Hello. Thanks again for your support with the last BJJ-related content I posted, I am back on my bs again because this game gave me everything and nothing at the same time. This one takes place after the first one, right after the battle with the Yikk Tower at Blubble Lake, where Larry and Lemmy have been knocked unconscious by...something (the game doesn't say but there's bombs everywhere so). It does continue a few of the threads from the last one albeit from a different perspective. Hope you enjoy :)
(And for my people, I did my best; less than 5k take it or leave it T-T)
There are times when Larry remembers how nice it felt to be held.
The moving shapes and distant sounds he can't assign any particular meaning to yet because he's still half-unconscious, and though his brain slowly drags his limp, spaghetti-noodle body to follow it eventually, they can both agree that the arms he's settled in bring back a feeling he hadn't known in a while. Like he's so far removed from the security it brings that he can't tell if the sentiment is foreign or he is…
A hand gently rubs the top of his head, and everything suddenly clicks, like a shock to the system he's back online, awake, and damned if he let himself be caught dead splayed out in his big brother's lap because it reminded him of things he'd rather forget.
He rolls sharply, painfully out of his grasp and in his surprise, Ludwig lets him do it; lets him roll straight into a mound of dirty blue, bunched fabric that suffocates him in a disorienting blur until he's righted again. He writhes around in the grass a bit before the sun strikes him more quickly than the stray explosion that felled him in the first place; scattered fragments of awareness slam together shortly after.
The lake…the robot…bomb-Lemmy-!
He jerks upright in a panic, mental compass spinning out of control as his eyes desperately raze his surroundings until they finally settle on Lemmy's body, slumped ungracefully against Iggy's side. The way his frame hitches as he tries to breathe like a machine on its last legs…less comforting still was the way Iggy seemed to match its erratic pattern without realizing it. Iggy must've just been happy to see him in one piece after he'd been left to fend for everyone alone, though there was clear confliction on his face.
It's broken the instant he realizes he's looking at him, and he gives him a tight smile, teeth bared in a grin that reads as desperate as his eyes. A look that tells him that either because or in spite of everything, he's happy to see him, too.
"Will you sit still, please? You could be hurt-"
Kamek's right-as he usually is-but it doesn't stop him from surveying his surroundings one last time, straining to hear any hint of Roy's signature plodding in the distance before it's finally safe for him to nod in confirmation.
"Personally, I think he's just fine." Ludwig snickers as he rises, brushing himself off firmly to hide the tremble in his tone.
He knows his brother too well to know he's just fine; thinking really hard like he's hung up on something makes him lag in real life and there's a slight hitch to his movement despite his best efforts to pretend that he hadn't been shaken up.
He massages his temple; it feels like his brains have been shaken up into a smoothie too. Thankfully the ground is level and Kamek's crouching there to steady his aching body, so he sits and lets him inspect his 'battle scars' so he can pretend like he actually stood a chance out there against a 40 foot-tall robot…or a 40 foot-tall dad-
"Bowser-! What happened to him?"
"Papa's gone."
He blinks, and Junior appears in his vision, emerging from the reeds with a stick that he uses to dejectedly doodle on the bank. His sour tone makes him withdraw into himself a little and he groans internally because he knows now he's literally never living this whole thing down. Hard enough he can't manage to be anything but dead weight…figures Junior would only just add to the pile by insinuating it's his fault that Bowser's gone-
Maybe it is. But it's Lemmy's too…it's just harder to argue with an unconscious guy, though it wouldn't surprise him if that small obstacle didn't deter Junior in the slightest. He looks at Lemmy again, still motionless and his stomach sinks as he outlines the sickening purple splotch on his head with his eyes.
"Obviously." He cuts dryly, and to his surprise, Junior appears to retreat for the time being but it's a small respite because everyone's looking at him now like they know something he doesn't.
"I meant-I mean…How did he get that big? Was it another weird mushroom or something-? I swear-he and Morton will eat anything if they can swallow it-" He attempts to airily skate atop the thin film of tension around them but plunges straight through; the way Kamek and Junior eye each other and then him makes him feel like he's been dunked in the lake.
"Magic, maybe…?" He tries, but every subsequent thing he says is swallowed in the oppressive tear he accidentally ripped into them like a vacuum.
He hates that his voice is being siphoned off because it makes him feel smaller than he had any right to be at his age, reminded him of the way they used to look at him like he was too stupid to figure things out on his own, too weak to be useful…he wondered if Wendy was okay…
"Perhaps. I didn't manage to get a good look, what with you and your brother running off without your heads attached…" Kamek scolds, but there's nothing particularly scathing about it.
It makes him feel caught like before; he was always standing on that precious middle ground everyone was always fighting over. Roy had really dug into him then, about his supposed cowardice when he'd done nothing but what he was supposed to. Junior disagreed, chipping away at the opposite side of him, insisting he keep his mouth shut until they both left him a thin line of a core. He'd never been able to move to one side or the other because they destroyed the ground below him until he'd been essentially banished to the one central spot. What they never realized was that they never did anything but compress him into the middle, sharpened points they were trying to make only skewering him, rooting him to his indecision like the undergrowth around him.
In the same respect, he never enjoyed Kamek's lectures, but he doesn't know if he'd rather be yelled at if it made him feel like Kamek expected better of him. He doesn't want to be the baby, too incompetent to be reprimanded because it's a tight spot he outgrew years ago, but he also didn't want to be reminded of why it was so easy for him to run headfirst into an impossible situation if he could forget how useless he felt.
He should have figured what worked for Junior couldn't possibly allow him the same success. That kid was a bulldozer, for better or for worse…he just wished he wasn't so annoying about it.
He's too wrapped up in his thoughts to notice the gentle flash of blue tint his vision, and though the bruises disappear from his skin he's still too tightly wound to realize that he should probably be feeling better but he doesn't. He's still too heavy with only his conscience to blame now.
Kamek must have sensed something was wrong because he's still frowning when he should have been too busy laughing at his own joke. With little warning, his palms are cupping his cheeks, lifting them slightly as his eyes scan, examining him meticulously from every angle for things he doesn't seem to find. They move from his face to his shoulders, to his arms, and before he can even assert to Kamek that he's fine, he appears to reach the same hesitant conclusion.
He watches the relief slowly trickle into his expression, and with a sigh he stows whatever he was thinking away like it wasn't worth tackling at the moment when there was already so much going on. A small smile flits across Kamek's face as he then takes it upon himself to pluck away at the debris embedded in his hair, and though Junior doesn't seem to be looking he's not taking any chances, pushing him off with an angry pout that if anything, only serves to amuse Kamek further.
"Alright, alright-! I'm finished!" He laughs, holding his hands up in surrender while he sheepishly attempts to fix his hair himself.
His fingers tangle into it and he realizes how matted it probably is…and for a moment he's irritated at Lemmy for allowing him to walk around like that for hours without telling him. It's bad enough he feels stupid, but now he looks stupid too…
"Your resilience is commendable." Kamek pierces through his thoughts with one of his own like the way he would always weigh in on arguments that never involved him. The way he regards him with a sly sort of nonchalance means he's being deliberate despite his tone. Before he has time to ask for clarification, he continues.
"A fall from that height…it's fair to say I expected worse, to say nothing of the explosion-"
"A fall? Wait…how did you know we-"
Kamek points to Ludwig, who had since moved to where Iggy and Lemmy were sitting. He looks to be inspecting Lemmy but there's a distance and silence between them that is too uncomfortable to ignore. He recognizes the guilt that radiates off of him, but he can't say as to why until it clicks; Ludwig shouldn't have known anything about what happened at the castle any more than Iggy did…unless…
"He was there-?" It's a question mostly stated, and Kamek nods to verify it. "Where? How-? Why didn't he-?"
His questions are interrupted by a moan from Lemmy, likely annoyed even unconsciously by his older brother's constant prodding, and Kamek turns back to him with a look like he knows what he's about to say next will only irritate him.
"I promise I will explain later. For now, I must tend to Lemmy. I'm hoping he'll be able to fill in more of the blanks for us when he comes around fully." He gestures to the water front with a sweep of his arm, brushing the dirt off of his robes with the other as he stands. "Why don't you take a minute to clean yourself off? With all due respect, I'm surprised your brother was out for as long as he was, what with the way you smell-"
He crosses his arms, sticking his tongue out in a display that probably came off a bit more childish than he was hoping, nevertheless his point made.
"You could stand to do some laundry yourself, you know! You look like the ocean threw up on you-!"
Kamek huffs like he can't decide whether or not to feign his offense but Lemmy interrupts his train of thought, and he picks up his wand again as if he just remembered he was desperately needed at the moment.
He sighs, moving to the bank a ways away from where Junior continues his melancholic sketches. He picks the dirt and residue out of his hair slowly as their voices fade into the background once more, only slightly miffed at being sidelined again for a bath of all things.
He kicks the pebbles around him in frustration because he knows no one is watching.
Is his anger entirely unwarranted? Sure, he messed up a ton today, but the fact that he tried to make up for it should count for something, right? He hears Wendy's voice in his head, can practically see her disappointed expression, feel her smack him on the arm for the way he thought about himself sometimes when they were constantly trying to convince Lemmy of the same. But he also heard her screams fade away as he fell from the castle, their frantic searches coming up fruitless, he'd felt her practically slip away from between his fingers when they were supposed to be a team-
Some team member he was. He had to assume Lemmy felt the same way because he never tried to stop him from running out there onto the battlefield to help when he didn't even know how. He had to help, he had to…or else he'd never be able to make his peace with the fact that he was here, with nothing but dirt rubbed into his arms, etched into his name...
Wendy was out there still, with no one to help her and it was his fault. She was tired, Lemmy had taken a nasty shot to the head, they were relying on him, actually listening to him for the first time in a while and he couldn't even pull this off…
He deserves to be alone.
Unfortunately, it seemed as though he rarely got what he wanted these days. With Kamek occupied with Lemmy, he sees Ludwig and Iggy's terse exchange, somewhat grateful that he's too far away to hear it until the silence is broken by the only one left without a partner to bother.
"Larry…?"
He sighs at Junior's intrusion and eyes him sharply in an unspoken threat, but Junior looks drained himself, oddly mousy and skittish for the brazen, unapologetic brat he'd left behind.
"Come to lecture me too? I'm sure Kamek's already got a speech prepared, so if I were you, I'd save your breath-"
"Are you okay?"
His words are stolen from him as Junior inches near but shifts away, like even he's unsure of what it is he's trying to do.
"Uh…Yeah. I'm fine. Takes more than a bomb to the face to keep me out of action, you know? What's it to you?"
Junior's expression hardens back into something more familiar as he crosses his arms, exhaling pointedly.
"Umm…I can't take dad's castle back if your Larry bits are everywhere, duh! You know how mad he's gonna be at me if I come back without you?"
"How sweet." He rolls his eyes, but Junior only appears emboldened by his indifference, taking another tentative step towards him.
"…You think Lemmy's okay?"
"I don't know, kid. I didn't think you cared one way or the other." He sighs in exasperation.
"Ugh-! Typical of you guys to get hung up on stuff I said like, 5 hours ago-! I'm different than I was then!"
He blinks, but Junior appears completely serious, completely clueless, but he has to admit he does remember what it was like to be his age, where time moves too quickly for little things like words to take on any significant meaning before they're blown away into the bin. 5 hours might as well have been 5 months to him, and as irritating as it was, it was just how Junior chose to make sense of the world around him.
"How's that?" He inquires dubiously, and Junior again, to his surprise and confusion, appears to genuinely consider the question and the weight it carried.
He shuffles a bit as his gaze shifts to the ground suddenly, shifting around loose rocks with one foot like he's embarrassed.
"…I lost a fight."
"…That's it? So what? Bowser loses fights all the time, not like he'll love you any less-"
"I thought I was gonna die."
His tone is matter-of-fact, like he'd read something off a sign, but he's fidgeting like he doesn't know any other way to communicate what he's truly thinking. He can only gawk at him as he quietly, numbly continues on.
"I thought Papa was dead. I thought…" His voice is uncharacteristically small.
"…you guys…were…" He stops, voice hitching like he'd just yanked himself away from the edge of a cliffside. Junior looks at him, blinking in realization when he sees the way he must have been staring at him in disbelief because he flushes red for a moment before growling in frustration, arms crossed in a tight hug and they can't look at each other anymore.
"I-I mean…you guys were always losing fights and stuff…so…it sucks. Why do you guys do it so much…?"
"Just admit it…you're afraid you're more like us than you thought." He laughs, despite himself.
"Hey, I am one of you-! Well, uh…S-someone's gotta show you how it's done, right? You guys should just admit that you need me!"
"Yeah, sure. Just so long as you admit you need us, too. That castle ain't gonna rescue itself." He jokes; what would normally serve as a springboard to normalcy, expecting Junior to use it to catapult himself back onto his high horse but he only kicks the dirt instead.
"…I guess that's a fair trade…" He grumbles, wiping at his face to hide that it's reddening again.
As he watches Junior fumble over his words, a warm feeling sets over him because it's like watching a toddler try to carry something three times his size, but persisting nonetheless. It isn't so much about what his little brother is saying but rather, what he's attempting to say that assuages the pit in his stomach for the time being. For the first time in a while, he truly believes that he cares.
"Hey…" He starts softly, and Junior quits squirming. He beckons with an outstretched arm that closes the distance between them, and he takes it, sitting beside him on the edge of the water.
"You know you don't have to worry about us. We've been through worse, believe me-"
"Is that supposed to make me feel better-? I swear, you guys are walking natural disasters-"
"Hey, in my defense, I was raised that way; dad's the biggest disaster there is…"
That gets Junior to snort, and they giggle amongst themselves for a bit until it dwindles into something more wistful.
"I hope Papa's okay…"
"You know how he is. You could hit that guy with a train and he'd get right back up…" He pretends to ignore how close Junior is to him, hovering over his lap and squinting off into the distance like he can still see him somehow.
"I guess you guys get that from him, huh?"
It's never an easy task to argue with Junior but for the first time, he doesn't want to.
"Guess so." A smile breaks out on his face and he doesn't care if he looks stupid anymore.
"And…I know dad'll be proud to know you guys got back up too." Junior spits out like a confession, scrutinizing his face for a reaction in a manner reminiscent of when they were much younger, when his homemade scribbled crayon drawings were bestowed with as much care and thought as any gift.
In a weird way his words are just as kind as the nostalgic gesture, even weirder the kid had such a natural way with motivating him to continue on without even trying, but he knows Wendy deserves better than him moping around. Lemmy deserved better. Roy, Morton…wherever they were…they probably needed him too. He'd come too far to give up on them now.
"You know what? You're not doin' too bad yourself now, Disaster Junior." He teases.
Bowser Junior scowls, dumping clumps of dirt into his lap because his arms are too short to reach the water.
"Look, next time you decide to do something stupid, don't expect me to bail you out! Even if it is sorta cool-"
But he's stopped listening, choosing instead to use his younger brother's bandana to wipe the remaining grime off of his face.
All amiability is immediately thrown out the proverbial window, but by now he's used to being thrown around. He laughs as Junior tries to and nearly succeeds pushing him into the lake, but he 'falls' anyways because he figures the kid deserved something for all his efforts.
Junior appears smugly satisfied until he resurfaces and gives him a smirk of his own.
"You'd better wash that out before it sets."
Bowser Junior whines in indignation and begins to storm away before thinking better of it. He rares his head back and full-on sprints, jumping into the water himself with the intention of soaking him even though he was already in the lake. For as competitive as he was, even the small victories, however nonsensical, were more important than staying dry.
"Keep talking and I'll wash you out-!"
"What does that even mean?"
"Shut up-! You know what-?! C'mere so I can-!"
"Young Master! What on earth do you think you're doing?"
Kamek's pulled himself up, swiftly closing the gap between the others and the water just to exasperatedly yell at Junior, and it's then he decides he's glad he's not his intended target this time around.
Junior seems bothered by the discrepancy, though.
"What? Me? Larry started it!"
"I don't care who started it! Out, now! If you get sick, your father will have my head!"
"I'm pretty sure this is the last thing on his mind right now-!"
"You heard him-"
"You shut up! You're always getting me in trouble-!"
They're both hauled out of the lake eventually. The sun dries them off in time, and as soon as he's sure he's no longer damp, he welcomes Lemmy back to the world of the living by nearly knocking him back out, barreling into him with a tight hug now that he knows he isn't nursing his beaten, tired body.
Lemmy squeezes him back, and there's a lot hidden within their private exchange; guilt at their failures, fear for Wendy and the rest of their missing siblings, embarrassment at their simultaneous lapse in judgement, creeping uselessness spurring them onwards in a fruitless attempt to 'prove' their worth, only to be followed by laughter at their contagious stupidity…
He pulls away and they both watch Junior and Kamek go back and forth with one another, nearly impressed with him as in spite of Kamek's years of experience, he seemed to be holding his own successfully. There was an unyielding strength in that obstinance, and though Junior was still too young to really apply it to much more than petty arguments about silly, stupid things, he admired it all the same.
Lemmy observes with wry amusement because he doesn't expect anything different out of him, likely mentally gearing up for a lashing as soon as he gets bored enough to switch targets. But he knows better now. Behind all the bravado and deflection was a child, scared to death of losing everything he can't admit to even himself he loves, but fighting anyways to keep his right to take those sentiments to his grave if he has to. It's a respectable, if a bit laughable endeavor knowing what he knows now. He still feels a bit stupid for not seeing it sooner.
Junior's words left much to be desired, but he still had a lot of growing to do…they all did. It was hard not to lament the damage Fawful did before…it was like they all spoke different languages around one another for months, to say nothing of all the things still lost in translation even now. He hated that it took them nearly being crushed into literal pancakes to realize it wasn't normal of them to believe it was because they hadn't been enough.
Ever since he was small he knows they've always done the best they could do, it's just who they were. And if it got them this far together…he wasn't one to argue with results, let alone Bowser Junior of all people…
Kamek finally calls to them like he's thrown in the towel himself, choosing instead to use Lemmy's lucidity as an excuse to change the subject. They both laugh, though there's a hint of nervousness wrapped in his brother's as if he'd been put on the spot. He just smiles, grasping his arms in what he hopes is a somewhat comforting gesture despite them both being in the same sinking boat because they are, as they have been, together still.
He feels his other two older brothers looking on behind him, though Iggy's quick to assist Lemmy until he's upright. Ludwig looks like he has much to say, but thankfully decides against it, settling into the relative calm while it lasts with a weary smile.
The missing among them are noted with a pang of sorrow, but it doesn't matter how many times they crash and burn so long as they're here standing up again despite everything. The rest would follow after so long as they just stuck together like they should have from the very beginning…
Just like dad taught them.
He supposes his little undercooked spawn will have to suffice until they can all be reunited as a family at last.
*collects friends in this tag with different faves like infinity stones*