose. 'Design comes later, Timpani. A pretty robot is just a pretty statue if it doesn't work right.' But the world was dangerous, my parents knew, and they also knew that I was a bit of a rebel, so my mom made one for me and told me about it. 'When you need it, here it'll be.' I married Blumiere against my father's wishes, and the arm got left behind. When I woke up as Tippi, I tried to make another one with Merlon's help because I felt that I'd need it someday. Merlon should stick to magic, but it got built most of the way under my instruction. But we needed parts Flipside didn't have… I saw them in the Flower Kingdom a few weeks after we had visited Merlon again. I bought them and, well, here we stand."
"Dang, girl! Did you ever think about going back?"
Timpani shrugged. "My thoughts on the matter hardly make any sense in words. Let's leave it at I would do it again."
Peach nodded. "I'm going back to Mario. The poor man has been taking some hard hits recently, and I want to be sure he's alright." Peach left the bathroom-like area with a small basket of rags. Mario had taken a head wound and most of those rags had been used to clean the blood from his hair.
"Luigi's not as bad as his brother, but he's also scared out of his wits. Pesky Boos… he still doesn't like dark places," she muttered before taking her own leave. She too had rags, but they were more like ice blocks. Luigi was on the end of the tail, so he got slammed slightly harder than the rest of them.
"I'm gonna see if King Grumpy needs a hand with his spike. I'd be in a lot of trouble if he couldn't walk!" Goombella laughed. Bowser was, for the most part, fine. One of his spikes needed a bit of care and he was extremely sore, but nothing sleep wouldn't fix. Or so he claimed rather loudly.
Timpani took her own rags. Her dress was wet, but now from cleaning rather than a mishap. She shrugged. The girls had all gotten pajamas from the owner of the inn after he had seen their clothes that were, and I do quote here, "too gosh-darned fancy to be comfy for sleeping."
Timpani walked into her and Blumiere's room to see him swirling his fingers through the air, purple swirls following them. It wasn't uncommon for him to do such an act; magic was something he loved doing. He often used little spells around the house; like one to remove tough grime from dishes, or to find the leak on a pipe under the sink.
"Feeling better?"
The Count mumbled something. Timpani sighed. "You never did react well to any of our medicines… maybe one day we should make some of your own so that way you don't end up baked."
"Then you guys wouldn't have fun laughing at me," Blumiere said, ceasing his spell and turning to face his wife on the bed.
"Have to make light of the fact somehow. I wonder how Luigi's going to fare, going back down there… poor guy doesn't get a lot of slack, especially when people expect Mario."
"Every dog shall have his day… or, in his case, a year or two."
"What?"
"I have no ide-ahhhh." Blumiere was interrupted by a yawn.
"As I said, go to sleep, Cake."
"… Wow. Is that my nickname now? Count Cake?"
Timpani grabbed the nightgown that had been given to her by the inn keeper before heading off to the adjacent bathroom. "If you don't go to sleep…"
"I think I may like it… just not the reas-aahn it came around." Another yawn escaped him.
Timpani emerged and turned off the light before settling next to her husband. She kissed him on his nose and whispered one last time "Sleep".
Blumiere's slightly out-of-focus eyes closed as his arm snaked around her. The medicine, despite healing him… well, I'll put it bluntly. He's high as a kite, at least for a short time. The realm of light has that effect on his people at first. It makes for an interesting first meeting. Even though Blumiere can live in the light, the medicine of the world has some interesting side effects.
Timpani curled into her husband, but Blumiere had one last thing to say.
"You can change in front of me, you know. You've done it before."
Timpani shrugged tiredly. "Eh. Didn't want to."
Blumiere nodded. "Okay."
And then they finally, finally went to sleep.
A/N: There were only two purposes to this chapter: girl talk and baked!Blumiere. Who is actually a lot funnier when he's actually present and isn't trying to restrain himself.
In all seriousness, the reaction is legitimately why Blumiere was acting like that. It's a slight allergic reaction.
The terms "baked" and his nickname "Count Cake" are based off the quote from The Perks of Being a Wallflower movie and is one of very few that stuck with me:
"Are you baked?"
"Like a cake."
…It was late at night, okay? I wasn't really paying attention to the movie at that point.
Disclaimer: I own nothing.
(Current Length: 33 pages and about 12,461 words in MS Word.)
